Ugh...college is so inconvenient. :p Sorry my update's taken this long. Will you forgive me? I hope so, because here's my new chapter!

Just to clarify, I don't own Flashpoint. I've tried, trust me:

(On the phone with CTV) Me: "Sooo...can I own Flashpoint?"

Olga, the lady at CTV: "No."

Me: "Pleeeasse? Can I own Flashpoint?"

Olga: "Don't you have exams to write?"

Me: "Don't remind me...Can I please own Flashpoint? Pretty please?"

Olga: (Hangs up)

Me: "CURSE YOU LEGALITIES THAT KEEP ME FROM OWNING FLASHPOINT!"

Needless to say, I don't own Flashpoint.

Cassidy glanced over at Spike curiously, sitting nestled in the passenger seat of his car. "Where we going, Spike?"

Spike rolled his eyes. "I'm not telling you until we get there! You're so...female. You have to know everything."

She giggled. "Well, excuse me. I'd like to know where you're taking me!"

He sighed. "We're going to my place. My Mom's cooking tonight, and nothing fixes a bad day, or a hangover for that matter, than her homemade fettuccine alfredo and focaccia bread. I figured since you had a bad day and a hangover..." He shrugged. "A home cooked Italian meal was in order."

Spike glanced over and saw Cassidy giving him a curious stare. "What?"

"I thought you said we were going to your place."

Spike had no idea where this was going. "We are..."

"And your Mom's cooking?"

That's where it was going. Spike fought the heat rising to his cheeks. Most girls couldn't get their heads around his living arrangements. This was to be expected. "I live with my parents." He smiled at her. "Go ahead. Laugh."

"I'm not laughing. That's cool."

"It's cool." Spike said with disbelief. "You think it's cool?"

"Sure!" She flipped her long braid over her shoulder. "Why not? You have a good enough of a relationship with your parents to still be living with them. That's cool."

"Uh-huh." Spike was at a loss for what to say to that.

They pulled up in front of the small house that Spike and his parents shared. He grinned. "Don't let my Pop intimidate you, ok? And humor my Mom...she gets...excited when I bring girls over."

"Doesn't happen that often?" she said with a smirk.

"Not often enough for her." Spike sighed.

He walked up to the front door, and attempted to swing the door open, nearly jamming his wrist as the lock stopped his efforts.

"Shoot." He hissed. He reached into his baggy pockets and pulled out a set of keys. "Weird. She doesn't usually lock it if she knows I'm coming home for supper."

He fiddled with the lock and then swung open the door, the warm smell of Italian pasta surrounding his senses.

"Yum." He heard Cassidy whisper. A smile crept over his lips again. Score two for Scarlatti.

"Mom? Pop?" He walked into the warmly lit, deep orange walled kitchen and pulled a note off the stainless steel refrigerator. A huge grin escaped this time. He doubted this could have turned out more perfectly.

"What is it?" He turned and saw Cassidy, cute as ever, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen entrance.

He glanced down at the note. "My parents went to the Forelli's for the night...They're an Italian couple that live about 10 minutes away. Supper's in the oven, just heat for ten minutes...Looks like we have the place to ourselves."

Cassidy eyed him carefully. "Well, that's not the slightest bit convenient."

Spike threw up his hands in immediate defense. "I swear, I did not plan this."

"Spike!" she laughed. "Chill!"

He saw her smile, and immediately relaxed. "I'll warm up the food. You wanna grab an extra plate from the cupboard over the oven?"

Shortly, they found themselves sitting across from each other at the dark wood kitchen table, indulging in the creamy pasta and warm, moist parmesan bread. Conversation was kept to a minimum, and Spike wondered at the comfortable silence between them. Where did that come from?

He finished shortly before she did, and clinked his fork down, leaning back on the wooden chair with a contented sigh. "I swear, that gets better every time."

She scooped the last of her pasta into her mouth and smiled. "Your Mom is amazing, Spike." She looked longingly at the last chunk of focaccia bread on the plate. Spike grinned and pushed the plate towards her. "I've lived on instant noodles for who knows how long...But this? Heaven on a plate."

Spike laughed. "I'm surprised I'm not 400 pounds, living like this. I have to watch myself, otherwise I'd be outweighing Greg pretty quickly."

She insisted on helping them wash the dishes, which quickly resulted in a bubble war.(He started it, and was proud of it.) Then they had to clean the floors off, since Spike knew that the mounds of bubbles on his Mom's clean floors would not go over well.

Cassidy leaned back on the cupboard and sighed. "Spike?"

"Hmm?" He glanced over his shoulder from where he was drying off the last of the hardwood.

"Thanks."

He sat back on his heels and grinned. "Anytime." The wheels in his head began to spin. "You know, the night's still young..."

"Oh?" She cocked her eyebrow carefully. "And what does that mean?"

"That means that there's still time for an Uno championship."

She burst out laughing. "Yes! I accept!"

"Ah," Spike allowed his inner nerd to rear its head in the moment. "But not just any Uno championship. You know why?"

She grinned indulgently, loving every second of this. "Why?"

"Because..." he stood up with a flourish, and put on his announcer's voice. "Because, ladies and gentlemen, it's not just any Uno...It's the electronic, the throw three million cards in your face, the revolutionary...UNO EXTREME!"

Cassidy was near hysterical now. "Then I definitely have to accept." She said between giggles.

Spike ran upstairs to grab it, and they ended up back at the kitchen table, playing the infinite amount of Uno games that can only be achieved in a championship round. Spike at one point stood up to dish them out some ice cream, but other than that, they stayed focused on the game.

And then it came down to the moment. It was the final round, round 37. The round that decided all rounds.

Spike stared at Cassidy intensely. He was so close to going out, having a "Lay down all your green cards" card that he planned to lay down with all the remaining greens that he had saved for this moment. He could smell the victory.

It was when she smirked that he knew he was screwed. In their previous 36 rounds of Uno, he'd realized that she had no poker face, and smirked when she was about to go out.

She skipped his turn in green, skipped his turn in yellow, reversed it back to herself in yellow, and then laid down her change the color card that made him press the button twice. And she was out.

"Nooooo!" Spike cried, slamming down his cards. "I was so close! So close!"

"Not close enough, Scarlatti." She laughed.

"No. No, no, no. You cheated. I don't know how you did it, but you cheated somehow. Maybe tampered with the deck."

"You dealt!"

Shoot, she had him there too. "I don't know how you cheated! But you did! I am the Uno champion! No one beats me!"

"I just did!" She was laughing so hard that she was hiccupping, which was actually really cute. Not that he'd admit that.

"Only because you cheated!"

"I didn't cheat!"

"Did too!"

"Give it up, Scarlatti. You lost."

"Unfairly! I even tampered-"

He immediately stopped talking before he gave anything away, but it was too late. She caught on right away.

"You tampered with what?"

"Nothing?"

She was laughing really, really hard now. "You cheated and you still lost!"

"We both cheated!"

"I didn't cheat, and if I had, then we still would be even. So I still won!"

"Nooo..."Spike slammed his cards down on the table, causing the ice cream dishes to rattle. He knew when he was beat. He was about to say something, but her wide eyed expression caught his attention. She was staring in surprised at something behind him. He turned, and immediately wished he hadn't.

Because his parents were standing in the doorway, looking completely and utterly shocked.

Shoot.

I've been so depressing lately...I had to lighten it up! And of course, stir up a little bit of trouble for our heroes.

So what're Spike's parents going to think about their son's new friend? And when are Spike and Cassidy going to figure out that they're more than friends? And when are they going to tell Team One? How's that going to go? Is TOTH involved? (Ba-ba-bum) So many questions that would be answered if only I could get my fingers to move as fast as my thoughts. Stay tuned!

So what did you think? Please review! I need something virtual to give out for reviews...Tell you what, review, and take whatever you want. It's on me.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am sleep deprived. No need to point it out. I'll stop talking now!

Or...eventually. Thanks for reading!