Thank you, so much. I love hearing what did and didn't work for people. I'm never sure if what is so very clear in my own head comes through for the readers. I just think that "The Deal" is a really very important episode, and that it's pretty meaningful in Fraser's history, and I didn't even intend for the story to be about that, but it took itself there, and I'm glad it worked.

And I'm glad the sarcastic girly-references worked for you. These were things I was muttering to myself out loud as I wrote it.