- Steeling Hearts 1/1
Date: Thursday, February 07, 2008
- "Lori" <LJLanham@gmail.com>
-
- This is my Valentine's Day offering...
thought I'd put it out a little
early. Instead of writing a traditional "Valentine's Day"
piece, I
thought we'd just go for a romantic one. This is an "alternate"
version
of "Hearts of Steele" in the "what if" style.
It's mostly a between the
scenes companion piece to one of my favorite S1 episodes.
-
- Thanks to Lea, Brenda and Susan
for your input and insight. As always,
and in this case more than usual... thanks to the incredible
Michael
Gleason and crew for the use of their amazing characters and
story.
-
- Permission to archive.
-
- Steeling Hearts
-
- ***A "what-if" alternate
version of "Hearts of Steele"
that supposes the time frame between episodes is several weeks.***
-
- He shook his head as they walked
across the green. It drove him crazy
that she always felt the need to "instruct" him, especially
now.
They'd spent a leisurely morning together at his apartment. He'd
served her breakfast in bed even as she gave him the rules for
this
afternoon's assignment, and now she was laying out the rules
yet
again.
-
- "Now remember, whatever happens
it's imperative that we stay
together," she said.
-
- "Peppler," he complained.
"Peppler. Bob and Judy
Peppler?"
-
- "What's the matter with Bob
and Judy Peppler?"
-
- "I'm sorry, but it's bad enough
to be asked to be a
`Bob,' but to add insult to injury with Peppler…"
-
- "It's too late," she said.
"Malcolm Marcall is one of
the most famous divorce attorneys in the country and he's expecting
Pepplers. Married ones. Besides, there's nothing wrong with it.
I'm a Peppler. She's a Peppler. We're a Peppler. They're
a Peppler. Wouldn't ya like to be a Peppler, too? Oh come on….
- Where's your sense of humor?"
-
- "I'm wearing it. Must one truly
parade around in loud pants to
play this game?"
-
- She smiled at his frustration.
-
- "Wouldn't want anybody to mistake
you for a tree, now would
we?"
-
- "Ho-ho-ho," annoyed, he
feigned laughter.
-
- "Malcolm!" she called
out as she saw their client.
-
- "Judy!" Malcolm Marcall
greeted as he approached them. "Bob.
My wife, Loretta. This is Bob and Judy Peppler, the couple I
told you
about."
-
- "Oh not you, two" Mrs.
Marcall said to them. "You're not
really considering divorce, are you?"
-
- Malcolm laughed nervously. "Now
Retta, we're here to play
golf."
-
- ----------
-
- Laura was livid that Remington had
agreed to "play through" with
the client, leaving her behind with Mrs. Marcall. By the time
the four
of them met up at the clubhouse, she was silently fuming but
she
wouldn't show it. She'd let her "partner" have it later
but for now, she plastered on a smile and followed Loretta into
the bar.
-
- "Did it," Mrs. Marcall
said as she approached her husband.
- "Broke one-fifty."
-
- "That's my girl," Malcolm
said.
-
- "How did you do, dear,"
Laura asked, wrapping her arm around
Remington's waist.
-
- "Oh, just peachy, darling,"
he answered.
-
- "Oh, I can't wait to hear all
about it."
-
- ----------
-
- "Really Laura," Remington
called out from the living room.
"Either you trust me or you don't."
-
- "What is THAT supposed to mean?"
-
- She appeared in the bedroom doorway,
pulling a sweater over her head.
She really didn't want to repeat their shouting match from the
country club parking lot. She was hoping to enjoy the rest of
the
weekend. She'd really begun looking forward to the weekends.
Ever
since she and her Mr. Steele had become intimate---after their
case at
the sleep clinic---they had quietly spent their weekends together.
She
tried to keep work out of their relationship, just as she tried
to keep
their relationship out of work. Murphy and Bernice were still
in the
dark about this aspect of their relationship and she meant to
keep it
that way.
-
- "You let me go undercover with
you, but then you get angry when I
get involved with the case," he said with a raised voice.
-
- "Investigating is not your
job!" she shouted back.
-
- "Then why take me on assignment?"
-
- "I'm sorry," she said
sarcastically. "It's Saturday
and I had to meet with a client. I didn't want to let work ruin
our
weekend. Would you rather Murphy pose as my husband?"
-
- "Of course not," he answered,
his voice softening. He reached
out to pull her to him and kissed her deeply. "It just gets
rather
confusing. Am I on the case? Am I not on the case?" He kissed
her
again. "You trust me with your body, you're beginning to
trust
me with your heart, but you can't trust me with your business?"
-
- He was right. It was something she'd
been struggling with these last
several weeks. She didn't regret crossing the imaginary line
she'd drawn at the bedroom door. After they'd sent Ivan and Dr.
Lindstrom on their way that night, they'd enjoyed a brandy in
front
of the fireplace as they had so many times before, but it felt
different. It felt warmer, his kisses were sweeter. He looked
so
vulnerable in his sleepy state that when he said "Stay with
me,
Laura," she couldn't resist. She didn't want to. Things
had
been going well since then. She loved being with him. She enjoyed
the
feeling of falling in love---and that IS what she was doing.
She
hadn't told Murphy and Bernice. She liked that she and Remington
had
their own little secret. She tried to include him more at work.
But he
was right, she didn't really let him work on their cases and
she
wasn't sure she wanted to. But when she needed to go undercover
with
a husband or a lover, it was always Mr. Steele by her side much
to
Murphy's chagrin.
-
- "I don't want to talk about
Malcolm Marcall," she said.
"We have all night…" She kissed him. "…And
all day
tomorrow before we put your plan into action."
-
- "I can't argue with that logic,
Miss Holt," he said, pulling
her close. His mouth claimed hers in a long, promise-filled kiss
and
soon all thoughts of the case were quickly forgotten.
-
- ----------
-
- Remington pondered the situation
as Fred pulled the limo up in front of
- Laura's house. He couldn't leave
her alone in this condition,
but there was no way Murphy was going to leave him alone with
her.
-
- "Thank you, Fred," he
said to the driver. "We'll be
right back."
-
- Holding Laura up between them, he
and Murphy made their way to the front
door. Remington nearly reached into his pocket for the key,
but thought
better of it when he saw Murphy looking at him.
-
- "Where is her bag?" he
asked.
-
- "It must be in the car,"
Murphy said, "I'll go get
it."
-
- He returned with her purse and fished
out her keys, which Remington used
to open the door and then dropped in his pocket.
-
- Once inside the house, Remington
and Murphy carried Laura back to her
bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Murphy sat down beside
her and
began taking off her shoes while Remington picked up the throw
blanket
from the rocking chair by the door.
-
- "What are you doing?"
Remington asked.
-
- "Taking off her shoes,"
Murphy said. "She can't sleep in
them."
-
- He was right, but Murphy wouldn't
be helping her off with anything
else. Remington had a strange feeling that could best be called
jealousy. He didn't like seeing Murphy undress her; even it was
only
her shoes.
-
- "Here we go," Remington
said, pushing Murphy aside as he covered
her with the blanket. He'd wake her and make sure she was
comfortable after he got rid of Murphy.
-
- "I don't like leaving her like
this," Murphy said as
Remington ushered him out of the bedroom and closed the door.
-
- "She'll be fine," Remington
said. "She'll have a
nasty headache in the morning, but she'll be fine."
-
- Murphy watched as Remington locked
the front door with Laura's keys
and again dropped them in his pocket. Seeing Murphy's look, he
said,
"I'll drive her car home from the office and come pick her
up in
the morning."
-
- Murphy nodded. He didn't like it,
but it made sense.
-
- After Fred dropped them off at the
office, Remington picked up his dry
cleaning from his office and made sure Murphy had gone before
taking the
Rabbit back to Laura's house.
-
- Quietly, he unlocked the door, went
in and locked it back again before
making his way to the bedroom. As he was hanging his suit on
the closet
door, Laura began to stir.
-
- "Mr. Steele?" she said
softly.
-
- "Yes, Laura," he said,
brushing the hair back from her face as
he sat down beside her.
-
- "I don't feel so good."
-
- "I know, love," he soothed.
-
- He helped her get up and change
into her nightclothes and put her back
to bed. He climbed into bed beside her and she snuggled up to
him as
they both fell asleep.
-
- ----------
-
- In the morning, Laura was cranky
and irritable and she had a splitting
headache.
-
- "Why didn't you give me any
aspirin?" she said as she sat at
the table and he set down a cup of coffee in front of her.
-
- "I'm sorry," he said as
he went about making Daniel's
patented hangover remedy. "I was concerned with getting
Murphy out
of here so I could get you comfortable."
-
- "Murphy was here?" she
exclaimed with wide eyes and then drew
her hand to her head. "Ow."
-
- He explained to her how she showed
up at the office three sheets to the
wind and Murphy refused to allow him to accompany her home.
-
- "So what did you do?"
she asked as he handed her his thick green
concoction. "What IS this?"
-
- "The cure for what ails you,"
he said. "Drink. I went back
to the office with Murphy, picked up my suit and your car and
came back
here."
-
- "And put me to bed properly,"
she said with a smile.
-
- "As properly as possible with
someone in your condition," he
answered.
-
- "Thank you," she said.
She kissed his cheek as she got up from
the table, and he was happy that her mood seemed to be improving.
-
- They were back to square one as
soon as she got outside in the sunlight.
- Her head was still pounding and
she grumbled as she climbed into the
passenger's seat of her car.
-
- ----------
-
- "Wine?" he asked as he
sat down at the dinner table.
-
- "None for me thanks,"
she said. "I think I had enough at
lunch today. I don't know how those ladies do it."
-
- "Do what?" he asked. "Drink
like fishes?"
-
- "No," she said with a
smile, "but that, too. I just
don't know how they go on. They're all so bitter…"
she let
her thought hang there. She did know how they carried on. She'd
been
through it herself. Her thoughts drifted to Wilson and how she'd
felt when he left. Bitter didn't begin to cover it. But there
WAS
one thing she didn't understand. "But they blame Malcolm
for
everything."
-
- "Which is quite a shame,"
he said. "Marcall really is a
rather nice chap. And the irony of it is that he hates divorce
law.
He's ready to retire; he's even bought a place in the
desert."
-
- "Really?" she asked, taking
a bite of her dessert.
- "That's interesting. How did
you know that?"
-
- "He told me."
-
- "When?"
-
- "Monday," he answered.
"At the courthouse… right after
you took a swing at us."
-
- "And you didn't tell me?"
-
- "Laura," he said. "I
can't possibly be expected to
remember to tell you every little thing."
-
- "Yes…you…can…"
she said deliberately, trying very hard
to restrain her anger. "Especially if it's relevant to the
case.
THIS is why you don't work cases!"
-
- "So we're back to that again,
eh?"
-
- "I guess so," she said,
setting her fork down. She stood up,
dropped her napkin on the table and walked over to the sofa to
pick up
her purse and jacket.
-
- "So I guess this means you're
not spending the night," he
said, attempting to coax a smile.
-
- He was rewarded instead with a glare.
-
- "I'm going to the hospital
to see Mrs. Marcall in the
morning," she said. "I'll see you at the office."
-
- ----------
-
- "Oh, I did it again, didn't
I Murph?" she said.
-
- "What's that?"
-
- "I came down on him a bit hard."
-
- "You're asking me, Laura?"
Murphy said. "I'm one of
those people who believe with all my heart that you can't be
too
rich, you can't be too thin and you just can't come down too
hard on that guy… but yeah, I think you did."
-
- Laura winced. If Murphy felt that
way, then it was probably worse than
she thought. Why did she always let her mouth get away from her
like
that?
-
- Sure she was still angry with him
for not telling her about his
conversation with Marcall, but he was right about getting involved
with
their cases. She couldn't have it both ways.
-
- She'd make it up to him this weekend.
-
- ----------
-
- When they left the Marcalls' Laura
managed with some difficulty to
get Remington up to his apartment.
-
- She took him into his room and helped
him change into his pajamas, also
with some difficulty as he was more interested in getting her
out of her
clothes than in getting in to his.
-
- She kept thinking of him earlier
that night in the office.
-
- *"I rather enjoyed being a
Peppler… shame about the divorce
…. They're so good together, those two…"*
-
- "We are," she said to
herself.
-
- She went to get him a glass of water
and some aspirin. When she returned
to the bedroom, he was out cold. Smiling, she leaned over to
kiss his
forehead. She set the glass of water on his nightstand along
with the
aspirin. She pulled the covers up around him and leaned in again.
This
time, she placed a gentle kiss against his lips.
-
- She wanted to stay and take care
of him as he had when she was in much
the same condition, but she couldn't. Not until she'd made
things right between them.
-
- Leaving the room, she paused in
the doorway.
-
- "Goodnight, Mr. Steele,"
she said as she turned out the light
and closed the door behind her.
-
- ----------
-
- "Handsome shot, Mrs. Peppler."
-
- She looked up at him and smiled.
She rather enjoyed being a Peppler,
too.
-
- "What do you say we get out
of here?" Laura suggested.
-
- "Why Laura, what have you got
in mind?"
-
- "I don't know," she said
coyly. "Something a little less
… public?"
-
- "I like the way you think,
Mrs. Peppler."
-
- She rolled her eyes.
-
- "Come on."
-
- ----------
-
- "You know," Laura said,
tracing lazy circles on his chest.
"That was a really good idea you had to go to each of our
suspects
with that wine."
-
- "For all the good it did,"
he said as he pulled her close to
him. His kissed her temple.
-
- Try as she might to keep business
out of their personal life and
especially out of the bedroom, she couldn't get this case out
of her
head.
-