"Go out with me."

Jamie wasn't sure if she heard him correctly, she looked up from the PADD she was working on, "Huh?"

Bones chuckled, "Go out with me. You know, on a date like normal people. And before you say anything about us not being normal, we are if we want to be." Jamie considered it for a second before saying 'yes.' What else was she going to say? It had been almost a week since the fight and the kiss, aside from the knowledge that their feelings for each other weren't one-sided, nothing had really changed.

"Where to?" she asked.

Bones shook his head, "I'm not telling. Just be dressed and ready to go Saturday morning." Jamie raised an eyebrow, she knew Bones, and he was up to something.

"Got this all planned out, huh?"

He gave her a kiss, then smirked, "Someone has ta keep you on your toes, darlin'. It might as well be me."

Sitting in her last class on Friday, Jamie was getting restless, tomorrow couldn't come soon enough. Gaila and Uhura each flashed her knowing smiles as they made their way out of the building.

"I heard you have a date tomorrow."

Jamie looked at Gaila, "How the hell did you know that?"

The Orion chuckled, "I talked to your boyfriend yesterday."

"Bones is not my… actually, I'm not sure what we are, exactly." Gaila just smiled at the look on Jamie's face, she wasn't helping.

"Do you know what you're gonna wear?" Uhura asked.

Jamie shrugged, "I have some ideas but I have no clue where we're going." Jamie didn't like being in the dark, no matter how much she trusted Bones, she liked having a plan.

"Just be you," she heard Uhura say, "cute and comfortable with an edge." Jamie smiled, that was something she could do.

"You guys know where he's taking me, don't you?" she asked the pair. Both girls nodded and smiled.

Gaila gave her a sideways hug, "Don't worry. You'll love it." Before she could say anything, her PADD beeped with a message.

"It's Pike. I gotta go." Uhura nodded while Gaila smiled.

"Tell us how tomorrow goes," he green friend called after her. She told them she would and walked to her advisor's office.

"Cadet Kirk, reporting, sir," she said after Pike's yeoman let her into the office.

He looked up at her, "Sit down, Kirk." She did as instructed and waited for Pike to speak. "I was just read in on a mission that you were involved with last week." Pike had been off-planet on a training exercise with a group of third-year cadets and he missed everything that happened. At her nod, he continued, "First, I want to say good job. You, McCoy and Uhura pulled off something that many officers wouldn't have been able to do. Second, Admiral Tullsey is impressed with you. You know what A.T.T. is, Cadet?"

A.T.T. was the acronym for Advanced Tactical Training; it was a course at the academy for select students after their first year. The course was rigorous and admission to the class was by invitation only; of those asked, less than half make it through.

"Yes, sir," she replied.

Technically, every cadet is eligible to be invited to A.T.T. but command track cadets were the ones that really strive for it, especially tactical cadets like Jamie. Having the ATT rating in your file was a plus in the field, when picking assignments and helped with promotions; most who pass A.T.T. are automatically lieutenants (lower grade) upon graduation from the academy.

"You pick up with the next session, assigned to Delta team," he told her with a smirk.

She couldn't believe it. "Thank you, sir."

Pike smiled, "Don't thank me, it was all you. Now that we got that out of the way, are you ok? Nobody comm'ed me to let me know you got hurt." Jamie smiled as Pike slipped into his protective mode.

"I'm fine. I got banged up but I wasn't alone and Bones took good care of me. Not like we could tell you what was going on anyway, it was need-to-know."

He nodded, "So I heard. Nanites, that's some scary shit."

Jamie let out a breath, "I'm just glad we didn't die. I keep trying to figure out what we could've done differently but no matter how many times I run it over in my head the result is still the same." Pike could understand that, she was like him in more ways than they cared to acknowledge. She sat and talked with him for a while before his teacher's assistant entered the room.

"Glad you're ok. Now go enjoy your weekend," he told her.

She smiled, "Yes sir."

When Saturday rolled around, an alarm went off that Jamie didn't set. She got up, took a shower, got dressed and then realized that she was alone in the apartment. She was about to check Bones' room when the PADD on the coffee table beeped. She glanced at the screen and realized that the message was for her, Jamie read it aloud, "Don't worry, Jim... I didn't go far... you will find me... where the wild things are." Wild things that weren't far, she got it almost instantly. Jamie sat the PADD back on the table and grabbed her jacket. She wasn't surprised to find a cab waiting for her outside, he thought of everything.

"Your boyfriend is cute," the driver said to her and then smirked, "figured out where you're going?"

Jamie chuckled, "The San Francisco Zoo."

It only took twenty minutes to get there, "How many creds?"

The driver shook his head, "Already paid for, girly. Have fun." Jamie promised him that she would and hopped out. She walked up to the admissions booth and learned that they were expecting her. The girl smiled and swiped her in before uttering a riddle.

"He's with the reptiles that live in a shell... but they have picked different places to dwell. They live mostly in water and on the ground. Hurry up, Jim, this is only your first stop in town." She thanked the girl and made her way into the zoo. She was gonna have to ask how he convinced these people to help him.

At 9:10 in the morning, the place was mostly empty; it had only been open for a few minutes when she got there. Jamie walked into the reptile and amphibian house and spotted him by the turtles, "I gotta say, very clever, Bones."

He greeted her with a kiss, "Thought you'd get a kick out of it. Come on." Bones handed her the holo-imager and they walked around exploring the zoo, talking about anything and taking holos of the animals and each other.

"You hungry?" Bones asked her as they returned to their starting point. It was almost one o'clock.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am." Bones held her hand and led her out of the zoo. They walked to Beach Chalet Brewery and Café for lunch. After they were seated and ordered, Jamie just looked at him.

"What?" he asked.

Jamie chuckled, "It's silly but the only time I ever see you really smile is with Joanna, it's nice. You should smile more often." Bones flashed her another smile, she thought he was handsome when they met but this was just ridiculous, she was giddy like a little girl.

"It's normal." She looked at him, she had no idea what he was talking about. "That feeling you're having, judging by the look on your face, is normal, darlin'." She smiled, normal felt pretty damn good.

After lunch, Bones took her to the California Academy of Sciences inside Golden Gate Park. Jamie was like a kid in a candy store; the rainforest dome, holo-planetarium and living roof were her favorites and she made Bones promise that they'd bring Joanna one day because mini-Bones would love it. By the time they left, it was already dark outside. They caught a taxi back to their apartment.

"This is the weird part, technically, I'd be dropping you off."

She smiled, "If you want, you can leave me at the door and take a walk around campus."

He shook his head, "I'll pass." They walked into their apartment and before he could say anything, Jamie kissed him.

"I had fun," she whispered when she finally pulled away.

He smirked, "I can tell. So did I."

AN: Their date takes place at real locations in San Francisco.