Chapter Text
No thoughts.
No inconvenient thoughts, just a warm background hum, the crackle of flaring electricity and the tickle of sensuous yet jovial music.
These were the senses overtaking Diane Lockhart and numbing out everything rational, painful and mundane.
Such joy she felt she had barely known. Such freedom.The freedom not to think, not to analyze and laboriously reason against the malign and the absurd but to simply let one’s thoughts take flight and dance like a school of playful sparrows artfully darting around on a summer’s day.
Everything seemed right at that moment. Sat together with Lyle in their private booth shielding them from the cruel world surrounding them. Their intellect and sensibilities in harmonious company, seemingly nurturing the other.
Diane had swallowed her pride in agreeing to see Dr Schuman that afternoon. She was focused on topping up the wonderful feeling that had been sustaining her and wanted to feel dazzling ahead of her date with the previous doctor.
Was it a date? It certainly felt like one, tucked away together in their booth. It was also at Lyle’s request. He may not have kissed her much back in response to her unexpected gambit but he matched her daring in his call to her private cell the night before by carefully proposing the idea of a friendly drink to mark the termination of their doctor - patient acquaintanceship.
The thought of this made Diane giggle. The language they both used to talk around simple facts was absurd yet amusing. They were indeed marking the end of one relationship but neither had or would plainly state what kind of new relationship they had in mind to embark upon. In any case, despite the unsaid words, this was clearly a date.
“But you’re married” a listless voice in her head tried to say with some authority. But its sound resembled a retreating echo within her crowded mind and she found she couldn’t focus on it and was not unhappy about that.
Everything was just so nice. Nothing should be spoiled tonight. Not only were his distinguished lined face and striking white hair distracting enough, but his witty rejoinders to their intellectual conversation were frankly arousing her too. A shiver slithered down her spine as he expressed some ideas on Enlightenment philosophy and where it stood today. This frisson within debate, she realized was new and exciting. She ached a little as she gazed at him appreciatively.
Lyle looked back at her a little bashfully and curled a corner of his mouth into a weak smirk.
“You’re staring very intensely, Diane” he supplied, focusing equally as intently back at her.
Diane dropped her gaze and drew a long sensuous breath in and out through her nose, inflating her chest and posture, drawing on her resolve.
“I can’t help it,” she replied simply and huskily.
She returned his gaze and felt a tremulous jolt of triumph in her belly on recognising his pupils dart to her lips.
“What do you want Diane?” he asked seriously as if paralysed in the moment with indecision.
“Kiss me” she panted. Her delivery; part imperative, part plea.
This clear instruction succeeded in reducing the doctor’s conflict and he gratefully shuffled closer to grant her wish. His firm hand reached around the small of her back to pull her against him and his eager lips joined hers in concert.