Flack/Stella - Simple Gestures

[iluvroadrunner6]

this is the last fic for flack/stella at fivebyfiction! yay! i only have four fics left! yay!

...i am far too excited by this.

Fandom: CSI:NY
Title: Simple Gestures
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: FRT
Pairing Don Flack/Stella Bonasera
alphabetasoup Prompt: J is for Jealous
fivebyfiction Prompt: Touch
15pairings Prompt: falling, but not saved
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: It's the simplest gestures that mean the most.
Author's Note: This is really short. Really short. But it continuing the bunny didn't make any sense, so it just made the alphabetasoup word count requirement.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of CSI:NY. They're owned by CBS.



He had only met Frankie once.

Probably because Stella knew that with their history, things would be uncomfortable, and the meeting itself was totally unplanned. Stella had asked him to wait for her in the lobby of the crime lab, and she met up with him just as Don and Danny were getting ready to head out for the day. So Stella, being Stella, introduced them both. Not as her boyfriend, because Stella was careful about her personal life, but as a friend. But they both knew. Not because of anything Stella did, but a small subtle motion that Frankie had made.

They both watched as Frankie’s hand slid down to the small of her back. It was a very small gesture in the whole scheme of things, but Don knew what it meant. He was marking his territory. Saying that this woman, this person standing next to me, is mine. Stella wouldn’t see it that way; she never saw herself as anyone’s property. To her it was just a simple gesture that every man had done with her before when they were in public, but to every other man in the room it was a gesture of possession. Saying this is my girl. Don’t even think about it.

This was the point where Flack would look down, look away, pretend he wasn’t upset over the fact that Frankie was putting his hand in the place that where Flack’s would formerly reside. Well, would have resided if he and Stella had ever gone out in public. She was too worried about what the superiors would think if they found out he was screwing around with a detective that they never really did go out. But had they gone out, that’s where his hand would have been.

And it wasn’t that he even minded the fact that they didn’t go out. He was perfectly fine with staying in. They had a lot of fun together, whether it be just sitting in his apartment watching movies—rather, pretending to watch a movie—or spending the time just talking and enjoying each other’s company, he loved being with her. She had this spark, this energy that could just light up the room when she wanted to, and when he thought of how, for a short time, he was part of that, it never fails to bring a smile to his face with the memories and break his heart that he’s not there anymore.

And it wasn’t even so much the fact that she was his—well, actually, she was never his, it was the other way around, he was hers in every sense of the word—and he lost her, but it was the fact that he lost her, and now another man was touching her, another man was holding her, another man was kissing her and he was far to aware of the fact that he had blown it.

In most ways, Frankie was what Don wasn’t. He was older, an artist. Just listening to the man talk was easy to see why Stella was interested in him. He had that artistic vision, that turned ordinary every day things into something else entirely. Don knew that what he and Stella had, even though he tried his hardest for it not to be, was a fling, and just that. And he couldn’t help but envy the way Stella looked at Frankie, because throughout their entire relationship, that was the way he wanted her to look at him.

He also knew that he wasn't going to escape the fact that she never did.