It had been nearly a month since Erik's return, and it seemed to Christina that their relationship hadn't gotten anywhere! Christina scowled as she thought about the inane conversations they would have on the way to her PT, never really discussing anything! It was maddening!

One good thing was she'd been allowed to return to work, mercifully, so she didn't sit at home all day and brood about her situation with Erik. For so long, she'd tried to convince herself that she only wanted friendship from him, but she now knew it wasn't enough. It had been almost two years since Rodney had died. Her jaw dropped when she realized how quickly the time had passed by! Two years - she'd had plenty of time to mourn her loss, and she knew she was more than ready to move on.

She dropped the pen she'd been holding in irritation. She couldn't force Erik into anything he didn't want or wasn't ready for, but she wanted to show him how she felt about him. It had become apparent to her she'd have to be straight up, the man, for all his genius, could be incredibly dense.

The school day had ended nearly an hour prior; she'd been sitting at her desk brooding instead of grading tests. As it had turned out, not much had changed at the school since her deployment overseas and her injury. The principal, Mr. Jeffries, had been very pleased that she had chosen to return in spite of her injury. Of course, he'd made arrangements for her comfort during her recuperation and so she could ease back into the civilian sector and her job. One of the things that had changed was the staff; her friend, Meg, was still there but there were several new faces among the teaching staff. One that had all the younger female teachers in a fuss was 5th grade teacher, Nicholas Young.

Meg had happily informed her that he'd been making inquiries about Chris specifically. This had delighted Meg to no end, as she could see how frustrated Chris was becoming over the situation with Erik. She couldn't blame the girl; she'd have given up on him entirely months ago. Chris had always been the more tender hearted of the two.

Returning her attention to the stack of papers in front of her, she continued her task. She heard a soft knock at her door; glancing up, she saw Nicholas Young leaning against the doorjamb with a grin on his face.

'This must be the piece of eye candy Meg was gushing about earlier,' she thought to herself.

"Nicholas Young! How kind of you to mingle with us lower beings!" she joked.

He smiled at her; Lord but he was handsome! Sandy hair, hazel eyes and kind smile…eye candy indeed!

"Actually, I was wondering if perhaps you wanted to grab a bite to eat. I was on my way out, saw you hunched over those tests and thought you could use a break."

As handsome as he was, there something about him that made her uneasy…her spider sense was tingling.

'Stop it!' she commanded herself. 'He's handsome and funny, what's the harm in going out on a date with the man? Erik sure as hell isn't making any moves,' she thought sulkily. She had nothing to feel guilty about, so why did she? Maybe Meg was right and she needed to move on, she could only do so much…if Erik didn't want to get involved there wasn't anything she could do about it.

With that in mind, Chris gave him a dazzling smile. "That would be great, just give me ten minutes to pack everything up here." She began to gather up the test papers and stuff them in her tote bag.

"Sure thing!" He grinned at her and left.

He returned ten minutes later, offering his arm and gallantly carrying her bag. Once they reached their vehicles, they agreed that he would follow her to her townhouse so she could park her car.

A half hour later, they were tucked away in the corner of a deli, sandwiches and iced tea in front of them.

"So, from what I hear around the school, you were in the Army?" he inquired, before taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Well, Reserves, to be totally accurate," she amended with a smile.

"And you were sent to…" he paused, obviously trying to remember snippets of information he'd heard from various people at school.

"Afghanistan," she supplied. He looked kind of cute when he was thinking.

"Ah, sounds rough."

She gave a small shrug as she took a bite "Nah, it wasn't all that bad. I mean, it wasn't wonderful, but the work was interesting."

"And you got injured…"

"Mmhmm, shot…twice actually." She loved seeing people's reactions to that news!

"Twice?" he asked, surprised, "Brave girl!"

"I was lucky, one was in my shoulder and the other was in my leg." She sipped her iced tea, watching his reaction carefully. If he was going to coddle her, she was done with him.

As if sensing her unspoken challenge, he merely raised his iced tea in honor of her bravery, took a sip and moved on.

"So, what about you, Nicholas? I know almost nothing about you."

"Nick, please," he corrected softly, with a small smile. "Not much to tell, raised near DC, my dad was a civilian contractor for the military. My brother followed in his footsteps." He laughed. "I was a disappointment to my dad, I think. Wanted me to follow his footsteps; join the Marines and then do work for the government."

"You didn't want that kind of life? Military life, I mean?" she asked, pushing away the remnants of her meal.

"Nah, that was my dad's and brother's piece. I wanted to teach. My mom was a teacher."

"Was?" she echoed.

"Yeah." He looked away for a moment. "She died a few years back. Dad took it hard."

"I'm sorry," Chris murmured.

He smiled at her.

"Thanks." He idly stirred his tea, unsure of what else to say.

"So your dad and brother still work for the government?" she prodded.

The smile faded and he set his lips in a firm line. "No, my dad got out of the business and opened his own engineering firm."

"Why?"

"His designs for a big project were stolen, and the credit given to another guy."

"How terrible!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, dad was real upset about it for a while. But then something happened to the guy's wife, and my dad suddenly quit and moved us away from the area. He set up shop here."

Christina's spider sense started tingling again…

"What happened to the guy's wife?"

He shrugged. "I think there was a fire or something." He made a dismissive gesture. "Dad didn't really say much about it. I guess he knew the guy and his wife pretty well. I think I met them a few times. She was really pretty - I remember that!" Chris felt the blood drain from her face; Nick noticed and immediately took her hand.

"God I'm sorry! Listen to me droning on like some damned gothic novel or something!"

Chris attempted a small smile.

"No, it's fine. I'm just tired." She was a terrible liar, but he didn't know her well enough to notice, she hoped. At least, he didn't say anything. What had shocked her more than the story itself was the hardness in his eyes…she was sure it hadn't been there before. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. After a few long moments of uncomfortable silence, he graciously offered to drive her home.

As she watched him drive away after he'd dropped her off at home, she wondered about the correlation between Erik's tragedy and Nick's dad. She knew if it was more than coincidence she couldn't hold it against Nick; any sins were his father's. But she couldn't help but feel how betrayed Erik might feel if she became involved with this man. Perhaps Nick wouldn't want to be more than friends…

Of course, no such luck.

Over the next few weeks, Nick stopped by her classroom on a regular basis after school and invited her to do something with him. Since Erik still had made no moves, she didn't have the heart to turn Nick down. After the fourth "date", Chris felt more than a little suspicious of Nick's motives, though logically she had no reason to be. Nick was kind, intelligent, and witty and always came up with really neat outings. The previous night, they'd gone to the zoo! The zoo! She hadn't been there since she was a little girl. Even though she was having a blast, with only a small side of guilt, she couldn't help but feel slightly on her guard when she was with him. Ever since she heard that story about his father, the mystery man and the fire, she'd been on edge. She knew the best course of action would be to ask him or Erik about it, but she knew she really didn't want the answers.

Erik…

She hadn't seen him in nearly a week. Every time she would get ready to go over to his house, Nick would call, or drop by. Christina thought she had seen Erik's black Mercedes SUV parked down the street one evening when she came home from work. But he neither came in nor called her.

He deserved better than that! All her talk of never hurting him, never betraying his trust, and what was she doing? Hurting him in the worst possible way, all because her pride had been damaged by his reluctance to ask her out. How high school could she get?

She was startled from her thoughts by Nick's lips on the back of her neck. Since their first date, he'd progressively become braver, first by taking her hand, sometimes slipping an arm around her waist. From there, he'd moved to giving her a soft goodnight kiss at her door; now he had no qualms about kissing her in public. Chris wasn't a prude by any stretch of the imagination; but for some reason, his affections were only causing her to be more cautious around him. His kisses were pleasant, never demanding; he never went beyond simple affectionate gestures and had never once tried to force her into anything. So why did it make her so damn jumpy?!

Her traitorous mind screamed, 'because he's not the one you want to kiss you, damn idiot!' but she tamped it down quickly. Although, the little voice in the back of her head wouldn't remain silent forever. Just as Nick wouldn't remain patient forever.

"You ready to go, honey?" Nick asked her, slipping his hand around hers.

She took one last look at the painting in front of her, and nodded, "Yeah, I think we've seen everything here that we possibly can."

It had been Nick's idea to come to the art gallery, naturally. He guided her outside to the car; once inside, he asked, "Want to grab a bite?"

This was her chance…

"No thank you, I've had a great time, but I need to get home," she replied.

"Ah, I was thinking maybe…" he paused, looking at her nervously "Maybe you could come back to my place?"

Warning bells sounded in her head.

"Thank you, but I need to get home," she said again, firmly.

"Okay, rain check?"

She nodded. "Sure." 'Like hell!'

He pulled into her driveway and, as always, got out to take her up to her door. She unlocked it before turning to him.

"Thank you for the great evening."

"You're always welcome," he said softly, before kissing her lips gently.

She pulled back, giving him a strained smile that was his cue to leave. He hurried down the steps and into his car. As he was pulling away, from the corner of her eye she caught a flash of white in the dying daylight. A dark clad figure was striding rapidly towards a black Mercedes SUV parked down the street.

Erik had turned on his heel, dropping the bouquet of roses he'd brought for her, and got into his own vehicle. He saw Chris hurrying down the steps as quickly as she could, but he took off before she reached him. It was hard for him to see much with tears blinding his vision as he drove home.

As his car turned the corner, wheels screeching as he took the turn too quickly, Chris bent down and picked up the discarded roses. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she made her way into her townhouse to put Erik's roses in water. Tomorrow she would go to him, apologize to him and beg him to forgive her, again. Even though she knew this time she didn't deserve his forgiveness one bit.