A/N Sorry it took so long to update. Quite frankly, the wedding episode didn't give me much to work with, so I struggled a bit bringing this chpt together. I think it turned out ok, though. Hope you like it and thanks for reading! Thank you also for all of the reviews!
Chpt 5: Handcuffs and Lies
"OK, spill," Danny said simply as he pulled out of Steve's driveway.
"What?" Steve asked as if he had no idea as to what Danny was referring.
"What? What do you mean, what? You and Agent Weston, and don't tell me I didn't walk in on something. I'm a detective, remember?"
"I told you. I was teaching her field combat. She's never really worked in the field so she asked me if I would help her out."
"OK, so answer me this. Why is your truck at the office and how did you get home last night?"
"Lori brought me home."
Danny waited as long as he could for Steve to expound before starting in again. "And," he asked with an incredulous look on his face.
"And nothing… She brought me home and dropped me off. That's it."
"That's it. That's it? What is wrong with you?" Danny's voice rose one octave.
"What?" Steve countered, trying his best to keep any emotion from his face.
Danny shook his head back and forth, exasperated. "A beautiful, intelligent woman brings you home and did you even think to invite her in?"
"She brought me home because I couldn't keep my eyes open so, no, I didn't invite her in."
"So she came over this morning and you two spent the day together." Danny shot Steve a glance as he turned the corner trying to read any expression on his partner's face. Steve remained frustratingly neutral. "Come on, babe. Give me something here, anything… I'm begging you."
"Why are you so hung up on this? I get that she's beautiful and intelligent and I like the way she moves…"
"The way she moves? What, did you to go dancing?"
"No, Danny we didn't go dancing. I mean, I like the way she works… the way she handles herself. We swam. We worked on combat technique, and we were practicing leg sweeps when you busted in."
"Leg sweeps," Danny repeated as they pulled to a stop in front of the tuxedo shop. Steve seized the opportunity to make a quick exit, leaving Danny talking to nothing but air. "We aren't finished, Steven," Danny called over the top of the car as Steve disappeared through the front door of the shop.
Chin was all smiles as the men entered the shop. The tailor stepped back from Komekona, measurements in hand, to take one more look at the big man, this time from a distance. He muttered something unintelligible and disappeared behind a curtain.
"Hey man," Chin greeted Steve with a quick man hug. "Where have you been all morning?"
"Go ahead, partner, tell Chin here what you've been up to today."
"This sounds interesting," Chin offered as Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head, silently cursing his grinning partner.
I've been outside all day and I didn't have my phone with me."
"Uhuh, tell him who you've been outside with all day... Go ahead, tell him."
"Give it a rest will you? I told you, she asked me to help her with field combat so that's what I was doing." Steve sounded genuinely irritated at this point.
"Who?" Chin asked simply.
"Lori" the two men answered in unison.
"OK Gentlemen, who is next," the tailor asked as he reappeared.
"Me!" Steve answered and hopped up onto the small, elevated stage.
"Steve and Lori, huh," Chin whispered to Danny.
"Who knows," was Danny's reply.
Soon all four men had been fitted and released by the tailor. "We have final fitting," he announced in broken English, "Thursday, two day before wedding… 2PM. I have all tuxedos ready." He stopped and again surveyed Komekona. "Even yours," was all the wedding party could understand as he again disappeared behind the curtain muttering to himself.
Thursday, 1:30 PM
The first thing Steve felt was confusion. There stood Lori and Danny, handcuffed together in a hotel suite, Danny's hotel suite to be exact. "What the hell?" he thought as he followed them into the room. Lori saw the deep furrow in his brow as he moved from confusion to assumptions and assured him, "not what it looks like". Somewhat relieved, he allowed them to expound. Danny had offered Lori use of the pool. "The spa service, actually," she began but faltered as she met the piercing look on Steve's face. Quickly turning her attention to Joe, she babbled something about a hot stone massage. Joe, however, confused by the attention, simply stated that he was "not much of a spa service guy". Accepting the story as to why Lori was there, Steve moved on to the real issue at hand. "And the handcuffs," he asked as tension flooded him again. He heard Lori say something about the "jersey slip" and was mildly entertained by Danny's explanation of said jersey slip until Lori stated that they might have lost the key in the couch. "What the hell?" he thought again. Anger had replaced confusion and he quickly turned his back to focus on throwing cushions from the offending couch. Wrath building, he lifted his end of the couch off the floor and let it fall back with a thud. He turned back just in time to see Lori pulling the lost key from Danny's pocket. Another stab of anger, or was it jealousy, shot through him. "In your pocket," he stated with a wry smile. He plucked the key from Lori's hand and hurriedly released her from the cuffs. Danny, however, was not so lucky. Fueled by the fact that Lori had seen the master bedroom and the master bath which she stated was "ridiculous", he quite intentionally lost the key over the balcony rail.
"What did you do that for?"
Steve answered him with a grin and headed for the door. "Let's go. We're gonna' be late."
In disbelief, Danny looked at Joe and threw his hands in the air. Joe answered with a shrug and turned to follow Steve.
"Enjoy your spa," Danny said flatly from in front of the window.
"Will do," Lori answered as Danny scooted past her and out the door to catch up with his ride.
Danny slid in the back seat of the truck just as Steve was ready to take off. "What is your problem?"
"I don't have a problem."
"You threw away my only key to the handcuffs that are, at present, cutting off the circulation to my hand."
"I was hoping for a good show. You know, a real test of the jersey slip."
"You're mad because Lori was at my place."
"OK, first of all, it's not your place. It's a hotel room…."
"It's a suite, actually."
"Whatever! Second, there's something you're not telling me."
"I told you everything. I asked her if she wanted to use the spa service. When she came over, I showed her the jersey slip."
"That makes no sense."
"It makes perfect sense."
"Help me out here, Joe," Steve urged.
Joe just shrugged indicating his unwillingness to become involved.
"Why didn't you call Kono or your new girlfriend?"
"Kono had wedding stuff to do today and I thought it would be a little to forward to invite a woman I've only been out with twice to my hotel suite for a spa day."
"So you called Lori?"
"Yes, I called Lori."
Steve shook his head wildly. "There's something you're not telling me."
A few moments of silent ensued until finally Danny spoke. "This is your fault, you know."
"My fault?"
"Yes, your fault."
"How is any of this my fault?"
"You wouldn't tell me anything that happened with the two of you, so I thought that if I offered her the spa service, I could show her the jersey slip and start a conversation while we were cuffed."
"You did all that just to get information from Lori… about me?"
"Well, yeah. Look, you need to relax, have a little fun. I think you and Lori could do that together. She likes to hike, you like to hike. She's a swimmer, you're a swimmer. She runs to relax, you run to relax. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
"We work together."
"So?"
"So, everyone knows that you should never date a coworker."
"Maybe… if you work in an office or have a regular nine to five, but it's not like we're cooped up together all day, everyday. Plus, with our job, and the hours we work, you need someone who understands when you have to rearrange plans or break dates at the last minute."
"We talkin' about you or me here?"
Danny cut his eyes toward his friend. "All I'm saying is that maybe you should give it a chance."
"I'll think about it," Steve conceded as they came to a stop in front of the tux shop.
Saturday, Wedding Day
Lori stood shading her eyes from the sun, watching the exchange between Steve and Joe. Clearly there was tension. Steve's jaw was clinched and Joe refused to face Steve opting instead to focus on the ocean. At the close of the conversation, Steve shot past Joe and stopped short seeing Lori alone at the top of the hill. They locked eyes, paralyzing her where she stood. Steve marched determinedly straight for her and stopped just a little too far into her personal space. She had to lean back slightly to look up into his eyes. "You saw that?" he demanded.
She dropped her hands to her side no longer requiring the shade as Steve's towering figure effectively blocked the sun. "Yeah, I saw that. What's wrong?"
Steve's eyes darted back and forth searching hers, hoping to find…. "what?" he thought, "a home, a refuge, maybe just a place to land." When she didn't shy away from his scrutiny, Steve stepped back and turned his attention to the sky. Squinting into the sun, he took a deep breath and tried to settle down. "Joe's been lying to me."
"About what?" she asked with obvious concern.
He looked intently into her eyes, willing her to understand. Hands crossed over his chest, he began. "He's been lying to me, Lori. He knows who or what Shelburne is. He's known all along."
"I don't understand. How do you know?"
"He's been to Tokyo…. recently. He's been leading me on wild goose chases, creating more confusion an innuendo. He warned me, just now, to let it go."
"We're not just gonna' let it go. You told him that, right?"
Steve's expression softened at her use of "we" rather than "you" and he nodded in affirmation. Again he searched her face trying to discern her motives. Best he could figure, they were pure. She simply wanted to help, "but why?" he couldn't help but wonder.
"Look, there's nothing we can do right now. We should be under the tent, celebrating with everyone else. I'll take another look in the NSA data system. I'll cross reference Joe, Tokyo, Shelburne, Shelborne, any possible spelling, your father, WoFat and anything else you can think of. We'll figure this out, just… not tonight, OK?"
Steve rubbed the back of his neck and moved his head side to side in an effort to relax.
"Yeah," he whispered on a breath and nodded.
He looked so tired. Lori felt an overwhelming urge to pull him close and try and convince him that, somehow, they would figure this out. She instead lightly gripped his forearm and maintained the distance between them. "Yeah? You good?"
"I'm good." He reached up to tentatively to brush a wayward strand of hair from her cheek. "Let's go."
She smiled and turned toward the music drifting from the beautiful white tent behind her. She tried to ignore the butterflies that fluttered in her gut when Steve placed his hand on her lower back and guided her forward. Kono spied Lori and Steve as they made their way toward the bar. "Not yet sister," she said and grabbed Lori's hand. "It's time to do the electric slide. Girls only, Boss." Steve chuckled at the wide eyed look on Lori's face as she disappeared onto the dance floor. Danny joined him at the bar. "Where have you been?"
"I was talking to Joe."
"Everything OK?" Danny asked.
"No… everything is not OK, but I'm not gonna' think about it right now. Tonight we're here for Chin."
Danny raised his beer. "To Chin and Malia."
Steve tapped his bottle to Danny's and swallowed a long draw. They both leaned on the bar watching the women slide to the left and back to the right, back and forth, again and again, each adding their own little flare or wiggle to the dance. When the song ended, high fives ensued as the women congratulated each other on a fine display. Steve took another quick swig from his beer and left it on the bar. Slapping Danny on the shoulder he excused himself and headed toward the dance floor. Danny watched him out of sheer curiosity. The next song was slow, a beautiful cover of "Make you Feel My Love." He watched as Steve met Lori at the edge of the parquet floor. His smiled widened, pleased to see the way she melted into his arms as the music began.
A/N: Edited) I had originally said that I probably would not update until after the holidays, but I've already started the next chapter after a bit of inspiration. Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year!