A/N: This is sort of a filler chapter, but at least I'm updating, right?
Chapter Fifteen: Years
It's been one year, and he's in love.
One year exactly from that first blind date.
Before that evening, Carlton had been anxious and lonely, angry and still recovering from a lost marriage.
A lot has changed in just one year.
This is what Carlton thinks as they sit in that very same restaurant as their first date, as she talks with him and laughs with him and smiles.
He likes it best when she smiles.
It's their one year anniversary and they're back where they began, but everything is different.
He's no longer lonely (most of his stuff is at her place now, and his apartment is starting to look empty).
He's no longer angry (sure, he can still yell up a storm, but O'Hara will be the first to tell rookies that he doesn't do it as much...sort of).
Most importantly, he's happy now. It had been a long time since he'd been happy, before Elizabeth came into his life.
It's been one year.
"Carlton?"
He snaps back to the present and wonders if he missed something important. "Uh, yeah?"
She rolls her eyes, but goodnaturedly and with a smile. "I said, I love you. What were you thinking about?"
Just thinking that I hope all the years to come are as good as this one, he thinks to himself.
But what he says is, "I was just thinking that I love you, too."
And he smiles.