A/N: Sorry about the delay on getting this chapter up. As a full-time law student, my time gets eaten up quickly. As always, feedback is welcomed and encouraged. If you like it, hate it, have suggestions, have criticisms; let me know at arwen2117@yahoo.com . For everyone that has read so far and given feedback, thank you, I appreciate it more than I can say and keep it up.

When Munch arrived at the squad room the next morning only Fin was in the office. Munch was wearing his usual dark clothing and glasses, but his face glowed with euphoria left over from the previous night. But Fin didn't notice right away that his partner's mood was unusually chipper because he was getting coffee. When Fin turned around, he immediately noticed his partner's demeanor and became immediately suspicious. Fin had learned earlier on that happy and John Munch were a volatile combination.

" What are you so happy about? Did someone slip Prozac in your morning coffee?" Fin asked, walking over to his desk.

" I am high on pure euphoria. I am drunk on the memory of the most perfect night of my life. And I am hurt...no insulted that you would think that my good mood would be the by-product of anti-depressants," Munch responded as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh my God," Fin said with disgust, realizing what this meant, "you met a girl last night after the trial. That's why you're spouting this euphoric bullshit. So how low is the I.Q. on the new soon to be ex?"

"For your information, she is not a girl; she is a woman. And her I.Q. could run circles around yours, partner," Munch retorted, giving Fin an amused look.

"So does this incredibly tolerant 'woman' have a name or so I just call her Tiffany?"

"Corrine Sidle," Munch said staring off into space as he imagined her face.

"Corrine Sidle? I've heard that name before. Isn't she one of ADAs that took over some Alex's cases? You're dating a lawyer?!" Fin replied in complete shock.

"That's right. And you might know her from Narcotics. She worked over there for about four years as Assistant District Attorney. She remembered you, especially the fact that you don't like to be touched. Is there something that you would like to tell me, Fin?" John asked, raising an eyebrow in Fin's direction.

After a moment of thought, a huge grin spread across Fin's face. He suddenly remembered Corrine Sidle. She was about 5'7" with shoulder-length brunette hair and emerald green eyes that seemed to bore right through a suspect. Fin let a small laugh go as he recalled the time that Corrine found out that he didn't like to be touched, but decided to let have a little fun at Munch's expense. Served him right for being in such a good mood.

"I remember Corrine. Your date was with her? I hate tell you man, but she is too much woman for you. And she didn't tell you the whole story. I don't like to be touched unless it's in the right places," Fin said with smile and a wink, leaning in to drive Munch just that much more crazy.

Munch began to steam out the ears and felt his blood pressure rising. The thought of Fin being in any sort of intimate situation with 'his Corrine' made him sick and angry.

"What do mean 'the right places'? Are you saying that you were intimate with Corrine Sidle?!" Munch seethed, standing up from his desk and getting within inches of his partner's face.

"So what if I was? What are you gonna to do about it?" Fin challenged getting back into Munch's face, before finally cracking into laughter.

Munch backed away stunned. His partner, his comrade, his friend was laughing at him. It was almost too much to bear. Munch sat down at his desk and Fin followed suit, still laughing at the sight of his usual cool and collected partner falling apart at the seams. It was refreshing to finally get one up on Detective John Munch.

"Why are laughing at my misery? You have sunk my spirits to the lowest of lows and all you can do is sit there and laugh. You're cold."

"Naw, Munch. I was just messing with you. I've never been anywhere with Corrine except once to a bar to celebrate a conviction. One of skanks at the bar tried to pick me up. That's how she knows I don't like to be touched. I just said that to screw with you for being in such a good mood," Fin said, finally getting his laughter under control.

"That's sick, man. You dare to trifle with my emotions, my heart. That's ill," Munch replied, starting to slowly calm down.

Right at the moment, Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson walked in. They looked upon the scene of Fin smiling and Munch shooting daggers with his eyes at his partner. Neither Olivia nor Elliot was surprised at the sight. It wasn't work unless Fin and Munch were sniping at each other. Nevertheless, the two detectives decided make small talk and were surprised to hear what Munch and Fin had to say.

"What's up with you two?" Olivia asked.

"Nothing," Fin responded, glancing at the still glowering Munch before starting on the paperwork on his desk.

"Yeah, nothing but my partner ruining my good mood by stomping on my heart," Munch retorted.

"John, you were in a good mood?" Elliot asked, frowning.

"As a matter of fact I was, until funny guy over there decided to say that he had been intimate with Corrine Sidle."

"Fin, you had a thing with ADA Corrine Sidle?" Olivia questioned, confused by the conversation.

"Naw. She's not my type, but our man Munch here apparently does."

Elliot and Olivia both turned to look at Munch. Munch in love or even dating was not a good sign. Elliot, Olivia, and Fin shared a look and then rolled their eyes and sighed heavily at the thought of hearing about Munch's love life.

"Munch, how long have you been seeing this woman?" Elliot asked, trying to determine exactly what the situation was.

"I'm not actually seeing her. I was comforting her after Jeremy Carlyle was acquitted. She was shook up and upset. So we went to get a drink at Sullivan's and we got to talking," Munch responded.

Munch told the other detectives about the previous night, including the kiss at his doorstep. They all just stood there in disbelief. It seemed as though Corrine was a good match for John. They weren't sure whether this was good or bad. Just as Munch had finished up, Captain Cragen walked out of his office with a look on his face that could only mean bad things for the unit.

"Guys, I need you to get over to the Renard Hotel, there's been a rape of a 12 year old."

All four detectives jumped into action, grabbing their coats before heading out of the office. Before they walked out Cragen told them one last thing about the case.

"This case needs to be handled carefully. The victim is Lucinda Weathers, the daughter of a U.S. Senator."

Olivia nodded in acknowledgment to the Captain and turned to catch up with Elliot.

***

The hotel room was in a shambles. It looked as though a serious struggle had taken place. Chairs were overturned and one of beds looked as though a windstorm had blown the sheets around. On the other bed, a small girl with blond wavy hair was sitting down wearing tattered clothing. A couple of detectives and EMTs were around her, trying to understand what she was saying through her sobs and tending to her injuries.

"This doesn't seem like the usual place for a rape to take place. It positively reeks of trust funds and socialites," Fin said looking through the open doorway as Olivia, Elliot, Munch, and he entered.

"Definitely not the type of place that rents the room by the hour," Munch interjected.

"Just because a place looks nice doesn't mean that bad people can't come here," Olivia said.

Olivia and Elliot went over to the victim while Munch and Fin surveyed the room for any forensic evidence.

Olivia kneeled down and asked, "Honey, we're with the police and we want catch the person that did this you. Can you tell us anything about what happened?"

The girl sobbed," My dad and I are staying the hotel for the week, while our apartment is being fumigated. He's a senator. He had left earlier today to go to his office. He told me to stay in the hotel until he came back for lunch. I decided around 10:30 to go downstairs to get some breakfast. When I came back up, I headed towards my room when a hand grabbed me from behind and pulled me into a dark room."

At that point Lucinda started to break down into hysterical sobs. The medics helped her onto a stretcher and wheeled her out of the room to take her to the hospital for an examination. Olivia decided to ride in the ambulance with Lucinda, while Elliot would follow in his car.

"Fin, Munch. Why don't you talk to the other guests of the hotel and the staff. See if anyone saw anything suspicious," Elliot shot back as he headed out.

Munch and Fin headed towards the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Munch started to pump Fin for information about what to do with his fledging love life.

"So do you think Corrine would appreciate it if I sent her flowers?"

"Since when do you ask me for dating advice?" Fin retorted, throwing Munch a look of disgust.

"I'm not asking for advice, just your opinion. I don't want to end up with another ex-wife. So flowers, no flowers?" Munch said, turning to face Fin.

Fin smiled at the sight of John squirming about the next step to take with a woman.

"You really like her, don't you? I've never seen you get this work up about a girl before."

"Yeah, I really do like her, and I would appreciate any help that you can give me," Munch said, starting to get aggravated.

"Okay, calm down. Flowers sound nice. And from what you told me, Corrine seems to be pretty wrapped up in you, so at the moment I don't think there is much that you can do wrong."

"See how well we can work together if you just do what I ask you to," John said as the elevator doors opened to the lobby.

Fin shook his head at his partner's comment and followed him out of the elevator. John and Fin interviewed all of the staff that had been on duty that morning. A waitress remembered seeing a man in his thirties paying an unusual amount of attention to Lucinda while she ate breakfast. But she didn't remember him leaving the restaurant. No one else could remember anything out of the ordinary, so Munch and Fin left for the precinct to pull the LUDs from Lucinda's room and the room in which she was raped.

On the drive back to the precinct, Munch called a florist and ordered a dozen lilies to be delivered to Corrine's office that afternoon. He had considered sending roses, but Fin had talked him out of it and for once he had taken his advice. Fin tried hard to overhear what his partner had said for the inscription on the card, but he couldn't catch it. When they finally got to the office, Olivia and Elliot had already returned from the hospital. The rape kit had turned up no semen, but was positive for spermicide, which meant that the perp had used a condom. The kit also turned up some hairs that weren't Lucinda's, so there was DNA available. Now all they had to do was a find a perp to match it.

After about 3 hours of staring at phone records for the hotel, Munch's eyes were starting to water. He removed his dark glasses to rub them and prepared to return to reading the pile of papers in front of him. Then the phone rang. Olivia picked it up.

"Special Victims Unit. Yeah, he's here. Can you hold on for a minute? Thanks."

Olivia pushed the "hold" button of the phone and turned to face John's desks.

"Corrine Sidle is on the line for you. Something about wanting to thank you. Are you sure that all that happened last night was a kiss on the cheek?" Olivia said, giving Munch a bemused look.

John blushed ever so slightly; he hadn't counted on Corrine calling back so soon. He had hoped to avoid this exact situation. As he picked up his receiver, Munch felt the eyes of his colleagues staring at him; wishing that they could hear both ends of the conversation.

"Detective John Munch, Special Victims Unit...Oh hi, Corrine...Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed them...I would really enjoy that...Sounds good...I'll see you then...Bye."

John hung up the phone and smiled ever so slightly before returning his attention to the phone logs without giving a second look to Olivia, Elliot, or Fin. After a few minutes, Fin broke the silence.

"I take it by your smile that she enjoyed the flowers that you sent her."

"You sent her flowers?" Olivia asked in disbelief.

"As a matter of act, lilies are one of her favorites. Thank you, Fin," Munch responded, looking at them over the rims of his glasses.

"Now, why are you thanking Fin?" Elliot asked.

"Because my esteemed partner was the one who suggested that I give lilies instead of the overrated rose," Munch retorted as he got up and patted his partner on the back," I won't forget it, man."

"Well, neither will I," Fin said with a smile.

"Corrine and I have a date tonight. She's supposed to pick me up at 8."

"Did my ears deceive me or did Munch just say that he had a date?" Cragen retorted as he exited from his office to check up on his detectives.

"No, Captain you heard right. Our little Munch has managed to tangle himself up with Assistant District Attorney Corrine Sidle," Olivia said.

"Well, congratulations John. And in honor of such an auspicious occasion, I will allow you to leave now to get ready. I know that the Weathers case is important, but the LUDs can wait until tomorrow morning," Cragen told Munch grinning.

John jumped out of his chair and went to get his overcoat. As he went to leave for the evening, he turned back to smile at the rest of the office staff.

"Now I just need to figure out where to take her," he said before jogging out the door.

Fin, Olivia, and Elliot sat there in utter shock. They weren't completely sure if John had been joking or not.

"Ten bucks says that tomorrow he comes in breathing fire and preaching about how all women are evil," Fin joked, returning to his enormous pile of paper scattering on the top of his desk.

"Twenty," Elliot responded, not even bother to look up.

Five minutes later, an office poll was started on the outcome of Munch's date. Nearly the entire office was betting that it would end badly. But Fin secretly placed a bet that it would end well. He wanted to hold out hope that his partner had finally met his match.

TBC