See, told you it wouldn't be too long of a wait.. here's the next part….

He sat down on the floor of the hallway, his back straight against the wall as he leaned his head against it. Sara wasn't home yet, as evidenced by her missing Buell, but she should be home eventually. A basket rested next to him, it's contents wafting delicious smells that made his stomach rumble as it reminded him that he hadn't had anything since a left-over slice of pizza that had been in his fridge. He tunes the smells out as he closed his eyes against the light tiredly. It wasn't too bright but a day of staring at a computer screen did have it's disadvantages.

Of course, that's not all he'd done: after deciding to buy the statue of Astarte, he had packed up three items that needed to be shipped and taken them down to the post office. After that, he stopped off at Sly's to give his thoughts on Sly's latest comic. As always, it included some existential quotes. It was Gabe who had introduced Sly to Nietzsche in the first place, giving him a quote book while he was looking for inspiration for his comic drawings. A gift that kept on giving.

From there he had gone to Lina's. His eldest sister had practically ordered him to show up when she noticed his distraction. He'd known that it was just an effort to get him alone so she could drag the details out of him as she had done when he was a teenager. Then, he had often cracked under the pressure until he had gotten better with age. This time he had stayed pretty much closed-mouthed. Yes, he had admitted, he was interested in someone. No, he wasn't sure if she was interested but it looked promising. It may or may not be serious. No, he wasn't going to tell Lina anything about her. Why? Because Lina was one of the family's biggest gossips and he didn't want their other sisters, their mother, or their aunts calling him for information. No, telling her wouldn't help his case against their calls.

He'd escaped after an hour when his nephew and niece, Joey and Missy came bounding inside, fresh from school and eager to drop off their bags so they could go out and wait with their friends for the ice cream truck. Their chaotic arrival had given him the exit he needed and giving both hugs and kisses after stealing the basket from Lina's collection.

Sometimes it paid to be his own boss, sometimes it didn't. Today had been one of the mixed blessings days.

Footsteps bounded up the stairs to his left but Gabriel stayed where he was; with his luck it was another neighbor of hers wanting to heap suspicions on why he was hanging around in the hallway instead of in an apartment and why he had talked his way in.

Instead it was Sara. She stopped a few feet away from her door. "Gabriel?"

He turned his head and smiled up at her. She looked tired but that was to be expected since she tended to push herself at work. "Hey, Sara."

She looked behind her before meeting his gaze again. "Am I missing something?"

"Not that I know of."

She nodded vaguely and shook herself out of the daze she was in, stepping forward to unlock the many locks her door held. "What're you doing here?"

Gabriel stood up in the hall and stretched some of the tired muscles in his back before bending over to pick up the basket. "I told you I'd see you tonight; you did agree with me."

Sara was nodding as she led the way into the dark apartment. She turned on the light as she slipped off the leather jacket she was wearing. "What's that?" she asked as he set the basket on the table to he could take his own jacket off.

"Dinner." He held out a hand and she tossed her jacket into it for him to hang them both.

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, evening meal preferably shared with someone you find interesting?"

"I know what dinner is."

"Figured you did, you're pretty smart." He started to move the cloth over to one side but stopped to look over at her. "Don't find me interesting?"

"What?" She looked over at him, startled by the question. "No, it's not that. It's just.." she gestured at him.

"Well, glad to know it's not the company. Mind if a move a few things?" He didn't wait for an answer before he began to stack papers neatly into piles and move them to the counter.

Sara shook her head again as she watched him moving around her apartment like he belonged there. "I'm…gonna go take a shower," she told him as she started walking in the direction of the bathroom, hoping that the water would clear some of the confusion she felt.

"Need company?"

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked over at him.

"Hey, had to offer, didn't I?" He offered her one of his disarming grins and got back to his sorting, aware that Sara watched him for another minute before making her way to the bathroom, picking up a change of clothes on the way, and shutting the door. Seconds later the shower started and Gabriel gave a sigh of relief. For a minute there, he had thought he'd gone too far. The whole idea of this was to keep her off-guard enough that she wouldn't hide behind walls, not to push her further in or get the crap beaten out of him.

He moved over to Sara's cupboards to grab the dishes and silverware needed and set the table before grabbing the containers of food out of the basket. It was take out, but he had to work with what he knew, right? Annabel had made sure all of her children knew the rudiments of cooking so they could take care of themselves, but that didn't include anything fancy. The Chinese he had picked up wasn't too fancy, to be entirely honest, but it was something he knew they both liked and he was pretty sure he knew what to order. A selection of common favorites would help their appetites and give leftovers for whoever wanted them.

The cardboard boxes were open and ready on the table when Sara came back. She looked over the transformation of the makeshift desk with a look of confusion as if once again asking herself just how she had lost control in her own apartment.

"Hungry?"

Sara nodded mutely and followed when Gabriel led her over to the table and held a chair out for her.

Picking up one of the cartons, he offered it to her as he sat down himself. "I would have lit some candles but I decided that was for another time."

Sara stopped spooning fried rice onto her plate abruptly. "Gabriel.."

"What? Oh, here," he said as he switched cartons, "their walnut chicken is to die for."

"Gabriel, we can't do this."

"Eat dinner? What, it's not against the law, is it?" An exasperated sigh answered him and Gabriel continued before Sara could blast him for his irreverent answer. "Sorry. I was just hoping to eat a little dinner before we got any serious conversation underway."

"Gabriel…"

"Okay, okay. Talk first, eat later." He cast a quick glance at the food and groaned. "We better move this over there if you want us to talk first."

Sara nodded and stood up, following him over to the main living area. To her surprise, instead of him sprawling comfortably in her oversize chair as he usually did, he sat down on the sofa next to her. Sitting down, she chewed absently on her lip.

"Didn't you want to talk?"

"Yeah, just… can't figure out where to begin."

He nodded and leaned back. "That's why I wanted to eat first."

She shook her head at him. "It wouldn't help. It's just," she hesitated a moment before continuing in an accusing rush, "you're so confusing, Gabriel."

He blinked at her and bit back the urge to laugh. She'd think that he was laughing at her and he really didn't want to deal with the fight that would cause, but really… He was confusing? He wasn't the one who wore an ancient sentient weapon that put him into inexplicable fugue states. He didn't have leaps in logic caused by visions. Fighting to keep his voice unbroken, he choked out "How am I so confusing?""

"You don't… fit!" she explained in a disgusted voice. Everything and everyone has a niche they're supposed to fill, a place they're supposed to fit in. You don't!" He opened his mouth to answer her but she continued without waiting. "You…overlap and break out of your confines. You know things that professors have a hard time wrapping their minds around, and you can make others understand it. You told me that I was 'not of this world' but you're the one that seems to fit."

"Why are you trying to hard to box me in, Sara?"

"I'm a cop. It's a side effect of the training, I guess. Good guys, bad guys, victims, suspects."

"Well, I guess it would make life a lot easier if everyone stayed in their little categories, but they don't, Sara. I'm not gonna apologize for being me. Especially since you sure don't fit the mold that created you!" he pointed out to her, a bit angry over the 'nice, safe confines' she'd put him in. It wasn't that it was bad, it just rubbed him the wrong way.

"I don't expect you to apologize! I love it that you're who you are regardless of what the people around you. It's just…" she broke off, unable to put her thoughts into words that would make him understand.

"Scary?" he suggested softly.

"I'm not scared," she snapped, an odd mixture of vulnerability and affronted anger visible on her face.

"I didn't say you were," he soothed. "It's just that everyone's scared sometimes. You don't have to be strong or macho with me, I don't have any standards I measure you up against or a set image of what I expect. Just be yourself." He reached out for her, enfolding her in a hug, which she tried to pull away from.

"That is me," she responded angrily. "It's not a facade or bravado, or what I do to fit in with a bunch of male cops who don't believe a woman should be in their ranks. It's just me."

He refused to let go of her, stilling her body as he listened to her protests. That comment about the male cops did hit closer to the truth, he know. She did have some brothers in blue who thought that way, probably always had. She was a great cop, and a lot of those guys had changed their minds, but it was still seeing as a primarily masculine job. "Hey, calm down, kid. I'm not trying to say that isn't you… Just that you don't always have to have the answers or be strong. It's you, Sara Pezzini, that I'm friends with. That I want to be with. It doesn't matter what you're like."

She sniffled, her anger petering out under the calm assurances. Gabriel wasn't insulting her, like so many others had when they semi-complimented her, their words a double edged sword dipped in disbelief and scorn. He was just being…Gabriel. Her sweet, slightly odd young friend. Which was one of the main problems here. Young. "Didn't we already have this talk about you calling me kid?"

"Right…kiddo," he responded, remembering their phone conversation. The term brought the desired response, a chuckle from Sara as she responded to the more lighthearted playfulness instead of the serious stuff.

She shook her head, still resting against him, and looked down at her hands. "Gabriel," she started, her tone serious again.

"Wait, let me guess," he stopped her, one finger held up a scant distance from her lips. "You're too old for me or I'm too young for you, whichever way you want to put it, you don't have time for a relationship since you're so busy working, and we're too good as friends to mess up our friendship with what 'might be.' Did I miss anything?"

"Well," she started, only to be interrupted again.

"Please don't tell me I'm like a little brother to you, okay?" His voice was pleading and his brown eyes danced with repressed laughter, but there was something hidden behind the laughter, as if he'd heard the excuse more times than he could count.

Startled, she jerked before laughing for a moment. "I wasn't going to."

"Whew, is that good to hear!"

"You're forgetting that everyone who gets close to me dies," she pointed out to him, twining the fingers of one hand with the other.

"People die everyday because that's when they're meant to. It's not because of you, Sara." When she looked about to interrupt, he forged on, wanting to get his piece said before she tried to work herself into a corner. "Sara, any of those reasons I listed for you could be valid, but they aren't. We're who we're supposed to be. If that doesn't fit in perfectly, who cares? It's not like anything else does."

She bit her lip gently and allowed her doubt-filled eyes to meet the calm determination in his brown ones.

"Sara, all I'm asking for is a chance. Is that any more or any less than anyone else wants? Than what you want?"

"No," she said so softly that he had to strain to hear her.

"Good." He was leaned over to press another kiss to her lips when his stomach rumbled. His dropped his head and groaned as he internally lectured his body on when it was appropriate to interrupt. He met her widened green eyes and shrugged self-consciously. "What? I need to eat. So do you."

She laughed and moved away from him as his arm fell from her waist. "Then we better feed ourselves, hadn't we?"

Together, they made their way to the table laden with their aborted attempt at dinner earlier to feast on room temperature Chinese, both knowing that the conversation was only postponed.

TBC