Happy Birthday, southrnbygrace!!! - Fic: What's Past is Prologue (Necessary Roughness xover, PG-13)

[ultra_fic]

A/N: For my wonderful friend and faithful reader of fic, southrnbygrace, this fic has been in my head for a while in various guises, and I thought what better time to write and post it than in honour of your birthday! I hope you have the most fantastic day, honey, because that's what you deserve, and if you like this crazy fic, so much the better! ;)

Title: What's Past is Prologue
Author: Ultra
Fandoms: Necessary Roughness crossover - the other fandom is a surprise! ;)
Timeline: extended/alternate scene for 2x15 Regret Me Not
Summary: Nico and Dani get to talking about past relationships, with interesting results...
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to the creators of Once Upon A Time and/or Brother Grimm and/or Disney - basically, they don't belong to me!

Dani felt oddly comfortable, sitting here in a bar with Nico. They stopped talking about what might have been a while ago, not that there had been all that much to say then. It had been a good kiss, exactly what Dani needed at the time, but what it really meant in terms of the big picture, she dare not wonder. In her heart of hearts, she told herself she still wanted Matt, but Nico was pretty much her best friend lately, and the first person she turned to in times of strife. She daren’t wonder too much about why that was or how it had come to be.

Nico had done his best for her always, once again this week in trying to track down Ma’s old flame. Dani had a hard time explaining why she never told her mother about the investigation, except to ask if Nico ever had any regrets about the past, specifically about Gabrielle.

“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But y’know Gabrielle wasn’t the only love in my life.”

Dani had made a face at that until the light finally dawned.

“Ah, of course.” she nodded. “You were married,” she recalled from a conversation long ago, in what Nico had called his Tuesday night restaurant.

She had been so stunned to hear him speak of a marriage in front of J.D. Aldridge when she herself had no recollection of ever hearing him mention it before. Now it looked as if she might be about to get the full story, but what Nico said next truly surprised her.

“That was just about the closest I came to ever lying to you,” he admitted with a smirk he couldn’t help, because they both knew he now had to give a full explanation. “I wasn’t actually married. I was engaged, all set to be married, but the night before the wedding... she called it off,” he shrugged.

He made it sound like it was no big deal, but Dani knew that couldn’t be true. As tough and scary as Nico could seem to a stranger, she knew him better. He had said so himself, that she was the only one left who really knew him. Because of that, Dani knew he had a soft centre, a heart that could be broken just like everybody else.

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely, meeting his eyes.

“I’m not,” he assured her with a shake of his head. “I mean, I was then, for a long time after too, but you get over things.”

“I guess,” Dani agreed; after all, she had to get over an actual marriage that had spanned a large portion of her life. “I’d ask if you wanna talk about it, but...”

“What you mean is you want to ask but you’re too polite to actually do it,” Nico smirked annoyingly, knowing he was right.

Dani looked away and tried not to squirm, eventually admitting only to a ‘maybe’. Nico didn’t mind sharing, not with her. Anybody else would be a whole other story, but he trusted Dani, and there was no harm in sharing a little of his ancient history with her now. Taking a sip of his drink, and then a deep breath, he began.

“It was a dozen years ago, at least. Things had got pretty bad between me and the Pittmans. I was trying to break things off with Gabrielle, for good this time, but she was using Juliette like a weapon against me. I had to get away but I knew nowhere was far enough for people like the Pittmans not to follow,” he sighed. “So I changed my name, ended up teaching English in a private school in Wisconsin.”

Dani’s eyes went comically wide as she stared at him, and then narrowed suspiciously as she asked her next question.

“Are you really qualified to teach English?”

“I’m qualified to do a lot of things,” said Nico with a look of his own that demanded no further explanation, and then he smiled. “Yes, it was all above board. I just went by my middle names, my mother’s maiden name, but it was legitimate. Well, as close as possible anyway.”

“So, this fiancee worked at the school?” asked Dani, sipping her own drink.

“No. She was a mom, to one of my students” Nico explained, curious to see how Dani took that news - she didn’t flinch. “Lorelai was... She was fun, and she was beautiful. Crazy as anyone I ever met, but even the complications of her daughter being in my class and everything, it seemed minor compared to what I’d been through with Gabrielle and Marshall,” he said, staring off into some hazy picture of the past as he continued. “I saw a chance to build a new life, me and Lorelai, and her daughter, Rory. I saw a happy ending.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you guys,” said Dani as she watched him take a long drink from his glass.

Nico said he was over this but she knew from experience, her own and her patients’, that it wasn’t quite that simple. Dragging all this up, it reminded a person how they used to feel, how used, how betrayed, how broken. She so wanted to give Nico a hug right now, but was too awkward about it to actually go there.

“Pretty sure guys like me aren’t supposed to get happily ever after,” he said eventually, a philosophical approach that Dani knew well. “The night before the wedding, I got a call. She couldn’t go through with it,” he explained. “She didn’t really say why then, and when we met again, almost a year later, she tried to explain, but...” he shook his head and turned to look at Dani again. “Honestly, she did us both a favour. We fought a lot in the beginning. I stupidly thought marriage was going to fix that. It was a dumb decision.”

It still hurt him. Dani could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Two great loves in Nico’s life and they had trampled all over him, it seemed, Gabrielle and Lorelai both. Dani knew how that felt.

“But you still loved her,” she said, not really meaning for it to be anything more than a thought in her head, but suddenly it was out there and too late to take back.

“Yes, I did,” Nico nodded, “and sometimes I wonder where she is now, what she’s doing, how Rory turned out, but I have no regrets,” he said definitely then. “In the end, we probably would’ve destroyed each other, no matter how much we actually cared,” he explained. “We wanted different things. We needed different things.”

Dani opened her mouth to speak and stopped short of actually doing so. Hearing Nico talk about what people wanted and needed, it threw up memories of sitting in her office, him telling her she kissed him out of need and he kissed her out of a want to do so. It also made her think of Matt, how they didn’t want or need the same things out of life. Her heart twisted and she bit her lip trying to reconcile the mess of feelings inside. Eventually when she did speak, she deliberately changed the subject.

“So, is that why you came back eventually? Because of Lorelai?” she checked.

“Yes and no,” Nico told her. “I travelled around for a while, taught in some other places, but nowhere really felt like home. When Marshall eventually tracked me down, which I guess I should’ve known he would,” he smirked, “he convinced me to come back here, be his eyes and ears with the Hawks. So, here I am.”

“Wow,” said Dani as she pushed her empty glass aside. “That’s quite the tale.”

“I suppose,” he agreed. “So, Ray was the only guy for you?” asked Nico then, feeling it was fair enough to turn the tables now after all he had just shared.

“Since high school, yeah,” Dani agreed.

“And now, it’s Matt?” he asked next, the question apparently startling her into an impression of a landed trout. “I’m sorry, I’m prying,” he back-pedalled immediately.

It wasn’t really fair to make her uncomfortable, even though it seemed to be the only way to make her face up to anything lately, especially where relationships were concerned.

“No, you’re not prying,” she told him, immediately changing her mind when she saw the look he was sending her way. “Yeah, okay, you are prying, but I pried first,” she rolled her eyes, then let out a heavy sigh. “Honestly? I don’t know about me and Matt anymore. I mean, we had good reasons to break up. Like you and Lorelai, we probably would’ve destroyed each other in the end,” she admitted, staring into her empty glass that she had now pulled closer again, just so she had something to do with her hands. “I couldn’t give him what he needed, so I guess it’s better that it’s over, but...”

“But being lonely doesn’t appeal,” Nico finished for her, sure that was the problem.

The sad smile she cast his way said that was exactly what bothered her. She had always assumed Nico was happy being alone, though she wondered how anyone really could be. Lately she had come to realise how much he seemed to need a friend, and that was what she had become. Whether they would ever became more than that, she couldn’t be sure.

“I don’t think being lonely is really something you need to worry about, Dani,” he told her seriously.

Dani didn’t doubt what he meant by that, and blushed accordingly.

“Get out of here,” she told him, slapping him across the arm.

“I’m serious,” he assured her, waiting until she looked at him again. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, great sense of humour, and you don’t take crap from anybody, not even me,” he smiled, eyes staring into her own. “You have no reason to be lonely, Dani.”

Neither of them were sure when their voices got so soft or when they’d drifted this close together. When Nico invited Dani for a drink it was to commiserate over her mother’s ex-love being done for this world, maybe offer some sympathy for her own dead-in-the-water love life. He hadn’t meant to get into his own dating history. He certainly hadn’t planned on getting this close to kissing her again.

For her part, Dani was having one too many flashbacks to think straight. As if being this close to Nico didn’t conjure up enough thoughts and feelings from reality, her recent sexy dreams mixed into it were not helping in the least. She needed to look away, to not let this happen, but it was difficult to remember why right now.

“You, er... You want another drink?” she asked, swallowing hard, meaning to tear her eyes away from Nico’s intense gaze - in didn’t work.

“No,” he answered her question softly, right before he gave in and kissed her.

It was different to the last time, not as desperate and needy. It was true enough that they did need each other, but they also wanted each other too. Dani dare not even think of the word love right now, but she cared deeply for Nico, and was certain by now he felt the same. In this moment of heated passion came an understanding, a feeling of the strangest clarity. Suddenly they both knew he did deserve a happy ending, and she wouldn’t be lonely, not now or ever again, because they had each other.

The End

Comments

[southrnbygrace.livejournal.com]

I swear we share a brain. Over the weekend, I tried to get the time to come online and ask if you'd thought about writing a GG/NR crossover fic!!! And voila!! There it is! It was as amazing as everything you write always is. Thanks a bunch!! *hugs*

[ultra_fic]

If we shared a brain I think life would be a bit more complicated than it is right now :P lol But I know what you mean, hon. We're like brain twins maybe? (Somebody used the phrase to me once, and I like it! lol)

I'm so happy you like this. I couldn't think of anyone who might appreciate it as much as I would myself, 'cept for you *hugs*

Hope you're having a fab birthday, honey!! :D