Mark received Tuesday through Thursday off so he could start moving into his new apartment. Tuesday is also his and Catherine's first official date. He made reservations at a well-known seafood restaurant inside The Venetian called Aquaknox.

Mark arrived at Catherine's house to pick her up around 6pm. He was wearing a navy suit with and white shirt with the top two buttons undone. Mark rang the doorbell. Catherine opens the door wearing a green spaghetti strap dress that goes to her knees and a matching wrap.

"Hey you," Catherine says as she's locking the door. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Mark was memorized by how gorgeous Catherine looked. He awoke from his daze when she spoke. "Yes, sorry I was a little distracted by the beautiful woman in front of me. Will you tell her she looks amazing when you see her?" Mark says jokingly.

Catherine playfully smacks Mark with her handbag. "You better watch it bucko, you are out with the best tonight!"

Mark leads Catherine to his Jeep and opens the passenger door for her. Once she is in the car he shuts her door and walks around to get in the driver's side.

They arrive at the Venetian at almost 7, just in time for their reservation. They are seated almost immediately when the walk in.

The waiter asks for their drink order. Catherine says, "I'll have a vodka rocks with a squeeze of lime."

The waiter looks at Mark, "And for you sir?"

Mark says, "I will have a Southern Comfort and Coke."

As the waiter leaves Catherine jokingly leans in, "You mean you didn't order Southern Comfort and Dr. Pepper?"

Mark smiles and sarcastically says, "Well, pardon me for trying to be a bit fancy this is a nice place, besides smarty pants I already checked and they don't have Dr. Pepper."

Catherine laughs, "Well get Brass on the phone because that is a crime good sir!"

After their dinner plates are cleared Mark and Catherine just sit enjoying an after dinner beverage as they talk.

"So did you grow up in Ohio?" Catherine asks Mark.

"Yes, I did. Let me just tell you it's very exciting," Mark said sarcastically.

Catherine says, "It can't be that bad, I mean your home state does house the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Mark nods and chuckles, "This is true, but unfortunately that is nowhere near where I grew up. I grew up about an hour north of the Cincinnati area."

Catherine pokes, "That's not too bad I mean at least Cincinnati has a professional baseball team."

Mark laughs, "True something that puts you on the map is a professional baseball team, but I try to ignore the fact that we haven't won a championship since 1990."

After a while of playful banter Mark pays the bill and they leave to head back to Catherine's house. Pulling in the driveway Catherine turns to Mark, "Would you like to come in for a bit? I understand if you don't want to I know you probably want to get some rest since you will be moving in most of the day tomorrow."

Mark smiles at Catherine and says, "I would love to come in."

Mark and Catherine exit the Jeep. Mark follows behind her as she leads the way and unlocks the front door. Catherine motions towards the couch and Mark takes a seat.

"Would you like something to drink?" Catherine asks still standing.

"No I'm fine, thanks for asking," says Mark watching Catherine as she goes to turn on some music before joining Mark on the couch.

Catherine looks at Mark and chuckles, "I don't want this to sound like a line, but this is the best date I've had in a long time. It's nice to be able to enjoy a meal, drinks, and some adult conversation that doesn't involve suspects or victims."

Mark says, "I take it you don't have many friends outside of the department?"

Catherine sighs, "Not for a while. Working nights isn't the easiest shift to meet up with people, as it seems the majority of them work days. So that leaves your days off to catch up with friends and when you're a single mother you try to use those days spending quality time with your daughter. So after a while you don't have many relationships outside of the department."

"Yeah I can see that. I hope this isn't too personal but is Lindsey's father in the picture?", Mark asks nervously.

Cath looks at him, "Yes and no. I mean he's in the picture as far as he sees her, but as for any of it being quality time for either of them I'm not sure. For the longest time after our divorce Eddie seemed to use Lindsey as some kind of pawn in petty games to try and get me back. That has mostly stopped as I think he realizes we will never have anything again, but now I only think he only sees her when it's convenient for him. He's a music producer, so it always seems something more important with a client comes up, or his with his new flavor of the week that can't stand not having all of his attention."

Mark looks at Catherine, "Wow I'm sorry I can't imagine that's very easy."

Catherine nods, "Yeah, but it is what it is. Over the years I've learned not to stress over it as much. Lindsey will eventually realize who he is and that he's not the fun loving guy that lets her eat things like pizza and ice cream for breakfast. Unfortunately, a deadbeat parent is something you have to learn for yourself."

Mark speaks up, "Absolutely. I am all too familiar with that subject. I haven't spoken to my father in … about 8 years. I was raised by my mother and had visitation rights every other weekend with my father. My father like you said seemed like the guy who let me do all the fun things. My mother and father were never married … thank God for that. The two women he was married to though were very controlling of him; he never stood against them for anything … including me. The woman he's currently married to is a lot of why we don't speak. I went through the my mother is stupid phase while in college when I was about 20 and decided that I wanted to live with my father. That lasted about 2 years until his wife accused me of being irresponsible and they couldn't leave me alone in their house. I still never understood her reasoning; I was going to school full time while holding down 2 jobs, I'm not entirely sure when I had time to be irresponsible. But as she stood there saying these things my father stood there silently never saying a word, I moved my stuff out into an apartment the next day and we haven't spoken since. I definitely agree that it is a sucky life lesson, but learning the truth about a deadbeat parent has to come with first-hand experience."

Catherine looked shocked to hear this information, "Wow, you seem really together I never would have guessed you had family issues. Not that having family issues make you a bad person, but you seem to really have your shit together. I hope that I can call upon you when and if Linds starts going through that."

Mark chuckled, "Of course. I don't mind helping out those in a similar situation. As long as someone can learn something from my mistakes and life experiences it's good. The good thing is though since that situation went down with my father my relationship with my mother improved. Don't get me wrong we barely spoke those 2 years I lived with him in comparison to how much we had spoken the 20 years prior but afterword it was definitely stronger. I realized that I was being stupid and immature and I realized that my father was the asshole everyone had said he was. My respect for my mother and all that she overcame grew exponentially."

Catherine smiled and told Mark's hand, "You're something else you know that? Your mother did an excellent job raising you and it seems like going through all of that has made you a stronger person. I feel very lucky to know you."

Mark smiled, "Wow somehow both you and I got into some pretty deep conversation. Not exactly what I consider great first date topics, but we seem to talk to each other really easy."

Catherine nodded, "Yeah not usually things I discuss on my first dates either, but then again we did kind of start this thing backwards."

Mark laughed, "That is true!" Mark looks at the time. "I have to leave, I really should get some sleep since my best friend Kerri and her partner Elizabeth are driving in with my U-Haul full of stuff tomorrow. Are you sure you want to come by and help me set up, you really don't have to?"

Catherine looked at him sternly but in a joking way, "Are you kidding I'm not letting you 3 do that all by yourselves. Not to mention it will probably take a lot out of them driving that U-Haul all the way from Ohio. You must have some really great friends."

Mark nods, "Yeah Kerri is great we have known each other for what seems like forever, she's like family at this point. You will really like her, and her partner Elizabeth is amazing they have been together for 10 years."

Mark stands up and Catherine stands up to walk him to the door. Before Mark leaves he and Catherine share a long kiss and embrace. Mark says, "You know you are making this taking it slow thing pretty difficult."

Catherine laughs, "Yeah tell me about it, I wanted to jump you the minute you sat down on that couch."

Mark smiles walks out the door, "See you tomorrow."

Catherine waves from the doorway and watches as Mark drives away. She's thinking to herself that she could get serious about this man that she's barely known 3 days and suddenly feels that she can't wait to learn more. Keeping this a secret at work much longer was going to be very difficult, but she decided to cross that bridge when they get to it. For now, she was going to enjoy the moment and hope Mark felt the same.