Her eyes widened when he heard him. She took a hard swallow and slightly turned around. "R-Ryan..." was all she managed to say. He was naked, she was only in a swimsuit, and they had done something totally unappropriate for what they were: just friends.

Ryan gulped loudly know really knowing what to say. It was too obvious that something happened last night.
And it made him feel embarrassed. On top of that he suddenly realized that he was naked actually.
And when the thought reached his brain though all the fuzz and pain Ryan Wolfe blushed and could do nothing more than open and shut his mouth like a fish thrown out of water.

Ava bit her lip. She had realized just now what had happened and all she could do was hope this thing would not affect their friendship, even though it was hard to believe. "I, umm..." she stammered. "I was just going to..." she said, pointing to the door.

Ryan hesitated to say anything but then Ava spoke. Suddenly he regained his voice "Oh... Ah... Um... Yeah. Ok."
It felt awkward. But not the slightest chance Ryan's gonna let that ruin their friendship. He greatly understood and knew it'll feel awkward for some time but eventually they would get over.
For Ryan it usually was evened after couple drinks at club or somewhere public.
It humiliated him to even admit to himself that it wasn't like the first time.

Ava nodded rapidly. "Yeah..." she said, breathing heavily. "I guess I'll...um...see you at the lab?" she asked, thinking only how to get out of that room quicker, get dressed and leave.

"Um.. Yeah sure. See you then" he said avoiding looking Ava directly.

She noticed he was not looking at her, so she just nodded. "Okay..." she said and left the room. She quickly put her chlotes on. She thought to go back to her room and tell him 'good bye' but she decided to not. So, she just left the house, knowing she was already late for work.

Ryan kept sitting on his bed, head in his hands.
It felt so weird even though it wasn't the very first time in his life.
Especially after the crash it became harder to keep up the usual level of drinking. Now he got an embarrassing experience yet again. Yeah. Again.

He just kept hoping she won't take it as offence. But at the moment Ryan just felt better to give some space to Ava rather than making situation more awkward.

He tried to shook the thoughts away but obviously it was a huge mistake as the movement evoke more pain and nausea.
Too much vodka, he thought before dashing to bathroom.

Ava had let her key on the kitchen table, for Ryan to see it and lock when he left. She could have waited for Ryan to leave her house and only then leave herself to work, but she was already late. And having to look at Ryan would have been, once again, too uncomfortable.
On her way to work, Ava bought herself a tomboyish cap. Her hair was a mess after the crazy night. When she got to work, some people asked her if she was okay, because her mind was somewhere else and she still had a stinging headache.
However, the real problem was that Ryan was going to arrive soon and they had to work...together!

Finally made himself presentable enough Ryan walked into kitchen and found keys on the table. It was clear that they were left for him to lock the door. And that if was about to do.
Also he needed new set of clothes and more painkillers for his unbearable headache. And something for nausea.
This was worst hangover in years and only with drinks.
He still had couple hours until his shift he dearly hoped he didn't have. So he left to make himself more work-presentable.

Ava started to study some files about the latest case, until Ryan was going to come. Interesting stuff, the victim was a 19-years-old boy. After a drunken night, he slept with his best friend. In the morning, he was found dead and his friend had disappeared. Ava sighed and rubbed her temples. It was following her...everywhere!

"Knock, knock, anybody home?" Ryan joyfully said suddenly appearing next to Ava while she was reading case files.

Ava was deep in thought when she suddenly heard a very familiar voice behind her. She gasped and tried to take a step back, but she bumped into Ryan's chest. She turned around extremely quickly and took a step back. "Oh, um..." she stuttered. "Ryan, hi..." she said, breathing rapidly.

"Hey. Whoa. " Ryan grinned taking a half step back and held his hands up like surrending

"Sorry," she mumbled, as she looked down. After the night before, she couldn't even look at him, that's how embarassed she was by what she had done. She turned around and pretended to go on studying the files for the case, even though she knew that they had to work together on this.

"Apology accepted but you didn't do anything wrong." Ryan smiled. "And I think you could share what you learned about the case." he suggested innocently

Ava was surprised at how relaxed and carefree Ryan was, after the night before. She slowly turned around, eyes on the files. "Right, sorry," she mumbled. "The victim is Andrew Messer, 19 years old. Stabbing. He had been at a party, got drunk and..." She swallowed hard and handed him the files. "You know, why don't you see it yourself?"

Ryan nodded and took the files, curious about what's in there.
He read the file and blushed slightly. "Yeah...." he murmured the reply, feeling just a little embarrassed. He knew the last night will come and bite him in the ass but he wasn't one to give up.
"Sounds too familiar" Ryan said trying to compose his thoughts.

Ava bit her lips and blushed herself. "Yeah..." she mumbled, looking down. It was weird how she couldn't hide her emotions this time, her, the Queen of Ice, the one would have never showed how she felt to someone not close enough to her. Ryan was, but her biggest question was: would she be able to hide in front of the others?

Ryan stared at the paper in front of him barely paying attention to it. His thoughts were bit fuzzled and far away.

Why he felt that silly? Because of what happened? He still had no recollection of the night but he didn't need to remember. It was all to obvious.

He sighed wondering how to hide his slightly emotional hands that were tempted to fidget with something.

Was he able to hide his emotions completely? All these years he was. Maybe nothing has changed.

Ava rubbed her hands as she bit her lip. She had to be strong as always. She had to stay focused and hide her personal life from the others. She had made it until then, but why it felt so different this one time? Right... Because it was Ryan Wolfe, one of the best detectives, her coworker and at the same time, her best friend. It sucked. It sucked so much. She went close to him to look at the files herself. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Where do you think we should start?" she asked. It was hard and embarassing, but she knew that she had to deal with it.

A tingling feeling shot though him as her hand touched his shoulder but he swallowed it.
Stay professional, his mind screamed at him.
But he knew this feeling will pass. Just a day or so and he'll feel like always. After all she was his friend, best friend and despite being fairly new at their status he was glad he had successfully made friends with someone outside his family.

"I think we should look closer at his friends. Maybe someone held grudge at him?" Ryan turned his head around becoming embarrassingly close to Ava and smiled sweetly

Ava also felt something...weird when she touched him. She had touched him way too much the previous night, maybe it should have stopped by then. She quickly retired her hand, but she remained same close. She had to look at the files too, what could she do?
She gave Ryan a pretty embarassed smile too when he smiled at her. She slightly raised her shoulders. "Might be," she said with a nod. "If it's not his best friend herself," she added quietly.

Ryan nearly choked on the last words. "Yeah... maybe." he said slowly.
This should've been their day off. Now everything seemed revenging on them.
This case started to bug him even more with uncomfortable emotions.
But who else than he, the lab's best emotion hider. According to his sister he was the most talented person in lab that has been hiding his skeletons for years with the best score ever seen.
He couldn't disagree. So now he had to stay cool-minded

Ava nodded with kind of big eyes. "I mean, she might have been so embarassed, that she couldn't take it anymore, so she decided to block everything out." She took a deep breath. She looked up at Ryan, biting her lip. "Ryan, look..." she said. "We don't need to go through all this crap."