Elizabeth stood in front of her apartment building, her arms folded across her chest. She was glad that Graceila had decided to go in to work earlier than usual. She didn't think she could handle an introduction between Graceila and Shawn. She glanced down the street, waiting for Shawn to pick her up. The last thing Elizabeth had wanted was to have to ask her best friend for a ride to the 4400 Center so she chose the lesser of two evils and asked Shawn. She checked her watch.

He was late.

To be more precise, he was ten minutes late.

Elizabeth sighed. She slipped one of her feet in and out of her black wedge-heeled flip flop sandals. She had been so nervous in the morning that it took her an hour longer than usual to get ready. In the end, Elizabeth decided that she didn't care what kind of first impression she gave anyone. Now, she stood outside waiting for Shawn in a knee-length dark rinse denim skirt and a white ribbed tank top. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she had grabbed a white and black polka dotted scarf to tie around her ponytail.

When Shawn finally pulled up, twenty-five minutes late no less, she had worked through every conceivable reason he could be late and then through half of the more improbable reasons. She wasn't angry with him, however, just annoyed. He softly smiled and leaned over to open the door for her from inside the car. Elizabeth softly sighed and tried not to shake her at that. She had thought he was more of a gentleman than that.

She opened the door the rest of the way and carefully slid inside the car. She took a deep, centering breath. It still had a new car smell which she figured was from an air freshener. Elizabeth looked over at Shawn who was sheepishly smiling.

"What?" Elizabeth asked. A sudden wave of self-consciousness washed over her. Maybe she should have worn something dressier but she didn't have anything that would be considered suitable business attire in her closet.

"I'm sorry that I'm so late," Shawn offered as he pulled into traffic. "I got held up in a meeting this morning. It ran long and I know it's not an excuse, but I'm sorry."

Elizabeth smiled, visibly relaxing. "It's all right," she told him with a little wave of her hand. "I got a little worried for about a minute but I figured something had come up."

"I take it none of your friends wanted to come."

"I never asked any of them. Graceila is dead set against anything having to do with Jordan Collier and her boyfriend, Mike, wouldn't go unless Graceila was going. And Paulie's sweet and all but he's a flake. Beyond that, I don't have many friends to ask."

Shawn nodded. "It's fine. I just thought I'd get to meet some of them."

Elizabeth laughed. "It's not that they wouldn't like you, Shawn, but my friends aren't exactly fans of Jordan Collier and anything or anyone he touches would be off-limits with them. Sorry."

She could feel how hurt Shawn was by her words. She wished she could take them back but Elizabeth knew enough about human emotions at this point to know that they couldn't be changed that easily. Her words wouldn't be enough to make Shawn feel better. She heavily sighed, her dark blue eyes closing for a moment. Sometimes Elizabeth thought it would have been better if she had come back without any special abilities at all, especially without her empathic ability.

"Did I think something that made you uncomfortable?" Shawn nervously asked, glancing over at Elizabeth as he drove.

She smiled slightly as her eyes opened and she met Shawn's gaze for a brief moment. "No, I'm just sorry that I made you feel so bad by telling you that my friend's don't want to meet you. It's pretty much normal territory for me. Having people not want to meet me, I mean." Elizabeth half-heartedly shrugged. "I'm just sorry."

Shawn didn't have to reply. Elizabeth could feel his pain ebb a bit. And then there were his thoughts. Some weren't exactly rated PG-13 and most of them were about her. Not that she was surprised. It was, however, the more "G-rated" thoughts of her that told Elizabeth that Shawn forgave her.

A/N: I know someone's reading this. And I hope you're enjoying it. Please review if you are. It'd make my day. And the amount of 'squee'ing that I would do at getting a review would probably wake my neighbors and make everyone who knows me think I've gone quite insane. Which is fine by me because at least then I know people like what they're reading. :)