Authors Note: Thanks to Ebony10 for being my beta

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Shoes. They were her secret obsession. No one who saw Grace every day at work would guess that at home, in her closet, were an uncountable number of shoes. If you believe the stories her mom tells, she had always loved shoes. It killed her to have to wear such utilitarian shoes every day at work, but it came with the job.

Her favorite thing to do is shoe shopping. She didn't have a very large budget for actually buying the shoes, but she loved to go to the mall and walk through all the department stores. She would look at the clothes of course, but her real joy was walking through the shoe sections. All of the shoes in all different colors, shapes and sizes. She felt like a kid in a candy store.

She hadn't had a chance to go shopping lately; she'd been too busy at work. But today—today was the day. They had finished up the last case they were on and they had the weekend free. Barring anyone in the state of California doing something stupid, she would be able to spend the whole day at the mall.

And so here she was, walking through one of the larger department stores. The shoe section was huge. She had walked through the clothes first and had actually found a new shirt and a couple of pairs of pants for work. But now it was time for the shoes.

She had her I-Pod on as she walked around. She didn't want the screaming children shopping with their parents to detract from the happy mode she was in. The playlist she was listening to came to an end and, as she went to start a new one, she heard a voice she recognized. She looked up and saw Rigsby walking through the she section caring a large number of bags and following a woman who had to be at least ten years younger than him.

She quickly looked away, hoping that he hadn't seen her. It didn't seem like he had, but the girl he was with came over to the display next to the one Grace was looking at. Even with her music going, she could hear the girl talking to Rigsby

"Wayne, if you complain about being hungry one more time, I'm going to shove this shoe down your throat. That ought to keep you from being hungry."

"I'm just hungry. It's been four hours since breakfast and I'm hungry. I can smell Cinnabon form here."

"You cannot."

Grace didn't mean to listen, but she almost couldn't help it. It was so like Rigsby to be complaining about being hungry. He never remembers to bring snacks. She was smiling to herself when the girl he was with spoke again.

"Wayne, so help me, if you try to sneak off again I'm going to tell mom that you tried to get out of spending the day at the mall with me."

"This is so stupid."

"You're the one that said Dad couldn't eat the entire batch of cookies Mom made without throwing up."

Grace looked up and stared. Was this girl his sister? She had thought it was his girlfriend. She thought that he had traded the 'someone older' for 'someone younger.' Unfortunately his sister caught her staring and called her on it.

"Excuse me, do you need something?" She asked with a slight attitude.

"Um, no, sorry," said Grace quickly, hoping to move away before Rigsby saw her, but it was too late.

"Van Pelt, is that you?" He looked happier than she had seen him the whole time she had been watching them. Grace turned off her music and took her earbuds out of her ears.

"Hey, Rigsby, what brings you to the mall on your day off?" She was trying to sound casual, but she didn't think it was working.

"I lost a bet with my sister and now have the joy of spending the day at the mall with her. I'm having a blast."

His sister, not wanting to be left out, interrupted and said, "Hi, I'm Jan, Wayne's sister. Do you work with him?"

"Sorry. Yeah, I do." Grace put her hand out for Jan to shake. "My name is Grace. I've been working with your brother for almost a year now."

"Nice to meet you." She moved in closer as if she was going to whisper something to Grace, "So tell me, what's Wayne like at work?"

"Well, he's a hard worker and always hungry."

"You're not kidding."

"I've actually started to carry snacks with me when I'm working with him, just to keep him from complaining."

"Really?" Jan looked intrigued. "I've never thought about doing that."

"I actually think I still have something in my bag from yesterday." She started to look through her purse.

Wayne was standing next to his sister feeling just a little bit uncomfortable that his sister and the woman he liked were talking about him like he wasn't there. "Not carrots, please not carrots," he was mumbling under his breath. He didn't think he would be able to survive if she brought out a bag full of carrots.

"Granola bar and raisins." Grace said, producing them out of her bag.

"That's almost as bad as the carrots," Rigsby grumbled, reluctantly taking them from Grace.

"I could take them back." Grace smiled at him.

Jan watched the two interacting and tried not to laugh. It was obvious that they were attracted to each other, but that they had no plans for acting on it. Suddenly, she had an idea. "You know, Grace, Wayne has really been a good brother most of the day, following me around the mall. I still have some shopping today. Would you mind going with him to the food court to get him some lunch? I'm sure he would rather spend the time with you than with his kid sister."

Rigsby looked slightly flustered at his sister's forwardness, but if Grace was embarrassed she didn't show it. "You know what Jan. I think that's a good idea. Come on, Rigsby. Let's see if we can find you some food."

Grace started to walk off and Rigsby followed seconds later, after hastily handing his sister back her bags. Jan just shook her head. Man, he had it bad.