Never Judge

When Mae woke up she felt extremely refreshed. 

As she looked around her room she suddenly got confused as she couldn't remember how she had gotten up to her apartment or her room.

She looked down and found that someone had changed her clothes and put her things away.

Just as panic began to set in, her phone began to alarm, making her roll over to her side table where her phone had been placed.

As she turned off her phone's alarm she noticed several unread messages on her phone.

Dave: Don't panic, it was me. I carried you from the car and changed your clothes, I also placed your things back in your closet just the way you like them.

Dave: I also set the alarm, I know you need time to get ready and you promised our boss that you would be at the dinner tonight.

Dave: I took the liberty of picking out a dress for you. If you are up, come over to my apartment, I have food.

Mae smiled at his thoughtful messages, she must have been so exhausted that she didn't notice Dave carrying her and changing her clothes. She was normally a light sleeper but the past few days had drained her.

She quickly hopped out of bed and washed her face, she would dress up later after eating at Dave's place.

She knew that she needed to eat before the event, as Cedric's assistants they rarely got to eat on time. Cedric had already scolded them on this, but there were some things that they always needed to attend to during his events.

Mae and Dave each had a copy of the keycards to each other's room, it wasn't odd for them since they also had a card to Leon's and Camilla's. It was meant to be for emergencies, but it was quite useful whenever they visited each other.

When Mae entered Dave's apartment, she heard the familiar classical rock music playing over his speakers. This meant that he was working.

Mae knew that Dave preferred to work in his living room rather than in the office that each of their apartments had. In fact, he had turned that office into a game and entertainment room where he liked to relax after a long day at work.

As she walked into his living room the music got louder and she found him sitting on the floor with his back turned. He was typing away on his laptop as he spoke to someone on the phone.

Mae smiled as she watched him work, for some reason she found it incredibly attractive when a man was working hard, and on Dave it looked even more attractive.

She walked silently into the room and covered Dave's eyes playfully as she giggled.

She felt Dave smiled at her playfulness.

"Hey, I have to call you back." Dave said in a dark tone. Mae knew that when he spoke this way he was speaking to one of his or Cedric's assets and that he was probably investigating something for their boss. 

"Yeah, something urgent came up. Maybe tomorrow morning." Dave told the person at the other end of the phone as he dropped the call and placed it down on the carpet.

He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto his lap, catching Mae completely off guard. 

Mae squealed as she landed on Dave's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. Dave lowered his head and kissed her passionately on the lips. They stayed like this for a few minutes before Dave finally pulled away.

"One week was way too long." He said with a sigh as he gave her a gentle peck on the lips. "I missed you so much." 

"I missed you too." Mae said with a smile as she wiggled off his lap and sat next to him.

"What are you investigating this time?" Mae asked as she watched Dave close his laptop.

"Let's talk while we eat." Dave told her as he got up and extended a hand to help her.

Mae took it gratefully as they walked over to the dining room.

"I cooked while waiting for you to wake up." Dave said with a wink as he pulled a chair for her.

Mae smiled and thanked him and sat down as he walked over to the kitchen to serve their dinner.

"I made garlic butter shrimp." Dave said proudly as he set the food in between them. "I hope you're hungry, cause we clearly have a long night ahead."

"We can't eat too much, you know how the boss will insist we take a few bites before working." Mae said with a frown as she watched Dave place some shrimp on her plate.

"You'll still be hungry, tonight will be a busy night. I would be lying if I told you that I could have handled it on my own." Dave said as he served himself.

"Fine." Mae groaned as she ate the food Dave had given her. 

At first they ate in silence, it seemed that Dave was not in the mood to discuss the work he was doing when she arrived, but it nagged at her. They had already completed the investigation into Fernando's past and Lucius' had turned up as a dead end again, so what was it this time?

After finishing her meal, she couldn't take it anymore, so she asked.

"Dave, what are you working on this time?" Mae said as she placed her utensils down.

Dave took a deep breath and looked up at her from his plate. 

"We need to talk." Dave said with a frown. 

Mae began to panic as she heard those words, those were usually the words you heard in a relationship before disaster struck, why was Dave asking her that now?

"I thought our relationship was doing well." Mae said with a shaky voice. She loved Dave, he was the only person she had felt this way with ever. Even her ex-boyfriends couldn't make her this happy.

"Mae, don't worry it's not about our relationship." Dave said as he got up and pulled a seat next to her. 

He reached for her hand and held it in his, he lifted it and planted a chaste kiss on her hand.

"Then what is it about?" Mae asked. "You look so serious, you are scaring me." She said with a frown.

"Mae, nothing in this world could change how I feel about you, I love you." Dave said in a tender voice.

"So what is it?" Mae asked in a slightly pissed off tone. "Stop drawing it out and just tell me." 

Dave took a deep breath again and looked her in the eyes.

"Mae, Ian asked me to investigate your past. Why didn't you tell me you were adopted?" Dave asked.

As Dave said what he had to say, Mae felt a weight lifted from her chest, what she thought would be bad news was actually something she had been expecting.

"I thought you all knew." Mae said with a shrug. "I thought you read it in my file or something."

"Mae, I've never read your file." Dave said with a smile. "Everything I know about you is what you've told me."

"So is that what you are looking into? My past?" Mae asked.

Dave simply nodded in reply.