~Going Down~

Bo walks into the busy squad room, a soda and leftover fries in his hands. He walks towards his office, his attention on something other than where he was going, causing him to walk right into Antonio, “Whoa there, boss.” He looks at where Bo’s attention was focused, “Ahh.” Antonio looks over at Nora who is standing in the doorway leading into the squad room. He looks between the two of them, noticing the intense eye contact, over Detective Renfro’s shoulder. Their eyes were saying it all. Antonio just shakes his head and walks away.

Bo looks away, breaking their eye lock. He gives her a small smile as he walks into his office and closes the door. He places his fries down on the desk and takes a quick sip of his soda as he walks over and collapses on the couch.  It’s been a long three weeks since they’d been stuck together. Three long weeks since they’d fought like they hadn’t fought in years, and laughed like they hadn’t laughed in years. He leans his head back and closes his eyes trying desperately to think of anything but her.

She walks down the hallway outside his office, pausing outside the large window. She stands there for a moment and looks through the opened blinds, watching him as he sits deep in thought. She shakes her head and walks towards her office, hoping she’d be able to get some work done before court, knowing the opposite would hold true, not with him on her mind.

She walks into her office and is startled to see Daniel sitting on the corner of her desk, ‘I really don’t have time for this,’ she thinks to herself. “Good afternoon, Daniel,” she says instead. She walks around the opposite side of her desk, placing a barrier between them. She looks up at Daniel who is making his way behind her desk. She sits down quickly, sliding herself under her desk, “Can I do something for you Daniel?”

Daniel stops his advance and looks down at her, “Um well I thought maybe we could grab a quick lunch before court.”

“Oh, um,” she begins to fuss with the files on her desk, “I’m sorry, Daniel, I’m really not that hungry,” she lies. She was actually starving and now she’d have to put off calling in her order to the diner. She looks back up at him, “Was that all you wanted?” He walks around to the front of her desk and sits down across from her. She sighs, not wanting to get into another one of their discussions about how things seem to have changed between them since she was quarantined with Bo, “I really have a lot of work to take care of before court,” she says.

Daniel nods and stands up, “Well I’ll see you in court then, Nora.”

Nora slams the file closed in front of her and leans back in her chair, releasing a deep sigh. She crosses her arms in front of her, glancing back up at her now closed office door. She leans forward, dropping her chin in her palm. She picks a pen up and begins to tap it on the top of her desk, “Why can’t I just move on,” she thinks to herself. Why can’t I get Bo out of my head?”

Bo stands up and stretches his back, relaxing the cramped muscles lying on the small couch induced. He glances at the clock on the wall and grabs the left over fries. He’ll finish them in the elevator on his way down to the courthouse he decides.

She stares absentmindedly at the file in front of her. She’s been staring at it, reading and re-reading the same paragraph. Her thoughts keep drifting from Daniel to Bo and the mess she seems to have made of her social life once again. Why can’t this be easy? It was easy once; it was easy with Bo.

She pushes the thought away and notices the time. She grabs her purse, leaving her briefcase behind. She was a witness in today’s hearing, not the ADA, she wasn’t either. She turns out the light and heads towards the elevators.

Bo enters the elevator, stuffing a few fries in his mouth as he waits for the elevator doors to close. A moment later he hears someone rushing towards the elevator, “Hold the…,” she begins to say, stopping when she sees him standing there holding the doors open.

They stand there in silence for a moment, their eyes locked on one another. He smiles a small smile, “Going down, ma’am,” he asks, trying to break the tension.

She nods and steps onto the elevator. Bo releases the door and a moment later the doors close, shutting them off from the rest of the world. She looks over at him wishing they didn’t have this awkwardness between them. She decides to try and break the silence and tension, “You on your way to Todd’s hearing? I didn’t see your name on the witness list.”

“I’m not going as the Commissioner this time. I’m going as a Buchanan. This involves my family, it involves Matthew’s legacy.”

She nods, “Right. Of course you would be there. Your support will mean a lot to Kevin and Asa. And like you said, Buchanan Enterprises is our son’s legacy. You should be there.”

He just nods, wishing he could tell her that his family and Matthew weren’t his only reasons for going to the hearing; that she was too. He knew Evangeline would bring up her past with Todd, details of the rape trial, and he knew it was going to be there for her. Besides he should be the one supporting her, not Daniel. He knew her past with Todd, not Daniel. He sighs. Daniel, he was just always there, every where he turned, he was there.

Bo was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when he was knocked against the wall. He straightens up and looks across the elevator, “You okay?”

She nods, “Yeah, I’m fine,” she reaches down and picks up her purse off the floor, “What the hell happened?”

“Power must’ve gone out. These few lights only come on when the back up generators kick on,” he says pointing to the dim lights in the corners of the elevator. Bo opens the emergency phone compartment and lifts the phone from its cradle. He looks over at her, replacing the phone on its base and closing the door, “Emergency phone is dead.”

“Great,” she sighs, “Well wait; we’ll just call down to the station and tell them where we are. They can go get the maintenance guys and we’ll be out of here before opening statements.”

Bo begins to shake his head, “I don’t think so, Red.”

“W…What do you mean?” she stutters, trying to keep from becoming flustered at hearing him call her “Red.”

Bo holds up his cell phone, “No signal.”

“Oh, is that all,” she reaches into her purse for her phone, “I’m sure I…” she looks down at her phone and then over at Bo, “don’t have a signal.”

“Whatever knocked out the power must’ve knocked out the cell towers too.”

She sighs and leans her head against the wall, closing her eyes. Bo runs his hands over his face in frustration. If only the Mayor hadn’t nixed his proposal to upgrade the back up systems to include the elevators, then he wouldn’t be here, stuck in this box. He looks over at her. Stuck again he thinks to himself. He looks up at the ceiling, ‘This isn’t funny God,’ he thinks to himself.

Bo slides down the wall and takes a seat on the floor. She opens her eyes and sees him sitting on the floor. She walks over and sits down beside him. They sit in silence for a while. He loosens his top button and removes his tie and suit jacket, “It’s getting awfully warm in here,” he states breaking the silence.

She looks over at him, “Great, I hadn’t really noticed until you said something,” she removes her suit jacket revealing a white sheer blouse, “but now I’m roasting.”

“Sorry. I was just making conversation,” he says with a sigh, “you know that thing we used to be able to do so easily before…” his voice trails off, “oh never mind,” he says as he stands up  and walks over to the other side of the elevator. He un tucks his shirt before sitting back down across from her.

She stands up and walks to the middle of the elevator, “Whoa, wait a minute here. There’s no way you’re going to make a comment like that and then stop.” She begins pacing, “Before what, Bo? Huh?”

He looks up at her, “I said forget it, Nora. I’m really not in the mood to go another ten rounds with you. I had enough of that when we were stuck together before. Let’s just drop it.”

“Fine, whatever,” she says as she sits back down across from him. They sit in silence once again. Ten minutes pass, feeling more like an hour. She empties, refills, and empties her purse again, while he does the same with his wallet, both trying to ignore each other, but failing miserably.

Bo reaches down and begins to remove his shoes and socks, in an attempt to cool off. Nora stands up and begins to pace again. He looks up at her as she walks back and forth, her bare feet tapping against the linoleum floor. He glances down at her feet, his eyes making their way up her long tanned legs, stopping at the hem of her skirt. He swallows hard and leans forward grabbing her hand, pulling her down onto the floor next to him, “You’re making me dizzy, not to mention warmer with all you pacing,” hoping she wasn’t aware of the real reason why he was getting warmer.

She jerks her hand out of his and slides as far away as she can from him. She glances over and notices the bag beside him, “What’s in the bag?”

He reaches for it and hands it to her, “Just some leftover fries; probably cold by now.”

She grabs the bag from his hand, “I don’t care. I’m starving.”

“Didn’t take time for lunch? That’s got to be a Nora Buchanan first.”

She looks over at him. If only he knew the real reason she skipped lunch, between sidestepping Daniel’s invitation and getting so lost in thought that she forgot to order something. She shrugs instead, “Yeah, well like they say, there’s a first for everything.” She opens the bag and grimaces, “You dumped ketchup all over them.” He reaches for the bag, but she pulls it out of his reach, “But hey, who am I to complain about a few naked French fries when I’m starving, right.” Bo just looks at her and begins to laugh, “What are you laughing at,” she asks; her mouth half stuffed with fries.

He reaches out and wipes a smudge of ketchup off her face, “I’m sorry I laughed. I was just remembering the last time we were stuck in an elevator and you told me about that lime green teddy of yours.”

She looks down at her hands, bringing her fingers up to lick off the remaining salt, “Yeah, well, that was a long time ago.”

“Yeah, a long time ago,” he repeats quietly. He looks over at her as she begins to roll her neck and arch her back, trying to work out the stiffness from sitting on the hard floor. He slides over closer and places his hands on her shoulder, “Here turn around.” He slowly turns her around and begins to massage her neck. He feels her sharp intake of breath as his hands begin to expertly remove the tension from her tight muscles.

She closes her eyes, the feelings his hands were evoking were more than just the soothing of her sore muscles. She felt a tightening in her stomach and a tug in her heart. Little did she know he was experiencing the same tightness in his stomach and that same tug in his heart. Suddenly she just can’t take it anymore. She stands up and walks over to the other side of the elevator, her back towards him. He stands up and walks over to where she stands, wanting to reach out and touch her. She turns around and looks at him, “What’s going on here, Bo? I really need to know. One day every thing’s fine with us, like after Ben’s memorial service and then the next morning you’re ice cold. We spend two days stuck in my house together and we fight like two people who can’t stand each other instead of two parents who should be able to be in the same room with each other without fighting. And then now, here you are, giving me a back massage like…well like nothings changed between us. So I’ll ask you again, what do you want from me, Bo? I just can’t take these mixed signals any more.”

“Mixed signals? Well now that’s rich, what about you?”

She glares at him, “Me…!”

“Yes you,” he retorts, making his way closer to her, “What about that dance we had at Rodi’s two weeks ago. You remember the one, Nora, when Marcie asked us to show her some moves from the dance contest. You were more than happy to oblige her then. And we can’t forget after Ben’s memorial service. You reach out to me and then you run off to call Daniel.”

“Hey, you ran too. You were the one that said you had to work.” She begins to pace and then stops and spins around to face him, “What is your problem?”

“I want to know why you would choose Daniel of all people to go out with.”

She shakes her head, “I just don’t understand what exactly it is that you don’t like about him. So let me have it, and I swear Buchanan, I want the truth this time. Don’t you dare lay this at our son’s feet.”

“He’s just always there. When I stop by your house to visit or pick up Matthew, he’s there. When I stop by to see you in your office about something, he’s there. Whenever we run into each other, you’re waiting for him, but when he doesn’t show, we spend the evening together. Things happen, feelings begin to stir, but at the end of the day or night he’s still always there.”

She sighs and walks over to the other side of the elevator. She backs herself against the wall and crosses her arms in front of her, “Okay, I’m going to ask you this one more time, Bo. What exactly do you want from me?!”

“I want you to stop flaunting Daniel in my face all the time!”

She stares at him for a moment, “I do NOT flaunt Daniel in your face.  I’m just…I’m just not going to sit around and wait for something to happen…” she looks up at him, knowing she blurted something she didn’t want him to know.

He walks over to her, “What did you just say…wait for what to happen?”

She sidesteps him and walks around to the middle of the elevator, “for the rest of my life to begin again,” she says half-heartedly.

He walks over to her and turns her around, “I’m not buying it, Nora.”

She crosses her arms in front of her, “Well, this really is all your fault you know. You’re the one that kept pushing me to get a social life.”

He stares into her eyes, knowing she was trying to break the tension with a bit of humor. No more he thought to himself, no more running, “But Daniel?” he asks, “Why him. Why someone I would have to see you with every day?”

She thinks back to that night in Capricorn and what RJ had said to her. She looks deep into his eyes. Maybe RJ was right. Was she with Daniel only because he was the one man in Bo’s face every day? She thought back to the conversation she had with Rachel when they were quarantined together, the conversation where she finally admitted that she had fallen in love with Bo again. She was about to say something when the elevator jerked for a moment, sending her into his arms.

Just as suddenly as the elevator began to move it stopped again. She just stares at him, his arms still wrapped around her waist. She tilts her head to the side, “I…I just wish I knew what you really wanted from me,” she says in a whisper, “Please just tell me you love me and I’ll be able to admit the truth,” she begs him in silence.

He stares at her lips for a moment, a heat rising up his neck as he watches her tongue slowly graze across her lips. He can’t take it anymore and he crashes his mouth down onto hers, quickly parting her lips with his tongue. She wraps her arms around his neck, deepening their kiss as he backs her against the wall. He reaches up and removes her hands from around his neck, intertwining his fingers with hers as he presses her firmly against the wall.

He breaks their kiss, bringing his mouth across her cheek and onto her neck, nipping and sucking her skin. She drops his hands and reaches between them, slipping her hands under his shirt. He brings his hands up along her side, slipping them under her blouse, lightly skimming over her stomach and back over to her hips, pausing there for a moment, before reaching around and unzipping her skirt. She reaches out and begins to struggle with his belt buckle.

Soon her skirt lies on the floor as she fumbles to unbutton his pants. His pants soon join her skirt. He kicks them behind him as she sidesteps her skirt. He presses his body against hers once again, his hands running up her thighs as he raises her slip. He brings his mouth back onto hers pulling her into another passionate kiss. She wraps her leg around him, pulling him closer against her. He falls fully against her, pressing her firmly against the wall. Their bodies grind against each other as they deepen their kiss.

Their breaths come in quick bursts as he breaks their kiss. Their eyes lock momentarily, cautiously giving each other an out. She looks deep into his eyes and begins to unbutton his shirt, using it to pull him back against her. He brings his lips down onto her chest, where she had exposed her skin earlier in her attempt to cool off. He kisses along the top of her breasts as he unbuttons her blouse.  He unsnaps the front clasp of her bra slowly slipping it and her blouse down her arms until it lies at their feet.

He brings his mouth back down onto her breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth. She arches her back, causing him to take more of her breast into his mouth as she runs her hand down his chest, slipping it into his boxers as she lowers them over his hips. He moans against her breast as she begins to fondle him. He reaches down and slips his fingers into her silk panties, beginning to lower them down her hips. He causes her to break contact with his desire as he follows the trail her panties have taken with his mouth. He kisses up her inner thigh, kissing across her, on his way back up her stomach to her breasts.

He breaks contact with her breasts for a moment, both of them taking in the sight of the other as they stand before each other after all these years, their skin flushed with unreleased passion. She places her hands around his neck, wrapping her leg around his waist once again, pulling him tight against her, as she crashes her mouth down onto his. She spins them around, now pressing him firmly against the wall, deepening their kiss.

They slowly slide to the floor, still kissing on their way down. He lays his body on hers, her leg returning to its place around his waist. He pulls himself up on his elbow, his other hand, running up her side, taking her breast in his hand. He begins to fondle it, as their tongues participate in a passionate duel. He breaks their kiss after a moment, both of them struggling for their breath, as it comes in quick bursts. His mouth travels down her chest and between her breasts, kissing, sucking, licking, driving her crazy.

She’s finally had all the teasing her body can take. She wraps her arms around his neck and rolls him onto his back, bringing herself with him. She intertwines her hands with his as she brings her mouth down onto his, parting his lips with her tongue as she positions herself over him. He brings his lips up onto her neck as they thrust against each other, their bodies slipping easily into a familiar rhythm, as though they’ve never spent a moment apart.

He releases her hands, placing his arms around her, rolling her onto her back. Her legs wrap around his waist once again, deepening their contact. Her hands cup his bottom, their hips moving in one fluid motion. His lips move from where they were, caressing her chest and neck, to her mouth, wanting to be as connected as possible when they reach their climax.

Her legs tighten around his waist as her nails dig into his alert skin, their bodies finally reaching their climax together, each of them breathlessly moaning each other’s names as they give into their release.

They lay there for a moment, trying to regain control of their breathing and their beating hearts. They stare at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say. He leans in and kisses her before propping himself up on his elbow, “If Matthew could only see us now…”

“He’d be scarred for life.”

“Well, not like this specifically,” he says with a laugh.

She laughs before the moment turns quiet. She reaches out and runs her finger down his face, “God, I’ve missed you,” she whispers breathlessly.

Just as he was about to say something the lights came back on and the elevator jerks. He jumps up to his feet, her following suit, as they rush to get dressed. She glances up at the ceiling, noticing the security cameras for the first time, “Um, Bo…”

“Yeah,” he says as he fumbles with his pants.

She points up at the ceiling, before stepping into her skirt, quickly zipping it up, “Please tell me that the back up generators do not include the security cameras.”

He laughs and leans in for a quick kiss, “No, they’re not on the back up system either.”

Both of them look back up at the security cameras and back down at each other, both knowing their first stop was going to be the security office, just to make sure. She finishes tucking in her shirt just as the elevator finally comes to a stop. They exchange a quick glance just before the doors open. She crosses her arms in front of her and steps off the elevator, walking right into Daniel and Antonio.

“There you are,” Daniel says, attempting to lean in for a kiss. She turns her head, causing him to lightly brush her cheek.

Bo walks around them and over to where Antonio was standing. Antonio begins to fill him in on what happened while the power was out. Bo can’t keep his eyes off of her as he watches her over Antonio’s shoulder.

Daniel begins to fill her in on what happened in court due to the power outage and her disappearance. Nora can’t keep her eyes off of Bo as she watches him over Daniel’s shoulder.

She begins to walk away, turning around when she hears Bo call her name, “Wait,” he says as he walks over to her, “I…I’ve missed you too, Nora,” he says before pulling her into a kiss.

Just as his lips touch hers, Marcie and Matthew walk around the corner. They pause and take in the sight before them, giving each other a quick high five. Antonio walks around them with a smile, glancing back at Daniel as he stares at them in disbelief.

Daniel turns and walks away. Marcie takes Matthew’s hand and leads him back down to the squad room.

Bo breaks their kiss and stands in front of her, ‘that’ smile plastered on his face, “Oh, and by the way, Red. When I asked you if you were ‘going down’, I didn’t mean literally, but hey I’m not complaining,” he teases with a wink.

She leans in and kisses him again, “You better not be, Buchanan, because there’s a lot more where that came from.” She takes his hand and together they make their way to the security office…just to make sure.

The End…leading to a beautiful beginning!