Eric woke up with a start. What noise was that? He sat up in bed, and looked around the hotel room. Maybe he'd been dreaming, because now everything seemed quiet. Natalia, Calleigh and himself were out of Miami to follow up on some leads in a case, and had been forced to stay the night.

Natalia and Calleigh were sharing a twin bedded room, while he was lucky enough to have a queen sized bed all to himself.

He turned the bed side lamp on to check the time, close to 01.00 a.m., and suddenly heard another quiet know on the door.

"Who is it?" He called out as he walked towards the door.

"It's me, please open the door!" He heard Natalia's voice calling out to him, and opened the door immediately.

He grinned widely. Natalia was standing in the hallway dressed in a pair of pj pants, a tank top and some slippers.

Her hair was all mussed up and tangled, and she looked very cute indeed.

She walked in and sat down on his bed.

"Calleigh is snoring. I'm going nuts!" she exclaimed, "she's got a cold and took some medicines before going to bed. Then she fell a sleep like a rock and started snoring like a locomotive! I can't take it anymore! Can I sleep here? I'll take the couch, of course."

Eric started laughing. The thought of Calleigh snoring like a train was highly entertaining.

"Look, the couch is too small. You can stay here, and we'll share my bed, and then early tomorrow I'll wake you and then you get back to your room before Cal wakes up. All friendship sharing, ok?"

Natalia nodded. She was desperate to get some sleep, and the couch did NOT look inviting.

She promptly crawled under the bedsheets and rolled up on her side in the bed, patting the other side of the bed to signal for him to get in.

Eric joined her, pulling the blanket up a bit to cover her ears and turning the lights of. He remembered she got cold at night, and wanted her to be comfortable.

Natalia giggled.

"You remember huh?"

"Of course I do!" He could hear her smiling in the dark.

Suddenly he couldn't resist the urge, and reached out to tickle her neck.

Natalia squealed with delight:

"Hey! Stop it or I might just have to take revenge, you know!

He slung his arms around her and held her in a warm embrace:

"You just try, missy!"

At first she struggled to get loose, but then all of a sudden he felt her going soft in his arms, and she snuggled up to him, hiding her face against his neck.

He held her tightly and they were both silent for a while. Eric spoke first:

"I've missed you. I'm sorry I wasn't a good boy friend the last time around. I wish I'd done some things differently." He was whispering in her ear, and she felt a wave of warmth flow through her heart. She forgave him all the stupid stuff at once, the "landing" comment, and practically dumping her on Ryan.

"I'm so sorry too. About the mole thing, about Nick, about everything. I'm complicated, you know."

He kissed her forehead.

"How about we do it the right way this time?" he rubbed his nose against hers.

"What do you mean?" she was confused.

"I want you to be my girl. I want to take you out on dates, and walks in the park and stuff. And I want to get to know you again, and not have the pressure to perform my best in bed. Just dating."

He could hear her breath.

" I'd love to, you know. We did get it all wrong last time, didn't we?"

"So let's take it slow, and see if we can fix things, ok? When we get back to Miami, I'd like to take you out for dinner and a movie."

Natalia was so happy. Eric had really matured during the past year, and she herself had learned a thing or two.

"It's a date, then!" she smiled contentedly, and snuggled closer.

Eric reached for his cell phone.

"I'll put a wake up call for us for 05.45, that should be enough for you to sneak back to Calleigh's room."

Natalia giggled and relaxed against him.

"Yeah, because if Calleigh finds out, the going slow and secret thing goes out the window, huh?"

Eric hugged her again, and soon they were both fast asleep.