Gil opens the door to his apartment, relieved to finally be home after a long shift. He hopes Jackie will be waiting for him, though he hasn't talked to her. After six months of dating, she seems to somehow know when he'll need tender loving care after a tough day.

"And then, you pull it back, almost like a discus, if you've ever seen that on the Olympics." The voice he hears coming from the kitchen is certainly not Jackie's.

Drat, he thinks, Malcolm. It's not that Gil is unhappy to see the kid. Normally he'd be thrilled. But he hasn't had that talk with Jackie yet—the one where he tries to somehow explain that he's been—well, he's been something—to that kid for six years. He's not even sure how to have that talk, so he's avoided it. He doesn't want to scare off the sweetest woman he's ever dated. He's supposed to be no-strings-attached Gil. Malcolm is a very big, very knotted string that he has no clue how to explain. The problem is, he didn't account for the kid's spontaneity or love of surprises. Gil rubs his hand across his face. He figures he probably should have known this is around the time Malcolm's fancy school has its fall break.

"Gil!" Jackie comes around the corner from the kitchen, smiling, wearing his one well-used oven mitt. "The meatloaf is almost done, honey. Malcolm has been telling me about his axe throwing competitions. I definitely want to drive upstate for the next one. It sounds like so much fun."

Gil follows her into the kitchen and dining room side of his apartment and finds Malcolm docilely setting the table. "I see you two have met," he says, trying to take it in stride.

"I—wanted to surprise you," says Malcolm, looking up with a slight question in his eyes, as if he senses this might not have been Gil's preference. Of course he does. By now, the kid can read most people most of the time. The cop hasn't decided if he thinks that's a blessing or a curse. Right now he wishes he could make himself harder to analyze, but that chance is long gone. The kid can read him like a book.

Jackie turns around from checking the meat in the oven. "Malcolm was here when I got here. It was a nice a surprise."

Gil smiles, forcing himself to push back all the questions in his mind. "I was going to introduce you, so I guess I won't have to now."

"Miss Jackie, is this how you wanted it?" Malcolm straightens a fork on the immaculately-set table and then looks up through his eyelashes, giving Jackie his most charming wide-eyed appeal. Gil observes the exchange, bemused and wondering what this dynamic is going to turn into.

"You know it's perfect," Jackie says, bringing over the meatloaf and setting it on a the trivet in the middle of the table. "You did a very good job."

Malcolm beams. If he didn't know better, Gil would say that Jackie was the one with Malcolm wrapped around her little finger, rather than the other way around. The kid is strangely calm, with less manic energy to burn than usual. A little bit like a puppy when there's a dog whisperer around. Gil washes his hands at the sink, then sits down to dinner with his girlfriend and the kid, trying to figure out if Jackie is annoyed or scared and just not showing it.

"Now, Malcolm, how did you and Gil meet?"

It's the most innocent question in the world, except it isn't. Gil kicks himself internally for waiting this long to tell her. This is his fault, he thinks.

Malcolm blinks a couple of times, and Gil starts in quickly, "That's not—"

"It's okay," Malcolm says softly. "Miss Jackie, do you remember the killer called the Surgeon? Gil caught him, a few years back." He's speaking a little quickly, but otherwise his demeanor is calm.

"Of—of course I remember. I didn't realize Gil was the one who arrested him," she says, her face registering confusion. "He didn't tell me that."

Malcolm gives Gil a slightly reproachful look, as if to say why haven't you told her. Gil doesn't blame him; he agrees with the kid.

"Yeah—uh, Gil and I met because the Surgeon is my dad."

There it is. Gil looks over at Jackie, and though she's clearly surprised, she keeps her cool. "That must have been incredibly hard for you, sweetheart." She pats Malcolm's hand, and he doesn't pull away.

"Yeah, but Gil helped me a lot."

"I don't doubt that," Jackie answers, smiling in Gil's direction as if to say it's okay.

The rest of the meal is less eventful. Jackie helps steer the conversation onto lighter topics, and though Malcolm is never going to be exactly average in any way, they talk about reasonably normal things, at least for a kid as brilliant as he is—college decisions, favorite subjects, and Jackie even asks him about dating, which actually makes him blush, much to Gil's amusement.

"My mother's sending a car at 8:00," Malcom finally says when they're lingering over after dinner coffee. "I can do the dishes before that, Miss Jackie."

Jackie smiles. "No way. You helped me cook. It's Gil's turn to do the dishes." She winks at him, and he can't resist grinning back and acquiescing.

When he's finished, Gil comes into his small living room and finds Malcolm and Jackie playing chess. It's her board. Gil can't play it to save his life; it's just not for him. She's tried to teach him a few times, and he always gives up in between opening strategies and passed pawns.

"Checkmate." Malcolm says triumphantly. Gil has no idea what the positions on the board signify; he just knows this means the kid won.

"That was very quick, sweetheart," Jackie says, impressed. "I've been playing a long time. You're very smart, aren't you? You could anticipate what I was going to play."

"I—should have let you win," Malcolm says quickly, his shyness coming back for a second.

"Don't you dare, Malcolm," says Jackie. "You never let people win. You fight fair, and you take your victories." She reaches over and lightly touches him under the chin, something even Gil wouldn't dare to do, but Malcolm just smiles at her.

Just then, Malcolm's phone rings, signaling that his driver has arrived. Gil wants to talk to him alone, but Jackie comes down with him to see the kid out of the building. "I hope I'll see you again before you go back to school," she says, waving as Malcolm heads for the door.

"I hope so, too." Malcolm nods. He means it; Gil can certainly tell that much.

Jackie comes close as they watch the kid leave, leaning into Gil and placing an arm around his waist. "I'm sorry, Jackie," he says when Malcolm is out of earshot.

"What on earth for?"

"I'm sure this isn't the evening you were hoping for."

"Right," she answers. "I'm absolutely furious. I got to find out that the man I love is not just a great detective; he also took a kid in crisis and loved on him so much for years that that kid would rather spend fall break surprising him instead of doing whatever kids usually do. Of course I would be upset."

Gil kisses her on the elevator back up to his apartment. "Thank you for understanding."

Jackie returns his affection enthusiastically, then pulls back after a while. "I want you to tell me all about it, but my first question is, how do you ever say no to him? A person could get lost in those blue eyes."

Gil laughs. He never would have planned it this way, but that's how it goes with the two unpredictable people he's dared to let himself care about most in the world.


Author's Note: I realize that if we get flashbacks with the real Jackie at some point (I hope), this could go super AU, but I couldn't resist flashing back to the woman Gil loved so much who also, we're told, loved Malcolm like he was her own.