A bit of a shorter chapter here, but it was either make a short one and get another two chapters out to you guys today, or make it really, really long, and you'd only have one chapter. My apologies.

As the days wore on, Ginny and Harry fell into a comfortable rhythm. They'd wake up, race each other on the treadmills (Harry always won), shower (Ginny always took longer, leaving Harry plenty of time to brew coffee), share breakfast (Harry had finally broken down when she'd offered him her mother's fresh baked scones), then walk to work.

When they returned to the apartment, Ginny would fill her time by reading, cooking, or watching TV. Harry filled his time by watching Ginny read, cook, or watch TV.

Sometimes, Ginny's family came over to see her, sometimes Ron came over just to see Harry (The two men became close over a rough match from the Bulls, and had been solid friends ever since). Apart from these visitors, their time passed in silence, which Ginny attempted to fill whenever she had the chance. Harry kept his nodding to a minimum, throwing in a few precious facial expressions when absolutely necessary.

By week three, the only point of contention between them, besides Harry's silence, was the cot in the hall.

Ginny glared at him over the Wednesday morning paper while she separated the sections. Business for him, sports for her, and they shared the front page.

"It's ridiculous! Why don't you just go back and sleep in my room? Or…or I'll sleep in my room!" She'd said. Harry raised his eyebrows at her and sipped his coffee.

"Ok, fine. I don't want to go back to sleeping there. It's too…it feels like it's been invaded, somehow. Well, at least take the couch, or move the damn cot into the guest room! There's no use for you sleeping out in the hallway like a homeless person!"

Harry could have told her that the hall provided optimal visibility for the whole apartment, including her sleeping form. He also could have added that he looked and smelled nothing like a homeless person, and he had no intentions of becoming one anytime soon. But he refrained, taking another bite of bagel.

"I'm sure that you don't need to have constant visual contact with me. We haven't heard from the crazy stalker in a week!"

Harry frowned at her and lifted his paper back up, hoping she wasn't letting her guard down too much.

"Not that I'm getting complacent, or anything." She rushed, making him smile. "I'll wear you down, soon, though. We have no idea when you'll be leaving, and my mother raised me properly, so I know that when I have a guest in my home, they deserve their own room, or at the very least, their own bed!"

Behind the stock report, Harry winced. He actually did know when he'd be leaving, but didn't exactly know how to bring it up. What was he supposed to do? Wait until she stopped talking about her peanut allergy and then say, "Hey, listen, this Sunday, I'll have been here for a month, and bureau rule states that after a month on a case, the officer in charge has to take a five-day break. So, just look out for someone who's not me to come in Sunday night, ok?"?

Just thinking about it, he felt like a creep. Of course, if he could just get over his stupid pride and open his mouth and say something to her, this would be easier. But no, he was the most noble, disciplined man in the world, and he followed the books to a "t". And the books said that it was deemed acceptable for an agent to begin speaking to his long-term charge after two months, because that was the point when they had enough personal knowledge the client that they were already emotionally involved.

Harry didn't know who had thought up those rules, but he wanted to punch them in the face. And after he did, he wanted to kindly let them know that it had taken him about two days to get to know Ginny enough to become attached, not two months, and that this particular part of the system was complete bullshit.

And that was the problem, wasn't it? He and Ginny seemed to be making up their own rules as they went along. Which was not sanctioned in any of the books.

Harry reached over to where Ginny was wrestling with a jar of strawberry jelly and twisted the top off for her, easily.

"Thank you." She muttered, dipping her knife in the jar.

"You're welcome." Harry murmured back automatically, pre-occupied not paying attention. Beside him Ginny's head snapped up. Harry froze.

"You talked!" Ginny practically yelled, pointing her dripping knife at him. "You totally, completely said 'you're welcome'!" She bounced on the balls of her feet as Harry used all of his control to keep his face from turning red.

Ginny spun around in a circle, flinging jam onto Harry's face and shirt. He blinked at her, wiping off the stickiness. She was rocking side to side, singing, "You said you're welcome!" over and over in various melodies.

He grabbed the knife from her hand, seeing as she was still whipping jelly all over the fridge and countertops.

"All right, all right. That's enough." He grumbled, setting the knife down. Ginny stopped rocking and cupped her face in both her hands.

"He speaks again! This is the best day of my life." She batted her eyelashes at him. Harry didn't laugh, but instead glanced guiltily down at his bagel.

"Listen, we needed to talk anyways." He told her. She sobered up immediately, hearing the gravity of his voice.

"What is it?" She asked, dropping her hands to the island counter. Harry took a deep breath, savoring the feeling of actually being able to speak back to her.

"This…Well, you're not going to like it." He paused, waiting for her reaction. She only nodded slowly. "I have to leave." He told her. She gasped and stepped back before he could follow it up. He stood from his stool and grabbed her wrists, keeping her from backing up further.

"It's only for five days. I'm coming back. And I'm not leaving until Sunday. Night. And I'm going to hand-pick who'll replace me, so you don't have to worry about that." He said hurriedly, watching as she processed his words. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"You couldn't have started with that first part? Before scaring the shit out of me?" She growled at him, but she kept her hands in his, not pulling back. Harry allowed himself one or two strokes of his thumbs on the insides of her wrists. Her skin was sinfully soft. He reluctantly gave her hands back to her and sat down again.

The intensity of her reaction scared him. Partially because it wasn't exactly along the guidelines of expected client behavior, and partially because he shared her same fear. It was irrational, he knew, but he'd gotten in his head that if he weren't around to look out for her something would happen. But he hoped that a few days apart would break down some of this ridiculous attachment he had to her.

The only thing, at times, that had kept him from grabbing her and kissing her hard was the fact that she'd used her charms on countless other men before him, and he refused to be one of her many swains.

As for her feelings, well there wasn't so much he could do about that. It was normal for a charge to become uneasy at being separated after the first month, but they were supposed to get over that fairly quickly. He had a feeling Ginny wouldn't get over it at all.

"So…ok. Are you done talking now? Because that was kind of a big bomb that you just exploded in my face."

Harry didn't meet her eyes as he handed her knife back, hilt first. Ginny made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and jerked the knife out of his hand so fiercely that it took a small slice out of his index finger. Harry glanced accusingly at her before reaching for a paper towel to stem the bleeding.

"You deserve it, you horrible, stupid man!" She growled at him. She reached behind her and snatched a box of band-aids out of the cabinet she used to store medicines. She didn't even look at him when she tossed the box in his general direction.

Harry sighed inwardly.

His week did not get easier from there. Ginny was upset with him, which shouldn't have bothered him. So, he told himself that he was not bothered by it, even though he was. By Friday, she'd stopped talking to him directly, and by Sunday evening, she was hotly angry and snapped at everything.

Harry was leaning up against the refrigerator while Ginny flipped through a tabloid that had been stuck in her mail by mistake. Harry had become used to prolonged periods of silence in the past few days, so was startled when she let out an angry shriek. He jerked to attention, scanning the apartment for any signs of trouble.

Ginny glared at him.

"Oh, calm down!" she hissed, scathingly. "The only thing being threatened here is my virtue." She scoffed, throwing the paper into the trash next to him. She stalked into her bathroom, customarily leaving both doors opened, and Harry used the opportunity to glance down into the trash can.

"Weasley Caught Canoodling…Again!" The headline announced. Below was a picture of Ginny and her new Editor, Colin. They were leaning rather close, and looked as if they were about to kiss. Harry frowned. This picture had been taken last Thursday. The magazine had cropped him out of the frame, but he remembered being there.

They'd actually been having a very heated argument about some revisions that he wanted done to her latest piece. There was no way that they'd been about to kiss. Harry frowned at it and looked closer. There was some sort of writing leaking through from the back page. He reached down and flipped the magazine over.

Honey,

Canoodling without Me?

Bad move.

Hope your sweetie's ok…

Love, Me.

The message was scrawled in sharpie, and the same sharpie had been used to violently mark out the address that the magazine had originally been meant for. He was furious, but pushed his anger aside at the knock on the door.

He glanced into Ginny's room as he passed and heard the shower going. He flipped the locks and let Seamus Finnegan inside. Ginny had requested him specifically, and Harry had wanted to throw the young rookie a bone after handling the doll incident so well. Seamus bounced in.

"Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. Lavender was so proud of me. Said as soon as I was done this week we'd take a trip down to-"

"Finnegan, I'm really sorry, but I've got to run to the station immediately. Are you all good here?" Harry interrupted, ready to bash some heads for letting the magazine get through to Ginny. Seamus held up his duffle bag.

"All set, sir." He said, nonplussed. "But don't you want to say goodbye to Miss Weasley before you go?" He asked. Harry shook his head, slowly, willing Ginny to come out of the bathroom so he could see her one last time before he…

"No, it's urgent." He told Seamus, stalking out the door and pounding down the steps. He didn't look back once.

Like I said, short chapter, but the next one will be up tonight, so hang in there. I think it's time for a kiss, don't you…?