DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CSI:NY OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS. I DO HOWEVER OWN SAMANTHA FLACK. YES. YES I DO. NO MATTER WHAT CBS MAY TRY TO TELL YOU, SHE'S MINE. LOL. ENJOY.
Time to party (also titled when Adam met Dom Perignon)
"These times are troubled and these times are good
And they're always gonna be, they rise and they fall
We take 'em all the way that we should
Together you and me forsaking them all
Deep in the night and by the light of day
It always looks the same, true love always does
And here by your side, or a million miles away
Nothin's ever gonna change the way that I feel,
The way it is, is the way that it was
When I said I do, I meant that I will
'til the end of all time
Be faithful and true, devoted to you
That's what I had in mind when I said I do."
-When I Said I Do, Clint Black and Lisa Hartman
The rain had stopped somewhere between 'if anyone here has any objections to why this union should not take place, speak now or forever hold your peace' and the signing of the marriage certificate. Sunshine peeked through the solemn grey clouds. Shards of golden light split the dreary sky. The wind had subsided. But in the wake of the storm, the temperature outside had dipped even lower and massive puddles took up nearly every available inch of road and sidewalk. Many curb sides were inches thick with water that drivers sent spraying up feet in the air as they barrelled along. No one dared set foot in Central Park in fear of getting stranded in the mud that no doubt vacated the grounds.
Instead, while guests headed for the Hilton New York, the bride and groom and their attendants and close friends took a detour to Rockefeller Centre with the photographer that had been commissioned for the event.
Mr and Mrs Timothy Speedle travelled via the limo that had delivered the bride and her party to the church. Danny had borrowed Flack's SUV to get himself and Speed and Hawkes to the ceremony and was now handing the keys back over to his best friend as they, along with Sam and Erica and Hawkes and Angell, were descending the steps at the front of the church. Gus and Adam had run off with Mac and Stella.
"At least tell me there's gas still in the tank." Flack said.
"I was gracious and filled it right up." Danny told him. "And with the gas prices right now, I need to work four overtime shifts just to make up what I put out."
"Speaking of putting out." Sam said from behind them, one hand holding up the bottom of her dress to avoid dragging it down the wet steps, the other gripping the back of her husband's jacket to prevent herself from slipping on the slick surface and falling on her ass.
"Is that all you think about Brooklyn?" Danny teased. "And you have the nerve to say us guys are the perverts around the lab?"
"I wasn't referring to sex, Messer. Well at least not personally. What I was going to say next is that Max and that Delko seemed really cozy last night and she left the ceremony with him and Lieutenant Caine."
"And you were wondering if she was putting out." Danny concluded.
"I wouldn't blame her if she did." Angell commented. "He's a real piece of work."
"That's the best man, right?" Erica asked. "He's damn fine."
"Uh, excuse me, ladies." Flack said "But we're right here."
"As if you never check out other women." Sam snorted, taking his hand as they stepped down onto the sidewalk and headed for the side parking lot. "I see the way you discreetly check out someone's ass or boobs. And the way you try and hide it by wearing sunglasses."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Flack told her innocently.
"See, the difference between me and you is that I readily admit to you that another guy is hot. You only think you're hiding it from me when you're all hot and bothered by someone in a short skirt and huge boobs. I'd go much easier on you if you were just honest about it."
"Bullshit." Flack laughed. "You'd cut me off and have me sleeping on the couch for a month."
"And that would just damn torture." Danny added. "Considering he's the most oversexed out of all of us here."
"I wouldn't go that far." Angell said.
"Why Doctor Hawkes," Sam giggled, casting a glance at him over her shoulder. "No wonder you've been so tired at work lately. You're suffering from sex-haustion."
He smiled sheepishly and just shook his head.
"Don knows all about it." Sam said, standing by the front passenger's side door of the SUV. "He was suffering from it up until Kieran came along. Now he's just suffering period."
"You'll be suffering later when I make sure you can't walk properly for a week." Flack told her, just loud enough for her to hear as he unlocked her door.
"Promises, promises." she said with a sigh and slipped into her seat.
"I'll tell you one thing," Danny said as he shed his jacket and tossed it into the back row of seats before climbing in himself. "I'm glad that that is over and done with. I don't know how the hell we all put up with Devine for as long as we did. First pregnant and hormonal and then the whole Bridezilla thing. It was getting to be a little much."
"I can totally understand the pregnant and hormonal thing." Sam said. "But…."
Flack cleared his throat noisily as he slid in behind the wheel.
"What was that suppose to mean?" Sam asked.
"What? I cleared my throat. I'm not allowed to clear my throat?"
"You did it just as I mentioned understanding being pregnant and hormonal. It wasn't a coincidence."
"You're imagining things." Flack said as he did up his seat belt and started the ignition.
"You're trying to say something or allude to something." she told him. "So spit it out. What are you trying to say?"
"Nothing. I wasn't trying to say or allude to anything. I was clearing my throat. You're just reading into it."
"What he's trying to say is that when you're pregnant you're a fucking bitch." Angell spoke up. "And you're bitch when you're not pregnant so that tells you just how bad it is when you are."
Sam frowned and punched her husband hard in the shoulder.
"Oww." Flack complained. "I didn't say it, Angell did."
"You were thinking it. That's bad enough."
"Way to go Jess, now you're getting me abused."
"This is exactly what they make birth control for!" Danny called out from the back. "To avoid situations like this! Next time use a condom!"
"Better be following your own advice, Messer." Flack shot back. "We don't need anymore of you running around."
"Easy, Flack. Easy. My kids are going to be gorgeous. I ever have a son and you ever have a girl, you best be keeping her locked inside the house 'til she's thirty. 'Cause if my boy looks like me and your girl looks like her mother? Potent combination."
"Your boy will be getting my baby girl pregnant at fifteen." Flack griped. "And I'll be sitting on the front porch with my gun in one hand a baseball bat in the other and putting the fear of God into Daniel Messer Jr when he brings her home from their first date."
"I can just see it now." Angell laughed. "Flack in boxers and a wife beater, all unshaven waving his gun around and making the poor kid wet his pants."
"Bad enough Devine has Kieran and Addie already married with a few kids of their own." Flack said.
"They'd make a cute couple." Sam commented.
"Our son is nine months old. He's way too young to be even suggesting something like that. Can we get him to walk and potty train him first? Get him through his first day at school and teach him how to ride a bike and all that before promising him to Speed's daughter?"
"How much you wanna bet Kieran knocks Addie up before they're eighteen." Danny said.
Flack shot him a glare over his shoulder. "Watch your mouth. My kid is going to be responsible and go to college and all of that. No babies. I don't even want to consider what it's going to be like when I become a grandfather."
"I just figured seeing as his dad doesn't know what birth control is, he might not either when he's old enough to be doing the nasty." Danny joked.
Flack slammed on the breaks, more to avoid a car that cut in front of them than to teach Danny Messer a lesson for saying such a thing, but he felt a trickle of immense pleasure and vindication surge through him when Danny, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, flew forward and nearly busted his nose and his glasses on the back of the seat in front of him.
"Holy shit." Sam complained, bracing herself with a hand on the dash despite having a belt on and the fact her husband had instinctively reached out and laid a hand on her stomach to shield her from impact. "Drive much?" she directed that last question at the guilty party in front of them.
"Christ, Flack!" Danny roared. "Learn to fucking drive!"
"Someone cut me off. What did you want me to? Rear end 'em?" he turned on his signal and checked through the rear view mirror before swerving into the next lane and speeding up until he pulled up alongside of the BMV that nearly caused the accident. "Give him shit, Sam." he encouraged.
She opened the glove box and took out Flack's badge. He kept it in there when off duty in case they ever happened upon an accident scene or someone that needed some kind of assistance. Today she waited until Flack honked the horn to get the driver's attention. When the man in the lane next to them looked over, she flipped him the middle finger and slapped the badge against the window.
"NYPD asshole!" Angell yelled out her open window.
"God…" Erica exclaimed. "I hate to see what the two of you are like going after a bad guy. Who's the good cop and who's the bad cop?"
"We're both equally as evil." Angell told her, rolling up the window as the red faced driver in the other car hung a right at the corner and disappeared from view. "Sam and I were chasing this guy throw the snow in Strawberry Fields once. And you know how heavy snow can be. It's a bitch to run in. And it was below freezing and our lungs were burning and…"
"Is this the snow ball story?" Flack asked.
"What's the snow ball story?" Erica inquired.
"Sam nailed the perp in the back of the head with a snow ball." Angell said. "She just bent down and scooped up the snow and packed it all together and chucked it at him and got him right in the back of the head. The dumb ass actually stopped to see who did it and we managed to catch up to him."
"And than my girl here tackled him face first into the ground." Sam added. "But we were on the pond and it hadn't been cold enough to form solid ice and it cracked underneath us and we all ended up in the water."
"And with frost bite on her toes and fingertips." Flack tossed in. "She couldn't do up her clothes or shoes for two weeks."
"I bet you didn't mind helping her out." Erica said.
"Actually, I'm better at taking them off than putting them on." Flack responded, winking at his wife.
"You always were a pro at that." Sam laughed.
"Which is also why you guys have Kieran." Danny spoke up.
"Wanna get out and walk Messer?" Flack asked, looking at his friend through the rear view mirror. "'Cause I can pull over right here and you can walk there and explain to a furious Devine why you're late for photos."
"For the last time, Flack, it's Speedle now." Angell corrected him. "Now how confusing is that going to be in the lab? Two Speedles and two Flacks?"
"It will blow their minds." Sam said and yawned noisily. "I am still getting files delivered to me that are suppose to go to Don. And vice versa. And it's been almost a year."
"Has it really been that long?" Erica asked. "It seems like just yesterday."
"Trust me," Flack responded. "there's days it feels like last week and days it feels like it's been a decade. All depends on whether she's PMSing or not."
"Shut up." Sam said with a grin, rubbing his thigh. "I think Carmen has decided to spare the lab the headaches and is keeping her last name in professional situations."
"So why did you change your last name?" Angell asked curiously.
"Carmen's more modern in that respect than I am. I'm more old fashioned and liked the whole wife taking the husband's name thing. All I know is that I am so relieved that this wedding is finally over. We just have to get the reception over and done with and Carmen will go back to being Carmen again. Only different."
Flack frowned. "That just made absolutely no sense."
"She's Carmen but she's not Carmen." Sam explained. "At least not the way we knew her before. She's still the same but different."
"Is anyone else here completely confused?" Angell asked.
"Sam, you lost me somewhere between she's the same but different." Flack said. "Explain this to me like I'm a three year old. Because I have no clue what you're trying to say."
"It's because she's from Brooklyn!" Danny called out.
Sam sighed exasperatedly. "For the last time. Carmen is still Carmen but she's not. She's still the same Carmen at work but out of it she's a wife now and we all know how becoming a wife fucks with your brain and your personality."
"I don't know whether to laugh or be offended." Flack said.
"You're not the same person in your personal life when you get married." Sam explained. "You look the same and you act the same at work, but when you're away from work and dealing with personal stuff you're a different person than when you were single. You handle things differently because it's not just you anymore. You make decisions based on an entire unit and not just a solo person. You can't do the same things you used to do when you were single. You have to adjust your priorities and all that." she paused and squeezed his leg and smiled brightly at him. "Well some of us do." she said.
"You are such a smart ass." Flack told her, chuckling. "So what you're trying to say is that at work she's same old Carmen, out of it she's Speed's wife and the mother of his kid and that changes her personality a bit."
"Exactly!"
"Why the hell didn't you just say it that way?" he asked.
"I thought I explained myself pretty well. I don't know why you had such a hard time understanding me."
"Because you're from Brooklyn!" Danny called out.
"Just like outside of work people refer to me as Flack's wife. I don't even have a name anymore. Hey, that's Flack's wife and kid. Did you meet Flack's wife? That's what I hear all the time. Last week two of your guys called me Stephanie when I came to see you."
"My first girlfriend's name was Stephanie." Flack said. "Maybe I was thinking about her and called you her name to them."
"You are so sleeping on the couch for the next six months." Sam huffed.
"Joking. Just joking. Her name was Donna."
"Hey isn't that that hot little thing that came in last week and was sitting on your lap at your desk?" Danny needled his best friend.
"Shut up, Messer. That was suppose to be our little secret. You weren't suppose to say anything."
"Make that twelve months." Sam said. "Starting with tonight after the wedding. You can sleep on the floor."
"How big is the bed?" Angell asked.
"One of those extra large kings." Sam replied. "Why? You and Hawkes want to sleep over? The more the merrier? Hawkes can sleep in the middle."
"I was thinking Sheldon could sleep on the floor with Flack and me and you can snuggle in the bed." Angell said with a grin.
"Yeah?" Sam glanced over her shoulder and blew Angell a playful kiss. "I will rock your world, sweetness."
"Watch it." Flack said. "Or Devine's gonna think you loved her and left her. Kissing her and moving on to Angell so quickly."
Angell gasped dramatically. "You cheated on me? Sam! How could you!? Bad enough you've been cheating on me with Flack. But Carmen too?"
"Don seduced me and I got pregnant. I didn't mean for it to happen."
"I seduced you?" Flack laughed. "I wasn't the one prancing around in a guy's shirt with no underwear on and making eating an oreo cookie a lewd act."
"You could have just said no." Sam reasoned.
"He's a guy." Angell said. "When do they say no to the booty?"
"Hey! No male bashing!" Danny cried. "It's an even number in the car!"
"We can make it more women by tossing your ass out the window." Angell suggested.
"And miss the girl on girl between you and Sam? I don't think so. They ever let you join in Flack?"
"If they did Danny, the rest of you would be walking and the three of us would be back at the hotel by now."
"Pervert." Sam laughed. "You really are a dirty minded bastard."
"You wouldn't want me any other way, baby."
She smiled and leaned across the seat to kiss his cheek.
"You know," Danny said, after a long silence had passed between the occupants. "We're all changing. One by one. First Flack, than Mac and Stella. Now Carmen and Tim. Hell, even Gus and Adam are getting in on the action. All these different things that are happening in such a short period of time."
"We're all growing up, Dan-o." Flack said. "Or at least attempting to."
"It's just nice to know that there's one thing that will never change." the CSI said.
"What's that?" Hawkes asked.
"We'll always have each other. We'll always be friends. No matter what."
Flack frowned. "Are you drunk? You sound like a damn Hallmark card."
"Make fun of me all you want. You know it's true. I just have the balls to say it out loud."
No one said a word in response to that. Because they all knew, for once in his life, Danny Messer was completely right about something.
Tim Speedle was thankful that the hardest part of the day was over. Despite his cool, calm and collected demeanor prior to the ceremony, he'd in fact been a nervous wreck. And it had shown during the vows when he had gotten three words in and dissolved into tears and could barely comprehend what the reverend was saying let alone respond in a proper fashion. It had been a culmination of events that had led to his emotional meltdown. Starting with the parole drama with Matthew that had prompted Carmen to call of their relationship. Hearing her tell him it was over had nearly destroyed Speed, but he'd been hear strong and resilient in his determination to get her back. Thank God for Flack and his zero tolerance for bullshit and his hard line stance of telling things the way they were. You didn't hand Flack a line of crap and get away with it. And he hadn't gone easy on Carmen. Not in the least. He'd been mean and hurtful and brutally honest. But had gotten the results both he and Speed had wanted in the end
Just when they had gotten things back in order, there was the work related car accident that had landed Carmen in the hospital and the investigation by doctors for internal injuires that had led them to the discovery that she was expecting a baby. After what Matthew had done to her years ago, she'd all but been told to forget ever having a child of her own. Yet there was their miracle, growing inside of her, her heart beating strongly and a lifetime of hopes and dreams laid out in front of her. Despite both of them being shocked and having reservations about being parents, there'd never been a doubt in their mind that they would have their baby and become a family. They were scared and nervous and most of all excited. And as the months passed and Carmen grew larger with their child, Speed's love for the two most important people in his life grew as well.
And now, here they were, husband and wife. In the middle of their wedding reception. They had had their first dance to Keith Urban's Making Memories of Us and mingled with their guests before an exceptional seven course meal and endless glasses of champagne and the traditional cutting of the cake. He'd posed for photographs in in the past few hours than he had for his entire life. They'd listened to Delko and Sam both give speeches that made everyone in attendance laugh before bringing them to tears. And as his new wife partied up a storm in the middle of the dance floor with other guests, he grabbed himself a rye and coke from the bar and joined Mac, Flack and Hawkes at one of the tables. Danny and Adam had found themselves dragged up onto the dance floor.
"Well," Flack said as Speed slipped into the chair beside him. "Welcome to mine and Mac's sad little club."
"What club is that?" the CSI asked, sipping the amber coloured drink.
"The old married people, screwed and tortured for the rest of our lives club." Flack said with a smirk. "Your life as you know it is over. See that ring on your finger? That's not just a symbol of undying love and devotion. It's a sign of our enslavement. We belong to them and we're doomed to spend our lives making them happy. Regardless of how much it costs. Both emotionally and financially."
"What about them belonging to us?" Speed asked.
Flack laughed. "Right…you say that to Sam, that she belongs to me, she's smacking you upside the head. She took my name, that's it. She didn't hand over ownership of herself."
"Marriage is not that bad, Flack." Hawkes said. "You wouldn't have done it if you found it the most awful thing in the world."
"I never said there was anything awful about it. I love being married. I love having a wife and a kid and all the domestic bliss and even the non bliss that comes with it. Having someone to come home to after a long day that won't judge you and who will listen to you bitch for three hours straight. Who will clean up after you and do your laundry and make you something to eat and take care of you when you're hurt or sicker than a dog. Who you can wake up to every morning. Who when every time you look at her you think to yourself how proud and grateful you are to have her and you wonder how in the hell you got so lucky and how she puts up with you."
Al three men stared at him in both amazement and concern.
"How much have you had to drink?" Speed asked, nodding to the glass in front of Flack that they all knew had no booze whatsoever in it.
"All I'm saying is that marriage is the second best thing that ever happened to me. The first is my kid. Sam's not perfect but she's a great wife. She puts up with my shit day in and day out and loves me regardless. So if anything, I belong to her. Wholly and completely."
"So you're whipped." Speed concluded.
"Pretty much. But I still wear the pants in the family. I just let her think she's got the power and control sometimes."
"Surely you're not talking about me." Sam said, catching the tail end of his sentence as she and Stella arrived back at the table. The DJ having just announced it was time for the bouquet toss and all the single women went scurrying to the dance floor.
"I would never say a negative word about you." Flack assured her.
"Sure you wouldn't." she said and picked up a her half glass of champagne that she'd left on the table. Taking a swig, she plopped down onto his lap and rested her arm across his shoulders.
"Adam…." Flack shook his head as his brother in law came swaggering towards the table with a beer bottle clutched in his hand. "Are you drunk?"
Adam shook his head. "No…." he slurred slightly. "Well….maybe…..but just a bit…" he held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart. "Just a little, little bit."
"Just no pissing on any blue and whites, okay?" Speed asked. "Got it?"
Adam gave a thumbs up and swayed drunkenly. "Gotcha." he replied, than dropped into the nearest chair with such force he nearly tipped over. He righted himself and smiled. "You know, Flack…" he said. "I think you and my sister are a really, really, really nice couple. Looks wise, I mean. 'Cause personalities wise, man, it's like dynamite and a match."
"Here we go." Sam said with a sigh and sipped her drink. "Adam's going all sentimental on us."
"It's true!" Adam insisted. "You two…you're both really nice looking and all that….Flack's got them blue eyes and that dark hair…."
"Ross, I'm flattered you have a boy crush on me, but stop while you're ahead." Flack said.
"I know you love my sister and she loves you and you guys got Kieran and you're this happy little family…and I am happy for you guys…I really am…just thought you both should know that."
"That's nice, Adam." Sam told him. "Now maybe we should find Gussie and have her take you home."
The lab tech shook his head and leaned forward and clapped a hand on Flack's shoulder. "I mean it. You're really good for my sister. You take good care of her and my nephew. My nephew is my life. My best buddy. You know that."
"I think you've had enough to drink." Flack told his brother in law and pried the beer bottle from Adam's hands. "We'll get you some coffee and start sobering you up a bit."
"I am serious." Adam told the detective. "I only speak the truth. My sister would be dead if it wasn't for you."
"You've had too much to drink." Flack responded.
"Who knows what Zack would have done if you hadn't have been there that day. She could have been dead and dismembered somewhere and God knows what else."
"Enough, Adam." Sam said. "Be quiet now."
"No. It's not enough. I have to say what I feel." he told her, than leaned in close to Flack. "I love you, Don." he declared, and pressed a sloppy kiss to his brother in law's cheek. Much to the chagrin of everyone at the table.
"You can tell you and your sister are definitely blood relatives." Flack quipped, wiping Adam's saliva off of his cheek with the back of his hand. "You both can't handle your liquor."
"I beg to differ." Sam said and downed her champagne.
Adam jumped up as she sat the empty glass down on the table and scooped the champagne flute up. Juggling it a few times before getting it under control. "I shall get the lady another." he announced, and wobbled off towards the bar.
"Are you sure he's not adopted?" Speed asked.
"My mother insists we have the same parents." Sam replied. "But I swear to God, he was either left on the door step or someone in the hospital switched him and my real brother after birth. And if Kieran didn't have dark hair and blue eyes and look just like Don, I would think the same way about him. Because he is just too evil to be ours."
"You're kidding right?" Stella laughed. "He may look like his daddy but he is you in every other way Sam. He's his mother from head to toe."
Flack nodded in agreement. "They're both supremely evil." he said.
Sam elbowed him playfully in the stomach and kissed his cheek as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into him. She rested her head on his shoulder and looked out towards the dance floor where Carmen was getting ready to toss her throw away arrangement of flowers into the small gaggle of anxious women.
"If Erica catches it, Messer will be on the first bus out of New York City." Flack declared.
"I was going to say the same thing about Delko if Max catches it." Speed said. "He won't be able to get his ass back to Miami fast enough if she does. Apparently, and this is just between this table, she got a little clingy after sex and insisted on him staying the night."
"Did he?" Sam asked, helping herself to a sip of Angell's left behind champagne.
"Yeah…but he high tailed it out of there when the kid walked in on them butt naked in bed in this morning."
Sam laughed. "That's why you put a lock on the door that locks from the inside. To prevent that from happening. Even we know that and Kieran can't even walk or get out of his crib yet. But at least he stayed the night. He didn't just fuck her and leave."
"Fuck her?" Speed laughed. "You hang around us men too much."
"Don and you guys are a bad influence. But it's true. Most guys after a one time hook up don't bother sticking around for seconds in the morning. They do their business and leave."
"Speak from experience?" Stella teased.
"I was lucky. Don only took off while I was still asleep and than sent me an e-mail afterwards. At least he sucked it up and slept on my brother's ratty old couch."
"He would have shit if you took off in the middle of the night." Speed said.
"I considered it. But I figured I didn't have anywhere else to go so I might as well stick it out and see where I get with him. And now look! Domestic and wedded bliss. Who knew?"
"So was it amazing mind blowing sex that kept you there or the fear of sleeping on a bench in Central Park?" Stella asked.
Sam considered it.
"You actually have to think about it?" Flack asked. "What's there to think about? Should be an easy answer."
"Well I don't particularly like splinters in my ass." Sam replied.
A massively dirty comment about what she does like in her ass was on the tip of his tongue but Flack kept it to himself. There were just some things you didn't discuss in front of your co-workers. Particularily when one of them was your wife's boss.
Adam returned with the champagne and sat it down in front of his sister. In his other hand was an uncorked bottle of Dom Perignon.
"Thanks, peanut." she said and saluted him with her drink before taking a sip.
"You are so very welcome, madame." he responded in a thick, faux French accent and bowed gallantly. Nearly losing his balance and toppling over head first. "I'm good….I'm good…." he exclaimed, straightening himself up and cuddling the bottle of booze to his chest. "Now if you would all excuse me, Dom and I would like to be alone."
"Someone tell me that Adam and Gus have a drive home." Flack said, watching as his brother in law stumbled away, clutching the bottle tightly to his chest.
"We'll make sure they get home safe." Stella assured him. "I am after all the designated driver for the next several months at least."
"Boy am I glad those days are over." Sam said. "Mind you, I probably shouldn't drink too much tonight because the breast milk is running out in the freezer and sometime tomorrow I need to go back to being Kieran's meal ticket. Three more months and he's going on regular or soy milk. That's it. I've had enough of being a Holstein cow."
"I seriously don't know how you stuck with it this long." Stella commended her. "I've already decided to wean the baby onto formula when I go back to work. I'm not even pumping. Forget it. Too much of a hassle."
There was a loud commotion on the dance floor. Ladies shrieking and frantically scurrying for the bouquet of flowers Carmen had just sent sailing backwards over her head. Like linebackers on a football field they shoved each other out of the way and tackled each other into the hardwood floor in a vain attempt to snag the coveted prize.
"That is just fucking insane." Flack declared. "It's like watching WWE wrestling. All for the sake of snagging some flowers."
"Tradition, Flack." Hawkes said. "It's a huge tradition. Supposedly the woman who catches it will be the next to get married. And get alcohol into the mix and the elbows start flying and they start scratching each other's eyes out and pulling hair."
"For flowers?" Flack shook his head in disbelief. "Makes no sense."
After an intense battle, a lone figure finally stood up, victoriously holding the now shredded bouquet over her head.
"Oh no." Hawkes said and hung his head.
"WAY TO GO JESS!!" Sam shrieked, jumping up and giving her friend a round of applause.
"You are so screwed." Speed chuckled, clapping a hand on Hawkes' shoulder.
"Want me to make you out a club membership now or a few months down the road?" Flack asked.
"Way to put the boots to them!" Sam exclaimed, as Angell came to the table and the two women exchanged tipsy high fives.
The DJ got back onto his microphone and asked for the groom and all single men to come out onto the dance floor for the traditional garter toss.
"Well seeing as my bachelor status went down the toilet almost a year ago, that leaves me out." Flack commented as he stood up. "I'm going to go out for a smoke and call home to make sure my kid is asleep and hasn't burned the house down or sent my mother or sister to the nut house."
"Well get up there." Angell encouraged Hawkes, giving him a gentle shove towards the dance floor. "Let's make it two for two."
"Screwed, Doc. Screwed." Flack chuckled, as Speed had to nearly drag Hawkes behind him. "Wanna come with?" he asked his wife. "You can say goodnight to your baby boy and give him hell if he's still awake."
"Fresh air sounds mighty good right about now." Sam agreed as he helped her shrug into his suit jacket to protect her from the cold night air.
She drowned in the massive jacket. The sleeves miles too long and the bottom falling below her knees. She grabbed her champagne flute and he took her other hand and lead the way towards the French doors on the opposite of the room. They stepped out onto the open air patio over looking Rockefeller Centre. Soft white Christmas lights sparkling in the bushes and the trees and lining the white tent set up to serve as a bar for guests mulling outside.
They journeyed over to the edge of the patio. Flack reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, his hand brushing against the side of Sam's breast.
"Impatient, are we?" she giggled. "You need to resort to feeling me up in public?"
"As much as I know you'd like that," Flack said with a grin and pulled out a pack of smokes and a lighter. He held them up for her to see. "I need to have a cancer stick."
"You need to quit." she said. "Again."
"I will quit. For a second time. Or is it the third? I've lost count." he shook out a cigarette and slipped it between his lips and lit it.
Sam sat the glass of champagne down on the ledge reached into the side pocket of the jacket and pulled out his cell phone. Flipping it open, she dialled the familiar number and waited for two rings before handing the phone to him. "You be the bad guy and wake everyone up." she said and went back to her drink.
"I doubt my mom or Allison are asleep….mom? How are things? Is everyone still alive there?…How about sane? Is everyone still sane?"
Sam grinned and leaned against the cement in front of her, forearms resting on the edge as she peered down at the traffic and noise three storeys below. Listening to the animated conversation that her husband was having with his mother. Judging by the number or sighs and curse words that he was muttering, something had gone down today and it wasn't good. Usually she'd have her cackles up over mayhem in the house, but Sam had downed enough champagne that she could barely feel her toes let alone care about what was happening twenty minutes away.
"Well?" she asked, as he snapped the phone closed and tucked it back in the jacket. "Do we have a house to go home too?"
"Kieran's got a black eye to go with his stitched up chin." Flack replied, taking a long drag of the smoke and exhaling slowly.
"How'd that happen?"
"He pulled Daria's hair and she elbowed him in the face."
"Wonderful. A four year old picking on a nine month old. At least we know who she gets the whole bully thing from."
"Sam…no need to get nasty. You and Max are supposed to be friends, remember?"
"For your sake maybe." Sam snorted.
Flack sighed. "My mom put ice on his eye and the swelling has gone down but he's going to have nasty shiner when we walk through the door tomorrow."
"Hmmm….maybe we can just run away from home." Sam said. "I think that's what we should do. Just skip town with the clothes on our backs and never return. Think we could do that?"
"I don't think we'd get very far. You get home sick too easily. Remember the fourth of July when you went to Arizona to see your folks? You called me bawling your eyes out two nights in a row."
She shrugged. "I missed you guys." she said. "I get lonely sleeping by myself now. I like having you to snuggle up to in the middle of the night. Listening to you breathe and stuff like that. When you work nights is bad enough never mind being away for a couple of days."
Flack smiled. "I knew you loved me." he said, finishing off his smoke and dropping it to the ground. "You just hate admitting it."
"I just don't like you thinking I'm clingy and possessive."
"You're my wife. You're suppose to be a little clingy and possessive. I'd be worried if you weren't." he reached out and drew her into him, wrapping his arms around her slender body, her back pressed into his stomach and chest.
"Everything else is okay at home?" she asked, leaning her head back against him. Enjoying the feel of his warm, strong arms around her as they looked out across the well lit city.
"All the kids are fast asleep. My mom and Allison won't be far behind. You know, for a little guy, Kieran's pretty tough. And strong. When I was holding him down while Hawkes stitched up his chin, I couldn't believe how strong he was."
"Like his father." Sam said. "Going to be big and strong."
"Smart like his mother though. Hope he stays that way. Goes to college and gets a good job. Doesn't have to slave away for an ungrateful city. I want better for him than that. I don't want him to end up like me."
"I don't know," Sam said. "I don't think you turned out that bad. I wouldn't have been with you if I didn't find you a decent guy. You're smart and funny and you always have a way of cheering me up when I've had the most shitty day. And you're reliable and dependable. I can always count on you to put me and Kieran first. And that's what makes you a good man. Not the number of arrests you've made in your career or how fast you climbed the ranks. It's how you are at home."
He sighed. "I'm not home enough. I don't spend enough time with you or Kieran. I hate that. Makes me feel like a prick."
"You try your best. I know you do. I know it's hard for you to balance everything. I've never faulted you for trying. You're a damn good husband, Donnie. And you're an amazing father and I wish you'd start giving yourself a little more credit."
"Are you drunk?" he asked teasingly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"Things haven't always been easy for us, have they."
Flack shook his head. "They haven't been all bad, either. A mix of everything. And like I told you when you were pregnant with Kieran and we had that scare, life would be way too boring if we were normal. I love my life. I wouldn't give up either of you for anything."
She smiled. "Not even a shot at Jennifer Aniston or Denise Richards?"
"Nah. Not even they could come close to you." he said and leaned down to nuzzle her neck.
"That is so corny." she told him with a giggle. "I know we always joke about how bad and evil Kieran is, but I miss him."
"Yeah?" he asked. "Enough to go home tonight?"
"Hell no." she replied and they both laughed. "Did you mean what you said last night?" she asked, turning around to face him. "About wanting another baby?"
He nodded and wrapped his arms around her slender waist.
"Because I'd really like that, Donnie. For us to try. To have them close together. What do you think?"
"I think trying is the best part."
"Spoken like a true man." she laughed.
He kissed her. Soft and slow and patient at first, than much more hungry and passionate, his tongue pushing against her teeth, demanding entrance into her soft mouth. As their tongues met in an intense erotic dance, his hands slipped around to her sides and down her hips and than behind her to her ass. Squeezing and fondling it and drawing her lower body against him. She moaned into his mouth at the sensation, her hands gripping the front of his shirt.
"Maybe we should take off early." he said, after the kiss had ended and his lips found the side of her neck.
"As much as I want to…."
"No one will miss us." he assured her. "We deserve this. Alone time. Where you can beg and plead and scream and make all those porn star noises that turn me on so bad. And you can't tell me you don't want to just take off and go upstairs."
"I do. Believe me I do. But Carmen…."
"You really think she's going to care? After all the work you've done for her? She should be encouraging you to take off and do something for yourself."
"Myself, huh?" she grinned up at him. "That really does something for you, doesn't it."
"Absolutely." he said and kissed her again.
"Than how about this. I will take off earlier and go upstairs with you on two conditions."
"What are those?"
"One, you explain to Carmen why we're leaving…."
"No problem."
"Two, you dance with me."
Flack frowned. "Now that's asking a lot." he said.
"You can wait another couple hours if you want." Sam told him, and ran a hand lightly over the front of his pants. "And I don't think you want that." she said and squeezed his cock through the fabric of his pants.
"Just one dance?" he asked, yanking her hand away from his crotch.
"Just one." she promised.
"Consider it done." he said and pulled her back towards the ballroom.
"You're leaving?" Carmen asked in disbelief and disappointment. "But there's at least another couple hours left before Tim and I head out."
"You don't need us sticking around." Flack told her. "Sam more than lived up to her matron of honour duties. I want my wife back now. You've had her long enough."
"You can't have her back in a couple hours?" Carmen challenged.
"Come on, Devine. She's put in more than her fair share of work. She's made sure everything was running smoothly all day long so you'd have a great time at your own wedding. She barely even had anything to eat because she was busy catering to other guests not to mention dropping everything when you all but snapped her fingers in her direction. Us taking off is not going to screw up the rest of the night."
"I just wanted her to be around for the whole thing." Carmen said.
"She's been around for enough for the last three months. Time for me to have her all to myself. That doesn't happen very often with a kid in the house and the stresses of our jobs. So I'm taking full advantage of one night completely alone with her. You'll see her in four days when you and Speed get back from Boston."
Carmen sighed. "My wedding night and you two will be getting laid before I will."
"Them's the breaks." Flack said. "Tough shit. I gotta alot of baby making ahead of me."
She grinned. "So you guys are going to try, huh?"
"We're starting to second we get upstairs."
"Good luck. I hope it happens right quick. You two were made to have babies. Look at Kieran, he's drop dead gorgeous. Maybe it will be a girl this time. You'll have to beat the boys off with a stick."
"As long as it's healthy, doesn't matter to me what it is." Flack said. He hugged his friend tightly and kissed both of her cheeks. "Congratulations. You looked beautiful today."
"Thank you. And thanks for everything. Especially walking me down the aisle. It meant a lot to me, Don. You did a great job. Especially getting all the nerves sorted out."
"We all need a little kick in the ass sometimes." he laughed. "And don't worry, Addie's in good hands with Sam and I."
"You're the only two I'd trust her with. And I saw you out there dancing. You're pretty light on your feet there, Sergeant."
He smirked. "I had to bargain with her to get her upstairs early. That was part of the bargain."
"The way you look at her, Don….it takes my breath away. Sounds corny, but it's true."
He blushed slightly. "I don't hide it. It's all out there for everyone to see. And Speed's the same way with you. We managed to land some pretty hot women."
"You're the two luckiest men in all of New York." Carmen laughed. "The free world for that matter."
Sam joined them, having returned from the bathroom. She carried her shoes. Her feet had began aching halfway through the evening and she's been going around barefoot since.
She and Carmen hugged tightly and exchanged kisses on the cheek. "Congratulations, Carmen." she said. "I hope that this day was everything you wanted."
"And than some." Carmen assured her. "You did an amazing job. Now go. Before this man hear spontaneously combusts. He's had to share you long enough. Go and make babies. God knows how much you guys enjoy it. And how good you are at it. Just try not to disturb the neighbours too much. I'd hate to see security called up to your room."
"Goodnight, Devine." Flack said with a chuckle, and taking the shoes from his wife, carried them in one hand while holding her hand with the other.
Carmen smiled and watched them go.
Imagining, and hoping, as they chatted and smiled at one another, that they would be just as in love and happy as they were at that moment.
The twelfth floor was quiet. There were no other guests lingering in the halls. Do Not Disturb signs hung from nearly every door handle. The only sounds the rattling off the ice machine at the end of the hall and the sound of television programs trickling from underneath some of the doors.
"I'm starting to think that we have a serious fetish for elevators." Flack commented, as hand in hand, he and Sam headed for their room. A slight make out sessing on the way off had turned into something a little more, resulting in torn buttons on his shirt and his tie and her underwear tucked in his pocket.
"I'm starting to think we're nymphos." Sam said.
"You're just starting to think that?" he laughed. "I could have told you that more than a year ago. And we're still newlyweds technically. So the more sex the merrier."
"So when our first anniversary hits than we stop being nymphos or we stop having sex all together?" she asked.
"Are you crazy? I hope we're still having tons of it twenty, thirty years from now."
"You'll get tired of me," she said as they stopped in front of room 1202.
"No chance in hell." he argued and pulled the key card from his wallet. He swiped it through the security bar mounted below the handle and there was a dull click. He pushed the door open with one hand, motioned for her to go ahead of him with the other.
The sound of laughing coming down the hall from the elevators captured Flack's attention and he paused before entering the room and looked back to see what was going on. Voices. Two women and a man. And he recognized all three. Appearing from around the corner, was Eric Delko, Emma Maxwell and Kendall the lab tech. Adam's old girlfriend. Delko had his arms around both women and was alternating whispering in one of their ears, than the other.
Flack stuck his head into the room. "Sam!" he whispered loudly. "Sam! Come here! You need to see something!"
"What? Why are you taking so long? I thought you were raring to go."
"Just come here for a second. You have to see this."
She came to the door and popped her head out into the hall and looked at what he was referring to. Several doors down, Eric Delko was opening his hotel room door and ushering both girls inside. The door closed, than re-opened briefly as he slipped the Do Not Disturb sign on the handle.
"Never mind do not disturb." Flack said. "Plain disturbing is more like it."
"You're just jealous he's getting a threesome and you're not. Ever."
"That's the last two women in the world I'd want one with. Now you and Devine or you and Angell…"
"Never going to happen. Not in a million years."
"Max and Kendall," he shuddered at the thought. "Don't you find that just plain nasty?" he asked.
"You know what I find?" she asked in response, yanking him inside the room. "I find you're wasting too much damn time. Now shut up, get to work and make me a baby."
"Yes, m'am." he said.
Thanks for everyone who is reading and reviewing. I appreciate and love every one of you! Even the lurkers!! I am currently in Niagara Falls with the b/f. He got a promotion and a transfer to a new department! We're celebrating. Just me, him and my lap top. LOL.