PART 7

Michael called Maria's house before he left his place to let her know he was on his way. Maria had finished the salmon and it was baking. Looking at Liz, she decided the girl had had too much wine to drive home, so she called a cab.

When Michael pulled his car into the area in front of Maria's loft, she was just putting Liz into the taxi and waving goodbye. The look on her face when she saw his car was priceless.

"Oh my god! Don't even tell me this is your car!" Maria moved around the offensive, noisy, broken down car that he had driven up in and parked in front of her place. The car was the one Mikey had bought him when he was sixteen. In all these years, he never had had the heart to trade it in or replace it. As long as he could, he planned to keep it. He loved that car.

"Guilty."

"Oh god! I can't believe I ever slept with you! Look at this...this...horror! How could you? How could you?" Maria was sputtering and almost pale in anger.

"How could I what?" What the hell was her problem? What if the car needed some work...but it still ran. Sure she had a classic Pontiac GTO convertible restored to mint condition, but his car wasn't dog meat exactly. It wasn't as if he was out picking up prepubescent girls in it wearing polyester and many golden chains around his neck, like some sleazy used car salesman.

Maria's voice lowered to a mere whisper, almost in reverence, as her beautiful long thin hand stroked the front fender. Michael could almost feel her touch on his own skin, knowing the way she was touching his car was the way she touched him... "It's a classic. A 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang made by the Ford Corporation in Fastback style."

"I know." Michael was confused. It was his car, so of course he knew what the hell it was!

"There were only about 2000 made. You can't buy these cars, because people don't sell them. And if you find one, it could cost anywhere from $50,000 to a cool million." Maria turned to him putting her body between him and his car, almost in protection. "And you drive it around in this state! It's sounding sick and tired!" Her voice had the sound as if she thought he was a barbarian.

"You think these are rare cars?" Maria nodded soulfully. "Well try repairing them! The parts are near impossible to find, and when you find them, they cost the earth. It was my dad's dream to restore it with me. He bought it for me when I was sixteen, and it was in poor condition then. But, it was all he could afford at the time, and before we could start working on it...he died. I wouldn't run it into the ground or part with it for the world." Michael's voice rose slightly stressing his point.

Maria somehow felt better at the tone of his voice. Just as long as he wasn't neglecting it on purpose, she could handle his driving the poor thing around. It needed help. "Help me put it away in my garage."

"I need it tomorrow."

Maria turned horrified at him. "You're not driving it! Not in this condition."

"Maria, I need my car. I'm tired of bumming rides from Max."

"Fine, take mine." Maria turned to open the garage next to hers which was actually connected, but opened up into a huge garage with tools and fully equipped to fix a car. Michael was stunned. It was a full service area.

"The GTO?" Michael asked hopefully. Maria just snorted her disbelief at his temerity and calmly pointed at the Jetta. "No way! I'm not driving that around. I'll go buy a new car first."

Maria sighed. Geez, what a big baby! "Fine, take the bike, but you better treat it nice."

"Bike? What bike?" Maria calmly pointed over to the corner and a covered lump. Pulling back the draw cloth, Michael gave a low whistle. Damn, what a woman! "Sh-it! That's a Harley Davidson Softtail, a FLSTF Fatboy in monochrome deep purple candy over black." Maria watched in amusement as he ran his hands over it murmuring to himself. Sean had the same reaction. Maria couldn't figure it out. It was just a bike.

"Yeah, whatever. You can use it if you want. I was thinking about getting rid of it anyway. Sean loves it, but he refuses to ever ride it, so..."

Michael looked at her and frowned as she continued to look around his car getting into it and slowly backing it into the garage shutting the door behind her. "Why buy it if you don't want it?" Michael asked following her from the large repair garage to her own personal one that housed the GTO, and then into the loft.

"I didn't buy it. I inherited it. My brother's...it was my brother’s bike." Maria went into the house and Michael followed silently. Her brother, that sick f-uck! Small wonder Sean didn't want it. Suddenly Michael didn't know what to say or do. The entire day, Maria's story haunted him, made him...he didn't even know what. There weren't words to describe the feelings he had in his stomach, the hollow butterflies and almost a deep sickness. The pictures of her bleeding to death were still fresh in his memory, and now he was lost for words. How could she survive, go on, forget?

Maria turned to look at him, confused by his silence. What the hell? Looking at him, at his face, how it was dark and quiet, shut down, she knew. Michael knew. She went to him because she knew he had to be feeling it more than she was. She didn't feel much of anything anymore, or just didn't allow herself to care. It was too hard losing things, people. She kept telling herself that, and was always surprised at how many people she did care about, that she let close. She wasn't quite the Teflon coated tough cookie she thought, and at times, she recognized and admitted it.

Slowly stroking his face, she curled her hand around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers, slowly leaning into him and lifting herself upward to claim his lips in a kiss, that went from gentle to explosive in seconds. She was so lost in the taste of him, the sound he made in his throat, that when she pulled back to rest her head on his chest and listened to his heart beat wildly, her breath was coming from her in gasps. "Drive the damn bike. I've hated it ever since I inherited it, and it just sits there. If you use it, you can give me a reason for finally liking the damned thing."

"Maria...I know..." Maria put her fingers over his mouth stopping him from talking about things she didn't want to discuss, let alone remember.

"The past is just that. Past. There are too many worries of the day and the future to spend your life trapped in a past so long since gone without a chance of changing. Don't let yourself dwell in a place that can only hold pain, Michael. It is a mindless place that will suck your life away." Maria thought about the ghostly Liz Parker, and how she and her parents were trapped in a sort of time warp that started when Liz's sister died until the moment Liz was shot and died. Maria just knew that she would do whatever it took to keep Michael from ever becoming trapped like that.

"Please, just use the damn bike while I help you repair your car. Help me put away a part of my past that still haunts me." Michael wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his body, tight.

"Are you fixin' my car?"

Maria kissed his chest over his heart and laughed. "Nope. You are. I'm just going to assist."

Michael looked at her and understood what she couldn't say. Or maybe it was that she wouldn't say. She knew...she knew that this car meant something to him. It was about Mikey, about his father. Somehow, if he could restore it, it would be like finally coming to peace over the loss of his dad. It was about him finally stopping to look in the past and living there, and moving on to becoming a person who only looked to the future. Michael didn't know if he could ever be a man who could let his past go, let it stop paining him. However, looking at her beautiful clear green eyes, he wanted to.

Maria smiled and kissed him again, rubbing her head into his body. He closed his eyes and just held her close liking the sensation of her. Michael laughed when she pulled back after a large sniff.

"Um...Michael? You really smell bad!" Maria's delicate nose flared as she sniffed him again. "Like smoke, and..."

"I know. Max and I got a lead on the design we showed you. Club Hell." Maria looked up at him, her eyes sad remembering the design, but a look of amusement and interest entered chasing away the sadness.

"Club Hell? You?!" Maria laughed delighted at the thought of Michael at the club wishing she could've been there. "Oh my god! You reek of Cop!"

Michael made a strange face his eyebrow pulling together as he looked at her with speculation. "What do you know about Club Hell?"

"I go there from time to time."

Michael was shocked. His Professor, his high browed yuppie white Professor living in her upscale loft with a throwback hippy mentality frequented Club Hell? "No way!"

"Way! Sean and I go to dance sometimes. And a few times I met some of my graduate students there." Maria ran her hands up his front mating her body tightly to his to wrap her arms around his neck. "I do a mean bump and grind, Detective." Maria smiled at the darkening of his eyes, that glint of she was beginning to recognize all so well. Moving her mouth mere millimeters from his, she breathed huskily into his mouth. "I would love to dance with you..."

Groaning at the feel of her, and wondering about the way she turned things one minute from emotional to suddenly physical, Michael just smiled wryly. "I don't dance."

Maria laughed delightfully, leaving one arm hooked around his neck and suggestively moving her other hand down to stroke the outline of his hardened body pressed against his jeans. "Oh Detective! That is just not true! I've seen you in action up close and personal, and honey, there is nothing wrong with the way you move."

Michael moved her laughing body up hard against the closed garage door feeling a combination of amazement at how fast she could affect him and pissed at his own body for having no control. He smiled at her gasp as he pressed himself into her, rubbing up her body leaning his head into her shoulder to nip the side of her neck while his one hand gently played with her silky hair occasionally tugging it. Just when he really decided dinner could wait and maybe getting very serious was needed, she ducked under his arm and away from him, breathing hard with her face flushed.

"Oh no you don't! I cooked dinner, and we're going to eat!" Michael turned to lean up against the door with his head c-ocked to one side and one eyebrow going up as he moved his hand down his own body suggestively. "Stop that! Oh god!" Maria quickly fled to the safety of her kitchen while Michael laughed moving towards the stairs to shower, liking the flustered look she had. It was nice to have her on the receiving end occasionally.

Later they sat at the dining table very close, their chairs almost on top of the other. Michael watched her intently, everything about her. How she moved her hands when she talked, reaching up to push her hair behind her ear. How she kept good eye contact with her eyes speaking almost louder than her words, and the way she reached over to touch his hand, stroke his arm, leaning in to kiss him gently, or just touch his face. As she detailed the plans to repair and restore his car he smiled, liking the way she made lists. He told her about the lead they found tonight, and she frowned over the story of Dru Rhiannon said she heard it before, but didn't know for sure. The food was great, the company was better, and despite only sipping on his glass of wine, Michael was feeling a little lightheaded. He spent a good five minutes just watching her mouth, hardly hearing a word she said, but just watching her talk and eat.

It was the ringing of his cell phone that brought the world they created, a world of food, talk and soft candle glow, to an abrupt end. With just a ring it was gone. Michael didn't even bother to try to swallow his bad language, and a disappointed Maria let his bad attitude charm her. The changing of his demeanor made her blood run cold as she saw him looking at her and then away. Standing and dropping her napkin on the table, Maria held her breath as she waited.

"We're on our way." Michael paused to listen to the person on the other end. Maria thought it was maybe Max, but uncertain. "No. I think I had better bring her. She would be alone, and never forgive us. Just give us about ten minutes." Michael turned to look at Maria knowing she was listening.

"What would I not forgive you?" Maria could feel the cold invading starting at her fingers, toes, and slowly moving inward, proximal.

Michael didn't know how to tell her gently, to ease into it. "Tess was attacked. She's in surgery."

When they reached the hospital, they found Jim, Max and Sean waiting for Tess to come back to recovery. A hospital social services worker and a legal representative were also on hand. The fact that Tess was attacked in their hospital brought up many problems of legality, and a pacing Kyle was making his displeasure known. If he were a jungle cat, his tail would've been swishing angrily. Maria frowned at her surrogate brother, noting his pallor and the tightness of pain on his face. She suspected he was refusing all pain relief until he knew about Tess.

Jim told them that Tess was rushed to surgery for a stabbing wound in the back. The doctor's were concerned because it was too close to right kidney. Jim frowned at his son listening to his endless diatribe over donating his kidney, catching the bastard, prosecuting the world at large, and his guilt over being asleep and not with her when she was attacked. Pulling Maria into a hug, Jim looked over her head at both Michael and Max and motioned them to take Kyle away. Michael paused for a second to look at Maria, but decided that she was safe, and joined Max to take Kyle to find coffee and get a statement out of him. They would have to question Tess later.

Tess finally came out of surgery with her kidney still functioning and a good prognosis. The entire group of them headed for her room ignoring the protest of the nurses and doctors. In a different circumstance, Jim would've been appalled at the disregard for the hospital authority, but in truth, he had a DeLuca with him, and they were a bad influence.

Maria's hand went to her mouth when she entered the room. Tess was...tiny, so small and fragile looking! Ready to turn around and push all the men out of the room, to leave her friend alone, Maria turned to stare at Michael, his eyes never wavering. With a sigh, she moved aside to let them enter, but quickly went around the bed to take her friend's hand.

Kyle quickly took the other, and they waited as Tess woke up and slowly focused on them. She focused on Kyle and smiled. "Oh, I must have died and gone to heaven."

Kyle collapsed in the chair next to the bed and lowered his head on her hand. He cried, and kept telling Tess how sorry he was to be late, that he wasn't there. Jim looked at his son. He remembered the last time his son cried was when they lost Jack.

They left the hospital a few hours later, leaving Tess in the watchful hands of the Valenti men and two patrolmen assigned guard duty. Both Max and Michael were surprised when Jim cut them lose and told them he would file the report himself. It seemed that Tess Hardy had just found herself a few protectors, and nothing was going to get to her without first finding its way through both Jim and Kyle.

Maria was hushed at his side. That worried him. Maria wasn’t a quiet person. She was more likely to rant and rave, but it bothered him how silent she was. Leading the way into the loft, he ignored the interrupted meal on the table and took her upstairs. Her skin was cold and she was shaking slightly. Quickly removing both of their clothes, he wrapped her in a blanket and carried her into the bathroom. Setting her down on the toilet seat, he quickly ran a hot bath. Strange to him was that he never really noticed the sunken large bathtub taking up its own corner of the bathroom surrounded by a low wall with candles and decorative bottles of bath oil and beads lined up on it.

Picking her up and removing her blanket, he stepped them into the hot water and slowly sat down, actually liking the heat. Michael moved back to rest against the edge and let her rest on him. Slowly moving the perfumed warm waters over her skin and seeing the pinking of her color from white, he let her have her stillness. Maria had drawn away from him, into a place where she hid from the world. When she finally worked out everything in her mind, she would talk to him. He kept her close, running his hands over her body, cupping her cheek in comfort. Until she was ready, they lay there together in silence.

When Sean finally let himself into the loft just after two A.M. he was surprised that it was dark. Looking up at the loft and the dark room with no noise or movement and then at the abandoned dinner, he guessed they had an early night. It was the bump of the person behind him, a feminine laugh, and his turning to gesture for his company to be quiet, that made him spy the bottle of wine on the table. Quickly seizing the bottle, he led his guest towards his room not even bothering with glasses.

About forty-five minutes later Michael was woken by the touch of a hand on his shoulder. Without thinking about it, he reached for his gun and rolled over with it already c-ocked and ready to fire in Sean DeLuca's face.

"Whoa! Back off big boy!" Sean said in a heated whisper with his hand raised.

Michael's eyes cleared from sleep and took in the full package of a large Sean DeLuca, very nude and aroused. Michael decided to leave his gun trained on Sean anyway. "That outfit looks a little drafty there, Sean. I sincerely hope that isn't for me, or you're not going to suggest joining us?" Michael waved his gun a little threatening at Sean's smallest member.

"No way! sh-it, Guerin, put away the piece. I need condoms!"

"Condoms?" Michael sudden heard laughing downstairs and a female voice calling to Sean to hurry up. Michael finally released the hammer on his gun and put it down.

"Yeah, I'm sort of out at an inappropriate moment, and the two of you seem...active lately, so...I thought..." Sean made a gesture that caused Michael to sigh. Rolling back over on top of Maria's back and leaning over the side of the bed Michael grabbed Maria's infamous bag of supplies and tossed it to Sean.

Sean searched through the bag and whistled at all the supplies, most importantly at the huge box of condoms. "Whoa, jackpot! Man you two are majorly serious about...."

"Don't make me shoot you." Michael said menacingly.

"Okay, I'm going to take the lubricating..."

"Leave."

Sean just laughed and put the bag on the bedside table next to Michael. He started down the stairs chuckling, and paused when Michael's voice came across in the dark.

"Sean?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time, wear a towel or something. I ever see a certain part of your anatomy again? I'll shoot it off."

Sean laughed aloud and continued down the stairs. "Understood."

Michael rolled back over to gather Maria under him where she slept all sprawled out on her stomach. Putting his arm around her waist again and resting against her back Michael attempted to go back to sleep, trying to ignore the sounds of laughter and other things downstairs. Damn, this place was seeing more action than a frat house and was just as crowded!

Maria woke up early, at first light. It was becoming a habit. Slowly turning under Michael, trying not to wake him, she was surprised when his arm tightened around her in his sleep. Reaching down to where his arm was around her waist, she tried to peel him off of her, but he wasn't having it. Finally giving up, she just decided to rest awhile longer.

Michael smiled to himself when she sighed and settled back to get more sleep. It was time she learned that he wasn't going anywhere, and hiding from him wasn’t going to work. She was right. It didn't matter how far or how fast you ran from your problems, sooner or later you ended back where you started. And unfortunately for Maria, that led back to a not so happy, pissed off Michael, who was tired of being excluded from her innermost thoughts. Michael didn't even bother to realize that he had only been in this relationship technically four days, and had known her only five. Sometimes a lifetime could be lived in a moment.

"It's me isn't it?" Her voice startled him. He thought she was asleep.

"What is you?" Michael rubbed his face against her back listening to the rumbling noise of her voice along her back.

"This. All of this. I'm connected somewhere, somehow. It's me-some connection to me that made Tess a target, killed Janhie and Chris." Michael pulled back at the movement of her body as she tried to turn over. Looking at her serious face in the early morning light Michael's face shuttered, closed down, taking on his Detective look, and wanting to keep her free from it.

"I don't now, Maria. I just don't know. None of this makes sense yet. I wish I could tell you that it's not you, that it's nothing but a coincidence, but I can't. You know better and so do I. But I can promise to not stop until I find the answers and free you of this." Michael closed his eyes when her hand came up to cup his face, to slowly wipe her thumb along his cheekbone. He loved the way she touched him.

"Sometimes Michael, mere men can't stop what goes on among us. Sometimes the forces of evil, they rage too strong. What then, Detective? What then? Janhie said that pure evil needs a sacrifice, an innocent. And when it devours the pure it becomes stronger." Maria leaned forward and kissed him, pulling his weight back on her. "I'm far from pure, and I select what evil I want to do..."

Michael smiled at that. "You're are evil, devilish at times, but Maria I think your spirit is very pure. It has to be, because too many people, too much energy moves towards you. I feel it..." Michael paused trying to find words to express what his body and mind already understood, but words escaped explanation. "I feel you, see you. Almost like a flash, I have these rushes of sensation, and they feel like you."

"What do these rushes tell you?" Maria asked curious and almost appalled that she let him in so close.

"Mostly how you feel about me, how much you want me. Occasionally, I feel your sorrow. I feel your tears that you can't cry." Michael didn't know if it helped or harmed her more to admit this, because it was something he wouldn't even admit to Max, or even himself most the time. Maria DeLuca had found a way inside him, and even though it had only been a couple of days, he literally couldn't remember a time when she wasn't there.

"I see you too." Michael smiled at her unsure voice almost reluctantly drawn from her. Devils were chasing her, and she was trying hard to stand strong on her own, to protect those around her. However, if she belonged to him and he to her, then these demons were something they had to share.

"What do you see?" Michael moved in kissing her along her neck and moving downward, his hand removing the blankets so his eyes could follow his hands. "Do you see me in flashes or just feel me?"

"Both. I feel you almost like a flushing, like a rush of heat across my body, and I just know it’s you. But the flashes? They confuse me. I don't understand them."

"Tell me." Michael teased, almost laughing at her earnest face, the seriousness of her countenance. Somehow, he was expecting a come-on, an erotic suggestion that would send them back into the physical, f-ucking like bunnies and ignoring the fact Sean and company were downstairs.

Maria frowned and thought about it. "I see a little boy. He’s about six or so, lost in the desert. A man, a large man with a large cheesy mustache, red faced and kind, he took the boy home. I see the same man at ballgames cheering the boy on as he stepped up to bat, screaming loud when he hit a homerun. I see them again laughing while watching television. The man cupping the now boy turned young man on the back of the neck and drawing him into a hug." Maria looked at the shocked look on Michael's face. "I see you in dress blues graduating from the Police Academy and how proud he was. He cried. And that terrible day you sat on the floor holding him as he bled all over you and died, the funeral..."

Michael could barely choke out the word. "Stop."

They looked at each other, neither talking, not knowing what to say or even how to say it. It was indescribable. How? Michael was scared for the first time in his life, really scared. She did see him. God help him, in some strange freaky event, she actually saw him!

"I know you." Maria moved her hand over his body feeling the tremor, knowing he was upset. "Sometimes I think I know you better than I know myself. Like a flash across the city, I just know you're thinking about me, or want to call, but resist the urge." Maria moved to sit up as Michael moved back to lie in the bed.

He wanted to get up, move away from her, and run away. But there was something else in him. Something that recognized what he couldn't admit. That he needed her. He needed this connection. It was as if he had been searching for it all his life. Fear was an immobilizer. It held him to her, kept him close to her trying to decide whether to take a chance or run.

"I don't want this. I can't afford this." Michael didn't want to lose her, not yet. In every relationship he had in the past, he could almost see an end, even as he was starting it. But not with her. He just knew that he was far from through with her, and she with him.

"I know." Maria leaned over, trapping him between her arms holding him trapped in more ways than just physically. "I can't either. I think I hate you for entering my life right now. This is too much. I have no time for this. I don't get involved with men, not emotionally. Not since..."

Michael eyes narrowed when she avoided looking at him. Putting his hand behind her head he brought her mouth to his, and closing his eyes and drew her inside, deep inside, opening his mind to her, looking for the answers she wouldn't share with him. Damn. In a rush, he saw her. He saw it...the horror. Her brother Frankie, slicing off pieces of her boyfriend. Piece by piece, dropping chunks of flesh at her feet, laughing at her horror and her pain. No wonder she moved everything back to the physical. Emotionally she needed to protect herself from the pain. Scars. Their scars defined them. That which had not destroyed them, defined them.

"You hate me." Michael said feeling it. He knew that she hated him because he was proving too hard for her to keep out.

"Yes." Michael nodded, and kissed her again. Another thing they shared.

"Good. I don't know, Maria. I know you don't want promises and this bothers you, and it sure as hell bothers me too. But what do you want me to do, walk on?"

"No." Maria moved to straddle his body, to sit over him moving her hands up his chest to frame his face, and slowly kissed him, pulling away watching his mouth following her mouth as it left his. "I don't know what this is, but I just know that until this is over, when all this murder and bedlam we walked into is over, I can't concentrate enough to even sort it out. I just know that I feel you, and for the first time in a long time, I don't feel alone. I don't want to lose that."

"Ditto." Michael pulled her back into his arms pulling her body fully on top of his. He needed to feel her, to make love to her, to keep her near. It was easy to dislike the weakness she represented in his life, but also, like her, he liked not being alone. Michael didn't even notice that he thought of sex with Maria as making love and not just f-ucking. He never knew when it had changed. It just did.

Michael flipped her over and under him, smiling at the feel of her leg coming up along his side to wrap around his waist to hold him tight to her. Moving his hand along her leg he softly stroked the long length of it, loving her legs around him. The soft silky skin was something his fingertips knew. Michael didn't know where they were or even where they were going. Maybe it was best not to look too closely right now. Looking at her darkened green eyes and the intensity of her glance, Michael decided it was time to wake up Sean and his guest with a little noise of their own.

"Maybe it's not the ends that matters, Professor. Maybe it's the journey."

Maria smiled recognizing her own assessment made in a GTO in the middle of the night. "Maybe."

"So lets not worry about the end, and just work on the journey. The rest will work itself out later." Michael reached down, rested his forehead on her breast, and rubbed his head upward kissing her under her chin. "Journey with me, Professor..."

Maria moaned softly, her fingers tightening into his skin. "Okay..."

Maria was quickly assembling all the makings for Belgian waffles, and cutting up fresh strawberries to marinate in brandy when Sean's door opened. Maria just stood there in shock with her mouth open looking at Cassie Welsh in nothing but a shirt of Sean's.

Cassie just smiled at her, slightly embarrassed. "Um...hi. I thought I smelt coffee." Maria picked up the coffee pot and waved it at Cassie, who smiled and came over to take a seat at the bar as Maria filled a cup and placed it in front of her. "Sean is still asleep, but I need to get around to make it to the museum. I left my car...somewhere last night."

Maria recovering from the sight of Cassie in her loft just shrugged. "That's okay. You can come in with me. We'll leave Sean a note to find your car."

Cassie actually groaned at the warmth of the coffee moving down her throat. "Thanks. Sorry about the surprise. I don't think I was in any condition to really think about where Sean and I ended up, and right now I've got the mother of all hangovers."

Maria laughed and pulled out a glass, orange juice, an egg, Tabasco, and other secret ingredients and made the DeLuca Hangover Remedy. Sean came out of his bedroom wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. He reached across Cassie, and took the glass before she could drink it and downed the entire contents. A huge shudder moved over his body as he bent over and coughed. Maria calmly mixed another one for Cassie, and then pouring another cup of coffee went upstairs to find Michael and warn him about their guest.

Stopping in the doorway of the steamy bathroom, Maria drank her coffee and watched him shave. He used an oldfashioned lather strap with straight edge razor. She never saw a man use one before except in movies. He stood there in the steam in nothing but a towel calmly shaving. Maria could hardly get the air to move through her lungs just looking at him. He was f-ucking gorgeous! It didn’t seem fair.

Michael looked up to see her reflection in the mirror, and continued to shave. "Is that for me?"

Maria looked down at the extra cup of coffee and nodded. She came beside him and placed the coffee on the counter next to him. Stopping behind him, she rested her head on his back liking the smell of his clean body. "Do you always use a straight razor to shave?"

Michael nodded. "Yeah, my dad did all his life, too. His father taught him, and he taught me. When I was old enough to shave, he gave me my grandfather's shaving kit. I have his. Someday, I'll give it to my son."

Maria understood how important it was for Michael that these traditions passed on to him from his father. "You were adopted, weren't you?"

Michael paused to look at her in the mirror, still feeling strange about how she knew so much about him. "Yeah, Mikey Guerin found me in the desert as a small boy on his way back from a fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico. He took me home and refused to let social services take me into custody. He fostered me first, and adopted me about two years later." Michael cleaned his razor and washed the remaining shaving cream from his face. Maria came around him and sat up on the countertop handing him his coffee and drinking hers. "He named me Michael and gave me his last name. The day he found me became my birthday. No one ever claimed me."

"Michael. Was that his name, too?" Michael smiled at her question.

"Yeah, but he was always called Mikey. His dad was also Michael Guerin, so instead of Little Mike or Michael, Jr., or even Junior, he was called Mikey. I was always Michael."

Maria looked at him closely. "A name is important. It's a gift."

Michael looked at her in shock. How could she know that? In an instant, she understood what Max and Isabel never could understand. Mikey was his father in everyway except genetic. The name Michael Guerin was a gift he gave Michael when he took him in, gave him a home, a family, and a history. He would always be Michael, and more than likely his son would be Mikey in honor of his father.

"Yes, it was." Maria just nodded, and kept drinking her coffee.

"Well, I better shower and let you finish making yourself look beautiful." Michael laughed as she got down, stopping her before she could walk around him. Reaching down he kissed her deeply, then slowly drawing back. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too, Detective." Maria kissed him again quickly before walking around him to start her shower. "I think I should warn you that Sean didn't come home alone last night, and his...guest is still here."

Michael turned to watch her step into the shower and pull the door closed behind her, enjoying the view. "I know. Sean sort of woke me up last night for...supplies."

Maria's head came out from the shower door. "Really? Hmm? Did he mention who his guest was?" Maria smiled when Michael shook his head no.

Michael frowned at her smile. What was she not telling him? Oh god! Not Parker?! "Maria? Who is it?" Michael leaned in to listen closely. No. Not possible! "Maria?"

Her muffled voice came over the sound of the shower in a singsong sound with laughter in it. "Cassie!"

"Sh-it!" Michael just stared at the figure of Maria showering behind the glass.

Maria and Cassie made it to the museum before anyone else, but just barely. Liz Parker came rushing in and soon followed by Dianne and others. It was until late in the morning that finally the break they were looking for finally came.

"I found something!" Everyone stopped to look over at Dianne. She was holding a requisition form, invoice form, and a receipt from shipping.

Maria and the other gathered closer to her. Maria took the invoice and frowned at it. The items never were delivered to the museum. Taking the invoices and shipping form, Maria quickly read the name that signed for the deliver. Professor Janhie Kovitch...

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