Plans to Make & Hearts to Break

It wasn't the feeling of warm arms around me that had woken me up but the feeling of soft butterfly kisses across my shoulder. Against my will my eyes fluttered opened to see William's warm brown ones looking back at me.

"Good morning," he smiled sweetly before placing a soft kiss on my lips.

"Good morning," I answered, unable to keep a smile from capturing my own lips.

We just laid there for what seemed like hours just smiling at each other and kissing softly. I hadn't felt this real or content in years. The only thing that ruined it was my stomach letting out a large growl. William let out a soft laughed as my stomach growl interrupted a kiss.

"Hungry?" He asked.

"My stomach is." I answered with a small shrug.

"Then we had better get you some food," William answered pulling me closer and kissing me again.

"But I would rather stay here-" I started to answer as my stomach let out another angry growl.

William burst out laughing before kissing my nose "I'll cook you breakfast, but we will have to go to your house, my stove is still broken."

"Apollo is probably wondering where I am anyway."

"Oh no," William gasped dramatically. "We left our new son home alone all night. What kind of parents are we?"

"Awesome parents." I grinned, giving him one more kiss before crawling out of his bed with a sheet wrapped around me.

"Where are you going?" William pouted at me from the bed.

"To locate my clothes and take a quick shower." I laughed "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Only if you think you are showering without me," he smirked.

---------

"Apollo," I smiled picking up the orange fur ball as I entered my own house.

William stopped to scratch the kitten behind its ears for a moment, before kissing my temple and moving towards the kitchen. "What sounds good?" He asked.

"Fried egg sandwiches." I answered almost instantly. "Eggs over easy."

"You are going to get salmonella poisoning if you eat uncooked egg yolks." William smirked at me as he pulled a carton of eggs from my fridge.

"Do you eat raw cookie dough?" I asked leaning in the doorway, Apollo chasing after my feet.

"Yes," William answered, looking confused.

"Raw eggs are in cookie dough." I grinned. "So be quiet and cook my food."

William grinned "Are you ordering me around now?" He asked abandoning the stove to slowly close the distance between us.

"Maybe I am." I answered, hands placed on my hips but ready to run if I needed to.

I felt William's breath on my nose as he got closer, resting his hands over mine. "I'd be careful if I were you," he growled playfully, "Or I will stop being so nice."

"You're so scary," I smirked, my lips brushing against his.

Apollo let out a loud meow and began batting at my ankle, ruining the moment when one of his claws caught my skin causing me to wince.

"You alright?" William grinned, putting a slight distance between us.

"Fine," I answered rubbing my ankle. "Just your son being as big of a pain as you are."

"So that's what you think of me?" He pouted.

"You know what I really think?" I asked with a grin.

"What?"

"You are burning the eggs."

William made a quick dash back to the stove in the desperate attempt to save the egg. I placed a hand over my mouth trying hard not to laugh.

"Watch it, you." He glared playfully.

"Or?" I asked.

"Or else."

"Oh my," I answered placing my hands over my chest in mockery. "Or else you'll burn another egg."

"Or else I'll cook your egg yolks." William smirked, placing the egg he managed to save on a piece of toast.

"You are an evil, evil man, Beckett." I answered, not able to keep away the smile tugging at my lips as I tried to glare at him.

William held out the plate to me after placing another piece of toast over the egg. I reached to take it from him but he caught my wrist with his free hand and yanked me closer. Caught by surprise I lost my balance and tumbled into him. William just managed to set my plate on the counter before we both tumbled to the kitchen floor.

"Ouch," I whined as my hips hit the tile, William landing on top of me.

"I don't feel any pain." William grinned, hovering over me.

"Landing on a person hurts a lot less than landing on the floor." I answered, letting a short breath. "You had some softness to break your fall."

"Softness." William smiled down at me.

"Yes," I laughed, "now get up Beckett, this tile is far from soft."

Instead of doing as I requested, William simply rolled us so I was no straddling him.

"What are you doing?" I grinned down at him.

"Now the tile isn't hurting you." He answered, pulling his face closer to mine and running his finger softly through my hair. "I wasn't quite ready to let you get away from me yet."

"Who said I was going to go anywhere?" I smiled.

William seemed to be searching my face for something for a moment before letting out a soft content sigh "Spend the day with me?"

"Alright." I smiled "Do your plans involve us laying on the kitchen floor all day?"

"Would you deny me if I said yes?"

I smiled down at him for a moment before closing my eyes and placing a soft kiss against his lips. "No." I answered and moved to get up but William laced his finger through my hair, pulling me into another deeper kiss.

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After we finally managed to finish breakfast, William and I decided to go to the zoo. Well, really, I had seen in the newspaper the zoo had new baby giraffes, then demanded to see them. William had merely laughed and agreed.

"I thought you wanted to see the giraffes." William laughed as I practically shoved my face against the glass to look at the Penguins.

"I do." I answered, taking only a moment to give him a smile. "But I like penguins too."

"That's what you said about the monkeys, tigers, and lions." William answered with a snicker.

"William Beckett." I gasped, hands on hips as I turned to look at him. "Do you not like animals? I don't think I can continue in the company of an animal hater."

William smirked at me. "You know very well that is not what I said."

"That's what I heard." I faked a sigh, "I'm afraid I will have to say good bye then." I added before turning and attempting to walk away.

William's long arms were too fast, however, and he caught the back of my shirt. He pulled me back to him (not that I put up much of a fight) and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. "Let's go see the giraffes you silly thing." He smiled and kissed my cheek, still keeping me pulled against him.

"Fine," I rolled my eyes grinning. "I guess I can let you go with me to see the giraffes."

William reluctantly released me, but kept our fingers laced together as we walked towards the giraffe enclosure. I instantly began pulling him along faster as I first saw the giraffes off in the distance.

"Calm down." William laughed. "They aren't going anywhere. I'll be right back."

I was too captivated by the baby giraffe to even think about protesting William paying for me. I stuck my fingers through the fence and ran my hand on the baby's nose, holding back a squeal of excitement.

"You ready?" William asked, reappearing at my side.

"You actually got tickets?" I asked, grinning, hardly able to control childlike excitement.

"Of course I did," William grinned.

I had to stop myself from letting out a squeal as I bounced on my feet in line.

"What is that, some sort of happy dance?" William snickered playfully.

I was too excited to stop and give him a proper glare. "So what if it is?" I asked as the line moved forward.

William caught me around the waist and pulled me close to him, "I didn't think you could get any more adorable, that dance just proved me wrong."

"Next please." A zoo employee smiled at us.

I quickly pulled myself from William's grip and dashed ahead onto the deck that could only be a few feet off the ground. It was enough to make me just eye level with the baby giraffe I had been petting through the fence earlier.

"Here." William grinned placing some food nuggets into my hands. I held then out excitedly, palms flat and giggled as the giraffe's tongue ran across my palm. William placed some more nuggets into my hands from the small ziplock the zoo employee had given him.

I turned my eyes to him with a small pout. "Don't you want to feed him?"

William grinned and kissed the top of my head. "I would much prefer to watch you feed them. I love how excited you are getting over it."

I couldn't hold back another wide grin. The meeting with the giraffe was a short one, though, and soon the excitement was over. "Thank you. So so so much. That was adorable." I laughed.

We spent a while longer meandering around the zoo until we found our way to a small outdoor cafe.

"Do you think that's how Apollo sees himself?" I smiled taking a sip of my tea and motioning towards the lions.

William glanced over his shoulder at the lion exhibit for a moment before grinning at me. "Our son is already a powerful lion. Didn't you hear him roar the other day?"

"I'm quite certain that was a meow." She grinned.

William scooted his chair closer to mine, and I couldn't hold back a smile.

"What are you doing?" I giggled, jokingly pushing him away.

"Nothing," he answered, managing to kiss my cheek quickly a few times before moving away to avoid my hand. "I just wanted a couple kisses."

He took the side of my chair and pulled until we couldn't be and closer and caught my lips with his. I smiled into the kiss and giggled before pulling away.

"That's all you wanted?"

"Well I'll always take more." He grinned stealing another quick kiss.

I grabbed the front of his shirt lightly and pulled him into another soft kiss. "Today was so much fun," I spoke quietly, enjoying the moment. "Thanks for letting me drag you to the zoo. I'm sure you had better things to do."

"What could top this?" He "Getting to spend the whole day with the lady I love and seeing how happy-"

I'm sure he kept talking. I could hear sounds, yeah, but they all sort of flowed together as that one word bounced around in my head. The entire fantasy of the day crashed around me. The entire zoo could have been falling down around me, that's what it felt like. "Give me a minute," I managed to mumble before pushing myself back in my chair and standing.

"Are you okay?" I actually heard William speak again.

"Give me a minute!" I repeated, much louder than necessary.

I watched as William put his hands up defensively. Without another word, I walked towards the edge of the lion exhibit. Looking inside, I could see one of the male lions dozing in the sun. Wake up, I yelled as loud as I mentally could. Wake up and eat me. This is a disaster!

"Nicole, are you okay?" William asked as he approached, pulling me close by the arm.

"Just hoping to be eaten by a lion," I squeaked, moving away from him quickly, "Nothing unusual."

"What's going on?" He kept moving towards me and I was doing my best to move away.

I squeezed my eyes shut. There's no place like home, there's no place like home... Eyes open. Didn't work. He's still there, er, I'm still here. "You just, um..." I finally spoke. "You said... you said a thing..." I found my voice, but hadn't quite found my words.

I watched as William seemed to mentally retrace the path of our conversation. "I said... luh-"

"Love!" I snapped. "You said love, William. God damn it." I turned away from him, now facing the unfortunately sleepy lion yet again.

William seemed to get the cue of not touching me, but he did walk around so he was slightly in my line of vision again. "I didn't mean to like, scare you, Nicole. I just..."

I took a deep breath before meeting his eyes directly. "You... you don't, right?"

"Don't what?"

"God, William! You don't... love me, right?" There were too many thoughts going through my brain all at once. Most of them involved Danny. "Damn it, William."

His brows furrowed. "I didn't mean to do something wrong," He started. "I just-"

"No, William. You can't, okay? You can't. I can't let you."

William let out one laugh. "I wasn't aware there was a permission involved," He teased. "But, what do you mean?"

"I mean... you can't. You can't." I can't... I can't even believe it got this far. I can't be-"

"Nicole. Snap out of it for a second!" William raised his voice, and for a moment the demand seemed to work. "What are you going on about? You're upset but I'm really struggling to figure out why."

"You can't love me, William. You can't because I'm already in love. I shouldn't have gotten into this."

"You're already... what?"

I felt like I was on the verge of tears. My brain wasn't any calmer. "I have... Oh, god, William," I stammered. I turned around completely before I continued my statement. "I have a boyfriend, William," I finally spoke. I crossed my arms over my chest and prepared for the worst.

"I don't know why I didn't tell you, William."

I waited a moment for him to respond. But, the moment kept getting longer until I finally turned around to face William. "I'm an idiot," The words stopped short as I turned around. William was gone.