alexandralyman

[alexandralyman]

Falling into bed with an assassin

#dave york #has ruined me

[alexandralyman]

Grounded

(Frankie Morales/OFC/Javier Pena)

For my partner in crime, @meanderingcaptainswanmusings - a very belated birthday fic featuring Javier, Frankie, and the lucky OFC who gets stuck with them in an abandoned cartel safehouse for the night. Whatever will the three of them do to pass the time?

(hint: they're going to do her. this is porn wrapped in some semblance of plot. all 11,000 words of it)

Rating: E

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50894950

grounded

“We’re leaving. Now.”

Agent Peña practically spat the words, hands planted firmly on his hips and standing almost toe-to-toe with his opponent in the argument that had been going on for the better part of an hour now to an audience of one. As if on cue, immediately following the words there was a clap of thunder from outside that was so loud it made her teeth rattle, and the machine-gun retort of the rain started up again.

“No we are fucking not!”

Captain Morales almost had to yell to be heard over the downpour, his arms crossed over his chest and his easy smile replaced with a heavy scowl. “I don’t know about you, Peña, but I sure as shit don’t have a goddamn death wish. Trying to take off now would be suicide.”

They glared at each other some more, two stubborn mules practically pawing the ground and breathing hot out of their noses. She almost expected them to start head-butting each other. Neither one backed down in the silent stare-off until Agent Peña finally said, “We’ll take a vote then. Majority rules.”

Two heads immediately swiveled to look at her then, the third person on this failed mission and therefore the tiebreaker who would make the decision to stay or to go. Two pairs of dark eyes as thunderous as the storm outside fixed on her face and she could practically feel each of them silently willing her, “Pick me.” As fellow DEA, she should be on Agent Peña’s side, as someone who also didn’t have a death wish, she was leaning more towards Captain Morales.

Peña was going to be pissed, but everyone in the agency knew that was his natural state anyway and she was no exception.

“I’m with Morales,” she said at last, gaze sliding away from the betrayal on Peña’s face. “He’s the pilot, if he says it’s not safe we should do what he says and wait.”

“Ha!” Captain Morales crowed, moving to stand next to her. “Thank you, Agent, that’s exactly right, you should do what I say. And I say we stay right here. Majority rules, right, Peña?”

Agent Javier Peña had the look of a man who knew he’d lost but was unable to admit defeat. Without saying a word he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and jammed it into his mouth before stalking off without a backwards glance. Not that he could go very far in the two-roomed house with rain coming down so hard outside that it was enough to wash away any sin and leave you stripped bare and clean as the day you were born.

“Dick,” Morales said to the retreating back, rolling his eyes. If Peña heard him, and he must have, he didn’t stop. Once he’d disappeared into the other room Morales pulled off his baseball cap and raked his fingers through his hair, still wet from when he went outside earlier to check on the condition of the runway. He’d already shed his tactical vest and the shirt underneath was damp too, clinging to his broad shoulders and plastered to his chest. She admired the view, considering there was fuck all else to do at the moment. The raid was a bust, the rain had made both leaving and communications impossible, and she hadn’t exactly brought along a book to pass the time. Outside there was nothing but dense Colombian jungle in all directions for miles and the pounding against the ramshackle building grew even louder, it had to be absolutely pouring out there. The weather had turned on a dime and turned on them, from clear skies to a Biblical deluge in a matter of moments.

“We’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Morales answered her unspoken question while attempting to wring out the hem of his shirt and revealing a sliver of bare stomach over the waistband of his jeans in the process. She admired that too. It wasn’t very professional of her, but after almost two years of undercover work where she had to give up everything, her name, her friends, her family, her whole life, in pursuit of the greater good, she wasn’t going to turn herself into HR over some harmless ogling. Captain Francisco Morales was a good-looking man and she was a DEA agent, not a nun.

“If you say so,” she said, giving him a little two-fingered salute. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

He chuckled at that, looking amused instead of his earlier annoyance. Peña’s absence probably helped.

“We’re basically off the clock now. Please, call me Frankie.”

The request was accompanied by a wink. She hadn’t known Morales long, but it was enough to know he was a bit of a flirt. Not in a gross way, though, and nothing she couldn’t handle, as a woman stationed in Colombia surrounded by men who viewed flirting as much the national sport alongside tejo.

“Well then, Frankie,” she drawled back, dragging the name out. “I guess I’m stuck with you, huh?”

His smile grew wider, as if being stuck in an abandoned cartel safehouse in the pouring rain for God only knew how long with her (and Javier Peña, a little voice in her mind helpfully reminded her) was exactly where he wanted to be.

“Lucky me,” he said.

Lucky her.

********

The cigarette did absolutely nothing to calm the rage that was simmering under his skin, threatening to boil over like an unattended pot left on the stove. It burned right down to his fingers in only a few deep inhales, leaving behind a long, unbroken snake of ash that fell to the floor in one piece. He ground it out under his boot, the dark smear matching his darker mood.

Javier swore under his breath and lit another, swearing even louder when he burned his thumb on the lighter thanks to his own carelessness. He blew out a lungful of smoke and stuck the thumb in his mouth, trying to suck away the pain like a small child coming down from a tantrum, a comparison that was probably a bit too apt at the moment. As much as he hated to admit it, Morales had been right. It was clearly too dangerous to try to take off in such bad weather, no matter how much he wanted to run away from this utter clusterfuck of a mission.

His utter clusterfuck.

The intel had been good, he would have bet his damn badge on it. A cartel safehouse hidden deep in the jungle that was only accessible by plane, used to stash drugs, guns, cash, anything they wanted to keep away from both the DEA and their competitors. He’d received the go ahead after some lobbying⸺aka being a giant pain in the ass about it until he received grudging permission⸺to put together a strike team and conduct a raid. Warrants had been signed, equipment requisitioned, all requiring even later than usual late nights at the office and careful planning to ensure the cartel didn’t catch wind of it and clear out beforehand. A team of three, the maximum that would fit in a plane small enough to land on the makeshift runway hand-carved from the underbrush like a scar carved into the cheek of a snitch. Two DEA agents, and a pilot who could also handle a gun, just in case. That meant borrowing one from the military through some backdoor channels.

Captain Francisco Morales, call sign “Catfish”, of all things, was the pilot. He’d flown them to the painstakingly acquired coordinates and landed on the barely visible runway, lining up the Cracker Jack prize of a plane with clear skill and a baseball metaphor about sliding into home at the bottom of the ninth. Javier had mostly ignored him, too focused on the sight of a building that had been hidden under the tree canopy, right where his informant had said it would be. The safehouse. He’d taken the point position once they exited the plane, all sweating under their tactical gear, guns drawn, running through every possible scenario of what lay behind the rusty door except for the two things they’d actually found.

Jack, and squat.

The house had been empty, no drugs, no guns, no cash. All that was left were some marks scored deep in the floor where things had clearly been moved in haste, an empty shipping crate, and a scattered deck of cards that must have been used to kill time along with a dog-eared porn mag that Morales poked with the toe of his boot, both eyebrows raised under his decidedly not military-issue baseball cap.

“Looks like we missed all the fun,” the pilot had said, clearly bemused by the whole situation.

Javier had grit his teeth so hard he could still feel the ache in his jaw even now, like someone had socked him one. Clearly all that meticulous planning and late nights had been for fuck all, the house had been emptied of anything useful unless they wanted to play Go Fish or jerk off to Miss September and while he definitely wanted to throttle something at the moment, it wasn’t that.

Then the rain had started.

Morales had bolted outside as soon as they heard the first drop hit the roof and when he came back in again with water dripping from the brim of his hat he insisted it was too dangerous to take off again until the weather cleared and they would just have to wait until then, however long it took. Javier had argued with him about it for over an hour, more out of annoyance at the failed bust than actual disagreement. If Murphy were here he would probably have his own completely unhelpful opinion to add, but his usual partner was stateside at the moment so he had to bring in another agent instead on the op who was now an eyewitness to what was sure to be the talk of the DEA when they returned empty-handed. Javier Peña tilting at another windmill, the Don Quixote of Colombia.

He didn’t know if not having Steve here to serve as his Sancho was better, or worse.

The agent he’d chosen had done a stint undercover and knew the cartel, understood how they operated as well as anyone at the agency. Better than most at the agency, the paper-pushers who never left their cubicles and clocked out every day at five on the dot. Undercover assignments were dangerous for any agent, and even more so for a woman. He’d brought her in because he was genuinely impressed with her work every time one of her reports crossed his desk and wanted her insight, despite what anyone else might think about why he’d handpicked her specifically. Like all undercover agents she was only referred to by a code name within the agency in case of moles or leaks, never her real name or the false identity she was given. One was “Lobo”, the wolf, one was “Escorpión”, the scorpion, it went without saying that both of them were men. Hers was Cariño, a backhanded compliment to demean her accomplishments in the field by reducing her to nothing more than what a girlfriend or mistress would be called. Darling. Sweetheart. Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Cariño.

Javier never thought he’d wish he was stuck in the jungle for who the fuck knew how long with Steve Murphy, but that thorn in his side of a partner would be far preferable at the moment to a woman who’d more than held her own against the cartel for so long and wore her code name as a badge of honour instead of an insult. If Murphy had taken Morales’s side over his, sure, he would have been pissed, but there wouldn’t have been the sudden churn of jealousy deep in his gut like there was when she did. They were both DEA, they were supposed to stick together, goddammit. The fact that Morales had spent the entire mission prep sneaking interested glances at her whenever she wasn’t looking sure as shit didn’t help matters. Javier wasn’t sure if she’d noticed, but he certainly did. Fucking flyboy. And now thanks to his childish hissyfit they were cozying up together in the other room because he’d dragged them both here and left them alone before he did something even more stupid than think with his dick, like punch Morales in the face.

And the absolute cherry on the shit sundae of a mission was the fact that he only had a half pack of cigarettes left. Less than half, he realized, peering into it with a grimace.

He exhaled the last of the one he was currently smoking, watching the cloud of smoke dissipate into the empty room. From the other he could hear the murmur of voices, the lower tone of Captain Morales mixed easily with hers. Agent Cariño. Darling. Sweetheart.

Not your sweetheart, Javi. Not yours.

*******

Contrary to what Agent Jackass Peña clearly believed, Frankie hadn’t been exaggerating the danger of trying to take off in the pouring rain on that joke of a runway. If anything, he’d been downplaying it. He’d seen longer driveways, for fuck’s sake.

Luckily there’d been a hanger, or, more accurately, a shed with a sheet of corrugated metal painted green to serve as a roof that was clearly meant more to hide a plane on the ground than to protect it from the elements. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and with his plane stowed away there was nothing to do now except wait out the rain with his two teammates once Peña had finally accepted they weren’t taking off until Frankie said they were, goddammit. And with the way it was still pouring, that wasn’t going to be anytime soon. He hadn’t said it out loud, but they were probably going to be grounded here all night. That was going to be a treat, with that chip on Peña’s shoulder currently about the size of a 747.

As if she knew what Frankie was thinking, the other agent chimed in with, “Cut him some slack,” from where she was currently sitting cross-legged and serene as Buddha on the dusty floor. He, by contrast, was sitting with his back to the wall, legs akimbo, in defiance of his military training. This wasn’t a military op so he decided he was allowed, just like he’d gotten to wear civvies instead of uniform since officially he was here in a private capacity to cut through the red tape.

“I stand by my earlier assessment. He’s a dick.”

She didn’t argue with him, merely lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “He’s a dick who’s trying to bring the most powerful drug lord in Colombia to justice. You can’t do this job and not be a dick.”

“You aren’t,” he pointed out.

“I’ve frequently been called a bitch.”

Frankie wasn’t surprised by that, but he didn’t like that he wasn’t. “By insecure dicks, I bet.”

“True,” she agreed, cocking a finger at him while her gun stayed holstered at her side, “but never by Agent Peña.”

He glanced in the direction Peña had left, feeling his estimation of the man go up a notch. Then it went down again. “Wait, didn’t he call you honey or sweetheart earlier? That’s not better.”

“Oh, the Cariño thing? That’s not really his fault, it was my code name when I was undercover. I still get called it all the time at the agency. When I’m not being called a bitch, that is.

Frankie felt his eyebrows shoot up on his face. “Your code name is Cariño?”

Who the fuck came up with that? Must have been another one of those DEA dicks, it sounded like a delightful place to work.

She looked amused. “Isn’t your…callsign, right? Isn’t your callsign Catfish?”

“Yes,” he sputtered, “it is, but, seriously, Cariño?”

“Yes, seriously, Catfish.”

She had a lovely smile, another point in her favour over her dick of a partner. Frankie wasn’t sure if the man was even capable of smiling. Other points that he’d noted over the last few days while preparing for the mission were her laugh, her face, and most recently, the fact that she’d sided with him over Peña. That last one might be a little petty, but Frankie didn’t give a shit.

“Fine,” he agreed. “I’ll cut him some slack. But only for you, Cariño.”

He said the endearment with as much exaggeration as possible, rolling the R like he was trying to start a propeller with his tongue. His reward was a full laugh as she stood up, brushing the dust from her thighs. The pants she was wearing were utilitarian, almost military, and shouldn’t look that good on anyone.

“Don’t worry about Peña. I can handle dicks like him, I’ve had a lot of practice.”

Frankie kept his mouth shut despite all the retorts that immediately sprang to mind. While he sure as hell wouldn’t mind being “handled” by her, he also wasn’t stupid enough to actually say that out loud.

“C’mon,” she said, holding her hands out to him. “Let’s go raid the kitchen, since there’s nothing else here to raid. Maybe we’ll have better luck finding something to eat.”

He let her help pull him to his feet, even though he didn’t really need the assistance. Still, it would be rude not to accept the offer. When he stood up to his full height he rocked forward a bit on the uneven floor, thrown off balance and taking her with him thanks to their joined hands. She instinctively grabbed his biceps to steady herself as they regained their footing, standing close, so close to each other, an unnecessary apology on her lips.

“You okay?” he asked, his own hands hovering in the air around the vicinity of her waist just in case he needed to catch her. She was shorter than him, he had to look down to meet her eyes while she looked up, her head tilted back, making his mind wander down a road that it definitely shouldn’t take on an op. Like how easy it would be to bridge the gap, close the bit of distance that was left between them.

So easy.

But Frankie Morales wasn’t that kind of a dick.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.”

And if it took them perhaps a moment too long to step away from each other, what was the harm? The mission was over, unofficially, anyway, and there was no one around to witness it.

Except there was. Frankie sensed eyes on his back and his hand drifted towards his gun out of habit as he glanced over his shoulder. Agent Peña was there, arms crossed over his chest and a deep frown under his carefully groomed mustache. How long had he been watching? How much had he seen?

“Catfish?” she called, when he didn’t follow.

Now Peña was looking at him.

“Coming, Cariño,” Frankie replied, unable to resist.

Peña’s frown deepened even more. Frankie knew that look now and it gave him a moment of pause as the implication sunk in.

Jealousy.

**********

The safe house kitchen, if it could be called that, since the slapdash building lacked such upscale amenities as electricity and plumbing, consisted of a camp stove, a five gallon bucket, a few canned goods that were thick with dust, and some decidedly unwashed dishes. They were decorated with a rather incongruous floral pattern, as if a hardened drug smuggler had taken them from his grandmother’s house.

None of it looked very promising.

Until she found the bottle of whiskey.

The unopened bottle of whiskey, seal still intact.

“Oh Cariño, you’re breaking my heart,” Frankie said to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia when she showed it to him, one hand pressed dramatically to his chest. “Can’t drink and fly.”

“Suit yourself.”

They both turned at Javier’s voice, drawn to the promise of alcohol like a good Catholic looking for something to feel guilty about. That was another thing about the job, the guilt. You couldn’t do it and not carry some of that around too. He almost shoulder-checked Frankie when he walked past him to snag the bottle from her and squint at the label. Frankie rolled his eyes and mouthed, “Dick,” behind his back.

“Luckily,” Javier continued, “you and I don’t have that problem, right Cariño?”

He smiled then, with a clear challenge in the curl of his lip as he effortlessly broke the seal and opened the whiskey with a twist of his wrist. Clean glasses were another non-existent amenity, so he took a healthy swig right from the bottle as easily as if he was drinking water and then held it back out.

The liquor numbed her lips and burned her throat, it was strong. The kind of thing you drank when you wanted to forget what you did with a nose full of coke and a gun in your hand. Javier took the bottle back and his second pull was even longer than the first. If even half of what was said about him around the agency was true, he definitely had a few things he probably wanted to forget.

So did she. Undercover work did that to a person.

“You puke in my plane, I’ll throw you out of it mid-air, don’t think I won’t.”

Frankie directed it at Javier, not her, which didn’t go unnoticed by the sharp-eyed agent.

“I suppose she gets a pass, huh?” Javier asked, more a statement than a question with a clear edge in his voice.

“She didn’t drink half the damn bottle in one go.”

“I can hold my liquor, Morales. Maybe you can’t, but I can.”

He took another healthy swig to punctuate the jab, long throat bobbing as he swallowed, while Frankie looked to be about a heartbeat away from punching him despite his earlier promise to cut him some slack. Not that she blamed him, Javier had taken all the slack and then just had to give the rope another tug. The tension between them was palpable, two very different men stuck together with nothing else to do but argue.

Two very attractive men with nothing else to do, a less than helpful part of her mind chimed in. She blamed the whiskey.

It went down much easier the second time, when she swiped the bottle back from Javier’s unresisting hand and took another pull of her own. They both fell silent as she did, and even though her eyes closed when she tipped her head back and bared her throat to let the amber liquor slide down it she could feel them watching. When she handed the now considerably lighter bottle back to Javier he took it without a word, still watching with an intensity she could practically feel against her skin. They both were.

It was kicked up a notch when she started to open the clasps on her tactical vest, two pairs of dark eyes widening in surprise as she loosened the straps and pulled the damn thing off. It was heavy, not really designed for a woman, and the weight of it along with the damp heat had left the shirt underneath plastered to her body so that it clung to every line and curve.

“There now, that’s better,” she said, setting the vest aside.

“I agree.”

It was Javier who spoke, in a whiskey soaked voice that burned more than the liquor.

“Me too.”

Frankie clearly wasn’t going to be left out and she smiled at him, not minding the appreciative look on his face at all. She’d admired him, so fair was fair, after all.

“At least there’s one thing the two of you agree on.”

They gave near identical amused snorts in perfect unison at that and it made her grin go wider.

“Cariño,” Frankie said, his tongue rolling deliciously over the endearment she also didn’t mind coming from him, “I think most men would agree on you. Peña?”

“He’s…not wrong,” Javier admitted with a bit of a cough, like it cost him something to agree with Frankie but he wasn’t going to deny it completely, giving the tiniest of nods towards the other man.

This wasn’t how she expected the night to go, but after days and weeks and months of pretending to be someone else, giving up her own needs, her own wants, even her own goddamn name, in service of the greater good, she was more than ready to slip back into her own skin. To drink whiskey without fear of getting drunk and revealing too much to the wrong set of ears, to flirt with the man (or men) she wanted to flirt with instead of whoever the agency told her to bat her eyelashes at next, to not have to guard her tongue or watch her own back in the field, constantly on edge and constantly feeling alone.

She wasn’t alone now.

The rain continued to lash against the safe house from the outside like a spurned lover demanding to be let in, clearly not about to end anytime soon.

Frankie moved first, crossing the distance between them and standing so close that she had to tip her head back to look up at him, just like earlier.

“Was it good?” he asked, voice low and intimate. “The whiskey?”

She held her hand out without looking and Javier silently passed her the bottle.

“Why don’t you taste it for yourself?”

With that she took another healthy swig, coating her mouth with the smoky liquor and pointedly not offering Frankie a drink. His gaze dropped to her mouth, her invitation clear. A hand curled around her hip, pulling her closer to meet the long line of his body. Her free hand went to his chest, spreading flat and feeling the broad expanse of muscle that lay hidden under his shirt. Frankie dipped his head and tasted the whiskey from her lips, from her mouth, demanding entrance with his tongue to chase every last, lingering drop. She felt more than heard him groan low in his throat, whether from the alcohol or the kiss or from both. The hand on her hip tightened and pulled her closer, leaving no space between them, her breasts pressed to his chest and the clear evidence of his desire against her stomach.

“Fuck,” he muttered against her lips when they finally had to break apart for air. “Wanted to do that all fucking day, you have no idea.”

Her own voice was high and breathless, “Yeah?”

There was the sound of a throat being cleared somewhere behind her and she twisted in Frankie’s arms to see that Javier was just standing there watching them make out like teenagers at a party and thinking God knew what about the little display. Or maybe only el Diablo knew just what was going on behind those shadowed eyes at the moment. Frankie traced a slow, deliberate circle with his thumb on the jut of her hip that was incredibly distracting as she looked at Javier, but he said nothing.

“I can leave if you want me to,” Javier offered at last, “Well, not leave,” he added, since none of them could, at the moment, “but I can give you two some…privacy.”

Javier had watched her kiss Frankie, a kiss that was still clinging to her lips more than the whiskey. The burning desire in his gaze hadn’t been doused by watching her embrace another man, if anything it was fanned even higher. Before undercover work, before the agency, it would have been unthinkable, too depraved, too forbidden, an unspoken sin. But she’d seen too much to still cling to those old beliefs, Javier had as well. You couldn’t do this job and stay the same person you were, before.

“You can stay if you want to, Javier,” she said. Stay, she thought. Both of you.

“That’s not what I asked. What do you want, Cariño? Do you want me to leave so Morales can fuck you in private the way he’s clearly been itching to ever since the two of you met? Do you want me to stay and watch him fuck you? Or, do you want me…”

He moved then, silent and lethal, like the raid was still on and he was moving into position to strike at his chosen target. Maybe he was. Javier was so different from the more laid-back Frankie, so intense, so driven, and she could only imagine what it would be like to have all of that focused solely on her. May God have mercy on her soul, she knew with absolute certainty what he was going to ask and what her answer was going to be.

“…to join you,” Javier finished, his gaze dragging along the length of her body like a pour of the amber-dark whiskey and heavy with promise.

The pound of the rain outside was barely audible now over the thump of her heart in her chest and the almost painful throb of need and want between her legs. Undercover work had taught her how to lie more easily than telling the truth, but she couldn’t deceive herself about this. What Javier was offering—what they were both offering—or were they? Frankie’s hand had stilled on her hip, though he hadn’t moved away and his body was warm and solid against her back. As if he knew what she was thinking Javier looked over her shoulder, at the third person in this possible equation.

“You don’t have a problem with that, do you, Morales?”

The stupid rivalry between them was clearly far from over, there was a clear challenge in Javier’s tone as he stared Frankie down, one corner of his lips hitching up in the tiniest smirk. Not about to be outdone, Frankie slipped his fingers under the hem of her shirt, stroking the skin just above her waist.

“Whatever the lady wants is more than fine with me, Peña,” he said. Then he leaned down and spoke directly into her ear, she could feel the warm breath and the faintest graze of his mouth as he added, “it’s up to you. Say the word, baby. Say the word.”

What did the lady want? She wanted Frankie, with his easy smile that made her feel sixteen again and that deft navigator’s touch all over her body. She also wanted Javier, with his single-minded drive and that slow, sinful grin that promised pure satisfaction. Say the word and they would both be hers. Say the word and she would be theirs.

For however long they were stuck here, that is.

When she held her hand out to Javier and beckoned him closer he took it, letting her pull him forward until she was pressed between them. Frankie dipped his head and kissed her neck, his scruff rasping deliciously against the delicate skin. Javier was more clean shaven, cheeks and chin bare, only the mustache that tickled her lips when he cupped her cheek in a broad palm and kissed her too. His kiss was harder, rougher than Frankie’s, like he wanted to drink her in as voraciously as he’d drunk the whiskey. His free hand fell to her other hip, opposite of where Frankie’s hand still rested so that she was being held by both of them, swaying back and forth against the press of two hard, thick outlines, one to her ass, the other to her stomach. Clear, physical evidence (she was a DEA agent, she always needed evidence) that both of these desirable men wanted her and wanted her badly enough that they were willing to share despite the animosity between them. It made her more light-headed than the whiskey, knees going weak enough that she wrapped an arm around Javier’s neck to keep herself upright. Their strong hands guided and coaxed her, as pliable as a rag doll between them while they both marked themselves on her skin.

While there wasn’t much in the way of furniture, there was a makeshift bed comprised of some cots that had been left behind, and Frankie had brought in blankets from the plane after it was clear they were spending the night. It would do. They started stripping off her clothes together, Frankie unbuttoning her shirt while Javier slid her pants down her legs, hands roaming over her back and thighs as more and more of her was exposed to them. When she was down to just her bra and panties, plain, boring, get the job done underwear because she sure as hell didn’t get dressed for the mission this morning thinking that anyone was going to see them, Frankie laid her down on her back on the cot. He knelt between her legs and rubbed a thumb on the edge of his lips as he looked her up and down, her already rosy skin flushing even more at the scrutiny.

“Now these,” he said at last, sliding his hands up the outside of her thighs to where the waistband of her panties sat at her hips, “definitely need to come off too. Don’t you agree?”

It was directed at Javier, not her. He had lost his own tactical vest and his shirt was half undone, tempting hints of chest and stomach peeking through that made her mouth water.

“Si,” Javier agreed. “She’s still far too dressed.”

“She is. Let’s fix that, shall we?”

Hearing them talk about her like that was a much bigger turn on than she expected, like she was theirs to do whatever they wanted with. When Frankie hooked his fingers in her panties to pull them off she lifted her hips to help, while Javier watched from where he was standing. Frankie was already shirtless, his bare shoulders pushing her thighs apart as he lowered himself down and hooked her legs over the broad width of them. He placed an open-mouthed kiss just below her navel, and then another one a bit lower, mapping out a trail until he reached his destination with the same unerring accuracy as he did in his plane.

Fuck. He was good. Really good. Some men were as perfunctory about this as a child grudgingly eating their vegetables to get dessert, Frankie was not. He dove right in, spreading her with his thumbs to open her fully to his eager mouth. Long, broad strokes with the flat of his tongue were alternated with using the tip to tease her clit, making her gasp and jerk against him as he kept at it until it was almost too much to take. She glanced down and saw he was staring up at her even as his mouth stayed busy against her cunt, and then the bastard actually winked at her and gave a particularly devious swipe that had her head falling back against the scratchy airplane blanket and her eyes screwing shut. One hand sank into his hair, twisting in the curls to keep herself tethered to something, anything, as a high-pitched cry was pulled from the back of her throat and echoed in a deep groan from where his face was buried between her legs. Frankie was obviously enjoying this too.

The cot dipped as a weight settled on it and she opened her eyes to see Javier had joined them, shirt gone and jeans unbuttoned but still zipped. His erection was straining against the denim, she wanted to reach out and cup her hand over it, feel the shape and the weight in her palm.

“Does it feel good, Cariño?” Javier asked, as casually as if they were discussing the weather and not Frankie eating her out like she was a five-course banquet. He ran a finger delicately down the slope of one breast and just brushed the nipple under her bra, making it stiffen even more. “Is he making you feel good?”

“Yes,” she managed to gasp, “Fuck…yes.”

“She tastes fucking incredible,” Frankie mumbled, barely lifting his head long enough to get the words out before diving back in. He was using his fingers now, pumping two in and out in a steady rhythm and flicking his tongue over her clit. Javier leaned down and kissed her again, swallowing every moan, hand on her breast. She could feel the wave of pleasure about to crest, riding the sensation Frankie was drawing out with his mouth and hands until he pushed those two fingers deep inside while curling his wrist just right and sucking hard on her swollen clit. They might be grounded for now, but he made her fly straight into bliss, soaring high for long moments until she came down at last. Frankie looked incredibly smug about it, crawling up her body in a prowl and sharing the taste of herself in his mouth like she’d shared the whiskey with him, weight braced on his arms and caging her underneath him.

“Your turn, Peña,” he said after another kiss that was a sweet peck, in sharp contrast to how he’d just had his mouth pressed hotly between her thighs. He rolled over to the side and propped his head up on his hand, clearly intending to also take his turn as the observer. “Show our girl a good time.”

The part of her that had fought her way up the ranks in the DEA against a veritable wall of patronizing men who’d nicknamed her darling should absolutely hate that, but that part was drowned out by sheer, voluptuous satisfaction at the way he’d both claimed her and offered her up to Javier on a silver platter in one fell swoop. Still, she wasn’t just theirs tonight, they were hers and before Javier could climb on top of her she pushed him onto his back instead and moved to straddle him with a leg slung over his hips and her hands on his chest. He didn’t protest, skimming his fingers up her ribs and roaming across her back to blindly undo the clasp of her bra. It was the last bit of clothing she had on, but any attempt at modesty was long gone by now and she let him tug it down her arms and toss it aside. He immediately cupped her bare breasts, she could feel the calluses wrought by long hours at the firing range to blow off steam and the endless reams of paperwork that still had to be filled out by hand. His touch was just the right side of rough against her tender skin, the wide palms and long fingers working in tandem to roll and weigh and knead.

“Did you enjoy the show?” she asked, looking down at him. A corner of his lips lifted in amusement while he rubbed her nipples with his thumbs and made the tight points even tighter.

“What do you think? Watching a beautiful woman getting pleasured, knowing I’m going to make her scream even louder next, what’s not to like?”

There was a snort from Frankie at that little bit of one-upmanship, but he didn’t say anything in response and only settled his head more firmly on his hand. She’d give Frankie something he’d enjoy, watching her take Javier down a peg first. Her hands spread flat on his chest, holding him down as she shuffled backwards and dipped her head. She placed a kiss to the plane of his sternum, swirled her tongue around a flat nipple and was rewarded with a clear hitch in his breathing, and then started to make her way down the expanse of golden skin with more licks and kisses and little nibbles. When she reached the line of hair that ran down his stomach from his navel and disappeared under his jeans she nuzzled her nose into it, finding it to be surprising soft instead of coarse. There was another hitch in breath from above and the muscles in his abdomen contracted when she ran her tongue down the downy line. His jeans were peeled down his thick thighs with a little difficulty since he wore them tight enough to count the spare change in his pocket, and once he was laid out naked underneath her something else she’d long since suspected was revealed at last.

Agent Javier Peña packed considerably more than just heat.

And from the shit-eating grin on his face as she just stared, the bastard knew it. No wonder he was such a dick.

“Like what you see?” he asked, putting one arm behind his head and sounding way too satisfied. That was clearly a rhetorical question.

Payback was a bitch and half the DEA thought she was one anyway, so she kept her gaze locked with his while she leaned down and let her tongue dart out to just barely graze the swollen tip, gratified to see his smile flicker a bit. After a few more kitten-licks that were more suggestions than actual contact to build the anticipation, she opened her mouth fully and swallowed him down in a hot slide. Javier let out a noise like someone had just punched him in the stomach as she took him deep, a sharp inhale that melted into a low groan while he went even harder and throbbed against her tongue.

“Dios mio,” he swore. “Fuck!”

Javier Peña was a dick, and an asshole, and an assortment of other unflattering sobriquets that he wore proudly around the office alongside those ridiculously tight jeans, just as she owned her thinly-disguised insult of a code name, but he was putty underneath her now. He let her set the pace, not trying to guide her with rough hands pulling at her hair or thrusting up to fuck her mouth despite the want she could practically feel thrumming under his skin. She went over him like an ice cream cone on a hot day, swirling her tongue over the blunt head of his cock and licking all along the thick shaft as if she was chasing errant drops, before swallowing him down again as deep as she could. Eventually he couldn’t hold back any longer, letting out a string of curses as his hips started to jerk upwards.

“Your fucking mouth. Take it, that’s it, fuck baby, take me deep, just like that. So good, fuck, so fucking good.”

A quick glance up revealed that his head was thrown back against the cot, his chest heaving and the cords on his neck starting to pop as she drew him closer and closer to the edge. Frankie was still watching, one hand shoved deep into his jeans and obviously stroking himself to the show. When their eyes met he winked at her and pursed his lips in a kiss. Having him watch while she sucked Javier off made her burn even hotter, to have not just one, but two men so obviously turned on was making her positively ache between her thighs like nothing else ever had. Getting off once thanks to Frankie’s talented mouth wasn’t nearly enough, she wanted, needed, both of them to fuck her before this was over.

Javier clearly felt the same because he suddenly pulled her off him, his hard cock slipping from her swollen lips and slapping against his stomach with a wet thwack.

“Not done with you yet,” he muttered, voice edged like a knife and sitting up to manhandle her around until she was on her hands and knees. Frankie slid under her as he did, so that she was looking down at him while Javier knelt behind her. There was the unmistakable rip of foil and somehow it wasn’t a surprise that he had condoms, it was probably as much a habit for him to carry them as his gun and the ever-present pack of cigarettes. Maybe she should be offended that he brought them on the raid, but it would be pretty damn hypocritical of her in her current position.

“Didn’t peg you for the Boy Scout type, Peña,” Frankie called over her shoulder. “Always prepared, huh?”

“You should be thanking me, Morales. And you probably were a Boy Scout, so fuck off.”

“Nah. I’m quite comfortable where I am, thanks.”

She couldn’t believe they were still bickering with her naked between them, knees spread on the outside of Frankie’s, ass in the air, being served up to Javier on a fucking silver platter.

“Do you two really need me to be here or do you just want to argue with each other instead?”

A large, warm hand ran along her back, pressing down a bit to make her hips tilt up even more.

“So demanding, Cariño,” Javier tsked, “when this is all for you. Now pay attention, Morales, and watch how it’s done.”

Still. Fucking. Bickering. Men. She looked down at Frankie with a scowl that wasn’t entirely mock. He didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest by it. If anything he was clearly enjoying himself, grinning and pulling her down for a deep kiss that made her annoyance melt away. The man and his mouth were a devastating combination.

“Brace yourself against me, sweetheart, while he takes you for a ride,” Frankie murmured against her lips before giving her another kiss that made her toes curl and her clit throb. “I’ve got you.”

“We’ve got you,” Javier corrected, starting to push inside. Her eyes fluttered shut, he was thick and hard and as wet and ready as she already was, his sheer size gave her body pause for a moment as if it didn’t know whether to accept or reject him. She groped blindly for Frankie with a gasp, feeling him hold her with sure hands.

“Fuck, so tight,” Javier muttered through gritted teeth, his hips stilling and fingers digging into her skin. “Baby, are you-”

“Do it,” she interrupted, wanting to feel this, feel them, for days afterwards. “Fuck me, Javi.”

Whether it was the order or the fact that she’d just called him “Javi” for the first time, he cursed again, low and filthy, and thrust forward in a hot, hard slide that had her clutching Frankie’s wide shoulders while she opened for him. A desperate sound pulled from her throat at the sensation of being filled at last. Javier didn’t stop until there was nowhere else for him to go, buried so deep that she could feel the brush of his pubic hair as his hips went flush with hers. Her back arched, pushing back against him and keeping the entire thick length of him locked in her body. She could hear him breathing, harsh, ragged sounds, the hands on her hips holding her in place as neither moved for several moments.

“Eyes on me,” Frankie coaxed, hands running up and down her arms. His face swam back into focus when she blinked down at him, looking up at her with his hair still a mess from when his head was buried between her legs. “Look at me, baby, look at me while he fucks you.”

They held her between them as Javier finally started to move, long, deep strokes that echoed right down to her bones. She was going to feel this alright, especially after she had Frankie too. He cupped her breasts, thumbed the hard points of her nipples, touched every part of her he could reach while Javier fucked her from behind. It was loud, drowning out the rain with the slap of skin on skin, the desperate sounds when she bent to kiss Frankie, her moans in his mouth and Javier’s own rough grunts mixed with the wet slide of his cock into her over and over again. All three of them moved in tandem, Frankie, the anchor, still bracing her with his arms while Javier chased his release, hands also roaming her body as he continued to thrust. A particularly hard one had her digging her nails into Frankie’s skin with a sharp gasp.

“Oh!”

“So gorgeous, watching you get fucked,” Frankie bit out. “My turn next, you’ll let me fuck you too, won’t you, sweetheart? You’ll let me slip right into that delicious pussy and make you come on my cock just like you did on my tongue.”

All she could get out was a desperate whine at the filthy words because, fuck, she wanted that too. So, so much.

“Say yes,” he urged. “Please, baby, say yes.”

She nodded her head, lips forming the word even though she couldn’t get enough breath to actually say it out loud. Yes, he could have her too. He could have anything he wanted.

“Not done with you yet,” Javier practically growled, bending over her back. One arm went around her waist and the other around her chest to pull her up, away from Frankie with her back pressed to Javier’s front. The movement wedged him even more firmly inside her, right against the sweet spot that had her nearly limp in his arms as her head lolled back against his shoulder. He lifted her so that her knees went clear off the cot, taking her entire weight and the sheer display of his strength was almost enough to send her hurtling over the edge again.

“Javi!”

His mouth pressed right by her ear, hips still thrusting up to bury himself deep inside over and over again. The hastily pushed-together cots swayed and squeaked madly with the motion, it was a wonder it hadn’t all collapsed already with the combined weight of the three of them. Even if it did, she still wouldn’t want to stop.

“Look at him,” Javier muttered, voice harsh, as harsh as the battering ram of his cock currently demanding her surrender. “Look at him, desperate to fuck you too. Got us both, didn’t you, you greedy little thing? Fuck, you feel so good riding my cock dulce niña, I fucking knew you would, fuck!”

The arm around her waist dipped lower and she felt his fingers slide down her stomach, over the rise of her mound to just above where they were joined so intimately. He quickly found her swollen clit, rubbing it with sure, swift strokes that had her arching against him with a cry. Javier’s strong thighs held hers apart, unable to do anything except shudder

in his arms and take everything he was giving her. Frankie watched them, his hips moving to the same rhythm as he openly fucked his fist to the sight. He must have been close because he suddenly yanked his hand away and twisted it in the airplane blanket instead, his chest heaving and his head tipping back with a grimace as he fought the urge to finish. He was holding off until it was his turn.

The thought sent another rush of heat between her legs and, coupled with the unrelenting press of Javier’s clever fingers, she clamped down hard on his thick cock as her orgasm washed over her in a wave of sheer bliss.

“FUCK!” Javier swore as he got caught in the riptide too, both arms wrapping around her tight and holding her in a vice grip against his broad chest as he fucked her through it almost savagely, making sure she would still feel him afterwards.His own groan of satisfaction was a deep rumble, his hips stuttering as he came with a throb and pulsed while she kept squeezing him tight and holding him deep inside. She reached back and threaded soothing fingers through his hair, damp with sweat, while his head dropped to her shoulder and his heart raced against her back. Javier’s arms loosened a fraction, his hands stroking up and down her own sweat-slicked skin to help calm them both as they came down.

Her eyes had closed of their own volition and when she opened them the only thing she could see was Frankie, looking nearly as wrecked as she felt. Jesu, he was still hard, still ready, he’d waited for her and she still wanted him too, just as much if not more. He sat up and she reached for him while Javier let her go, his softening cock slipping out with the motion. Frankie kissed her, needy and with the faint taste of herself still clinging to his lips.

“That was so hot, baby,” he said between kisses. So fucking hot.”

Behind her she felt Javier move away, giving them more room as Frankie eased her down onto the bed. He cupped the back of her head in one hand while the other was all over her, gliding over bare skin that was flushed a deep rose and extra sensitive to the touch now that she’d had not one, but two spectacular orgasms. It made her shiver despite the fact that she was anything but cold, shaking uncontrollably in his arms as he pulled her close to his chest and soothed her with his gentle touches and whispered words.

“Holy shit,” she managed to gasp, clutching desperately at his biceps as she tried to get her bearings back, feeling that same sensation that she’d experienced in the tiny plane after takeoff of being untethered to the Earth.

“Too much?” Frankie asked, peering at her with concern. “Is it too much? We can stop-”

She shook her head before he could even finish, leaning in to kiss him again. It was too much, but God, the last thing she wanted was to stop. The rain and the whiskey and the two handsome men orbiting around her like she was the sun had awakened a bone-deep craving that wasn’t fully satisfied and wouldn’t be, not until she’d had them both. Frankie was still erect, cock hard and flush with his stomach, and the noise he let out when she reached down and wrapped her hand around him was practically a growl.

“I want you,” she whispered against his plush mouth, feeling him shudder as she pressed a line of kisses along his jaw, grounding herself in the solid weight of his body and the heat from his skin.

Frankie’s dark eyes bored into hers, practically burning with lust. “You have me baby,” he promised, “you have me.”

He was thick and long, like Javier, velvet wrapped over steel in her hand. She gave a twist of her wrist on her next stroke, just under the head, and his face contorted in sheer, unguarded bliss before he pulled her hand away from his cock, kissing her palm in apology.

“Not gonna last if you keep doing that.”

Javier decided to remind them both that he was still in the room, letting out an amused huff. “Can’t keep up, flyboy?”

Frankie didn’t spare a glance in his direction. “I can keep my plane and my dick up, don’t you worry about that, Agent.”

That got a snort of derision in response, though a moment later a condom landed on the cot, almost hitting Frankie in the face in the process. A peace offering from Javier Peña, the night was full of surprises. Frankie put the foil packet in his mouth to hold it, giving her a cheeky wink while he stripped his pants the rest of the way off. Naked, he was just as mouth-watering as Javier, broad-shouldered, long legs, a waist that would fit perfectly between her legs and a cock that would fill and stretch every inch of her. Frankie grinned around the condom when he saw where she was looking and tore it open with his teeth.

“Ready?” he asked, quickly rolling it on. “Ready for me now, Carinō?”

The stupid code name sounded a lot better coming from him than the assholes at the DEA, it was an endearment again instead of a not so thinly veiled insult. She spread her legs in clear invitation, more than ready for him. Frankie settled himself on top of her, cock in hand and rubbing it up and down her still-slick entrance without pushing inside. Her breath hitched in anticipation, her soft inhale mixing with his sharp exhale when he eased himself in at last with slow and careful movements.

“Oh fuck,” he breathed, once he was seated all the way inside, “fuck, you feel so good.”

“Worth the wait?” she teased, wrapping her legs around his hips to hold him there so that she was deliciously full again. Gluttony was supposed to be a deadly sin, and here she was greedily enjoying her second lover of the night without a hint of guilt.

“Definitely worth the wait.”

Frankie leaned down to nuzzle his nose against hers, pressed a sweet kiss to her lips, and started to move in slow, deep rolls. Despite the wait and how close he’d been already, it was clear that he intended to take his time. A hand ran along the outside of her thigh and under her hip to lift and position her so he could slide in that final little bit and now there was no space left between them.

Frankie held himself there, buried so deep with his forehead resting on hers while she ran her hands up the broad expanse of his bare back.

When he started to move again she gripped his shoulders, holding on as he started to build her up again. It wasn’t as frantic as it had been with Javier but it was equally as good, Frankie grinding deep on each stroke before pulling back again and stealing more kisses, a benefit of being face-to-face. She buried her fingers in the damp curls at the nape of his neck with the weight of his body blanketing hers while he never stopped thrusting. It was a hot, heavy drag that made her toes curl and fanned the fire under her skin licking at every last inch, but none more than where she and Frankie were joined.

He nipped at the underside of her jaw and buried his face in her neck with a groan as he continued to fuck her and she saw Javier watching them from over Frankie’s shoulder, still naked, not having bothered to put his clothes back on yet. She could still feel the echo of him even with Frankie inside of her now, it somehow amplified the sensation and she arched up into it with a bitten-off moan while their gazes stayed locked on one another. When it had been Javier’s turn she’d been facing Frankie, looking at him as Javier thrust into her from behind, and now that it was the other way around she couldn’t look away, didn’t want to look away from the searing heat in that gaze as dark as midnight.

“You were right,” Javier said in a slow drawl that betrayed a hint of his Texas roots, looking at her but talking to Frankie, “she’s gorgeous when she’s getting fucked.”

Frankie didn’t answer him directly, he just pressed a kiss under her ear and whispered into it, “Let’s put on a show for him he won’t forget.”

He went up on his knees then, dragging her up his strong thighs so that she was spread wide with her legs draped over his elbows. On full display again for both men, her breasts bounced with each of Frankie’s powerful thrusts, so deep that it took what was left of her breath away. It wasn’t much. She could hardly make any noise now, holding on to the blanket for dear life while Frankie let out rough groans with each stroke. The angle was the exact opposite from the one Javier had fucked her at and yet both of them hitting that perfect spot.

“One more,” Frankie bit out, clearly hanging on by a thread. “Give us one more, baby, please. Squeeze me.”

His thumb found her clit as he stilled long enough to rub it, swollen and hot and only needing the barest touch before she was there, squeezing him tight as she came again. Frankie cried out as she practically strangled his cock, helpless to stop herself, not that she wanted to when it made him sound like that. He held her steady throughout with only the barest tremble in the hands gripping her hips, holding out as long as he could before he fucked back into her still quivering depths as he frantically chased his own release. He came a handful of thrusts later with a shout, his whole body shaking, tipping forward and catching himself on his arms at the last moment so he wouldn’t crush her before resting his head on her breasts with a sigh. They lay like that, his long legs tangled with hers on the cot, sweaty and sated and a part of her wondered how she’d ever go back to not having this.

Was it still considered a one night stand when there were two men?

A hand brushed her tangled hair back from her brow and it wasn’t Frankie’s. Her eyes had drifted shut and she opened them to see Javier, looking down with a faint smile. A rare thing, from him. He leaned down and pressed his lips gently to her forehead, lingering for a moment before pulling back.

“That was-“ Frankie mumbled, face still pressed to her chest and muffling his words, “-damn.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, running her fingers through Frankie’s hair while looking up at Javier, wondering if he felt the same. His lips quirked up again at the unspoken question and he nodded.

“Very eloquent, Morales,” was what he actually said, dry as a desert.

Frankie lifted a hand enough to give him the finger before curling it possessively under her side and she shook with silent laughter.

Men.

***********

She hovered on the edge of sleep, never quite falling over it. Even the unexpected bout of marathon sex with not one, but two men, wasn’t enough to fully knock her out. Another parting gift from undercover work, it was difficult to fall asleep.

You were the most vulnerable when you slept.

Frankie and Javier must have thought she’d drifted off, she could hear them talking to each other in low, careful voices, clearly trying to keep it down so as not to wake her up.

“I don’t know how it works in the DEA, but I’m guessing it’s not too different from the military and if this gets out every other jackass in the agency is going to think she’s fair game. They’ll have a much worse nickname for her than Cariño, tell me I’m wrong, Peña.”

Javier answered him in a clipped tone. “You’re not.”

“So you’re going to keep your mouth shut then.”

“What, you think I was going to go back to the office tomorrow and brag to everyone about it? Just how big of an asshole do you think I am, Morales?”

There was a long, pointed moment of silence and she could picture the looks they were undoubtedly giving each other, Javier with that heavy scowl that he wore more often than those ridiculously tight jeans and Frankie with his arms crossed over his chest, glowering under his baseball cap.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Frankie finally said.

“I’m not-“ Javier started, his voice rising in annoyance. Frankie shushed him and he shut up, then she heard the unmistakable sound of a lighter sparking to life and imagined Javier was smothering the urge to argue with a cigarette.

“I’m not gonna tell anyone,” he stage-whispered. “There, satisfied? Want me to pinky swear? Cross my heart and hope to die?”

Maybe the urge wasn’t smothered out completely.

Frankie didn’t take the bait. “Just as long as we’re on the same page.”

“We are.”

There was silence again for a while after that, but at least the animosity in the air seemed to have faded somewhat.

It was Javier who spoke again next, without any vitriol or sarcasm, just matter of fact as he quietly said, “The rain stopped hours ago.”

Did it? She couldn’t remember exactly when it had stopped pounding against the roof, was it while Frankie had his head between her legs or when Javier was sliding into her from behind?

“Yeah, I know. But the ground needed to dry out enough to get the speed necessary for takeoff, unless you wanted to crash into a tree.”

Javier didn’t argue with Frankie this time. “It’s your call. You’re the pilot, Captain.”

“Glad we finally agree on that, Agent. I’ll go check, we may be good to go now. Back to civilization.”

There was the rustle of movement, the sound of footsteps, and when Frankie’s voice came again it was from further away.

“Oh, and Peña? Just so you know I’m giving her my number when we land.”

“You can do whatever you want, Morales. I’m not going to try to stop you.”

She noticed that he didn’t say the same. Javier Peña wasn’t the type to turn a one night stand into anything more.

It was quiet again as Frankie presumably went outside to see if they could finally leave the little safe house that now held another secret within the ramshackle walls. But would it stay a secret? Frankie was right, if this got out at the DEA then the years of work she’d put in wouldn’t matter, she’d forever be the agent who’d let two men fuck her on an op. The whispers that already followed her around would turn into something far uglier and she’d go from sweetheart to slut in a heartbeat. It should concern her, Javier choosing her for the raid had already raised a few eyebrows and set tongues wagging among the “insecure dicks”, as Frankie would say. But despite Javier’s reputation at the office for sleeping with anything in a skirt, she believed him when he said he wasn’t going to spread it around. It might be foolish and naive of her, both traits that never lasted long in undercover work and she would have said she’d lost forever.

Maybe she wasn’t that far gone, yet.

If they were going to leave soon then she should get up, find her boots, try to turn her bedhead back into something respectable and figure out what the hell to say to the two men with whom she’d just spent the night.

She did none of those things.

Javier muttered something under his breath, too low for her to make out. Probably something rude about Frankie. She sensed more than heard him come closer, and a moment later the blanket that had fallen to her waist was pulled back up into place.

She smiled unseen against her makeshift pillow—Frankie’s discarded tactical vest—at the gesture. You couldn’t do this job and not be a dick, or a bitch, if you were a woman, but it wasn’t all you had to be.

Even for Javier Peña.

#javier pena fic #javier pena smut #frankie morales fic #frankie morales smut #javier pena x ofc #frankie morales x ofc #javier pena x ofc x frankie morales

[alexandralyman]

𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧

𝐭𝐲’𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐲 // 𝐱

#dave york #has ruined me

[alexandralyman]

Domestic Dave

#dave york #has ruined me

[alexandralyman]

Neither Confirm Nor Deny (Dave York x Reader)

Dave York has taken over my life. I dived headfirst into Pedro Pascal fandom and this asshole caught me (among others, looking at you Commandante Veracruz). 7k of self-indulgence later, here's Dave x Reader as CIA agents and partners - AU, Dave went into the CIA after the military and never became a contract killer. Oh, and Carol and the kids don't exist in this.

Rated M for smut and vague mentions of bad people doing bad things

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50244982

You're a CIA agent on assignment in Europe caught up not in enemy crossfire, but in the love/hate relationship you have with your asshole of a partner, Dave York.

You hate how much you secretly love how good he is not just at his job, but between the sheets as well. He drives you up the wall most of the time (and fucks you up against them even better), but when your own agency betrays you at the end of an op, he's the only one who's still got your back.

You can never confirm what he really is to you, but you can't deny it either.

neither confirm nor deny

You practically fling the door to the safe house open, making the rusty hinges squeal loudly in protest as if to remind you about the need for stealth and discretion. Normally you’re the very model of both during a mission, but right now you don’t give a shit. Let the damn place get compromised, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Nothing fucking matters.

You’re met on the threshold by the barrel of Dave’s gun, aimed for a kill shot and immediately withdrawn when he sees it’s you. Protocol when entering the safe house was to knock first with two taps to announce your entry and that everything was fine.

Everything isn’t fucking fine.

“Jesus Christ,” he swears, because you never break protocol—except, of course, when you very much do—and he almost just shot you in the face for it. “What the actual fuck…wait. What happened? What’s wrong?”

Dave York is infuriatingly good at reading your moods. He knows when you’re happy and he knows when you’re angry, which is far more common and usually directed at him. He also almost always knows when you’re horny, which isn’t uncommon, especially around him, but is dead last right now on the list of emotions you’re currently experiencing. Murderous is first, and he’s familiar with that one too because it’s also frequently directed at him. It’s infuriating because you’re a highly trained CIA agent with a highly trained poker face you could easily clean out Vegas with, but at the moment even the most oblivious person in the world could tell that you’re on the verge of a volcanic eruption and not just your asshole of a partner who knows you all too well.

“They’re letting the bastard walk,” you practically spit.

Dave blinks, “What?”

“Yeah,” your voice is more bitter than the ridiculous amount of espresso he drinks like it’s water. “Apparently he cut a deal, and they’re letting him walk.”

Dave is many things, slow on the uptake isn’t one of them. “They flipped him,” he says, matter of fact. “He’s an asset now.”

You’d spent months trying to bring down Andrei “the Crow” Morozov, arms dealer, sex trafficker, Eurotrash asshole extraordinaire. Hours and hours of sorting through the mountains of intel for the nuggets of gold, late nights, shitty safe houses, getting two ribs cracked in Düsseldorf and not going to hospital because you would have been pulled from the mission, just dealing with the pain because you were so close, so close, to finally catching the slippery bastard and putting him away for good. It was all for nothing, Morozov shot you a shit-eating grin as the cuffs were unlocked and walked out of custody a free man.

“Give Irina’s mother my love,” he’d said with a wink, and three agents had to hustle you out of the room with his mocking laughter following you lest you go after him with your bare hands. The things he’d done to the poor girl, barely more than a child. You’d promised her mother, you swore to the woman that the monster responsible would be brought to justice. Instead, you watched him walk away free and clear with the blessing of your own damn agency.

“It makes sense,” Dave says, setting his gun back down on the battered coffee table that was scattered with nicks and cigarette burns courtesy of the many nameless, faceless agents who’d sought sanctuary for the night. “He’s connected to all the major players in Eastern Europe, with the amount of intel he could provide if they keep him in place it’s no wonder the plan was to flip him all along.”

That brings you up short as a new, hotter fury starts to burn under your skin. “It was? You…you knew?”

He gives a shrug with a broad shoulder that you may end up dislocating depending on what he says next. “Officially? No. But I suspected. Didn’t you?”

You…didn’t. Fuck, you one hundred percent didn’t expect the CIA would stab you in the back and worst of all, Dave did. He shouldn’t have put his gun down, because you have a new target now.

“And you didn’t fucking tell me? After all that fucking work to catch the son of a bitch? When I didn’t shoot him in Germany despite having a clear shot because I thought he was going to be locked up for the rest of his life, not let out to keep ruining lives because he’s a fucking ASSET to the CIA now?

When I was making promises I couldn’t keep, you think, but don’t say.

“The CIA has gotten into bed with much worse than Morozov when it serves their purpose. You know that. What makes this different?” Dave asks, the infuriatingly calm eye in your raging storm.

It was different because…because…

Because of Irina and all the others. The ones whose names you knew. The ones whose names you didn’t and would haunt you forever. Because you’d looked Andrei Morozov right in the eye in the underground club in Düsseldorf where he sold girls as easily as shots to asshole men and swore to yourself that you’d make him pay.

Because it was personal.

You couldn’t do this. Not now, running on no sleep and barely any food and the ash of your own failure in your mouth. Tears start to burn behind your eyes, but you’d walk barefoot through a minefield before letting Dave York see you cry.

“You should have told me. We’re supposed to be partners.”

You could almost handle being betrayed by the higher ups, the ones who sat in windowless rooms looking at names and numbers on reports and decided which was more valuable, some teenage girls or the man who’d sold them to the highest bidder. The CIA made deals with all sorts of devils, dictators, terrorists, lowlife arms dealers. You couldn’t handle being betrayed by Dave

, who was by your side the whole time you were on the ground putting faces to the names on those reports. Anna. Olga. Irina.

He calls your name when you leave, your real name, not the one you were given for the mission with a passport and credit cards to match. He’s been calling you by that fake name for months, or, when you push him onto his back in a safe house or a hotel or wherever you’re holed up for a few hours and take him inside, he calls you baby or sweetheart in a voice that gets increasingly more wrecked with each roll of your hips into his and you pretend to hate it.

The sound of your real name from a man who rarely uses it almost makes you stop on the narrow stairs of the ancient building before you reach the outside.

Almost.

You’re in Paris, the city of lights and romance and the final stop on this farce of a European tour now that Morozov’s been caught and released in pursuit of bigger fish. The station chief said to take a few days to decompress before heading back stateside. Do some sightseeing, or some shopping. Patronizing jackass. You almost stabbed him with a pen. As if you were in the mood for museums or boutiques after Morozov walked, like this was a vacation and not your life’s work. You find the French equivalent of a dive bar instead and speak the international language of alcohol to the bartender, drink until it’s too dark to see the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe or anything except the bottom of an empty glass before ordering another. A man sidles over at some point between drinks three and four and tries to pick you up, a local with an accent you would have swooned for once upon a time. He’s attractive enough and you’re tempted, there’s more than one way to forget your absolute shitshow of a job. You’re definitely no stranger to this one, but not with anyone else since…

Fuck.

You’re not dating Dave York. He’s your partner, because you did something terrible in a past life and this is karma biting you in the ass for it. And it’s not that he’s a bad agent, far from it. He’s one of the best in the agency. He’s also smug, and irritating, and you want to punch him in the face on a near day basis. He’s fucking good at his job, and that means he knows with pinpoint accuracy just what buttons to push to drive you up the goddamn wall. He also knows just what buttons to push when he’s fucking you against a wall, which happens on an alarmingly regular basis. He understands the adrenaline rush at the end of a successful mission and the helpless frustration when a target skips through the net instead, he’s the only one who knows why you currently have a large bruise across your ribs and the unseen marks the work leaves on your soul.

Parisian sights and a pretty Frenchman offering a turn in the sheets both hold no allure, you go back to the safe house once the bar closes, far drunker than you should be. Not drunk enough to forget the smirk on Morozov’s face, for that you need to fuck Dave until everything else fades away. Only the small garret apartment is empty, his gun isn’t on the table and the air already feels stale, like no one’s been there for hours. Maybe he went out looking for you, although if he did, he would have found you. Maybe he went to find someone to spend the night with, someone who doesn’t throw things at his head and threatens to strangle him with his own tie when he’s being a dick. He’s seen you do it too, so it’s not an idle threat. The mission in Monte Carlo. The second one. Where the two of you posed as a wealthy businessman and his mistress, and caught the target’s eye in your cut-down-to-the-navel dress with no room to hide a gun and had to improvise. Dave fucked you from behind on the balcony of your hotel room afterwards, still in your dress and heels, and he wasn’t the slightest bit turned off by the fact that you’d just killed a man with your bare hands and a length of deceptively strong silk from Hermès. If anything he was even harder than usual, quickly unzipping his suit pants with one hand as he shoved your dress up with the other and whispering all sorts of deliciously filthy things in your ear as he buried himself to the hilt over and over again with the lights of the city glittering below like a fortune in precious jewels.

The Paris safe house is a lot less lavish than a five-star hotel, the hot water in the tiny bathroom can be described as only slightly less icy than the cold tap and the floors are so uneven that if anyone did break in they’d probably trip over their own feet before getting a single shot off. It’s extra hazardous when drunk, even for a highly trained agent, but you manage to navigate your way to the sink to splash some water pulled from the frigid depths of the Seine on your face and stay upright long enough to strip off your clothes, leaving them in a heap where they fall. You grab a T-shirt from the back of a chair that you think is yours in your inebriated state, until you slip it on and realize the shoulders are far too wide and the hem is too long. It’s one of Dave’s, well worn and soft and you drank way too much alcohol tonight to bother trying to pretend that you don’t like the way it feels to wear his clothes. He’s not here anyway (where the fuck is he?) and you’ll take it off before he comes back.

You fall into the empty bed that’s not really big enough and yet it feels like it stretches on forever without someone else there to hog the blankets and tangle your feet with his. Your own gun stowed under the lump of a pillow and the taste of failure in the back of your throat more bitter than the booze, you close your eyes and drift off in a sea of regret that a monster walked free and innocents suffered, all because of you.

Your fault.

All your fault.

********

“Bonjour. Or should I say bonsoir, Mademoiselle.”

You’re awake at once, reaching for the gun under the pillow and closing your fingers around it just as the voice registers through your bitch of a hangover.

Dave.

Sitting up is made an Olympic sport both by your not full healed ribs and whoever’s playing the drums behind your eyes like a headliner at a death metal festival. Someone you manage it and crack open a lid to find your dick of a partner sitting in a chair next to the bed. It’s too small for him but somehow it doesn’t look awkward, he sits easily, comfortably, as far as you know he could have been there for hours. As you blink stupidly at him he leans forward and taps a fingertip against your lips.

“Open up, sweetheart.”

Taken completely off guard and too hungover to argue, you do as he asks without thinking. He pops two white pills on your tongue and hands you a glass of water.

“Drink,” he instructs, like he’s talking to a child. You resist the urge to scowl like one and swallow the pills down, chasing them with the water.

One secret about the CIA is that it has access to some really good drugs. Those weren’t aspirin, and it doesn’t take long for your headache to go away and the twinge in your ribs to fade so you can feel human again. Two things then happen at once, you remember why you were hungover in the first place and that you’re still wearing Dave’s T-shirt.

Three things, you clock what he just said. Bonsoir.

Not good morning. Good evening.

“What time is it?” you ask.

“Almost 1800 hours, Sleeping Beauty.”

Fuck. You slept almost the whole fucking day. You have a vague memory of stumbling to the bathroom again at some point and then falling back into bed afterwards, still alone with no sign of Dave anywhere. It’s probably not surprising that you crashed so hard, you’ve been running on nothing but coffee and sheer rage since Düsseldorf, but it feels wrong to have been sleeping when you should have been doing something, anything, to get justice for all of those girls.

Dave is watching you carefully and while his words were sarcastic, his tone wasn’t. He knows what you went through to bring Morozov in. He was right there the whole time, pouring over intel and CCTV footage with you, staking out meeting sites and infiltrating the underground clubs and back rooms where business was conducted by men who would have killed the both of you and not thought twice about it if there was the slightest hint of your cover being blown.

“They let him walk,” you say, more to yourself than him. “He fucking smiled at me, and he walked.”

Dave tosses a phone onto the faded comforter that offered no comfort the night before, without him in the bed beside you. “You have a message,” is all he says.

It’s not the burner phone you’ve been using for the mission, it’s your real phone. You pick it up and when you check the lock screen it shows a text notification. Your heart stops when you see it’s from Irina’s mother. You gave her your number, your real number, when you swore to get justice for her daughter, not the burner one that would be discarded and forgotten as soon as the job was over.

The flash of guilt that you failed them both is a gut-punch on an empty stomach that makes bile rise in your throat, acrid and sour, and then you see what she wrote.

Thank You!!!!

You look up from the message in sheer confusion and meet Dave’s eyes. He’s still watching you with what would look like nothing but cool detachment to anyone else, but you can see the laser focus of a sniper behind that dark gaze.

“Check out the BBC’s homepage,” is all he says.

That answers nothing until you go online and see the top story staring up at you from the screen.

SUSPECTED ARMS DEALER ARRESTED AT ST PANCRAS, accompanied by that same photo that’s clipped to the dossier you read over and over again every night like a fucked up bedtime story. A quick skim of the article reveals the important facts, Andrei “the Crow” Morozov, wanted by Interpol and half a dozen countries for a variety of crimes, had been found on the Eurostar when it arrived at St Pancras station in London from Paris a few hours prior, thanks to an anonymous tip received by the Metropolitan Police. He’d been discovered barely conscious and handcuffed to the pipes in a toilet that had been marked out of order. Morozov had been taken to an undisclosed hospital, where he was currently being treated for multiple broken ribs and other injuries while under reported guard by MI6. A list of his alleged offenses followed, including the trafficking of vulnerable women and girls from Eastern Europe into the sex trade.

You look up from the screen. “Multiple broken ribs?”

Dave’s face is perfectly calm, placid, his expression betraying no remorse for what he did. It was him, you know it in a heartbeat just as you know that he can put a bullet between someone’s eyes from a quarter mile away and what he looks like when he comes undone inside you.

“At least fifteen. Maybe more, it’s hard to be sure after the first dozen. One for Irina. One for Anna. One for Olga. One for all the other girls. The rest for you.”

Morozov had cracked two of your ribs, Dave had broken most of his in return and turned him over to MI6.

“They won’t let him walk too, will they?” you ask, fingers tightening around the phone. If the bastard walks again….

He lifts one shoulder in a shrug. There’s not a speck of blood on his clothes, he could have just come back from a day playing well-heeled tourist at the Louvre instead of stuffing an internationally wanted criminal into a train car bathroom after breaking over a dozen of his ribs. Hiis expression is as serene and unaffected as the Mona Lisa’s, keeping his own secrets from everyone except you.

“Unlikely. Even if they wanted to his arrest was public thanks to the cops sending out a press release, it would make them look bad to just let him go. It also makes him completely worthless now as an asset, since if he did walk everyone would suspect he worked a deal to get out of the charges.”

Dave York is very, very good at what he does.

“And if they do,” he continues, unconcerned by the prospect, “well, he won’t get far.”

You know it’s true, because you know him.

“Everyone must be pissed,” you say, imagining the utter chaos that must be going on in the upper ranks. To catch and lose Morozov in the same day, publicly, no less, and to have him end up in custody of MI6. Publicly the CIA and MI6 were allies…privately they each had their own agendas that didn’t always align.

Dave’s facade cracks at last and reveals his amusement. “Oh, they are, baby. I was there when the call came in from London. The station chief was already on thin ice, he’s going to get demoted for this and sent to a far less desirable posting where he won’t be served fresh croissants for breakfast every morning. Thought he was going to have an aneurysm when he was on the phone to D.C, serves him right too, the fucking prick. Everyone else is scrambling to avoid the fallout.”

You cross your arms over the soft cotton of Dave’s T-shirt, annoyed that you forgot (didn’t want to) take it off. “Don’t call me baby. Do they have any suspects?”

Translation: Do they suspect you?

He shrugs again, still completely unconcerned. “Sure. Do they have the right suspect? No, and they won’t. Now as good as you look in nothing but my shirt, go make yourself pretty. We're going out for dinner, I worked up an appetite today and I’m not eating alone.”

Go make yourself pretty? He’s such an ass. You ignore the burn in your cheeks at his casual acknowledgement that the only thing you’re currently wearing is his T-shirt and throw a pillow at his head with deadly accuracy.

“Clock’s ticking, partner,” he says, catching it easily in one hand.

Well…you could go for some actual food to eat after the liquid dinner you had the night before. That’s what you tell yourself, anyway. You’re a CIA agent, you’re an excellent liar. Especially to yourself.

You don’t visit the Eiffel Tower or hold hands on a famous bridge or do anything soppy and romantic. You’re not dating. You’re two CIA agents who caught a very bad man, have barely eaten in the past week, and who fight like mortal enemies and fuck like rabbits. Sometimes both at the same time.

Dallas. The conference where you were chasing down members of a suspected South American terrorist group. You had a screaming argument while you were riding him, his large hands tight on your hips guiding you up and down even as he said you wouldn’t recognize good intel if it slapped you in the face and you called him a self-important jackass who thought he was God’s gift to intelligence and he could take his intel and shove it. You only stopped yelling at him when you came.

Three times.

Dave leads you to a nondescript restaurant off the tourist path, tucked away down a narrow street. The service is French, otherwise known as indifferent, the food is excellent, and while you’d sooner stab yourself with one of the steak knives than admit you made yourself pretty for him, the dress you pulled from your cover identity’s wardrobe is pretty by any objective definition of the word. It may not be a date, but it is dinner in Paris and you’re supposed to blend in while on assignment. It’s not for him.

Another lie you tell yourself.

Dave likes the dress, you can tell. He pulls your chair back like the gentleman he most definitely isn’t and his hands brush over your bare shoulders when you sit down, lingering for a moment against your skin. When the waiter finally deigns to appear Dave orders the braised short ribs without bothering to look at the menu, saying with a wink across the table that he’s got a craving.

You order them too, because fuck men who hurt women and enjoy it.

They’re fucking delicious.

You don’t feed each other dessert or stroll along the Seine afterwards looking at the lights. You do duck into an alley, because Paris is for lovers and for two CIA agents who got paired up unwillingly and drove each other crazy fighting before falling into bed and doing the exact same thing while fucking instead. Dave doesn’t kiss you when he presses you against an ancient wall that’s probably seen its fair share of forbidden trysts over the centuries, instead he sucks a mark into your neck that’ll bruise like your ribs from pleasure instead of pain, one hand shoved under your pretty dress and the heat from his body keeping you warm in a cold, unforgiving world.

“Here, baby?” he asks in a voice that echoes right between your legs, nuzzling and nipping at your skin with one hand at his belt ready to unbuckle and unzip. You’ve fucked him in alleys before, buzzing with adrenaline from a mission and riding high on success while riding each other hard. But not tonight, as easy as it would be to wrap your legs around his narrow waist and muffle your cries in his shoulder while he fucks you against the wall.

“No, not here.”

Not the safe house either, with its shitty mismatched furniture and the ghosts of CIA agents past lurking in the shadows. You find a hotel instead on a cobblestone street, the kind of thing tourists would book for its classic Parisian charm without considering the lack of an elevator. You don’t have any suitcases to lug up the stairs to your room, where Dave presses you against the door as soon as it’s closed, caging you in with both arms. You feel anything but trapped.

“You should have told me,” you say, hands flat on his chest and looking into those dark eyes. You should have told me those girls didn’t matter, you should have told me they were going to stab me in the back and make a deal with the devil, you should have told me!

“You should have known,” he retorts. You should have known they didn’t, you should have seen the knife before it struck, you should have known.

You’ve seen Dave flatter, flirt, and charm to get what he wants, but with you he doesn’t placate or sugarcoat his words. He’s also right, which you hate, you should have known and you would have if you hadn’t let it get personal.

“But,” he continues, head tipping down with a sigh, “yeah, I should have.”

“Me too.”

His admission deserves yours. You’re still going to be salty about it for a while though. Maybe until your ribs fully heal. The bruise is a sickly yellow now, the edges starting to blend back in with the surrounding skin. It’ll disappear eventually but you’ll always remember where it was, a souvenir of your trip instead of a fridge magnet or a keychain. Dave will remember too, he’ll remember examining it in another hotel room when it was the purple of overripe fruit, before winding an ace bandage around your middle with his mouth set in a thin line. His fury had been silent, as quiet as the moment of calm before the storm, while his hands were careful, gentle even, for a man who could and did kill with them his touch had been delicate and feather-light.

Yours hadn’t been, when you jerked him off afterwards with rough strokes that made his silence turn to deep groans as his hips rolled with the movement of your hand. It wasn’t quid pro quo, you just needed to do something to deal with the frustration and that always ended with doing him. He couldn’t reciprocate, not then, not for a while, couldn’t make you come with his fingers or mouth or cock, not when it hurt just to breathe, let alone have an orgasm. Or three.

Now though, he strips the pretty dress from your body with far too much efficiency for a government employee and grazes fingers across the still-marred skin. Somewhere in London there’s a man lying in a hospital bed with his whole torso turned black and blue because he did this to you. You know the only reason Morozov isn’t dead at the bottom of the Seine is because you wanted him to rot in a cell for the rest of his life instead. Dave would have killed him otherwise. Fifteen broken ribs was him showing restraint.

You lift his hand to your mouth and suck on his finger, wrapping your lips around it. The backs of his knuckles are faintly bruised, a match to yours. He’s still fully dressed in charcoal trousers and an army green sweater. The man wears clothes beautifully, something you used to find irritating. He looks even better naked, something you also used to find irritating.

Dave replaces his finger with his lips, reaching down and hoisting your legs around his waist to carry you to bed like he carried you in Düsseldorf after Morozov caught you in the side with a tire iron. You fall back to the mattress and he stops kissing you only long enough to yank the sweater and T-shirt underneath over his head before he’s on you again, nipping the underside of your jaw while his hands roam the length of your body and push your thighs apart. You’ve been wet and ready since the alley, since dinner, since you made yourself pretty (for him) and his fingers find no resistance between your thighs despite how long and thick they are. Just the slightest touch has you trembling, clutching at his arms and legs widening in silent invitation.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, quickly shoving his pants and underwear both down with his other hand so that he’s wonderfully, gloriously naked. “What do you want? What do you need, baby? My fingers? My mouth? This?”

He’s got his cock in his fist, rubbing it up and down your slick heat without letting it slip inside. It’s difficult to breathe, but not because of your rib this time.

“Yes,” you moan, lifting your hips to try to line him up with where you need him. It doesn’t work, the bastard keeps himself just out of reach.

“Hmm,” he chides, breath hot against your skin as he trails his lips down your neck and across the tops of your breasts. “Even I’m not capable of using all of them at once on your lovely pink cunt. You have to choose. Tell me what you need and I’ll give it to you.”

You want his smart mouth to eat you out, and not just because he’ll finally stop talking. You want his long fingers pumping deep. You need his thick cock to fill you, to fuck you, to find every last sweet spot the way only he can and absolutely ruin you.

“Dave?”

He looks up and meets your gaze. “Yes, baby?”

“Fuck me with that big dick you’re so fucking proud of until I can’t fucking walk, and then do it again.”

He smiles, showing his teeth. It’s the smile of a man who just got handed exactly what he wanted on a silver platter and you’re too needy and desperate to care. He leans down and presses a kiss to the tip of your nose, a sweet gesture from a man who’s capable of such shocking violence. But then again, so are you.

“There now, was that so difficult? All you ever have to do is ask.”

It’s getting less and less difficult, with Dave. He’ll give you what you want, what you need, you know he will.

His hips thrust and his aim is as accurate as it is with his sniper rifle, precise and true. He buries himself inside of you and adjusts his trajectory as he goes to follow the arch of your back and the tilt of your hips as you take him all the way in a hot slide that pushes the air from your lungs as he fills you with him instead. Your nails dig into his shoulders to carve your name into his skin in cuneiforms of lines and half-moons, an encryption only the two of you can decipher. He rests his forehead on yours, weight braced on his arms, breathing more heavily than he ever would while sighting a target, giving you both a moment to adjust before he does what you asks and fucks you. It’s hard, it’s fast, it makes your toes curl into the hotel sheets and your pulse race under his mouth when he presses it to your neck and whispers hot against your skin.

“That’s it, baby, taking me so well. So fucking deep. How? How is it always this fucking good, drives me fucking crazy.”

You wrap your legs tight around his waist, tug on his hair, run your nails down his back and scrape your teeth against his jaw like you’re lighting a match. All the things that you know drive him fucking crazy. He lifts you with an arm under your lower back like you weigh nothing, changing the angle to that one that’s like gasoline on a flame and pulling a high-pitched cry from your throat that he echoes with his own deep groan. You hate that he’s the only one who’s ever done this, fucked you like it would be a war crime to stop. His hips move in a rapid-fire tempo, unrelenting, cock a piston, impossibly thick and hard as it drives into you again and again and again. You can’t stop any of the noises that escape you, the cries, the moans, the desperate pleas, the yes, yes, more, please, more and your only consolation is that neither can he with his grunts and growls and fuck, yes baby, yes, take it, fuck!

Dave yanks you against him with those large hands, holding you flush to his hips, and grinds instead of thrusts. The effect is immediate, your thighs tremble, your stomach tightens, your nerves sing as he hits every sweet spot inside you at once and lights them all up like Times Square. You clutch at him helplessly, jaw dropping with a silent scream that he hears nonetheless.

“Let go, baby, let go.”

It’s not an order, it’s a plea from a man who wouldn’t beg for mercy under torture and it breaks you instead. You let it all go and fall over the edge, keeping him locked tight inside and bringing him with you.

You’re partners, after all.

He groans, giving a final, dirty grind of his hips. A lock of dark hair falls on his forehead and his broad chest is covered with a faint sheen of sweat as he shudders through his own climax until he finally collapses down

Dave groans, giving a final, dirty grind of his hips, a lock of dark hair falling on his forehead and a faint sheen of sweat on his broad chest as he shudders through his climax and collapses down into your arms. You run fingers through his damp hair, his weight pinning you to the mattress and holding you fast. You’re not going anywhere, not this time.

Afterwards he lays next to you with his long limbs stretched out on the bed, naked, skin marked in places from his time in the service. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. At what cost though?

“I can hear you thinking, baby.”

You flick him on the shoulder. “Don’t call me baby,” you say, but there’s no bite to the words. He never does in front of other agents or contacts. A cocky young field agent called you “sweetheart” once in a briefing and lived to regret it. Dave had watched you sharpen your tongue on the man and run him right through with it as you tore his piss-poor interpretation of the data to shreds. Then he told the analyst to get you a coffee and to take notes silently for the rest of the briefing.

That night in bed with him you were sweetheart and baby and darling and sugar, each ridiculous endearment teased into your skin and whispered in your ear, until you finally shut him up with your mouth and ignored the point he was making. No one else gets to call you those things, only him.

In another bed you stare up at the plaster ceiling with its graceful antique fixture and feel his eyes on you. I can hear you thinking. Even the sex wasn’t enough to quiet the thoughts in your head tonight.

“How do you-“ you start, and stop, not sure if you really want to go down this particular road. Dave waits with a sniper’s patience, going even more silent and still beside you. “How do you make it not be…personal?” you ask the one man who won’t lie to you.

Irina. Anna. Olga. You would have shot Morozov through the heart despite the orders to take him alive if you’d known they were going to let him walk, and ruined your career in the process.

“Who says I do?”

Dave puts his fingers under your chin, turns you to face him and brushes a thumb over your lips. His eyes are dark and hooded, the eyes of a trained killer, a man more dangerous than any two-bit arms dealer and the one you let into your bed. He looks at you and sees what other men would miss, that even though you’re naked and flushed you’re still so, so angry.

“If you take nothing else from me ever again, take this piece of advice. Don’t work for the CIA.”

“Kinda late for that,” you interrupt with a roll of your eyes.

His thumb presses back against your lips. “Hush now and listen. Don’t work for them, make them work for you. The intel, the equipment, the slush funds, take it all and use it. Put men like Morozov in prison when they won’t. Because you’re not the kind of agent who won’t let it become personal.”

From anyone else you would have taken it as an insult, the first rule of intelligence work is compartmentalization. It can’t be personal. It’s just supposed to be names on a list and numbers on a page. Let bad men walk to catch worse ones. Collateral damage is a given, whether it’s a few cracked ribs or some broken girls.

“That sounds…” a number of different things go through your mind, starting with the fact that it sounds very much like treason, but you settle on one word, “…dangerous.”

Dave drags his thumb along your jaw. “The best things in life always are. Now, I believe you told me to fuck you with this big dick I’m so fucking proud of until you couldn’t walk, and then to do it again. And you know I always follow orders.”

You know he doesn’t, Dave York gets results like no other agent, but that’s not the same thing as following orders. He only follows the ones he wants to.

He rolls easily on top of you, making space for himself between your thighs. He’s making space for himself in others places too, something you wouldn’t acknowledge under torture. This is all you’ll allow yourself, to run your hands down his broad back to where it narrows at the waist, muscles rippling and flexing under your touch while the rapidly hardening line of his erection is hot against the crease where your thigh turns to hip.

“Is this what you want?” he asks, voice low and rough. One hand goes under your knee, pushes it back, opening you up. You’re still aching, still needing more, as wet as he is hard, and while his fingers can drive you crazy and his smart mouth never looks better than when it’s fitted snugly between your legs, what you want, what you need, is for him to break you into the mattress again until you shatter completely.

“Baby-“

You pull his head down to kiss him silent, kiss him deeply, kiss the man who’s gone to hell and back with you and would do it all again tomorrow. He pushes inside with a grunt, not making you beg any more than you’ve already done. This time he sinks down into you, warm and thick like honey, chest against your breasts, face buried in your neck, and fucks you with steady rolls golf his hips that you feel all the way down to your toes. It’s slower this time, less frantic, a more gradual build under your skin. Dave’s pace never falters, you feel that he would do this all night long if you asked. A hotel bed in Paris, an alley in Boston, in the back of a car, in a field, Dallas, Monte Carlo, Düsseldorf, Jakarta, you’ve fucked and fought your way around the world with Dave. You’re not dating, you don’t go to the movies on Saturday nights or argue over whose turn it is to do the dishes, there’s just this. Mission completed, Morozov file closed, new assignment in the morning.

What happens in the hours between stays there. It has to. You’re already compromised enough.

Dave groans, his hand finding yours and lacing your fingers together against the mattress. You keep your legs locked around him, thighs wrapped tight over his hips. Everything else fades away, there’s nothing except him on top of you, inside you, doing what you asked and fucking you until you tighten around him and cry out, shuddering through another orgasm. He doesn’t stop, the bastard just keeps going with a quick kiss to your temple as he fucks you through it and starts working you up again.

“One more,” he pants, shifting his hips. “Need you to come on my big dick one more time for me.”

You let out a huff of a laugh that turns into a bitten-off moan as he finds that blissful angle again, because his big dick is doing a hell of a job getting you there. The thick drag of it is more delicious than any fancy French dessert, sparking across over-sensitive nerves and hitting that spot buried deep in you on each stroke. You gasp and clutch at sweat-slicked skin, Dave fucks you and fucks you and fucks you, until you can’t take it anymore and fall apart in his arms. Even then he doesn’t give in immediately, drawing it out like the final note as he plays you as expertly as a concert pianist. That part of you that secretly wonders if he’s just been playing you the whole time is silent, drowned out by the hot rush as he floods you with warmth while you’re still quivering, pulsing hot to the same rhythm until you’re both fully spent.

After a few long, blissful moments where neither of you move or speak, Dave stirs first.

“Can you walk?” he asks. It’s not a rhetorical question. Fuck me with that big dick you’re so fucking proud of until I can’t fucking walk, and then do it again.

You’re tempted to lie, you’re so tempted because the absolute last thing Dave York needs is an ego boost. You’ll give him this, though, he earned it tonight.

“No,” you mumble, and wait for the inevitable smug, smart-ass remark. It doesn’t come, there’s only a quiet hum from him as you stroke fingers over his damp hair. His large hand splays over your ribs, covering what’s left of the bruising. It could have been worse, you could have run into that building and not come back out again. You got off easy with two cracked ribs, relatively speaking.

This job, this life, is dangerous. It wasn’t the first close call and it won’t be the last. You know it. Dave knows it.

Sleep is a luxury now, alongside regular meals, relationships that aren’t built on half-truths and lies, and downtime. It steals up on you, eyes closing against the anonymous room that you’ll never see again after this night, in a city that’s just another name on a map. There’s a faint rustle of sheets, and a warm body that settles next to you with a brush of lips to your cheek.

Whatever comes next, Dave York will be by your side.

Your partner.

(yours)

#dave york x reader #dave york x you #dave york smut #dave york fic #unapologetically in love with this asshole

[alexandralyman]

New Fic: Not Another Hallmark Movie

Hi Everyone! Coming off my long fic hiatus with a Captain Swan holiday story. I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Christmas after everything that’s happened in the past few years.

                                  Not Another Hallmark Movie

The little fishing village of Storybrooke Maine was just like those quirky small towns you’d see in one of the Hallmark Channel’s never-ending lineup of Christmas movies, so it was no surprise when it was chosen as the filming location for one of them to the delight of everyone in town.

Almost everyone.

Deputy Sheriff Emma Swan was less than thrilled to have Christmas come early in the form of a cast and crew that it was her responsibility to wrangle all over town, the prickly Scottish location manager Merida, seven surly Teamsters, the pretentious assistant director Arthur, and the two leads, former teen star Christina Bell and her love interest, up and coming English actor Killian Jones.

Well, maybe Killian wasn’t so bad.

With Storybrooke fully decked out for the holidays several months early, a star-struck son, a totally not jealous brother, and Christmas music blasting everywhere she went, all Emma wanted was for the movie to finish and life in town to go back to normal.

(though a bit of flirting with the handsome lead actor certainly helped to fill the time until then)

AO3 Link  /  FF.net Link

“Merry Christmas!”

Emma gave a nonplussed stare to the teenage barista on the other side of the counter, who was holding out the coffee she’d ordered in a festive red and green paper up instead of the normal white one.

“Seriously?” she replied, one eyebrow raised.

The barista gave a cheery smile that it was far, far, too early for.

Keep reading

#reblog #icymi

[alexandralyman]

New Fic: Not Another Hallmark Movie

Hi Everyone! Coming off my long fic hiatus with a Captain Swan holiday story. I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Christmas after everything that’s happened in the past few years.

                                  Not Another Hallmark Movie

The little fishing village of Storybrooke Maine was just like those quirky small towns you'd see in one of the Hallmark Channel's never-ending lineup of Christmas movies, so it was no surprise when it was chosen as the filming location for one of them to the delight of everyone in town.

Almost everyone.

Deputy Sheriff Emma Swan was less than thrilled to have Christmas come early in the form of a cast and crew that it was her responsibility to wrangle all over town, the prickly Scottish location manager Merida, seven surly Teamsters, the pretentious assistant director Arthur, and the two leads, former teen star Christina Bell and her love interest, up and coming English actor Killian Jones.

Well, maybe Killian wasn't so bad.

With Storybrooke fully decked out for the holidays several months early, a star-struck son, a totally not jealous brother, and Christmas music blasting everywhere she went, all Emma wanted was for the movie to finish and life in town to go back to normal.

(though a bit of flirting with the handsome lead actor certainly helped to fill the time until then)

AO3 Link  /  FF.net Link

“Merry Christmas!”

Emma gave a nonplussed stare to the teenage barista on the other side of the counter, who was holding out the coffee she’d ordered in a festive red and green paper up instead of the normal white one.

“Seriously?” she replied, one eyebrow raised.

The barista gave a cheery smile that it was far, far, too early for.

“We’re getting into the spirit! We should be getting a delivery later today with gingerbread syrup and pumpkin spice to make holiday lattes.”

“Great,” Emma muttered, taking the coffee and taking in the silver and gold tinsel strung up along the menu boards and the snowman cookies in the pastry case that she hadn’t noticed at uncaffeinated first glance. When she went outside the Storybrooke Bean & Brew it was more of the same, wreaths on doors, snowflake decorations in the storefronts, lights and bells and it was clear the whole damn town had gone completely Christmas crazy practically overnight. Which would be fine...if it was December, or even November.

It wasn’t.

It was August.

August, the middle of summer, when the chalkboard sidewalk sign in front of the Bean & Brew should have a sun and a beach umbrella drawn on it to advertise iced coffee, not a candy cane stuck in a mug of hot chocolate. The temperature was supposed to hit the high eighties today, for fuck’s sake.

No, Storybrooke hadn’t succumbed to the phenomenon known as “Christmas creep” when stores put out their holiday merch earlier and earlier each year so that artificial trees were on sale next to barbecues and gingerbread men shared shelves with Halloween candy. The little heritage town in Maine that looked like it had been designed by Currier & Ives themselves had been chosen by the Hallmark channel as the filming location for one of their insipid Christmas movies, where toothy, pretty people met, fell in love, and had their happy ending in an hour and a half against a picture perfect backdrop of evergreen trees and twinkling lights. A Holiday Romance, Jingle Bell Ball, New Love for Noel, Tis the Season, they aired them non-stop over the holidays and Emma never really gave much thought to where all those movies actually came from, until a fleet of trucks full of expensive-looking equipment had arrived a week ago.

They’d transformed Main Street into a faux winter wonderland within hours of unloading, and it seemed the townspeople were just as eager to get into character as well. Granny’s Diner was serving a turkey dinner special with stuffing and cranberry sauce, the local radio station had switched over from their usual playlist of songs that had been hits sometime in the 80s to nothing but Christmas music 24/7, and the coffee shop closest to the sheriff’s station was apparently now serving Emma’s morning caffeine fix in the cups printed with holly and ivy they normally didn’t pull out until it was closer to Thanksgiving than the Fourth of July.

It. Was. August.

And on top of having to listen to Bing Crosby dreaming of a white Christmas or Josh Groban calling to all ye faithful every time she got into her cruiser, Emma, in her capacity as Storybrooke’s deputy sheriff, had been tasked by the mayor herself, Regina Mills, to be the official town liaison to the movie people. Madame Mayor was adamant that they feel as welcome as possible, hoping to market Storybrooke as a filming locale to any Hollywood production that wanted small town charm and little red tape. All the permits they applied for had been approved without question, so Emma spent her days dealing with road closures and directing traffic around the sets, working long hours with the location manager, a no nonsense Scot named Merida, or with the assistant director, a jackass named Arthur who clearly viewed Storybrooke as nothing more than a backwater hick town that was stuck in time.

Which it was, but still. Rude.

As unenthused as Emma was having to deal with a woman whose accent she barely understood at times and a wannabe Martin Scorsese, her son Henry was just as excited about the movie coming to town. While not exactly in the Hallmark channel’s target demographic, Henry loved Christmas, loved movies, and loved the chance to actually see one being filmed in his own backyard. The fact that it was a cheesy TV movie aimed at women aged twenty-five to forty who drank wine and dreamed of their own hunky yet tender lumberjack love interest and not ten year old boys who were obsessed with Marvel and Star Wars didn’t matter, Henry had proclaimed to anyone who’d listen that it was the best thing to happen to Storybrooke in the history of ever. Since the last major event that Storybrooke had seen was a bad storm that washed a full container of live lobsters off one of the ships down at the docks and scattered them halfway to the town line, he did have a point.

Storybrooke was a fishing village in Maine. There were a lot of lobsters in that container.

A lot.

Emma had listened with half an ear while Henry spouted off every bit of information he could find online about A Midnight Clear, the title of the movie, scouring IMDB, Wikipedia, and the Hallmark channel’s social media accounts. Since Emma didn’t let him have his own Twitter or Instagram account yet, he’d followed anything remotely relevant from hers so he could keep tabs on them all. He was even more excited when he discovered the male lead in the movie was British actor Killian Jones. While he wasn’t exactly world-famous, with one of those fancy BBC costume dramas and some London theater work under his belt, Jones had guest-starred in a two-part episode of Doctor Who, making him, in Henry’s opinion, hands down the coolest person to have ever set foot in Storybrooke. An opinion he freely shared with everyone from Granny Lucas during lunch at the diner to the mailman when he dropped off the water bill.

David was visibly annoyed by it, which amused both Emma and his wife Mary Margaret to no end.

“I’m cool,” he’d protested, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair with a pout.

“Yes dear,” Mary Margaret deadpanned, patting him on the shoulder.

“I taught Henry how to ride a horse. Could Killian Jones do that?”

“I dunno, maybe,” Emma said with a shrug. “He’s English, isn’t riding a big thing there? Besides, he’s been inside the TARDIS, and sorry David, but that’s pretty hard for any of us to top.”

David threw his hands in the air. “It’s a TV show! The TARDIS is a prop, it’s not like the guy has actually been to space or traveled in time.”

Henry had come back in from the yard with dog and immediately started in again on the movie and how cool it was that someone like Killian Jones was visiting their town, brightly asking, “isn’t it the coolest thing ever, Uncle David?” and making David grumble to himself all through Sunday dinner while Emma and Mary Margaret trader knowing looks across the table at his sulking and Henry’s obliviousness to it. Emma and Henry had moved to Storybrooke because of David, her adoptive brother, and lived with him and Mary Margaret and their golden retriever Fandral on their farm at first until Emma got them their own place. Small town life had been a huge adjustment, at least for Emma. Henry had the ability to fit in wherever he went.

Big city girl with a cute, precocious kid moves to a picturesque small town and falls in love with a rugged lumberjack who looks like he stepped out of a paper towel commercial and proposes under the mistletoe before the credits rolled. Wasn’t that the plot of most of those made for TV Christmas movies? Although in Storybrooke it would probably be a lobster fisherman instead, and Emma’s life wasn’t a movie.

Plus, after the whole lobster incident, she really, really, didn’t want to see one ever again even if it was brought to her on a silver platter by Chris Evans in nothing but his Knives Out sweater.

Emma parked her Bug in the station lot after her stop at the Bean & Brew and went inside to both check in with Graham Humbert, town sheriff, and grab a bear claw from the ever present box of donuts he kept on his desk. More for the bear claw. Normally, she’d eat it at her own desk while going over the morning paperwork and seeing if there’d been any breaks in her one and only open case, the ongoing crank calls to Mr. Gold, pawnbroker and shoo-in favorite if Storybrooke ever needed to vote in an official town Scrooge. Not exactly something they needed to call in the FBI to consult on. But with the movie scheduled to spend all day filming at not one, but two different locations, Emma had to head out again immediately in one of the cruisers, so she brought the bear claw with her and slid behind the wheel, putting her coffee in the cupholder and turning the key in the ignition with one hand while she took a bite with the other.

Mariah Carey came blasting out of the stereo and Emma nearly choked, coughing and sputtering around her mouthful of pastry.

“Oh come on, it’s August,” she muttered, fumbling for the volume control. “Ugh!”

Once she got it down to a level that wouldn’t make her ears bleed, she pulled out and headed towards Storybrooke Town Hall. The trucks were already there when she arrived, cables snaking up and down the street and a sign with the name of the movie’s fictional town in place on the building’s facade. Several locals were watching eagerly from behind the barricades that Emma bypassed, badge on her hip and tossing back the last of her coffee as she went.

“How’s it going?”

She directed the question to Merida, whose cloud of red hair made her easy to find among the mostly male crew. The location manager had a clipboard in one hand, a walkie talkie in the other, a headset perched messily in her curls, and an expression that was the opposite of holly jolly.

“How’s it going? Well, I’ve got seven Teamsters who are all on their union mandated break at the same bloody time, the call sheet had the locations for today backwards so my two lead actors are currently at the wrong sets, which is absolutely grand, and to top it off the snow machine is on the fritz again so we’ve got no snow for our fecking Christmas movie. So that’s how it’s going.”

Emma understood about half of that, and it wasn’t just because Merida’s accent got as thick as oatmeal the more she talked. Henry was the movie expert, not her. Still, she made a sympathetic face, since it was clear things weren’t going particularly well.

“Bummer,” she offered, which made Merida let out a very Scottish sounding harrumph.

“You can say that again.”

The walkie talkie in her hand crackled to life in a burst of static and she started talking to whoever was on the other end.

“You got an ETA on Bell yet? Well, why not? I don’t care what the call sheet says, she’s supposed to be at the town hall, not the park!”

Emma assumed she was referring to the lead actress in the movie, Christina Bell. She’d met her briefly on the first day of filming, a tiny blonde pixie of a woman who Emma vaguely remembered from some soapy teen drama show that had been popular when Henry was a toddler. She hadn’t had much time for TV back then, and her own teenage drama was still too fresh for her to really be into the fictional kind, so she wasn’t nearly as starstruck as Mary Margaret and Ruby Lucas were when they came by to watch some of the shoot.

“Merida love, If you’d just give me the keys to one of the cars I can drive myself.”

“No,” Merida answered without looking up from her clipboard at the man who’d come over to join them. In contrast to the members of the crew in their jeans and black T-shirts, he was dressed in a three-piece suit that he had to be absolutely sweltering in, his dark hair was slicked back from his face and he had an accent that was tea and crumpets to Merida’s malt whiskey.

It was Killian Jones, the male lead and officially the coolest person to have ever set foot in Storybrooke. According to Henry, that is.

“But-“

“I said no, Jones. You’re not covered by the insurance and Arthur will have my arse in a sling if I let you. Or he’ll try to, at least, and I don’t fancy having to explain to the network exactly how their AD got a black eye. You just have to wait until Leroy finishes his break and then he’ll drive you over.”

Regina Mills had been adamant that Emma was to make everything as smooth as possible for the movie people, and if she’d learned one thing about Storybrooke, it was Regina’s town and the rest of them were just living in it. Normally it was beyond annoying, but, what Madame Mayor wanted, she would get in this case.

“I could drive you if it’s that urgent,” Emma offered. “Emma Swan, deputy sheriff. You’ll be safe with me.”

Both of them turned to look at her and she saw Killian’s blue eyes dart down to where she was oh so casually resting a hand next to her badge and then back up to her face.

“A police escort? Well, I suddenly feel very important,” he joked, with an easy smile that could only be described as movie-star handsome. Not that Emma planned on describing his smile to anyone. “Killian Jones, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Officer Swan. Oh, sorry, Deputy Sheriff Swan.”

“Emma is fine. Nice to meet you.”

She shook the hand he held out and smiled back. A few weeks ago she would have scoffed at the idea of playing chauffeur for some spoiled actor, she hadn’t gone back to college to get her criminal justice degree when Henry was old enough for kindergarten just to end up a glorified Uber, but the guy was cute and it beat standing around pretending to watch the crew fiddle with lights and cables in case Regina was in her office and decided to pop out and check that Emma was doing her civic duty.

“Brilliant,” Merida said, scribbling something on her clipboard. “He needs to be at the park, they’re filming at that bench we scouted last Wednesday. Thanks so much, Emma, you’re a lifesaver, in that you just saved Arthur’s life, since this was his cock-up and I was going to kill him.”

Emma knew the bench Merida was talking about, it was a favorite place of hers when she needed a quiet place to think. She nodded and pulled out her car keys, gesturing towards where she’d left the cruiser. “The Storybrooke Sheriff’s Department is always happy to assist. This way.”

Michael Buble informed them that it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas when she turned the key and the radio came to life again. Emma swore under her breath, the volume control was obviously broken.

“You’re really getting into this, aren’t you?”

He said it with an amused laugh and she felt her cheeks flush hotter than the eighty degree forecast. “Yeah, well, it’s the local station. We always keep the radio on them in case someone calls them instead of us, and they’ve been playing Christmas music in honor of you guys filming here even though it’s August.”

She glanced over at his not very seasonal attire and turned the air conditioning up, letting a rush of cold air wash over them both. At least that was working fine.

“You have a very charming little town here, Sheriff Swan. I grew up in a village by the sea like Storybrooke back in England before I moved to London, it reminds me of home.”

Emma had spent nearly an hour the other day listening to Arthur, assistant director and grade A asshole, bitch about the lack of a Starbucks and a decent place to get Thai food in Storybrooke when she’d had to work with him on the logistics of shutting down Main Street in the middle of the day so they could film a scene, as he oh so condescendingly put it, “before the light changes, Emma, you see, we have this thing in filmmaking called continuity.” At least Killian Jones had some freaking manners to go along with his good looks and sexy accent.

Nope. Don’t go there, Emma, don’t even think about it. Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars.

“Uh, thanks,” she mumbled. Lame, Emma.

The park wasn’t that far away, but she couldn’t take the fastest route thanks to the trucks blocking the streets around Town Hall and had to go the long way instead. With the volume turned down on the radio it was quiet in the car and she could sense him watching her from the passenger seat while she kept her eyes fixed firmly on the road. She was the deputy sheriff, she had to set a good example to visitors about safe driving habits.

Or something.

The long way involved driving past Henry’s school, it was closed for the summer, of course, since it was freaking August, but the message on the signboard out front had been changed from, “See You in September!” to “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!” because of course someone had done that. Still, she smiled to herself at the reminder of her son. Henry went to day camp during the week with his friend Paige, coming home every night eager to hear everything that was going on with the movie shoot and Emma had definitely earned some cool points in Henry’s eyes for getting to work with the cast and crew. He was going to freak when she told him she’d finally met Killian Jones.

“Did you grow up here?”

It took Emma a second to realize Killian had asked her a question. “What? Oh, no, I didn’t, actually. We only moved to Storybrooke about two years ago.”

“Ah,” he said, voice seeming to go a bit flat. “Well, I can see why you and your husband decided to relocate. It’s lovely.”

She snorted, trying to imagine Neal in Storybrooke. He’d think it was ridiculous, twee and old-fashioned, and he’d probably also complain that there was no Starbucks or Thai food within an hour’s drive of the town.

Not for the first time, she wondered if part of the appeal of Storybrooke was just how much her ex would hate it.

“Nope, no husband. My son and I moved here from Boston, my brother David and his wife have a farm just outside of town. He heard about the job opening in the sheriff’s department and told me about it, and the rest is history.”

Her long overdue breakup with Neal had come on the heels of finally finishing her degree thanks to night school and loans she wouldn’t pay off before Henry went to college, after dropping out on the first go round when she’d had a baby at twenty. Emma knew their relationship only lasted as long as it did because of their son and even though they kept half-heartedly planning to get married, it never did happen. David also wasn’t her actual brother, his mother, Ruth Nolan, had been Emma’s final foster parent before she aged out of the system and the Nolans became the closest thing she had to family.

Not that she was going to share her entire life story with a complete stranger, of course. Even a handsome one with bright blue eyes the color of the ocean just beyond Storybrooke’s harbor.

“You have a son?” he asked, “How old is he?”

He was a good enough actor that he actually sounded interested, even though most guys noped right out of the conversation when they found out she had a kid.

“Henry’s ten, and according to him the movie is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to this town.” she said, and glanced over at him to add, “He’s also a huge Doctor Who fan, by the way.”

Killian’s whole face lit up at that, clearly pleased. “I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since I was ten, so getting that part was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. You should bring Henry to the set next time, I’d be happy to give him a look at what goes on behind the scenes.”

“You would really do that?”

Emma realized with a start that they were parked and she was twisted in her seat to fully face him. When had they arrived at their destination and why hadn’t she noticed anything except the fact that, up close, Killian Jones had just about the bluest eyes she’d ever seen?

And not only that, he was looking right back at her.

“Of course I would.”

He said it like there was no question that he’d want to entertain an overly excited ten year old boy he didn’t know when he could be…practicing his lines or taking selfies for Instagram or whatever it was actors did when they had downtime on set.

It was a knock at the window that made them both look up and Emma had a very vivid flashback to being sixteen and getting caught parked in a car with a cute boy after sneaking out past curfew. That little stunt had gotten her kicked out of the group home she’d been living in at the time (safe haven for all, her ass) and even though she’d ended up at the Nolans as her next placement and been welcomed with open arms by Ruth, the memory still left a sour taste in the back of her throat. She turned away from Killian and got out of the cruiser with a cough, wishing she hadn’t forgotten her sunglasses.

“Mr. Jones, I’m sorry for interrupting, but we’re way behind schedule today and-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he said, exiting on the other side of the car and waving off the apology from the harried looking crew member with a lanyard around his neck and another of the ubiquitous walkie talkies they all seemed to carry. “Thank you very much for the official escort, Sheriff Swan.”

She didn’t bother to correct him again that she was only the deputy sheriff, giving him what she hoped was an official looking nod in response. “I’ll be sure to send Merida the bill for using so much of my valuable police time. And you’re welcome, Mr. Jones.”

“Killian,” he offered, before the crew member whisked him away, shepherding him through the maze of trucks and RVs while letting whoever was on the other end of the walkie talkie know that “Mr. Jones was now on set.” Emma thought that he might have hesitated for a bit, lingering for a moment longer with a glance back before disappearing around the side of an Airstream trailer with the crew member and she lost sight of him.

Or maybe she was imagining it.

She needed another coffee.

With their leading man safely delivered, Emma’s next task was to check that everything was running smoothly at this location and if A Midnight Clear needed any further assistance from the Storybrooke Sheriff’s Department.

“Another last minute permit…shut down traffic on Main Street again…close the library so you can film in it and have to listen to old Mrs. Hubbard bitch about not being able to read the latest National Enquirer for half an hour…give the ridiculously handsome star a blowjob-”

Emma halted dead in her tracks. Had she actually said that out loud? Shit, she did. Luckily, she’d only been muttering under her breath and it didn’t look like anyone was around to overhear. Her fingers found the badge on her belt, running over the metal star. She wasn’t some teenager crushing on a cute boy she’d talked to for all of five minutes, she was thirty years old, for fuck’s sake. An adult, with a college degree and a savings account. A law enforcement officer, come to…enforce the law.

God, that even sounded lame in her own head.

She really, really needed another coffee.

“Enforcing the law” in this case meant moving an orange pylon the crew had left that was too close to the accessible entrance to the park’s footpath. She’d make sure to note that stellar bit of police work in her daily log back at the station.

Signs had been posted to point the crew towards the set, not that Emma needed them. The bench was set in a clearing halfway down the path, not visible from where she was standing because of the trees. She followed along until it came into view, feeling her breath catch in her throat at the sight.

Henry had called it magic, and she supposed it was. Movie magic.

It was like an invisible snow globe had sprouted around the clearing. The green summer grass had been covered in a blanket of white that glittered in the sunlight the way actual snow would, while several faux evergreen trees had been strategically placed around the bench with more snow dusting their branches and dangling icicles that looked so real it was hard to believe they were probably made of plastic. A loud whirring noise suddenly rent the air, sounding like a motorcycle gang was about to come racing through. But this was Storybrooke, the closest thing they had to a motorcycle gang was when Marco gave Granny Lucas a ride to the diner on the back of his Vespa. A minute or so later, large white flakes started falling from the sky and the noise died down to a quieter hum as Merida’s malfunctioning snow machine had obviously been fixed. It all looked pretty damn realistic, Emma would give them that.

Killian appeared on the other side of the clearing, now sporting a black scarf and a pair of gloves with his suit. He was talking to Arthur, Emma was too far away to hear what they were saying but it didn’t take long before the actual filming started. She’d seen enough by now to know that it was a lot less exciting than it sounded. After watching the lead actress, Christina, film the same five second shot of her character walking into the library umpteen times, she really hadn’t paid much attention to what they were actually shooting whenever she had to babysit the crew on location around town. Regina called it “liasoning with the production” because Regina was, quite frankly, a bit of a snob, but really, it was babysitting.

She hadn’t seen Killian film before, and it was a lot more interesting. Yes, Emma could admit that partially it was because he was really, really good looking and it had been a while since her last date, and even longer since her last good date, but it wasn’t just that though. Something about him just changed when Arthur yelled action, the way he walked, his expression when he pretended to answer his cell phone, he wasn’t Killian Jones anymore, he was his character. Emma had only ever played the pity role of a tree in a school play once, she knew jack about acting. It was cool to watch an actual professional do it, especially when that professional looked like he did. They ran through the scene several times and during one of the breaks Killian waved at her. Emma waved back, telling herself the warm feeling in her chest was from the sun.

It was August, after all.

Henry was very excited to hear that she’d finally met the “coolest person ever to have set foot in Storybrooke” when Emma picked him and Paige up from camp that afternoon. They climbed into the Bug and showed her the popsicle stick snowflake ornaments they’d made in arts and crafts, since the Christmas fever had clearly infected Camp Arrowhead. After dropping Paige off at home and eating dinner Henry asked if they could watch Home Alone on Disney Plus, begging, “Please Mom? Please?”

Emma sighed to herself, putting the leftover potato salad back in the fridge. Whenever Henry was interested in something, he threw his whole heart and soul into it, and right now he was all about Christmas movies. She loved that about her son, while privately wondering where the heck it had come from. Not from her or Neal, that was for damn sure. Emma didn’t actually have a middle name, but if she did it might as well have been Cynical, and Neal, well, Neal never took anything seriously enough to care the way Henry did.

A part of her still loved Neal, even after everything that had happened between them.

She really didn’t want Henry to follow in some of his father’s footsteps, though.

Or hers.

“Home Alone it is then,” she agreed.

Henry settled happily on the living room floor, lying on his stomach with his chin propped in his hands to watch Kevin McAllister get left behind while his family rushed off to Paris. Emma curled up on the couch, feet tucked under an afghan Ruth had made for her when she’d been dropped at the Nolans’ door late one night with a duct-taped backpack and a chip the size of the McAllister’s ginormous house on her shoulder. She’d never really liked this movie, even when she was Henry’s age. Sure, the slapstick humor was still funny even as an adult, but…

But…

That huge mansion, filled to the brim with family on Christmas.

The desperate mother, fighting tooth and nail to return to her abandoned child.

The tearful reunion at the end.

Emma didn’t need a session with town psychiatrist Dr. Hopper to figure out that she had some issues with Christmas. Growing up in the system it was far from the most wonderful time of the year.

It was usually the worst.

Donated clothes that never fit quite right and generic gifts bought for “Girl Age 9-11”, no mother or father out there fighting their way back to her, no house full of family and Emma knew far too young that Santa wasn’t real, magic didn’t exist, and she was alone in the world, left behind to fend for herself not just for a few days, but for the rest of her life. She was the CPS equivalent of a misfit toy, a foster kid who got too old to be wanted. Even after Ruth took her in and David became the big brother she’d secretly always longed for, the damage had already been done. Even now, Christmas movies just reminded her of her shitty childhood.

“That was awesome!” Henry said once Kevin had been reunited with his family and the credits started to roll. Emma exited out of the Disney app and dropped the remote back onto the couch.

“You’ve already seen it about a million times,” she reminded him.

“If burglars tried to break in here, I’d set up booby traps to catch them too.”

She shook her head in exasperation. “No, you’d call 911 and do exactly what they told you to do. This is real life, kid, not a movie.”

“Movies are way cooler,” Henry proclaimed, flopping onto his back as dramatically as any actor with his arms spread wide as he announced it to the ceiling. She stifled a laugh.

“Yeah, they are,” she agreed, standing over him and holding out her hands to pull him to his feet. “Too bad you’re stuck here in the real world with me, huh?”

After Henry went to bed and she’d mindlessly scrolled through Netflix for a while —ignoring the algorithm’s suggestion to watch The Holiday and lingering for a bit on the thumbnail for Doctor Who before putting on a random episode of Nailed It instead—Emma found herself standing just outside Henry’s room. The door was ajar and she watched him sleep under the superhero posters that were dark shadows on the walls, with the Lego Star Wars x-wing fighter that David and Mary Margaret had given him last Christmas in place of pride on his dresser. Their little two-bedroom house in Storybrooke could charitably be called shabby chic, with its mismatched thrift-store furniture and and oddly-shaped rooms, it was a far cry from the McAllister’s giant McMansion and there was no luxury trips to Paris in Emma’s single mom budget, but she’d worked her ass off to make a home for her son and she was pretty damn proud of it

Her phone vibrated and she gently pulled Henry’s door closed before fishing it out of her pocket to check the notification. She expected to see a text from David or that Mary Margaret had tagged her in another Facebook post, instead it was from Instagram, letting her know that she had a new follower on her thatswangirl account, officialkillianjones. Sure enough, when she tapped the screen it took her right to his profile, the picture was definitely him and there was a blue check mark next to his name. The most recent post was a selfie where he had the black scarf he’d been wearing on set wrapped around his face and fake snow dusting his dark hair, one eyebrow quizzically raised while he stared into the camera. It was captioned, “Just walking in a winter wonderland, it’s still August, right?”

Having had similar thoughts multiple times a day over the last week, Emma snorted in agreement. She leaned against the wall, looking down at the screen. Killian Jones was now following her on Instagram, that was unexpected, to say the least. She followed him, or rather, Henry had followed him on her account, but she’d never expected him to follow her back. Had he actually gone looking for her profile or had Instagram just recommended her the way Netflix had recommended a Christmas movie even though it was August? Her finger was hovering over his latest post while she mused on it and the next thing she knew, she’d liked the photo. Seemed like the polite thing to do.

Henry was going to freak out again when she told him Killian followed her. Being “mutuals” on social media was apparently a Big Deal for reasons she didn’t quite understand.

She’d tell him in the morning, just like she’d told him that she’d met Killian on set, had answered all the questions he’d eagerly peppered her with during dinner, yes, he was very nice, yes, he liked Storybrooke, no, he hadn’t heard about the rain of lobsters (she hadn’t actually asked him if he did, to be honest), and yes, she told him Henry was a Doctor Who fan and he was happy to hear it.

She hadn’t told him about Killian’s offer to show him around the set and give him a behind the scenes look at the movie.

Her son wasn’t like her. Henry was cheerful, exuberant, and believed the best of everyone he

met. He would absolutely, one hundred percent believe that an actor in the middle of filming a movie would carve time out of his busy schedule to play tour guide to a random ten year old.

Emma knew better. It wasn’t worth getting his hopes up when the odds were that Killian had already forgotten all about it.

She closed Instagram. It was late, it had been a long day and she was ready for bed. Her own bedroom wasn’t that much larger than Henry’s and there was a serious lack of closet space, but it did have original hardwood floors that David had helped her refinish and a little wrought-iron Juliet balcony off the window. The house was an old sailor’s cottage, and Emma supposed the balcony had been for the sailor’s wife to lean on and look out to sea, waiting for her husband to return to her once more. She could hear the faint sound of the waves crashing on the beach when she opened the window to let in some air, the original features definitely didn’t include AC. It was a far cry from their old apartment in Boston, where there had been no chance of hearing anything except the drone of traffic or a drunken bar fight out of the window. Storybrooke had been a hell of an adjustment, but it was worth it to have a house with a backyard where Henry could play, a steady job with health insurance, family close by in the form of David and Mary Margaret, everything she’d ever wanted.

Well, almost everything, she thought, looking at the empty space on the side of the bed that used to be Neal’s.

Some dreams just didn’t come true.

************

“Seriously, you too?”

The turkey special was one thing, but now Granny’s Diner was fully decked out with little fake Christmas trees sitting on each table, snowflake banners strung up everywhere, red and green napkins in the dispensers and instead of the usual 80s music that was usually playing from the jukebox, it was Michael Buble again, currently informing them in his 40s throwback style that Santa Claus was coming to town. In August.

Granny Lucas looked down over the rim of her glasses. “Oh come on, Sheriff, it’s the most exciting thing to happen to this town since-”

“-since it rained lobsters on Main Street, I know, I know,” Emma finished with a sigh. “But it’s August.”

“It’s good for business,” Granny said. “The lobster bisque is still a top seller, you know.”

Emma hadn’t been able to stomach even the thought of lobster since that fateful day. She ordered her usual grilled cheese and onion rings, not bothering to look at the menu.

“Mom, can I get the turkey special?” Henry asked.

“Knock yourself out, kid.”

Henry wanted turkey instead of a burger and fries, and the woman whose picture could appear in the dictionary under “crotchety” was humming along to Christmas music in the middle of summer while she poured coffee. Everyone in Storybrooke had lost their damn minds. Or almost everyone. Mr. Gold was the lone holdout who’d refused to allow any filming on the properties he owned, his creepy little pawn shop was the only one left on Main Street without any decorations in the windows and Regina was utterly furious with him. Not that he cared, and the standoff between the mayor and the richest man in town didn’t look like it would end before the filming did.

Granny disappeared back into the kitchen and Emma listened while Henry chatted away about camp and whatever was considered new and cool among his fellow ten year olds, which seemed to change on a daily basis and she was barely thirty but god did she feel like she was about a hundred when her son started in on TikTock trends.

“Mom, look!”

Henry’s sudden gasp and grab at her arm came a split second after the bell over the door chimed, announcing that someone had just walked in. Her back was to whoever it was, but Henry’s eyes were as big as saucers and even before she turned around in the booth Emma knew exactly who had just walked into the diner.

Killian Jones was standing just inside the door, looking around with interest. Strangers in Storybrooke always stood out, something Emma remembered well from their first few months in town, and when said stranger was a handsome man who everyone knew was the star of the biggest thing to happen to the town since the lobsters, well, all eyes were on him.

He caught sight of her, and his face lit up with a smile. All eyes were on him, and he was looking only at her while he walked over to the booth.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hi!”

It was Henry who replied to his greeting first, practically bouncing in his seat in excitement.

“Sorry to bother you, Sheriff Swan, but I was told this was the best place in town to get real American food and I was wondering if there was anything in particular I should order?”

Again it was Henry who answered, grabbing one of the menus from behind the napkin dispenser and opening it up on the table. “Oh, you have to try a milkshake. And a cheeseburger. I always get it with fries, but Mom prefers onion rings, and-”

“Whoa, slow down there,” Emma interrupted him, while Killian looked like he was stifling a laugh at Henry’s rapid-fire enthusiasm. “Mr. Jones isn’t going to order everything on the menu.”

“Call me Killian, please. And you must be Henry.”

His attention was all on her son now as he held out his hand for Henry to shake and uttered the magic words. “I heard you like Doctor Who.”

By the time Ruby came over to take his order he was sitting in the booth with them, showing a completely enthralled Henry pictures on his phone of the Doctor Who set. Ruby gave Killian a wide smile, her signature crimson lipstick perfect and one hip cocked in his direction when she pulled out her order pad and pen from her apron. Most men (and more than a few women) in Storybrooke were unable to resist Ruby’s bare midriff and wolfish grin. Killian only gave her a polite nod before looking back down at the menu and ordering a milkshake after conferring with Henry on which flavor was the best (chocolate, was Henry’s answer) and a cheeseburger with fries, Henry’s normal go-to meal. Ruby went back into the kitchen with a disappointed pout and Killian went back to telling Henry what he said were top TARDIS secrets until the food was dropped off on plates roughly the size of frisbees.

“Bloody hell,” he swore, looking a little stunned.

“There’s your real American food,” Emma smirked, picking up an onion ring from her plate and biting into it with relish.

“If I eat all this I don’t think I’ll fit back into my costume.”

Henry decided to be helpful. “Mom’ll steal some of your fries when you’re not looking.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks kid.”

“Steal?” Killian repeated, putting a theatrical emphasis on the word. “A fine upstanding officer would never steal, unless…why, Sheriff Swan, are you secretly a pirate?”

Henry was giggling alongside him and Emma played along with the joke, corny as it was.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she shot back.

“Perhaps I would.”

They were interrupted by two teenage girls, sharing nervous giggles as they came over to ask for Killian’s autograph and a selfie. He turned to them with that movie-star smile, signing and posing for several pictures with each. When he turned back Emma was holding one of the fries off his plate, the end already dipped in ketchup.

“Oops, how’d that get there?” she mused with faux innocence.

His smile turned to something less suitable for the Hallmark channel’s family friendly reputation as he leaned back in the booth and gave her an appraising look that she met head on while she ate the pilfered fry. She was still pretty good at nicking food when no one was looking, it was a lot more fun now than it had been when she was sixteen.

When Ruby dropped off the bill it seemed like no time had passed, but Emma noticed with a start that the diner was practically deserted, the lunch rush was clearly long over. Killian’s plate was empty, after he’d taken a few pictures to post “real American food” on his Instagram he’d dug in and eaten everything except the fries Emma had filched every time someone else had come over to ask for his autograph or a photo. It had turned into a game they all played until there was none left.

Killian got her back by taking the last onion ring from her plate, aided by her son distracting her, the little traitor. Now she knew how David felt.

“Bye Killian!” Henry said. “See you on Monday!”

During lunch he’d invited both Henry and Paige to visit the movie set on Monday after camp. Emma knew Henry was going to talk about nothing else until then. David was going to be just thrilled to hear all about it during Sunday dinner.

They all slid out of the booth and she went to grab the bill so she could take it up to the cash register at the front, only to see that it had disappeared off the table. Emma frowned, wondering if it had fallen on the floor.

“Ah,” Killian said, and he was even better at sleight of hand than she was because when she looked up she saw he had it, having lifted it without her even noticing. “Let me get this.”

Her initial reaction was to protest, it wasn’t like they’d been on a date or anything, plus it wasn’t just her grilled cheese, it was Henry’s turkey special too on the bill. He must have seen her reluctance on her face because he added, “Consider it thanks for keeping me company, I was just going to get takeaway for one and this was much more fun than eating by myself.”

“Okay,” she found herself agreeing. “Thanks.”

Granny came bustling over from behind the counter. “Hang on, Sheriff, you almost forgot these.”

She handed over two oversized candy canes, Henry snatched one and immediately unwrapped a cellophaned end, sticking it in his mouth like an old man with a cigar.

“Thanks Granny!” he beamed around his mouthful of peppermint before bounding towards the door. “See you on Monday, Killian! Don’t forget!”

“They come with the turkey special,” Granny explained in response to Emma’s questioning look. “And here’s one for our visitor, too, on the house. Come back anytime, Mr. Jones. You were very good for business today. Try the lobster bisque next.”

She handed another candy cane to Killian, looking very pleased with herself. The diner had been more crowded than usual during lunch, now that Emma thought about it, and there had definitely been a higher than average amount of teenage girls. Emma watched through narrowed eyes while Granny went back to the counter and waited until she was out of earshot.

“Take my advice,” she said to Killian, leaning in to murmur it low in his ear, “don’t try the bisque.”

“I heard that, Sheriff!”

Okay, so maybe Granny wasn’t quite out of earshot.

“I think you just made the naughty list, Swan,” Killian chuckled.

“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

She smirked at his stunned look, feeling something that she hadn’t felt in a long time when she turned and headed for the door, something that made her put a little bit more of a swing in her hips than was strictly necessary and unwrapping her own candy cane as she went. Maybe it wasn’t very professional of her to flirt with him like that, especially when Granny Lucas apparently had the hearing of a woman half her age, but hey, she was off duty and he was only going to be in town for a short while. What was the harm?

The candy cane was pretty good, Emma had to admit to herself.

Hey, candy was candy, no matter what month it was.

***********

David, predictably, was less than pleased at Sunday dinner to hear about Killian’s invitation, and was even grumpier the following week when Henry was still on cloud nine after visiting a real live movie set. He got to hear all about how cool Killian was, and how Henry and Paige got to watch him film a scene while sitting in real director’s chairs, and then they got to be extras in the background and were actually going to be in the movie and wasn’t that the coolest thing ever? Everyone at camp had been so jealous.

“They’re not the only ones,” Emma said with a knowing smile, glancing over at her brother.

“I am not jealous!” David protested. His crossed arms and childish pout told a different story. “Why would I be jealous? Pass me the potatoes.”

Emma handed him the bowl and he started spooning them onto his plate with more force than was strictly necessary.

“Hey Mom?” Henry asked, oblivious to his uncle’s black mood as he took a roll from the basket Mary Margaret was offering to him, “Can I be Prince Charles for Halloween?”

“Prince Charles?” Mary Margaret repeated, putting the basket of rolls down and looking completely baffled.

“Not Prince Charles, Prince Charles,” Emma tried to explain, which only made her look even more confused. “Not the real Prince Charles, I mean. The character Killian played on Doctor Who was named Prince Charles, it was this running gag because he was from a different planet and didn’t know there was a Prince Charles here too so everyone thought he was joking when he said that was his name. Especially since he’s a lot more hand-“

She caught herself before she finished the thought and covered it up with a cough, trying to divert attention away from the fact that she’d almost just called him handsome in front of both her brother and her son. Judging by David’s rolled eyes and Mary Margaret’s raised eyebrows she wasn’t entirely successful, although thankfully Henry didn’t appear to have noticed.

“But, kid,” she continued, “Halloween costumes already? It’s only August. You’ll change your mind ten times before October.”

He shook his head. “No, I won’t, I promise! Please Mom? Please?”

“You said that last year about Iron Man, but then you wanted to be Boba Fett instead, remember?”

“This is different!”

Henry had that stubborn look on his face, the same one he had whenever he’d made his mind up about something, like which was the best Star Wars movie after Empire, (it was Rogue One) or that peas were gross (she agreed with him there), the look that Neal claimed he got from her and boy did that never fail to piss her off. But Neal was back in Boston (with Tamara, that little voice in her head oh so helpfully reminded her, the woman he said she didn’t have to worry about) and while he may have been right about where their son got that particular trait, she didn’t feel like arguing with Henry tonight, especially not so close to Christmas…

…fuck. It was August. She blamed the constant stream of Christmas music and the decorations Mary Margaret had put up already. Her Bug could only pick up the local station and it was too old (or vintage, as she preferred to call it) to have Bluetooth, so they'd arrived at the farm before dinner with the Little Drummer Boy rum-pa-pum-pumming away from the radio to find enough wireframe reindeer set up in the yard to pull Santa’s sleigh and a wreath on the door, while inside the stockings Ruth had made were hanging up on the fireplace mantle and even Fandral the golden retriever was jauntily dressed in a festive red plaid collar instead of his normal black one.

“They won’t make a costume for that,” Emma said instead of saying no outright, trying to let Henry down easy, “he’s not a big enough character.”

He frowned, looking down at his plate and chewing on his lip. She knew she was right, Target wasn’t going to have a Prince Charles costume alongside the umpteen Spidermans and Elsas.

“I could make it,” Mary Margaret offered.

Henry looked up, hope flaring bright on his face. “You could?”

“I’ve been meaning to get Ruth’s old sewing machine down from the attic to make a few, um, projects anyway, it’ll be good practice. Do you have a picture of it?

“Mom?”

He swiveled to face Emma with big, excited eyes. She had her phone sitting on the dinner table in case there was an emergency back at the station, like Mr. Gold getting another call asking if his refrigerator was running or Regina making an urgent report after catching someone littering. With a few taps she opened Instagram, going to Killian’s profile and scrolling back until she found a photo he’d posted of himself dressed in the Prince Charles costume of a long brown coat worn over a white shirt and black vest.

“It doesn’t look easy to make,” she warned, turning the screen towards Mary Margaret. Emma wasn’t the crafty type, not like her “I saw it on Pinterest!” spouting sister-in-law, but that coat seemed pretty complicated. Mary Margaret took the phone to have a closer look and squinted down at the photo, chewing her lip just like Henry.

“I’ll have to look for a pattern that I can adapt into the coat, and it’ll take a decent amount of fabric, but I should be able to copy it.”

“Yes!” Henry was bouncing in his seat, “See Mom? Aunt Mary can make it for me!”

Emma wondered if she’d ever stop getting caught by surprise every time David showed up at her house with his toolbox whenever she complained about the water pressure in the shower or the window that refused to open, or when Mary Margaret made social media-worthy cupcakes for Emma to take to the PTA meeting after she had a late shift at the station the night before and had no time (or skill) to bake herself. Her knee-jerk reaction was usually to protest, to say she could handle it herself, except she had to admit she wouldn’t be able to make anywhere near as good of a costume as Mary Margaret could make no matter which online tutorial she tried to follow.

“Okay,” she agreed, knowing she was powerless against the both of them now that they’d teamed up against her, “but, Mary Margaret, if it turns out it’s too much work for you-”

“Bah,” she interrupted. “What’s family for? Henry’s going to be the best Prince Charles in Storybrooke when I’m done.”

“He’s going to be the only Prince Charles in Storybrooke,” David pointed out. “Sure you don’t want to be Han Solo this year? I can be Chewbacca.”

“Nope!” Henry said, his ten year old mind clearly made up. Which meant he’d probably change it tomorrow, just like he’d gone from insisting that he had to be Iron Man one day to Boba Fett the next last year, but for now, her son was going to be a two-episode character that no one except die hard Doctor Who fans would recognize for Halloween.

David continued to sulk in his chair and stab at his food while Mary Margaret handed the phone back to Emma. It was still open on the photo from Killian’s Instagram and when she looked down she saw the heart was now filled in, meaning Mary Margaret had liked the months-old post.

Crap.

She narrowed her eyes at her sister-in-law, who was calmly serving herself from a snowflake patterned bowl that normally didn’t appear until December. For someone who dressed and acted like a 1950s schoolteacher with her pastel sweater sets and sunny, glass-is-half-full optimism, she had a suspiciously satisfied look on her face.

“Pass the salt, please,” she asked mildly, meeting Emma’s gaze over Henry’s head. “It’s certainly a nice…costume, isn’t it, Emma?”

Yeah, liking Killan’s post was no accident.

************

If there was one place in town that Emma would have bet actual cash on not giving in to the red-and-green wave that had spread through Storybrooke like a zombie apocalypse, only with a horde of gingerbread men instead of the walking dead, it was The Rabbit Hole.

Nope.

The shitty dive bar atmosphere of mismatched glassware and pool tables with faded felt was somehow even shittier with one of those white artificial trees set up in the corner and old-school multicolored lights strung haphazardly around the walls. At least there wasn’t any Christmas music playing—Emma may or may not have looked up flights to Canada one afternoon at the station while plotting how to murder Michael Buble and make it look like a tragic accident—classic rock thumped in the background instead when she walked in the door.

Henry was spending his monthly weekend in Boston with Neal and Ruby had dragged Emma out of her empty house to hit the town. In Storybrooke the pickings were slim, it wasn’t like there were any wine bars or clubs, so they went down to The Rabbit Hold alongside everyone else who wanted to blow off some steam on a Saturday night. Which included a bunch of the movie people, Emma saw the seven Teamsters pounding back beers together at a table and Merida throwing back shots as if they were water, while Arthur was hitting on anything in a skirt. Including Emma herself when they first arrived, which…no. Even though he was a good looking guy and would be far from the first asshole she ever slept with, she did not need to get laid that badly.

“You know it’s August, right?” she said to Ruby, pointing at the headband she was wearing. It had reindeer antlers. She was also wearing a short, sparkly red dress that would fit in perfectly at a Christmas party, but then again she wore red year round anyway.

“So? Lighten up, Emma, you’re giving off serious Grinch vibes, you know.”

She stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Ruby, which probably proved her point. Emma had to admit she was in a grinchy mood, with Henry gone and the house so much quieter without him there.

“You need a drink, and a dick, and not necessarily in that order.”

One thing about Ruby Lucas that anyone who spent more than five minutes with her learned was that while she may live in a storybook town that looked like the very definition of family friendly, she talked like she was starring in her own show on HBO.

“Let’s start with the drink,” Emma said, steering Ruby towards the bar and not having much hope of finishing with a dick.

The thing about small towns where everyone knew each other was that...it was a small town and everyone knew each other. One night stands were super awkward when you had to pull them over for speeding a week later after they never called you back, and she didn’t need Mary Margaret to start wedding planning after hearing from Ashley at the grocery store that her boyfriend Sean had been told by his friend Philip that Emma had left the bar the night before with someone they’d all known all their lives. So she nursed her Sam Adams (you could take the girl out of Boston, but you couldn’t take Boston out of the girl) for as long as possible and watched Ruby work her mojo instead of looking for someone to give her the “D” - as Ruby so unsubtly put it. Not that Ruby herself was leaning that way either, since she ended up doing shots with Merida and from the way they were looking at each other, leaning in close to speak in the other’s ear even though it wasn’t that loud, “friendly” touches to hands and arms and shoulders that lasted a little too long...yeah. Ruby wasn’t going home alone.

Well, she did like red. That extended to redheads, apparently.

“So...looks like your friend is having a Highland fling tonight.”

Emma looked over as Killian Jones sat down next to her in the seat Ruby had abandoned to go visit Scotland instead. He tipped his glass towards the pair, Ruby was now sitting on Merida’s lap with her dress riding dangerously high up her thighs and Emma really hoped she wouldn’t have to arrest her best friend for indecent exposure.

Again.

“I guess so,” she drawled, waiting to see if he was going to leer and make some gross comment about how hot two girls were together. He didn’t though, he just finished his drink and waved at the bartender.

“Another rum, neat, and one of whatever the lady is having.”

He looked good, that knife’s edge jaw covered with dark scruff several hours past a five o’clock shadow, his blue eyes bright even in the dimly lit room. Blue eyes that were fixed firmly on her, making Emma warmer than the liquor or the balmy summer night.

Ruby and Merida disappeared together at some point, Emma wasn’t really sure when. She drank the beer Killian bought her, and then bought him a drink, because she was an adult with a job and her own credit card and he didn’t know Philip or Sean or Ashley.

Especially because he didn’t know Philip or Sean or Ashley.

“Need a police escort home?” she asked, when his glass was empty and she knew the burn between her thighs wouldn’t be satisfied with her own hand tonight. Technically she was off the clock, but it was her sworn duty to protect and serve the people of the town, and that included handsome visiting actors with accents more delicious than candy canes or pumpkin spice lattes. It was just hitting midnight when they left The Rabbit Hole into a clear night of sea breeze coming in off the ocean and the stars above guiding their way like the sailors coming home to the lovers left behind on land. There was heat in the air, heat between them in the heavy-lidded glances they shared that were thick with anticipation, heat in the rum Emma wanted to taste directly from his mouth instead of a glass. She pulled him to her by his necklace, fingers wrapping in the cool metal of the chain and her back hitting the wall behind them.

The music from the bar was still faintly audible when their lips met, bass notes echoing like the beat of her pulse as she felt the kiss all the way to her toes. He caged her in place, hand sliding to the back of her neck and she met him more than halfway, her hips pressing against the bulge she could feel in his tight jeans and sliding her tongue along his reddened bottom lip. She relished his shiver when she grazed it with her teeth.

Killian pulled back, his eyes a glittering line through dark lashes and his voice a rasp of liquor and lust.

“Swan, are you sure?”

Emma really, really shouldn’t be doing this for a number of really, really good reasons, she had a kid, she had to oversee the rest of the movie shoot, Regina would probably kill her if she found out, literally, not figuratively, but, fuck it.

“Yes.”

He was staying in a house that the production company had arranged for him, he explained, a giant Victorian affair with gingerbread trim and one of those wide wrap-around porches that was made for a swing. Killian seemed slightly embarrassed when she couldn’t stop herself from gaping at it, although who could blame her, the house had a damn turret, for fuck’s sake. He fumbled with the lock and muttered that it was far too big for one person but it had been on the market for ages with no takers so they got a good deal on a short term rental. She followed him in when he finally got the door open, catching a glimpse of a kitchen that would have Mary Margaret squeeing over the vintage appliances and a giant bay window before he was on her, mouth latching onto her neck and all thoughts of her sister-in-law and architectural details flew out of her head. Strong hands reached under her thighs, lifting her up so that her legs wrapped around his hips. The line of his erection pressed against the damp lace under her dress with the movement, making them both shudder.

Killian carried, actually carried, her up the stairs, like she was a heroine from Bridgerton or something and not just a blonde he picked up at a bar, and damn if that wasn’t even more of a turn on. They tumbled through a door and onto a bed, her ankles crossing behind his back while he continued to grind between her thighs, his tongue in her mouth and his hands now planted rather firmly on her ass. She didn’t mind that at all and was eager to get her hands on him too, grabbing the hem of his T-shirt to find bare skin that was scorching to the touch when she dragged it up his sides. He had to go up on his knees on the bed to get it off completely, pulling it over his head and tossing it to the side as soon as his arms were free. His chest was dusted with a generous amount of dark hair, it turned into a line that went down his stomach and disappeared into the waistband of his jeans with a tantalizing hint of the treasure that lay at the end of the trail. There was something so delightfully male about it, and the noise he made when she raked her nails through the fine mat was even better.

Her dress was next to go, and while she hadn’t gone out with the expectation of getting laid she had worn something underneath that definitely meant she wasn’t opposed to the idea, lace-trimmed and sheer in all the right places and would look damn good on Killian’s bedroom floor. He pulled a bra strap down with his teeth and swirled his tongue around her nipple, bringing it to a tight pebble in his mouth while his fingers worked at the button of his jeans.

“You have condoms, right?” she asked, voice more than a little breathless and her back arching to give him better access.

“Yes,” he answered, flicking his tongue one more time over the tight peak before his dark head came up and he winked at her. “But we’ve got time before we need them.”

He leaned forward then and kissed her, far more softly this time. The hookups she’d had after her breakup with Neal had been more about scratching the itch, getting off and getting out as soon as possible. She’d almost forgotten it could be like this instead. Killian kept his word and took his time, kissing a line down her neck and back to her breasts, lavishing each one in turn with licks and sucks that had her flushed right down to her navel. When he hooked his thumbs in the lace clinging to her hips and dragged it down she was more than ready, slick with arousal under his fingers while he braced himself on one arm to reach between her legs. He slid up and down in a friction that had her gripping his shoulders and holding on against the wave that was poised to drag her under. When he slid two fingers inside and crooked them just right she met his eyes for a moment, the blue swallowed in a dark storm of desire, before her head tipped back helplessly into his pillow and she fell over the edge with a gasp.

“Fucking gorgeous,” he whispered, more to himself than to her. Another kiss was pressed to her lips while she lay panting for air and then he reached over to the bedside table and pulled open a drawer, rummaging around blindly inside until he found the box of condoms. Emma saw that it was unopened, which made her wonder if she was the first woman he’d slept with since he arrived in town. Not that it really mattered, this was just a one time thing, but still.

His boxer briefs were tented with his erection. She sat up and slid her palm over it while he was tearing a condom off the string and his hips jerked into her hand. A smirk played at her lips as she did it again, before toying with the waistband and tracing the lines of his abs with the tip of her nail.

“You said we had time, right?”

His accent was thicker, rougher, when he answered. “I did, didn’t I?”

Emma peeled the cotton down his thighs and pushed him onto his back, plucking the condom from his unresisting hand for later and laying it on the sheets next to his hips. As late as it already was, she wasn’t ready for the night to end just yet. They had time, time for her to lick a teasing stripe up the length of him and watch the muscles in his stomach contract at the sensation, time to take him in her mouth and continue the tease with her tongue. Each gasp and groan that followed made her feel sexy, gorgeous, desired, all the things she didn’t usually have time for in her daily life. When she finally released him her was rock hard and the second the condom was rolled on he dragged her onto his lap, a wrecked look on his face. It was just the right side of rough when he thrust up, hands tight on her hips and breath hot on her neck. His beard rasped against her skin while the thick drag of his erection rocked inside her, she was going to feel it in the morning and she relished the thought.

They found a rhythm, Emma riding him to the tempo only they could hear, rolling her hips and squeezing around him. The bed creaked with the movement and his deep groans mixed with her own higher-pitched cries. He filled her on each stroke, it felt amazing and yet it wasn’t quite enough to bring her off again. Killian seemed to sense it when she started to falter, chasing the high that stayed just out of reach. He tightened his arms around her back and rolled them, settling on top of her and giving a heavy thrust that made her toes curl and her back arch. Her eyes squeezed shut and one of his hands found hers, lacing their fingers together against the mattress and holding tight. The other lifted her knee and changed the angle just enough to give her that last little push she needed to come a second time.

Killian followed her a few moments later, burying his face in her neck and his back slick with sweat as he shuddered through his climax.

“That was,” he breathed, clearly too blissed out to even finish the thought.

“Yeah,” she agreed.

It had been the best sex she’d had in a long time, blowing every other one-night stand completely out of the water. She had no illusions that it was more, he was only in town for a short time and it was all she wanted, anyway.

“Does Granny’s serve breakfast?”

The sudden question from the pleasant weight pinning her to the bed caught her off guard. “What, like right now?”

Killian chuffed quietly into her shoulder. “No, it’s just that I’ve got nought but some tea and toast to offer you in the morning, and I think I’ve finally finished digesting that cheeseburger by now.”

That made her snort, remembering the look on his face when he’d first encountered Granny’s idea of a portion size. It took her another second to realize that he expected her to not only stay the night, but to stay for breakfast. It was sweet, but-

There was always a but.

But if she went to Granny’s Diner with him in the morning, wearing the same dress she’d worn to The Rabbit Hole the night before, the whole town would know they’d slept together before the lunch rush. She should make an excuse to leave, find her underwear, and go home.

Killian kissed her neck and got out of bed, disappearing into an ensuite bathroom. She’d tell him she had the early morning shift at the station, she’d tell him Henry was coming home and she had to go, she’d tell him something, anything, and leave…

The combination of alcohol and incredible sex was making her limbs heavy and the prospect of having to put her bra back on was about as appealing at the moment as a budget meeting with Mayor Mills. Plus his bed was so comfy, king-sized and covered in pillows that she wanted to bury herself in.

Emma was almost asleep when Killian climbed back into bed, one arm snaking around her waist and pulling her so that she was spooned against him with her back to his front. Lips brushed against her ear and he whispered, “Goodnight, love.”

Just before she drifted off completely she felt a pang of regret, that she couldn’t go out for breakfast with him in the morning or go home with him again at night no matter how good looking he was or how good he was in bed.

Or how good he was with her son.

It was just a one time thing.

********

“A grilled cheese and onion rings, right Emma?”

“Yes, thank you Ruby.”

Ruby jotted the order down on her pad and turned to Henry. “And for you, kiddo?”

“No turkey special?”

She rested a hand on her hip and shook her head. “Fraid not. Back to the old menu now, I can do a burger, or the lobster bisque.”

Emma suppressed a shudder. Luckily Henry wasn’t much interested in lobster unless they were raining down from the sky, and he ordered a cheeseburger with fries instead. In addition to the old menu Granny’s Diner was back to the regular decor, the napkins were white, the mini trees were gone, and the jukebox was playing Top 40 hits from the Reagan administration instead of Christmas music. No more Michael Buble, no one was wearing Santa hats, or wishing each other happy holidays, the Bean & Brew was back to promoting iced coffees instead of pumpkin spice lattes and everything was back to normal in Storybrooke.

Just what Emma had been waiting for.

Henry started chattering away about whatever was currently going viral, something that was of vital importance to any self-respecting ten year old. Emma listened with half an ear, waiting for their order. Ruby brought over Henry’s milkshake and her hot chocolate with cinnamon. It was slightly cooler now than it had been a few weeks ago, but it was still almost seventy degrees out. She’d just been in the mood for one.

“Crap, I forgot to add the cinnamon. Sorry Emma, I’ll go grab it.”

Before she left the bell over the door rang, announcing a new arrival to the diner. Emma’s back was to it so she couldn’t see who it was at first, it was Ruby who looked over first and a smile broke over her face.

“Hey, look who just came back to town.”

Emms felt her heartbeat quicken and a flush rise in her cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat coming from her drink. Henry was grinning and waving like a maniac and she took a breath, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. When she opened them and turned around she immediately locked eyes with the man who’d just walked in.

“Oh,” she said, slumping down in her seat and unable to stop the wave of disappointment washing over her. “It’s August.”

*********

“Merry Christmas!”

Emma smiled and took the festive red cup from the barista, a young man wearing an elf hat with his green apron.

“Thanks. Merry Christmas to you too.”

She stepped outside of the packed Starbucks after adding an extra dash of cinnamon from the condiment bar to her gingerbread hot chocolate, beanie pulled down over her ears and her jacket zipped up to her chin. The cold still nipped at her cheeks and her breath immediately fogged the air, it was December, after all.

Fortifying herself against the chill with a sip of her drink, she joined the throng packing the sidewalk. The skyscrapers above, the massive crowds, the Starbucks and takeout places on every corner, New York City was a far cry from Storybrooke.

Henry’s list of exciting things to happen in their sleepy little town now included the day when the FBI had arrived without warning to arrest Mr. Gold. It turned out that the pawn shop owner and richest man in Storybrooke had made his money years prior by defrauding investors in a scheme where he claimed to be able to create gold from inexpensive materials, like lab-created diamonds, that was indistinguishable from the real thing. In truth, it was all a scam and the supposed gold was fake. By the time his investors found out they’d been fleeced, he’d taken the money and run. “Gold” wasn’t even his real name, he’d chosen that as his alias and from Emma’s acquaintance with him she was sure he was probably feeling very smug and satisfied with himself over his not so clever little joke. Storybrooke had been his hiding spot with his young trophy wife and stolen cash, the townspeople none the wiser until a literal SWAT team showed up.

Emma had caught him before he crossed the town line, trying to flee in a car that had just been reported stolen to the local radio station instead of the sheriff’s department. She’d been completely unaware of the special task force that was raiding his house at the same time, a group of highly trained agents who didn’t look too happy that it was a small town cop who’d actually apprehended the man who was fifth on their top ten most wanted list when she brought him in.

Gold had stolen a lot of money. A lot.

As the arresting officer she’d had to come to New York City, the scene of Gold’s crime, to give a formal statement in person at the FBI’s field office, answer the same questions over and over again about a hundred times, sign more paperwork than the Storybrooke Sheriff’s Department generated in six months, and accept her share of the reward money.

Yes Virginia, there was reward money.

Enough to pay off her student loans, put a sizable chunk into Henry’s college fund, splurge on a killer leather jacket that she’d been eyeing online forever and looked damn good in, if she did say so herself, and buy some very nice Christmas presents for the people in her life. She had several things already stashed back in her hotel room for Mary Margaret and David, although her idiot brother was still in the doghouse with her for the little stunt he’d pulled. Bound and determined to prove he was Henry’s cool uncle (never mind the fact that he was Henry’s only uncle) he’d let her ten year old son drive his truck.

Right into a town mailbox.

She should have bought him a lump of coal instead of AirPods. Luckily Regina was too busy gloating over Gold’s arrest and the defeat of her longtime nemesis to notice the wilful destruction of town property before Graham had it removed. Emma, on the other hand, had threatened both David and Henry with a weekend in side by side cells at the station with nothing but bread and water if they ever did it again. Technically that was a misuse of police authority, but considering she had a citation from the FBI with a fancy seal and everything now posted above her desk she felt she could get away with it.

David’s gift was done, Mary Margaret’s was done (along with a few gifts for the new addition to the family that had been tearfully announced at Thanksgiving, Baby Boy or Girl Nolan would be making his or her appearance right around Easter) and while she’d picked up several things for Henry, there was one item on his list she was still trying to snag.

Gingerbread hot chocolate in hand, she crossed 34th street and walked into Macy’s to hit up the special Lego pop-up holiday store inside. It carried several sets that weren’t available anywhere else, not even online, including a limited edition Star Wars themed one that Henry had declared to be the coolest Lego set ever. He wasn’t the only one, it was such a hot ticket item among Lego enthusiasts that the store only put out a few at completely random times of the day to discourage scalpers and they always sold out immediately. There were even Twitter accounts solely devoted to posting when they were available, Emma had followed them all in desperation but had no luck so far. Now she was down to her last night in New York before heading back to Storybrooke and she was going to give it one more try even though she had little hope of finding one.

But for Henry, it was worth a shot.

Like every other store Macy’s was completely done up for the holidays, with garlands of tinsel and greenery draped everywhere, giant stars hanging from the ceiling, and Paul McCartney simply having a wonderful Christmastime over the loudspeakers. The entrance to the pop-up itself was flanked by two six-foot tall nutcrackers made of Lego, and inside there was a Lego Christmas tree that everyone stopped at to take photos. As impressive as it was, Emma was on a mission and she bypassed all the tourists taking selfies to make her way straight to the Star Wars section, feeling a bit like Princess Leia when she knelt down by the life-sized Lego R2-D2 to check the lowest shelf just in case one had been shoved back there.

Hey only hope was dashed when all she found was a line of Baby Yodas.

“Excuse me,” she straightened up and snagged one of the employees walking by in his “Merry and Br(icks)ight” T-shirt, “are there any of those limited edition May The Force Be With You sets out right now?”

He shook his head, juggling an armful of Imperial tie fighters. “No, sorry, we’re already sold out of those for the day. You can try again tomorrow.”

She couldn’t, but she didn’t say it. “Okay, thanks.”

It had always been a longshot, but she couldn’t help the stab of dejection. Some part of her had thought that maybe, just maybe, she’d miraculously be able to find one for her son and make his Christmas dream come true. The employee walked off and she gave one final, resigned look at the display of Millenium Falcons before she left the store too, just in case.

“Excuse me, miss.”

Emma turned around at the voice to find another employee standing behind her, and older man with white hair and glasses. He looked a bit familiar, but before she could figure out how her gaze dropped to the box he was holding. She recognized it on sight even though she could hardly believe what she was seeing, it was the limited edition, impossible to find even on eBay, May The Force Be With You Lego set, number one on Henry’s Christmas list.

“I couldn’t help but overhear, is this what you were looking for?”

She took it from him, almost too stunned to speak. “Yes,” she managed to squeak out, sounding like a little kid, “yes, this is the one my son wants. But I thought it was sold out?”

“Ah,” he smiled. “There was just this one left in the back, I’m glad I was able to grab it for you. Merry Christmas to you and your son.”

“Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too.”

She turned the box over carefully in a bit of a daze, double and triple checking to make sure it was really the right one and she wasn’t seeing things. When she looked up to thank the employee again, he was already gone.

Huh. Weird.

On her way to the checkout she got stopped three separate times by people offering to buy the set off her, it was that hot. It was also ridiculously expensive, like holy shit, how much kind of expensive, but she didn’t even flinch at the total when she swiped her credit card. It was for Henry, and that was all that mattered.

The temperature had dropped some more by the time she left Macy’s and she wanted nothing more than to go back to her hotel and order some room service, since she was on official business all her expenses were paid for and an overpriced grilled cheese and a glass of wine from the mini-bar followed by a hot bath were calling to her, but she had one final thing to do in New York before she left.

When Henry had found out about her trip he’d been incredibly excited, which surprised her because she’d been expecting him to be disappointed that she had to leave so close to Christmas and would miss out on both the Town Hall carol sing and David and Mary Margaret’s annual ugly Christmas sweater party. It turned out he was so thrilled because the nonstop holiday movie marathon that had been going on in their house all month thanks to Disney Plus had included numerous viewings of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Henry had all these grand plans for her trip, that she was going to stay in a lavish suite at the Plaza Hotel, visit Duncan’s Toy Chest, and be driven around in a limousine, just like Kevin McCallister did when he got separated from his family, again.

Right.

She was staying at a nondescript Hilton in midtown, was taking cabs instead of limos, and had to break the news to Henry that the toy store in the movie was fictional.

There was one key location though that wasn’t either insanely expensive or non-existent and she hailed a cab, keeping a tight hold on her shopping bag as she slid into the backseat and told the driver where she wanted to go. He pulled away from the curb and Emma watched the streets go by from the window, storefronts all decorated and a kaleidoscope of lights reflecting on the glass.

“The WYNC-FM weather forecast is brought to you by the Hallmark Channel, where every night is Christmas Eve! Tune in tonight for Mistletoe and Memories, a brand new movie about a secret, second-chance romance at the holidays! ”The latest weather forecast has changed again and most of the Eastern seaboard can expect to see a white Christmas this year, with snow expected on the twenty-fourth through the twenty-sixth. Maine in particular will receive several inches spread over the holidays, especially in the coastal parts of the state. And to celebrate, here’s the time-honored classic itself.”

The radio station started playing White Christmas, Bing Crosby’s gravelly voice drifting out of the speakers. Henry would be happy to hear there was going to be snow on Christmas, while it had definitely been cold and blustery in Storybrooke, there hadn’t been any snow yet. He’d asked if the town could get one of those machines they used to make the movie and have Christmas all year round.

Emma didn’t find the idea nearly as unappealing as she might have a few months ago.

“We’re here, miss.”

After paying the fare she stepped out and was immediately looked up. The famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Centre was a lot taller in person than it was on screen in Home Alone 2, she had to crane her neck to see all the way up to the star on top. It was covered in lights and shone bright against the night sky, presiding over the open plaza below. At the foot of it was a skating rink, and despite the near freezing temperatures it was still full of people gliding back and forth on the ice. There were tourists come to sightsee milling about, couples bundled up against the cold walking arm-in-arm, hot dog carts and souvenir stands and the whole scene was all very quintessentially New York.

Back home in Storybrooke they had their own tree-lighting ceremony on a much smaller scale at the Town Hall a few weeks prior to kickoff the season, followed by the “Gala Premiere,” as Regina called it, of Storybrooke’s very own Christmas movie. The gala premiere consisted of a screen and a projector set up in the high school auditorium, hot drinks catered by the Bean & Brew, and a rented popcorn machine. David and Mary Margaret came, and Ashley and Sean, and Paige and her dad, and a very, very excited Henry with Emma in tow, all to watch the bookish small-town girl played by Christina Bell fall for the visiting, mysterious Englishman played by Killian Jones, against a backdrop of fake snow and careful editing to hide the fact that it had been filmed in August. They’d renamed the movie, instead of A Midnight Clear it was now A Count for Christmas, because the big reveal was that Killian’s character was actually a count.

Henry was already planning next year’s Halloween costume based on it. As David had predicted, no one had known who he was supposed to be in the Prince Charles costume Mary Margaret had painstakingly made when he went out trick-or-treating with Paige in her much more recognizable Scarlet Witch outfit from Target. But Henry hadn’t cared, not when the official Doctor Who Instagram account itself had reposted the picture Emma had taken of him all dressed up.

She was pretty sure she had Killian to thank for that.

So next year her son was going to be a count instead of a prince. The scene where he and Paige were extras in the background had lasted less than a minute, and only the back of his head was briefly visible on screen, but in true Mike Wazowski fashion none of that had mattered to him and he’d proclaimed to anyone who’d listen, Ruby, the mailman, his dentist, Pongo the Dalmatian, that he’d actually been in a movie!

It was cheesy, and sappy, and sentimental, and all the things Emma swore up and down she wasn’t into.

Maybe she was, a little bit.

A clip from it even went viral, of a rather smoldering look Killian had shot to Christina that was very un-Hallmark like and more suited to something on HBO. It blew up on TikTok, to the point where Killian had even been interviewed by several media outlets and gained over a hundred thousand Instagram followers. Emma was happy for his success (and maybe, just maybe a tiny bit jealous that the look hadn’t been directed at her), although she wasn’t as thrilled as Regina, who actually put out a press release about Storybrooke’s role in the clip.

The selfie Emma took with the Rockefeller Christmas tree behind her wasn’t going to go viral when she posted it on Instagram, adding the caption “not so lost in New York”. That was okay,

it was for Henry and his love of Christmas movies, belief in superheroes and magic and all the good things in the world that she might have forgotten about without him in her life.

There was a busker in the plaza in fingerless gloves and a Santa hat, playing the guitar. Naturally, it was a Christmas song. Even though she’d only planned to grab the photo with the tree and then head back to her hotel, she found herself staying to listen.

Emma recognized the irony of it, after all her complaining back in August about the non-stop Christmas music that drove her to secretly plot how to take out the three worst offenders, Josh Groban, Mariah Carey, and Michael Buble (he was Canadian, so it involved a hockey stick and maple syrup) she’d come around and actually didn’t mind the acoustic version of All I Want For Christmas Is You the busker was strumming. A small group had gathered around to listen and when he finished, she clapped along with them. His guitar case was open on the ground by his feet for donations and a few people tossed in some coins and small bills.

She dropped in a fifty, with the reward money safely deposited in her bank account she could afford to spread some extra Christmas cheer to a stranger. His eyes absolutely lit up when he saw it and she smiled to herself.

“Thank you everyone, I hope you’re all having a lovely evening tonight,” he said to the crowd. “Are there any requests?”

The question was directed at her and there was one song, in particular, that immediately sprang to mind.

“Do you know It Came Upon a Midnight Clear?”

He thought to himself for a moment, plucking a few experimental chords on his guitar. Then he found it, and music filled the air again. As far as Christmas songs went it was softer than a lot of the other, more popular ones, it was wistful, with just a hint of melancholy but ending on a hopeful note. Even though the title of the Hallmark movie had been changed, they kept a scene where Christina and Killian’s characters had to meet up at midnight to break into the library and find the stolen deed to Killian’s ancestral estate that proved he was the rightful heir so he could claim his title. The song had played while snow fell around them as they opened the book of fairytales where the deed had been hidden and found it at last.

Emma had heard Merida cursing at the snow machine with insults that got increasingly more Scottish when it kept malfunctioning the day they filmed the scene, even the seven Teamsters were shocked by how colorful some of them were, and that asshole Arthur had been in a giant snit by the delay and was even more insufferable than usual. But it all came together in the end and watching the final result in the darkened Storybrooke High gym with Henry beside her staring in slack-jawed awe at the screen like it was Avengers Endgame, she had to admit it was worth it.

Movie magic, as Henry called it.

“Emma? Emma, are you here? SWAN!”

The voice cut through the music and the crowd, rising above them all and she felt herself frown, turning in a circle to look for whoever the hell it was who was calling her name. She was alone in the middle of New York City, hundreds of miles away from home.

A man pushed his way through a knot of tourists clustered around one of the hot dog carts and came to a halt several feet away as he caught sight of her. Emma froze on the spot, too shocked by the unexpected sight in front of her to do anything except stare as the music and the crowd and everything else faded away.

It was Killian Jones.

She blinked.

He was still there.

Dressed in a black puffer coat with a scarf around his neck but his head bare against the winter chill. His dark hair was longer than it was the last time she saw him back in Storybrooke the day after filming wrapped, a lock almost fell into his eyes and it curled around the tips of his ears in the winter breeze. He looked good and he looked happy, smiling bright as he crossed the last bit of distance between them.

“Fancy meeting you here, Deputy Sheriff Swan.”

“What? How?” she sputtered, not quite believing he was real. “Killian?”

“I saw your Instagram post.”

She saw now that he had his phone in one gloved hand and when he held it up, the photo she’d just posted was displayed on the screen. Her own phone suddenly vibrated inside her jacket and when she pulled it out, she saw a notification that officialkillianjones had liked her new post.

“I came to see if I could find you,” he explained, which didn’t exactly clear up her confusion.

“You came to find me…from London? Did you Apparate here, or something?”

“No,” he chuckled, “alas, I’m only a Muggle. No, I’ve been in New York for a few days now, I’ve been auditioning for a new TV series and I just got out of a meeting at the production office over there when your post popped up on my phone.”

He pointed across the plaza at one of the office buildings that surrounded it and she followed the motion, registering what he’d just said.

“You’re auditioning for a new TV show? That’s great!”

Was that a bit of a blush on his cheeks when he ducked his head or was it just red from the cold?

“Yeah, the meeting was actually to tell me I got the part. It was this whole last minute thing, they’ve been trying to full the role for months but couldn’t find anyone they liked, and then when that scene from A Count for Christmas went viral they contacted my agent to see if I was interested. So, I guess I have your lovely town to thank for helping me land it.”

“Oh, wow. Really?”

Henry was going to flip when she told him. He loved all that behind the scenes stuff and would be so proud that it was Storybrooke’s very own movie that was responsible for Killian getting the part.

Heck, she was kinda proud too.

“Really,” he winked. “I’ll have to thank everyone else in person, when we start filming.”

He couldn’t possibly mean…? She met his blue gaze and saw how intently he was looking at her, as if gauging her reaction.

“Start filming?” she asked, “In Storybrooke?”

He turned a bit sheepish, reaching up to scratch behind one ear. “Yeah, they also told me in the last meeting that they just settled on the filming location and signed the contract. Apparently your mayor put together a very impressive and persuasive proposal last week. Frankly, I think they were too intimidated by her to say no.”

Regina had been in a suspiciously good mood lately, but Emma had chalked that up to Gold’s arrest and to winning the town gingerbread house competition for a record-breaking fifth year in a row. Legitimately, too, even she had to admit Regina’s gingerbread castle was pretty dang impressive.

“So, you’re coming back to town,” she said, slowly, and quickly added, “for your TV show.”

“Looks like,” he agreed. “For at least six months of filming. Maybe longer.”

Killian was going to be staying in Storybrooke for at least six months. The official coolest person ever to set foot in it, according to Henry, and the man she hadn’t been able to get out of her head was coming back.

“Good.”

The single word that fell from her lips grew between them in the air with the promise of something more, something new and unexpected and exciting. Emma didn’t know where it was going to lead, but she was willing to find out.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been nattering on all about myself and I haven’t even asked, what are you doing in New York? Is Henry here with you? His Halloween costume was incredible, by the way.”

She shook her head with a laugh, “No, Henry’s back in Storybrooke with my brother and sister-in-law. As for why I’m here, that’s kind of a long story.”

“I’ve got time,” he said. “Tell you what, why don’t I buy you a drink and you can tell me all about it. There’s a lovely little bar in the lobby of my hotel that does a great hot buttered rum. What do you say, Swan?”

She would say that hot buttered rum and a hot as fuck guy who was about to move to her small little town both sounded like Christmas had just come early.

“Lead the way.”

He offered her his arm like the count he’d played in the movie. She looped her hand through it and they started over to a waiting line of taxis on the other side of the square.

“What hotel are you staying at?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s the Plaza.”

Emma halted mid-step. He was staying at the Plaza?

“Seriously?”

Killian looked down at her, brows knitting together in a frown at her reaction. “Yes? The network put me up there, I understand it’s rather famous?

“Yeah, it is, it’s just, um, have you seen Home Alone 2?”

He made a face. “Once or twice when I was a child, I think. Now don’t go telling the Hallmark people this, but, truth be told, my deepest, darkest secret is that I don’t really like Christmas movies.”

Her shoulders silently shook with mirth, thinking of that interview he did post TikTok blowup where he’d absolutely gushed about them. He really was a damn good actor.

“Well, your secret’s safe with me. Although, really, they’re not so bad.”

The star on top of the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree winked in the rearview mirror when they climbed into the backseat of a cab and started to drive away, Killian’s arm wrapping around her shoulder like it was meant to be there.

Yeah, Emma decided, Christmas movies were alright.

**********

Henry was thrilled when she came home for Christmas with both the most coveted Lego set on the planet and Killian Jones. He couldn’t leave the country while his work permit for the new TV show was being processed, and she wasn’t going to leave him all alone on Christmas.

David was less than pleased when she brought Killian over for Christmas Day dinner at the farm, although he hid it behind a smile and a handshake while Mary Margaret immediately fussed over their last-minute guest and Fandral the golden retriever ran circles around them.

Emma just hugged her brother and whispered in his ear, “This is payback for letting my ten year old son drive. Merry Christmas.”

#captain swan #captain swan fic #cs ff #cs fic #my fic #(yes there's smut in this) #merry christmas ya filthy animals #and a happy new year

[alexandralyman]

I can feel your heart beating

#titanic

[alexandralyman]

I'll be good, and I'll love the world like I should. I'll be good for all the times I never could.

requested by anonymous

#killian jones #this is so lovely

[alexandralyman]

On your feet for the Captain

Colin O’Liferuiner in 2x04

#killian jones

[alexandralyman]

All I want is the taste that your lips allow. 

#captain swan #otp to end all otps

[alexandralyman]

Hey guys, I’m popping in to say hi to everyone since it’s been a while since I’ve been active here. I took a Tumblr break and since time no longer has any meaning in this mess of a year (seriously, how is it NOVEMBER already?) it went longer than I originally thought. Just needed to focus on some other things more and I’m crazy busy with work, which probably won’t stop until we have our Christmas break. I haven’t left the fandom or anything and I still love Captain Swan, I’m still writing and I still love you all! Hope everyone is safe and well in these weird times we live in now.

I’m on Twitter as jeweloftheroger, so you can also follow me over there.

And now to start catching up on my long-neglected dash.

[alexandralyman]

#this asshole #i love him so much #killian jones #also I've seen Colin do this pose in person #like 2 feet away from me

[alexandralyman]

#captain swan #never over this

[alexandralyman]

cs aesthetic >> beyond the horizon by alexandra lyman

#this crossed my dash #reblog #beyond the horizon #still so grateful for the lovely things people make based on my fic

[alexandralyman]

Jennifer Morisson & Colin O'Donoghue on the set of Once Upon a Time, season 4 - July 16, 2014. (by Opustwelve/attackontaetan)

#jmo and cod

[alexandralyman]

Fluffy CS parents snippet

This is just a little scene that's been in my head for a while...

---------

Emma examined her face in the mirror critically. She looked fine, she knew - her hair was clean, barely a strand out of place, and she wasn't regretting the decision to not wear makeup after months of going without. Compared to the 'new baby, don't care' style she'd been rocking for the past seven weeks, she looked almost glamorous.

And most of the women along for her girls' night out were mothers - they wouldn't comment on the bags that had taken up permanent residence under her eyes, or her still recovering body.

Emma saw every imperfection, though...

No. She wouldn't let it bother her. She NEEDED this, needed to get out, have fun, remind herself that she was more than Hope's mother.

Emma turned away, breaking the mirror's hold on her. This was an evening meant letting loose, having adult conversations about something other than poopy diapers, and possibly getting her mother drunk again because that had been distracting.

She headed downstairs. Killian's voice drifted up, inaudible, higher pitched than normal, and Emma's lips ticked up in a smile as she walked as softly as possible to the main room to catch them by surprise.

A fluffy yellow blanket covered the floor, and Hope was lying on her back in the center, sucking intently on her chubby fist as she stared up at Killian. He was on his belly, braced on his elbows, head hanging over her as he kept up a steady stream of nonsense.

As much as she loved seeing him as a pirate, she found she liked seeing him as a dad even more. Like her, he'd given up on dressing up after one too many streaks of spit up had stained his shirts, and now he wore cheap shirts he could buy in bulk and dispose of. The one he wore now was an unbuttoned grey Henley, and Emma could see curls of dark hair peaking out. His forearms were bare as well. His beard and hair were thicker, and slightly disheveled. Emma found she enjoyed seeing her normally fastidious husband in such disarray.

Especially when he was giving their daughter the most ridiculous faces. Emma snorted a laugh. Killian rolled onto his side and gave her that soft, goofy smile that always tugged at Emma's heart because it was such an unguarded expression reserved only for her. "You're gorgeous, Love," he said.

Emma snorted. "It's amazing what shampoo AND conditioner can do. I even used a comb." She tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder coquettishly.

Killian switched to that smolder, as if being clean was the sexiest thing in the world. Then again, he already had a streak of spit down the front of his shirt, so maybe it really was.

Before he could respond, however, Hope started fussing. Killian immediately went back to his elbows so she could see him. "Little Love, I'm right here," he crooned. She reached for his beard.

Emma still had half an hour before she was meeting everyone, so she sat on the blanket. Killian tried rolling to the side again, but Hope whined. "Little Love!"

Emma sprawled next to Killian, putting her head beside his. A strand of hair caught in his beard, pulling free from the loose wave around her ear.

Oh, well... she'd be unrecognizable if her hair was perfect, anyway.

Hope gave them a wide, gummy smile, and reached for a fistful of Emma's hair. Ah, now she remembered why she usually pulled it back.

"She doesn't want me to go - maybe I shouldn't..."

Killian put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "We'll be fine, Love. You've been looking forward to getting out of the house all week. Go. Remember what it's like to have fun! The lass and I have a date with the Netflix, and she'll probably be asleep the whole time you're gone. Me, too, for that matter."

"Don't you dare, Killian... I'm going to need you to send me pictures of Hope every half hour. I'm not kidding."

Killian huffed a laugh. "As you wish, Swan."

Emma sighed and started pushing herself up. "And what about you? You need to go out sometime, too."

"I do go out," Killian said.

"When was the last time you went anywhere that wasn't work related, or didn't have Hope?"

Killian opened his mouth. Shut it. Scratched behind his ear. "Ah," he said.

"Right. Dad practically begged me to tell you to come outside and play with him," Emma said, amused. Her father had sounded so plaintive on the phone - Killian was one of the few people who didn't treat him like a prince, and David appreciated having a real friend. "If you don't do something with him soon, he's going to sign you up for the karaoke competition Granny is organizing," she threatened.

Killian tried to turn his head towards her, but Hope had a firm grip on his beard. "I have no idea what that is, but I'm sure it would be fun," he said distractedly, as he tried to extract himself from Hope's shockingly strong baby grip.

...and this was how, after a surprisingly fun evening in which Emma only thought about Hope most of the time instead of the entire time, Emma found herself signing Killian up for the karaoke competition, so he, too could remember what it felt like to have fun with other adults. But that's a story for another time.

------

You know what I hate about snippets? They don't have a conclusion. Well, mine don't.

But...yeah.

#dawww! #this was the perfect little slice of life #domestic cs #cs fic rec