As Billy's truck pulls out from the long gravel driveway that belongs to the farmhouse and onto the main road, Lissa breaks the silence between them.
"So Barney figured us out huh?" She asks, looking towards Billy, "Guess I'm saved from that awkward conversation."
"Speak for yourself." Billy tells her, letting out a nervous laugh, "Let's just say that whole cliché conversation behind a Dad and his daughter's boyfriend is a hell of a lot scarier when the Dad doesn't just leave it at owning a shot gun and busting knee caps. I don't think Witness Protection could save me if I break your heart."
Lissa smiles at the word boyfriend, "Guess I missed another conversation then too, the whole going-steady one."
"Well Barney caused you to miss that one. I was planning on presenting you with my Letterman's tonight. And by Lettermen's jacket I do mean bullet proof vest." He tells her with a laugh.
She reaches over taking his hand that had been resting on his lap while the other manned the steering wheel, and laces her fingers with his. "As for Witness Protection, I don't see you breaking my heart anytime soon Timmons. So I think you're stuck with me."
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Billy answers and quickly takes his gaze from the road to kiss her cheek.
"So now where are you taking me that involved having Lee's Lacy dress me up?" Lissa asks him. Neither she or Billy are the fancy evening out types, so she's been curious since Lacy ordered her into the shower.
"That's a surprise." Is the only answer Billy gives her.
They pull into a small marina which is most empty of boats tonight. Billy leads her down to the very end of the dock where a picnic blanket complete with picnic basket is set up along with a whole bunch of candles. A piece of paper is pinned down with a rock on top of the basket with the word "Enjoy" in block handwriting that she recognizes as Caesar's.
"While it's a shame not to bring you out while you're all dressed up like that." Billy begins as he helps her sit down near the basket, "I figured we'd end up kicked out of and banned from a fancy restaurant. The rich folks really don't like chatter of guns and blood, don't know why."
Lissa can't help but laugh, "This is perfect." She tells him as he sits down on the other side of the basket.
"So I figured with everything going on you might want a little taste of home. And Barney told me how much you like seafood, but never order it." Billy says and then opens up the picnic basket, pulling out a steamed lobster.
She feels her mouth open a bit in shock, "Do you seriously have a whole New England clam bake in there?" Lissa asks in awe. Billy tilts the basket to her and sure enough she finds mussels in a container covered in butter, sweet corn on the cob, cornbread and a second lobster.
"Minus the clam chowder, but I figured it's still too warm out for that." Billy tells her, a smile on his face.
"You know Billy; you're making it so hard for me to be able to one up you one of these days." She tells him. It had been awhile since she had a calm bake dinner and it makes her think of Boston and Derek even more. But the sadness that came with thinking of Derek isn't there this time, instead she's reminded of the summer she spent with the Hollis family in Cape Code, while she was their foster child.
The two are just finishing up when it starts to rain. The light drizzle quickly changes to a heavy downpour and they rush to gather up the picnic supplies. They rush to the pick-up truck, drenched despite their best efforts, and begin laughing for no reason at all. A roar of thunder echoes across the nearby body of water before a bolt of lightning lights up the sky.
"They weren't predicting a storm." Billy tells her and turns the truck on tuning to a weather station on the radio. As the weather man talks about the unexpected storm and how it's expected to last through the night Lissa notices her phones notification light flashing from the dashboard. She's glad she left it in the truck instead of bringing it out with Billy and her. It would have been soaked beyond repair if she had.
There's a voicemail and missed call from Barney and she brings the phone to her ear to listen.
"Lissa, it's Barney. We've been called out on a mission. Nothing too crazy or important, a simple snatch and grab north of Baton Rouge. We're driving up instead of taking the plane due to the storm coming in. We'll be back by morning. We don't' need Billy for this one, so you to enjoy your night. Have Billy stay at the house till we get back. See you soon." Barney's voice comes threw her phone in the voicemail.
"Who was it?" Billy asks, turning off the radio.
"Barney, The Expendables got called out for a mission in Baton Rouge." Lissa tells him and before she can explain more, Billy's reaching for his own phone looking perplexed at the lack of missed calls on the screen, "He said it's a snatch and grab, something simple and that they don't' need you for it. They'll be back in the morning."
"Perfect because we still have dessert." Billy tells her with a smile, "Cesar made blueberry coffee cake, from scratch. It is delicious." He pulls out of the marina parking lot and pulls onto the road, heading back to the farmhouse.
"We have vanilla ice cream at the farmhouse." Lissa adds. After being drenched in the rain nothing sounds better than warm blueberry coffee cake with a side of ice cream.
Back at the farmhouse, Billy changed out of his wet button down shirt and shorts and into a dry shirt and shorts from his bag he kept in the barn turned airplane hangar. Lissa got the blueberry coffee cake warmed up and left Billy to finish up while she went upstairs to change.
A bolt of lightning lights up her room, even more than the light, as she changes into white shorts a black t-shirt. Still feeling a chill from being in the wet dress, she pulls a pink cardigan on over it. Thunder roars on in the distance and she stops to look out the window for the next bolt of lightning. The lightening doesn't come but the lights suddenly go dead in the house. An uneasy feeling rising up in her stomach, the outage can't be explained by lightning and the wind isn't strong enough to tear down trees and power lines.
Lissa tiptoes out of her room, grabbing a pistol from the table in the hall. A part of her is saying she's paranoid, but the other part is reminding her of training with The Expendables. She can hear Yin telling her to stay calm and Gunnar is telling her to find a flashlight. She takes each step slowly, stopping on each one to listen for sounds that are out of place. When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, there's a warm glow from a candle Billy must have light, in the kitchen. She's about to call out his name when she sees the shadow of a person much too tall and wide to be Billy. Someone is in the house.