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Their first "official" date back together as a couple ends up much like everything else in their history-- not quite as planned.
Grigor comes down with food poisoning, and Nancy decides to make the blandest things possible to keep him running-- rice, applesauce, toast, and the like.
Of course, every day with him has come to feel like a date, Grigor more or less moving in the second she confirms that she wouldn't mind.
Which means that special occasions and dates tend to consist of far more informal affairs… most of the time. Tonight, of course, is different. They're still eating in, the two of them making lasagna together as Grigor frets in his own subtle ways; ticks she remembers even now, years later, recognizing them like old friends. Like the way he pinches the bridge of his nose, the way he touches his ear whenever he gets nervous or is blatantly lying about something…
"I just don't know if they'll like me after..." he gestures vaguely, "the… things… that have happened."
Coming up behind him, she pulls her arms around his midsection, pressing a soft kiss to his temple. "Don't even worry about that. They know about what happened, they supported me… well, bullied is more like it… either way, they already know who you are and they still want us to be together."
Turning around from his spot at the stove in her arms to envelop her in his own, Grigor smiles down at her, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
"Have I mentioned today how lucky I am to be in love with you? Because I feel like that's overdue."
"You… might have mentioned it once or twice… but it never hurts to hear it more..."
"Mm," he concurs, his lips finding hers as he pulls her in closer, his hands slowly running down the small of her back to her ass.
"Easy," she laughs, pulling back to grin at him. "If you keep that up, we'll end up in the bedroom again long before they even get here."
"Who says it has to be in the bedroom?" he grins, eyes gleaming with nothing but mischief as he picks her up all too easily to lift her up onto the counter, his hands moving to the closure of her jeans--
Knocking. Of course this is the moment they had to decide to arrive, Nancy rolling her eyes before placing one last kiss to his lips and hopping down off the counter.
"To be continued… soon, I hope. You've got it on my mind now."
"Hey, it even worked to distract me from the nerves..."
"You'll be fine," she tells him, Nancy throwing him a smile before going to unlock and open the door.
"Nancy!" Bess practically barrel-rolls her way into the apartment to pull her into a tight hug. "Where is your beau! I want to finally meet this mystery man!"
"He's in the kitchen, and he can hear you."
"Oh good!"
Pulling George into her arms to say hello, it's not long before--
"Oh my god."
"Oh, here we go," George sighs, rolling her eyes as the two of them make their way into the kitchen, Grigor getting some glasses out of the cabinet for the four of them. "What is it this time, Bess?"
"Oh-- uh-- just-- arms!" Nancy feels herself flush, busying herself for the moment with going to pick out a red from their wine rack, while Bess continues onward, her hand stretched out in greeting. "Anyway, it's so nice to meet you, Grigor! We've heard so much about you!"
"The same. Nancy's told me a lot about both of you." Slipping back into the kitchen, Nancy hands the bottle to Grigor to decork before turning to Bess.
"First thing I noticed about him," she whispers, Grigor promptly starting to laugh.
"What was that?"
She's pretty sure her cheeks are a brilliant shade of red as George lets out a long sigh, handing Grigor the corkscrew when age notices him having trouble finding it.
"Apparently your arms are a sticking point here… and probably the reason you even have a girlfriend right now in the first place. I'd try to keep those up if I were you. Real hit with the ladies. Trust me. I'd know."
Grigor smiles easily, the cork coming free easily enough for him to start pouring. "I'm an actor. Push-ups and pull-ups are practically part of the job description."
"Fair enough," George nods, eagerly accepting one of the glasses to take a long sip.
"Why don't you guys go ahead and take a seat… and we'll be right in. Just need to get the lasagna out of the oven," Nancy hands Bess her glass with a smile. "Table's already all set."
"But that's not lasagna I'm smelling," Bess objects, her eyes widening as she tries to take a peek at Grigor's creation on the stovetop.
"Zabaglione to go with our Italian entree," Grigor smiles, dutifully turning his attention back to the stove.
"Oh my god, Nancy, I love him already."
"Go sit down!"
"Going, going..."
"See?" Nancy grins, whispering conspiratorially to Grigor with a kiss to his cheek. "Told you it would be that easy. You've already got both of them on your team. You were worried for nothing."
"So, my arms, huh?" he grins.
"Oh, shut up," she whacks him in the arm, promptly feeling her cheeks color once more. "You know you're hot. It's not like it's very hard to fall in love with you."
"Glad to hear it," he smiles, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Because I still have to impress your dad, too."
&
Impressing her father ends up being an almost effortless task, Grigor and Carson running into each other at the grocery store before Grigor had even been set to be over for dinner.
Then again, charm does seem to come to him rather effortlessly, and when he proposes sex in her bedroom with her father downstairs, she decides to indulge him even in spite of the fact that it's something that's already long happened.
It's also precisely why, almost a year after their first getting back together, right around Christmas, Carson ends up giving Grigor his blessing.
&
"There's a new… play in town set in the Regency Period that I'm hoping to audition for… but I'm having trouble getting into the mind of the character. It just… doesn't seem realistic."
"All right," Nancy nods, the two of them walking through Chicago's German Christmas market, the snow crunching delightfully underfoot, her arm linked with his. "You know I'm always happy to help."
"So… the female lead in this, Astoria, is this… beautiful, intelligent, talented, accomplished woman… the whole package, you know? And she's being courted by this total schmuck, Adam, the male lead. Made a lot of mistakes, took forever to come around to actually being with her… and even now that he's been courting her for a while and things have been going great, he's having all these doubts."
"Why?"
"Well-- if I'm understanding the material correctly, he's had this long history of rejection… loneliness… so the thought of losing her terrifies him. Buuuut he also knows that he could never deserve her."
"Well, why is she with him in the first place?"
Grigor laughs. "Beats me, honestly. Still kinda trying to figure that one out."
"Well, surely he must have some idea."
"I mean…" Stopping to consider it, he shakes his head. "I imagine that from her perspective, she must view him through some sort of… rose-colored glasses. Romanticizing him because of their history, maybe… I guess he could be seen as kind of funny and talented, but-- other than his looks," he gestures at himself, Nancy laughing, "he doesn't exactly have a whole lot going for him. No money, no prestigious family name or title, no awards… hopeless at life, honestly. Or, at least, that's how his father put it at one point in the script."
"What's his background?"
"Oh, you know… horrible childhood… suffered all these losses… people dying around him... very Dickens. Eventually he goes to war fighting for his country, but then he gets caught by the other side… ends up going home with a dishonorable discharge… all bad. I think at one point he joined a circus… but I could be making that up. Can't remember. Anyway, so he ends up being a semi-successful painter, but… barely enough to pay the bills."
"How did they meet?"
"She… fell for him thinking he was someone else… this nobleman he was pretending to be. Very… Aladdin in that sense. She starting having feelings for him thinking that it wouldn't ruin her name, wouldn't lead to her having essentially no money…"
"And you're telling me she really has no negative qualities?"
Grigor laughs. "Not in his eyes. I mean, I guess she doesn't… quite fit into high society as well as might be expected of her in the eyes of her family or the people around her, but… he likes that about her. She's so… alive, and he feels like a failure because even if he is talented, he can't seem to transfer the images in his head onto the canvas, so he's really his own worst critic. So from his point of view, he has nothing to offer to her."
He takes a deep breath. "So in the play he ends up proposing to her… and she says yes, but I'm having trouble actually picturing it happening. Like, this is the Regency Era we're talking about. She'd be sacrificing… her entire livelihood. She'd be confined to living like a peasant for most of her life, and judging by the way birth control worked back then-- which is to say, it didn't-- she'd be burdened with motherhood, too… and for someone so lively that just seems like it would hold her back more than anything. Wouldn't she… regret that? They're so different. It doesn't seem like it could ever… work out in the long term."
"Well," Nancy quickly cuts in, "why wouldn't it work out? If she's as great as he seems to think she is, why wouldn't she want to stay with him? If she really loves him, she'd be happy with him even if he wasn't… wealthy or had a good title."
Swallowing hard, Grigor lets his gaze stray to the Christmas lights strung up above them, his hand finding its way into his pocket.
"And you really think she'd want to marry him?" Hesitating for a long moment before stopping them in their walk, he turns to look at her, serious all of a sudden, his heart pounding rapidly in his chest. "Put yourself in her shoes. If you were auditioning for the part of Astoria… and you had to imagine what that would be like. We're not so different, after all, Adam and I. So… if it were me… and I asked you to marry me. What would you say?"
For a very long moment-- longer, even, for Grigor, who is fairly certain he's stopped breathing somewhere in there, the lump in his throat a good ten times larger by now-- Nancy just blinks at him, her jaw slowly dropping as she looks at him. "Oh my god."
Grigor clears his throat. "By all means, take your time."
"There is no play, is there?"
"Nancy, you're not answering the question."
She has him genuinely nervous by now, the way she's just staring at him in complete and utter shock, his stomach in knots like he's not sure it has ever been before.
"What would you say?" he presses again, swallowing thickly.
"I would say that I love you and will love you all my life."
Grigor has never been the kind to cry. Losing one's parents means having to build up a thick skin. Bullies are cruel, but the world is crueler, and he's long learned to keep his emotions sealed away, letting characters out to play in their stead.
Here, though, right now, there's not an ounce of him that isn't earnest, undiluted and pure, Grigor swallowing again as he feels his eyes well up.
"Really?"
"Yes," she whispers, Grigor unable to stop himself from letting out a soft laugh, more breath than anything else, the smile coloring his features all relief and joy as he sees her start to tear up, too.
"I'm supposed to get on one knee, aren't I?"
"Oh-- oh you don't have to--"
He doesn't listen to her, though, Nancy unable to stop herself from laughing softly through the haze of tears now clouding her vision as Grigor gets down to kneel. Hand reaching into his pocket to pull out the small ring box, his fingers tremble ever so slightly as he opens it.
"Oh my god--"
"It's a pomegranate ruby." He laughs somewhat sheepishly, reaching up to wipe at his eyes with a small smile. "And I figured it was… classic enough for someone like you." It's not as though shopping for jewelry for Nancy is ever easy; she has elegant and refined, yet undeniably minimalist, simple tastes. Judging from the look on her face, though…
"It's beautiful."
… he's nailed this one, Grigor carefully pulling the ring free from the box before looking up at her. "May I…?"
"Oh-- oh, of course-- here--"
Tugging her glove off and stuffing it into her pocket, she offers him her hand, Grigor slowly sliding the ring onto her finger.
"Does it fit okay? Bess told me to go off one of your other rings, but I wasn't sure--"
"It's perfect," she whispers, Nancy tugging him up to pull him into her arms and kiss him, Grigor uncertain as to whether his heart has ever felt quite so full.
He's not sure it has.
&
They get married in the spring, with Persephone's return from the Underworld, the sun shining down on their perfect day, with the two of them surrounded by a seemingly endless amount of friends and family.
Hers, mostly-- not that Grigor minds, reassuring her that they're his friends and family now, too.
In place of a honeymoon, they decide to save up, Grigor explaining to her his itch for a white picket fence life with her-- suburbs, kids, a dog…
The dog might be nice, she admits, knowing fully well that her apartment doesn't allow pets, something Togo rather resented.
So they save up.
It takes them four more of her cases before they manage to get a down payment put on a house in River Heights, Grigor taking on a position as a drama teacher at the local middle school.
As it turns out-- not that she was particularly surprised at the discovery-- Grigor is absolutely fantastic with kids, gushing over his students almost every night.
It's how the next major conversation comes up-- kids.
She knew what she was getting herself into when she married him; kids were always part of the bargain, but it's only with his reassurance that he'll be the one to stay home with them while Nancy keeps moving that finally convinces her, Nancy agreeing to start thinking about logistics, making an appointment with her gynecologist… the whole works.
Of course, what she didn't expect is for them to end up with one kid as soon as they do, Grigor coming home quite a bit later than he'd been supposed to after work and grocery shopping.
"His name is Boofus," he explains, as though his arbitrary choice of name for the big mutt was something firmly set in stone. "He was wandering around outside the grocery store without a collar on and a hurt paw, so I took him to the vet and got him checked out. No chip or anything."
"Well, just in case," Nancy starts, ever the voice of reason, "let's put up signs so that if a family is missing him, they'll get the chance to get their dog back. I'm sure someone must be missing him."
&
No one comes forward, even as Grigor plasters the town with signs, taping and pinning them just about everywhere.
So Boofus ends up being a permanent addition to the household, and a rather happy one, at that.
But even with at least that surprise under her belt, Nancy somehow still hasn't learned her lesson. (She ought to know better by now.)
So when she returns home from a case, the last thing she expects is to come home to dinner with rather youthful company.
His name is Charlie, one of his seventh grade students and a foster kid. That last part, Grigor later explains after dinner, he was unfamiliar with until earlier that week.
Were he a dog, Nancy knows fully well that his ears would be tucked back against his head, just awaiting judgment from his pack leader.
Her, in this case.
The adoption paperwork isn't filed yet, though a part of Nancy wonders if he would have gotten that done too, if he'd been able to without her signature. A part of her could kill him a little bit, if only for putting her in the position where she could either give in and say yes… or break the heart of a foster child.
But she also knows him. She knows his background, the things he's been through.
And so Charlie stays.
&
They settle into a comfortable routine with their little family, and for a good two or so months, things are relatively peaceful. Grigor is a fantastic father as it turns out, taking to it just as well as he took to teaching, and Charlie absolutely adores him.
Nancy can't help it; she adores Charlie, too, watching the way that Grigor tucks him in after a good hour of bedtime stories only to get roped into more reading.
And yet…
And yet, on the third morning of her case in St. Petersburg, when she finds herself still nauseous and vomiting, she starts to get a bit nervous.
Checking her day planner only seems to increase her anxiety-- to the point where she ends up heading outside and down the street to the nearest drug store.
She speaks exactly no Russian at all, so there's a definitive struggle involved in her purchasing anything, but before she knows it, she's sitting at the edge of the hotel room bathtub, her heart going a good hundred miles an hour.
Getting up, she checks her watch again before starting to pace a bit, finally just grabbing her phone and calling Grigor.
It rings.
And rings.
And rings.
"... hello?"
"You sound tired. Oh-- oh god, I'm so sorry--"
"No, no, that's okay--" Nancy can hear him yawn on the other end as she glances at her watch. Yeah. Eleven in the morning here would be two in the morning there. She should have thought about that before she called, but feeling as frazzled as this has her-- "Is everything okay?"
"Um." A beat. "Uh." Another. "I'm… not sure."
This time when he speaks he sounds far more awake. "What is it, what's wrong?"
"There's… really no good way to say this." She swallows hard. "I skipped a period. And… I've been throwing up."
For a solid half minute, the line goes completely dead to the point where Nancy is half-worried that their call cut out right then, at precisely the worst time… and half-worried he's as panic-stricken about this as she is.
"I-I mean-- are you sure?"
"About the vomiting and the skipped period? Yes."
"No, I meant--"
"I know what you meant; I went down to the drugstore and somehow managed to buy a couple of tests. I… followed the instructions. I'm just afraid to look. Pretty sure they're done by now."
"Okay, um." Grigor sounds like he's even sweating over the phone. "Maybe… just… don't look at them, just pack them away… and we'll look together. And in the meantime I can go get more tests and make an appointment for you for when you get back."
"Okay. I can do that." Taking in a deep breath, Nancy finds her voice unexpectedly shaky when she speaks again. "This-- I mean-- it's not-- if it actually were-- you're not--"
"What?"
She takes a deep, steadying breath, her voice quiet. "You're not unhappy, are you?"
God help him, Grigor actually laughs, sniffling slightly on the other end. "You're kidding, right? If you'd called and told me that it was for sure, I'd be planning a party as we speak."
"Oh thank god," she laughs, Nancy feeling like she can finally relax for the first time since she got to St. Petersburg.
"Just be careful," he says, Nancy able to hear his smile on the other end, "there might be two of you solving that case."
"I'm always careful."
&
When she comes back, Grigor ends up finding out the best way that Nancy has absolutely no patience, handing him a small package with a huge smile when he and Charlie come to pick her up at the airport.
"Open it," she beams, Charlie looking expectantly between them.
"Am I getting something, too?"
"Of course you are," Nancy grins, taking his hand in hers. "You know I always bring you guys souvenirs. But yours is in the checked luggage, so it'll have to wait until we get that from the--"
There's what sounds a bit like a strangled squeak from Grigor as he holds his hand over the lower half of his face, his eyes going a bit glassy, his voice quiet.
"Really?"
"I… couldn't wait. And… we can obviously check with more of them when we get home, but I just wanted to surprise you--"
The lid to the small package containing the tiny little onesie tumbles to the floor as Grigor pulls her into his arms, Nancy unable to help but beam.
"Best surprise I've ever gotten."
&
"Have I told you yet just how incredibly beautiful you are like this?"
His kisses are soft and sweet, Grigor easily littering affection upon the soft swell of her belly, grateful for once that Hannah insisted on taking Charlie for a weekend, Nancy running her fingers into his hair from where she's kneeling on the bed in nothing but that sexy little baby-blue négligée, a present for her birthday earlier that year.
"Only every day," she laughs, a soft, bright sound that reminds Grigor of a time long past, long before his parents died, of Christmas mornings filled with joy and laughter instead of dread and nerves.
It certainly suits the mood: it's snowing out, thick flakes coming down as though in sheets
"I mean it," he mutters against her skin, sighing as he lets his eyes close. "I don't think you quite understand what I'm saying, Miss Drew. You should get ready… because the second this one arrives, I'll want to start trying for number two."
"What," she laughs again, "because you won't be able to get enough of having an infant around the house… or because I'm too beautiful like this for you to give up?"
"Is both an option?" Grinning up at her, he litters a soft trail of kisses up her belly to between her breasts, his hand coming up to cup one of them with a smile. "These have also grown considerably larger..."
"Just wait, you'll change your mind about that little plan of yours as soon as we get to a point in this pregnancy where we won't be able to make sex work anymore."
He grins again, continuing his path of kisses up her body, up past that sweet spot at the crook of her neck… and to her lips, his hands cupping her face as he takes a long moment to just kiss her, pulling away only to rest his forehead against hers.
"Actually… since we are entering the third trimester, someone did his homework."
"Don't tell me," she jokes, smiling despite herself, "was it Charlie?"
"You're adorable," he kisses the top of her nose before sitting back on his haunches to kiss the backs of her hands. "So maybe missionary is out… doggy might be too rough on the little one… certainly shouldn't do it standing anymore..."
"Uh-huh… continue."
"But there's one position that is going to be foolproof."
"Oh? And what's that?"
"Here," he nods, placing his hand at her lower back, "lie back."
Helping her onto her back, a small smile coloring Nancy's features beautifully even in spite of all her skepticism, Grigor leans down to kiss her cheek, gently guiding her onto her side before joining her and sidling up against her from behind. Drawing her hand back to bare her neck to him, he smiles, leaning in to kiss her there, slow and patient, eager to hear every single one of those soft sighs from her.
"What now?" she asks through her smile, Grigor kissing her again before taking a moment to wet his fingers, slipping them down and between her legs, two digits pressing slowly inside of her as he lets his thumb seek out her clit with a sharp gasp from her.
"Oh… someone's already very wet..."
"Don't tease," she moans softly, biting down on her bottom lip as he starts slowly finger-fucking her, unable to help his grin.
"I'm not… just thinking about how this is yet another reason to do this again right after this one arrives…" His thumb keeps teasing at her clit as she gasps, Nancy suddenly stiffening in his arms as he feels her come around his finger.
"Ah--"
"I can't be the only one that remembers the last three months."
"I'm not-- an anomaly--" Nancy gasps sharply, her fingers digging into her pillow as she spreads her legs just enough to let him keep going-- but faster, harder, her cunt impossibly hungry for more. He's not wrong. The second trimester has been murder. She's not sure she's ever called him, skyped him, facetimed him, or woke him up quite so many times just to have sex, regardless of what the format-- phonesex, cybersex, real, actual sex like this ought to be right now-- even if beggars can't be choosers, Nancy's hardly been picky about where her orgasms or the frequently accompanying penetration comes from. In fact, she's pretty sure that she just about tripled her small collection of sex toys in the last three months alone. "Most women are-- like this--"
"Mm," he smiles, speeding up his fingers a bit before turning his hand enough to let his knuckles press up against her g-spot-- not hard, but enough to make her moan, her body squirming atop their sheets. "Maybe. But… you're my woman. I want to do this with you." He grins, his thumb back on her clit as he can see her second orgasm quickly following the first as her breath hitches. "To you."
If he didn't know better, he'd almost imagine that her climax-- the way her body convulses with her coming, her pussy squeezing his fingers, practically begging them to come inside of her-- was brought on by his words.
"Please--"
He can't stop himself from laughing, Grigor stalling his hand momentarily.
"Is this you begging me to fuck you into next week right now… or to knock you up again right after this? Because if I'm not wrong… this was supposed to be a demonstration in how well I could fuck you even when you're about to burst."
"The f-first one-- we can discuss the second one after I'm done coming--"
"That may never happen at this rate," he smiles, pulling his fingers out to slowly lick them clean before lining himself up at her entrance and slowly pushing inside only to be met by a whimper from her, the noise sharp.
"O-oh god, please, please fuck me--"
"Your wish is my command." He smiles against the skin of her shoulder, kissing her there as he slowly starts to thrust, speeding up only once Nancy starts genuinely whining for more, shifting her ass back and against him in a desperate effort to take him deeper somehow, this position woefully shallow in its penetration when compared to doggy style.
And while she supposes-- no, knows-- that that's the point… she can't help but want him to pound her into next week right about now.
Licking the tips of his fingers, he returns them to her clit, coming not from behind and between her legs this time, but around the front, the shift in positions new enough to have Nancy mewling all over again as her fingers dig into her pillow.
"Oh-- oh-- oh god--"
"What do you-- want, Princess--?"
"H-harder-- faster--" If she can't have deeper, she'll take the other most important two, Grigor thankfully complying even as he speeds up his fingers atop her clit, too, his thrusts almost punishing now in how hard he's fucking her.
Still-- the shallow quality is enough to drive her just about mad, Nancy finally crying out as she feels her body throb around his cock as she comes, louder than she ever normally lets herself be-- whether in a hotel while on a case-- or here, regardless of whether or not Charlie is actually asleep or awake. Her teeth digging into her bottom lip, she feels what she thinks for a moment has to be the telltale signs of his own orgasm, but-- then she turns out to have been wrong, Nancy moaning almost desperately for some genuine relief.
"Please--!"
She doesn't normally beg, so Grigor is quick to take notice even as he kisses the spot just beneath her ear with a smile. "Mmhmm?"
"Please-- come in me--"
"You realize that-- if you say that-- after this one's born-- we'll kind of end up in the same position-- again by default-- right--?"
"Stop gloating," she whimpers, Grigor finally taking pity on her as he changes his angle just slightly, his fore- and middle fingers still moving back and forth on her clit to try and tease a fourth orgasm out of her, knowing fully well that she has it in her.
"Touch your breast," he whispers, Nancy letting out another moan as she reaches to cup one of them in her hand, kneading and squeezing before simply letting herself tease her nipple, rolling and pinching it between her fingers, all of it together quickly culminating in her body's tensing again. Nancy bucks her hips back against his cock as though begging for him to fuck more of her, Grigor groaning as he manages a few more thrusts inside of her before coming himself. The way it started to throb and clench around him, she’s fairly certain that even her cunt is practically begging him for it.
"Fuck," he mutters sharply, his hips still jerking every few seconds as she suddenly feels him come a little bit more. "Fuck."
"We'll consider it," Nancy finally concedes, Grigor grinning even as his breathing is still shallow and fast.
"That good, hmm?"
"No-- I mean-- yes, obviously, but that's not why." She shakes her head, turning to look at him from where he's spooning her. "I just love our little family that much."
"Me, too," Grigor whispers, his hand running over her belly as he smiles against her shoulder. "You make me so fucking happy. You, Charlie, and the baby."
"And Boofus," Nancy adds with a grin.
"And Boofus. Of course."