Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own those characters. I love them with my whole heart though!

Spoilers: Through episode 3.20.

Chapter 1

Claire McLeod felt like an idiot. Why in the world did she ever let her sister talk her into this? Sometimes Claire couldn't understand how her own mind works. But then again Tess she knew her sister and she knew that when Tess got even an inkling of an idea in her mind, there was not a force in the world that would stop her from realizing her outrageously ridiciculous plans. Setting Claire up for online dating was one of those things. It was beyond Claire how she got talked into this.

But she could have survived the idea itself, it wasn't that bad. The big deal was who turned out to be her date. It was none other than Alex Ryan! It was so ridiculous that she didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. How in the world could anyone think that they were a match for a date? This was just crazy and Claire couldn't help feeling like someone up there was playing tricks on her. Her and Alex on a date was an idea that would usually make her burst with uncontrollable laughter.

Nevertheless, here they were, having dinner together in a fancy restaurant, which is one of those things Claire never thought she would do in her life. But after both her and Alex got over the initital shock of realizing they were each other's blind dates, they decided to go along with the plan and have dinner as neither of them wanted good food to go to waste.

"So how is the food?" Alex suddenly asked, but as soon as he did, he came to a conclusion how ridiculous that question must have sounded. He and Claire has had tons of dinners together and not once the quality of the food seemed to be of any importance.

"It's really good." she answered looking at him a little bit nervously. But what kind of an answer did he really expect? He was eating the exact same food as she was and he knew her taste, so he knew she liked it. But somehow questions like that always seemed to work on dates, they got the conversation going. Not on this date.

Alex still couldn't believe that he was actually on a date with Claire McLeod. Well not on a real date, but it was as close to a real one as he would ever get and he knew that. He felt weird about the whole thing. Of course, they agreed to go and have dinner as mates, but there was just something wrong with the picture. For starters, they were out in a fancy restaurant. Hell, they were out period. Alex couldn't remember the last time him and Claire were out anywhere alone. It was always with Nick and Tess and people from Drovers Run. Rarely did they get the chance to go out just the two of them, even as mates. So that was one of the reasons this whole thing felt weird. And on top of that, Claire was wearing a dress. It was like the third time he has seen her wearing a dress, and they've known each other for 15 years. It was very out of character for Claire, but he didn't understand why, because she looked beautiful. Not that she usually didn't, Alex always thought she was pretty, but she hardly ever thought that she was beautiful. Tonight he did. The red dress and the delicate makeup that she was wearing only brought out her beauty.

"Is there something wrong?" Alex's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Claire's question.

"No, why?"

"Because you've been staring at me." she replied. "Do I have food on my nose or something?"

"No, no, no." he answered a little embarassed and after a short pause he asked. "So how do you like the food?"

"You just asked me that five minutes ago." Claire said with a laugh. "Are you sure everything is OK?

"Yes, yes, it's fine." he replied, a little mad at himself for letting Claire's beauty mesmerize him.

For a couple od minutes there was a silence as they finished up their meals. Claire was the first one to speak.

"I just don't understand why Tess thinks that I have to get out more."

"I'm not sure more really applies here, as you don't go out at all." Alex joked.

"But I have a baby. And a farm to run. I can't just go out."

"Yes you can." he assured her. "Meg, Tess and everyone else will gladly take care of BOM and the farm. There is no reason why you can't go out."

"I know, but it just feels weird, that's all." she replied with a pensive expression on her face.

"It's only weird, because you don't do that very often."

"Maybe." she answered and there was another longer pause. Finally Alex broke the silence.

"I guess this must mean that the hell is freezing over." he said with a laugh, but Claire didn't seem to get his joke.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Oh don't tell me you don't remember." he said pretending to be really hurt.

"Remember what?" she still didn't seem to know what he was talking about.

"That this was your response when I first asked you on a date."

"You never asked me on a date." Claire replied refusing to believe that something like Alex asking her on a date could ever happen.

"Yes I did. When we'd been friends for a couple of months I asked yo out on a date and you said 'After hell freezes over.'"

Alex looked at Claire trying to notice in her eyes whether she remembered what he wa talking about. A couple of seconds passed until Claire exclaimed, almost afraid of what she was about to say.

"Oh my God, you're right! I did say that." she said and looked into his eyes to see what his reaction to her remembering would be. He just gave her his 'I told you so' look. Claire started laughing. "I cannot believe you remembered that!"

"Well it's not very often that a guy gets rejected in such a harsh way." he smiled.

"I'm sorry I was so harsh on you Alex." she said and gently stroked his hand. For a second their eyes met and both of them realized that something really strange was happening. They weren't doing anything they haven't done before, yet it was all new anc exciting.

"I think I will get over it." he added with a smile.

"And it's not even a real date." Claire reminded him. "Just one of Tess's crazy ideas."

"Yeah." he said with a sigh. "One of Tess's crazy ideas."

"But it turned out OK." she said to make sure he knew she wasn't hating it.

"It did?"

"Yeah." she smiled as her blue eyes sparkled and for a moment Alex got lost in them. "I'm having fun."

"Yeah, me too." he replied. "So, shall we order dessert?"

"Yes we shall." Claire replied and Alex waved for the waiter. Claire looked around the restaurant and realized that she really was having fun. Sure, it wasn't her style and all, but Alex was her mate and they always had fun together. There was no reason to feel any different this time.