It was the evening of Kevin Atwater's fancy dress-themed birthday party. Jay and Erin had their Breaking Bad costumes, sourced at no cost thanks to Jess. After a rough few days with her period, Erin was feeling much better and was looking forward to having a good time.

Jay was too. It wasn't often he got to party with his friends, it would be the first time with Erin since they rekindled their relationship, and it would be the first time with Jess too. He was interested to see if she would let her hair down a bit more as he had yet to see her do that around him other than getting a bit tipsy at Hunter's. Other than that night, it had always been the formal attire and best behaviour routine that was only natural given the circumstances in which they had come to know each other. But they were past that introductory stage now. It was time, he hoped, for their relationship to become 'normal'.

He was also glad that Erin and Jess would have another opportunity to have a good time in each other's company. That was the quickest way for them to build on the positive start they had made with each other, and he was eager for them to do that.

"I think I'm all set," Erin announced, coming through to the living area of her apartment where Jay was waiting to leave. They had matching yellow tyvek suits on as part of their costumes for the party. "We look like idiots already," she said, giggling.

He laughed. "Breaking Bad was your idea! Anyway I think you look quite sexy," he added, feigning seriousness.

"Oh really? I'll wear one of these next time we go on a date then, shall I?"

Jay laughed. "Knock yourself out."

Erin laughed also. With that, she picked up her car keys, then the black rubber gloves and black full face respirator mask that she needed to complete her costume. For obvious reasons, the plan was not to put those on until they got to Kevin's place. But Erin had a question.

"Before we go, how do you put these masks on properly? I've never used one, and Jess had to dash as soon as she dropped this stuff off so I didn't get to ask her."

"She's got her own costume to sort out, I'd imagine. Wonder what she's gone for? Anyway, to answer your question, like this." Jay demonstrated putting the mask on, lowering from the top of his head, holding it in place with the facepiece over his nose and mouth, then tightening the straps until a seal was formed around his face. "Fairly simple once you've seen someone do it once," he said, his voice now somewhat muffled.

Erin followed his example. "That is simple. It's a little harder to breathe and it's a bit claustrophobic with this on. Jess works all day cleaning in one of these? That's dedication."

"It really shows off how beautiful your eyes are though," Jay said. He was serious this time, transfixed by the only feature of her face he could now see.

"I've felt sexier in my life, Jay," she said dryly, taking the mask back off. "I'm not going to wear it for long after we get to the party and make our first impression. The rest of the costume will do."

"But Kevin said there's a competition for best costume. The winner is getting a gift card for some kind of restaurant for fifty bucks."

Erin laughed. "We're showing up in hazmat suits and rubber gloves, Jay. It's a fun idea because we love Breaking Bad, but I think we can safely say we won't be winning any prizes for it."

Jay had to laugh too because she was almost certainly right. "Maybe. We don't know what anyone is going as yet though."

"Well we'll soon find out. Let's get moving."

Kevin Atwater was having a good time already, and the night had barely started. He didn't get to throw parties often, or even attend them, thanks to his work commitments. It didn't particularly matter to him that it was his birthday. Having a fun night with friends was the objective.

Not only friends though. Jess Sutton was coming too, which made him a little nervous. He had figured that getting her to come to a party that her brother was also attending would be easier than trying to score himself a date, and it had worked. In an ideal world now though, by the end of the night he would have gotten her to agree to go on a date with him. That promise would be better than any birthday gift.

Several of his friends had already arrived. Drinks were being consumed, conversation and laughter had started to fill his living room, and good music was playing. As yet, no one from Intelligence had shown up.

The doorbell sounded. Kevin went to answer it, wondering who it would be and what costumes they might be wearing. He had insisted that nobody tell him ahead of time what they were planning. The surprise was part of the fun.

When he opened the front door, he was lucky he knew the two people standing there so well or he might not have recognised them in their full hazmat suits.

"Erin! Jay! I've got some food in. I promise it's not bad enough to need a hazmat team, no matter what you've heard."

Jay and Erin both laughed. They didn't wish him a happy birthday because that had already been done at work earlier.

"We've come as Walt and Jesse from Breaking Bad," Erin said as Kevin ushered them inside.

"She's Walt," Jay said.

Erin rolled her eyes. "That's the second time he's hit me with that joke." She studied Kevin's costume, trying to figure it out. He had on old style green shirt, cream pants, a brown cowboy hat and a matching gun holster, complete with a replica silver revolver. "A cowboy of some description, obviously."

"Django, I think," Jay said. "Right?"

"You got it," Kevin said, showing them into the living room where he started making introductions to his other friends. The doorbell rang again.

"Drinks are in the kitchen. Help yourself to whatever you'd like while I get the door," he said to Jay and Erin.

Returning to the front door, Kevin opened it to find Jess standing there dressed in a black one piece number that showed a lot of cleavage. Over that she wore a leather jacket, open. She had leather boots on that almost went up to her knees. Her hair was up in a tight ponytail and she had a long whip curled up in her right hand.

He stared at her for a few seconds before saying, "Sorry, I've forgotten how to talk."

Jess giggled at his comedic compliment. "I'll take that as a sign you like my costume? I've been told in the past I look a bit like Tabitha from Gotham, so I decided it made sense to come as her."

"I've never watched Gotham. Now I think I'll have to. Come in. Jay and Erin are already here."

"Thank you. Happy birthday by the way," Jess said as he ushered her in. "You did say not to bring a gift, so I haven't."

You just did, Kevin thought, but he wasn't going to say that. He knew precious little about her, including what her sense of humour was like.

They met Jay and Erin in the hallway, coming through from the kitchen with drinks, now without their respirators on.

"Hi!" Jess said to them. "This is giving me PTSD. It's like being at work."

"Holy shit, Jess. Why don't you just kill us all?" Erin said in equal humour, meaning it as a compliment on how she looked.

Jay smiled. His partner and his sister exchanging banter and compliments was heart-warming.

After repeating her explanation about coming as Tabitha from Gotham, Jess looked at Kevin. "What's your costume?"

"I'm Django."

"Ah. I've heard of that movie. Never seen it."

"Okay, I'm not claiming her as my sister," Jay say said, feigning walking off into the living room as everyone laughed.

"I don't have time for watching movies!" Jess protested, still in good humour.

"Let me get you a drink," Kevin offered. "There's beer, wine, gin. I seem to recall you like that."

Jess giggled again, also remembering the night at Hunter's and one or two too many gin and tonics. "I'll have a gin and tonic but maybe only the one. I've got to get an Uber home and I don't want to do that drunk. Your Sergeant Voight gave me a stern talking to on the way home last time about that. He was right though."

"I'm driving," Erin said, holding up her glass of orange juice as proof. "We'll drop you off. Could have picked you up if you'd have said you weren't going to drive."

"Are you sure?"

"We won't take no for an answer," Jay said. His sister wasn't going anywhere alone with an Uber driver late at night if he had anything to say about it.

"Okay, thanks," she said with a big smile before looking at Kevin again. "I think that's a license for me to drink all your gin."

"You're welcome to. I don't like the stuff."

Everyone laughed once more, then the doorbell rang again.

"This will be Ruze and Kim," Kevin said to his guests as returned to the door. Other than Jess's arrival, this was the one he had been waiting for.

He opened the door, and sure enough Kim and Adam were standing there. She had a Wonder Woman costume on, while Adam had on a long grey coat over a grey suit, with a matching top hat. As arranged between them, he had come as Dr King Schultz, Django's partner in the movie.

"Yes, Ruze. That's perfect," Kevin said, a huge smile on his face. "Kim, you put Gal Gadot to shame."

"Yeah, okay," Kim said dryly and they all laughed.

Kevin couldn't have been happier. He loved sharing good times and laughter with people. His problem was that he didn't get to do it often enough. But on nights like this, he made the most of it.

As the host, it was Kevin's job to make sure people had drinks and food whenever they needed them, and to make sure he spent time with all of his guests. It was nice to see Jess and those from Intelligence mingling with his other friends. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, which in turn made it a better night for him.

One person he definitely wanted to give plenty of time to was Jess, and he had an opportunity later in the night when she followed him into the kitchen to get another G and T.

"Having a good time?" he asked as he took her empty glass.

"I am. It's a lot of fun. Wondering when you're going to get around to asking me on a proper date though."

Kevin looked at her. He could hardly have hoped to hear anything better than that, even if she did seem slightly drunk again.

"A proper date, huh?" he said, playing it cool.

"Tonight's invite was basically you trying to find out if I'd agree to a date." That was put as a statement rather than a question.

"Busted," he admitted as he finished fixing her drink. "Okay, since we're both busy with our jobs and have unpredictable hours it might be tough to plan something, but I should have the day off a week from today. So, that night, dinner? Unless work screws it up."

"Okay," Jess said simply, taking the drink. "As you said, assuming work doesn't intervene for either of us. Although it likely won't for me because I'm not working overtime for the city anymore. Within a couple of weeks I'll be quitting and branching out on my own."

"It's the opposite for me. I'm taking on extra work. Put myself forward to try and make detective, and Voight backed me."

Jess seemed very happy for him. A workaholic appreciating hard work shouldn't surprise him, he thought.

"Good for you," she said enthusiastically.

Much as he was proud of his job and interested in her various ventures, he didn't want to talk about work with her. Given the present circumstances, he knew what to bring up instead.

"You know, you're really missing out by not having seen Django. All of Tarantino's movies are worth watching to be honest."

"Well let's see how dinner goes. Maybe I'll watch it with you at some point."

"That sounds very good to me."

To end the night with a bit of fun, Kevin had distributed pens and pieces of paper to all of the guests for the purpose of voting on who had the best costume. Everyone's votes would be folded up and dropped into Adam's top hat, and Kim had taken on the job of opening them back up and counting the votes to establish the winner. Kevin had asked that he and Adam be judged as a double act, saying that if they won Adam would get the restaurant gift card that was on offer as a prize.

Although he was the host, Kevin had a vote of his own. Looking over at Jess, there was only one choice he could make. That Tabitha costume would live long in his memory. He wrote 'Jess' on his piece of paper, folded it up and dropped it into Adam's hat when he came around with it.

Kim was soon going through the counting process, compiling a tally on a separate piece of paper.

"No cheating, Kim," Jay quipped, drawing some token laughs around the room.

"We'll know she's done something wrong if you win," Adam retorted, to louder laughter.

"I'm almost done," Kim reported. A minute or so later, she had a result. "By a distance, the winners are Kevin and Adam."

There was laughter and applause around the room, and Kevin took pleasure in taking the gift card out of his pocket and giving it to Adam. "You guys have a nice time," he said.

"Thanks, man. Seriously," Adam said, somewhat affected by drink.

"Yes, thank you," Kim added.

"You're very welcome."

Not long after that, the party began to break up. It was late and people were tiring and in some cases drunk.

"We're calling it a night, Kev," Erin said, showing relief in unzipping her hazmat suit and taking off the heavy duty rubber gloves that she'd had on all night.

Jay had the two respirator masks that he needed to return to Jess. "Thanks for sneaking these off your van for the night," he said, handing them to her.

"No problem at all."

"Got a new respect for you working in this stuff all day," Erin said. "My hands are sweaty and I felt a bit claustrophobic with that mask on."

"You get used to it," was all Jess could say, downing the last of her final drink of the night and picking up her whip, ready to leave.

With that, Jay led the way to the front door. Kevin came with them to see them off.

"Thanks for a really good time. Enjoyed it," Jay said as they shook hands.

"Glad you came. And glad you enjoyed it."

"Like Jay said, it was a good time. It's nice to have a real laugh. I needed it," Erin said, giving him a brief hug. Kevin well knew she wasn't much of a hugger or kisser unless it was Jay she was doing it with.

"It is isn't it?" he replied. "We should get together outside of work more often."

"Definitely. Have a good night," Erin said. She and Jay went out to the car, leaving Jess to say her goodbye.

"I enjoyed myself a lot tonight. You're an excellent host, Kevin."

"Thank you, I try my best. All that matters is you had a good time."

"Better than good," she said and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Message me about next weekend?"

"I'll do that," he promised.

In close proximity to each other, their eyes lingered on each other for a moment. It was quite intense and her beauty was sucking him in. Part of him wanted to go in for another kiss, but no, it was too soon for that. He had to let her go, for now.

"Goodnight," Jess said, and with that she was gone. Kevin watched her walk away, her ponytail hanging down past her shoulders, the pants tight around her ass and the whip in her hand. It would have been impossible not to have that image burned into his brain for the foreseeable future.

A/N: Jay and Erin got to have a good time at the party, enjoying the company of their friends and of Jess, although they failed miserably at the fancy dress competition.

Meanwhile, Kevin scored a date with Jess, almost at her insistence. Does that bode well for it being a success?