Chapter 4

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When Rosa woke the next morning it was because the sun was shining brightly in her eyes and where she expected Gina to be laying was a cold lonely mattress. She sat up and glanced around the room, eyes squinted shut from the brightness of the sun.

"Good morning sleeping beauty," Rosa looked to the source of the voice. Gina, beautiful, incredible, irresistible Gina.

"Good morning to you too," Rosa replied gruffly, she was vaguely aware that she was still nude when she tossed the covers back to get out of the bed.

"I've already showered, so you feel free, otherwise I was thinking we could get some breakfast?" Gina inquired lightly. Rosa smiled, actually smiled, up at Gina.

"Yes, I definitely need to shower," Rosa grumbled slightly. "Also I'd love to get breakfast, any chance of stopping at my house for fresh clothes?" Gina bit her lip, no one at the precinct had been to Rosa's house, ever.

"We can do that," Gina agreed. Rosa climbed out of bed and hopped into Gina's shower using the girls shampoo and body gel, relishing the smell of Gina on her own skin as she dried her body. Getting redressed in her dirty clothes was no big affair, Rosa Diaz does not do walks of shame, most of her clothes are indecipherable and if she zipped up her jacket no one would even know she hadn't changed. "Last night was incredible," Gina said lightly as they drove steadily toward Rosa's apartment. Rosa's face lit up as a laugh bubbled from her stomach, she reached over setting her hand on Gina's thigh.

"Last night was more than incredible," She retorted, "and I hope we can have that kind of fun again." Rosa glanced over at Gina who was blushing slightly, they excited the car and started walking up to the apartment building. "Before we go inside, if we run into my neighbors—"

"Emily!" A matronly woman shouted from the stoop, "oh Emily dear! Is this your girlfriend?" She asked. Rosa's face brightened.

"Mrs. Moretti," Rosa greeted warmly, hugging the woman lightly, "Yes this is my girlfriend, Gina." Gina looked entirely bewildered. "Gina, love, this is Mrs Moretti, the woman who makes the best ziti on this side of the Hudson River." The Italian matron hushed Rosa and went to hug Gina.

"Lovely to make your acquaintance finally Mrs Moretti," Gina managed to spit out, "now Emily and I here were just heading upstairs to—"

"Oh hush darling, my old ears don't need to know what two young beautiful women are getting up to, off you trot dears." Rosa and Gina finished their ascent upstairs silently.

"My neighbors think my name is Emily Goldfinch." Rosa finished lamely as she opened the door to her apartment.

"Rosa is so much more your name," Gina concluded after a few moments of silence.

"They also think I'm a chatty bisexual with a girlfriend," Rosa said slightly smugly.

"I don't know about chatty, but I'd say you're a bisexual with a certain someone as a suitor." Rosa was in her room changing as Gina wandered the kitchen, it was a very basic setup, minimally decorated, same with the living room. Gina wandered into the bathroom and noted it was also minimally decorated, but clean nevertheless. Gina wandered to the one door she hadn't looked behind, it was open and Rosa was in a mid state between dressed and not. "You look amazing," Gina told her, Rosa stood, her clean jeans pulled up, but not buttoned, bra on shirt half on.

"You don't mean that," Rosa replied.

"I really do," Gina promised, she closed the distance between them as Rosa finished putting on her shirt and kissed the taller woman softly. Rosa while surprised that Gina had pulled the first move pulled Gina against her in an effort to deepen the kiss just as Gina broke the kiss. "You're an intoxicating woman, but we need to eat, we've been on a date for over twelve hours and we've only eaten once." Rosa went to protest, but her stomach grumbled.

"Point made, lets get breakfast." Gina pressed another chaste kiss to Rosa's lips before pulling away again. "Alright, time to go eat some real food," Gina grabbed Rosa's hand and the two of them left Rosa's apartment.

"Promise you won't move now that I know where you live?" Gina asked somewhat uncertainly.

"I only move when people know where I live, you aren't people, you're Gina." Rosa cursed herself for her terrible wording. Jesus Diaz, you're Gina. Makes about as much sense as saying, 'you're the love of my life and I want to marry you tomorrow'.

"I get it," Gina reassured, "if I was just anyone then yes you'd move, but since we're in a romantic thing right now, I get to know where you live."

"Exactly," Rosa responded gratefully kissing the side of Gina's head as they walked down a few blocks to where Rosa promised was the best breakfast in Manhattan. Breakfast wasn't overtly exciting, it was just that, breakfast. "Did you want to hang out today or did you have something going on?" Rosa asked as they were finishing up the last of their eggs.

"I'd love to hang out, but I do have a few errands to run this afternoon, maybe we could get together this evening?" Rosa found herself nodding, yeah, she should do errands too. Like go to the gym and work out and ride her motorcycle until the wheels fell off and go scream from mountain tops.

"I'm definitely more than okay with hanging out tonight," Rosa agreed.

"I could walk to my house if you're busy now that we're done eating," Gina awkwardly noted as they walked toward Rosa's car.

"Not a chance, I'll give you a lift home." Gina nodded gratefully at Rosa's words. When they arrived at Gina's apartment complex Rosa leaned over to kiss Gina goodbye softly her hand curling in the hair of the Italian girl. "Come over tonight," Rosa whispered as she pulled away.

"I'll bring some takeout menus and movies if that works," Gina raised an eyebrow glancing at Rosa. Rosa nodded.

"Sounds great to me, just text me when you're on your way." Gina slipped out of the car. Damn, she's fantastic.

—

My errands took me all of about fifteen minutes, but now that we have a date tonight it'd be silly if we just stayed together all day long. Rosa read the text from Gina and rolled her eyes.

I just got back to my house, I plan on going on a motorcycle ride up the coast, you're welcome to join me. Rosa typed back quickly and set her phone down to wait for Gina's response. She had planned on jumping on her motorcycle the second she got back and taking off, but she could wait a few minutes until Gina—Rosa glanced at her phone.

You want to take me on a ride up the coast? Rosa grinned at her phone.

Yes, come over and we'll go, wear something warm, it's cold off the coast.

I'll be there in fifteen minutes.

Rosa smiled brightly at her phone sticking it back in her pocket and grabbing from the closet her extra motorcycle helmet and a thick leather jacket for Gina to wear, safety first after all. A soft knock at the door made Rosa look up from the pile of motorcycle gear she had pulled from her front closet. She stood up and threw the door open to where Gina was grinning brightly. "Hey there," Gina's voice rang from the hallway.

"Come in, come in," Rosa ushered her inside, "I'm just getting some protective gear for you to wear." Gina glanced at the pile of motorcycle gear and nodded. "You need to obviously wear the helmet, and one of the jackets, and probably gloves," Rosa rambled.

"Are you going to wear these?" Gina asked holding up a pair of leather pants.

"Yes, you should wear some too," Rosa told her, "they just go over your pants."

"Sure," Gina said nodding. Rosa had already pulled a pair of leather pants over her own jeans and pulled a thicker jacket on before holding open a jacket for Gina to put on. "I feel like such a badass," Gina told Rosa with a laugh.

"You look hot," Rosa told Gina with a bright grin, "you really will need these clothes, the coast is chilling this time of year." The two of them finished dressing before walking downstairs to where Rosa's motorcycle was parked in the parking garage and without another word the motorcycle roared to life and the two were off to their venture out of the city.

—

Two hours after they started their journey out of the city they finally reached the coast, cruising slowly along a winding road watching the waves crash against the sand and Rosa pulled off the road. "This is where I come after a hard case," Rosa said softly after they settled, helmets off, sitting in the cool sand watching the icy waves crash against the beach.

"Thank you for sharing that with me," Gina said softly as she leaned her head against Rosa's shoulder. The two watching the waves crash in near silence together was the best thing Rosa could have imagined.

"I've never shared this spot with anyone," Rosa admitted after a few moments of silence, "but there is never anyone here, and sometimes even though I come here to be alone, it gets lonely."

"Well, if you come here alone sometime and you need to not be so alone you can call me," Gina told her, "or text me if you don't want to talk out loud, or e-mail me if you don't want me to see it right away, or send me snail mail if you don't want me to get it for like a week." Rosa felt herself smile, and then laugh, and then she felt Gina laughing beside her.

"We should get some lunch and then we can either go further up the coast or we can drive home the long way," Rosa told Gina after their laughter had subsided.

"Which one will take longer?" Gina asked lightly.

"Probably the long way home, it's through the forest and it's a slow drive," Rosa told her as they got back to the motorcycle to head into town for something to eat.

"Then let's take the long way home and by the time we get home maybe we'll be ready to sit on your couch and watch one of those old films you like so much." Gina had to yell her sentence over the roar of the motorcycle and Rosa still barely heard her.

"That sounds like a perfect day," Rosa yelled back. She secretly decided they would buy motorcycle helmets with speakers in them to more easily communicate with each other. Once they arrived at the restaurant, a small Irish pub just two miles away from the beach, Rosa glanced at the other girl. I will not let Gina Linetti slip through my grasp, I will marry this perfect specimen. I will also teach her the ways of good Irish food and Mexican holidays and she can meet mi abuela and mi tio and tia. "Gina, I know we've only been on three dates and all and we just decided to date exclusively last night, but can I call you my girlfriend?" Rosa glanced at her from across the table to catch an ear splitting grin from Gina.

"Girl, yes. Can I call you mine?" Gina asked.

"No, you can call me detective Diaz," Rosa couldn't hold in her laughter, "I'm kidding, you can totally call me your girlfriend, also I want you to meet my abuela, of course not like today or anything, but she's the most important part of my family." Gina nodded.

"I'd love to meet your abuela, afraid you already have met my entire family, my mom, step dad Lynn Boyle, my step brother Charles, and Jake." Gina smiled lightly.

"I have a lot of family, and I'm not exactly out to them, so I need to tell them we're together before we make some big entrance." Rosa mumbled to her.

"My family all knows I date who I want," Gina told her with a shrug, "but you do you bae, take your time." Rosa nodded through her traditional Irish meal. The subject strayed from family to work, back to family and then to nothing, but it was perfect. "Would it be okay if we told Captain Holt we're dating?" Gina asked after they exited the restaurant and before they took off for their long ride home. Rosa swallowed hard, if Holt knew that means they may as well tell everyone else given that Amy and Jake already knew.

"Yeah," Rosa finally said after a few moments of thought, "we may as well tell everyone at work though, Jake and Amy know, Holt will know that really only leaves a few people."

"Perfect, we will make our announcement Monday then," Gina grinned at Rosa and pulled on the spare helmet and climbed onto the motorcycle behind her girlfriend. Gina wrapped her arms around Rosa and breathed the salty smell of the ocean in as they drove toward New York City taking the slowest, most windy road they could have ever found. The fall colors popped around them patches of yellow and orange splaying their way across their fields of vision as they zoomed around twists and turns and up small hills and down big ones. I couldn't think of a better way to spend an entire Saturday than to ride my motorcycle with my girlfriend all the way to the ocean and back.

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