Frances had not been at all happy with me when I'd asked for the following evening off. I'd mentioned it to Alan when I saw him in passing, come the end of my lunchtime shift and he had promised me a voice in my corner, but he had also made it clear that the final decision would be up to Frances. She was the one in charge of the business and he didn't overstep the carefully laid boundaries they had set out; apparently it made living and working together all the time enjoyable and kept them off of each others backs.

It was encouraging to know that he would support me in my request, but I was sure that I'd have to approach things from a different angle with Frances herself. She'd ranted at me for a while about the short notice of my request and claimed to have already made plans for that evening, but when I made some mention about having to go just one night without jumping Alan's bones for the first time in almost two weeks, she suddenly became rather quiet. In the end she reluctantly agreed to let me have the night off, but not without making some enquiry about whether I'd had any luck in finding somewhere more permanent to stay.

I'd known that line of questioning would start at some point, I'd already been there far longer than I had intended, and I certainly hadn't helped my cause any by using Frances' embarrassment to my own advantage, it just wasn't a situation I could worry about at that moment. I had bigger fish to fry.

Getting ready to go out proved to be a more difficult task than getting 'permission' to go in the first place. I'd requested that we go somewhere other than the pub and Jesse had agreed to think of something suitable, what that something was, however, I had no idea. This left me stuck with a very human – a very female – problem, what the hell was I going to wear? I wanted to make a bit of an effort, well more of an effort than I would make for a night behind the bar, but not so much so I was dressed up to the nines. Something suitable for most possible 'date' scenarios.

Though it wasn't a 'date' in the conventional sense, so I wasn't expecting we'd go somewhere like a fine dining restaurant, but I also didn't want to assume we'd just be going out for a pizza. It really was a horrible dilemma, and made me amazingly pleased that I didn't have to go through it on a regular basis. How humans coped with the stresses of dating and relationships I would never know.

In the end I found something simple and yet classy to wear, something that also wasn't dirty or creased up in the crammed mess that was my wardrobe. After my case with Shane I'd had no time to reorganise and sort through the laundry that I had dumped back in there during my weeks stint at the strip club, so it was really some miracle that I managed to find my black tailored trousers in pretty good condition. I paired these with a long-sleeved V-neck shirt in royal blue, it had a plunging neckline that dropped perhaps a little too low to be appropriate, but I'd learned – from Angelo during my last case in fact – that showing a little skin could often be of benefit. I ditched the black leather jacket in favour of something smarter, black military style jacket lined with blue silk. I hoped I wouldn't regret the loss of warmth without the leather once the sun went down; it was like my security blanket.

I was dressed and ready to go quite a while earlier than I needed to be, just so I had time to ensure that I was properly prepared for the evening; I had slightly more to consider than the average person on the verge of a night out. My blue contact lenses were securely in place, my make up was done, I'd even taken the time to re-colour my hair. The cherry red had looked old and faded before I'd arrived in the village – roots showing was an understatement – so it was in desperate need of attention. I went for a much more sedate colour this time; the red had been good for the strip club, but it felt too out of place in the quiet country village.

Usually I would have more time in between cases to perfect my character and a look to match, but Lucifer's insistence that I leave so quickly had left me no time to prepare even the most mundane of things. The rich mahogany colour I'd chosen looked pretty good with my pale skin tone and the blue of my shirt. On the whole I felt fit for a date, I just had to hope I wouldn't have as much trouble leading Jesse in a conversation as I had picking out my outfit.

With a quick glance down at my watch, I pulled on my boots, grabbed the small shoulder bag I'd arrived in the village with and made for the door. We hadn't agreed on a place to meet, only a time, but as Jesse was organising where we were going I figured he was likely to come to the pub to pick me up. I'd wait for him in the bar, but with Frances and her new foul mood working down there, I didn't want to be waiting for too long in her company. So it wasn't until my watch showed 7pm that I took a leisurely stroll down the stairs, hoping that Jesse wouldn't be late.

I pushed open the door and found Jesse perched, awkwardly, on a bar stool. Frances kept casting him a dark look, which soon turned to me when I approached him.

He scrubbed up pretty well for a rough and ready bricklayer; looking casual in dark blue jeans and a wine-red button down shirt. His hair was still its typical, un-styled mess, but it looked clean and free of brick dust. A days worth of stubble-darkened his chin, but I thought it suited him more than the clean shaven look.

He looked up at me with anxious relief in his brown eyes. “Hey,” he said, hurriedly standing from the stool and casting a quick, nervous glance back at Frances as he moved. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, flipping open my bag and making a show of rifling through its contents to double-check I had everything I needed.

There was one item in my bag I had been debating whether I should carry with me that evening. A small, crystal phial, corked and sealed with wax, that contained a sticky, yellowish substance; my backup plan. This night with Jesse was my prime opportunity to get information out of him and formulate a final plan how to get this case done, and I wasn't going to be leaving without getting something out of it. The concoction was a simple herbal mixture, a potion if you like the term. Hemlock and Belladonna made it more poison than anything, but in very carefully measured doses it acted much like a drug, a relaxant that, if all else failed, might make Jesse pliable to my questioning. It was a risky option, the difference between a safe and a fatal dose was tiny, but it was a last resort – and I as desperate for some results.

“Yeah.” I nodded again, snapping the bag shut, the crystal phial safely zipped in the inside pocket, “let's go.”

A look of relief fell over Jesse's face and he cast another quick glance back at Frances, catching her thunderous glare for a brief second.

“Yeah, let's get out of here before she bars me!” he muttered into my ear as we made for the door. Jesse held it open for me and I stepped outside into the low evening sunshine.

“So, where is it that we're going then?” I asked.

“Ah, now that is a surprise...” A worried look fell over my face at those words. If there was one thing that I didn't like, it was surprises.

“...but don't worry, I'm sure you'll like it. Quiet, relaxing and completely different from that place. Sound good?”

“Well, I'll reserve judgement until we actually get there. But it doesn't sound bad,” I replied in a flat tone, but I cast Jesse a broad grin soon after the words had left my mouth to let him know that I was just teasing – well, mostly.

Jesse led the way out of the pub car-park and across the street. I don't know what I'd been expecting, maybe a car parked outside, or a taxi waiting at the curb, but the street was quiet and empty as Jesse crossed the road and gestured for me to follow. It looked like we were walking. I said a quiet whisper of thanks that I'd chosen to wear my boots and hadn't risked the high heels I'd been considering.

Though the fact that we were walking had me even more curious. On my first day in the village, I'd walked the entire place and hadn't seen a single sign of anywhere that looked like your typical 'date' location. The only place that served food in the village was the pub, if we were going to dinner we'd be heading to a nearby town surely; were we looking for a bus stop or something?

A little further along the street Jesse took a sudden left turn onto a narrow road, lined at large intervals with pretty country cottages. I continued to follow, a pace or two behind, but after about five minutes of walking, I grew anxious and suspicious. It wasn't a main road we were heading down, there weren't even any pavements and Jesse strode confidently down the middle of the street; there was no bus route on this road, nor any sign of a turn off coming up the might lead to one.

“Jesse, where are we going?” I asked, impatient and growing inexplicably nervous. I had nothing to worry about from Jesse I was sure, if anything he should be worried about me. But why did I feel so anxious having him lead me down a completely deserted country lane to who knowns where. It was an irrational fear, but one I just could not ignore.

“I told you, it's a surprise.”

“Yeah, well I should probably have mentioned that I really don't like surprises,” I said, trying to keep my voice from sounding panicked.

Come on Rayne, what the hell is wrong with you? You shouldn't be scared of this guy, he's small fry compared to some of your marks. Pull it together, I scolded myself, silently.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, scraping back some composure and telling my irrational anxiety to quiet. “I thought we'd be going to have dinner, or something.”

“We are,” he said simply.

Jesse reached out and took my arm. I flinched at his touch, he didn't seem to notice but I couldn't hide how strange the casual physical contact felt. I hadn't been expecting it, mostly I tried to keep a good distance from people. I wasn't beyond the realm of physical contact during a case when the situation called for it, but I was usually the one to instigate it, up until then most people seemed to remain outside the boundaries of my personal space – I think something about me tended to keep them at a distance on a subconscious level. But Jesse's touch had been sudden and taken me completely by surprise. With my senses already on high alert I became even more wary of the way that those strong, calloused fingers gripped my arm.

“Look, just trust me okay. I've got something good planned.”

I cast him a sceptical glance and managed to shrug away from his gripping hand without making the shunning movement too obvious. I couldn't trust him, couldn't trust anybody on the surface; I had a secret way too big to ever trust anyone who wasn't one of my own kind, but I couldn't abandon Jesse now. If I wanted to get this case done, I needed to stick with him like glue; ditch him now and I would probably not get another chance to extract anything from him.

Sure I was probably being rather hypocritical. I was being far from honest with him, in fact I was baiting him, leading him on to my own ends – it was my job, so sue me. I also never forgot about my own self preservation. You don't live for centuries and not get good at it, and I planned to live for several more.

“Yeah okay, but where exactly? This place doesn't have anything even remotely resembling a restaurant down here. Aside from the pub, I don't think anywhere around here actually serves food and you promised me we wouldn't be going there. You can't just lead me in some elaborate circle back to the pub and think I'll believe it's a new place. I won't be fooled y'know, I've lived there for almost two weeks now.”

He laughed loudly at my frenzied ranting and I couldn't help but crack a small smile at the warm and infectious tone. I realised only too well how crazy and irrational I'd sounded and was kicking myself for letting the control slip.

“No, we're not going to the pub, I'm not fool enough to think I could trick you so easily. C'mon, it's not much further now. Why don't you like surprises?”

A sigh escaped my lips and I shook my head. “Because...they so often lead to disappointment.”

Jesse's smile faded. I was putting a dampener on his plans for the evening and I really didn't mean to, nor could I afford to.

“Ugh, look, just call me suspicious. I've seen a hell of a lot of shit in the past few years and I suppose I'm just not as trusting as I once was,” I admitted with another sigh. “Shit, now I've gone and ruined everything haven't I? Forgive me?”

“No,” he started, with a shake of his head that left me taken back. “I mean no, it's not ruined, and it's not your fault. I should have known better than to come up with something like this for our first time out.”

“I don't suppose it was a nice surprise?” I asked, desperately hoping that I could still salvage the evening somehow.

“Of course it was.” He grinned, seemingly able to regain his upbeat demeanour at the drop of a hat.

“Then, perhaps just this once, I can forego my suspicions and just go with it. But only if you promise me one thing, I want to go home later knowing a hell of a lot more about you than I do right now. Because if we're going to go out more than once then I need to be sure that you're not some homicidal maniac who's out for my blood.”

Jesse chuckled, “Okay, it's a deal. I shall bore you with the dullness that is my life and history.”

He offered me his hand, this time I took the gesture willingly, and I let him lead me down the slowly darkening country lane, it was hard to tell which one of us was the bigger fool.