Author's note: and another one, I'm on a roll. Bit shorter this time, but I need to break up what happens at the gala into several installments and I'm sorry I'm being such a tease, but I just like the tiny cliffhangers too much. We ARE slowly creeping towards the finish though, but first Gabrielle Pittman of course tries to come between Dani and Nico.

The next morning, Dani lets herself be talked into buying the skimpiest, reddest dress the universe has ever seen by an overzealous shop assistant who swears every single guy at the fundraiser, including the gay ones, will trip over himself if she wears it. Dani thinks she may not be half wrong, as she looks in the mirror - she does look ridiculously hot in it, albeit almost half naked. Her hesitation in buying it gets trumped when she remembers Nico will be at the fundraiser, and the anticipation of his reaction to it becomes simply too tempting to resist.

Her mother does her hair - it's one of the few things Dani can actually trust her with, and anyway, Dani has always liked the feeling of her mother's hands in her hair untangling her tangles, talking aimlessly about some of their lunatic family members. Dani's mother has finally decided to erase all memory and reference to both Ray and Matt out of their lives, talking around them like they never existed in the first place, filling in the blanks with banal chatter and speculating on which of her friends has a nice boy her age.

"Boy?," Dani asks. "You know I'm like forty, right?"

Her mother shoves her head back down, frowning.

"You're thirty-eight, Danielle… And it's far too young to be closing up shop. I disapprove. Plenty more fish out there!"

Dani wisely decides to tell her mother absolutely nothing about Nico, especially as the image of the two of them in a room together kind of makes her sick to her stomach.

Dani drives herself to the fundraiser. Coach had drilled Dani on a list of people she was required to find and make small talk with, and Dani wanders into the ballroom - jeez, it's an actual fucking ballroom; silk everywhere - seizes the nearest flute of champagne she can find for courage, and goes for it.

She steels herself through small talk with representatives from Pepsi, GM, FedEx and their wives. Out of the corner of her eye she sees most of the players wander in, and Coach and his wife and then Matt, followed closely by a now very pregnant Noelle. It's the first time she sees Noelle since she and Matt broke up before the summer, and the shock she expected to feel remains, to her infinite gratitude, absent. Then Dani hears a whistle - T.K., who else? - and when she turns to the door, she sees Rex and Jim. Somewhere, someone starts applauding, and pretty soon the whole room follows suit, leaving Jim and Rex nothing to do but smile (uncomfortably, Dani notices) and take a bow. Dani is about to go to their rescue when there's a touch at her elbow.

Dani feels her body tilting, magnetized, weight shifting onto her back leg, and she says, "Nico", chin going up so she can catch his eyes as she moves. To a casual bystander, Nico's features would betray nothing out of the ordinary, but Dani's learned to read his micro-expressions well by now. That's how she does catch the ultrafast stolen glance up and down her body, and the resulting slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, the way his eyes go a little glassy.

Mission accomplished, she thinks, as Nico smiles at her, says, "Good evening, Dr Santino. You look… incredible."

Dani winks at him, happily. "Good evening to you, Mr Careles," she says, and she can't quite glance away from him to look round the rest of the ballroom anymore - its flotilla of sponsors and media moguls and football players.

"You know, I think it best I stay close to you this evening in case something goes wrong," Nico quips.

"Jeez, Nico, considering the Hawks' recent history, what on earth could possibly go wrong?!"

"Well, for starters, I think that dress you're wearing is going to bring several of the older, less vital men here tonight to the brink of a heart attack," and he offers her his arm, just as his face breaks into a wide grin.

Dani's blushing and grinning simultaneously, but she slips her hand into the comfortable notch of his elbow anyway, ignoring T.K. making leering, goofy faces at them as he walks by.

Nico looks like he fell out of a Hugo Boss add, with a black bow tie and vest, looking extremely dapper and handsome as fuck in the soft yellow light of the ballroom. They discuss Xeno (going home on Monday), they talk about the press (bordering on insane), and how T.K.'s been behaving of late (much better, but in many ways still completely an overgrown toddler).

It's the same small talk as before, but also completely different, and all of Dani's smiles bloom out into giggles, and Nico's eyes sparkle brightly.

They pause to swap out empty champagne flutes, Nico leaning to the left a little, blocking her view on Matt and Noelle, who are talking amiably to some sponsors. Dani has no doubt Nico does it on purpose, and she says, quietly, against the rim of her glass, "You really don't need to do that, Nico, it's fine."

Nico looks a bit lost for a second before he collects himself enough to ask: "It is?"

"Yes," Dani answers, truthfully. "I bear Matt no grudges - he did the decent thing, what he had to do, and in the end it probably worked out for the best. I'm glad we can be civil to each other and I really hope we'll all be friends again somewhere in the future."

Nico's gazing at her like she's a miracle unfolding right before his very eyes and out of nowhere a thought pops into Dani's head, something she'd been meaning to ask but never got a chance to and then forgot.

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"This summer, when Lindsay and I were in Paris visiting Ray Jay and Juliette, were you there?"

This time Nico's so surprised he can't even hide it. "Now, why would you ask me that?"

"Because I saw you, didn't I? Standing on that bridge over the Seine? Don't lie, Nico. A lie by omission is still a lie."

"Okay, I was there. Yes," Nico sighs.

"Were you following me?," Dani asks, not sure if she should find that arousing, endearing or just really very creepy.

"No, Dani, I wasn't following you. I was in Paris because… Look, I didn't think you needed to know about this… I have… associates… When Juliette texted me the night she and Ray Jay left for Paris, I put one of them in play over there to keep an eye on them. You know, just as a precaution. To make sure they weren't going to get in any trouble. I just happened to be there for a debrief on the day you and Lindsay flew in, that's all."

"Oh," Dani says, a little confused, wondering if she should be angry at the presumptuous way Nico keeps tabs on all of their lives, including that of her son, and then finds that she's exactly the opposite. Somehow it's a comfort that no matter where, no matter how, someone always has their backs, especially when that someone is Nico, who she trusts with her life. So instead of berating him, Dani stands on tiptoe and presses a warm, grateful kiss to his cheek, whispering "Thank you" against his skin. It's when she wants to step back, that Nico slides his hand to her waist, holding her firmly into his personal space. The sudden contact sets all sorts of feelings alight inside Dani. Their eyes lock, Nico's face so close, as he asks, dangerously "Now do I get a question too?"

Dani can only gasp a "Yes", because she can feel herself go hot from the inside out with the way he closes the inches between them, until she's pressed tightly enough against him to feel the buttons on his vest, the firm strength of him.

"Am I right in thinking -" and here Nico leans in, head dipping lower, his mouth brushing near the skin next to her ear, until Dani is shivering, feeling her breath catch and her breasts tighten and knowing they're pressed up so close he knows it, too, "- that you wore that dress for me, tonight?' he whispers to her, murmurs it softly on a hot breath into the shell of her ear. Dani thinks she might just spontaneously combust in his grasp, knows she's clutching at the front of his shirt now, knows it's only a matter of minutes, or seconds, before people around them will begin to notice.

"Oh God, Nico," Dani moans, "we can't… People…", which instantly snaps Nico out of it, and makes him let go of Dani, seemingly composed but for the feral glint that still lingers in his brown eyes.

"I'm sorry," he says, looking flustered, which is such an unusual look for him Dani needs to suppress a smile, and she's about to say something ridiculous, when Nico makes a noise of profound irritation - eyes sliding away from her to the other end of the room. Dani tracks his gaze all the way to Gabrielle Pittman, who's just entered the room, looking haughty and also impossibly stunning, in a dress that's even more revealing than the one Dani's wearing.

"Here comes trouble," Dani says, after a beat and gently.

Nico slants a look at her. "I'm afraid so, yes."

Dani slides her fingers on the fabric of his vest, and quietly tells him, "Go on then. Better deal with it now."

He doesn't go, not immediately, just looks at her. "I'll try to be be fast about it," he says, half-turning on his heels, but then Dani calls him back by saying his name and she's not sure why she does it, though she does suspects Gabrielle Pittman is a factor, when she says, sweetly, "The answer to your question was yes, by the way," and then walks away first so she doesn't get to see the stunned, aroused look on his face.