Another day, another dollar, another fifty thousand chopped steak sandwiches.

Why didn't they just call them hamburgers?

Lynch stepped out of the diner, immediately fumbling for his cigarettes. It was hot as hell in that damn kitchen, especially when you spent your shift hunched over a hissing-hot grill that splattered searing grease all over every goddamn where. Lynch figured his forearms would either end up like leather, or he was going to need hospitalization one of these days after all the skin got burnt off.

He took a deep drag on the cigarette. Harsh and a little sweet. Must be all the carcinogens and tar. Still, it and the exhaust-laden air was a welcome change from the greasy smell of, well, grease. And beef and onions. Lynch figured he must have grilled up seven hundred pounds of sliced onions. Guess who did the slicing.

Lynch leaned back against the grimy wall, staring blankly at the sky. First stars were coming out, it looked like. 'Course, who could really tell? The ex-counselor could see approximately three square inches of sky with all the buildings surrounding the diner.

"Twinkle, twinkle," Lynch muttered, taking another drag on his cigarettte.

It had been about two months since Kat got pregnant, and she always felt like shit in the morning. The doctor said that she was in the first trimester, but it felt like hell. She changed her diet to fit the baby's needs, and it was pretty hard keeping it that way. Wearing a very loose fitting t-shirt and jeans Kat had a craving for some greasy diner food, and couldn't really talk herself out of it. It was about time to indulge herself.

Kat was on maternity leave from the police. It was hard to get over the fact that she wasn't in any shape to work. Well she'd be back to work sooner or later, and she knew that she'd need it if she wanted to lose the weight she was going to gain.

Driving was a little bit of a pain, so she got a taxi to get her to a diner that had pretty good greasy food. The taxi dropped her off by the back entrance, but she could walk the rest. She always felt nauseous and she even got to the point of feeling cramps, though the doctor said that she didn't have to worry yet.

The sweet smell of cigarettes filled the already polluted air, and she sighed. She could've sworn that Demaitre had a near ban on smoking near public places, but since she was off from work she was catching up on anime that she hadn't watched, and trying to make time with Jenna.

"Good evening." She said walking down to the man. He smelt of grease, steak and onions. "I believe there's a ban on smoking near public places." She said with a sigh.

Lynch eyed the woman and flicked ash from his cigarette, which was nearly burnt down to the filter by now anyway. "News to me," he muttered, not moving from his slumped position against the wall. Not like Don the Dickwad, Lynch's not-so-affectionate nickname for his boss, cared anyway.

Come to think of it, though Lynch wasn't sure why he was, he was pretty hungry. You'd think sniffing food all day would whet your appetite, but it didn't. Besides, 'food' was a loosely used term. Hell, Lynch liked greasy burgers and cheese fries and buffalo wings as much as any guy, but you lost your liking a bit when you were inhaling them all the damn day long.

The reluctant fry cook gave a sigh and ground the butt of the cigarette into the sand-filled can meant for that duty. Weren't cigarettes supposed to curb hunger, not sharpen it? Lynch would rather go to the apartment and have a can of soup than buy a sandwich. Still had a couple of hours left on his shift though.

Lynch pulled the door open and, in a fit of gallantry, held it for the woman. "Just clicked over to the dinner hour," he pronounced. Much as he would have liked to add about how that made the prices inflate for no other reason than it was five o'clock, Lynch needed his job and didn't want DtD overhearing him.

Kat smiled as the man said that it was news to him. She guessed that some people didn't care as long as it wasn't near a really used entrance. The guy seemed like he had been through a lot of shit, and she understood that he could use something to get his mind off of what he did.

Kat was hungry, and her stomach growled as the guy got up pand opened up the door. She could smell the greasy food, and she could just taste it. Her smile increased as he held it for her. "Thank you very much...I'm Kat." She said as she walked through the door. "What tastes good?" She asked walking slowly. She felt a little bit of a cramp, but ignored it.

She figured that the guy wasn't happy with his boss, but didn't want to be overheard. She didn't care if the food wasn't that healthy, she wanted some great tasting crap.

"Ah, yeah, welcome," Lynch mumbled scrubbing a hand over his cheek and feeling the scrape of stubble. Guess he needed to shave. Sooner or later. Didn't really matter, did it, he thought as he dropped his hand and fiddled with his cigarettes. You shaved to look good and who did he have to look good for?

Besides, the stubbly, scrubby look blended right in here. The clientèle consisted mainly of truckers and construction workers. Sometimes night shifters from the surrounding businesses. There was a steady stream of the truckers all day long, the place filled to bursting with construction crews around noon, and the night shifters dribbled in steadily.

Moseying slowly, since the woman was walking slowly, Lynch shrugged a little when she asked him what was 'good'. Well, in his opinion, not a whole lot. But he was kind of biased against the place. Thinking about it, Lynch figured he'd actually liked cheap little diners before he'd started working in one. "Well, depends on what kinda appetite you have. The club sandwich is okay and there's always the staple of the greasy spoon, the cheeseburger," Lynch replied at last, trying to think from an outside observer's point of view.

"Call me Lynch," he replied pulling out a chair for her in another fit of gallantry. Imagine that. Since he was still on break, and hoping he wasn't acting like some creepy old guy, he sat down too, on the edge of his seat in case she gave him a look that said 'what the hell, buddy? Shove off.'

On cue, Anne, the cute but tired-looking brunette waitress, headed over and asked what they wanted to drink. "Tropic fizz," Lynch replied automatically before giving a wince. It was a bunch of fruit juices and Sprite. Not exactly a manly drink.

True the diner was mostly for truckers and construction workers, but Kat didn't mind at all. She knew she looked like shit, hell she didn't even bother with any kind of makeup. Kat didn't mind looking shitty when she felt like shit. She followed Lynch over to the table and sat down in the chair that he pulled out for her. "Thank you very much." She said pulling her seat in.

"It's nice to meet you Lynch." She said knowing that it was a last name. Kat didn't feel like prying, and she didn't say a word of protest to him sitting down. "Ummm...I'll have orange juice." She said smiling at the waitress. She needed time to decide what she wanted, but that cheeseburger sounded pretty damn good. "So...Lynch...Are you from around here?" She wanted to hear a little about Lynch as she looked through the menu. Kat felt the need to be around someone. She had a good feeling about Lynch.

"You're welcome," Lynch replied as a flush crept up his neck for some reason. Might have to do with the fact that even though the girl wasn't all dolled up with that mysterious girl-paint, she had enormous blue eyes and soft-looking lips.

And, God, he was probably a decade older.

Praying like mad that the blushing (oh, God, he was blushing) didn't show too badly, Lynch rubbed his palm over his stubbly cheek. Which suddenly reminded him that he needed to shave. Badly. He probably looked like he had a poorly made rug glued to his face.

Kill me now!

"It's, uh, nice to, you know, meet you too," Lynch managed. Brilliant! Just to add to the horror, he was stuttering like a teenager that had never had a girl talk to him before. "From around here? Ah... no, nah. I'm from the good ole U. S. of A. Ohio, actually. How about you?"

Kat smiled as she noticed a slight flush on Lynch's neck. "Oh! I'm Kat." She said a little embarrassed that she hadn't introduced herself.

She looked at Lynch and smiled as he was blushing pretty blatantly. He was probably a good ten years older than her, and he had the kind of scruffy handsome guy look. Kat chuckled listening to Lynch. "I was born here." She said in answer to his question. It was very fun talking to Lynch. It seemed he hadn't been around a girl for a while. "So what did you do in the U.S.? I'm with the police right now." She said interested in making a conversation with Lynch.

It was fun how Lynch was blushing. It just made her laugh a little bit.

"Uh... yeah. Nice to meet you, Kat," Lynch replied speaking slowly in an attempt to avoid any more stuttering. Why now? Why did he have to realize that he was speaking with a pretty girl now when he'd been doing fine ten minutes ago?

Clearing his throat and taking a sip of his fizz as Anne set it down along with Kat's orange juice, he shrugged a litle awkwardly in response to her question. "Well, I actually, um, worked in the school system. For a while. I was kinda a, one of those, um... well, I was a guidance counselor, I guess," he said at last, toying absently with his napkin.

His ears wer red, but he tried to ignore their warmth. "So, the police? What kinda stuff d ya do? Probably not all NYPD Blue or Law & Order, huh?"

Kat thought that this guy was nice. It was cute how he was nervous around her. From the feeling she got Kat guessed that he hadn't been around a girl he thought was pretty. Well she wasn't exactly pretty at all at the moment. The baby developing in her womb didn't exactly feel like rainbows and sugar plums, but she didn't care. The baby was her's to take care of.

Kat sipped at her orange juice and turned to Anne. "Can I get a bacon cheeseburger?" She asked before turning her attention to Lynch as he spoke to his work in the U.S. "Oh really? That really sounds like it was an interesting job." Though by the way he sounded it was probably something he'd rather forget.

Kat couldn't help but really be interested in Lynch. He was red, but she didn't say a word about it. "Well I'm with the S.W.A.T. team, but when they're not needed I usually end up doing paper work." She said with a slight chuckle. "No one else wants to do it, so they give it to me."

She kind of missed using her sniper rifle, but she also didn't want something bad to happen. Plus she couldn't do anything while she had her baby.

Lynch woul d have disagreed with the assertion that maybe Kat wasn't pretty. Sure she was. Pretty enough to make him babble and blush like a frigging idiot. Calm down, already, Lynch ordered himself, taking another swallow of his Sprite drink.

He glanced over as Anne turned to him. It didn't take much thought, really, to order. Considering he was a cook here, he knew the menu backwards and forwards. "Hey Anne, I'll have the soup of the day and a side order of fries, okay? And," Lynch leaned towards the waitress, "throw in a pickle, willya?"

Anne smiled slightly and nodded, the kind of nod you might give a small child. "Living dangerously, Lynch?"

Anne was pretty too whichm ade it interesting that Lynch didn't babble or stammer talking to her. Of course, he actually knew her, so that helpe.d

"Well, yeah, I guess it was interesting," Lynch replied, seeming a little calmer after talking to someone other than Kat. He punctuated his statement with a little shrug. "A lot of kids just want someone who isn't their mom or dad to listen to them. I mean, they'd be happy if Mom or Dad listened too, but sometimes... well," Lynch shrugged again. "You can't really complain about Ma or Pa to Ma or Pa."

Reaching for his glass again, he looked at Kat, as interested in her job as she probably was in his. "Paperwork, eh? The necessary evil of all jobs. Surely you've got some exciting stories..."

Kat knew she was pretty, but right now she felt like shit. It was hard to feel pretty when you felt like you were going to pass out.

Kat watched Lynch order his food. Anne was pretty too and it was thanks to the fact that Lynch probably knew her a hell of a lot better than Kat. The police girl nodded as Lynch spoke about being a guidance counselor. She was glad that he calmed down a little bit. "Yeah I can understand that. I'm betting you head som very interesting stories from kids." She said with a grin.

Then Lynch said that she had some interesting stories. "Well I do, but them are classified. I'd lose my job if I were to tell you them." She smile. "But I can tell you that I served in Iraq for a little while." Kat said with a slight smile. It was something that she'd rather forget, but she could tell Lynch about some of them. "It was always hot as hell there. Not exactly the perfect vacation spot."

Lynch smiled a little. He was still red in the face, but at least not the bright red he had been. Memories from when he had been working a quote, unquote 'real' job were kinda bittersweet. Guess he should do the whole thing where you remember the sweet and try to forget the bitter, right?

Yeah sure.

Lynch lifted an eyebrow at Kat's riff on how her work was classified information adn broke a little grin. "Right. You'd probably have to kill me too, huh?" he asked with faux seriousness. "So, Iraq. Sounds like, well, a real barrel of laughs," Lynch added the tone of his voice making it clear he didn't really think so.

Jokingly, he added, "But you get a good tan, right?"

Kat was glad that he had calmed down. Now she felt herself relax as well. It was strange how she felt a little more relaxed. Iraq was definitely one of those memories that she'd love to forget, but couldn't. It was hard when you lost one of your best friends.

"Well I guess I could probably lock you up in some abandoned warehouse." She said with a smile. Though she was serious about not being able to talk about it. "It'd just be a lot of unnecessary drama in both of our lives." Kat didn't feel like dealing with Internal Affairs and most likely the F.B.I. or C.I.A. or whatever U.S. agency had hired her, and made her sign an agreement to not speak about what she did in Iraq.

Kat understood Lynch's tone of voice and nodded. "Yeah I did get a pretty good tan there, but not what I wanted...I ended up with it being uneven and looking funny." She said with a laugh.

"What do you think of Demaitre Lynch? Is it to your liking?" She kind of wanted to get it away from her. Kat then took a sip of orange juice and sighed.

"Ooh... not an abandoned warehouse," Lynch smiled and joked, "that'd be like being locked up in my apartment." Well maybe not. An old abandoned warehouse might be nicer than his apartment. Hell it might even have fewer roaches too.

One of these days Lynch was going to set off one of those bug bombs...

Lynch laughed as she mentioned an uneven tan. "I got one of those where, you know," he gestured around his eyes "my sunglasses blocked all the sun just around here and the rest of my face got dark. I looked like a moron..." Lynch smiled a little. That had been when he and Julia had just gotten married... Budgets were tight, so they just drove down to Mobile, Alabama and sat around on the beach.

Lynch ahd gotten burnt to a crisp.

He glanced up quicikly. Thinking about Julia was still painful. Lynch pasted a smile on his face and said, "Demaitre's... well. I guess the city's nice. Haven't seen a whole lot of it, sadkly."

Kat laughed at his comment and grinned. "Hmmm...maybe I'd have to use a few...tools of the trade." She said slyly grinning. She took a sip of her orange juice, and took a bite of of the bacon cheeseburger. The burger itself was really greasy, but good. With a sigh she ate a little more, and savored the taste of the greasy bacon ceeseburger.

"I've always had problems with that." She said with a smile. "At least I looked damn cool with the shades on." Kat had never really been to the beach, the closest she got was Iraq, but that was certainly something she'd rather forget.

Kat raised an eyebrow at Lynch's answer to her question. "Well you definitely need to see the sights!" She said with a wide grin. "I'd give you the tour, but I can't really go out that much." She said as she grimaced from a cramp. "A little bit of extra luggage right now." Kat still remembered Maverick, and wondered what he was doing. He was probably doing the same thing that he did all the time. Of course she had to overreact and fuck things up, but it couldn't last that long anyway. "Do you have a kid Lynch?"

Lynch grinned as Kat mentioned digging out a few toosl of the trade on him. "The old rubber hose, eh?" he asked more or less rhetorically. Lynch was no stand-up comic, but he was doing his best to make jokes here. The cook glanced at his food as Anne set the platter on the table and smiled his thanks.

Soup was probably the best thing to come out of the kitchen, Lynch thought to himself as he picked up his spoon and poked at the chicken gumbo. It wasn't by design unfortunately. Most soups tasted best after being simmered for a good long time and these ones sat on the stove for the better part of a day at a time.

Lynch was a bit of a snob when it came to food sometimes. He liked cooking, just not this kind of slap it on the grill kind. Eying Kat's bacon cheeseburger, which he knew from experience to be OK if not spectacular, Lynch reflected how much better it would be if they used a higher quality beef... and maybe the thick-cut bacon.

But he shrugged mentally as he picked up one of his dill pickle spears. If they used higher-quality ingredients, it would hardly be a greasy spoon diner anymore. Losing that would be a tragedy, wouldn't it? Lynch dipped a fry in his soup and took a bite before smiling a reply, "I'll take a raincheck. It'd be nice to see some more of the city."

He paused a moment at her next question, popping the rest of his fry in his mouth before responding. "No... I wanted one, maybe even more, but... well. Things happened." Lynch shrugged a little. That was an old disappointment... "So, is this your first?" he asked.

Kat chuckled at Lynch's joke about the rubber hose. "Rubber hose? No I was thinking maybe...my pink fuzzy handcuffs...a leather whip...we'd have a good ol' time!" She grinned and chuckled.

The gumbo didn't look that appetizing, but Kat didn't know the menu that well. Taking another bite of the greasy burger she sighed and took a sip of her juice. She wanted to put something at least a little healthy into her body for the sake of her baby. True the burger would've been much better in some other diner, but then again she wasn't that picky. Especially with the baby. She was always hungry, and ate a lot of healthy things, though she did indulge in some junkfood once in a while.

Kat smiled as Lynch said he'd take a raincheck. "You'd better be ready for a tour after I lose the extra baggage." She said knowing that he'd probably forget, but she was one to keep her word. "I'll show you some pretty good views too!"

Kat nodded listening to Lynch. She was curious now. There was probably some trouble that kept him from settling down with a girl and having a family, but she didn't want to pry. "Yeah this baby's my first...I adopted a girl who lost her parents, but this is my first actual baby." She stretched her sore back and let out a sigh. "Damn difficult, but worth every minute." Kat grinned widely and rested her arms on the table. "So tell me some more about yourself Lynch! Where did you go to school?"

"Oh boy... not the fuzzy pink handcuffs!" Lynch siad as he recoiled in mock horror. "That would be cruel and unusual."

What was unusual was him joking around about fuzzy pink handcuffs... and rubber hoses. A thought suddenly occurred to him. Was he, possibly, flirting? His ears threatened to burst into flames at the thought. Lynch hadn't flirted in... well, he didn't want to put a number on it.

Lynch spooned up some of his soup, decided not to over-analyze it. If he was flirting, which e probably wasn't, well, he should just be glad he could. And that Kat wasn't giving him the pitying, look atthe bumbling idiot look.

"Views?" he asked curiously. His apartment was on the top floor but his window looked out at the grimy brick wall of the next building over. It'd be nice to have a view, Lynch thought. Then again, it'd be nicer to have fewer roaches, too. Grinning, Lynch gestured with his spoon and said, "Tell you waht, you show me a good view, and I'll trade you a good meal. Something extravagent. Standing rib roast, maybe, scallopped potateoes..."

Lynch dipped the spoon back into his gumbo as she asked about him again. "Ohio University. Home of the Bobcats." Not to be confused with the Ohio State University. "How about you? Did you have to go to college for your joB?"