Title: At Long Last - A Wedding Bells Alternate
Category: Who's the Boss
Summary: What happens when you mix too much wine and a secret love?
Rating:NC-17, NSFW, M
Spoilers: Wedding Bells
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

This story contains content for mature audiences only - please be warned. If people want, I can try to mark the sections so you can skip those parts if you prefer not to read them but still want the rest of the story. If enough people ask I can try!

This story is complete (I think) but it has multiple chapters. I'll upload them as fast as I can. I kept them to 1200-1500 words for the most part because I think that's manageable to read without having to binge the whole thing!

I wrote most of these a long time ago. I apologize for any mistakes, but I will try to edit as I go!

I'm moving my Who's the Boss fics from various other sites to here. Feedback welcome - good or bad - and appreciated :) Enjoy.

5.

When Angela wakes next she's feeling slightly better. She finds the tea next to her bed and smiles. Of course Tony would be so considerate. She's never had anyone care for her as much as he does - and bringing her tea while she sleeps off a hangover isn't in his job description. She sits up and drinks it. It's still warm. The spicy tea helps clear her mind. She has to talk to him. She fights off the thought that this is a pity offering since she's such a lightweight and he's about to tell her that drunk sex isn't real sex so they can forget the whole thing.

She gets out of bed, ready to face the music.

Angela finds Tony downstairs on the couch, watching tv. He looks to the stairs when he hears her coming down.

"Hi," he says. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. Thank you for the tea."

"I knew it would make you feel better."

"How do you feel?" she asks him.

"Oh fine. I took my hangover cure. It works every time."

"Tomato juice and tabasco?"

"Yup. Chase it with a glass of water and something fatty like bacon and you're all good."

"Oh, Tony. You're going to make me sick."

"Sorry, sorry," he says.

"So, um, what are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing. Just watching some tv. Sam and Jonathan are out so…."

"Anything good on?" she asks, sitting next to him.

"It's, uh… actually, I don't know what it is. I've been kind of distracted."

"Yeah. I guess we should talk about….."

"Yeah, sure, we can do that. Listen, Angela, before we start, I don't want this to turn into something awkward between us. Whatever happens, whatever we decide, I'm still Tony and you're still Angela, and we still respect each other and our friendship is intact, okay?"

"Okay," she agrees. "Maybe we should talk in my office? For privacy?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

xx

Tony is nervous. He's terrified actually, and it's not much that scares him. He really doesn't want to have messed everything up. Even if she never loves him romantically, Angela has become so important to him. It would be very difficult to live without her now. And he really enjoyed last night. He's slept with a lot of women but only two of them have made him feel anything even similar to what he felt last night, and he married the other one.

He follows her to her office and shuts the door behind him. She sits on the couch and he sits on the chair. They don't say anything for a while.

"I was hoping I'd figure out what to say but I haven't," she says.

"Uh, Angela, look, I just wanna start by saying I know what we did wasn't planned, and it probably wouldn't have happened if we weren't smashed, but I don't regret it at all. I know we said before we shouldn't, and I know we said we didn't want to risk our friendship but… well, we've done it now. And I know… I know I'm no finance guy like Geoffrey with a G, or a doctor like Paul Ferguson-"

"Tony, I hope you know me well enough by now. Your job doesn't matter."

"Yeah, I know but… but you own this house and I could never afford a house like this. And you're used to nice things. I can't afford anything nice."

"I'm not used to having a man care for me like you do. I'm not used to having really good sex…."

"It was good, wasn't it?" he grins.

"Yeah," she smiles. She stands suddenly, and Tony braces himself for bad news.

"Um, Tony, I know we've known each other only a few years but… but this is one of the most important relationships of my life. And it's not just because I rely on you to take care of the house, or Jonathan, but I truly value you as a part of this family. I value your presence in my life. But, um, you probably know that I'm not very good at romantic relationships, in fact my track record is pretty bad…."

"That's just because you haven't found the right guy," Tony says.

"Tony, what would you like to see happen now?" she says, sitting back down.

"I don't know exactly," he says after a pause. "I know what I don't want. I don't want to lose you. You're like… you're my best friend, Angela."

She smiles at him. "You won't lose me," she says, looking him in the eye. He's reassured. "Okay, well as I see it, we have a few options." She takes a deep breath, standing again. "One, we can forget this ever happened. We can pretend we came home from the wedding, went to our separate beds, and went to sleep. That's it. Nothing changes."

"If we go with that, will you still go out with Geoffrey this weekend?"

"Um, I guess so."

"What else you got?"

"Alright… we could… we could consider this a release of… of… of pent up energy, an impulsive act because of our impaired judgement. Nothing more than that."

"Do we get to release this energy again?"

"You mean just have a purely physical relationship? No romantic commitment, no obligations, no definitions? I guess we could come to an agreement that it has nothing to do with emotion. Just sex. Nothing else. It would be like a business arrangement."

Tony frowns. "I don't think like that one."

"Okay, well, I guess another option is to try a romantic relationship."

"A real relationship?"

"Yes. With commitment, and, um, caring, and… and… spending time together. Sharing goals and desires and hopes for the future. All that sort of thing."

"That doesn't sound so bad…."

"Um, Tony… I think if we pick this option we have to talk about expectations," she says, sitting down again.

"Expectations?"

"Yes. What you want from a romantic relationship, what I want from a romantic relationship…."

"I want what we already have but with kissing," he says with a grin.

"Yes, but it's also communication, and shared experiences, and give and take."

"Giving and taking what?"

"Um, like giving space when one of us needs it, or taking help when one of us needs it."

"That sounds easy."

"Tony… you had… you had a great marriage. I had a horrible marriage. Doing this is kind of scary for me."

"Angela, we've lived together for three years. We know each other. We're not starting from scratch."

"That's the scary part! If things don't go well I can't just dump you. You won't just go away and live your life. You live here. You're part of my life. You're part of my son's life, I'm part of Sam's life. I'm terrified of risking…."

"You think this isn't scary for me? You heard Fred and Ginger yesterday…."

"Tony…."

"No, I get it. People are gonna talk, it ain't gonna be easy." He stands up. "We've got a good thing going and I don't want to ruin that. Maybe the first option is the best one."

"I won't go out with Geoffrey," she says. "I wouldn't have even danced with him if you hadn't told me to." She stands in front of him. "I didn't want to dance with him, I wanted to dance with you." He looks into her eyes. He believes her. God knows he didn't want her to dance with him, either.

"So look," he says, finally, "if this is gonna be so tough for the both of us, why don't we decide not to decide? I mean, why can't we just recognize we have something between us and we'd like to explore what that is. Slowly. Without any pressure… but maybe with a little kissing… if the opportunity arises, of course. We can try that giving and taking thing. And every now and then we'll check to see how we're feeling, and we'll be honest - real honest - and if things are working then great, we'll continue to explore our feelings. If things aren't working, well, then we'll have another one of these talks and decide how to fix it."

"Do we tell mother and the kids?"

"It's up to you."

"Um, okay, well, maybe we won't tell them anything right now, not until we see how this goes. It might complicate things. Above all, I want to protect the children from getting hurt. They're so young and I don't want what we do to disrupt their lives."

"I completely agree."

"Okay, so we're going to explore this? Slowly and carefully?"

"Yeah. We'll go at your pace, Angela."

"Okay," she says, smiling. She tentatively reaches out to hug him, and he happily wraps his arms around her. He wishes he had the guts to tell her he was madly in love with her but there's no point. He's got nothing to offer her, nothing worthy of her at least. It's not like he can marry her. Why would she want to marry him, he can't even afford to buy her a decent ring. She relaxes her hold to look at him and he feels a surge of affection for her so he kisses her.

"I think I'm going to like this," he says. She laughs.