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Cooper Crazy
(6/29/05 1:58 am)
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Giving In - Chapter 10
Harley looked at her watch when she heard a cart rolling down the hallway outside of Gus’s door and saw that it was eight o’clock and the nurses were handing out breakfast.
Gus still hadn’t waken up yet, but the doctor assured Harley that he would. His vitals were good, his body just needed time to heal itself. Harley wished it would heal a little faster.
She got out of the hard chair she was sitting on most of the night and stretched. Her bones ached from the stressful and sleepless night. She closed her eyes as she reached down and touched her toes and saw Gus getting shot and hitting the ground again. She shook her head to rid herself of the image and cracked her neck.
She dragged herself out of the room down to the vending machine for a cup of coffee and thought about the last twelve hours of her life.
The evening started out horribly, with her and Gus arguing about something that she couldn’t even remember anymore, then they went to the bar. Gus was his pushy, annoyingly correct, usual self about her and her feelings and then they danced. And kissed. Harley closed her eyes as she remembered the feel of Gus’s arms around her, pulling her body so that it melted perfectly into his. She gave into his touches and she had to admit on some level she was glad she did. He made her feel sexy and desired and it was hard to resist. Another round of fights before they went back to the hotel then awkward silence until they crawled into bed and had the revealing conversation about Gus’s feelings for her and like she always did, she threw up her walls and begged him to stop pushing her. Then she gave in, they were so close to making love and they would have if those agents hadn’t shown up. After she had a chance to clear her head, Harley was glad for the interruption, but now she wasn’t so sure…
People always say that you don’t know what you have until you lose it, and that definitely rang true for Harley today. It was easy for her to push Gus away when he was still there, she knew he would still do whatever he could to get to her. But when she saw him go down, she realized that it was her turn to do whatever she could to get to him. The flip-flops she felt a few weeks earlier when she first saw him sitting at her desk were nothing compared to the knot her stomach had been in the past six hours.
She had decided once and for all that when Gus woke up, she was going to be honest with him – and with herself – she was going to follow her heart and give Gus a chance in her life.
On her way back from the vending machine, she stopped in to check on Alicia. Her parents hadn’t gotten there yet, but she got a good night’s sleep and looked much better than she did through the middle of the night. As she forced some jello down, she asked Harley about Gus again, and her face betrayed her distress at the news that the man who got shot to save her was still fighting to wake up. Harley assured her that Gus would be fine and that she didn’t have to worry about it. After a few minutes, she gave Alicia Gus’s room number so that she would call Harley when her parents arrived, then she went back downstairs.
As she stood outside of Gus’s closed door, she hoped when she opened it that he would be laying in bed, wide awake, ready to fight crime again. Her hopes were dashed when she saw he was still unconscious.
She stood at the end of his bed and read half of his chart before she realized it was in French. She flipped the page and read intensely when she finally found some words in English.
Over in the bed, Gus’s brain forced him to open his eyes and they focused on Harley standing at the end of the bed
"Harley?" he whispered and hoped she would hear him.
”Gus,” she replied with a smile and put the chart back in its place before she rushed to his side. “Oh god, I'm so glad you're okay. How do you feel?"
"My head hurts," he answered. "Concussion?"
"A little one," she nodded.
He put his arm up to touch the side of his head and winced, "Ow. That hurts too," he said pointing to the bandage that covered his skin that the bullet grazed.
"The doctor said you are going to be fine. Let me go get him," Harley said and left the room.
The doctor came into his room a few minutes later, but Harley didn't.
"Where's Harley?" he asked the doctor.
"Your friend is waiting outside while I examine you," the man answered.
"When can I get out of here?" Gus asked.
"Tonight, if everything looks good for the next few hours," he answered. "How do you feel?"
"My head and my chest hurt, but good other than that," Gus shrugged.
"Good. Let me know if you get dizzy or nauseous," the doctor said as he wrote some things on Gus's chart. "Would you like me to send in la belle femme?"
Gus smiled. He knew a little bit of French from the Bureau, and he definitely knew the important words like woman and beautiful. La belle femme , yeah, he thought, that's her.
"Please," Gus nodded and Harley was back in a matter of moments.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"Yeah. What happened?" he asked.
"You don't remember?"
"Not a whole lot, it was all pretty fast."
"Well someone shot, and it hit your chest. Luckily the bullet fractured and it only skimmed you, but a fragment got lodged in there, so they had to take that out. And when you were a little distracted by the bullet in your chest, one of those guys kicked the gun out of your hand and caught your chin with his boot. You went flying and hit your head," she explained, leaving out the part about the gun aimed at his head.
"Oh god. I'm some hot shot FBI agent, huh?"
"It wasn't your fault," she assured him. "We got the bad guys and everything is fine."
"I'm sorry I brought you into this. I shouldn't have put you in danger," he apologized.
"Gus, you didn't force me to come with you. I made my own decision and it was the right one. I'm fine," she insisted. "You should get some rest," she said as she stood up.
"I’ve rested enough. Don't go," he replied and she sat back down. “How are the girls?”
“They’re both fine. Jacqueline is already home and Alicia is upstairs waiting for her parents.”
“Good,” he smiled. “How are you, honestly?”
“A little shook up and feeling like an idiot,” she replied quietly as she slid her hand over his and threaded their fingers together.
“What? Why?” he asked.
“It’s not important right now,” she said and changed the subject. “Kozlovic and Laroque are in custody. We don’t know the guys who brought Alicia though. It’s not clear if they’re on the Santos payroll or not,” she began but Gus stopped her.
“I don’t want to talk about any of that,” he said as they heard a knock on the door and Captain Lumiere stuck his head in.
Harley left them alone to talk and went out in the hallway and found a nurse so she could ask her a few questions.
"She's something," Lumiere said after Harley left. "She saved your life you know."
"She what?" Gus asked, not sure if he heard him right.
"After you got knocked out, one of the guys aimed his gun at you and she shot it out of his hand. You would probably be dead if it wasn't for her. The rest of us had guns aimed at us after you got shot," he explained and Gus looked out the window at Harley.
"I'm glad you're okay. I wanted to thank you for helping us out. We caught a lot of dangerous criminals last night. Let me know if you need anything," he said before shaking Gus's hand and leaving the room.
Harley came back a few minutes later with a cup of coffee and sat by Gus's bed.
"Did you sleep last night?" he asked her.
"A little bit in here," she answered.
“In that chair?” he asked and she nodded.
“You should sleep. It was a crazy night,” he said.
“I’m okay,” she shook her head.
“What if I make some room for you in here?” he asked and scooted over in the bed.
“Gus…” she blushed.
“Come on, I won’t bite,” he teased and pulled her into the bed next to him.
Harley laid her head back against the pillow and Gus looked over at her as her eyes filled with tears.
“What?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing, I was just so worried about you. I’ve been so stupid lately and I was so afraid I wouldn’t get the chance to make things right.”
“Harley, I’m fine,” he assured her. “There’s nothing you need to make right.”
“Yes, there is. I’m sorry about what happened last night, I mean before the warehouse,” she began.
“Oh. Yeah, you already told me that,” he said quietly.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m sorry for how I treated you. I was pushing you away and then I was going to use you, and I’m sorry. Because you deserve better than that, we…we deserve better than that. Oh Gus…this isn’t really the place where I wanted to talk about this,” she sighed.
“It’s okay. We don’t have to,” he replied as he ran his hand through her hair and pulled her close.
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“I cannot wait to get into a hot shower,” Gus moaned as they walked into their hotel room late that afternoon and he fell onto the bed.
“Then go,” Harley laughed as she grabbed his hand and tried to pull him off the bed.
“I just want to lay here for a little while,” he replied as he pulled her down next to him and they laid in silence for a few minutes.
“Go get your shower, then we’ll get some food from room service. You need to eat,” Harley said as she sat up.
“Are you going to be my nurse?” Gus teased.
“Yes, except for the slutty outfit,” Harley laughed.
“Does that mean I get a sponge bath?” he asked quietly.
“Go.” Harley ordered and Gus dragged himself into the bathroom.
After he got under the hot water, he closed his eyes and let the heat rush over his bare skin. He thought about Harley and the past few hours with her. While they laid in his bed, they didn’t talk about the night before – the hotel room or the warehouse. They didn’t really talk about much at all. They turned on the television and watched some French show that they couldn’t understand, so they made up their own words to it and ended up spending most of the time laughing. It was so different from what their time together usually was like and Gus relished the memory of Harley’s laughter as she laid next to him. Something had changed in Harley from the night before. He wasn’t exactly sure what it meant since they hadn’t had much of a conversation yet, but he thought maybe she was changing her mind about letting him into her life. The past day was such a rollercoaster of events, he didn’t want to push anything, so he decided to let Harley lead and see where she took him. After a few more minutes, he got out of the shower, got dressed and went back into the bedroom where Harley was on the phone.
“I’ll call you tomorrow when we land in Springfield, okay?” Harley said into the phone before she hung up as Gus sat down on the loveseat with a bottle of water.
“Buzz?” he asked when she turned and looked over at him from the edge of the bed.
“Yeah. He’s going to get the boys so they’re at Company when I get there tomorrow,” she answered.
“That will be nice. I know you miss them,” Gus smiled.
“I do,” she nodded and stood up. “Feel better after a shower?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Your turn.”
“I will take you up on that,” she laughed then disappeared into the bathroom.
Gus grabbed the room service menu off of the desk and laid back on the bed looking at it, nothing he saw caught his eye and he realized he didn’t want to eat in the hotel room anyway. They had been in Paris a few days and had only eaten from the cafeteria at the station or from a vendor on the street. He wanted a real dinner in a real restaurant. And he was starting to feel some pain around his wound and wanted to numb it with alcohol instead of painkillers. He waited a few minutes until he was sure Harley was in the shower then went and knocked on the bathroom door before he pushed it open a bit.
“Harley?” he called out over the running water.
“Yeah?”
“Do you mind if we go out for dinner? I just don’t want to eat in the room,” he asked.
“Yeah, if you’re up for it,” she replied.
“I’m up for it if you are,” he said and he heard her laugh softly before he left the bathroom.
He called down to the front desk and asked for suggestions for a nice dinner and then called for a reservation. Dress at the restaurant was more formal than the track pants he had put on after his shower so he changed into black dress pants and a long sleeved burgundy dress shirt, completing the outfit with his signature chains and watch.
He noticed that Harley had taken a pair of pajamas into the bathroom with her, expecting to stay in the room the rest of the night so he opened up the closet and looked through the dresses Harley brought with her. He finally settled on one and took it into the bathroom after knocking and making sure she was still in the shower. He hung it up on the towel rack and snuck back out.
Harley got out of the shower a few minutes later and saw the dress hanging up. She smiled at the thought of Gus picking it out for her to wear and slipped it on after she dried off. She spent the next fifteen minutes fixing her hair and makeup until she was more than satisfied and finally opened the door.
“What do you think?” she asked as she stood in the open doorway.
“I think I made a good choice,” Gus replied as he stood up and walked over to Harley as he looked at her in the black, knee-length halter dress with aqua-colored ombre sunburst print. The halter neckline was trimmed with black that continued as straps that tied around her neck and hung down her back.
“Can you retie this though?” she asked and he nodded as he moved behind her and tied the straps around her neck.
“Better?” he asked and dropped his hands, letting his fingers caress her bare back.
“Thank you,” she said and stepped forward to find shoes to wear.
“We have reservations in thirty minutes so we should get going soon,” Gus said as he got his own shoes on.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“New place, just a few blocks away. The guy at the front desk recommended it. Chez Sydney.”
“Sounds good,” she said as she slipped a pair of strappy sandals on.
“We can get a taxi if you want…”
“No, we can walk. It’s a nice night out,” she said. “I’m ready,” she said after she changed purses.
“Let’s go then,” he smiled and opened the door for her.
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