"RIZA!"

Lieutenant Hawkeye held the phone away from her ear, until her best friend's voice died down on the other end.

"Hello Rebecca" the humor evident in her voice at her friend's enthusiasm.

"So I have a really big favour to ask of you" Rebecca started, getting right to the point, and as Lt. Hawkeye started to protest, she rushed on. "Which I think you will really enjoy!"

Hawkeye took a deep breath and started firing questions. "Will it get us into an embarrassing situation like last time around. Because you know me Rebecca, I don't get embarrassed easily, but the last time you asked for a favour, it was rather embarrassing for the both of us", her cheeks coloured at the memory.

"No, it's nothing like that this time", her best friend exclaimed.

"Will it get us into legal trouble? Because the favour before your last one got us into such catastrophe that the Colonel almost blew a gasket! As a result he had to do double the amount of paperwork in order to deal with that escapade, resulting in both of us working overtime!"

"No this one isn't going to get us into trouble of any sorts. Like I said, this one you might actually enjoy. Please here me out?", Rebecca pleaded.

"Alright, I'm all ears."

"Okay, so you are aware of the Christmas ball happening this Saturday right?"

"How could I not be? It's all everyone has been talking about. The men can barely focus on their work because that's all they talk about; who's going to ask who and all that."

"Well, I was originally going to go with Maria, but Denny had some family stuff over the Christmas holidays, and Maria wanted to go with him so they're both leaving tomorrow, straight after work!"

Riza thought of the young couple, who, among other people, started dating immediately after the fraternization laws were slightly reneged.

Riza hadn't said anything, but she suspected that Rebecca and Jean Havoc felt something for each other and might soon take advantage of the suspended laws.

"So, I now don't have anyone to go to the ball with, so I was hoping you would agree to come with me. I know it's short notice but I don't have anyone else to turn to." Her voice broke through Riza's thoughts. Rebecca sounded desperate.

Riza sighed. "You are aware of how many favours you owe me now, right?"

"So that's a yes then? You'll come?"

"Yeah. I'll come so you won't be desperately alone." Riza said, sarcasm evident in her last words.

"Thank you so much Riza! I promise it will be worthwhile! Ok I have to go now" Rebecca exclaimed.

"Alright. I'll talk to you later then. Bye." Riza smiled as she hung up the phone.

She suspected there were other reasons Rebecca wanted her to go to the ball. Oh well, she thought as she finished up her dishes and went to take a shower before bed.

Rebecca grinned like an idiot as she hung up with Riza. She had been sure that Riza was going to see right through it, but by some miracle, Riza was oblivious.

She picked up the phone again and dialed a different number. She waited until she heard a familiar voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jean. It's me!"

Hey, Becca."

Rebecca smiled.

"She bought it!"

"She did?" Havoc exclaimed in disbelief. "Wow, I thought she would have seen straight through it!"

"Well, I sounded desperate and pressured her some and I owe her another 'favour' so to speak, but she's coming! What about the Colonel?"

Havoc snickered on the other end. "Oh, he doesn't have any choice. Last year, I told him that he was coming to the Christmas ball, and he didn't make it because he was drunk off his sorry ass. So, I told him that as payment for what happened, he was going to actually show up this year, if I had to drag him there myself. So he agreed to come."

"Rebecca grinned. "Perfect! The ball starts at 5:30 and goes into the wee hours of the morning! I would say that's all the time they need together to at least get the ball rolling"

"What do you mean get the ball rolling?! It has been rolling, just neither of them wants to admit it. You should see the way one looks other when the other isn't looking and they think no-one else is either." He snickered. "Everyone on the team can see it but them! It's getting frustrating just how clueless they are! The boys and I have almost given up trying to convince the Colonel just to tell her already but he always denies it."

"I know only too well what you mean. She always denies it when I ask her."

"Well, then once Saturday comes, we need to do our best to make them both open their eyes. Speaking of opening eyes, I can't wait to see how sexy you are gonna look walking into the ballroom. Why can't you tell me what you're wearing so I can picture it?" Havoc's voiced sounded pouty over the phone.

"Oh, because then you'll be so surprised when I walk into the ballroom and sweep you off of your feet." Rebecca teased.

Havoc chuckled. "Funny, I thought I was the one who should be sweeping you off of your feet. Anyhow, it is getting kinda of late. As much as I would love to stay up all night talking to you, we need the Lt. to come to the ball which means I should get to work on time. I wish we didn't have to work tomorrow."

Rebecca smiled. "Maybe I can see you at headquarters tomorrow. We can eat lunch together. We'll have to make up for lost time once holidays actually start.", her smile turning to a grin.

"Mm-hmm. Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. I love you." He said adoringly.

"I love you too! See you tomorrow, cancer stick." She made a kissing sound over Jean's indignant yell and hung it up.

Hi there! This is my re-write of my original story (I will soon be deleting that one entirely.) because I felt the characters were much too OOC. The deal with this story is that I will be providing the prologue and first chapter, and then you guys won't see much of me; the plan is to write out all of the chapters, that way once I start posting again, you guys won't be waiting literal months in between updates. Just warning you, it'll most likely be around a year before I finish writing it up. I've already gotten a very good head start and an idea on where I want it to go, so who knows, maybe it'll be before then :) Until then, follow the story, and let it sit back until the updates start rolling in! Love you guys!

-EE2000

Buenas noches!