What Happened that Night

When men watch sport, they tend not to pay much attention to what is going on around them. They cheer, boo, and swear colourfully, but they do not have the capacity to watch ice hockey and lie at the same time. So that night, while Don was watching the game, Amita found it an appropriate time to corner him and have a few words.

"Hey Don." She was replied with a grunt, and an erratic movement as the puck neared the opposing team's goal. "What's up."

"Nothing much. Work really." Straightforwards, clean and uncomplex. Just the way she wanted it.

"Oh. I stoppped by the FBI earlier."

"Hmm. What? That has to be a foul." She ignored how divided his attention was and hoped that it would work in her favour.

"Indeed it should be. I was talking to Nikki and Liz." A non-descript nod.

"I work with Nikki and Liz." He verified, unecessarily, and swore again as the referee made a decision which was not in his team's best interest.

"Liz told me a story about something that happened the other day." She tested, but thankfully he didn't wrench his eyes away from the screen. Alan had on the exact same expression, a few metres away, and she was pretty sure that he hadn't even realised that there were other people in the room.

"Huh."

"About you arresting someone for being disrespectful."

"That doesn't hold up in court. I've tried." He grunted, making another sharp movement.

"You were protecting Nikki." Amita added, carefully, and this made him look away from the screen. He looked surprised. "Look, the other team has possession!" Once again: his unevenly divided attention. "You'd go to pretty long lengths to keep her safe, wouldn't you?"

"She's my partner." He grunted. Amita resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"You forcefully arrested someone for trying to violate her." Don snorted.

"'Violate' is the wrong word. 'Grope' is much more accurate." He leaned forwards in his seat, eyes wide as he stared at the flatscreen. "Come on..."

"Still, Don. That shows that you have some feelings towards her." Had his team not just scored, he would have responded. "Don't even try to deny it." Amita was being careful - she still didn't know whether he was just being Nikki's work partner, being a friend or being someone who potentially wants to get into her pants.

"She's my partner. Work partner." He said, sounding oddly like Nikki had that morning. "Nothing more, nothing less." Bouncing slightly, he grinned as someone was crushed by one of his team and took a gulp of his beer.

"I don't believe you."

"huh." They were back to the monotone grunts.

"Eloquent."

"Meh." Amita rolled her eyes.

"Listen, Don, I know that sometimes it's hard to separate work and personal lives. Just look at how I met Charlie."

"Different." He said, immediately, not even giving it thought. Amita smirked.

"So you are having trouble separating work and personal lives." She said, triumphantly, and Don visibly cursed himself.

"No."

"For an FBI agent, you're really bad at lying." The conversation was taking a turn in her favour, even if her reply was a mere grunt. "Don, I know that you have a thing for Nikki, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, if I was a guy..." This made even Alan look away from the game in surprise, and at this moment Charlie appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, as if he had some sort of radar. Amita rolled her eyes again, and the boys went back to what they were doing, hoping that they had misheard. Well, not in Charlie's case.

"Right." Don said, before turning his eyes back to the screen at a particularly loud cheer from the opponent's fans.

"But you do like Nikki."

"She's attractive. That's it. I'd never do anything about it." Don admitted, finally, pissed off that Amita kept interrupting his game. Better to admit to something that could potentially come back to haunt him with dreadful consequences than miss the game.

Amita went to bed smiling at how obsessed with sport men were. When Charlie asked her why she was so happy, she replied with a airy: 'Oh, nothing', and smiled some more.