A/N: Sorry about the shortness of the chapters. I am suffering from a severe lack of motivation and inspiration, and I thought spewing out shorter chapters might help until my muse returns from its vacation. Please don't hate me. I heart you guys and your continued reviews. I wish I could give you more, but I just don't have it in me right now.

Ryan hadn't been able to sleep, but he wasn't exhausted when he woke up. He was too wired to be exhausted, too excited to be tired. His stomach was churning with nervous excitement, so much so that he'd been afraid to eat breakfast that morning before work. The last time he'd felt this way, he'd made the mistake of eating and most of it had come back up a few minutes later. He wasn't about to do that again, not when today was the day he'd finally decided to ask out Calleigh. Hence the reason he'd been unable to sleep the night before.

Was it in poor taste to ask a girl out the day after breaking up with another one? Wasn't there some kind of code or something?

Although, if he thought about it, he had technically asked out Natalia when she was still technically seeing Delko. Ryan had asked Delko's permission before asking her out, but she was under the impression that they were still dating, and Ryan had asked her out. That was sure to violate some unwritten code, as well, and Ryan had basically pissed all over it. So why was he worried about breaking "the rules" now?

Because Calleigh was too important to him to screw up any chances he may have with her. Because he wanted to do this the right way. Because he thought about Calleigh every second of every day – waking or sleeping – and if anything was going to happen with the two of them, he wanted everything to be perfect. Failure was not an option. Not when it came to Calleigh Duquesne.

Lying awake all night had given him ample time to formulate a plan. He was going to march into work, the picture of suavity and confidence, find Calleigh, pull her into the locker room, and take her on one of the benches.

Failing that, he would march into work, the picture of confidence, find Calleigh, and ask her to dinner.

And if he ended up being too chicken to do even that, he would walk into work, the picture of nothing, subtly flirt with Calleigh all day, and hope that she asked him out for drinks again. Maybe, if he were really lucky, whatever case they got today would rattle her the way that abusive father accidental death case had.

How horrible was that, wishing that they got some gruesome case just so Calleigh would ask him out for drinks. But his stomach was eating itself, he was so nervous, and he needed all the help he could get.

The elevator doors opened with a ding, and while Ryan meant to stroll into the lab as confidently as possible, he didn't. There must have been some miscommunication between his brain and his feet, because instead of stepping, he kind of dragged the toe of his left shoe along the floor, causing him to trip and fall flat on his face in front of everyone in the lobby. When he picked himself up, he noticed that one of the people he had just made an ass out of himself in front of was none other than the love of his life, the object of his affection, Calleigh Duquesne.

She was grinning, one hand over her mouth, obviously struggling not to laugh. He really wished she would laugh, even though it was directed at him. She had a nice laugh. He also wished she wouldn't cover her mouth. She had a beautiful smile.

"Are you okay?" she asked, after she had calmed down a bit.

Ryan was desperate to sound smooth and unruffled, like he tripped over his own two feet in front of gorgeous coworkers all the time, and he said the first thing that popped into his head – which, in retrospect, probably wasn't the best idea.

"I think that floor is uneven."

She laughed and walked down the hall.

At least that decided which plan he would go with.