16: Beginning

Nicole groaned and rolled over in bed, flopping on top of a very nude Dane. The musician moaned from the contact and her arms automatically went around her mate. Nicole snuggled closer to Danny, burrowing her face in Danny’s neck, wanting to revel in the soft, sweet-smelling skin for as long as possible. She took a deep breath, which tickled Dane’s flesh and made the taller woman laugh.

“Are you sniffling me?” Dane asked in a whisper of a tone, eyes opening partially to see a mass of auburn hair buried in her neck.

“Maybe…” Nicole replied while blatantly sniffing her human-mattress. She loved the way her girlfriend smelled. There was something about Danny’s natural aroma that was so...her. To Nicole, Danny smelled just like she should, subtle, laidback, almost like a lazy summer afternoon with nothing about her being overpowering. It was intoxicating.

“You get stranger by the day.” Although if asked, she would admit that she sniffled Nicole every now and then. She especially liked the way that Nicole smelled right after hot showers and she also enjoyed the way that Nicole smelled after they made love.

“I’m just trying to commit as much of you to memory as I can, so I can make it through the day. You do remember it’s a long day for me, right?” the lawyer asked while allowing her fingertips to dance along Danny’s side. She doubted that she would ever get enough of the feel of her girlfriend.

“Of course I remember. I never forget anything about you. You’ll be all right, just like you were the last couple of times. It’s me that has to make it through torturous hours alone in the quiet still of the house,” Dane dramatically complained, giving Nicole a squeeze around the waist, which earned a giggle from the smaller woman.

“Please, you probably light off fireworks and have blockbuster parties when I’m not here to nag you about things.”

Dane kissed the top of Nicole’s head. “Since when do you nag me to do anything?”

“Oh, those trips where I had to drag you to the doctor’s office kicking and screaming wasn’t nagging? Good to know. I’m going to do it more often, then,” Nicole remarked, knowing it would make her lover adorably nervous.

“You wouldn’t dare! That physical therapist is evil!” Dane stated with heartfelt emotion that made her girlfriend want to laugh.

“Baby, she’s not evil. She’s helping you get your hand stronger and helping you with your leg and knee, so you should be happy about that instead of giving that woman such a hard time.”

“Nope, don’t wanna.”

Nicole giggled at the childish response; it was made for the sole purpose of getting her to laugh. When all was quiet again, Nicole ran her hands up and down Dane’s bare side. Dane halted the movement by placing her hands over Nicole’s busy ones.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish. You have to get up in a few minutes,” Dane warned the lawyer.

“I could call in sick,” Nicole suggested with a sly smile.

“No, you’re not going to call in sick. You have class tonight too, so you’re going to have to leave the house eventually.”

Nicole kissed Danny’s neck; it was a long, wet kiss meant to seduce. “I don’t have to go to class either.”

Dane whimpered, but she managed to stay strong and pull away. “Yes, you do. School just started and it won’t look good for you to miss a day so early. Besides, what if you really get sick or something? You can’t miss a lot of days,” she reminded her lover.

“You’re right, honey.” Nicole pouted. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“I know. That’s why I don’t make it a point to be right often. C’mon. You get in the shower and I’ll start on breakfast. I’ll make you an egg sandwich with sausage,” Dane hummed, smiling because she knew that she had her girlfriend.

Nicole sighed. “Fine. You do drive a hard bargain.”

“I know I do, but I’ll make it up to you with lunch.”

Nicole smiled and leaned up to give Danny a “proper” good morning kiss, showing her approval in the offer. Dane moaned loudly as Nicole took command of her mouth and controlled the kiss. Dane submitted to her lover’s will for almost a minute before she pushed back, trying to take over. Nicole battled with Dane before the musician pulled away.

“No, no, no, we’ve got to get out of bed!” Dane chastised herself and her girlfriend. She knew that if they continued on as they were Nicole would be late for work.

“Party-pooper,” Nicole teased, but she was finally making moves to get out of bed.

Dane sighed and took a few deep breaths while watching Nicole cover her nude form with a nearby robe. The cloth teased Danny’s senses by leaving very little to the imagination. Damn, being responsible was hard.

Dane was not able to get out of bed until Nicole was tucked away in the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom. She yawned and stretched, a few joints popping, and a couple of bones cracking to accompany the sound of the shower starting. Dane had scanned the room for her clothing, finding her boxers near the closet, all the way across the room. She could not help chuckling while remembering how the underwear got there. She did not even bother looking for her tee-shirt and just fetched a new one from her dresser drawer. After sliding on the new tee-shirt, she grabbed a fresh pair of boxers to avoid tempting Nicole when she came down for breakfast.

Once she was dressed, Dane made her way downstairs while going through a mental checklist of what she needed to do that day. Since Nicole was going to be out late, having class that night, it would be the perfect night to do laundry. It would keep her occupied while she was alone in the house.

“God, this woman makes me happy to do her laundry. I’ve been bewitched!” Danny mentally joked. She hoped that the spell never wore off if that was the case.

She gathered the items that she was going to need for breakfast and also what she was going to need for Nicole’s lunch. She packed the lunch first; it was leftovers from dinner, as it almost always was. She dropped two pudding cups, chocolate and vanilla, into the lunch bag while making a mental note to go shopping later on in the day. Iced tea was the beverage for the day and since Nicole was going to be out for most of the day thanks to graduate school, she put a fruit cup in there for the lawyer to snack.

With lunch packed, Dane started on breakfast. By the time she was done with the eggs, Nicole was in the kitchen and pouring them both some orange juice. They had breakfast together as always, talking about any and everything that came to mind. Dane walked Nicole to the door and sent her off after giving her a deep, loving kiss.

By the time Nicole was out of the driveway, Dane was already going about the house to pick up any dirty clothes that had somehow not made it to the hamper. She had a couple of hours to kill before she had to get to a music lesson and she figured clothes hunting would do just that. After that, she planned to do the grocery shopping. Once she was done with that, she would get to the laundry, and then she was not too sure what she was going to do with the rest of her time since Nicole was not going to be home until about nine-thirty at night.

A smile suddenly worked its way to her face as she got an idea of just what she should do. “Nick’ll kill me for sure,” she thought, still smiling up a storm.

-----

Nicole yawned and rubbed her eyes. She glanced at her clock, finding that it was time for most of the office employees to go home. She would have been running out the doors right with them, but there was no point to it. She had class in an hour and there was no point to her going home since it took her that long to get home with rush-hour traffic.

Raymond poked his head into Nicole’s office. “Nikki, sweetheart, are you going home?”

“No, Daddy. I told you before that I have class on Mondays and Wednesdays,” Nicole answered. She found that her parents had very selective memories now when it came to the days that she had school. It let her know their opinions remained the same on her going back to school for her chemistry degree, but she did not care. She got the support that she needed and she was going to get that degree. After that, she was going to do her best to get the hell out of practicing law.

“Oh, right. It really doesn’t make much sense for you to be taking classes again, Nikki. You’ve got the degrees you need,” Raymond commented.

“Not the ones I want, though,” she countered in a calm tone. She was beyond getting upset with her parents when they brought up the subject because she knew that they were not going to agree with her. There was no point to debate the issue, since it was not an issue to her because she was going to go to school.

Raymond frowned slightly and silently conceded the argument once again. He found that he had been conceding to his daughter quite a bit lately. It was not something that he enjoyed since he felt like he had always had such a good relationship with his daughter. It felt a little like their relationship was declining because Nicole was doing things that he and Kate disagreed with. They did not understand why her personality had shifted so much and they were having a hard time dealing with it; he was dealing with it way better than Kate was, though.

He eased her door shut and marched away from the door because he was not sure what else to say to Nicole. He did not know what to make of her wanting a chemistry degree when she already had a career as a lawyer; a career that she was brilliant at. He was trying to accept that it was something she wanted to do for herself, but he just did not understand it. He did not think it was as bad as Kate did because his wife at first took it as a personal betrayal, like Nicole betrayed them by stepping out of their shadow. Kate figured that Danny had managed to get Nicole to go back to school and was trying to turn Nicole against her parents. Raymond did not think that things were that deep, but it was hard to argue against her once she got an idea in her head.

Kate was sure that Nicole’s change in personality was due to Dane and accused Danny of stealing Nicole from them. Now, Raymond would concede that Danny was probably the reason that Nicole was changing so much, but he was not willing to think of it as a completely bad thing like Kate was. He knew that Dane was good for Nicole’s emotional well-being, but he still did not like disagreeing with Nicole so much over the graduate school issue.

Raymond shook the thoughts away, not wanting to waste time on something that he could not solve on his own. He had his briefcase in hand and his coat was already on. He was heading home for the night like most others in the firm. He made it to the main hall and saw there was a commotion rising in the lobby.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Tyler’s bellow could probably be heard through out the whole building.

Raymond made his way over to things, wondering what was causing Tyler to raise his voice to very inappropriate levels. Upon closer inspection, he saw that Tyler was yelling at Danny. A small crowd was watching the scene, wondering what was going on. Having an audience did not seem to stop Tyler; in fact, he seemed to be happy that he could humiliate his cousin in front of so many people.

“We don’t have handouts for bums!” Tyler continued on. He wanted everyone to know that Dane was a lowly person and he wanted them to look down on her, just like he did.

Dane eyed her cousin in a bored manner, not even bothering to yell back at him. Tyler’s face was bright red from raising his voice. He did not even notice the crowd that gathered around were not on his side and looking down on Dane, but actually wondering if Tyler was about to make someone in the firm lose a client. Whatever Tyler was doing, it certainly was entertaining and they stayed there to keep watching.

“Tyler,” Raymond called in a calm voice.

“What!” the irritated attorney demanded to know and then he turned to see who was talking to him. His expression immediately sobered.

“I think you need to take that attitude outside,” Raymond ordered. He was about to inform the young lawyer that he was already on thin ice, but he figured that he would keep that on hand in case Tyler really wanted to act out.

Tyler frowned. “Why should I go outside? Dane doesn’t belong here and doesn’t have any business being here.” He pointed at his cousin with the same regard that he would point to an object.

“Danny’s fine here and has plenty of business here. I think the person that doesn’t have any business here at the moment is you, so go home,” Raymond stated in a calm tone.

A feather could have knocked Tyler over at that point. He looked back and forth between Dane and Raymond. He sputtered, trying his best to say something, but finding it utterly impossible. Once words failed him, he stormed off in a huff.

“Throws a temper tantrum just as well as his uncle does,” Dane remarked, eyes on Raymond instead of watching her cousin leave.

“You here to surprise my daughter?” Raymond asked curiously, suppressing a smile. He could not remember a girlfriend or boyfriend surprising Nicole, so it helped Danny gain some points in his eyes, but he was also upset with her. The reason he was upset had not lost Dane any points yet, though.

“I’m trying. I thought bigmouth might blow the whole thing,” the musician quipped with a half-smile.

“I’m sure he was trying. Has Nikki said anything about him bothering her?” Raymond inquired. He heard things around the office about Tyler now that he was listening out for them and he did not like what he heard. He did not like the few things that he observed when he watched the younger man every now and then either. After the display moments ago, he was going to talk to Tyler tomorrow about his conduct while he was inside the firm because Tyler did not seem to know what it meant to be professional. If he was going to continue on as he was, he was going to end up out of a job.

Dane ran a hand through her hair. “She talks to me about Tyler as much as she talks to you about him.”

He nodded. “That sounds like Nikki. Danny, can I talk to you for a few minutes before you go see her?”

She shrugged and followed behind Raymond as he returned to his office; they had to go up a few floors in the building. There were a few whispers as they walked by people to the elevator and then to his office. Dane had been up to the firm once before not too long ago, but she had remained in the lobby, waiting for Nicole to come to her. It had not been enough time for people to get a good look at her, but it did start the rumor mill for whatever reason. Nicole told Dane that she suspected the rumors were started because Tyler was going around telling people that Nicole was a “dyke” and bedding a homeless woman, so when Dane came up there, people were able to see “the homeless woman” for a moment and that was enough to get them to start swapping stories. Now that Dane was up there again, people were able to get a better look at her and start talking again.

“Close the door behind you,” Raymond instructed Dane as they entered his office.

She silently nodded and closed the door as soon as she crossed the threshold of the office. She glanced around for a quick moment, taking in the dark woods that decorated his office. It was rich, like she expected of Raymond. She could only imagine how decedent Kathleen’s office looked.

“Danny, did you know about Nicole going back to school?” Raymond inquired with a puzzled expression on his face. He did not mean to look like that, but he just could not figure out why Nicole was going back to school and every time he thought about it, it confused him.

“Yeah, we talked about it,” Dane admitted with a lazy shrug. Of course she knew, they lived in the same house and Nicole had already attended two weeks of class!

Raymond could tell Nicole going back to school was not a big deal to Danny, which he could not understand either. He scratched his forehead a little, as if that was going to help clear matters up for him. When that did not work, he decided to continue on with the discussion.

“Well, she never said anything to me or her mother. This isn’t good, Danny. It’s going to cut into her time at the firm, her time with you,” he pointed out. He thought that might get Danny caring about Nicole’s strange decision. If Nicole was not working as much, then she was not going to be able to support Danny as much, and he knew that Nicole was the one supporting the couple. He also thought that Danny might care because she would not be able to spend as much time with Nicole, which could be bad for their relationship. He figured once that was on the table, Danny might decide to talk to Nicole and get her to stop entertaining the silly idea of going back to school for a degree she did not need and wasting her time.

Dane shrugged again. “It’s what’ll make her happy. I’m willing to sacrifice a little time if it’ll make her happy.”

“Why is she doing this? She already has a damn good job,” he stated with a firm expression on his face.

Dane frowned and regarded him as if he was small. “Yes, it’s a good job as far as money goes, but it makes her miserable. She hates it here. She hates what she does and she hates a lot of the people she’s forced to interact with. She deserves to be happy.”

Tension pulled at Raymond’s features and clouded his eyes. “She has been happy. She’s good at this job.”

Dane made a very perplexed face. “Being good a job doesn’t mean it makes her happy. It just means that she takes pride in her work. Have you asked her what would make her happy?” she inquired curiously. She was not trying to start a fight or even be a smart-aleck.

“I know my daughter,” he stated soundly.

She shrugged. “Uh...No disrespect, sir, but you really need to talk to Nick. I mean talk to her, not dictate things to her or tell her what to do, but actually talk to her. I think you’ll understand her a bit better if you did just that.”

Raymond was quiet for a while, taking in her words. He was not ready to give up just yet and decided to go at Dane from a different angle to try to get her on his side. “Does she think she can support the both of you by up and leaving a promising career?”

Dane was not too sure how to answer that one. She did not like how he was attempting to manipulate her either, bringing her relationship with Nicole into something that bothered him. She supposed that she needed to put a stop to that before he ended up bringing his wife into the matter and then getting double-teamed by her girlfriend’s parents. They had tried with limited success; the “success” part worried Dane because the two tried to double-team her before without much success, but they had done it plenty of times with Nicole. They bullied Nicole into things that she really did not want to do; she had seen it and heard tales about it. It was that sort of behavior that they used when they were trying to strong arm Nicole into kicking Danny out of the house, which Dane was very happy to say that it did not work.

“Well, she wants to do science and she should do what she loves. That’s what I always tell her and I mean it,” Danny stated.

Raymond eyed the musician suspiciously. “How long did it take you to talk her into this, Danny?”

She scratched the end of her nose while thinking about it. “Basically since I moved in. She’s miserable with this type of work. It’s not for her and she doesn’t want to do it. She should do what makes her happy, not something that’s expected of her.”

“And you know her so well?” Raymond snapped, looking Dane right in the eye and glaring sharply at her.

She made sure to keep her composure, not even thinking about taking the bait of getting into an argument with him. She just stated what she felt were facts. “I know she’s not happy with working here. Yes, she does her work, and other people’s work, and she does it well with very little complaints. Do you know why she complains so little here? Because she comes home and doesn’t shut up about the shit she takes here for at least an hour, and it’s an hour if it was a good day. Hell, if you guys dump new stuff on her while she’s already swamped and she has to help these so-called lawyers around here, she might not shut up about until I put dinner in front of her. She barely knew how to relax when I first moved in with her and she didn’t know how to vent very well either. She vents now, and she’s able to put the stress down. And do you know what she does after that? She unwinds with a chemistry book. She’s a chemistry nerd, pure and simple. She. Likes. Chemistry.” Dane pointed out as plainly as she possibly could in a very deliberate manner.

“Oh, so now you know everything about her?” he huffed, glaring at this woman, who did indeed seem to know a lot about his daughter.

Dane sighed and ran her hand threw her hair. “Raymond, I’m not going to argue with you about Nick. This is what she wants and that’s why she’s doing it. You’re not going to use me to talk her out of it either. I want her to go and I don’t give a damn what it costs me as long as it makes her happy. You should know that by now.”

Raymond growled, the noise rumbling deep in his massive chest. He glared even harder at Danny, who was quite unfazed by the stare. Little did he know, but she had to put up with far worse looks on Saturdays when Nicole forced her to go to physical therapy.

Suddenly, Raymond laughed and threw his arm around Danny’s shoulders. A half-smirk worked its way onto her face; apparently, she was out of trouble for now. He found it impossible to be upset with her since she was so insistent that she wanted his daughter to be happy and she showed that she was telling the truth every time he saw her.

“You know, Danny, this is one of the many things I like about you. You stick to what you think is best for Nikki and you never let us talk you out of what you think is best for her. Now, Kate is going to kick your ass the next time she sees you, though,” Raymond proclaimed with a laugh.

“Doesn’t she always? I’m pretty sure she owns the property rights to my ass,” Dane remarked with a small, amused smile.

“She will after this. She was hoping I could get you to talk to Nikki. We want her to follow in our footsteps, Kate especially,” Raymond said, shaking his head a little.

“I know you guys do, but you have to realize that her going to school has nothing to do with you. She’s not rebelling or anything like that. She’s not trying to hurt your feelings either. She’s just doing something for herself for once. She deserves this. She needs this. If you talk to her about her classes, you see the way her eyes light up, then you’ll know. She needs this,” Dane tried her best to explain and to get him to understand.

“I know, Danny. I know, but I had to try. Kate is going to be on a tear until she gets used to this. I’ll be using you as a shield,” Raymond quipped with a friendly smile. He was trying to relax about the school thing now that he talked to Danny and figured that it was going to happen whether he liked it or not.

She smiled back at him. “The hell you will. I’ll be hiding two states over thank you very much.”

“Smart move. Well, I’ll let you go. Oh, Danny.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Don’t let Nikki take on too much in school and don’t let her walk away from this job until she’s fully secure with another one.”

Dane nodded. “I will, Raymond. I know how much you guys worry. Do you think that you guys could ease up on the case load?”

Raymond breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “I will do that. I don’t want her to get overwhelmed. I’ll also talk to people about bugging her for her help.”

Dane grinned, happy to hear that he was actually paying attention to the things that she was saying before. “Thank you for that, sir. She’ll really appreciate that and so will I.”

“All right. Now, do you know how to get to Nicole’s office?” he asked curiously.

Dane shook her head as a response. He gave her directions and they said their farewells. Raymond smiled a little as Dane exited the office. He had warmed up to Danny since meeting her, noticing the effect that she had on Nicole. He wished that she talked Nicole out of going back to school, but considering Danny’s passion for it, he could guess how much it meant to Nicole. He supposed that he and Kate were just going to have to learn to accept that Nicole really wanted to be a chemist and they had pushed their desires on her; that thought was going to take a while to get used to.

Dane quickly put the conversation with Raymond out of her mind, knowing she would live a repeat of it for months to come, even though it was clear that he was listening to her. She had more important things on her mind than how she had upset Raymond and Kate by convincing their daughter to go get her chemistry degree. She had to go down a floor and then she navigated the long halls of the firm before she found her lover’s office. As she drew closer to the door, she wondered if she should knock or just walk right in to really drive home the surprise. Her good manners won out and she knocked when she got to the door. She was greeted with an annoyed groan.

“Yes?” Nicole’s voice called.

“Somebody order a stripper?” Dane asked as she opened the door, seeing Nicole at her desk and emerald eyes pouring over a pile of documents.

“Danny?” Nicole was out of her seat in a flash and wrapping her girlfriend in a hug that made it seem like they were apart for days instead of hours. “What’re you doing here?” she asked in a quiet, but amazed tone.

“I came to see the sexiest, most brilliant woman on the planet,” Dane answered with a charming grin.

“And you stopped by to see me first?” Nicole teased.

Dane laughed a little and then leaned down to place a deep kiss on willing lips. “Only to see you, chem. Only to see you,” she promised.

“You are just too sweet for your own good, honey. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure? I hope like hell you didn’t ride your bike all this way just to surprise me at the office,” Nicole said, voice bordering on scolding.

Danny knew that she had to do damage control quickly. “No! I didn’t ride my bike. Crow picked me from my last lesson and drove me here. I wanted to have an early dinner with you before you went to class.”

Nicole could not contain the grin on her face. “Aw, that’s so nice, honey. I would love to have an early dinner with you. Are you going to hang out with Crow afterwards?”

“I had to make that deal in order to get her to drive me here,” Dane replied with a light laugh.

The lawyer chuckled. “She still doesn’t think too highly of me, huh?”

“Nope, but her opinion doesn’t matter. I think you’re just swell,” Dane remarked. “She’s promised to try, if I ever bring you around anyway. She’s not a bad person or a bad friend, but she’s not used to the new me yet.” It was nice that Crow was trying to adjust, though. It was what made Dane realize that Crow was a decent person and friend, unlike most of the other people she knew.

“You mean, the Danny that exclusively dates someone with a degree and a career and has a permanent home to return to every night without drugs being involved?” Nicole teased.

“Yeah, that Danny. The Danny that wants to take you to dinner before it’s too late.”

“Should I pick you up after class?” Nicole asked.

“I’d like that. I’ll call you and let you know where I am around nine, okay?”

“Sounds good. Remind me to get you a cell phone sometime soon so I can call you when you’re out.”

Dane smiled. “You trying to put a leash on the Great Dane?”

“You know it, big dog. I want everyone to know who you belong to.”

“Trust me, there’s no doubt about that one.” Dane leaned down and kissed Nicole again with just as much passion as always. The lawyer felt her knees go weak, like they did every time her girlfriend kissed her.

They managed to break apart for the few moments that Nicole needed to put her work away. Dane fetched her girlfriend’s coat and eased it onto Nicole’s shoulders. They then exited the office, Dane’s arm around Nicole’s waist. They smiled each other and locked eyes, emerald on grey promising love, devotion, and happiness.

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The end.

A/N: Thank you to everyone that read this story. Hopefully, we’ll see these two again in a sequel sometime soon.