A/N: With my vow to finish all my stories I've decided to continue with this story I started over two years ago. It sat for quite awhile without any reviews and then all of a sudden I had five so I thought what the hell and decided to pick it up again. If I get none then maybe I'll put it on the back burner and finish some other things first. Tell me what you think of it. I know it's more Ashley than Bosco in the next couple of chapters but Bosco makes a comeback don't you worry.
xXx
Ashley drummed her fingers against the table as she waited for her results that she was promised would be ready any second now. She'd given up on small talk a few minutes ago and just patiently or what she hoped appeared patient waited.
"Drumming won't make it go faster" the lab tech told her with a brief glance up she looked down again watching the table her fingers were on. Just as she looked down again the beeping started alerting both of them the results were being printed. The lab tech was just about to hand over the results when Nick came barreling through the open door.
"I wanna know" both turned their heads to the intruder as if he was mad
"What do you wanna know?" Ashley asked confused last time she checked Nick's case didn't need tox. She smiled her thanks to the tech as she walked out Nick hot on her heels.
"I wanna know why you think it's okay to break it off"
"We had one date –" she paused as a few people walked by "It's not like we've been dating for the last six months"
"Tell me you didn't feel anything" she delays her answer as another set of people walk by all nodding their heads in a silent hello.
"What I did or did not feel has nothing to do with why I broke it off with you"
"So you did feel something" she stopped mid stride to look up to him, more people walked by and she walked into the first available room it just happened to be the locker room. How far had they walked?
"Nick it's just really not a good time for me to be starting up a relationship"
"Everything was fine until Lily's dad showed up then it was the heave ho with Nick"
"His name is Bosco and I walked you to your car instead of saying goodnight and walking off inside my apartment. How is that giving you the heave ho?"
"You dumped me"
"One date Nick, one date we were not in a relationship"
"We've been in some sick demented relationship the day you arrived in Vegas"
"Now you've gone and lost it" she crossed her arms, staring up at him the bench separating them.
"Think about it all the fights, all the flirtations and secret glances it's like we've been secretly dating for years"
"Whatever I don't have time to stand here and talk about a relationship that never happened"
"One kiss that's all I ask. One kiss to show me you're not interested" Ashley laughed in his face before walking off
"You really are delusional"
--
She knew the one kiss Nick asked her for would tell her what she already knew. She liked Nick more than a friend and it could only escalate from there. She had never said the word No either if she remembered correctly.
"What's got you so off in la la land" Greg asked on their lunch break, an almost rarity that they seemed to have be taking the same break, she was always leaving when he was coming or vice versa.
"Nothing"
"Don't say it's not nothing you can tell brother Greg anything you know that"
"I think this is best kept secret for now"
"You're going back to New York with him aren't you?" why couldn't anyone say his name it wasn't like it was that hard to pronounce Bosco Bos-co not that hard.
"Judging by your lack of response it's true, so when do you leave?" her eyes shot up to the one person she didn't want to know she was leaving just yet. Nick had just walked in and from the look of hurt on his face he'd heard the last of the conversation. He got his coffee sipping it quietly adverting any glance that was in Ashley's direction and she looked down at the meal in front of her, instantly loosing her appetite. Her eyes didn't come off her food until Nick left and it was Greg who said something
"Well that was awkward what happened between you two?"
"Nothing" she threw her lunch in the trash; knowing if the questioning kept up she wouldn't be eating for the rest of the night
"Don't you have work to do?" she asked cleaning up her spotless spot.
"We still have another fifteen minutes on our lunch break"
"I'm going to get a head start on my case then" she smiled at Greg before leaving with a puzzled look on his face.
Just how was he going to get Ashley to tell him what's going on?
--
Ashley was searching for Sara when a hand grabbed her wrist pulling into the room she was recently walking by. Why did she always choose to go by the locker room and not go the other way. Note to self. GO THE LONG WAY next time. She was pushed up against the wall closest to the door. No one would see her. The familiar scent of Nick washed over her as his breath caused the tiny flyaway hairs to move.
"Don't go"
"Go where? Shifts not over for another three hours" her breathing had hitched with noticing just how much their bodies were touching.
"Don't go to New York" she did the mistake of looking up into his eyes and wanted nothing more to hug him at that moment. She did exactly that and he hugged her with a force that could only be deemed as he cared too much.
"It's not up to you" she whispered into his chest
"Please take your next break with me" he broke the hug holding her at arms length, his hands on her shoulders "Please" she nodded giving him the benefit of the doubt knowing no matter what she was going to New York for two weeks.
"Thank you" he kissed her forehead and was gone
From all of this it seemed like Nick didn't know she would be back in two weeks. She suddenly couldn't wait for next break.
--
"Wow I can not believe that" Ashley looked down at the paper she was holding and handed it back to Sara.
"I know" Sara tucked the sheet back into the folder collecting every photo and piece of evidence that had found a home on the examining table in the layout room.
"I guess the only thing now would be to take it to Brass" Ashley handed the pieces that Sara couldn't reach. Nick popped his head in the doorway, both ladies oblivious to him.
"Hey Ash you ready for that break now?" both heads popped up in his direction, Ashley's then went to Sara's who nodded.
"I can finish up here"
"Thanks I owe you" Ashley sealed her box of evidence and put the folder on top. Following Nick throughout the lab they finally found themselves out in smoker's pit of the lab where few actually went but it could be said it was there for the one or two smokers. Directing her to take a seat at the picnic table farthest away from the door, he sat beside her straddling the bench.
"Nick I think you-"
"Please just let me talk" his fingers on her mouth she nodded and he continued
"I don't want you to go to New York, I saw what he did to you the first time the months it took you to get over him"
"What are you talking about?" wither her pregnancy she really didn't have time to mend that broken little piece of her heart and eventually she got over it
"I saw the look when you thought no one was watching, the pained broken heart look. I've only had it once and that was when you told me you didn't want to see me anymore" If he wanted to go on and on about why she shouldn't go then she would simply leave out the fact she would be back in two weeks.
"You can say all you want but I'm going to New York there's no changing my mind. Lily deserves to know her father and he her" Looking defeated he turned to the table placing his head in his hands. She touched his shoulder making him jump.
"For what it was worth, I had a really nice time with you the other night and maybe there could have been something more but…" she trailed off not wanting to say anymore. He nodded in his hands. He understood.
She couldn't wait to see the look on his face when she came back.
--
"If we're going to New York together there has to be some ground rules" she told Bosco later that morning Lily sitting eating her Cheerios watching some morning cartoon, both Bosco and Ashley sat on the couch behind her.
"Ground Rules?"
"Yes like number one" Ashley grabbed the paper and pen sitting on her table and began writing "You cannot in anyway say "This is what it would have been like", "I want you to stay"
"Number two: There will be no touching intimately meaning no kissing, no touching any part of my body in a sexual manner"
"Number three: Lily and I will sleep together not you and I"
"Number four: these are not a set of rules to set a record to on how many you can break in the time frame"
"Number five: If you break any of these rules, Lily and I are out of your life for good. Understand?"
Bosco could only nod so much for trying to seduce her into staying.
--
The smile was gone.
On Ashley's last shift she saw Nick more than once and whenever they saw the other he was always smiling, always had that gleam in his eye but now today it was missing and he looked miserable. He'd snapped at people who looked at him the wrong way and even Greg when he asked what was wrong.
She was receiving dirty looks as if they knew she was the cause of this and to be brutally honest she was. There were countless times when she could have let it slip she would see him in two weeks but she'd kept her mouth shut in an attempt to hurt him. What kind of person did that? A not very nice one that was for sure. Greg was coming towards her at a neck breaking speed.
"You need to fix what ever you did" she only wished she could, she could always pick an meaningless argument with him but that would only leave him in a crankier mood.
She avoided Nick the rest of the shift; her excuse as to why he was still like this. She never saw him to fix it. It worked for only little while before she started to feel guilty.
Zipping up the last of the suitcases in a last minute attempt to see if everything was there she knew she couldn't put it off any longer. She had to see Nick and make things right.
"Hey Bos" she called from the bedroom, Bosco coming into see what was wrong.
"Could you watch Lily while I run some last minute errands?" did you really think she was going to tell her ex she was going to see the new flame? She didn't think so.
"Yea sure" he really didn't have much of a choice
"Thank You" with a smile and the grabbing of her purse she was gone.
--
She just hoped she got the address right. In all the times she'd been in Vegas not once had she been over to his house and that surprised her. The door opened to reveal one shirtless Nicholas Stokes.
"What do you want?" he asked and he looked as if he was in the midst of trying to get some sleep but ended up tossing and turning.
She didn't answer him but however stood up on tiptoe and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. It didn't take Nick long to jump in and pull her closer against him to feel all of him. She let him pull her in closing the door with one hand while the other in her hair in an attempt to bring her head closer to his.