So Aubrey and Jessica are going to meet at the Lincoln Memorial. What do you think happens next? Read and find out.

At 7:28, Aubrey anxiously waited on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, two cups in his hand. "This is stupid. It's Jessica. You know Jessica. You two were friends…you saw her naked…you love her."

His eyes grew large as he made the realization. "I love her…oh shit, I love her…what now? What if she doesn't feel the same? Wait, she's meeting you for coffee…she smiles at you…she asked to meet you…but I asked her to have coffee first…ugh…stop!"

Aubrey noticed that he spooked a woman walking her dog. "Sorry…sorry…"

When he was alone again, he continued his contemplation. "Come on Aubrey, get your shit together. If she wasn't even interested in friendship, she would've said no and avoided me. She sat by me last night and told off Karen. That means something, right?"

Turning the corner, Jessica saw Aubrey standing there waiting for her and quickly ducked back behind the structure. "Oh boy…he's here, but he's always on time. He got me a drink…but maybe he did that so he could drink and run. What if he said yes to today because he felt obligated since he'd already asked me for coffee?"

Clenching her fists, Jessica growled. Looking around, she saw a jogger stare at her and wanly smiled. "Great, people think I'm a nutjob now. Stop! Just stop! Aubrey is here because he wants to be. He turned down a three-course fancy ass brunch and guaranteed sex to have coffee with you this morning. He told off Karen when she tried to bully me out of my seat last night. If he wasn't interested in me in any capacity, he wouldn't have done that. Just be cool, Jessica. Now go greet Aubrey."

As Aubrey was about to awkwardly check his watch, he saw a familiar redhead made her way towards him. "Here she comes. Oh, she looks so pretty…damn it, be cool."

Jessica's heart began skipping a beat as the agent smiled at her. Pushing the butterflies in her stomach down, she smiled back. "Morning, Superman. You weren't waiting long, were you?"

"Nope. Just got here." He held out a cup to her. "I took the liberty of getting us drinks from that new cart over there, Holly's Coffee Delights. They didn't have catnip tea, but she had her special Holly tea blend with cinnamon and cloves. Hopefully that's okay."

"Of course. Thank you." Jessica sipped and moaned. "Oh, that's so good. What did you get?"

"I got a quad shot cappuccino with cinnamon and cloves. Thought I would pep up the usual. Just don't tell Frankie I cheated on him, okay?"

"Your secret is safe with me." Jessica shivered. "It's chilly but at least the sun's coming out. Want to take a walk along the water?"

"Sounds good."

The two walked along the water enjoying the morning without words, but soon, the silence became deafening until Aubrey stopped them and turned around.

"Jess…I…was so excited about today, but…I guess I don't know what to say. I'm really nervous about saying the wrong thing." Aubrey couldn't help injecting humor into the situation. "I'm pretty good at that, you know."

"Oh, thank goodness it wasn't just me, but for the record, you're not the only one who's good at saying the wrong thing, James." Jessica traced the top of her cup. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night because I was excited to see you today, but now that I'm here…"

The redhead tried to come up with the right thing to say before just spilling her thoughts. "I'm also not sure what to do now that I'm here…and I hate that. On the other hand, I don't know where you and I are going right now, but I want to find out. Does that make any sense?"

"Jessica, that makes perfect sense." The two laughed before Aubrey nodded towards the water. "Um, how about we just talk about the first thing that comes to our minds, okay? Nothing too heavy unless we're both up for it and we'll go from there. I have no plans this weekend. Do you?"

Relieved, Jessica smiled. "No plans…and that sounds really good. If you're okay with it, we can start with you telling me about what happened with Karen last night."

"Sure." After Aubrey explained what happened in the Jeffersonian garage, the two spent the next hour talking about Jessica's studies over in Scotland and Aubrey's latest cases. Both were feeling more relaxed until the agent asked the question on his mind.

"Jess, are you going back to Scotland?"

Jessica saw the man's face and any lingering doubts about her final decision dissipated. "No. Both he and Dr. B said I could work remotely with him if I returned to the lab for next semester. It honestly feels right being back home. Going back there to run away from my problems is not how to handle things."

"Yeah…running away from one's problems doesn't get anyone very far, does it?" Aubrey sipped the rest of his cooled beverage, pondering what to say next before deciding to take a chance. "Jessica, you hurt me that day in front of the subway station. I…took a risk and…the look on your face just…it scared me to death, and I was afraid to rock the boat after that. However, I needed to know where we stood, but I didn't know how to ask."

Jessica asked what was on her mind. "Is that why when you were offered the LA position, you took it and avoided me?"

Aubrey wasn't prepared for that question. "I didn't avoid you. I just needed some time…"

Jessica wasn't happy with Aubrey's excuses. "Just like when your father came back to the US and whenever I tried talking to you about him, you needed time?"

Feeling defensive, Aubrey's back went up. "Jessica, come on…I was scared and you took off for Europe three days after I told you how I felt about you. Cut me some slack."

Jessica didn't want to get into all this at the Reflecting Pool, but she realized it was going to happen here and now. "No! Your scumbag father returned to town and not only tried to rip you off, but you had to arrest him again. You talked to me each night I was in Europe and everything was all peachy, but it was Karen you trusted to talk to about your dad. Not me!"

"Well, what the hell was I supposed to do? You were galivanting around in Europe and I wasn't going to beg for you to return when you were obviously freaked out that I was interested in being in a serious relationship with you."

Jessica exploded at Aubrey's excuses. "You were supposed to talk to me, Aubrey! Me! You point your finger at me for avoiding you, but you're the one who avoided me after your dad came back. I know that I wasn't ready for a commitment, but it didn't seem like you were either because when you care about someone, you're supposed to talk to each other. You didn't talk to me after you accepted a promotion out of DC, but you talked to Karen about it. I was the one you were in a relationship with, not her!"

Jessica's words struck a nerve. "I was unsure what to do—"

"You always went to Karen, not me." Jessica wiped away a tear. "You avoided me for two weeks, got smashed at a wedding before and after I catch a bouquet, make a joke about us getting in a threesome with Karen, and then ask me to move across the country with you at a crime scene! You say want us to be serious, but then refuse to talk to me about something that affected both of us. It was like you thought I was good enough to fuck but not to confide in. Do you know how much that hurt?"

"That's not true, Jessica." Aubrey choked. "It was never like that."

"Really? You had a funny way of showing it because you never contacted me after I broke up with you! You took a damn phone call and left the room! Then you were always with her after we broke up and you never told me that you stayed in DC!"

"Why should I have called you? You dumped me! You said we had no future! I sucked it up to finish the case and yeah, I ate some chicken with Karen because I was upset. I had every right to do that." Aubrey's frustrations came out in a purge. "She was a friend to me when I needed one and yeah, I went out with her several times but I mostly picked her brain because I couldn't figure out what the hell happened to us."

"What happened was you shut me out of everything!"

"Why should I confide in someone who lets me tell her I'm serious about her and then crushes my heart!" Aubrey tossed his cup in the trash. "I was in love with you, Jessica and you broke up with me! Why in the hell should I have told you I was staying here? You saw no future for us, and for the record, you never called me afterwards, either Lady. Don't put all of this on my doorstep!"

The two stared at each other for a minute as they gathered themselves, each not sure of what to say. After a few seconds, Jessica had a realization and judging by the look on Aubrey's face, he came to the same conclusion.

"Aubrey…oh my God…we were scared to talk to each other. That was our problem in a nutshell. How the hell did that happen?"

"Just like you said, Jess. Once shit got real, we got scared. It's easier for you and me to blame Karen because we both took her advice, but…it was us." The agent shook his head. "It makes me sad each time I think about it because you were right that night you first kissed me."

"You mean that night after you saved my life because I wasn't paying attention…"

"Yeah, that, too. We had an amazing friendship, like you said, what we had was special…unique, and not something you find every day." Aubrey sighed. "Instead of putting in the work to nuture this awesome thing we had, we didn't take care of it and took it for granted…and we both blew it."

"We did blow it." Jessica wiped away a tear and took his hand. "You were my first serious relationship and…once we began dating, things seemed to move faster than I was ready for and then you seemed to keep things from me, like you were afraid to trust me. Then the promotion thing…I didn't get why you always talked to Karen instead of me. Was it me? Did I make you feel bad about stuff? I know I don't always say the right thing…"

The agent squeezed her hand back and made a confession. "No, Jessica, you didn't do anything wrong in that aspect. I didn't sleep well, either last night, because I realized that I didn't trust you enough, either and I had no right to ask you for a commitment. I mean, I knew you wouldn't cheat on me, but…I was afraid to be hurt if you got scared and ran, you know?"

"Me getting all panicky didn't help matters, huh?" Jessica asked.

"No, but I should have pressed you to talk to me, but because I was afraid of the answer, I let it go, that is until I got a job offer and jumped on it without even considering you. I avoided you because I was afraid of actually facing you, which was cowardly." Aubrey sighed. "I should have talked to you first, like Booth said to do."

"Well, I should have pushed harder, too and not just listen to Karen's advice." Jessica wiped away a tear. "When I came back and heard you were with Karen, I wanted you happy, so I listened to Angela when she said I had to move on and see other people, so I let her fix me up with Adam."

"When we ran into you and Adam outside of the diner, it all came back…the fun…the feelings…the fear." Aubrey looked out at the water before continuing. "Even before we ran into you two, Karen and I weren't working, and I should've been honest with her, but I was afraid to let her go."

"Why, Aubrey?"

"Because I didn't want to be alone and I was also too afraid of taking another chance on you, even as a friend." Aubrey say Jessica move to speak, but interrupted her. "That's on my, Jessica. Not you. As for Karen, she's no saint, but she deserved better than what I gave her."

The butterflies in Jessica's stomach were playing ping pong as she absorbed what Aubrey was telling her. "Yeah, what you didn't wasn't cool, but neither was me getting mad at you for not calling after I broke up with you and then getting all pissy and jealous when I saw you with Karen. I knew I'd made a mistake, but I didn't want to face you and risk being rejected."

Aubrey was shocked. "Wait…you said I was always with her after we broke up. What are you talking about?"

"I saw you two the night I was going to talk to you about Scotland…about us. I wasn't sure if I should go or not, at least until I saw you." Jessica considered her thought. "I don't even know what I would have said to you. Maybe I was hoping you would just take me back no questions and tell me to stay in DC, but I saw Karen hug you and you looked happy, and I didn't want to ruin that for you. I couldn't stay and watch it either, so I left."

"Karen was a friend to me at that time, Jess. Nothing more." Aubrey hesitated before continuing. "Stark made the offer to be SAC of Major Crimes the day after you dumped me. I wanted to call you so bad, but, I was angry…and Karen said you wanted to be left alone. I'm such an idiot."

"Me too. Karen said your career would be in the toilet if you stayed here and I didn't want to hold you back at the FBI because I couldn't go with you even if I wanted to because of my program at AmU. We should have continued our conversation and made the decision together on whether to break up or not." Jessica nodded. "She always wanted you, you know."

"Yeah, I know. After we broke up, my ego was bruised and her attention was flattering, so I ate up all her compliments. She knew just what to say and do to push my buttons." Aubrey smirked. "She tagged along with our friends, but she was always jealous of you and your friendship with everyone. She annoyed them more than once."

"Yeah, Angela mentioned Karen more than once when I would Skype her from the UK." Jessica sighed. "I know that she's messed with me, but I think Karen means well in her own way, Superman. I don't think she has a lot of good friends."

"Yeah, I know she's insecure, but Dr. B, Angela, and Cam really tried to be friends with her, I think more for my benefit, but they welcomed her because that's who they are. However, her backhanded comments about you turned everyone off and they began avoiding her, which only made Karen try harder to drive a wedge between you and them."

"Wow, she was that insecure about me?" Jessica was astonished. "Good grief, she's an accomplished woman with a PhD. I was just a college intern at the lab."

"I know, but she was always in your shadow, Jess. She's a nice person, Jess, but like you said, she doesn't have a lot of friends and her insecurities run deep. I guess you were what she couldn't be, and it bothered her. Karen must figure things out for herself and maybe once she does, things will be better. Don't worry about her anymore." Taking her other hand, he squeezed it softly. "So, what do we do now?"

"What do you want from me?" Jessica asked quietly. "I mean, really want from me, James?"

"Honestly, I want your friendship back…and your heart." Aubrey kissed her hand gently. "I want to take you home and make love to you for hours and then be a part of you. I also want to watch Star Wars movies with you and do dorky Science Fiction conventions with you and talk about things that only make sense to us. Now, what do you want?"

"I want you, James Aubrey. I want my best friend back." Jessica anxiously combed back her hair. "I want to go do fun dorky stuff with you and I also want to be with you so badly that I want to be part of you, too without being afraid. I just…that's what I want."

Relieved, Aubrey shrugged. "Well, it seems we're somewhat on the same page. Now, I'll ask you again, Jessica Warren. What do we do now?"

"Well, in the movies, the couple come in for a kiss and make love to certify their commitment." Jessica giggled. "However, I think that's a little too fast, don't you think?".

Aubrey nodded. "Yeah, it is. We should talk more…as long it takes and…see where it goes…"

"Definitely. Talking like adults…" Jessica kissed Aubrey's hand.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

FOUR HOURS LATER – AUBREY'S APARTMENT

A woman's pair of black boots and a men's pair of shoes were by the door and a purse was lying haphazard on the couch. Two coats were on the back of two chairs of a small dining room table. On the floor, a trail of clothes started from the small living room into a bedroom at the end of the hallway. A woman's sweater. A man's sweater. Then two pairs of socks. A pair of black leggings and then a pair of men's jeans, followed by a tossed bra on the floor, then a pair of red lace panties on top of a pair of Darth Vader boxer shorts were on the floor next to the bed. The only sounds of the dwelling came from the bed above.

"Oh wow…I'm close…" Aubrey moaned into her neck.

"Yes! Yes! Yes, Superman!" Jessica screamed as the two held each other close.

The couple moved in sync and it wasn't long before the two climaxed together. Coming down from their high, an exhausted Aubrey and Jessica laid on his bed side by side.

"Wow…nice to know…some things…don't change." Jessica huffed.

"Yeah…you're telling me…" Aubrey caught his breath before reality set in. "You know…this was a lot of fun…better than fun."

"We were always good at sex." Jessica leaned up with her head against her hand, watching the agent. "Well, we talked….and we saw where it went. Um, where do we go from here?"

"The feelings are definitely still there, Jess, but…we have more to settle." Aubrey turned to Jessica. "Maybe we need to take a step back."

"So, was this just sex with the ex?" A hurt Jessica moved to get out of bed, only to be stopped by Aubrey.

"No. Not at all. Wait. Please." Aubrey relaxed when she got back in bed. Slowly caressing her arm, he explained himself. "You and I did talk about things that needed to be discussed, some topics more loudly than others, and then we made love…"

"Yeah…" Jessica hugged the comforter closer to her, wondering he was going to say.

"I'm just going to lay it out for you." Aubrey saw the panic in her eyes and hoped he didn't make things worse. "I love you, Jessica, but if we're going to be friends, we're friends and that's it. I can't do friends with benefits with you because I respect you too much."

"Okay…" Jessica waited.

"But…if we…go there again, like, try to be a couple again, the whole nine yards...we have to do it differently this time."

Realizing what Aubrey was saying, Jessica relaxed. "So, maybe we…take things slow? Like we do what works for us…at the pace we're comfortable with."

Aubrey chuckled. "Are you thinking we do like what we did before getting together last year, except without the sex?"

"Well, the sex thing is negotiable this time around." Jessica chuckled as she snuggled up to the agent with her head on his chest. "What I mean is, doing our own thing which worked for us the first time when we finally got together together. That is, until people…well, mostly Angela kept telling us how we were doing things wrong after they found out."

"Doing our own thing and stop listening to other people tell us we're doing things too slow or wrong…I like it." Aubrey held her closer and played with her hair. "If we do this Jess, I mean, really work on being together together again, I don't want to tell anyone…at least not yet. I want things to be just for us right now."

Jessica nodded. "I hate lying but, I like having something for just us while we work on being us, too. Maybe we eventually tell Booth and Dr. B that we're together together, though? They were pretty cool about it before and they don't snoop."

"Yeah, eventually." Aubrey exhaled. "Jessica, more important than being with you…I don't want to be without your friendship again, okay? We need to talk to each other every step of the way, no matter how awkward and without being afraid of upsetting each other. If I'm pushing you too fast, you have to tell me, okay?"

"And if I feel like you're shutting me out again, I have to tell you."

"Yes. Most of all, if we don't think things will work with us together together this time, we work on keeping our friendship. It's more important to me than even being your boyfriend."

Jessica was happy to hear that. "So no avoiding each other or assumptions about what the other is thinking..."

"…and definitely no advice from profilers or anyone else unless it's someone who knows what they're talking about." Aubrey finished. "How does that sound?"

"Okay, but for me, the biggest thing is you need to talk to me about things and not hide them, Aubrey. You have to trust me or else we won't work." Jessica wiped a tear away. "I won't accept that again, do you understand?"

Aubrey could tell she was serious, and she was right. "Okay, I promise. Anything else?"

"No, but..." Jessica thought for a second. "…spending the night with you is a big step for me right now. Is it all right if I go home later?"

The agent rubbed her arm. "Yeah, I get it and I'm not mad. Honestly, I think we took several steps today and us sleeping over is a big step that…I'm not ready for either."

"Good." Jessica burrowed herself under the covers. "Now, since we do have a little time, I think we need to seal the deal for our new arrangement, Agent Aubrey. Let's take a meeting, shall we?"

The redhead pulled the bed sheet over the two of them and they wrestled under the covers, with heavy laughter.

Now, there's one more mystery with this storyline, so keep on reading folks...