Obviously it's been a while since I've updated, so here's a fluffy sort of chapter, but one that briefly foreshadows some stuff to come later on.
"Look at this hottie!" Wylie said with a grin as she came out of the bedroom.
Vega grinned, tipping her head flirtatiously as the slowly spun in a circle, showing off her back. "Thought I'd flaunt the part of me without any scars."
"You outgrowing your war wounds?"
"Nah," she said, "but at a fancier party such as this, I figured I should play elegant."
"It's outdoors. Remember when we went to that party after Abbott got off the hook? You were in a sweatshirt. And leggings."
"Yeah," she said, "but they told us to dress nice, so I'm dressing nice. It is a retirement party after all. Even if we didn't really know the guy." She picked up her purse from the table by the door. "Ready to go?"
"Totally."
She grinned. "Are we gonna dance?"
"Michelle."
"Nuh-uh," she said. "It's not up for negotiation."
"But in front of all those people..."
"Hey," she said, grabbing his hand. "I didn't get dressed up like this to sit at a table all night."
"Thank God Grace is visiting," Lisbon said as she rested her head on Jane's shoulder. "Somehow I feel that this party would not be up Madeline's alley."
"You don't say," Cho said with a half smirk. "You'll be extra glad she isn't here when a family member of Brown's comes in angry that we're having a party when we couldn't save him."
"That's not why we're here," Wylie said, "this was planned three months ago to celebrate the life of..."
"Yeah, but this was a high profile case," Cho said. "Especially given that, well...we got personally involved. We got our own back, but not the civilian. That's going to look bad."
"Let's not worry about that tonight," Jane said. "We have the coming weeks to deal with the ramifications."
"Ramifications of saving Jason's life?" Vega said, her irritation evident in her voice.
"You know how things are," Cho told her. "We'll have to be careful how we let things come across for a bit. There's politics in everything, and hopefully most will understand that we saved Wylie not because he's one of ours, but because we'd made headway on the case by the time he went missing. We got him back because he was the second victim."
There was a long silence at the table, then Cho rapped it and stood up. "I'm going to talk to Latham. Be back in a bit."
"Okay," Lisbon said, smiling. She looked over at Vega. "Want to go get some more of those potatoes?"
"Does a Texan own a gun?"
The two women grinned and rose, heading toward the buffet. Wylie watched them go, noting the slight hitch in Vega's step. She'd banged her hip the day after he was rescued trying to help him down some stairs. The hitch only lasted a few strides before she eased into a more graceful step. Wylie smiled. Maybe she was right. Maybe all her health problems were finally over.
"She's something, ain't she?" Jane asked.
Wylie tore his eyes away from his wife to look at the older man. "Lisbon? Yeah," Wylie said, nodding. "She's great. She's always been such a great friend to me. And kind of a mother figure, I know that sounds weird, but..."
"I was talking about your lady," Jane said, raising an eyebrow. "The one you haven't taken your eyes off of for the past five years."
"Oh," Wylie said, turning pink. "Yeah, she's...she's something."
"You know, she's only a few years older than Mimi's sister would be," Jane said. "I would have wanted Charlotte to find someone like you, Jason. It is so lovely to see you and Michelle together."
Vega looked across the room at them, raising her eyebrows upon the realization that they were looking her way. Her eyes met Wylie's and she tipped her head slightly, smiling at him before turning back to talk to the server.
"See? Look at that." Jane was smiling. "That's beautiful." He seemed pleased to have made Wylie blush.
"Do you think it's kinda gross watching all these couples dance?"
Wylie gave a laugh of surprise at her break in the silence they'd been in for nearly twenty minutes. They were sitting at a picnic table; she was leaning against him with her head tucked under his chin. "What's gross about it?"
"Like, look at them. They're all smiley and dancing right up on each other and bleh."
Wylie laughed again. "You're so cynical about relationships that aren't ours."
"Nah," she said. "I just like making fun of it because we're better." There was a short silence, then she raised her head to look at him, eyebrows high. "Right?" she asked, feigning insult.
"Totally." Wylie's ears caught the opening notes of the next song. "It's Shut Up and Dance," he said excitedly. "Let's go!"
"I thought you said you were tired..."
"Yes," Wylie said. "But this is our song!"
"How is it our song?"
"You know, 'I said you're holdin' back, she said shut up and dance with me.' You weren't wanting to date anyone, but then you asked me to dance, and..."
Vega laughed. "Alright," she said, grinning. She stood and held out her arm. "Let's go!"
Shut Up and Dance has been Roxanne and my Wega song basically since it came out (for the reasons Wylie explained) so I had to include it in this fic.
