The Opera House was a revelation to Dempsey, he'd been to concerts before but this was something else. He'd looked up the dress code and wore a dark suit and wine coloured tie with a white shirt and he had to admit he looked very dapper. Harry was a vision in blue and his heart had skipped a beat when he met her in front of the building. She had some kind of silk thing draped around her shoulders, in a darker shade of blue than her dress the whole effect was stunning.

'I sometimes forget how beautiful you are and then I feel like I've been punched in the gut when you turn up like that,' he'd momentarily forgotten he was annoyed with her.

'Ah, a compliment,' she noted as their communication over the last week had been somewhat lacking in warmth. Dempsey looked very handsome, he must have left work early she surmised. 'You look very dashing James; I don't remember ever seeing you in a lounge suit. You should wear them more often.'

'I wear them when I go and see the Chief Super but you don't usually tag along to those sessions,' he was inadvertently pulling rank with that statement as Harry would only attend if Spikings didn't. 'If you like them I'll wear them,' he took her arm and guided her to the bar as they were early and the show didn't start for around forty minutes. He ordered her a drink and placed an order for the interval for two champagne cocktails as she'd requested during their ill-fated meal.

'You remembered,' she smiled up at him as she sipped her drink, 'thank you for inviting me here James, it's a lovely treat,' she swallowed hard as he took the jewellers box containing the ring out of his pocket.

'Put it on, it goes with the dress,' he opened the box and slid the ring on her finger. 'You said you'd wear it as a dress ring and that's the dress,' he murmured as she put the box into her evening bag.

'It's beautiful,' she responded her throat dry as she tried to be nonchalant about it. 'I'm sorry about lunch the other day,' she wrinkled her nose appealingly as she looked remorseful. He just nodded but didn't indicate whether he'd accepted her apology. 'Are you still annoyed with me,' her blue eyes searched his. She couldn't read him because he didn't want her to so she would suppose she hadn't been totally forgiven.

'I read the story that goes with the singing,' he gave a wry smile, 'riveting stuff. Turandot was a tough dame like you; made it hard for the Prince to woo her but he does in the end so that's nice.'

'Opera's always very dramatic, lots of betrayal, deaths and love, it's a bit like the day job really,' she sipped the cocktail. 'There are some very tuneful pieces that you may recognise from elsewhere.'

'Nessum Dorma, I'm part Italian I heard that before,' he ran his arm around her shoulders, 'I'll try not to embarrass you angel,' he sipped his whisky enjoying the smokey taste, 'promise not to sing along.'

'And please don't fidget,' she eyed him with affection. 'You seem to forget that I've sat with you through a lot of stakeouts and I have an inbuilt radar for your boredom level.

'I used to think about you when I was bored and then I'd have to stop cos… His smile was self-deprecating but she had no problem in following his line of thought.

'You can leave that there; I used to think about you too. I often used to think of dropping my tea in your lap,' she raised her eyebrows to emphasise the point, 'or in the summer a cold beverage to cool you down.' She adjusted her wrap feeling rather warm all of a sudden.

'Is that all you thought about? Punishing me for what, being a guy? I think sometimes you felt a little romantic too because I, am very tuned into your body chemistry and…

'James, I can't hit you in front of all these people but I swear if you continue I will not be answerable,' she sipped her cocktail and nodded to an acquaintance in the crowd. She could feel a faint blush colouring her skin because she had had some very steamy thoughts about her partner from time to time and could well imagine her pheromones had been off the wall.

'It's natural,' he shrugged, 'nothing to be ashamed of. I think this broad Turandot could do with some maybe that's why she was so cranky.' He bought a program, 'like to follow the story,' he lied without shame.

'You just want to work out how far we are from the end,' Harry responded mocking him. 'If we go to a serious film you're just the same but at least then you can eat popcorn and slurp a bucket of coke.'

'Charming,' he responded as the audio system announced they could take their seats. 'Come on babe, let's do opera.' He used his strongest Brooklyn tones to get up her nose but didn't spoil her enjoyment of the production by any further untoward behaviour.

Harry was indulgent as he hummed Nessum Dorma throughout the journey back to her place in the taxi, she didn't think he'd absolutely hated it and if he did he'd hidden it well.

'It's a good tune, I couldn't see anyone falling in love with the dame in the opera, she was a big girl, fine set of lungs. Nasty habit of killing people off though; you'd have to watch out.'

Harry laughed. 'Yes, well the story of the opera is really just there to lace the aria's together so they're usually very dramatic and to be honest not at all believable.'

'Nice evening,' he took her hand and played with her fingers. 'Did you enjoy it? Or were you too worried I'd misbehave,' his warm gaze met hers. 'Didn't want to spoil it for you princess cos I know Fry's there waiting in the wings…

'He offered to take me,' Harry smiled. 'It was nice of him but I had to decline.' She looked at him suspiciously, 'did you know that?'

'Course I knew it; I had a word with him about it too.' He gave instructions to the taxi driver and leant back, 'asked him what he was doing hitting on my fiancée.'

'I'm going to ignore that as you're just trying to wind me up,' she freed her hand as they got to her place. 'You didn't say that?' She turned to look at him as she unlocked the door.

Dempsey just laughed, 'what, you don't think I'm territorial,' he followed her into the kitchen as she got out the meal she'd made earlier and put it in the oven to heat up. 'What can I do to help,' he ran his hands around her waist and kissed the back of her neck.

'When you touch me, all I can think of is you touching some faceless woman, charming her as you charm me,' she turned around her eyes vulnerable as she looked at him. 'I can't get it out of my head.'

'Harry, guys don't see sex the way women do. And it's not the same with anyone else, not for me. Anyway, it's about all the other things, I love all your annoying little habits cos they're you.'

'What do I do that's annoying?' She frowned, 'I can't think of any annoying habits…. She could see he didn't want to get into an argument but he was prepared to elucidate.

'You always turn the heater up in the car; you cut your food into tiny pieces and if there's any fat it gets exiled to the edge of your plate, you talk to me when the game is on or when I'm reading the paper; you always shower after sex which is unnecessary and you never just tell other guys to get lost; you're so polite it makes me want to scream. And you eat salad, who eats salad it's a garnish to make the plate pretty.' He could see he'd got her off the 'faceless woman,' gig cos that wasn't going anywhere he wanted to follow. He knew he'd hurt her but they'd got to get past that.

'Don't get me started,' she remarked dryly, 'because if we get into food habits there aren't enough hours.' She looked up at him, 'and top marks for distracting me from the subject of Dorothea.'

'You've got to let that go angel,' he ran his thumb over the line of her jaw his dark eyes warm and concerned. 'I want to kiss you, hold you. Just go with it and don't think…. His mouth dropped to hers and he gently teased her lips until they softened under his. She was pliant in his arms but she wasn't responding like she had in the past and he lifted his head and searched her eyes and hated the aching vulnerability he saw there. 'Har-ry,' he coaxed her his vocal tones liquid with warmth and he buried his face in her neck.

'I can't… not yet,' she whispered. She pulled away and set the table for their meal feeling extremely awkward and knowing she'd disappointed him.

'It's okay,' he growled picking up his glass of wine and taking a decent slug of it. He wondered how long this was going to take and if she was ever going to get over it. He cursed himself for his stupidity remembering the time when they'd argued and torn each other's' clothes off in the hall, that was his Harry not this damaged Harry who couldn't bear his touch.

'I can't help it. I'd understand it if you didn't want to see me socially,' she put their meals on the table and sat down opposite him. 'This isn't what you want,' that came out rather bleakly she had to admit.

'I'll take anything I can get,' he sat down. 'This looks good,' he looked over at her, 'relax, I'm not about to leap on you or get heavy with you; I guess it's baby steps.'

She swallowed hard and nodded. 'I suppose it is,' Harry was worried that she would never get over it and she wanted to because she cared very much for James and she knew life without him would be very hard indeed.

They finished their dinner and he got up and caught her hand and led her to the couch, he selected a video for them to watch and then pulled her into his arms and held her close. 'Comfortable,' he murmured.

'Yes,' she responded shifting slightly and settling against him and she willed herself to relax, 'yes this is nice.' His presence was soothing and she'd felt very troubled of late. The rise and fall of his chest mesmerised her and his aftershave was so familiar that she wished she could bottle the unique James scent and keep it by her always. She was in love with him and she'd known that for some time. She hadn't liked Simone's greater knowledge of her partner and she'd certainly been very annoyed with Suzanne and then there was Dorothea… She blocked out the other women in his life and just breathed him in.

Dempsey half watched the film his focus finely tuned into Harry's movement and mood and then after a while he realised she was drifting off to sleep. He watched her snuggle against his chest and a wave of tenderness flooded through him. 'I got you Harry,' he said softly, 'I got you.'