Disclaimer: I don't own Third Watch.

Coffee.

A slap reverberated against the walls. The echo seemed to go on forever as the birds flew up into the sky and nosy neighbors poked their heads out the window to find the source of the commotion. The sheer pounding motion of the action caused ears to ring and heads to pulsate as it ricochet inside the skulls of unsuspecting passer-by's ... at least, that was how one, Carlos Nieto would have described it.

'Damnit!' He cursed, and lifted his head up from the feathery comfort of his pillow. 'What the hell is going on out there' He tiredly lifted himself off the bed and towards the door. 'If those two are this loud when I'm here, I dread to find out what they sound like when they're alone.'

----

"Listen to me, Alex," Ty moved towards Alex, his hands raised up in defense, "you don't understand –"

Alex raised a warning finger to him. "Don't you dare tell me I don't understand, Ty! Oh, I understand, very clearly," she huffed, "what, do you think I'm stupid or something? Or is it the fact that I'm blonde, that makes you think I'm another one of your one night stands?" she paced around the living room floor.

"Alex, listen to me," Ty tried to reason with her, "Kristin is just ..." he opened his mouth to say something, but no excuse came out.

"Just ... what ... a one nighter? Which night ... last night? Or was it the night before that?"

"Alex –"

"No, Ty, I'm sick of this. This isn't the first call I've received, you know. I am not a pushover, Ty. If you think you can cheat on me with one of your whore girl friends, and I'll be just fine with it, then you've got another thing something to you."

Ty walked to her and was just about to place his hands on her shoulders, but she just moved away.

"And to think I was stupid enough to assume that we had something going on."

"Would you two keep it down?" Carlos poked his head out the door, his messy hair sticking up in all directions. 'So, the lovebirds having a bit of a fight, eh? Interesting. I wonder what Ty did this time?'

"Shut up, Carlos!"

The both of them shouted at him simultaneously, making him step back in shock.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes, "just tune it down. A guy needs his beauty sleep, you know?" he shut the door, blocking out the heated glares coming from Ty and Alex.

"I think you'd better leave, Ty," Alex wrapped her hands around herself and looked away from Ty.

Ty just sighed. He walked over to the coat hanger to grab his jacket, and walked out without a word.

A few minutes later, he walked back in, "I just remembered; this is my place."

"Get out!" Alex yelled at him angrily.

Ty was taken aback by her tone, but did just leave her to dwell in her anger for a while, hoping that her anger would have dissipated by the next day.

----

Alex watched his retreating form as the door slowly closed with a click.

After looking around, and realizing that she was completely alone, she collapsed backwards into the sofa and wept.

----

'Finally,' Carlos heaved a sigh. He crawled back under the covers of his bed, and was just about to get back to his erotic dream (which involved a blonde, a French maids' outfit and a cheese sandwich), when a light sobbing sound reached his ears. 'Oh great. What now?' He thought spitefully. He listened intently for the sound to reach his ears, when it did; he dropped his head back into the pillow. 'God, please don't let it be Davis crying.'

He though for a moment as he lay, sprawled out in his bed. 'Sounds like a girl ... hmm ... must be Taylor,' his face cringed as if a dirty image was imprinted into his brain, 'I hope."

He rolled over to his side, facing away from the door, and the sound. 'Just ignore it. If I ignore it ... ignore her, she might just go away,' he grasped one of the pillow on his bed and covered his head with it. However, the ever light sobbing penetrated the soft material of the pillow and went straight into his ear, haunting him ... eating his soul up with guilt. 'Ignore it, Carlos. Its just Taylor ... how bad can it be? And more importantly, who cares?'

'Do I?'

'No I don't! Taylor is a pain in the ass. She can take care of herself.'

'But she's my friend.'

'Whose been shagging Davis. A Davis shagging friend, is not a good friend!'

'Then again ...what about Doc?'

'Argh! Bad mental image!' he clutched his head.

After a few minutes of a mental argument with himself, he punched a pillow and hesitantly got out of bed. He grabbed a pair of slacks from the chair closest to his bed and put them on.

'Damn you, Taylor!'

----

Alex hitched a sob, silently. Tears flowed freely down her face and she reached one hand up to wipe them away.

"Okay, Taylor. You got my attention. So, spill," Carlos walked into the living room and flopped down into a sofa opposite her.

"Bug off, Nieto," Alex glared at him.

"Okay, okay. Judging by your state of mind, I'd say idiot Davis cheated on you with another girl, am I right?"

"Leave me alone!" Alex stood up abruptly and walked into the kitchen, away from Carlos.

Carlos just sighed exasperatedly, Mystery that is the woman's mind. He stood up from the seat and followed Alex into the kitchen. There he found her leaning against the windowsill, looking gloomily out at the lights of the many buildings.

"Okay look, I'm sor ... err ... I didn't mean what I said," Carlos stopped himself from actually apologizing to her, knowing the fact that he would never live it down, "what Davis did it stupid. But it isn't your fault the guy can't keep Ty Junior properly under control."

That brought a snicker out of Alex. "I guess you're right," she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, "it just ... I'm tired of always being one of the guys. It's always, 'yo, Alex,' or 'dude, meet my buddy, Alex,' or, 'Alex, you be line backer, and I'll tackle!'" she took a deep breath, "sometimes I just want to be treated like a girl ... like a lady."

What have I gotten myself into? Carlos mentally smacked himself, "those guys are a big bunch of fools. That's all there's to be said about it. Now ... can you please, quite it down a little, I'm trying to sleep," he was just about to walk out when he hear Alex start talking.

"The first time Ty introduced me to his mom ... he said, 'mom, this is my friend, Alex,'" she looked at her feet.

Carlos could feel his conscience pulling back towards Alex.

He stood nearly a foot behind Alex, perplexed as to what to do next. He raised his hand up, his face resembling someone who was about to put his hand into the mouth of a hungry tiger. He reached over, and with the tips of his fingers, patted Alex comfortingly on the shoulder, "Ty probably is gay in any case."

Alex felt the tears started to well up in her eye. She turned around suddenly and wrapped her shoulder around Carlos' neck, sobbing quietly into his shoulder.

Carlos seemed taken aback by her actions, but did nothing to remove her. Instead, he just patted her on the back with his right hand, his mind working over time to find away to get himself out of the predicament.

"Alex," he tapped her on the shoulder, "umm ..."

Alex turned her face up to look at him, her eyes red and puffy.

Carlos saw the miserable look on her face, and lost the heart to tell her to let go. He dropped his head, "It's nothi –"

He was cut off when he felt Alex's warm lips against his own.

'Crap!' his eyes widened, 'this feels nice.'

----

The sun shone in through the window, illuminating everything in its path.

Carlos cracked open his eyes, awakened by the bright stream of light that reflected in the mirror in the corner and right into his eyes. He stayed in the same position for a few minutes, just contemplating the memory of the dream he had been having. 'Weird ass dream," he pushed himself up with his elbows, cracking his stiff neck, 'me and Alex? Yeah right,' he mentally snickered, 'like that would ever happen. Who–ooly crap!' his eyes became round when he turned around and saw a person in his bed, Alex ... naked, Alex ... she lay on her stomach with one arm stretched over his own 'unclothed' midriff.

Her face burrowed into his chest, and she seemed to be in a pleasant slumber.

'This must be a dream,' raised a hand to feel his forehead, 'no, a nightmare!'

"Mmm," Alex mumble, her eyelashes quivered slightly.

Carlos noticed this, he was just about to open his mouth to make a snide remark, but when he saw Alex fall back to sleep and snuggled closer to his chest, the words died on his lips. 'Women and their mind powers," he thought bitterly. He studied Alex's face closely for a moment, 'well, I'll be ... Alex is actually a babe.'

With much hesitation, he reached over to brush some stray strands away from her face.

The moment his fingers brushed against her cheek, Alex's eyes flew open. She blinked bewilderedly, and looked at the person lying next to her, she screamed and shoved him roughly off the bed.

"Oww."

She quickly stood up, pulling the white covers protectively up to cover her bare body, she growled, "Nieto! What are you doing here?"

Carlos rubbed his sore bottom and raised his head up to look t her from above the mattress, "Me? This is my bed! My room! You are wearing my covers! Now give them back!"

"Huh?" Alex raised an eyebrow, but suddenly, the memory of the night before came back to her and she gasped. "You mean?"

Carlos nodded his head.

"You and me?"

He nodded again.

"In this bed?" she had a repulsed look on her face.

"For the umpteenth time, yes!" he said loudly, "Now give me my covers!"

"No!" Alex clutched them tighter around here, "I'm the girl here! I have more to cover. Just use that ... cowboy hat?" she raised an eyebrow at the sight of a leather cowboy hat propped up by the edge of the table.

"Shut up, Taylor," Carlos grabbed a pillow from the bed to cover himself. He stood up, careful not to bare his exposed bottom to Alex, "Don't you dare look!"

"As if," she answered, closing here eyes tightly.

He walked over to the foot of the bed to get his pants from where they were carelessly tossed during the night. He pulled them up and zipped them before turning to Alex, "Okay."

Alex slit open an eye, checking whether the coast was really clear.

"For Christ sake, Alex, I won't flash you if that's what you're worried about."

Alex blushed and stood up, careful to keep herself completely covered. She walked over the where Carlos has retrieved his pants and picked up her clothes, "Umm ... last night ... Ty?" she looked at Carlos questioningly.

"I didn't hear him come back, even if he did, I'm sure he wouldn't peep in on me. He probably thinks that I sleep in the nude."

Alex snickered at his comment, "You know something, Nieto? You can be a pretty funny guy when you're not being a pain in the ass."

"Right back at ya'."

Alex just nodded her head, standing at the side looking pretty awkward, "Maybe I should change here, in case Ty is –"

"Yeah," Carlos nodded his head.

The both of them stood in silence. Carlos rocked back and forth on his heels while Alex looked at her feet, and the wall, and the bed.

Carlos pointed to the door, "I probably should –"

Alex just nodded here head.

"Kay," Carlos agreed, and after another bout of silence, he walked out, careful to shut the door behind him.

----

About ten minutes later, Alex stepped out, dressed in the clothes she had been wearing the night before. She looked over at Carlos sitting in front of the television, sipping a cup of coffee, and at the counter, where there was another cup of coffee ready.

She grabbed the cup and walked over to the sofa Carlos had been sitting before. "Hey, Nieto – Carlos, thanks ... you know. About last night."

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," he just waved it off as he flicked the buttons on the remote control.

"Okay," Alex seemed fascinated by her cup of coffee. She took a small sip and cringed. "I should go."

"Yeah," Carlos turned to look at her and nodded his head.

"So, I'll see you at work?"

"Maybe. If you don't have another breakdown and end up in Bosco's bed."

"Shut up, Carlos!" Alex threw a pillow playfully at him, "by the way, your coffee sucks."

"Bug off, Taylor."

Alex grabbed her coat. She walked over to the door and was about to turn the knob when she turned on her heels.

"Last night ... if anyone asked, nothing happened."

"Of course not," he put down his cup.

"Because it was just that one time," Alex assured herself, "it won't ever happen again, right."

"No, of course not. This morning, I thought I was having a nightmare," he ran a hand through his hair. He turned seriously to Alex, "unless, you want it to happen," he held his breath anxiously.

"God no!" she answered hurriedly.

"Oh good!" he held his palm over his heart and exhaled loudly.

Another bout of silence hit and the both of them just stared at each other awkwardly.

"Well, bye," Alex said hurriedly and walked out.

----

Later that afternoon, they found out that Doc had taken a sick leave. So, Kim was partnered up with another paramedic, and that left Carlos to be paired up with Alex.

The day passed by uneventfully, so the both of them rode in the bus in silence the whole day.

Ty had confronted Alex earlier that day, but she just moved passed him. Her anger towards him had not dissipated enough yet for her to forgive him.

Suddenly the voice of the dispatcher rang out, calling for a bus to the place where gang fight had taken place. They reached their destination a few minutes late and filed out of the bus, moving to the back to retrieve the gurney and the medical supplies.

Alex turned to grab the heavy supply bag, but Carlos got to it and mumbled to her a quiet 'I got it.'

----

There were many injured. Apparently a member of one gang had slept with the sister of the leader of the rivals' gang.

About then minutes later, the both of them loaded their patient into the back of the bus.

"Hey, Carlos," Alex turned to Carlos.

"What?" he asked, shutting the door tightly.

"Good job out there."

"You too."

"Well ... maybe ..." she trailed off, not meeting his eyes.

"Maybe what?" Alex's sudden shyness caught his attention.

"Err ... maybe, we could get some coffee sometime," she motioned with his hands, "as friends."

Carlos looked shocked by her answer, but his face did have an expression of interest, "Sure," he said simply.

Alex nodded. She smirked suddenly at him. Carlos noticed the look on her face and raised an eyebrow in an expression that said 'what?'

"As long as it's not your homemade coffee. You suck at making coffee."

End.