A/N:Still don't own a thing!
SPOILER ALERT - IN THE NOTES BELOW!

This is something phantomunmasked and I came up with when we saw the initial spoilers for next week's episodes. A set of five ways a kiss could happen between Bernie and Serena...of course now we've seen the rest of the spoilers, and THAT article so think of them as alternatives. The intention was to post them as a one-shot of five drabbles, but the word counts kept climbing, so they'll be posted as seperate chapters. Please enjoy!


1. Going Once...

"That was humiliating."

Bernie slides a full wine glass across the table, hardly reaching Serena's place before it's snatched up. "Come on, it wasn't that bad."

"No one bid on me." If she slumps any further down in her chair, Bernie's afraid Serena will end the night on the floor. "Not a single person."

"I bid on you." Bernie reminds her, whisky glass clenched tightly. "Two thousand pounds." All the flexible income she has at the moment, between hotel bills and the lawyers bleeding her dry - but of course, Serena doesn't need to know that.

"And thank goodness you did! I must have looked a bloody idiot stood out there."

Serena's emptied almost half her glass already and Bernie's heard rumours about Serena's drinking but she's never actually seen the woman gulp Shiraz down as fast as this.

"No…of course you didn't, you looked-" beautiful "-great. Fine."

"I looked like my date stood me up at the prom." Serena tips her head back, draining her glass. "Have they been after you for a cheque yet?"

"Yeah. Raf was over as soon as Fletch slammed his gavel down."

Serena nods, sitting up a little to drop her glass onto the table. Reaching beneath her chair, she pulls out her bag. "Here, let me write you one. No point you being out of pocket - you've been enough of a hero as it is."

"No, don't." Reaching out as Serena delves into her bag, Bernie clasps her wrist. "It's fine, really. I was glad to do it."

Serena's free hand drops onto Bernie's, giving it a little rub as she continues looking through her bag. "Nonsense. I was five seconds from bidding on myself anyway."

The pout is back on Serena's face and Bernie squeezes her wrist. She's too close to lose out on this now.

"Serena, I want to do this." Serena looks up and something crosses her face, a smile lingering on her lips. "It's for charity." Bernie adds like a coward, forcing her eyes away from Serena's.

Serena's smile falters, before picking back up a little tighter. "Of course. Well, at least someone here is thinking of the children. You'd have thought that one of these cheapskates could have bothered to front up some cash for me, even if they didn't want to go ahead with the date."

"Serena-"

"Although I'm not sure why the thought of that's so terrible." Serena carries on, finally pulling her hand out of her bag and her wrist out of Bernie's grip. "I'm an intelligent woman, some have said witty."

"Of course you ar-"

"There are much worse things than a night of decent conversation."

Bernie's horrified to realise that behind Serena's puff and bluster, she seems genuinely upset about the night's results. It's hurt her, Bernie realises and wants to smack herself. Of course it has; she'd known Serena was more nervous about this auction than she'd let on. And after all their talks about Edward and his pretty, young tarts Bernie really should have known better.

"Even Hanssen got that anonymous bid for christsake!" Serena's arms sweep up and back down, dumping her bag back on the floor. Her eyes glitter beneath the hall's lights and Bernie can't stand this, can't believe she was so stupid.

"It was me!" She bursts out, louder than she meant to before quieting. "It was me."

Serena blinks. "You bid on Hanssen?"

"What?" What?

"You just said-"

Bernie shakes her head quickly. "No, no, not that. You."

"Me? Me what?" Serena tilts her head, looking down at their little table and the small collection of glasses there. "How much have you had?"

"Not enough." Bernie mutters before catching Serena's eye. It's now or never. She was planning to do this at the restaurant, slowly, carefully - after a nice meal. But she can't let this go on. Can't have Serena thinking no one wants her.

Not when, well…

"The reason no one bid on you tonight." She starts, then stops, heart hammering in her chest.

"What about it?" Serena reaches up to rub at the little furrowed lines on her forehead.

"I…" taking a deep breath she reaches for Serena's hand, pulling it down to rest on the table. Serena's thumb starts to brush little circles against her skin and it's so instinctive, so familiar that Bernie's fear lessens just enough to loosen her tongue. "I warned them all off."

The thumb pauses. "What?"

Another deep breath, less shaky this time. "I wanted to win. I- I wasn't sure how to tell you- and then the auction came up and you said you were putting yourself forward and that's…it was so brave, you're so brave, Serena. And I thought, I thought I should be brave too, macho army medic, right? So I figured: dinner, with you. That would be a good time, the two of us alone, outside of work. But then I heard Ollie talking about it and Raf said he'd rather bid on you than any of the others and even Doctor Levy was saying he wouldn't mind spending the evening with you and Guy was…well, you know Guy Self. And…" Pausing to take a breath, Bernie keeps her eyes focussed to the right of Serena's head, not ready to see how her words are being received just yet. "Serena, until tonight I had a grand total of two thousand quid in my account and these guys were throwing around possible bids three times that so I figured I'd need to cheat."

"What…" Serena's voice is barely above a whisper and Bernie waits while she clears her throat. "What did you do?"

"Whatever I had to. Guy has me signing off his charts for a month, Raf just wants a favour to be named at a later date." And Sacha had been surprisingly happy to withdraw the moment Bernie brought it up. "Everyone else was pretty easy to scare off."

"Bernie."

"And I know it's for charity, so I collected their bids anyway, donated it all in your name. The children won't suffer just because I'm a little strapped at the moment. It isn't their fault that I-mmfphf."

The rest of her words are lost against Serena's lips, the soft touch of them suddenly against her own.

She barely has a moment to think, to feel before Serena is pulling back and Bernie finds herself leaning forward, reflexively following after her.

"You're an idiot Berenice Wolfe. Sweet, but an idiot." They're so close together that Bernie's eyes can barely focus on Serena's features but she sees the smile, the smirk and that gentle look she's sure she's caught glimpses of before.

Bernie smiles, closing the small distance between them. "And you have me for a whole evening."

She feels the sharp nip of Serena's teeth on her lip before her tongue sweeps out to soothe it. "Much, much longer than that I should hope."

"Yes." Bernie agrees. Yes, please.


Thank you for reading!