This is Prompt No. 18-Relationship

The abruptness of the subject change surprised Mitchie and all she could say was, "Okay. What?" The word "what" was quickly becoming one of her most-used words in her vocabulary when she was around Shane.

Shane seemed to pause, as though he needed to gather the courage to speak once again, and said, "I would like permission to court you."

Mitchie's mouth dropped open for a moment, and she sat, stunned. After a moment, she managed to say, "Why would you even think that you'd need permission?" Her grin as she spoke caused him to smile as well and he stood from his chair, crossing the few feet necessary to gently lift her hand to his lips.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Mitchie couldn't help but continue blinking, and ended up replying dazedly, "No, thank you."

Shane smiled at her reaction and kissed her hand again, brushing his lips over her knuckles just to see what would happen. Her eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment, and then they focused back on him, looking embarrassed.

"I have a question," she told him.

"Okay," he said with a smile.

"Where do spies go for courting purposes?" The humor in her voice indicated that she was teasing him.

"Wherever we want to go," Shane responded, teasing her right back. "As spies, we can slip into any place, any time, and no one questions us, if they're even so lucky as to see us." The smugness in his voice made Mitchie laugh.

"Is that so?" she asked with a grin.

Shane nodded. "It is," he responded, unable to keep from winking at her.

Mitchie smiled. "Now seriously," she said, "where would we go?"

Shane thought for a moment and then responded, "We could always go to the plays. Even President Lincoln goes to the theater, so we can easily fit in."

"That sounds like fun," Mitchie agreed. "When can we go?"

Her eagerness made Shane smile and he responded, "As soon as you get to feeling better, we'll go, but I think we should go as a group. We don't want everyone to know that we're courting."

Mitchie frowned. Was he embarrassed by her already? "Why not?" she asked.

Shane smiled. "You haven't seen the base yet. With so many people around, a secret like that's bound to get out somehow and then if it gets into the wrong hands, we have a weak point. No, only our section should know about it."

"The section being whom?"

"Jason, the general, Caitlyn, and Nate," Shane said as he ticked off each person on his fingers as he said their names.

"They all have to know?" Mitchie asked hesitantly.

Shane frowned. "Why would you not want them to know?" he asked.

"Because they might not like me," she responded quietly.

"Jason already likes you, Caitlyn likes you, Nate's protective of you even though he's only seen you once in France, and the general will like you because you're you." Shane smiled and kissed her forehead. "That's why I like you too," he said softly.

Mitchie smiled as well, the edge taken off her fear of dislike. The world seemed perfect, right now, she was sure. Her shoulder and arm were healing nicely with no sign of infection thanks to Caitlyn's careful ministrations. She had just accepted the courting invitation of the only young man to ever catch her eye, and she was going to be starting a mission that she could have only dreamed about a year ago. Everything should be perfect, right? Wrong.

Shane sensed that something was wrong by the way Mitchie suddenly became quiet and her eyes took on a troubled look. He sat down on the floor so that he could look up at her and asked, "Regretting saying yes already?"

She smiled slightly and shook her head. "No," she assured him. "I'm just thinking about Mitchell and Anna. They were going to try and get word to me as soon as they could." She stared into the fire for a long while, her thoughts consumed by what-ifs about her brother and his wife. "They must think I'm dead," she said, looking back up at Shane as if he was supposed to verify that her guess was correct.

He nodded. "Your parents certainly think that Mitchell's dead," he told her, "which is what you wanted, right?"

"Not quite," Mitchie admitted, "but it'll work."

Shane tapped his chin in thought. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "I have some contacts around that might turn out to be rather helpful. Is that alright with you?"

Mitchie smiled and nodded vigorously. "Yes, thank you," she said. She gave a little sigh and said, "You all have done so much for me, I don't deserve it."

Shane smiled and kissed her forehead again. "You deserve it alright," he told her. "Your goal now is to get rested up. As soon as you do that, we can go to the theater." He winked at her, and Mitchie smiled. Under any other circumstances, this interaction would have been frowned upon. Under worst case scenarios, after being left alone like this for so long, Shane would have been forced to marry her already. Wait, did she just compare that to a worse case?

Hiding the mind battle going on inside her head, Mitchie returned the smile. "My arm feels better already."

A/N: Of course it's feeling better! ;) Hoped you all liked Shane's "idea." Let me know what you think!