A/N: Okay, thank lyou guys for waitng so patiently. In case you wondered. The slip I was refering to a couple of chapters ago was when Matthew was talking to "Mindy" at practice. When "Mindy" asked for his name he saidOfficer Delaney.She then turned to the squad and introduced him as Matthew Delaney. Not that big, but if a cheerleader heard her then...

Well here we go...

Ingrid sat at her kitchen table; reading. Suddenly, Ariella dropped a box of spaghetti in front of her. "How's pasta sound?"

Ingrid looked at Ariella questioningly, "What do you mean?"

"For dinner, is pasta okay?"

That's when Ingrid realized, she had forgotten to tell Ariella about Anza. "I can't be here. I have plans for dinner tonight with Joe."

Ariella raised her eyebrows in surprise and not just the surprise of not being told sooner. "You do?"

"Um yeah, why?"

Ariella regained her composure, "No reason. What time is he coming to get you?"

"Around six."

"Uh Ingrid, not to startle you, but it's already 5:45."

Ingrid's eyes darted to the clock, it was a quarter till. "Crackers!" She jumped up and ran upstairs to her room, slamming the door.

Just then, the doorbell rang. "Who is it?" Ariella asked, already knowing the answer.

"It's Fillmore," Ariella opened the door and Fillmore stepped inside. "Is Ingrid here?"

"Yeah but not for long, she's going out with Joseph tonight."

"Oh snaps! I forgot about that. I guess I'll just call her later." He turned to leave but before he could Ingrid had come downstairs.

"Fillmore? What are you doing here?"

"I was gonna see if you wanted to go to the arcade, but that was before I remembered it was Saturday and you had a date."

Ingrid nodded, for once she didn't know what to say and she didn't know why. Finally, she decided on, "So I'll call you when I get back."

"Yeah, okay. I'll talk to you later. See ya Ingrid."

"Bye Fillmore."

Ariella closed the door smiling slightly and shaking her head.

Ingrid caught it, "What?"

"It's nothing," Ariella tried and failed to quit smiling.

"It's something; I intend to find out when I get back later. I don't have time to talk now I-"

But she was cut off as the door opened and her father walked in.

"Hey Dad. Ingrid's going to be gone tonight so it's just the two of us. What do you want me to fix?"

"I'm sorry Ariella; I have a date with Katherine tonight. So I won't be home."

Ariella sighed good naturedly, "That's okay, I'll see you guys when you get home. I'm gonna go work on some homework."

"And I've got to go get ready. Have a nice evening Ingrid." Mr. Third kissed her forehead and made his way down the hall to his room.

Ingrid sat on the coouch and before she had a chance to relax the doorbell rang. "I'm leaving, Joseph's here," she called to no one in particular. She opened the door and stepped outside.

"Ingrid, you look great." Anza held out a white rose which Ingrid-dressed in a black skirt and a green sweater-accepted.

"Thank you," she said, taking the arm that Anza had offered. "So where are we going, Joe?"

"Well, there's a restaurant I was going to take you to and after that whatever you want. We can walk in the park or go see a movie."

Across town at an Italian restaurant a woman with red hair and freckles sat across from a man with black hair and glasses. The had already talked about almost everytyhing and the conversation had turned to their children.

"I can't thank Ingrid enough for getting Matthew involved in this case. It's something he's always wanted."

"It's no problem, Ingrid apparently thought he could help."

Katherine shrugged slightly, "Will you thank her anyway. I would but she doesn't seem to like me much."

Mr. Third shook his head. "She has nothing against you as a person. It's just that Ingrid deals with logic and facts. Even her job at the Safety Patrol; it's black and white. There's not gray area. She's got to deal with solid facts, not emotions. You're an artist and she thinks it's impractical. So she doesn't mind us as friends but other than that..." He paused for a minute, how could he explain Ingrid? He decided to push on, trying his best. "I think she always pictured me either alone or with someone very level headed, practical, like that Miss Baxter I was with for a while."

Katherine nodded, still slightly confused. "I think I'll try to talk to her again. She and Matthew get along so well. He says so many great things about her. I want to get to know her too."

"I think tomorrow night is a good night."

"Aren't we going out tomorrow?" Katherine raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, but before that, she's not doing anything and she's been so busy lately that I'm not sure when else we'll catch her. Tomorrow I think she's planning on lrenting movies and watching them with Fillmore."

"Fillmore, that's not Ingrid's boyfriend, is it?"

"No, Joseph Anza is her boyfriend. Fillmore is her best friend, you haven't met him yet."

Katherine nodded and they continued their evening.

They were leaving the park after a nice walk. The air was crisp and just cool enough that Anza had offered Ingrid his jacket. Partly because she thought refusing it would be rude and partly because she thought it was a nice gesture she accepted it.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Anza asked as they neared Ingrid's house.

"It was great," Ingrid looked at her ever so slightly withering rose. "It was great of you to plan this."

"We should do this more often, Ingrid. This is only our third date."

Ingrid sighed, "Joe, stop it. I don't want to argue with you, I'm busy and you're busy. Tonight was great and I wish we could do it more often."

Anza looked up with raised eyebrows, "really?"

"What do you mean 'really'? Of course I wish we could see each other more."

Anza's lips hit Ingrid's. There shge was, kissing her actual boyfriend for the first time. He was the second boy she'd ever kissed and he was good at it. It felt so...

"Hey Fillmore"

"Hey Ingrid, I was waiting for your call. I think we may have been going about this investigation wrong. We always just assumed that the perps wanted X to lose. But maybe they just wanted someone else to win."

"Well if we don't win someone else obviously will."

"Ingrid, maybe they wanted a specific team to win."

"Crackers! We need to know everyone on the squad's connections to the other teams. Maybe it's their parents or sibs alumni schools or their aunt or uncle has a job there. People willl do anything for family."

"We'll have Matthew check into it tomorrow."

Ingrid nodded before remembering Fillmore couldn't see her. "So how was the arcade?"

"I didn't go. What fun is an arcade without anyone to beat?"

"Fillmore, the only game you beat me at is the one where you stomp on flashing lights."

"You're not supposed to stomp on them, Ingrid. It's supposed to be like dancing."

"That's obviously why you win."

They laughed and there was a silence. Finally Fillmore spoke, "So how was your night."

"It was actually great until the end."

"What happened?"

There was a long pause as Ingrid tried to decide what to say.

"You don't have to tell me, Ingrid."

"No, it's not a big deal. It was just a goodnight kiss."

Fillmore winced without reason but quickly recovered. "Bad kisser right?" He said, trying to lighten the mood.

Ingrid smiled slightly. "Definately not."

Another wince from Fillmore.

"It was just so..." She thought for a minute, how could she say this? How could she tell Fillmore that Anza had been a great kisser but she hadn't felt a thing. "It was just, empty."