tampered | |[log, complete]|

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When; Immediately after this
Rating; Probably PG-13 (maybe R for Deb's mouth~ ^^)
Characters; Debra Morgan, "Rudy Cooper"
Summary; The day after Deb's arrival in the city, she is reunited with her beloved boyfriend.
Log;

Deb had managed to stop giggling, mostly, by the time she reached the hallway. She was having a rather difficult time not bouncing around, as well, but it was mostly under control. After all, she wasn't a schoolgirl - she was Officer Debra Morgan, for fuck's sake. She was mature, cool, collected, and certainly not on the verge of having a(nother) spastic fit because her boyfriend was coming to see her. Her one and only, beloved Rudy... she'd just seen him two days ago, as far as the passage of time was concerned for her, but she'd spent the past 24 hours or so under the assumption that she'd never see him again - in an entirely different world, no less.

But if he was here... things couldn't be so bad. She'd make it through whatever this fucking creepy ticking city could throw at her. After all, she was in love.

So she waited, leaning against the wall in the hallway, watching the stairs... and trying to keep the huge grin on her face under control.

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Rudy was trying to concentrate on how lucky he was that Deb had come from the past, as opposed to dwelling on how awful it was that she'd shown up at all. He'd promised to be good, after all. For his brother's sake-- his brother, not hers-- he'd keep up the act.
It didn't take him long to tackle a few flights of stairs, and minutes after speaking with her on the Network, he was striding down the hallway, hands in his pockets and a believable grin on his face.

Any control Deb managed to build up over her giddiness was completely lost when she actually saw Rudy walking toward her. The grin spread across her entire face and she practically bounced as she began jogging the few feet toward him.

"Oh my god, Rudy!!" She threw her arms around him as soon as she was close enough to do so, "I didn't think I was ever going to see you again!"

"Yeah, and how long has it been for you?" he teased, pulling her close, trying not to think of the last time he'd seen her; supine and strapped down, nude beneath the plastic wrap and tape. He'd liked things much better that way. He stroked her hair idly, almost out of habit, and pulled back just enough to kiss her. "I've been here five months, y'know." Five months of being called by his real name, at least at home. Five months of not having to share Dexter. Five months of relative bliss.

"Well, like, a day, but..." she snorted a little snicker out, "Well. It's been a long one."

She sighed, nestling her head against his shoulder, "Five months, though..." pausing, she shook her head, "I can't even imagine what that was like."

"It's been rough." He snaked one arm around her, the other still in her hair. "I missed you so much," came the expected sentiment, an easy lie.
"So where's this apartment of yours?" he asked, not really wanting to bring her down to his place; he wasn't sure he could stand keeping this up around Dexter, yet.

She smirked up at him, "Yeah, I guess the whole hallway thing's a little weird, huh?"

She pulled one arm back, leaving the other around him as she turned to stand next to him. Not that she didn't rest her head right back on his shoulder, of course.

"I still kind of feel like I'm breaking and entering, showing up and just taking some random place," she said as she started to walk back toward her door.

"I'll call the police and have you arrested right away, if you want," he said casually as they walked. "Or you can just give me your cuffs." Rudy smirked at her, squeezing Deb against him once more, and felt a little ill.

She laughed deviously, punching him lightly in the arm with her free hand, "You should be careful what you ask for. I did have them on me, you know."

She stopped at her door, opening it to an inoffensive, rather generic apartment. What few belongings had come with her were strewn over the sofa, a chair, and the coffee table. Clearly, she hadn't had time to dishevel the rest of the place yet.

Rudy merely laughed, rubbing at his shoulder in an exaggerated fashion.
"Settling in already, huh?" He pulled a discarded jacket off the couch and folded it absently, setting it aside on a chair before sinking into the sofa.

Edited 2008-09-10 05:20 (UTC)

Deb grinned somewhat sheepishly, "Well I didn't know I was going to be having company. Besides, not exactly much time to put stuff away when I got in. I was kind of exhausted from the whole fucking world jump thing."

She flopped down on the sofa, settling in against him, "So, Dex tells me this place has random curses? Did I miss anything good... besides the milkshakes?"

He shrugged a bit at the question, shifting an arm over her shoulder. "Let's see. There was the time I was compelled to bake cakes; the time I shot Abraham Lincoln, the time I was five years old, the time I was convinced I was a mad scientist who had built one of my co-workers out of corpses... So, not really." He sighed lightly. "Most of them are relatively unpleasant. There were worse ones, but I doubt you want to hear about it."
He supposed he'd have to blame the curses for his untimely death. She hadn't noticed that yet-- he wasn't looking forward to explaining it. Of course, she'd shown up once or twice when he'd been busy in the studio, so his being a bit cold wasn't unheard of.

She stifled her laughter as much as she could at his response, "I think knowing you spent a day baking cakes is plenty for me to focus on right now."
She curled closer to him, rubbing a hand on his arm as she muttered, "You're so cold."

"They were cupcakes, mostly. Actually they came out rather nicely," he confessed, fingers drumming an idle pattern on her shoulder. If he could forget this was Deb, it would be fine. Harry's daughter. His brother's fake sister. The thought made him restless, reminding him so strongly of what had almost been.
He tensed slightly at her idle comment. "About that..." Rudy frowned, not sure how to broach the subject. Maybe he'd be lucky and she'd be so repulsed by the thought that she'd leave him; it would certainly make life easier.

She smirked slightly at the comment of cupcakes, still rubbing his arm.
When he responded to the comment, she glanced up, her hand stopping where it was. Her fingers curled around his forearm, by the elbow, as she frowned. "What's wrong?"

He shifted his weight, straightening his posture a little bit. "Something I guess no one's mentioned to you, about this place... It's pretty weird. Maybe to balance out all the chaos from the curses, I don't know-- but generally..." He fixed her with a deep look. "If you die, here, you don't exactly stay dead..." He trailed off, leaving her to fill in the blanks with her imagination.

He had the awful feeling that the word zombie was going to come up in this conversation.

Deb straightened up a bit, staring at him as he spoke. For a few seconds after, she just gazed, blinking, at him.

"Oh my god, you..."

She trailed off, losing her words. She pursed her lips, then started again.

"You mean you're... you..."

Eloquence tended to fail her at the best of times, but this was time was pretty far removed from anything she'd consider to be the best. She shook her head, determined to fight back any tears that were clearly attempting to well up in her eyes, and wrapped both of her arms tightly around Rudy.

When she spoke again, her voice was abnormally soft. "How did you- what... what happened?

He looked away, as though he was too overcome by emotion to meet her gaze, fingers moving comfortingly along her side. He swallowed hard, for show, and turned to regard her. His free hand moved to her face, and he cupped her cheek.
"During a curse." He sighed, pressed his forehead against hers, letting his eyes fall shut for a moment. "I'd... really rather not share the details."
This was, in its own way, surprisingly satisfying. He'd almost forgotten how easily he could play her emotions; how well she responded to the gentlest manipulations.

She nodded, her frown twisting slightly. She moved one of her hands to the back of his neck, her fingers nestling into the edge of his hair.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," she said, "This doesn't change anything for me, just... makes me really fucking glad things don't work the way they're supposed to here."

Leaning forward, she kissed him lightly. Holding tears back wasn't really an option, but there were only a few. She wasn't about to be weak when she was so certain that Rudy needed her to be strong for him.

Great. Just... great.

He smiled rather weakly, inchoate gratitude in his eyes. Crying-- or, well, valorously not crying-- on command was a useful ability. His lips brushed her forehead, and he pulled her forward, pressing her tightly against his chest, running a hand along her shoulder in reassurance.
Sentimentalism was so thoroughly boring, though. At least this conversation was over with; and-- he was surprised to realize there was a bright side to this-- at least Debra probably wouldn't remind him about it all the damn time.
"I'm glad it doesn't... scare you away," he said quietly, feigned shyness covering the boredom in his tone.

Deb nestled in against his chest, her arms wrapped around him as well as she could manage on the couch.
"Nothing could scare me away from you," she muttered into the fabric of his shirt.
She tightened her grasp on him, both reassuring and possessive, and tried to ignore the rather overbearing silence that emanated from within his chest. It didn't matter if he was dead, not really. Here he was, alert, aware, moving, talking... for all intents and purposes, living without being alive. But as long as he was living in some sense and here with her, she could deal with it.

He smiled, because she lied.
His fingertips trailed down her back, the shape of her familiar in a surreal way. Were she anyone else, he wouldn't mind so much. Wouldn't love her, of course-- the thought never even crossed his mind. But he found it hard, now, to take the detached aesthetic pleasure in her body that he might otherwise find there. Couldn't have made it better myself, he'd once said, and there was a rare grain of truth in that.
He drew a deep breath, although he didn't need to. That, perhaps, was the worst of it; her warm body curled against him reminded Rudy of how wrong things had gone. She should be dead; not him.
He pressed his lips against her hair absently, trusting that the conversation would cover for his dark mood.

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