Hearts of Delmar 2... ( 2 many Nicoles)

Chapter 3: Drowning Puppies

Hyde laid back on his couch, watching the news and finishing his cigar. Nicole strolled in and got something from the mini fridge, taking a sip and then setting it down. She stared at him oddly for a moment.

"Were you needing something?" he asked in a gravely voice

"I'm not sure yet." She puzzled, approaching him and processing something.

"You're acting strange." He yawned.

"I know, just... go with it." She said, grabbing his left hand and moving it from his chest to his side, turning his palm up and hanging slightly off the couch. She crossed her arms as if calculating or debating something. Then she kicked her shoes off and climbed right on top of chest, slumping over using his arm as a stop. She slowly placed her face down on his collarbone and closed her eyes as his hand turned and cupped her thigh just above her knee. She just laid there, breathing for a moment. Their heads turned to stare at the other, just locked in a confused silence. She stretched forward, nudging the hog ring in his nose with her nose and giving him a very subtle crack of a smile.

"Why does this feel so familiar?" she asked softly. "We've never done this. I don't even know what this is."

"I'm not sure either, but I'm not objecting to it. It's not the first time we've been this close, under different circumstances, staring each other down."

"Maybe I'm just trying to say the same thing I was then...I'm not afraid of you." She whispered.

"You should have been then. Why weren't you? Why aren't you now?"

"I don't know. Should I be?" she asked genuinely with no hint of defiance and a soft sense of genuinely wanting to know.

"I think you're just very lonely and lost. You miss something you can't have, and you can't decide if this is close enough to convince yourself it's him." He reasoned.

"I thought that too, but it's not the same at all. I'm not trying to tell myself that you're him, I'm trying to decide if this is what I really wanted when I was with him... or if this is just what I want now. Would the other Nicole wish you were Vinn, or even consider lying here at all? Is this the new me, or just where all of us would be right now given the chance and the understanding of it."

"You're a very confused little human." He gruffly sighed.

"I'm not completely human either anymore. And you're not the same thing I knew when we last stared nose to nose."

"Well you're probably much more comfortable lying down rather than being stuck in a trap like a scared little rat, trying to scratch your way out or get your gun pointed at my face. There was no fear in your eyes then either, but there was so much primal fury...that's still there, but it wants something very different. Now you can't look away, and before I had to encourage you to look at me, just so you'd listen to me."

"Encourage? Is that what you call it? Getting a handful of my hair and pulling my head back to look up from the trap?"

"Like this?" he said running his fingers through her hair and getting a light grip. He placed his hands on the small of her back and ran his claws carefully up, repeating that motion slowly.

"Didn't quite have the finesse last time, but here I am again" she smirked. 

"Face first in a trap you crawled into yourself, staring down the monster who has you by the scalp. That's why it feels familiar, Nicole. We've been here before, and you weren't so calm about it."

"Well maybe if the room was flooding and I couldn't swim, I'd be just as concerned now. Maybe if I wasn't a rat in a maze being manipulated by a psychopath I would have been right here."