Henry's note said they were welcome to stay as long as they wanted, his place was theirs. He had locked up on the way out, so they should have the run of place in private. Yes, he knew Walt had a key of his own. The one Henry left was for Vic; every one in their 'family' had one and Vic needed one too. The symbolism touched Vic deeper than she would have thought it would. She glanced at Walt to see if he was uncomfortable with Henry's insinuation; he showed no reaction one way or the other.

Walt read the note from Cady and handed it to Vic, his expression neutral as he passed her the paper.

Cady's note simply said if either felt they needed her permission they had it. The rest of her note was a rather extensive song suggestion list, with song titles, artists, and the number on the jukebox that would play the selection.

Vic read the single sentence and looked at Walt; he merely shrugged and gave her a small grin.

She asked, "Okay?"

He smiled a little bigger and nodded but said nothing.

"Is it me or are there a lot of Beatles songs on here?"

"Martha was a fan, Cady caught it from her, and Henry indulged them both. Martha was born the night they were first on the Ed Sullivan show. Born and raised in the British Invasion." Walt chuckled at the memory as he looked Cady's suggestions over, "Seems like a lot love songs."

"A lot of them to try to tell you something?" Vic asked, trying to keep the humor from her voice.

"Me?"

"Well I was going to say us but I already knew it."

Walt nodded, "Me too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, but thinking and doing are two different things."

"Yep." She agreed but looked away.

"Vic," Walt breathed her name and drew her eyes back to him. He leaned in and kissed her slowly and gently.

His kiss was sweet yet full of emotion. Vic wrapped her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss slightly. When they broke the kiss she nuzzled his neck and sighed.

Walt wrapped his arms around her and drew her close to him as he bent his face to her hair and quietly confessed, "Just one thing I didn't know."

Her breath brushed his neck, "What?"

"What you felt."

She pulled back to give him an 'are you serious?' look.

He smiled a bit bashfully and corrected, "What you thought," He brought one hand up and angled it down pointing toward their bodies wiggling his fingers in the space between he and Vic, "about this, us."

Vic melded her body to his and ran her fingers through his hair, easing his face to hers, and whispered against his lips, "I just thought you were taking your time." The last word was muffled as she kissed him in a most intoxicatingly possessive yet surprisingly tender way.

When she released his mouth he asked, "And now?"

"And now I'm thinking I want payback."

"Payback?" His confusion etched in his features.

"Yeah. You've had me guessing, wondering, and worrying for months. So, I think I deserve a little payback."

He pleaded sincerely, "Vic don't. Don't leave me guessing, wondering, and worrying for months."

She smiled at him, "That wasn't exactly what I meant. More like restitution."

His face softened slightly as he realized she was not intending to shut him out. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well more of this for a start." She kissed him again and sighed when he returned her kiss with equal enthusiasm.

"I can do that. What else?"

"Oh I have ideas." He raised an eyebrow at her in question, "Nuh huh, I'm not telling you any of them now, that's the payback part. You get to wonder about those."

Walt's smile broke across his face, "I can do that too." He claimed her mouth and pulled her to him immersing himself in the sensation of giving himself and accepting from Vic in return. He felt he could spend all night kissing her. His heart was light with the relief and realization that they were actually doing something about their feelings for each other. Staying where and as they were that moment, was a very comforting thought. When they separated for air Walt looked down into Vic's face, his fingers swept the hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He rested his hand against her cheek, "You want to dance some more?"

She smiled and shook her head, "No, but I wouldn't mind if we played some of the music."

He grabbed part of the stack of quarters off the bar with one hand and took Vic's hand with the other to lead her to the jukebox. She grabbed the note with the song list, which was still on the bar and suggested they take turns selecting songs from the list Henry and Cady had left for them.

They had punched in more than fifteen songs and Walt said, "We're getting close to an hour on here."

She smiled at him, "In a hurry to go somewhere?"

"Nope. You?"

"Nope."

They stared at each other until the first song started; Walt finally spoke, "Sure you don't wanna dance?"

"Not unless you do."

He shook his head, "I'm good."

"How 'bout a beer?" She suggested

He took her hand again and walked her back to the bar. Walt stopped and released her hand, as they reached the stool at the end of the bar, and then continued around the bar. He bent down, reached in the cooler, and pulled a couple of Rainier long necks out with one hand. When he straightened he felt Vic wrap her arms around him from behind. She slipped her thumbs in the waistband of his jeans behind his belt buckle, letting her fingers drape over the top of the bear paw. She rested her chin gently against his back, right along his spine; between his shoulder blades, "Got any pretzels?" He could feel the vibration of her voice as it rippled up and down his spine and thrummed through his body.

"Pretzels?"

"I don't really want any. I just wanted an excuse to come back here and do this." She squeezed her arms into him a little bit and then relaxed them again.

He placed his free hand over both of hers, let his arm rest along the top edge of her forearm and gave her hands a little squeeze, "You don't need an excuse." He turned his head to try and see her over his shoulder. Vic moved her head to the side so their eyes could meet and gave him another little hug and smiled her thanks. He smiled back and added, "We do need to talk though."

"Yep."

"Henry's office?" He suggested.

"Okay." He didn't move. She carefully nudged one of his legs with hers, not wanting to buckle his knee, "Well go on."

Walt could hear the smile in her voice and chuckled as he started walking with Vic's arms still around him. He thought it silly to be walking in a close lock step with her, but realized it really just felt fun.

They'd settled on the couch in Henry's office; leaving the door open so they could hear the music. Walt leaned backed and opened his arms to Vic, who quickly snuggled against him. As they sipped their beers, they discussed the details and parameters for the newest phase of their relationship. Potential fallout, backlash, and downfalls were addressed by both of them. Walt was reassured to know Vic really had thought about the consequences of their being romantically involved. She wasn't coming in this blinded by any unrealistic notions. They discussed where they thought they might be heading, their hopefulness and concerns matched each other in equal measure.

The only thing they settled on, for sure, was their desire to move forward, slowly, so they could preserve what they already had; agreeing that neither could stand to live without the other. Additionally, they set some mutually agreeable terms of behavior while at work or in uniform in public.

So much for slowly, Walt thought as his mind replayed the make out session that followed their talk.
They had managed to keep their clothes on; although Vic's blouse was untucked and his shirt was untucked and part way unsnapped. When they halted their explorations of each other, to keep from taking things too far too fast, Vic had insisted on listening to his heartbeat without his shirt in the way and soon fell asleep; her head on his chest and her face part way hidden under his shirt.

An hour or so later she stirred and Walt woke too. She smiled up at him, "We're gonna have trouble moving in the morning."

"It's already morning."

"Yeah well I'm already having trouble moving, so there." She joked.

Walt stood and turned to help her up. She had had her feet drawn up under her on the couch and had some difficulty baring weight in them at first. So, he drew her into his embrace and held her while she shook and wiggled slightly in an attempt to wake her sleeping limbs.

"Thanks." She said as she held onto his neck and kissed him below his ear.

"Hmm. My pleasure."

She giggled at him as she wiggled again, carefully tapping one foot on the floor.

When she didn't move again for a while, Walt tighten his hold and jiggled her a little bit. "You didn't do the other one."

She laughed, "You just want me to wiggle against you again."

He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her, "Okay."

She shook her head at him, "Sorry but everything's awake now."

"Me too."

She giggled again, kissed him quickly, and stepped from his embrace, "We're supposed to be taking it slow remember?"

"Yep and was reconsidering that too."

"Oh?" Raised brows

"Yeah but thankfully you moved and a clearer mind could prevail."

Vic snickered at his silliness and grabbed the beer bottles off the table and walked back into the bar.

Walt watched her from the doorway. The jukebox had grown silent sometime while they talked and he wondered if he should drop some more quarters in. Vic popped the bottles into the empties bin and plucked the song list and note off the bar. She read them both again and then tucked them in her back pocket.

He walked over to her and repeated her earlier hug from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder, "Ready to leave or should I start the music again?"

She pressed her head back into his shoulder and sighed, "I think we better go, it's really late and we have work tomorrow."

"I think you mean it's really early and we have work today."

"Gah, so technical. Either way I'm afraid we need to leave."

"Right." He squeezed her lightly and nuzzled his face to her neck, "Need a lift home?"

"No, to the station."

"The station?" His voice was muted by her hair, but the timbre rumbled through her.

"Yeah I caught a ride over with Ferg, my unit's still there."

"Mmm." His voice faded off.

Vic reached a hand up to Walt's hair and let her fingers roam about, "You go sleep?"

"Nuh huh. Just thinking."

"About?"

"Howta say something without making you mad."

Suspecting whatever it was wasn't as bad as his words made it sound, because there was no real tension in his voice she said, "I'm in a very generous state of mind right now, try me."

"I was thinking maybe we should go back to my cabin."

"And that would make me mad?"

'Nuh huh," he shook his head against her neck.

"Okay, then what?"

He adjusted his head and rested his chin on her shoulder again, "Just the part where I say only to sleep."

Vic could see him from the corner of her eye and knew he could see her when he squeezed his eye shut and titled his head away from her, like he was avoiding an expected blow. She couldn't help but laugh, "You are too much. You know that?" Turning in his arms, Vic draped her arms around his shoulders, "Sleeping with you could never make me mad." She placed a couple of soft kisses along his jawline.

"Don't think it would be too tempting?"

"Maybe. But to be honest I think we're both a bit too tired and we haveta be up and at it again in just a couple of hours. Besides we did say we're gonna take this slow, right?"

He looked down at her, "Yep. But with our little exploration earlier I wasn't sure we could…"

"We stopped, right?"

"Right."

"You trust me?"

"Of course."

"And I trust you. We're not a couple of horny teenagers, Walt. We can handle just sleeping together. Dontcha think?"

"Yep." He graced her with a very gentle almost chaste kiss. "Besides you're right about having to be up for work soon."

Knowing there was something else on his mind she asked, "What're you thinking?"

"Logic says it's too far to drop you at the station and both of us drive back to the cabin. So, how about we go to the cabin, grab a couple of showers. I'll loan something to sleep in. And in the morning, we can swing by your place so you can change before work.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

They debated leaving a note for Henry, but when they couldn't decide what to say they figured they would leave him to wonder how things turned out. Walt switched off the last of the lights and Vic locked up the door with the key Henry left for her.