Title: Taking Chances
Author: Santos J. Black
Timeline: AU, so no division, no rogue agent, nothing.
Summary: AU, he was a fix presence in her life, she was just his waitress.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, nope.
Thanks to my beta Lioness002 ... third in a row! thx a lot!
She had seen him so many times before, with his green eyes and perpetually sad face. Her eyes had been drawn to him from the moment he had first walked into her family's restaurant three years ago. He always sat at the same booth, sometimes on his own and other times with another man, but he was never with a woman.
He was older than her, his voice deep and raspy but never loud. He spoke softly as if he had yelled enough during his lifetime and the only thing he wanted was silence. Since that moment all those years ago she had felt the weight of his stare the moment he stepped into the place, but unlike his friend who flirted with her every time he could, he was never over the line. She had never been on the receiving end of a sentence out of place, a dirty look or anything alike from him.
His name was Michael, and he worked across the street. He was always in the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, and every time it was her luck that she got to serve him. By now he greeted her by name, sometimes even shortening it. It was funny because when he shortened her name, it sounded perfect, even when she had practically spent all her high school years fighting people for calling her Nikki.
He would always look over the menu, reading it from front to back, and in the end he would just give her a small smile and tell her he wanted the day's special. She would answer back in a smart ass way about how special it might be, and he would just chuckle.
It had been that way for three years now and right from the beginning she had noticed he was taken, the gold band in his left hand to the world to see . The first time he had accidentally touched her, her arm had lit up like it had been on fire, she had to hide the fact that her hands where trembling as she put his glass of water in front of him.
Around a year ago though, she had noticed his wedding ring was off. She didn't feel like they knew each other well enough for her to ask him about it, so the question lingered in the back of her mind. He usually asked her about how her day was going; he offered condolences to her when she explained to him the reason to her absence the time she hadn't been there on his usual day. She had felt the need to do a happy dance the first time she had gotten him to laugh out loud.
He usually left her a really good tip, way better than what someone usually did. When she finally confronted him about it, he replied with a smile that he knew she needed it for school… and that she deserved it anyway. If not for the service, then for the fact that she didn't dump the soup over Birkhoff's head, his friend, whenever he came with him.
Her grandfather usually shot him angry glares whenever he made her smile, and her grandmother would elbow him in the ribs whenever he tried to sit him in the section opposite to hers. Her grandmother, the usually traditional Chinese woman, had gotten so desperate by now after trying for years to pair up her favorite granddaughter with a good boy, that she was actually pushing her towards the dark and brooding American that in her words was crazy about her.
"Are you in some kind of hurry?" Her best friend and fellow restaurant management classmate Owen asked as her with a smirk and a twinkle in his eye as he watched her pick up her stuff in a hurry.
"Shut up," she answered as she glared at him while putting her laptop in her backpack. "My bus is supposed to be at the stop in 5 minutes."
"Come on," he said as he bumped shoulders with her, "Calm down Nikki, I'll give you a ride." She smiled at her friend and together they made their way to his old beat up Chevy. If someone saw the young man without knowing his story they would assume he was just another blue eyed, blond haired all American boy. But as they reached his car, Nikita was glad to see a little bit of the old spark in his eyes that he had lost after Emily.
Emily, Nikita and Owen had grown up together, and when he and Emily had gotten together during his first year of law school. She had been so happy Owen had found someone that loved him and he loved back. But then Emily had died, Leukemia had taken her faster than anyone had ever thought it possible… and Owen's spirit had gone with her. Gone was her sarcastic friend and in its place was a closed up robot that didn't do or feel anything else. He had dropped out of school, and had sent everybody away; it was only her hard headed stubbornness that had kept their friendship alive.
"You are thinking about him," Owen smirked at her as she checked herself in her compact mirror for the second time in the last five minutes.
"What are you talking about?" She asked as she feigned ignorance as she applied her lipstick a couple of blocks away from the restaurant.
"Your favorite costumer," he said with his teasing smile on his face, and for once she was glad it was on his face. It had been two years, and he was starting to come back to his old self. "It's Tuesday, and you are all flustered and in a hurry to get to the hell you call a family business."
Owen's first work experience had been as a waiter in her family's restaurant, and he had hated it. The three of them had worked together at some point, the reason why Emily and she had always said they were going to management school. After her death, she somehow had convinced him to enroll with her to at least make Emily's dream come true one way or another, and now he was actually excited with their long term plan of opening a restaurant.
"It's Tuesday? Really? I didn't notice," she said as she tried to hide the stupid smile that always appeared on her face whenever she even thought about him, but hiding the smile was impossible.
"If I was you," Owen said to her as he parked in the alley behind the restaurant, "I would walk up to him, grab him by the lapels of those stupid stylish shirts he wears and give him a good one." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and added, "But that's just me." Owen put up his hands up in mock surrender when Nikita gave him a dark look. "I still don't see what you see in him, he's kinda scrawny." Owen said as they walked toward the entrance of the restaurant. Nikita just answered back with a hit to the back of his head. "I just want you to be happy Nikki," he told her as they stopped in front of the door, his blue eyes on her brown ones.
"I know," Nikita said with a smile as she placed a kiss on his cheek. She smiled again as she pulled away and made her way to her post.
Everyone greeted her in her grandparents´ native tongue as she put on her apron on her way to the front. A smile and a kiss on the cheek to both her grandmother and grandfather and she was off to work her butt off for the few and bad tips she usually got.
Every time she heard the door open her eyes would look up from whatever she was doing trying to catch a glimpse of him. Her heart would skip a beat, and then some kind of heaviness would enter her as she realized it wasn't him. The lunch crowd came and went and there was no sign of him, she checked the calendar on her phone in case she was wrong and it wasn't one of the weeks he usually didn't appeared, but since she had started to note his pattern she had it down perfectly, she wasn't wrong, it was one of his usual days. Where was he?
It wasn't until the end of the day, when she was helping clean and put the chairs up on the tables that she noticed how upset she really was. He had become the reason and motivation that kept her coming to work every Tuesday and Thursday, he had become the reason to handle all the pressure of all the other costumers, and to wait almost a month to see him seemed so far away. She was also worried, he never missed his lunches here, and she just hoped it wasn't some kind of sign.
She said goodbye to her grandparents and exited through the back door, right to the alley. It wasn't until she looked up from her bag after the door slammed behind her that she noticed she wasn't alone. There, right across from door resting his back against the other building's side was a red eyed Michael.
He took a step forward as he noticed her surprised expression, a small smile on his face as he did so. "Hey," he said his grave voice giving Nikita chills.
"Hey," she answered smiling back at him, "You missed a great special today."
He chuckled as he walked even closer, two feet apart from her at the most. "I can imagine," he said his hand slowly making its way to grab hers. "I'm starving, mind joining me?"
Nikita felt his rough hand grab hers and tingles went up her arm. Her eyes looked anywhere but his, and she could only feel as he moved even closer to her. His breath was on her face, and his free hand moved to her chin, his thumb running over her lower lip as he softly pulled her chin up to look at him.
"I know a great Mexican place," he whispered. She couldn't help but blush at his intense gaze. "Please come with me Nikki."
She couldn't help but smile at him, his eyes looked even greener up close. "I missed you today," he said as she noted his mouth was a few inches away from hers now, his eyes still on hers. She moved a fraction of an inch closer, and she could almost swear she felt his sharp intake of breath, it caused her to smirk.
"My grandma was right then," Nikita whispered as if raising her voice would scare him away. He pulled back; he smirked at her with his raised eyebrow making her chuckle. "She's been telling me for years that you are as crazy for me as I am for you."
Michael just shook his head and moved an inch forward, closing the gap between their lips until he softly brushed his lips against hers. With a smile they both moved back, his hand still wrapped around hers, and slowly, together, side by side and hand in hand, walked down the alley towards their new future.
It had been three years since then; they had had their ups and downs as any couple would, she was too stubborn and hard headed sometimes, and he was used to closing up whenever something hurt him. But they were together, and they were happy.
He had confessed months later, that the reason why he had not been in the restaurant that afternoon was that it had been the sixth anniversary of his wife and daughters deaths. He said it had been at their tombs that he had finally realized he was allowed to move on, and that he realized in that moment the only person he could think of moving on with was her. She in turn confessed what Owen had told her that day, and even worse was that she was actually talking herself into doing it that same day.
Her grandparents adored him; even her traditionalist grandpa who had never found a boy good enough for his Nikita liked Michael. She in turn had learned how to not strangle Michael's friend Birkhoff, they had actually in the end become good friends.
Owen and Michael where another story all together, they had hated each other from the moment she introduced them. Of course it didn't help that when they met each other officially for the first time Michael had been half naked in her bed. Owen had just walked into her room as if he owned the place. In the end and with a lot of berating on her side they were able to hang out together, if only because she looked at them pleadingly with her big dark brown eyes.
"Hey man," Michael said to Owen as he slid into the other side of the booth he was sitting at. It was early in his restaurant and it was yet to be open to the public. Owen looked up from his accounting to raise an eyebrow at the older man.
"Nikki's not here," was all he answered before returning to his numbers. Tension was rolling off Michael him in waves, Owen could see from the top of his gaze how the other man would wring his hands in a nervous manner.
"I know," he gulped down, "she's with her grandma, they went somewhere. Look man," Michael said as he took the salt and passed it from hand to hand. "I know you don't like me much, and that you just bear with me for Nikki's sake," his green eyes looked into his girlfriend best friends' blue ones. "But I love her man," a soft smile appeared on his face, "and I only want to make her happy."
Owen's eyes went to the small blue box he pulled from his suit inside pocket. He looked at him with a shocked expression on his face as he tried to make the meaning out of what he was seeing. "I already asked her grandparents," he said seriously "And I know she loves you as if you were her own brother, so I am here, asking you to give me your blessing to ask her to marry me."
Owen's face was an unreadable mask; Michael could only look on as the younger man took the box and opened it. A small smile appeared on his face as he took in the simple yet elegant engagement ring inside, it was perfect for Nikita. Michael moved to stand as Owen did, laughing as the younger man extended a hand, a friendly hand to him for the first time since they had met. "Congratulations," Owen said as he pulled him in for a hug. "I wish you good luck; you'll need it with Nikki." He said with a smile.
"Oh, I know." Michael said as he put the ring back in his breast pocket and went outside to wait for Nikita to come in. It was the first day of the rest of their lives; it was the first day of their happy ending.