Winnie may or may not take a little extra time to curl her hair the next morning, which is dumb (it's not like she did anything special to it for the night before, is all) but she does, lets it fall on her shoulders and feels this tiny frisson of anticipation in the pit of her stomach.

Which like, so stupid. She needs to get a grip.

She's flipping through the binders, looking for a doc from a four month old case that she swears Team Three only wants because she doesn't know where it is, when someone leans over the desk and goes, "So? Last night?"

She raises an eyebrow at Ed. "Last night...?"

He rolls his eyes at her, a huge grin on his face and she knows it's at her expense (and well, he's been having a tough time, she knows that, she's not blind, he's found few things amusing lately and she can see the big picture here). "Well?"

"It was great," she says, thinks the way she's trying not to let her smile take over her whole face is probably giving the game away.

He snickers. "Yeah? Care to elaborate?"

She doesn't even know where she'd start even if she could get the words out, just shakes her head at him, has to press her lips together to keep from flat out beaming.

His eyes search her face and he looks like how Ed's supposed to look. "Well. You look happy. That's good. I'd hate to have to beat up someone on my own team."

She knows he's teasing but it makes her smile and she feels a rush of affection for Team One, how close they all are, how Sarge put family first (the point is, she totally plays favourites with the teams and she's totally fine with it).

"They still in work out?"

She nods. "Yep. It's been quiet so far."

"Let's hope it stays that way," he says with a grin, knocks on the top of her desk. "Okay, I'll see you later then." He pauses at the door to the gym. "Hey guys. We've got a training exercise against Team Three next week - guess what we're going to be doing today?" He shoots a grin at her, heads to the locker room amidst good-natured groans.

Team One's all geared up when she first sees Spike (and okay, fine, she sort of sees Dahlia's point about the uniforms, like they are not unattractive, even if she is used to seeing them). She's on the phone, Team Three's tech in her ear and she sighs, tells him that, "no, it's just not possible to do that with sealed records."

She hears Spike snicker and she flushes even though what is there to be turning red about? Nothing. That's what.

She hangs up, smiles up at him as he leans on the desk and says hi.

"Spike."

He glances behind him (possibly, the whole of Team One is hanging back a little, giving them both the kind of looks that are usually reserved for yawning puppies and very young, cute children), then leans over the desk and says, "You look really pretty today."

Yeah, she's totally blushing. "Thanks."

He returns her smile, eyes fixed on her face. "So."

She raises her eyebrows at him. "So."

It's entirely possible that she could just sit there looking at him all day.

Sarge clears his throat, is grinning much the same way they are. "We'll be in the shoot house. If you need us."

She gets this jolt like okay Winnie, stop forgetting you're at work and that other people are here too. "Okay."

Spike looks back twice, catches her looking at him both times. He winks at her and as soon as he leaves, she lets out a giggle, leans back in her chair and shakes her head at herself.

Dahlia shows up right at 7, so completely on time that Winnie's jaw drops open. "I may die of shock," she says with a snort.

"I know, me too," Dahlia agrees, all beaming smile, green eyes searching Winnie's face. "Whenever you're ready."

"I'm just waiting for my relief."

"No rush." She quirks her lips at her. "So. Where's Spike?"

"Locker room," she says with an eye roll. "And you can stop saying his name like that any time now."

"I'm just keeping it real."

"I don't know what that means," Winnie says, eyes on the notes she's currently transferring to different binders, "but don't feel like you need to explain."

"Ha ha."

"So. What are we doing tonight?"

"I told you. Going 'skating'," Dahlia says, a smirk on her face. "No no. I'm thinking bar food. We can indulge your affinity for cheese and nachos."

Winnie finishes what she's doing, slides the binders back into place, leans her chin on her hands. "We are not getting trashed," she warns. "I can't do it."

"Fine, be boring. No alcoholic tendencies tonight. I'm going to warn you though, I am dying. Dying. I can't believe I've had to wait this long to hear about everything."

Winnie laughs but also, she feels this rush of affection for her best friend, like she just got really lucky that very first ballet class.

Pete sprints in the door, runs right up to the desk. "Win, I'm sorry, running late," he wheezes.

She rolls her eyes up at him and smiles. "S'okay. You need more time?"

He unzips his jacket, shaking his head. "Got dressed on the way here. You don't want to know. I'm good whenever you're done."

She grins, squeezes past him. "Yeah, please don't tell me how, I don't think my brain could take it. I'll be five minutes, Dahl."

"Take your time," she says, looking around nosily. "I'll just…wander around. Amuse myself."

"Don't touch anything!" Winnie calls back, ducking into the locker room.

Leah and Jules give her matching grins when she walks in, glancing at each other before they start giggling.

"So. Have a good night last night?"

Winnie pulls her uniform shirt off, replaces it with a sweater and tries to keep the blush out of her cheeks. "Very good."

Leah and Jules look at each other before high-fiving and letting out catcalls. Winnie rolls her eyes laughing.

"The guys have been giving him a hard time all day," Jules confides.

Leah snorts. "Yeah. He didn't mind."

"What an understatement."

Winnie doesn't know what to say, cheeks red, wonders if the guys on Team One always give Spike a hard time after he's gone out with someone. Possibly, she's also thinking about kissing him, a lot, wondering if she can possibly get a five minute make-out before Dahlia realizes she's taking too long. She's never gotten dressed so fast in her life and when she glances at Jules, she kind of thinks the other woman knows exactly what's going through her head.

"Um, okay. Goodnight guys!"

She hears more giggling before the door to the locker room swings closed.

She comes to an abrupt stop just outside, Dahlia engrossed in conversation with Spike and Sam, all three of them laughing but as she slowly walks up to them, Winnie's eyes are fixed on one person.

"There she is," Sam says, eyes flicking to Spike.

"Hey."

She tries to keep the smile small, normal, doesn't want to look like that girl but it's possible he's smiling the exact same way she's trying to avoid smiling and well, in any case, she fails. "Hey."

Dahlia clears her throat unnecessarily loudly. "Well. Your friends here were kind enough to entertain me until you were ready."

What's also unnecessary is the kind of inflection she puts on half those words, Winnie can't even.

Spike grins at her. "Well, Dahlia, I don't want to keep you two. But. I just need to borrow Winnie for a really quick second. She left something in my car."

As far as she knows, Winnie didn't leave anything in his car but then she sees the way his eyes flick towards hers and she bites down hard on the side of her mouth to keep from grinning and giving away the entire game.

Dahlia looks like she's about to burst from keeping her mouth closed (and Winnie can appreciate the effort it's costing Dahl to not open said mouth and embarrass the ever living shit out of her). Sam's looking at Spike incredulously.

"So. Um. Should we go?" she says.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Sam roll his eyes, a smirk on his face.

"We should," Spike nods, all 'move along, folks, nothing to see here'.

She's giggling by the time they get out to his car. He pulls her to him gently, one hand firmly on her jaw as he kisses her, bites her bottom lip a little. She fists her hands in his coat collar, kisses him back just as hard. Forgets entirely about Dahlia, forgets they're still in the parking lot at work.

"You should go," he exhales against her mouth, hands on her ribcage inside her coat.

"Where?" Leans up to kiss him some more.

He laughs, makes her laugh too, kisses her again before he says, "Tomorrow? Ice cream? Oh, sorry, not ice cream, that fake stuff you like that you can put all those toppings on."

She glares at him, tries to keep the smile off her face. "Okay. Tomorrow."

He kisses her one more time (or possibly two) before she hears footsteps behind them and they pull apart. She leans casually against his car door, tries not to look like she's just spent the last ten minutes doing what she was doing.

"Oh there you are," Dahlia's voice is filled with suppressed mirth, Sam and Jules walking next to her, all three wearing identically entertained looks on their faces.

Winnie clears her throat. "Yes. At the car. Where we said we'd be. Amazing how things work out sometimes, isn't it?"

Dahlia looks at her slyly, gives Spike the exact same look. He doesn't shuffle his feet the way Winnie does though, doesn't blush, just raises his eyebrows. Possibly, Winnie could learn a thing or two from him about how not to look guilty. "So. What did you have to get?"

Winnie has no earthly idea what she's talking about, just looks at her blankly.

Dahlia snickers like the clouds have just opened up and deposited gold coins.

Sam must take pity on her because he says, "Whatever it is you forgot in Spike's car."

It still takes Winnie a second and she knows her cheeks are red. Jules is hiding her grin in her scarf. "Um. My um. My-" She looks at Spike pleadingly but he just shoots her an amused look and doesn't say a word. "Socks," is what pops out of her mouth.

"Socks," Dahlia repeats.

"Yep. Socks."

Even Sam looks like he's grinning now and Winnie thinks that this would probably be the ideal time to leave. "Um. Thanks. For returning my socks," she says to Spike, mutters, "I'll get you for that," as she moves past him. He shrugs, grinning, purposely stepping into her way so that her arm brushes against his chest which pretty much makes her completely incoherent, nevermind what they were doing five minutes ago.

"See you tomorrow."

She knows she says something back, something totally unintelligible, knows she says something along the same lines to Sam and Jules and then gets the hell out of there.

Dahlia contains herself until they've ordered and Winnie's asked for extra cheese on her nachos. Winnie looks at her face and sighs. "Why don't you just say it and get it over with?"

"I TOLD YOU SO."

"Hm. Feel better?"

"Yeah, kind of." She smirks. "Also - you had to get something from his car? Really? Come on. I know I taught you better than that."

Winnie glares at her.

Dahlia shrugs it off, still smirking. "So? Tell me! How was it?"

"It was...great."

"It was great?" She looks unimpressed. "And?"

"And nothing. We went to dinner-"

"Did you sleep with him?"

"What? No!"

"Come on, you can tell me. I won't judge," she says wheedlingly.

Winnie rolls her eyes. "Believe me, I'm more than aware you won't judge. But that didn't happen. It was totally...not at all like that."

"Yeah. That's what you said about dating him. Huh, how'd that one work out again?"

"We've gone out once."

She looks at her, mouth slightly open. "And?"

"I don't know. Isn't there like a time-frame for that? Like three dates? Or is it four?" Winnie sighs. "Fuck, I have no idea what I'm doing."

Dahlia laughs, sits back looking satisfied. "Bet you wish you'd spent a lot more time reading Cosmo now, don't you?"

"I hate you."

Dahlia laughs again, looks supremely unconcerned. "I mean. Who really waits for three dates? And four? That's just silly."

Winnie glares at her. "You're not helping."

"I think you should do whatever feels right," Dahlia cackles. "I think that's the going rule these days."

"Oh okay, so that's useless."

"Follow your instincts?"

Winnie drops her face into her hands. "I'm out of practice. This is just...I don't know. Dating? It's just-"

"You're out of practice with sex too. Don't worry. I'm sure it'll all come back to you."

"Why am I even friends with you?"

"Because. I'm awesome." She smiles at their waiter, waits for him to put down their food before leaning over and snagging one of Winnie's nachos. "Personally, I don't know what you're even waiting for. Just do it. Think Nike."

Winnie rolls her eyes. "Yeah, that's really helpful. And, like I said before. We've been out once."

"And I still don't see your point. It didn't really look like that was stopping either one of you."

"I hate you."

"So you keep saying." She smiles suddenly. "You look happy."

She flushes. "I am. He's...he's-"

"Yes, I know, he's great." Dahlia rolls her eyes but she looks like she's a second from bouncing right out of her seat. "You two are just...like so cuuu-"

"Don't say it," Winnie warns her. "That word is for petting zoos and daycares."

"Ruin my fun, why don't you."

Winnie sighs, fiddles with some melted cheese. "It's too soon, isn't it? Like one date. That's so-"

"Not really. I mean, what do you expect, right? Like all that stuff you usually find out on dates you probably just skipped right over."

"Like what?"

Dahlia sighs heavily as if the cares of the world are about to be solved by the next words out of her mouth. "Like, is he a dog person, what he does for a living, does he have any siblings, what kind of music he listens to - like did you guys talk about any of that stuff? Of course not. Because you already know all the answers. It's not like you could just sit down at dinner and be all like 'so! Tell me where you got your nickname'."

Winnie doesn't really see the point she's trying to make. "Okay?"

"So. I'm just saying. You guys are on a totally different time frame here. It's like a completely different trajectory. This isn't like you're dating to find out if you can even stand spending a whole evening with him."

"And?"

"And. Dating someone who's already your friend? Not like dating someone you don't know. There's way more involved."

"Like what?" Winnie suddenly feels like she's way way out of her depth, like she's at the top of a black diamond and doesn't know how to ski.

"Like you're already invested, even though you've only gone out once. I mean, regular people go out once and if you don't like the person, who gives a shit? Ditch them and move on. But you guys…it's just different."

Winnie clears her throat, stuffs a nacho in her mouth to avoid saying anything.

"Don't freak out," Dahlia warns. "I'm just telling you how it is. Nothing's different than it was ten minutes ago."

"Except you've just gone on and on telling me how serious this is," Winnie mutters mutinously. "What am I supposed to do with all of that?"

"Not screw it up?"

"Yeah. Cause I'm a real expert on that."

Dahlia takes a sip of her drink, looks at her carefully. "What happened with Rob? Not your fault. I just...you guys aren't going to discuss your past relationships? Kill counts?"

"You are horrifying," Winnie tells her. "Kill counts? What is this, frosh week?"

"You totally want to know, don't you? You should ask him. Ask him how many times he's used his badge to get laid. Or pointed out that he holds a sniper rifle on a daily basis – see how many numbers that's gotten him."

"Dahlia!"

"I bet he has. I would, if I were a guy and part of an elite tactical unit."

"And you're definitely the pinnacle of moral behaviour right here."

Dahlia laughs. "Don't we all know it." She looks at her seriously. "What have you told him? About Rob?"

Winnie stares at her in horrified shock. "Nothing. God, that'd make for a great conversation. No thanks."

"You're not going to tell him anything? He's not stupid, he's going to want to know about the rule."

"What rule?" Sometimes, Dahlia switches topics so fast that Winnie gets a little lost.

Dahlia rolls her eyes like she can't believe someone so stupid is sitting across from her. "The no dating cops rule. Jesus, you've got a short memory."

Winnie rolls her eyes back. "It's still a rule. He's just…it's just…he's different."

Dahlia looks at her and then shakes her head like it's possible Winnie really is the stupidest person she's ever had to speak to.

"He's just...it's not like if it doesn't work out, I'm going to-even this is…it's different." She almost rolls her eyes at herself that time – yes, it's all different but she can't exactly put her finger on why (or maybe she can and it's just too soon to face the answer).

"Except things are totally going to work out."

Winnie just shakes her head. "I don't want to get ahead of myself."

"That much," Dahlia says with another eye roll, "is evident." She chews thoughtfully. "So what's your word? Think he'll be good in the sack?"

"Can you not?" Winnie says, making a face and flicking the corner of a chip at her.

Dahlia giggles madly for a moment. "Good kisser?"

Winnie sighs patiently. "Like I said. It's great."

"Bet you're wishing you'd taken my advice before."

"Maybe," Winnie says musingly. "Honestly. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"That's really fucking depressing." Dahlia picks at her food and then looks at her. "You realize that you're not the only person in the world that had a bad relationship end? Don't bring all of that into your new one. He doesn't deserve it."

"Did I really just have to find out about who you're sleeping with from Dahlia, of all people?"

Winnie stares at her alarm clock bleary-eyed, thinks that she should have another hour of sleep before it goes off.

"Hello! Winnie!"

She mumbles something into her phone, tries to sit up.

"I mean, seriously, I have to hear about this from your friend?"

"Mel?"

Mel lets out a long sigh.

"Why are you calling me at four in the morning?"

"To talk about the fact that you're dating someone and you didn't tell me!"

Winnie stares into the darkness above her bed before she lets out a laugh. "Are you kidding me? You woke me up to ask me about-"

"Yes! Obviously! I can't believe you didn't tell me yourself!

She opens and closes her mouth for a second. "We've been out once. One time! We haven't even-"

"So? This is Spike not some random you met at the bus stop. Which would be ew."

Winnie rolls her eyes.

"So? How did it go?"

"Our one and only date? It was great. We went to dinner. He held my hand. He brought me flowers. And he kissed me goodnight."

"Sounds like he's the perfect guy."

"Oh shut up, Melanie. I didn't even say that, you got there all on your own."

Mel snorts with laughter. "You didn't have to say it. Win. Anyhow. That's all I called to talk about."

"You called and woke me up at four in the morning to tell me you already knew I'd gone out once with someone?"

"Not just someone. But yes. Essentially."

"Goodbye Mel, I'll call you back at an hour that doesn't make me want to shrivel up and die."

Mel lets out a whoop of laughter. "You do that. I want to hear all about it. Love you!"

Winnie grunts out something and hangs up but she's grinning madly when she snuggles back down into her blankets.