Quinn was nervous, she almost jumped out of her skin when Alfie knocked on the door. She had already dropped one tomato on the floor as she cut it and knocked over a glass of water. It had been a long time since she'd been this nervous. He had rattled her. Resting her hand on the doorknob she took one look around to make sure it looked tidy and took a deep steadying breath and opened the door. "Good Morning." She chirped.

"Hi." His smiled made her barely in control nerves completely disintegrate. "Good Morning." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her in for a short, sweet kiss. "You ready?"

"I thought we'd eat here, I've cooked breakfast." Quinn gushed nervously. "Do you mind? Or we could go out, it's okay."

Alfie smiled at her nervousness, her being nervous was a good sign surely? "Eating here is fine."

He confidently stepped around her and into her apartment, despite his stomach doing flips; he wasn't as cool, calm and collected as he appeared. "You like bacon right, eggs oh wait you are not vegetarian are you, or vegan? The whole not eating animals because you love them right?" He thought it was amusing considering they'd had dinner two nights ago and he'd eaten a steak. The effect he was obviously having on her made him feel good about himself and made him nervous too. He could fuck this up in the blink of an eye in fact he was surprised he hadn't already.

"Quinn, relax. I eat bacon, I love bacon."

"Good." She closed the door. "Coffee?"

"I'd love a coffee, why don't I make it while you finish breakfast?"

"How's Addy?" Quinn was desperate to let him know she was okay with him having a daughter, even though she didn't know that she was okay with it. She just needed a chance to find out.

Alfie was surprised she'd asked about her so quickly. He hadn't expected to talk about her just yet. "She's good. Surprisingly not so keen on mornings today so I copped a gobful when I dragged her out of bed but we had a big day yesterday so she was tired. We went to the water park and she loved it but she hit a wall last night so that was ugly." Alfie figured out the coffee machine as Quinn finished the scrambled eggs. They moved around each other easily which felt like a good start. "How was your day yesterday?"

"Good, caught up with friends, went for a run, all the usual Sunday stuff, caught up on everything I hadn't done all week."

"Did your friends approve or is this some test they devised? Are they here?" he peered around the apartment. It was spotless but looked lived in, not that he expected anything less. "How am I doing?"

"Pretty well so far."

"You tell them about my messy life?"

"I did and they think you are cute so I should stick around a bit."

"Cute?"

"Instagram stalking."

"Ahhhh…." He followed her over the small dining table with the coffee. "…I suppose that's fair, wanted to make sure you weren't letting some crazy stalker into your home?"

"My worst nightmare."

"My little sister was stalked by a guy a while back. It was pretty full on."

"Oh my god, was she okay?"

"Yep, eventually. He ended up paying some guy to drug her in a bar with a Roofie and tried to get the cops to let him take her home. She was smart though, before she completely passed out she got to the bathroom and Colton, her partner had just messaged her so the cops called him. The fucking asshole was charged and turns out she wasn't the first. Picked on the wrong fucking family though, my uncle is a cop, my Pops was a cop. It didn't end well for him." Alfie seemed so unbothered by telling her while she was freaking out.

"That's awful."

"It was pretty bad at the time, he started hassling her through my Instagram initially, so I got dragged into it, he set up a fake Facebook account, none of us have Facebook." Quinn knew this because she had checked, he seemed to like his privacy. "She's got a good guy though; he looks after her." Alfie ate the last of his breakfast. "Bug's done it rough lately but she's like this warrior."

"Bug?"

"Iris. We call her Bug a lot, she's always has been our Bug and she loves it, even Addy calls her Bug."

"Is that why you don't have photos of Addy on your Instagram?" Quinn asked. She'd been curious to see what they were like together but there was not one photo of her, the only photo she'd seen was the one of his phone. "Because of what happened to your sister?"

"Yep that's one reason. My Dad always kept us out of the public eye, it has always been that way. His job was relatively high profile, well in the Zoo world anyway and he had this blog online that was pretty epic and he talked about us but never our names and never any photos of our faces. Addy's mother never put photos of her online either, probably in case I looked her up or something." He shrugged. "…So it just feels like the right thing to do. There are so many reasons not to do it and not one really good reason why I should, except that I am insanely in love with her and think she's amazing and the cutest little girl in the world."

"That's sweet."

"I have a million on my phone though. It's insane."

"Your life is a little crazy." Quinn crinkled her nose a little but her eyes gave her away. She liked it or more to the point, she liked him.

"Yep." He leant back, put his hands behind his head. "Makes it exciting though right?"

"Makes things interesting." She reached over and went to grab his plate and he put one hand on her wrist and she liked the spark she felt. "and challenging."

"I like a challenge." Quinn held onto his wrist and turned his arm over. "What's this mean?" She ran her fingers over the words tattooed on his forearm. They were numbers.

"That's Pops badge number." He pointed to one and then the other "And that's MiMi's."

"That's sweet." He liked that she was tracing the words with her finger.

"They were good cops, and good people. Pops adored my grandmother; he was heartbroken when she died and we were worried that he would just give up but he didn't. He wanted to meet his great grandchild; Lola was pregnant with Sam at the time. He has four great grandchildren now and he's crazy about them and they all adore him, pretty much like we do. He's such a crazy old coot."

"You love your family hey?"

"Yep."

Alfie grabbed the empty coffee cups and followed her into the kitchen, he stood close behind her and she could feel his hot breath on her neck. "So, breakfast is done and we've still got a couple of hours." Placing his two hands on the bench he trapped her against it. "Any ideas?"

"Some." She turned around and Alfie stepped even closer, their hips touching. Cocking her head to one side she ran one hand down the side of his face, brushing her thumb over his lips and he sucked on it lightly. "Don't you love a hot breakfast?"

"I do." Alfie kissed her. "How do I pay?"

"I take cash, card or..." Quinn grabbed his hips and pulled him tight against her, delighted to feel his reaction. This was unlike her; she was out of her comfort zone and didn't care one iota. "or I do love the cashless economy too."

"I didn't bring any cash..." Alfie kissed her neck, his hot breath tickling her as the words hummed and oozed through her like warm honey. "So?"

"Hmmmm…." She pushed him away suddenly and led him by the hand to her bedroom. "Come with me."

For Alfie it felt like it had been forever since he'd been here. A random thought popped into his head, a conversation with Lola a few months ago and as he laid her on the bed and hovered over her, kissing her face and neck and he stopped suddenly. "I don't want this to be a bash and dash, I want you though." Whatever this was, he didn't want it to be a once and done.

"I don't want to stop right now, do you?"

"Fuck no." Alfie kissed her hard, begging her for access to her mouth, he wanted to taste her. "But I will stop if you want me too."

"Alfie you are wasting time." She sat up and pulled her polo shirt over her head. It wasn't the sexiest bra he'd ever taken off but he certainly made short work of it. She was gorgeous, and he kissed every inch of her and let her unbutton his shirt while he just watched her and felt her hands on his chest and stomach. Feeling her warm skin on his when he pressed her down into the bed made him groan a little.

Quinn worked away at his buckle first and slid her hand inside his shorts. "Fuck." He growled against her neck. He fumbled at the waist of her pants. It was insane how quickly they'd got here and neither of them showed any signs of slowing down. "You feel so fucking good."

Tilting her head back and arching her back she opened herself up to all of him. He loved the little moan she let out as she urged him on, one hand gripped the sheets beside her while the other dug into his shoulder as she felt his strong muscles move with his whole body. It didn't last nearly as long as they wanted it to but they had worked each other into a state beforehand. "Best breakfast ever." She whispered in his ear as he nuzzled into her neck.

"I have no complaints."

"None?"

"Nope." He ran his hands over her face and kissed her sweetly. "Maybe one."

"Really."

He glanced at his watch. "This breakfast joint closes in an hour."

"Best you order now." Quinn pushed him onto his back and straddled him. Resting both hands firmly on his chest she just looked at him for a moment.

"What?"

"The things you make me do already. Alfie, I want to see you again, I really do."

His laugh was warm and made her blush. She was sitting on top of him, completely naked having just screwed him and telling him she wanted to see him again. "I hope so, otherwise this is a little awkward."

"I really do." He saw her bottom lip tremble slightly.

"Hey.." He propped himself up on his elbows. "…Quinn, I promise you that I will see you again, soon, like this, naked and sweaty, with that dreamy just been fucked look about you."

"What about Addy? She is your priority."

"So don't want to think about her right now." It was the last thing on his mind. All he could think about is how he wanted to screw her again right now. Talking about Addy wasn't going to help his situation.

"But.."

"No." He covered her mouth with his hand. "No, buts…just promise me we will try, that's all I want right now. I am here with you, that's where I am right now and I don't want to think about anything else, okay? When I am with you, I want to be with you."

After a brief pause she smiled shyly. "I can feel what you want right now I think?" She wiggled her hips, at least she knew she turned him on.

This time they made it last. "You look incredible right now." Alfie just watched her as she came back down for her high, it had been spectacular to watch and feel. "I'm gonna think about you all day."

"I'd like that."

They left it to the last possible minute to jump in the shower, have a quick freshen up and were out the door. Alfie offered to drop her off at work on the way. He leant over and kissed her goodbye. "Thanks for the bash and dash, I will call you later, okay? After Addy is in bed, so don't freak out if it's not 'til late."

"Is that what we are calling this?"

"Bash and Dash? Yes."

"Then I can't wait until the next time you bash and dash."

"Me either." He sat and watched her go, he needed a minute to process what had just happened. That was not where he thought the morning would go, he just wanted to spend time with her, have breakfast and hopefully organise a time to see her again. Now he needed to see her again…soon.

Alfie had her all turned inside out and her first few patients didn't get the best of her. "Are you alright?" One of her regular Mom's asked her. The reason Quinn really wanted this job was for the Paediatric experience, that's what she enjoyed the most, getting kids on their feet after major trauma, illness or helping those that got the rough end of the stick in life.

"What? Yes. Sorry, just had an unexpected morning. It's thrown me off a little."

"Good or Bad?"

"Good unexpected, but I'm sorry. It shouldn't distract me." She refocused and pushed Alfie from her mind. She couldn't think about him all day.

He didn't help matters when he sent her a message just after lunch. 'lunch wasn't nearly as exciting as breakfast. Matter of fact it was a huge let down. Just in case you forgot, BEST BREAKFAST EVER.'

Waiting for him to call was like torture. Quinn went for a run, had a shower and then lay on her bed, still unmade from the morning's unexpected activities. She could still faintly smell him and when she closed her eyes she could see him and feel him. This was insane, he was under her skin and the revelation that he had a daughter didn't send her fleeing, it made her more interested which was absurd. This was going to be impossible but he asked her to at least try and she wanted that more than anything.

She was still lying on her bed when he called. "Hi, how are you?"

"I'm good."

"Worried, confused, excited, remorseful?"

"Lonely."

"Fuck, don't tell me that." Alfie groaned. "Hey if I want to bash and dash tomorrow, and I do, what time do you start?"

"Seven AM."

"Crap. What time do you finish?"

"Three."

"Can I stop in and see you on my way home? Addy will be in bed already. I don't finish until Eight."

"So an actual bash and dash?"

"No, I just want to see you. Nothing else." Alfie didn't want her to think that that was all he wanted. He wanted so much more than that. "Please? I want to see you."

"Okay."

"Okay, now tell me about your day." They quickly settled into an easy conversation about their respective days. Quinn told him how one of her parent's pulled her up on her strange behaviour early on and it was nice for Alfie to hear how much the morning had affected her. She wasn't upset by it, quite the opposite, she had loved the afterglow. "You know, this morning, you were great, I could have stayed with you all day."

Quinn was quiet, it hit her in that moment. They'd probably never get that, just a day to hang out in bed, or just together doing whatever they wanted because he would always have to be with Addy. On his days off he would want to spend time with his daughter, so where did that leave her?

"You are freaking out right now aren't you? You are worried about us making anything of this? You think it will always be a quick bash and dash?" Alfie picked up on her silence.

"A little."

"Okay, fair enough." He sounded a little annoyed and more than a little disappointed.

"Alfie, wait. It's just so new and there is all this stuff going on that I wasn't expecting."

"Quinn, can I just see you tomorrow night?" Alfie knew that he just had to see her again, kiss her again and they'd work it out. It was too good not too.

"Yes."

It was the longest day of her life. How had he done this to her already? She had a nice quiet life until he crashed into it, sure she was lonely and wanted to spend time with someone, to have someone to talk too, laugh with, kiss and have sex with and yet she met someone who may not have time for her apart from the quick 'bash and dash'. Yet he was so good at that, the sex had been breathtaking.

Quinn was surprised when she opened the door to a pot plant. "Oh…"

"Flowers die, pot plants don't, I hope." Alfie handed her the plant and kissed her cheek as he walked nonchalantly through the open door. Once she had placed it on the counter Alfie grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in tight to his body and gave her a better greeting. "Hey." It was a kiss that made her feel weak at the knees.

"How was your day?"

"Busy, I was covered in shit and giraffe piss for most of it."

"Nice." Quinn pushed herself away from him. "You do stink a little."

"Sorry, I was going to shower before I left work but I didn't want to waste a moment. I did change my clothes though."

"Do you want a shower now?"

"I guess I should, wanna you join me?"

"Go have a shower." Quinn pointed to the direction of the bathroom. Of course he knew the way, they'd been in there yesterday morning. "I'll grab us a beer? You will stay for a drink won't you."

He just nodded but before he left the room he kissed her long and slow. He hoped she picked up on his unsubtle beg, sure he'd stay for a beer but what he really wanted was for her to join him in the shower. He just didn't want to sound like a horny dick that was only here for sex.

Quinn opened her fridge and reached for two bottles of beer before closing the door without grabbing them. She headed to her bedroom, stripped off and walked into the bathroom. His head was under the shower and she watched him for a moment, admiring his strong muscular back. She appreciated that he had an impressive body and loved his tattoos and wanted to get a better look at them as they didn't really stop for any of that yesterday morning.

"Want me to wash your back?" He jumped when her heard her voice and was surprised that she was already naked. He loved her confidence. Holding out his hand he just smiled and pulled her under the warm water.

"Couldn't resist me?"

"Nope."

"That was my plan all along." He attacked her neck, his hands wandered all over and Quinn more than matched his urgency. "You've all I thought about since about lunch time, up until then I was actually good at my job and then I thought of you and it all went to shit."

"Those poor animals."

"Don't care." He kissed her hard and then looked her in the eye. "You tell me what you want and like and I will make you happy, that's all I ask." Within minutes they were out of the shower, quickly drying off as best they could and tumbling onto the bed clawing at each other.

"Can I ask about these?" she ran her hands over all his tatts once they had let their heartrate return to close to normal. She knew about the story about the tattoo on his forearm but not the rest.

"Sure." One by one he pointed them out starting with the large tattoo on his side. "This one is for my sisters, the giraffe is me, looking over them, Lola's the Leopard, Mae's the Rhino & Bug is the Wombat."

"It's cute. What a beautiful idea."

"When we were born we were all given an animal companion, like a security blanket I guess, that's what we got. The first time we left Australia Mom and Dad were given this painting of the four animals and we decided to get it tattooed on ourselves. We've all got one, exactly the same, exactly the same spot."

"Wow."

"My family, my world."

"Do you still have it?"

"What? My giraffe? Yep, I do." He laughed. "I have to hide it from Addy though, she's got a habit of collecting stuffed animals, her bedroom is like a zoo."

"Like her Daddy?"

"I guess, I tend to leave my animals at work though. You can barely see her in bed at night because of her menagerie. Ed is her favourite though, that's her companion."

He lifted his arm and she looked at the tatt on the inside of his bicep. "A blue heart?"

"My Dad let me pick out a charm for my mom for her birthday one year, for a necklace. I picked a blue heart because I loved her and I was her boy. So that's kind of for both of them because Dad took me to buy it and I gave it to Mom." He smiled sadly. "I still have that little blue heart at home. Lola picked out a snowflake because she missed the snow, Mae got a Rhino, I picked the heart and Bug was a crown because we called her Her Royal Highness. It was just after she was born. We've all got our charm, I know Mae wears hers a lot."

"That is so sweet. How old were you?"

"I was about five." He smiled sadly "I bought Bug a train to go with her crown when we were back in Australia with Addy. She came with me and she was the only one who could ever get me to calm down when I was freaking out about Addy. I took care of her when our world fell apart so we've always had that kind of bond, you know."

"You were so little."

"Didn't matter, I had to take care of her, my Dad would have wanted me too."

"A train?"

"Yep." He fell silent and Quinn realised quickly that he didn't want to talk about it right now.

"And this one?" She touched the echidna next to the heart. "What is it?"

"It's an Echidna. Ed the Echidna, it's a native Australian animal. It's for Adelaide." Alfie smiled as she traced it with her finger. It felt sensitive and seductive as she kissed it. "Bug bought her an echidna the first day we took her to the zoo. It was our first day with Addy by ourselves. She loves that thing; she's always got it with her. "

"Oh Alfie, that's beautiful." He was making her emotional; he literally wore his heart on his sleeve. He seemed a big tough guy but had a huge heart and a lot of hurt. "How is she?"

"Today? Okay, I talked to her just before she went to bed. She was happy, Colton was taking her to bed and he's her favourite this week." He was running his hand up and down her arm. "I am tipping she got four books out of him, I think that's why she likes him. He can't say no to her."

"Did they mind you coming here?"

"I didn't tell them. I just said I had something on after work and that I would be late. They don't need details just yet."

"Why?"

Alfie had felt her tense up a little. "My family, or more precisely, my sisters are crazy. They are so desperate for me to meet someone and if I get them involved all hell will break loose. It's this thing with them and I just want to get to know you without them sticking their noses in. I need to make sure you are ready for their crazy, trust me I am not hiding you…I am protecting you."

"Sounds ominous. Are they that bad?"

"No they are great, God I love them but even I can admit that they are also batshit crazy about some things and apparently right now, my love life or lack there of is driving them a little nuts. I am enjoying learning about you without their pressure."

"I think you've learnt a lot about me the past few days."

"I have and I've thoroughly enjoyed it too. I like that I know your sensitive spots, I know where to kiss you to get you all hot and bothered. I know that you are just as much into this as I am." Alfie let his hand slide under the rug they had pulled over themselves. "I know how to touch you to make you quiver."

They would have been crazy to spend the whole time in bed as good as it was. Alfie would have done so happily on any other occasion but he had to prove to her they were, or could be more than just sex. He got the feeling that's what worried her the most, that he didn't have time for her. So they shared a beer and watched TV. It was late when it finished and before he left he felt like he had to get a little bit serious. In the past he would have run a mile with a conversation about a future this early on but so much had changed for him.

"If I tell you that I can't see you again until the weekend would that stress you out?"

"No."

He didn't believe her. "Tell me the truth. Honestly Quinn I want to really try this, to build on this but to be brutally honest I am not going to give up time with Addy if you don't want to try. Yes, this is great, seeing you like this and the sex is amazing but I don't want to waste your time or mine or Addy's if all you want is sex and nothing else."

"Wow. You don't fuck around do you?"

"I don't have time to fuck around. I don't want to fuck you around either. If you want this full on, everyday epic love affair I can't promise you that…but I will promise you that with a little love and attention and patience good things can happen, that's what the plant is meant to symbolise, it will last so much longer than a bunch of flowers if we take care of it and take the time. Flowers look beautiful for a few days and then they start to wilt and the water smells, I don't want that."

"Alfie, please stop. I am nervous but I am excited. I like how you make me feel, you do make me feel special even if it's not the full-blown crazy and I've had that before and yes it's nice but here I am still single, so maybe slow and steady does win the race."

"Slow and steady?"

"One day at a time, slow and steady." Her kiss was deep and on the couch they were slow and steady. It was very satisfying, she loved the way he made her feel, she felt like fire was in her veins from the moment he entered her, he was incredibly slow and patient, waiting until she was ready, until she started to react and let him know how close she was and the moment she fell, he followed.

"I've never been out with a guy who has a child."

"Great, I've never been out with a woman since I've had a child, not knowingly anyway." His face twisted into a painful little smile; it was fleeting but she noticed it. She suspected that he struggled with the three years he didn't know about his daughter. "So we are learning together."

"Sounds good to me."