Chapter Text
"In London, a military funeral was held today for the man who spearheaded the exposure- and subsequent capture-of British Intelligence double agent, Sterling Fitch. In gratitude for his heroics, Daniel Chalmers was posthumously knighted."
Laura Holt-Steele sighed as the news anchor summed up the activities of the past few days while the TV emitted a soft glow illuminating the room. Though the Castle was cold, Laura’s thick Irish sweater, and, more importantly, Mr. Steele’s arms, had made her feel warm and cozy. She had allowed herself to lean against him with her head in his lap, simply enjoying the uncomplicated togetherness after a particularly difficult few months.
Though their relationship had never been easy by any stretch of the imagination, the trials they’d recently had to face had been excessive, even by their standards. From Mr. Steele nearly marrying an escort to stay in the country, to their subsequent fake marriage, to Tony, the INS, and inheriting this Castle, Laura was only now starting to feel as if they could finally slow down and catch their breath.
In any other world, the beauty of an Irish Castle would be the perfect place to get their bearings and regroup. Laura had dreamed of such a getaway with just her and Mr. Steele. But things were different now. Her own heart was still playing catch up with the various lies and deceptions they had been part of, both together and separately. And she knew that Mr. Steele was now dealing with his own demons.
Mr. Steele breathed deeply against her, tightening his arms while the news anchor continued relating the circumstances of Daniel Chalmers’ death. She knew the revelation that Chalmers was his father, had deeply shocked and angered him. Having Daniel pass away just as he appeared to accept that revelation had caused Laura to worry about him more than a little. She knew that under his icy calm demeanor lay a man who was capable of deep, and intense emotion. Laura knew that learning his real name had been one of the most important things to him, and she wasn’t yet sure how he was going to handle the fact that he would never know.
She desperately wished he would open up to her, but knew that his private nature might prevent it, especially given the fact that they hadn’t been as close as they used to be before the fake marriage. Laura didn’t know how to bridge the distance between them, and truth to tell wasn’t sure it was even her job to try. What she did know was that he was probably hurting and that hurt her too. She hated seeing him in any kind of pain, regardless of the state of their relationship.
“In a related ceremony in Moscow, a high ranking KGB official, Sergei Kemadov, was given a hero's burial, for what the Kremlin ambiguously described as 'assorted heroic activities on behalf of the state'."
Laura felt him shift slightly and then the click of a button sounded, turning the TV off. Clearly, Mr. Steele did not wish to watch any more of the newscast. She didn’t blame him. Processing a loss was difficult under the best of circumstances. She snuggled in closer to him, becoming painfully aware of just how close their bodies were to one another coupled with the fact that the Castle was now virtually empty.
“Only Daniel could end up being buried as a national hero in both London and Moscow,” Laura said, wanting to break the silence, but realizing that she wasn’t sure just how to talk to him about his father’s death. As a default, she resorted to lightheartedness, but she could see behind his calm façade was a real pain. It was a pain he clearly didn’t choose to share with her, which stung slightly, even though she had fully expected it. She wanted to reach out to him, but wasn’t sure how to do so.
“It was the ultimate con,” she heard him agree. “He deserved nothing less.”
Sitting up, she looked at him and saw a flicker of emotion pass over his features. He buried it quickly and smiled at her. She felt her heartbeat quicken as he did so and marveled at his ability to physically affect her so deeply with just a look. What would happen when they truly became intimate? A thrill shot through her body as she contemplated the prospect.
“You’re a good son,” she assured him, placing her hand over his.
He laughed softly and looked away. There was deep regret in his expression.
“I only wish I had more time with him,” he admitted. She knew that for him, revealing any kind of vulnerability was extremely difficult. It gave her hope that things between them were not completely without salvaging. Choosing not to draw attention to it, she spoke rationally, but with great compassion.
“On the other hand, you had twenty years with him.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, tossing the remote and gathering her into his arms. Laura tried not to let the surprise show on her face, nor let him know just how much his touch affected her. She could see that the look on his face was one of contemplation and affection. “Well, one thing’s for certain. I’m not going to waste precious time showing people who are close to me how I feel for them.”
Before she could process those words, he leaned in and kissed her softly, deeply, and with tantalizing slowness.
She knew that was perhaps the closest she would get from him at this time to a declaration of love, and she was surprised to realise it no longer mattered the way it did before. She had seen enough of the dynamic between Mr. Steele and Daniel to know that he, like Daniel, demonstrated love through actions, not words. She knew that he had been deeply affected by his past and that had made it difficult to trust. The fact that he was telling her now that he was no longer going to hide himself from her was enough of a declaration for her.
And it was a revelation for her as well. She had been so hung up on getting him to talk to her, that she had failed to see all the smaller ways he had shown her how he was feeling or what he was thinking. His need for physical closeness spoke volumes now in a way it never had before. Perhaps the way to move forward was not with talk at all, but with action.
Deciding to take the lead, Laura stood up and reached for his hand.
“Care to elaborate, Mr. Steele?” She asked. The tone of her voice and mischief in her gaze must have been enough for him. He caught on, standing up and gathered her into his arms. She could smell the scent of his aftershave. His deep blue eyes were intense despite the playfulness of his own tone.
“Well,” he said, his voice almost husky, “we have the Castle to ourselves…Mrs. Steele.”
He proceeded to carry her towards the stairs and even though her entire body screamed that this was what she wanted more than anything, she hesitated.
“Where are the servants?” She asked, wanting to ensure nothing would disturb them.
“Out celebrating,” he told her. “I decided to give them the Castle.”
“Hmmm, that was generous of your lordship,” she teased, secretly impressed with his ingenuity. She had wondered what he would do about this lemon of a Castle.
“An act of a desperate Lord, I assure you,” was his own rueful reply.
“Where’s Mildred?” She asked as they moved closer to the stairs. Her heart was racing with anticipation, and her hands trembled slightly.
“I decided to give her Mickeline,” he said with a wink.
“There’s nothing between us and the bedroom door?” She asked, pausing at the base of the stairs. She had difficulty believing that they were finally alone. They had been trying so hard for so long now. Could tonight really be the night they had both been working towards for four long years?
“Uh-uh,” Steele replied only to be interrupted by the shrill sound of a ringing telephone. Laura felt her heart drop. It was always something.
Well, not this time. This time, nothing would keep the two of them apart. Slipping out of his arms, she straightened his collar and made up her mind.
“I’ll get the phone. You turn down the covers.”
Kissing her lightly, he nodded in agreement, and headed up the stairs, pretending to shoot the phone as he did so.
“Hello?” Laura said, hoping the impatience couldn’t be heard in her voice.
“Well,” the unmistakable voice of Tony Roselli said on the other end of the line, “they released me.”
“I never doubted it for a moment,” she replied with a smile, hoping this meant they could truly conclude this little drama once and for all. With Tony’s name cleared, he would go back to his job and she would return to LA with Mr. Steele. They could start over again, but this time with their relationship on far surer footing.
“I still think Steele’s plan was a little risky,” Tony was saying to her. She shook her head and forced her attention to the conversation at hand.
“Kemadov cleared you, didn’t he?” She asked. The last thing she wanted to deal with in relation to Tony Roselli was loose ends. The man had embedded himself far too deeply into her life for her own comfort.
“Laura, listen,” Tony was saying, a different tone in his voice now. She knew that tone. It meant he wasn’t planning to leave their lives as quietly as she had hoped. “What we talked about earlier – still stands.”
He was referring of course to the conversation she’d had with him in which she told him the only reason she couldn’t be with him was that she had to see things through with Mr. Steele. She could understand why he hadn’t taken that as a firm no. It was a rather flimsy excuse and Laura knew that at the time. Clearly, he hadn’t forgotten it either.
“Laura!” She could hear Steele calling from the bedroom. He sounded impatient. Laura felt an odd sense of confinement – as if she was trapped in a tiny room with the walls closing in on her. She knew what she should have said to Tony, but instead of dealing with the situation she did what she always did and attempted to avoid the conversation entirely.
“This really isn’t the best time to discuss that, Tony,” she said hoping he would take the hint and realize there was never a good time to discuss it.
“Laura, I’m not gonna give up on you,” Tony replied doggedly. She felt herself sigh.
“Laura, the bed’s turned down!” Steele yelled from upstairs.
The feeling of panic intensified.
“I have to go,” she said to Tony, “right now.”
“Okay,” Tony continued, “when can I see you?”
“Fluffing up pillows!” Steele called, with a slight edge in his voice.
“Coming!” She called back. “I gotta go, bye!” Laura’s heart raced with adrenaline as she hung up the telephone.
The awkward triangle that had managed to develop in the last few weeks was becoming increasingly complicated. Laura had thought she had solved the problem with Tony, but his words to her during that phone call said otherwise.
She knew she should have made it clear to Tony irrevocably and without question that she was not interested in his advances. She told herself that with all that had happened to them since arriving in Ireland that she just hadn’t had the time.
It was a poor excuse and deep down she knew it. Tony’s phone call had given her the chance to settle things. Instead, she had pretended not to hear him when he had told her he wasn’t about to give up on her. Secretly, she hoped that by ignoring him, he would eventually give up and go away thus solving the problem for her.
It wasn’t as if she had difficulty telling men she wasn’t interested. As a reasonably attractive woman, she had a lot of practice doing just that. And it wasn’t as if Laura wanted to be with Tony over Mr. Steele. Indeed, as she ascended the stairs that lead to the Master bedroom in the Castle, all Laura could think about was just how much she wanted them to finally cross that line. Yet something had held her back a moment ago on the phone and she knew at some point she would have to examine what that was.
But not tonight. Tonight was something that both she and Mr. Steele had been working towards, for four long years. Tonight she would focus only on the man she had come to know as Remington Steele and forget all the difficulties and heartache that had delayed their relationship’s consummation.
Remington met her midway on the stairs. Before he could say anything to her, the shrill ring of the phone sounded off loudly once more, from the bottom of the staircase. Laura hesitated, unsure of what to do. Should she answer it? Unplug it? Ignore it? The phone rang once more as her eyes met his. The look on his face told Laura everything she wanted to know. She would deal with the phone and the man on the other end of it another day. For now, she had no interest in going anywhere but into the bedroom. To that end, she uttered one simple sentence.
“Let it ring.”
She then wrapped her arms around him and leaned into his body for a deep, soul-searching kiss. It was the kind of kiss that woke up every part of her body. It reminded her that she had only ever felt this way with him.
To say that life had been confusing lately was an understatement. The only time it ever seemed to make any sense to her was when she could feel Mr. Steele’s body against hers, comforting, yet terrifying all at once.
In one swift motion, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her up the remaining stairs and into the spacious, ornate bedroom. Slowly, he lowered her to the ground, his arms still tightly wrapped around her waist, his gaze fixed on her. That breathless feeling that only he could generate overtook her and before she knew it, they were kissing again with a depth of intensity that almost frightened her.
Maybe it was the fact that there was nothing to keep them from taking the final step in their relationship that caused his grip on her waist to tighten almost painfully as they moved towards the bed. Maybe it was the fact that they had both been waiting for this moment for so long. Whatever it was, it caused a thrill of both fear and excitement to run through her entire body as his hands began to roam over her body, tentatively at first, then with increasing urgency.
Laura reached up and flicked the lights off – a habit she had gotten into while in her relationship with Wilson who had preferred to make love in total darkness.
A second later, Remington turned the light back on, his blue eyes dark and unfathomable.
“I want to see you,” was all he said before claiming her lips again in an almost urgent kiss.