Customer Satisfaction [COMPLETE]

Toeing The Code

When the door closed behind her, Luke shot the room around him one quick, dark look. The empty fish tank was still draining water, which was slowly seeping over the floor and the rug. The phone continued ringing incessantly, and walking to it, Luke disconnected the call. He then placed a quick call to the cleaning department to clean up the mess, and then he shot one look at the security camera before leaving the office.

He found his way to Will's office and entered, his mind slowly filling with a daze. He had just kissed Kate.

No, she had just kissed the living daylights out of him.

And it had been glorious.

He felt transformed. He felt...like the freaking king of the world.

All this time he had been struggling to see her as little Kate, his friends little sister, and she had mauled him within an inch of his life the moment she had gotten her hands on him. It was amazing. He fell into a chair across from Will's desk, letting out a helpless laugh.

What was he going to do now? How could he go back to treating her with a respectful distance? He could have controlled himself knowing she wasn't interested. But now, it was difficult to rein this dark monster inside him wanted to forget all courtesy and pull her close and...

He took a deep breath, rubbing is temples. He needed to get his shit together. One kiss from her and he felt turned inside out.

He sat there for he didn't know how long, recounting and trying to make some sense out of what had just happened while Will typed away on his laptop, his brow screwed in concentration. He had been devoted with a singular passion to track down whoever had sent them the email, and it took him several minutes before he shot Luke an irritated glance. "What's up?" he asked.

"Nothing." Luke said absently.

She was such an innocent little thing. She had always looked at him like he was more than he was worth at the foster home. He had felt freaking ten feet tall around her. It was changed now, and she mostly regarded him with deep suspicion, contempt or reluctant comradeship. But there were brief flashes where she would look at him a certain way that he was reminded again. It made him want to protect her, spoil her. To give her everything she'd hoped for and more.

But then he remembered how devastated she had looked after she had kissed him, as if she had lost a part of her that he could never returned. He stiffed, slightly dismayed. He hadn't forced himself on her, he reminded himself. At least not after the initial kiss, which had been pure primal instinct. But he would have pulled back the next second, if she hadn't immediately grabbed him closer and kissed him like she was dying of thirst. He had been helpless then to not give her what she wanted.

Once it was done, it was obvious she had felt violated in some way. Should he apologize?

He would apologize. After he assured her that she was a great kisser.

He blanched. Perhaps he would leave out the last part.

But she hadn't kissed David like that, a sly voice whispered in his head. She hadn't kissed him like her life depended on it. She hadn't looked at him with those glittering blue eyes afterwards, stormy with passion, her face flushed with desire.

Alright, Luke, back to earth with you. He tugged at his collar, sheepish.

Will paused, fixing his attention more fully at Luke, "Why do you look like that?"

Luke came down to earth, "Like what?" he studied himself, latching onto his wet clothes, "Oh.... I went fishing."

"Fishing." Will studied him critically, "Did you catch any fish, then?"

"Ah, yes." Luke sat back in satisfaction, "Two of them."

Will blinked, "You just had an orgy?"

Luke snapped straight, "What?"

Will looked back at his laptop, "Fish is a metaphor, I assume? For chicks." He shot Luke a half grin, "You look like you just got off of a particularly talented one."

Luke stared at him, his mouth dropping open. "Don't say that."

"Why not?" Will rubbed his tired, red rimmed eyes, "Tell you what, at this point, I won't mind your leftovers. How about leaving her number?"

Luke jumped up, "Shut up!" he said in outrage.

Will paused in the action of finger combing his messy blond hair, looking surprised. "I'm just kidding." he said reproachfully.

"Don't kid about...whoever I'm with, alright?" Luke demanded roughly.

Will looked at him with frank surprise. Later Luke would realize it was because it was never this easy to provoke him, but now he just gave his friend the death stare.

"Alright." Will said slowly, "I apologize. Sit down." He started to grin again, but stopped mid grin at Luke's warning look. "Sit." he repeated sullenly, "What's gotten into you--? Forget it. We have more important things to discuss, like my sister."

Luke sat stiffly, and Will pushed a file in front of him. Luke flipped it open and quickly studied the contents. "Did you track down who the email was from, then?" he asked.

"Nothing." Will said tiredly, "Seems bogus, at this point. I contacted John to up Kate's security. He thought I was being overprotective--even if I was being threatened, it didn't automatically mean Kate was in danger."

Will was always overprotective about Kate, but Luke wasn't going to say that. He imagined how Will would act if he knew he'd just joked about her, and instantly regretted the loss of opportunity to horrify his friend. It was just as well. He didn't want to imagine what Will would say about what Luke had just been doing with his sister.

God, she'd kissed him so good.

Luke winced, flushing, and looked uncomfortably away from Will. It was difficult to convince himself that she was an adult woman and it was alright to touch her and have sick fantasies about her when Will was staring at him expectantly with those same damned blue eyes.

"He's right." Luke said, clearing his throat, "She's been adopted for years now. You and she aren't part of the same equation. It would probably be better to up your own security, if you're worried this is real."

Will scoffed, looking at the laptop. "Who'd want to hurt me?" he muttered, typing away, "I'm not worth much."

"You'd be worth quite a lot to some people, I assume."

Will shrugged uncaringly. Luke shook his head, weary. His friend's lack of personal safety had landed him in more than one reckless endeavors. It was long past time where he could try to convince him to treasure his life a bit more and expect to be taken seriously. He would just have to up the security on Will without his friend's consent, and leave it at that.

He considered telling Will that his sister, who he was consumed with worrying for, was under the same roof. He leaned forward, hesitant but determined, but just then Will yawned, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes.

"God, I'm tired." he groaned, "I think I haven't left this room for weeks. I'm going to bed. Do you need something?"

Luke sat back and shook his head, "No, go and rest." he said softly, adding mentally, and I'll take care of Kate.