A/N: This story is a personal wish that I had wanted to write for a long time. It's also an effort in trying to fill in the gaps of each Normero scene we saw during S4. I wish we had more of them and I want to create all those little moments that might have happened but we didn't see. This will mostly stay canon to what we saw but it could have a few alternate bits down the line just so you know. Also, I'm not done with Serendipity yet, just in case you're also reading that one. I'll keep both of them going while I can. As always, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy this one!

Norma sits in her car, hands on the wheel, but unable to move yet. Her face is still looking surprised and even a little shocked.

'Till death do you part.'

'I now pronounce you husband and wife.'

'You may kiss the bride.'

The words keep repeating themselves in her brain. Even though she was prepared to take this step, or so she thought, she now can barely believe she actually did it. She married Alex Romero, Sheriff of White Pine Bay. The man who once arrested and charged her with murder. The same man who later found a way to cover up and dismiss her crime. The man who accepted her proposal for an arranged marriage of convenience so she could help her son.

That man also surprised her today with the most beautiful ring. She takes a look down at her hand, feels the weight of the ring on her finger, and admires how the morning light catches on the diamond. Is this a real diamond? She puts her hand back on her lap, as if the mere thought of having such an expensive looking and pretty thing on her hand was a ridiculous one, something she shouldn't deserve.

Alex Romero is her husband now. He's also the man who kissed her, not one but two times, a mere 15 minutes ago. She smiles without realizing she's doing it, when she remembers the soft kiss he pressed on her lips. God, when was the last time she was kissed so softly? She at first thought he wouldn't go along with it, but then saw how he turned more fully towards her, how he looked at her eyes and then for a split second at her mouth, and she knew he was going to kiss her.

Honestly, she was not expecting such a sweet kiss from him, but he surprised her in that way too. She felt how he gently put his hand on her neck and caressed her cheek with his thumb as he slowly leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. It was a nice kiss. Their first kiss. Norma smiles consciously now at the recent memory.

Then outside City Hall, after an exasperated Alex explained to her why he needed to move in with her, he kissed her again, quicker and more unexpectedly this time. She was dumbfounded for a second, but soon recovered when he asked her 'You all right?' He actually managed to look irritated by her and to steal a kiss from her all after only five minutes of marriage.

"Bastard." She chuckles and puts the car on drive.

Norma arrives home with a bag full of fresh groceries and a plan to clean and get the house ready. She starts by cleaning the fridge, tossing old food leftovers, and leaving it spotless. She's been so busy the last couple of days, weeks even, with Norman's situation and his subsequent admission to Pineview last night that she had barely had time to clean and organize the house the way she likes to do. And now Alex is arriving today after work. She sighs in annoyance. She must clean and get everything ready for her new guest.

Is he technically a guest? They're married after all. Is he going to be a 'roommate' like he said? Is he going to be messy like when he stayed down in Room 11? Either way she takes great pride in a house well run and so she spends most of the afternoon in maid mode.

Bathroom is cleaned, fresh towels are left on the rack, and she even clears a small space on top of the sink in case Alex wants to put his toothbrush there. She puts clean sheets in what was Dylan's bed and finds a place to put his Weed World magazines out of sight. She also leaves flowers on a vase.

When she is going down the stairs, basket of dirty laundry in hand, the door to her bedroom catches her eye.

I know you're attracted to me. I'll sleep with you. I don't care. I really don't. I just need you to do this for me.

She remembers her own words to Alex. Raising an eyebrow she thinks she should put fresh sheets on her bed too. He kept his end of the bargain by marrying her and she did offer to have sex with him in return. Maybe tonight he'll want to collect her part of the deal. This is an arranged marriage after all.

So she makes her bed, fresh and clean sheets now covering the mattress. The bed in which she has slept alone all this time. Maybe that'll change soon. No man has ever been here, aside from Norman that is, but a son is a poor substitute for a lover. She misses the intimacy and the physical part. She's a woman with needs too. She doesn't feel an ounce of regret. She will do anything for Norman. Even sleeping with a man she doesn't love. She has slept with far desirable men for less than that too. This one at least is Alex. She takes a deep breath and leaves her bedroom. There's still laundry left to do.

'There's a man in my house. There's a man in my house and is not Dylan or Norman.' Norma thinks as she looks to the kitchen's ceiling with a terrified expression on her face. She then hears the movements on the second floor where Alex is presumably moving some furniture around, or maybe just unpacking. He sure is making a lot of noise, she thinks.

She hears the door to Dylan's room closing and then steps on the stairs and she quickly makes herself busy chopping some peppers. Alex comes into the kitchen and starts talking about how the whole town already knows that they are married and something about going out to dinner. Norma becomes even more anxious as she hears all this. By the time Alex comes closer to her and touches her elbow, she's angrily whacking the vegetables and telling him in a tense tone all the reasons she can't go out with him tonight.

But with a gentle touch and a soothing voice, and the promise of alcohol to ease her nerves, she relaxes in an instant. She doesn't know why he has the special ability to calm her but he does.

"Get dressed. Okay, we're going to dinner." Alex speaks in a reassuring statement, still having that hypnotizing effect on her, and leaves her alone in the kitchen.

Norma recovers from their interaction and goes upstairs. She reaches the top of the stairs, and behind the closed door of the bathroom she hears the shower running.

She goes into her bedroom and starts looking for an appropriate outfit for tonight. When she hears the bathroom door open a slight tremor runs through her and she can't explain why but thinking about Alex taking a shower in her bathroom is a strange feeling. She waits until she hears him closing the bedroom door after him before she goes out of her own bedroom and disappears into the bathroom too.

Thirty minutes later Norma takes a last look at her reflection in the mirror. She's pleased at the way her hair is curlier around her face, and the evening makeup she applied on, and the pretty dangling earrings and black lace dress she hasn't worn in a long time. She did not dress up for Alex, though. This is a very different feeling than when she put on her sexy little black dress for that dinner date with George a long time ago. She feels different tonight. But she and Alex are married now and this is supposed to be a night of celebration and she has to play the part. The million butterflies in her stomach tell her that this is still an act they have to put up with for the sake of their cover up.

She goes out the hallway and stops momentarily by the short hallway leading to Dylan's room, the one that is now Alex's room, and calls softly for him.

"Alex?" Her voice is slightly trembling too. She needs to get a grip. Where's that alcohol he mentioned? By response she hears a noise downstairs so she heads down that way.

Alex is sitting on the sofa flipping uninterestedly through the pages of one of Norma's home decoration magazines.

"Uhh, I'm ready." Norma offers in a flat tone.

He stands up quickly as soon as he hears her. He takes one look at her, noticing how her eyebrow rises impatiently, just as it did at City Hall.

"You look nice." Alex tells her even though he really wants to say more. What he really wants to say is how beautiful she looks but he knows she's on edge, so he keeps the compliments to a minimum.

She offers him a tight lipped smile for a second upon hearing his compliment.

"Thanks. You… you look nice too." She says trying to be polite.

"Shall we go?"

"Yeah."

Alex watches Norma from the corner of his eye as he drives his issued SUV. She is tense; her posture rigid, looking nothing like a newlywed who's going to spend a nice night out with her new husband. He understands. Last night was hard on her. Seeing her cry and running after Norman, and him being so unaffected by her cries and pleas was a sad situation to say the least. He felt horrible watching both of them looking so broken in that moment. He could only imagine what it must have been like for Norma. He tries to engage her in some kind of light conversation.

"I hope you like Italian."

"Mmm? Oh, yeah. That's fine." She replies uninterested. Her fingers keep fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. Her eyes trained out the window. She'd rather be anywhere but here and he knows it.

Alcohol did make things better.

They were both so uncomfortable and in so much need to lighten up, that before they even looked at the menu, Alex ordered a bottle of champagne and they started drinking it.

As he topped her glass over and over, and then the wine arrived too, conversation started flowing more freely and Norma's giggles started to fill the air. Alex couldn't help but smile and laugh continually with her, her laughter was contagious. She looked radiant.

The drive back home was completely different.

"But you didn't tell me the names!" She whined like a little girl.

"I won't tell you the names of the people I used to see before, Norma."

He thought she had forgotten the question already. The waiter had arrived two seconds after she posed the question that had Alex squirming in his chair. He was thankful for the interruption. But now she kept asking and wouldn't drop it. To make matters worse, his sense of unease was only matched with her apparent amusement at his predicament.

"You're no fun!" She teased him.

"No, I'm not."

Norma's laughter kept filling the once empty silence of the inside of the SUV until they arrive in front of the house. She opens the door to get out of the car.

"Woah!" She exclaims.

"Easy there." He quickly goes around the car and helps her down. He also helps her go up the stairs, one hand in the small of her back.

She fumbles with her small purse to find the keys.

"I have to give you a set of keys." She mentions seriously for a moment before starting to laugh again. "So you can open the door each night after you come up all those stairs!"

She keeps laughing and complaining about stairs and how she'll someday break her neck on them.

"Hey look! More stairs!"

Alex helps her up, putting his arm around her small waist, loving the moment of closeness that allows him to smell her sweet perfume and feel the warmth coming from her body.

With his help she goes up the stairs and into her bedroom where she flops onto the bed and laughs again. He asks her if she's okay. She assures him she just drank too much wine. She plays with his tie for a few seconds and Alex's heart skips a beat.

Norma gives him the most blissful smile he has ever seen on her, or on any woman's face, period. She plays with her own fingers a little, the only sign that she might be a little nervous.

He knows what she's offering. It will be so easy to take what she's clearly willing to give him at this moment. But something stops him. Not the fact that they both have alcohol in their systems, she considerably more than him since he was driving anyway. He knows she's not completely drunk. He knows she is still capable to give or take away her consent. But he is certain the alcohol has given her, at the very least, the loosened inhibition.

She thinks she needs to do this but he doesn't want her to think of him as the man who married her and will take advantage of her, even if she offered it first. He doesn't want her after a night of many drinks. He doesn't want her thinking she needs to fulfill an obligation.

He wants her. Oh, he does. But he wants her completely. He wants her to trust him with that last bit of trust he still needs from her if he is going to possess her body. He also knows that as soon as he kisses her, really kisses her, that when his hands are finally able to touch her, he won't be able to stop.

He will wait for another time. There will be another time. So he tells her to go to sleep as he gets up from where he is sitting on the bed next to her and takes a long look down at her body. He really is fighting against what his body wants and what his mind is telling him is the right thing to do.

He can see the fleeting look of disappointment and confusion on her face. She could think he's rejecting her, but she is smarter than that. The playful smile on her lips tells him that she knows what he's doing and why he's doing it.

"Ok. Fine."

They share a look of mutual understanding.

Alex takes one last glimpse at the pink underlining and the lace poking out from under her dress, his eyes taking in the shape of her beautiful legs, and turns away.

"Goodnight." He hears her flirty and amused tone.

"Sleep well, Mrs. Romero." Alex says from the hallway.

"I'm keeping my name!"

Norma sighs and flops back on the bed. Then she smiles as she delicately and absentmindedly traces the outline of her left breast. A single gesture of a yet unconscious deeper desire.

She's not so tipsy anymore. Somehow this marriage thing doesn't feel so uncomfortable at this moment. This is the first time a man hasn't taken what she's offered or even what she didn't but they took it anyway. It makes her feel incredibly safe. Alex Romero, the man who has repeatedly helped her, respected her and believed her, is sleeping under her same roof. Maybe this time really will be different.

TBC...