Hate at First Sight

Jopie visited me every day and kept me abreast of the case. The Federal prosecutor was handing down indictments right and left; I guess he liked our Christmas present. There was 24-hour protection on the hospital, even though Monica was gone and my name had been kept very quiet. I kept trying to get him to tell me where Monica was, and all he would do was look worried. Finally one day he put his head down close to my ear and told me.

"A guy who owes me some favors has been keeping an eye on L&R for me. He says there's some out-of-towners around there who've been asking some questions about how the Feds got all that accounting stuff. They don't care about saving Silvio's ass, but they're very interested in making sure it doesn't go any farther. They might trace it back to her; they might not, but since she was discharged from here, she might attract their attention, and they might come after her."

"What's she in, some sort of witness protection program?" I was frantic. If that was true, I had lost her forever.

"No, no, Livingston, nothing that bad. We just needed to get her out of sight for a while, until she falls off their radar."

"We? So you do know where she is?"

"Sort of. I know the first couple of stops on her way, anyway, and I heard yesterday she was safe. That's all I can tell you except she loves you." He touched my shoulder gently as he said it.

"Will I see her again?" I would not, would not, would not let him see me cry!

"Here? I doubt it. Maybe someday, after they're convinced neither of you is a threat, it will be safe for you to know where she is." We shared a hug, and he left. I suddenly noticed that he wasn't calling me 'Brookes' any more: I was Livingston now. Maybe Jopie's hard shell was opening a little, just as mine was.

Talbot was "visiting" me the next day when Jopie came by. Okay, so we were practicing kissing again and had barely gotten ourselves disentangled when he entered the room. Jopie was actually smiling, looking like a man without a care in the world who had just bowled a 300 game. (All Polish cops bowl, right?) I barely recognized him. It turned out poor old Silvio and a couple of his chief lieutenants had been unable to make bail. His bosses had cut off his money, and he was inside for the duration. They were doing to him exactly what he'd done to Bandini.

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, Mr. Przybylowicz," Talbot said, rolling it off his tongue as if he was half-Polish himself. I rolled my eyes at him in disgust.

"Nice try, McCoy, but it's Jopie to you."

"Ha!" I stuck my tongue out at Talbot.

"What do you mean, 'Ha'?"

"You're McCoy. I'm Livingston. And HE never calls me 'Livy'." I smiled at Jopie, who turned a gratifying shade of red, then I changed the subject.

"What do you suppose our friend Bandini thinks about all this?"

We discussed that for a while. Jopie still looked like the cat who ate the canary. He was just leaving when Mom and Dad came in. He walked right up to Mom.

"Mrs. Brookes, I owe you an apology." Mom's eyes widened a little. "I know I was rude to pretty much everyone here, and I'm sorry. I was afraid that Silvio might find a hole in our precautions and get to Livingston, and well," his smile faded and he stared at the floor, "I was worried and when I'm worried I'm rude. Ruder than normal. She can tell you." He waved a hand in my direction and fell silent. His ears were bright red and the flush extended halfway up his bare scalp.

Mom, as always, knew exactly what was going on. She smiled graciously at him. "Of course I understand, and I accept your apology. Thank you for looking out for my Livingston." She offered her hand to shake, then took Jopie's right hand in both of hers, and used it to pull him into a gentle hug. He turned even redder. I heard Talbot start to chuckle and I didn't dare look at him, or I'd have burst out laughing. That would not have been good for my stitches.

Jopie extricated himself and recovered some of his dignity by going over to Dad.

"Good to see you again, Coach." They shook hands and Jopie left the room. I didn't know it then, but it would be years before I saw Jopie again.

"Coach? What was that all about," I asked.

Dad chuckled. "Joe played for St. Thaddeus back when they had a football team. They were all like him: all the heart you could ask for, never give up for anything, and no size or speed whatsoever. We trounced them every year, but we respected them in the morning. I guess he hasn't changed much."

Finally, about a week later, Talbot and I were both down to just IVs. Mom and Dad had just left and I was sitting up in bed, drinking one of those stupid white sodas they insisted on giving me when Talbot came in, dragging his IV pole.

"Hey, sexy," he said.

I snorted. "Yeah, right. No makeup, my hair is a mess, and this gown has got to go, Talbot. I'm getting tired of showing my ass. I told Mom to bring some real pajamas tomorrow. How come you get pajamas and I don't?"

He laughed. "I bribed the nurses," he said. "I like you showing your ass. It's the most fantastic ass I've ever seen. Livingston, you don't need makeup and your hair looks as beautiful and messy as it always does." He came over and lowered the rail on my bed, took my Sprite out of my hand and sat on my bed. He was looking at me oddly and it was making me nervous. He scooted over a little and swung his legs up on my bed.

"Um, Talbot, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm getting ready to kiss you," he said. Well, that was okay, I guess.

He put his arm around me and pulled me up against him. That kiss was a scorcher and it just went on and on. I could feel his free hand as it moved down to my knee, slowly stroking up until he pushed the stupid hospital gown up to my thighs. I felt him pull the tie around my neck and it fell away, exposing my breasts. For some reason, my nipples were throbbing and as hard as nails.

"Talbot," I whispered. "Someone is going to come in here and this is going to be really embarrassing."

He laughed. "You have a very low opinion of my bribery skills," he said.

He kissed me again and I felt his hand sliding up over my belly until it cupped one breast. I moaned into his mouth. He left my lips and kissed his way down my neck until he could capture one nipple. I felt my pussy flood and he had me moaning and writhing under him.

"God you're beautiful, Livy," he murmured. "I've wanted to taste one of these little chocolate kisses again for 11 years. God, you have the most beautiful breasts!"

They aren't huge, but they do sit up nice and high and firm. I wanted him to stop talking and love them some more so I slid my hand into his pajamas. Oh, that was very nice! There was something big and hot and soft/hard in there! I'd had no idea! I wanted to see it, but he was sliding my gown down, his hand moving down to cup between my legs. I felt one big finger part my lips and sample the moisture leaking out of me. He used it to coat my clit and teased me until I was trembling and wild.

"Talbot... I want... I need..." I groaned.

He slid over me and I reached down to position him. He slid into me and I groaned again as he stretched me, filling me up with that incredible cock. God, it felt good. It had been a long time for me. I tried to bring my hand up from between us but something was wrong. Talbot winced and I felt something pulling on my hand. I glanced down and my IV tube was under his balls, pulling them up as I tried to raise my hand. He looked down and we both collapsed, laughing. That kind of threw off our groove, but we got going again.

I'm not at all promiscuous; Talbot was the fifth time I'd had sex, and he was driving me wild. It was sweet and slow, lots of kisses and whispers, and he must have told me "I love you, Livy," a thousand times. "I'm never letting you go," he breathed in my ear. I had never felt so secure and loved in my life. I was in the arms of the man I had loved nearly all my adult life. I had been brought back from Purgatory and this was Paradise. I was never going to let him go, either. I knew what I wanted; I wanted Talbot McCoy.

I could feel the tension starting to build and I was going to have a huge orgasm. I worried about tearing the staples out in my back and that broke my concentration enough that I became aware of an annoying beeping sound. I tried to ignore it and I pulled Talbot into me. The mood was slipping away, eroded by that infernal beeping as I pumped against him frantically. I came and it was sweet and the most romantic thing ever, but not that explosion I had felt building.

Talbot came and I could feel him pumping into me, filling me with his warmth and love. He kissed me passionately and we looked in each other's eyes. The beeping sound intruded. I looked at him and we burst out laughing.

"Is that you, or me?" I gasped. "One of us has a kink in our IV or something." We laughed for about five minutes.

"Well, it's not the romantic jazz I would have planned for our first time," he said. "Somehow, the sound of heavy machinery backing up just doesn't set the tone for me. God, I love you, Livy. There's no one else in the world that would laugh with me about something like that at that particular time."

I frowned at him. "Talbot!"

He kissed me. "Sorry, Livingston. I do love you, though. When we get out of here..."

"Yeah," I said. "I'm going to be ready for that soft jazz. Wine and candles, Talbot, I want to be romanced."

"Well, maybe we should call a nurse," he suggested. He pushed the call button.

I was horrified and began to wiggle frantically, trying to get him off me so I could tie my gown. He weighed a ton and he just kept me pinned. I snatched the covers over us as I heard the door open. Our nurse burst out laughing when she saw us. Was my face ever red! Well, sort of a brownish pink, actually, but you know what I mean.

I was the one beeping. The unfortunate scrotum lassoing incident had caused a kink in my line, and she quickly got it sorted out. I gave him a good pummeling once she left. "If you ever do anything like that again..." I threatened.

He didn't seem in the least intimidated. He was going to learn!

Talbot seemed a little down when he came to visit me the next day. "They're going to send me home tomorrow," he said.

"What's the matter with that? Don't you want to get out of here?"

"You won't be just down the hall any more. I can't just think, 'Oh, I want a kiss from Livy-ying-ston' and come down here and get one. What am I going to do?" Poor man, he really did look woebegone.

"Well, until last week, you went without for about nine years, and it didn't seem to bother you."

"That's how much you know."

"Well then, you'd better just get that face of yours over here and start stocking up on kisses." He did. I thought he was trying to wear my lips off. God, that man can kiss!

I was released a couple of days after Talbot. He came with Mom and Dad to take me home. My little apartment had never looked so good to me! I was supposed to take it easy and not go back to work for a week. Talbot had to go back to the PD's office the day after I was discharged, so I had a lot of time to myself.

As I've said before, I'm not a very introspective person, but those days I was home by myself, I couldn't help it. I mused about how I'd changed. Oh, you'd still recognize me: fiery, competitive, in-your-face, kick-your-ass if I have to, remember my name, Livingston Brookes. It seemed that the hard shell I'd used to fend people off and protect the scared little girl was showing some cracks.

It had to be some sort of cosmic justice, or maybe a cosmic joke. I'd always hated blondes and cops. Now, of course, the closest people in my life except for Mom, Dad, and Talbot, were a blonde and a cop. I wanted to make a name for myself as a defense attorney; the biggest triumph of my career so far was a prosecution for which somebody else would get the credit. Worst of all, I was head over heels in love with the guy I'd done my best to hate for twelve years. I mean, somebody up there must be laughing their ass off over all this.

After I'd thought about it for a minute, though, I had to laugh, too. I was happier than I'd ever been in my life. I'd always been happy with Mom and Dad, of course. Now I had Talbot, too, and Monica and even Jopie. I was sure we'd be together again, sooner or later: you can't break up the Three Musketeers that easily. Even if nobody else ever knew, I knew. I had used my talents and skills to help bring down the worst kind of scumbag out there: someone who hurt people for profit. That scared little girl could rest now, safe and sound, loved and wanted and secure, forever. She smiled.

The entire staff of Goldblum, Perry, and Tate, right down to the janitor, was there to welcome me on my first day back. It wasn't exactly rock star treatment, it was more personal, somehow, but it was definitely noisy. I remembered Mr. Tate saying that everyone there liked me and wished me well. It seemed like he was right.

Speaking of whom, there he was, beaming at me from the edge of the crowd, signaling that he wanted to see me in his office. I looked at the people hemming me in and shrugged my shoulders; he laughed and mouthed "Later" at me. It's a good thing I'm not short, I never would have seen him.

It was after eleven when I finally got to Mr. Tate's office. He stood and seated me, then closed his office door. He looked at me closely.

"Welcome back!" he said. "I'm glad to see you show no ill effects from your, ah, secondment." His eyes twinkled at me.

"Thank you, sir. I'm completely healthy and ready for anything."

His smile faded. "Anything is a big word, Livingston. I'm not sure any of us can say that." He paused. "However, that's a later discussion. There's something I need to show you first. Come around where you can see it."

I walked around to his side of the desk and looked at his monitor to see what he wanted me to see. It was a picture of Jopie and Monica! They didn't look intimate, but they were clearly happy and comfortable together, in spite of the fact that she was a good three inches taller than him. Jopie still had the relaxed, almost carefree look he'd had the last time I'd seen him.

"Well, of all the..." I didn't know just what to say. Mr. Tate laughed.

"No, I didn't expect it either. It seems Joseph's bosses thought he had done such a good job that he, too, should be sent away and kept out of sight. Someone needed to keep an eye on Monica, they'd gotten acquainted while you both were in the hospital, and there you have it." Mr. Tate smiled and motioned me back to my chair.

"Livingston, you probably know my old friend Joseph is not an easy man to impress. He's no fan of attorneys, either: I'm afraid we all have me to thank for that." He looked away from me sadly for a moment. "Anyway, you should know that a couple of days after you were, ah, hospitalized, he came in here raving about how smart and brave and strong you were, and if I let anything happen to you he'd deal with me personally. Then he got nose to nose with me and said you were worth more than any three other lawyers he'd ever met. Including, especially, me."

Of course, I was elated over the praise from Jopie; he certainly didn't hand out compliments lightly. I wasn't so sure about his telling my senior partner I was worth more than he was. Mr. Tate sighed and continued.

"You see, back in high school, Joseph and I were best friends, and we knew exactly what we were going to do. He would be the cop, I would be the prosecutor, and together we would clean out the baddies and make the place safe for moms and little kids. Sort of like 'Law and Order,' I guess. That's how we started out, too. Then, after a couple of years, we discovered the worst bad guy we had brought down was a third-offense drunk driver. I couldn't handle it, Livingston. I was going nowhere, I needed more money for my family, and the wicked were flourishing more than ever. I left the DA's office and joined Goldblum & Perry, and never looked back. Joseph called on me once, and told me what he thought of me. Ichabod, he called me. As you know, unlike me, he stuck it out."

I thought about Jopie. His best friend gave up the fight, then he lost his wife. No wonder he had that hard shell. I thought of our kiss: I was gladder than ever that I'd given it to him. "She deserves to be someone's number one," he'd said of Monica. Well, so did he.

Dad's words in the hospital room came back to me: "All the heart you could ask for, and wouldn't quit for anything." Mr. Tate looked at me oddly; I hadn't realized I'd spoken the words aloud.

"Sorry. My dad coached against his football team, and that's what he said about Jopie. Joseph, that is."

Mr. Tate nodded. "Yes, that's Joseph, all right. You see, what he was really telling me was that you are the lawyer he had hoped I would be. I think he's right."

Now I was completely confused. Livingston Brookes, crime-fighting DA? Not in a million years. Or, was I already halfway there?

Mr. Tate came back to the present. "I know your specialty is defense, Livingston, and you're very good at it. You're also all the things Joseph said you were. We want you here in the firm for the rest of your career. Now that you're back, I'll be meeting with the other partners to decide on an offer to you that we hope you'll find attractive. Meanwhile, if it's acceptable to you, you will report directly to me." His eye twinkled as he said it. It took a moment for me to remember that everyone who reported to Mr. Tate was a partner. I grinned at him.

"I take it we can regard that as settled, then?"

"Yes, sir." I said it with enthusiasm.

"Very well, then. Your secondment to the public defender's office is terminated effective immediately."

"WHAT?" After all of this, he was taking Bandini away from me? How could he?

"You needn't worry about Mr. Bandini. The firm will defend him. I am taking the case." He looked at me as if I should read more into what he said. After a moment, I got it.

I mentally took off my hat to my friend Jopie. You know the scene at the end of "Casablanca" where Laszlo tells Rick, "Welcome back to the fight; this time, our side will win?" That's what it was like. I stood up; Mr. Tate stood up; we shook hands.

"Jopie told me he had someone keeping an eye on L&R. I wouldn't happen to know that someone, would I?" I kept my voice low, as Jopie taught me. My new boss just met my eye, and shrugged.

I'd been back at work a couple of months. Talbot was going to propose that night. How did I know? Unlike me, he's completely straightforward and uncomplicated, and he can't keep a secret for anything. When we have kids, I'll have to do all the Christmas presents myself, because sure as a gun's iron, he'll spill the beans. I love him just as he is, and I'm sure I have enough complications for both of us.

Anyway, I thought this would be the night for a certain little white dress I'd been saving up for just such an occasion. It and slutty weren't in the same area code, but he wouldn't have to look twice to know what I had for him. It was exactly what I wanted.

I opened to Talbot's knock on my door, and smiled innocently at him as he gaped, goggled, stuttered, and all but drooled, all in a most gratifying way. I lifted his chin back into place with my finger, let him show me to his MG, then turned him to stone again as I got in and seated myself. Short skirt, low-slung car, and long legs: yes, I was taking advantage, but just ask him if he didn't love it!

He took me to this barbecue place. It had a huge open fire pit right down the middle that they cooked on. Their meats were as good as any I've had, and their sauces were to die for. They had them from every region: Kansas City, North Carolina, Georgia, all over. Fortunately for my white dress, they also had oversize thick cloth napkins. Talbot and I are both hearty meat eaters, and I tied one of those napkins around my neck and we set to.