Author's Notes: Thanks to all my reviewers. My apologies for taking so long, but my muse needs to be put in a padded room. She's been bugging me to write an X-Men story and I literally couldn't get any sleep until I got the darn thing started. But at any rate, here's the latest offering and hopefully things will be getting more on a schedule now that she's happily driving me crazy with four stories again. In this chapter, there will be another language used and when you see a sentence (like this) it means they're talking in French. To compensate for the long wait, this chapter is longer than normal, so please leave a review when you're done.
"Uh, shopping?" Gwen asks hesitantly, wondering if she should get out just as Owen closes the door.
"Yes, shopping," Fox confirms and chuckles.
"Well…um…," Gwen stammers uncomfortably.
"A little yellow birdie told me you have a couple of dates this weekend," Fox casually remarks as she leans back into the leather upholstery, "and nothing to wear."
"This little yellow birdie isn't perchance more like a bat is he?" Gwen inquires with a raised eyebrow.
"Now that you mention it, yes he is," Fox smiles as she opens a small fridge and pulls out a champagne bottle and a carton of orange juice. "Mimosa?"
"Sure, I could use a drink after the week I've had," Gwen replies as she looks out the window and sees the busy streets of Manhattan go by.
"Has it really been that bad?" Fox asks as she hands the vet a champagne flute.
"Not so much bad as exhausting," Gwen answers as she takes a sip. "This is good, thank you. I'm used to getting up, going to work, going home, going to bed, repeat."
"Sounds dreadfully dull," Fox muses as she leans back.
"Maybe the routine of it is, but it's the job that makes life interesting," Gwen replies as she looks out the window again.
"How so?" Fox asks, sipping her own drink.
"Everyday it's something different," Gwen explains, her eyes lighting up. "One day we'll be giving inoculations to the zebras and the next we'll be attending the birth of an elephant. No two days are ever going to be the same. Some days you just do your rounds and other days all hell breaks loose."
"So, you like your job," Fox observes.
"I love it," Gwen tells her point blank. "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life."
"Don't you want to get married? Children?" Fox inquires.
"Maybe someday," Gwen replies with a shrug.
They travel a while in silence, each lost in their own thoughts as they sip their drinks. A few minutes later, the limo pulls into an underground parking garage and then pulls up to a large set of glass doors. A moment later, Owen opens the door for the women and the women climb out.
"You're not bringing your bags?" Fox questions.
"I can't afford to buy anything, so there's no point in bringing the wallet," Gwen answers simply.
"Good, because I wouldn't have let you anyways," Fox smirks and turns to go inside.
Perplexed, Gwen follows the red head into the store, up a set of escalators and through the shoe department. The smell of leather is almost over powering as they wind their way past boots and heels of every imaginable style, color and size. As they pass by the display tables and shelves of shoes, a familiar head pops out around one of the racks and Gwen just about has a heart attack.
"Hey, sugar," Lars happily calls as he steps out in the walk way.
"Lars, what are you doing here?" Gwen asks, but having a sinking suspicion she already knows the answer.
"Let's just say a little yellow birdie told me that you might be here," he vaguely answers.
"More like a meddling little bat if you ask me," she mutters.
"Now is that any way to talk about your new little friend," he playfully chastises as he puts an arm around her shoulders. "Besides, now is not the time to be all mad. It's a time to celebrate."
"To celebrate?" Gwen repeats in disbelief.
"Yes, to celebrate," he confirms.
"And why are we celebrating?" Gwen inquires.
"Because we're going shoppiiiiiiiinnnng," he sings joyfully, causing other customers to look at him strangely before skittering away.
"Anyone tell you you're completely insane?" Gwen questions.
"Frequently," he grins before turning to the other woman standing there and putting his hand out. "Hi, I'm Lars Davidson."
"Fox Xanatos," Fox responds with a smile, shaking the offer hand. "Shall we get shopping?"
"Yes, let's," he gleefully responds as they start walking again, Lars arm around Gwen insuring that she doesn't escape.
"I can't afford to go shopping," Gwen repeats, doubting that they're listening.
"But I can," Fox smirks in response as she leads them over to the dresses department.
They wander through the racks, Fox and Lars looking over dresses, glancing at Gwen before either taking one off the rack or shaking their heads over it and moving on. Gwen just follows in their wake not sure how to feel about these two shopping for her. On the one hand she's touched that anyone would do something like this for her and on the other she's kind of irked that people are interfering with her personal life, or lack there of. While Fox and Lars continue picking out dresses, Gwen casually looks at the price tag of one of the dresses and about dies of shock.
"Heilige Scheiße!" Gwen exclaims. "This is almost as much as my rent!"
"No, no, no, no, no," Lars immediately responds as he scurries over to her and pulls the tag out of her hand before steering her away from that rack of dresses. "There will be no looking at the price tags. That's strictly forbidden."
"But…but…but…," Gwen stammers, still suffering from sticker shock.
"Doesn't she make the cutest little motor boat sounds?" Lars teases as a sales clerk quickly comes shuffling over, drawn by the sudden shout.
"May I help you find something?" she pleasantly asks.
"I…I…I…," Gwen stutters.
"Yes, she'd like to try these on," Fox tells the clerk, handing over several dresses.
"You'd better go with her," Lars suggests as he pushes a still sputtering Gwen towards Fox. "I'm not sure she can tell me her name right now much less get changed on her own."
"I think you're right," Fox chuckles as she gently takes Gwen by the arm and guides her to the dressing room.
The clerk shows them to a large dressing room, hangs the dresses up on hook and leaves with instructions to come and get her if they need anything. Fox picks out the first dress to try on and by this time Gwen has finally recovered enough to stop sounding like a stuck record.
"Fox, I really can't accept this," Gwen starts. "They're much too expensive."
"Nonsense," Fox laughs with a wave of her hand. "What's the point of having money if you don't spend it?"
"But Mr. Xanatos is already paying for my services," Gwen points out. "By the time the new exhibit is built it'll probably cost him several million dollars."
"That's what David is paying you," Fox replies as she stands in front of the other woman with the dress still in her hand. "This is from me."
"I'm not getting any say in this, am I?" Gwen asks meekly.
"No, your not," Fox confirms. "Now, are you getting yourself undressed or am I going to have to do it?"
"Ok, ok, I'm getting undressed," Gwen finally relents.
She strips out of her dirty work clothes and slips on the dress Fox is holding and Gwen eyes herself critically in the mirror.
"Do I at least get a say in the dress?" Gwen inquires.
"Yes, but not to the extent of turning down every single one," Fox answers.
"Good, because I have to say I'm not really thrilled with pink," Gwen states.
"Ok, we'll skip the pink and move on to the next one," Fox agrees.
After trying on all the dresses, they settle on a little royal blue number with spaghetti straps and sequins on the skirt that comes to just above her knees.
"Ok, great, I've picked out a dress," Gwen says. "Can I go home now?"
"No, we still need to pick out a dress for Saturday night too," Fox reminds her. "Then there are shoes, proper under garments, pantyhose and accessories. After that we need to get your hair done and it would do your hands and feet a world of good to get a manicure and a pedicure and you can never go wrong with a facial."
"But…but…but…," Gwen starts sputtering again.
"You're making motor boat sounds again," Fox teases as she leads Gwen out of the dressing room and up to the sales clerk that was helping them. "We'd like you to hold this for us and we're done with the others."
"Yes, miss," the clerk replies as she takes the dress and the two women step out of the dressing room to find Lars waiting for them.
"Well?" Lars asks impatiently.
"One down, one to go," Fox answers.
"Which one?" he questions eagerly.
"The royal blue one," Fox replies
"Ooh, that one was so cute," he nods his approval. "Now we need to find a second one. Maybe something in black."
"Of course," Fox agrees. "Every woman needs a little black dress in her closet."
"Funny, I've been managing just fine with out one so far," Gwen mutters to herself.
"Don't even get me started on that," Lars warns mockingly. "But now is not time to go on about your lack of love life. Now it's time to shop some more."
Gwen just groans as she follows the other two back to the dresses and finds a spot to plop herself while they pick and chose through the selections. In a few minutes, Lars and Fox have gone through all of the little black dresses and Gwen is hauled back to the dressing room for another round of dress up. After trying on more than half a dozen dresses, they all start looking alike but with Fox's help, Gwen is able to pick out a V-necked dress with an asymmetrical hem and a gold band just below the bust line.
After the dresses are picked out and paid for, they head back to the shoe department where, in Gwen's opinion, the people she's with are certifiably insane. They spend over half an hour just finding the right shoes for the blue dress and then nearly as long for the black dress. When Gwen suggests just getting one pair for both dresses, Lars nearly faints.
Once the shoes are picked out, they head over to the lingerie department where Lars is summarily dismissed and sent to go get coffee which he happily does. Not only does Fox insist that Gwen gets a couple pairs of bras to go with the dresses, but panties as well. Lars reappears after they've made their selections and their purchase has been safely wrapped.
Next it's off to pantyhose and unfortunately, the nylons aren't nearly as easy to get as Gwen had hoped. First there's finding a brand that Gwen likes the feel of, followed by the need to pick out the right color for each of the dresses and then making sure they have it in the right size. At this point, Gwen is about ready to go into hiding until after Christmas.
Just when Gwen is sure she's going to collapse despite the coffee, she's dragged over to the makeup department where they spend way to much time finding the perfect look for her. She's fairly sure that her back is going to break and her feet are going to fall off when she's hauled over to the jewelry department. She at least gets her way when she only wants one pair of earrings with matching necklace and bracelet without any stones for fear of losing them to her sticky fingered landlady. When everything is done, Gwen happily turns towards the exit in hopes of finally making her escape.
"And where do you think you're going?" Fox asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Home?" Gwen replies hopefully.
"We still have to visit the salon," Fox reminds her.
"Well, since you girls are going to have that done, I'll just get going," Lars states as he starts to take all of the packages into his care. "I'll just take these things home for you, sugar."
"We can do that," Fox assures him while he puts the smaller bags inside the bigger ones.
"Well, you see, if I walk in with a bunch of shopping bags, that old windbag of a landlady of ours won't blink an eye," Lars tells her as gets everything sorted. "However, if Miss I-Only-Buy-What-I-Need-To-Survive walks in with all these lovelies, than there's going to be all sorts of problems with that old hag. Trust me, it's better if I take everything with me."
"He's right," Gwen affirms. "Welker would get suspicious if I walked in with all of these things."
"Won't she get suspicious when you walk in with a couple dresses?" Fox asks.
"Honey, I'm as queer as they come," he proudly states. "She wouldn't be surprised to see me walk in wearing a wedding dress with a diamond tiara on."
"Ok, you win," Fox laughs as she hands over the dresses.
After a quick goodbye to Lars, the ladies head for the elevators to go to the top floor where the salon is located. Fox announces their arrival to the receptionist who immediately ushers them in back where their met by the owner of the salon, Pierre.
"Madam Fox, it is so good to see you again," Pierre joyfully greets in a French accent upon their arrival and kisses the back of Fox's hand. "And who is your lovely companion?"
"This is Gwen Knight," Fox says as she gently pushes Gwen closer to the hairdresser. "She has a couple of dates this weekend and she needs the works."
"Enchanté, Mademoiselle," he says, sounding for all the world that he is delighted to make her acquaintance as he bows and takes Gwen's hand, briefly kissing it. "(I must say that you smell like a horse)."
"(Thank you, Pierre)," Gwen replies fluidly with a large smile. "(But it's actually zebra I smell like, not horse)."
Pierre stands there too shocked to move, still bent over Gwen's hand and his face turning beat red.
"What did you say to him?" Fox asks.
"I think he's just surprised to find someone else who speaks French," Gwen answers smoothly and Pierre finally recovers.
"Yes, it is so very rare that I meet someone who speaks my native tongue," Pierre confirms as he releases Gwen's hand and then sharply claps his own a couple of times. "Thomas! Douglas!"
A second later, two men come hustling towards them, both gentlemen are fit, handsome and from the way they walk, more than likely gay.
"Man, is Lars going to be sorry he skipped out on this," Gwen mumbles and Fox chuckles in response.
Within moments of introductions and instructions being given, the women are whisked off to be pampered and primped. Nearly two hours later, Gwen and Fox emerge with Fox not looking all that different, but Gwen is another story. Fox stands by the receptionist's desk with a bag in her hand waiting and when she sees Gwen, her jaw drops.
"Matt's never going to know what hit him," Fox states smugly with a self satisfied smirk. "Wish I could be there to see the look on his face."
"You really think it looks good?" Gwen asks uncertainly as she looks at herself one of the many mirrors hanging on the walls.
"Trust me, you'll have him eating out of your hand in no time," Fox assures her.
"That's pretty unsanitary when you think about it," Gwen points out and Fox laughs.
"Always the doctor," Fox chuckles as she starts heading for the exit. "Come, Doctor, you need to be well rested for tomorrow, so I better get you home."
"Yeah, I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on," Gwen admits.
"I'm not taking you home just so you can do homework," Fox warns as she presses the button for the elevator. "I'm taking you home so you can get some rest so when Matt takes you out tomorrow night your not asleep on your feet."
"But they need to get done," Gwen protests weakly.
"And you still need to get sleep," Fox insists as the elevator doors open with a 'ding'. "The paper work will wait but love waits for no one."
"Hold it right there, this is just a date," Gwen says, quickly nearing panic stage as she follows Fox into the elevator. "This isn't about falling in love or anything. I'm not looking for a boyfriend or husband or anything."
"Calm down," Fox laughs. "No one is expecting you to start sending out wedding invitations by the end of the weekend. Just get to know him. The gargoyles seem to like him, so he can't be all that bad, can he?"
"No, I guess not," Gwen sighs wearily. "It's just…"
"What?" Fox prompts as they reach their destination and step out of the confining space.
"I don't know," Gwen answers with a shrug. "It's just suddenly going out on dates wasn't exactly on my list of things to do right now."
"Well, you better put it there because you have not one man, but two who want to be more than friends in your life," Fox points out as she goes through the glass doors and out to the parking lot where Owen is waiting for them.
"That's what scares me," Gwen mumbles to herself as Fox slides into the backseat.
"Try not to worry so much about it," Fox assures her as Gwen joins her in the limo. "Just go for the fun of it and leave the rest to itself."
"Yeah, I guess that's the only way I'm going to get through this weekend," Gwen reluctantly agrees as Owen starts the motor and pulls away from the curb.
"Good, now do you remember what the gal at the makeup counter told you?" Fox asks, effectively changing the subject.
"Not really," Gwen answers, thankful for the change.
The rest of the trip is spent with Fox giving Gwen makeup and hair care tips. Fox hands over the bag which has several hair care products in it and Gwen tries not to let her eyes cross at all the different things she's supposed to do to her hair. When Owen finally pulls up outside of Gwen's apartment building, Gwen is fairly sure her head is going to explode with all the dos and don'ts that she's supposed to do. By the time Owen has the door open; Lars comes bounding out of the building.
"Great news," Lars happily announces as he helps Gwen out of the car. "Some poor shmuck paid their rent early and the Wicked Witch of the East is flying higher than a kite right now."
"That's not nice," Gwen admonishes him causing him to stop short and stare at her. "Don't insult witches like that."
"So, what do you think of her hair?" Fox asks from seat.
"It's so cute," Lars replies as he gently touches Gwen's tresses. "And look at that, you've got bangs now. It's so cute on you."
"She wants to do paper work," Fox announces and Lars gets a horrified look on his face.
"Oh, no you don't, little missy," Lars states as he none to gently takes her satchel from her. "You will not have nasty old bags under your eyes for your date tomorrow night."
"Give me back my bag, Lars!" Gwen yells at Lars as he makes a hasty retreat back to the building and she has no choice but to give chase. "Good night, Fox. Thank you!"
"You're welcome!" Fox yells back just as the other two disappear through the front door, Gwen yelling at Lars to give back the satchel.
Fox chuckles as she sits back into the leather and Owen closes the door. As the limo pulls away, Gwen is running headlong down the hallway on the first floor towards Lars apartment. By the time she comes bursting through the door, he's shutting the large safe he keeps all of his easily movable valuables in.
"Give me back my satchel," she demands, coming at him without slowing down. "At least give me my coffee mug."
"Your mug is on the couch where I tossed it on the way in here," he tells her as he easily catches her and holds her to him. "You need to look your best for tomorrow night."
"Can I tell you something?" she whispers into his chest, suddenly very still.
"Sure, sugar, what is it?" he replies, frightened by her abrupt change in mood.
"I'm scared."