Again, Disclaimer: I do not own nor purport to own anything associated with CSI: NY. This is for my personal enjoyment only.

Chapter 2: Surprises, Pizza and Discovery

He glanced at his watch for the 22nd time that minute hoping that the clock would strike that magical time allowing him to go home. He hadnt been back to his place in 2 days. The holiday time defintly brought the crazies out. He had been to 3 murder scenes within as many hours at one stage. Husband killed a wife. Drive by gang shooting and a homeless man found dead in the middle of the street. Thankfully he and his team had managed to solve them all but he had had well and truly enough and wanted nothing more to head home, and curl up on the lounge and sleep till he was fifty. He had even missed the Yankees playing. Damn it.

She slammed her fist on the table, so suddenly that the vicious looking man across the table from her jumped. 'Just tell me what happened Joey? I know that your smarter than you look when i tell you that if you dont talk, Phil will and then any deal is going to be off the table' 'Do you hear me and understand me?'. She was beyond frustrated, 2 days of trying to get a gang banger to give up details on the next drug shipment was making her wont nothing more than to a) either shoot someone or b) go home, shower and sleep. The man across the table finally relented and spilled his guts. 500kg of coke, east dock at 2pm friday. That was 3 days from now. As the man was lead away she dismissed her team, making arrangements to meet up at 9am (it was currently 10pm) where they would start organising the bust.. She grabbed her things and practically skipped out the door and into her car.

As he walked to the door leading into the underground entry to his apartment block he heard a very familar voice cursing whoever had invented keys and cursing her lack of organisation. He broke into a little smile before creeping slowly towards her and whispering into her ear but before he could even finish the sentence - he was staring at the ceiling and his back felt like it had been split in to.

'Oh my God, Detective. Are you ok?' her voice full of concern before she then got indignant

'What the hell were you thinking walking up like that behind me? I could have killed you? I'm trained to do that you realise'. Her tone then changed again as she stared down at the detective with the goofiest smile on his face looking up at her half dazed. She knelt beside him the concern evident in her voice

'Are you ok, i really didnt mean to hurt you.' She said as she brushed her hand across his forehead and cheek and back of head checking for any obvious injuries. Flack savoured her touch. He hadn't been touched so tenderly in a long time. He layed their a little longer. Even though he didn't want her to know, the throw had hurt him a little.

He slowly made his way into the sitting position groaning a little bit, making her heart drop further. She had really hurt him.

'Nah, its ok' Seeing the anguish on her face he placed a hand on her cheek and softly elaborated 'Im ok, just a little winded thats all. I was actually having a nice little nap down here laying on the floor'. He finished with a cheeky little grin. That had the desired affect of making her smile and he got up. He hated seeing her look so sad, even if it was because of how much she cared for him, so he decided to lighten the mood.

'Having a little trouble locating your key's were you?' he playfully said

'Yeah - i have no idea where i put them' she said slightly frustrated by not only her key finding defeciency but the closeness of a certain detective.

He opened the door for them both and they headed towards the lift. 'Are you sure your ok', she asked yet again, her eyes rooming his body checking for any signs of injuries at all.

He looked straight into her eyes before responding 'Yes, i am absolutely fine although i now know never to surprise you'.

She looked down slightly 'Yeah, sorry about that. Its just what i see and deal with at work my senses are always on alert. That's all'. Even though she tried separely work and her private life, there were certain things that had just become second nature.

He looked at her 'Yeah i understand. By the way, what the hell do you do at work? That was one hell of a judo throw.' Once the shock at worn off, he really was impressed.

"Um, now i work with the organised crime division here in New York but before that predominatly undercover type work, fugitive recovery and spent a little bit of time in Quantico as a profiler'. Flack was yet again impressed by this woman - she obviously wasn't just a pretty face with a perfect body but obviously was smart and tough as well.

'God i was lucky not to be killed' She giggled slightly 'Now what about you Detective? Im guessing your obviously not a desk jockey". The toned body was a give away.

'Nope, homicide detective'

'Really, you would see some horrible things' Kate replied her curiousty now piqued

"Yeah but its good being able to get justice for those who can't do it themselves and bringing closure to the families'. She smiled at him and nodded with a knowing look in her eyes. He seemed as much attached to his work as she was. He was thinking the exact thing.

Just then the lift arrived so they both stepped inside. As they pressed their respective floors, Kate's stomach gave a little rumble making Flack smile. "What was that? Is someone hungry?" She smiled, half blushed 'Yep, 2 days straight living off donuts isn't all that good for you apparently'. He smiled at her incrediously 'Donuts...my, my special agent am i not the one who is supposed to be eating donuts?" "Oh shut up". She grinned again. Flack then pulled out his phone and started dialling, he turned to her 'Are you allergic to anything?" "No, why?" she replied. He ignored her question and started talking into the phone "Yep Tony, its Flack', he said as he spoke into the phone, '2 of the usual with a cookie and cream cheesecake as well, please'. He hung up his phone, 'I hope you like Pizza?" "What?" She smiled a tiny little bit confused. Was he asking her to dinner. As the lift stopped at Level 4 he touched her arm making her stop and look at him 'Meet me at my place in 30 minutes i'm feeding you some of New Yorks finest fair". She smiled 'Shouldnt i be making you dinner after all i still feel bad about what happened?" "Nope - its my treat. Anyway do you know any good take away places?". "Not really, i've only been here a couple of months and am not really home all that much" Kate replied, "Exactly" he exclaimed "I am making sure that you get something decent to eat and quite selfishly so am I" She smiled 'You make a very convicing argument - OK, i will see you in 30 minutes" she said as she stepped out of the lift and walked towards her apartment. God, what was she going to wear and how long should she stay for after all she had to try to get some sleep at some point...her mind wondered to what his bedroom would look like...she slightly cursed him - why did he have to be so perfect - gorgeous, charming, confident but not full of himself, caring and those eyes that were truly the windows to his soul. They really couldnt be that blue, he had to be wearing contacts.

As Flack walked down towards his door his mind started racing - was his apartment clean? Was the trash taken out? And where on earth did he keep his aspirin. His back still hurt a little bit from being thrown onto the ground - again not that he would admit that to her though. She was absolutely perfect Flack thought. Beautiful, tough - but not in a butch way, caring, funny. He was falling for her and he had only spent probably a combined total of ten minutes in her presence. He was happy that she had accepted his invite although he desperatly hoped that he wouldnt make a fool of himself an get all tongue tied and awkward around her.

30 minutes later she was showered and had finally decided on a casual pair of jeans and a singlet top with a hooded jacket over the top. She had her hair down and it sat casually on her shoulders. Casual and feminine. That was the look she was going for. She also decided to put some tinted moisturiser (nothing too obvious) and some clear lip gloss with a touch of mascara. She surveyed herself in the mirror. Perfect she thought to herself. She put some flip-flops on and grabbed her wallet, phone and keys and headed upstairs.

The pizza man rang the door and Flack went down and paid for the pizza and dessert and ran back upstairs. He didn't want her to be waiting outside. Thank god she wasn't. He checked himself out in the mirror once more - jeans and casual T-Shirt with hair slightly styled. Casual so that it looked like it was premeditated. As the doorbell rang he steadied himself as he made his way to the door to let her in. "Hi" she nervously said to announce her arrival. Kate was more nervous then she had felt in a long time. She hoped he hadn't changed his mind about asking her to his place for dinner. "Come in" Flack said surveying her as she walked into his apartment. She's gorgeous he thought to himself - her hair swayed a little when she walked through the door and those jeans hugged her in exactly the right places. He broke from his staring when she turned around waiting for him to follow her.

"Baseball fan i see" Kate said indicating to the TV where Flack was watching a replay of the Yankee's game "I don't really understand the game myself - growing up in Australia it isn't a major sport".

"Huh huh" Flack exclaimed "I thought i detected a hint of an accent. Just couldn't place it though and not liking baseball, thats just criminal. I should arrest you".

Kate laughed "I'm impressed with your detective skills Detective. Most people don't notice my accent, although it does get more noticeable when i am tired and baseball really doesn't seem that exciting to me".

"Not exciting, I am definetly going to have to change that. Sit, watch and let the great game win you over". Kate just laughed but went and sat on the couch where Flack joined her bringing with him the pizza's before returning to the kitchen for drinks.

"Beer, Kate" he asked.

"Um, water or softdrink will be fine thank you Don" Kate replied. She really didn't like beer at all. She wasn't really a big drinker anyway.

Flack returned, handed Kate her drink, and sat on the couch opposite her. They both started eating.

"This is really really nice pizza. I will have to get the takeaway number off of you".

"Yep Tony's is the best. Flack lesson number 1: always get pizza from an Italian". Flack said turning to her throwing her a grin. Kate smiled back at him

"Duly noted. Now.." she said turning back to the TV "why on earth is that bloke not swinging at anything? I thought the Yankee's were supposed to be good". Flack looked at her aghast.

"They are good and that bloke " Flack emphasised the use of Aussie slang "is there best player. He's waiting for the right ball".

"God, we could be here till tomorrow before he hits anything" Kate said exhaling quite dramatically for effect.

Flack glared at her, "Nah nah, you watch he will hit it out of the stadium". Kate thought he was quite cute when he got passionate and a little riled up about sport. She grinned to herself.

The night pretty much continued along the same way, with them mingling what was happening with the baseball game and talking about each other's lives. Kate had moved to America when she was 18 to study at Princeton and then half way through a pyshcology/business course started working with the FBI. She was now 24. Her age surprised Flack. Not that she looked old but because of what he gathered about her job which included her leading her own investigations he thought she would be more near 30, than 20. Kate found out that Flack was third generation Detective, born and bred in New York, is 29 (his age also surprised her - he looked a little younger than that she thought) and has a younger sister, Jennifer whose a teacher. Throughout the night they kept glancing at each other when the other one wasn't looking. The gap between them on the couch got smaller and smaller as the night wore on. Kate hated to admit it, but she was coming around to liking baseball as a sport. However she thought it was more because of her personal commentator than anything.

Kate's eyelids started drooping. It was now around 1am and she really should be getting to bed if she was going to make it to work on time. Flack looked just as tired as her. When the game finished she stood up and stretched, Flack did the same.

"Thanks Don, I had a really nice night. I should be heading home though. Have work tomorrow". It was true she hadn't enjoyed herself like this in a long time.

"Same here. We should definetly do that again though. I had a good time. I'm kinda glad that I knocked you over the other day" It was true. He hadn't had as much fun in a long time especially with a female. He found her interesting and there were never any dull or awkward silences between them. He had shared quite a bit of his life story with her without really realising.

She laughed "my rear would beg to difffer".

"Well mine is going to go out with your's in sympathy". It was true his side was going to be a nice shade of blue tomorrow. He wasn't really feeling the pain at the moment, he was too happy and pleasantly distracted by other things. She blushed and started apologising yet again.

Flack moved his hand and placed it tenderly on her cheek and started rubbing her cheek with his thumb and lowering her eyes to her "You don't need to keep apologising you know?"

Kate nodded, she didn't think she was capable of forming any coherent words at the moment - he was too close to her and his touch was electrifying. "Yeah i know" she half-stuttered

They continued to stare into each other's eyes before Kate got her senses back and stepped away from him " I better be going" she said before moving towards his door.

Flack opened the door for her. He was sad to see her leave but knew that he, like her, had to be up in the matter of a few hours.

"Thanks Don" she said tenderly and sincerly. Even though he usually preferred to be called by his surname, he loved the way his name sounded when she said it. "I had a really good time although I still don't know what the big fuss is about baseball" she finished with a grin.

'Is that so?' he raised his eyebrows at her quite questionly "You wait and see - spend a bit more time with me and you'll be begging Grahams to have your babies"

Kate laughed at him. Her laugh was infectious he realised. Everytime she laughed he couldn't help but smile at her. "We will see Detective" she said still laughing a little.

When they were at the door, Flack couldn't help himself and leaned down and kissed her gently on the cheek before looking straight into his eyes "Good night Kate" he said barely in a whisper.

Kate looked straight back into his eyes getting lost in the blue, she was swimming "Good night Don" . And then she turned and walked down the hallway and down the stairs to her apartment.

Flack leaned back against his door once he had shut it. He smiled to himself before lifting himself off the door and giving a little skip headed towards his bedroom.

Look out for Chapter 3: yes, they finally go on a date. Please review.