I've changed the beginning of season six, hope you enjoy it, like I did when I wrote it.

Special thanks to Lily Moonlight for being there, as always :)

JUST SEX

Just sex. They've being doing it for almost two months. It can happen two or three times a week, sometimes more, sometimes not at all. Almost always it starts with a text message and ends up in bed. It usually happens in the middle of the night or late evening, when one of them feels the need. No emotions, just pure, physical need. It's become a necessary habit. Like oxygen.

"Are you at home?"

"Yes."

"I'm coming over".

Just sex. Yes, it hadn't happened for him for almost two years but he doesn't care, now it gives him something to live for. It meets his needs, finally his needs. He hadn't missed it - work was always first - but now, he can't stop it, he doesn't want to stop it. When his wife lived, he lived for her, then the towers fell and work came to be his priority. It still is but now he feels so much happier.

Just sex. Her body needs it too. Over the years she has suffered so much disappointment that the dream of being happy, really happy, had almost gone. Now it's only her and herself. No, she doesn't feel used, she just lives for the moment. She doesn't need something else, just this warmness every couple of days.

Just sex. The trigger was the night they were all shot at. They spent the rest of that night in the hospital, with Lindsay, worried sick about Danny. The moment they knew the outcome, he went back to the office to collect notes from their crime scene, while she stayed with Danny so Lindsay could rest a little. The next night they met again, at her apartment. They talked for hours about how much worse the situation could have been. They understood what could have been, what they had almost lost forever, and then it happened. One kiss and the rest is history.

Just sex. Pregnancy isn't welcome so she takes the pill, although she didn't at the beginning. The first time they met after she started to, he opened the drawer to take his protection, then she touched his hand and smiled. He understood. Since then it's become much easier, more enjoyable. They've increased the play they are playing. The fire.

Just sex. When he comes to her, he always knocks at the door. Yes he has his keys to her apartment, as he always has, but when he arrives for that purpose he always knocks. She knows his knocks, the truth is, she can sense his steps the second he touched her hallway's floor, but she waits until his fingers make the sound that has the power to make her feel tense and calm altogether. She will never be tired of seeing his shy smile when she opens the door for him.
To help him calm, she moves aside without a word, so he can let himself in. Then she closes the door to the rest of the world.
Inside her apartment, he can let go of his shell- okay, not let go completely, but yes, release from it for a couple of hours. He loves to be in her space, the woman who no one knows like he does.
He doesn't really have a good eye for interior decoration but he sure loves hers. The soft colors of the walls make him feel relaxed and peaceful. Her living room has some art on the walls, and is divided into two parts. In one part she has a little library, where she keep her books in the upper shelf and in the lower one. And on the middle shelf she has pictures of herself from college, her friends from work, and even a few pictures from her childhood. From all those pictures you see her shining green eyes and that smile; the smile that makes you smile back at her like magic. In the second part of the room stands her big couch, one arm chair and the TV.
The kitchen is in front of her entrance door, it's not big, but he knows she loves to cook, bake and entertain, so when she entered it, it become her private world. In the space between the library and the kitchen, you can see the corridor to her bedroom and bathroom.

Just sex. She is always surprised at how clean his house is. Not because she thinks he isn't a clean man, but because she doesn't think he has time to clean his own home. Maybe he hires somebody to clean it for him…But would he really give somebody else permission to enter his private place?
She loves his home. It has always made her feel protected, even before she knew his bed. How many times have they shared a takeout in his kitchen's table? How many times have they watched a creepy movie on his sofa? How many discussions have they had in his kitchen, cooking together for the team, until one of them knocked on the door and they had to stop talking like parents who argue but not-in-front-of-the-children? Innumerable times. It feels like home when she's here, but it isn't, it will never be.

Just sex. They haven't talked about it with each other. It's like they have a secret language between them, with a chemistry no one can copy. It's surprised them how easy it has been; how they can meet in the office the next morning with nothing in their expressions to reveal what just happened a few hours before. Business as usual, work as always, a friendship no one can experience. It's not like they have a romantic relationship that involves sex, it is just the sex.

Just sex. No one knows, no one needs to know. Neither of them talks about it or mentions it at work, or when they meet as friends. They won't allow themselves to even think about it. They are still the best team, more now than ever, so why even mention it? Besides, everyone else is dealing with their own frustrations after what happened in the bar, so when they all meet, they are focused on solving this case. Especially him, when he isn't with her, in her.

Just sex. One little thing has changed in her, it's just one thing she doesn't understand. Before this all started, she could read his mind like an open book. Every movement, every emotion, every look in his eyes. But now it's different and she can't put her finger on the reason why. When they meet for that reason, in bed, it's like her mind is erased, it's empty, numb. She can feel her body, his body, and his touches on her body, but she can't read his thoughts. Maybe it's because he is so good, and so attentive to her cries, to her delight, she can't even think about something else. But maybe it is something else, she doesn't know yet. Anyway she never stays at him until the morning to try figure it out, when he wake up the next day, she already gone. By the way, he does the same at hers, disappeared into thin air by sunrise.

Just sex. There are moments he can stay in one position forever - when she lean in to him, putting her palm on his cheek, softly touching his ear with her fingers, holding his jaw, when they kiss… It makes him feel so unbelievably good. She makes him feel so good. Of course he knows it's only the friendship they've shared for more than ten years. But that feeling takes him back to the time before 9/11. A feeling so realistic it's like he is nine years younger, but the woman in his arms now is his closest partner.

Just sex. It doesn't stop them from going out on dates with others. It's part of their life, it doesn't bother them to try new relations with other people. Although none of those dates succeed, they keep trying, and maybe one of them will end this circle. Maybe they aren't sure they want to end it but their heads keep trying to wonder.

Just sex. Mac and Stella are sleeping with each other, but it's just sex.

Will it last forever?