Original prompt by shipperqueen93. Tweaked a little. This will be a small series of perhaps 5 chapters but I think I will keep it open as an open prompt verse. This is the introductory chapter and we will get into the deeper chapters next. Please let me know what you think. :)

Prompt: Detective Gold visits Belle French everyday at her small cafe. Over time they become friends and it all culminates when Gold arrives for his daily visit to find Belle covered in bruises.

The first time that Detective Shaun Gold entered "La Petite French Cafe" was last June. The small restaurant had just opened up a month prior and it was all his partner, Detective David Nolan, had been raving about since he had stopped and bought lunch there a week before. By that point he had decided that he was not going to like it.

Standing in front of the building he knew he had made the right choice not to like it. For one, the name was wrong. The bastardization of the french language appalled him. La Petite French Cafe. The owner couldn't even be bothered to be sure the name was spelled correctly? It was Le Petit. Not La Petite. Drawing from his vast knowledge of different languages he knew that cafe was a masculine noun and therefore the masculine variant should be what was written on the hanging decorative blue, Eiffel Tower sign.

With a roll of the eyes he removed his sunglasses and finally entered the cafe, a little bell dinging to announce his presence. The cafe was not very busy but customers lingered at small tables with laptops or a book from, he assumed, one of the many antique looking bookshelves placed all around the cafes perimeter. On the largest wall there was a hand painted view of the french skyline at night, the Eiffel Tower acted as a center point. Shaun supposed that he had to at least give credit to that. It was a beautiful rendition.

He stood waiting behind two other customers and quickly perused the brightly colored, chalk written menu. For breakfast there was the usual bakery styled choices. Muffins, croissants, and bagels. The lunch menu offered the choice between Croissant or Baguette sandwiches and ran the mill of roast beef, turkey and other meats. There were paninis and wraps, soups and salads. A typical cafe styled menu with plenty of choices of house coffees and drinks to top it off. He saw nothing special to set this place aside from any of the other hundreds of cafes and bistros in Boston.

That was when he saw her though. It was her laugh that drew his eyes down from the menu to rest on the beautiful brunette behind the counter.

A beautiful melodious sound filled with the carefree delight of a twenty-something young woman. Shaun would have turned his attention back to the menu then if the woman in question hadn't spied a glance at him over the customer in front of him's shoulder. Crystal blue eyes pulled him in and he rubbed his face, subconsciously wishing he would have taken the time to shave the bits of stubble adorning his face.

"Can I help you?" The words came from her lips in a soft accent that he couldn't seem to place at the moment.

It was then that Shaun realized the other customer had already received their order and walked away while he had been caught gawking at a woman half his age. He cleared his throat and shook his head lightly as he stepped forward the couple of feet to the counter.

"I'm sorry, I was somewhere else," he managed gruffly.

"It's not a problem. I've been caught doing that a time or two," the woman smiled kindly and he offered his own in turn.

"Just a small coffee. Black," he said and handed her an exact payment.

The woman processed his transaction and turned to prepare his order. Shaun felt his eyes continually drawn to her lithe figure. Her black skirt flowed as she moved around but it was long enough to be professional. Her blouse matched the blue color of the sign outside and interestingly enough her eyes. He wondered if she had planned that.

"Do you know Detective Nolan?" she asked, returning to the counter with his coffee.

That startled him out of his thoughts again. "What?"

"Detective Nolan? He comes in here often. Do you know him?"

Shaun still felt utter confusion. How had this woman possibly known his vocation? Did he have cop written all over face? "Uh…yes. He is my partner, actually. How did you…" he trailed off, hating the confusion in his voice.

The young woman pointed to his hip with a laugh. "It's kind of obvious, really."

Shaun felt like such an idiot. His gold badge was clipped to the waist of his pants and clearly visible with his open suit jacket. He always had it in the same spot. It made him feel powerful when he walked around in public. He was the symbol of authority and he enjoyed holding that over others, if he were honest.

"Of course. How forgetful of me," he murmured and brushed his fingers across the badge.

"Here!" the woman started and pulled out a small brown bag with the cafe logo printed on it in that same brilliant blue. "Since you will be seeing Detective Nolan," she continued pulling out a couple of pastries from the glass display case, "would you mind giving him this for me? It's a strawberry turnover." She quickly wrapped the pastries and placed them in the bag and held it out for Shaun to take. "They are his favorite. He was raving about them last week and I thought it was so kind of him."

Shaun felt a flash of jealousy run through his veins at that comment. But why was he jealous? And of Nolan for that matter? Shaun didn't even know this woman. "Trust me I heard all about it," he muttered.

If his attitude bothered the woman she never let it show.

" Hopefully, all good things! I put an extra in there for you too," she smiled, shaking the bag a little to regain his attention. He eyed her then but reached out and grabbed the bag in one hand and his coffee in the other.

"Thank you," he said and turned to get the hell out of there before he behaved like an even bigger idiot than he already had.

"You're welcome, Detective….?" she trailed off making her question known.

"Erm," he turned back to look at her hesitantly. "It's Gold. Shaun Gold." He quickly closed his eyes and gently shook his head. Since when did he introduce himself like he was James Bond?

"Detective Gold," she smiled. "My name is Belle French. I own the place," and then came the laugh that had distracted Shaun in the first place. "I hope that you'll come back."

He nodded and then turned to leave once more. Belle French. What a lovely name for a beautiful woman. His eyes glanced up to the window and he was reminded of the awful cafe name printed in fancy cursive writing on the sign outside. He scoffed and turned back to the woman, to Belle, whose attention was on straightening the counter, and before he could stop himself he felt his crushing remarks coming to the surface.

"It's wrong you know," he called out and a couple customers glance up over their books and computer screens. Belle seemed the most curious.

"I'm sorry?"

"The name. La Petite French Cafe. If you knew anything about the french language at all then you would know that it should be Le Petit Cafe Francais. Cafe is a masculine term and therefore you should use the masculine spelling. Why wouldn't you take the time to make sure that was correct?"

Shaun didn't know why he all of a sudden felt the urge to insult a woman who had been nothing but nice to him. Maybe it was because he was angry that such an unassuming woman was able to turn him into a nothing but a gawking moron who could barely complete full sentences. He wasn't used to feeling like his power had been stripped from him. No one had ever had that effect on him before. Not by just being near them. And he didn't like it.

"Oh," she said quietly as her cheeks flushed a bright red. "I hadn't noticed that before. Thank you for bringing that to my attention."

Shaun felt himself deflating fast as his own cheeks began to flush with embarrassment. He was such a miserable asshole to publicly call out this poor girl.

She was quiet for another moment and he almost started to leave again when she looked him directly in the eye as she spoke. Just as she had done when they spoke at the counter.

"French. It's for my last name. That's why it wasn't changed. I thought it was clever, but I suppose, perhaps I'm not as clever as I thought. That doesn't give you any right to be rude though, Detective," she finished with a poignant stare that left him feeling more disarmed then ever.

"Indeed," he added weakly and fled the cafe before he could embarrass himself even more than he already had.

The station was just a few short blocks away but Shaun suddenly wished he had drove the distance anyways so he could flee the scene as quickly as possible. He hadn't set out to insult the young woman and her business.

He only wanted to make a short visit to get Nolan off of his back for once. The man talked too much and his incessant nagging was only rivaled by Gold's long dead mother. He was a good man to work a case with and often came up with outside the box ideas but his cheery disposition left something to be desired. Especially for someone with Shaun's own loner and stand offish personality.

When he finally made it back to the station he practically threw the bag of strawberry turnovers at Nolan as he moved to sit behind his desk.

"Compliments of Ms. French. It seems you've made quite an impression," Shaun said and there was that tinge of jealousy in his bones again. Why was he feeling like this? He had spoken to that woman nearly mono-syllabic the entire time he was at the cafe except when he insulted her business. His head hung a little lower as he played that scene in his mind for the hundredth time.

David smiled at his scowling partner when he realized where he had gone. "I knew you would cave eventually!" David grinned. "What did I tell you? Wonderful little cafe, isn't it?"

Shaun directed his scowl from his desk to Nolan. "Dreadful, hole in the wall. I don't think I'll ever go back." Not if he wanted to retain any of his dignity that is. If he ever went back he would either make a fool out of himself by mutating into a blubbering idiot again or insult and offend everyone within the vicinity. But he did feel bad. That woman. Belle. She didn't deserve to be treated so rudely.

David raised his eyebrows. He knew that something had happened. He knew his friend well enough to see through his armour. And if he was right, it probably had something to do with the blue eyed owner. "Sure, you won't," he laughed and turned his attention to the bag of turnovers.

"Give me that!" Shaun said suddenly, jumping up from his desk and snatching the bag out of David's hands. "One of those was for me," he explained, retrieving the turnover and returning to his desk.

David couldn't help but let the smugness show on his face and voice when Shaun tasted the pastry for the first time and let out a barely audible groan of delight. "Soon enough you will stopping by everyday. Just you see, Gold!"

"It's just one pastry."

"I don't think it's the pastries you will be going back for," David responded, finally biting into his own treat.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know."

"Do your job, Detective Nolan," Shaun muttered throwing away the wrapper the turnover was held in.

It was clear to Shaun that he would not be returning to that cafe anytime soon. He was too embarrassed. If preserving the last bit of his dignity wouldn't have stopped him then the fact that he couldn't concentrate on any of his work would. For the rest of the day all he could think about were those bright blue eyes and the easy way she smiled and laughed. Then that all swirled to the defiant face she had shown as he tore her cafe down with his words. No, he could not face her again.

Except…perhaps to apologize for his bullish behavior. Yes. One apology and then he would never have to think of Belle French and her incorrectly named cafe ever again.

He hoped.