Dr. Jesse Travis closed his eyes in exhaustion as he lay his head against the table.

He couldn’t believe his luck when he’d found the doctor’s lounge empty. The young doctor didn’t think he could summon the energy necessary to carry on a conversation. Two weeks of double shifts had depleted even him of his reserves and were taking their toll on his body.

Though he could only blame himself for the long hours. He had arranged his schedule so that he had no time to help either Dr. Sloan or his son on any cases, or to even spend any time in his apartment.

He was trying to fit in here, at community general, and on a professional level it seemed to be working. However, on a personal level his success was somewhat mixed.

Mark Sloan had seemed friendly enough, though a bit unorthodox for the Chief of Internal medicine, if his experience with his mother’s colleagues was anything to go by. But any time he might spend with the older doctor, outside of hospital business was invariably tied into his son, Steve, the police lieutenant.

Steve didn’t like Jesse, or so it appeared.

Jesse had learned a long time ago that he was one of those people that inspired one of two reactions in people. Either they liked him, or they didn’t. There was no middle ground, and more often than not, once a person had reached their opinion, they didn’t change it.

Mostly, Jesse wasn’t bothered. He had spent more of his life alone than with company. Between his mother’s schedule and his father’s near constant absences, solitude was something the young Jesse Travis had become quite familiar with.

He’d found something in Mark Sloan though he didn’t want to give up. The elder doctor looked at him as a colleague, and respected his abilities as a doctor, in a way his mother never could. Mark seemed to think of him as a friend, or at least someone with the potential to be a friend.

And as much as Jesse wanted that…needed that, he couldn’t accept it. Not when it was apparent, to him at least, that Mark’s son, for whatever reason, didn’t like the young doctor.

Mark Sloan and his son had a closeness that was foreign to Jesse and he was loath to get in the way, or put either Sloan in an uncomfortable position.

Jesse sighed to himself. He was way too tired to be thinking such deep thoughts.

A few minutes later Jesse heard the door open and someone come in, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to look up and see who it was.

"Jesse."

Jesse opened his eyes but his head was still lying against the table. All he could see where a pair of legs incased in denim. It didn’t matter; Jesse knew that voice.

"Steve." Jesse sat up to look at the police lieutenant. "Your dad already went home."

"Yeah, I know." Steve said. "I wasn’t looking for him."

Jesse blinked. "I think Amanda went home too." Usually when Steve came to the hospital, uninjured, it was because he was looking for his father, or Dr. Amanda Livingston, the medical examiner, and a close friend of both Mark and Steve’s. But it was after nine, and both doctors had already gone home, where Jesse himself would be if he weren’t just coming off of a twenty-hour shift, and hesitant to return to his apartment, alone.

"I was looking for you."

Jesse blinked again. "Oh." He wasn’t sure what to make of that. Jesse had, on occasion, helped the cop solve a few cases, usually at the lieutenant’s annoyance. He couldn’t imagine what Steve would want to see him for. "Um…what can I do for you?" Jesse asked as he straightened up.

"I thought…maybe we’d go…somewhere." Steve suggested, a little awkwardly. "I was thinking about what you said…before, and I’d like to take you up on your offer."

"O-kay." Jesse said as he stood up slowly. He knew what Steve was talking about, but felt a little out of sorts, not to mention way too tired to think clearly.

He had offered the cop a friendly ear after a distressing case had put Steve in a funk. Jesse had wanted him to know that he had a friend, if he wanted one. But since the lieutenant had made no effort to talk to him in the nearly six weeks since he’d made the offer, the doctor had assumed the cop wasn’t interested in anything Jesse had to offer.

Fine. They really didn’t seem to have anything in common, on the surface, and they didn’t know each other well enough to go past the surface.

But now, nearly two months later, the cop had apparently changed his mind.

"Jesse?" Steve questioned. "Is something wrong?"

"No." He smiled slightly. "I’m just a little… I’m fine." He shook his head. "So, you want to go get something to eat, or…"

"Sounds good." Steve smiled. "How do you feel about barbecue?"

*~*~*~*

Steve Sloan watched Jesse eat his barbecue ribs with enthusiasm, enjoying the company, despite his misgivings about his reasons behind wanting to be friends with the young doctor.

"What?" Jesse asked as he looked up, his tongue licking leftover sauce from his lips.

"I’m just kind of surprised you like barbecue, what with being a doctor and all."

Jesse shrugged, and turned his gaze back to his plate.

"You seemed surprised." Steve noted, watching the young man carefully.

"About?" Jesse asked without looking up.

"Seeing me at the hospital. Me suggesting that we go out."

"I was. I still am, actually." Jesse said, looking up and meeting Steve’s gaze. "We haven’t really spoken since that day on the beach. I figured you decided you had enough friends, and if you’d wanted to talk, you talk to one of them."

"I’ve just been busy." Steve said. It wasn’t strictly the truth, but he didn’t know the young doctor well enough to venture into such dangerous waters. "But, I would like to be friends. If you’re still interested."

Jesse grinned. "Sure." He yawned before continuing. "I haven’t had much time for anything other than work lately."

"So I’ve heard." Steve commented. "You look a little tired." Steve said as Jesse yawned again. "Why don’t I take you home?"

Jesse didn’t want to cut the night short, but he was tired. "Okay. I have the next couple of days off, at your dad’s insistence," He grinned, "Maybe we can do something?"

"I’ll call you." Steve said as he took out his wallet and paid the bill.

Some part of Jesse’s brain wanted to tell him how similar to a date this dinner was, but the rest of him wasn’t interested in hearing it.

"I wanted to thank you, for before…after Lynn…died. I know I wasn’t very…well I was an ass, and I wanted to say sorry for that, and thank you for trying to be a friend."

Jesse looked away. "It’s okay."

Sensing Jesse’s embarrassment, Steve stood up. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah." Jesse stood up as well and followed the cop out of the building and to Steve’s car. He’d left his own at the hospital. Considering how tired he was, it was probably just as well.

*~*~*~*

After dropping Jesse off at his apartment, Steve sat in his car and wondered what the Hell he thought he was doing.

He wasn’t lying when he said he wanted them to be friends, but it was more than that and he knew it.

He wasn’t exactly sure what it was he *did* want; only knowing it was more than friendship.

The cop started the car and drove away, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake.

*~*~*~*

Jesse’s apartment seemed so…still. He’d spent so many hours over the past few weeks working as much as possible, just so he could avoid coming here. Home.

It was so…quiet.

Not that he was used to a house full of noise. His mother’s condo was just as silent as this, but that was different.

That was where he’d spent much of his childhood. That was where his mother called home.

But this little apartment in Los Angeles was far from Chicago. Far from familiar faces and creature comforts.

He sighed and moved slowly through his apartment, noticing the blinking light on his answering machine. Pressing the button, the doctor moved to his bedroom and started taking off his clothes.

//Beep//

"Jess? Call me."

Jesse smiled tiredly at the sound of his friend’s voice on the machine.

//Beep// Jesse? It’s your mother. You need to decide about the holidays. My friends are waiting."

Jesse sighed. His mother wanted him to decide if he was going home for Christmas. If not, she had made arrangements to go spend a few weeks in Colorado with some friends of hers. He didn’t want to go home, but he didn’t want to spend the holiday alone either.

Walking back into the living room and picking up the phone, Jesse dialed his mother’s number. After the third ring he got the machine.

"Mom? I think I’m gonna stay here this year. Have fun in Colorado." He hung up the phone before his exhaustion and sadness transmuted through the line.

He was still standing there, staring at the telephone when it started to ring.

"Hello?" He asked, almost afraid it was his mother.

"Where you been?"

Jesse sighed. "Hello, Paul."

Paul Mathews chuckled into the line. "A little bird told me you got off a few hours ago."

"Would this be the same little bird that was at the hospital earlier and took it upon himself to tell my boss that I was working too hard? Tell Brian thanks for the concern, but I don’t need a mother."

Paul laughed. "Okay, okay."

"What’s up?" Jesse asked as he took the mobile phone with him back into his bedroom to finish undressing.

"Brian and I were wondering if you want to come over this weekend. A little surfing, a little barbecue. We promise not to set you up with any tall, dark, and studly’s."

Jesse laughed. "I’d like to but…"

"You have plans." Paul guessed. "Bring him with you."

"I don’t think so." Jesse shook his head. "Maybe I’ll come by though."

"Okay." Paul answered, though it sounded as though he didn’t quite believe that Jesse would. "And Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Don’t be a stranger." There was a click before Jesse could respond and the doctor sighed.

He should have agreed to come. He *knew* he should have. It wasn’t like he really had any plans. At least not any definite ones. Still, Jesse couldn’t help but hope that Steve would call him.

He knew that Paul, and no doubt Brian, believed that Jesse’s *plans* were of a romantic nature.

Jesse didn’t have the energy necessary to explain the situation to his friends, though he was certain that eventually he would have to.

Yawning again, Jesse stripped off his last piece of clothes and climbed into bed.

He drifted off to sleep wondering whether or not Steve really wanted to be friends, or if there was another reason behind his apparent change of opinion.

*~*~*~*