Chapter Twelve
It was Wednesday morning of the same week. Iris was back in the saddle on swing shift and her current case assignment was shared with a fellow swing CSI. She'd come back to the lab to follow up with Hodges on analysis of some fiber trace evidence. Jim was fully engaged with covering graveyard homicide cases with Grissom's team so in turn she'd not seen him. The results Hodges had were promising for the case and it had improved her mood. It also proved to be worth it in more than one way. Hiding a yawn behind her hand before she left to return home, she was surprised to see Brass walking a cuffed man up the hall toward booking.
The man was agitated, cursing loudly and proclaiming his innocence with each step. He was trying repeatedly to break Jim's grip on his arm. Iris meant to simply pass them.
"Hey, Jim, tough customer?" she gestured at the suspect.
"Yeah, like all of them, he's been unjustly accused. This clown's suspected in the homicide I was working before I got sick. He allegedly knifed a man over a gambling debt but we both know who did it. The way he's acting makes me think he's on something though. Come on, smart guy, booking's your next stop," Jim snapped at the struggling man.
"I'm innocent," the suspect shrieked and lurched at Iris, throwing Jim off-balance, and the man's elbow hitting her full in the face. To her credit she pushed back to counter his move and not make Jim fall, as they both shoved the suspect to the wall.
"I need some back up here," Brass roared down the hall toward a clique of uniforms.
Four officers answered his call to take over custody of the suspect. Brass' patience was at an end. "Get this prick to booking!"
Iris was holding her hand over her mouth with back turned to Brass. She was his next concern, especially when he saw the blood drops on the floor.
"Iris, let me see," he coaxed and she reluctantly removed her hand.
"Is it bad? Blast, it sure hurts," she said in obvious discomfort.
"You've got a busted lower lip and its bleeding, come on," Brass pulled out one of his new handkerchiefs Iris had given him from his suit jacket pocket, put it against her lip, then took her by his other arm to head to the nearest bathroom.
"Jim, that's the ladies room," Iris protested, her voice muffled by the hanky.
"So what," Jim returned, ignoring the startled looks and stares from the correct gender occupants, as they walked to nearest sink and he quickly took the handkerchief to soak with cold water. He folded it into a compress and gave it back to Iris with an order. "Go to my office."
"Oh no, your good handkerchief," Iris moaned looking down at the crimson-colored fabric.
"What's with you? You have no problem with me snotting it up but you do if it's to help your busted lip. You women sure have screwed up priorities, remember go to my office!" Brass snorted and walked out.
Iris winced inwardly at his sarcasm and bit off her own snappy reply. She meekly went to his office as requested, no make that ordered, and sat in one of the chairs opposite his desk. He came in moments behind her.
"Here, I got you an ice pack from the fridge in the first aid area," Brass said and gave her the cold pack wrapped in paper towels. He took his bloody handkerchief back to head to the men's room to rinse it out. Ten minutes later he returned, the handkerchief as clean as he could get it and now in a zip-lock bag he got from a woman in the break room finishing her lunch break.
Iris kept the ice pack in place and said nothing, still stinging a bit from his earlier retort.
"Okay, let me check it," Brass said and she obeyed while he inspected her lip. He reached over to his desk to open a drawer and retrieve a small handheld mirror to give her. "Yeah, that's gonna be puffy for a while."
Iris looked at her lower lip and grimaced at the sight of the reflection. Her tongue pressed against her teeth and thankfully none were loose. "I saw stars for a minute when he clobbered me," she told Brass.
"Yeah, you sure took a cheap shot but you hung in there and didn't go down with all three of us like dominoes," Jim said, putting away the mirror.
"Well, you pass your basic nursing test," Iris said with a faint chuckle. "Have you had breakfast?"
"Uh, no, but I need to follow through with the suspect after he's processed for questioning. I'll have to take a rain check on breakfast. I gotta get going but keep that ice pack in place," Jim said and walked her out so he could lock his office up.
"Yeah, I'm headed home myself, see you around the lab," Iris said looking away from him, trying to hide her disappointment, then walking toward the locker area.
Jim sighed. He knew hurt feelings when he saw them and nearly took a step to go after her and make it up somehow. The how was the question.
Iris sat in front her locker thankfully alone as the acute realization she'd fought to deny for days now had to be acknowledged. How in heaven's name had she allowed herself to fall so hard and so fast for homicide detective Captain Jim Brass? Iris knew she had been attracted from the first moment they'd met and she'd struggled to keep what she thought and felt in balance confined to the boundaries of a coworker friendship. She shook her head ruefully with a grim chuckle. Her feelings for him had been like a battering ram to the part of her heart she had kept guarded for so very long. What was she to do? Be bold and openly declare her regard? Keep silent and fall honorably on the sword of being yet another female friend? Transfer to another police department? Tell Nick, Catherine or even Grissom and seek their counsel? Take a roofie and jump Brass?
"I'm so sure he wants to hear from me: Did you know you give me constant goose bumps? It could be the sound of your voice, the smell of your cologne, a chance brushing of fingertips, a glance meant only for me?" Iris said aloud sarcastically to herself with another ironic chuckle at the thought of "take a roofie and jump Brass".
"Glance meant only for who?" she heard and was alarmed to see Nick come into the locker area.
"Oh, I was practicing some lines for a play," Iris said and hoped she didn't sound too lame.
"Where? At your new church?" Nick guessed with a raised brow, opening his locker.
"Yeah, you said it," Iris replied straight-faced, "It's quite a drama."
"Hey, what happened to your lip?" Nick asked with concern and a pointing finger.
"Jim had a rowdy suspect and I tried to help, got an elbow in return," she said and applied the ice pack again gingerly.
"Brass knows how to hold his own. I've seen him in action before and I'd pick him to be on my team to kick butt with. Tell me when the play is and I'll try to come see it," Nick grinned. "Oh, before I forget, be ready to go Da Mix this Saturday evening with the team because I already know you're working day shift to help catch up their case files!"
"Oh me, Lord help me if Jim Brass goes to this, what am I to do?" Iris groaned to herself.
X X X X X
The parking lot of Da Mix was nearly full and Iris had trouble finding a parking lot. Her one out call for the day shift had been to an arson case stemming from a domestic dispute. Her first fire case in Vegas she had joked to herself. Nick had texted her that the team was staying from seven to nine before they had to get to the crime lab. She took a brief glance in the vanity mirror on her sun visor and then at her attire – black jeans, a maroon short sleeved shirt with a scoop neck, wearing black boots that would be comfortable to dance in if she were asked.
She stowed her backpack purse safely under a seat and out of sight, took a deep breath, got out of the Excursion to click her electronic key fob to engage the locks and alarm.
Nick was waiting at the entrance of the club. "You look great!"
"Thanks, sir, shall we?" Iris grinned and he placed a hand behind her back while they went inside.
The atmosphere was alive with people on the dance floor or in the bar area, a Beyonce song was being played as Iris observed the trendily dressed young black DJ who looked the image of cool – earphones half on, dark glasses, chatting it up with an attractive woman with bouncy pectoral appendages.
Nick walked her to a large table where Grissom, Brass, Catherine, Riley and Greg were seated. To her surprise, Doc Al Robbins was with the group also and she seated herself beside him and as far as she could from Brass who she gave a silent nod in greeting. He shot her a wink.
"Doc, I'm thrilled you could come," Iris said delighted but had to talk loud over the noise of the club. "But where's your lovely wife I was hoping to meet?
"My dear, Barbara and the kids are visiting family back east. I decided to take advantage of your kind invitation before work tonight," he replied.
The DJ started to play "Do You Love Me" by the Hollies. Doc Al took Iris' hand as the table cleared to head to the dance floor. "I can't do much with a cane but Barbara and I do enjoy dancing."
"We'll manage," Iris said encouragingly, watching Brass and Catherine doing the twist, Riley and Greg following suit. Grissom was involved at arms' length with a younger blonde whose brunette friend was right beside them with Nick.
Everyone was having fun, switching partners, but Iris made sure Jim was engaged with others, while she went on to dance with Greg, Nick and Grissom.
She was surprised to hear the DJ now spinning "Passionate Kisses" by Mary Chapin Carpenter and found she was without a partner for the moment. A hand slid into hers to clasp. Iris looked up and sucked in a breath. Brass laughed at her surprise. "You wanna dance or what?"
What could she do? He'd asked like it was a challenge. The rest of the team and Doc were out there having a blast. Fate was cruel she lamented silently. With a fixed smile, she followed him back to the dance floor. Jim slid a hand to the small of her back and led her in what she took to be some form of a two-step version of a club dance. She kept looking down to watch his feet until she familiarized herself with his moves, then Brass moved her closer to him.
"I thought you were the dance expert here," Jim said in her ear.
"I can do ballroom dancing, some of the Latin dances. I prefer the slower ones myself, that's true couple dancing to me," Iris replied, punching up the volume of her voice so he could hear her.
"Me too, great foreplay isn't it?" Brass said with a husky growl.
Iris gulped as an intense mental image of Brass in a context she shouldn't think of materialized. She was glad for the darker dance floor because her blush would've outshone the neon blaze of the Vegas Strip.
"I never thought of it quite that way," Iris said at last, causing Brass to laugh anew because he could feel how warm her cheek was to his. She moved to the pace and rhythm he set, and spontaneously started to sing along with part of the lyrics of "Shouldn't I have all of this, and passionate kisses from you, passionate kisses from you."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Karaoke night was Monday." His toes got stepped on just enough to make him wince while she smiled at him innocently.
"Point taken, King," he grimaced at her.
The song ended as the DJ announced he was following the song with another Mary Chapin Carpenter, because he was the DJ and he was a closet country fan, and he couldn't have known it was her personal favorite of the country artist – "Shut Up and Kiss Me."
Iris couldn't resist and started to sing along again, Brass holding her closer and she thought dangerously tighter, but she reasoned it was to protect his toes because a shoe horn wouldn't have fit between them.
"Don't mean to get a little forward with you, don't mean to get ahead of where we are/Don't mean to act a little nervous around you, I'm just a little nervous about my heart 'cause/It's been awhile since I felt this feeling that everything that you do gives me/It's been so long since somebody whispered/Shut up and kiss me."
Brass suddenly gave her a long slow dip and brought her up close with that sly toothy grin of his. Her heart was hammering in her chest, thinking his grin constituted a challenge, but she continued to serenade him:
"Didn't expect to be in this position, didn't expect to have to rise above/My reputation for cynicism, I've been a jaded lady when it comes to love but/Oh baby just to feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me/It's been too long since somebody whispered/Shut up and kiss me/There's something about the silent type attracting me to you/All business baby none of the hype/That no talker can live up to."
They had an established rhythm moving together and Iris found herself lost in their dance as she continued to sing to him:
"Come closer baby I can't hear you, just another whisper if you please/Don't worry 'bout the details darlin', you've got the kind of mind I love to read/Talk is cheap and baby time's expensive, so why waste another minute more/Life's too short to be so apprehensive, love's as much the symptom darlin' as the cure/Oh baby when I feel this feeling, it's like genuine voodoo hits me/It's been too long since somebody whispered..."
Their backs were to the rest of the group as Jim had guided them somehow to a dimmer corner of the dance floor. Her throaty alto had caught him in the moment too and the song's bluesy honky-tonk sound and the way her eyes were looking up at him just so made what happened next the thing to do as she sang, "Oh baby I can feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me, it's been too long since somebody whispered, shut up and kiss me, shut up and kiss me."
He obeyed with a throaty whispering growl of "Shut up and kiss me" and gave her a long, probing open-mouthed kiss and to his surprise it was returned. Her lips pressed to his at first were hesitant but yielded to his inquisitive tongue. The pleasure of the contact made her arms tightened about him as did his about her while their kiss deepened and progressed. They were swaying to the music but going slower and slower, literally glued together as one, while the rest of the group had no clue what was transpiring over the corner. From their perspective, Brass and Iris were just engaged in a nice slow dance.
When the song ended, there was a brief outbreak of whoops and applause. Jim and Iris parted as she caught her breath and composure. He also realized the gravity of what had just happened and tried to lighten the moment. "That was to thank you for all you did for me last week."
Her lips were still pulsing from the kiss and her system was still reeling from the electric shock that had gone through her. Her mental and physical states were a jumbled mass of confused emotions and sensations. Oy ve!
"You're welcome," she replied weakly as they returned to the table and she sank into her chair. Her knees felt ready to buckle. She drank her club soda quickly to help clear her head.
"Iris, we need to get headed to the lab for assignments, hope you don't mind," Grissom said, but secretly his heart was aching for the fact Sara hadn't been then there to be part of it.
"Not at all, boss, this was fun," Iris assured him.
"Girl, we need to do this again," Catherine said and Iris nodded.
"Enjoyed it," Greg said, glancing a moment at Riley who had ridden with him.
"I got three phone numbers, a very productive night," Nick crowed with a triumphant grin and ever the lady's man."
"Interesting night spot," Doc Robbins commented. "Dave better be prepared for what I'll be playing in the morgue tonight."
Iris was still reeling a bit from Brass' delicious kiss and felt awkward being close to him again this moment as the group left the club. Fate was fickle and dealt yet another blow when they discovered they were parked next to each other. They stood together silently for a moment – who would blink first?
"Jim, go get the bad guys," she said neutrally and opened the Excursion's driver door.
Brass held the door open for her and then her hand to help her step up into the SUV. "I still say you're too little to drive this beast. Look, about the kiss, it really was to say thanks so are we….?"
"Yes, mon ami, we are….," she interrupted him and gave him the "okay" sign and started the Excursion beast up as he shut the door. She was left wondering what the "are we and we are" actually was if anything.