PART 15

Journey with me.....

Valenti walked out of his office into the bullpen. Major Crimes was as quiet as a tomb. The whole murder case with one of their own being the murderer rocked the entire department. It was almost six days later, late on Tuesday, two weeks after Maria DeLuca had met Michael Guerin for the first time, and Valenti felt he had lived a lifetime.

Valenti remembered his surprise at the assigning of Cassie to a Guerin case since the department had tabooed it. Jim had just assumed it had been a practical joke played on Guerin. Now he knew better. Cassie waited for the call and took the assignment on purpose so she would be in a position to look for the missing artifact. Jim cursed his worthless soul that he didn't heed Michael's ill-at-ease regard for Cassie. Michael had been right. Maria was the one paying for the mistake. They all paid in some shape or form.

Kyle was back at work doing desk duty until the doctors cleared him for active duty. He was quiet and thoughtful, given to moments of solitude. The bullpen was lacking its usual noise with both Evans and Guerin gone. Max was on sick leave for the cut on his shoulder and a concussion. He was spending his days at the hospital watching over Michael, Maria, Sean, and Liz Parker.

They had released Michael from the hospital the day before and Max took him home to rest. He was still confused from the drugs. The hospital had no choice but to give him real drugs to alleviate the pain and so they could operate on his shoulder. Max volunteered his blood as a transfusion for Michael, but since he too had suffered blood loss, the hospital refused. Despite the uniqueness of Michael's blood type, he was able to accept blood type O, the universal donor. Once Michael had recovered enough to make it on his feet, he went AWOL. They found him sleeping in a chair next to Maria's bed with his head on the bed sound asleep. Every night he went back.

Maria was recovering nicely too, but she was still in the hospital, and they were waiting for Surgical to release her to General Care. The cut across her stomach was mending nicely, but she spent most the time sleeping from the painkillers. When Maria was awake, Michael was surprisingly absent, but once she fell asleep, he was there. Max explained to Jim that he felt Michael was feeling too out of control, lost and guilty over Maria and that once he figured it out, things would change. Max took Michael fishing to the Gulf of Mexico to help him recover, and after less than twelve hours there, Max realized his mistake. Once Michael left Maria's side and with her still in the hospital, he couldn't rest or stop pacing. Max watched his best friend become a bundle of nerves, worrying what trouble Maria would get into without him watching over her.

Liz Parker was the hardest one to believe. Her throat had been sliced by Cassie, but Liz had saved her own life. As soon as the blade started cutting she pulled back falling on Cassie, which kept the knife from severing her carotids and jugular. The cut still was deep, but not deep enough to cause lasting damage. Most of Liz's injuries were from the fall down the stairs. She broke her right arm in three places, and had a concussion. Sean DeLuca stayed by her bed all day and all night only leaving to go visit Maria and Michael. Jim asked him why he was attentive to Liz, and Sean just commented that he had promised Maria and God.

Sean when released from the hospital much to the disappointment of the entire nursing staff. He was fast charming his way from floor to floor, as they waited for his wounds to heal. To get into the Museum, Sean had pushed his hand through a plate of tempered glass, and the hand surgeon had to check for nerve damage. They also put him on a heart monitor to watch his heart's electrical impulses. He was suffering some heart arrhythmia because of the poisoning. Once his ileus resolved, he was happily conning the nurses into ordering him a full Italian meal with dessert. Jim was worried about the young man. Despite his devil-may-care attitude, he no longer laughed-not really-and his smile never met his eyes. He was brooding over Cassie and Maria.

Finally, at his wits end, Valenti tried to get hold of Amy. They needed her to come home and take care of the lot of them. No one was healing fast, and Jim was worried about Maria the most. The young woman who once couldn't cry was suddenly unable to stop. She missed her friend Janhie's funeral, and they had buried Dianne Forrester today. Jim stopped by to see how Maria was holding up and found her holding a picture of Dianne and crying her heart out. He quietly left the room, and left her to grieve in her own way. Looking out over the bullpen, Jim looked over to seeing Sean. Gesturing hello to Sean, he yelled over to Kyle.

"Kyle! My office. Now!." Kyle looked up from his sea of paperwork, and nodded. The only redeeming feature was that the Cap hadn't called for Hanson, too. That would have sent Kyle packing for home immediately.

"Yeah, what's up Cap?" Kyle was always careful to refrain from calling his dad anything but Cap or Captain at work.

"Kyle, I assigned you a new partner." Kyle felt the blood draining from his skin. Damn, it was going to be official. He was going to have to be partnered with Hanson for all times, and his life in Roswell PD would be a non-ending nightmare. Jim gestured to the door behind him. "Meet your new partner." Kyle turned around to see Sean DeLuca standing in the doorway.

"Sean?" Kyle looked from Sean and then at his father.

"Yeah, looks like someone pulled some strings and got me permanently assigned to Major Crimes. They told me that they have a young Detective who can't figure out how to put his Kevlar vest on and needed a firm hand. So I let them talk me into the assignment." Jim got up, pushed the two men out of his office, and then rested against the doorjamb of his office.

"F-uck off, DeLuca. I don't need a babysitter."

"Sure you don't, Sweetpea, but seeing how I expect you to get my coffee every morning you should know, I like two sugars and no cream."

"I'm not getting your coffee...."

"Hey, everyone knows that the senior partner is waited on hand and foot...."

"You're not the senior partner...."

"I saw your target scores. You suck!"

"Do not! I bet my obstacle course times beat your liquored up smoking ass..."

Jim smiled and left his newest detective team of Valenti-DeLuca work their way into an easy partnership. Things could get very competitive between his major teams of Evans-Guerin and Valenti-DeLuca. It was going to be interesting. Before Jim could return to work, one of the unit secretaries approached him listening to a headphone unit.

"Captain! I have a Sheriff in Medicine Park, Oklahoma who is holding a woman claiming to be your fiancée. He says that if she's not yours then he is turning her over to the Fort Sill Military Police for trespassing on Federal Lands. Just a second...." Barb paused and listened to the person on the other end of the phone. "Sir, they said that she chained herself to a mountain on Refuge Land and was protesting the loss of an endangered bird's nesting grounds. There is talk about starting a full riot, guns were involved, and armed military...."

Jim cussed aloud and rushed to his office phone. Oh, sh-it! They definitely had found Amy. "Amy? Sweetheart?"

"You should call her."

"Not talking to you about it Maxwell, so frick’ off." Michael just continued to look outside at the darkness. The fishing trip had been worthless. He couldn't feel comfortable in his skin, so they came home. Every night since they got home, and after the hospital released Maria, he sat looking at the phone. When the urge to call was so great, he dialed her number just to hear her voice when she picked up the phone, and then he quickly disconnected.

"You're not responsible, Michael. Maria was the one that took off to the University, even though she knew it was stupid. She knew you wouldn't be happy. It's not your fault that...."

"That Cassie Welsh was a sick sadistic bitch who wanted to destroy everything in my life, and in the process took out most of Maria's? Jesus Christ! Maxwell, she cut her! That bitch cut Maria! Hasn't she been tortured enough, but does it always have to be a knife?" Michael got up and started pacing angrily. "I thought she had died in my arms. Oh God! I couldn't believe she survived."

"Michael..." Max never finished as Michael left the room and shut his bedroom door behind him.

Sean stood at the door looking into the garden at Maria. After two weeks in the hospital, Maria spent this last week at home recovering. The physical recovery done, but emotionally and mentally, Maria wasn't doing so well. Yesterday Sean tried to convince Maria to go work on Michael's car, but Maria seemed disinterested. Maria's old methods of coping were no longer working. All she seemed able to do was cry.

Earlier that day Sean found Maria missing. When he finally tracked her down, she was sitting beside Dianne's grave. Sean let her be alone, but her loneliness was starting to bother him. Maria seemed heartbroken. Sean was afraid that by the time she worked her way through it, that she would've built so many walls to protect herself that not even Michael Guerin could break through.

"How is she doing?" Sean just shook his head, but didn't bother to look at his Aunt Amy. Guilt. It was nagging him. His place was to protect his family, Maria and Amy, and somehow he had failed again. With Maria, it always seemed he was destined to fail.

"You're letting this eat at you too long, Sean. You weren't her only protector. Sometimes things happen, and it's no one's fault. Accept that and go on before that time bomb stomach of yours takes you out." Amy went up, pulled her tall nephew in her arms, and hugged him tight. It took a few moments before he finally let himself relax in her arms. Even as a child, he tried to keep people from getting close, but somehow he couldn't resist his Aunt Amy. She was practically the only mother he ever knew, since his own mother was a shadow existing somewhere, pretending he was dead.

Amy hugged him tight and kissed his cheek feeling the moisture on it. Sean had so many sore spots, places that hurt him that he tried to ignore. Amy wished she could find a way to take the pain, but it wasn't her place. That was something reserved someday for a special person in his life once he found her. Looking over his shoulder at her daughter, Amy knew Maria had already found that person for herself, but he was missing in action, off kicking himself with the guilt of letting anything touch her. It was time to move on.

Amy pulled away from Sean and cleared her throat. "Sean I have an errand I need you to run. It is an important one that only you can do."

Sean looked at his aunt in suspicion. Amy was up to something. "What is it?"

Amy pointed over to a box on the dining room table. "I need you to deliver this box for me."

Sean walked over and looked down at a box of Michael's stuff. His PD sweatshirt and shaving kit was on top. Looking at Amy sharply, Sean frowned. "Does Maria know you packed up Michael's stuff? That you're sending it back to him?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Amy moved away from the glass door and started moving around the room pretending to pick up stuff and cleaning. "Oh, I also put a card in the box. It's Walter's card. Tell him that his car will be delivered to Walter's garage, and Walter will restore it to the condition he brought it over to Maria's...running."

"Okay, Aunt Amy, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. I'm just restoring both Michael and Maria to their lives pre-meeting. The best part of being a couple is learning to survive with the other person at your side. They are both cloistered away trying to heal alone, and the longer they do it, the farther apart they get. I'm just surgically cutting them out of each other's life sooner rather than later."

"Amy..."

"Don't Amy me! My little girl is crying! Crying! She hasn't cried in almost fifteen years and that man...that Cop made her cry! He got so close to her, so deep inside that the pain of losing him, watching him die was so great she would rather die herself to protect him. She never cried a tear when Frankie sliced off chunks of her boyfriend's body and laid them at her feet. But watching him being shot and bleeding, and the fear of that evil bitch finishing the job was enough to make Maria do what she vowed never to do. She cried."

"The guilt is..."

"I don't want to hear it! You understand him better than we do, but that doesn't make it right. People think we DeLucas are strong, that we learned to survive and have strong wills. They're wrong. What we have is the understanding that carrying all the pain inside for years does no good, because in the end you're exactly where you started. Letting go is our strength. You’ve had a harder time then the rest of us with it. Well, I woke up one day, and my daughter was in love with a Cop !" Sean winced when Amy spit out the word. "I never wanted that, but things happen. People grow up. So I am detaching with love, and I need you to carry the message." Amy pointed at the box hoping that Sean would really understand the message, the one not just aimed at Michael, but at him.       

"Now be a good boy, and do this one thing for your Aunt Amy." Amy swept up her jacket and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sean looked at Maria, not wanting to leave her alone.

"I'm going to see my fiancée. He's been so strong holding up during all this mess without me so I am going to administer some loving care on him. I understand there is an interesting rumor going around the department about my daughter and Michael in an interrogation room. I think I'll go see if Jim wants to give the locals something more to talk about." Amy paused and looked at Sean. "Go, do as I ask. Maria is okay alone." Then Amy left.

Michael resigned himself to another bout of Max as the knocking on his door refused to stop. Only Max could be that stubborn about invading Michael's privacy. Michael opened the door reluctantly and was shocked to see Sean DeLuca on his doorstep.

Sean pushed a box into Michael's hand and let himself in, heading straight for the stash of scotch whiskey. Damn the room was dark and had a feeling of no life! Opening up the freezer, Sean was glad to see the ice trays were still there. At least some things stayed constant.

"Sean? What is this?" Sean took a drink and winced a little as the liquid burned fire down his throat.

"Your sh-it that you left at Maria's." Michael looked down seeing his shaving kit on top. "I guess you really missed shaving, huh?" Sean critically looked at the bearded man in front of him. He looked like crap, and that was being nice.

"Did Maria ask you to bring this over? She packed up my stuff?" Michael felt cold and empty. Maria giving up on him when Maria didn't give up on anything, and that hurt.

"No, actually it was Aunt Amy. She asked me to tell you that she would have your car restored to the condition it was in when you took it over to Maria's." Sean waited to see how Michael took it, if he was just going to let Amy toss him out of Maria's life.

"What did...Maria have to say about this?" Sean noticed Michael's pause at Maria's name. Michael just looked down and kept his voice low. "Does she want me out of her life, too?"

"Don't know. Maria doesn't and hasn't said much of anything. She's not coping very well at all. Hardly speaks, and pretty much only cries."

Michael looked up sharply drawing in his breath. "She's crying?"

"Once she started, it doesn't seem like she's able to stop. I don't get it Guerin. You're here looking like sh-it, she over there looking just as bad, so why? Don't you love her?" Sean poured himself another drink.

Michael looked over at the man. "You shouldn't be drinking."

"Yeah, thanks for the advice, mommy. Frick off! I have enough mothering in my life right now. Aunt Amy has been home for the last ten days and I can barely get up in the morning without her poking or prodding me, or threatening to take my temperature. I've got to go to work to fight with Kyle just to feel better." Sean downed the shot of scotch in one gulp. "The damn Learning Channel is killing me. Damn I hate cable! She asked me the other day if I wore tight bikini briefs, and then later I found her sorting through my drawer removing all the stuff she deems too tight. Guess she is worried about diminishing my package and the safety of my "future children"."

Michael laughed at that. Amy DeLuca was nothing if not interesting. Just like...

"You didn't answer my question." Sean watched Michael trying to avoid him. "That's okay, maybe you don't love her. I mean how could you? You left her all alone in the hospital, barely saying a word to her. No, that's right. You actually didn't even say a word. Perhaps Aunt Amy is right. Getting all evidence of you out of Maria's life is the best strategy, so that when Maria finally processes everything, learns to go on and comes back to us, you'll be just a faded memory."

Sean headed for the door, giving up. Michael and Maria were the most stubborn people around. If they couldn't navigate their way through the sh-it together, then who was he to demand they try? Nevertheless, Sean couldn't let it go.

"Just when you’re through wallowing in guilt..." Michael looked over at him. Bingo. It wasn't that Sean didn't already know where Michael was living, the hell that haunted him. He and Guerin were too much alike in that regard, but Amy was right. Surviving was never just about overcoming as much as accepting and moving on. "Just ask yourself, where do you plan to be in ten years? Do you still see yourself alone in this apartment living in the guilt? On the other hand, do you actually see a future for yourself, one with children and family, a wife, and a real life? When you see that family, when you look into the faces of your children, who do you see? If it's not Maria, then maybe I read the two of you wrong, because I could have sworn you were the real thing. If its Maria's face you see when you look at your daughter, then why are you letting her go? Why are you so determined to throw it away? Do you really think love comes easy to people like you and me?"

Michael watched Sean walking away, and for the first time in a long time, he felt afraid. Real gripping fear beyond what he felt as Cassie cut Maria, when he held her life above the cathedral floor with one hand, and as he felt her bleeding to death in his arms. He felt the fear that it was really over, finished, and somehow he wouldn't be able to take it back. How the hell was he supposed to know where they were going, but he knew where he was now, and he hated it.

"Sean...wait." Sean turned at the door, silent. Hoping. "Where are you going?" Michael went over and poured Sean another drink, and set the bottle next to the glass. Reaching into his pocket, Michael took his house key off the ring and set it next to the drink. Picking up his box of stuff Sean had brought back to him, he headed to the door.

Sean smiled and looked around the apartment. Yeah, he could learn to live here. "Piece of advice..." Michael stopped and waited. "Go take a god damn shower and shave first...you look like sh-it!"

Michael smiled at that, and shoving the box into Sean's hands, reaching in, he took his shaving kit. On his way to the bathroom, he looked back at Sean. "Don't get too comfortable with all my stuff. The only thing staying is some of the ice trays."

Maria sat outside in the garden watching nothing, just sitting there, with Mr. Booboo watching her worriedly. With her knees drawn up to her chin, she hugged her legs. In a moment’s time, it was rushing forward and enveloping her. All the people she lost...her father, her brother, her boyfriend, Janhie, Dianne, Michael, and even herself. A lifetime of loss and regret finally gave way to mourning, and Maria felt different. It was as if everything she knew or understood about herself was gone. Somehow, she had lost her grip on reality. Her reality.

For as long as she could remember, Maria had felt wrong. As if she were born cursed or forsaken. It was hard to even place the first time Frankie had hurt her. As time stretched back as far as memory could go, she was cold in the knowledge that somehow she had been born to abuse, to suffer, to be a forgotten one . Years of survival and love from her family and friends couldn’t take away those early lessons. Michael left because there was darkness in her, a place that never saw sunlight. In that one moment, before she accepted her own death and saved Michael's, she prayed to God to give her strength to save him. So losing him must have been part of the deal, the bargain she had made and now must keep.

Dianne. She was the one that made no sense. Janhie had made his own pact with the devil, and Michael was retribution, but Dianne had no cause or reason to die. Dianne was lost for all time in a wave of senseless violence. It wasn't just the injustice that stuck in the throat, but the waste. Maria rested her head on her knees and wept more tears. Tears because she had only one life to trade, and she had given it up for Michael, but the offer to save Dianne had never come.

"You're going to make yourself sick crying so much." Michael said from the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Maria didn't even lift her head. She had gone to catechism. Maria knew that the devil could appear in many forms, and it seemed appropriate it that it would come now as Michael Guerin. "Don't you have some other soul to steal?"

Michael frowned at her question. What the hell did that mean? "Stealing is a crime, Professor. And where the hell else should I be?"

He was real?

"Not here. I cry because I can. I do it freely, because Dianne deserved that much." Maria looked up at him. "I already cried all the tears I can for you, so just let me mourn a little longer, and then I'll be through."

Michael moved forward, placed a chair facing hers next to her, and sat down real close. "So do you want me to leave? Is that what you want Maria?"

"I never wanted you to leave. Then again, I never tried to keep you either. I wanted it to be your choice. Freedom is the right to make the choice." Maria looked at her small hands, and felt their ineffectiveness. “Did you know that freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong? I’ve sitting here trying to remember when I first did wrong.”

Michael looked across the garden at the stone urns full of plants, and water flowing from stone brooks. "You didn’t do wrong, Maria, and I didn't leave...not really. I just had to think." Michael picked up her hand. "At first I was confused by the drugs they gave me. I thought you were dead, that you died in my arms like the others. Every night I sat at your bedside hoping that you would wake and live, but I couldn't stand to hear your voice. I was afraid that you would tell me that I failed you-that you died, and it was my fault. The dreams came back. The nightmares of other worlds, other times, and there I failed too, and too many were lost, too many to tolerate or even count."

"Are you still dreaming?" Maria peeked over at him sad at his dark tired face.

"Yeah." Michael reached over to take her hand again. "Not the same nightmares though, just you. I dream about you."

Maria laughed. "A new kind of nightmare, huh? Poor Detective, was I more than you expected, more than you can handle?"

"No." Michael reached over and forced her to look at him. "More than I deserve. You are so much more than I could have dreamed of or imagined."

Maria heart raced at his words. Reaching up she gently swept the hair from his face. "Did you bring me a present? Something to get back into my good graces?"

"Yeah. I brought you a present." Michael smiled at the small upturn at the corner of her mouth.

"What is it? Box of chocolates, flowers, or maybe something leather ? What did you bring me exactly?" Michael got up and walked around his chair to stand in front of hers. He held out his hand and waited for her to take it in hers. Leading her back into the Loft, Michael pointed to a small stack of ice trays on her kitchen bar.

"I thought we should make everything even immediately." Maria laughed and turned wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately. Michael felt a relief overwhelm him, a sense of peace for the first time in a long time, and he lifted her off her feet into his arms squeezing her tight. Her little yelp had him putting her back on the ground. "Oh God! Did I hurt you?"

"No! No, I'm fine. All healed!” Maria moved in close and whispered seductively. “Do you want to see my scar, Detective? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours." Michael kissed her again, and then rested his forehead against hers for a moment before rubbing his face in her hair. "I do think that I'll have to teach you how to give a woman a present, but the ice trays...they were perfect."

"I thought you'd like them." Michael led her to the sofa to sit down together. "I never made you any promises."

"No, you didn't. I didn't make you any either, and I also didn't ask for any."

"No, we've been very careful about that. But I think things need to change." Michael took her small hand in his and kissed the back of it. "So I'll start. I promise you that my life will become very busy at times, that I'll have cases that will consume me and make me ignore you. I promise at times my life will become so hectic and vile that I'll take it out on you unfairly, and at times you'll swear that you hate me. I also promise that I will always remember your name, Maria DeLuca. I also promise to never step out on you or even entertain the idea of another woman, as if I could find the strength. If you believe in me, I promise that I will not let you down. I also promise that if you ever need me all you've got to do is pick up the phone and call me, and no matter where I am, or what I'm doing, I will come to you." Maria leaned into him and kissed him softly and then not so softly.

Pulling back, she looked in his eyes and recognized what he was trying to say. "Okay. I can do that too. I promise that at times my life will become busy, and that I'll ignore you. I promise that my problems with school, my dissertation, and my mom will drive you to the very edge. I can promise that even though you are tied up in a difficult case, that won't stop me from tying you up in other ways..." Michael laughed when Maria lifted her brow suggestively. "I promise to drive you to the point of distraction and rage as I interfere in your life and cases, and at times you will swear you almost hate me. I promise fidelity as well and to keep you so oversexed and tired that another woman will never be a concern. I also promise to always remember your name, Michael Guerin, and use it often in vain." Maria kissed him hard, sucking his lip into her mouth and nipping it. "I also promise, that if you need me, ever need me, no matter when or where, all you have to do is call, and I will come to you."

Michael cleared his throat, and looked at her seriously. "Shake on that, Professor?"

"No. Kiss." Maria moved into his lap straddling his hips and moving her hands up to frame his face. Taking his mouth in a deep kiss, rubbing her tongue softly against his in his mouth, she slowly pulled back and sucked his tongue into her mouth, enjoying the taste and sensation of him. "I missed you terribly..."

"I missed you too. I've never missed anyone before, except my dad. I kept calling you all week just to hear your voice."

Maria pulled back. "That was you? Why didn't you speak?"

"I wanted to, but the guilt of letting Cassie into your life..."

"Shush, never again. She's gone, and I won't let her come between us."

"Okay." Michael could accept that. And even though he understood what Sean, or maybe it had been Amy DeLuca, was saying about guilt, he knew it would be a long time before he trusted her life with another. He was going to practice letting it go. Letting things that were beyond his power to change, go . Michael didn't know how much damage Cassie had done to their connection, but he needed to know. "Do you still feel me?"

Maria nodded against his body as her hands moved down his shirt unbuttoning it. "I never stopped. When I thought you were lost to me, I thought that God left the connection to punish me, to let me feel you and know I could never have you."

"Dammit, Maria! You aren't cursed or forsaken. What can I say or do to convince you otherwise?" Maria just shrugged. It would take more than a few words, a few kisses and promises to take away a lifelong belief. Michael had time, and that was how he knew that he wasn't cursed. Because time was something they had, and before he hadn't been sure.

"Maybe someday I will. I can't promise you that I will."

"Fair enough. But can you promise me if ever there is a time or circumstance where you finally feel...graced, that you will tell me."

"I promise."

"Absolutely promise me, Professor..." Michael held her head against his chest and moaned when he felt the flick of her tongue on his skin.

"Absolutely, Detective..." Maria pulled his nipple into her mouth sucking hard on the skin around it liking the sensation of his skin along the roof of her mouth. She could feel his heart speeding up to match her own. "Are we through talking for now, Detective? Can we..."

"F-uck?" Michael asked looking down at her blond head against his chest. Maria looked up at him sharply. Remembering their first night together a few weeks ago, she smiled and shook her head no.

"Make love. Can we make love, now?" Michael smiled at her and tackled her down to lay flat on the sofa. She was finally getting with the program! Michael looked down at her beautiful clear face, seeing the sadness still marring her eyes, but the acceptance she was slowly coming to feel as well. It was too soon for words like 'I love you' from either to them. They needed time, normal time, away from the world of violence and pain to really accept that this was more. For some reason, maybe because Michael had given into his feelings for her long before she had, or maybe because her walls were so insurmountable at first, he needed more. He needed some sort of reassurance that he wasn't risking his heart alone.

"Maria?"

"Uh, huh..?" Maria moved her mouth down his body in sucking kissing, occasionally testing the skin with a small bite, as her hands unbuttoned his jeans.

"Can I drive the GTO?" Michael held his breath, not even daring to pray.

"Don't be silly! Of course not!" Michael felt his heart fall at her words. Suddenly she sat up, sliding out from under him, and then with a gesture of irritated acceptance. "Oh! Okay! Okay, you can drive the GTO!" Maria's eyes narrowed at the sudden smile crossing his face, the lightening of his appearance. "But there are rules, buster!"

Laughing, Michael pulled her back down under him and blew large raspberries on her neck until she squirmed under him, laughing aloud, and begging him to stop. "Epic!"

The End