Caution to the Wind

Chapter 25

Chapter Summary: A serial killer taking hearts causes Emily to reflect on her past and consider her future. Follows S14E10-S14E12.

Rossi's Bolognese recipe wasn't nearly as complicated as Emily expected it to be, and as the sauce bubbled away on the stovetop, it certainly seemed like she had everything in hand. But when she tasted it, she grimaced; something was definitely not right. "You just need the right recipe," she thought to herself, Gee, thanks, Rossi. Tara poked her head in the kitchen and winced when she saw the huge mess Emily had made.

"Need a hand, Em?" she asked cautiously.

"No! Out!" Emily ordered, "This is my treat for you; I have everything under control. You go upstairs, relax—I'll call you when it's ready."

Tara sighed and shook her head before going upstairs to read and try to forget about the mess in the kitchen. As soon as Emily heard the study door open and close, she quietly called Rossi to beg for his help.

"Emily," he said, "How is the Bolognese de Rossi turning out?"

"Yeah, that's the thing," she said, "Um, it's not tasting the way I expected."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure I screwed up..."

"Well, how is that possible?"

"Well, I kind of misplaced what you wrote down for me, so I winged it," she admitted.

"You winged it?" he said, "You don't exactly have the memory of our boy genius, you know."

"Therein lies my problem," she replied, "So, uh, let me go over what I've done so far, starting with 28 ounces of puréed tomatoes, six ounces of canned tomato paste, a half a cup of Orto red wine—"

"Whoa, whoa, stop," Rossi said, "That's cooking wine."

"Yes."

"Emily, if my dear nonna told me once, she told me a thousand times: 'If you no drink-a the wine, you no cook-a with the wine.'"

"Okay, but—"

"This is like when Garcia substituted tofu for pancetta," he said, "You have to start over. Ciao."

Emily tasted the sauce again, and Rossi was right; she couldn't salvage it, and she couldn't serve this to Tara, not as a special, romantic dinner for two. She turned off the burner and cleaned up the worst of the mess, and then she went upstairs and tentatively opened the study door. Tara was curled up in an armchair reading a thick German novel, and she looked up when she heard the door open.

"So how's that romantic dinner coming along?" Tara asked teasingly.

Emily smiled apologetically. "You know, I've always thought that pizza can be very romantic..."

Tara laughed. "Pizza sounds great, honey," she said. She closed her book and started to stand up from her chair.

"No, no, don't get up yet!" Emily said, "I, um, I kind of made a mess in the kitchen."

"Yeah, I noticed," Tara nodded, "Why don't you go clean up, and I'll get started on the soft music and the roaring fire? Two out of three's not bad."

It wasn't quite the dinner they thought they'd be having, but it was still nice. Emily opened up a bottle of Chianti; it had been a birthday gift from Rossi, and she'd been saving it for the right occasion. They ordered pizza from their favorite place, and then curled up on the couch in front of a roaring fire with Debussy's Suite bergamasque playing softly in the background. Emily put her wineglass down on the coffee table and climbed onto Tara's lap. She stroked Tara's cheek and kissed her, and Tara's arms wrapped around her waist. Emily's phone buzzed on the table, but she ignored it and kept on kissing her girlfriend, sliding her tongue into Tara's mouth as her phone buzzed again and again.