AN: Dudes, I'm so sorry it's been so long. I've had part of this chapter written for a while, but I was seriously struggling to write this. You're only getting about 1k words, but you should like them if you're rooting for the relationship.

Nico was shocked when the girl, Bella, came out, able to walk and move easily. She hugged her mother tightly, then kept moving around the waiting room while Connor made some calls to find someone to test the girl for different diseases and such.

Once that was done, Connor talked with the mom for about half an hour.

They saw them out, then went back in.

Connor nodded to the office, "Might as well get yours done while we're here."

Nico flinched, "I…I'd rather talk to you. I need to talk to you. About last night. I'd had a drink or two…"

"Nico," Connor's voice was firm, "I get it. Now get your sorry butt into that office so I can take care of your freaking muscles. Then we can talk."

Nico nodded and went into the room, getting onto the table. He knew it was clean. He had cleaned it while waiting.

"Shirt."

Nico pushed himself back up and took it off, then laid back down, afraid of breaking the silence.

Connor started working the muscles in Nico's back in a way that made Nico melt into the table. Sometimes literally, into the shadows of the table. Never completely.

Nico let himself relax and tried to think of how to broach the subject again.

"Look, I'm not going to act like I didn't know. Because I did. Travis noticed first, actually. We know you better than you think we do." Connor said, working on a knot in Nico's lower back.

Nico felt his throat tighten, "I—"

"Stop," Connor said firmly, "I'm not done. I knew that you liked me like that. For a couple months now."

Nico squeezed his eyes shut.

"I guess most of the time I was just trying to figure out how I felt about it." Connor's voice had softened, "I don't know. I've always been of the mindset that it didn't matter. Only love did. But still…it's a big thing to mull over. I mean, I've been fighting for a future and…"

He let the silence reign for a what felt like a week to Nico.

"I'm losing," Connor finally said. "Nothing I wanted is happening and I keep feeling like I'm moving in the wrong direction. So, why not?"

Nico felt his heart stop, "What?"

"Why not? I mean, I care about you and you care about me. We already have a good dynamic…"

Nico rolled himself off the table and onto his feet to look at Connor, "Y-you…want to…date…?"

Connor blinked at him, "Tell me you didn't sleep through that."

Nico's hands trembled, but he got up and went around to Connor, "You want to date?"

"I think it's worth a try at least."

Nico didn't even care that it sounded so damn practical.

He hesitantly kissed Connor, then pushed his face into Connor's shoulder. His heart was pounding. "We can take it as slow as you want."

Connor rested his head on Nico's.

Nico pulled away, blushing, "So…how much of a fool have I made of myself?"

Connor smirked, "You were pretty good about it, actually."

Nico felt relieved, "We should close up here and get home."

"Right," Connor responded, "I didn't like seeing those girls in pain."

"I know what you mean," Nico sighed. "Especially the last one. Her poor mom."

"It had to have been scary, finding her like that." Connor shook his head.

"And you want kids."

Connor nodded, "I know, I'm psycho. I want to worry and pass on my knowledge and all that. Your coworkers coming for the cookout?"

"Last I heard even Gibbs was coming. And Director Vance." Nico blinked nervously, "I forgot to go shopping."

"That's because I went shopping yesterday when I took a long lunch."

"And you know what you're doing?"

"Dude, you've tasted Katie's country ribs. Plus I'm good at grilling steaks. And we're going to have a bunch of other awesome food. Katie's dropping off that cheesy-bacon-potato stuff soonish."

"Did you get drinks?"

Connor hesitated, "Lemonade and soda."

Nico sighed, "Not even wine?"

"Sorry, I don't drink so I don't really think about it." Connor shrugged, "You can go pick some up after dropping me at home."

Nico wasn't sure he was even comfortable bringing drinks into Connor's house now. "If we have time after cleaning up and getting everything ready."

Connor nodded.

Once they finally finished cleaning and got home, to clean some more, Nico assessed the beverage situation. Connor had everything you could think of that was Non-alcoholic, down to iced tea and sweetened iced tea, two different flavored lemonades, regular lemonade (all of which were fresh squeezed, Connor had made them the day before last), milk, chocolate milk (that was probably just for them because they were still six), and a bunch of different sodas. Nico wasn't even sure there was room in the fridge for beer or wine.

"Dude, did you have a panic attack trying to pick everything out and just say, a little bit of everything?"

"No, I just didn't know what to get, so I got a little bit of almost everything." Connor gave him a quick smile, "Ooh, Katie's here!"

Nico rolled his eyes and closed the fridge, his guests would just have to get over the lack of alcohol.

"Hey, Connor. Hi, Nico." Katie set the baby carrier down, "The dish is in my car, but I've got to change his diaper."

"I can get the dish," Connor offered, setting Zoey down.

Nico dropped to receive the bear hug Zoey freely offered him, "Hey, Zoey."

"You guys are still willing to watch her tomorrow?" Katie asked.

"Heck yeah, we can make cookies." Nico high-fived the girl.

Zoey's smile took over her whole face, "Today?!"

"Tomorrow," Nico ruffled her hair, "Promise."

She squealed a little and started hopping around the dining-room table.

Connor came back in with a massive casserole dish, "How many people did you think we were feeding?"

"Leftovers," Katie called from the bedroom. "It was the only dish I had."

Nico shrugged, "I'm good with that."

Connor gave him a grin, then swooped in to scoop up Zoey and 'fly' her around the room.

Nico couldn't believe how happy he was.