"So how are things with the girl?"

Ned chuckled, dribbling the ball up the court. "You will never guess what happened last night."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "Really? Do tell."

"She's a virgin."

Mike shook his head in sympathy. "She was? Or she is?"

"She is." Ned ran up to the basket and sank it effortlessly.

"Last night must have been a blast, then."

Ned nodded, passing Mike the ball. "We had a fight, I apologized, and then I asked her to be my girlfriend."

Mike laughed. "You really do lead an exciting life, huh, Nickerson."

"I try," Ned smirked. "I've just... never met anyone like her."

"You have it bad," Mike said, shaking his head. "Do you know nothing? Virgin. Virgin. Paranoia, suffocation, clingy, crazy..."

"And how are you and Jan doing?" Ned asked pointedly.

"We're doing great, thanks for asking. How old is Nancy?"

"Old enough." Ned grabbed the ball on the rebound. "Play nice."

"Hey, any girlfriend of yours is a friend of... my wife," Mike said. "I mean, as long as she's not a bitchy entitled princess..."

"Or a frigid prude?" Ned grinned sarcastically.

"I've seen you date entitled princesses," Mike returned. "Not so much the frigid prudes. Of course, it never lasted that long with the princesses..."

Ned shrugged. "She's not a frigid prude," he said, gracefully maneuvering away from Mike's block and sinking a three-pointer. "Maybe we can double-date some weekend."

"Between your work schedule and hers, I'm surprised you have any time to see her."

"You'll understand, when you meet her," Ned promised. "I make time."

Back in his car, Ned turned his phone back on to see a missed call from Nancy.

"Ned!" she cried in greeting, when he called her back. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Oh, no. I'll sleep like the dead tonight, but for now I'm fine. What's up?"

"I'm in River Heights with my Dad, we're on the way to the police station."

"Do I want to know what happened?"

"It's nothing bad... well, it is bad, but—a girl I went to school with called Dad, and wants him to defend her on murder charges."

"And yet, you still sound excited," Ned mused, negotiating a turn. "I must be missing something."

"Celia may not have been the most pleasant person in the world, but there's no way she did it."

"Still lost," Ned admitted. "Am I still asleep? Or did you have something to drink over at your dad's? "

Nancy sighed in mild exasperation. "Well, of course I'm going to help him prove she didn't do it."

Ned burst into laughter. "I keep forgetting who I'm talking to," he finished. "I'm talking to the girl who tracked me down in New York and took me to some tiny awesome jazz club I'd never heard of, not the girl whose couch I slept on last night."

"Is that how you think of me?" Nancy asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. "Two different people?"

Ned shrugged, scouting for a parking spot. "A little," he admitted. "Just because who I am at work, isn't who I am with you. I guess I kind of see you the same way."

"So which of me do you like better?" she asked, low and flirtatious, and he could almost hear her batting her eyelashes over the line.

"I don't know yet," he admitted, chuckling. "Spy Nancy gets to wear wigs, and that's hot, but Girlfriend Nancy..."

"Whom you've known for all of what, twelve hours?" she interjected, laughing.

"Yeah, but she seems pretty awesome too," Ned finished. "Despite the lack of wigs. And speaking of she who is now my girlfriend..."

"I'm listening."

"Would Girlfriend Nancy like to meet my best friend and his wife? Not tonight or anything..."

"Sure," Nancy replied. "That sounds great. Anyone you call a best friend..."

"Well, we went to college together, so he knows all the dirt on me. Kind of like Bess and George. Which means I'm going to get you really, really drunk that night, so that you don't remember anything he tells you. If that's okay with you."

"Definitely. Did I tell you about my best friend, the mini cassette recorder?"

"I thought your best friend was the omniscient voice on the other end of your earpiece. Or your lockpick kit."

"Shh, you'll give me away," she chuckled. "We're almost there. I'm gonna call you back, okay?"

"Please do," he replied, then paused for a second. "Miss you."

She laughed. "Miss you too," she told him softly. "Later."

Ned was sitting on the floor in front of his entertainment center, his hair still wet from his shower, sorting through his movie collection, when his phone rang. Thinking it was Nancy, he scrambled for the phone and was out of breath by the time he picked up. "Hello?"

"So, I heard about what you two were up to last night."

"Hey Bess," Ned sighed. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Which part?"

"The part where now you're her boyfriend," Bess clarified. "And, since you are her boyfriend, I thought it was only fair that I let you know..."

"Let me know what?" Ned's hand dropped from the movies he was flipping through, down to his knee, warily.

"Do you remember, back ages ago, when you and Nancy first met..."

Ned chuckled. "Yeah. I think I can remember that far back."

"Remember how I told you that she had that same look she gets when she has a mystery?"

"Yeah," Ned replied. "And I've seen her when she was... on assignment, so..."

"No," Bess interrupted, gently, and chuckled. "Trust me. Assignment is not the same as mystery. And Nancy..."

"She called me. Something about her father defending some girl you guys went to high school with?"

"Right," Bess said. "Oh, you naive boy. And you think you're actually going to see her anytime soon."

"I was kind of hoping," Ned admitted. "What the hell? Do you mean I'll be seeing her less than I saw her before she was my girlfriend?"

"Well, I'll put it this way. If you feel like seeing her anytime in the near future, volunteer to help her."

"With what?"

"Anything she asks," Bess suggested. "Trust me."

"Wow." Ned shook his head. "So I just picked the worst possible time ever, huh."

"I wouldn't say that," Bess said, reassuringly. "But I do think your life is about to get much more interesting."