KravingCandy - **Fic - DocPaul

Title: Pygmalion
Series: The Praetorians
Author: DocPaul
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: none, this is an AU.
Disclaimers: The concepts and names are the same, but the characters belong to me. I give them life, more life than Roswell, better lives.
Warnings: This is a dark universe. There is bondage, domination, slap and tickles, bloodletting and blood-sports, and child birthing…so be prepared. Oh, and slash…does that need a warning?
Summary: Months after Alex dropped his bomb on the podsters, they slowly began to explore their alien powers, but the news tore apart their lives and their concepts of who they were. Left adrift in confusion they were further threatened as their world exploded in fire, hate and destruction. And Pygmalion awakes his Galatea….it is the awakening of the King.
Author’s note: The hardest part of writing this story is the increase in action, players, and relationships. This is one fast hard ride, and I hope to lose none of you along the way. In the third part of the trilogy we finally see what has been going on since the beginning…the creation of a legend. First came the Praetorians, the strong guards of the realm, and now finally rises a King. In this story there is a ‘causality loop.’ The question becomes, what came first…the chicken or the egg?

Michael Guerin stopped pouring his morning coffee and looked at their damn kleptomaniac, sometimes calico, sometimes black cat who was staring at him almost innocently. “Our mistress bellows, and she ain’t sounding happy. What did you do?”

Maria Deluca appeared at the top of the stairs and tossed a shoe down at him, just barely missing his head as he ducked.

Michael looked at the footwear as it lay on the floor next to him, after having bounced off the refrigerator. “A shoe?”

“A shoe? Bastard! Of course it’s a shoe!!! Dammit, Michael, it’s not one of mine!”

Michael looked at it again. “It is too one of yours. I know. I bought it for you.”

“It’s a flat...a slipper. I don’t own slip-on shoes. It’s...oh god! It’s ugly!” Maria’s voice echoed in horror. “And there are more of them in my closet.”

“I bought you thirteen pairs in different colors to go with all your clothes.” Michael thought the damn shoes were perfect. He had found one style that looked filled the bill and ordered all the color combinations available. She could be a little more grateful, maybe say thank you…or offer him a quick roll in the sack in appreciation...

Michael looked at her as if she was insane. The 'baby' was in that cute little tight basketball in front of her, all snug and fed for now.

“My shoes, Michael! Where are my shoes? The leather pumps, the sliders, the strappy-heeled sandals...the entire tribute to the House of Choo!”

Michael ducked again as another shoe came hurtling towards his head. He knew he shouldn’t have let her join the co-ed PD baseball team this last summer. Her aim was deadly.

“Now, Maria.... Those shoes are lethal. Not a single pair had under a three-inch heel. They’re murder on your feet, bad for your legs, even make them cramp...and you could fall off them and hurt yourself or the baby!”

“My shoes! You stole my shoes! All of them! You...you...bastard!” Maria was shaking so hard she could feel the baby moving in distress. Resting her hand on her pregnant tummy in comfort, she tried to reassure her child that she wasn’t going to murder his father, just maim the sneaky, no good, no-account…

“If you’d just calm down. This can’t be good for the baby, and...” That was obviously the wrong thing to say as another shoe came whizzing past his head.

“First my clothes. Nothing too revealing, too low cut...nothing too tight or confining, nothing above the knees...” Maria’s voice was rising in anger and frustration. “You bought me an ugly dress for my birthday! It was ugly, and it was...gray!”

“It cost a small fortune.” Michael winced as he heard more items falling from the upper landing. She was getting more and more agitated. Maybe he should’ve talked to her about the shoes before stealing them from her closet.

“Great! A Versace, gray prison gown! It was still ugly!” Maria felt tired, spent. Sinking to the ground by the upper banister, she laid her head against the wood. “Get out! Max is here, so just leave. Please.”

Michael frowned and walked around the kitchen bar towards the stairs, but as he did so, Maria suddenly stood up and walked away. The bathroom door slammed behind her.

Max was stunned at how fast Michael was vacating the loft. Usually he had to wait for his partner for what seemed like hours. This was not good. Trouble in paradise.

Max turned off the engine and put his hands on the steering wheel. “Michael...”

“Fine! We had a fight. Actually Maria had the fight. I just did lots of ducking.”

“Nothing!” Michael cussed at his partner’s grimace of disbelief. Why the fuck did Max always assume he was in the wrong? “I boxed away all of Maria’s shoes and replaced them with some nice, orthopedic, arch-support, flat slip-ons that don’t need to be buckled or even tied.”

“You stole her shoes?” Max looked at Michael in disbelief. “You stole the shoes of a woman who gets a pink fuzzy feeling from each new pair, and walks on air whenever she goes shopping for them? Whose entire side of her dressing room closet houses a wall of shoes?”

“It took me eight trips to get them all.” Michael looked at his partner and tossed up his hands. “What? I replaced them! With a style more appropriate and safe.”

“Michael.” Max just shook his head. “What were you thinking? Maria’s over six months pregnant. She has had you hounding her twenty-four/seven, putting her on a feeding schedule every three hours. You cancelled your on-calls. You don’t do stakeouts. You dictate her clothes and her schedule. You nagged her until she stopped working at the museum. Now she puts up with you almost every moment of the day as you watch her and scrutinize her. As you carry on being psychotically neurotic and territorial...”

“You’re smothering her! We don’t even know what the fuck having an alien baby even means! There’s no one to tell us.” Max rubbed his face. “What do you think she’s doing now? Right now?”

“Take off. Tell Cap I’ll be in as soon as I can.” Michael got out of the car and went back inside, turning as he did so, to look at his partner’s new car. A Volvo...a Volvo sedan no less. Damn. Nothing like chasing the bad guys in a family car with a childseat in the back.

The loft was quiet. He went upstairs and the first thing he noticed was that the bathroom door was open and the lights were out. Stopping, he looked around for her. It was the sound of sniffling coming from her closet that drew him into their bedroom.

She was lying on the floor in front of her empty shoe racks, clad only in her dressing gown. Curled up in a small ball, she was crying as she stared at the place where her shoes should have been and weren't. Mr. Boo was worriedly in attendance. The cat saw Michael first and growled his displeasure.

Michael went to Maria and reached down to cup her face, making look at him. The sadness there, the utter unhappiness, was more than he could take. Picking her up, he took her back into the bedroom and laid her on the bed, then joining her there.

“I didn't do this right. I should’ve told you I was worried. I should have talked to you and then took you shopping for new shoes, instead of taking control.”

“I understand.” He hated her small voice with its lack of enthusiasm and real conviction. The two of them were having hard times. It wasn’t just the baby, the blood and the creeping tiredness that seemed to take over more and more each day. It was the Thing.

The alien thing. Ever since that day when all of them connected, things had changed. Michael couldn't stop melting things, or blowing them up or picking up visions from objects at crime scenes. He had always been different, an outsider, but somehow he had always found ways to deal with it before. This was something new. He was no longer human, and because of him Maria was changing too.

The connection she had made with the group through the baby had altered her. She was too sensitive to touch, too sensitive to heat and cold, along with other things they had yet to understand. Life kept changing, and changing fast. She was scared. Tess was blissfully free of any problems except an increase in powers, but Maria was suffering.

He turned her face again, forcing her to not ignore him. Framing her temples, he leaned in as she shut her eyes and he kissed away her tears. Rubbing his face into hers, he murmured, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you unhappy or to make you cry.”

Maria’s fingers gripped his arms hard. “I need to feel...normal or at least settled, and everything's been so hard lately. Finding my shoes gone was just the last straw.”

“I know. I wish I could find out more without exposing us.” Michael leaned into her, kissing her neck. “I can’t take a chance some 'Men in Black' types in suits will kidnap you and the baby. That they’ll want to study you, poke and prod you...and maybe harm you.”

Maria just sighed and pulled her courage back together. “Michael...I feel strange.”

Michael looked at her, saw the seriousness of her face, and pulled back from her a little. “Strange? How?” His faced clouded. “Are you in pain?”

“No. Yes. No...not really.” Maria reached down and opened her robe. Michael followed her glance.

Color was streaking over her skin, moving at an alarming rate of speed. Her hands shook and she looked up to meet his eyes. She was luminescent, glowing.

“Since yesterday. It doesn’t last long, and not all the time. Just when I get emotional. I can feel it start.”

Maria paused before shaking her head. “Not in the sense of pain. I just feel jumpy inside, like a live wire. And there are these flashes - not really pain, just like flashes of light. White and brilliant.”

Michael rubbed his hand down her body to touch her skin. He watched as the color streak followed his hand, seeming to concentrate under it. It was her response that startled him. She tossed her head back and moaned. At first he was afraid she had moaned in pain, but then he felt it too.

“Orgasm? Oh yeah!” It was the too sensitive to touch thing again. “It just prickles, but your touch pushed it over the edge. Thank you.” Maria laughed at that. Kissing him deeply, she pulled him even closer. “If you’d bring back my shoes, we could explore this new and interesting development.”

“I’ll bring them back immediately.” Michael kept kissing her. His attraction to her had remained constant, but this was recent. It seemed like when they connected they also connected to their child, very much like an imprint.

“Michael?” Maria had to confess. She wasn’t certain, but somehow it became more apparent each day…

He entered the room, worried. He waited as the man slowly turned in his seat, rotating around to face him. Pierce.

“The outside committee from Atlantic City wants to know if you can move more money through the Operation. Their laundering service was shut down.”

“Tell them it is possible, but the percentage points will go up by three. If that is agreeable then...it will be done.”

Pierce stood up and then walked over to his assistant, his eyes like dark pits of burning fire.

His anger exploded and his assistant was tossed a few feet back against the wall. The man slowly tried to find his feet, feeling the blood in his mouth. Coughing, he met his boss's eyes.

“Kill our inside man’s family pet. Deliver it in pieces, and tell him that next time it will be one of his children or his wife. When I pay for a service, I expect results.”

The cowering man wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just take out Guerin and Evans, or even DeLuca and Valenti?”

Pierce turned and walked back to his desk and looked at his assistant with an evil smile. “I told you. They are protected. All of them. Make their lives uncomfortable, even hard, but not a one of them is to be harmed.” DeLuca could die, but the far reaching effects would be devastating. No. Actually DeLuca needed to be protected too.

“You have my orders.” He turned his back to door looking out over his small domain. Roswell.

His private line rang. He reached over, not even bothering to see if his assistant still remained.

“There’s a new faction in town. The deaths are piling up and getting harder to hide...we should meet.”

Pierce frowned. “A meet? I don’t think so. If the man himself wants a deal then he has my number, but things aren’t so unstable that we need to push. If I find any of your dried skin rejects in my areas, you’ll need to collect the dust.”

He hung up the phone. They all wanted something from him. It was a mistake to leave the silver handprint so close to them. It had brought the others, and at one look, the Royals had been exposed. They didn’t even know it. In the last four months, they were still struggling to just understand what it meant. Maybe it was time to plant some bread crumbs…

He would be needing them soon. Alive...or at least at first. He smiled a real smile for once, full of genuine amusement. The smile faded as other thoughts took over. He couldn’t afford for anything to interrupt the flow of Destiny. That meant all of them, regardless how much of an inconvenience they were, needed to be kept safe. Especially the commander’s children and his mate.

Laughing, he sat back and stared off at the sky lost in his own thoughts. Time to get back to his other life before he was missed. It was coming near. The King was awakening.

“Jim, honey? Did you want to meet me at the restaurant tonight or should I just come home so we can go together?”

Jim turned to look at his wife and smiled. Amy was standing by the open door of his car. She looked the perfect picture. After over four months of marriage, he still couldn’t stop being amazed over the fact that she had finally married him.

Today she had talked him out of his car, since she had a delivery scheduled and needed more room than was available in her Jetta, which matched Maria’s. He was standing at the curb looking down the street, wondering when the hell his son was going to get there. He needed to get to work.

With the pregnancies and the other thing...the alien thing, Kyle was reluctant to leave Tess alone. She was fast moving into her eighth month of pregnancy, and Kyle ran through a whole checklist of things every morning with her just in case she went into labor. Now that they knew the child was special because of alien genetics, papas Kyle and Max were like demented mother hens.

“Just meet me at the restaurant, honey. At this rate I’m never getting to work, so I’ll need the extra time to clear my desk.”

Amy nodded and chuckled at her husband and his irritated gestures as he paced in front of their house. Catching her husband’s eyes she mouthed an ‘I love you’ as she got into the car.

The engine choked. She attempted to start it again. Jim turned to look at his car in puzzlement. He just had it serviced yesterday and they had delivered it for him. She turned the key in the ignition again as the engine struggled to turn over. It was like a rush of electricity as the flywheel engaged, and the engine finally caught…

Jim rushed towards his car, trying to reach the door and her in time. It was as if the distance was too long, too far to run, and the door separating her from him was too heavy to move as time seemed to sluggishly pass into endless frames of slow motion...

Kyle came around the corner, already practicing his excuse for being tardy when his father’s car blew…

Julia gathered her bag and everything she needed for a day in court. She was up twice on the docket and had three depositions. Drowning Sean out in her own mind, she continued to get dressed, ignoring him.

Julia continued her preparations to leave. He had already made her late three times in the last week. It was the same argument. Sean grabbed her arm to keep her from getting away from him.

Sighing, Julia looked at him, and against her will her eyes softened. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to do that.”

She was lying. She did want him on the outside. Over the last four months their lives kept entangling both personally and professionally, and six weeks ago he had moved into her house. Since then they had fought almost constantly, mostly about Pierce. Julia and her department had started a new taskforce for shutting down organized crime, and Pierce was at the top of the list. In the last two months the death threats and warnings had increased, along with Sean’s anger and paranoia.

“Look, Guerin and Evans took out Pierce’s numbers racket on the Westside before the leaks in the department could alert him, thanks to you and a speedy warrant. Don’t think he doesn’t know who's doing all the legwork by greasing the legal wheels.”

“I know. I know that he knows it’s me.” Julia sighed again. It was never easy. It never would be. Sean was who he was, and she was who she was. The same. It made them strange bedfellows at the very least. She didn’t want to lose him, but she couldn’t stop being her own person either. Michael and Maria had found a way to make it work with some pushing and pulling, but Sean wasn’t a man to be pushed or pulled unless he wanted to be.

Sean recognized that stubborn look on her face. They had fought about it last night while they were over at Michael and Maria’s for dinner, and it only made things tenser as they were getting ready for bed. He was steadily working on the shortest relationship of his life with his constant nagging, but Pierce wasn’t something to take lightly.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s your job. But I can’t keep thinking that one day I’ll walk in here and I’ll be too late. That Pierce’s men would’ve found you hiding in the closet, or it’ll be your body in the bed.” Sean rubbed his neck. “Tell me how to stop worrying, how to just shut it off.”

Julia went to him, her hand moving up his arm to his shoulder and then circling his neck. Leaning into him, she met his mouth in a full long kiss. Aaaaah....this man. He pissed her off most of the time. He was irritatingly charming, bold, brash, and his humor was only surpassed by his ability to cook. He was everything she had ever wanted and everything she usually avoided. Perfect.

Stroking his cheek she couldn’t just let him get away with it. “I can’t tell you how. I can’t. It's the same thing I have to do every time you strap on your holster and load your gun. Every day you walk out of here and I know you could die this day. I know that I might open my door to Michael, Max, or Kyle telling me that you were taken again and beaten almost to death, or that you took a bullet. Do you honestly think that knowing you died in the line of duty would in any way compensate me for your loss?”

“Any spouse or significant other involved with a police officer has to learn to cope with harsh realities. So my world touches yours more than just in the bedroom. I cope with your job. You need to learn to cope with mine.”

Julia pulled away to grab her jacket. Sean pulled her back. “It’s not the same!”

She kissed him softly. “It is the same. We’re the same. You need to figure that out.”

“You’re a lawyer, dammit. Courtrooms, briefs, and being a royal thorn in my side. You don’t need to always concern yourself with high profile cases, like Pierce, and taking down his operation.”

“That wasn’t a damn invitation, Mac! It wasn’t a ‘Come play with me, I’ll be your bitch, come on’.” Sean grabbed her other arm and forced her to look at him. “It was a warning.”

“I know. I know what it was. And who and what would I be to back off, scared and shaking? How can I do my job that way, when the likes of Pierce can send me scurrying at the first hint of violence? He warns me and I run? Is that what you want from me? What am I? Pierce’s puppet?”

Sean watched as her eyes darkened. Her breathing became short and fast, and her skin took on a healthy glow. ADA Julia in her anger was an awesome creature to behold.

“I’m no man’s puppet! Not Pierce’s, and the sure as hell not yours! So you fuckin' back off, Sean! You decide. This is who I am. Can you take me as I am, or is this over?”

Over? Fuck that. Sean was so aroused at the moment he could hardly get his eyes to straighten the images. He loved her all hot and in control. His favorite thing. Crowding her into the counter, he kissed her hard. And he actually was unbuttoning her blouse before she knew it.

“Uh huh. Are you going to make me wear your high heels?” Sean asked with a naughty grin.

“Later.” Julia kissed him again and her hand found its way up under his t-shirt to his shoulders. Ready to pull it off over his head, she was forestalled by the ringing of his cell phone.

“Or it could be something else.” Sean met her eyes and reluctantly answered his phone.

“Yeah!” his gruff voice speaking his displeasure. Julia watched as his irritation was quickly replaced with a seriousness and alarm. He swore under his breath, and quickly spoke into the phone grabbing his jacket and gun.

Sean looked at her on his way out the door. “Cap’s car was bombed this morning. Kyle had just arrived when it happened.”

Sean nodded. “Both him and Amy. They took them to the hospital. It doesn’t look good.”

Max walked into the bullpen and smiled at the baby pacifier on his desk. Since his imminent parenthood had become public knowledge people had been leaving gifts of a baby nature on both his and Kyle’s desks. Actually Max tended to get more condoms with detailed instructions, but he took it all in stride. Michael’s desk was already a display of baby junk and books all put there by Michael himself. He wasn’t a target. Max suspected that this was because most people were afraid of Michael.

Since they discovered what they were four months ago, Max actually wondered whether people didn’t have cause to worry. Michael had changed drastically. He was still Michael, but whatever special talents that Michael had had before, were no comparison to what he had now. Michael now picked up actual flashes and images from objects. This left him confused and almost neurotic, so he went on a one-man quest to decipher his visions. In the process he solved some incredible crimes. It didn’t seem fair. Michael hadn't needed any boost in his detective abilities, but he sure got one.

It took them a long time to pin Alex down on the alien thing, and most of it still remained hidden from them. Alex Whitman wasn’t the most forthcoming individual in giving out information, but from what they could extract from him, it appeared there were more aliens walking the earth. Aliens not like the four of them. Alex called them Skins. There were also Shapeshifters and Walkers.

Since that day, all of them starting displaying powers they never knew they had. They could alter matter, rearranging the molecules almost like child’s play. All of them found they could unlock door and start cars, and numerous other tasks along the way.

Isabel was practicing the most. She altered her hair, her nail polish and her clothes several times a day. She and Liz had finally moved into their loft, and Liz being Parker, took it upon herself to scientifically investigate the changes in everyone, especially Isabel. Together they devised experiments and the two were thicker than thieves, with Isabel discovering another power as they went along, that being dreamwalking. Isabel wasn’t that discreet about her powers either, but one thing remained constant. She couldn’t dreamwalk Alex or Michael. They were closed books, or ones she was too afraid to open. Sean? Isabel woke up screaming from a Sean dream. It was that disturbing. For reasons she wouldn’t divulge, she didn't dreamwalk Maria either.

Max spent a lot of time with Isabel and Liz. When he wasn’t with them, he was over at Kyle and Tess’s doing baby things. Living alone, really alone for the first time in his life, except for the year Isabel was gone, Max was discovering himself. Actually the year Isabel was gone didn’t count because he kept expecting her, waiting for her. Now his space was his own and everything he surveyed was his. His time no longer was relegated to many. But one day he suddenly woke up alone, and he was afraid. Afraid of not having a purpose, a chore other than himself. Once he calmed down and looked, really looked, he found his life wasn’t empty, just rearranged.

Isabel was there, across town with Liz, next to Michael and Maria. There was always Michael and Maria. Max’s fascination with Maria was still there, but he was seeing it for what it was. She represented his hope that if she could find Michael Guerin and give him everything he wanted, then someday he, Max, would find the same thing. She was a touch of his soul. Max also had Tess and Kyle. The three of them went to Lamaze, to parenting classes, to doctor appointments, and sometimes he actually spent the night at their house just to be close to his son. He was having a son.

Max had spent weeks helping them prepare the nursery, and after they finished the three went to his apartment and created another nursery in his home. Baby Jack was always going to have a place in the hearts of all three of his parents. And then there was Jonathan. He had Jonathan. Four months of dating a man, Max was still amazed at his daring. Jonathan wanted Max to move in with him, but Max refused. He needed his space, some time to really collect himself, think, and finally just be quiet inside. He had spent too many years hiding from himself, not even knowing his own nature, hiding behind a tree. He had covered up his isolation with women, lots of women. He was still unsure of his relationship with Jonathan except that he felt a need for the man, a draw that was undeniable, along with an unshakeable excitement. The problem was Jonathan.

“Dispatch has a call for you. It’s urgent. Line three.” Max nodded down at his phone. He hadn’t registered the ringing phone or the blinking light.

“Evans.” Max suddenly went still, and then his entire body moved. “On my way!”

Max took off in a run, already hitting his speed dial as he waited for the elevator. “Rhonda, call dispatch. Tell them to roll extra support units, and I want Forensics on the scene immediately. Call Simon, tell him to get his butt there.”

Rhonda nodded and then paused as Max rushed in to the elevator. “Max, what scene? What is the location?”

Max stuck his head out of the elevator. “Cap’s house. His car was bombed this morning with Amy inside. We’ve got an officer down. Now move!”

Rhonda nodded her head immediately as she picked up the phone and started moving Roswell’s finest to 101 W. Sycamore Street. Philips looked at his partner Waters, and they were immediately up and heading for the scene. As their elevator arrived, out exited Hanson and Courtney.

“Hey, what’s the rush, boys? How about letting us get out with our guest?” Courtney shoved them back as Hanson struggled to get a hardened criminal out of the elevator. They weren’t booking him. He was just in for interrogation, but the queer cross-dresser wasn’t too chipper about being rousted in a middle of a john.

Courtney reached out a hand noticing the empty desks of Evans and especially Guerin. “Who?”

Courtney breathed a silent sigh of relief, but then realized what they were saying. Captain Valenti was down. “What happened?”

“Car bomb this morning. His house.” They jumped on the elevator and pushed the button before she could ask anything else. Courtney frowned. Valenti. That was one step too close to the Commander.

Hanson smiled and nodded. Oh yeah! He’d been observing Guerin’s interrogation techniques, and reading up on the process. His pleasure. Kicking the evil cross-dresser with a off the rack rag down in a chair in interrogation room three, Sam Hanson sneered at him.

“Sit down and shut up!” he growled and then quickly changed paces, “You want a glass of water or something to eat?”

Courtney rolled her eyes. Once again, she was going to have to explain that Good Cop and Bad Cop were actually two cops playing a role, and not one cop playing both. Courtney shut the interrogation room door deciding to let Hanson confuse the poor man into a confession.

Maria appeared to be thinking about the situation, and then solemnly nodded. “Absolutely, Detective. I can’t sneak out to do what I do all day if you're hawking over me.” She played with the button on his shirt. “I know that you’re taking too much time off for me.”

Michael kissed her, and moved his hand up over her stomach. “For us. All of us.” Michael reached down and kissed her stomach and he felt it. Damn. Her entire stomach decided to shift under his mouth. “Twins? Maria, are you sure?”

“I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I just know. It’s like this...awareness. Just like I knew the moment I set eyes on you that you were an impregnator.”

Michael laughed at that. If they were looking at twins, then yep, that he was! “Okay, let’s have DocJim look at you. When is your next appointment?”

Michael tried to look innocent, but failed and then just shrugged. Thursday. It was Thursday. Two days away. She wasn’t supposed to be going every two weeks until the twenty-eighth week, but because of the problems she had early in the pregnancy, Maria went to bimonthly health checks. Michael was convinced DocJim was going to change it to weekly. Maria hated feeling watched, prodded and pampered to the point of being smothered. “I’ll move it to tomorrow.”

Michael stopped as he picked up the phone and looked at her. Curious reaction. “What?”

Maria just shrugged. “I’ve got that glucose tolerance test, and that stuff I’m supposed to drink makes me sick to my stomach. The babies don’t like it.”

Michael was about to make some soothing comment, but the phone under his hand rang. “Yeah? Max, look...” Michael went still, and Maria frowned at his reaction.

“I’m on my way!” Michael slammed the phone down. Looking at Maria, he kissed her quickly. “Maria, get dressed. Now.”

“Michael?” She watched him roll out of their bed and rush down the stairs. He went through the garden to the other glass door across the way. Banging hard, he waited as Liz Parker came to the door confused, still in her dressing gown and holding a cup of coffee.

“Yeah, she’s in the shower. She has a morning class.” Michael’s jaw clenched. “What is it? Maria? Is she...”

“Maria is fine for now.” Michael rubbed his face. “I don’t have time to explain. I need to go. Cap’s car was just blown up at his house this morning.” Michael ignored Liz’s sound of distress. “Amy was inside.”

“Doesn’t know yet. Look. They took Amy and Cap to the hospital, and I would take Maria, but I need to go to the scene first, before everything is gone. You understand?”

Liz nodded. Of course. Michael would want to see if he could get a flash before too many hands picked over the remains. Whoever had targeted Jim would pay and they would pay hard, because they had harmed Amy too. Family. They had hurt Michael’s family.

“Tell Isabel and get dressed. I need the two of you to take Maria to the hospital and stay with her. She needs to keep calm until I can come to her. You got that?”

When Isabel and Liz entered the loft from the garden they came upon a wild scene as Maria bolted past them, pacing around the room in a frenzy. She was crying and highly agitated. Isabel cringed when a vase on the sideboard exploded. Michael was watching her to make sure she didn't hurt herself. A terrified Mr. Boo had taken refuge under the couch.

“That wasn’t me.” The three watched as Maria’s agitated state continued. The pictures on the wall started to shake. “Maria! Maria, listen to me. You need to calm down! Now. I can’t let you go to hospital in this condition.” Michael tried to catch her around the center.

“Stop me!” She grabbed her coat and headed for the door and her car. She had just opened the door to the garage when it immediately slammed shut with Maria still inside the loft. Standing there, shaking in fear, anger and rage, she tried to take deep calming breaths. “Michael, open the fucking door!”

“Not until you calm down and listen to me.” Michael moved behind her, his hands coming around her center, resting on the babies, stroking them so they knew he was there. The power in Maria seemed to drain, as the babies realized that their mother was protected. “Isabel and Liz are going to drive you to the hospital...”

“I would, Professor. I would. But I need to look at the scene first, just in case I can pick up something about who did this. The longer I wait, the more the area is contaminated.”

Maria closed her eyes and tried to calm down. Turning, she leaned into Michael feeling his arms coming up to hold her tight. She just nodded.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I promise. I just need you to stay calm. I won’t tell you not to worry, because I’m worried too. But if you get too agitated the twins will think you're afraid and they’ll give you their power.”

Michael kissed her forehead, and closing his eyes, he rubbed his face against hers. “I love you. Just stay calm.” He registered what he had just said and sighed, “Or at least try to stay calm.”

Maria pulled away and motioned to Isabel and Liz for them to come with her. She needed to go. Michael released the door, but before Maria could step through, she turned and pulled him into a strong hug kissing him deeply.

“Michael, when you find the person or persons who hurt our family...” she said softly against him.

“Kill them.” Maria released him and walked through the door with Liz and Isabel following. Isabel looked back at him in compassion knowing it was killing Michael not to be staying at Maria’s side.

Michael face hardened and shut down. He watched the women get into Liz’s car and drive away. Kill them? No problem there.

Michael took his bike. He made the scene in record time with only a half dozen moving violations along the way. He saw Kyle immediately in the distance. The man looked haggard. His clothes were covered in soot. There were pieces of ripped sheet metal everywhere.

Approaching the scene slowly, and moving to the side, he came up on the opened area. It was the blowout section. The bomb was designed to blow from the inside out, and the force of impact wasn’t from the center of the car, but rather out though the engine. Michael slowly circled inward.

“Michael…” Simon paused when Michael held up his hand for quiet. Squatting down, next to the wreckage he picked up a piece of debris.

“Incendiary plastique. C-4 or higher. I’m smelling more than a sulfur base igniter.” Michael said, smelling it and then putting his tongue to the residue.

“Liquid. They’re hoping to pick up residual effects from the remains. The components were inert until mixed. Best I can tell the initial mixing occurred when Amy first tried to start the car. The second time she provided the spark and was pushed from the car by blowback. If Cap hadn’t opened the door, she wouldn’t have made it.”

“That still remains to be seen. I checked. She's still in surgery.” Michael stood up and rubbed his face hard. “God! Maria...me and Maria, Sean, Kyle, Cap...dammit, all of us. We can’t lose Amy.”

Kyle came to stand next to Michael. His eyes were rimmed in red. Simon gripped his arm hard in comfort.

Michael shook his head. “No. Load it and shut the site. I’ve seen all I need to see.”

Kyle looked at him sharply, but held his tongue. Simon rocked on his heels. Guerin, his favorite detective. Michael was always a fountain of information, and surprising in his natural instincts, almost preternatural.

Michael turned slowly and looked at the site. There would be no flashes. This was someone that would leave no trace.

“We’ve got an expert here. No amateur. This is a master. The blowback was expertly devised. Made to wound the inhabitant of the car, to maim...but not to kill. That kind of skill takes training.”

Kyle rubbed his face and looked at his father’s burned out car. All he could see was his father and Amy on the ground covered in twisted metal debris and blood. Oh Jesus...

“Michael, what did you see?” Kyle asked as Simon walked away. Sean was just getting out of a car, dropped off by Julia. She pulled ahead away from the support vehicles and walked back to join them.

Michael looked around them quickly, and led Kyle away from the crime scene towards Sean as he noticed Max joining them. “Nothing. He left nothing behind. No impressions.”

“No remorse. He had no remorse, so there was no impression left behind. As far as I can tell it's the emotions or circumstances that imprint the scene, that leaves me something to flash on. This is a very cold customer. A professional who only sees the bomb and not the result.”

Sean met up with them, turning and looking at the debris. “Oh shit. What a fucking nightmare! Michael, you get anything at all?”

Michael shook his head no and wandered off to meet up with Max. “Anything, Maxwell? You hear from the hospital?”

Max put a comforting hand on Michael’s shoulder. He could almost feel the rage and the energy level was climbing high. That usually meant explosions. Suddenly car alarms began to go off, as Max quickly grabbed Michael and backed him hard into a tree.

“Get it under control. You’re causing subsonic underground tremors. All the glass will go next.”

Michael nodded and leaned forward with his hands resting on his knees. “Jesus, Max! Amy! I can’t…Maria can’t…” Michael swallowed hard. “We both can’t lose another parent. Not now.”

“I know. You’re going to go. All of us. We’re going to the hospital, and until we get word of Amy and Jim’s condition, you’re off duty. That includes Sean and Kyle as well.”

Max patted Michael on the shoulder. “I’ll take it easy, but I’ll get it going. Philips and Waters will help.”

“Check out all known bombers. This guy was an expert. This type of expertise needs training. Maybe military, demolition, or counter-terrorist. This isn’t an Internet geek reading the Terrorist Handbook or Solder of Fortune and trying to create something deadly from borax and ammonia. This was elegant.”

“With my life.” Michael looked over to see ADA Julia on the scene. Before they could join the others, Michael's cell phone rang.

“No. No, there’s no word yet on her condition. She’s still in surgery.” Isabel paused. “You need to get here quick. Maria is melting down and it’s not pretty. We can’t get her calmed.”

“On my way.” Michael cussed as he closed his phone. Looking at Max, “You hear that?”

“Just meet me.” Michael took off running. As Max joined the rest of the group.

“Where’s Michael going?” Sean asked, watching Guerin leaving the scene at a fast acceleration that had to be anything but legal.

“Maria…she’s upset.” Max looked at Julia and was careful with what he said. It often seemed that the entire world knew about them, but actually both Jonathan and Julia still did not.

Sean, Kyle and Max shared looks of understanding, and after making arrangements to meet at the hospital, they quickly left the crime scene to Forensics and CSI. Simon’s men were crawling over the remains along with special members of the bomb squad.

The County General Hospital in Roswell was in chaos by the time Michael arrived. Its power was out, there were sprinklers going off, and the back-up generator kept coming on and off. Rushing up the stairs to the OR waiting rooms, Michael easily found the culprit. Maria.

“Michael!” Isabel said as she saw him first. Her relief was obvious and heartfelt. Michael didn’t acknowledge her as his eyes found his mate.

Pacing frantically and almost hysterically. Everything she passed exploded. Liz was walking with her trying to keep her calm and the hospital staff was too busy trying to control whatever was going wrong to notice the upset pregnant woman or make the connection that she may be the cause of all the chaos.

Michael nabbed Parker. “Liz, find a damn candy machine. Get some candy bars, anything. Fifth Avenue bars if they have them. Anything with peanuts.”

“No electricity. She blew it over five minutes ago. The operating rooms are running on their own generator, but if they lose that…”

The doors leading into the surgery remained closed. Maria watched them sharply. The world was falling apart around her, but all she could see was that damned closed door. Michael moved into her path, and she hardly noticed.

Fear. It tasted metallic in the mouth, almost like acid, and it was too much. Michael could hear her heartbeat from where he stood to intercept her nervous frantic march. The children could feel it in the increase of adrenaline, and thus they reacted. They only knew their mother was in distress and they were protecting her.

Michael quickly pulled her into his arms, resting his hands on her stomach, and suddenly all the excess energy was gone. Powered down. The twins settled as they felt their father’s presence.

Michael held her firmly and kissed the side of her head along the temple and murmured, “You need to calm down, Maria.”

“Michael…” She gripped him hard and held on. “They never come out. No one. No one will tell me about my mother.”

Michael took the opportunity to sit her down with him. “I can’t. I’m not leaving you alone again, not until we know.”

“Not until Max, Sean or Kyle gets here.” Michael searched her face. She was tired, drained. Now that the power from the twins had been released, Maria was no longer able to stand on her feet. Michael searched for Liz and Isabel, but noticed Tess coming towards them fast.

“Maria! Michael! I heard. Oh, my god! Is there any news?” Michael quickly took Tess’s arm and helped her sit down. She was huge, or maybe it was because she was so small like Maria, and her pregnant stomach somehow looked outrageously large.

Michael shook his head no. With relief, he noticed that Max and the others were approaching along with Liz and Isabel.

Chapter Two: When Apollo kneels to Athena…

Day Two: Wednesday, 2:30 am

Max sat back and rubbed his face. Everyone was taking turns going in to see Jim. Kyle and Tess stayed with him the longest. He had been in surgery for over twelve hours, and in recovery for almost three. His condition was stable, but he was still unconscious. They finally moved him to the Intensive Care Unit.

Jim’s left arm had almost been ripped from his body. Reaching the car, he had pulled the door open to get Amy out of the car, and as the door was opening the car blew. The door and Jim’s left arm almost parted company with Jim’s body as he was blown away from the car along with Amy, who was trying to get out of the car. His left rotator cuff had to be repaired and Orthopedic and Plastic Surgery immediately took him into the O.R. to save the blood supply and neuronal pathways to his arm. He was looking at numerous other reconstructive surgeries along with rehabilitation.

Amy was a different story. She had been in surgery for over six hours and during the two hours she was in recovery they almost lost her. Her heart stopped beating as her pressure dropped. They revived her long enough to take her back into surgery to find more internal bleeding. A large piece of shrapnel from the car was lodged close to her spine in the lumbar region. They called for a specialist and did what they could to stabilize her. After another three hours of surgery, Amy was finally in stable condition in the recovery room. At long last the specialist arrived, and for the past seven hours they had been waiting to find out if she would ever walk again.

“What time is it?” Michael softly asked, trying not to wake Maria.

“After two. It’s late.”

Michael nodded and picked up his cold cup of coffee. Drinking some, he grimaced. It was black and dark. Not the worst, but not the best either.

“You should take her home, Michael.”

“I know. You tell me how to convince her to leave.”

There was no way either Maria or Sean was moving from the hospital until they saw Amy. Michael reached down to pull the blanket over Maria, trying to keep her warm. He needed to feed her again. Her skin was cold to the touch and the twins had been quiet since he arrived.

“She looks tired. Too tired.”

Michael leaned back and closed his eyes. “I know. It’s getting worse. I’m thinking of taking a leave of absence from work and taking Maria to Florida to her family until the babies are born.”

“Babies?” Max actually woke up to that. “As in more than one?”

“That's usually what plurals mean, Maxwell.”

Max actually smiled at that. “Twins, or are there more than that?”

“Not sure. Maria thinks twins. I was getting her an earlier appointment when the call came about Amy and Jim. Guess the Thursday appointment stands.”

Max was silent for a moment. Aliens. They were aliens and they didn’t even know what that meant. Not for them. Not for their children or the humans they chose to love. In the past four months, Michael was the closemouthed one. Unwilling to talk or discuss what it meant, he kept everything inside and tended to close down when Max and the others tried to talk to him about it.

“Maria is getting stronger.” Michael looked over at Max and his face went blank. Dammit. Max ignored Michael’s usual stony-faced regard and continued, “She’s stronger than any of us. Even Tess.”

“Maxwell...” Michael warned.

“Hiding. Ignoring. Denial. None of it is helping, Michael.”

“I’m Mikey’s son. That’s all I know. All I understand. All I want. I don’t want this.”

“Why? Because it's scary, uncertain and unknown? Or because of Maria?” Max asked gently. “Not wanting it doesn’t change the fact that this is what we are.”

“I know that. You think I don’t know that?” Michael lowered his voice as Maria moved in her sleep. “Do you…can you even imagine what it’s like for me? Knowing...knowing that she’s dying because of me? That being pregnant with my children is killing her? Whatever is in us…whatever makes Tess’s pregnancy a cakewalk and Maria’s a living nightmare is because of me?”

“Michael…”

Michael feathered his fingers through Maria’s hair. “I can’t…”

Michael stopped talking. He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t talk about it. Ever since that day over four months ago he couldn’t talk about it. Not to anyone. Maria understood, but she didn’t ask him or force him to talk. She was having her own problems.

“You’re coping. You both are.”

“We’re losing. We both know it. Everyday we struggle, hoping to make it to over seven months so the babies can survive on their own. We’re trying to make it to thirty-two weeks, but at this point…we’ll be lucky to make twenty-eight. And now this! I don’t know, Maxwell. I don’t think I can handle this too.”

Max looked at his best friend and the man who felt like a brother to him and shook his head. “You will make it. Not because you have to, but because I’m ordering you to make it. I don’t care what you have to do, Michael. Just do it.”

Michael looked at Max and slow smiled moved across his face. “Okay.”

Both men laughed, but just as suddenly they both stopped. Uneasy. It was strange how natural that felt. Michael’s hand rested on Maria’s stomach and he gently rubbed.

“They are getting stronger.” He said quietly.

“They’re more powerful than any of us. How can that be?”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. I’ve spent four months just wanting it not to be true, but every time she gets upset…really upset...things happen.”

“They’re protecting her.”

Michael nodded. “It seems like it. They can’t understand what she’s feeling, but they seem to understand her fear and anxiety. It upsets them.”

“They feel you too.” Max didn’t want to tell Michael how much that upset him. His son. His and Tess’s, and now Kyle’s too, didn’t have that degree of a connection with him. It felt unfair that Michael’s children reached out to him, needed him more. It felt like being unnecessary.

“They feel me. I think it’s the blood…maybe more. They seem to know that whatever is lacking in Maria to support them, they can find in me. From almost the beginning I felt them, and could sense they felt me.”

Envy. It was eating a hole in Max. He needed that same feeling. Wanted it. It wasn’t Tess’s or even Kyle’s fault. They had made him a part of their family, an equal partner in their lives and in all things revolving around the baby. Already they had decided that Kyle’s authority was supreme in all things in the house he shared with Tess, but Max would always be the father and when he had the baby, he made the decisions. All major decisions would be made by the three together, and Kyle and Tess would never move away from Max, making it hard for him to see his son. It was more than most men in his situation would’ve been granted.

Max was worried that his past with Tess would be a point of strain in his relationship with Kyle, but it surprisingly brought them closer together in friendship. Together they tag teamed Tess’s pregnancy and literally drove her nuts. Michael was his best friend, but there were so many places in Michael that Max couldn’t understand or even touch. Kyle was different. He was open and willing to share things with Max in ways that Michael wasn’t. This made it easier for him to never feel left out about the birth of his own child, and it was like having a partner in crime with Kyle at his side.

“Why do you think Maria's power is so much stronger than ours? Tess is pretty powerful and has more control than the rest of us, but Maria is steps above us.”

“I never figured it out until today. Twins. Two of them. They must be more powerful together. It would be like our normal powers magnified. They do seem to be governed by instinct, whereas we have to push every step of the way. Maria doesn’t usually seem to be aware that the power surges are happening until it’s too late. Tess isn’t showing any increase in power from your son. I think that's because Tess has her own power that she can control, and she can channel it when she's upset so she’s doesn’t need help from the baby.”

“Maria is different.”

Michael nodded and looked down at his sleeping mate. Yes. She certainly was different. “Not a distinction she really appreciates.”

Max suddenly stood up as a doctor approached them. Posner. The specialist.

“DeLuca-Valenti?”

Michael gently stood up, dislodging Maria’s head carefully from his lap. Sean, who had been quietly staring out a window across the room, left a sleeping Julia to join them. Kyle and Tess were still with Jim, and Isabel and Liz had left to go home and check on Mr. B and pick up clean clothes for everyone.

“Amy?” Michael asked.

“She’s in recovery for the next few hours. If her vitals remain stable we’ll transfer her to the Intensive Care Unit.” Posner stretched a little to relieve the stress in his back from a long surgery. “Prognosis is good. The shrapnel was removed. It was a little tricky. I might have left it in place if it had been any closer, but it was safe enough to remove. Actually I needed to remove it. It was compromising the blood supply and nerves to the lower back. She could’ve been paralyzed. She may still have some loss of mobility and sensation, but all tests currently are showing good reflex responses. We’ll know more in the next twenty-four hours. We need the swelling to decrease before we can determine the full extent of damage.”

Michael sighed his relief. “Anything else?”

“Broken leg. And her hip was strained. The broken bone will be set tomorrow. They stabilized it with a temporary, but Orthopedics will come in the morning to x-ray and recast the leg. She has a concussion and some contusions. A few needed stitching, but all in all, she was extremely lucky to have survived.”

The doctor talked for a few more minutes and then excused himself. Sean, who remained quiet the entire time suddenly looked too tired to stand. Kneeling next to the sleeping Maria, he put his hand on her face.

“Sean?” Michael said softly.

“I’m okay.” Sean wiped away the moisture from his eyes. Dammit. “I just been sitting here all night…all day wondering how Maria would survive if…” Sean stood up and bent down to leave a kiss on his cousin’s forehead. “Amy…she seems a little whacked at times, but she’s the glue that holds us together. She always has been. Maria needs her. I need her.”

“We all do.” Michael looked at Max, who nodded. “They said two of us could go in to see her at a time. Maria is sleeping. Why don’t we go check on Amy before waking Maria up?”

Sean nodded, and Max stood close to Maria while Michael went with Sean. Both men stood at the doorway looking into the large recovery room. Amy was in the second bed. All the others were empty. Michael cussed under his breath, but Sean was a little more vocal.

“Son-of-bitch, I’m going to kill somebody.”

Michael didn’t say anything to calm the man down. He agreed with him. Someone needed to die.

Amy Deluca-Valenti wasn’t a large woman by any imagination. The figure in the bed looked too small for words. Smaller than the woman that she was. Amy was a giant among her family, and seeing her so quiet was more painful than any bleeding wound.

“I can’t let Maria see her like this.” Michael said in a hushed tone to Sean who nodded in agreement. Maria was already living on a very sharp edge of control with her emotions. This would be too much stress.

“I know. Oh god!” Sean went to stand at Amy’s side. His hand reached for her, but hesitated. She looked so tiny and wounded, and somehow touching her felt like it would cause pain. Kneeling next to the bed, he slid his hand beneath hers and bowed his head to rest it against hers.

Michael looked up, swallowing hard. There was so little he could do. No choices. Maria needed to see Amy to reassure herself that her mother was still with them, but…

It was the movement of Amy’s hand in Sean’s hair that alerted them to the fact that she was awake. Her eyes met Michael’s and he went to stand next to Sean. Amy blinked owlishly trying to focus her sight. Her boys. Kyle? Jim? They watched as her eyes opened in fright.

“He’s okay. Jim’s okay. Kyle and Tess are with him now.” Michael said softly, afraid to talk too loud.

“Maria?” Amy’s voice was so low both Michael and Sean leaned forward to hear her voice. It croaked out in a soft sigh almost.

“She’s…” Michael never finished.

“Here.” Both Michael and Sean turned to see Maria standing in the doorway.

~~~

“Don’t be mad at him.” Amy said quietly. “He’s afraid too.”

“I know.” Maria picked up Amy’s hand and her eyes flooded with tears. “Look at you. Look at what they did.” Maria’s hand moved softly and lightly over Amy’s.

“You listen to me.” Amy’s voice became stronger. “Maria. Listen.” Maria looked up from where she was staring to look at her mother. “I’ve lived through worse. You know that. But I’m going to be a grandmother soon, and I can’t live through you losing the baby.”

“Babies.”

It didn’t register at first, but Amy started to smile until it hurt too much to even do that. “Babies?”

Maria nodded. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”

Amy’s eyes became moist as she looked at her tired child. “All the more to love. Does Michael know?”

“I’m surprised he didn’t know first. He has a way about him.”

“He does. A good son. A good man. He’ll make the best of fathers. You need to help him. This isn’t easy for him. He’s on the verge of breaking, and I need you to walk away from me, from the hospital, and go home and get some rest.”

“Mom…”

“Maria. Please. For me. For Michael. And most importantly, for my grandchildren.” Maria held her mother’s hand. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here tomorrow, the next day, and so many days after that you’ll have to start hiding from me again.”

“I never hide.”

“Liar.”

Maria laughed softly. “I cagily elude when the need arises.” Maria stood up and kissed her mom on the forehead. “I’ll get Sean, but I’m not leaving until you’re asleep.”

“Deal. Guess I can’t find a way to convince Sean that this was just a bad dream, huh?”

“Sorry. Don’t think so.” Maria went to find Sean and found Michael in the doorway leading out of the recovery room. She patted him softly on the stomach as she went to find her cousin.

“Thank you.” Michael said in a heartfelt voice to the woman in the bed. Amy just nodded.

Amy lifted her hand for Michael to come to her. “She’s getting weaker.”

“I know.” Michael took Maria’s seat. “I’m failing, Amy.”

Almost to tired to talk, Amy reached up and stroked his cheek gently. “No, you’re not. This isn’t your fault, honey. None of it is,” she said softly.

“Stop that. I’m supposed to be taking care of you.” Amy just laughed softly. “They’re both a mess. Maria almost melted down the entire hospital.”

“Sean?” Amy actually held her breath worrying about her impulsive nephew.

Michael just shook his head. Sean was…Sean. “He can’t stand the thought of losing you. I’ll keep a close eye.”

Amy stroked Michael’s cheek again. “And you?”

Michael didn’t say anything, but the two of them shared a look that said more than words. Amy was the closest thing he had ever had to a mother. Losing her would have been as bad as losing Mikey. Maybe worse. There was something about being a cop. An understanding that dying in the line of duty was always a possibility. It was part of the risk and the package, but not Amy. She was collateral damage.

Michael followed Amy’s eyes and saw her looking at Sean standing behind his shoulder. Leaving them, he quickly kissed Amy’s forehead and went to find Maria. Looking back, he saw Sean’s head fall against Amy as her hand came up to stroke the back of his neck.

Michael found Maria standing at a window looking out in the night and rubbing the small of her back. Coming behind her, he pulled her back against him and took over rubbing her back. Turning in his arms, she buried her head against him, wrapping her arms around him and then cried.

He could still remember a time when she wouldn’t shed a tear, seeing it as a weakness, a symbol of surrendering. Holding her, he could feel the wave of pain wracking her body, and for the first time since the call came, he let himself feel it too.

~~~

“Maria, you ready?”

“No. Michael, where is Mr. Booboo?”

“He went out earlier. I think he went to find you a nice juicy mouse or bird.”

“Great. That’s what I need. More headless poultry.”

Michael was flipping through the mail. “It's his way of trying to help you. You hungry?”

“Starving.” Maria looked at the clock. It was after one in the afternoon. They had left the hospital early in the morning after Amy went back to sleep. Sean refused to leave, but Julia went home to check on her cat, Miss Fluffy. Michael watched as fleeting emotions ran across Sean’s face. He was torn between letting Julia out of his sight, and staying with Amy and Jim. Maria solved the problem by having Michael take Julia home and check out her house before they left her.

They were heading back to the hospital after waking up from a good eight hours of hard sleep. Michael had woken first, and seeing the time, he frowned at the sleeping woman next to him. She was sleeping too deeply. Her forehead was furled almost as if she was concentrating on nothing but sleep. It was a look he had seen before. That look still had the ability to scare him sick with grief. She was beginning to succumb to the tiredness plaguing her.

Sex. A good solution for waking her, but somehow with both Amy and Jim in the hospital it felt wrong. Their schedule was anywhere from three to four hours for feeding. Maria quoted him a statistic that lions in mating season mated every twenty-five minutes for three days, non-stop. They weren’t up to that, but then again nine months was a long haul in itself.

Maria took care of his indecision. Without opening her eyes, she reached for him and pulled him close biting him hard on the side of his neck, drawing blood. Sucking for a moment, she pulled back and opened tired eyes with a drop of his blood still on her mouth. Never losing eye contact, she licked the rouge blood away, watching his eyes narrow and darken. It never took much to start it up again. Three times in the hospital the day before, and once when they got home.

Sex was the one constant thing in their lives, that and the feeding. It had held Maria stable for a while, but over the last month she was losing ground and sex was starting to hold a tinge of desperation.

Maria was slowly losing the battle to an increasing weakening as the babies grew, demanding more and more of her energy reserves. Michael had lost over fifteen pounds since the babies were conceived, and Maria was too thin for her condition, a growing concern for DocJim. Keeping the Maria and the babies alive was taking everything Michael could spare in energy and blood. He could barely eat enough or rest enough to keep up.

“I’m going to take a leave of absence from work.”

Maria stopped contemplating food long enough to look over at Michael, still flipping through the mail. His matter of fact announcement hit her hard.

“Why?” Holding her breath she waited for it to begin.

“Maria…”

“Because of me and the babies?”

Michael just shrugged. With Amy and Jim hurt, Maria upset, and the increasing battle to just survive one more day until the babies were safe, it was the only possible solution. It was only fair. He had forced her to stop working over two months ago, and she was taking a leave of absence from the University for an entire year. She would not return to work until the following Fall semester. Though Maria was keeping herself busy with writing articles and working on her research while occasionally checking in at the museum, she was still taking time off for their children.

“Don’t.”

“Maria…”

“Don’t. I’ll be fine. The babies will be fine.” Maria gave up the fantasy of eating an entire turkey and walked over to him, taking the mail from his hands. “Someone almost killed my mother and Jim. Almost. I need you to find that person before they try again. I need that more than I need you to stay home and watch me get fat.”

Fat? Michael circled her waist with his hands. She had a nice pregnant stomach, but everything else about her was too thin. “You’re hardly fat by any imagination. Now Tess is fat.”

Maria hit him hard in the gut, ignoring his ‘oomph’. “Don’t you say that to Tess, mister.” Maria ignored the tinge of jealousy she felt at Tess’s hardier pregnancy, the healthy glow, and even her excitement. She and Michael were missing out on that. They were too afraid to start building a nursery in case…just in case something went wrong. Maria had seen the nurseries that Max, Kyle and Tess were putting together, and her heart ached.

“I’ll still work on that, but damn, she getting so…”

Maria kissed him to shut him up and went to grab her bag. “Who's in charge now that Jim is out of commission?”

“They’ll assign a temporary Captain.”

“Michael, who’ll be in charge regardless?” Liar.

“Me, I suppose. I’m senior detective.” Michael frowned at the thought. He hated the whole idea. He could lead, do a job and fight a campaign, but sitting back and ordering without action wasn’t part of his makeup.

“Good, then that is where you need to be right now.”

“Where I need to be is here with you.” Michael said simply, holding the door to the garage open for her. “It’s where I belong.”

“Oh, you’ll be here, Detective. Just try to get away. But this feels…it feels wrong.”

Michael stopped and looked at her. “You sensing something, Professor?”

Maria absentmindedly rubbed her stomach. “Yeah, I feel something. Best I can say is ‘Something wicked this way comes.’ You think this is over?”

“It’s barely begun.”

~~~

“They’re going to want to replace me with someone in the Department. It’s too sudden for them to make arrangements outside the city. Last time they brought in someone from Las Cruces when I went on my honeymoon. This time they need someone in quick.”

Sean sat on the window sill and he looked over at Michael leaned up against the wall. Both Kyle and Max were seated in chairs in the room. The four men listened to Jim as he outlined what he wanted done. Sean just looked outside and watched people leaving and entering the building.

“They'll expect chaos and division within the ranks.” Jim winced as his arm began to throb. He refused his last pain meds so he could have a clear mind. They had taken him to see Amy earlier, but she was still asleep. They were both in the same ICU, but her room was across the floor. Too far away. “Michael, you know what has to be done. All of you do. I expect you to do it regardless of who they assign…whatever it takes. Max,” Jim waited until Max looked up from where he sat staring at the ground. “Michael is in charge of the field, but you are in charge of the entire unit. I want you to direct all the teams. Make your primaries Guerin, DeLuca and Valenti. Hanson and Courtney can cover the foot units. Waters and Philips mobile patrol. Reassign all others to cover all other areas, but use discretion.”

“Why me?” Max was confused. Michael should have been assigned the entire unit. He held seniority and had the better record, not to mention more experience. Looking at his partner, he noticed that neither he nor Sean and Kyle made eye contact. They were leaving it to Jim to assign them. They would follow without question.

“Michael has his job, as do the others. They’ll do it as they’re assigned, but this is your job. You keep my department in order. Keep them working and the streets clean. Assign them as you see fit, but keep your enforcer arms close. Is that clear?”

“Aye, Cap.” Max rubbed the back of his neck. Enforcer arm. He looked at both Michael and Sean, and surprisingly Kyle as well.

Michael glanced over at Sean, sharing a look. That would be them and Kyle. Sean just smirked and searched for a cigarette, ignoring Michael’s narrowing eyes and scowl. They had a pact. Sean was trying to stop smoking and Michael was attempting to clean up his language before the baby…babies...came. Both were ongoing battles of futility.

“Get going. I’m not dead yet, so I don’t need healthy young men hawking over me like I’m on death’s door. What I do need is to know who hurt my wife, and I expect the four of you to find the answer to that question.” Jim shifted uncomfortably in his bed. “Now go.” Jim watched the four slowly filed out of the room. “Michael, stay for a moment.”

Michael nodded at the others and waited until they left waiting patiently for Jim to talk.

“Max. You think he’s ready?” Jim asked quietly.

Michael seemed to think about it for a moment. “He’s born to it. For Max, it’s never been easy. He spent his young life with strong parents who made his life easy and safe, as did we all. But they grounded him, gave him confidence and ambition. After they died his only ambition was to never see that happen to other people, and he put away his books and became a cop. But in all other areas of his life he was drowning, uncertain and indecisive.”

“I thought he was becoming more assertive.”

Michael nodded. “He is. Jonathan pushes him, and Max is learning that he can push back or not be pushed. It’s there. He just needs to trust in himself.”

“Maybe I’m pushing him sooner than he’s ready for…”

“No.” Michael looked out the glass at his partner. “No. He’s more ready than he realizes. Life builds winners and losers, and the full mettle of a man is determined by the gauntlets he runs. Sometimes the losses are more character building than the wins, and Max has lost many along the way. It made him strong without him realizing it.” Michael looked at his Captain. “One thing I know to be true. Max is stronger than most men, and maybe the strongest of all of us. He’ll make the hard decisions regardless of the cost, and he’ll do it for the right reasons. I’d trust him with my life, and have. There’s not a man I trust and respect more than him.”

“Good. I trust you to watch over him.” Michael nodded recognizing his dismissal. “Michael,” Jim said quietly. “When the time comes, I expect you to take care of this.”

“It’ll be done, don’t worry, Cap. The question will be who will finish it. I have a feeling that Kyle and Sean will be there fighting for the privilege.”

“As long as we understand each other.”

Michael nodded and left the room. On that one point, all of them were in agreement. No mercy.

~~~

Michael looked at his watch and frowned. He and Max had left the hospital over three hours ago to check in at the Department. They were both still effectively on family leave, but things needed to be done. It was the itching between his shoulders, almost as if he were being watched, that bothered him the most. He had left Maria with Amy and Jim, but suddenly he was uncomfortable having her so far away.

“I’m switching Maria’s Lamaze nights back to Tuesday and Thursday.”

Max laughed. “I thought the instructor moved the two of you to Monday and Wednesday to break us up.”

Michael just made a face. The group of them in Lamaze had been a heralding experience for the instructor. Somehow having three expectant fathers all carrying guns and being ‘just a little’ over-protective and competitive sort of disrupted the class. The team of Valenti-Evans was racing the team of Guerin-DeLuca in concentrative deep breathing, so much so that the two pregnant women both turned red from the coaching and effort. The water incident had nothing to do with him, but Michael was resigned to take the blame. Typical.

“I don’t care. I’m switching us back to the same night. Maria is a little emotional lately and with this whole incident with Amy and Jim, she needs people around her that makes her feel safe and calm.”

“Calm? Dammit, Michael, how calm can the woman be with your enforced commando tactics in place?”

“Hey, we were doing fine until you and Kyle stepped up the competition. The Professor and I were doing just fine.”

“There was no need to shoot the water…”

“That wasn’t my fault! Dammit, pull over. I’m going to drive.”

Max just ignored his partner and kept driving, undaunted. Boorish prig.

“Maxwell…”

“You can’t drive and you know it. The Department pulled your insurance, so don’t bitch at me. I told you that using your car to detain a suspect was a bad idea.”

“I just cornered him. He was fine!”

“Uh huh. Until you have insurance again…no on-duty driving.”

Michael just cussed, and Max looked at him sharply. “Pass it over, partner.”

“Dammit!” Michael quickly shut his mouth realizing he cussed again. Sighing he reached into an upper pocket and pulled out a candy bar from his stash. The quest of kicking his habit of colorful phrases was an ongoing one, forever increasing in futility. He had tried paying money. He had tried having to forfeit things he liked to do. It was decided that he had too much ready cash and no real care about whether he had it or not to make it effective. But food. His junk food and snacks was something he couldn’t live without.

Max ignored Michael’s under breath cussing and calmly ate the candy bar. He was going to gain thirty pounds before Michael stopped cussing…well, stopped trying to stop cussing. Some things never changed.

“That was my last Fifth Avenue.”

“Tasty.” Max said cruelly making great show of enjoyment for the bar.

“Aw! There’s a Whataburger. Pull over. I need food.”

Max was on the verge of protesting, but Michael was really getting too thin and most of the food energy went to Maria and the twins. Max tried to avoid looking at Michael as he polished off four large cheeseburgers, two large orders of fries, and an extra thick milkshake. Stealing a glance at his partner he made a face as the man dipped his fries into the thick milk concoction humming happily under his breath. An in-between meal snack. More calories and fats than most people ate in a day, and because of Michael and Maria’s food fetish and Michael’s trying to clean up his language before the babies arrived, Max was sporting an extra twelve pounds he never had before.

“So when is Jonathan going to descend on us?”

Max looked over and turned his attention back to the road. “Tonight. He’s taking the late evening flight back. I told him he could wait until Friday, but he was concerned.”

“Amy and Jim have nothing to do with him.”

“He cares, Michael, so give him a break.”

Michael just shrugged. He still didn’t like Jonathan. He couldn’t help it. His attentions to both Maria and Max bothered him. Always had, and more than likely always would. Jonathan was nothing if not courteous, but he still bugged Michael.

“He didn’t have to cut short his business trip.”

“Yes, he did. He felt he did, so just do me a favor and take it for what it is. His concern.”

“Fine.” Michael sucked on his shake and looked at his partner. Four months. His partner had been dating a man for four months. It still shocked him at some level, but at another level Jonathan was something Max seemed to need in his life. A stabilizing effect.

“He was worried about Maria and the babies.”

Michael just swore. “I might not like him much, but I do know he’d protect her. I just don’t know why.”

Max just shrugged. “Maybe he loves her too? They were friends for a long time before you showed up. He protected her back then, and he still does,” Max said casually, not hinting how much Jonathan’s regard and care of Maria bothered him. It wasn’t jealousy, not in a classical sense, but suddenly like Michael, he was feeling that Maria was the perfect choice for Jonathan. It was hard feeling that way, especially since neither Maria nor Jonathan did.

~~~

“You going to eat all that?”

Kyle looked at his partner and down at his donut. Handing him half, he grimaced at the taste of the cold coffee. It was impossible, or it should’ve been, that the hospital coffee was worse than the Department's. Of course nothing touched the Anthropology Department’s coffee at the University.

“How long is this going to take?”

Sean searched his clothes for his usual imaginary cigarette and just shrugged. The orthopedic surgeon was in Jim’s room and Amy was in with them in a wheelchair. She was recovering, but it would take time. She had awakened that morning in pain, and refused all pain medicine until she saw her husband, so the doctors finally agreed to let her visit him. Maria came early, but Michael forced her to go home and nap when he and Max made a trip to the Department.

“Sean, how long…?”

“I don’t know Kyle. They’re checking his arm. The nurse said that the damage was extensive, but at least he still has an arm.”

Kyle nodded and suddenly wanted that imaginary cigarette that Sean seemed to carry in his mind just as much. Kaleidoscope. Their lives were like a moving pattern of order, disorder, and ever rearranging chaos to order. Michael was the most silent. His anger rolled off of him in waves, and the angrier he got, the quieter he got.

They waited for what felt like hours, but finally the doctors left the room. Stopping to converse with Kyle, Sean listened as the doctor outlined a long rehab program for Jim. The best they could determine was that he would retain his arm, but that he lost some use of it. Only time would tell. Quietly they stood in the doorway as Amy sat in her chair gazing at her husband.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me!” Jim hissed angrily. Seeing her face, his voice softened. “It does to me. I can’t hold you tight, make you feel safe, and god help me, I let this in our lives.”

“No, you didn’t. I knew the risks. I lived with them for years. You think I was more protected as your fiancée for six years? I lived in your life. I slept in your bed. I rearranged your damn closet, Jim Valenti! Nothing changed except a piece of paper and my name. Nothing changed. I loved you then, and I love you now.”

“I might never be able to use my left arm again, Amy. I’m crippled.”

“In your damn brain!” Amy ignored his look. “You look like my husband to me. Whole. Strong. Beautiful. The man I married. If this is all you can see, then I’m sorry. I’m sorry you sacrificed your damn arm for me. You should’ve let me die in that damn car…then you’d at least have your arm.”

Jim tried to sit up in bed as Amy tried to move her wheelchair. But her cast on the right leg was too bulky and her one hand was wrapped in a straining brace that extended upward to her shoulder for stabilization.

“Dammit, Sean. Get me out of here!”

“Amy, honey, don’t go.”

“I’ve got nothing more to say to you, Jim Valenti! You’re a horse’s ass! Do I look like I want to talk to a horse’s ass? No.” Amy gave up in frustration and looked at her nephew in pleading. “Sean...”

Sean went behind the chair and gave Jim a look of sympathy, leaving Kyle to take care of the man.

“Amy, I didn’t mean it that way! I…of course I don’t mind…um, I mean, no sacrifice would be too great.” Kyle quickly shook his head no at the word ‘sacrifice’ but it already left Jim’s mouth, and Amy heard. Her eyes filled with tears, and Sean quickly took her from the room. “Amy, honey?”

“Dad. Leave it, please?”

“But…”

“She’s not going to take this well. You know that. The very idea of you hurt, possibly maimed because of trying to save her, it’s too much right now. And the thought that you regret it is hitting her hard.”

“I don’t regret it. I just regret all the times I won’t be able to hold her in the future, being less of the man…”

“She married?” Kyle asked quietly. “Maybe all she sees is the man who risked his own life to save her. A man that she trusts and believes in regardless of how many hands he has, or how strong his arm is. Maybe all she sees is the man she loves who for a short span of time she was afraid was lost to her forever.”

Jim was thoughtfully listening to his son. His son. More a man than he was. “I remember when your mother left. You were so small then, so young. It was just you and me. I was devastated, and I had to leave you in that dreadful daycare so I could go to work. You never complained. One day I came to pick you up and you gave me a picture you drew. It was me in my cop uniform with a cape with the words ‘My Dad’ under it. I asked you what the cape was for and you told me that all superheroes needed them.” Kyle smiled at the memory. “I never wanted to ever do anything that would make you stop looking at me that way.”

“You never have.”

Jim laughed. “Liar. Get me a damn wheelchair.” Kyle looked at his arm in traction and… “Just get me the damn chair or I’m walking.”

“Maybe you should let her calm down, and…”

“Kyle,” Jim warned.

“Fine.”

Amy was back in her bed, crying, by the time they got to her room. Sean was sitting on the edge of her bed talking quietly. He turned when Kyle and Jim entered the room, his eyes flashing in anger. Jim, for the first time, saw the blood of Sean's ancestors running in his veins, the deep impact of his ire as he protected his family. Squaring his shoulders, or shoulder, Jim met it face on. Amy was his family too, dammit.

“Leave us.” Sean stood to protest, but Jim remained firm. “Now.” Kyle and Sean shared a look, and after a kiss to Amy’s brow, Sean followed Kyle out. The last words they heard were from Jim talking to Amy.

“I love you. There is no sacrifice too great, because if I lost you, I wouldn’t even want to live.”

Sean closed the door and looked at Kyle. “He’s good.”

“Yeah, where do you think I get it?”

Sean just snorted. “I should write it down so I can remember it.”

“You should. It’s got to be better than your standard, ‘Baby, make me your bitch!’ line.”

“Hey! That one works too!”

~~~

“Hey, Blondie. Time to go home.” Michael said from the doorway. He had taken her home three times that day, but every time he turned his back she was back at the hospital.

“I want to stay, and…”

“Maria. Michael is right. Go home. Rest. I’m just going to sleep anyway.”

“Mom…”

Amy just sighed and shrugged at Michael. “Okay, I understand. Well, I guess if you’re going to be here all the time, you might as well help me.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “Help you?”

“Sure. I just started a new project, and being in the hospital is really putting a dent in my time. Now did I tell you about the noble plight of the endangered….”

“Mom,” Maria said, cutting off her mother before she could get started. “I really should go home and rest.”

“Of course, dear.”

Michael waited as Maria said her goodbyes and fled. He went over to kiss Amy gently on the forehead. “You’re one scary woman.”

“Don’t you forget it.” Amy smiled tiredly. “You should have realized that from the start, since you’re going to be my son-in-law.” Amy looked at him intensely. “You are going to be my son-in-law, correct?”

“I’m working on it. Who knew getting so many flowers would be such a chore?”

Amy laughed. “You called the number I gave you? I could help, you know. There's nothing wrong with asking for help.”

“Yeah, I called it. They said they could fill it in the next two to three weeks. I know that you’d help, but I want to do this completely on my own. It’s sort of a present for Maria. So I’m shooting for the last day of August. I already put in for two weeks off for the honeymoon.”

“Honeymoon? Hmm, where would that be?”

Michael patted her on the cheek and smiled a rare boyish smile. “Secret. Not telling a soul!”

“Well, I hope Maria finally gets to know.”

“Oh, she’ll know. I’ll let her see the airport, the trip from the airport, the outside of the hotel, and one hotel room.”

“Good man.” Amy laughed, and waved him off. “Go. Get my grandbabies home.” Amy just shook her head at the whole concept of having grandchildren.

~~~

Michael paused as he opened the door to the loft. Someone was there. He could feel a presence, a sense that the place wasn’t empty.

“Zeke.” The young man slowly lowered his hands that he had instinctually raised when Michael’s gun was pointing straight in his face.

“Whoa! Back off, big guy. It's just the little computer geek!”

Michael grunted and put it away as Maria’s voice raised behind him in complaint from not being able to get in the door. Moving aside, he reached down and picked up the bags he had placed beside the door before entering.

“Zeke! Sweetie, what are you doing here?” Maria looked at him critically, taking in the added inches he seemed to have grown overnight. At seventeen and their youngest tenant of the loft complex, Ezekiel Garza was just a little over an inch shorter than Michael, much slimmer, and his longish curling dark brown hair and scruffy bearded face made him a real popular boy with the girls in his class. Maria always thought that his dark brown soulful eyes and honest direct regard were his most attractive features.

“I heard about Amy and Jim.” Zeke looked at Michael with a slight raise of his eyebrow. Michael shook his head no slightly. “I was wondering if you needed me to do anything, plus Mr. B came visiting this afternoon with a fat juicy bird in his mouth and he didn't seem to be able to get in the petdoor without dropping it.”

“Oh, God! Where did he put it?” Zeke gestured towards the upper loft area. “Michael…”

“I’ve got it. Zeke, help Maria with the bags.”

The younger man smiled and went to help his favorite person in the world, well except for Michael, and of course, Margo. Telling Maria about his day and the latest software he was writing, he kept close to her.

“So when is this play?”

“Friday night, but you don’t have to come. I mean, with everything happening and all, it’s okay.”

“Don’t be silly. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Maria looked up as Michael came down the stairs with a dead bird and a plaintive Mr. Booboo meowing over the loss of his token of love. Maria swallowed a laugh as Michael had a long conversation with the cat about depositing dead bodies in his shoes and threatened to arrest him. “Michael, Zeke has a school event on Friday!”

Michael nodded at them on his way to dispose of the corpse. In the past he used to toss it outside, but soon found the same decomposing bird back in his shoes, so now he tossed them in the garbage can in the garage. Coming back in he quickly washed his hands, and threw a piece of roast beef on the ground to pacify the put-out cat.

“What event?”

Maria began digging into a bag of chips, and with her mouth full she smiled at Zeke, gesturing for him to tell Michael. Zeke avoided Michael’s eyes and mumbled.

“I didn’t catch that. You want to add some letters and vowels in there somewhere?”

“A play. I’m in a play.”

“Do you have to wear tights?”

“No!” Maria looked sternly at Michael as the poor boy slowly turned red. “But I do have a sword.”

“Awesome! We’ll be there!” Michael made a face at Maria. “Do you get to kill anyone?”

“Lots!”

“We’ll come early for good seats.”

Maria looked at the two and just shook her head. “You’re both sick.”

Michael hit Zeke on the back. “This calls for pizza.”

“Pizza?” Maria suddenly perked up. “I could eat!”

Max tripped over his gym bag he had left in the middle of the floor. Moving around in the dark, he cursed at the illuminated dial of a clock in his kitchen.

A very tired looking Jonathan was resting up against the door jamb with his overnight bag in hand. Smiling slightly, his eyes ran over Max’s face, and dropping the bag he pulled the slighter man into a powerful hug.

Max nodded and moved back, giving Jonathan room to come inside. “Yeah. They survived, but...”

Jonathan pushed the door closed behind him after pulling his bag inside. Taking Max back in a strong hug he just let Max take his time. He could feel the tremors running through Max's body, and of all the things he knew about Max Evans, one thing was that he felt deeply for those in his life.

Max pulled away and went to stand in the kitchen turning on the light. “You want something to eat or drink? You must be tired, and...”

“I didn’t rush home to be entertained. Come sit with me, and tell me what the hell is going on.” Jonathan went into the living room and threw himself down in a heap on the sofa, putting his feet up on the coffee table. Reaching for his tie, he gave up and let his hand drop.

“Sorry. I’m avoiding again. I know.” Max sat next to him and stared at his hands dangling between his legs. “Jim might never be able to use his left arm again. He’s looking at numerous surgeries, rehab and therapy. They went in immediately with plastics and orthopedic surgery trying to re-establish and maintain all the blood supplies and nerves. He was in there forever.”

Jonathan closed his eyes and rested his head back against the sofa. He asked so quietly that Max almost didn’t hear. “And Amy?”

“She may never walk again. They don’t know yet. It will take some time to let the area heal. She has feeling in her legs, but...” Max leaned his elbows on his knees and rubbed his face. “They just don’t know yet, but she’ll be in a wheelchair for a while. Either way, she’ll also need therapy and rehab.”

“She’s understandably upset, but between Amy and Michael they’ve seemed to calm her down.” Max didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t help it. “What is it with you and this Maria thing?”

“There is no Maria thing. She’s my friend, and has been for a long time. I care for her, and for her family. That even includes Michael...somewhat.” Jonathan looked over at Max. “Hey, not so long ago you thought you were in love with her. Why couldn't I be any different?”

Jonathan stood up and looked at Max. “Then it looks like you and I have much more in common than we knew.” Jonathan quietly walked away and went to shower. Max just sat there and slowly went to follow.

Max stood in the bathroom waiting for Jonathan to get out of the shower. The room was filling with steam, and Max stood in front of the mirror brushing his teeth. Looking at Jonathan's reflection in the mirror he held the stare when Jonathan looked at him.

“Aren’t we all? She’s got something special about her, something even I can’t name or describe. It’s like being pulled to a magnet, or perhaps the center of a storm where there’s a sense of calmness. I don’t know.”

“Since I met her.” Jonathan laughed as he dried his hair. “It’s definitely not like what Michael has for her. They’re like two parts of a whole, or maybe the different face of the same coin. Soulmates. Maybe more. Elemental. Like they dance this dance together through a thousand lifetimes, and still they find each other. They are one and the same, and yet different. I don’t know.”

Max followed Jonathan out of the bathroom after he brushed his teeth. “I felt it too. Maria is...Maria. Somehow with her, I just feel like I can think clearer, see things that didn’t make sense before. She's like a focus or something, and I find myself searching her out. I know Michael does the same.”

“I searched for her for a long time, and when I found her...I had expectations, things I thought would happen, a overwhelming sense of clarity of what would happen, but I didn’t expect...” Jonathan just shook his head and grabbed his extra pillow before Max could steal it.

“What didn’t you expect?” Max looked around trying to locate another pillow. He liked sitting up against the headboard talking to Jonathan at night, but that damn headboard was pretty hard going.

“I didn’t expect that she would be so small. So wounded. When I met her...” Jonathan looked away from Max and climbed into the bed, the side he usually slept on when he stayed at Max’s place.

“She was...she was sorrow.” Jonathan cleared his throat, but not before Max saw a hint of moisture there. “I...I didn’t know. I never felt..., um not before, I never...”

Jonathan just shook his head. “I don’t know. There can be no naming, no words to touch the silence that held her. She didn’t speak a word for a year, you know. It was as if sound would break the air around her, the very fragile hold she had on reality. Her father was gone. Her brother being a murderer and her watching him slaughter her boyfriend...it hurt worse than the cuts he left on her tiny body. Deeper. Running blood.”

Max didn’t know what to say. So much of his life, losing his parents, felt intolerable at times, but what Jonathan was describing were made worse by knowing Maria, imagining it.

“Him?” Max was confused. “Her boyfriend?” Strange thought. Max couldn’t imagine Maria loving anyone but Michael.

“No. Her brother. He terrorized her, made her afraid, but she still loved him. His death and who he was, tormented her for the longest time, and she wished she had died that day too.”

Jonathan just shrugged. “Like you said, she's special. She has this ability to clear the mind, to give a sense of clarity. I knew that people like her existed, special people with special talents. It was what I surrounded myself with all my life. When I saw her, I knew. And the fragile state she was in offended me, made me angry, and I guess at that moment she became mine. Something I protected regardless. I just didn’t know I could feel...not like that.”

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah. Not a romantic love, not even sexual, but something else. Like she was...looking at God at the impression of purity.”

“Yes. No hate. No spite. Just pure feminine sorrow, and she was like a princess encased in ice, held there suspended, untouchable.” Jonathan laughed. “And then she shocked me.”

“She looked at me and said I had to either speak my mind or move my fat ass, because she was one busy chick on a quest to find the perfect cup of coffee.”

“It was a novelty. All those months I took over so many of her affairs, helped her mother and Sean, and she looked like a waif that barely could hold her own weight, and the first time I heard her voice...it was the voice of an angel spewing words that would have sent sailors running.”

“I hate to admit it, but yes. They fit in places I didn’t know were supposed to be matched.” Jonathan sank down into the bed and waited for Max to move down closer to him. “I, who usually felt nothing, but with her I felt everything.”

“Confused. Horny. Pissed off...happy? You never inspire the same feelings at the same time, Detective. You are an anomaly in my life. I want to push you, but I find myself holding back. That, in itself, is highly unusual for me. At all times, I am a man with a plan.”

“Maybe it’s many things. Things known, and things untold, or maybe it is just stress. My life. Yours. All the places between. Will he stay? Will he leave? Is he just using me? Stupid shit. But still important. To me.”

"When I was feeling this stressed in my life, as you put it, I discovered the perfect way to end it, and make myself come down from the high of shocking uncertainty."

Max smiled evilly in the dark, his deep brown eyes shining mischievously. "Sex." The matter of fact reply completely contradicted the gleam in the eye, but then Jonathan realized there was more to come. "Besides bringing good luck, it relieved stress and helped me go to sleep."

Jonathan just stared at his bedmate, trying diligently to decipher what was likely going on in the depths of the other man's mind. The brown eyes shone brightly, but gave away little more than Jonathan had already picked up. Dammit, hint a little more here Evans! Jonathan took a deep breath and all the tiredness that plagued his body was suddenly gone. He was more than willing to relieve all the stress Max might need relieving. Jonathan jerked his head, and realized, yup, he'd just thought that. He was such a fucking slut. It wasn’t his intention to find Max that late for anything other than comfort and to make sure he was all right. Endless lectures of not giving up too much of himself, since Max seem incapable of making a real decision or commitment, went out the window in a second.

Something needed to be said, to break the silence they were experiencing, and he was sure Max wouldn’t say any more.

"So you what? Fuck your brains out, pass out, and everything is suddenly okay?" Jonathan swallowed a curse. What the fuck was he saying? He had kept Max at a distance over the past four months, and now he was offering to just let it all go?

"Basically, yeah. Worked almost every time." Max said, eyes watching Jonathan in the dark, making Jonathan feel even more disconcerted, making him regret having hurried back from his business trip. That's when he saw it, the little flash of something that said there was definitely a discussion going on here between the lines, or under them, behind them maybe? He wasn't positive what that discussion was exactly, but he was damned if he was going to give up on finding out yet.

"Almost every time?" Jonathan's genuine curiosity was outweighed by the bright light of encouragement in the other man's eyes, and he just prayed he was reading it right.

Yup, there it was again, a flash, a glimmer of something a whole lot more important than what was actually being discussed.

What to say? That door had been slammed in his face too often in the past few months, but nothing ventured was nothing gained. Jonathan's own face grew mischievous, a smile lighting the angled features. "Maybe now is the time to talk to Mary, huh?" His smile grew as Max was suddenly still and tried to appear more thoughtful. "Samantha maybe? Or Carol, Denise, Jenny, Lisa, Carmen…"

Max stopped him with a hand to the mouth and rolled his eyes. "Where the hell did you get all the names of my past girlfriends?"

“You’re not going to forget this and not remind me of my past promiscuity?”

“Not likely," Jonathan said seriously. It was Max’s past relationships, or sexual partners that made him want a promise of commitment, exclusiveness. Silence descended again, but this time it was bridged by the connection between the two sets eyes in the room as so much was left unsaid, yet both heard it all loud and clear.

They had been working up to this. They were at a breaking point. Going forward, or ending it. Handsome? No, more like pretty. Max’s features were almost too finely defined for a male. This wasn't the first time he had noticed it. He realized this little flirtation game had begun a few months ago. Shortly after that night in the club when Max had feared him dead or hurt, after they had found the bodies. Max came to him with no questions asked or even permission, and he let him back in, and he had done it every time since. It had been as if the dam had broken, and all the tension released to flow out of their lives.

Jonathan had started noticing slightly heavier gazes being directed at him from Max, and realized that Max was trying to overcome a mental hurdle, make a decision he knew would change his life forever. So he practiced patience until the days ran into months, and suddenly he tossed out the gauntlet, demanded a decision. He did it by asking Max to move in with him. Max said no, but Jonathan couldn’t just walk away, so they stood at an impasse.

Then the masked innuendoes, the somewhat veiled allusions, and the outright advances that had only gotten more intense and more playful as the weeks and months wore on. The two of them had been heading in this exact direction, possibly for longer than either were conscious of, and there was no way in hell Jonathan was turning back now.

"So, any other contenders?" Jonathan had intended to sound more innocent than that, but the huskiness in his voice was more than obvious, and Max's smile only grew. He had never promised to date and see Jonathan exclusively, but it still had turned out that way.

"Possibly. Not sure if this other contender is up to the challenge," he replied, leaning forward to prop himself up on and arm above Jonathan. "Or if there's actually time to investigate said contender's prospects."

"Prospects?" Jonathan’s jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth and forced himself to proceed at Max’s speed, and not force him to hurry this along. He absentmindedly reached out to move a finger up Max’s jaw line just in time to be caught by Max’s graceful hand that reached for his cheek. He looked up into the wide eyes above as he was pushed back into the mattress and the sturdy body leaned into him. "What's there to investigate exactly?" Jonathan asked huskily, slightly clearing his throat.

"Umm, let me think," Max murmured, allowing his hand to caress the features of the older man. Jonathan turned his head to brush his lips over the palm, never taking his eyes off the man above him. Max seducing him? Yup, that sounds about right.

"I think that it would have to be something simple, due to time constraints and the lateness of the hour, and the fact that the contender has probably been up all day and traveled late into the night to get here. There's only one more thing to do tonight than what was expected." Max's face had moved closer until his breath was a warm, moist touch on Jonathan's lips.

"Quite right," Jonathan was able to get out just as Max’s lips finally completed their descent. Any hesitation that might have been present disappeared at that exact moment. Max’s hand slid down to a muscular shoulder and began to knead, but quickly moved back to cradle the back of Jonathan's head. Jonathan's own hands moved as they originally desired to sink into Max’s hair.

Tongues met finally as mouths slanted, grips became tighter, breathing became unnecessary, and the first taste caused an addiction Jonathan didn't ever want to rid himself of, even if he could. He hated Max for that. He felt as Max had discovered every chink in his armor, and proceeded to take from him all his control. It became something akin to a race to see who could control every movement, find every dark corner the fastest and make it their own.

When breathing became necessary, Jonathan felt Max pull away to pant into his mouth. A low moan of passion mixed with a pout of chagrin, and he pulled the head the last inch forward so their foreheads were resting against each other. They panted together for a few more seconds, slowly calming down as they ran their hands across each other's body. Jonathan knew what Max was thinking, and he wanted just as much to let things keep going. It was Max’s party.

Jonathan nodded in answer to the younger man's breathy question, rubbing their foreheads together. "Unfortunately, yeah," he whispered. He smiled, though, and resituated their position to bring their lips near again. "So how did tonight's contender do?"

Max shook with silent laughter. "I do believe he did quite well," he answered, letting their lips meet again for a quick moment, an unwanted validation as they began to untangle themselves. Jonathan felt his face being held again between strong hands, and he met the glassy eyes. "I think we may be able to waive a couple of the other pieces of crap I usually put you through and go straight to the heart of things."

"Yup, self-paced, but with large rewards to get things done real quick." Max planted another peck to Jonathan’s mouth, and then backed off. "But I've got to be honest with you, I can’t live with you, not yet. I...I know you get irritated with me, and how slow I go, but something in me, like my heart stops and everything is hushed, and I feel a sense of caution. Go slow. We've got time, Jonathan. Time. I just feel that somewhere, somehow I made a big mistake once. I made a decision that cost too much, and something inside me remembers that, and tells me to stay the course, be cautious, and make the right choices. I can’t fail this time,” Max said fiercely. “Not this time."

Jonathan squeezed the hand that he caught tenderly. Yup, they had time, for now. It could wait, and would.

“So you can’t live with me, so what does this mean exactly Max? Do you even understand how much of who and what I am that I’ve changed and altered for you? I changed my sexual orientation, put things on hold…dammit, you’re rewriting my life and…”

“I can give you a promise.” Max said quietly. Jonathan stopped and waited. “I can’t live with you, but I can promise you exclusiveness. No dating. No others. Just you. And…I can promise that once I can make a commitment to live with you…I will.”

Fair enough. Jonathan nodded. He wanted more, but that would do for now. It was one more step closer to his goal, better than what he had when he woke up this morning.

“Baby? Okay, we need to set some rules! No cutesy nicknames…and baby? That is totally out!”

Max made a face and hit Jonathan hard across the chest as the older man started laughing. “Okay! Okay. But just once…in front of Michael.” Max looked at Jonathan and they both dissolved in a flood of laughter.

Michael looked down at their kleptomaniac cat. “Don’t even get me started on that shit again. No more hoarding for the babies.”

Michael looked back down at the cat. “Don’t think I’m going to apologize. You’re still under suspicion.”

Michael looked at her shoes and frowned. “It’s your shoes. I’m telling you, they’re bad for your legs and back. Dangerous.”

“Michael,” Maria said warningly. Her shoes were an off-limit topic. “Are you going to drop me off at the hospital to see Mom afterwards?”

“No. I’m bringing you home to rest. I’ll take you to the hospital after lunch.”

Maria opened her mouth to protest, but decided to be reasonable. Waiting for Michael to close the loft door and open the door of the car for her, she noticed his gun.

Home? Michael looked at her like she was three degrees shifted to insanity. Not going to happen. Fingering his weapon, his eyes narrowed. “I need it.”

“No, you do not. We’re going to the baby doctor, Michael, not into a hostage situation.”

“That’s what you think. Have you even bothered to notice the women that frequent that place? They’re…”

“Pregnant! They’re pregnant, not insane, not criminals, and they are not going to attack or maim you.”

“No. I’m required to have my weapon at all times, even off duty. As an officer of the law…”

“I will not. That’s just ridiculous! I saw the group of you sitting around comparing your ‘pieces’ talking about barrel size, and muzzle velocity. Don’t try that one on me!”

“Dammit Michael, you’re all obsessed with your phallic hardware! Don’t even deny it. You even name the damn things!”

Maria looked up at him where he stood close holding open her door. “Really?” Ridiculously pleased, she noticed he was looking so incredibly fine. He smelt…

Michael groaned as she sniffed him along the side of his neck. Looking down at her, he kissed her hard, and then he firmly put her in the car. “Stop it. We’re finding out about the twins today. For once, let's not be late. I’ll treat you to a Burger Barn double cheeseburger with extra pickles afterwards.”

Maria smiled and settling back in her seat with her hands folded across her stomach she said simply, “I love you.”

Michael smiled and started the car. He was getting so damn fucking good at this relationship shit…um, stuff.

DocJim looked at the schedule on her chart. “Well, you’re up for a ultrasound today, so we’ll check it out. That would explain the muffled Doppler results. I see they took your glucose test today, so I’ll let you know the results of that too. Blood chemistry will be back soon. I told them to put a rush on it since your chemistry is always all over the place.”

DocJim put the chart aside and looked over at Michael quietly sitting in a chair in the corner. Sighing, he shook his head. “Your weight is too low, Maria.”

“I know. I can’t explain it, but you’re seriously underweight. The babies seem to be thriving, but it would be remiss of me to not be concerned for the mother as well.” Jim looked at his patient. “I heard about Amy and Jim. And I know that this is a hard time for you, a lot more stress. I need you to stay as calm as possible. Rest. Eat well, and take care of yourself. I realize that both of you are doing everything you can, but I’m worried.”

“Don’t be. I’m fine.” Jim looked at Michael and then to Maria again. “Okay. But I want you in here twice a week for blood draws, and to see me at least once a week. Normally we wouldn’t schedule your appointments so close, but it’s still going to be a few weeks before the baby…babies... are old enough to survive if we need to take them early. You’re twenty-six weeks, and I’d like to see you about thirty-two. That’s six more weeks. The babies will be fine after twenty-eight with some difficulties, but still fine. The longer we can give them, the better.”

“No one is taking my babies. They’ll be born when it’s time, and not before.”

“No.” Maria refused to discuss it. “So I think it’s time to see if an ultrasound can confirm what I already know, don’t you?”

DocJim discreetly looked at Michael, who had been strangely quiet. “Yes. Let me get Carolyn to set up the room. She’ll come and get you when she’s ready.”

Michael sat transfixed, looking at the screen. If he had to put his money on anything, he’d have put it on Maria’s knowledge, but there was something about seeing his unknown child for the first time that meant something to him. He was expecting only one, but two was like a bonus.

“Stop. Carolyn, back it up a little to the right upper field. Can we move in on that?” DocJim waited as his technician moved the screen, changing the viewing field. “There.”

“What?” Michael tried to figure out what they were looking at. Holding Maria’s hand, he leaned forward.

“Two placentas. So you were right. Why does that even surprise me?” DocJim moved his finger along the field and talked to Carolyn again. “See if you can get a better view. I’d like to have measurements on both.”

“Is something wrong?” Maria asked her hand tightening on Michael’s almost painfully.

“No. You’re not a very big person, Maria. That’s an incredibly small space for them to be sharing, and we haven’t seen the other baby because one is behind the other. So we need to get them to shift, so we can see both at once. We’ve been tracking the growth, but now it’s hard to say which baby we were tracking, if not both.”

Carolyn helped Maria shift more to her side, and after a few moments they got a better view.

“There! Freeze that one.” DocJim smiled. “Well, hello there. You want to know the sexes?”

Michael looked at Maria with a raised eyebrow. Maria nodded. “Yes.” Michael was surprised how strange his voice sounded until he realized he had been holding his breath.

Jim pointed to one image with an obvious curled fist. “That’s your son. And…” He waited as Carolyn tried to fix a better image. “And there is your daughter. One of each.” Hitting Michael on the shoulder he smiled. “Guess you’ll be wanting a copy of the videotape?”

Michael just nodded, his eyes remained fixed on the monitor watching them. They looked so small. “They’re okay?”

Perfect. Michael looked at Maria, and a slow smile moved across her face leaving him breathless again. Perfect.

Michael put down his burger and looked at her. Reaching out a hand he moved it gently down her face, his eyes traveling softly over her features. Moving his hand down, he rested it on the swell of her stomach.

“I can’t. Not yet.” If they lost the babies, it would be so much harder if they had names. He already knew that Michael, called 'Mikey' would be his son, but the girl…his daughter... Michael looked out the window and gulped.

“Hey, it’ll be all right.” Michael looked at Maria, and tears collected in her eyes at the look on his face. Despair. Pure panic. “God, Michael…”

He lowered his head next to hers and pulled her close in a hug. “I just can’t. Okay?”

Maria nodded. Terror. She understood the feeling. He was afraid, and fear wasn’t a feeling he could express well. Michael didn’t want her to feel his fears. Losing them, all of them, or even one of them, was plaguing him.

“Okay.” Maria ran her hand over the back of his bent head. “It’s okay. I understand. You don’t have to say anything.”

Michael looked up at her soft reassurance, and then leaned into a kiss. Maria could feel him. So much of everything inside him, and as awesome as it was, it was also overwhelming. Laughing, she pulled away and grabbed his hand placing it over her stomach which was suddenly moving.

“What does it feel like now?” Michael asked smiling at the feel of his children under his hand.

“Something to wondrous to describe. At first it felt like a fluttering, like wings of a butterfly. Now it’s like my entire stomach is alive, moving, almost like a rocking motion on the sea.” Maria laughed at his expression when her stomach moved again under his hand. Maria could feel the building energy. Uh oh! “Maybe you should remove your hand?”

Michael Guerin. Hers. The way she saw him, so few other people were allowed to see that part of him, if any. To others he was a stand-offish man with a fierce temper and sharp sarcastic tongue. With her, he was soft, gentle, romantic, roguish and outrageous. A young boy - a beautiful young boy.

Leaning into him, she whispered in his ear. “Remember that new thing I started doing? The glowing thing that causes me to…”

“Oh!” Michael looked around quickly. “We were going to investigate that a little more.”

Michael laughed, polishing off his burger and reaching for some of her fries, he quickly waved down the waitress for the check. “C’mon. I need to get you home for a quick nap.”

Maria slapped his hand away from her food, and quickly stood with his help. “Oh? Is that what we’re calling it now?” Taking the rest of the food with her, Maria let Michael worry about the bill.

Michael just laughed again and pulled her out the restaurant with him after tossing money on the table.

Michael covered the phone and fell back in the bed with a moan, mouthing Max’s name to Maria whose eyebrow went up in question.

“Max, what is it?” Michael looked at the clock at the bedside and swore. They were running late. Between the doctor’s appointment, eating and sex, he was already half an hour late for the time he told Max he’d meet him at the Department.

“Nothing good. Look, you think you’ll be making it to work today? Or does Maria…”

“Maria is fine.” Michael looked at her, his eyes smiling with mischief, taking in her state of undress. Maria leaned down close and kissed him hard, biting him. “I need to drop her at the hospital and then I’ll be on my way in.”

“You might want to hurry, partner. You’re going to love meeting our replacement Captain.”

Michael swore and looked at the time again. “I’ll be there within 30 minutes.” Michael hung up the phone as Maria kissed the side of his neck.

Maria sat up and looked at him. “Of course. I actually am able to do many things by myself, Detective. It's only recently that I started practicing the ‘I’m helpless’ routine.”

Michael sat up on the side of the bed and reached for his clothes. “Look…dammit, Maria. I know you hate this. And I know you’re being a good sport about it because of me. I know you’re not helpless, but I can’t…”

Maria moved up along his back. “I know. I do understand, really I do. Sometimes I just feel so…restless sitting at home and waiting. It’s like my life is on hold, and letting you decide everything isn’t sitting well either.”

“I know that too.” Michael pulled her arms closer around him and closed his eyes at the feel of her along his back. “I just need this. I need to know where you are every moment of the day. Know you’re okay, alright? I can’t do this worrying about you.”

Maria hugged him tight. “It’s not like your life hasn’t changed too. You barely work three hours a day, sometimes four if you’re lucky.” Maria’s voice went softer. “I didn’t mean to make your life so hard, so miserable.”

Michael turned around to really look at her. “I’m not. I cut my hours by choice.” Michael sighed and put his forehead next to hers. “Nothing is more important to me than you and the babies. After that, finding out who hurt Jim and Amy. There is nothing else. We agreed, remember? Whatever we had to do for the babies, we’d do. You’ve given up more. Working. Teaching. The museum. All of it is on hold until the babies are born. I know how much this is costing you. I can’t keep working like I was if you need my blood every three to four hours.”

“It's not just your blood I’m taking, Detective.” Michael laughed at that. “If only I was…more like Tess...this wouldn’t be happening. Or maybe Isabel. I…”

“If you were Tess or Isabel this wouldn’t be a problem, true. It sure as hell wouldn’t be, because you’d wouldn’t be pregnant, at least not by me. I don’t want anyone else but you, Maria.”

“Of course. I wrote them down.” Maria laughed at the skeptical look on his face. “Oh! Okay! So I added a few you don’t know about!”

“Maria remains calm at all times. If she feels upset or stressed she calls Michael, no matter where, what time or the situation, and…” Michael held up his hand before Maria could interrupt, “and if she can’t find him, Maria must go home immediately.”

“I don’t like the wording of your rule, and it should apply to both us equally.”

“What? Meaning that if I’m upset I have to call you immediately or go home?” Maria nodded. “That makes no sense. I don’t blow up shit every time I see a new pair of shoes and realize I forgot to carry my VISA card.”

Michael got up from the bed and pulled her out with him. “We’ve got to go. Let’s jump in the shower...quickly and I’ll drop you at the hospital.”

Maria walked into her mother’s room and found it empty, so she went to Jim’s. The staff had moved their rooms closer together, but they were already talking about transferring both of the patients out of the ICU to a general care unit.

“So does the doctor know you two are playing doctor?” Maria asked as she walked in on her mother kissing Jim.

“Phish! When have I ever followed instructions? Plus…” Maria waved a small stack of pictures in the air. “I thought you might want to see ultrasound pictures of your grandchildren!”

“Grandchildren?” Jim looked at the mother and daughter talking over the pictures excitedly. “Maria...? Grandchildren? Plural?”

“Twins,” Maria said smugly. “Needless to say Michael is feeling very virile right now.”

Maria stopped and smiled widely, seeing Jonathan Stiller coming towards her with a few packages. She hugged him back when he took her into a strong hold.

“I was, but came home early. I was just coming to check on both Jim and Amy.”

Maria punched him playfully in the gut, laughing. “Stop it! He takes excellent care of me. Actually, he takes such good care that I'm hardly allowed to breathe on my own.”

Jonathan looked at her critically. There it was. Just below the surface, a creeping blueness and washing away of color. The healthy bloom that should have graced her skin was absent, and he frowned at the amount of clothing she was wearing. Coldness was slowly finding its home in her again.

Jonathan led her to a chair and sat next to her. Unable to resist, he rested his hand on her stomach. “This one is for Amy, and this one,” Jonathan handed her a golden foiled wrapped box, “is for you.”

Maria tore into the package placing her hand over his lightly. “I’m getting fat, huh?”

“Nowhere near fat enough. This little guy better be born soon because I swear you weighed more when you weren’t pregnant.”

“Oh god! Funnel cakes! You brought me funnel cakes!” Maria looked at her friend with misty eyes. “I love you! Did I tell you that lately?”

Maria was already shoveling the cake in her mouth. Giving Jonathan a piece…a small one, her eyes twinkled in glee. “Not one baby, Jonathan. Two. Twins. I’m having twins!”

Jonathan’s face shuttered and darkened as his eyes roamed over her too thin face, taking the cake in his hand he dropped it back into the box with the remaining other ones. “You eat that one too. You’re eating for three, and dammit, Maria, you’re too thin.”

“I’m fat! I can barely see my beautiful shoes, and Michael already has to help me get up from the sofa.”

“You look tired and cold, and worrying about Amy and Jim can’t be good for you or the baby…babies.”

“I’m fine. Really. I swear, Jonathan, if you join Michael in his possessive nature I won’t be responsible for what I do.”

“Coffee. I wish I could have a cup of coffee with it. Real coffee. The kind that eats the stomach lining. I miss coffee.” Jonathan smiled as Maria started a tirade on the sacrifices of pregnancy. “So when did you get in?”

“Early this morning. I woke up Max.” Maria’s eyebrow went up at that, and a light of interest entered her eyes.

“C’mon, Jonathan! I’ve had no fun lately. Take pity on the pregnant lady.”

Jonathan laughed at that. “No. Not dead. Just obsolete.” He gave Maria a knowing look. “You want to share some details about the Detective?”

“Oh, would I! But, I won’t. I don’t want you lusting after my man,” Maria said smugly. “Once you know what I do, it’ll be unrequited lust for all eternity.”

“Oh yeah! Like a devil from hell in the sheets, and that is all I’m going to say.” Maria sat back and relaxed enjoying the company. “So? You going to tell me?”

“You and Max? I thought you were pulling back from the relationship, or not?”

Jonathan was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know, Maria. I tried to stay away from him. Really I did.”

He took her hand and patted it, pulled it under his arm and settled back with his long legs in front of him. “He made me a promise last night. Fidelity, which I take as a huge step forward since his previous record was pretty dismal with lots of one to two date affairs. The man had a turnstile on his bedroom door.”

“I was…” Jonathan closed his eyes. “I don’t know. I really don’t know where I’m going with this.”

Jonathan laughed at that. “Feelings. Yeah, I guess. Who would’ve thought I’d ever get this involved? I wasn’t looking for this. In a million years I couldn’t have predicted Max Evans and the effect he has on me.”

“In love. You’re in love with Max Evans.” Maria said it in an annoying sing-song voice that had Jonathan glaring at her.

Jonathan looked at Maria, and the two of them shared a silent understanding. Love. It was a terrible emotion. One that made them willing to change their well-organized lives and include that special someone they came to find more essential to them than air. Lines were drawn, and along the parameters of the soul was the understanding that love and hate shared a common edge.

“I’m many things, and yes, coward is one of them. How can I not be? I risk everything for him, and I’d risk more. Do you think I don’t hate that about myself? Dammit, I could just convince myself it’s just the sex and companionship, but it’s more. It has to be. I feel…” Jonathan paused, and continued with a hushing awe. “I feel.”

“Why is that so unusual? I’ve never thought of you as incapable of feeling. And before you wax over the topic, lets go back to the sex thing.”

Jonathan put a hand over her mouth to stop her from continuing as he was losing the delicate control over his own humor. Damn her. Maria De Luca was his girlfriend in a giggly, ‘Let’s tell secrets’ sort of way. Like Max Evans, she was so much more than he expected.

“Stop it. Oh, thank god! There's Tess.” Maria spied Tess coming towards them when Jonathan pointed her out. “Damn, she looks ready to pop out that baby any moment. Are you sure you’re only six weeks behind her?”

“If you imply she’s fat, I’ll tell Max about that model you dated...Lisa...who was almost arrested because she was…”

Tess stopped at where they were sitting, and Jonathan quickly stood up and gave her his seat. “Tess, you look even more radiant every time I see you.”

“Liar, I look like a double-sided beef loader, swaying from side to side. My feet hurt. My back is almost terminal, and Max and Kyle took to counting my calories. I’m starving!”

Maria offered Tess a funnel cake. “Here. The two ogres of Roswell aren’t here, and neither Jonathan nor I would snitch you out.”

“God bless you both.” Tess took a hardy bite of the confectionary delight moaning in total appreciation. “Dammit it, Jonathan! If you came back in the night, couldn’t you do something about distracting Max enough to keep him off my doorstep at dawn with nutrient shakes made with some kind of putrid grass and kelp?”

Maria put a hand over her mouth in horror at the very thought. “It was green wasn’t it?”

Tess nodded joining Maria with a look of horror and repulsion as well. “You don’t want to know. Not really.”

“I know! And he’s got my sweet loving sexy Kyle caught up in the madness. The two together are sick!”

“I thought Michael was bad. I can’t imagine two Michaels at once…” Maria paused and smiled. “Actually, I could, but not harassing me about the babies.” Clicking her tongue, she let her fantasies take her somewhere else, and wondered suddenly where the man was, what he was doing, and…

“A boy and a girl.” Maria patted her stomach. “I feel bad. I’ve been assuming it was only one and a boy, now I need to make up time and talk to my daughter too.”

Maria was suddenly uncomfortable. Tess didn’t deserve it, but… “I’ve got bad news then.” Tess held her breath and waited for the next shoe to drop.

Tess put her hands over her face and moaned. Peeking through her fingers she looked the quiet Jonathan up and down. “You’ve got to save me, Jonathan. I’m begging you! Sex. Sex can be very drug inducing, draining. Why a sated man could say…oversleep a few days, and give a very tired pregnant woman a break. Max. Max is a fine looking man. What the heck is wrong with you? That man should be too tired to get his ass over at my place at the break of dawn. If you take care of Max, I’ll make sure Kyle won’t want to move, and maybe, just maybe I can get a reprieve.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Jonathan, you’ve got to do it for the cause. For God, country and Queen.”

“Oh god! Not you too! That’s it. I’m going to go see Amy and Jim.” Jonathan shook a stern finger at both women and walked off.

“He’s got an incredible ass.” Tess said watching the man rush away in a hasty retreat.

Michael swore under his breath and confirmed his worst nightmare. Captain Strickland. No. It wasn’t possible.

“Sir. I’m afraid that I’m on limited duty. I only work three to four hours a day, and three days a week.”

“I read that in your jacket, but there was no explanation for this limited duty you requested.”

Michael looked over at his partner who was trying to appear busy, as were the other members of the bullpen. Michael’s jaw clenched and he held his hands behind his back.

“I don’t care. I’m asking you to tell me, or I’ll have it overturned. You look healthy enough, and with all the problems lately, and Captain Valenti almost blown away, I’d thought you would want to be active on this investigation.”

“It’s personal.” Michael said refusing to give more. “Do what you feel you have to, but I will protest having my limited duty taken away, and I will fight it to the full extent given to me by the Policemen’s Labor Union and with legal representation.”

Strickland’s jaw clenched. Getting into a pissing match over something that was already approved, and putting himself in the limelight at this time wasn’t something he wanted to do. Guerin. Fuck him. He had wanted the man's ass for years. Wanted him under his command, and then just wanted him humiliated and fired, after he had made his disrespect of Strickland clear. Now the opportunity was given to him, and because of PD politics, Strickland was forced to back down.

Strickland turned to the full room of officers. “Full departmental briefing in ten. All non-deployed units will be present in the briefing room immediately. I want your active cases, workload reports, and all pending investigations that have been stalled, ready and waiting. That wasn’t a request people. That’s an order.”

He stood and watched as the entire room scrambled. Smiling smugly, he stopped to talk to Rhonda, and made a quick phone call. Major Crimes was his. All his.

“We have thirteen cases pending. Three are stalled for lab work sent to Federal, and dead ends. Our team is currently on stand-down for the next six days for family obligation and leave.”

“We try to report in at least once a day, check our pending cases in case things are moving, and we just like the coffee, Sir,” said Kyle, with Sean snickering next to him. They were both off duty for family leave with Amy and Jim out of commission.

“Get your feet off the furniture, detective,” Strickland said to Sean who was lazing back with his feet up. Sean reluctantly complied. Damn Strickland. He hated being under that prick's command again. Strickland ignored him and his eyes wandered down the sheet.

Max cleared his throat and read through their script sheet. “We have two cases pending. No stalls, and Guerin is on limited duty.”

“Two cases? Just two?” Strickland looked at his manpower sheet. That was impossible. Guerin and Evans were still pulling new cases as fast as the others, despite having Guerin on limited duty. They had to have others on the desk still working. Checking his sheets he stopped himself from whistling. Damn. Over the last four months, Guerin and Evans had a success rate almost equaling one hundred percent, and a turnover of mere days per case.

Max looked over at Kyle and Sean, worried. Michael's newfound powers were clearing their cases at unheard-of and alarming rates. He picked up so much information off the crime scenes that it was almost never a question of who did it, but getting the evidence to stand up in court. It pushed their percentages to incredible stats, and Max wasn’t sure how to explain that.

Strickland swallowed hard and chose to ignore the team altogether. Quickly reassigning cases and manpower, he reassigned the teams to certain rotations and dismissed them. Michael stayed, watching Strickland leave the room. Sean followed the man, and waited until he was safe back in Cap’s office to shut the door to the briefing room.

“How the hell did we get settled with StrickDick? I heard he was on forced leave until IA finished investigating Vice.”

Max sat down and rubbed the back of his neck. “They needed a replacement fast. They were afraid that our department would go rogue and search for the people responsible for Cap’s attack. This was the best they could do in limited time, and Strickland jumped at the chance to take control. He’ll try to take over Majors and make sure that Cap never gets his command back.”

“That’s not going to happen,” said Michael quietly. Standing he looked at the room of detectives. “Cap put Max in charge. Anyone have a problem with that?”

Waters looked at his partner and shrugged. “I think we prefer that. Strickland ran Vice into the ground. We’d rather not see that happen here.”

Michael looked at Hanson and his partner…um, whatever her name was. “Sam, you and your partner on for Max being in command?”

Courtney interrupted Hanson before he could speak. “We’re green, Commander.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed at the young woman, but he soon lost interest. “Max, what you got for us?”

Max stood up and went to a special chalkboard in the front of the room. Moving the top empty board to the side, they saw another board filled with their names.

“We work the numbers. Everyone cover your cases. Business as usual. No exceptions. Kyle and Sean are off for six days, so they take lead with Michael on the Valenti case. Michael will follow since he still has time obligations to the Department. All teams are cut into sectionals. I want all of you to check your sources. I talked to Parker in Forensics. She is shuttling duplicate reports to us. Rhonda is in the know. She will hold all rosters in the morning, and you are to check in with her throughout the day. All reports will be given directly to me, or lead team. Strickland can’t know what we’re doing at any time. He’ll run his own bullshit investigation. It’ll be one of us. We feed Strickland’s investigation all we know, but Kyle and Sean run the investigation. They re-assign any and all manpower as they see fit. Any problems, come to me directly. Let's do this quiet and fast.”

“There is no book for this case. No mistake. This will be taken care of quickly, judiciously and without a nod to the law. We’re going to push the line here, boys. So anyone has a problem, they need to say so now, and we’ll reroute you to basic services.”

No one spoke up. Taking a knock at a cop was a dangerous and risky business. People understood that. Only a fool wouldn’t expect the cop shop to explode in a full manhunt. Justice was coming. A special type of justice that had nothing to do with books and the law.

“They're cleaning up some dogging and shake and bakes in Bean Town. They got a lead this morning on a new cooker.”

“Too many.” Waters looked at Philips. “I think we took three, and I know you and Guerin plugged six.”

“It’s escalating. The drug factories are increasing overnight. We don’t pull back on the shit. We can’t. If we turn our heads they’ll overrun the streets by next month.” Michael rubbed his stomach. He was hungry. “The new dust we picked up was a special. Golden with a tweak. Parker is running diagnostics, but this shit is touchy. So keep it off your skin.”

Max sat down on the edge of a desk. “Can we pull from Narcotics? We’re picking off their turf. Maybe we should give it back and stick to major crimes and homicide.”

Sean searched for a cigarette. “We can’t. Narcotics is overextended. They aren’t covering half the area. Shit is getting across the border, and they can’t find the area of access. Being so close to Mexico is a problem. Vice is defunct. IA has that house torn apart, and StrickDick is trying to find an out. He’s sizing up our home. And boys…” Sean looked at the rest of the group. “We do not want that pit viper to set up in our house. This is Valenti’s and we keep it safe for him.”

“Okay. I’ll rethink the deployment. For now, all drug trafficking and shops are closed harshly. Call for back-up. We don’t pull back. The rest of the units will be looking to our lead. Courtney, you and Hanson cover foot units. They have problems and concerns, I want to know.” Hanson nodded and Courtney started to open her mouth, but Max cut her off by continuing. “Waters, can you and Philips cover all the catch-up cases? We’ve got too many floaters and the work is piling.” Max quickly ran down the list assigning special areas to be watched over. The group quickly dissolved hitting their workloads before Strickland wondered why his bullpen was empty of working detectives.

Courtney stopped next to Max and Michael and smiled. “Carl and I think we’ve got a lead on a new talent in town. Rumor is he is good at creating chaos of an explosive kind.”

Max nodded. “Just work the information and report back.” Max watched Courtney start to leave. “Courtney. You’re new. Hanson is team leader, so both of you be careful out there.”

Sean, Kyle, Michael, Waters, and Philips watched Hanson and his partner leave while Max flipped through more papers.

Kyle and Sean were on their way out the door. They needed to get to work on what they had on the bombing. Being on leave, they had days off and time to put all their efforts to the one case. Michael watched them leave after Kyle reminded Max about Lamaze that night.

Max sighed and tossed himself down in a chair. Looking at Michael, he was disconcerted at how thin his partner looked. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.”

“I don’t know if I can do this. Why did Cap give the control to me and not you?”

Michael shrugged. “I can command men, but I don’t lead. There is a difference. A slight one, but in the grand schemes of things the difference can mean a lot.” Michael stood up. “I’ve got to go pick up Maria. I won’t be in tomorrow. I'm not on the schedule until Monday. So I’ll check on the streets tomorrow for information. You want to come visit an old friend?”

“Oh, you’ll love it! A real peach.” Michael said with an insanely evil smile on his face.

Michael just laughed. “You might want to wear some tonight. Maria and I are back in the Lamaze class tonight.”

Michael headed for the door, but stopped and looked back at his partner. Max. He stood in the room alone. Being the leader, the one in charge was often a lonely task. “Max. As far as being in command?” Max nodded. “All I can say is that no one is every really ready for it, until they have to be. Only advice I can give you is that when in command…command. Simple.”

“Detective Guerin.” Michael stopped at the voice that sounded high and screechy as nails on a board.

“Ms. Gonzales. A pleasure as always.” Michael gave a frightening smile, belying his words.

“New rules. All members of the Roswell PD are required to leave their guns at the door! No guns allowed in the group.”

Maria looked at Michael and Ms. Gonzales and decided to leave it to the woman to disarm her man. Good luck to her.

“You will notice that I have a liaison officer from the Department here to protect and guard your weapons. I’d prefer that none of you came armed, but I understand that you are required to…”

“Just your gun, Detective. All of them, including your clutch weapon…is it an ankle holster?”

Maria sighed and moved in closer to Michael so she could speak to him in a low tone. “Michael, my back hurts. Could you just do this and help me sit down? I’m not feeling so good.”

“What’s wrong?” Michael turned in a flash to check Maria over, quickly removing his guns so he could take her into the classroom. Maria met Ms. Gonzales' eyes over Michael’s head as he bent towards her, and acknowledged the woman’s look of gratitude.

In the classroom were a subdued and sheepish looking Kyle and Max with Tess. Michael headed to an empty spot next the trio when Ms. Gonzales rushed into the room and redirected him.

“Detective Guerin. I’m sure Maria would be much more comfortable at this spot.” She pointed to a place opposite and away from the Evans-Valenti trio. Lowering her voice, she whispered to Michael, “It’s closer to the bathroom.”

“Oh right. Good idea.” Michael looked over at Kyle and Max with a smug look on his face, and both men exchanged looks, trying to figure out what Michael was getting for Maria that they didn’t get for Tess.

It took all of ten minutes after the class started for Michael to start bitching about his guns. He kept an eye on the other group and kept increasing the pace of Maria’s panting to keep ahead of Tess.

“I don’t know why I have to surrender my arms. It’s not like I was going to shoot anyone.”

“Professor, pick up the pace…the bastards are gaining, and…I mean, the hees are getting too far from the other hees.”

“Hee hee yourself. This is as fast as I’m going. I refuse to be caught in the middle of your insane competitive war with Kyle and Max. And…” Maria groaned softly as she tried to reposition herself causing Michael to rush to her aid. “What about the damn water cooler? Huh? Did it just spring out and attack you, forcing you to shoot it?”

“By a damn water cooler?” Maria hissed under her breath as she felt a tinge in her lower stomach. Moving to her side, she tried to relieve the cramp.

“No, by that bastard, um, I mean by Max and his cootie partner in crime, Kyle. They…” Michael noticed the look on Maria’s face and paused. “What is it?”

“What is what?” Maria asked exasperated. Michael Guerin was a special man, and, taken as a whole, he was too awesome for words. But individually, day by day and one event at a time, he could be plain loco or insane, depending on the circumstances.

Michael gestured to his face, making a grimace. “That thing you’re doing with your face.”

“There is nothing wrong with my face!” Maria said loudly as a light next to them exploded.

Michael quickly lowered his voice and rested his hand on her stomach so the twins could feel his presence. “Okay. Okay. Calm down. I meant that you’re grimacing. What’s wrong?”

Max was suddenly at Michael’s shoulder while Ms. Gonzales and her helper rushed to the exploded lamp.

Maria looked up at him and suddenly moved to the side in pain again. “No! Maria is not okay!” She looked up at Michael. “I…ouch! It hurts.”

Michael quickly stood up and picked her up, and shoved the pillows at Max. “I’m taking her to the hospital. Collect our stuff, okay?”

“Michael, you forgot your guns.” Michael swore under his breath and informed Maria to shut up. He was taking care of it.

Collecting their things Max rejoined Kyle and Tess, who were watching in concern.

Max just shook his head. “I don’t know. Cramps? Contractions? She was in pain.”

Kyle sat down and prompted Tess up against him. Rubbing her stomach in comfort he looked over at Max. The shared a common look of concern, but said nothing so Tess wouldn’t worry too much.

Maria was quiet when Michael carried her into the loft a few hours later and placed her on the sofa. Mr. Boo, who had been waiting patiently for their return, jumped up on her lap and quickly began to question Maria about her condition. Maria petted him in comfort, and looked over at the endlessly pacing Michael.

“It’s too early. It should be in your last month, not at week twenty-six. The book said it was the body's way of preparing the uterus for delivery, and…”

“Michael.” He kept talking, so Maria repeated herself, “Michael.” He stopped his pacing and looked at her. “It was just those Hicks contraction things. The babies are fine. I’m fine. The book said that they can start in the second trimester and increase in the third. I’m in the third. So, not so unusual. Not really.”

Michael came over and knelt next to her where she lay on the sofa with a purring Mr. B.

“Well, yeah. You didn’t think pushing out two six to eight pound babies was going to be a cakewalk did you?”

“I really didn’t think about much of anything.” Michael rubbed his face. “I hate to think of you in pain.”

Maria framed his face with her hands. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see. Women have been doing this forever, and they survive. Think about it. Some even choose to have more children, even knowing what that means. I think I can handle it.”

Michael rubbed his forehead against Maria’s. “I’m sure you can. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. It’s me that I’m worried about.”

“I know you. You’ll be there, and you’ll be perfect. Michael, you don’t know how to fail.” Michael stared into her eyes, and felt her sincerity. She had a way of making him feel humble. He’d rather cut off his own arm before losing her trust and belief in him. Some things were too important to risk failure. He couldn't understand why he hadn’t felt the contractions, when he seemed to share everything else with her.

“I love you.” Michael said softly. He didn’t say it often enough. A man of few words, he let actions speak for him, but at times, words were all he had.

“Is that really what you want?” Maria said quietly trying to read his eyes. “I wasn’t sure. It’s been a while, and I thought maybe you changed your mind.”

Michael nodded. It wasn’t a subject they talked about. Ever. Maria had tried at first, but Michael’s uncontrolled emotions made it hard, and after replacing the windows in the loft a few times, she backed off and decided to let him talk when he was able to.

“Not all of it is bad,” she said with a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. Actually, some of it was pretty damn amazing. The sex. Oh lord, have mercy! The flooding of power in her body, and the incredible bond she felt with him. Alien sex and love had a lot to recommend it.

“I don’t know,” Michael confessed. “I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time, or where this is going to take us.”

He rose pick her up and take a sitting position, holding Maria on his lap. Mr. Boo reluctantly relinquished just enough space to allow him to do this. Suddenly, Maria shivered and whimpered into Michael’s chest. The glowing sensation was moving across her abdomen and lower body, leaving her almost boneless and weak. It was incredible that every day she found herself more attracted and attached to him. He smelt and tasted…

“I’m hungry,” Maria whispered, looking up at him through her lowered eyes. “Are you going to feed me or what?”

“What? Oh.” Michael looked down at her, and gulped. Damn. He recognized that look too well, and the increased intensity was hard to miss. He hadn’t refueled in hours, and suddenly he wasn’t so sure he could hold her. “Not too much, okay?”

Wide-eyed, Maria nodded, but her smile belied her innocence. Michael pulled away his jacket, and opened the first few buttons on his shirt. Maria lightly ran her tongue over her upper lip as Michael leaned back into the cushion of the sofa, and exposed his throat and upper chest to her. He met the cat’s eyes, and together they watched as Maria smiled beguilingly at Michael, and then leaned forward, as if to gently kiss his neck. In the mirror, across the room, he could see his eyes closing, growing heavy as her mouth found his skin, and he moaned at the first nip of her teeth.

Michael leaned back even more and brought her with him. Bite. She was going to bite him. Hard. Break skin and draw blood. His heart raced in his chest as the beating organ threatened to burst through his chest. How could something so simple mean so much to him? His blood. His life energy. It sustained them. All of them. They needed and belonged to him exclusively. They always would. Aphrodisiac of thought, erotic and hearty, he encouraged her to feast off him.

Maria’s lips were soft and gentle, and Michael could feel them brush across his neck before he was swept away on a rush of pure pleasure. He was dimly aware of the fact that her teeth had broken skin and a slight pull and then pain hit his sensory receptors and then quickly was chased away under the sheer erotic release. He could feel a few drops of his own blood slowly trailing down his neck, away from the warmth of her mouth as her sucking overwhelmed his senses. Other than that, all of his senses had overloaded on some chemical rush of total euphoria.

Lost time. That was becoming a common theme for them. Both of them seemed unable to comprehend what their bodies did naturally, without them being aware. The quick rush to remove clothes, the joining of flesh, and the feeling of urgency left them both light-headed and disoriented. Nothing made sense but the rush of emotions and energy that fueled their bonding.

Michael moaned and felt an unexpected warmth flood down his body, and knew that he had just come. Maria pulled away, after one last lick at the swiftly closing wound on Michael’s neck. Michael closed his eyes and sagged down in the sofa as Maria’s hand gently stroked the side of his face, then meeting his eyes, total innocence and pure lust equally mixed in her eyes. She reached beyond him to a small sharp knife on the table next to the sofa and cut a small thin line on her upper body just below her left collar bone.

Maria nodded, and turned her full attention back to petting him and his body, directing his mouth to the slice bleeding on her skin.

Michael woke up to a sensation he’d never thought he’d feel again: the feeling of being part of something bigger than himself, part of a family. Maria’s lips on his, familiar and warm, tasting faintly of herbs and copper. Copper? All of the events of the evening came rushing back to him, and he sat up.

“Dammit, Maria. You just came home from the hospital, and you were having contractions.” She just silenced him with a kiss. It was okay. She felt fine. More than fine. Great.

They were in the loft. Michael was lying on the sofa, with Maria sitting on him and looking down in some amusement. Deciding he was awake enough, she leaned down and gave Michael a hungry kiss.

Still only half-conscious, Michael smiled just as he registered two other heartbeats with the movement under his hand. His children. Mikey and his sister…

“Amanda,” Maria said. “I was thinking, Amanda. That will make them Mikey and Manda Guerin.”

Michael grunted for an answer, and looked around the loft seeing the cat again peacefully cleaning his paws. Amanda? He liked it, but it wasn’t good to give in to Maria immediately because he suspected she was getting to expect that. Maria was leaning against him, breathing deeply and fully, as a woman would who has just experienced an earth-shattering orgasm. Michael looked at Maria questioningly. That wasn’t just a normal mating and feeding session for them. It had gone on for a while.

“Take it easy on me, Professor.” Michael scratched his eye amused. Someday, he was going to set up closed circuit cameras and record them, just so he could capture whatever the hell they did when they seemed to lose track of reality. “It feels like I haven’t eaten in days. And you’ve been feeding off me for…” He looked over at the clock and was shocked at the lateness of time. “For hours.”

Hours of blood, Michael’s brain translated. That’s right, he thought wildly. His family needed him to survive. Sitting back comfortably watching her where she sat on him, her pregnant stomach still moving under his hand, he couldn’t imagine ever not wanting her near and in his life. Never not wanting to get her pregnant.

Maria suddenly looked at him seriously. “Tell me we won’t lose this feeling, the intensity, the lust when the babies are born. Tell me.”

“I promise,” Michael vowed. “I promise that I’ll never stop feeling this way, or wanting this connection with you.”

He’d do anything to keep from losing her, or having her unhappy. Anything. He pulled Maria closer to him. Maria turned Michael’s eyes back to her, and kissed him again, draining away all thought. When Maria’s kisses moved lower on his chest just above his left nipple, Michael did nothing, just moaned when he felt her teeth sink into his flesh. He let Maria drink her fill.