A/N: I'm very grateful for all the reviews. So glad people are enjoying this fic. Now, for the conclusion. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 4
It was a freakishly warm Christmas Day, and Cho reached into his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his brow. Hard to believe a week ago there had been an ice storm, he marveled. Crazy Texas weather. But with the storm had come Avery, and despite the fact that he still drove the borrowed company SUV, and his black eyes were now at the mottled yellow and purple stage, everything since that night had been incredible.
Since he'd kissed Avery at the Janes' pond, he had tried to see her every day. Their schedules didn't mesh well, however, for as she was going to work, he was just leaving. But he managed to bring her that snobby coffee she liked on his way home, and was rewarded with frenzied, passionate kisses in the hospital stairwell. They would talk on the phone in the mornings before he had to get ready for work, and he would lie in bed, reveling in the sound of her sexy voice, in the wonder of getting to know her again on an entirely different level.
But now it was Christmas Day, and, if he didn't catch a case, they would both have the three-day weekend off. Cho planned to spend most of that in bed with her, though he hadn't broached the subject of sleeping together. It was certainly implied in their wild kisses, in the way they looked at each other and couldn't keep their hands off one another, even when they weren't alone. He would touch her arm in the ER waiting area before he handed her her coffee, would watch her eyes give away much more than gratitude; there was definitely an invitation there. Just thinking about renewing that aspect of their relationship had him hot and hard, and the warmth of the day, the suit and tie he wore, not to mention the nervous prospect of spending the holiday with her parents, didn't help cool him down any.
Cho's parents had long since passed away, and being an only child had left him only his uncle and cousins back in Oakland, and his closer, adopted FBI family here in Texas. Avery's parents both still lived in Austin, and meeting them again terrified even the hardened FBI Supervisory Agent Kimball Cho. But Avery had invited him in the hopes that enough time had passed that all would be forgiven, that they might both put that painful chapter behind them and begin their new life together truly unencumbered.
As Cho pulled into the upper middle class neighborhood, he cranked up the air conditioning and wiped his brow again. The moment he turned into the circle drive of Avery's parents' two-story Victorian, she trotted down the front porch stairs to greet him. She was wearing a red plaid skirt and white blouse, her hair pulled back into a bun at her nape, though curly wisps had escaped to float about her temples. He held her tightly, kissing her cheek, inhaling her sweet fragrance. She smelled deliciously of cookies.
"Merry Christmas," she whispered into his neck, and he felt warm all over again.
"You're beautiful," he managed over the lump in his throat. She flushed pink, and he held her tighter still.
Sensing they were being watched from the window, he pulled reluctantly away.
"Don't be nervous," she said with a reassuring smile.
"I'm not," he lied, and he knew she didn't believe him, though mercifully she didn't comment. Instead, she took his hand to lead him up the steps of her parents' house.
"Wait," he said, moving back to his vehicle. He opened the back seat and took out a bottle of expensive single malt scotch in its fancy box, and a large bouquet of peppermint roses. He pulled one out of the bunch and gave it to Avery, who grinned and inhaled its rich scent.
"Brown-noser," she teased, using an insult he hadn't heard since they were kids.
He grinned and shrugged. "I'll need all the help I can get."
She didn't dispute him, which only increased Cho's apprehension. His smile faded.
Avery's mother met them at the door, a small, pale woman, still elegant in a winter white sweater set, her grey hair in a classic bob. She smiled, and her familiar green eyes sparkled at the sight of the lovely Christmas bouquet.
"For me?" she asked, her voice warm and welcoming. "How thoughtful, Kimball. Please, come in."
"Mrs. Brooks," he said politely.
He followed Avery's mother past the black and white checkerboard foyer, his hand clutching Avery's.
"You certainly have grown up since that neighborhood boy in the baggy blue jeans and A's jacket," Mrs. Brooks was saying.
"Yes, ma'am," said Cho.
She led them into a large living room, where a few other guests were laughing and talking, sitting on the comfortable brown leather furniture, drinks in hand. In the large wingback chair nearest the fireplace, sat Avery's father. In his sixties, he was still very much the imposing man he had been when Cho had last seen him, though his dark skin had acquired considerably more wrinkles. He still wore his graying black hair in a close-cropped military cut, and when he rose, he hadn't lost his straight-backed Marine Corps bearing. Cho was not a tall man, but he was no longer intimidated by anyone who towered over him, having tackled many a suspect up to a foot taller than himself. Cho bravely stuck out his hand.
"Captain Brooks," Cho said respectfully.
Cho had done his homework. He'd used the FBI database for personal reasons to investigate the Brooks family, figuring he could justify it from a perspective of personal safety. Last time he'd seen the man, he'd wanted to kill Cho with his bare hands. He'd discovered that Avery's father had worked his way up the ranks through thirty years of service, retiring as a Captain, having fought with distinction in both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. After his retirement from the Corps, he'd worked for the Austin branch of Homeland Security, leaving just before Cho had joined the local FBI branch.
Avery's mother was still a professor of American Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. They had both moved up in life from their lower middle class beginnings in Oakland. Mrs. Brooks had been a junior high English teacher in an inner city school before they'd moved to Texas. Their beautiful home was a testament to their success, as was their brilliant trauma surgeon daughter.
"Agent Cho," replied Captain Brooks. The older man's grip was very firm, but Cho didn't even flinch.
Captain Brooks released his hand, then addressed the company at large.
"Last time I saw this guy, I was kicking his gangbanger ass out of my daughter's bedroom."
"Daddy!" Avery gasped.
"Raymond!" chastised Mrs. Brooks simultaneously.
But the rest of the group laughed good-naturedly.
"And I probably deserved it," said Cho, surprising everyone, including himself. "But that was a long time ago." He reached for Avery's hand, and she took it proudly.
Cho met Captain Brooks's eyes with quiet determination.
"I suppose it was. Avery tells me you're with the FBI now."
"Yes, sir."
But Cho realized that Captain Brooks had probably used his own connections with Homeland security to check him out as well. Cho was proud of his record, both in the Army and in his state and federal service. A man in the captain's position would likely respect what he had discovered there. Cho's nervousness abruptly abated, and he remembered that he had nothing to fear from this man anymore. Avery was a grown woman, and while she wanted her parents' approval, Cho didn't think she would let him go a second time. As a matter of fact, he had the sneaking suspicion that she would now choose him over her father, if it came to it. He felt himself stand a little taller as this thought occurred, and he pulled Avery closer to his side.
Captain Brooks must have seen the barely perceptible change in Cho's demeanor, for Cho saw the grudging respect in his gaze. They had reached a silent, tentative understanding.
"Look what Kimball brought you," said Avery, breaking the tension of the moment. Cho held out the scotch. Captain Brooks's eyebrows rose in appreciation as he took the gift.
"Well, well, well." He held up the bottle to show his other guests. "This is a man who knows his liquor."
There was a chorus of agreement from some of the other military types in the room and their wives, old friends of the captain's.
"Have a drink with me later," said Captain Brooks softly to Cho. Then he turned to his wife. "Molly, is that ham ready yet? Jimmy is starting to look like he's out of MRE's."
Cho and Avery were the last to leave the living room, Avery keeping him back as the others filed past toward the formal dining room.
"You okay?" she asked.
Cho let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He smiled a little, giving her a brief flash of dimples.
"Yeah," he said. He bent and kissed her cheek. "Let's eat."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Later that night, as they drove back through downtown Austin, the couple was quiet as they contemplated the evening. Avery couldn't have been more pleased. All seemed to have been forgotten by her father, in light of Cho's successful career. Her mother, who had always been supportive of her decisions, had taken her aside and praised her for her choice in such an accomplished man, who obviously cared for her. Avery had hugged her tightly in gratitude, tears in her eyes.
"How was scotch with Daddy?" she asked, squeezing Cho's hand where he held it over the center console.
"Interesting," he said noncommittally.
She waited a few beats for more details, but was disappointed.
"That's it? That's all you're gonna tell me?"
Cho's lips quirked. "Yep."
"You two were in his study a long time…" she prompted. But he wasn't relenting.
"Yep."
In truth, Cho's time with Captain Brooks had been a supreme test of patience. The captain had poured each of them two fingers of the scotch—which had been exquisite, if Cho said so himself—and Cho had been ordered to sit down in an overstuffed chair across from the older man's.
"I'm not going to say I'm happy about this turn of events," Captain Brooks said. "Your juvenile record was appalling. Grand theft auto. Assault. Resisting arrest."
Cho didn't even bother to point out that those records were supposed to be sealed.
"Yes," agreed Cho.
"And there's still the little matter of how you took advantage of my daughter."
Cho stiffened. He might have been many things in those days, but rapist wasn't one of them. "It was consensual."
"So she claimed at the time."
"We're both adults now," Cho pointed out. "I've more than paid my debt to society." He didn't need to defend his record to this man.
"But you haven't paid me," said the captain, moving to the edge of his seat in agitation.
"What do you want?" He couldn't exactly restore his daughter's virginity.
"I want a guarantee."
"Of…?" he asked, though Cho had a pretty good idea.
"That you will serve, protect and defend my daughter, of course."
"There's no question," Cho insisted seriously. "I love her."
Captain Brooks gave Cho another one of his deep, assessing stares, and the younger man had no trouble meeting it. Satisfied, at least as much as he could be with the man courting his only daughter, Captain Brooks poured himself another two fingers of single malt.
"If you hurt her," Brooks added ominously, "I'll kill you."
"It's a felony to threaten a federal agent," said Cho wryly.
"Ha," snorted the captain. "So arrest me."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Avery surprised Cho and invited him to her place. It was a beautiful condominium with a view of Lady Bird Lake and downtown Austin. She'd also chosen in for the proximity to the hospital where she worked. She told him the code at the gate, and he entered the numbers on the keypad, committing them to memory. The high rot iron gate slid open, and he drove through it, parking where she directed. As they entered the upper level of her home, Cho felt his heart accelerate. This would be their first time to be completely alone together, without worry of work or meddling friends and family interfering.
Avery flipped on the light.
"Nice place," he said lamely, nervousness making his voice raspy.
"Thanks," she said, and he could tell she was on edge as well. "You want some wine?"
"Sure."
While she was getting it, he wandered to the balcony, marveling at the lights of the city. She had an amazing view. He opened the French doors and stepped out into the night. It was cooler now, though still unseasonably warm for December. He took a few deep breaths.
She soon joined him, handing him a glass of Moscato.
"Thanks."
They sipped the sweet wine for a few minutes, before Cho took their glasses and set them on the balcony railing. He pulled her into his arms, kissing her with all the pent-up tension of the day, with the longing for what he hoped would happen between them this night. She returned his kisses with equal ardor, leaving Cho no doubt that they were on the same page.
He found himself being led back inside, their mouths fused as she moved him down the hall, to the bedroom, the full moon shining in through the open window blinds. Her deft, surgeon's hands loosened his tie, while his were busy unbuttoning her white blouse, then pulling the bobby pins from her hair. Soon they were both down to their underwear, Cho lowering her gently to the goose down duvet.
"I love you," she whispered. "I know it's probably too soon—"
He actually laughed, the sound full of joyous incredulity.
"No," he said, quick to reassure her. "It's been entirely too long since I heard you say it. And ever since I saw you again, I've realized it's been you I've been missing in my life. Every relationship I've ever had has been tinged by the knowledge that you were still out there somewhere, maybe even waiting for me. I would try to suppress that feeling, say I was being stupid, but I would always find a way to sabotage my relationships. I wouldn't fight hard enough to make it work, or I'd end up in a situation that I subconsciously knew was doomed to fail."
He gently kissed her full lips. "I still love you," he said. "I've never stopped."
He could see the faint tracks of her tears glistening in the moonlight, and he bent to kiss her wet cheek. He smiled down at her.
"Now, if we're through with all this unnecessary talking, I think we have a lot of catching up to do."
She smiled back, her hand coming up to caress his face. "Then shut up for once. Geeze, Kimball, all you do is talk, talk, ta—"
He muffled her mouth with his kiss, and their shared laughter soon dissolved into moans and sighs of pleasure.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Later, they lay in bed as their pleasure cooled upon their skin. Soft lamplight bathed them, the bottle of Moscato empty on the nightstand. Cho felt a little drunk, but more because of the feel of her body beneath his and the headiness of her scent, than the wine. He looked at where Avery's head rested on the pillow beside him, her hair spread out and tickling his bare chest. Beneath the covers, her hand rested on his firm stomach. She liked the way it trembled from her touch.
"You've learned a few things since we last, uh, met," she said almost shyly, thinking of the way his tongue had brought her to new, dizzying heights of pleasure.
"Since yesterday?"
She chuckled. "I wouldn't know. I actually meant since 1990."
She reached up to caress his hard, muscular arms, marveling that even with her two hands she couldn't fully encircle his biceps. Cho remained straight-faced, but his eyes shone with masculine amusement as she tried.
"Well if it makes you feel any better, I think you made me throw my back out again with that last move of yours. Been dating acrobats lately?"
"A whole troupe of them," she teased.
"Well that's gotta stop," he said, going up on one elbow to look at her, his other hand smoothing her hair from her face.
She nodded, kissing his stubbled jaw. "That'll be easy…I only want you."
"Good," he said, and she loved the proprietary gleam in his dark eyes.
Then he was kissing her again, cherishing her with his body, bringing her to ecstasy with his mouth. They had come full circle, Cho thought, as he joined with her once more-an act both achingly familiar and wonderfully new. She had been his first, and, God willing, she would be his last.
It had taken them twenty-five years to find each other again, and the relief and rightness of it made him almost giddy, in a completely uncharacteristic, non-Cho-like way. No one would have suspected that when he'd lost Avery Brooks, he had lost himself, had closed himself off from the rest of the world, from love, from pain. But when she had rescued him from the ice storm, she had also saved him from a continued life of self-imposed silence and isolation. He felt himself changing, the icy barriers he'd erected about himself giving way to the romantic, carefree man he had always known was buried deep inside.
Cho no longer had to look for true love in classic romantic novels, or settle for finding meaning in only his work. No, he realized, love and meaning were right here beside him, in the deep emotion that shone from pale green eyes, in the hands that drove him wild with desire, in the heart that beat in tandem with his, filling the silence and welcoming him home.
THE END
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
Epilogue
Three months later…
Cho drove down the winding gravel road to the Jane cabin, frowning a little when a rock kicked up and hit the windshield of his new blue Camaro. He made a mental note only to drive the SUV out here in the future. At the end of the road, he came across an idyllic scene.
The Jane family was enjoying the warmth of an early spring Saturday. Patrick Jane was outside, sawing a two-by-four as it rested on two sawhorses, continuing his never-ending home improvement project. Little Samuel played in the sandbox Jane had built for him, while Lisbon lay in a hammock between two tall oak trees, the familiar manila folder containing the newest FBI Most Wanted list in her hands. If he wasn't mistaken, Lisbon's usual flat stomach seemed to have rounded over night. Cho suspected he'd be looking for a temporary replacement for his top agent in say, five months.
"Cho!" said Jane, glancing up as Cho got out of the car.
Lisbon sat up and smiled, swinging her legs to the ground. "Hey! This is a nice surprise." Then she frowned. "Did I miss a phone call?"
"No," said Cho. He held out a pearl gray envelope.
Lisbon glanced at Jane, who grinned knowingly. She slid open the envelope with a fingernail, then pulled out a wedding invitation. She gasped in surprised happiness.
"No way!"
Cho no longer held back his grin. "Way," he countered.
Lisbon opened the invitation and scanned the details. "Next month? Wow, you guys aren't wasting any time, are you?"
"We've wasted twenty-five years already," said Cho solemnly.
Lisbon embraced him then, blinking back tears that she naturally attributed to her current condition.
Jane moved to pat his friend on the back, his smile at its widest.
"A wise decision, my friend."
Lisbon stepped back, wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands. "Sorry. I'm just so happy for you."
"The invitation comes with a caveat though," said Cho, eyeing Jane ominously. "No more interfering in my life."
"Now, Kimball, I don't think I need point out how well my last interference worked out…"
"That was just dumb luck," said Cho. "I was planning on calling Avery anyway, after the ice storm."
Jane rolled his eyes dramatically. "Sure, you were."
"Anyway, we thought we'd have a little engagement get-together, now that I cleared it with her family."
"You mean her dad," teased Jane, and Cho blushed slightly.
"Did he give you his blessing?" asked Lisbon.
"His exact words were: 'I suppose she could do worse.'"
Jane laughed. "Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me."
"Yeah, I'll take it."
Jane stuck out his hand. "Well, congratulations. And I promise not to interfere again. I think you two kids can handle it from here."
"Yeah," Cho agreed, shaking his hand. Then he was treated to his second Jane family hug of the day.
"Avery and I would love it you would all be in the wedding. Sam should be walking well enough to carry the rings, shouldn't he?"
"Sure," said Lisbon after a nod from her husband. "We'd be honored, all of us."
"Great. Rigsby's signed up for best man, but Avery insists on there being three groomsmen and three bridesmaids, so Wylie's next on my list of visits today. I believe Avery will be in touch with you soon, Lisbon."
She smiled. "Great. So long as I don't have to wear anything pink, I'd be delighted."
Cho actually chuckled. "I don't think you have to worry about that."
He looked at his two friends, hoping that he and Avery would be as happy as they seemed to be.
"Well, see you Monday, Lisbon. Jane. I'll let you know the details of the engagement party when I do. Avery's mom is planning it." He turned to leave.
"Bye, Kimball," said Lisbon. "And congratulations, truly."
"Thanks for coming all the way out here to share the great news," said Jane.
They waved as Cho drove away, and Jane wrapped his arm around his wife's thickening waist.
"You had your fingers crossed behind your back when you made that promise not to interfere, didn't you?"
"Yep," said Jane, kissing the top of her head. "You know me so well, my love…"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this story. It was nice to be back writing for this fandom. Wishing you all a healthy and happy New Year!