Cecelia knew something was weird before she even opened her eyes. Her legs were tangled with ones of the hairier variety generally belonging to a man and her head was resting on the strong arm of the unknown bed partner not to mention that fact that her hands were pressed against his warm chest as if they belonged there. Her eyes stayed tightly shut in the hope that when she finally opened them whatever body she was currently curled up against would be gone. When seconds passed and nothing changed CeCe cracked open one eye and found herself face to face with a peacefully slumbering Mac.

A stray lock of hair had fallen over his forehead making him look much younger than his twenty-two years reminding her of the boy she'd once known. Cecelia couldn't resist smiling at the picture reaching up to brush the hair off his face enjoying the feel of his skin beneath her fingertip.

Snippets of the night before started to filter through her mind. She could remember reruns in Jimmy's room and then a brief flash of being carried by Mac followed by a remembrance of touching his face much like she was now and saying something before sleep overcame her. Her nose scrunched up in thought as she racked her brain for memories of what had been said the night before but to no avail. Her words eluded her best efforts to focus on them and eventually CeCe gave up sure that whatever had been said couldn't be that important in the grand scheme of things anyway.

Mac's eyelashes fluttered a little in response to her gentle touch on his forehead. Her fingers stilled on his skin waiting for him to drift back to sleep. A soft exhale escaped from his lips and on their own accord CeCe's fingers wandered down to trace across his lower lip. Something innocent shone in his face during sleep tugging at her heart strings in an almost painful fashion. She smashed down the worry that reared its ugly head in response to the strange feelings because for just this moment Cecelia was content to simply be with him.

Robbie's eyelids finally opened slowly blinking once and then twice before focusing on her face, "Good morning babe."

Cecelia smiled wider at his sleepy grin her unease swelling larger in the back of her mind at the natural feeling of waking up next to Mac. Somehow it didn't feel right that something so out of the ordinary should feel so right and normal. "Hey," she whispered dropping her fingers back down to rest on the pillow underneath her cheek.

"Did you sleep well?" Mac questioned his voice slightly roughened from sleep.

Cecelia nodded to answer his question and then asked him one of her own, "Not that I mind, but why am I in your bed?"

"You don't remember?" Was it just her or had his face fallen a little after that last question? After a second Cecelia dismissed the idea when a plausible reason for why he'd be disappointed failed to appear in her mind.

"Not really," she murmured afraid that a normal tone of voice would ruin the moment surrounding their sunshine soaked little bed, "The last thing I remember is being at Jimmy's and then I have little flashes of you picking me up but nothing after that."

"You fell asleep over there and not a dozing sleep but like a hardcore don't-wake-me-till-morning type sleep so he called me to come get you around one o'clock last night," Robbie explained absent-mindedly running his thumb over the knuckles of her hand that somehow had ended up in his grasp. The familiar action soothed Cecelia like nothing else in the world.

"Poor Jimmy," she groaned in embarrassment horrified that he'd been forced to call Mac in the middle of the night to come get her off his bed, "I can't believe I did that."

"He didn't mind," Mac consoled her, "He just thought that you might mind come morning if you woke up in bed with him. Somehow Jimmy thought waking up to my face would be a little more reassuring for you."

It was only after his words made her giggle a little for almost no reason that Cecelia noticed neither of them had shifted away from one another since waking. Her legs were still tangled with his and only a scant few inches separated the rest of their bodies. His left arm was around her body and the hand he wasn't holding rested lightly on his chest.

"Mac," Cecelia started uncertain of what she wanted to say, but knowing that this was definitely turning into a situation that needed to be addressed, "I think we need to—"

Before she could continue or Mac could reply, the door burst open revealing O.C. and Silky carrying a plate of doughnuts and a glass of orange juice.

"Look the lovebirds are awake," Silky pointed out placing the plate next to him on Jack's bed before stretching his legs out to rest on a chair off to the side, "We thought you two would sleep half the day away."

At the lovebird comment both Mac and Cecelia had shifted away from each other almost toppling off the bed on either side in their collective haste to achieve a more platonic space between themselves.

"Don't move on my account," Silky said lazily swinging his doughnut back and forth in his hand before taking a large bite out of the side, "I love doughnuts. Dough fried in a vat of grease and then rolled in sugar what a genius idea."

Cecelia's annoyance over their intrusion faded quickly as the scent of fresh bakery doughnuts wafted past her nose. "Are all those for you?' she asked beaming a sweet smile at them, "Or do you have enough to share?"

Jack snatched the orange juice Silky had placed on the bedside table and handed it to her, "This is for you and we brought you a glazed doughnut and a bismark with vanilla filling. We weren't sure what kind you liked."

"My two favorite kinds," she declared in ecstasy seizing the two doughnuts, one in each hand, and grinning wider, "I love you guys."

"What kind did you bring me?" Mac asked trying to get a better view of their remaining selection hoping they'd brought him a twist, a little put out that they seem to have forgotten his glass of juice.

Silky looked at Mac like he'd gone insane, "What do we look like your delivery service? Get your ass out of bed and go get your own. You have legs. They're all down in Pav's room."

"But you brought CeCe doughnuts!"

O.C. shrugged, "She's a girl and she's cute, two things that you are not."

"Double standards are a bitch," Silky proclaimed munching happily on his doughnuts.

Careful to balance her doughnuts in one hand Cecelia rolled out of bed searching for her shoes while sipping her orange juice, "Are we still on for pizza and a movie tonight?"

"For sure, does seven o'clock sound ok for dinner?"

"And then the late show?"

"What else?" He answered in reply knowing that most of their questions were asked simply out of habit since both of them had been adhering to the same routines for years. Pizza and a late show had been their fallback plan for as long as he could remember. Cecelia liked late shows because the theater was less crowded and they could mercilessly mock the movie if it turned out to be a dud or merely talk without feeling bad about interrupting the theater-going experience of those around them and he liked late shows because she liked them.

She attempted a wave with her hand that was still clenching her doughnuts unsuccessfully making all the boys laugh at her effort, "I'll see you tonight then."

O.C. had the decency to wait till Cecelia was out of earshot before he threw a pillow at Mac, "Just friends, huh? Sounds like a date to me."

Mac glowered annoyed both with their teasing and with his lack of doughnut, "It's a not a date."

"Going to dinner and then a movie, alone? Sounds like a date to me, what do you think Silky?"

Silky nodded his agreement still preoccupied with consuming as many doughnuts as possible in the smallest time frame possible unconcerned with the direction of their conversation since it was one he'd sat through before.

"Why don't you come along then if you don't believe me?" Mac asked hoping that his invitation was sincere enough that O.C. would shut up but insincere enough that even O.C. would understand he wasn't actually being invited along. No one could call it a date if he was willing to invite his teammates to come, but that didn't mean Mac wanted to ruin a perfectly good evening with just CeCe by dragging along a couple of guys to prove a point.

Of course, Jack being Jack didn't read the fine print and just sat there nodding his head looking pleased with the invite, "I don't mind if I do Mac. I've been waiting for you to ask. Do you want to come along Silky? I'm sure Mac won't mind."

"Some other time fellas, Pav and Verchota have a massive poker tournament set up for tonight and I'm planning to make a killing."

"Looks like it's just going to be you, me, and CeCe," Jack smiled slinging a casual arm around Mac's shoulders, "This is going to be fun."

VV

"Buzzy I need you!" Cecelia burst through his door without knocking only looking mildly concerned by the sight of Rizzo dressed in a rather small towel sitting on his bed drinking a mug of coffee. "Hey Rizzo," she said breezing past to peer in Buzz's corner of the room before turning on a dime and heading for the bathroom door.

"I hope you're decent," CeCe called wrenching open the door and barreling her way in. She slammed the door behind her, breathing hard and collapsed onto the edge of the bathtub frowning as a wet sensation spread across her bottom because of the wet rim.

"Hello to you too," Buzzy replied not even bothering to appear surprised by her less-than-elegant entrance having grown used to her propensity toward dramatic entrances over the years, "What's up with you?"

"I think I'm going on a date with Mac," she said pausing for dramatic emphasis waiting for Buzz's gasp of shock perhaps followed by the southern-belle swoon. That's how shocking her news was.

"Ok."

"OK!" Cecelia cried unable to believe that he was taking this so calmly, "Exactly what about this situation is ok? I mean I'm freaking out here and all you say is ok. What's wrong with you?"

He managed to restrain himself rolling his eyes, but only just barely, "Why don't you tell me what's wrong about it first? Then we can talk about how to fix things."

"Everything! This is Mac we're talking about, not some random boy I picked up off the street. It'd be like dating you, but weirder!"

"Why do you think it's a date?" Buzzy decided to attack the situation from a different angle knowing that trying to make Cecelia see reason at a time like this was an impossible feat. She needed time to calm down before rational thought would resume. If anyone else was here, Cecelia would do a surprisingly realistic imitation of pulled together for their sake, but with just Buzzy around to see her freak-out she let it all hang out.

"Well he didn't call it a date," she started her eyes still a bit wild after her frenzied flight down the hallway. The minute she was out of sight of Mac, O.C., and Silky she'd made a dash for Buzzy's room knowing that he'd be able to make sense of her situation. "But we're going out for dinner and then to a movie and Jimmy told me that those two things equal date. Usually I wouldn't believe him, but things have been a little weird between us lately. I slept over there last night because I fell asleep at Jimmy's watching TV so Mac came to get me, and when we woke up you couldn't have fit a nickel between us. The worse thing of all is that I liked it! I liked sleeping with Mac and I really liked waking up with him! That's not good Buzzy!"

Her whole tirade was unleashed in a flurry of words making it difficult for Buzz to follow her rambling train of thought much less understand it although he was definitely getting the feeling that O.C. had been right in his prediction of more than friendly feelings between the two of them, "Ok, slow down for a minute CeCe. It's ok if you like Mac as more than a friend. No one ever said you couldn't."

"But I don't," she protested, "Mac is just Mac. He's not boyfriend material at least not for me. I'll admit that lately I've been having some, well, some strange feelings where Mac is involved, but nothing that won't get away. It's probably a result of stress and not getting enough sleep."

"So you don't like him?"

Cecelia shook her head decisively, "No absolutely not."

"I'm still not convinced Mac meant this as a date," Buzzy said after thinking for a minute about the best course of action, "You're probably just letting Jimmy get to you, but if you don't want Mac to think this is a date, just bring someone along. He can't call it a date if you bring another friend with."

"That's perfect," CeCe exclaimed throwing her arms around him noticing only at that moment that he was dressed in just a towel like Rizzo and there was still soap in his dripping wet hair, "Did I interrupt your shower?"

"A little bit," Buzzy laughed, "I'm just glad I got a hold of a towel before you came bursting in like a rampaging soldier or you would've seen way more than I'm comfortable with."

"So," Cecelia started their conversation back the way it had been headed and flashed Buzz a mega-watt smile, "What are your plans for the evening?"

He returned the smile with a wink, "I'm going out to dinner and then to a movie with two of my best friends of course."