A/N: this is the revised chapter one; hopefully it has been improved for the better. :) I have fixed the timeline errors which I didn't even realise were there as I don't have a beta for this.

CAUTION: Contains spoilers for "Knockdown", "Set-up" and "Countdown"

Bec wrote this.

DISCLAIMER: As much as I would absolutely love to own them, unfortunately I do not. Anything you recognise belongs to the wonderful people at the ABC :)

He felt bad, really bad, what kind of boyfriend, and person, is he to keep his girlfriend from the man she truly loves? He had known from the start from the way that she talked about him, from the sadness and the love in her eyes after he had left her that summer, but she said that he was gone and she wasn't sure if he was coming back.

She said she was ok with that, he was a friend after all and she wasn't going to stop him from doing what he thought was right, even if it hurt her in the process.

It took her six months of them dating before she even told him about her that her mother had died, yet she told him after a month and they hadn't even been dating! And then the other day when he went to open the blinds while she was getting dressed one morning he saw what looked to be a makeshift murder board, of what seemed to be her mother's case? He had never even known her mother had been murdered, what kind of relationship was this? He thought they loved each other. She said that she had been meaning to tell me but that the moment was never right. He asked if he knew and she whispered under her breath, almost as if she were ashamed, that yes, she had shown him a couple of weeks ago. He had been jealous but decided that there was nothing that he could do.

She told him how they had kissed but she had assured him that it was just a ruse, needed to save her team, however the look in her eyes told him that it meant so much more.

But then we found them clinging to each other in that freezer and he knew then that he had to do something if he wanted to keep her because I was slowly losing her to the writer more every day.

And he knew that it wasn't just her that had these feelings; he had seen it in the writer's eyes that day in the precinct when he came to meet her; after her and her partner had escaped death three times together in the last two days. The last time he had seen him, he had been somewhat jealous and protective of her but this time it was different, more intense somehow.

He braced himself for the break-up that he was sure had been coming, thinking that her multiple near-death experiences would have made her realise who she really wanted, but if she did then he saw nothing of it and she didn't tell me anything. He could tell as he walked up behind her that he had been about to say something big, that could potentially take her away from me, but then he had seen him and changed his story, saying something else about going home to rest.

This time he was staying and going to give his all to finding a way to make things better. Although she was happy with that, he wondered how long that would last.

How long until she woke up and realised that he wasn't what she really wanted- that he was only a mere substitute for the real thing. But until that day he would continue on like he knew nothing and would just enjoy his time with her as it most definitely came with a limit.

END

A/N 2: Probably just a one-shot but if you like I will try to do a multi-parter or maybe just some more similar one-shots, let me know and I will see what I can do :)

Feel free to read and review, even if you hated it I want to know, if you loved it and want more I want to know :)

Bec :)xxx