A/N: For Joa because, well, because her idea saved it pretty much. :P And here's hoping Laura doesn't get mad that I updated while she was on vacation.

…0...

It was all Ellie could do not to put the earpiece in the second Spinner's dressing room door closed behind her. But that would draw exactly the kind of attention she was supposed to be avoiding. So with more self control than she knew she even possessed, she walked slowly to her car, making sure to keep her steps slow and even.

But once she was safely in her car, she grabbed her cell and turned the small speakerphone on. It crackled a bit, a tiny popping noise emitted before she heard a male voice wafting through. She hit record quickly.

"… you know better, Jim." Antonelli's voice said.

Spinner's deep baritone came into the conversation as she turned her car onto the street behind the club. "I know and I'm sorry, but did you happen to see her?" Ellie blushed furiously in the privacy of her car. It seemed there was no way to keep herself from being flustered during this case.

"I did." Another voice, one she assumed belonging to one of the goons Antonelli'd had with him, chimed in. "Hot. And she clearly wanted you."

She shuddered at the leer she could almost see in her mind's eye. Relief washed over her when the voice was cut off.

"It doesn't matter. She's a customer. And that means one thing. If she wants a little action, she pays for it. That simple. And I don't care how hot she is." Antonelli's voice was firm, his words definitive. "Understood?"

"Yeah," Spinner's voice answered, the word clipped off which left her deeply unsettled for some reason. But she was home by then so she turned the recorder off. She had everything she needed for her article and for Spin to make an arrest.

So why didn't that make her happy?

…0...

Marco was waiting up for her when she got home, most likely to grill her about her 'date.' Upon seeing her disheveled hair and mussed lipstick, not to mention the way her dress was crinkled, he began cackling and proceeded to grill her about the details. "Marco, it was nothing."

He looked pointedly at her hair. It was hanging in limp tendrils all around her head, tousled beyond repair by the dancing and Spinner's hands. And not for the first time she was glad that the strap of her dress covered the hickey on her collarbone. Smoothing out the short hem of her dress, she gave him the best glare she could muster. "I told you before, Marco-I was working."

"Working. Yeah," he muttered as he flipped through a magazine. "That's why you look like you just spent the evening getting-"

"Marco!" she cried, heat creeping up her face.

He laughed. Setting the magazine on the coffee table in front of him, he held his hands up in defense. "Sorry, sorry. But don't think I haven't noticed the way you've been acting today. There's definitely something on your mind, and if I had to guess, I'd say it was a someone."

She sighed, looking up to the ceiling to find the courage not to scream. Her eyes landed on an old photograph on the wall and she felt her lips quirk upwards. "You caught me, Marco," she said. "I was out all evening with a really hot guy with a tongue ring."

He followed her eyes. "What are you looking at?" He eyes fell to the photo of the two of them with Jimmy, Ash, and Spinner and his eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Spinner?"

She grinned at him. "You think Spinner's hot?"

Marco flushed a deep red, looking wildly from the picture to her. "What? No! I don't think ... no."

"Uh-huh," she nodded. Ellie shrugged off her jacket and sat down across from Marco on the couch. "Funny how I saw 'hot guy with a tongue ring' and you immediately think of Spin even though he hasn't had a tongue ring since he joined the police academy." He squirmed under her gaze and she leaned in closer to him. "Something you want to tell me?"

"Yeah. I'm going to bed," he snapped and stomped over to the stairs.

"Sweet dreams," she called after him.

Chuckling, Ellie went upstairs to put her recorder away and changed into a pair of pajama bottoms and an old Leafs jersey she had swiped from Dylan. With one of Marco's heavy duty brushes, she managed to wrangle her hair up on top of her head. Her stomach began rumbling, and she remembered that she had been too nervous to eat earlier. On her way down the stairs the front door opened and Spinner walked in, looking drained and exhausted. "Hey."

"Hey," she replied. A sudden case of nerves attacked her, most likely stemming from the fact that the last time she had seen Spinner her tongue had been down his throat and he'd had his hand up her dress. She felt herself color and she averted her eyes quickly. "I was just going to go get a snack."

He followed her into the kitchen and plopped down into a chair while she busied herself making a sandwich. "You want one?" she asked. He shook his head and continued to follow her movements with his eyes, noting the way she deliberately avoided meeting his eyes.

"Ellie? Are you mad at me?"

Startled by his question, she turned to him. "Of course not. Why would I be mad?" She placed her plate on the table in front of him, then turned to get a glass of water. "It's not like you did anything. Oh, other than pulling me up on stage at a strip club." She glared good naturedly and he gave her a lopsided, albeit sheepish, grin in return. "I thought we were past that."

Settling in at her chair, she raised an eyebrow in his direction. "We are?"

"I said I was sorry," he mumbled, his lower lip pushing out in a pout and he fixed his eyes into a puppy dog expression.

"Do I look like I fall for the sad puppy face?" she inquired.

"Good point," he stated and rose from his chair to get a soda from the fridge. "So did you find out anything on your bug?"

"I think we got a few incriminating comments," she told him. She left out the rather icky details of him and the goon discussing her. "But I think we need him flat out saying something about illegal activity before we can wrap it up."

He looked perplexed for a moment, then shook his head. "Really?"

Bobbing her head and ignoring a little nagging voice in the back of her head, Ellie fixed an innocent look on her face. "Did you know Marco thinks you're hot?"

Spinner choked on his water. "What?!"

"Nothing. Just teasing. Consider it payback for that dance." She sat her plate and glass in the sink and ran some water over them so Marco wouldn't squawk at her the next morning. When she turned around, Spinner was directly behind her and she jumped in surprise. "Spinner!"

He didn't seem very sorry about scaring her, or in affect trapping her up against the sink. In fact, he looked rather … intense. "Uh, Spin? Kinda in my personal space here." When he didn't move backwards, she attempted to cross her arms over her chest, but couldn't and rolled her eyes instead. "Spinner."

"You're not really mad about the dance, are you?" he asked, his voice pitched lower than usual. She shivered involuntarily.

"No," she told him, "I'm not mad. It was a little embarrassing, but I get why you did it."

Placing a hand on the counter on either side of her, Spinner titled his head to the side, disbelief in his eyes. "You do?"

"It looked credible for you to try and get a little … closer," she tried to ignore the blush she felt rising, "to a customer that could potentially …." Ellie's voice trailed off. No matter how long she did undercover work, there were still plenty of things that embarrassed her and even insinuating 'purchasing' a guy was one of them.

He dropped his face closer to hers. "Want to pay for my services?" A mischievous lilt came into his voice, and he grinned at her obvious discomfort. "I think I could wrangle you a discount if you're really interested."

'He's trying to get to me,' she realized. 'Well two can play that game.'

"Really?" Ellie licked her lips and looked up at him through her eyelashes in what she hoped was a seductive manner. Se let one hand skim up his forearm to his shoulder.

He gulped, eyes widening at the sudden switch in her demeanor. Then a slow smile spread over his face. "Only if you wear that dress. Where'd you find that anyway?"

"Okay," she announced when he began pressing closer into her. "I give, okay? You win."

"I knew it." Spinner pushed himself away from the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "I just hope you do better when talk to Antonelli."

"When I what?" she demanded.

He sat back down in the chair he'd vacated. "If you really want solid criminal activity, you're gonna have to arrange your 'purchase' with him yourself." He added finger quotes around the word purchase and beamed at her.

"Is that absolutely necessary? You can't act as a go between?" The idea of having a face to face chat with a underworld kingpin left her feeling a bit queasy. He must have noticed because he stood in front of her and took her hands in his.

"It's standard, Ellie. But if you're not sure-"

"No," she cut him off. "I'll do it." She took her lower lip between her teeth, chewing in thought. "Exactly how much do you cost, anyway?"

"Ha, ha," he said dryly. "Remember that credit card I gave you with Ash' name on it?" She nodded. "Well, just charge it to that. The prescient will take care of it. All you have to do is make the deal and get it on tape."

"I don't have any more mini-microphones," she told him.

"I do," he said. "But um, you'll have to hide it in your clothes somewhere, but a place where we'll still be able to hear the conversation. Like um-" he gestured towards the jersey she was wearing. "You know …"

"I get it," she cut him off. "Tomorrow good?"

"Sure. I'll set it up and give you the details."

Ellie headed towards the door, intending to head up to bed, but stopped and called back to him. "Spin?"

"Yeah?"

"If we had kept going, I so would've won." With a smirk, she headed up the stairs, leaving a dumfounded Spinner behind her.