A/N the further I get with this, the more OOC Greg seems to become. I hope you like it. I did my very very very best on it. Thanks to my most loyal german reviewer garb50, who never fails to leave a review.

"I'm fine, it'll be over in a day or two." She was starting to get annoyed with him. Of course he didn't care.

"And what if it isn't?"

"Then I'll go talk to someone." She grabbed her bottle and turned to leave.

"No you won't." She sighed. 'I should've lied' Zoë thought to herself. She left the locker-room and returned to the gym. Ed followed her.

"Greg, can we talk for a second." Zoë looked around at Ed, if looks could kill..

..

"Sure, Ed. What's up?" Ed looked at Zoë and Greg followed his eyes.

"Not here." They walked towards the conference room.

"Something wrong Ed?" He nodded.

"Zoë, I think you need to talk to her about yesterday."

"She's having trouble with what happened?" Ed nodded.

"She didn't sleep well."

"We all have bad nights Ed." He nodded.

"How many times do you sleep an hour a night?" Greg nodded, that didn't happen often. "Besides, we all got somebody to talk to. Friends, family. She just got here. I don't think she's got anybody but us." Greg nodded.

"Yeah, I'll talk to her. Thanks Eddie." They walked back to the gym together. Ed walked towards the group.

"Ok guys, let's go change. Tomorrow is a trainings exercise against team 5, and we play to win." Everyone, especially Spike, sighed. Training for a training, only Ed would do that. Zoë walked past Greg to the exit.

"Zoë can you wait a second?" She nodded. When everyone else was out of the room he started talking again. "Ed told me you've had a rough night." She nodded. "How rough?"

"I slept for about an hour, and that hour didn't give me much rest."

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah."

"Zoë, you need to talk about what happened. Or they'll hunt you."

"I'll get through it on my own, Serge. I don't need some shrink who's never had to deal with anything like this tell me what to do."

"I didn't say you needed to see a shrink, you can talk to me, or Ed or anyone you want to."

"Thanks for the offer, but I was ok after Iraq, so I'll be ok now."

"I can't make you talk if you don't want to, but I'm here if you need me. Ok?"

…

The training exercise went well. Ed was confident they were ready for tomorrow. "Ok, we'll go to the shooting range now. Whoever has the closest grouping shots, long and short range can skip monthly cleaning which is due today." They looked at each other, none of them wanted to mop floors, count bullets or wind ropes. Zoë's and Sam's grouping were both very tight, they actually had to measure it. Zoë beat him in the long range, but the short range was exactly the same, to the millimetre. So Zoë could relax all together and Sam had to help for half an hour. Zoë grabbed a chair and planted it in front of her cleaning team.

"You know Ed, if this doesn't work out.. You can always go clean houses and stuff. You're pretty good at mopping. Oh you forgot a spot there."

"Yeah, well we'll just have to see next month."

"You know, I could always give you some shooting pointer." That earned her a splash of water in her face. "Okay, I deserved that." He smiled.

"Yes, you did." So maybe Ed was starting to like her after all.

…

A week had passed, Zoë hadn't called Greg, she didn't want to talk about it with anyone. That didn't mean her nightmares had stopped. They hadn't become worse, and that was something. There hadn't been any tough days. In fact, it had been very quiet. It had been 4 days since they were called out. They were getting a little bored. They were getting so bored that the guys were talking about hazing Zoë, for real this time. Spike brought up replacing the Kevlar in her vest with cream cheese and doing the obstacle course. Ed definitely liked that idea, and they had agreed on it. But no one would tell Greg, he liked it to see people get hazed, but he wasn't a hazer. And knowing Greg, he would save Zoë. Zoë and Greg been laughing a lot together lately. Ed noticed Greg was lot more cheerful since she joined the team. He was starting to get a little worried Greg was falling for her.

"So, obstacle course. Let's see who can do this the fasted." They watched as Zoë took the obstacle course, but she didn't fall. She needed to fall for the hazing to have effect.

"Zoë, I'm sorry, but I forgot to start the stopwatch. Can you do it again?"

"Are you serious?" Ed nodded. "Great." She took it again, only now Sam was there. Ready to trip her. She fell flat on her stomach and got cream cheese all over her face. She got up and wiped some away from her mouth. "Godverdomme, klote team." She cursed in Dutch. She walked towards her laughing team members. "Ok, who's idea was this." She turned towards Spike, he had a guilty look in his eyes. She wiped some cheese from her face and walked over to Spike.

"Oh. No Zoë! It wasn't me! I swear!" He wasn't that good of an liar.

"Swear on your mother." Silence. "Come here, jerk." She chased him around until he tripped. She straddled him to make sure he didn't go anywhere and smeared cream cheese all over his face. The rest stood there laughing. She walked towards Ed. He put his hands up in defence.

"I had nothing to do with this." She raised her eyebrows.

"But you knew it was coming, and you didn't stop him. Which makes you almost as guilty." She signed for Greg to hand her the bucket with water behind the tree. She knew something was coming when she had to do it again and asked Greg to fill a bucket. Greg handed her the bucket and noticed Ed stepping back again.

"You're with her?"

"I'm not with her, I'm just not against her." Zoë walked towards him and when he ran away she ran after him. Which wasn't easy with a bucket of water. Spike tripped him and he fell down, if Spike was getting payback then so was Ed. He looked up at Zoë, begging her with his eyes. She had no mercy and dumped the entire bucket over him. He stood up and walked towards her.

"I want to thank you, come on let me hug you." She walked away from him.

"You're all wet!" He was just about to catch her when he noticed Sophie walking towards them.

"Hey, you forgot your phone. Thought you might need it." She looked him up and down. "How did you..?"

"Thanks." He grabbed his phone. "Zoë, she wasn't so happy with her hazing. Come on, meet her. I'm sure you'll like her." Sophie nodded and followed him. Everyone greeted her.

"Hey, you must be Ed's wife." Sophie nodded. "He didn't tell me you were pregnant."

"Yeah that's me. 6,5 months. Getting really fat." Zoë smiled.

"No you're not. Second kid right? I met Clark the other day." Sophie nodded.

"You've got a little, something there." Sophie pointed a little above her ear. Zoë reached there with her hand.

"Cream cheese, yes.. I've got your hubby and Spike to thank for that.." They chatted for a little bit. Until Sophie noticed the time.

"I gotta go. Have to do some shopping. Zoë, it was very nice to meet you. And I hope you will come the barbecue next month. Greg, make sure my husband's dry by the time he has to go home, will you?" They all said goodbye and wished her good luck with her belly.

It was pretty warm outside so Ed was mostly dry by the end of the day. They had continued training outside to make sure Ed could dry up.

…

Greg kept joining them at the bar on Friday's, he and Zoë always had a good laugh together. They trained together a lot as well. Which didn't help with Ed's growing concerns about his friend's feelings for Zoë. But anytime Ed brought it up, Greg would dismiss it. Saying he was just trying to make her feel welcome and part of the team. Ed figured that as long as Zoë kept calling him Serge, Boss or when she was pissed Sir everything would be ok and no lines would be crossed. Which she did, she hadn't called him Greg a single time.

..

Zoë woke up screaming and bathing in sweat again. She had been almost every night since the high school shooting, three weeks ago. It was not going to pass. She really wanted to talk to Greg, she almost did so yesterday but gave herself another day. She grabbed her phone to call Greg at 9, but it was their day off, Friday. She grabbed her laptop and started looking for a place to live again. She had seen three really nice ones. One of them, her favourite, was a loft in a big building in the centre of Toronto. It was too big for her, but it was really beautiful. A couple of hours passed, she hadn't found another house and grabbed her phone again. It was 11:45, so that was a more normal time to talk to Greg. But it's their day off, he might have plans.. She made a decision and pushed the button.

"Zoë? Is everything ok?"

"Can we meet for lunch? It's on me, I.. I want to talk. About.. you know.." She didn't like asking others for help. It made her feel weak.

"Yeah of course, where do you want to meet?"

"I don't know any good places.. So you're choice." He named a place and time. Zoë looked at the clock and noticed she had about half an hour. She put on some jeans and a T-shirt. She was there a little early, she checked but he wasn't in- or out-side so she chose a nice secluded table outside, with a view over the water. She ordered herself a diet coke and waited for Greg.

"It wasn't easy to find you." It was Greg.

"Yeah well, I didn't want people eavesdropping. Thanks for meeting me, I know it's our day off and you probably have better things to do." He smiled kindly.

"Nah, my off days are spent doing nothing and reading. I was actually planning to get some lunch." She could hear in his voice he was lying, but it was nice of him to try and make her feel better. "You still look tired."

"Yeah, I still am." A waiter walked up to their table, she wrote down what Greg wanted to drink and handed them the menu's. "So you come here more often?"

"Not so much, but the food is good and so is the view." Zoë nodded.

"What do you recommend? Cause that chicken sandwich turned out great." Zoë asked, looking at the menu.

"The shrimp is good."

"Yeah, I'm allergic so that's probably not such a good idea. My face will blow up. Big time."

"I'm sure the guys would LOVE to see that." That made her laugh.

"Yeah, I'm sure they would." They ordered lunch when the waiter brought Greg's drink over. Greg wasn't sure if he should bring up the reason they were there, and neither was Zoë. So they sat in silence for a little bit.

"You all die," Greg looked at her, a little puzzled. "In my dreams, the 'how' is different. But you all die. And I fail to save you. Usually it's David, taking revenge for his brother. But last night, it was Jeff."

"Do you think it is about the school and us, or about your team in Iraq?" She looked at him."I did my research when you told me about the nightmares, you're the only one left." She nodded.

"Yeah, me and Adam came back from Iraq but he killed himself two days later." She thought for a moment. "Spike almost died in the school." Greg shook his head.

"Not really, he's had a gun to his head before. He could've died, but he didn't almost die."

"Do you think talking about it will help?" Greg nodded.

"I do."

"If I want it to help, should I talk about Iraq or the school?"

"Only you can know that Zoë. It depends on what the dream is about."

"Do you dream, about Lou?"

"Not anymore, not nightmares anyway. I used to, he was on my team. I kept thinking that I could've saved his life if I had done things differently."

"But?"

"But I had Ed, he knows I constantly carry the weight of the world on my shoulder. He keeps reminding me things aren't my fault." Their food came.

"Tell me something about you." He looked at her.

"Is this a date I don't know about?" He joked. She stopped chewing and swatted his arm.

"You know about Iraq, my dead parents and my nightmares. I just know about Lou, I would like to know some more. I feel really naked right now. I don't talk much about my past. And you know more than anyone right now." He nodded. What should he tell, about his kid, his ex-wife, his alcoholism? That was pretty heavy stuff, but so was Iraq. He thought for a long time. "Let me help you carry the weight of the world." She offered.

"I used to be married." He watched as she took another bite from her lunch. "But she thought I spend too much time at work, you know how demanding it is." She nodded, to let him know she did and was still listening intently. "One day, I came home. There were divorce papers on the table, I walked upstairs. Her half of the closet was empty. I walked to my sons room. It was empty, she had taken him with her." He sighed deeply. "I haven't seen him since. I wasn't a nice guy back then. I thought my son deserved better, so I didn't stay in touch."

"What do you mean, you weren't a nice man? You're the nicest guy I know."

"To deal with the long hours of work, I drank. It wasn't much in the beginning, but as the weeks progressed.. And I had to shoot a kid. That pushed me over the edge and started drinking more, coming home drunk. That's when I got the papers."

"That's why you never want a beer on Friday's." He nodded. "How long you been sober?"

"10 years today."

"Wow, I should've gotten you a cake." He smiled at her, he was glad she didn't make a big deal out of his alcoholism. Her phone rang. She looked at the display and didn't recognize the number.

"I'm sorry I gotta take this." She answered her phone. "Zoë speaking." Greg couldn't hear the other side of the conversation.

"Yes, I did want to take a look if that's possible. I'm living in a hotel, and I would like to move out ASAP."

"Yeah that would be good, ok see you there." She hang the phone up. "I can go take a look at a house in 45 minutes."

"I can drop you off."

"Actually, I hate asking you this. But I'm not really a handyman, and Ed mentioned once you were kinda good with your hands. Would you mind coming with me? So I know I don't buy a leaky house?" Greg smiled. It's not like he had other plans. "And afterwards, we could go celebrate your 10 year sobriety? Only if you want to. You don't have to come with me, of course. " She noticed his hesitation. "Sorry, that was a stupid idea. You're my boss and you don't want to hang with me." She rambled, oh no. She only rambled when she like liked someone. Did she... He smiled because of her insecurities.

"No that sounds good, I didn't have any other plans and I live by myself so it's not like I was planning on celebrating." She was relieved, at least she didn't make a complete fool out of herself. They finished their lunch and took his car to the house, she still needed to get a car as well. And check if her drivers licence was valid here.

They followed the broker, Fred, up to the loft, it was beautiful. Fred told them it was brand new, the building was 15 years old but they just renovated the whole thing. By the looks of it they did a nice job. Greg wondered how she could afford this, but he pushed that thought away. It was none of his business. "How do you like it, Mr Parker? I must say, your girlfriend was very particular." Zoë and Greg looked at each other briefly.

"oh, no Fred, he's not my boyfriend. We're just friend, it's my first house so he's just helping me."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed.." Greg smiled.

"It's fine." They both answered at exactly the same time.

"So, Parker, what do you think?" 'Did I just call him Parker?' 'Did she just call me Parker?' They both thought about it for a moment, it felt strange but nice. It wasn't as formal as Serge and Boss. But it was more formal then Greg. For now, it was suited them. They were sort of friends, he was more than just her boss. And they both knew it.

"I think it's really nice, it's nicely renovated. By the looks of it, you can move right in without it needing any remodelling." She nodded, she liked it. A lot. They walked around for a little while longer while the real estate agent waited in the living room.

"You don't think it's too big?" He smiled at her.

"Are you planning on staying alone, without kids forever?"

"Well, no. I'd love to have kids someday."

"Then it's not too big."

"Think I should do it? I've looked at two others, but I think I'm in love with this one." They returned to the living room.

"They want to sell it quickly, so if you could decide within a day or two.."

"Yeah, I'll sleep about it. And let you know tomorrow or the day after." With that they said goodbye and Zoë and Greg got into his car.

"So, how did you want to celebrate?" He looked at her bewildered for a moment, and then he remembered. They were going to celebrate his 10-year sobriety.

"We could go get a drink." He joked.

"And he's got humour." She smiled.

"It's not even half past four, a little early for me to treat you to dinner.." At that moment Greg's phone rang.

"It's Ed," He said before he picked up. "Hey, Eddie." Greg's phone was pretty loud so she could hear Ed's side of the conversation as well. She really shouldn't listen but she couldn't help to hear his first sentence, after which she kept listening.

"Greg, I just remember it's a big day for you. Want to celebrate?" He looked towards Zoë.

"I was just talking about it to Zoë, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you'd join us. Let me ask." He looked towards her. "Do you mind Ed celebrating with us?" She shook her head.

"Of course not, the more the merrier." Somehow she couldn't help but notice that didn't sound genuine when she said it. Did she mind Ed joining them? Oh god, Did Greg notice? She looked at his face, yep, he noticed. Of course he did, it's his job.

"She doesn't mind, we were not sure what to do until dinner."

"Well, it's your day. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know Ed, what about paintball? There's a new range, it's a 3-men team?"

"Sure, that'd be fun. Shooting at other people with paint instead of bullets." That made Zoë laugh which causes Greg to realise she could hear Ed.

"Zoë seems to agree, ok. Paintball it is. See you there in 15?"

"Sure, see you in a little bit."

Greg hung up the phone and started the car.

"Cops playing paintball. Don't you think that gives us kind of an unfair advantage?" He smiled at her.

"Well, we play to win." He wasn't sure if he should bring Ed up, she didn't sound to happy to hang with him. "You sure you don't mind Ed going with us?" What was she supposed to say? She could lie to him, which had become impossible. Unlike when she did the lie detector test, so much has changed for her since then. Or she could tell the truth, and seem like a jerk.

"No, of course not. It's just, he doesn't really seem to like me.." Well, that was a half truth..

"He.. I don't know, I think he's starting to like you. It just takes him a while to let his guard down." Zoë decided to change the topic.

"So, Sophie invited me to some barbecue. It's this tomorrow, right?" He nodded.

"Yep, we do those twice a year. The whole team and spouses. Wordy's going to bring his wife and kids. Ed usually brings his wife and sometimes Clark, but that depends on Clark's mood. And that's pretty much it. Someone else hosts it every time. This time it's Ed's turn. I'm pretty sure you're next." She smiled, a barbecue. She hadn't barbecued in over 10 years. They parked their car, when they got out Ed was waiting for them.

"I hope they have overalls, cause I'm not too happy about getting paint all over my jeans." Zoë remarked.

"We could always do something else if they don't" Greg said.

"No, we play to win. Right?" Zoë said. Ed smiled. Yes they did.

They had overalls, they put them and the gear on. A guy came walking up to them when they were waiting for the other team to get ready and go into the field.

"I hope you guys are ready, you're playing against The Destructors. They have their own gear and everything." They looked at each other.

"So they're good then?" Zoë asked.

"Good? They are the best, they haven't even been hit in their last 8 games."

"Well we play to win." It was Ed. They guy walked away to get a good seat and watch them. "Greg, don't try to talk them down." That made Zoë smile. She could totally see Greg trying to talk them down. 'Sir, can you tell me your name?' They entered the paintball area, they hid behind some hay. It was clear who the other teams leader was. He had a big mouth and kept screaming at them 'bunch of girls'. To come out of hiding and man up.

"If you shoot the leader, the rest won't know what to do." It was Greg.

"I'll go get the big mouthed guy."

"Zoë, you'll get shot the second you shoot him. And then you're out." It was Ed.

"But the other guys are lost without him right?" She looked at Greg, who nodded. "So you can take those. Good thing these aren't actual bullets." She crawled to the obstacles. The big mouthed guy was not paying attention and was still shouting when he felt a paintball hit him. One of his buddies noticed and shot Zoë before she had the chance to fire another shot. Both she and big mouth-guy got up, declared that they were shot and exited the area. It was finished pretty quickly after that. Greg shot one of the other guys and got shot in the process. So it was only Ed and one guy left, Ed walked around till he was behind him and shot him in his back. Ed exited the area and was complimented by Zoë and Greg on a job well-done. The same guy who talked to them earlier and warned them about The Destructors walked up to them.

"You beat them! They haven't been beaten since they came here!" They looked over to The Destructors. Who were clearly pissed off and bad losers.

"We play to win." Zoë smiled at Ed. They hang around there for a little bit, drank something and gave their gear back. Zoë checked her phone while they walked back to the car. She noticed it was almost 7, clearly they spent more time there then she thought. "So, how about dinner?" Ed quickly checked his watch.

"Shit, I can't. I promised Sophie I'd be home by seven for dinner. And we need to go over what we need for the barbecue tomorrow. See you at 5 at my place right?" He looked at both of them.

"Of course, Eddie."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." They said goodbye and left for a restaurant.

…

They were seated at a nice table by the window. The waiter came with some bread and the menu's.

"Would you like to see the wine card sir?" 'Awkward.' Zoë thought to herself.

"No, thank you. I'd like to have a diet coke." The waiter looked at Zoë.

"Same, thanks you."

"You can drink you know, I don't mind." She smiled, yep he was the nicest guy she knows.

"Ï don't really drink, it makes the nightmares worse." He nodded, he hadn't thought of that.

They chatted at all night, small stuff mostly. Not the heavy stuff of their pasts. Afterwards Greg drove her home and insisted on walking her up to her room. Because 'You never know if someone followed you.' Which made Zoë laugh, he was such a gentleman. She couldn't even imagine him as a drunk, aggressive man.

When she was laying in bed she couldn't help but notice how similar to a date, dinner had been. They talked about small stuff, had a good time, he picked her up and brought her home and he walked her to her door. The only thing missing was a kiss. 'No, I can't think like that. He's my boss, we're just becoming friends. It would be totally inappropriate.' She thought to herself. Little did she know, Greg was laying in bed having similar thoughts.

A/N Please leave a review.

BTW, does anyone here watch Rookie Blue and saw last Saturday's ep? I just saw it! OMG! I HATE that cliffhanger..