by Torra
e lets you eat in the living room."
Confused, Mac looked up from the files he and LiAnn were memorizing in the Agency Research Department slash Library. Both of the agents had been badly beaten up during the last case and were on desk duty for the next week, much to their annoyance. The long time friends, siblings, and ex-lovers had been working in silence for the better part of an hour before LiAnn had interrupted wit her non sequitur about food.
"Who lets me eat where? And I am grown man, you know, I can eat wherever I want."
LiAnn shook her head, but didn't look up from her own open files, "Vic. He lets you eat in the living room anytime you're injured."
This confused Mac even more, "Yah, so what? We eat in there a lot."
LiAnn looked at him sharply for that. "You do?"
Mac frowned, "Yah, all the time. Whenever we're over there watching games or doing research. Why wouldn't we? And why is that such a big deal? Are you feeling alright, LiAnn?"
LiAnn sighed, and looked back down at her papers, "I'm fine."
When she didn't say anything else, Mac turned back to his own work and became quiet too.
For about two minutes, when he couldn't help it, and had to find out what she was talking about. "What does it matter if we eat in the living room or not, anyhow?"
LiAnn kept quiet.
"LiAnn? What does it matter?"
She was not glairing at her file so hard, Mac was surprised it hadn't ignited yet.
"Well, fine. If you don't want to tell me, you shouldn't have brought it up in the first place!"
"HE LOVES YOU!"
LiAnn's voice echoed across the room, bouncing from file cabinet to book case to the walls, and then back towards them, making it seem as if a dozen LiAnn's had shouted the words one after the other.
Mac waited for the reverb to fade before finally allowing himself to blink. "He what?"
LiAnn was staring at her files again, blushing fiercely. "He loves you."
"He loves me?"
"...Yes..."
"And you know this...because...he lets me eat in the living room?"
"...Yes..." She was whispering now.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright, LiAnn? Maybe I should get the On Call doctor down here..." Mac started to get up, but paused when LiAnn started talking about, though still very quietly.
"He never let me eat in the living room. Not even when we were engaged. He did make me breakfast in bed a few times, but any other time, it was always at the living room table, or in the kitchen. He fed me strawberries in the bath one time. But that was it. No matter how badly we'd been injured, or even when he had broken his leg on a case and practically living on the couch. Even then, he force himself up onto his crutches to eat at the table."
Mac didn't know what to say to that, but thankfully, LiAnn went on, so he figured he didn't need to say anything just yet.
"When we first started dating, I spread out a picnic on the living room floor. He saw it, and was really pleased, until he realized I meant for us to eat it right there. He made an excuse about how he was just stopping home to change clothes before going out to continue the case. We packed it up, and then ate it the next morning...at the table...in the dining room. Just like always." She gave a small wistful, almost painful smile at the memory, "He spread a bunch of flowers on top of the green tablecloth so that it'd look like a field while we ate..." the smile faded slowly, "But we still ate it in the dining room."
"LiAnn...I..."
"He loves you, Mac." She finally looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes, but her voice was soft, "He loves you far more then he ever loved me. And when you get injured, he invites you over and makes you dinner and lets you eat it in the living room while you two watch movies."
"He invites you over too, when we're both injured and do that." Mac tried.
LiAnn shook her head, "But only when you've been injured too. Otherwise, if I'm the only one who's hurt, he cooks at my apartment, and we still eat it at the table."
"Oh." Mac didn't know what else to say.
"He loves you." She said again, before turning back to her files.
That seemed to be the end of the conversation in her eyes, and Mac wasn't sure what he was supposed to say anyhow, so he let it drop as well.
They continued to work quietly for another twenty minutes or so, before Vic strutted into the room, smiling.
"Hay guys. How's the paperwork going?"
LiAnn looked up, grimacing, "Bite me, Mansfield."
Vic grinned widely, "That well, huh?"
LiAnn, smiling and showing no signs of her previous emotional confessions to her brother, shook her head, "I don't see why we're stuck in here. I've been injured far worse then this on a case, and the Director *never* put me on desk duty for this long because of it!"
Vic shrugged, "Guess she figured I needed a vacation." He grinned.
"From what?" Mac asked, supplying the straight line he knew his partner was waiting for.
"From you, what else?" Vic smiled widely, happy that Mac was playing along. "How about I make it up to you guys. Dinner at my place?" He looked from LiAnn to Mac and back.
LiAnn shook her head, "No thanks. I think I'm just going to go home, take a bath, and sleep." She raised her arms above her head and stretched. "Goodnight, boys." She got up, kissed them both lightly on the cheeks, and left the room, leaving her files where they were.
Vic, his fingertips brushing across his cheek where his ex-fiancé had kissed him, looked after her and shook his head, "Is she feeling okay?"
Mac shrugged, "Who knows."
Vic shrugged it off as well, "Anyhow, you still want to do dinner?"
Mac looked at Victor carefully, then glanced at the door where LiAnn had exited moments before, then back to Vic, "Do we get to eat in the living room again?"
Vic shrugged casually, but his eyes were smiling, "Sure, if you want to, I suppose so."
Mac's smile was blinding, "Then I'd love to."
