The Winter Quintet
AUTHOR: Lucky.
DISCLAIMER: Except for the creations of the author, all characters, characterizations, situations, and locations described in this unsolicited and not-for-profit work of fiction are the property of ABC Television, Capitol Cities, Inc., Steven Bochco Productions, the many talented people who created the world of NYPD Blue, and the actors who have made that world such a lively place. The author would also like to extend her personal gratitude to Mr. Scott Cohen for his light, his vitality, his inspiration, and for being such a compelling muse. Thank you, sir.
FEEDBACK: To Lucky
"Yeah� yeah� Locked in the car� In front of the station house� Right� right� No, I won't be needing anything in the car tonight� Yeah� That's fine� Fine. Thank you."
Diane smiled quietly to herself, watching the snow fall past her living room window as Harry finished his conversation with NYPD Property.
Won't be needing anything? Like your housekey, maybe, Harry?
He turned, hanging up the phone. "I know what you're thinking, but�"
Diane laughed and stepped away from the window, brushing lightly past him on the way to the refrigerator. "I'm sure you think you do, Denby."
"What?" he said, letting a little teasing note fall into his voice. "What? What did I miss?" He tagged after her, following her like a puppy into the kitchen.
She ignored him as best she could, rooting around the collection of plastic boxes and half-empty containers, taking stock of what she had to feed him with. "O-o-okay� what do you want?"
He cleared his throat in response, sounding suspiciously too-close.
She dropped a second, then, "To eat, Harry."
"I'm not hungry, thank you."
She sighed a little and straightened, stepping back to swing the refrigerator door shut, and putting her back squarely against his chest as she did.
"Harry�"
"Diane�"
"Step back."
"Step forward."
"This is my kitchen."
"You walked into me."
"This is a really stupid conversation."
"Yes, we do seem to have a lot of those."
Diane shook her head, unable to keep the smile off her face, and elbowed him in the stomach. He gave a little grunt and stepped back, but not before upping the ante.
"Ooh. Foreplay."
"Trust me, Harry, when it's foreplay, you'll know the difference." The words echoed in her head in the silence Harry gave her. She leaned her hands against the counter for a moment, then turned to level a finger at him. "And don't even start."
Harry stuck his hands in his pockets and flirted his eyes at her. "That was silence, Diane. When I start talking, you'll know the difference."
She folded her arms. "Start talking, Denby? How would you know? You never stop."
He cracked a grin and waved a finger at her. "So this is foreplay, right?"
Diane buried her face in her hands and muffled a groan against them. "You're incorrigible. You know that?"
"And that's just one of my many finer attributes."
She looked at his smile through her fingers, keeping her own covered. "Prick."
He cocked his head back and assumed a scholarly look. "So where, exactly, does `incorrigibility' fall on your list of things you want in a man?"
"Somewhere between a wife and a third nipple." She dropped her hands and turned to rifle aimlessly through her cupboards. "And what is it with you and lists, anyway? I've wanted to know that one for a while."
"Just a framework," he replied, his voice coming close against her back again. "You can't find what you want unless you know what you're looking for."
Diane pulled a box of animal crackers down from the top shelf of the cupboard, feeling his eyes run over every inch of the stretch she made. She set the box down on the counter in front of her and turned to face him, finding him practically on top of her again. She planted the heels of her hands on the counter behind her and didn't miss that he placed his fingertips beside them, between her hands and her hips, as she spoke.
"So what's on the `Things I'm Looking For In A Mate' list for Harry Denby?"
"Brown eyes and dumb friends," he deadpanned.
She narrowed her eyes at him playfully. "You are just a screaming prick, you know that?"
He smiled. "Didn't I tell you this would be fun?"
She gave another groaning sigh and grabbed her box of cookies, bumping his wrist with her hip. He straightened up and let her walk back into the living room, straight on her heels. She popped open the cookie box and dug out an elephant.
Looking at the animal for a moment, she came to a quick stop. As she expected, Harry bumped into her backside. She put the cookie over her shoulder and said, "Here. This one should be big enough." His tongue fluttered over her fingertips as he took the cookie from her and she couldn't help but shiver a little.
Then he crunched right in her ear.
"Oh, ew." She giggled and turned a little to push at him. "Do that somewhere else."
"Ew?" he echoed, swallowing. "Here I am graciously restraining my urge to pin you to the floor and all I get is `ew'?"
She twisted again to wrinkle her nose at him. "Ewww."
His brows jumped a little. "Na�vet� what a turn-on."
Diane gave a heavy sigh and threw another animal cracker at him. "Here. Keep that thing busy before I fling you out a window."
He chuckled and fumbled a little with the cookie before he caught it. "So we have incorrigible and aerodynamic. What else?"
"How about quiet?"
Harry tossed the cookie up into the air and caught it in his mouth, then leveled his smile at her with a wink and murmured around his mouthful, "Not in this lifetime, love."
She sighed again and waved a hand at her couch. "Could we at least go for seated?" She watched as he plopped himself down on the couch without comment.
For all he runs his mouth, he certainly is obedient.
She sat down on the cushion next to his and folded a leg beneath her, setting the cookies down between them. He cocked his arm up over the back of the couch and smiled a little.
"Scoot over," he said softly.
Her brow crossed for a second, but she lifted her weight and scooted herself back. He chuckled and shook his head.
"The other way."
She tossed her hair a little and gave him a sheepish smile as she filled the space between them on the couch. "I'm sorry. I thought you meant�"
"What would ever make you think," he began, bringing his hand up over the back of the couch to play with a burgundy-brown curl, "that I don't want you as close as humanly possible?" He took the box of cookies out of her lap and set it on the floor at his feet. She looked into his eyes in silence, watching the winter light streaming in through the window come back to her as spring.
Every time I look, he's new.
His smile came up around his eyes. "I asked you a question, Detective."
Diane pressed her lips together for a moment, then bit back in a gentle voice. "I've asked you a lot of questions that you didn't answer. What were you expecting?"
Before her entire thought caught the air, he'd turned and pressed his chin into his palm with a resigned grin. "Oh, here we go." He turned back to her with a `can I help you, lady' look and laced his fingers together above his chest. "Okay, Diane. Bring it."
She had honestly not been expecting him to offer her answers and was truly lost for an immediate question. After a moment of mouth- flapping, she asked the only thing she could think of.
"Who are you?"
He pointed his eyes up and to the right. "Arthur Harold Denby the�" he thought for a second, "� I think we're up to four, now." Giving her a bright grin, he concluded. "Next question."
"So you go by your middle name?"
"Mm-hm."
"Why?"
"So we can tell who Mom is mad at."
Diane chuckled. "But you're out, now. You could go by Arthur."
His brow crossed in pain as if she'd suckerpunched him. "Smile when you say that."
Diane giggled outright this time, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth for a moment. "But if it's your name�"
"That's just the point," he interrupted. "It's not my name. It's my father's name. And before that it was his father's name. And before that it was his father's name." Harry glanced across the room with a bitter little smile. "I guess undercover police work is kind of fitting for someone who isn't who he is."
Diane slid her hand up against his cheek, drawing his eyes back to hers. "Then who are you?"
He smiled. "Just another work in progress."
Diane returned his smile. "Fair enough." She dropped her hand onto his knee. "Next question� when were you born?"
"November ninth, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty seven."
"Which would make you�" Diane chugged away at the math for a second, but Harry supplied her with the information.
"Thirty three."
Diane grinned. "I was going to say a Scorpio, but thank you."
Harry chuckled for a moment, then said, "What about you?" He put his hand up at her. "Don't tell me� Capricorn."
"How did you guess?"
"Caprans are ambitious, prudent, patient� but they have a tendency to look for the worst in people."
Diane cringed. "Is it that obvious?"
"Who are you talking to?" He lifted his brows pointedly.
She dropped her gaze. "Yeah, okay. You're right." Returning her gaze to his, she repeated herself. "I'm still sorry."
"Shh� baby." He brought his hand up to cup her face for just a moment. "It wasn't like there wasn't plenty to find."
Diane nodded dreamily, thinking. "Scorpio."
"Come again?"
"Scorps are secretive people."
Harry heaved a sigh, glancing across the room again. "Secretive and pigheaded, obsessive, resentful, jealous�"
Diane cut him off. "Exiting, determined, intuitive, passionate�"
He arched a brow delicately at her. "Sounds like a pretty fun guy to me. Let me know when you meet him."
Diane grinned. "Why?"
"So I can beat the tar out of him."
"Harry!" she bitched at him, flapping a hand at his chest. He laughed gently and coiled his fingers around her wrist, capturing her.
"Do you manhandle everyone like this or am I the only one who has the pleasure?"
She jerked at his arm half-heartedly, not really wanting to get away, just wanting to give him a fight. "You're the only one who makes me so mad."
He pulled her arm up, putting her hand behind his head and drawing her face up to his. "Mad as in angry or mad as in crazy?"
His words slid warm and teasing over her mouth and she was forced to wait for the butterflies to land again before she could answer him. "Both." The light outside was getting long and she could see the splash of blue in his eyes again as he searched her. He started speaking again and she realized he was reciting.
"The angel has brown eyes
like the unspent warmth of a summer morning
and the untouched depth of a forest afternoon
and unkept breadth of love at midnight.
The angel has brown eyes
and sees me not.
The angel sees only the light."
Slowly, he released her hand, but she refused to take it back, setting it instead on his shoulder, staying close. He closed his eyes and leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers, letting her feel his brow crumple as he whispered.
"Please love me. I don't think I can do this anymore without you."
"Shh�" She brought her hand around his neck, pressing her fingertips to his lips, feeling him press his kiss to her fingertips in return.
It's time now. It's time to go back and start again. It's time to put right what you never should have let go wrong�
Diane gathered a breath, but couldn't even make a whisper of her words as they came out.
"I love you."
He trembled almost imperceptibly beneath her touch and she felt his arms slide around her as he lifted his head a little to look into her eyes, looking straight into her soul again.
"So it's you and me, then?" His voice was hushed, excited, frightened, and he looked as though he were about to laugh�
Or cry.
She nodded slowly, closing her eyes and offering him the only reassurance she could in the space before a kiss.
"Always."
Continued in Part 3.
