Who: Nick Sorrentino and Kate Danvers What: Remembering themselves When: Monday morning Where: The Pack House Warnings: references to infidelity Status: Closed/Complete
Once, Nick would have loved the idea of waking up in Clay’s bed. Except that there was so much wrong with the situation. For one, it was empty, for another, it wasn’t his own and Kate….
Nick scrambled to his feet, remembering how hard he’d pushed her away, how much he’d hurt her, how he’d absolutely never mean any of it if he were in his right mind. For the Pack was crap, he’d been willing to walk away from Pack if it meant having her, once, something that luckily hadn’t been needed, he had no idea what he’d do without them. For her was even more crap. Yes Nick was always concerned about hurting her, but that just made him more careful. It made him watch how much he flirted with strangers, made him wear a ring to let people know he was off the market, and he’d never have gone home with someone without full disclosure anyway. He wasn’t interested in going home with anyone. He was only interested in Kate.
Wandering down the hall, he paused at Cadence’s door, smelling, listening, not recognizing Kate as actually there. He peeked inside anyway, stopped to adjust the toddler’s blanket for her while no one was there to see it, headed downstairs and outside. Still half asleep, it made perfect sense to find Kate out there, in their little house, in their room.
***
When she woke up on Cadence’s floor, it took a few minutes for Kate to realize where she was and why. The sun was barely poking up through the clouds and she slipped out quietly, heading over to the little house that had been her home with Nick for more than a year. What the hell had happened to put them back to a time when they weren’t together? This might be one of the cruelest things that the dome put them through and it had done a lot.
She took a long shower, desperate to scrub away any potential lingering scent from her indiscretions throughout the week. It wasn’t like she deliberately cheated on Nick, but she still felt awful for sleeping with other people. Of course, she wasn’t the only one and she knew she didn’t hold it against Nick. Neither of them were in their right mind.
Once she felt clean, Kate made a cup of tea and curled up on the sofa. She figured that Nick would find her when he woke up and remembered everything. When she heard the door open, she glanced over and gave him a weak smile.
***
Nick went immediately to join her, arm draping around her. “Hey.”
He didn’t love what this place had done to them this time. Normally, he knew, neither of them would ever do anything like that to each other, but knowing that didn’t make that it had happened anyway any easier. Knowing he couldn’t blame Kate didn’t make him hate the other guys any less. But in the moment, he was just glad that things were back to normal, that he wasn’t breaking Kate’s heart anymore.
He hoped they were back to normal. He was back to normal.
“You smell very clean.”
***
“Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure I smelled like myself,” Kate said. If she focused enough, she could still pick up the scents of other people lingering on Nick and it was not a pleasant thing. She sighed and leaned against him, her head on his chest as she cradled her mug in her hands.
A tiny part of her wondered if they could just pretend the past week hadn’t happened at all, but she knew that probably wasn’t healthy. “I love you,” she said. That seemed like the most important thing to say in the moment.
***
Nick had always been careful about washing other people off of him. Even more so after he’d first fallen for Kate. He’d never wanted her to have to smell someone else on him, and this past week hadn’t been any different. He wasn’t perfect, but he was careful, and understood Kate wanting to wash it all off of her.
He was half tempted to go scrub himself again, just in case.
But he stayed where he was, instead tilted his head to press a kiss to her hair. “I know.” It was knowing that that let him sit there with her, in spite of everything they’d both done. Things that he actually regretted now that it was all over. “I love you, too.”
***
Kate leaned forward so she could set her mug on the table and then shifted a little so she could actually look at Nick. “I guess we have to talk about this,” she said. “We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen.”
And she was going to have to have some unpleasant conversations with Mitchell and Stiles eventually. Damn the dome for screwing with them again.
***
“Yeah,” Nick sighed. He didn’t like it, though. If they could, this was something else he’d like to just bury and not deal with, like everything else that hurt him. This was a completely different situation, though. He and Kate wouldn’t make it if they couldn’t talk, and this was big. This was something that stung even knowing they hadn’t been in their right minds.
“I don’t know how much there is to say, though.” He trusted her to come at least talk to him if she was actually interested in someone else, trusted that she wasn’t. But Nick was never going to be completely, one hundred percent secure in their relationship, would always have a part of him that wondered if she’d wind up regretting not having much of a dating life before him, if she’d wind up resenting his willingness to commit to her when she was still young. A part of him that was just waiting for his own screw up. “It wasn’t us making decisions.”
But it was them. And it wasn’t easy to know someone else had been touching her. It was harder to know he knew and trusted at least one of those someones.
***
“I mean, I could say I’m sorry,” Kate said. “But like you said, it wasn’t really us making those decisions.” It didn’t stop her from feeling guilty, especially since she slept with one of her best friends, who also happened to be Nick’s friend. And she hated knowing that he slept with Tera and god knows who else.
She sighed again. “How many? There were two for me.”
***
“Do you really want to know that?” He’d tell her if she did. Even if it had been a much bigger number, he would tell her. But knowing wouldn’t change anything and Nick didn’t want to hurt her unnecessarily. More than anything else, that was what he didn’t like about his behaviour over the last week, that there’d been absolutely no reason to keep hurting her feelings but he’d done it anyway. Because for some reason he’d thought it was better.
Knowing what they had together, Nick struggled to understand how he’d ever thought they shouldn’t give themselves a shot.
***
She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know, but she felt like she needed to know. Just so there were no surprises later. “Yes, I do,” Kate said. “And I’d like to know who. Do you want to know that?”
It was scary getting a glimpse of what her life could have been like if things were different. She knew that the ultimatum she made to Nick could have easily backfired. Feeling those frustrations again made her grateful that it hadn’t.
***
“Tera,” Nick answered promptly. If she wanted to know, she wanted to know. “And a woman named Diana.” Who he’d never met before that night, didn’t think he’d have reason to meet again. That was less of a problem than his other choice. “And no. I don’t want to know.”
He already hated the stranger who smelled a little like death he’d smelled on her the other day. He’d never met whoever it was, but there was no way he’d ever be okay doing so now. It was better if he didn’t know.
“Unless there’s some reason I need to.” He couldn’t imagine there would be.
***
At least he wasn’t out with a different woman every night.
Kate bit her lower lip, debating if he needed to know and ultimately deciding that he did for one of them. “Uh, I think you should know one of them,” she said. “Because it’s someone you know.” Someone they were friends with. And, yes, she was aware of the hypocrisy involved since she’d given him crap for hooking up with Tera.
***
For a moment, Nick hesitated, wondering if he should just refuse. He really didn’t see what knowing was going to change beyond probably screwing up a friendship. But he sighed, nodding, in the end.
“Okay. Who?”
He was already bracing himself to not react badly, and she could probably read that in the way tension rose in him.
***
Kate swallowed hard and looked down. “Stiles.”
It was a huge mistake for so many reasons, but they were both hurting and it just sort of happened. She wouldn’t go as far as saying she regretted it because she didn’t like to have regrets, but if she could go back and change it, she would .
***
Nick couldn’t answer. He just stared at her. That had been the last person he’d have expected, and he didn’t know right away how he felt about it. Nick liked Stiles. They hung out sometimes, talked, got along well. It was had to believe he would have had sex with Kate. Especially knowing about their relationship.
Had he remembered about their relationship? Or had he forgotten like Nick and Kate had done? Had he assumed they’d broken up? And just moved in? All questions he couldn’t ask Kate. Those weren’t answers she could give.
“Okay.” It was far from actually okay. Anger rippled in him, just below the surface, and it took so much of what he had not to just get up and walk away. The only worse name she could have given was Avery. “So I know.”
***
It was impossible to miss the anger and Kate felt awful. She reached up to touch his face. “I’m sorry, Nick. I don’t know what I was thinking. No, I wasn’t thinking. I was hurting and it just kind of happened.” That wasn’t really an excuse, but she couldn’t change the past.
“But you understand why I thought you needed to know,” she said. It would have been far worse if he found out about it weeks or months down the line.
***
If she hadn’t told him, and he’d found out down the road, he would have understood why she didn’t say anything. He’d done the same thing to her, about Rachel when he’d come back to town with Rocco. What had happened had happened, it was in the past. He shouldn’t be mad about something she hadn’t done with any memory of them. And he wasn’t much closer to Stiles than she was to Tera, he figured.
He understood more why she’d been so irritated about that than why he needed to know.
“What does knowing change, Katie?” he asked, trying to reign in his feelings, knowing he had no reason to be up in arms over it. “Unless there’s going to be something coming out of it.”
There was no way Kate was actually interested in Stiles like that, though.
***
“Yes, Nick, I’m going to leave you for Stiles,” Kate said, her tone completely deadpan as she rolled her eyes. “Come on, you know I love you. If anything, this week reminded me how damn lucky I am that we’re together. I hated how I felt not having you.”
It reminded her of a time that she was glad was long past. “I honestly think last week was scarier than when you went home last spring.” And considering that was what spurred her to make her ultimatum, that was saying a lot.
“I don’t want us to have secrets, Nicky. That’s how fights happen.” Like when she found out about him and Rachel. “Even if the truth hurts, it’s the best option.”
***
Nick crinkled his nose at her. He hadn’t actually thought that would be a problem, but it was actually kind of nice to hear the confirmation all the same. It was always nice to hear her actually say that she was choosing him, when he had a laundry list of reasons why she probably shouldn’t want to. She said she was lucky, but he’d argue they both were if that was the case.
“Agree to disagree.” Sometimes the truth just hurt when it didn’t have to. Nick wouldn’t ever outright lie to her, but if he chose to keep something, it was only ever because he wanted to protect her from something that couldn't’ be changed, and didn’t even really matter because he was always going to choose her.
“I’d forgotten how hard it was to always tell you no,” he noted, catching her hand. His ring was still on the wrong finger, he hadn’t spared a thought to put it back where it belonged. “That always killed me.”
***
Her ring was still on a chain around her neck. Even after her very thorough shower, she hadn’t thought to move it back to her hand.
“Well, I didn’t make it easy to say no,” Kate said, her mouth twisting up into a smirk. She’d always known what buttons to push to get him riled up and make him lose his tenuous control. “I was pretty relentless.”
Which was why it never made sense to her that he doubted how she felt.
***
It had never been the how she felt as much as how long it would last that had concerned Nick. He’d, more or less, gotten past that over the last couple of years. It was a lot easier to trust that she wasn’t going to just wake up and suddenly change her mind now.
“You still are.” She still knew exactly how to push his buttons. At least she used it for good, now. Usually. “It’s lucky that I like that about you.”
Moving away from the subject of Stiles made it easier for Nick to let go of his anger, to even smile a little. He wasn’t an angry guy by nature, and if he was given the time to process, maybe he could even accept what had happened and forgive the kid who was his friend. In the meantime, time with Kate was what he wanted.
***
Time together sounded good. Between his bond with her father and spending a week forgetting they were actually a couple, it felt like they hadn’t had any quality time in far too long. Kate grinned. “Think you can take a couple of days off work?” she asked. “Because I think we need to book a hotel room and live off room service.”
She was pretty sure that Jeremy and Jaime or Clay and Mercy would be willing to continue looking after Rocco a little longer.
***
Someone looking after Rocco wasn’t ever going to be an issue, as far as Nick was concerned. He wasn’t their kid, he was everyone’s. They could leave him with anyone any time they wanted.
He hummed thoughtfully, smile spreading. “I did get a lot done while I was avoiding you.” He could probably take a little more than just a couple of days, with the amount he’d gotten done while not having her to text all day long, staying later than his workload required just so he didn’t have to see her as much. “I can probably swing something. If you’re suggesting we have a leave your clothes at the door vacation.”
***
“I think we’re long overdue for that,” she said. “Now that we’re sure you’re not bonded to my father anymore or pushing me away.”
Considering that they were generally a daily sex kind of couple, the past two weeks felt like forever.
***
The last couple of weeks really had been a roller coaster that had kept them apart for too long.
“I think you’re right.” Nick tugged on her hand, pulling her in so he could kiss her briefly. There were probably a lot more things they should talk about, but none of it was so urgent that it couldn’t wait. “I missed you.”
Not so much during the last week, but when he did remember them and couldn’t be with her. He’d gotten very used to her constant company.
***
As much as Kate wanted to rip his clothes off right then and there, she decided to wait until they made their arrangements and got to the hotel. It would be more special then. “I missed you, too,” she said. “Let’s make some calls and get our arrangements made.”
***
“Yeah.” Nick paused a beat. “My phone’s in the house.” He didn’t stop to kiss her again before pulling away and getting to his feet. “Give me two minutes to find that and we’ll get this going.”
A few days just the two of them would do wonders for mending all the hurts they’d collected lately.
He darted out the door without needing a response.