After the Wedding

Dan & Libby

With Ben and Liana having finally left the reception, Dan Evans managed to locate Libby Tyler in what was left of the crowd and get her into his car. She'd had too much to drink. He'd seen that quite a while ago, especially when she'd been flirting with Travis McGee.

Her flirtations with the other man had made him angry in a way he didn't understand. In some moment of being out of his mind, he'd asked her to have dinner with him the other night. She'd accepted but, a couple of hours later, Dan had come to his senses and called her to cancel.

What the hell had he thought he was doing anyway? He couldn't date, or have any sort of relationship with a woman. Part of it had to do with Alice. Despite the fact that she had divorced him six years ago, Dan didn't think he had ever stopped loving his ex-wife. He could remember the day of their wedding as clearly as ever, and he'd believed that marriage would last forever.

Then, there was all the work he'd done-and continued to do-for Ben Wade. Wade might be the man who'd gone out and done the actual robbing and killing but, for the past seven years, Dan had been the one who'd seen to it that the money got hidden, invested, and come out clean on the other end.

He'd had a very good reason for doing it but, if they were ever caught, the law wouldn't care about reasons. He'd go to prison, probably for the rest of his life. With that constantly hanging over his head, how could he even think about having a relationship with a woman? He'd have nothing to offer her except the constant worry that he'd be caught.

That wouldn't be fair to any woman, but especially someone like Libby. She was young, pretty and, from the little bit of talking they'd done so far, she was happy and upbeat, loved life, had plans for herself. To even think of getting involved with her would be to ruin her life and he couldn't see himself doing that.

Ben had married Liana, but Ben was different. He had all the confidence in the world that they'd never be caught. Dan didn't share that with him. He knew that both he and Ben were the best at what they did, but that didn't guarantee anything.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he realized that Libby was still arguing with him from the passenger seat. "I really don't know why you're doing this! Why do you care? I mean- You cancelled our date! You've been avoiding me ever since! It's obvious you want nothing to do with me, so why do you care if I've had too much to drink and I shouldn't be driving home?"

Looking at her, he had to grin in spite of himself. She was pretty. Even prettier with her face all flushed from the champagne and her indignant manner. She had on a beautiful long blue dress with thin straps over her shoulders and her dark blonde hair was a little damp with loose curls framing her face.

Then Dan caught himself again. He was letting himself enjoy looking at her too much. His only purpose here was to get her back to the bed and breakfast safely. Nothing else.

"Libby-" He sighed as he helped her out of the car and the parking lot and walked her to her room. "I might not be goin' out with you, but that doesn't mean I want to see you get hurt. In fact-" At her door, he took the room key he'd gotten from her in the car and unlocked the door. "It's because I don't want to see you get hurt that I'm not goin' out with you."

He turned on the light and closed the door. "Now, I'm just gonna make sure everything's okay here-" He was checking the bathroom and the closet to make sure no one was hiding, as he talked. That murder had made him very nervous. "-then I'm gonna get out of her and let you get some sleep."

He watched her kick off her high-heeled shoes, almost falling once. He grinned. "I don't know if you ever drink very much, but you definitely overdid it this time, kid." He looked at her for a long moment before turning toward the door.

"Good night, Libby. And make sure you lock this door behind me."

"Dan- Wait-" Libby pulled herself together and walked toward him barefoot, the hem of the blue dress brushing the floor. Standing in front of him, she stood there, just looking into his eyes.

"I'm not a kid, Dan. I mean- I know they call us cubs at the newspaper, but I'm not exactly a little girl." Her attraction to this man confused Libby greatly. Most of the time he was so serious. So solemn. She wasn't. Oh, she was serious enough about work, but even there she was always optimistic. Always looking for the bright side of things, and loving it when she was actually able to report on "good news".

Now, standing here with Dan in her room, that damned attraction she felt for him was eating her up. Looking into each other's eyes, she felt such a pull to be closer to him that she couldn't stand it.

Dan was feeling the same pull, the same need to be closer to Libby and, dammit, when she looked at him like that it was harder to resist that feeling. He was very aware that they were alone in a room together, and there was a bed right behind her and--despite the fact that there was a difference in their ages and, definitely, in their life experiences--she really couldn't be classified as a little girl. But she could be classified as tipsy, not exactly in her right mind.

Against his better judgment, his hand was reaching out to brush those damp curls from her face. She was coming closer and he wasn't pushing her away, or stepping back. When she rose up on her toes and kissed him, he gave in and pulled her closer.

It felt good to hold her. To be held himself. "Libby-" he protested. "I need to go, and you need to get to bed. Get yourself some sleep."

"Please stay, Dan." At this very moment, Libby didn't know if she was really drunk and didn't really care. She just didn't want him to go. "Please stay with me."