A/N: I apologize for the nerdiness of this chapter. You can thank my dear friend LittleRed. She was reading Harry Potter out loud to a few of us while I was writing this chapter. You should go check her story out. It's her own creation that takes place in Camelot and modern day America. Arthur and Merlin and Uther are all in it. It's really good. I'll post a link to her profile at the bottom of the page. (It's still on fanfiction, just in the mythical section.) Ok that ends my shameless story recommendation.

Emily POV

The ride home was quiet. Jamie was making sure he didn't get lost on the way back to my apartment, Jules was apprehensive because I had never brought a guy home this many times so quick after meeting him, and I was just dead tired. I was trying to keep my eyes open and not fall asleep on the way home. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic so the ride home didn't take that long.

We walked up the stairs and I fumbled with my keys. Jewls huffed at me, "Thankfully it's Friday."

"Why?" Jamie looked confused.

We walked in and I just collapsed at the kitchen counter as Jewls responded, "She can sleep this weekend and not function."

I laid my head down on the countertop and closed my eyes, "I can stay awake long enough to help you with homework."

"Yeah and I'll get accepted into Hogwarts this birthday."

I chuckled, "Didn't you know they moved the acceptance date to the 15th birthday?"

I could hear Jamie walking behind me, "I take it you're both fans of the movies?"

My head shot up; Jewls was going to lay into him for this, "The MOVIES?" She screamed.

I got up to take her shoulder bag. I could at least make sure she had nothing to throw at Jamie. She didn't even realize I took it from her either. I touched her shoulder and guided her to the kitchen stool. I got out the takeout menus, "Let's just stay here and have dinner. There's no food in the fridge because I had planned on going shopping tomorrow. We can just order Chinese or something."

"How can you care about food when your boyfriend didn't read the Harry Potter books?"

I walked past her and took her coat, "Pick some food and then you can debate the merits of books versus movies."

She pointed to her usual items on the menu and I grabbed the phone. I turned to Jamie, "I'll have the same."

Once I hung up I pulled another stool over for Jamie to sit. "Have you even read the books?" I asked. Maybe I could settle this without too much blood being shed.

Jewls turned to me, "Even if he did, you don't ask if you've seen the movies. You ask if you've read the books."

Jamie decided to actually defend himself; "More people have seen the movies than people who have read the books."

She threw up her hands, "And that's why people are so illiterate lately!"

He snorted, "You're what fourteen? Maybe fifteen?"

I smiled, "My point exactly. She claims to have lived this entire lifetime and doesn't even have her drivers permit yet."

She turned to me, "Harry Potter was my childhood! I was so sad when the last book was released!"

Jamie turned to her, "At lot of people were really nostalgic when it came out."

She turned back to him, "So you read them all?"

He chuckled, "So many times I lost count before the sixth book came out."

Her face lit up, "How old were you when it came out?"

Jamie turned to me. Was he actually going to tell me how old he was? "I was in undergraduate school then."

I put my head in my hands and Julia laughed. I groaned. Was he really that young? Jewls looked over to me, "You're a cradle robber!"

I groaned again as Jamie looked at me, "How old are you?"

I could tell this could end up bad. Thankfully the Chinese place rang the bell and called up saying they were here. "I'll get it," I fled the room. Thankfully my phone was still in my pocket. I called Nate on the way down.

He answered on the first ring, "Please don't tell me the date's that bad."

I paid the delivery guy and leaned against the wall, "Well that depends on your definition of bad." Either way I was screwed. Jewls was right; I was a cradle-robber.

"What happened?" I could hear his sigh as his kids laughed in the back round.

"Hand the phone to Sarah." I knew he wouldn't understand but she would.

"Just tell me Em, it can't be that bad."

"Just do it Nate." Why was he always so damn stubborn?

"Fine." I could hear him hand it to Sarah as he went to play with his kids.

"What's up hun?" Sarah was one of the few women that I would ever tell my problems to.

"It's Jamie." She had come to the station yesterday and brought me coffee. We talked about him for a little bit before we talked about the kids.

"Is he cute? Is he smart? Does Jewls like him? Aren't you still on a date with him? Nate said you smelled. Have you showered yet?" She was also one of the few people who could get away with calling Andrew Nate. She only ever did it when she was talking to me for some reason though.

"Well that adds to my problems now. But yeah I'm still on a date with him. We're both tired so I just ordered Chinese. I'm down in the lobby picking it up."

"Mmhhhm. That's not it, is it?"

"No. Jewls was talking about the Harry Potter books and asked how old was he when one of them came out."

"Uh oh." She paused as she told one of her kids to behave, "What did he say?"

I rubbed my hand along my face, "That he was in undergrad when the 6th one came out."

She paused to do the math, "What year did that one come out in?" We had both read it because Jewls read it, and her oldest was five years younger than Julia and had just started reading it now.

"2005."

She blew out her breath, "Wow."

"Yeah." Neither of us could think of anything to say.

"So he's what, eight years younger than you? That's not that bad."

"It's probably closer to nine."

"That's not really that bad."

"It might even be about ten." I tried not to laugh at the irony of it all, "Jewls called me a cradle-robber. I bet right now she's calling him a grave-digger or something of the sort." I didn't hear anything on the other line, "You still there?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why you would leave Julia alone with him after a conversation like that. What else did she tell him?"

"Shit!" I hung up and flew up the stairs. I had never climbed nine flights of stairs so fast in my life. I burst in my door, and leaned over out of breath. I really should've taken the elevator.

"Oh good the food's here!" Jamie said. He sounded nervous. He looked down to me, "You okay?"

I nodded, "should've taken the elevator."

Julia smiled, "What did you think we were doing up here?"

I laid the takeout bags on the counter and pointed at her, "I know exactly what you're capable of. It's why you keep saying you're going to become a lawyer for the firefighters union."

She just smiled at me and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, 'Yeah but I'll never admit it.' When she did decide to make a comment she said, "Well it's either that or actually become a firefighter." I was proud of her for wanting to follow in my footsteps but no mom wanted to even think of their daughter being in that much danger.

Jamie decided to change the subject, "I went to law school. I didn't take the bar though."

Julia's eyes lit up, "Really? What was it like? How was it? How hard was the LSAT? What law school did you go to? Why didn't you take the bar?"

I held up my hands, "Let the man eat Jewls. Eat some of your food too." I grabbed mine out of the bag and sat on the stool across from the two of them. Jewls was almost literally bouncing up and down in her seat from excitement. "Fine. Jamie, what law school did you go to?"

He slowly started answering Julia's questions. After she had calmed down some Jamie started going into more personal topics. "I never took the bar because my brother was shot on duty." I dropped my fork in surprise. Thankfully I didn't start choking on my food.

"How did your brother die?" I needed him to say it. I needed the certainty.

"He was shot on duty by a bunch of corrupt cops."

Fuck. I was dating the police commissioner's son. I wanted to bang my head against the wall. "I'm sorry for your loss." He didn't need to know about my personal relationship with his father, at least not yet.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Thanks. It's been a few years though and we solved who did it." Yup, definitely the commissioner's son. I was screwed.

"So why did you join the academy?" Thankfully Julia had a never-ending sense of curiosity.

"It's the family business. I thought that by becoming a defense attorney I could help people, but then I realized that I'd just be helping people like Joe's killer."

"One of my friends think she wants to be a lawyer. It's either that or be a cop she says."

He laughed, "She's got a long time to decide though."

Jewls smiled, "Yeah. Sometimes it seems like too long though."

"Hey, don't go talking like that with your old mom here. I don't wanna think about when you move out." Jewls smiled at me and rolled her eyes.

"How old are you anyways?" Jamie asked.

I thought I had dodged this question for tonight. "Old enough." Maybe that would settle it for awhile.

"Hmph." Thankfully it did. "How long have you been in the fire department?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Since 9/11." He just didn't need to know that I was there before that. Hopefully he had forgotten that Julia's father had been there that day.

He nodded, "A lot of firemen joined up after that." I had to stop myself from correcting him on that. A lot of people joined up out of patriotism. I just happened to already be on the force. There were better people in the world than me.

Jamie could tell I was uncomfortable with this topic, "So do you have any family in the fire department?" Well he might as well know now.

"My grandfather is the fire commissioner." What he didn't need to know was that our fathers got on each other's nerves a lot. And I mean a lot. They both argued about budgets all the time. And when they weren't arguing about that, they were arguing about who needs what equipment and other such things. So basically my grandfather and his father hated each other but were too much of gentlemen to admit it so they just always said they were at odds with the other.

"Oh." His eyes didn't go wide so I took it to mean he didn't know his father hated my grandfather.

"Yup."

"Her brother used to be on her crew but then he became a social services worker."

"Oh that's cool. I suppose he wanted to help children." He seemed to realize that it was kind of a dumb statement so he added, "Any other siblings?"

I told him a little about Katie and how she was still mad at me. I refrained from telling him about my alcoholism though. I didn't need to completely scare him off tonight.

After we cleaned up I went to take a shower while Jewls pulled out her homework. I told her she could do it in front of the TV so we could help her if she needed it. Once I got out of the shower I put on some light clothes. Jamie had brought sweat pants and a wife beater t-shirt so I had on a tank-top and flannel pants. It seemed we were having a comfy clothes night. Jewls had changed out of her school uniform into her pajamas too.

Jamie put a movie in and sat on the couch. "Hang on, I'll be right back." I went into the kitchen to grab something.

I came back with three small buckets of ice cream and some spoons. I let Jamie pick the flavor first because this was a date afterall. I sat close to him so I could lean on him but still look at him.

Halfway through the movie I had learned about his siblings, helped Jewls complete two math assignments, and had Jamie's arm around me.

Three-quarters of the way through the movie I was almost falling asleep. We had all finished our ice cream and it was sitting on the table. Jewls was leaning against me and had fallen asleep. It wasn't even ten minutes later when I fell asleep against Jamie.

A/N: Phew! Ok here's the link to my friends profile. I would seriously suggest checking it out. If you do, and either PM me or leave a reply that you read it, you'll get a spoiler of the next few chapters! You'll like it I promise. She's a growing author, and you can see her work getting better as the chapters go on. I highly recommend it! Just copy and paste it into your browser, and erase the spaces! Enjoy!

http: / www . fanfiction . net / u / 3371170 / Littelred