A/N: Part of an established AU, though it could stand alone. Set after season 2.

When the elevator door opened and he stepped out into the hallway all he could hear was soft country music coming from her apartment and her voice singing along. She'd been exceptionally happy lately and he wasn't sure if it had to do with closing a big case or if she was finally settling into the New York lifestyle and letting herself be who she really was. He walked down the hall to her door and knocked gently before opening it.

The end credits to a movie were rolling on the TV and she was standing at the ironing board, gathering her freshly laundered and pressed clothes to take them by their hangers into the bedroom.

"Linds, how come every time I come over here it's country music and laundry?" he asked with a smile.

"It's not every time Adam. You're over here a lot."

"That's because my place smells."

"Maybe you should think about taking out your garbage once in a blue moon."

"I did think about that but then I discovered that the moon is never blue."

She rolled her eyes and he took one handful of clothes from her, following her into her bedroom so they could hang the clothes up.

"You have a lot of plaid," he noted, seeing as half of her closet was full of it.

"I know."

"You never wear it."

"I do, just not to work."

"Why not?"

"Because no one thinks it's formal or professional wear here."

"Last time it snowed you wore a Carhartt jacket and a hoodie underneath it. All you needed was a cowboy hat and some wheat to chew on."

"Stop listening when Danny makes fun of me, okay?"

"Sure. Hey, want to go for a walk before we hunker down with cookies and the world of Milo Rambaldi?"

"Yes but we have to keep a close eye on the time because if we miss the series finale of this show, I am going to kill you."

"Noted. We won't go far and I'll make sure we're back at least half an hour before it starts so you can squish into the couch just right."

"You take good care of me Adam Ross."

"I do my best. Come on, get those tiny feet in some sandals and lets go."

She smiled and found some shoes, then grabbed her keys and out the door they went.

"So how was work?"

"It was you!"

She burst into giggles, wishing she could have been there to see his face when he opened his locker and several life-like spiders rained down on him.

"I saw them online a few weeks ago and I couldn't stop myself from buying them. And I knew you were the perfect victim."

"I'm glad I could amuse you."

Chuckling, she slid her arm through his and leaned on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I got a snake for Danny's desk."

"You're awesome. Come on, let's go have dinner," he said, nudging her towards a small café with outdoor seating. "It's nice out."

"I was going to make you dinner."

"Was that going to include huckleberry iced tea?"

"No. Let's go in there now."

He smiled and they went inside, waiting a few minutes before they were seated at one of the tables on the patio, and ordered a huckleberry iced tea for her and a blueberry lemonade for him. She blew her straw wrapper at him then ducked behind her menu with a wink. He waited a few minutes, then fished an ice-cube out of his glass and tossed it down her shirt. She gasped and wrinkled her nose, knowing she couldn't get it out in public and she would have to wait for it to melt.

"That's for the spiders."

She gave him a look which he had previously dubbed "The Glance of Sure Death" then went back to her menu, unable to protest because he had fought fair. After a moment he reached across the table and pulled her menu down, giving her a look of truce.

"How's your shirt? Wet?"

"Cold."

He gave her a half smile and wiggled his eyebrows until she smiled back. Neither one of them could stay mad at the other for long, even fake mad.

After a while the waitress came back and took their order and they had a very relaxed meal together teasing and talking and taking moments of silence to enjoy the late spring weather. Once they were finished they walked slowly back to her apartment, going the long way to see parts of the neighborhood that they'd never scoped out before. They'd found that their best conversations and most memorable moments happened when they just wandered, allowed themselves to throw out time and get lost in the world.

Their hands kept bumping together as they walked and he finally stepped a little closer and put his arm around her shoulders. She smiled and slid her arm around his waist, finding that the smile tugging at her lips wasn't because of the nice weather or the relaxed evening, but because she was with him. It was a different kind of friendship than she had ever had before and if it was possible to fall in love platonically, she was an absolute goner.

"Do you have cookies?" he asked suddenly as they rounded the corner. "Or do we need to hit the bodega?"

"You mean you've gotten over your embarrassment of trying to hand me the chocolate milk through the cooler door?"

"I can overcome it for cookies."

"Alright, lets go."

They were in and out of the store in ten minutes cookies and popcorn in hand.

"It's probably a good thing that we only have one show we watch together otherwise we would get really fat."

"You'd still be cute if you were fat Linds."

"Whatever."

He grabbed her elbow and turned her towards him, his expression serious.

"You are beautiful, Lindsay. You don't get to think otherwise."

"Okay. Thank you."

He smiled and they made their way into her apartment, just in time to get settled in to watch the show.

"Hey Adam?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for being so consistently awesome."

"Bad Robot!" came the childish voices from the TV and the well known ABC jingle played as Adam looked over at Lindsay seeing that her jaw was dropped.

"So, what do we think?"

She gestured to the screen once then dropped her hand again, blinking a few times.

"I mean that wrapped it all up in a tidy package" he started. "But it left it open for a mini-series later. I mean with the whole tower building thing and… Lindsay, you're crying."

"Spy-Daddy just died. He trapped Arvin Sloane in that cave for eternity okay, and then he died. He was the father of the year. And he died. He died."

"He died in order to mete out justice to the most awful man in the world."

"I hate life! That was the worst thing ever! And what about Thomas Grace? Wasn't that the saddest thing you've ever seen? I mean okay, I am actually pretty glad Irina is toast but seriously?"

"Linds, you are way too invested in this."

"You look into the eyes of Jack Bristow and you tell me that his death wasn't one of the saddest things you've ever seen."

"Okay, I get it," he chuckled. "But wasn't it a well done episode?"

"Yeah, it really was. Thanks for watching with me."

"Wouldn't have missed it. Maybe sometime we can rewatch the entire series together."

"That would be fun. I would like to prove to you that you are Marshall Flinkman."

"Whatever," he laughed, not wanting to admit that he was exactly like the socially awkward, highly excitable tech geek. "You're lookin' pretty tired."

She sighed and leaned her head back on the couch and he reached over to play with the curls in her hair. He liked how open she was with him, how she could cry over a TV show or just sit in silence with him and just be herself.

"Not tired, just comfortable. What are we going to do on Sunday nights now?"

"I don't know. We're going to keep them though right?"

"Of course!" she said, sitting up and looking at him as if he had just asked her if she was fond of breathing. "Why would we ever cancel Sunday nights?"

"I don't want to either, I was just asking."

"No. You are stuck with me and Sunday nights forever."

"Good to know."

She smiled and moved closer to him, feeling warm and safe when his arms came around her tightly. She felt whole when she was with him, totally at peace, like all the bad things that happened didn't have any pull on her anymore. He wasn't the source of her happiness in life, but he was the one who had opened her eyes to it again and made her remember the beauty in life that had been so hard to find the last few years.

She closed her eyes and let herself get swept up in the feeling of just being alive, her heart full and her soul soothed. Years ago, just over ten exactly when everything had happened, she'd never seen any hope for a future that included any amounts of joy or contentment. After trying to forget everything she'd turned herself around and started to seek those things. She'd never found them though, at least not in the recognizable way that she wanted to. There was something about his spirit, his laid-back, happy, uncomplicated way of life that allowed her to see what she'd been looking for. She would be forever grateful to him for that.

"So what do you want to do now?"

"I want to just sit here but we should clean up after ourselves."

"Why, is your mama gonna bring down some old west wrath if we don't?"

"I wouldn't put it past her," Lindsay chuckled, picturing her mom busting down the door armed with various cleaners, rags and dusters. "You want a refill?"

"Yeah, I'll get it."

They both cleaned up their mess from the coffee table and took everything into the kitchen. She was humming something softly and he listened for a second, trying to place the song so he didn't have to ask. After a moment he finally asked her what in the world she was humming and she smiled wordlessly, going over to the computer to find the song. Once it started he recognized it as the one she had been singing along to earlier. It was an older style of country which shouldn't have surprised him at all and she would be so proud to know that he could pick out that the female singer was Martina McBride.

He smiled and listened to her quiet singing voice as she helped him clean up the kitchen and put the dishes away.

At the last chorus he tore her away from the sink and pulled her into his arms, dancing slowly with her around the room. He didn't want to make her read too much into the action and the lyrics of the song no matter how much he felt like it was a perfect moment. He danced faster than the song allowed and she giggled, setting them both at ease and keeping things normal.

Chances are I'll see you

Somewhere in my dreams tonight

You'll be smilin' like the night we met

Chances are I'll hold you

And I'll offer all I have

You're the only one I can't forget

Baby you're the best I've ever met

She smiled as the song ended and he kept her in his arms. She didn't want to stop this, didn't want him to leave her, didn't want to walk away from this moment being just his friend. She could hardly breathe as the thought hit her, and she knew she couldn't deal with that emotion right now. She needed to slow herself down and just live in this moment for a while.

"You didn't even step on my toes," she commented with a little smile.

"I know, you should count yourself lucky. I don't dance."

"Oh really?"

"There was a very scarring experience in middle school with The Robot and I have never been the same since."

She laughed and stretched up to kiss his cheek.

"Thanks for dancin' with me. It's been a long time."

"Yeah? Maybe you should teach me how and then I can take you twirlin' whenever your feet get the itch."

"Really?"

"Sure. You can't forget your roots you know. You told me you did a lot of growin' up in a pool hall."

"Yeah, I suppose."

"What are you Little Miss Reluctant now? No, I'm getting you back on a dance floor, no arguments lady."

"Okay. Can we go tomorrow?"

He laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear wanting to kiss her so badly that he was afraid he was going to do it and ruin everything if he stood there one second longer. She blinked once, as if sensing his internal battle and ending the moment as subtly as she could. It wasn't a secret that they had a mutual attraction going on but they were both too scared to talk about it right now.

Instead of kissing her he opted for a small peck on her forehead and a gentle squeeze to her waist.

"Linds?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

He smiled and they stood there for a moment longer before he saw how late it was and realized that he should probably leave so they could both get decent sleep before work in the morning.

"I should go."

She caught herself before she protested and gave him a short nod.

"You can stay if you want, but you're probably right."

"I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay."

They kept standing there, neither wanting to be the first person to break free, but neither wanting to be the one left behind either. It was a stalemate with no motivation from either side to end it. Finally he decided that they needed to be adults about this, and despite everything in him saying no, he finally loosened his grip then stepped away completely and headed for the door.

"I'll see you in the morning, Linds. Sleep good."

"I will. Be safe going home, okay? If you end up in the hospital because you were jumping parking meters…"

"I understand. Night."

"Goodnight Adam."

The door closed behind him and she locked it, leaning her forehead against the wood and taking a deep breath. She'd been kidding herself saying this was just a platonic thing. The chances of them avoiding it for much longer were very low. The chances of them making it even a week were very low. But the chances of them regretting it were even lower than that.

"Chances are," she whispered softly to herself, a wide smile on her face. "Chances are."