Amanda wondered who had rang her doorbell, Steve had cancelled on her again, and she wasn't expecting anyone else. When she answered the door, Steve was standing there looking nervous. Still a little upset with him, but pleased he had stopped by she asked, "I thought you had work to do?"
"Well, after talking to a wise, also busy man, I decided it could wait until tomorrow. If you'll let me in I'd like to talk with you."
She opened the door and let him in. C.J., who was ready for bed ran to his arms. "Will you tuck me in?"
"Sure," Steve replied.
When he returned he stumbled over his words, "Amanda… I … you know… uhm…"
Amanda smiled at Steve's lack of words, here was this tough cop that could put two sentences together when he was nervous. She also knew what he wanted to say was important to him. She decided to help him. She moved over to the couch to sit next to him. "Steve, this is me, you can talk to me about anything."
"Ok, well, I blew it. Amanda you are so important to me and I don't put you first, I always assume - we'll I'm not really sure what you assume I guess we need to talk about this."
"Steve, don't get me wrong, I understand you have to sometimes leave or cancel, it's critical to your job and the safety of our community, but I sometimes wonder if you use it as an excuse, when you don't have to"
"I can see your point, it's so hard. When I'm on a case I get so focused on it I don't think of anything else and that's wrong." He took her hands in his, "Amanda, I love you, how can I balance this, we balance this?"
"Steve, I love you too. I just sometimes feel second place. I know you may sometimes be late or have to cancel, all I want is that you will only do that when necessary. I feel you'd rather work than be with me sometimes."
Panicked, "No, no that's not it, I just don't know how to do this. I need your help."
"Ok, how do you want me to help? I can't determine if you what you need to follow up on can't wait or not?"
Steve thought for a minute, "It may not be perfect, but if I try to cancel or get called out how about a simple question, just a reminder for me to think about – just something like, this can't wait?"
"I can try. Steve this won't be fixed over night, but if we really love each other we'll at it until we do."
Steve took Amanda's face in his hands and kissed her. Instead of dinner Amanda pulled out some left over cake and they had dessert. The continued to talk until Steve drifted off the sleep, as he's had a long day. Amanda took off his shoes, arranged him more comfortably on the couch and covered him with a blanket before heading to bed and sleep herself.
Steve awoke to the smell of coffee, realizing he had slept on the couch, he strolled into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Amanda. "Sorry, about that, falling asleep mid conversation. It is nice to wake up to you though."
Amanda handed him some coffee. "We'll it's kind of nice seeing you as well, even though you're a little wrinkled." She said as she indicated his crumpled shirt.
"I guess I should head home and freshen up before continuing my interviews. You were right the interviews could and did wait until today. I better get going ."
They hugged and Amanda whispered in Steve's ear. "We'll figure this out. Go catch the bad guys." She paused and called after him as he was leaving. "Stay safe."