Playing For Keeps

ME Set after S1 'Circling'. Playing, Playing hard to get, Playing for keeps.

Disclaimer: My Muse, my imagination and my dreams are all mine (but can be rented for a high fee). I'm sure if I owned the cast and characters we would have an enormous amount of fun (but I don't. I'm just borrowing them).

A/N:- 'Standoff' has stolen my Muse and dashed off with it. This is just some drabble. It was going to be a long, fluffy fic but then I had another idea for another fic so this just ended up as drabble.

'Playing For Keeps' - Switchfoot

Emily rolled over her bed to reach for her ringing phone but she didn't need to look at the caller I.D – there was only one person who would be calling her at this time.

"Hello?" She answered with a smile, lying down and pulling the duvet covers up to her head.

"Hey there. I didn't wake you did I?"

"No, I just got into bed." Emily paused. "Wish you were here with me."

And she did. Oddly enough she had always slept better those nights they spent together in bed in hotels around town. Of course she had never said as much before – it had been just about sex and the fact that they slept in the same bed together afterwards was just for convenience. Now that they had actually been on their first date – albeit the fact it hadn't exactly gone smoothly – she had been allowed to have feelings and show some sort of affection to the man who had very much become her life over the past few months.

"I wish I was there too." Came the reply.

"You know, I never thought you would really do it?"

"What?"

"Coming right out and telling Cheryl about us."

"A wise lady once told me to go after the things I really want versus waiting around."

Emily cringed inwardly. He had never said anything but she knew she had ruined their date by fixating upon the fact that even though they were on a proper date they were still hiding and she hated the fact that she could be so blunt and forthright sometimes. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Matt asked, sounding confused.

"For being crap on dates, for being insecure and for all the other things I may inadvertently do in future to make this hard for you."

"What are you talking about?"

Emily rolled over and stared at her bedside table where there was a group photo of the HRT in a frame and she stared hard at the tall, dark man at the front. "It's just scary."

"What is?"

"You, me – we're really doing this." She could almost hear Matt smile down the phone.

"Yes we are. And it's going to work. Do you want to know how I know it's going to work?"

"How?"

"Because I really like you and I care for you and I have all these kind of feelings for you which I want to explore and, and it's our day off tomorrow. How about we spend the day together?"

Emily found herself smiling again. For such a sweet guy he must have spent an awful lot of typing practising his detached attitude he used to adopt towards her at work.

"I could pick you up at eleven and we could go eat in that Italian café in town you always wanted to try. Then we could drive to the mall, do some shopping and then come back to my place where I'll cook you a special dinner."

"That sounds wonderful."

"Really? I wasn't sure if it would be too much. We've had a very stressful day and-"

"No more hotels." She said simply.

"No more hotels." He emphasised. "I'll see you tomorrow at eleven."

………………….

Emily looked at her reflection in the mirror – not in egotistical 'gosh-look-at-me-I'm-so-pretty-kind-of-way' but more to conduct a mild self-evaluation. She wasn't exceptionally pretty, certainly not in a dazzling obvious way that men tended to like. When she was in high school she was passed by, in college she stuck her head in her books and studied hard determined to get a good degree so the FBI would take her on and since joining the Bureau, she hadn't exactly had a lot of time for men. Then she moved to LA and got partnered up with Matt Flannery and suddenly all that changed – she, Emily Lehman, who had never done anything out of line in her life was ignoring all the warnings they gave in the handbook about interoffice relationships and had started sleeping with her partner, not only that but thanks to said partner she had ended up being at the top of the office gossip list. And oddly enough she didn't seem to care that she was giving up her reputation and standing in the office to pursue this. Being with Matt made all the risks worthwhile and it scared her that she felt like that.

The doorbell rang and she opened it revealing a tall, dark, handsome man who was holding out flowers to her. Flowers. That was a sign this was serious.

Things were finally changing. They had started out playing, mostly in bed with nothing else, no feelings, no commitment, then she had started playing games, making him chase after her, playing hard to get and that was exciting and fun but now ……… now they were playing for keeps. And it felt wonderful.