A/N: No reviews? :-( That's Sucks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Cold Case, only in my dreams...

Chapter 2

That evening, the homicide team, excluding Kat, is sitting down having drinks. Not as much laughter and witty remarks without Kat, but still having a good time.

"What the hell?" Scotty says looking at Nick, who's stuffing mixed nuts in his mouth. "You could have atleast asked if you were going to steal my nuts." As soon as he said it, he knew he regretted it.

Lilly and Will glance at each, both immediately catching on to what Scotty said and burst into a fit of laughter. Scotty rolls his eyes, knowing his co-workers are making fun of his bad choice of words. He looks over to Nick, who's not paying attention to anyone and just when he was about to put another handful of nuts in his mouth, Scotty swats his hand away, sending the mixed flying in the air.

Nick tries catching some of the flying nuts before landing, but fails. "You dick!"

Lilly and Will laugh even harder, earning one from Stillman as well.

Nick looks around the room with confusion smeared across his face. "What the hell his so funny?"

Lilly takes the time to stifle her laughs to make poke fun. "So, how does those nuts taste?"

Nick, still not catching on, shrugs. "Like mixed nuts, crunchy, salty-" But before he could continue, Lilly start laughing again, turning red in the process.

Scotty rolls his eyes again while taking sip of his bottled beer. "Very mature you guys."

Lilly slowly turn her laugh into a chuckle. "Alright."

Scotty decides to change the conversation taking a gulp of her beer. "So where's Miller?"

Nick looks at Stillman, who glances back at him, neither wanting the conversation to be brought up at all. Damn it! Why does he have to be so noisy? "She said she was busy tonight."

Scotty chuckles a little. "That woman is one for keeping secrets." He stops his chuckle, realizing that the case had been rough on her for the past few days. "Maybe she went to see her sister."

Nick glares at Scotty. "Are you kidding? If you know Miller at all, she's not the type to apologize to anyone."

Scotty drinks the rest of his beer. "Yeah, but she does have a beating heart, maybe she wants to at least talk to her sister after what happened today. By the way, your evil Miller stare doesn't intimidate me at all."

Whatever, I'm out. Nick grabs his beer, rises from chair and grabs his jacket as well.

"Where you going?" Will asks.

Nick rubs his eyes, trying to give a believable performance. "I'm tired, clocking out this party early." He lied. She's gonna hate me, but I did the right thing.

Thirty minutes later, after a few drinks with the team, well most of it, Nick drives while a little tipsy, and pulls up in front of Kat's one story house, debating whether to knock on the door or not.

Just do it Vera! I mean, what the worst that could happen…beside an ass kicking? He sighs, finally turning off is engine, grabbing a greasy brown paper bag, and steps out the car. Not even bother to walk on the driveway, he just decides to cut through the grass. He sighs, and before he could knock he hears a voice on the other side.

"Mom! There's somebody at the door!"

How the fuck- Nick's body stiffens at the fact that he has not chance of making a get away, if he changed his mind. The door swings open and he sees Kat wearing at fitted green tank top and baggy gray sweat pants. Two things about her caught him off guard though. She wears glasses? He observes her face at the nice glasses she's wearing. His eyes just happened to scan down her body to her lower torso. Kat has a BELLY RING!?! A smile creeps upon his face until he hears Kat clearing her throat to get his attention.

"My eyes are up here Fatass." She whispers so her daughter won't here. "So what do you want?"

Vera tries to dodge the question. "Hey, how'd she know that someone was even here? I didn't even knock yet."

Miller grins. "She has great instincts, like her mother. So what do you want?"

Wishing he'd thought of a reason before he drove over, all he could do was raise the greasy brown paper bag to her. "Decided to make a last minute trip."

Kat snatches the bag. When she opens it up, the smell itself almost sent her over the edge, but she didn't show it. She looks back Nick, who's smiling knowing he'd succeeded on getting on her good side, even for a brief moment.

"You came all the way over here to buy me a cheese steak?" I know you want something Vera, you're not this nice.

Nick face falls. Come on, think quick. I know look emotionally hurt. "Hey, I just figured since you didn't come eat with us at Geno's that I'd stop by on my way home to bring you this. Besides, that's a Heart Attack Special, your favorite. I could have been an ass and ate that myself."

Kat rolls her eyes. "Good, maybe you'll have a heart attack." She starts shutting the door until Nick speaks again.

"You know, normal people would invite someone in for a little while."

Kat opens the door back half way. "I'm not normal."

Nick raises an eyebrow. "Really? Then why'd you open the door back?" Oh good comeback. She's got no answer for that.

They stand in silence for a moment, then Kat looks down at the oh-so-good cheese steak in the bag. Without looking back at Nick, she opens the door all the way, being the sign to come in. Nick follows Kat into the living room, where he sees little Veronica reading silently on the couch. She looks up and smiles as she runs over to Nick, giving him a hug.

"Hi Detective Vera."

Nick picks up the little girl with a smile. "Well hello V, you're getting big. What's that you're reading?" she hands him over the book and he reads the cover. "The Princess and the Frog, amazing story."

Veronica grabs the book back. "My mom used to read it to me all the time, but I now I read it all on my own."

Kat smiles and walks over to the two taking Veronica into her arms. "Come on V, finish reading your book." She places her daughter on her feet and watches as she runs back over to the couch reading her book. Kat looks back at Nick, who's still smiling at Veronica. They walk back into the kitchen and she places the brown paper bag into the refrigerator. She turns, looking at him, trying study why he's here. Kat looks away, grabbing her coffee mug that was on the counter and start drinking out of it.

Nick begins to feel awkward, being that he's never been inside Kat's house. "You know, drinking coffee at this time of night, you're going to be tossin and turnin all night, wide awake."

Kat shoots him a stinging glare. "I doubt that it's the coffee that'll keep me from sleeping tonight." She knew by Nick's guilty expression that he knew what she was talking about. He went behind my back, some partner you are. She adjust her glare to study him some more. "So, what do you want?" Cause quite frankly, I think I'd rather be alone right now.

Not wanting to jump right into it, he changes the conversation. "So, since when do you wear glasses?"

Going unfazed by the question, she resumes her gaze, studying him. "I wear contact. Why are you here?"

Nick sighs. She not gonna stop asking, I know it. "Look, I just wanted to see how you were doing. I mean, I probably won't be seeing you in like two weeks so-"

"So you figure that you come over here with a damn cheese steak, hoping to get my forgiveness for talking about me to Stillman?" Kat cuts him off, keeping her gaze.

Nick gets caught off guard. Stillman told Kat that it was me who said something? "I was just worried about how you were acting. We all were."

I don't need anyone to worry about me. I'm fine! "Well, now you guys won't have to worry for two weeks, October 22 to be exact."

Whatever, I came here to see how you were doing, but if you want to be a prickly porcupine, be my damn guess. "Fine, see you October 22."