I'm sorry if there are typos / unfinished sentences. I was going to try and edit but I'm tired and I wanted to post this before bed. Enjoy!

Being rushed to Richmond had left her without a change of clothes and her to go bag. She figured she'd had to run out and get a few pairs of pants and a few shirts tomorrow but with most businesses being closed at three in the morning Liette had went to the hotel with what little she had come with. She loosed her nude coloured bra from her body, slipping it from underneath her dress shirt while allowing the white material to stay onto her. In the same slowness she removed her pants, leaving the black panties underneath on to sleep in. They were hardly pajamas but they would have to do.

Sleep would not come for Liette and it had nothing to do with the hard hotel bed or the sounds of footsteps on the floor above her. Liette was used to the never sleeping downtown of New Orleans, where the parties had raged on well after her bedtime and yet never kept her up. When her mind wasn't bogged down with worries and fear she was able to sleep best when there was a bit of chaos happening around her. She had never been too fond of pure silence. Tonight, even with sound there was no place that Liette could find a good night's rest in, her mind was too troubled from the events of the day.

Laying flat on the covers of the hotel bed, Liette stared into the darkness of her room while she listened to the sound of her uneven breathing. Her mind rushed with thoughts, the images of the day flying past her like gusts of wind. She could barely breathe in the moments before they were replaced with another. Despite the airy nature of her thoughts it was as if she was being suffocated. The more she tried to think about something else the more ended up being dragged back into all that had just happened. It hadn't even been twenty four hours and yet somehow Joe had managed to turn her world upside down.

Joe. Liette's mind lingered on his name, her lips not daring to speak it aloud as if vocalization of it would summon him. He was locked up, tucked safely away where he could not touch Liette and yet she felt his eyes lingering on her still. She saw him as she had seen him today, older and yet still very much the same. There had been moments in the interrogation room where Liette had witnessed a glimpse of his manipulative and malicious nature but only as he spoke about his book and his need to control the pacing. For the most part the man before her today had looked no different than the one she had sat with ten years ago.

That was what bothered Liette.

There was a feeling inside of her that was keeping her awake. This feeling wasn't fear or uneasiness but something else all together. She wouldn't admit it to anyone but a part of her had felt a relief in seeing Joe today. That relief brought her a new kind of stress, one where she realized a bit of her had actually missed him. Dissonance filled her lungs like water, threatening to choke the life out of her as she struggled between missing Joe and hating the monster. Could she do both?

In that moment Liette knew what her thoughts implied. If she let those dangerous dreams become words on her lips she'd lose the trust of everyone she worked with. Many of them were apprehensive about her already. Some people didn't like to be corrected and Liette was not good at holding her tongue when she thought someone was wrong. She had stepped on a number of toes in the bureau so it would take one slip to have some of the agents narrowing their eyes at her and passing judgement.

But weren't they doing that already?

Liette had not heard a single whisper about her since she arrived in Richmond but she figured they were happening. Agents were more discrete than schoolgirls spreading gossip on the playground. Liette imagined some of them had remained at the prison and now their lips could move freely to say whatever they wanted about Joe and herself. Liette's imagination wasn't kind as she began to picture the things they would say about her.

Friend.

Acolyte.

Fangirl.

Lover.

Liette sat up abruptly at her own thoughts. No, no, no. She cursed herself for even letting her mind go there. She remembered the feeling of butterflies and the sensation of a school girl's crush too easily but she shook it from her body with a quick shake of her head. Sleep was not coming so Liette stood and walked to the bathroom. The rushing of the tap water filled her ears as she went to splash some water in her face. She bent down, letting the excess drip off of her before she straightened back up. She almost screamed when she noticed another face in the mirror.

"Hello love."

It was as if he was real but after shaking her head furiously Liette came to realize the image of Joe was just her mind playing tricks on her. She needed sleep. She'd start seeing more mirages out of exhaustion if she let this carry on. It had been as if he had actually been there in the mirror but thankfully the image had only lasted a few seconds.

"He's locked up. You're safe." Liette reminded herself vocally before she returned to the hotel bedroom, walking slowly into the darkness until she reached the bedside again. What am I going to do? She thought to herself with a heavy sigh. There wasn't much she could do at all. It was time to give into sleep.

With sleep came dreams or in Liette's case, memories.

"I can't believe you talked me into this." Liette was tying up an old pair of ice skates just like the amateur she was. Somehow, she had let Joe talk her into trying to skate as long as it was at night and no one would be around to see her make a fool out of herself. The final part of the agreement was that Joe had to come help teach her how.

He would have had it no other way.

"You'll do fine."

"On my best days I can hardly walk." Liette reminded him that she wasn't known for her grace but just the opposite. She often forgot to look where she was going and normally got so distracted by the thoughts inside her own head that she didn't notice she had fallen down until she was fully on the ground. "This is going to be horrible."

"You have to experience real winter, which means skating." he said as he sat beside her, shaking his head as he watched her lace up her skates. "Let me do that for you so you don't break your ankle." Joe stood and moved in front of her, kneeling on the wet snow to pull her leg up.

"Careful!" Liette exclaimed as she watched Joe bring the blade up near his chest.

"It's fine." he soothed with a laugh, enjoying Liette's innocent. His fingers worked away at the laces like clockwork, making a perfect bow at the top of the skate before he moved onto the next one. Liettle looked down at him with an embarrassed smile, turning beat red as he looked up and caught her eye. "You have to at least be a little bit excited."

"To make a fool of myself? No, not at all." Liette shook her head but allowed Joe to finish the second skate. He came off the ground and sat back down onto the bench beside her, pulling out his old pair of skates once Liette was comfortably in hers.

Snow lightly fell above them, breaking through the tree branches that covered the path of the quad and parts of the frozen pond that would bring them their entertainment. Joe stepped out onto the ice first, stumbling a bit at first because of lack of practice but then finding his bearing enough to zoom around the ice. She had watched people skate before but that had been on television during the olympics. Now she saw it was a bit more messy out on a frozen pond when your partner wasn't a professional.

"I don't know about this..." she frowned, looking down at the ice and just thinking about all the different way she could hurt herself. She would had midterms in less than a month and she didn't want to be the student hobbling around school on crutches.

"Come on, you promised." Joe reminded her, skating up and stopping at the edge of the pond before her. "You can do it." he said, golding out his gloved hand for her to take in order to join him.

If it had been anyone else Liette might have said no but with Joe it was impossible. She had done her absolute best to keep him only as her professor but each Sunday coffee date or little meeting like this had her feeling closer and closer to Joe. She wouldn't lie and say he wasn't a friend but she was still desperately trying to deny that he was more than that. He was married and expecting a baby. He was simply out of bounds and yet when Liette took his hand and stepped onto the ice she knew she had doomed herself right then and there. She would be in trouble for sure.

She just didn't know exactly how much trouble she was in.

Unknown to Liette, she wasn't the only one dealing with the conflicts of feelings that shouldn't be. Joe knew that he pushed himself every time he spent another hour with Liette. He knew that he tempted himself to step outside of what was right. None of it made much sense to him. He loved Claire, he had always loved Claire and yet when he was with Liette he felt something completely different. It was a feeling that he couldn't just let go of which was why he kept inviting her to coffee and planning dates like this. What else could you call it? It was a date. They practically looked like a couple gliding along the ice, Liette stumbling as she found her balance in skates. Thankfully there was no one to see them like this but Joe knew exactly how it looked.

"See? Not so bad is it?" he teased as he pulled her along. She stumbled slightly, shaking because of her unsure legs but he held her up, one hand crossing his body to hold her hand while the other snaked around her waist to keep her upright.

"Just don't let go of me!"

"I won't."

He didn't ever want to let go. He wanted to stop their movement and make that promise for real. Suddenly Joe was more aware of his feelings than ever before. Glancing over at her was another mistake on his part. Glowing in the dim lights of the park lanterns Liette was a snow touched angel, warm and glowing against the winter scene. She was bundled up in a matching red knit hat and scarf that complimented her perfectly. Joe was sure she had never been so beautiful but perhaps it was because she had never been so close before. He was practically holding her. Thankfully there was no one around to watch them. Joe knew exactly what this looked like but for a second he didn't mind.

But then he remembered Claire and their unborn child. How could he forsake his marriage? How could he break his vows? He couldn't. It just wasn't right. He used his motions in skating to hide his thoughts from Liette but he felt himself spiraling. She would ruin him if he let her so he couldn't. Turning in their glide, Joe moved to skate backwards, holding both of Liette's hands as he moved them along the ice. He didn't say a word, he just looked at her until he found his solution in her eyes.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Just so everyone knows I'm in the mood for some AU Joe/Liette one shots so if you have any AU situations you're interested in reading please leave them in the comments. I'll be writing things as side projects separately from Trigger Girl (TG will continue on during these, they'll be completely AU!).