"Eight weeks, eight long fucking weeks, Syl, that's how long I've been off, I need to go back or I'm going to lose my mind!" Antonio felt like they had been having this same fight for the last two weeks. He needed out, he needed to feel useful, he could do paperwork, or shit he would sit the front desk at district, he didn't care he just needed to do something.
"The doctor said twelve, you still have a cast on your wrist. You're not going to be cleared by medical." She was calm; she knew he felt like a caged animal, that this wasn't fun for him like when Sophia was born. He was needed then, he had a purpose but now it was him who was healing and it was driving him crazy.
"I can do desk duty, anything just please, I promise I won't use my gun or go in the field, please!" He had decided he wasn't above begging to get what he wanted. She was starting to piss him off with her calmness, he wanted her to yell back to justify his annoyance but she wouldn't give in, she just sat there with that stupid amused look on her face.
"Voight said no, I don't control him." She was trying not to laugh. This was a whole new side of Antonio that she hadn't met until recently. She had been warned she thought, everyone told her he acted like a toddler when he was hurt or sick but she was actually enjoying it.
"Come on just get dressed or we're going to be late for your appointment. If you hurry up I promise we'll talk to the doctor about it, okay?" She knew what the doctor was going to say, the same thing he had been saying for four weeks since Antonio started in on this desk duty business. "But what if he says no again? What then Sylvie, huh?" He was whining and he knew he looked ridiculous standing there in his boxers begging his wife to go back to work but he didn't care, he needed to get his point across.
As much as Sylvie was enjoying Antonio's meltdown, they seriously needed to leave in the next ten minutes or they were going to be late. She walked to him and placed her arms around his neck and pulled his forehead to hers. "Look, I was off for nine whole months, sicker than sick and almost died trying to have your baby, I think you can man up and do another four weeks if that's what you're told, got it?" She kissed him firmly on the lips. He nodded his head. "Good, now get dressed we have to leave in seven minutes." She broke away and headed towards Sophia's room.
Sylvie was shocked, Antonio was the most persistent person she had ever met she would give him that. Actually, she thought the doctor just got sick of the incessant four-year-old-esque whining from a forty-year-old grown man who is supposed to be a big scary Intelligence detective. The doctor had relented and agreed to let Antonio go back to work.
"Ha. One more week, told you I was fine." He seemed satisfied as he rubbed it in her face and held his arm out in front of her. She really didn't know what to say. He was gloating, he loved to win and he did win this round, he even convinced the doctor to remove the cast.
"Do you know how easily you could break it again if you fell or got into a fight?" She was not amused with this. "No boxing anytime soon, not until I say you can, and you keep it wrapped, do you understand?" She definitely felt like she was trying to reason with a toddler, this must be the side of Tonio's fits that everyone hates, the side where he actually wins, she thought.
He didn't like being told he couldn't box and gave her a pouty face. "Fine." She sighed, relieved that he at least agreed to no boxing.
"Hey babe, Ruzek's here, I'm leaving!" Antonio shouted up the stairs. Adam had texted him earlier wanting to know if he wanted to meet up with the guys at Molly's before he officially came back. "Okay, be quiet when you come in, if you wake her she's yours for the night." She warned. Sophia had decided she no longer liked sleeping through the night and rather enjoyed hanging out with mommy and daddy all night instead.
"Where are we going man? Molly's is back that way." Adam had taken the wrong turn three times claiming to be looking for some store that he had never heard of. "Just hold on, it's up here I need to grab something." Adam had a mission and he needed to fulfill it.
They had finally arrived at Molly's after Adam had insisted driving an hour out of the way to some little store to pick up something Antonio still wasn't sure what it was. He was annoyed and wanted to get inside to grab a beer and relax.
Antonio walked through the door and the whole place erupted in cheers. He just stood there stunned, Sylvie walked up to him and handed him a beer. "Surprise" she whispered in his ear as she hugged him. "What is going on?" he asked amazed by all his friends.
Herrmann pounded on the bar to get everyone's attention. "So you might be wondering what everyone's doing here and well, it occurred to some of us simple folks that we've neglected a couple of our own." Antonio put his arm around Sylvie and she leaned into him. "Now, those two over there, Brett and Dawson, got married and had a baby and we didn't celebrate with them." Everyone started clapping. "But that was a while back, so what we're really gonna celebrate tonight is Tony making a full recovery and going back to work on Monday." Herrmann raised a beer and everyone followed suite. "Congratulations on everything, we love you both." Antonio leaned over to Sylvie and kissed her as everyone surrounded them, hugging and congratulating both of them.
Antonio was finally able to pull Sylvie to the side. "Did you know about this?" she smiled and nodded her head. "Why didn't you say something?" he was still shocked.
She shrugged. "It was a surprise." She was sipping her drink, already on her third one; she fully planned on having a good night.
"Go hang with the guys, have fun, I'm going to gossip with Kim and Gabby." She pushed her way past him and gave him a smirk. He watched her walk away, she glanced back at him and he knew she was playing with him.
Antonio walked up and pressed his body against Sylvie's back and put his chin on her shoulder. She was sitting at a table at the back of the bar. "Hey ladies." He grinned at them, wrapping one hand around Sylvie under the table. "What are we talking about?" he slipped his hand under her dress and started drawing a line with his finger up her inner thigh.
Her breath hitched and she cleared her throat, he smirked but made sure not to make eye contact with her, he continued agonizingly slow as far as he could. He was pretending to be interested in whatever Stella was saying but really he couldn't care less. He turned his head as he hooked his finger under the edge of her panties and whispered in her ear making sure only she could hear, "Game on." He pulled his hand back and just walked away.
"Rude." Stella pouted, "He didn't even let me finish what I was saying." Sylvie giggled and Gabby gave her a weird look. "What?" Sylvie asked innocently. "Nope, uh huh, nothing, I don't want to know." Gabby was shaking her head while taking a sip of her drink.
Sylvie glanced over her shoulder to see where Antonio had gone and caught his eye; he was sitting at a table by the front door with some guys from district and Kelly. He winked at her. She was five drinks in and was a little fuzzy but she couldn't let him win, she was still mad about him getting his way with the doctor.
"Hey, I'll be right back." Sylvie sauntered toward Antonio and threw her arm over his shoulder standing next to him as he sat on the stool.
"Do you mind if I distract him for one minute?" she smiled sweetly and held up one finger at the guys at the table. Antonio looked at her and smirked, "What's up?" She placed one hand on his thigh and held up a napkin in her other hand in front of his ear as if she was going to tell him a secret. "I just want to make sure this is still works instantly?" She whispered as she gently nibbled his earlobe then kissed behind his ear. He readjusted uncomfortably on his stool and cleared his throat, "Umm, yeah, I would say it does." She smirked, nodded, and started to walk away, "Good." She knew she was in trouble for that one.
"Sorry, I'm back, had to ask Tonio something" she giggled. She looked over her shoulder and Antonio was glaring at her drinking his beer, she smiled and returned her attention to the table. "Whatever you two are doing, just stop." Gabby seemed a little annoyed.
"We're not doing anything." She giggled again.
"I'm going to get another round, be back in a minute." Gabby headed toward the bar.
"She's grumpy Gabby tonight." Sylvie made a pouty face at Kim. Kim shook her head. "She thinks you and Antonio are up to something." Sylvie giggled again. "Maybe we are, maybe we aren't, wouldn't you like to know?" she pointed her finger at Kim and smiled. "Besides it's my party, I'm having fun."
Gabby returned with the round, Sylvie took hers happily and started sipping the straw. She turned to find Antonio again but he wasn't in his seat, she looked around and spotted him at the bar standing next to a woman she didn't recognize, she watched him for a minute. He stepped in between the bar stools and leaned into her, obviously flirting. Sylvie turned back to the table and Stella, Kim, and Gabby were staring at her.
"Um, honey, are you gonna do something about that?" Stella was pointing at Antonio. "If you're not, I am. What the hell is he doing? Who is that?" Kim was a little pissed.
"We'll see how far he takes it." Sylvie giggled and shrugged, she knew he was trying to make her jealous.
"What? Sylvie, honey, your husband is obviously flirting with another woman. Someone in here is going to try to kick his ass if you don't go take care of it." Stella attempted to point out but Sylvie didn't seem to care. Kim, Stella, and Gabby were all taken aback by her nonchalance to the situation.
"It'll be okay." She took a big sip of her drink and Gabby and Stella just looked at her like she was completely insane. "Hold on, I'll be right back." She had thought of her next move.
Antonio was still at the bar, he was whispering in the woman's ear when Sylvie appeared. Antonio set back, crossed his arms, and smirked at her but she ignored him. "Hi, I'm Sylvie, I've never seen you here before. Are you a first responder?" the woman looked annoyed with her. "Sheila, I just started at firehouse 16, paramedic." She was clearly not wanting to talk to Sylvie but Sylvie persisted. "Oh, that's awesome, I'm a paramedic at 51, maybe we'll get to ride together sometime, my current partner is my sister-in-law. Are you from here? I'm not, I'm a transplant from Fowlerton, Indiana; Chicago is such a great place though."
Sylvie was really enjoying this. Antonio sat on the stool and just watched with an amused expression, the woman kept trying to make eye contact with him but his eyes never left Sylvie. "No, born and raised Chicago." She was not amused with this guy's attention on Sylvie now.
"Are you married, kids?" Sylvie smiled at her. "No, just me and my dog."
Sylvie pulled out her phone and found the picture she was looking for. "Oh, that sounds lonely, I got married last October actually this is supposed to be a party for us and we had a baby too, it's kinda like a combo party to include my husband going back to work from being shot also, he's a detective." She shook her head.
"Do you wanna see a picture? Here look, that's me, my husband, and our three kids, Diego, Eva, and the baby is Sophia, I just love them so much." She turned the phone to the woman; it took a second for her to figure it out. She looked from the phone to Antonio, back to the phone, to Sylvie and repeated. "You're his wife?" like she needed more convincing. "I guess, at least that's what the marriage certificate says. He has an ex-wife too, Laura, we're good friends, you'd probably like her, she can be a little crazy though." Sylvie smiled. "He's not wearing a ring." This dumb bitch is gonna start pointing shit out. "Oh, yeah, no, we don't wear rings, we got married when I was deathly ill and pregnant with our last child, I almost died." Sylvie was trying extremely hard to sound genuine, it was hard. Antonio just continued to sit there and stare at Sylvie with a smirk.
Sylvie leaned in to Antonio and whispered in his ear. "Try harder next time." And returned her attention to the woman. "Well, it was really nice to meet you, I should get back to my friends, you're welcome to join us if you want." she held out her hand. The woman cautiously took it and shook it looking at her like she was completely insane. "Have a nice night." Sylvie waved and headed back toward her table.
Stella was clapping, "Nicely handled, not even a yell or a slap, bravo." Sylvie smiled. "Her name's Sheila, paramedic, house 16, she's single, from Chicago, and has a dog. Tonio can keep flirting if he wants too." She said uninterested. She glanced over her shoulder and found Sheila alone at the bar looking confused and Antonio back at the table with Kelly and she winked at him.
Antonio returned to his table well aware that he had lost that one, he knew she was good but to keep it that together six or seven drinks in, he was impressed, he had expected a little jealously to bubble up but nothing.
"Dude, what was that?" Kelly looked a little pissed. "Nothing, you don't want to know, trust me." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Actually, I kinda do, you were flirting with that chick at you're fucking whatever this party is, in front of Sylvie." Kelly sounded more than a little pissed.
"Relax, we're playing a game, I lost that one." He laughed. Kelly just stared at him then shook his head. "Okay, but it better be a game to her too, she better not get upset or hurt." He said pointing back at Sylvie. "You know me better than that, I'd never hurt her." He tipped his beer at Kelly.
Sylvie thought of her next move and jumped off the barstool. "I need to use the restroom, be right back." She headed toward the back.
She reemerged and found Antonio back at the bar ordering another beer from Herrmann. She walked up to him and slipped her hand in his front pocket. She whispered in his ear. "Those are for you." He looked at her confused and she left to go back to her table.
Reaching into his pocket he felt what she had put in there, he snapped his head up looking at her as she walked away. She went back to the table never looking back at him. He thanked Herrmann for the beer and made a beeline for Sylvie. "We need to talk now." He whispered at her.
"No, I'm talking to my friends, you can wait." She was taunting him. "No, I really think we should talk now." He sounded serious. "Like I said, I'm busy, now go back to your table and I will come over when I'm ready." She smirked at him and deliberately dropped her napkin on the floor. "Oops, I better grab that." She started to get off the stool. He pushed her firmly, maybe a little too hard, back down onto the stool. "You better not fucking move." He growled earning another smirk from her.
"Hey, what the hell, don't put your hands on her or talk to her like that." Gabby got up to get in between the two, confused by his behavior, she had never seen him act like this before. "It's okay Gabby, relax, he didn't mean it like that, besides he's going back to his table now." Sylvie said grinning at Antonio the whole time. "You better keep your ass on that stool." He whispered in her ear and went back towards his table.
He couldn't take it, game over, he was done, he just sat there and stared at her from across the bar. He couldn't even enjoy the rest of his night. "Dude, what's wrong you've been glaring at the girls for thirty minutes." Kelly had been trying to get Antonio's attention for the last half hour and he hadn't heard a word he had said.
"Not the girls, Sylvie, she won." He was not amused. "Do I even want to know what that means?" Kelly chuckled. Antonio shook his head. "Even if you wanted too, I wouldn't tell you." He was obviously pissed.
"It couldn't have been that bad, it's Sylvie." Kelly tried to reason with him. "She's PG, come on." He chuckled.
Tonio snorted, "Yeah, she has you guys fooled." Kelly laughed "And I was worried about Sylvie getting hurt, I should have been worried about you."
"Okay, I tried to stay out of it, what the hell is going on? Why are you two fighting?" Gabby didn't know what to think, Sylvie didn't seem upset but Antonio was clearly pissed about something. "We're not fighting, why would you say that?" She giggled she was not sober enough to have a serious conversation.
"Why is Antonio pissed at you? He's been glaring at you since he left the table." Kim really wanted to know; she had never seen Antonio mad at Sylvie before, this was new. "I won." She laughed and took another drink. "What the hell does that mean?" This whole thing confused Gabby. "He lost." She giggled and almost fell off her stool. "Oops, Tony said I can't leave the stool, have to stay where dad told me." She was in a fit of giggles trying and failing to steady herself.
"You can leave the stool if you want." Stella informed her. "I can?" she was surprised. "Yes, you can do whatever you want, you're a big girl, Antonio can't tell you want to do." Sylvie's eyes got big like she came to a realization. "I can. I need another drink, I'm going to the bar, who wants to go with me?" she raised her hand and pouted when no one raised one too. "I don't want to go alone, Kim come with me, please." She begged. Kim agreed thinking it was probably for the best.
Kim shoved her way to the front of the crowd at the bar pulling Sylvie by the hand behind her. There were no stools open so they squeezed between the people, Sylvie had lost Kim somewhere in the crowd. Sylvie wanted to talk to Herrmann so she shoved herself between the barstools in between two guys and reached over the counter to get Herrmann's attention, "Hey, can you make mine a little extra?" He nodded at her.
Still leaned over the bar she felt a hand touch the back of her ass and she spun around fully expecting Antonio but the guy to her right was smiling at her. She didn't recognize him, he must not have been a regular or he would have never touched her, she thought.
"Excuse me, don't touch me." She was a little unsteady. He chuckled, "Well you put your ass right up next to me, I thought you wanted me to." He went to reach for her ass again.
Sylvie was just about to slap the guy when she felt a hand wrap around her arm and saw a flash of the guy being dragged toward the front door by Kelly. She was being dragged toward the back door. "Stop, where are we going? Let me go." She was fighting him but it was useless, he was much stronger. He shoved her up against the brick wall and pressed his body fully against hers.
"What the fuck Tonio?" she was still trying to get away from him. He was staring her straight in the eyes, she couldn't discern the look he was boring into her. Rage-maybe a little she was hoping not at her, fear-no that couldn't be right, hatred-she thought she could see a glimpse, jealousy-yes, that was it, he was fucking jealous.
"He was touching you." He growled at her, pissed didn't began to describe how he was feeling. Sylvie smirked at him, "Or did you just not like losing tonight?" she kissed him, hard.
Kelly, Kim, Gabby, and Stella came through the back door. "He's out, I don't think he'll come back, I didn't recognize him." Kelly informed Antonio. Antonio nodded at him and stepped back from Sylvie letting her off the wall.
"What the hell is going on?" Gabby was not amused with how this night was turning out. "I told you nothing, we're fine." Sylvie chuckled, clearly drunk. Kelly snorted and Gabby turned to glare at him. "Kelly?" she wanted an explanation. He held up his hands in surrender, "Hey, they're adults, what weird games they play in public is between them and besides I'm positive you don't want to know." He laughed. She got a disgusted look on her face and pretended that she was going to vomit. "Yup, okay, nope, should have stayed out of it, can't do it, I'm done." And she spun around and headed back in, everyone else following behind.
Sylvie was in a fit of giggles, she could barely stand up. Antonio grabbed her and put her back up against the wall his body against hers, his knee between her legs, and reached into his pocket. He pulled out her panties dangling them from his finger in front of her face, "You thought this was real funny, didn't you?" She grinned and nodded her head. "Do you know what this did to me?" She shook her head and giggled.
"Drove me crazy knowing you had no panties on and all them guys everywhere." He shoved the them back in his pocket. "Jealous, much?" She tried to sound serious. "You have no idea." He breathed into her ear. She was once again giggling uncontrollably. "If I had known it would drive you so crazy I would have done it the night I made you ask me out." He smirked at her. "I wouldn't have known what to do with you, looking all sweet and innocent, yeah, they have no idea do they?"
She shook her head, "Do you want me to let them know?, I can." she pretended to try to pull away. "I think Gabby would die, better not." He pressed her harder into the wall.
"I think we really need to head home, now." He breathed, his forehead pressed to hers, his hands in her hair. "There's always the car." She kissed him. He pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at her, asking if she was serious. She nodded and he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her toward the car.