In the morning, Kate took in the sight of an exhausted and haunted looking Lee. He said nothing as he sat down across from her at the table. She had heard him shouting in his sleep again, but she had resisted going to wake him up. She hesitated, contemplating on asking him what was troubling him. Then again, she wouldn't want to answer if he asked he the same question. In the end, curiosity got the best of her.

"Who's Lizzie?" she asked. Lee snapped his head towards her, staring at her.

"What?"

"At night I...I hear you," she went on. "You call out her name a lot. I figure she's important to you. I just...I thought it might help if you talked about it."

Lee felt a little nauseous. She heard him at night? He yells out Lizzie's name? He felt embarrassed and like his secrets were on his sleeve.

"It's nothing," he lied. "Just...someone I failed on a mission." It wasn't a total lie. He had failed Lizzie, but it was in a different way entirely.

"Was she someone close to you?"

"No," he lied again.

Kate had a feeling he wasn't being entirely truthful, but she didn't want to press.

"Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here," she offered. Lee did not respond. Instead, he got up and left the room entirely. Kate could relate to how he felt, though. If roles were reversed and he had pressed about her shouting out Liam's name, she would have lied too.

...

That afternoon, Lee took Kate to Tool's place as per Barney's request. The night before, Lee had already given Barney the details on what happened to Kate and at the airport when he was bringing her home before Barney had gotten into it about him liking Kate. Barney had agreed that they'd keep an eye out for Alejandro in case he tried to show up there as well. When they arrived at Tool's, Barney stopped what he was doing to look at them. Lee noticed everyone else was looking at her too. She still had the black eye, but despite that she was still radiant. Lee fought to keep going red in the face from thinking about her.

"You must be Kate," Barney said, approaching first. He shook her hand. He didn't mention the black eye.

"The one and only," Kate nodded. "You're Barney."

"So he has talked about me," Barney confirmed, shooting Lee a look.

"All good things," Kate smiled. She knew that Lee loved Barney like a brother but that Barney also could drive him crazy with his stubbornness.

"They better be. I know where he lives."

"An empty threat," Lee scoffed.

"So this is the gang," Barney cut him off, gesturing to the others. "Toll, Doc, Caesar, Gunner, and Tool. The rest are out on a mission."

Lee couldn't help but notice Toll's face light up when he looked at Kate.

"Nice to meet you all," Kate said, giving a small wave. Her stomach jolted at the sight of Toll. He was the guy from yesterday!

"Did you fall?" Gunner asked, pointing at her face. He was so blunt sometimes. Lee shot him a warning look, which Gunner completely missed. Kate gave a tight smile at this.

"Just the side effects of my old job," she answered. Lee noticed she said "old" job. Was she sticking with that decision?

"So you're jobless," Barney noted, hearing it too.

"I don't think the FBI is for me anymore," she shook her head. "When someone lets me get used by others the way I was, I don't exactly trust them after that." She missed Reggie, though.

"So what are you gonna do now?" Toll asked casually. Lee was still watching him, and he discovered that Toll had not taken his eyes off of Kate since she had walked in. He felt his stomach clench.

"I'm not exactly sure," she answered truthfully. "I might just take some time to 'find myself' or whatever they're calling it these days."

"Toll's got a great therapist to help you with that," Caesar said without missing a beat. Toll scowled at him.

"Therapy is a great place to talk about your feelings and get validated," Kate said back. "Maybe I will do that."

Toll gave Caesar a triumphant look at this, and Lee just knew that his friend and colleague had an interest in Kate.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Toll asked on cue.

"A beer would be wonderful," Kate answered, and Toll jumped to action. Lee bristled inside. Had Toll not been listening to Barney teasing Lee about Kate all this time? He pondered this. Maybe he hadn't.

Kate sat down with the others and started chatting. Barney came over to Lee, who was watching.

"I get it," he said.

"Get what?" Lee asked.

"The fascination. She's gorgeous."

"We're friends."

"You keep saying that, but we both know you're lying to me," Barney mused. They both watched Toll sit next to Kate and talk animatedly with her. "I also think you're going to have competition here real soon if you don't smarten up."

"You think?"

"I haven't seen Toll look like that in...well, ever," Barney reasoned. Lee knew what Barney was talking about. It didn't make him feel any better about it.

"This is crazy," Kate was saying to Toll. She felt Lee watching her, but she didn't look at him.

"I know right?" he laughed. Fate was being kind to him today.

"I mean, what are the odds?"

"I'm fine, by the way," Toll said, putting a hand to his chest. "I fully recovered from your body check."

"It wasn't a body check," she argued.

"It certainly felt like one," he insisted. "If that wasn't a body check, I'd hate to see what one really was. Will I end up like Wiley Coyote all flattened to the ground?"

Kate burst out into laughter then, tilting her head back. Toll was laughing too.

"We are just friends," Lee insisted to Barney, wishing he knew what they were talking about that was so damn funny. "That has been made very clear, so you need to accept that."

"I don't accept lies," Barney said. "You're living together. Give it time. It's bound to happen."

"She's already looking for her own place," Lee commented. His mind flashed back to the night before, her looking at the ads.

"So convince her to stay," Barney told him. "Don't let her get away again, Lee."

Lee watched her lean in and touch Toll's arm, and he already knew where her interest was headed.

"I think it's too late," he replied.

...

"Do you think Lee likes Kate?" Toll asked Caesar when Lee and Kate had left. He didn't remember much about Lee's first meeting with Kate, but he did remember that Lee kind of liked her. It was so long ago now, though. He had to have gotten over it, right? He'd moved on with Lacy for long enough. Lee had kept insisting they were just friends the night before. Why lie about that?

"That's random," Caesar laughed.

"I just wanna know."

"Why? You gonna ask her out?"

"I want to."

"Maybe you should talk to Lee first."

"Did they look like they were into each other here today?" Toll asked.

"Well, no..."

"I think she was into me," Toll insisted.

"Okay, well, do what you gotta do, but don't blame me when Lee slits your throat from anger," Caesar said, holding up his hands. Toll swallowed.

"He wouldn't."

"He might."

"I'll ask her, and if he tells me to back off, I will," Toll compromised.

"Whatever, dude," Caesar said. Toll nodded. That would be his plan. It wasn't like he was scared of Lee. He just didn't want to risk Lee saying that yea, he did like Kate and then watch them never get together when he could have had the relationship with her. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe it was cowardly, but Toll figured Lee would speak up if he really was interested in Kate. After all, it had been Toll who had shown an interest in Lacy first, and Lee got with her. He figured Lee kind of owed him one.

...

Kate was smoking on his balcony while Lee finished making dinner. She had offered help, but he had insisted that for tonight, she was to do nothing. Lee watched her as he cooked, and he wondered what she was thinking. Her face offered a look of one that was very far away in thought. He wondered if she was thinking about Toll. He looked away quickly when she stood and came back in.

"Are you sure I can't help you?" she asked, coming over to him and leaning her elbows on his countertop.

"I'm almost done," he answered. He was just doing the finishing touches on their steaks.

"A man who can cook. That's the dream," she commented.

"Is it now?" he laughed.

"I think so anyway," she shrugged, grinning. Lee felt that electricity he'd first felt seven years ago when he met her, and he wondered if she felt it too. She didn't let on she did.

"When you live alone, you have to learn to feed yourself," he explained.

"Of course," she nodded. He passed her a plate, and she picked her steak. They went to sit and eat. After a moment, she looked up at him.

"I think this is the best steak I've ever had," she told him. He felt his ears go a bit pink at this. He never did well with compliments.

"I'm glad you think so."

"You don't take compliments well, do you?" she asked, reading his mind again. He marveled at how she could do that so well. The only other person capable of that was Barney, and they had been friends a long time.

"Not really."

"Me either," she shook her head. They ate in silence again for a bit.

"Your friends are great," she said suddenly. "Toll especially. Is he seeing anyone?"

And there it was. Lee cringed inside, hating that he wasn't brave enough to just tell her that he was crazy about her, to tell her to leave Toll out of it. What was wrong with him?

"Ah, no," he answered. "Not that I know of."

"He's very sweet," she went on. She wasn't sure why she was leaving out the fact that she had met him the day before. It seemed irrelevant somehow.

"I don't usually see that side of him when we're on the job," Lee advised. She laughed.

"Of course you don't."

"You like him then?" Lee asked. He had to know. She blushed.

"I think he's cute, yes. I just met him, though."

"Right."

"I mean, we're friends, yes? Are you okay with that?" she asked. Lee was not okay with it, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings or tell her what to do. He could hear Barney in his head screaming at him to open his damn mouth and tell her the truth, but he couldn't.

"Yea," he lied. "I'm all right with it."

"Great," she smiled, but she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. That had been the final test to see if Lee was interested in her. He showed nothing to prove he liked her so far, and this just confirmed it. Maybe she had misread him after all.

"He's already asked me out later tonight," she said carefully.

"Really?" Lee asked, surprised. That was fast. He kept his emotions in check.

"Yea. Just a drink. Don't wait up," she added. Lee just nodded. It was getting better and better.

"Oh, and I found a place. I'm going to look at it tomorrow," she went on.

Lee felt his world shattering a little at this. She was going to leave him and date Toll. How had this gone so awry so quickly?!

"Okay," he said after a moment. Kate watched him carefully, but his face betrayed nothing. She went back to her food, wondering why she was so concerned about what he was thinking and feeling when it was clearly not about her.

...

Lee tortured himself all night thinking about Kate and Toll and what they were doing on their date. He had no idea what Toll was like on a date. How could he not know that? He'd been friends with the guy for how long now? He didn't answer Barney's messages because all of them called him an idiot. He kept checking to see if Kate was going to write him and ask for an out like some people do when they go on a first date. He got nothing.

"This is your fault," he told himself. "You said no. You let her go. Now you gotta live with it." He sat down on the edge of the couch and pulled at his face. He was having a very hard time living with it. He couldn't very well go back now, tell her "Oh, hey, I was kidding when I said I was all right with it!" He'd look like even more of an idiot. No, he had to let this go. Kate was better off with Toll. Yes.

Now, if only he could get himself to believe it.

...

"You're going to go out with someone else?" Emma asked, surprised. "I thought you liked Lee."

"He does not share the same feeling," Kate replied. She was playing with her lighter as she sat on Lee's deck. She had assumed he had gone to bed since it was dark in his room. She had gotten in around ten from her date with Toll. It had been nice.

"Okay, that's insane," Emma said. "I know I don't remember much, but I do remember how he looked at you that night seven years ago."

"If he liked me that way, he would not have encouraged me to date Toll," Kate insisted.

"Toll? What kind of name is that? Who are these people you're hanging out with? Should I be worried?" Emma asked.

"I'm fine," Kate laughed. "They're really great people."

"Well, I think you're making a mistake," Emma said. "Don't date Tool."

"It's Toll."

"Whatever."

"Tool is the guy who owns the tattoo joint," Kate went on.

"Oh my God, seriously?!"

Kate just burst out laughing before saying goodnight to her sister. She looked back into the apartment, and for a moment she thought she saw Lee standing there watching her, but when she blinked, he was gone.

...

Kate awoke that night to noises coming from the kitchen. Her mind instantly screamed intruder. She scrambled from her bed and carefully went down the hall to Lee's room.

"Lee!" Kate said urgently, shaking him awake. Lee jumped into action, feeling his adrenaline kick in.

"What?" he asked.

"There's someone in the apartment," she whispered. Without thinking, he opened his nightstand and pulled his gun out. Kate let him go out first, feeling a bit like a coward hiding behind him. They went quietly down the hall towards the kitchen where the noise was coming from. Kate hadn't wanted to confront the intruder alone. She didn't feel strong enough. Lee stopped suddenly, causing her to bump into him. Again, he was shirtless with his pajama bottoms. She flushed as she stepped back from him. This was so not the time to notice that.

"Bloody hell," Lee said, snapping on the light. Kate jumped. What was he doing?! He was ruining the element of surprise!

"Lee," she hissed. She dug her nails into his shoulder.

"Ahh," he grunted in response. "It's Merlin." Lee pried her hand off of him while wincing from the pain her fingernails had caused.

"Merlin? Who is that?" Kate asked. Lee moved to let her see. A gray, short haired cat looked back up at them.

"Oh my God," she groaned. "I was afraid of a cat?!"

"It appears so, yes," Lee smirked.

"I didn't know you had a cat."

"I don't. He just comes every now and then for something to eat, a place to crash. I leave the window open a little bit for him. You probably heard him dropping down from it onto the counter. I left some stuff on it that he probably landed on."

"Well, now I feel like an idiot," she huffed, crossing her arms. The cat went back to eating. Lee always left a bowl out for him to find too. Kate couldn't believe she'd never noticed it before. Lee chuckled as he went to scratch Merlin's ears before getting a glass of water. His gun was still in his hand. Kate tried not to look directly at his muscles. It was proving difficult since they were pretty much everywhere.

"Sorry," she said.

"It's fine," he assured her. "You gotta stop apologizing for stuff."

"I can't help it."

"Any other noises?" he asked after finishing his water, a smile on his lips.

"No," she shook her head.

"Then I'm going back to bed."

"Sor-okay," she said, switching from "sorry."

"Nice save," he laughed, disappearing around the corner. Kate looked back at the cat and cursed herself for being all scared. Then she went back to her room and shut the door. Lee couldn't fall back to sleep right away. Merlin came in and jumped onto the bed, curling up beside him. He stroked the cat's fur absently. He wished his brain would just shut off. He wished he was able to be honest with Kate. He wished a lot of things, but it was up to him to make them happen or not. He knew that.


I hope there is still an interest in this story!