It's happening more often. The number of times Shay has to catch herself staring. They'd just be talking, driving around downtown waiting for a call or sitting in the back of the ambulance while they're at the firehouse and it'll just happen. She gets lost. Whether in the woman's large brown eyes or just the sound of laugh and the way her lips stretch almost impossibly wide as she does so.

With a shake of her head, Shay tries to forget about Dawson. Remind herself that the woman's both straight and hopelessly crushing on Casey but that doesn't work because she's back at it again the next day. Back to staring.

They've been partners from the very beginning. Rookies, just finished with their training and the introductory months riding with an experienced paramedic. They were thrown into the real world together and somehow managed to thrive. Dawson and Shay knew how to work together, they complemented each other and their minds somehow clicked. In that decisive moment when you have somebody's life in your hand they were already both doing the same thing without even speaking a word.

Coming out had been a hard process for Leslie but that just made her even more proud of the fact that she had once she finally did. She wasn't ashamed of who she was and so one night early on, when they were having a round of celebratory drinks after getting through two weeks with no fatalities, the blonde just came out and said it.

"He's cute isn't he," Dawson commented, looking at a tall man buying drinks at the other end of the bar.

"I'm gay," Shay said, trying to be confident about it but a small part of her always feared what somebody would say in response.

"I know," Dawson said with a smirk,"You don't think I haven't seen you checking out that blonde nurse every time we've brought someone in for the last month.

Shay smiled and shrugged, happy that she had found partner that she not only worked well with but accepted her and was cool about it.

At that point Shay had no idea that she would end up crushing on her partner. End up spending half her day noticing every dimpled smirk and raised eyebrow, every giggle and every sigh. That every time the brunette glanced at Lt Casey she felt like ripping his head off his body, in the least violent way possible of course.

There were moments when she thought it was too much, that she had gotten to the point where there was no way she could feel like this and still do her job properly. She thought about requesting a transfer, getting a new partner and not having to worry about this any longer. But then she realised that if she did that she wouldn't get to see Gabriella every day and having to catch herself staring a few times seemed like a small price to pay.