Fall In Love So Easy • •

[Taylor Caroline Becks]

It had been a few days since the ball had happened and Taylor had spent most of that time drinking or recovering from just how much alcohol she had poisoned her body with. She hadn’t exactly played nice with her liver in the twenty-four hours that followed the masquerade and it had definitely let her know about it. Her head was still reeling from the admissions of that night and the aftermath of it all, but she was thinking a little more clearly now and she knew that she couldn’t run from this forever. Trying to avoid everything hadn’t exactly done her any favours so far and she doubted that it would magically change if she continued on that path of ignoring her problems, hiding from her feelings and trying to play it safe. Safe was the last thing these past few months had been.

Taylor awoke that morning with an aim in mind. She wasn’t going to let anything get in her way either, so with the phone switched on to silent and a day off providing her with the perfect time to get through this, she showered, dressed and just about managed to stomach a bowl of cereal without the churning nerves turning on her. She spent a bit of time pacing, pulling herself together and shaking away the little voice that kept questioning her every move. Then the young doctor grabbed her bag and her keys and left the apartment before anything else could think about holding her back. The drive wasn’t a long one and Taylor had the car stereo turned up to block out her own thoughts, replacing the anxiety with the loud and latest hits that the radio station was playing that early afternoon.

Parking her car, Taylor let her green eyes glance up at the tall apartment building she knew well by now. Still, the more she stared at it the harder it became to move her heeled feet up the steps and inside the door. Her eyes sought out the windows of the apartment she knew he would be in. What would she do if he wasn’t home though? She hadn’t called ahead or checked to see if he had any plans. If he wasn’t home then it had to be a sign and there had to be some higher power telling her that this wasn’t the right choice. For once Taylor wasn’t letting herself overthink things, but it didn’t stop a part of her from trying to do provide the twenty-six year old with an unnecessary out. With a deep breath she lifted her lead like legs up the steps one at a time and then through the doors, quickly fixing her eyes on the elevator and not letting them stray to the world around her. She had to see this through now and the slightest of distractions would not help her at all.

The elevator took her on a straight ride to the floor she had pressed and she took another deep breath as the doors dinged open before striding out onto the soft carpet and down to the final door on the left, raising her hand and knocking hard; partially with nerves, partially so there could be no mistake that there was someone there. She brushed her hair back from her face and nervously chewed on her bottom lip, biting harder when she heard the scurry of paws and footsteps on the other side of the wood. At the click of the lock, Taylor moved her gaze upwards several inches to where she already knew his eyes would be and it took her a second to keep her composure as he fell into her sight, her eyes not missing the bruise on his face, but she would look at that in a moment. “Hey, Damien. I need to talk with you; can I come in?”

[/color] Her heart was beating out of her chest and her stomach had erupted into butterflies, but she had to see this through, no matter what.
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• • •

TAGGED! Damien <3
WORDS! 769!
OUTFIT! Breakdown Beauty!
LYRICS! Try - - - Pink
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[damien travis walsh]

Oh, you're in my veins
And I cannot get you out...

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Damien didn’t know what to do. He had thought Taylor shared his feelings; he had felt them in that kiss. He hadn’t heard from her or seen her since she had made her exit at the ball. He had picked up the phone half a dozen times, but he had never gotten past the first ring. If she wanted to see him or talk to him then he knew Taylor well enough to know that she would’ve done already. Maybe she had chosen to patch things up with Drake, though the thought was one that made Damien’s stomach turn. He had never liked the doctor for obvious reasons, but after the fight and the things he had heard during those few short, and painful, moments, his resentment had only doubled. She deserved someone better than that worthless excuse of a man who acted as though Taylor was some toy or possession for him to play with.

He couldn’t bury himself in papers to grade, or hide in work of any kind since he had none. A few of his graduates had e-mailed him about helping out with some internships and experiences in a tight job market, but those were the sort of things Damien could fix with a phone call and a few minutes. After all, you didn’t get to be a defence lawyer in DC without making a few friends in high places. He just wished some of them could deal with the mess he’d made of his life in New York, instead of him. He wanted someone to blame, but it kept coming back to haunt him; he was the one who had thrown away chances before now. There had been Christmases, trips back to Fort Lee and even the morning after that fateful night all those years ago. All Damien had to do was ask Taylor to stay. He had been too much of a coward to even do that, though.

With an empty day ahead of him, Damien had no plans other than to sit and watch the terrible options of daytime TV. He’d probably order a take-out later to save him the hassle of cooking and then there would be an evening of bad action movies and taking Saffron for a walk when her whines became too much for him to put off much longer. She was a well behaved dog, but cabin fever set in quickly for the large dog that couldn’t get the exercise she needed in Damien’s spacious apartment. That dog was probably the only thing that stopped Damien from becoming a recluse. He hadn’t been out other than to walk her since the night of the ball. He had ordered his groceries online, but that was part of his routine since he hated trying to navigate around the store. School was over for the summer and the summer courses didn’t start up for him for another two weeks. The only plans he even had for his freedom away from a lecture hall was to head home and visit his family for a few days at some point. He had hoped Taylor would come with him, but he doubted she ever wanted to see his face again, especially if she had heard about the fight.

The knock on the door caught him off guard. He wasn’t expecting visitors and his neighbours rarely asked to borrow anything. A hopeful part of him wished that it was Taylor, but his recent streak of pessimism quashed that immediately, before his hand even reached for the handle. When he did see the pretty doctor on the other side of the wood, his heart began to race and it took him, a great wordsmith, a second longer than normal to even remember how to speak. “S-sure. Yeah, come on in. Do you want a coffee?” He began fussing the second she was inside, eager to do anything to make her happy, to make her smile, and to avoid the lecture he was sure she was bound to give him for his recent actions.

Tagged- Taylor Becks
Words- 701
Lyrics- In My Veins by Andrew Belle
Clothes- Over here
Notes- xD
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[Taylor Caroline Becks]

Taylor had no idea what was going to happen now that she was here. Well, she knew what she wanted to happen and what she planned to do, but nothing had ever worked out to plan for as long as Taylor could remember. All she knew was that she had to fix this mess that had consumed her life for the past several months, even when she had tried to ignore it. Burying your head under the blanket didn’t make the monsters go away; it just made the nightmare worse. In Taylor’s case that nightmare had reached its crescendo with a proclamation of love, a proposal and then a bottle of tequila that she was pretty certain she was still feeling the effects of. The most important thing right now was repairing this damage with Damien in whatever way she could. In truth she wanted more than just a friendship back, but she wasn’t about to push her luck after how foolish she had been lately.

Smiling softly, Taylor stepped inside and crouched to give Saffron some attention before the large dog decided to climb on her. It usually happened whenever she ignored the pretty creature for longer than a minute whenever she called to Damien’s apartment. “What I want is to look at that bruise. Did you even ice it?”

[/color] She asked, the doctor in her coming through before anything else right now. She knew it was a way of putting off the conversation she had come here to have, but Taylor needed a little more time to adjust. Besides, she didn’t exactly think Damien would appreciate anything if she just blurted everything out to him. Pushing herself back to her feet she stepped closer to him and reached up to gently run her fingers over the purple bump that marred his handsome face. “I can’t wait to see what you did to the other guy.”[/color] She mumbled, dropping her hand back to her side and crossing the floor of the apartment to reach the couch.

She didn’t even know where to begin when it came to clearing up the mess she had made. Nervously, Taylor folded her arms across her chest and chose against sitting down for now. “I’m sorry.”[/color] Her voice was unusually quiet and she directed her words over her shoulder, not wanting to see Damien’s reaction as she took another hesitant step towards the real reason why she had dropped by. The tall doctor had imagined doing this a thousand different ways, but now that she was finally here she couldn’t seem to do any of them. In her thoughts it was so much easier, but right now it seemed impossible to do anything more than whisper an apology and hope Damien could understand what she was talking about.
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• • •

TAGGED! Damien <3
WORDS! 501!
OUTFIT! Breakdown Beauty!
LYRICS! Try - - - Pink
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[damien travis walsh]

Oh, you're in my veins
And I cannot get you out...

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The minute Taylor had stepped through his door Damien had felt his heart rate increase ever so slightly. He had no idea why she was here and it could be for a terrible reason, but she still had that effect on him and was still able to make him feel like a teenage boy all over again. He felt nervous and excited and worried and thrilled all at the same time and it was a nauseating combination that would probably stay that bad until he found out her reasons behind this impromptu visit to his home. His blue eyes could read the tension in her body language, but he didn’t want to push her in case she ran off. She was probably still reeling from everything that had happened at the ball, but the lack of diamond ring on her finger gave him hope.

“It’s nothing to worry about.” He said with a loving roll of his eyes before freezing as her fingers brushed across his skin. He knew fussing over injuries was what she did for a living, but her touch was still electrifying and he wondered if she could feel his pulse racing again. He was a grown man, not some lovesick teenager finding a girl attractive for the first time! Damien almost missed the words that slipped from her lips, but once her fingers had left his skin he blinked and pulled his thoughts together before they ran off completely. “The other guy? Wait, you mean you’ve not seen Drake yet?” Another flicker of hope appeared. With the amount of time that had passed since the ball, Damien had just assumed Taylor had been talking things through with Bridget and making her choice about her relationship with Drake. He never once stopped to think that she might come to him first, not in all of the scenarios that had played over in his mind since that disastrous night of masks and fancy clothes.

He kept his light eyes fixed on her as she moved through his apartment, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion when she avoided his sofa. Normally Taylor would just make herself at home without Damien needing to invite her, but today she seemed a hell of a lot tenser than he had seen her in a very long time. His mind went as far back as her medical finals, but he knew without even needing to ask that this was a different kettle of fish entirely. Her apology could mean a thousand things, but Damien was just guilty that she felt the need to apologise to him when he had been the one to drop his emotional bombshell on her at the ball and then get into a brawl with her supposed boyfriend or fiancé or whatever the hell Drake was. He knew Taylor despised being the topic of whispers and he had pretty much put her in the line of fire this time. “What exactly do you have to be sorry for, Becks?” His curiosity hung on his question, softly spoken and holding no sarcasm or malice. Damien just honestly didn’t understand why she had come all the way to his apartment for an apology he didn’t think she owed him. Then again, he also didn’t know what this apology was for. He doubted it, but it could finally be the apology he had been waiting for since he was ten and Taylor had broken the back off his walkie-talkie because she wanted to see how it worked.

Tagged- Taylor Becks
Words- 624
Lyrics- In My Veins by Andrew Belle
Clothes- Over here
Notes- xD
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[Taylor Caroline Becks]

She loved that Damien gave her this space that she needed. He didn’t jump on her with questions and explanations the second she stepped inside, even though he had to have been bubbling over with them. Taylor couldn’t have coped with that, especially not right now. She needed to work through this bit by bit with him, bottle up her nerves and get this over with; after all, it was something she ought to have done years ago, but fear had held her back. She kept wringing her hands or raking her fingers through her hair, trying to settle her nerves, but it hardly did her any good. What she really wanted was to curl up in Damien’s arms and let him take the lead with this, but her days of hiding behind him had ended when she was a teenager and she didn’t want to fall back into old habits now.

Raising her gaze to meet his, Taylor hesitated for a second and then shook her head softly. “You could have broken a bone and you’d still say that. And I’d still worry. I am a doctor, you know?”

[/color] She tried to keep a light, teasing tone to her voice, but Taylor knew that her feelings of awkwardness had probably ruined that already. She stepped away to clear her head before she found herself standing there for the rest of the afternoon and then turned back to look at Damien as he spoke. Hesitantly, she shook her head. “No. I’ve kind of been avoiding him after…well, everything.”[/color] There really was no other way to describe that evening. The mortician had once believed that the drama was only saved for soap operas, and was never so amplified in real life and then she had been proven wrong. She had also been reminded why she hated soap operas and any other kind of over the top drama. “If I’m honest…it’s not him I’ve wanted to see.”[/color] Her voice was quiet, her words only just above a whisper.

Taylor knew that it was now or never. She couldn’t keep avoiding this or ignoring her feelings, or Damien’s. She hadn’t known how this would play out, or what would happen when she knocked on his door, but she knew now what she had to say. Damien deserved to know the truth and he deserved to have more than what she had offered since his move to the city. She could pretend that nothing happened at the ball, just like she had done after that night at the club, but what good would that do? “Everything? For dumping all of my problems on you, for leaving you hanging at the ball, for not calling…I could list years of mistakes, Damien.”[/color] She let out a rough burst of nervous laughter and then steeled herself, preparing for the real reason why she had come here. Three steps and she was close to the tall, handsome lawyer again, and with a flick of her eyes she found his blue ones. “But mostly I’m sorry for not doing the things I should’ve done years ago, and for not saying what I’ve felt for so long. See, the thing is, I’m actually quite the coward. I run from anything and everything that makes me feel nervous or too happy. I’m scared I’ll lose it if I try to keep it.”[/color] She knew she was rambling, dragging this out more than it had to be, so she bit her lip to silence the thoughts tumbling from her mouth. Taking another breath, she held Damien’s gaze and her lips twitched upwards ever so slightly. “Truth is…I love you. I’ve always loved you.”[/color]
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• • •

TAGGED! Damien <3
WORDS! 650!
OUTFIT! Breakdown Beauty!
LYRICS! Try - - - Pink
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[damien travis walsh]

Oh, you're in my veins
And I cannot get you out...

[/font][/size]

He had seen that Taylor was out of her comfort zone and Damien could count on one hand the amount of times that he had seen her this nervous and determined all in one sitting. It had been a long time since the last time he saw this side of her, but he found it endearing. Something told the ex-lawyer that he should keep that to himself, considering the “tough girl” persona that Taylor had grown up with. Their childhood street had kind of required it and she had refused to let the other boys beat her at silly things like tree climbing and bike races. Thinking back, it was probably a good thing that Captain Becks was away often enough or else he might have had a heart attack at some of the things his little angel had done.

Damien knew that getting to the fight had been a stupid thing to do, and hearing that Taylor worried only emphasised that point. His emotions had been running high that night, higher than usual. “Yeah. I’m sorry. But, I’m fine.” He wanted to reassure her, make her see that it really was a small price to pay for putting that arrogant doctor in his place. Drake was the last person Damien wanted to be thinking about, but it was hard not to when the bruise was there, Taylor was narrowly avoiding that particular topic and the tension in the room was thick. “So you haven’t given him an answer?” The hope was growing and Damien was finding it hard not to feel a slight victory in the moment. The tension grew, the hope flourished and he had to bite back a grin. They had come so close and done this dance before.

His heart was beating out of his chest. Damien was hearing Taylor’s words but could barely believe what she was saying. It just seemed like some crazy dream that he’d wake up from any moment now, with Saffron whining for him to take her for a walk. This was more than an apology and more that he expected when he opened the door to reveal the beautiful brunette on the other side. He knew Taylor only rambled when her nerves were getting the better of her, but he was building his faith up so high that he was scared interrupting her might throw her off track and have her running again. He froze, her words echoing in his ears. Damien had waited so long to hear those three little words from her, had imagined every possible scenario in which it might happen, but this was beyond his wildest dreams. It was so simple, so surprising and yet so to the point; just like Taylor. Grabbing her waist, he pulled her close and tangled his fingers in her hair before crashing his lips to hers. This has been coming for far too long and Damien completely lost himself in the moment, finally pulling away to rest his forehead against Taylor’s. “I love you so much. And it feels so damn good to say it.” He confessed breathlessly, grinning down at her.

Tagged- Taylor Becks
Words- 624
Lyrics- In My Veins by Andrew Belle
Clothes- Over here
Notes- xD
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[Taylor Caroline Becks]

Taylor knew she had been a complete fool for the last couple of months. She would probably go as far to add years to that, too given how long she had felt this way about Damien. Something made her feel insecure, made her think that she wasn’t good enough for the ex-defence lawyer. He had been her best friend for so long that the thought of him breaking her heart felt like a knife to the chest – and that was just thinking about it! Taylor wasn’t even a romantic sort of girl! She was flirtatious, confident, far from innocent but rarely romantic. After spending most of her days around bodies and grieving families it was just a little hard to find that fairytale mood that other girls had when they thought about love.

She had to glare at him; it felt only right, but there was no malice or threat behind the dark look of her olive eyes. “You’d be even sorrier if I had been there.”

[/color] The heels, the sophisticated look of her career fooled enough people, but Damien ought to know that behind all of that was a Jersey Girl who could hold her own. If she had been witness to this fight of the egos, both men would be sporting bruises and wounded pride already. She probably would have made the situation a hell of a lot worse, too so it was probably in everyone’s best interest that she made her exit when she did. “I figured running out was answer enough, but no I haven’t actually seen him to spell it out for him.”[/color] She confessed, rapping her knuckles on the surface of the nearest table, just to keep herself from cracking her knuckles or wringing her hands.

Taylor grinned at the more than positive reaction from Damien. Part of her seemed to expect that he would have something to say about all the years she’d avoiding the subject for, but they had both wasted enough time. Grinning against his lips, her hands instinctively slid along his arms to his broad shoulders and she pulled herself closer to the man she had wanted for so long. “I know I should have said or done something sooner, but I don’t even know what I’ve been thinking and I was just so scared of ruining this.”[/color] She confessed, explaining herself when she didn’t really have to. She was still only inches away from Damien, holding onto him like both of their lives depended on it.
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• • •

TAGGED! Damien <3
WORDS! 454!
OUTFIT! Breakdown Beauty!
LYRICS! Try - - - Pink
NOTES! <3 <3 <3