Happy New Year, everyone! I was hoping to get this up a few days ago, but given my track record this is pretty good for me… :p Thanks very much for the reviews for the first part of the story; this is very much a linking chapter, but it got away from me and is stupidly long. Apologies! I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Three glasses of Veuve, two sprigs of mistletoe and pair of Louboutin heels or, How Becker Finally Figures It Out

Part Two – Two Sprigs of mistletoe

Becker sat as far away from Jess as possible at the pub after the kissing incident, and begged off as early as possible. The next morning he ran fifteen miles on the treadmill instead of visiting the Hub as usual, and since there wasn't an anomaly he was able to avoid seeing Jess all day. It was startling (and a little annoying), to realise how much unnecessary time he spent in the Hub, just so he could see Jess during the day. He must have been so obvious; no wonder Jess had been so quick to tease him about the kiss.

The next day, Becker felt a little more prepared to face her and figured that any impulse to tease him had probably left her system, so he made his way to the Hub at his usual time for a visit. Even though he now knew his own private reasons for so many visits were pointless, he also didn't want to just pull the plug on his visits all together… after all, he didn't want to damage the relationship he did have with Jess. (It was nothing to do with him missing her after just a day; nothing at all.)

Usually Becker's morning visits to the Hub went something like this: he would walk through the door, she would spot him and give him a big and ridiculously bright smile, he would walk over and say hello, she would say hello and ask how things were downstairs, he would tell her and ask about things up there, she would tell him some funny anecdote about the team or Lester or the scientists or whatever, he would say something to make her laugh and then feel smug about it, he'd say something that would make her blush and then feel even more smug about it, he'd smirk and say goodbye, he'd walk away. Sometimes he brought chocolate.

Today, his visit went more like this: he walked through the door, Jess spotted him but looked away again immediately, she looked back at him and gave him a small smile with a distinctly wary look in her eye, he walked over and said hello, she said hello back but didn't ask about how things were downstairs, there was an awkward silence during which Jess kept looking back down at her keyboard, then Jess looked back at him and asked if he needed anything, he said no, she said okay, he said okay, she said see you later, he said see you later, he left.

It didn't get any better. Every time Becker saw Jess, she was off with him. At first he thought there was something wrong with her, like maybe she was coming down with something, but it only took a day or so of seeing her interact with everyone else at the ARC for Becker to realise that it was only himself she seemed to have a problem with.

It was all because of that bloody kiss.

She was clearly reacting to the way he'd kissed her back so intently. She realised that he'd gotten the wrong idea about their relationship and her feelings, and she was trying to reset their boundaries by being completely professional with him. She'd never been completely professional with him. Even on the day they'd met, way before the teasing and the blushing had started, she had been bubbly and friendly and in his personal space and babbling at him like she'd known him for years.

He didn't like this new professional Jess. The thing was, though, he couldn't blame her. He'd clearly stepped over a line, and there was nothing he could do about it but go along with whatever Jess was comfortable with.

The next two weeks were hell for Becker. Relations with Jess didn't improve – in fact she seemed to get more and more comfortable with being strictly professional, and after a week or so Becker started avoiding the Hub again. Every time he saw her perfunctory, professional smile he was reminded of the way she used to smile at him, and he hated the sight of it. On top of Jess' behaviour there was very little to do at work, since there was only on anomaly alert that didn't even result in a breach and disappeared again after half an hour.

And of course on top of it all, it was the weeks leading up to Christmas. Lester, may God rain down blessings upon him, absolutely and resolutely banned Christmas decorations from the workplace, and that was the same this year as all previous ones. However, he had caved and agreed to a Christmas party, due to take place on Christmas Eve in Becker's gym. So there was that to prepare for as well. As soon as he'd heard about it (and as soon as Lester had refused to move it or cancel it) Becker had delegated any and all party-related organisation to a couple of his men. It was only after doing so that he'd realised that Jess was pretty much in charge of organising it. He couldn't decide if he was relieved to be avoiding her further or disappointed.

And so it was that Becker wasn't in the best of moods when he arrived at the party on Christmas Eve. He'd refused to dress up for it (they were lucky he'd deigned to change out of his uniform) but his jeans and shirt combo didn't look too out of place so it didn't matter. His eyes immediately sought out Jess when he entered his (hideously decorated) gym; she wasn't exactly hard to spot, being dressed in green and red from head to toe. She looked like an elf. A ridiculously cute and downright sexy elf.

Becker headed straight for the bar, and he stayed there nursing the same bottle of beer for the next hour. He made small talk with everyone who came near him and smiled and made jokes and generally tried to hide the fact that he would rather be anywhere else that right there. He'd figured that he could escape the party after about an hour and a half without anyone trying to stop him. Though it did occur to him as he sipped his beer and looked around at his colleagues having fun, that the person who would have been most likely to try and stop him leaving was Jess. Considering that the last time he'd seen her she was on the other side of the room laughing with Abby and Emily and had barely looked at him all evening, he doubted she'd care when he left.

And that was depressing enough to make him down his drink and grab another one.

"Pass me one of those." It was Abby's voice, and Becker nodded and picked up two bottles instead of one.

"Jess, what do you want?"

Becker's head whipped round so fast it was embarrassing. Sure enough, Jess was standing next to Abby, even cuter up close and looking at anything but him.

"Um… I think I'll just get another white wine," she said after a moment.

"I'll get it," Becker said quickly, pressing Abby's beer into her hand.

"It's okay, it's just here," Jess said. She still wasn't looking at him as she stepped forward and picked up a wine bottle from the table next to him. He went to get her a glass but noticed she was already holding one, so settled for another sip of his beer.

Jess finished pouring herself a drink and it was clear by her body language that she wanted to move away again, but Abby clearly wasn't going anywhere.

"Having fun propping up the bar?" Abby asked Becker.

"Lots," said Becker drily, turning his attention away from Jess. "I especially love how my gym has been turned into winter wonderland."

Abby snorted. "Oh come on, it looks great," she said. "Cheer up, Scrooge."

"We'll have everything back to normal by tomorrow, we already have a team assigned," Jess said. She was looking at him now, with that calm professional expression that he'd come to hate, and Becker belatedly realised that it had been Jess who had decorated the gym.

"I – I know," he said. "And it's fine. I mean, it looks good."

Jess held his gaze for only a second before looking away and taking a sip of her wine.

"It does look good," Abby said to Jess. "Really good. I love the decorations. The lights, and the holly, the tinsel dinosaurs…"

Yeah, those were especially… interesting.

"…the mistletoe."

"What mistle – Abby!"

Becker froze with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth. Abby, the utterly traitorous annoying little… person that she was, had a piece of mistletoe in her hand, and her hand was held up above Becker and Jess' heads.

Abby's smirk was ridiculous, and if Becker hadn't been brought up not to hit girls… He glanced at Jess, and saw that she was completely frozen to the spot.

"Abby, don't," Becker growled, turning back to his friend – or, rather, ex-friend.

Abby's smirk just widened. "Come on, you two," she wheedled, swinging the mistletoe slightly. "It's tradition."

Jess finally unfroze, and gave a little laugh. "Honestly, Abby, you're ridiculous," she said. Then, so quickly Becker barely registered what was happening, Jess turned to him, pecked him on the cheek, shook her head at Abby, and walked away.

Becker watched her go – she didn't look back. He glared at Abby before turning away and drinking deeply from his beer.

"Wow," Abby said after a moment.

"You're dead to me," Becker said flatly. "Go away."

"Yeah… don't think so – hey, Wallace! Here, have fun."

Becker looked round just in time to see Abby handing her sprig of mistletoe to a rather bemused Sergeant Wallace, before turning back to him and giving him a stern look.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

Becker glared at her again. "Nothing."

Abby rolled her eyes. "Come on, Becker," she said. "You've been moping around for the past week and Jess is acting weird too. Something's happened but she's not telling me – so you need to."

"Abby –"

"Becker, please," she said seriously. Her expression softened and she put her hand on his arm. "Just tell me what's going on."

Later, Becker would blame his capitulation on the two beers – being a lightweight was preferable to being a softie. But, well, he just found that he wanted to talk to someone about it, and Abby was as good as anyone.

He looked round and nodded for Abby to follow him to a couple of seats in the corner of the room, tucked away a little behind the bar. It was the closest they'd get to privacy, and he didn't want anyone overhearing this.

"She kissed me," he said, as soon as they were seated. Before he could talk himself out of it.

Abby's eyes widened, and he didn't miss the way she had to rein in a smirk. "When?" She asked.

"A couple of weeks ago, when we all went shopping," Becker said. "When I went into the shoe shop."

Abby didn't try to hide the smirk this time. "And?" She asked. "How was it? Did you kiss her back?"

Becker frowned. "Yes."

Abby's smirk became a genuine smile. "So what's the problem?"

Becker shook his head. "It wasn't a real kiss."

Abby frowned. "I don't… it was a dream?"

Becker rolled his eyes. "No," he said. "She kissed me."

"So why wasn't it real?"

Becker took another swig of his drink before trying to answer. "I… The guy who works in the shoe shop was flirting with me and Jess found it really funny so she invited him to the pub with us and I knew that you lot would never let me live it down so I begged Jess to get Ricky to change his mind and I had to promise to buy her a pair of expensive shoes and so then Jess kissed me and I thought she was just, you know, kissing me because I said I'd buy her the shoes and you know what she's like with shoes but then Ricky came back in and she jumped away and told him that we were secretly dating and that's why she was kissing me and so it was all a plan to get Ricky to back off and that's why it wasn't real."

"…I see," Abby said after a moment's silence.

Becker sighed and shook his head again. "I'm an idiot," he said.

Abby's frown deepened. "Why? Becker, I don't really see what the problem is," she said. "So Jess kissed you to stop some guy flirting with you. Why does that make you an idiot?"

Becker hesitated before answering, but he'd come this far… "I thought it was real," he said. "I kissed her back." He looked down at his hands and when he looked back at Abby he found that she was grinning broadly. "What?"

"Nothing!" Abby said quickly. Then she nudged him with her elbow. "I just… I knew you liked her."

"If you're not going to take this seriously…"

"Who's not being serious?" Abby said. "Come on, what happened next?"

"Nothing."

"Well you must have said something to each other."

"Not really. I bought her the shoes and then, well, as we were leaving she asked me if I was okay, and I said… I told her to warn me next time, and she kind of said 'next time?' in this teasing way and I…"

"Bolted?" Abby suggested. "I remember you left the pub pretty sharpish."

"I didn't bolt," Becker said sullenly. "I retreated."

"Uh-huh," said Abby. She was silent for a moment. "And you say she hasn't spoken to you since then?"

"She speaks to me, of course she speaks to me," Becker said. "She just… she's really professional and she barely looks at me and… well you saw what just happened."

Abby waved a hand dismissively. "It's fine," she said. "This is easily fixable. You just need to tell her you like her."

Becker snorted. "Yeah, I don't think that would help," he said. "She just sees me as a friend, and nothing more."

He raised his bottle to his lips again, but was prevented from drinking by Abby smacking him round the back of the head. Hard.

"OW," he exclaimed, glaring at her. "What was that for?!"

"I take it back, you are an idiot," Abby said, glaring right back at him. "Of course she sees you as more than a friend! Becker, she's crazy about you!"

"Then why isn't she talking to me?" Becker demanded. "I kissed her and she can barely look at me now. And if she liked me, why didn't she kiss me again just now?"

Abby stared at him in silence for so long that he started to think he'd won the argument. Then she shook her head. "Wow. You know nothing about women."

"Abby…"

"Seriously, I thought Connor was bad, but you are just…"

Becker turned to face her. "If you have something to say, just say it," he snapped.

Abby reached out and patted his arm. "Poor, delusional Becker," she said. "Put yourself in Jess' shoes for a minute."

Becker thought about making a quip about breaking an ankle, but decided it wasn't quite the time. Besides, Abby was clearly enjoying this and any joke would go straight over her head. He settled on just raising an eyebrow at her.

Abby smiled. "You're Jess and you're basically in love with your co-worker Becker who, despite being easy on the eyes, is completely clueless when it comes to women," she said. Becker rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"You wait almost two years for him to ask you out, completely tuning out any other man who tries to so much as flirt with you in the meantime," Abby continued. Becker frowned at that – he'd never actually seen Jess get asked out by anyone else – had she really been turning guys down? And who the hell had asked her out?

Abby was still talking. "Eventually, an opportunity presents itself for you to kiss him, and you take said opportunity with admirable enthusiasm. Are you with me so far?"

She was clearly waiting for an answer. "Yes," Becker said between gritted teeth.

"Good. You kiss him and he, halleluiah, kisses you back. He properly kisses you back, and afterwards is all dazed and swoony and you think to yourself 'finally, now he might actually wake up and do something other than flirt with me'."

Becker barely had time to look confused before Abby ploughed on.

"Instead, he puts as much distance between the two of you as possible and then completely avoids you the next day. You're left to think over all those months you've thought he was flirting with you. Maybe he was just being friendly. You clearly read way too much into the fact that he makes excuses to visit your desk three times a day like clockwork. He sees you as a little sister and you threw yourself at him. No wonder he's avoiding you – you must have made him so uncomfortable."

Becker gaped at Abby. "You really think that –"

"This is terrible," Abby continued as though he hadn't said anything. "You need to work with him, what are you going to do? The only thing you can do is reassure him that it won't happen again. The next time you see him you're going to be strictly professional. No more trying to flirt with him; you don't want him thinking you're obsessing over what happened or that it's going to happen again. You don't –"

"Okay, okay," Becker said, holding up a hand. "You've made your point."

Abby raised an eyebrow at him as he thought over what she'd said. He felt the faint stirrings of hope but he refused to let himself get carried away. "Do you really think that's what's going on?"

"Yes," Abby said, giving him an exasperated look. "Becker, Jess is mad about you. She has been ever since I've known her. The first evening we spent at her flat she spent a whole hour quizzing Connor and me on everything we know about you."

Becker couldn't hide his smile at that piece of information, and Abby rolled her eyes when she saw it. "You need to tell her how you feel," she said.

The smile faded immediately. "I…"

"And you need to do it soon, before she gets snapped up by someone else," said Abby with a stern look. Becker frowned, and Abby looked unimpressed at his reaction. "I wasn't kidding about the tuning out guys flirting with her. She really does. Or at least she did… I'd act fast if I were you."

Abby stood up. "Now, anything else you need explained?" She asked.

Becker stood up as well, smiling in spite of himself. "No, I'm good for now," he said. He clinked his beer bottle against Abby's. "Thanks."

Abby grinned. "No problem," she said. She raised her bottle in a salute. "Good luck."

Becker turned away from her towards the main party, still smiling, and the first thing he saw was Jess across the room. She was turned a little away from him, and was laughing at something one of the scientists – a young guy called Dr Mason – was saying to her. Then Becker noticed that Mason was holding mistletoe – it must have been the same stuff that Abby had had – and he was holding it up between them.

Jess laughed again, stepped forward, and kissed him. Not on the cheek, on the lips. And not just a peck – okay, she didn't go to town or anything and she didn't put her arms around him and even with white noise rushing in his ears Becker could still appreciate that it was nothing like the way she'd kissed him in the shoe shop. But the point was, it was a kiss. She was kissing someone else.

He had blown it.

"Becker, don't freak out," Abby said from behind him.

Becker shook his head and put his beer bottle down on the table next to him. He turned to face Abby, who was looking up at him with a wary expression.

He forced a smile. "It's fine," he said. "I'm going to go."

"Becker –"

"Merry Christmas," he said. And then without another glance at Jess, Abby or anyone else, Becker headed for the gym door.