I know all of us in the land of GRIGSBY are really pissed at the nonsense last week. I think before they talk to each other….they talked to someone else.

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, but I am thinking of a road trip to kick some writer's butts!

HE SAID….

The amber liquid in the bottom of the glass should have numbed him by now. He really wasn't much of a drinker. Why was the pain still so intense? Why didn't he feel better? Why didn't he feel nothing? He took another large swallow, wincing as the liquor burned his throat. Christ! How did drunks do this anyway? Well, at least he now knew why. They probably had their hearts broken.

Raising his head, he caught the eye of Marcy, the bartender at Justice Served, the choice for cops and those in law enforcement. It was a cop's bar. You could drink and bitch about the job without some ass wipe telling you how you should be doing your job.

Marcy shook her head at Rigsby. He looked like hell. Usually, he came in with Cho; they ordered a beer or two, coke in Cho's case and a burger. The conversations were usually pretty one sided, but they were nice guys. Marcy liked working here. The place never got robbed, you didn't need bouncers, cops were the most entertaining flirts and most of them tipped pretty well. For a woman bartender who would never see 40 again, it was a pretty good gig. She always got a kick out of Rigsby. He was gorgeous, but really sweet and nice. It never failed to make her laugh when he would politely turn down a woman.

"What's the matter, Charlie Brown? You and your little red haired girl have a fight? You don't usually drink like this? What's the deal?"

She was trying to stall giving him more to drink. She didn't normally make those judgments for people, but she knew him well enough to know this was bad. At last, reinforcements arrived.

"Shut up Marcy. Just pour me another?"

A hand reached across the top of the glass and a voice made Marcy pause.

"I think you better stop. This will not solve your problem"

"Screw you Cho! I can drink if I want. "

"What the hell happened? Did Lisbon tell you that one of you had to transfer? How pissed was Grace?"

"I should never have told her. I should have just walked away. Everyone else falls in love, don't they? How come it's easy for them?"

"It's not easy for anyone. Come on, I'll take you home. We'll pick up your car tomorrow"

"I don't even know what the hell I did wrong? Married? What the hell?"

"Grace proposed?"

Marcy had been listening for over a year to the story of the shy agent's unrequited love. It's why she always called him Charlie Brown, too shy to ask out the little red haired girl. She gave up pretending not to listen and waited for the answer.

"No! It's just that, well and Shit!"

"Ok, you have to give me more than that"

"So, Lisbon finally calls us in to talk about our announcement. She tells us that at the end of the case, she is turning us in. Grace says they will make one of us transfer. Lisbon says you knew that would happen. So, we are talking about it and I say how it won't be too bad, if she gets sent to the Fresno office or something and we can still work out seeing each other. Because I have more seniority, it stands to reason, they are transferring her, right?"

"Probably, but she that's not what she wanted to hear"

"No shit. She freaked and when I tried to explain….ah shit! I screwed it up worse"

"Rigsby, what did you say?"

Cho and Marcy exchanged glances. Wayne was not stupid, but he had the most amazing knack of saying things so they came out wrong. It was probably why he didn't talk much around women, Marcy reasoned.

"So, I finally get her to talk later quietly. I apologize for assuming her career wasn't as important. We should be good then, right? No! She says I shouldn't have made decisions for her career, because it's not like we're married right? I say of course not, how stupid would that be? Then she really freaks out on me!"

By now, Skip the barback and Todd, the owner had come over to listen to Rigsby. The place was pretty quiet, and clearly, this was going to be a good story to tell later. All of them winced visibly at the word stupid, but Rigsby was both too drunk and too upset to notice.

"Where is this relationship going? I don't know, I tell her, we've only been dating a couple of months who knows what will happen, right? Now she thinks she should never have tanked her career for me without finding this all out. Like my career isn't taking a hit here too? I told her to do whatever she wants and left. She blows hot and cold on me."

"What about Lisbon"

"There's the freaking kicker here. She tells us she never heard us, we didn't say anything. We are not allowed any kind of PDA's at the office. Fuck! We could have had it all! But, no, Grace had to get all weird on me. What the hell do women want anyway?"

Cho, Skip and Todd all looked to Marcy. Clearly she was better qualified to answer that one. Wayne started to lift the empty glass to his lips and then just set it down dejectedly. It was painful to watch the wounded man.

"Oh Charlie Brown! You really screwed this one up big time. How does someone who solves as many crimes as you guys not get it?"

"What? I told her if she was transferred, we would still be together."

"Let's start with that. She is terrified that she took her dream of being a successful detective and put it on hold for you."

"What? I never told her or wanted that!"

"No, but like most guys, you assumed her career was secondary. It's a gender thing that has been bred in through thousands of years of conditioning. At least you apologized for that."

"Yeah, I did!"

"But oh sweetie, you said being married to her would be stupid? You actually said stupid"

"I didn't mean it would be stupid being married to her, just it was stupid to think of that now."

"Wait, isn't she from like Kansas or something?"

"Iowa"

"Oh my God! You told a girl who is past 25 from Iowa that marriage to her was stupid."

"That's not what I said…."

"Yeah, but that is what she heard. And then you told her you didn't know if this relationship had a future"

"What? I didn't say that or mean it"

"Look whether or not we admit it, women want to know a guy wants to be with her always. And we want to hear that when we are out of bed. We want a guy, wait, not a guy, a man who will stand up for us and our relationship. You, my friend, crumpled like a wet napkin."

"Oh hell, that's not fair. I love her. I have for a long time. I have told her that over and over. I agreed to go to Lisbon. I could see the secrecy was killing her. I know she wants more. But hell, we are just getting started. We are in a dangerous job. Who the hell knows what the future will bring? Married? This is the biggest most important relationship I have ever had. I don't think I would even know how to be married"

Cho flashed back to all he had read in Rigsby's file. It wasn't exactly the Brady Bunch. Most guys didn't want to get married, but they did because they didn't want to lose the woman. He had no doubt that Rigsby would have gotten to that point as a matter of course. Grace would have to nudge him there, but still it would have happened.

"Look man, this relationship was always going to be tough. You're both agents in the same unit. Stands to reason the strain would show. It's not fair, but if you really want her, you're going to have to be the one to man up"

"And say what? Oh crap saying anything. I suck at talking. Well talking about anything important. I should write down what I want to say. Yeah, I'll write her a letter!"

He looked so happy that he had solved the puzzle. Marcy hated to burst his bubble.

"Look, this is not a letter kind of thing. Sure write it all out so it helps you, but don't read it to her. Do you love this girl?"

"Yeah, more than I ever thought possible. And I am screwing it up big-time."

"Ok, then. Cho, take him home. Come back in the morning; get your car in the morning. Then after you eat, go talk to her. Don't try and talk at work. There's too much pressure. But this is it. Yeah, I think she's rushing things, but this kind of relationship is not like normal people. But, and this is a big one, Charlie Brown, you better spend tonight thinking. What do you want? Now, 3 months from now, 3 years from now. If this is it for you, man up."

Wayne stood up a little unsteadily and handed over his keys to Todd. He was drunk, terrified and suddenly exhausted.

"Thanks Marcy. I appreciate this. C'mon Cho, take me to my place. I got to get up and talk to Grace."

The bar staff watched the mismatched pair walk out of the bar. Marcy started to wash Rigsby's glass and sent a little prayer toward heaven. Real love was hard to find. The big man had fallen hard. She hoped it worked out. Mostly, she hoped the girl was willing to listen.

Points to anyone who gets a name reference here! Review?