After Hours

17- Meet the parents

A couple months have passed since Victoria made things official with Dalton, and the police officer moved into her apartment, pissing Brayden off. Until she decided on what she wanted to do, she stored everything at Tiara's, and switched staying at either Tiara's or Dalton's, with mostly staying at his place. The talk at work had been growing, and with all employees feeling there was more going on between the two, than they were letting on. They also noticed whenever Doctor Jones stayed late, she stayed late, with both being caught leaving the clinic together on multiple occasions, hours after the clinic was closed.

Victoria left Tiara's home in the wee hours of the morning knowing Dalton was going in early, and stopped at the coffee shop along the way to work, picking up a couple coffees for her and Dalton. She entered the clinic, and walked over to his office. Being that her hands were full, she was relieved to see he left the door open, and walked right over to him, handing him his cup. "Thought you might like a hot cup of coffee."

"Thanks..." he says, sounding down while taking the cup out of her hand, and setting it on the desk.

She noticed he sounded off, and wasn't the typical happy man she was used to seeing whenever he saw her, and tilted her head to the side, looking at him curiously. "Something the matter?"

"I just have some things on my mind, and have been trying to figure out how to tell this patient her test results."

"What kinds of things are on your mind?" she asks, as she moved in front of him, and leaned against his desk. "Is it just about this patient, or is there something else?"

He rested his elbows on the arms of his chair, and folded his hands together while looking up at her. And shook his head no, "It's just that I don't know what to do with you anymore..." he says, sighing "So much has been on my mind lately, and I don't know how to talk to you about it, without you getting upset."

"You can't talk to me? Since when? We've always talked about everything..."

"Dammit Victoria, all this crap on my mind has been killing me... I want to be able to wake up to you every morning, and to be able to satisfy you to the point where you'll be smiling all day. And the same goes at night, I want to be able to hold you, and for you to fall asleep in my arms..."

"I want that too." she said quietly, feeling heartbroken after seeing the look on his face, and hearing the tone in his voice. She didn't want him feeling this way, and didn't realize anything was bothering him.

"Victoria, I can't keep doing this. It's been eating at me, and tearing me up inside. I don't want us hiding our feelings from the world any longer..." He paused, and looked away. It was killing him for what he was about to say next, and took a deep breath, sighing loudly as he exhaled. "The thing is, I'm in love with you... I love you so damn much, and if you want to continue hiding us from everyone, then that just shows me one thing, your feelings aren't mutual..."

"I know what you're saying."

"Do you? Because if this is how you want it to keep going, then as much as I'm going to hate saying this, we're going to have to decide. Either we say fuck it and go our separate ways, or we continue with what we're doing, and show everyone what they've suspected for a while. I know what I want, but it's your decision that I cannot make for you." He looked directly at her while studying her facial expression. He didn't know what to take from it, and looked away shaking his head, thinking he just lost another woman he cared deeply for.

"Look at me." she said, crossing her legs, and leaning forward while holding on to the desk. Looking at the man who changed her way of thinking of what a real man was, and smiled. She couldn't let him think the worst any longer, and reached for him. "Please, look at me... I have something to say."