Chapter One

With yet another aggravated sigh, Tim dropped the pen that he had been chewing on down upon the pad of paper in front of him. Adjusting the way that the sleeve of his blazer sat on him, he reached for his cup of coffee. It was then that he noticed her from his seat at the bar.

The woman was striking, no, more like amazingly beautiful. Sitting in one of the corner tables by herself she appeared to be writing something down. "Well at least someone can have their pen work today." Tim mumbled under his breath.

Judging by the dark black thinly pinstriped suit that she donned, she worked in some sort of office. Wherever it was, the attire was definitely working for her. Something about a beautiful woman in a nice fitting suit always came across as being sexy to Tim, though he had no reasoning for it. Of course, who needed reasoning for thinking that something was sexy. Normally, sexy was something that just happened.

Tim's eyes never left the woman as he took a sip of his coffee. Part of him wanted to go over there and talk to her and yet the other part of him was rationalizing leaving her alone. She was obviously working on something and didn't need to be disturbed.

Setting his coffee back down, Tim grabbed his pen once again and stared at the blank paper in front of him. He had two weeks until his deadline for the sequel to Deep Six and he still was no where close to finishing. Without even realizing he was doing it, Tim was tapping the end of the pen against the paper while his eyes had returned their focus to the woman in the corner.

Finally, after several minutes of just staring (and surprisingly only getting caught once doing so by the woman) Tim decided that for his own sanity he would go over and talk to her. For all he knew that was just what he needed to get him out of the creative slump he had found himself in. Tucking his pen into the pocket of his shirt and folding closed the book that held his notepad, Tim grabbed his coffee and made his way over to the corner.

"What are you writing?"

The woman looked up at Tim, the dimples of her cheeks growing as she gave him a warm smile. "It's nothing really, just a drabble of sorts."

"Ah, I see." Tim nodded. He wasn't going to sit down unless invited and instead shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Are we talking a conventional hundred word drabble, or the type of drabble where you want to write something but nothing full is really coming out."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Something like that. And how about you? I would ask if you were writing a drabble…but I haven't really seen you write anything down."

Tim laughed when he heard the woman's response. She was completely right, he hadn't been able to come up with even a sentence. The pen had been in his hand and the paper in front of him but neither of them had come into contact since he opened the book. "You're right; sadly I haven't been able to come up with much at all."

"You know you can sit down Mr…?"

"Just call me Tim, and I wasn't going to take a spot unless I was invited to. If you were working on something important I didn't want to disturb you." Tim set down his book and coffee before pulling the chair out from under the table. "And you would be?"

The woman smiled and extended out her hand. "You can call me Terri."

"Well then Terri, it's nice to meet you." Tim took her hand and returned her smile. It was at this time that he took a moment to take in her appearance. She definitely was an attractive woman, even more so now that he saw her up close. She had stunning brown eyes and reddish brown hair pulled up into a neat pony tail on top of her head. There was something about her smile too, the way her dimples glowed making her face even warmer than it already was. "So what are you working on?"

"I'm just trying to come up with a new plot line for a story, but nothing seems to be coming out. I know I have to come up with something soon or my readers are going to start protesting on me again. I swear, I even had one threaten to go Bruce Lee on my ass if I didn't have something soon." Terri laughed with a slight shake of her head. Some days she couldn't get over how dedicated some of her reader's were.

"You're a published writer?" Tim was a little surprised and at the same time in awe. The idea of somebody actually being able to relate on a level that none of his other friends or co-workers could actually excited him.

Terri shook her head. "Published isn't the word I would choose exactly." She corrected him. "It put all my stuff out on the Internet for others to read. I don't have the time to actually try and figure out an entire novel. Besides, the whole coming up with characters and plots is so much easier the way I do it."

"And how do you do it?"

Terri looked away from Tim and nervously rubbed the back of her neck before looking back up at him with a slightly redder face. "Wow, this is kind of embarrassing to admit and not many people know this but I tend more so to write fan fiction than original fiction."

"Get out!"

"See and that would be why I don't tell people what I write. For that exact kind of reaction."

Tim suddenly felt bad; the way it came out was far from the way he intended it to sound. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I was just surprised to actually meet someone in the real world that actually wrote fan fiction. I myself have actually written quite a bit of fan fiction if it makes you feel better."

"So in other words I'm not the only nerd around here." With a nervous little laugh Terri felt slightly better than she had before. "I'm still not sure if I believe you. What fan fiction do you write then?"

"Here is where I probably get a little nerdier than you. I tend to stick to a lot of science fiction. Your classic Star Wars fiction, the occasional Star Trek depending how I feel, then you have this really good but short lived show that I swear only I watched called Firefly."

"I loved that show!" Terri suddenly interrupted, her eyes starting to sparkle. "I actually had every episode taped which was lucky for me when they cancelled it. I was so hoping for it to stay on longer because of how good it was. The concept of the whole space travel and yet the old western feel to it was brilliant." She had even gone as far as buying the entire series on DVD the moment that it came out as well and downloading the movie Serenity that was based on the show the second it hit theaters. "So clearly now there were only two that watched it."

Tim laughed at that one and smiled. He couldn't believe that he was sitting at the same table with someone who not only wrote fan fiction but had also been into the same obscure show that he had been. "Ever write any fan fiction based of Firefly?"

"Of course!" Terri nodded. "I am the biggest Simon and Kaylee shipper going."

"So what fandom do you write in?" Tim was curious as to what kind of fan fiction the woman across from him wrote in. Maybe if it turned out to be one that he didn't mind he'd try to get her to give up her pen name so he could read one or two of her literary works.

Terri paused for a moment. "Quite a few, actually. I started out writing fan fiction based on the television show Sliders and from there I got into a fandom based on the Horatio Hornblower movies. Now I tend to stick to the really bad ones like wrestling, House and X-Files." She was waiting for comments regarding the wrestling and X-files genres since that was one you were either into or not… and more people were not.

"You write X-file fan fiction? That's great! I actually have quite a few different short fictions based on the show and even one or two dealing with the movie." Tim admitted. That was one of the shows he was really into and therefore most of his fan fiction was based around it. Even right up into season nine he kept up with the characters and plot lines. "I got into the whole Brad and Monica relationship near the end."

"See now I was all about the John and Monica bit, which was a lot of fun. And then a lot of people hated me for this one but I always used to pair of Krycek and Scully."

Tim nodded. "Do you read as much as you write?"

"Depends on the type of mood I'm in. I have to admit, I'm picky on what I read though. I hate all these people who have no formatting to their writing and the story just runs on and on into one giant paragraph. Either that or the story just makes no sense at all."

"If you like the whole Monica and John pairing there are a lot of stories dealing with the two of them on a site called X-files Most Unwanted, XFMU. Good one's too." Tim pointed out. It was one of the few fan fiction sites that he actually bookmarked in case anyone happened to get onto his computer. He could only imagine what kind of field day Tony would have if he ever found out that the probie wrote fan fiction as well as novels.

Terri smiled and gave a little laugh. "There is just one problem with that Tim."

"And what's that?"

"I've read almost all of the Monica and John fictions on there, and wrote a large number of them myself."

Tim was definitely more interested now. If she published her fictions on that site then there was definitely a good chance that he had read them. There were actually quite a few authors that he was particularly impressed with and he wondered if Terri could be one of them. "Define a large number."

"Last time I checked I believe I have fifteen different published fictions on the site, two of them being works in progress right now, which is slightly surprising for me since I usually get the entire story finished before posting it. I guess I was just hoping for a couple of good reviews to cheer me up at the time. And yes, I'll admit it; I'm a bit of a review whore some days."

Terri watched as the man across from her nodded with agreement. "Aren't we all? So if you don't mind me asking, what is the penname that you go by? Maybe I've read your works."

He saw her hesitate for a moment and clearly she was unsure if she should reveal it. Your penname online was your protection from the real world. Everything you wrote, you wrote anonymously. It was the same thing as Tim coming up with the penname for his first novel. It removed the vulnerability from the situations. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to…"

"I just wouldn't want it to be one of the fictions that you didn't like. It might change your entire opinion of me."

"I promise it won't."

Terri gave in. "I go by the name Miss Meradus in pretty much every fandom I write in."

"Really?"

Terri was a little taken back by Tim's sudden outburst which not only had caught her attention but the attention of a few other close by customers as well. "I take it you've read some of my work then?"

"Absolutely, and loved it. After the first story, Torn to Shreds, I was absolutely hooked on your writing. I think within two nights I had read everything you posted and submitted several reviews." Tim admitted. Now he was more shocked than before. First he found a woman that wrote fan fiction and now he was finding out that she was actually one of his more liked authors.

"You submitted reviews?"

"Yes."

"What was the name you posted the reviews under?" Terri was actually more curious than ever knowing that she was speaking to a fan of her work. Of course if it wasn't for him knowing the name of one of her fictions she would have been a little skeptical about his reasoning for talking to her. He could have just been going along with her interests for the sake of talking to her and trying to get something more. Then again, the man in front of her didn't really seem like that type of guy.

Tim grinned. "Think for a moment about all your reviews and what you know about me. Its actually really obvious once you realize it especially since you know what my first name is."

He watched as Terri clearly began to think of the names of all those who reviewed her fiction on a daily basis. When she seemed to stumble she actually even grabbed her pen and began to write names down on her paper to jog her memory.

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. Typing Tim, right?"

"The one and only." Tim laughed, very amused by the situation. It turned out that the two of them actually did know each other besides their meeting up in the coffee shop. "This seems a little surreal."

"Tell me about it." Terri agreed. "I've actually read a lot of your stuff as well. It's much better than anything I could ever write. I was always honored that you actually read and reviewed my work. And now to-" Terri was cut off by the sudden upbeat ringing of a cell phone. Frowning she reached down and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and glanced at the front. "I'm sorry, I really wish I could stay but work calls."

Tim nodded in understanding. "No problem."

"Well it was nice meeting you Tim, and maybe I'll see you around here again?"

"It is very possible; I usually hit this place up for a coffee in the morning before going to work." And now that he knew who she was and that she spent some time at the coffee shop he would have to try and find reasons to drop in more often.

"Well then I'll see you then." Terri smiled before collecting her stuff and opening her cell phone up on her way out towards the door.

Leaning back in his chair, Tim watched her leave until she was no longer in his sight. The entire time, a huge smile had made it's way on to his face never once wavering. He had actually met a fan fiction author that he enjoyed reading in the real world. Not only that, but she was actually someone from the same city as he was. At least he knew now that he was not the only one in the world. Okay, so there were a lot of people that wrote fan fiction…he just never met anyone in the flesh who would actually admit to it.

It was there and then that Tim decided he would definitely have to log on to the website that night and submit a review to one of her fictions. It also had to be something that related back to their conversation at the shop that would make her smile. He really did find her smile attractive and would have to remember it for his novel when he needed to describe a woman. Come to think of it, he would have to remember her period.

Tim was pulled out from his thoughts by a vibration in his pants. Rolling his eyes, Tim pulled his own cell phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen much like Terri had done moments before. Opening it, Tim sighed. "Yes Tony, what can I do for you?"