Chapter 1

Light much too bright for early morning streaming through the window partially woke Zoe Busiek, the sandy-haired blonde rubbing the tip of her nose before rolling over onto her stomach with a moan and burying her face in the spicy smelling pillow that her head was resting on. "'S too early; not time yet," she moaned to herself, slurring the words.

"I think it depends on how you look at it," came the completely unexpected answer that made Zoe flip onto her back abruptly and pull the bedclothes away from her face. "You may think it's too late."

Zoe gulped and looked over slowly, recognizing the voice but wanting to see the physical evidence. Sure enough, her partner Dan Lennox was sitting next to her on the bed. He was under the covers, which were pooled in the lap beneath his bare chest. "Dan?"

"Good guess," was the wry answer.

"Am I dreaming?"

Dan laughed, shaking his head. "You dream about me? All this time and now I find out that you dream about me? Zoe, I'm flattered!"

Zoe grabbed the pillow that she was using and sat up quickly as she launched it towards her partner's head. She quickly slouched back down as the comforter slipped to reveal bare breasts, and she pulled it back up. Her ire at his teasing abruptly gone, she swallowed as she asked a question that she'd never thought she would have to ask: "how did we get here?"

"I have no idea," was the grim answer, all amusement stripped from his voice.

"Why am I undressed?" Zoe tried next.

"I'm a man, you're a woman…. Do you need diagrams?"

Enraged at the flippant remark, Zoe jumped up from the bed, taking the sheet and comfort with her and wrapping it around herself in one fluid movement. She was immediately mollified by Dan's yelp as he twisted and landed on the carpet on the opposite side of the bed, a blur of nicely tanned bare flesh all that was visible.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"I'm a woman, you're a man… do you need diagrams?" she shot back, shaking her head. "Dammit, Dan, what the hell were you thinking?"

"Me? It's just as much your fault as it is mine!"

"What's my fault?"

Dan looked at the rumpled bed that lay between them and shook his head. "Listen… we need to talk about this calmly, okay? Do you have any memory of last night?"

"I remember going to Malroney's," she answered, naming Dan's bar of preference.

"Anything else?"

Zoe thought about it before shaking her head.

Dan sighed, thinking over his own recollection of the night before. "I don't remember much beyond that, but try to remember every detail, okay?"

"I am aware of what we need to do, Daniel," she snapped.

"Listen, I didn't ask to wake up next to you any more than you did me, lady. Don't jump down my throat because you had a few drinks too many and blacked out!"

"So I was the only one who blacked out? What - were you so hard up for sex that you just had to sleep with someone and I was already there and drunk?"

Zoe shook her head and stifled a scream before stalking to the other side of the room where their clothing was visible. The garments were neatly folded and placed on the dresser. She grabbed hers and looked around the room for the door to the bathroom; there were three and she tried the closest one, lucking out when it opened to reveal a plain white tiled room. She went inside and slammed the door shut before dropping her cloth armor and turning on the shower. Stepping under it, she cleaned herself quickly before getting out and drying herself, getting dressed with minimum fuss.

Feeling much more in control, she took a deep breath and put her hand on the doorknob that would open the door on a situation she had no idea how to resolve.

Me: Get ready! I'm taking yourrr little challenge Kam!!!