Yay, another chapter =) More good news, I have another chapter I plan to post today. Hope you enjoy. Hope you R&R. No I don't own.
"Coffee?" asked Dorian from the office door.
"Mm-hm," she mumbled hunched over pictures on her desk. "Please."
"What time did you get up, love?" he asked, carefully making his way around the stacks of paperwork that filled the room.
"Um… I woke up around three and couldn't get back to sleep. Figured I might as well be productive," she told him, lowering her head a bit more and squinting.
"Fiona, love, you really need to invest in some glasses."
"No I don't," she told him, sitting up and rubbing at her headache.
"Yes, you do," he smirked, handing her the coffee. "What are you working on?"
"Translating what I found at that Native American sight," she sighed, taking a grateful sip of caffeine. "I'm an expert on languages, and the biggest finding the Company's had in years and it has to be in one of the handful of languages I don't know."
"Life's unfair like that."
"I've noticed," she told him dryly. "I swear grass grows faster and watching paint dry would be more fun."
"Have you made any progress?" he asked, starting to rub her neck.
"Mmmm, that feels amazing," she sighed, leaning into his massage. "About the only progress I've made is the phrase 'the untouched one', which gets repeated a lot. I've got most of the articles translated and… I'm mentioned a couple times… but outside of that it's slow going. The problem is it isn't really a known Native American Language. Actually, it seems to be a compilation of several different ones, so I have no reference points. There's no logic to why whoever carved and painted this chose certain words from one language and certain words from another, or why he followed the rules of one language in one area and then suddenly switched to the rules of another. God, it's giving me a migraine."
"I'm sorry, baby," he murmured working his hands down her back- she groaned again.
"God, you have no idea how good this feels," she told him taking another sip as her eyes fluttered shut- she let out a moan as he hit a particularly bad knot.
"Considering you sound like we're doing something a lot more intimate than a back rub, love, I'd say I have a pretty good idea," he laughed.
"Shut up," she told him, blushing. "I also did some work on the pictures."
"Oh?" he said, glancing over at the ghastly drawings that still littered her office floor- a good portion of them were grouped together forming in image that seemed to make some sense, a fresh set of notes on the dry erase board.
"Love, why don't you enjoy your coffee, go freshen up"-she was still in her pajamas- "and I'll do some more work on it."
"I don't want you to stop," she whined.
"I'll give you a proper one later, promise," he chuckled.
"Alright then," she sighed, standing, several joints popping. "God, I sound like an old woman."
"You're walking like one too," he teased as he watched her head out the door, realizing that the little weight he had gotten her to gain after her attack she had lost agian.
She paused at the door, "Dorie?"
"Yes, love?"
"Thank you."
"Better?" asked Dorian, re-hooking Fi's bra strap and climbing off her.
"You have no idea," she sighed, not moving.
"Get you clothes back on," he told her with a smile. "I'm going to go find a movie. You want popcorn, love?"
"Yes please. Hot chocolate too?"
"Coming up. But you have to get moving," he told her, playfully poking her in the side.
"Eventually," she sighed, not budging an inch.
"Don't fall asleep, love," he chuckled, swatting her with her shirt before making his way to the kitchen.
"Please tell me we're watching something funny and mindless?" she asked, emerging from the room a few minutes later.
"Define funny and mindless," he replied ambiguously.
"Dorie," she whined, taking the hot chocolate as he poured the popcorn into a bowl.
"It's a good movie, love, you'll like it," he told her.
"Yeah, but I'm going to have to actually pay attention and focus to follow it and I'm too tired for that," she complained.
He chuckled, placed a hand on her hip and turned her in the direction of the living room, "What's the point of watching a movie on if you're not going to pay attention to it?"
"Mindless entertainment and relaxation," she replied automatically as he steered her towards the couch.
"You'll like it, love," he assured as he put in the DVD, "I promise."
"And if I don't?" she asked, setting their mugs down next to the popcorn bowl.
"Hush. It's starting," he said, plopping down next to her.
"Dorian," she pressed.
"Ssshhh, love. We can't pay attention to the movie if you talk," he smirked.
"Dorian, don't dodge my question," she whined crossing her arms.
He turned, smiled at her, snaked his arm around her shoulder, and clamped a hand over her mouth, pulling her against him, "Now see, was that so difficult?"
"Mmmm-hhmmm-mmm-hmmhm," she mumbled against his hand.
Dorian didn't budge. She balled up her fist and socked him in the gut- it had no effect other than to hurt her hand. He grabbed said hand and intertwined their fingers.
"That reminds me love, tomorrow I want to start working on your self-defense."
"Mmmhmmh-hhhmmmmhmm."
"Will you be quiet if I let go?"
She nodded.
"Alright," he sighed as if it was a great hardship.
Dorian dropped his hand but left his arm around her.
"Thank you," she sniffed.
He simply laughed and tightened his arm, tucking her more firmly against him.
"You're insufferable," she sighed, halfheartedly. "Warning though, I will probably fall asleep."
"Duly noted."
"Alright then," she said, cuddling into him.
He felt himself relax, he was making progress.
"Love, it's time to wake up, the movie's over," he said, trailing his fingertips along her arm.
"Hm-mm? What? I'm awake. What'd I miss?"
"You missed about an hour and twenty minutes of an hour and half movie," he chuckled.
"Sorry," she blushed.
"Could've been worse, if you stayed awake you could have continued complaining."
She rolled her eyes, as the last thing she remembered was him covering her mouth again.
"Silver lining, huh?" Fi asked, sitting up and stretching.
"Exactly," he agreed, poking her stomach where her shirt had pulled up.
"Hey," she batted his hand away. "I did warn you."
"That you did," he acquiesced.
"Once that guy started going on and on about all the little details that built his case, I…"
"Fiona? What is it, love?"
"It's all the little details," she said unhelpfully, throwing herself over the back of the couch and racing towards the office.
"Fi?" he called, racing after her. "Fi, what's going through that head of yours?"
"We've spent too much time looking at the big picture," she mumbled, grabbing a pencil and numbering the back of her drawings before pulling them apart.
"What are you doing?"
"Learning from you, thanks for picking out that movie," she told him, picking up one of her drawings to study it.
"Fiona," he grunted in frustration.
"This whole time we've been focusing on putting the pieces together, which isn't bad, I don't think. We need the pieces to fit because they do from a bigger image but we never stopped to make sure we understood each individual piece."
"I thought it was just one big piece, there weren't any individual ones," he said confused.
"So did I, because I never really though about it. I just drew them and assumed they had to be put together. I didn't draw those pictures separate because I didn't have large enough paper but because they are separate, I just never realized."
Dorian picked up a drawing, "So, if we analyze each one individually, we may be able to figure out what connects them all."
"Exactly. Dorie?" she said looking up at him, a frown marring her features.
"What is it, love?"
"I'm sorry I didn't realize this sooner… I should have realized it when I was drawing them. I've wasted so much of our time."
"Love, we both should have realized this a while ago. You have nothing to apologize for," he told her, returning to his picture. "Get to work."
"Aye-aye, captain," she said, leaning back against the bookshelf.
Fi glanced at the clock, and yawned. It was four a.m. and they were exhausted but they didn't have the time to waste on sleep.
"I'm going to go put on more coffee," she said, yawning again.
"Alright, love," he said, raking fingers through his hair.
Fi was half way down the hall when he called her back.
"What is it?" she asked leaning against the door frame, she really wanted more coffee.
"Every picture has a pendant."
"What?"
"Look," he said, pointing to a tattoo on one of the body pieces. "And here she has it clutched in her hand. In this one, it's in the rubble. And look here…"
Fi felt the blood drain from her face as Dorian pointed out each pendant. She recognized it.
"Fi? Where are you going?" he called after her. "Fi!"