"Gilbert and Sullivan is great," he started right in, to the surprise of his deputy, "but I can only take so much, and these walls aren't nearly sound proof." Without another word, he walked over to Sam's CD player, popped out the opera Sam had been listening to, and inserted another CD. "But nobody ever gets sick of Billy Joel."

"Billy Joel?" Sam asked, a little confused. He had heard of him, but he'd be hard-pressed to name one of his songs. Obviously, though, that was the wrong thing to say in front of New York born and bred Toby Ziegler. He whirled on the younger man.

"Tell me you've never heard of Billy Joel?" he demanded. Sam's eyes widened at Toby's insistence.

"I've heard of him... just... what does he sing?"

"What does he sing? What does he *sing*? What *doesn't* he sing?" Toby threw his arms up in exasperation. His deputy really needed to get out more. Toby opened the CD player back up and popped in 2 more CD's in Sam's five disc changer. "How about Uptown Girl? Just the Way You Are? We Didn't Start the Fire? Only the Good Die Young? For the Longest Time?" After each title, Sam just shook his head. He could see his boss becoming more and more frustrated. "PIANO MAN?" Toby demanded in a shout.

Sam was so excited to finally recognize a song he jumped out of his chair. "YES!" He exclaimed. "I know that one!"

"Thank God," Toby said, finally breathing again. "For a moment I just thought you were the world's biggest loser. Here. Listen to these. It's his Greatest Hits, Volumes One, Two, and Three. I don't want to see your face until the last chord has faded away."

With that, he hit play and stalked out of Sam's office, leaving Sam a little shell shocked. But he quickly recovered himself, and settled back at his desk just in time for the end of the introduction to Piano Man.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Twenty minutes later, Sam had pulled up all the Billy Joel lyrics on a website, and was listening and reading at the same time, in order to get the most out of the music. He had just finished listening to Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, and the next song up was Just the Way You Are. "Aw," Sam couldn't help but murmur at the words and tune. "It's so beautiful."

"It's not your first time listening to my man Billy, is it?" a familiar female voice asked from his doorway.

"Mallory!" Sam exclaimed, jumping up for the second time in an hour. "Hey! What are you doing here?" Sam asked, a little confused. He thought she was still mad at him.

"I came by to see the President and my dad, and as I was walking by the bullpen I heard the music, so I had to come see who had the good taste to play Billy Joel," she explained with a smile. She walked around to his desk to see the words pulled up. "It is your first time, isn't it."

He nodded sheepishly. "How did you know?"

She shrugged. "You looked like you had never heard this song before... and you were muttering to yourself about it."

"Oh," he said, clearly embarrassed.

"Well, I just wanted to stop by... keep, uh, listening," she said, gesturing towards the CD player. "I'll see you around."

"Wait," he called, anxious to get her to stay a little longer. "You uh, want to hang around, and uh, listen with me?"

"I don't listen... I sing along."

"Even better," he smiled.

"This is Greatest Hits, right?" Sam nodded. "Ok. I'll stay through the rest of the CD," she told him, trying to hide her smirk.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd, we ain't too pretty we ain't too proud. We might be laughing a bit too loud, ah, but that never hurt no one..." Mal belted out at the top of her voice as Sam looked on in amusement. He had never seen the prim and proper Mallory act like this before... it was clear she was very much enjoying the song.

"You like this one, huh?" he asked with a grin. It definitely had a good beat... but he could just imagine the Catholic groups scrambling to get this song banned.

"It was the theme song of every Catholic schoolgirl, ever since it came out. I guess there was a part of us pure at heart that always wanted the attention of a bad boy to come and sweep us away from our mundane lives."

"I can just imagine how much the teachers at your schools must have hated it." Mal just grinned mischievously.

"Oh, it might have been banned... and there might have been one or two contraband copies floating along the hallways..."

"You little devil you," Sam smirked back at her. "Now tell me, Miss Prim-and-Proper, is that the most outrageous thing you've ever done in your life?"

Mal shook her head vehemently. "Oh no. Once I stole a pack of gum, too."

Sam couldn't help but laugh. "And this was inspired by Billy Joel?"

"No, but living outside our lives was. I mean... here's this guy who came from New York... somewhere outside the city, I think..."

"Long Island," Sam interjected.

"How do you...?"

"I, uh, kinda looked up his bio, too," Sam admitted sheepishly.

"Wow, you really are a geek," Mal told him rather affectionately.

"Not like your man Billy, huh?"

She shook her head. "Nah. But I grew out of my bad boy stage. Most girls do."

"Uhm..." Sam started, completely unsure of what to say next. "Uh..."

"What was your favorite song from the CD?"

"Just the Way You Are," Sam replied promptly.

"Put it on, Skipper," Mal instructed, gesturing towards the CD player with her head. Sam obediently went over and skipped back to it, turning around to see Mallory walking towards him. "Dance with me?"

"Me?" Sam asked, looking over his shoulder for anyone else to be behind him.

"Yeah, you, Skipper. C'mere." She took his hands and moved him over to the other side of his desk, pausing briefly to move the two chairs out of the way. While he was watching, she stepped up to him, and before he had time to blink, she had placed herself in his arms and was moving him to the music.

"Sam?" Mal murmured, feeling very comfortable in his arms.

"Yeah?" Sam stroked Mallory's back a little when responding.

"You suck at taking charge."

Sam couldn't help but grin. "Well, a relationship wouldn't work with two leaders, now does it?"

"Even if it did, we'd never find out, because you suck at taking charge." Mallory found herself resting her head on Sam's shoulder.

"Mal?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and listen to the song," Sam said softly and affectionately.

"Anything you say, Skipper."

Sam moved to gently turn her, and as he was facing the door, he saw his boss walk by. "Told ya so," he said with a smirk. Sam could do nothing but grin, shake his head, and dance with the woman in his arms.