SailorStar9: With Chapter 6 uploaded, this is Chapter 7 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Pairings: Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.

Chapter 7: Reminiscing Memories, Part Two

The next morning, Ami poured a mug of coffee from the coffee maker and sighed after she took a sip. "What I won't give for one of Rei's lattes?" she mused.

Flashback

The following morning after the undercover mission that led to Rei's confession, Ami was already at her work station, working on her report when a tanned arm appeared within her vision and a coffee mug was placed in front of her. Ami blinked and looked up, "Furuya-san, good morning." she greeted her partner.

"Good morning, Mizuno." Rei returned, the two partners reverting back to their professional selves at the workplace. "Your latte, just the way you like it: extra whipped cream with a dusting of cinnamon, am I right?"

"Thanks." Ami nodded and smiled behind the mug as she took a sip of the frothy beverage. "Furuya-san," she voiced, raising her head slightly above the partition that separated their respective work stations. "About your involvement last night, it is staying off the record, right?"

"Agreed." Rei nodded.

"Noted." Ami replied. "Just double-checking."

"Hey, Ami." Rei rested his hands on the top of the partition of Ami's workplace. "How about we go out for lunch? There's a new ramen eatery that just opened round the corner. I mean, you must be tired of having conbini bento boxes for lunch all the time."

"Just give me a moment." Ami replied and finished the sentence she was typing before saving the document and putting her computer on hibernation. Grabbing her purse, her pass card and an opened packet of tissue, she tossed them into her carrier bag and headed out.

"So, is this considered our first date?" Rei joked, after the pair were brought to a table.

"Unofficial first date, I would think." Ami replied, perusing the menu.

"How's the report coming?" Rei asked after they placed their orders and a waitress retrieved their menus.

"It's coming." Ami admitted. "I suppose it pays to have a eidetic memory."

"Please don't rub it in." Rei rolled his eyes. "Not everyone has a perfect memory like you do."

"You were the one who asked." Ami shrugged, sipping the iced red tea that had been brought to their table.

"Can I ask" Rei inquired. "From what I know of you, hasn't it always been your ambition to be a doctor? Then why are you in law enforcement?"

"Can we..." Ami's eyes widened as she tightened her hand into a fist in pained memory before reining her expression in. "Not talk about this now?"

"Sorry." Rei muttered when a waitress bought their ramen bowls.

"Itadakimasu." Ami slid the disposable chopsticks from the plastic wrapper and dug into her miso ramen.

"Wait a minute." Ami stopped Rei when they walked back to the Bureau and past a convenience store. "Here." she exited the store several minutes later with two ice pops in hand and handed Rei a melon-favored ice pop.

"Thanks." Rei tore open the wrapper and bit into the frozen treat.

"I..." Ami started, swallowing her bite of her ice . "Always wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a child mostly due to my mother's influence, I suppose." letting out a wry smile, she added, "I remember reading my mother's medical books ever since I knew how to read; the dictionary was my second best friend growing up."

"Guess that answers my first question." Rei muttered.

"I'm not sure if you remember, but about three weeks into the Police Academy, I received a phone call from the hospital my mother worked in." Ami added.

"Oh yeah." Rei nodded. "Wataru and I were puzzled on where you keep disappearing after that; it wasn't like you to just up and vanish after classes like that."

"I was visiting Chiharu-chan at her house." Ami admitted.

"Chiharu?" Rei echoed.

"A eight-year-old girl I befriended before attending the Academy." Ami replied. "She was diagnosed with brain cancer a year before. That call was from her head doctor, telling me that she wasn't responding well to chemotherapy and told me to expect the worst. But then," she snorted derisively. "I found out they lied. They only did the barest minimum to keep both me and mother from asking too many questions."

"What?" Rei frowned. "How did you find out?"

"The nurses talk." Ami replied. "The nurses station is the main gossip center. As it turns out, when the doctors found out Chiharu's parents could no longer continue to afford the chemotherapy and the supplementary medication, they cut off the treatment and only gave her steroids to reduce the inflammation before kicking her out. That was then when I realized being a doctor in the big general hospitals isn't about the patients anymore, it's all about performing expensive procedures, regardless whether the patient needs it or not. Chiharu was one month short of her ninth birthday when she died!" she sobbed

"I'm sorry." Rei whispered, pulling her close as her sobs grew louder. "I shouldn't have asked. Will you be alright?" he asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine." Ami smiled, tossing her melted ice pop into a nearby trash can. "Guess I just had to get that off my chest."

Thank you, Rei, for listening. Ami mused, after Rei sent her home in his car after their dinner date. Maybe, it is possible for me to take a chance at love, after all.

"Someone's rather happy this morning." Jodie Sterling teased, hearing the cyber-security expert from Japan hum a tune as Ami skipped into the conference room. "Had a good dream last night?"

"That's a secret." Ami winked.

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.