Hello again. Once again, none of this belongs to me. I'm just borrowing. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this just yet. Please comment if you'd be interested. Anyway enjoy!

Jo knocked on the glass door of the antique shop. Abe upon seeing her, went over to unlock it quickly. As soon as she had stepped in he was apologizing. "Sorry, must have locked it earlier. Where are you going?"he tilted his head to the side looking at her dress. The knot in her stomach tightened, she hadn't been to sure about this dress anyway and that look Abe was giving her wasn't comforting.

"Well, Henry and I sort of have a date."

"Oh?"Abe looked shocked.

"Sorta, it's just this thing. It's like this big party they have every year for all the cops and they said bring a date." She blushed deeply.

"So you asked Henry?"

"Yep."

"And he said yes?"He now looked slightly confused.

"Yes,"Jo frowned. This was a little bit insulting. Why wouldn't Henry want to go with her? "What's wrong with that?"she asked slightly hurt.

Abe quickly shook his head. "No. No. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm trying to get things straight here." He shook his head again. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit surprised is all."

"Okay,"Jo decided she would just brush past that. "So where is Henry?" She hadn't seen him yet. She had said she would be here at eight and here she was. Now where was Henry? She wondered if he was still at the morgue.

"He's upstairs, I'll go get him." And with that Abe ambled off to go find Henry.

Henry was in his room getting dressed. "Come in,"he said, when he heard Abe knocked on the door. He was trying to find his black tie, it had somehow gotten misplaced somewhere.

Abe raised an eyebrow at Henry. "You didn't tell me you had a date with the Detective." His tone was even, not disapproving but not exactly approving either.

Henry whirled around to face Abe. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it again. Henry ran a hand through his hair several times. "I have a date with Jo." Which wasn't really true. Sure, he was her date to the party but was it a real date...Henry wasn't as positive about that one. Is it a date? He hadn't wanted to ask Jo when she had asked him to go with her. Now it seemed rather late to ask.

Abe looked stunned. "Okay,"he said slowly. Henry waited for him to say something more. Something about Abigail or ask if he had finally moved on or something. But he didn't. He said, "She's waiting downstairs so I suggest getting a move on." With that he walked out. Good, Henry thought. He didn't need more guilt tonight. He had enough as it was. Henry stood there for a second longer before hurriedly going back to riffling through his closest. That tie was in there somewhere.

When Abe returned downstairs he led her to the kitchen. "I'm cooking spaghetti but it appears I'm the only who'll be eating it tonight."

"It smells great,"she told him honestly. It was the garlic bread she smelled. He had just taken it out of the oven.

"Thank you, it tastes even better,"he smiled at her. Jo laughed despite how uncomfortable she felt. She hadn't worn a dress like this in a while. It felt odd now. When she had been looking through her closet, she had found two suitable dresses for this occasion. One had been a black, sequined dress that went down just above her knees. The other had been a lovely, red dress that was only several inches shorter than the other. She had sat there debating with herself for a good twelve minutes before she finally decided on the the red one. Now she wondered if she shouldn't have just gone with the black one.

She leaned against the counter, "So, I take either Henry doesn't go on a lot of dates or there's something wrong with me." She joked but at the same time wondered if it were true. Maybe she just wasn't a person people went on dates anymore. Maybe she was just that woman hung up on her dead husband. Maybe she would just be that weird lady who lived alone with twelve cats. She cringed at the thought, she didn't even like cats.

"Oh no."Abe quickly dismissed the thought. "No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that there was something wrong with you. You're right, Henry doesn't go on a lot of dates. Hardly any, in fact,"he finished just as Henry walked in.

He was wearing a simple black suit, white shirt, and a black tie. "Ready?"she asked.

"Yes." He was staring at her she realized. Suddenly, she was very self conscious again.

"Henry,"Abe got his attention. He seemed to consider his words carefully before continuing. "Have a good time. You too, Detective,"he added.

Henry seemed to soften a bit. "We'll try our best I suppose." Henry turned back to Jo and held his arm out to her. Always the gentleman. She took it cautiously, her hands were already sweating.

They had thrown the party the same place they do every year; at Lt. Reece's house.

Jo paused outside the door. "How do I look?"she asked without looking at Henry.

"Gorgeous,"he replied softly. She looked over at him, he was serious.

She blushed. "Thank you." She gave him a small smile, "you look nice too."

He laughed lightly. "Thank you. Shall we?" He asked nodding toward the door. She could hear all the people inside, laughing and talking. She took a deep breath before ringing the door bell.

"Are you ready to leave?"Henry asked once he had gotten the other woman, whose name he didn't know, to leave. Jo had been elbowing him the past ten minutes as the woman droned on and on about her niece's wedding.

"I was ready to leave ten minutes ago,"she answered looking around the room. "I'm going to go say goodbye to Reece and then we can go." Henry nodded watching her walk away before quickly correcting himself. They were friends, he really shouldn't be looking at her like this. But still, his eyes flittered back to her. That damn red dress. As she walked back over Henry realized he was starring at her again. She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

As they started walking out she said, "You've been staring at me the entire evening." She sounded confused.

"Well,"he said opening the door for her. "You look lovely." He didn't have a better excuse than that.

She laughed. "Alright, whatever you say."

"You do,"he insisted as they walked out into the cold night. "I told you before, you look gorgeous, Jo." He tried to sound as sincere as possible.

She just shook her head. "Okay,"she sounded like she was just humoring him. Henry frowned. She shivered as another gust of wind blew. He was already shrugging out of his jacket when Jo asked, "what are you doing, Henry?" He didn't answer as he wrapped it around her.

"Thanks."She hugged it around walked in silence until they got to Jo's doorstep. Jo smiled ruefully as she gave the jacket back to him. "Goodnight I guess,"she said a bit sadly.

"Goodnight,"he responded.

But neither one of them moved. Jo felt a sort of panic rise in her when she started wondering if he was going to kiss her, she didn't move though. "Goodnight,"she repeated.

"Yes,"he nodded before quickly stepping toward her and planting a small kiss on her lips before withdrawing. Jo didn't move for a second. "That wasn't a very good goodnight kiss,"she told him before kissing him again. She laced her hands around the back of his neck. His hands had looped themselves around her waist. They stayed like that for a bit, just kissing, until Jo started shivering again. She wasn't sure if it was the cold or Henry though. Maybe both.

He pulled away slightly."Goodnight,"he said again.

"Goodnight." She planted a small kiss on his lips again before quickly heading inside. Henry stood there for a minute feeling a bit stunned.

"Do you know you have lipstick on you?"Abe asked when he got home just to see Henry's face go red.

Henry smiled shyly. "Actually yes, I did know." His face still redden though.