Chapter 1

The next morning

McDonald sat grudgingly behind his desk, gritting his teeth and staring down at the case report before him. He briefly skimmed through the remaining pages and looked up to the agents in front of him.

"You managed to blow up the Miss United States back drop, blowing Lady Liberty's head sky high," he began.

Both Hart and Matthews cringed at the tone of his voice, and turned to look at each other nervously.

"But you managed to keep the actual Miss United States out of the explosion – I suppose that's a mission accomplished…So good job, take a break, you deserved it." He added slowly.

Hart and Matthews leaned forward in their chairs to make sure they'd heard correctly, causing Gracie to almost completely fall onto the floor. McDonald returned his attention to the case report, a sign that the conversation had ended and they were to leave. Quickly, the agents headed for the door with disbelief written across their faces, but they hurried none the less, just in case, when he got to the end of the report – he'd change his mind. As Eric held the door open for Hart, McDonald spoke again, not even looking up from the papers.

"Oh Hart – do us all a favour – go home and take off that skin cringing dress and those sky-high heels off, I'm tired of seeing you falling over every two minutes."

Matthews laughed as she looked down at the evening grown she has on, 'it was the only thing she could find in that suitcase that Vic packed for her' she mentally argued, before stormed out of the door offended.

"As long as I get to watch," Eric jokingly shouted out to her, and smiled at the glare she shot him.

"You do realised that he gave me my gun back…" she warned.

In the elevator ride down, Eric edged closer to Hart, his nose strategically placed. Alarmed at his movement, she whipped around.

"Were you just sniffing me?!" she confronted him, eyeing him suspiciously. Caught in the act, he slowly backed away, holding his hands up in peace.

"What can I say?" he feigned innocence, "Your shampoo has an intriguing smell! Coconut isn't it?" She shot him another look.

"Ok, ok, so I'm really just going to miss being able to be even close to your hair without something jumping out of it and attacking me, who knows what things were lurking in those tangles." He answered, which didn't seem to satisfy her as she promptly hit him causing to double over in pain the elevator doors slid open.

As they were existing she tripped and stumbled quite ungracefully onto the sidewalk. 'That's Gracie alright' he thought, "What were your parents thinking when they named you?" he laughed, one hand still clutching his stomach, whilst the other extend to her. Gratefully she reached up to accept his help, but he immediately jerked his hand away, causing her to fall once more to the sidewalk.

"I'm running out of ways not to use my gun, and you don't want me to come to my last resort so early in our relationship do you?" she flashed him one of her beautiful smile before regaining her balance and helping him up.

"You're giving me the feeling that those two dates you've had didn't end well."

"I didn't shoot any of 'em Matthews, so don't worry," she gestured to her gun, "This baby's only for the really annoying people in life," she paused, "Like you!" she chimed in cheerfully.

"Oh come on," he laughed as he slapped her ass, "You know you love me…"

"All the love in the world won't save you if you ever do that ag…" her sentence went unfinished, smothered by a kiss.

The pair then walked towards his car, where Eric waited for her with car's door wide open. "Oh what a gentleman Matthews" She commented as she slide into the car and smile lovingly as he walks around to get into driver seat, taking her home and to the bed she has come to miss so much.

Gracie fell onto her bed as soon as she walked in, closing her eyes with the intention of nothing but a quick nap. As Eric will be back to pick her up for their 'casual dinner' that he promised.

Gracie cursed as the sounds of her doorbell rung through the apartment "It really is just my luck that he has to be early", she mumbled to herself as she tried to quickly smear some makeup onto her face, aiming to get to how Vic would have done it, sort of, if you use a little bit of imagination. Alright, okay, maybe not.

"Screw it," she grumbled wiping it all off on a towel that is now smeared with foundation and eye shadow from previous attempts. "I'll just have to go without," she decided.

Grabbing her purse off the counter, stopping to pull her hair back into a ponytail before she hurried to the door and opened it. Eric stood outside her apartment, flowers in hand, looking confident to the point of cockiness as usual. For a moment she glared admiring between him and flowers in his hand, greeting him with a smile and a peck on the cheek.

"What happened to the sash?" he asked in an attempt to sound disappointed as he looked her from head to toe.

"You're early for this 'casual dinner' of ours," she pointed out, taking the flowers from him, as she retreated into her apartment to get a vase. Though, from her lack of flowers over the years, the best vase she could find was an old, empty coffee jar – it would work.

"So where are we going tonight?" she asked as she shut the door behind them and they started down the hall.

"I thought we'd head for a Steak House, you like steak don't cha Hart? Big chunk of red meat – right up your street." Hart cringed at the memory of Vic and the table manners incident at the restaurant.

Well, things are different now. She'd finally figured out where the napkin was supposed to go and is able to close her mouth whilst she chews. This had proved to be an important lesson for her, it's become a tactic she used to prevent Vic from seeing exactly what it was she was eating – with her mouth closed they couldn't tell donut from carrot. Donut Nazi!