Disclaimer: Still don't own them.

This little fic is part of my Creative Writing portfolio. Wheee!

Crosswords

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she nervously chewed on her bottom lip. It was a habit she had when she was concentrating on something. Right now she was concentrating on a crossword puzzle in front of her, a crossword puzzle he had started and had pushed over to her across the breakfast table.

Her cream cheese bagel was forgotten as she pondered over the empty spaces and chewed on her pen. Of course everything he had entered was right, he was a genius, he did crossword puzzles all the time. She didn't even have to check the words he had entered.

He took a sip of his coffee as she bent down over the paper and filled in another word with a smile. This was more fun than she'd ever expected it to be. She used to think he was quite dull for getting so caught up in his crossword puzzles.

The sun slanted through the half open blinds and fell across the table, a tiny sliver of light barely touching her hand. She could already feel the warmth the day would bring, another fresh, warm day out in the desert. It was their day off and she was determined to enjoy it as much as possible. Maybe she could talk him into driving out to Lake Mead, having lunch at his favorite restaurant and going for a walk along the shore.

She looked up at him and her eyes met his. She smirked and a tiny bit of color crept into her cheeks. Lately he had this intense way of looking at her that drove her insane. Nobody had ever looked at her this intensely before. Shaking a strand of unruly, uncombed brown hair out of her face she went back to her crossword puzzle.

He smiled to himself, glad to be able to make her blush. He still was surprised at the power he had over her emotions and swore to himself that he wouldn't jeopardize her trust in him the way he had done in the past. He had made mistakes in the past, mistakes that had almost cost him her love. Now he was determined to right all of those long-gone wrongs.

With a start she looked up from the crossword puzzle, fixed her eyes on one particular space filled with his scribbled writing and then looked at him.

"I think you made a mistake here." she sounded almost shocked. He usually was perfect at his crosswords. He couldn't be wrong. He never was.

"Oh yeah?" he asked lazily, stretching his legs out under the table until his feet touched hers. He didn't seem particularly concerned about the mistake he'd apparently made.

"Yeah, sixteen down, seven-letter word. It should be mermaid, you put… marry me? Why'd you…" she trailed off and looked at him with an arched eyebrow.

Finally she leaned forward, put the crossword puzzle on the table and looked deep into his eyes.

"Did you just propose to me through a crossword puzzle?" she asked. She needed to make sure this really had been his intention, not just some freak mess-up on the puzzle.

"I believe that was my intention." he answered, very satisfied with himself.

She looked at him with a blank expression on her face for a moment.

"I guess you'd like to hear an answer then, right?" she finally managed to say. He nodded, highly entertained at the fact that she was trying to be playful about this. She was failing miserably; her eyes were wet with happy tears.

She smiled at him, then started to laugh while a tear slowly trickled down her cheek and threw the crossword puzzle at him.

"Number four down, three-letter word. That would be a yes."

He dug in the pocket of his pants and slid a small ring onto her finger. After he had pressed a lengthy kiss onto her mouth, he leaned back and sighed.

"I'm glad we settled that."

She nodded as he handed the puzzle back to her and she finished it, sneaking occasional glances at him and at the ring that adorned her finger.

The End.