PYGMALION

 

by DocPaul

 

 

 

 

Chapter Five: Soldiers find war, and lawyers find out still

 

Day Four: Saturday, 8:49 am

 

When Sean awoke, Julia had still been asleep, and for moments of undisturbed thought, he watched her. Close. It had been too close for comfort. Yesterday she could’ve died.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Dad?” Sean quickly glanced up at the door to make sure Julia wasn’t up and around.

 

“Sean! Your mother was wondering when you would call. She said it was over a week, but I said, no. No, Theresa, your son, Sean would not forget his mother for so long, not unless there was something wrong.” Marco paused in his cleverly crafted guilt trip for his eldest son. “Is there something wrong? Maria? The baby? Miko?”

 

“No, they’re all fine. Actually, it’s babies. Maria is having twins.”

 

“Twins!” Sean could hear his mother on the other end demanding details, and giving his father questions to ask. He could hear his parents scuffling for the phone. Marco won out, but just barely. Sean realized that his mother was no doubt rushing for an extension, and soon he’d be bombarded with a well-meaning third degree. Only DeLucas had the fine art of needing to know everything down to such precision. “Are they married yet? Why have I not received my invitation? Get Miko on the line. I have words for that boy.”

 

“He’s not here, Papa.” Sean smiled at the phone, and then quickly became serious. “Dad, I think I need your help.”

 

“My help specifically?”

 

“The Family.”

 

Marco was quiet. Sean wouldn’t ask such a thing unless it was important. Theresa would be on the phone soon. “I will call you back on your cell phone. Is everyone alright?”

 

“Aunt Amy was in a car bomb.” Marco swore and swore even more when he heard the other line pick up. “She and Jim both. They are recovering.”

 

“What? What is this? Amy? My Amy?” Theresa’s voice rose in concern as she picked up part of the conversation. Sean could hear Julia coming down the stairs.

 

“Momma, please. I can’t talk. Yesterday, Julia’s office was blown up, and she took a frag nail in the shoulder. It killed a woman standing in front of her.” He could hear his mother’s sucking in her breath in dismay, and his father’s silence was more telling than rage. “I can’t talk anymore. She is awake. I’ll call you back later.”

 

“Sean, honey, wait…” Sean hung up before either his mother or his father could ask any more questions. Idiot. He should’ve called on his father’s personal business line and not the family one. Sean quickly turned to smile at Julia, his eyes remaining untouched by the smile, steely and hard.

 

“I made breakfast. I was hoping you’d stay in bed so I could bring it up to you.”

 

Julia smiled at him, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes either. It wasn’t hard to see how he was holding himself steady, and it was just a matter of time before she’d have to tell him.

 

“What did you make?”

 

“Your favorite. The special bread from Parma, and eggs over easy with a hollandaise sauce.”

 

“I’ll put on weight if you keep cooking.” Sean came over and directed her to the table. Quickly placing a napkin on her lap, he went to get the food, pouring her coffee as well. He sat back and watched her as she tasted the food sipping his coffee. Sean always used cooking as a method of calming himself in stressful times.

 

“If I let you cook, we’ll starve to death or die from heart disease due to all our patronage of the Colonel.”

 

“Chicken is a nice lean white meat, and tasty to boot.” God, he could cook! Julia looked up from her meal to notice him watching her, but not eating. “Why aren’t you eating?”

 

“I’m not hungry.”

 

Avoiding. She was avoiding the obvious, and it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Julia got up and went over and sat on his lap, wrapping her good arm around his neck. Nuzzling into his neck, she rested in him. Closing her eyes, Julia prayed. Be smart. Be smart. You hurt, but make a choice for us.

 

Sean’s hand came up under her hair, and he tilted her face up so he could look into it. The sight of her, of the crease along her cheek and her pale color caused an anger and rage to swell up  inside threatening to overwhelm him. Sean bit it back as a nausea fought with his rage. He could’ve lost her just when he had found her.

 

Julia closed her eyes as she rubbed her head up against his. Leaning in, she whispered, “Let it go, Sean. Just let it go.”

 

“I don’t know what to do with this,” he said softly.

 

Julia opened her eyes and stared straight into his. Pain. It was pain she saw, and swallowing a sense of sorrow, so much came clear. Sean was pain. He walked it. Breathed it. Lived in its shadow. Until he was so entrenched in it, he used pain to mask what he couldn’t rid himself of, and what tormented him.

 

All those he loved and protected were a long line before him. The innocents that he fought for every day, Maria, Amy, and even her. They were not just his duty, but his heart, his life’s blood. He had failed. He had failed with Maria and Amy once, and they paid the price in Maria’s silence. He had almost lost Maria again, had it not been for Michael, and now he could only see the blood on Julia’s skin as another movement in a lifetime dance of failure.

 

Julia could understand pain. She lived in it too. They both did, but her walk was a different one than his. Whereas Sean invited pain in a need to desensitize himself from what really hurt him, just enough to allow him to function, Julia had worked to master and control it, turning the pain and rage to her advantage. She had harnessed the beast.

 

They weren’t going to survive.

 

Too many bends in the road. Too many words that needed spoken, but should remain silent. They were running too fast to stand still. And it hurt. Looking at him, needing him in her life, and breathing through the etching pain that cut in her lungs as she struggled to just hold on for one more day. One more day where she could have him.

 

Kiss him. Love him.

 

Julia kissed him softly on the neck, and then on the mouth, and then not so softly. Holding him so tight, she sucked the taste of him into her mouth. Sean moaned against her and  tightened his grip as well. Stay. Stay with me. Words not spoken. A silent plea to him.

 

“I love you,” she said softly.

 

“Mac…” Sean swallowed hard. She loved him. He knew that. He felt it, but it felt nice to hear. “Where do I put this?”

 

“Away. Put it some place until you need the rage to sustain you, but today just put it away and stay with me. I love you.”

 

He could do it. For her he could do it. “I love you, too. I can’t stand the thought of you hurt, or being attacked.”

 

“Just put it away, baby.”

 

Sean nodded, and for a shushing moment of grace, they were okay. Then his cell phone rang. His father. It had to be.

 

“I’ve got to take that.”

 

Julia nodded. “We can finish this another time, Detective.” She slowly untangled herself from him. “I need to go get ready anyway. Thanks for the…breakfast.”

 

It didn’t register, and then it did. “Whoa, there, Counselor. Ready? It’s Saturday. You’ve been in a terrible act of violence. Where you going exactly?”

 

“Work.”

 

“No. No, you’re not.”

 

“Sean.” Julia saw the increasing anger. Okay, so he put it away until he needed it. Obviously, he needed it now to deal with her. “Your phone…”

 

“Fuck the phone! What are your intensions, Counselor?”

 

“I need to go check on my office, my files, and my cases. I can’t let yesterday be a deterrent to doing my job.”

 

It bubbled up inside. Behind his eyes almost blinding him in rage. Red, black, swirled in a pit of bitterness in his stomach. “Pierce,” he spit out. “It’s the Pierce thing again!”

 

“Sean, back off…”

 

“I will not! Reality check, Counselor. You almost died! One foot closer and you would’ve been Beth.” Sean ignored the blanching of her skin to an even paler shade of white edged in gray. “He means to kill you, not just intimidate you. And not just you, but your entire department. Walk away from this! Fight another day!”

 

“I will not! He comes on, he maims, he destroys, and we wait. We walk within the limits of justice, the law. He is Herculean to our paltry efforts because for him there is no law except himself, and we watch as he reaps the ill-begotten gains of his evil. There is no ground to give. This is all we have, where we stand. If we can’t bring him to justice, then there is no justice. I can’t believe that. I can’t yield!”

 

“Dammit, you are the most stubborn woman…”

 

“I’d say the same to you.”

 

Sean took calming breaths. “Regroup. Mend. Gather strength.”

 

“I can’t. The fight is now.”

 

Sean in a sweep of an arm sent the dishes from the table scattering in a resounding clash. “If you allow him to call the battle, then you’ve already lost! He’ll take the high ground, entrench deep, and your march will be a long bloody campaign to the death.”

 

“So be it.” Julia turned to leave, but Sean pulled her back.

 

“No! No, this ends now! No more, Julia.” Sean breathing hard rested his forehead to hers. “Go home to my family in Florida. For me.”

 

Julia’s heart broke. He had just stepped on a line that wasn’t to be crossed. He had asked her to choose, to give him quarter. Damn him.

 

“Okay,” she agreed closing her eyes to the unbelieving relief in his. “If you come with me.”

 

Sean stepped away from her, his hands dropping to his side. “I can’t. You know that.”

 

“I do. Strange that you can’t know that about me.”

 

“Is this a test?”

 

Julia shook her head. “If it was, you just flunked it.”

 

Sean swore and pulled her back to him. “It’s different. I can’t leave. I have…”

 

“Obligations? Duty?”

 

“Amy and Jim. Someone attacked my family. They attacked you. Did you think I’d just bend over and take it like a man?”

 

“Did you think I would take it any easier? Why? Because I’m a woman?”

 

“Don’t!” Sean pointed an angry finger in her direction. “This is not about sex or sexism. This is not about me being a man and you a woman! Our circumstances are different.”

 

“No, they aren’t. What makes it okay for you to leave a hospital after being systematically poisoned to save your cousin? Or to sign yourself out of the hospital with a punctured lung to tend to a Dump? What makes your honor and duty above mine?” Sean’s jaw flexed. “It’s the same. You just can’t release me! You have to understand that I’m not your duty or responsibility! I want to be your partner…an equal.”

 

“You could die.”

 

“So could you! Does it make it any easier for me?”

 

Sean shook his head. It was different. It had to be, but he had no way to say how. To him, it was and always would be. Julia had practice getting the upper hand. She was too smart and cunning, lawyer that she was.

 

“This ends now, Julia! I mean it. I want you to pack and get ready. I’m sending you to Florida to stay under my family's protection.” He could take orders, give up control, but not in this. Never in this. The rest was a façade, a playground of what if, and amusement. This was not, and in this he would not give way. Could not.

 

Julia agreed with him. “Yes, it ends now.” Leaving him, she went back upstairs to pack.

 

Sean watched her, his stomach unsettled as Julia's long-haired white cat, Ms. Fluffy came to sit at his feet. Looking down, he swore when he saw the cat gaze unblinkingly at him as if he had just beaten up a wounded woman.

 

“Now what the hell am I supposed to do? Let her just recklessly get herself killed? Who’d feed you those special nibblets you like then? Huh? Work with me here.”

 

His phone rang. Quickly answering it, he sat down to talk to his father ignoring the mess of broken dishes lying on the floor.

 

~~~

 

“Alex?”

 

“Hmm...”

 

Isabel laughed and sat on the bed next to him, holding a steaming cup of coffee. “You going to wake up, or sleep all day?”

 

Alex opened one eye, and then shut it again, smiling. Reaching up he took the cup of coffee and placed it on the nightstand. Using his now freed hand, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back into the bed with him.

 

Giggling, Isabel laughed in his neck when he made sloppy noises, and munched on the side of her neck. Alex. Smiling, her hand moved down his back to hold him close. He was off late last night from the club. She almost didn’t think he would come over, but at two in the morning she felt him crawl into her bed. Part of her wanted him to go home and get some rest instead coming to her, but another part of her was happy that he sought her out, wanting to sleep with her without it being about sex.

 

“Damn, I’m tired. What about we, that means you and me, stay here in bed all day long?” Alex wiggled his eyebrows, and his mouth curved in a suggestive leer. “I’ll make it worth something special.”

 

“You always do.” Isabel snuggled into his warm body liking how he moved himself to make room for her. “Liz is torturing some eggs and making her rendition of French toast, if you’re interested.”

 

Alex reached over and took the coffee. Not bad. Sort of weak, but hot which made up for all other areas lacking.

 

“Is Liz alone, or are we still doing the fireman?”

 

“Nah, she broke up with him last week.”

 

Alex nodded. He worried about Liz Parker. The more he knew her, the more he liked her, and the amount of pseudo-relationships and men she had gone through over the last four months was staggering. Isabel thought Liz was overcompensating for her break up with Sean. After a six month relationship with him, she was just trying to exert her independence.

 

Alex sensed it was something else. Liz was searching for something, or perhaps someone. One thing was certain - moving away from her parents and moving in with Isabel was a large step in the right direction for Liz. Every day she grew stronger and more self-assured.

 

“Look, how about a date tonight…a double date?”

 

Isabel sat up a little, looking at his adorably tossed long dark hair and scruffy face. He needed a shave, but she was hoping he would hold off. She loved his unkempt look. Her eyes went down over his body. The tattoos, the piercing, and a few scars he wouldn’t talk about. Alex looked very well put together in an adorable computer geek way until you looked closer at his tough wiry body, and the deep still look in his eyes. He was a man with more to him than what he let be seen on the outside.

 

“I’m not sure she’s seeing anyone yet.”

 

Alex thought about it. “Fine. I’ll talk my cousin into it.” Alex kissed Isabel and sat up on the side of the bed, reaching for his clothes. Smelling his shirt he grimaced and tossed it aside. Smoke and sweat. Definitely time for something fresher. Walking naked to the bureau, he searched for some clothes, while grabbing a cigarette and lighting up. Taking a mind-clearing draw, he breathed it in deep, enjoying the burning nicotine. Isabel came up behind him and pinched his ass hard, then pinched his cigarette from his mouth. Putting it out, she kissed him.

 

“No smoking in the house!”

 

“C’mon, Iz. Just a quick one, and I’ll be…”

 

“Nope. Liz and I hate for our place to smell like your smokes. Take it outside.”

 

Alex smiled an innocent boyish smile. “I was going to go stand under some hot water, how about you join me? I’ll get you all wet.”

 

Isabel ignored obvious come-on and peeled herself away from him. “Breakfast. You get showered and dressed, and then I’ll feed you.”

 

“That’s what I was talking about. Come shower with me.”

 

Alex kissed her, and before she could step away, he deepened it. Loving the way she moaned in his mouth, the tightening of her arms around his neck, he slowly walked them to the bathroom.

 

“Alex, breakfast…”

 

“I’ll make quick work. I’m good under a deadline.” Alex shut the bathroom door to a laughing Isabel.

 

~~~

 

The light filtered through the closed blinds of the loft. Michael lazily looked over at the clock and groaned. It couldn’t be that late. They woke up four hours ago, ate, and went back to bed. Somehow in all of that, he lost about three hours of time, but he didn’t remember sleeping. He could hear Maria talking. Lying back in comfort, he listened to her. Mr. Boo was sleeping like a stone on his legs.

 

“So I should tell you that I tend to organize everything into lecture form. Now you shouldn’t take this to be a bad thing. It is highly organized, evolved, and created to inform without confusion. I dare say that I should warn you that your father is the direct opposite. He tends to blurt things out impulsively and  haphazardly, with total disregard for fluidity and understanding. His language is a bit…colorful. But, like all things about him, you will learn to appreciate those parts of him as well. He is a really wonderful guy, your dad. No one will ever hurt you or threaten you, because your dad will make sure that you’re safe.” He heard her moving around, opening drawers and other things as she paused in her talk to the babies. “Now the hair…”

 

Michael snickered and settled down to listen to the quiet gentle lull of her voice and let it carry him off to sleep. He needed to get up and around, call Max and enlist helpers to start cleaning out Maria’s old office to be turned into a nursery.

 

“Professor, don’t diss the hair. They might be born with the Guerin head.” Maria came to stand in the doorway in her bathrobe, still rubbing lotion on her skin.

 

“Well, don’t you think we should warn them of the harsh realities of life? One look in the mirror could be demoralizing.” She smiled slightly, but her smile soon bled away as she took a good look of him lounging in their bed. Her breath caught in her throat, and all she could smell was him. Mouthwatering.

 

Michael’s eyes dilated as he noticed her regard. Her look was like a burning touch of fire across his skin. How did she do that? He could feel power emanating from her.

 

“You’re awfully far away, Professor.”

 

“Aren’t I though?”

 

Maria went to join him on the bed. Lying across his chest, she looked into his face as his hand came to rest on her side. All this time, he still held his hand across her old scar.

 

“I was thinking…”

 

“No.”

 

“Michael…”

 

“No.”

 

Maria’s face clouded in a rush of exasperation. “You have no clue as to what I was going to say, so how the heck can it be no?”

 

“We’re not renovating and expanding the loft. Final.” Maria hit him on the chest and settled back in the bed away from him.

 

“Why the hell did I ever let you into my bed? You’re the most unreasonable of men.”

 

“I more than got in your bed, Professor.” Michael said smugly. Rubbing his hand up over her pregnant stomach he watched her skin change, move in color, and then glow. At the same time they both felt the results.

 

“Arg! Dammit! Get your hands off me.” Maria laid back, panting and still moaning under the influence of one of the more interesting side effects to being pregnant with alien babies. Bastard. Using her body to get his way. Uncalculating beast. A man beast.

 

“Maria.” She kept ignoring him. “Oh c’mon, Professor.” Maria turned on her side leaving her back to him. “Baby...”

 

Maria turned back around and stared at him. “Baby?” She smiled at that. “You never use that unless I’ve got you by the ba...”

 

Michael quickly kissed her. Yeah, well she literally and figuratively had too much control over him, and it didn’t do to admit that to her. Maria wasn’t above using such information to her advantage, and he could handle the mess from the nursery, but from a full renovation? Nope.

 

“I love you.” Michael stopped and pulled back at the softly spoken words. Dammit. She said the words. She was more likely to do that now than before, but they were still words she held back at times.

 

“Okay, draw up plans. But not the entire other side. It’s huge and would double the damn place. We both have to agree before we start.”

 

Maria squealed in a very un-ladylike manner, and attacked him, making loud outrageous kisses on his neck as Mr. Boo vacated his place in disgust. Whipped. Michael was damn near impossibly whipped. He paused. Holding her in his arms, all happy and content with his hand resting on his unborn children, he couldn’t remember why he should care.

 

 

It was the pounding at the door a few hours later that interrupted them as they played around in bed. Maria made a move to get up, but a sweaty Michael pulled her back.

 

“No. I’m not through.” His voice was deep and husky. “It’s frickin’ Saturday. No sane person expects us to answer the phone or the door.”

 

Maria kissed him gently. “Detective, it’s early afternoon. Are you forgetting an appointment you have with Zeke and a ball?”

 

“Oh shit!” Michael looked at the clock. No way! He couldn’t have been that involved. B-ball. Saturday. Shit! Kissing Maria quickly, he was out of bed scrambling into some clothes. Leaving him cussing and having a fit over another dead bird, sans head in his shoe, Maria went to take a nice bath.

 

“Zeke!” Michael tossed open the door catching the young man as he was turning to leave.

 

“Man, I thought you were gone or something. Maybe forgot?”

 

“Naw. I wouldn’t forget. I just…um...time sorta got away from me. Come on in and let me do some bird burial business, and finish getting dressed.”

 

Zeke entered the loft and when he entered, his head started to swim. Whoa! Grabbing the door he made a loud panting sound as he bent over at the waist and grabbed his knees.

 

“Oh boy! Yeah!” Clearing his throat, he looked up at Michael with a smile on his mouth and laughing eyes. “Dude, you’re going to have to bottle this shit.”

 

“What?” Michael was confused. What shit?

 

“Later. I’m needing to use your bathroom to clean up the mess.”

 

Mess? Michael pointed to the lower bedroom and its bathroom.

 

“You know the way.” Michael watched Zeke walk in a funny manner, not with his usual loose limbed gait. The confusion moved from Michael’s face as he started to put the pieces together. “Zeke, you didn’t just…” Michael made a motion with his hand and did a strange thing with his face.

 

“The full load, man. Right in my damn jockeys. Wow, what a rush. Better than porn and my own hand. Instant gratification.”

 

Zeke went off with a smile and whistling under his breath. The look on Michael’s face? Priceless. For everything else, there was Mastercard.

 

 

~~~

 

 

“So explain this to me one more time?” Liz pushed more food onto Alex’s plate.

 

“An overnight campout. On the Mescalero Reservation.”

 

“This is a double date?” Liz looked at Isabel and was shocked. Isabel Evans was the last person she expected to be onboard for camping. The woman was lost if her nail polish didn’t coordinate with her sweater, or her shoes were scuffed. “Don’t you think an overnight camping trip is a sort of forward first date, especially a blind date? Maybe coffee?”

 

Alex stood up and downed the last of his coffee and checked his watch. “My cousin is a veritable genius at handling changes in events. He’ll deal. Plus, you already know him, sort of. And I have to be at the family dinner on Sunday, so we can cook out tonight, and head in for dinner, and come home afterwards.”

 

“Don’t you have to work tonight?” Isabel chewed on a nail.

 

“I’ll fix it. I’d rather take you stargazing.”

 

Isabel laughed at that. “Really? Stargazing, huh? I sort of remember you taking me for that reason once before. I don’t remember there being any stars to gaze at.”

 

Alex leaned over her, and kissed her quick, and then back again to kiss her deep and dirty, ignoring Liz until the other woman made a clearing sound in her throat.

 

“Stars this time. I promise. My cousin and I used to literally live in tents on the Reservation when I was a kid. It’s one of the reasons my parents never left Roswell, even when my dad’s company went big. My mom hated to be away from her people.” Alex grabbed his jacket. “So just pack light for one night. I’ll get all the tents and supplies including Liz her own sleeping bag and tent, and I’ll pick you both up in about four hours.”

 

Liz just shrugged. Okay. Why not? She was free tonight. It might be fun. Watching Alex leave, a thought occurred to her.

 

“Alex, wait! I know your cousin? Who is he?”

 

Alex laughed on his way out, and tossed back at them as he left. “Maria’s friend, Eddie.”

 

Liz sat there in amazement. Eddie? Not Eddie, the penis gourd guy? Oh! Stargazing. Okay.

 

~~~

 

Sean finished cleaning up the mess he had made. His father was looking into things and making arrangements for Julia, but Julia herself was very quiet upstairs. He could hear her moving around, doors opening and drawers closing, but she herself was silent.

 

Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, he actually felt bad about the fight they had. He wished it could’ve gone down differently. Easier. Too late for that. He could hear her on the stairs. Searching the refrigerator, Sean concentrated on what to make for lunch. He hadn’t eaten anything, and Julia had hardly touched her breakfast. It was past the lunch hour, so she had to be hungry.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her depositing two bags beside the door. One large case and a shoulder bag. Dammit. She should’ve left it for him to bring down.

 

“Counselor, I would’ve gotten those for you.” Sean wiped his hands and came around to place his hands on her upper arms, drawing her close to kiss her forehead. Resting his against hers, it wasn’t hard to see that she had been crying. “Julia…”

 

“I’m done.” He hated her soft small voice. It reminded him of how her voice was when she called him that day with the body in her bed and two killers in the house. It didn’t sound like her.

 

“Packing?” Julia just nodded. Sean looked over at the bags to ask her if she had enough for a long stay. His bags. She had packed his two travel bags. “Julia?”

 

“You have to leave now.” Julia moved out of his arms. Going to the door, she opened it. “I remembered all your bathroom stuff, and those pills you’re supposed to take every morning for your allergies.”

 

“Julia, I’m not leaving.”

 

“Yes. Yes, you are. You said it. It's over, and I agree with you. This is over.”

 

Sean swore and came to stand next to her, slamming the door shut, he forced her to look up at him. Dammit. Stubborn. He knew that look. She wouldn’t back down.

 

“Don’t make me call someone, Sean.”

 

She didn’t say please, but he could see it in her eyes. She was barely hanging on. This was hurting. Hurting her. Hurting him. He hadn't known he could feel pain anymore, but dammit, it hurt. Instincts told him to stay, refuse to leave, but something even more ingrained told him follow his own request to her and leave, regroup and fight another day. Pushing her was only going to destroy what slim fragile hold they had on each other.

 

Sean grabbed her and kissed her. It felt like their first kiss all over again, and all the things that making love to a person that you could love can give a man. It hit Sean as if it were his first time. It was. He had never loved anyone before, not like this. Julia whimpered and tightened her arms around his neck against her will.

 

The rough, demanding lips on hers, the tongue, as strong as her own and just as demanding, the stubble, grazing his cheek, her own rasping against Sean's, the delicious sound of the low, guttural moans in her mouth. His or hers? She couldn’t tell. The sheer strength of the muscles that moved arms and legs, that alternately pulled and pushed and demanded....nothing could feel this good, would ever feel this good again, except this man, this body.

 

His hands moved around to grasp the firm buttocks, pulling her hips into the saddle of his groin, and he almost came at the first touch. Soft and lean, and yet muscular, yielding to his touch, he kneaded his fingers, loving the feel of her under his fingers through the delicious feel of the silk. He let his fingers around the bone, to hold her taunt against his aroused body, and he felt the immediate response and smiled into the kiss.

 

Julia pulled away, her breath coming in short pants and she gave him a sad intense look, and hissed out, "Don’t win this way."

 

Sean closed his eyes and stepped away. She was right. He’d get around her, win, and later when reason reinstated itself, they’d be back where they started, but she’d hate him for using her physically to get his way.

 

Pulling her back quickly, he kissed her long, hard and deep. His eyes stormy and intense. “This is far from over, Counselor. I’m coming back for you.”

 

Sean took his bags and without looking back, he left.

 

~~~

 

“Foul! Dammit, Michael, that was a blatant foul.”

 

Michael took the ball back out to the line and touched. “Not! Tell me, partner, when I do it, it’s a foul. When you do it, it’s skillful playing?”

 

Max just made a face and stepped into Michael’s gut, accidentally stepping on his instep and causing a murmur of pain. Michael cursed Max’s heritage and passed the ball to Zeke. The kid was good. Fast. Clean. He quickly faked around Jonathan and hit the hoop in a nicely executed lay-up.

 

“The kid is a ringer, I’m telling you.” Jonathan bent over resting his hands on his knees breathing hard. Damn. He and Max were good players, but they couldn’t take out the team of Michael and Zeke. Michael was a born soldier, shifty-eyed and intense. The bastard didn’t know how to yield or lose. And young Zeke was surprisingly just plain out good. He outclassed them all. No wonder Michael took him on as his basketball partner.

 

The group of four went to sit on the side and drink some water. That was it for game three. Max and Jonathan had won the first game, barely. Michael and Zeke took the last two. Max was suspecting that Michael and Zeke had a strategy of appearing non-threatening, but coming on strong at the end. He remembered Sean and Kyle bitching about a game they played against the two, but just took it to be sour grapes from having lost, and not from being taken to the cleaners.

 

“We had a five spotter on this match, right?”

 

“Twenty,” said Michael smugly. Max and Jonathan had upped it after the first game. Zeke smiled happily as he planned on where he was spending his winnings.

 

“So I’ve got one.” The three men looked at Zeke and nodded for him to tell his story.

 

“A successful businessman flew to Vegas for the weekend to gamble. He lost the shirt off his back, and had nothing left but a quarter and the second half of his round trip ticket. If he could just get to the airport he could get himself home. So he went out to the front of the casino where there was a cab waiting. He got in and explained his situation to the cabbie. He promised to send the driver money from home, he offered him his credit card numbers, his drivers license number, his address, etc, but to no avail. The cabbie said, 'If you don't have fifteen dollars, get the hell out of my cab!'  So the businessman was forced to hitchhike to the airport and was barely in time to catch his flight.  One year later the businessman, having worked long and hard to regain his financial success, returned to Vegas and this time he won big. Feeling pretty good about himself, he went out to the front of the casino to get a cab ride back to the airport. Well, who should he see out there, at the end of a long line of cabs, but his old buddy who had refused to give him a ride when he was down on his luck!  The businessman thought for a moment about how he could make the guy pay for his lack of charity, and he hit on a plan. The businessman got in the first cab in the line, 'How much for a ride to the airport?' he asked.  'Fifteen bucks,' came the reply. 'And how much for you to give me a blowjob on the way?'  'What?! Get
the hell out of my cab!' The businessman got into the back of each cab in the long line and asked the same questions, with the same result. When he got to his old friend at the back of the line, he got in and asked 'How much for a ride to the airport?' The cabbie replied, 'Fifteen bucks.' The businessman said, 'Okay,' and off they went. Then, as they drove slowly past the long line of cabs the businessman gave a big smile and thumbs up sign to each driver."

Max gave a chuckle and Michael just smirked while leaning back with his eyes closed.

 

Jonathan frowned. “So did he get his blowjob?”

 

The other three fell over laughing and Jonathan just smiled slightly, trying to appear innocent. Max passed his water to Jonathan and tipped his head to the side. Jonathan just shook his head no. Any more games and they would definitely feel the crush of defeat. Fleecing by Guerin and Garza wasn’t high on his Saturday priority list.

 

Michael looked at the time and swore. “I need to scram. Maria was going to the hospital, and I need to go pick her up. Zeke, you need a lift back to the lofts?”

 

“Nah. You can give me a lift to the hospital though. I’d thought I’d go see Amy. Tell her about the play and all.”

 

“Okay, get your stuff, kid.” Michael held out his hand with a raise of his eyebrow. “Pay up, partner.”

 

“How about letting it ride on a rematch? You can’t just walk away without giving us a chance to win our money back.”

 

Michael looked over his shoulder at Zeke. “You up for another game, say double or nothing?”

 

Jonathan made a sound in his throat and passed Michael a twenty, and one to Zeke. “Forget it. No sense in adding insult to injury.” Jonathan looked at Max. “You want to go visit Amy?”

 

Max looked at Michael, and smiled. The man wasn’t happy at the thought of Jonathan going near Maria. “No. Let’s go hit a shower, and check out that new movie at the CinemaPlex. It looks like a real screamer.”

 

Jonathan just shrugged. Sure. Why not? It was Max’s turn to choose. He had visited Amy and Jim the day before, and he and Max could take them breakfast in the morning. It didn’t pay to piss off Michael too many times in one day, and he really was trying to keep on the man’s good side since he was still working on getting Max to move in with him.

 

Zeke and Michael headed out after saying goodbye to Jonathan and Max. They were all cheerful about winning the pot, but Michael noticed Zeke’s frown.

 

“What's up, kid?”

 

“Jonathan.” Zeke looked back at the man. “He’s kind of scary.”

 

Michael went still. “Scary?”

 

Zeke just shrugged. “Know how when you're vulnerable, under someone’s control?” Michael nodded. He knew that from his life on the streets during his Vice career. “The controller is a person who has a look in their eye, a knowledge like about when you’re going to eat, when you’re going to sleep, and…” Zeke’s voice dropped to a mere whisper, “…when you’re going to die.”

 

“You get that from Jonathan?”

 

Zeke looked back at the two men walking away. “Yeah. I get that. He knows and sees things that others can’t. It’s like a person with all the answers to the game, and he sits back and watches, waiting.” Zeke looked at Michael. “Maria used to affect me that way too. Not to this extent. Maybe because she’s not a man, and I have reason to fear men in power. But she has a way of looking at a person, seeing into them, holding what she sees close to her, and then slowly guiding that person to see it for themselves.”

 

“Jonathan is slowly guiding someone?” Michael looked back at his partner and Jonathan as they got into Jonathan’s car. “Who? Maria?”

 

“Max. He’s teaching Max how to be 'more'.”

 

Michael thought about that for a moment. It was true. Max was often riddled by self doubt, the fear of failing, even to an extent that Michael couldn’t understand. It was almost an obsession. But since he hooked up with Jonathan there were changes, subtle at first, but soon more and more obvious. It was the reason Captain put Max in charge, and why the rest of them naturally yielded to him. Jonathan was Max’s mentor in some form, and Michael couldn’t say why it worried him, but it did. Perhaps because with all things there was usually a price, and Michael couldn’t stand to lose Max - not to anyone.

 

~~~

 

“Coming!” Isabel opened the door in a flurry of activity. She was still fussing over what to take on an overnight camping trip. “Oh god! Not today.”

 

“Shut up, stop your bitching, and let me in.” Isabel just sighed as she stood aside and let Sean into the loft.

 

“Sean, as amusing as you can be, Liz and I are heading out for an overnight camping trip.”

 

“Good. I need a place to flop, and that means your place is vacant.”

 

Isabel shut the door and leaned against it observing the man. “She tossed you out?”

 

Liz came down the stairs with a bag she was struggling with, and paused, seeing Sean. “Who tossed him out? Julia? No!”

 

“Hey, I’m standing here!”

 

“I told you she would toss his ass out once she really got a good look at him.”

 

“Thanks, Iz. Look at what you’re banging. Alex is a poster child for the Bad News Bands and Hackers United.”

 

Before Isabel could retaliate, Liz forestalled her. Sean didn’t look so good. Leaving her bag on the landing she joined them, and pulled Sean into the loft. Isabel bit back her snotty retort when she too noticed the man was lacking his usual luster.

 

“What happened, Sean?” Isabel asked quietly.

 

“Me, I guess.” Sean sat down dejectedly on the sofa and rubbed his face. “Her office was bombed. She was hurt. Pierce. I told her to pack and I was sending her to Florida, to my family for protection, and she packed alright…my shit, and tossed me out.”

 

Liz sat on the side of the sofa and patted his shoulder sympathetically. “You couldn’t have meant that. It was just an instant reaction, nothing more.”

 

“Of course I meant it.”

 

Liz went quiet and looked at Isabel. The two women shared a look of understanding.

 

“What about her job, Sean?”

 

Sean looked at Isabel, and then at Liz. “It’d be here when she got back, but with Pierce gone.”

 

Isabel understood what he was saying. “So you’re saying you were going to take care of Pierce, and then she could come home?”

 

“Exactly. It’s too dangerous for her. He almost killed her more than once, and…”

 

“Oh Sean,” Liz said sadly. Isabel just patted him on the shoulder. “You expected her to run, to leave you to take care of everything and then just come home, happy?”

 

What the hell was wrong with these women? Sean looked from one to the other. Isn’t that what a man was supposed to do? Take care of his family, the people he loved? Protect them from harm and safeguard them from those who would hurt them?

 

“What about her job? What she is?” Liz asked gently. “She’s supposed to turn that off, walk away, and expect it to be there when she gets back? I worked a long time and very hard to become what I am, to earn my position. I wouldn’t just walk away, leave my responsibilities because someone asked me to do so.” Liz looked at Sean seriously. “Would you? If she asked you to leave, to go with her and not look back, come back when it was safe, would you? Could you?”

 

Sean looked at the two women and then down at his feet. “She asked. I said no.” Both women groaned and fell into the sofa cushions on either side of Sean.

 

“Damn, that was a mistake, Sean.” Isabel said looking at Liz over Sean’s dejected head. Making a gesture he couldn’t see, she rubbed her fingers together indicating money. Liz owed her big! She had bet that Sean and Julia would break up in under six months, and Liz gave it more than six. Patting Sean’s shoulder in comfort, Isabel sat back and enjoyed thoughts of how she was going to use the money. “So why are you here? Why not Michael and Maria’s?”

 

Sean put his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes. “Are you crazy? Those two are in some kind of mating frenzy. It’s like their bodies haven’t clued in that they are already pregnant. I’ve just broke up with my girl, and being around them not only would not only frustrate me, but make me hard. And right now I have no place to take care of it.”

 

Liz had to agree. “They are kind of…visceral right now.”

 

“Visceral?” Isabel laughed at Liz’s attempt to be proper. “They are two horndogs just looking for a place to rut. But personally, I love the effect it has on Alex.”

 

“Needs help getting it up, huh?” Sean was rewarded with an elbow to his ribs. “Ouch! That hurt, Iz.”

 

“Lay off the boyfriend. Your jealousy is unbecoming.” Yeah, Sean had reason to be jealous. Alex was perfect, Sean was not. Isabel tried to think of the most biting way she could convey that to Sean and  get maximum effect.

 

“So you want to stay with us?” Liz asked, discreetly making a gesture at Isabel to behave herself. The man was already down. Isabel just snorted in derision. The man liked pain. It would be like dessert. A present.

 

“If you wouldn’t mind. Not for long. I’ve got a plan…” Both women just groaned. Great. They’d seen Sean, Michael, Max, and Kyle’s plans in the past. They weren’t pretty.

 

“Well, since we’re not here tonight you can sleep in Liz’s bed. It’s not like she hasn’t had to deal with your cooties in the past, and her bed lately has been a revolving door for the men of Roswell, whereas mine has been pretty exclusive.”

 

Liz just shrugged. Sure. Why not?

 

Isabel patted Sean on the knee and went back upstairs to worry over her wardrobe. Camping? What the hell did a person wear camping?

 

“So, is Isabel telling the truth? Are you busy working your way through the men of Roswell?” Sean asked slightly concerned.

 

“Not quite that bad, I’m showing some selectivity, but taken as a whole? Yeah, I’ve been working my way through some boyfriends over the last four months.”

 

“Since we broke up?”

 

Liz looked at Sean and smiled slightly. “It’s not what you think. I’m not pining or whatever you want to call it. I think…I think I’m searching. It’s like I can taste what I want, what I need, but the name of it eludes me.” Liz looked up at the loft area to see Isabel’s door shut. “Strange as it may seem, I think I’m in love with someone.”

 

Sean sunk lower in the sofa and whispered conspiratorially to Liz. “Who? Anyone I know?”

 

“That’s the problem. I don’t even know. It’s like my heart feels full, aware, but my damn brain is refusing to really accept.”

 

“Maybe he’s someone you can’t have. Someone who is unavailable, and you’re protecting yourself from heartache by denial.”

 

“Maybe. I just know that I think I’m searching for something, someone to give me a sense of peace.” Liz absentmindedly stroked her scar on her throat. Sean reached up and took her hand in his.

 

“Liz, you’ve come so far since we broke up. I’m proud of you. You’ve seemed to have grown and blossomed, made a home for yourself and become comfortable with your own sexuality. You seem more in control of your life. Don’t keep looking back. Look forward. Live to live.”

 

“Are you still looking back, Sean?”

 

“No. I see my future crystal clear. Now the stubborn Counselor needs to see it too.”

 

Liz played with his fingers. “So this is the real thing, huh? Heart in your mouth, sweaty palms, hollow stomach, and the beat of your heart so loud it drowns out all reasonable thought?”

 

“You know so much, Parker. You must be in love, or waiting for it, or so ready that ‘he’ is coming near. Maybe you haven’t met him, Liz. Maybe you just have a ‘sense’ of him, that he's close.”

 

“Perhaps. Or maybe a sense that he already passed me by.” Liz cuddled next to Sean and put her head on his shoulder. “It’ll come right. I’m sure of it. Look at us. All of us. We’re all in our late twenties to early thirties. It was time. Time for all of us to stop playing high school games. We aren’t children any longer. Michael has Maria and babies on the way. Kyle and Tess are settled waiting for their baby and Max’s, and Max with Jonathan is a totally hot item. All of us are watching in amazement of how good they look together. Who would’ve thought. I still remember when Max and Michael were terrorizing the single women of Roswell…dating dogs that slept with a woman and then moved on. Now Max owns a Volvo.” Sean snickered at that. “And you’re with Julia. Amazing. You look so right with her, much like Michael looks with Maria. Not an extension, but a completion. That’s what I want. I want to complete someone.”

 

“No complete enough, she tossed me out.”

 

“Yeah, that’s because you need to learn. So learn, Sean. She’s your partner, not your responsibility.”

 

Sean paused. That was what Julia had said. “I don’t know that I can stop being what I am.”

 

“But yet, you expect her to stop being what she is.” Liz hit Sean on the stomach. “I’m starving! Isabel is a nightmare in the kitchen, and my entire culinary ability revolves around grilled food from the Crashdown. You stay…you cook!”

 

Isabel came down the stairs with an armful of clothing. “Okay, you’re going to have to help me decide what to wear.”

 

Sean got up to wander into the kitchen, to check out the supplies. Laughing as the girls argued over the plausibility of Isabel wearing leather while camping he tsked at their lack of food. Grabbing a phone, he quickly called the market for a delivery.

 

“I never saw anyone do that before until I met you and Maria.” Liz said grabbing a bag of chips almost gone.

 

“What?” Sean hung up the phone and started washing the poor excuses for vegetables from the refrigerator, tossing those on the verge of becoming a lab experiment.

 

“People who called for food delivery, liquor delivery, dry cleaning, laundry, and almost everything else. Normal people, everyday ordinary people get in their car and do all that themselves.”

 

Sean laughed. “DeLucas are high maintenance people. We are bred that way.”

 

Never a truer word spoken. Liz was suddenly thoughtful and serious again. “Talk to Maria, Sean. She knows better than anyone where Julia is coming from. It almost broke her and Michael that first year, remember? Ask them. They know.”

 

“I can’t stand having to start over with her, Liz. I’m less than where I started.”

 

“No you aren’t. You're ahead. She already loves you; now you just have to learn the rules.”

 

Sean laughed and cut off mold from the cheese. “How’d you get so smart, Lizzie girl?”

 

“Max. He comes over all the time to talk.” Liz sat down and looked over at Sean. “Believe it or not he treats me like a sister, then a friend, and now he seeks me out just for fun. It’s highly uncomplicated and evolved.”

 

Sean just whooped at that. Highly uncomplicated? Evolved? Only Parker.

 

 

~~~

 

Michael let himself into the back door of the loft. Sniffing the air, he was shocked at the smell of food. Good food. Italian. Liz and Isabel didn’t cook. They tended to burn. There was a reason Parker dated three firemen over the last four months. The Roswell Fire Department had their address on constant alert.

 

“Liz?”

 

“They’re not here.”

 

Michael turned to see Sean coming out of the bathroom. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Cooking. Cleaning. Watching a game on the tube.” Sean took Michael in fully. “Question is what are you doing here?”

 

“Blood. I brought Liz a new sample of Maria’s blood.” Michael went into the kitchen and placed a tube of blood in the refrigerator. “When is Parker going to be back?”

 

“Tomorrow. The girls are on an overnight, stargazing with Whitman and his cousin. They’ll be back after dinner tomorrow.”

 

“Whitman is a stargazer?” Michael just shook his head in amazement. That was so damn…ordinary. Alex was the farthest thing from ordinary in his mind.

 

“It was interesting to see both Liz and Isabel running around in a frenzy.” Sean reached over and tossed some grated cheese into the dish.

 

“What the hell are you making?” Damn, it smelt good. Real good.

 

“Chicken tetrazzini with extra cheese sauce and mushrooms.”

 

“You cooking here as a surprise for Mac?”

 

“No.” Sean ignored Michael’s eyes and just kept on cooking.

 

“What's going on, Sean?”

 

“Not in a mood to talk about it, Michael. So how about you back off?”

 

Michael looked at the man and nodded. Sure. Fine with him. None of his business. “So she kicked you out?”

 

“I said…”

 

“Yeah, whatever. What happened?”

 

Sean slammed a few pots and pans around. “The DA office was bombed yesterday.”

 

News to Michael. His work time was so cut down that he barely was aware what the hell was going on. Lately they called him into and for special cases, otherwise he was a ghost at work.

 

“Mac? Is she okay?”

 

“Took a frag nail to the shoulder, and a nasty crease to her cheek.” Michael’s jaw flexed, but he remained quiet. “What did you do?”

 

“I left it alone for the night. Next morning, not so easy.” Sean pushed two casserole dishes into a hot oven to bake. “I called my dad. Made arrangements to get Julia out of here and protected.”

 

Michael swore and sat down on a stool across from the cooking Sean. Bad move. One he would’ve made under the same circumstances over a year ago. One he wouldn’t make now. But inside, he would’ve wanted to do the same. Every instinct in his body would’ve been screaming for him to do what Sean did. Protect the women he loved. Period.

 

“Sorry, man.”

 

“Yeah, me too.”

 

“She took it bad?”

 

Under-fucking-statement. “She says it’s over.”

 

“And you say?”

 

“I’ve got a plan.”

 

Michael pursed his lips and slowly nodded his head. Of course he did. “Good. Now take those plans and toss them, bury them. Deep, Sean. Whatever they are? Forget them.”

 

“Fuck that! You think I’m going to just let this be over? Would you?”

 

“Of course not! Do you see me and Maria broken up? It could’ve been us, and it almost was.” Michael grabbed a hunk of bread from the counter and smeared it with tons of butter. Aw. Still hot and fresh. “Now you can do this stupid, or you can do this smart. If you follow the instincts that you and I have and what we know what must be done…that will be stupid.” Michael ignored the protesting Sean. “Not to us, but to the ladies. Now one thing I learned is they don’t see things like we do, but that doesn’t make them less or whatever. Just majorly whacked and unreasonable.”

 

Sean laughed at that. He had to agree. Julia was whacked if she thought this was through, that they were over. And unreasonable? Hell, that chicken-eating, spicy woman with a gleam for real domination was writing a book on the damn subject.

 

“Okay, quit fucking with me, Guerin and give me the straight shit. How far in the hole am I?”

 

“Deep, but still retractable. You need to learn patience. The hunt, Brother, the hunt. A good hunter knows his prey, knows its schedule and habits, and exploits its weaknesses. You going for a kill, it can be down and dirty…you going to catch an unattainable wild beauty to keep barely contained? You need to practice a long patience.”

 

“Okay, I doubt I’d call Maria tamed, since she’s got you whipped.”

 

Michael laughed and put more bread in his mouth. “That I am, but there is whipped, and then there is whipped! It is a matter of semantics.”

 

“Okay, cut the subtext shit, and tell me how you kept it together without Maria tossing your arrogant, insanely possessive ass from the get go, because I was there, and the two of you were melting down quick, real nasty like.”

 

Michael winced at that. Too true. He and Maria did more than weather hard times and a stormy early relationship, actually they almost broke to pieces. It took a lot to learn the limits in their relationship, to design a system of checks and balances where they could protect the other without going overboard, a system they both understood and respected. The Rules. Later the rules weren’t really needed so much once Maria learned to accept the parts of him that were neurotically possessive, and she learned that she had some of the same possessiveness in her own makeup. It made it easier for her to understand him, to give him some space to be who he was.

 

“Sex.” Michael said simply.

 

“What?”

 

“Sex held us together when everything else was pulling us apart. Sex and the fact we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. No matter how pissed off we got, how strained things were, just one look, a touch…hell, even her smell was enough to make all the bullshit seems so small and unimportant.”

 

“Julia and I were going pretty strong, so why did it not work the same? I’m on the outside and I don’t remember Maria tossing your ugly hide out.”

 

“I wasn’t so stupid to push so hard all at once.”

 

Sean just sneered at Michael. “In other words, you were so busy letting your dick lead you around you never let your pissy attitude take over enough to torque Maria off enough to toss you out.”

 

“Yeah, something like that.” Michael smiled. Yeah, when he and the Professor first started knocking boots it was hot, hard and constant. Frowning, Michael realized suddenly that the intensity hadn’t faded in the least bit in over a year and a half, and actually it was in some ways even more intense. Whoa. Smiling even larger, Michael tossed some more bread into his mouth. It was good being him. Sean? Poor sap.

 

“Okay, so I’m doomed here. I’m already out the door.”

 

Poor bastard. Michael thought about it for a second. “Okay, so maybe you lost some ground. But nothing we can’t fix. You just need to learn patience, perseverance, and sheer pig-headed stubbornness.”

 

“Got the stubbornness down.” Sean looked in the refrigerator to grab a beer he bought for himself and passing one to Michael. “So where do I start?”

 

“Back off. Leave her alone. Let what comes natural happen.”

 

Sean bit back a curse. Relationship pointers from Michael Guerin. He was doomed. Damn. “Okay, so what is that…what happens naturally?”

 

Michael just smirked as he nursed the beer. “You’ll see the next time you see her, just be sure not to push her, don’t open your fat mouth, and let it happen as it’s going to, and you’ll see.”

 

“Fuck.” Sean rubbed the back of his neck and looked in the oven at his food bubbling nicely. “Patience? Dammit. Perseverance I think I can manage, but

patience?”

 

Michael nodded sagely. Yeah that could be a problem. None of them was the most patient of men. Perhaps Kyle, and in some ways, Alex, but they were marginal. “Okay, you’re going to need a project, a distraction.” Michael sat back and thought about it. Sean could feel sweat trickling down his back at the smile that slowly moved across Michael’s face. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. Nope. It was mean, manipulative, and…well, just Guerin-scary. “I’ve got the perfect project!”

 

“No. Whatever it is? The answer is no.”

 

“It’s for Maria.”

 

Sean paused. Dammit. Not the Maria gambit. That Guerin was one sneaky bastard. “Okay, stop being a prick and just tell me.”

 

“The nursery. We’re going to start working on the nursery, and I need help getting the room cleared, repainted, and stuff.”

 

Sean felt relief. Okay. That wasn’t so bad. He’d do that happily, willingly, and so on. “Done. So what room you turning into the nursery? The downstairs bedroom? That’s 'Keep houseguest away'.”

 

“Maria’s office.”

 

Sean’s face drained of all color. “No! No way, man. Count me out!”

 

“You already said yes.”

 

“Forget it! I was misinformed. Under-informed. That damn room scares me shitless. I don’t fear much. Mainly my Aunt Amy with that look, and that damn room.”

 

“It’s not that bad,” Michael lied.

 

“No? That room is a vortex to the frickin’ Middle Earth, or unknown alien worlds, so sure - you’re safe. Uh huh. Earth boy like me? I’d be toast.” Sean took on a serious look, deadly and intent with a touch of around the campfire urban legend to him. “Things go into that room that never return! I think I saw a mouse run in there once, a high squeal, and then deadly silence.”

 

“That’s bullshit.” Michael didn’t mention that he was recruiting help to decrease his chances of annihilation. “You’re a DeLuca. I’ve seen that pigsty you call a desk. This is the same, but just on a grander level.”

 

“Nope. What? You need to get Hooked on Phonics or something? N-O. No.”

 

“Maria started sewing,” Michael said softly, pulling out all the guns.

 

Sean’s face went blank as he tried to understand the words that Michael had just spoken. Maria. Sewing. Maria sews? “What? You mean she pulled out her trusty credit card, hunted down five or six domestic women who actually have talent in the craft of sewing and paid them to make things for the babies?”

 

“No. Maria is sewing. Embroidering is what she calls it.” Michael went in for the real fear factor with emphasis. “I think I saw long needles that looked either like knitting needles or a medieval torture device. Personally, I was hoping it was something kinky, but in truth, there was a hell of a lot of yarn next to it.”

 

“Shit!” Sean could feel sweat breaking out on his forehead. Maria was really, really sick. “What’s going on exactly? Maybe you should take her to the doctor?”

 

“I think she’s nesting. Wanting to get ready for the babies and we haven’t done anything to prepare for them, and she needs to do something along that line. It’s time. Otherwise she’s not getting anything out of this pregnancy but fear. None of the fun things.”

 

Sean felt the crashing of the steal jaws of a finely tuned trap. “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll help you, but you better call Kyle and Max, too. The more there with guns, the better the chance of survival.”

 

“Right you are.” Michael perked up as the timer on the chicken went off. “Chicken tetrazzini, huh?”

 

“Mom’s recipe. I make it for Julia. She loves it.”

 

Michael eyed the two casserole dishes full of a nice bubbly cheese sauce. “What’s with two batches?”

 

“Liz and Isabel don’t have any bigger casserole dishes. I had to split the recipe.”

 

“Good.” Michael reached across and took the hot pad, grabbing the bigger casserole dish putting a fresh loaf of bread across the top. “I’ll take this one.”

 

“Hey!”

 

“Maria. She needs food. This will make her happy.” Michael hummed a little under his breath. “Come over for breakfast. You can make Maria those fried French donut things she loves, and after we clean the upstairs room for the nursery, I’ll take you somewhere special! A special project to help work on your Julia woes.”

 

“What?” Sean followed Michael to the glass door and stopped him from opening the door. “What special project?” Sean had already seen Michael’s ‘special projects’ and they were bloody scary.

 

“Found you a 1969 Dodge Charger. Pretty good condition, but it needs work. The guy is a person I arrested, and as a favor to me, he might let it go for a song.”

 

A 1969 Dodge Charger? Sean felt his stomach hollow and his heat pick up speed. “Let me get that door!”

 

Michael navigated his way from Liz and Isabel’s loft through the garden, careful of the hot casserole dish of food. Using his foot, he hooked on the semi-opened sliding glass door and went inside the loft.

 

“Professor! I’ve got something for you.”

 

“Food?” Maria’s voice echoed in the loft in anticipation.