They sat down at the table.

Prentiss was to the right of her mother, who, of course, was sitting at the center of the table. To her right was Reid, and to his right was her father.

She nervously looked around. She recognized a lot of the people here: mother's friends, fellow ambassadors, professors at Georgetown. Then she looked over at Reid. He gave her a faint smile.

"What's wrong, Prentiss?"

"Huh?"

"You look nervous. You've been looking around the room. And you're picking your fingernails. What's wrong?"

Prentiss bit her lip again. "It's nothing. It's just- nothing at all."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

But she wasn't. Far from it. She was nervous about making a speech in honor of her mother, about potentially embarrassing herself. She truthfully didn't care that there were over two hundred people there; no, she was worried about embarrassing herself in front of Reid.

A white-sleeved arm reached in front of her and dropped a plate of salad. "Thank you," she acknowledged the waiter. She picked up her fork, and began to nibble at her salad. She didn't have much of an appetite. She knew Reid was looking at her, and she knew that he knew something was wrong. But she didn't have the energy to explain it. Or worry him.

"Damn," she muttered, "my chair's wobbly."

"Excuse me?" her mother burst.

"My chair," Prentiss said. "Sorry."

She wrapped her right foot around the right front leg of her chair and attempted to move the chair a little closer to the table to try and minimize the wobbling. She moved her leg to her right to return it to its normal position, but it hit something.

"Ow!" barked Reid.

"Oh sorry, Reid! I was just moving my chair," she apologized. But secretly, she wasn't sorry. Accidentally kicking Reid sparked something in her mind.

She slowly crept her leg closer to Reid. With her foot, she nudged his a little, and stroked the top of his foot. Reid looked up at her, a little confused. She continued to move her leg up his, making it up to his knee. She then slowly drew her leg back down and returned it to her chair. She looked back up at Reid. He looked terrified for a second, but when Prentiss looked at him, he seemed to understand what she was doing. He figured he could play along. Prentiss' leg gave him a strange, tingling sensation up his spine. And he rather enjoyed it. He smiled once he figured out what he was feeling.

He moved his left foot to meet Prentiss', and together their feet did a sort of dance under the table. First, Prentiss' was on top, and then Reid's, and then they were pushing each other's feet against a chair.

Prentiss' napkin fell to the ground. "Damn," she muttered again. She pushed her chair out to get it, and another idea sparked in her head. She snuck under the table to reach the napkin, and began to move her hand closer to Reid, by his foot, by his calf, by his knee, by his-

"Thank you all for coming!"

"OW!"

Ambassador Prentiss had stood up to welcome all her guests, and in the process, scared Prentiss. She hit her head on the table above her. Damn, she thought. I've interrupted Mom and now when I come back from under the table, everyone will judge me and be staring at me. I should just make this as smooth as possible.

She quickly slid back out and into her chair and looked down at her lap. She didn't want to know if anyone was staring, glaring at her. But she could feel her mother's fiery eyes on her.

"Anyway," Ambassador Prentiss began, "it's so nice to see all of you here. I'm so honored to be the recipient of this award. I feel so blessed to be a part of this community." She paused for dramatic effect. "Many of you know my family, my loving husband, Richard, and my daughter, Emily." Emily looked up and briefly acknowledged the audience.

"So," she continued, "before we serve the main course, I invite my daughter, Emily, to say a few words for you all."

She sat down and nodded at Prentiss, who in turn stood up. She took a deep breath, and began to make her speech.