Undercover || Karl

Karl fought the urge to yawn out loud. Why is it that females are always so much slower to get changed, even if it's into skimpy-nothings? he mused. At least he'd have fun seeing her in the finished outfit. His thoughts were interrupted by her voice piercing them.

Turning, his jaw dropped. "Wow...! You look...incredible!" he replied, unable to find the exact words to describe her. "It's...just wow," he finished, giving her a charming but boyish grin as his mind decided to go off on holiday.

As always, Joanne was not that self-confident when it came to her body, which was so different from the way she acted when it came to her brains or her skills. So Karl's reaction made her feel a little bit better, even though she was not sure if he was still playing a part or not. But she assumed that he would have gone to pick something else if he didn't like it, since they had to be seen together on the beach.

She turned to face him and smiled a bit, blushing slightly and looking down at her feet. These moments could not be seen often at Joanne Biondi and he was one of the very few people who had anyway. "You think so?" she mumbled.

Karl gave an eager nod, before stopping and giving a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I really do," he said, biting his lip in an attempt to prevent himself from acting like a schoolboy with a crush. Geezus, you're a grown man, snap out of it! It's just Joanne!

Joanne. In a swimsuit. Looking incredible. Your argument is invalid, brain.

He cleared his throat. "That one. Don't even bother with the other one. Take that one."

Joanne raised her eyes, smiling shyly upon hearing Karl's words. She was really happy that he thought so, because this gave her some confidence as well. Maybe going to the beach with him wouldn't be that bad, after all. She nodded, chuckling slightly. "Okay, okay," she smiled. "We'll take this one."

She then turned around and changed into her normal clothes, not even waiting for him to turn away or anything. Once dressed up, she passed a hand through her long blonde hair, to arrange it at least a little bit, then turned to Karl with a small grin on her face and the togs in her hands. "Let's go."

"Aye-aye ma'am," he grinned, giving her a salute before wrapping his arm around her waist and steering her out. He was aware that he probably looked like a chocoholic that'd been given chocolate, but he didn't care. She looked amazing. And he was dating her. Correction - you're pretending to be dating to her.

Whatever. Same difference.

"Have you decided?" the salesman simpered, coming up to them.

Joanne smiled slightly as she pulled the curtain, then went out along with Karl. A nice shiver went down her spine when he gently wrapped an arm around her waist. Of course, he had draped an arm around her shoulders before, or things like this, but this touch seemed a bit different, not even she could say why. And despite the fact that it was not real and he was only playing a part, this touch brought her... warmth.

Sure, it's going to be this one," she smiled to the salesman, handing both swimsuits to him and pointing at the one they had picked. As he put the other one back and everything, she stood next to Karl, gently laying her head on his shoulder. It may have been no need for that, but she had felt like it.

Karl's smile faded slightly as he caught the look that the salesman gave her when he passed to but the swimsuit back onto the rack. He wanted to say something, but he didn't. Instead he just sent the guy a death glare. She's taken, back off...! His grip around the lovely blonde tightened ever-so-slightly in a subconscious protective gesture.

He smiled at Joanne's sweet antics. Placing a kiss on the top of her head, he manoeuvred her over to the counter. "And if you could be quite quick about it, that would be lovely. We're rather in a hurry," he told the salesman.

Joanne had not really looked at the salesman, which meant that she hadn't noticed any look of his. He seemed a really nice man, maybe their age, maybe slightly older than them. But he had been kind and polite to them, so nothing was crossing her mind, at least not at the moment. She felt Karl's grip tightening around her body; normally, she would have frowned or even pulled away, but this time, she only gave him a beautiful smile.

She finally straightened her back, glancing at the man. Not only had Karl's words surprised her a little bit, but the cold look the salesman threw at them made her almost raise an eyebrow. "Yes, Sir," the man said, his voice suddenly icy. However, she just took the bag and gave him a smile as well. "Thank you. Have a nice day," she said kindly, then started going outside, kind of pulling away from Karl.

The CSI mellowed slightly under Joanne's smile. Slightly, but not much. She, of course, hadn't seen any of the exchange that had happen and so had no idea why the two males were looking like they wanted to rip each others throats out.

"You too. Have a lovely honeymoon," the salesman called back, sarcasm dripping from that one word. Over-protective jerk...

Thank goodness that's over and I don't have to see that creep again, Karl grumbled internally as Jo dragged him out, having simply grunted a reply at the guy's sarcasm. He didn't want to bring more attention to himself. They had a job to do.

"So," he started, pasting on a smile in an attempt to break the awakardness, "where to next?"

Despite the fact that she hadn't looked at the salesman, she felt like she knew why Karl was suddenly so tense and why he had that look on his face. It was just like the previous night, with the room-service guy, only that now, he seemed even more serious about it, which was crap. It was crap, because nothing was happening actually.

The blonde walked out of the shop ahead of him, ignoring the man's words, who of course had got a bit uncomfortable, maybe even annoyed by Karl's attitude. At his smile and words, Joanne pulled him somewhere in the back of the shop, so people couldn't see them, and frowned. "Can you stop doing that?" she almost exclaimed, totally ignoring his question. "We are supposed to be a happy couple. We can be a happy couple without you shooting every man off because they just smiled, in order to be polite. I mean, I know this isn't true, but when you act over-protective, I can't even play my part properly anymore, for God's sake!"

"Doing what?" Karl growled, raising an eyebrow. "Making a comment to a perv who was pretty much drooling over you? Well, I'm sorry for caring about whether creeps are coming up with fantasies of you in their heads," he hissed. What the hell was her problem?! He'd simply been looking out for her, but instead she went on a warpath at him.

"It's not the smiling at you that annoys me," Karl began. "It's the blatant perving and flirting. Not the cheeky and fun kind of perving and flirting either - but the seedy kind! You should have seen the look that guy gave you! I'm a guy and I can safely say that that look is reserved for undressing females with your eyes."

Joanne frowned harder as she listened to his speech. At the moment, she couldn't even understand what all this was about, if he was still playing a part when telling those men off, or he was being serious. Whichever one was true, it was definetly not fun.

"What are you talking about?" she almost exclaimed, looking him in the eye. "You know what, I am no Jessica Alba, okay? Not everyone who looks at me is perving about me. I may get what happened last night, but what happened with that salesman was too much. Even if he was thinking of other things, why would that matter? We were there together, and even if we weren't, it's not like I wouldn't know how to defend myself. You could have just ignored him and continued to play your part in a fun way. It's not like this concern of yours about me is real anyway."

Karl felt like he'd been slapped when she stated that his concern of his was fake. "I wouldn't fake concern," he replied, voice low. "If I had to fake it then obviously I don't care about it enough, in which case why do it? It's real, Joanne. I care about you." As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he could take them back. Crap, shouldn't have admitted that...

"So you're no model. But you're still beautiful. And it doesn't annoy me that people check you out and try and flirt, because most of the guys that have been checking you out do it in a polite way. I know, because I've noticed. It's just the others, like the salesman."

Joanne's eyes almost widened when she heard Karl's words. Saying that she was shocked was probably not enough. Not only had he called her beautiful again, but he had also said that he cared about her, something she didn't believe would happen, after all they had been through. Her lips parted, but no word came out at first. She didn't know what to say, because she didn't want to admit that she had been a bitch, at least not yet.

"Okay," she mumbled, suddenly looking down at her shoes. "We're good. Let's... do what we were supposed to, go to the beach or something," she finished with a swallow, her selfish aura obviously gone, at least a little bit.

Karl stood there, just looking at her for a moment. Was that all she was going to say in reply? Well, he was certain that he'd made things rather awkward for her just then with his confession so it wasn't that surprising. "I'm just looking out for you..." he said softly, hoping that she'd realise where he was coming from. It wasn't as if he wanted to stop her from having fun.

"Yes. Beach. Sandy thing right next to the big blue wet thing. Let's go," he said, sticking his hand out to her in the hopes that she'd take it.

Joanne kept looking down at her feet, swallowing hard from time to time. It was obvious that her feelings towards him had changed lately, and they hadn't remained at the stage of annoyance and physical attraction, that was not all. But to hear that he actually cared, that was unexpected and made her feel like a bitch for all the things she had done and said. She nodded quickly at his words, trying to brush it off and just have fun for the day; they were going to fix things later. "Okay," was all she said, not even thanking him yet.

She finally raised her eyes when he mentioned the beach and put his hand out to her. She gave him a very slight smile and gently took his hand. "Yeah," she said. "Let's get changed, be almost naked and just lay there." She couldn't believe it, but after that moment, she actually needed that.

At her words, Karl couldn't help but laugh, breaking the tension. "Sounds great. We can even get ice cream afterwards. Unless you're going to announce to me that you in fact hate ice cream," he teased her.

Joanne was glad that Karl was trying to break the tension, because she was not used to it when it came to him. Of course, she would always get annoyed by his teasing or, in her good days, tease back, but that was better than the feeling she had experienced just seconds before.

She chuckled at his words, playfully rolling her eyes, her hand still in his. "Shut up," she almost whispered, before leaving the back of the store and coming back where all people were. With a brilliant smile on her face she got on her tip-toes and put her arms around his neck. "So, baby..." she said. "Let's get changed and take that ice-cream, I can't wait." She then decided to tease him, just like he had done to her so many times. She moved even closer, their chests touching and her lips brushing his earlobe. "Extra-chocolate," she purred, knowing how many fun things could be done with it, apart from eating.

Karl grinned when she took his hand and took it upon herself to get things to how they were, before things had turned to crap and they'd started arguing. "Right, well, yes. Let's go." He allowed himself to be pulled by her, even though all he really wanted to do was go back to the hotel and not come out for a good long while. I shouldn't have told her that. I shouldn't have said a single thing.

"Extra chocolate, huh?" he murmured, raising an eyebrow at her. "With cherries on top? That's always the best part..."

Joanne grinned as well, hoping to get things back to normal. As Grissom had told Karl that morning, they were supposed to solve the case and not be on vacation, even though it seemed like it, at least for the moment. Afterwards, they could fix things between them.

Hearing his words, she chuckled, then pecked him on the lips. Shoot, maybe she shouldn't have... But she was just playing a part, right? Right?! She looked into his eyes then, still smirking. "Whichever way you want it, babe," she purred.

"Well if it was up to me, I'd be having said ice cream off of you, but I think they arrest you for that sort of thing in public. I heard that ice-cream PDA is frowned down upon," he replied with a grin as he began to pull her towards the beach. Play your part. Just play your part and stop getting attached...!

Joanne almost rolled her eyes. It was good to know that he was back to his usual attitude, the one she pretended to hate, despite the fact that she loved it. Maybe he was just playing a part, maybe not - she still couldn't say at times. She giggled, putting her hand in his again. Hearing about PDA almost made her blush, because images from the previous night kept coming back to her mind.
"You obsessed," she murmured jokingly, her other hand going down on his butt. She was going to make the most of this day, just the way he had done until then.

He turned to look at her, giving her a boyish grin. "Obsessed? Who me? Never," he shot back. "Now stop groping me. I know I have a nice butt and everything, but people might think we're together. And then where would you be?" he joked. "I mean, just imagine the gossip!"

Even though normally, Joanne would have probably punched Karl for these words, now she was playing a part, and they had just got on the beach, where was the highest of their roles, probably. So she couldn't mess it up.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," she quoted with grin, pecking him again on the lips. She knew that being all over him might not have been necessary, but that was a happy couple on the hot beaches of Miami. "You're my hubby, I have the right to do it."

Karl simply grinned at her. "Well that's reassuring. So you won't be divorcing me to elope with someone else in the near future then? Good to know." It was good, being able to get back to joking and teasing as opposed to arguing.

"Now, you run along and get changed while I reserve us the best spots on the beach," he declared as he sunk slightly in the soft sand. "And don't forget that I'm taking you swimming!"