Senses Working Overtime

Chewing on her bottom lip, Lulu raised her hand to knock on the door. It seemed weird to knock but she officially didn't live here anymore. Pretty soon, she wouldn't even live at her parents' home anymore. She hadn't thought her parents would agree to this, but apparently her mother liked Evan more than even she suspected.

Evan answered the door with a smirk. "It's about time you came to see me."

"I just came to say goodbye."

"I know. Luke told me you were coming." He didn't want to say goodbye to her, even if it was only temporary. The few nights they had been apart it had been impossible for him to sleep. He just stared up at the ceiling until morning came, wondering if she was okay, if her nightmares had gotten worse, or if she was finally at peace with everything. "Come in."

She followed him and smiled at how neat the place was now that she had left. "So, you're all buddy with my dad now huh?"

"I told you, we have a lot in common." He reminded her, closing them inside the apartment.

"I think that means we can no longer hang out." Lulu smiled.

"Or it means he totally approves of me which is good." Evan countered.

"He doesn't know you well enough to approve of you."

"How are you doing? You looked a little spooked when I opened the door." He combed her hair back from her face.

"I ran into Steven today." She admitted quietly.

"How was that?" he asked carefully.

"He's not going to be throwing a birthday party anytime soon but I'm reasonably sure he won't kill me at the wedding."

"That's progress. Isn't it?"

"I guess." Lulu looked down at her hands. "I'm not sure what to say here."

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. It's not like we're never going to see each other again." Evan pointed out, lifting her chin with his index finger.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Does that surprise you?"

"I haven't always been nice to you."

"I haven't always been nice to you either."

"And there is the whole matter of you being a cop and I just took a plea bargain to avoid jail time."

"Do you think I want to see you go to jail?"

"Evan, I didn't expect this from you."

"Expect what?"

"To like you. For you to actually like me."

"I figure there's not a whole lot we can do about that now. I don't know how to tell you what this was for me without sounding like a soap opera character."

"Not all of those characters are awful you know. I can name some doctors and cops that are pretty hot."

"Mac told me to keep a distance, to protect you without interfering." Evan confessed.

"So do you not follow all orders or just Mac's?" Lulu wondered.

"I always used to follow orders. I actually got mad at Harper for including Sam because it wasn't police procedure. I guess that makes me kind of a hypocrite."

"I'll tell you a secret." Lulu moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I like you a little hypocritical."

"I was surprised to find out you were coming over here." Evan replied, pressing his forehead to hers.

"Astonishingly enough, I'm going to miss you."

"Gee thanks."

"Shut up Cassidy." Lulu smiled up at him. "I'm trying to be honest here with you."

"You'll have to forgive my confusion."

"I know." Lulu chewed her bottom lip and expelled a breath. "It's just hard trying to say goodbye to someone who more than likely saved your life."

"Held you against your will is more like it."

"Still worked. And I didn't complain the whole time."

"But of course not." Evan grinned. "I know what you're going to miss most of all."

"You cooking for me."

"Nice try. I saw you eying the DVDs. Admit it. You're a closet Scooby fan."

"I'd rather admit feelings for you."

"So there are feelings? Mutual feelings? I thought you said that was impossible."

"I wasn't exactly in my right mind at the time."

"I'll miss you too."

"There are two things you can do for me."

"Tell me."

"One, visit me when I can have visitors?"

"I was going to do that anyway."

"Good. And two, can we not talk anymore and spend time saying goodbye another way?"

"Well talking only does so much." Evan agreed, kissing her ardently.

"I couldn't agree more." Lulu sighed between kisses.

*****

"I'm not getting out there." David shook his head stubbornly as he sat on the rock hard bench. He still wasn't entirely convinced coming here was a good idea, but he knew standing up in roller skates went beyond a bad idea. It was a completely terrible idea.

Carole had called last week and invited him to Deliah's birthday party. At some point, he had to start interacting with her if his envisioned plan was going to work, Carole had pointed out. She was right. It would have been so much easier if she didn't have a point. It would have been a quick no thank you and he could move on. Certainly he wouldn't have spent the majority of the week considering going and then re-considering his decision.

Careful as not to hurt his with her skates, Sam tossed her feet into his lap and laughed. She had never seen him look so spooked and the man defied bullets and chased down criminals. "Oh yes you are. You are not going to sit over here and stalk your own daughter like some anguished criminal."

"You can't stalk someone if you've been invited." David pointed out. "And anyway I'm not stalking. I said I would come to the party. Nothing was said about skating."

"You agreed to come to a skating party. What did you think you would be doing?" Sam challenged gleefully.

"Sitting on the sidelines like any self-respecting man would."

"Where's the respect in that? All you're doing right now is scaring the other parents."

"I am not. Anyway they are looking at you more than me."

"Of course they're looking at me. They're trying to match a kid to us."

"And falling on my ass out there is going to not scare them how?"

"They'll be doing the same thing. Who goes to a birthday party and stays in the corner? You were invited so stop acting like you're crashing the party."

David pushed her skates off his lap. "I have always drawn the line at humiliating myself in public."

"I don't know how to tell you this, but it comes with having children." Sam assured him, standing up to stretch.

"You mean I can't just look cooler than Ben and automatically win the cool dad contest when she's older?"

"I think maybe you should talk to Georgie about that. Elizabeth invented the contest between him and Patrick for best uncle and I believe they've been playing for a while now."

"Talk to Georgie?" David stood up, unable to keep his smile in check. "When did you start talking to Georgie?"

"When Maxie moved across the country."

"You're talking to Georgie. You're accepting dinner invitations from Alexis. Careful there Samantha. Someone might think you are making yourself part of the family."

"Shut up."

"So have you committed us for Christmas with your mom yet?"

"The shiny object game just ended. Get those skates on boy."

"Nope."

"Well, I guess I can ask someone else to be my partner." Sam took a step away from him.

"Nice try. You'd miss me too much." David argued, reaching out to grab her waist before he fell.

"I would hate to think you're chicken." Sam tossed over her shoulder at him.

"Now you know better than that."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"You've seen it."

"Hi David!" Deliah delightfully greeted him, stumbling over on her skates. Apparently she had inherited her clumsiness from her father.

"Hi Deliah. Happy birthday."

"Thanks." She blushed, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Are you having fun?" David asked hoping the effort it was taking to come up with conversation for her wasn't obvious. Was talking to all five year olds hard or was that just with children who didn't know you were their father?

"I fell down." Deliah explained, gesturing to her scraped knee.

"Are you ok? Does it hurt?"

"I'm okay. Maggie's mommy had Hello Kitty Band-Aids in the car, but I told her I was a big girl."

"You sure are." Sam agreed.

"I can see that. You better go catch up with your friends." David suggested.

"Did you see my birthday cake? It has Belle on it!" Deliah announced before trotting off in the direction of the aforementioned treat.

"I did." He called after her. "We'll be there when it's time to cut the cake."

"We will huh?" Sam teased. "Does this mean you'll be joining me out there?"

"No it just means we're getting cake." David wrapped his arms around her waist. "You know how much I love cake."

"But Maggie's mommy has Hello Kitty Band-Aids if you fall down. I say that's better than a fire extinguisher any day."

"I don't want Band-Aids from Maggie's mommy." David countered. "I prefer them from you."

"Damn good answer."