AUTHOR'S NOTE - Thank you screwydame and missymeghan for your positive and motivational reviews. And thank you screwydame for promoting my story on your story "London After Midnight", I really appreciate it and can't wait for a new chapter for that story!

DISCLAIMER –– I do not own characters appearing on ""Crossing Jordan""

Chapter 2 - Forget This, Let's Go To The Pogue

Bug arrived at Lily's apartment the next evening with French conversation books in hand. For as long as he could remember, Bug had wanted to spend an evening alone with Lily. This was a great opportunity for him to get to know Lily more. They sat down on her big comfy couch.

"So how do you say 'can I have a drink of water'?" asked Lily.

"Puis-j'avoir un boire d'eau." replied Bug.

"Puis - j'avoir un boire d'eau." said Lily.

"Good, so what other phrases do you want to know?"

"How about, 'have a nice day'."

"Vous avez un bon journey."

"Vous avez un bon journey."

Bug couldn't believe this, here Lily was, listening and repeating every word that came out of his mouth. He knew it wasn't a dream and he was positively glowing. He knew that it wouldn't lead anywhere, especially since Lily was still hung up on Garret. Bug couldn't understand why Lily would want Garret Macy, he was divorced and he was somewhat seeing District Attorney Renee Walcott. Bug knew that Garret knew that Lily still had feelings for him, but what Bug couldn't understand was why would Garret see DA Walcott if he knew it would hurt Lily?

"Hey Bug, what's another phrase that you think I should know before I go?" asked Lily.

"Je t'aime." said Bug without any thought.

"What does that mean?" asked Lily.

At this point Bug was absolutely surprised that he just said 'I Love You' to Lily Lebowski, the woman that kept him up at night, the woman who had stolen his heart. Bug had to think of something fast, he didn't want Lily to know that he just said that he loved her.

"Uh, in English 'je t'aime' means 'this is good'." said Bug as he was lying to Lily.

"Je t'aime. I think I can remember that one." said Lily, then she looked at her watch. "You know let's forget this for tonight and let's head on down to the Pogue."

Bug was crushed when he heard that Lily wanted to finish learning French so early in the night, there's so much more he could have taught her, but she wanted to call it quits. He basically wanted to spend more time with her that he otherwise wouldn't have.

"So do you want to go to the Pogue?" asked Lily.

"I guess so." said Bug rather sadly.

"Cheer up Bug. You never know, Nigel could be there." replied Lily.

You never know, Nigel could be there. What exactly was that? Bug and Nigel weren't joined at the hip, just because they worked together it didn't mean they were the best of friends. Bug was very quiet on the ride over to the Pogue with Lily. He still couldn't believe that Lily would say such things or just hurt him so, but then of course Lily didn't realize that she hurt Bug's feelings.

When Bug and Lily arrived at the Pogue, Lily immediately gravitated towards Garret who was sitting at the bar with Jordan and Woody. Bug didn't see Nigel, so he got a beer and headed to a table somewhere where no one could see he was alone, no one that he expected to see him at least.

"Hi Dr. Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy, did you know that your grief counselor said 'I love you' to a beer? Now I thought people in Saskatchewan said that." said the slim brunette standing infront of him.

"Yeah, I kind of taught her french, she thinks it means 'this is good'. Ms. O'Leary please have a seat."offered Bug.

"Why thank you Doctor. When I saw Woody Hoyt at the bar, I knew I had to hide. Oh and it's Sandra by the way." said Sandra.

"So do you frequent here often?"asked Bug.

"Not since I stopped dating police officers." replied Sandra with a laugh. "So why are you here by yourself?"

"It's just the thing I do, drink by myself." replied Bug.

"Now don't say that, you shouldn't drink by yourself, alcohol is meant to be drunken with more than one person. Trust me." said Sandra.

Bug was in total awe of this woman who decided to strike up a conversation with him, no one woman has ever done that to him before. He was eager to see where this would all lead if anywhere.

"So why are you all alone here Sandra?" asked Bug.

"Well I just felt like a Singapore Sling and I know this place makes good ones... We'll I just needed to go out and celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" asked an inquisitive Bug.

"I got my old job back. You see I taught at a private high school here in Boston and I was laid off because none of the students wanted to take History. Then through a few acquaintances I got my job with the Port Authority." explained Sandra.

"So did you major in French in University?" asked Bug.

"Yeah, I majored both in French and History at the University of Ottawa." replied Sandra, "I bet you Detective Hoyt told you about my dating history and how he wants to finally get me settled."

"He did, but it's none of my business."

"It's more none of his business than anyone else's, but it's complicated, it's been so complicated that there was a rumor that I dated Ben Affleck!"

"I take it that's not true. I have the opposite problem of yours." admitted Bug.

"How so?" asked Sandra.

Bug couldn't believe this, someone actually cared about his problems. Where should he start to tell her? Probably he should tell her about Lily.

"Well," he started looking at his mug of beer, "There's this girl and well of course she wants another guy but he's not good enough for her, in my opinion."

"Is it the one that said 'I love you' to her beer?" guessed Sandra.

"How did you know?"

"Well if I was going to tell someone that I loved them straight to their face I would tell them in a language they wouldn't understand."

"So I guess you understand."

"Somewhat, I know how it is to pine after someone for years and they don't even know that you even have feelings for them. That happened to me, I had the biggest crush on Nick Ellis since I was like six, and when I met Joe Hayward, that all went away."

"So what happened between you and Joe if you don't mind me asking." said Bug.

"Well, okay this is a long story so we should each order another drink," she said as she was waving her hand to the bartender, "Anyway Joe and I started dating when he and I were both 17, we were steady during our last year of high school, where I was Social Convener of Students' Council and he was on the hockey team. He was drafted by the Ottawa Senators, you know the NHL team, during the summer, which greatly influenced my decision to go to Ottawa for university. By the way I'm originally from Weyburn Saskatchewan. But so I got my undergrad degree in History and French and then got my Bachelor of Education there as well, so that meant Joe played for Ottawa for five years. Then he decided that he wanted a trade, Boston gave him a better offer and I decided to go with him because I loved him and he loved me. For some reason we became distant during last season, part with me and my long hours of marking essays and assignments and him going on the road all the time. So when he got the offer to play for Phoenix he decided to take it and I told him that I wasn't going to move to a place where there wasn't snow, so he left me the condo and moved to Phoenix so he could work along his idol Wayne Gretzky, who owns the Coyotes. That's it in a nutshell."

"So why stay in Boston?"

"I like the Ocean."

"You like nature?"

"Love it, I go hiking and camping all the time."

"Did you want to go hiking sometime?" asked Bug.

"I would love to Dr. Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy, how about this weekend?" replied Sandra.

"You can call me Mahesh. And as far as I know I have the weekend off."

"Ok Mahesh, it's a date. Did you want it to be a date?"

"Sure, it'll be good to get out of the city for once."

"How about I make a picnic and we can go to your favourite part of the Appalachian Trail?"

"Sounds great. Did you want to camp over night, because my favourite part is quite aways in."

"Yes, that means I can pack marshmallows." said Sandra happily.

Bug was even more happy because for the first time someone wanted to go out with him and do something that he was interested in doing and with a beautiful woman at that. They agreed to meet a her condo which was in a building three blocks north of the Medical Examiner's office. In the back of his mind Bug was a bit skeptical about her intentions with this date, was he going to be just another man in Sandra O'Leary's quest for commitment?