A/N: Okay, this is a little shorter than I'd like, but I thought you'd like it now rather than later. It took some time to write, and I appologize for not having it up sooner. RL is a bitch sometimes - like right now.

Summary: Lewis and Lynne have a clash of culture when she needs him to escort her to a charity event and he doesn't think he'll fit in. Can they work through this new hurdle? Or is their relationship broken beyond repair? Mid Season Three.

---

"Lewis, it's just a charity auction, is that too much to ask?" Lynne told her boyfriend of nearly a year, her eyes wide with disbelief. She took off her over coat and hung it up on the coat rack in the entry way she had purchased for Lewis's apartment months ago.

"Yeah, it is," he replied, throwing his jacket down on the sofa before bringing a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. Damn it, these things are getting worse, he thought.

"Why?" she asked, exasperatedly as she picked up his jacket and put it next to hers on the coat rack. "I need to go, and I don't want to go alone. Why is it too much for you to take me?"

"I don't fit in with those people, Lynne!" Lewis gestured wildly as his voice rose, "I never have! Those people are snobs with money that I never seem to measure up to! Why can't you understand that I'm not that kind of guy? I never will be."

Lynne scowled, "Do you think I care how much money you make, Lewis?"

"Don't you? I can't buy you expensive things, Lynne. I can't have a conversation with those other guys about yachts and country clubs - hell, the only time I've ever been in a country club was when Bobby and I were seventeen looking for some easy cash." His eyes blazed with anger as he spoke in a raised tone.

"I still have to go, Lewis," Lynne told him, trying desperately not to cry. Why was it that they always fought over these things?

"Well, maybe you should. But don't expect me to be waiting up for you," he said harshly. "Maybe I'm just too middle class for you to handle, Lynne."

Without a word to even justify his last biting comment, pale-faced Lynne turned on her heels, picked up her coat and left the apartment to retreat with the last vestige of dignity to her own home in a different borough of New York City.

---

Alex was cuddled up against Bobby, her head resting on his chest, just above his heart beat. It was soothing as they watched one of his favorite movies: Die Hard. Subconsciously, Bobby's hand stroked Alex's arm as they watched John McClain try to save the hostages from the terrorist group.

She was half asleep from the rhythm of his constant heart beat and his hand's movement when the phone rang, jarring her from her comfort. She reached for her cell phone on Bobby's coffee table as he paused the movie.

"Eames. … Lynne? What's wrong? … He said what? … I'll be there in half an hour, just hang on. Don't do anything drastic." She hung up and turned to Bobby with an apology in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"What'd Lewis do this time?" Bobby asked, sitting forward.

Before Alex could answer, Bobby's land line rang, "Goren. … Hey, man. … Give me twenty minutes, I'll be right there." He hung up and turned to Alex, "Looks like I'll find out from Lewis."

Alex just shook her head, "Sometimes, I really wonder about those two."

---

"And then he said that I thought he was too 'low class' for me to handle!" Lynne sobbed into Alex's arms.

Alex tried to hush her friend as she babbled on and on intermittent tears of grief at the rift that had somehow grown between Lynne and Lewis.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it, Lynne," Alex tried to reassure her friend. "He called Bobby -"

Lynne's head shot up and her eyes narrowed in anger, "He called my ex-boyfriend to help him deal with this! That pig."

"Bobby also happens to be one of Lewis's best friends," Alex said, trying to suppress a smile at Lynne's outburst. "Lynne, it will turn out, I know it will."

"It's just, how could he think that I care about how much money he makes?" Lynne's distraught tone was almost too much for the detective to take.

"He's a man. He wants to take care of you," Alex tried again.

Lynne looked at her and just stared, the other woman could swear that she could see the wheels turning over in her head as she thought about the situation. Her eyes were unfocused as she thought about the situation and what was really important to her.

After long minutes of silence Lynne blinked and focused back on Alex. "I know what I have to do," she said softly, in a resigned voice that left no room for argument. "I'm going to resign from Armani."

"What? But - you love your job!" Alex was more than a little confused as to how Lynne could give up her dream job so easily.

Lynne's answer was so simple and blatant: "I love Lewis more."

---

Lewis hit the pool ball with the cue with precession and ease that came from practice and skill. "I just don't know what to do anymore, man," he told his companion. "She just doesn't get it."

"Explain it to her," Bobby replied, leaning lightly against his pool cue as he took a drink from his beer.

Lewis hit another ball, this time it didn't make it to the socket. He glared at Bobby before responding, "And how exactly am I supposed to do that? I can't tell her that I'm upset because she wants me to go to fancy parties where I don't fit in! That's … wrong."

"Is it really the parties?" Bobby prodded. "She's pretty good at understanding things like that."

Lewis glared again, frustrated beyond belief, "How the hell am I supposed to be the man in the fucking relationship when she makes over three times as much money as I do?"

"That's what this is about? She makes more money than you?" Bobby raised his eyebrows, "Why don't you just tell her that?"

Lewis scoffed, "And get labeled a chauvinistic, archaic pig? No thank you."

Bobby rolled his eyes again and went to take his shot. He landed two balls into the sockets he had been aiming toward.

---

They didn't talk for a week. Mostly because Lewis spent the whole week trying to tell Lynne what was bothering him, and because Lynne wanted everything to be perfect for their six month anniversary. She had put in her resignation at the beginning of the week, and her last day would be Friday. Saturday was their anniversary.

After a good-bye party her staff had thrown for her, Lynne made sure her replacement was set up in the office, and left the Armani building for the last time. It was the end of a ten-year long era of her life, but she knew she was going forward to better things.

A job was already in line for her to start on Monday at a small mom and pop tailoring shop a few blocks from Lewis's garage.

Saturday dawned bright and early for Lynne as she put the finishing touches on her plans for the day: Bobby was going to take Lewis out to a car show that morning while she snuck into his apartment and got the place ready for when he came back a little after lunch.

"I just don't know what to do anymore. She's not returning any of my calls," Lewis told Bobby as they walked up the steps to his apartment.

Bobby smiled inwardly, knowing what his friend would find behind the door, but also knowing better than to say anything. He'd seen Lynne upset, and he didn't want to be the one to make her that way a second time.

When the door opened, it set off a trip wire that was connected to the stereo, causing it to start playing Billy Joel's 'Just the Way You Are' softly. Lewis gave his buddy a curious look, only to get a shove in response as Bobby shut the door and made his break for it.

Lewis frowned as he walked further into his apartment and found rose petals on the floor, marking a path to the living room. Once there his breath caught in his throat when he saw Lynne in the middle of the room, dressed in the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, standing just in front of a table set for two.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, unnerved at his silent reaction to her gesture. "I - I quit my job."

His eyes narrowed as he took in her words, "Why?" he finally asked.

Her eyes sought his out as she replied, "Because I hate going to gala openings; I'm not good at telling other people with twenty more years experience than me what to do; and I love you more than I love my job. I'm not going to let it stand in the way of us."

Lewis was touched by her words and swiftly closed the distance separating them. He reached out and touched her face, bringing it closer to his own. "I love you, too," he whispered before kissing her with the pent up passion that had been denied both of them for the past week.

When they came up for air, he had a few other things to say in response to her announcements, "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have said it." He kissed her lips softly this time, pulling back before it could go any deeper than it should at the moment. "Let's get married."

She smiled lazily at him and his spur of the moment idea. It was a very good idea in her mind, "Okay."

"Grab your coat," he said, pulling away from her. "We'll get Bobby and Alex to meet us at City Hall."

"What? Now?" Lynne knew she wanted to marry Lewis, but this seemed a bit sudden.

"Why put off the inevitable?" he shot back as he disappeared into the bedroom, soon to reappear looking well put together and ready to elope. "I can't risk you changing your mind on me, sweet cheeks."

"Sweet cheeks? Did Bobby get you drunk or something?"

Lewis grinned at her but refrained from answering as he flipped open his cell and dialed the pre-programmed number for Bobby. "City Hall," he said by way of introduction, "Half an hour. Be there and bring Detective Alex with you."

---

"By the power vested in me by the great state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife," the judge told the couple before him with a smile. He turned to Detective Goren and Eames standing a few feet away from the happy couple, and nodded once to Goren. At least now he didn't owe Detective Goren any more favors. Maybe next time he should just try to stay out of trouble - he'd been having a nice day at home with his family when he'd gotten the call.

At least Goren hadn't asked him to help dispose of a body …

A/N: Don't get concerned! The last line was meant as a joke!