Brenda opened her chocolate drawer, she needed a fix and needed it now. She'd just come from another horrid meeting, another one about budget cuts, and departmental firings, and had had enough. She just wanted one of her Hershey bars. She reached into it and came up with nothing. She looked down quickly and was shocked. All her chocolate was gone. Every candy, every piece of chocolate, all her goodies were missing.
WHERE THE HELL WAS HER CHOCOLATE!, she wondered angrily. She looked out into the murder room, noticing that Flynn was missing. He was her number one suspect. Immediately she thought "He did it to get back at me about the nuts!". But, he didn't know she'd stolen his nuts. Did he?
Brenda swung open the door of her office and marched out. From her walk and the look on her face, the team knew she was upset about something. They quickly looked down at their desks, hoping that they weren't the cause of or to become the subject of her anger. As she passed through, the team members there breathed sighs of relief as she walked on by. No sense in calling attention to themselves, so they concentrated on looking everywhere but at her.
Brenda thought to herself, it was Flynn. It had to be Flynn. He was the only one missing, he had no assignments. She wanted her chocolate back, and wanted it back now. Suddenly her phone chirped, so she pulled it out. It was a text. From Flynn.
"If you want to see your chocolate again, come to the roof. You'll find out the ransom for it when you get here. Come alone. Flynn." Brenda's jaw dropped. He was blackmailing her? For her chocolate? The man was in more trouble than he could possibly believe. When she got her hands on him, Flynn was dead.
She hadn't been this angry at a man since Fritz and her had broken up. It wasn't her fault that FBI investigation had fallen apart because she'd captured the man they'd wanted on a murder charge. But Fritz had held her responsible for it, things had deteriorated to the point where they fought all the time, and they'd separated. Or as Fritz liked to term it, "they needed a break from one another". So here she was, 6 months later and no closer to figuring out where she stood with him. He flew in and out of L.A., constantly, she didn't see him regularly. The worst part was, she'd discovered she didn't miss him all that much.
She angrily jabbed the elevator button, impatiently waiting for it to arrive. Getting on, she took the elevator up as far as it would go, then she took the steps to the roof. She opened the door and was shocked. Her chocolate was on the roof. Set up in a trail. Her chocolate would melt, this was Los Angeles! She started picking it up, piece by piece, following the trail. Her hands were soon full, and she was more frustrated than ever.
Brenda rounded a corner and ran into Andy. Her chocolate went flying once again, and she was very angry with him.
"Do you have an explanation for yourself, Lt. Flynn? This is my chocolate! Mine. Not yours. Why did you steal it?" Brenda practically stamped her feet.
"Because you stole my nuts!" Flynn yelled back.
"Well, you started the whole thing, you stole my sandwich! If you'd just leave things that weren't yours alone, we wouldn't be standing here like two fools yelling at each other!" Brenda yelled back.
Andy looked at her sparking eyes, amused more than anything. She really was protective of her food. He knew he'd been messing with fire by emptying her chocolate drawer.
She looked around, looking for the rest of her chocolate. Or bar that, at least something to put the chocolate she had found into. That's when she noticed the picnic set up on the shaded side of the building. A blanket lay on the roof, a basket set on it. And there, safe in the shade, a box full of her chocolate. She started towards it, but he stopped her.
"Not so fast. I said you had to pay a ransom to get that chocolate back." His hand held her arm.
"And what would that ransom be, Lt.? Me kicking your ass for taking it anyway?" Brenda huffed.
"No, Miss Atlanta, that would not be the way to get it back. The ransom is, you have a picnic lunch with me." Andy said.
"Lt., if you wanted to have lunch with me, all you had to do was ask. Not stealing my chocolate would have been a good start." Brenda calmed down.
"Yeah, Chief, right. Please, sit down with me and eat. I've been wanting to ask you something for awhile, and I never seem to. Maybe I will today." Andy had calmed down too.
"Alright, yes, Lt., I will have lunch with you." Brenda agreed because she would do anything to get her chocolate back.
Andy let go of her arm and they walked over to where the blanket was. He helped her down to the blanket before joining her, opening the basket and starting to remove some of its contents. On to a plate he placed a tomato, mayonnaise and lettuce sandwich. With her name on it. He handed it to her.
Brenda looked at it, quite amused. He'd remembered. She watched as he pulled more things out, including dessert, which was two huge pieces of cake, complete with frosting. Brenda's mouth began to water, while at the same time, she wanted to know why he'd wanted her to have lunch with him so badly that he'd stolen her chocolate. At least he'd finally replaced her sandwich. Now she was going to have to replace his peanuts, she thought to herself.
Andy poured two glasses of sparkling grape juice and handed her one. As they sat back against the building, Brenda sighed. She was going to have to forgive him, she supposed.
"You know, it wasn't very nice that you stole my chocolate, Lt. I really needed it after the morning I've had. I don't even know I should be up here, taking the time to have lunch. Delk is really crackin' down on everything."
"Sorry about the chocolate, Chief. I had to come up with an excuse to get you alone. There's been something I've been wanting to ask you for awhile, but there is always someone around." Andy looked at her.
"Well, Lt., you have me here now. Ask away." Brenda took a bite of her sandwich. She wished she had her sunglasses with her.
"You and Agent Howard have been split for awhile now. And I don't know if you are getting back together with him, but I was really wondering ?" Andy rushed his words together, speaking low, embarrassed now that he was actually asking her out.
"What was that, Lt.? I didn't catch the last part." Brenda looked at him curiously.
"I said, would you like to go out on a date with me sometime?" Andy studied something in the distance. He'd finally gotten the words out.
Brenda looked at him sharply, hardly believing what she'd just heard. He wanted to go out with her? Why? Brenda wasn't good with dating, and this was Flynn, for crying out loud! It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, he certainly was, but this was Flynn! Then she thought about it. He made her laugh, he challenged her, he was interesting when he wasn't being a bit of jerk. And he liked spending time with her. When they'd gone out for lunch that day, it had been nice to have someone to talk to about anything but work. Sighing, she figured she'd give it a shot. It was just a date, after all. It wasn't a lifetime commitment, and she knew how those worked out.
"Well, seeing as I don't even know where I stand with Agent Howard at this time, I don't know if I'll be getting back together with him any time soon. So, I think I'd like it very much if we go out. Don't expect too much of me, though, Lt. I'm not promising anything." Brenda agreed.
Andy smiled at her, he'd actually expected to be shot down for a variety of reasons, the first one being that she was his boss. The fact she was giving him a chance made him happy.
"We'll go anywhere you want to go, Chief, anywhere. A nice dinner, a movie, anything." Andy enthused.
"Lt., you pick the activity, I'm game for most anything. And perhaps, if we're going to go on a "date", we should call each other by our first names. It would seem more appropriate." Brenda smiled at him.
As they sat there, finishing their lunch, Andy couldn't help but smile. When they were finished, he gathered everything up, putting it in the picnic basket, and then grabbed her chocolate box. Going over to where she'd dropped the chocolate she'd dropped, he began to pick up the pieces. She joined him, and in doing so, they were in close proximity. Putting the last piece of chocolate in the box, they both stood up, still standing so very close.
Andy suddenly worked up the courage, his hand reaching out to cup her face. Seeing the questioning look in her eyes, he reached in and brushed her lips with his. When she reached up and wound her fingers in his hair, drawing him in closer to her, he was very, very pleased as the kiss deepened. Stealing that damn chocolate had been worth the risk then, and the case of the missing chocolate was solved.