“Wait, let me get this straight,” Shore said, furrowing his brow in confusion. The two men were in Hadley’s office at eight twenty in the morning on a Monday morning. Shore was surprised that Hadley was early, as was the rest of the hospital staff, but Garcia said nothing, not wanting to goad him into showing up two hours late. “So, recently you’ve been sleeping with Goodson, and while you two have not officially declared yourselves as an item, you plan to take her out on an official date but you just don’t know when…?”

Hadley was leaning back in his cushy computer chair, his arms limply resting on the arm rests, and his feet planted firmly on the ground. He was shifting his weight constantly, causing the chair to move from side to side. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “That sounds about right.” He narrowed his blue eyes at his friend, sitting across from him. “Don’t you go gossiping about this either. We both promised we wouldn’t be saying anything to anybody.”

“It surprises me that you promised something,” Shore said, “and it surprises me even more that you care about keeping this promise. But it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve failed miserably at doing so by telling me.”

“Well, she seemed to have told her best friend, and since I have no best friend, I was only left with the option of telling you,” Hadley said, shrugging his slacked shoulders.

“She told Shelby?” Shore asked, quirking a brow.

“Now, how do you know the two even know each other?” Hadley asked, somewhat annoyed that Shore, a pharmacist, someone his team rarely interacted with, seemed to know more about her than he did.

“Are you kidding me?” Shore asked. “Everyone knows those two are best friends. God, don’t you pay attention?”

“I pay attention to the important stuff,” Hadley said defensively, refusing to meet Shore’s eyes.

“Just not who her best friend is,” Shore stated dryly and rolled his warm, brown eyes. He paused, and then tilted his head to the side. “Are you taking her out on a date because Shelby confronted you about it, or because you actually want to take her out?”

Hadley opened his mouth to reply, but the look on his face explained it all to Shore. The pharmacist’s mouth dropped open in a small ‘o’ and he pointed an accusing finger at his friend. “Oh my gosh,” he said, bewildered at his friend. “You like her.”

“I like the way she looks,” Hadley mumbled, but it didn’t come out as convincing as he hoped it would.

Shore shook his head, his eyes not wavering from Hadley’s. Obviously he wasn’t buying into Hadley’s usual bullshit. “No,” he stated. It wasn’t a guess. Now he knew. “No, you like her. As a person.”

“No, I don’t,” Hadley said, now shaking his head. “This is ridiculous; I’m just having fun with her.”

“Really?” Shore asked the question with a very slight undertone that sounded suspiciously like a challenge. He leaned back in his chair and took on a casual position. “So I guess you wouldn’t mind if I asked her on an actual date then, hmm? I mean she’s very attractive, smart, and recently single.”

Hadley narrowed his blue eyes and they flickered to a deeper shade of blue. His jaw locked, and he stiffened in his seat. Shore wouldn’t really ask Goodson on a date, would he? There was no way…

Shore could easily read the expression on Hadley’s face and he smiled. For someone who was usually quite the expert at hiding his emotions, Hadley seemed to be getting easier and easier to read with each passing day, at least when it came to Goodson.

“You’re in trouble, my friend,” he stated, standing up.

Hadley followed suit. “You’re not going to ask her out, are you?” he asked. He hated that he had to ask such a revealing question, but he had to know the answer.

“Of course not,” Shore said, shaking his head. “She seems to be good for you. I mean, this is the second day in two weeks that you’ve actually been early, so…” He let his voice trail off as he read the closed look on his friend’s face. Hadley looked genuinely… helpless. When was the last time he went out on a date? An actual date. Was Lacy really his last…? That was over ten years ago. Shore felt himself sigh, and then he looked back up at his friend. “About the date thing,” he began, causing Hadley’s head to snap up, “don’t do anything you wouldn’t do.”

“Wow, that was ridiculously helpful,” Hadley barked dryly, shoving his hands in his blazer pockets. “I mean really, you should appear on Tyra or something to offer your services.”

“What I mean,” Shore said firmly, closing his eyes and forcing himself not to take Hadley’s bate, “is that she knows who you are. If you show up with flowers or take her somewhere fancy, she’ll know you’re trying to impress her and she’ll see right through you.” He paused, and then said sincerely, “The thing about you being together, the reason why I wasn’t surprised when you told me about it, is that everyone expects that to happen. I’m not just saying because you guys fight constantly, but when you guys fight, you don’t try to change each other… If you suddenly started becoming this person you aren’t, I think she’d feel offended.”

Hadley nodded, his eyes staring down at his plain, grey carpet. That made sense to him, but that didn’t exactly help him on where to take her and when. He didn’t want it to be atypical, but he didn’t want it to be weird. He wanted her to enjoy herself, and he wanted her to want more. This was so weird, this whole caring bit. He seemed strangely out of touch on how to please a woman; not physically, of course, but mentally.

When he looked up to ask his friend how to do such a thing, Shore had already left. He was on his own now. Hadley felt like a man isolated in the middle of the ocean, the only chance at being saved disappearing. He had to save himself.