Owen had watched with something akin to awe as he watched Gwen and Tosh literally stop the three burly men dead in their track

Owen had watched with something akin to awe as he watched Gwen and Tosh literally stop the three burly men dead in their tracks and cause them to do an abrupt about turn back to the bar.

"The power women have." He muttered under his breath. "Sometimes it's just not fair."

"Excuse me?" A voice came from just behind him, nearly making him jump out of his skin. He turned in his seat, hand going to his hip automatically to reach for his gun, but managed to stop himself pulling it out as he realised that the person speaking to him hadn't deliberately attempted to scare him to death. It was the look of shock and apology that gave it away he decided.

"Yes?" He asked, once his breathing had had a chance to settle.

"Um, never mind." The voice had gone very timid and Owen realised with a start that it was a woman talking to him. He'd been so startled the gender of the voice hadn't even occurred to him. He found that it suddenly reminded him of Tosh, that shy tone of voice she so often used around him, and immediately felt guilty for the way he'd reacted.

"No, look, you just caught me off guard. What was it you wanted?" He said, turning himself fully round so that he was facing his new companion straight on and attempting his best smile to put her at ease. It seemed to work.

"I, well, it's just that I'm waiting for someone and there's nowhere to sit so I wondered if you'd mind if I sat here? If your friends are coming back I can just …"

Owen interrupted her before she could talk herself out of her plan.

"No, it's fine. They've all buggered off anyway, at least for a while. Lot of them off canoodling and heading up mercy missions."

Seeing the quizzical look he was receiving as the woman sat down he shook his head apologetically.

"Sorry, thinking out loud. My name's Owen by the way."

"Sarah."

"Nice to meet you Sarah." He said, sticking out a hand for her to shake. "So, who you meeting?"

Sarah looked a little startled at his forwardness but apparently decided she might as well spend her time talking rather than sitting in silence with this complete stranger as she answered Owen's question with little delay.

"A guy from work. I, well I've liked him for a while but this is the first time he's really shown any interest in me."

"So this is what, a first date?"

"No! No, no, no." Sarah replied adamantly. "No, it's just a drink, you know, between friends. Workmates. Just without the rest of the usual crowd."

Owen listened to her with a sense of familiarity.

"And, well, I mean if it turned in to a date then that would be fantastic but no, it's just a drink with a friend. He doesn't think I want anything more. I mean, when I suggested meeting after work he was going to invite the others along!"

The feeling continued and Owen's gaze was inexorably drawn to where Tosh stood by the bar, being leered at by a man at least a full foot taller.

"I don't know. There are times when I think maybe he does realise that I like him, but then he does something like that and I see that he really is completely oblivious to it. I had wondered whether he was ignoring me on purpose because he must be the only person that doesn't see it, but I don't believe he'd be that cruel, so I suppose he really has just never noticed."

Owen managed to bring his eyes back to her just as she dipped her head to hide her face behind the curtain of her hair, embarrassed at how much she had just revealed to him, and had to hold back another groan of realisation as he recognised the action.

"Oh look I'm sorry, I should just go wait at the bar or something." Sarah started to gather up her things, having taken Owen's silence as meaning that he wanted nothing to do with her.

"No, it's alright." Owen said, placing a gentle hand on hers. "I was listening, in fact you were helping me see a few things more clearly."

Sarah looked at him and saw that he was telling the truth. Settling back down she focused on him.

"Similar situation?" She asked.

"Yeah, I think so anyway." Owen replied, still musing over his newfound discovery. "'Cept I'm the oblivious one in this version."

"Men." Sarah laughed softly.

"Oi!" Owen replied, not entirely offended but feeling that he should defend his sex somehow. "S'not my fault if she never got up the guts to tell me!"

"Perhaps you made yourself too unapproachable?"

Owen considered this, knowing it was true but also knowing that if it had been, say, Gwen who had actually harboured feelings for him the fact that he was a grumpy bugger most of the time would not have stopped her trying to get a message through to him. But Tosh, well, Tosh wouldn't say boo to a goose unless it was threatening some machine of hers. He sighed and shook his head.

"Bit of fault on both sides maybe." He conceded. "But I wasn't looking for it, you know?"

"And now that you've found it?"

Owen looked at her. He knew what she wanted him to say, knew that she was looking for her situation to parallel his and for it all to end happily ever after. He was sorry that he couldn't give that to her.

"It's not something I want to get into. Even if I had known I'd have had to pretend not to or something, it's just not what I want." He said, and watched her face fall before she managed to pull up a sympathetic smile. They sat quietly for a few minutes, each of them thinking, but eventually Sarah threw back her drink and patted his hand as she stood up.

"Well never mind, and wish me luck!" She said. "My not-really-a-date is here so I have to go, but I hope that you sort things out with this other version of me!"

Owen smiled back and caught her hand to shake it.

"Yeah well, you just make sure your version of me actually gets the point." He replied, and watched her walk off through the crowd toward the door. Sighing he leant back against his chair and was about to direct his attention back to Gwen and Tosh when his view was blocked by his other two colleagues.