I want to take a moment to thank everyone who commented on my last story. I read all of your comments, and they made me blush and insanely happy. I never intended for this to be more than a one-shot, and I thought people would tell me I'm crazy. Maybe I am. So this is the first chapter of something that might take a while to write...

Awkward wasn't beginning to cut it. Looking out of the window of her office, she thought about a way to resolve an impossible situation. Nothing in life was ever particularly easy but some things seemed harder than others.

The last two days Provenza and she had talked only when necessary. It wasn't disrupting their work, hadn't led to any friction within the team, but there was a palpable difference that began to attract the team's interest. These were some of the best investigators in the country, and they could smell when something was amiss. Sharon had zoned out twice during a conversation, had been called up upon it. Provenza in turn had been teased about going soft on her when he didn't try butting heads with her at all.

Things had to change or rather to go back to normal. Now.

Too bad she couldn't blame Provenza, at least not entirely. If it were that easy she would confront him right now. They would have it out in the open, deal with it and move on. It wasn't as if she was risking losing a friendship here. But she had made a crucial mistake, one she couldn't forgive herself and one she wasn't quite sure how to rectify yet.

Instead of giving Provenza an answer when he proposed dinner, she had turned her back, grabbed her stuff and left the office. Provenza hadn't stopped her, a fact she had been thankful for. Unfortunately it meant there was a big elephant in the room whenever the two of them had to deal with each other.

This wasn't like her, that wasn't who she was. It drove her crazy. She wasn't afraid of personal confrontations, had learned early how to make a stand. It should have been easy. She should have said no, Provenza would have gone back to hating or at least strongly disliking her and life would have gone on like it used to.

It would have been easy, yes, if there hadn't been the tiny nagging voice wondering what would happen if she said yes.

It was an outrageous idea. What could they possibly have in common? It was way too easy to imagining the two of them sitting opposite each other while awkward silence dominated the room. Or was she simply refusing to think spending time with this man could be pleasant. Should she stop judging this particular book by its cover?

"Sharon?"

She almost jumped when Rusty called her name, whirled around to him. Smiling, she waited for her heartbeat to return to normal.

"What's the matter?" the teenager asked, taking a seat.

"Nothing. What can I do for you?"

Sharon sat down as well, folded her hands in front of her.

"Nothing. Or well, there actually is something you could do for me. I would really like to know what's up with you and if it... has something to do with me."

"Nothing is up. What makes you think that?"

"Your behaviour the last two days was odd. I just wondered if it has something to do with the case or with me."

He looked away, barely concealing the hurt in his eyes. Sharon's heart reached out to him. There was such vulnerability about Rusty, so much fear of rejection.

"No, it has nothing to do with you, I promise," she said, her voice soft.

When she had taken him in, at first it had seemed to be a quick solution to a complicated problem, by now she was glad he was in her life. Solitude was a thing of the past, but she'd take the mayhem of a teenager living with her over an orderly life any day. She had come to like and respect him. She had come to love him.

"So what is it?"

She was about to brush him off, though when she opened her mouth, she couldn't. There had been too many lies, too many broken promises in his life.

"I...," she wasn't quite sure how to begin.

"Sharon, this is beginning to scare me."

She smiled again.

"A man... kinda asked me out, and I never even gave him an answer."

The teenager's eyes widened in a way she found almost comical. It must be hard to grasp someone was actually interested her as a woman. To him she had to appear ancient. The thought almost made her smile. Not that Provenza was interested in her that way.

Her head began to hurt, and for the fraction of a second she considered banging her head against the nearest wall.

"I... wow, I'm not sure what to say."

That would make two of them. Rusty's gaze drifted off into the distance, though from one moment to the next he focused on her with razor-sharp intensity.

"Who?"

"I'd rather not disclose his name. This has nothing to do with you, I promise, but please trust my judgement on this."

He thought about it for a moment, nodded.

"Okay, then why didn't you give mystery man an answer?"

Provenza was a mystery all right.

"I wish I knew. I know I should have, but I couldn't."

"So do you want to go out with mystery man or not?"

"God, no."

"Okaaaay. So if you don't want to go out with him, why didn't you tell him?"

"I..."

For once Sharon had no idea what to say.

"Does that guy scare you? Were you afraid of telling him no?"

Hardly. Provenza had been a pain in her ass for years but he hadn't scared her once.

"No."

"Would you like to know what I think?"

Since when was he asking before giving his opinion?

"I'm not sure, actually."

He rolled his eyes at her.

"It seems you're not sure about a lot of things."

He was right with that.

"So go on, give me your opinion."

"Well, I'm no expert when it comes to love and all of that..."

"No one is talking about love here, Rusty."

"Yeah, whatever. But it seems you think there are reasons going out with mystery man is a bad idea. These reasons want you to say no. On the other side there is a part of you that would like to say yes, which seems to scare you. You look scared, you know."

For a second she was lost for words. His words had hit entirely too close to home. She cleared her throat.

"I very much doubt I do, but thank you, Rusty. I appreciate your open words."

She did. That they could have a conversation like this was a sign of how far they had gotten in the last year.

"I wasn't finished. My opinion is that if that guy doesn't scare you and you couldn't say no to him, give him a chance. If the date sucks, forget about him, if it doesn't, give him a serious chance."

They weren't talking about a date, just dinner.

Giving Provenza a chance? A chance to do what? She refused to open that door, if only in her thoughts.

They were silent for a long minute, then there was a knock and the door to her office opened again. Provenza, a file in hand.

Their gazes locked, and for the first time in the last few days they both didn't look away.

Should she really consider dinner with this man?