"Sure this is where we were suppose to meet them, sugar?" Mal shifted the case on his shoulder. The ruff wood was trying to shove little splinters through his shirt, distracting him slightly from the task ahead.

"Hush, you worry too much," Karen, dressed in a delicate, light toned dress, glanced around the dock they had found themselves on. The early morning light cast long shadows where the night was still trying to make its stand. "We just have to pass the buck and then take a powder."

"What's in this box anyway?" Mal shifted it to his other shoulder, giving the now free one a roll to bring feeling back to it.

"That information is above our pay grade, I'm afraid," she tutted, fiddling with the clasp on her clutch. There was a nervous energy in the air between them, caught somewhere between giddy and tense. What they were doing wasn't illegal per se, they were in cahoots with the good guys, but that didn't mean that the line was blurred a bit. There was a war on after all, even if it hadn't reached the States yet.

"You want to catch a picture tonight?" he found himself blurting out after some moments of silence, bringing her attention away from scouting the docks. He flinched a little at her gaze, waiting for rejection and cursing his big mouth. They had grown up down the street from one another, but he had never acted on his feelings before. He knew a girl like her wasn't likely to look twice at him. Hell, she read all those fancy college books on science and understood all the gobbledygook that German, Einstein, wrote.

But much to his surprise, her answer went thus, "Actually, I have the whole day free. Why don't we get coffee after this and see what happens between then and the time of your film." The smile she shoot over her shoulder was cocky, but the way her eyes sparkled was kind.

And Mal finally realized how much trouble his heart was in at that moment, as he nodded dumbly back, unable to respond in any other way.