Spoilers: In Gary We Trust, both parts of Fatal Edition, The Iceman Taketh, and Occasionally Amber.

Keywords: Gary/Brigatti romance

Summary: One late night, the issue of the Paper comes up, and Gary must decide how to tell Brigatti.

Disclaimer: Please don't sue me!  I'm just a poor Early Edition fan w/very little money and a lot of time on my hands!  :)  The characters of Gary Hobson, Toni Brigatti, and even Amber/Jade belong to TriStar Pictures.  No copyright infringement intended.

Feedback: Greatly appreciated!  But please be kind because this is my first Early Edition fanfic, so this time I was just trying to get a feel for things and hope that I got it right.  But please, let me know how I'm doing!  Constructive criticism is welcome as long as it's not too incredibly harsh, and compliments are always welcome!  I'd be glad to hear from you.  :)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Truths
by Gill, Jr .

It was the last leg of the date, and so far everything had been great.  The food at the Italian restaurant Gary had picked out was some of the best she'd ever had.  Well...next to Grandma's, of course, Toni Brigatti mentally corrected herself.  The movie was really good, too - plenty of action, and just a tiny bit of mush, hardly anything to get Brigatti squirming.  Sure - she loved the occasional chick flick as much as the next girl, but she didn't want Hobson to think she was a sap.

She smiled to herself, then, just a tiny smile, when she recalled his stunned look when she'd opened her front door - there he'd stood wearing his trademark leather jacket on top of a gray sweater and a pair of jeans, and there she'd stood wearing a deep purple, formfitting, flower-knitted dress that went several inches above her knees and showed just a modest bit of cleavage.  She also wore a matching dangling choker that was very flattering.
 
So there they'd stood for a few brief seconds, taking each other in, Brigatti worrying that she was overdressed and Gary worrying that he was underdressed, when finally they left for dinner.

"Ready to go?"

"Wha - ?"  Gary's voice stirred her from her thoughts.  "Oh, yeah.  Let's go."

Brigatti climbed into the passenger seat and buckled herself in, waiting for Hobson to drive her home.  Just as he backed out of the space, lightning ripped through the night sky, illuminating it, and a loud crack of thunder soon followed.  Ominous clouds spanned across the sky, and overall, things weren't looking too favorable.

"Looks like it's gonna storm," Brigatti noted, peering up at the sky from the windshield of the McGinty's van.  Gary nodded in agreement, putting the van in drive.

The rest of the short drive back to Brigatti's townhouse was spent in relative silence, however, not an uncomfortable one.  Drizzle quietly spattered on the car, producing an almost musical effect.  Both driver and passenger were content to stay in silent thought during the ride.  Brigatti was in such a trance, she didn't even notice how near to her house they were until they turned onto her street.  When Gary parked the van, she knew the night was over, though she didn't want it to be.

She got out of the car when he held the door for her, and she offered a weak smile in thanks.

Together they crossed the street, both aware that the night had drawn to a close, both accepting it reluctantly.  Only one thing left...

"This is it," Gary said once they were at the door.

"Yep," was Brigatti's reply.

After an uneasy moment or two, Gary smiled slightly and asked, "So did you have a good time?"

"Yes!  Yes, I did," Brigatti answered, smiling back.

It was then that Gary felt the urge to kiss her.  Now or never - do it!!  Eyes darting from her eyes to her lips and back, he leaned in for the kill.  It was a soft kiss that lasted only moments, but had a great lasting effect.  Slowly, he pulled away from her, letting go of her arms that he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.  He looked upon her smiling face - her brown eyes, usually fiery, held a soft tenderness, her lips, usually drawn into a tight line, were lush and full.  He'd never seen her looking more beautiful than at that very moment - this was a side of her she'd only just recently been showing, since the undercover op. they undertook as a married couple.

He took one last look at her before saying 'goodnight' and turning to leave.

"See ya," Brigatti said quietly, watching him walk back out into the light rain to his van.  The question had been plaguing her since the night before, and she just had to find out...

"Hobson!" she called after him.

He stopped in his tracks and turned back to her, a question in his eyes.

"What," she began, "...what happened between you and Amber?  Or Jade or whatever her name is."

Gary's expression softened.  Brigatti's jealous once again.  "Nothing happened, Brigatti."

"Well then, what were you doing in her hotel room?" she asked with a slightly raised voice, still unconvinced.

"It's a long story, but - " Brigatti cut him off.

"Hobson!"

Oh boy, there's no way out of this!  "...but I can explain," he finished.

"Okay," Brigatti said, putting her key in the lock.  She opened the door, turned on the light and said in her tough-as-nails, no-nonsense manner, "I'm givin' you all the time you need."  She stepped inside the house and held the door for him.  Once inside, she shut the door behind him and touched his arm saying, "Here, give me your jacket."

Gary handed his jacket to Brigatti as he took a good look around her house.  He'd been there only once before, when he was wrongly accused of a reporter's death and had come to Brigatti seeking help.  He was hurt when she refused to help him, but what did he really expect her to do?  She would have lost her job and gone to jail if she'd been caught helping him get away.  And yet he knew that she wouldn't shoot him when he walked out her back door.  He knew that she cared about him - she couldn't have shot him.

"Come.  Sit!" she said, leading him to the couch.  She sat down next to him, body turned slightly in his direction as she waited to hear his story.  Gary sat forward, knees spread apart, elbows atop his knees, hands supporting his head.

"Well?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well, what, Hobson?!  I'm waiting!," she snapped.  "How the hell did you end up in bimbo's hotel room?!"

"I was waiting for Chuck!" he exclaimed defensively.

"In the dark?" she questioned, eyebrows raised.

"Y-yeah, well - "

"C'mon, Hobson.  You were in cahoots with her!"

"I was not!" he raised his voice.  "I just knew - " he stopped himself.

"Knew what?" Brigatti asked, not missing a single beat.  When he clammed up, she warned him, "Hobson!"

"I knew she was gonna steal the diamond, I was trying to get it back!"

"If you were trying to get it back, then why were you helping her steal it again, today?"

"Because she said that there would be a Balkan War if the East Moranians didn't have the diamond," he explained.  "That's what she told me in the hotel room."

Ever the detective, she continued to press him for questions as she mentally gathered and sorted information.  "You didn't believe her though, did you?  You had the diamond - it was quietly returned by this morning.  Only to be stolen by you and Britney Spears again this afternoon.  What made you believe the story??"

Gary sat there in complete silence, heart beating in his throat.  Outside, the rain picked up, lightning struck the ground somewhere nearby, and the booming thunder that followed was so raucous, Gary's skin began to crawl.  Suddenly, he felt his whole body break out in a sweat.

"Hobson?" Brigatti asked, concerned.

Gary knew that if he and Brigatti were to have a relationship, he'd have to tell her about the Paper...he just didn't expect the issue to come up right then.  He didn't even have enough time to worry if she'd believe him or not.

"Hobson.  Talk to me," she demanded.

Slowly, he turned to face her.  Carefully, he began, "I don't know if you're going to believe this - "

"Try me," she interjected, wondering just what the heck he had to say.

Gary waited another few moments listening closely to the rain, as if the soothing sound it made as it hit the window would give him courage to continue.  Finally, he spoke.

"I'm telling you this because you need to know, Brigatti.  I don't tell this to just anyone - only a select few people know this about me," he said gently, looking her deep in the eyes.  She nodded in understanding, very flattered that he would tell her something, this secret, that came from the bottom of his heart.

"Okay," she said, lips parted as she waited patiently for him to speak.

A couple moments went by before he began.  "I get the paper," he started, "only...I get it a day earlier than everyone else."  He studied her face for any hint of understanding, but found none.

Oh boy, this isn't going too well..., he thought.  But just then, he remembered that he still had the paper with him.

"Here," he said, reaching for his back pocket.  He pulled out the rolled-up paper and unfolded it to the front page.  He showed her the date - it read March 16.

Mouth agape and brow furrowed in consternation, Brigatti said, "That's tomorrow...I don't - "

"I get tomorrow's paper today," he explained.

Brigatti was clearly flabbergasted.  "H-how?..." the usually eloquent woman struggled for words.

"I don't know exactly, it um...but it's been coming to me for the last three years."

She flipped through the pages in astonishment, giving Gary more time to explain.

"I save people, Toni.  I prevent bad things from happening," he said softly.  She looked up at him, eyes wide and full of questions.

"Every morning I get this paper," he continued.  "You know that cat you like so much?" he asked sarcastically.  She nodded in response, still engrossed in the paper.

"Every day that cat brings me the paper.  I hear a 'thump' and a 'meow'.  It's how I start every single day."

Brigatti folded up the paper then.  She looked at him in silence, and he, at her.  "So this is how you knew about the Balkan War?" she stated, more than asked.

"Yes."

"And the diamond being stolen..." she added.

"...and Scanlon."  Brigatti looked up at him, then, a tortured frown upon her face brought up by the name.

"That's how I knew to save you from falling at the Hilton," he said softly.

Oh my God...  She sighed audibly, the scene replaying itself in her mind.  He smiled weakly at her, and they sat there in silence.  The only noise that could be heard was the rain beating down on the roof, and the occasional roar of thunder.

Minutes later, Gary said, "I was only helping Jade because I needed to help her do what was right," he explained, maintaining their intense eye contact.

Still shocked by everything she'd learned that night, Brigatti sank back onto the couch, lips slightly parted in thought.  Again, not a word was spoken until several moments later.

"I always knew you were a good guy, Hobson," she said.  A few moments went by before she continued.  "When...when you got called in for the Scanlon murder..." she paused, trying to keep her emotions in check, and nearly failed.  On the brink of tears, she continued.  "I couldn't believe you'd done it.  I...you were right, Hobson.  I knew you better than that."

Hearing the tears in her voice, Gary sank back onto the couch next to her and looked at her with understanding in his eyes, encouraging her to continue with a little smile.  A few moments later, she spoke again.

"I was torn," she admitted, "I mean, I *knew* you didn't do it, and I wanted so badly to believe that, but the evidence was so incriminating."  Immediately, she swiped at the tear that threatened to fall.

Gary nodded, and then looked down at his hands for a while before he next spoke.  His question was asked in such a hoarse whisper, he was nearly silent.

"Did you ever believe I did it?"

The words ripped a gasp from Toni's throat, and she struggled to recover.  Lightning once again tore through the night sky, and thunder rumbled to the ground, sending the coldest of shivers down her spine.  Before she spoke, she thought a moment and took a deep breath to shake away her guilt and fear.  Gary was almost ready to tell her she didn't have to answer, when she began to speak.

"I was confused," she admitted, looking him directly in the eye.  "The lie detector test indicated your deceptive nature...I mean, the circumstances..."  She paused for several moments to think of what she would next say.  She was treading dangerous waters.

"It was so hard to face facts.  I just couldn't see you as a murderer!"  She was silent for a moment, the old memories and emotions coming back to her.  "Besides, you're way too nice," she added with a slight smile.  Gary met it with a smile of his own and waited in silence to see if she'd continue.

"So I guess deep down...yeah.  I believed you."  She looked him in the eyes as she said the words and saw there all the trust he had in her along with a soft tenderness and something else she couldn't place...

Before they knew it, their lips were closing in on each other, torturously slow.  The pent up tension between them was threatening to explode.  Toni's lips parted in a ragged gasp as Gary's brushed her own.  She took his bottom lip into her mouth and suckled ever-so-gently.  And then she felt his tongue brush her lip, begging for entrance.  She responded by sliding her own tongue past his.  The kiss took on a whole different level then, and both Gary and Brigatti were breathless, but beyond caring.

Every part of Toni's being focused on the wonderful sensations the kiss was creating inside her.  Oh, the *power* this man had over her!  Within her closed lids fluttered a drunken, sleepy desire that traveled all throughout her body, and she felt herself becoming suddenly very aroused...

At that very moment, lightning struck with a vengeance, and thunder penetrated the silence with a deafening crash, startling the two.  And then, the lights flickered out.  The room was bathed in total darkness.  Upon opening their eyes, they couldn't even see each other.

Brigatti was the first to end the kiss, pulling away suddenly, leaving Gary bereft of her warmth.  A hot blush started in her chest and quickly crept up to her cheeks.  Thank God he can't see!  Sheepishly, she got up and said, "I'm, uh...I'll go find some candles."  Calmly, she walked toward the kitchen and shouted, "You want something to drink?"

"Sure," he shouted back.

"Is pop okay?" she asked.

"Yeah...yeah, that's fine," he answered.

Did I do something wrong? he wondered.  Brigatti was a hard one to analyze, that was for sure.  She obviously had feelings for him, but every time they got close, she closed herself off with a witty remark or in some other way.  Gary knew there was so much more to her than met the eye, but he got the feeling that someday he'd figure her out.  Until then, he'd just revel in the mystique that was Antonia Brigatti.

Just then, she came back into the room w/two lit candlesticks.  She set one of them on the table and said she'd be back with the drinks on the next trip to the kitchen.  She disappeared again and came back a few moments later.  She set the glasses down on the table in front of them and then sat back down next to Gary.  She sat close to him, but not so close as to make an uncomfortable situation.

"So," she said, her face illuminated by the candlelight, "tell me more about the paper."

*   *   *   *   *
2 hours later...

"One time, for my birthday, I woke up and the front page said that my bar was going to blow up.  So I ran downstairs in my underwear, and I see smoke under the kitchen doors.  Turns out my parents and my friends were in there with a bunch of sparklers!" Gary recalled, chuckling softly at the memory.

"So the paper was wrong?" Brigatti asked.

"No," he explained, "actually, the front page was phony.  My parents set it up."

"Your parents know about the paper?"

"Yeah, they found out.  Chuck and Marissa have known since the beginning.  I told Erica, too, but that didn't go over so well," he said the last bit rather sullenly.

Normally Brigatti would be pissed when he mentioned the woman whom she 'affectionately' called Blondie, but being concerned for Gary, she asked, "She didn't believe you, huh?"

Gary shook his head.  "I didn't have the paper with me when I told her.  I shouldn't have expected her to believe me."  After Brigatti's silence, Gary added, "Guess it's a good thing I had it with me tonight."

Brigatti smiled sympathetically.  "That's just something you'd never imagine was possible, not even in your wildest dreams."  At his silence, she added, "I'm sorry she didn't believe you."

"It's allright," he said, "It doesn't matter now."

Triumph surged through Brigatti at the words he didn't have to speak.  He's mine, now!

"I knew I had to tell you sometime if we were going to have any kind of relationship," he continued.

"Well, it means a lot that you'd tell me," she said, smiling at him.  Gary smiled back, when all of a sudden, lightning struck somewhere in the distance and thunder echoed loudly once again.  He took the opportunity to squint in the barely lit room at his watch.

"I, uh, should get going.  It's already a quarter to one," he said awkwardly, getting up from the couch.  Brigatti immediately followed.

"Are you nuts, Hobson?"  The old, take-charge Brigatti was back, indeed.  "It's terrible out there.  It's raining so hard, you wouldn't see 10 feet in front of you!"

Gary considered it.  "I could wait it out," he said.

"It's nearly one in the morning," she pointed out.  "You can sleep here," she said.  Please, please, please!

He paused a moment.  Did she just tell me I can stay here?!  "Y-yeah, okay," he tried to say nonchalantly.

"Good," she said, smiling with a flicker in her eyes that could be seen evenin the dim candlelight.

"Good," Gary repeated.  "Hey, um, your couch is comfortable, I hope?" he asked, though he had higher hopes.

"Pffft, that old thing?" Brigatti said, not missing a beat.  "You don't wanna sleep there."

"I...I don't?" he asked.  Oh great...she's gonna put me on the floor!

"You can sleep in my bed as long as you stay on your own side and keep your hands to yourself!" she said in her typical no-nonsense way.  Gary knew she wasn't being serious, though, and the smirk written across his face said it all.

"Oh, you do NOT want to know what I'll do to you if you so much as venture onto my side!" she threatened, but with a gleam in her eye which, once again, told Gary she was kidding.

"I'll change in the bathroom," she continued.  "You can change out here."

"But I don't have anything to change into!" he joked sarcastically.

"Undress?" Brigatti offered.  "Whatever.  But when I come out, you'd better have some clothes on, Hobson," she threatened with an eyebrow arched.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Gary muttered as she walked to the bathroom, candle in hand.  Such was the banter between them.

She wants me, he thought, grinning.  And this was perfectly allright because he was just crazy about her.  Her take-charge attitude, though unsettling at times, was endearing to him somehow - he had yet to figure out why.  He loved her tough, spunky nature, and he was falling in love with her vulnerable, feminine side, too.  Either way he knew he could never get enough of her.

Smiling as he thought about her, he got undressed until he was down to his boxers and t-shirt.  He figured they'd be enough clothes for Brigatti.  If not, well...

Just then, she came out of the bathroom wearing a tank top and pajama shorts similar to what she'd wore when she was protecting him when he was a federal witness.  She walked toward him slowly, casually taking him in with a smile that curved her lips slightly upwards.  Gary couldn't help but smile, too, when he saw her.  Maintaining his gaze, she slowly approached him until they stood opposite each other, only inches apart.

"You ready?" she asked, eyes as vibrant and alive as his were.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he said, smiling.  An outsider would easily have misinterpreted the situation by their seemingly second-nature intimacy and their cryptic comments.

So they climbed in and took sides, both cautious at first as they tested the waters.  The room was bathed in darkness, except for the streetlights that shone through the window above the bed.  The gentle light cascaded over the bed and made shadows upon the floor.  Gary shifted under the covers to lay on his left side, when his leg accidentally grazed Brigatti.  He was about to
apologize, when she roughly turned in the covers to face him, an irritated expression on her face.

"Stick to your own side, Hobson!" she complained with a frown of disapproval.

"How can I stay on my own side when this bed is way too small?!" he defended, a look of disgust on his face.

Then, Brigatti's face softened.  "Relax," she said, "I was only kidding."  Gary relaxed a bit, too, when she smiled at him in the darkness.

"G'night, Hobson," she said warmly.

"G'night, Brigatti," he echoed.  They took one last moment looking at one another before turning in.  It wasn't long before Gary was lost in pleasant, dreamy thoughts when suddenly, Brigatti's voice broke the silence and woke him up.

"Hobson?" she asked.

"I was almost asleep," he mumbled groggily.

Brigatti frowned sympathetically.  "Uh, sorry," she apologized

"What is it?" he asked, turning to face her.

"You never did explain how you and Jade ended up on top of each other in that bed," she pointed out.

Gary sighed, slightly annoyed that even after the intimate details he'd shared with her that night, she'd still think he was involved with Jade.  "I told her that I'd seen her fool enough people and that I was going to return the diamond to its rightful place, and she told me she couldn't let me leave without it, so she punched me in the gut and tackled me onto the bed, trying to get it back," he calmly explained.

"That's all?" she asked, eyebrows slightly raised as though she still were still cautious in believing him.

"That was it!" he said.

After a moment Brigatti said, "Good.  I was afraid I'd have to punch her in the jaw, too," she remarked with a mischievous smile.

"Hey, that hurt!"

"Well, be a good boy next time and maybe that won't happen," she said, grinning.  He smiled back and for the umpteenth time that night, he felt like kissing her again.  Then, as if she'd read his thoughts, she winked at him and said, "G'night."

"G'night," he repeated, taking in her infinite beauty one last time before he settled in on his half.  He laid on his left side facing towards Brigatti.  Then she, facing the same way, settled back onto his chest, closing the gap between them.

So much for sticking to our own sides, he thought with a smile.  Cautiously, he laid his arm across her midsection, and when she looked back at him smiling, he grinned even wider and pulled her as close to him as he could.  Toni laid her arm on top of his and gave his hand a gentle squeeze before settling in.  They laid there together for several minutes, their shared warmth slowly lulling them to a peaceful sleep.  And peaceful they remained together all through the night, knowing that they'd face the next day and all the challenges it brought not alone, but together.

*   *   *   *   *
All done, bye bye!
 

Email the author:  Mement0Mori@aol.com
 

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