Jim glanced up from the book he was reading, having given up on finding anything to watch on television, as Blair came back into the loft. Seeing what he was carrying, he asked, "Borrowed another book, Chief?"

The young man crossed over to the living area and sat down next to his roommate on the couch, silently handing the book over. "Yeah, Alicia recommended it." Sinking back into the couch cushions, he raked his hands through his hair.

Looking the book over, Jim realized that he probably wouldn’t be interested in it, but could see where his friend would be. Handing it back, he said, "So, that’s what took you so long? You got lost in Alicia’s private library?"

"Nah. When I got down there I could tell she wasn’t feeling too good, she even had a herbal tea brewing on the stove, so I asked what was wrong. Her headaches must be pretty close on a level with some of yours, Jim, her neck was as hard as granite." He had started to rub his hands together, in an effort to keep the muscles from cramping after working so long on Alicia’s massage.

Jim grinned, "So, you offered your services?"

Blair brought his head up sharply, nailing his friend with a scathing glare. "I offered, she accepted, and we talked. That’s all."

"Hmm, hmm. Sandburg, this is me you’re talking to. I know you." Trying to get his point across, Jim wagged a finger at his partner. "Table leg. Remember?"

Disgusted, Blair shot up from the couch and bounced out to the kitchen, where he grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. "I don’t know her well enough, yet, to know if I want to be more than her friend. Lay off the ‘table leg’ cracks, Jim."

"Whoa! Sorry, Chief." He got up from the couch and approached his guide, who was leaning against the counter by the sink, glaring at him. "I meant it as a joke." He waited until the angry glint in Blair’s eyes faded as his apology was accepted. "So, are you saying you’re not all that interested in Alicia?" Reaching into the fridge, he pulled out his own bottle of water, opened the cap and took a healthy swig of the cold fluid.

Blair watched him, his mind working at a furious pace, until it clicked. "No, but I bet that you are."

"Maybe." Jim pondered the idea for a minute before continuing. He shrugged as the words spilled from his mouth. "She intrigues me."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tuesday had dawned in a typical fashion for Cascade, damp and gloomy. Alicia had opted against her normal morning bike ride. The drivers in this city were bad enough on dry roads; she didn’t want to tempt fate by riding among them on wet streets. Arriving at the office shortly after 6 am, she made arrangements for the four man security team to check over the hotel arrangements for the Director’s arrival.

Alicia smiled up at her coworker who was approaching the massive desk. "Morning, Bernie."

The older woman returned the smile, "You got in early today. Anything I need to know about?" She pulled up a chair and sat down across from her friend.

"Nothing much, other than the Director will be here, in Cascade, later tonight rather than tomorrow like we had planned for." Alicia had the satisfaction of watching the rage build, then get squelched, as Bernie digested the information.

Shaking her head, Bernie growled. "He *never* sticks to an itinerary, does he?"

A burst of laughter escaped her before Alicia could control herself. "Of course not! Good thing that we know that and had laid in plans for such a contingency."

"So, have you contacted the local team yet?"

Sliding a piece of legal paper out from under her desk blotter, Alicia shook her head. "No. Here, look this over and tell me what you think?" She handed the paper over.

Taking the document, Bernie scanned it, then scanned it again, looking over the plans that Alicia had outlined. "Looks good. These are the four men you want on the team?"

"Yes, with Davis in charge." Picking up a smaller piece of paper, she said, "Here, that is the name of the hotel security agent that Davis will have to work with while the Director is staying at the Marriott Essex . I talked with him this morning, he’s expecting Davis and the rest of the team no later than one pm."

Bernie nodded as she stood up and retrieved the other paper. "Okay, I’ll get in contact with the men and make sure that they are up to speed." Taking a closer look at her friend’s face, she commented, "Al, you still have that headache from yesterday?"

"You knew?"

The older woman snorted. "Of course. And if you don’t mind my saying so, you still look worn out. If you trust me to handle the arrangements, I’ll take over here for the day and you can go home and rest."

Spotting the determination in the amber eyes, Alicia simply nodded her head. "Okay, I get the hint. I’ll leave it all in your capable hands." She stood up and reached for her blazer that she’d thrown over the back of her chair earlier. As she was tugging the garment on, she looked back to her friend. "Bernie, I’ve got Roberto or Wilhelm to promise to call me when they’re two hours out of Cascade. That will probably be late this evening or tonight, I’ll meet the Director’s plane at the airfield, escort him to the hotel then pick up with them again in the morning. Would you please stress to Davis that he and the team are expected to…"

Bernie held up her hand, forestalling the words tumbling from her friend’s mouth. "Al! Enough. We all know what our jobs are, as do you. We’ll be ready. Now, go home and get some rest, or you’ll be likely to snap the Director’s head off, rather than be the nice, polite, young lady that I know you really are."

"’Lady’? Yeah, right!" Alicia grabbed up the briefcase and walked towards the office door.

"You might fool everyone else, Alicia Andreson, but you can never fool me." Bernie walked with her to the door. "You are a lady, even though you refuse to admit it."

"Damn straight." She smiled an evil little grin as she tossed the remark over her shoulder. "Never could’ve gotten to where I am by being ‘a proper’ woman."

"Just don’t forget to let that other half of yourself out once in a while, just to flirt or ‘play’ with some good looking man, or you may just end up regretting your life." With those parting words, Bernie gently pushed Alicia out of the office and closed the door behind her.

Staring at the solid wood door, tears threatening to build behind her eyes, she whispered to herself, "Like I already do, Bernie?"

Jim wondered what to do with the rest of his day. Blair had been called into PA Crawford’s office earlier, reportedly to go over his testimony with a fine tooth comb, and it looked like that would go on for the better part of the day. Since Simon didn’t like having his teams of detectives working without their partners, and he’d finished retyping all the reports that had accumulated on his desk ? reports that Records had sent back up for ‘clarification’ ? the Captain had given him the rest of the day off. ‘Lost Time’ he’d called it. "More like a waste of time." Jim groused as he pulled into the parking area by the loft.

Spotting a familiar car, he grinned. "Someone else is home early." Climbing out of the truck, he wandered over to the Subaru and, without touching the vehicle, felt the heat radiating from the engine. Glancing up towards the second floor, he carefully extending his hearing and picked up the sounds of a radio, playing yet another talk show, and what sounded like pages rustling as a reader leafed through them. The grin on his face widened as he picked up the plaintive sound of Saint Gee, apparently begging for his mistress’ attention. The sound of a teakettle whistling brought him back from the edge of a zone out.

Most of the other neighbors that lived in the building were day workers, except for the one young man that rented the small, one bedroom, unit across from Alicia’s place. That one was a night worker who slept most of the day. Going into the building, climbing the stairs, Jim entered his home and decided to change out of his work clothes, since it was highly unlikely that Simon would call him back to work. After changing, he grabbed a large glass of tea from the refrigerator and sat down on the couch, picking up his reading of Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders where he had left off… President Ryan had just ordered a nationwide quarantine, due to the unthinkable outbreak of Ebola.

Unconsciously, he extending his hearing to pick up the radio talk show that his downstairs neighbor had on, and smiled as he recognized the voice of the EIB Network ? Rush Limbaugh.

Giving into Saint Gee’s demands, Alicia absently reached out and gave the kitten a couple of strokes along the spine, flipped over another page in the report she was reading, then placed the entire folder on the coffee table and went out to the kitchen to make her favorite cup of tea, Earl Grey, with a touch of honey and milk. Returning to the couch, she let her black cat curl up in her lap and continued her reading.

One cup of tea later, she felt her heart jump in her chest as she read the name of one of the people that Ellison, and somehow Sandburg, had come into contact with and arrested. "No. Can’t be." Dumping the rest of the report, and Saint Gee, to the floor as she stood up, she hurried over to her computer and booted up. Once connected with the Internet, she entered the Cascade Police Department files, and with a little judicious ‘hacking’ got into the photo database and pulled up the booking photo that matched the name she had found. As the man in the photo glared out at her from her monitor, she found herself shaking. "Oh, God! It is him!"

A knock on her door caused her to practically jump out of her skin. Trying to calm herself, she called out, "Just a moment!" and shut down her computer. Opening the door she was surprised to see Ellison standing there. "Oh, hello, Jim."

Sensing her physical reactions, not to him but to whatever had held her attention, he smiled at her. "Alicia. Sorry to bug you…"

Grinning, she interrupted, "You’re not bugging me. Come on in." She held the door open wide and closed it behind him, "What can I do for you?"

Jim watched as she hurried over to the couch, picking up scattered papers from the floor and table, shoving them into a open briefcase ? which she then snapped shut and locked. "Well, I had noticed that you were home, and, well, I was wondering…" Taking his courage in both hands, he offered up the invitation. "Are you free for lunch?"

Alicia snapped her head around to stare at her tall visitor, and was embarrassed to have a nervous laugh escape her. "Excuse me?"

He felt the heat rising in his face, heard her heart rate increase, and bravely repeated his question. "I was just wondering if you’d like to go out and grab something to eat?"

She couldn’t believe her ears. The man she was reading the history of, the one that she’d put on the ground with her gun aimed at his heart, her upstairs neighbor, was asking her out? "Uh, sure. I could eat."

Jim had insisted on driving, but Alicia couldn’t complain. The old pickup that he owned ran perfectly, if a little bumpy on some of the roads, and the place that he’d brought them to served a wonderful vegetarian pita. Their conversation was friendly, changing topics often as they went from one subject, to a side tangent to a complete detour. Touching on everything from current politics, favorite movies, music, investigative techniques, to complaining about the weather, which had stubbornly refused to clear. In fact, outside the small café, it had begun to rain in earnest, the rain coming down in sheets.

The talk lagged as the waitress came back by to refill their tea glasses and gather up their plates. Once she was gone, Alicia asked another question in what had become a free exchange of information. "So, Jim, you said earlier that you were in the Army?"

"Yeah."

"What was your MOS? Your job?"

Jim leaned back in the booth. "I’ll tell you mine, if you’ll tell me what you did in the Air Force."

"Fair enough." She sipped on her tea, then continued. "And it’s only polite if I go first, right?" She watched as he nodded. "Okay. I trained in Security. AFOSI to tell the truth." Seeing his brow pucker in confusion, she clarified her remark. "Military Intelligence?"

"Oh. I guess it’s safe to assume that you can’t talk about it then." He had kept his senses reigned in, not wanting to chance a zone out in public, but he also wanted to engage them to see if she was telling the truth.

"Not really." Alicia clasped her hands together on the tabletop and pointed her index finger at him, "Your turn."

"Ranger, Seventh Group."

"Hmm, Covert Ops." She grinned, "I worked a joint operation with them once, back in 93, they were an interesting group of people."

Jim allowed the surprise he felt show on his face. "How did you like working with the Army?"

A short snicker, that stopped just inside her throat, could be heard clearly. "That group wasn’t simple Army. All men, full of testosterone, prideful, stubborn, SOB’s that couldn’t believe that a ‘fly-babe’ could possibly know what she was talking about. Oh, yeah, I enjoyed that experience." She shook her head, "I wanted to pound the Major’s face into the ground, but in the end, I behaved myself."

"Combat Training?"

"In spades."

"Didn’t think the Air Force had training like that."

"Sure they do. We’re fighters too, you know. Someone’s got to train our pilots how to handle themselves behind enemy lines should they get shot down."

Jim nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. I guess I’m just used to thinking of the Air Force as an overhead support group. A way to get the ‘real’ fighting force where they need to go."

Alicia shook her head. "Army."

"Sky Jockey."

"Oh, ho?!? You want to exchange insults, Ground Pounder?"

Jim laughed. "No. Not really. I’d probably lose." They laughed together, relaxing further in each other’s company. After they had settled down, and finished off their tea, Jim paid for the meal and they hurried out to his truck, getting drenched in the process.

The steady rain had changed over to a full deluge by the time they returned to Prospect Ave. The streets were flooding as the sewer system tried valiantly to keep up with the sudden demand. Deciding that they had nothing left to lose, Jim and Alicia dashed from the truck into the apartment building, laughing like children. Standing in the entrance way, they watched as the rain came to an abrupt stop, making their mad dash seem wasted.

Alicia led the way up the stairwell, having noticed that the lift wasn’t working again, and at the second floor landing, she turned to look at Jim who was standing one step below her. "Hmm, I like this."

"What?"

"You’re finally at a level that I can handle."

Jim took the final step up to join her on the landing. "You don’t like men that tower over you, shorty?" He moved in closer to her, forcing her to crane her neck back to keep eye contact with him. Upon reflection later, he would decide that it was her green/gray eyes that had proved his undoing. The flash that appeared in them was the only warning he had as she faked a punch towards his stomach, causing him to bend in closer, where she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into a kiss.

Knowing that she was playing a dangerous game, Alicia decided that she didn’t care, as she felt Jim’s arms come up around her back, pulling her closer into his embrace. The butterflies in her stomach took to flight and she could feel her body responding to him, deep in her woman’s core. Her heart was pounding, her blood began to boil and the thought briefly crossed her mind that Bernie would’ve approved. Pushing the thought aside, Alicia brought her hands away from his neck, letting them travel down his well muscled arms, then on to his back. Melting into the arms surrounding her, she was enjoying the sensations that he was arousing in her. Until the face she’d seen earlier flashed across her mind, ruining the mood. Reluctantly, she broke off the kiss and moved away from the tempting body before her.

"Jim, I’m sorry…"

"I’m not."

Looking into his eyes, his fire and ice blue eyes, Alicia chewed on her lower lip, wondering why she had reacted the way she had. "I shouldn’t have done that, I can’t believe I did that."

Jim held her still in his arms, trying to gauge her current reactions, as opposed to the ones he’d detected during the kiss. "Alicia?"

A final shudder passed through her body, as she glimpsed the concern in his eyes. "Jim, I really like you. A lot. But, oh god, I just can’t afford the distraction right now." She leaned her head against his chest, relishing the sound of his racing heart under her ear, the damp cloth of his shirt cooling her cheek.

Tucking her head under his chin, he leaned against the wall behind him, pulling her with him, pulling her body into closer contact with his. "I’m a distraction?"

"Yes. A pleasant one."

Jim sighed. "But one you can’t have right now? Can I ask why?"

Pushing slightly against his chest, she pulled her head up and softly answered. "I have an assignment coming up, one that I need to focus on, and…"

He brought a hand up to her face, gently laying a fingertip on her lips to halt her words. "Shush. I understand, Alicia."

"Do you?"

"Yes." Smiling, he released her, allowing her to regain her footing. "Just tell me one thing."

"Okay."

"How long will this ‘assignment’ last?"

She let out a weary laugh, "Only a few days, a week at most."

Reaching out a hand, he pulled her chin up and laid a gentle, fleeting, kiss on her lips. "Fine. I’ll be waiting when you’re done."

Sighing, she reached up her hands and clasped his face in them. "I hope so."

Noise from the level below them caused them to separate in a hurry as one of the older residents, Mrs. Catropa, cleared her throat. "Well, now that you two are through ‘talking’, do you mind?"

Blushing, the two allowed the old woman to pass them, then with a final hug and peck on the cheek, Alicia ran to her apartment and disappeared within.