A/N: This was just a little something I wrote after the kiss in 7x08. :)

Eddie trains her focus on the worn red leather in front of her. Music blasts in her ears as the thud from each hit to the punching bag reverberates through the length of her arm.

Unexpectedly, her focus is drawn away when she sees him in her periphery. He crosses the floor of the NYPD gym and takes his time with a leisurely approach. She swallows down her distraction and returns to the bag, throwing out another set of punches.

Jamie's lips move as he comes closer but she can't hear him. Just the sight of him in his white t-shirt, a basketball propped at his side, makes her lose her momentum anyway so she exhales an exhausted breath and tips her head back.

Without a word, she sticks out one hand to him. He glances down and unstraps the velcro at her wrist then yanks the glove off for her.

She sighs heavily. "Thanks" then pulls the headphones from her ears. "What's up?"

He shrugs casually. "Just saying hey."

With a scoff, she shakes her head at him. "You get me out of the zone like that, it better be for something more than hey."

"You look good, crusher." He nods to the punching bag that still sways back and forth.

"Mm-hm. Can I help you?"

He smiles at her. "You mad at me or something?"

"No!" Her body bounces with impatience. "What do you want, Reagan?"

Holding a hand out, it's like he can't understand why she's irritated. "Thought we could talk."

"We just got off a twelve hour tour together. And you want to talk now?"

His gaze narrows and one corner of his mouth quirks. "You are mad at me."

Frustrated, she grits her teeth. "I'm trying to get a damn workout in."

"Wanna use me instead of that bag?"

Her brow furrows and she lunges forward to pound her fists against his chest.

He chuckles with a step back. "Alright come on." Jamie turns to set the basketball against the wall. "Let's see what you got."

He steps toward her with her boxing glove and tugs it onto her hand for her, urging her body forward a bit. It steals her breath for just a beat when he comes that close.

"No, I don't– ugh," she groans when he reaches for a set of partner punch mitts. "I hate working out with you."

"What?" He readies himself across from her. "I'll go easy on you."

She cocks her head and an eyebrow arches when she tells him, "Bite me."

He mirrors the same intrigued eyebrow and smirks before clapping his padded mitts together. "Come on, hotshot."

She huffs as she readies her fists in front of her chin. "What's with you? Why are you so damn chipper?" And then she pounds his waiting hand with a series of jabs.

"I don't know. This hot girl made out with me a little last night." He shrugs. "Other than that…" He moves his hands and Eddie follows them with a crossbody punch.

She feels the smile threaten her lips before she can stop it, but keeps her focus on her punches. "Is that so? Guess you're just irresistible, Reagan."

"Nah."

"She your type?"

"Not at all."

"Hm."

"She's a pain in my ass."

Eddie jabs twice and throws another punch that nearly knocks him off his balance. "Yeah?"

"She's a hot head. She's bossy. She's always walking in on me changing in the locker room – on accident."

She throws one last punch then deflates with a breathless giggle. "Were you doing little quotey fingers in there?"

He grins. "Yeah."

Panting, she rests her hands on her hips and looks at him. "Well. I'm glad it was so amusing to you."

His smile starts to dim as his gaze connects with hers. "Eddie, come on."

"No, you know," she starts and lifts her glove to tear the strap open at her wrist with her teeth. "You can stop with the Eddie, come on. And talking to me like I'm a little girl with a silly crush. It must be nice to be able to bottle up all of your feelings the way that you do. I envy it."

Jamie glances up to make sure no one else was nearby and comes a step closer. "If I talked to you like that, I'm sorry. Look–"

"I thought it would feel good to get what I said off my chest," she tells him as she pulls each hand out of her boxing gloves and drops them to the mat on the floor. "I don't know. Maybe I regret it. Before I came over last night, I made peace with the possibility that you wouldn't feel the same way–"

"I told you I felt the same way," he interrupts.

"And then basically told me to drop it."

The hard angle of his jaw sets when he swallows. "I told you I don't want to sacrifice our partnership."

"You're an excellent, cop, Jamie. You could ride with anyone and you wouldn't know a difference."

"Well first of all, that's not true, and second…" He pauses and his eyes seek something in hers, like assurance or the need to hear the truth from him. "Maybe I don't want you riding with anyone else."

Eddie's head eases back and she feels the glare heat her eyes. "What, I'm not a good enough cop? I couldn't do my job without you? You think you're such a damn hero."

"You know that's not what I think. Dammit Eddie, I've lost a partner before. I've lost a brother. Because of this job. And I will not lose you."

She presses her lips together and watches his mouth when he talks, confusion hazing her brow.

"And you probably think I'm saying that you can't handle yourself, but I'm not. I just–" He exhales heavily. "You're important to me, alright? I don't want to screw anything up."

With a nod, she wets her bottom lip and wonders whether it's worth it to keep chasing each other in circles. She lifts her shoulders in a helpless shrug and inhales a cleansing breath. "So what? Business as usual?"

He swallows hard, his gaze dipping down to her mouth. "It's not like I'm happy about it," he says softly.

For a quiet moment, she looks at him. A part of her is envious of the way he can just resign himself like that while another part feels sorry for him. She takes a step back along with a deep breath, killing a few seconds before her next confession.

"Just for the record," she tells him. "I only kissed you to see… you know, if I felt anything."

He laughs softly and the slow curve of his smile makes her ache a little. "So did you?"

Offering a coy arch of one eyebrow, she turns to leave. "Eh," she chirps, and with a lazy flick of her hand, she starts off toward the locker room. She tells herself not to look back. And instead, reaches up to pull the rubber band from her ponytail before she shakes her mess of blonde waves down her back and disappears around the corner.

Eddie was about to turn off the TV and call it a night when she's startled by a knock at her door. She considers just ignoring it. She's not in the mood to reassure her next door neighbor that no one is spying on her from across the street.

The knock sounds again and she lazily pushes herself up from the couch and makes her way to the door. Through the peephole she can see Jamie lingering in the hallway before she flicks the deadbolt and pulls the door open.

Her voice is soft when she greets him. "What seems to be the problem, officer?"

He offers a slight smile and digs his hands in the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt. "Can I come in?"

Exhausted, she groans, propping her head against the edge of the door. "Ugh, Jamie. I can't anymore–"

He sighs. "I know. Me neither."

"Look, I'm good. Alright? I don't need–"

"Why are you allowed to barge into my apartment with some big speech, but I can't do the same? Don't I get a turn?"

Eddie scoffs and shakes her head at him. "I've never known you as a big speech guy."

He just looks at her, intention sparking there in those charming green eyes.

She smirks at him. "What could we possibly have left to say?"

He urges himself a step forward, pulls his hands from his pockets and one slips into her hair just before his lips fall on hers.

She inhales sharply and holds her breath for a beat, surprised by the heat of his kiss and the way it instantly pulses through her. It's like her body had been craving it ever since the night before when she last felt him like this.

When he eases her closer by the dip in her lower back, it pulls her up on her tiptoes and her hips collide with his. It prompts a fluttering sigh in her chest that she didn't mean to let escape.

His head tilts down to follow hers as she lowers her heels to the ground. Slowly, she releases the grip she has on his t-shirt.

Clearing her throat, she licks her bottom lip and focuses on keeping her breath steady. Jamie's eyes are closed while he lingers there in front of her and she stares at the solid path of his neck that disappears beneath the edge of his shirt.

"Is this… um," she rasps, her lips just a whisper away from the curve of his throat and swallows to find her voice. "Is this the part where you leave and we do this all over again tomorrow and the next day until I go crazy, or die, whichever comes first? Because I–"

"I don't wanna leave," he whispers as his palms skate up her sides, gripping her there. "Do you want me to leave?"

Her lashes lift and she peers up at him. She's holding onto one last thread to keep from unraveling but the way his hands are on her has her ready to let go.

She tilts back a step as her fist grasps his t-shirt. There she pulls him out of the doorway til he falls against her and lets the door close behind him.