The date didn't go off without a hitch. Both were nervous…Emily more so. She had spent hours trying to find the right thing to wear, trying on outfit after outfit. The pile of discarded clothes on the bed grew while the available selection in the closet shrunk. If Sergio could talk, he would have told his human t hat the first outfit she put on was perfect, but he couldn't so he burrowed into the pile to enjoy the warmth they generated. Luckily Emily did settle on one by the time Dan showed up promptly at seven to pick her up or she would have gone naked and cause quite a stir. Public indecency was probably a violation of her parole.

The restaurant Dan picked was nice, perfect for a first date. Their table was semi-secluded so there was no need to raise their voices to be heard. When Dan offered to get a bottle of wine, Emily politely declined, choosing to have a Coke. Even though the food was delicious and the companionship pleasant, Emily grew more uneasy as the evening progressed. She still wasn't comfortable in crowded places. They reminded her of the common area of the cell block and yard where she was always vulnerable to attack. Since being paroled, she has gone out to dinner several times with Dave and Penelope, but that was different. They were her friends and they made her feel safe. Here, she was surrounded by strangers packed into a confining space with no one to watch her back.

Dan sensed her discomfort, suggesting they skip dessert and take a after dinner stroll. Emily readily agreed. Once outside in the open space and fresh air, she visibly relaxed. The conversation was easy and few flowing as they walked. They even ended up having their dessert, popping into one store to get ice cream. Then it was time for Dan to take her home.

He walked Emily to the door of her apartment. They awkwardly stood there, neither knowing what to say next. Emily was lost in her own thoughts about whether or not she wanted to do this again. She had a nice time, but she didn't want things to go any further without telling him about her past. A relationship built on lies and secrets was bound to fail.

"I had a great time tonight," he broke the ice.

"Me too," she responded.

"Yeah? Good because I was hoping we could do this again. I've got tickets to this…"

"I've been to prison," she blurted out, immediately covering her mouth in shock.

That wasn't the way she wanted to tell him. She had planned on breaking it to him gently, not shouting it our for the whole world to hear. Instead, she ended up creating an even more awkward, silent tension between them.

Dan blinked twice. "You…what?"

"I've been to prison," she repeated. "I was in for a while and got out not to long ago."

Unconsciously he took a step back. "You're not some sort of ax murderer, are you?"

At any other time, Emily would have laughed at that, but this was no laughing matter. "No. I did time for vehicular manslaughter."

"I…well, I'm not really sure what to say here."

"That's okay, Dan. You don't have to. I had a really nice time tonight, but I don't want to say yes to whatever you were going to ask without telling you first."

"I appreciate that. You've given me a lot to think about." He glanced at his watch. "Well, I better get going. It's late."

"I understand," Emily said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"I'll call you."

"Okay," she agreed, knowing he wasn't going to. It was the standard brush off, but better than 'I don't date convicts', though not by much.

Emily waited for Dan to drive away before letting herself into her apartment, planning on drowning her sorrows in several quarts of rocky road ice cream. If the law prohibited her from drinking them away, she would eat them away and ignore the inevitable weight gain. Even though she voiced multiple times to Dave and Penelope that any date she went on would end in disaster, she secretly hoped it would work out and she could have a steady relationship with someone outside her limited circle of friends. Unfortunately, it went as predicted as she seemed destined to a life of solitude with only her cat for company.

She hadn't reached the top of the stairs when the doorbell rang. For a split second her heart fluttered, hoping against all hope that Dan was returning to profess that it didn't matter one iota to him that she was an ex-con. Then her brain caught up to her love-struck heart, knowing she was kidding herself. Dan's body language spoke louder than words, telegraphing for everyone one to see that he didn't want to have anything to do with her. With a sigh of disappointment, she plodded down the stairs and answered the door.

"Do you have a cup of sugar I can borrow? I'm all out," Dave asked, holding up an empty cup as proof of his need.

She looked from him to the cup and back to him. "Seriously?"

"Yup."

"Fine," she huffed in annoyance. "You know where the sugar is. I'm going to change into some more comfortable." With that said, Emily spun on her heels and went back upstairs, leaving Dave standing in the doorway.

When she returned in a pair of yoga pants and a tee shirt from the law firm she worked for, she found Dave sitting in the armchair and Sergio giving him the stink eye from the back of the couch.

"That's his chair you know," she commented, coming to stand in front of him.

"I know and he can have it back once I leave," he smirked.

"So why are you really here?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do. If you were in serious need of 'sugar'," Emily made two air quotations with her fingers, "You could have easily hopped into your car and gone to the store. Instead, it appears you've been standing by your window waiting for me to get home from my date."

"A mere coincidence," he replied with a shrug.

"Riightt…" she drawled. "I'll believe that when the Governor personally calls me up and grants me a pardon. You're here to find out how my date with Dan went."

"No, but since you brought it up, how did it go?"

Heaving a loud sigh, Emily plopped down on the couch and rubbed her face with both hands. Sensing that his human was more important than his armchair, Sergio hopped into her lap, purring up a storm. Emily's hands automatically came down and began stroking the cat's soft fur

"It went pretty much as I predicted. It started off great even though I was extremely nervous in the beginning."

"That's not unexpected. After all you've been out of the dating scene for six years."

"Prison tends to put a damper on things like that."

"Now, now, Emily," he gently scolded. "There's no need to be so negative."

She scowled at him. Sometimes you need to be." Another sigh. "Anyways, the dinner was good and the walk afterwards relaxing."

"Sounds good so far."

"Yup and because I enjoyed going out with him and wanted to do so again, I dropped the 'I've been in prison' bomb on him…"

"And he took off for the hills as fast as he could?"

"Damn right he did and I really liked him."

"I'm sorry, Emily."

Emily just shrugged her shoulders as if brushing off his sympathy. "This just proves that dating is too hard given my current situation."

"No, it isn't," he countered. "This was your first date so you were a bit rusty. It's just like riding a horse. Sometimes you fall off and you have to climb right back in the saddle."

"Either way you end up getting hurt."

"That's true, but you have to keep on trying. Don't let one bad date stop you. Get a few dates under your belt before declaring celibacy for life."

"And adopting a million cats," Emily added, the corner of her mouth curling into a smile.

Dave made a face. "Maybe not that many. Just make sure you have enough litter boxes for all of them. I don't want this place reeking of kitty piddle."

Emily's smile grew wider. "Kitty piddle?"

"I didn't want to offend your current roommate with foul language," nodding at the black cat curled up in a tight ball on her lap.

"Sergio appreciates that." She scratched him between the ears and he let out a contented sigh, sinking deeper into sleep.

Dave slapped his knees and stood up. "Well, I'll take my leave of you. The next chapter of my book is calling to me so I should answer it and get some work done before it gets too late."

"Don't forget your sugar."

"My what?" he asked, frowning in confusion.

Emily pointed to the empty cup sitting abandoned on the coffee table. "You came over to borrow a cup of sugar, remember?"

"So, I did," he said sheepishly, scooping up the cup and hurrying over to the kitchen to fill. When he was done, he saluted her with it. "Thanks for the loan."

"You're welcome. My sugar is your sugar…especially since I stole the bag from your house."

"I was wondering where it disappeared to. Mystery solved. Night, Emily."

"Night, Dave." Emily waited for him to reach the stairs before calling out, "Thank you."

Dave knew exactly what she was referring to. He acknowledged it with his patented lopsided grin. "Always."

Emily had been on Dan's mind since their date. It didn't go as he hoped, and he felt bad for the abrupt way it ended. She gave him an out, and he took it. It was true that he did need time to think, but he could still see the look on her face. It was the look of someone not expecting a call back. But he felt he owed her that.

Emily was eating her lunch at a nearby park when her cellphone rang. Prison made her feel slightly claustrophobic whenever she was stuck inside all day so she took advantage of any sunny day regardless of the temperature to dine out in the fresh air. Setting aside her sandwich, she picked up the phone from its resting spot on the bench next to her. One glance at the screen told her who was calling and she entertained the thought of answering and then hanging up on him, but hanging up on a cellphone didn't have the same effect of slamming the receiver down in its cradle. She was going to ignore it, but her curiosity to why he would be calling two weeks later got the best of her.

"Prentiss!" she barked into the phone, hoping to startle the person on the other end of the line. She succeeded.

"Uh…Emily? It's Dan…Dan Halvorson."

"I know who you are."

"Right. Well I was wondering if we could get together for coffee and talk."

"Talk about what?" she asked, knowing full well what he was referring to."

"Talk about what you told me and why I was such a jerk at the end."

Yes, you were, she thought somewhat angrily, a big fat jerk. Her first instinct was to tell him to take a flying leap, that he had his chance and blew it. But the small hope that he was still interested in her butted in, prompting her to name a small coffee shop near Dupont Circle for a Saturday chat. Dan readily agreed, saying he'll be there promptly at two before hanging up.

She stared at the dead phone, shaking her head slowly. "God! I'm a glutton for punishment."

Emily was early for their date as she always was due to the unreliability of public transportation she was force to use. And it's not a date, she reminded herself. It just a casual get together to talk and when each of them had their say, they would go their separate ways. As was her habit, she had chosen the table where she could sit with her back to the wall, nibbling on a blueberry muffin. A shadow fell over the table an Emily looked up to find Dan standing there.

He gestured to the almost empty coffee cup. "Need a refill?"

"Please," she said and told him what she liked.

Dan returned a few minutes later with two steaming cups of coffee, sitting one in front of her before settling into the empty chair. Each took a sip of the hot brew before staring across the table at each other, waiting to see who was going to be the first to break the uncomfortable silence enveloping them. Emily had no intention of being the first. Dan was the one who wanted this meeting so he could do all the talking.

"Emily, I want to apologize for the way I behaved at the end of our date. I shouldn't have left you with the belief that I was going to call you." He turned his coffee cup around twice before continuing, "And I never should have asked if you were some kind of axe murder. That was rude of me."

"I was expecting it…not the axe murderer part," she hastily added. "Like I said earlier, I enjoyed our date, but I believe in honesty. A relationship built on lies or omissions is bound to fail."

"You didn't want to mislead me in thinking you're one person when you're really someone else?"

"Right. I'm an ex-con. I always will be and there is nothing I can do to change it. That pretty much make me undatable."

"Well, there is that show Love in Lockup or something like that," he pointed out with a quirk of his lips.

Emily scowled and then went into profiler mode, letting him know what she thought about it. When she was done, Dan's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, quite impressed. "You given it a lot of thought."

Emily reddened, a little embarrassed by her tirade. Her time inside hadn't diminished her profiling skills, instead, honing it to a sharp edge. She needed all her wits about her at all times to survive.

"A hazard of my old job."

"What was it?"

"In my past life I was a federal agent."

Dan quickly connected the dots. "That's how you know Mr. Rossi. You used to work with him. Were you one of those profiling agents?"

"A profiler. Yes, I was a long time ago," she confirmed sadly.

Dan was intrigued. He couldn't help it. Originally it was her good looks that had captured his attention, but the more he learned about her, the more interesting she became. H would love seeing more of her if it wasn't for the whole prison thing. He had some experience with ex-cons over the years and a majority of them hadn't worked out well. He had hired them to give them a second chance, but they were lazy, stole from him or ended up violating their parole and sent back inside. The experiences left a foul taste in his mouth and general dislike for ex-cons.

He cleared his throat self-consciously. "So about this prison thing. Mind if I ask you few questions?"

Emily shook her head. "Ask away."

"I believe you mentioned vehicular manslaughter. What exactly does that mean?"

"It means that I hit and killed two people while driving drunk."

"I see."

"The judge threw the book at me, sentencing me to ten years for each fatality to be served concurrently. I was granted parole after five and a half years."

"How long have you been out?"

Emily could have easily told him the down to the second, but she kept it simple, not wanting to show him one of the many quirks she developed in prison. To prevent the days from melding into weeks and then into months, years and hopelessness. She kept an accurate record of days served and time left. If she hadn't, she would have lost control of her sanity.

"A little over six months."

So far so good, Dan thought. Emily wasn't balking at his questions, giving him honest answers or what he felt were honest answers. Now comes the true test. How she responded would either set her apart from other ex-cons or lump her solidly among them. If the latter occurred, there would be no possibility of pursuing a second date with her.

"Do you regret what you did?"

Emily's eyes grew sad as she turned them to the window. Her fingers couldn't remain still, picking at the remains of her muffin. "Every day. They were needless deaths. If I could go back in time and change it, I would do it into an instant."

Dan nodded, happy that she had given him the answer he was hoping for. "Emily, I want to thank you for being honest with me. Most ex-cons aren't. They never take responsibility for their actions, claiming they're innocent or the world was out to get them. They committed the crime so they should do the time."

Her eyes swung back to him. "I used to think the same thing until it happened to me. Once inside, I discovered things aren't so black and white. There's a lot of gray areas. Some, like you said, did the crime without remorse and deserve to be in prison. Then there are the ones who make a stupid mistake, do the time and never offend again. Finally, there are those few who are actually innocent because they system turned its back on them."

"And you fall within the second group?"

"I do." Technically it wasn't a lie. It was true that she had no intention of ever going back, but she was also innocent. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell him that since she still didn't have any proof.

There was a beat of silence and then he gave her a cautious smile. "Emily, would you b willing to give me a second shot?"

Again, Emily's reaction was to say no since he did technically dump her, but she was an adult, not a petty teenager, and should act like one. Plus, she still liked him and was curious to how the date would go now that the whole prison thing was out in the open.

"Yes," she replied with a small smile of her own.

"Great," he said with an audible sigh of relief. "What about tomorrow? We could…"

"Actually, I already have a date."

Dan's face fell. "Oh."

She couldn't help chuckling at his look of disappointment. "Relax, Dan. It's with an eleven-year-old son of an old co-worker. We're playing miniature golf."

"Cool. How about Monday night? We can keep it simple and go to a movie."

"I would like that. I haven't been to the movies in a long time."

Another beat of silence passed. "Anything in particular you would like to see?"

"Surprise me."

"Okay. I'll call you with the time I'll pick you up." He hesitated. "Or would you prefer to meet me a the cineplex?"

"You can pick me up."

"I can do that." Dan rose to his feet. "I have to go. I'm helping a friend re-shingle his shed."

She smiled up at him. "That's nice of you."

He blushed slightly at the compliment. "Thank you again, Emily for giving me a second chance."

"We don't often get second chances in life," she said, echoing what she had told Dave when Carolyn came back in his life. "Several people have given me a second chance so it's time to pay it forward."