When Dani wakes up the next morning, the dream is forgotten. Because Matt's there and then there's languorous morning sex and a joint shower and breakfast, and she feels content when they are driving towards the Hawks' facility together, even more so when Matt grabs her hand on the parking lot and doesn't let go - not even when they are entering the building.
She's glad she's enjoyed it while it lasted, because predictably the universe has a way of making the happiness short-lived. They've barely set a foot inside when Coach hurries up to them, horror on his face, and Dani's bracing herself for what she's sure won't be pleasant news. His words still hit her like a ton of bricks though.
"Nico's been arrested last night," Coach pants, "right here, on the parking lot.
"Oh my God, why?!", Dani yelps - fear, worry, a whole torrent of emotions hitting her system with a shock.
"Christ if I know," Coach sighs, visibly shaken too. "Devin's there now. I'd go too, but there's like a million reporters here and they don't know yet… so."
"We need to keep it that way, yeah," says Matt, glancing at Dani.
"I'll go," Dani says, the words rolling out of her mouth before she has a second to think about it.
"Are you sure?," Matt asks, surprise in his voice.
"Yes," she says, "I'll go. See what I can find out… If there's anything… Maybe he needs…" Me, she thinks, but that word she does manage to swallow in time. "Don't worry," she adds, to Matt, because worried is exactly how he looks, "you guys stay here and deal with the press."
"Alright," Matt says, still hesitant, which annoys Dani a little. How many times has Nico come through for all of them? Why shouldn't she go and help him now? It was hardly the time for petty jealousy.
"My car? Oh… It's here! I left it here last night," she remembers, and she starts rummaging through her bag in search for her car keys.
"Matt! Come on!," Coach's voice booms halfway across the hall and Matt starts to leave, but not before kissing her quickly on the lips. "Call me, as soon as you have news, okay?"
§
"Damn, Nico!", Dani yells to her car windshield, as she's flooring it dangerously fast to the MCC. Her mind reels with potential reasons for his arrest, dismissing murder first, dismissing anything assault-related, though she's very well aware the reality of Nico's job probably had him skirting on the edge of the law on several occasions. Hell, he'd broken into T.K.'s apartment when she'd asked him, didn't he? Her gut, however, tells her this is more fall-out from the Pitmans, has her cursing that family's name. "God, please, he can't have actually hurt someone," she thinks, but it's Nico - all stealth and deep dark secrets, so who really knows. Yet she only has to think about him, the way he was the night he found out Marshal Pitman had died, that soft and vulnerable look on his face when he told her she was the only one who really knew him now, for her to know that that man wouldn't actually do serious damage to another human being, not unless there was a war on and it was his duty to do so. And now that she's allowed the memory to creep back in, she can't quite stop reliving the moment. The taste of him in her mouth and his scent in her nostrils, the way his hands had messed through her hair, that little gleam in his eyes and how his perpetual smirk had for once been absent. "You're not alone," he'd said only a few days before, in that special authoritative way of his that made her believe just about everything he said.
"No," Dani whispers half out loud, narrowly avoiding a red stoplight. "And you're not alone either, Nico Careles."
§
In the hallway of the MCC, Dani spots Devin, the lawyer, who's just finishing up a phone call. He's barely hung up before she pounces on him. "Where is he? What's happened? What are they charging him with? Can I see him?"
"Mrs Santino, please," the lawyer says, holding up his hands as if he needs to defend himself, and then he nudges her towards a quieter corner. "What happened is this: Mrs Pitman has filed a claim against Mr Careles for wrongful interference with Marshal Pitman's inheritance. In other words, she's accusing Nico of helping Juliette cheat her out of a sizable chunk of what she considered to be hers. The Hawks, for starters, but there are other assets involved as well. Mrs Pitman claims she has evidence and will testify against Mr Careles' wrongful intent. From where I'm standing she doesn't have much of a case, if she has any at all, but my guess is this is not about winning a court case, nor is it about money."
"God!," Dani yells, "that woman! Well, can you get him out?"
"Bail hearing's in two hours. There shouldn't be any problem with the judge accepting reasonable bail: Nico's got no priors apart from a juvy citation and he is ex-Navy, which helps too. I've talked to him: he's fine. And he is allowed visitors, you know. I'll go get an officer."
He leaves Dani to pace the hallway by herself, seething at the sheer awfulness of Gabrielle Pitman, trying to wrap her brain around how any woman could do something like this. Hadn't she done enough damage to Juliette? To Nico? Wasn't it enough that Marshal was dead? Her thoughts are interrupted by the return of Devin, followed closely by an officer who barely looks older than Ray Jay.
"If you would follow me, M'am?"
He leads Dani through some narrow corridors unto the holding cells, where she's patted down by a disinterested female officer and then she's ushered into a small visiting room. Inside Nico sits by himself at a table by the window, looking perfectly flawless, perfectly composed. His face, however, Dani notices the minute she sets a foot inside, is pale as a ghost. Dani forces a smile, as she's walking over and then sits down opposite him, nervous all of a sudden. Nico's face is blank when he looks at her, his hazel eyes radiating nothing of the warmth she's grown accustomed to.
"Dr. Santino," he says in greeting. "They sent you?"
Dani shrugs in a failed attempt at lightheartedness. "The place is a media circus, what with the game and Rex's revelation yesterday. The press doesn't know you've been arrested and Coach and Matt wanted to stay there to contain it if necessary. So I offered… Oh Nico, I'm so sorry!" She lunges to take hold of his hands, but he pulls away, averting his eyes.
"It's nothing," he says, his tone flat, mechanical. "Gabrielle's got no proof. Nothing that will stick anyway. She can drag my name through the mud a little, but nothing that's happened between us is particularly shocking or scandalous. So what if one of the aids slept with the bosses' wife like what… 5 times over the course of twenty plus years? Juliette isn't even mine, even though Gabrielle went out of her way to make me think so all these years. She just wants… revenge. On me, for not choosing her. On Juliette, because Marshall loved her more than he loved Gabrielle. On Marshall, for dying on her, poor bastard."
"Oh God. Tell me what I can do? I could call Juliette…"
"No. You do nothing!" Nico practically barks at her, and Dani's shocked at the sudden anger. She can't recall ever seeing Nico angry before. She's seen him break up fights, but then he just looked stern, and she's seen him upset, but then he just looked worried or vaguely sad. This, him being angry at her, the cold and hard look in his eyes, makes her stomach sink into her shoes. And he's not done either. "I mean it, Dr Santino, I don't need you to do anything. Don't call Juliette. I'll be out in a few hours and on my way to Dallas. Go back to the facility. Go back to Matt." He near-spits that last word at her. It's lucky the table's in between them, Dani thinks, because Nico has a look on his face that sends a shiver up her spine, but she knows he could never really hurt her, not really, and that the truth is that she's hurt him. The realization hits Dani with a certainty that has her stomach churning. He'd kissed her. Practically told her straight out she was the reason he would stay or go. And she'd ignored it. She'd let his subdued, introvert manner lead her into believing that whatever feelings he had for her, to him it was still a game, nothing serious. Or maybe she'd just been so caught up in herself, in her own confused emotional state that she'd lacked proper consideration for his. And… Oh God! He must have seen the kiss she shared with Matt, at the game, she thinks, and she hates herself a little then, for being so damn selfish and insensitive to rub his face into it like that. Still, she's Danielle Santino. She doesn't give up without a fight.
"No", she says, her voice rising in a shrill pitch. "You never let me down, Nico. I'll be damned if I let you down now. You've had our backs like a million times. For once… uggh!… just let someone return the favor, will you?"
Nico falls quiet after that, but Dani can see tiny lines in his face that are breaking, softening into something more familiar.
"Dani," he finally sighs. "I… eh… appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't think there's much you actually can do. If Gabrielle's out to make my life miserable, it could become an ugly fight. You don't want to get caught in the middle of this. I don't want you to get caught in the middle of this." There's a slight smile around his mouth now, and something quite telling there at the edge of it, which makes Dani's heart a sudden butterfly in her chest. She's seconds away from giving in to the impulse of running her fingers over his one day's stubble and through his hair, they way she had that night on her porch, but again they are saved by the bell - in this case the young officer who enters the room to tell them that their time's up. Dani gets up, and then gives in to the desire to touch anyway, leaning close to press a kiss to his hairline: a lingering thing, longing, breathing him in. "I'll be here when you make bail," she says, and then she's out the door without looking back even once.