AFTER STEELE ALIVE AND KICKING

Remington and Laura sneaked into the abandoned factory hoping to find the main suspect in the Colby case there. As always and at her request, they did not carry weapons, although Remington suggested it. Things were not right between him and Laura from the case of that idiot who was incriminated in a murder to charge 250 thousand dollars and who finally left several dead on the road, a corrupt policeman and murderer and an idiot neighbor as guilty together Nedra, the wife, who cheated on him and took advantage of the money during his time in prison. Remington had some problems that he had not declared to Laura, afraid of what his future might be in the relationship and in the agency.

They almost did not talk. Laura did not understand why he had taken such a distance, perhaps upset by how things had happened lately when they seriously discussed the convenience of becoming Norman Keyes' bosses with that not-quite-clear association that she had promoted. The personnel had been diluted between the care this time of the precious pets of the children of Frances, whose diligent care occupied them but without delving into other more sentimental issues. Laura was angry because they had had to take charge of repairing the house and her sister's car and felt in a way that things had gone out of perspective. For the first time in a long time he felt they had no point to stop, take a deep breath, think a little about where they were going and if they could really afford to accept cases like that in which even Laura's car had ended crashed by the imprudence of the chubby that he seemed a harmless fool but that if he was not able to solve his life at least he should content himself with not invading other people's.

Very annoyed by the few occasions of showing intimacy, Remington did not appear in the attic to see her or she arrived at his apartment without warning as it used to. There was a weekend when he did not call her for the first time as he used to evaluate the week or see what he was doing or what plans he had for Monday. They cut the dialogue very abruptly. He was fed up with cold showers, but now there was not even a tingling of interrupted desire, there was no approach, they were not sharing anything. I work and I only work. And ... he kept quiet about the fact that he was being chased by Estela Becket of the IRS. If Laura had begun to trust him, as happened with Cranston and Sinclair and his lawyer Ruben Salzman, he did not understand why he could not open up and talk to her about it.

Remington noticed that for more efforts he did not fit in the orderly life of Laura and that after so much time of being together the relationship had stagnated and reduced again to a few meetings and kisses that promised nothing.

hat night when he threw the key in the corner of his apartment shelf, he smoothed his hair back with a weary gesture. FRUSTRATED. That's how I felt about Laura. She had shown fear, anguish, pain on very few occasions, had never been as honest as she tried at the SPA OF HAPPINESS and despite the talk on the beach he felt very strongly that she was better without him. At 32 years of age he felt he was ready to commit and did not want her to think it was because marriage to a US citizen would save him from deportation with which the IRS could fall on him at any time because of the irregularity of your papers. It's the first thing Laura would think, he deduced.

Drinking a little cognac reluctantly, sitting on the soft gray sofa felt desolate. And I was thinking about how to solve it while that case Colby got (as always) in between accelerating things in the agency, driving everything crazy and complicating the dialogue.

There was no one in his intimate life. No one

There was no one in his intimate life. No one in Laura's intimate life ... how much more had to be tried? How much more to say, what else had to be played in her existence to see him as something more than the supposed boss she was commanding? He wanted to talk about love, he wanted to be his lover more than anything else. But she did not see it. She did not give herself up waiting for what? She was not going to get hurt. I should know it. His skin responded to hers, his kisses were genuine, his eyes burned and he saw more than once desire in those beautiful almonds of his eyes ... How hard was it to be able to love without problems?

Mildred would be calling the police if in less than half an hour he had no news of them but in all of that Remington thought while crouched waiting behind Laura and in turn behind abandoned cardboard drums that Jake Gerber appeared. He would come looking for the money he demanded for the kidnapping of Vania Colby. The case had been framed in a way that Remington did not like at all.

A woman in her late thirties should think of something else, of children, of a different life project than risking her life investigating cases that were better left to the police. She could be what she wanted, if in fact what she wanted was to be independent. How many times had he pretended to be something else? I could be a university math teacher, school counselor, a great assistant ... no, Laura could not be anyone's assistant, she liked being in the middle of the scene acting not waiting, she loved the adventure, the action. But she loved the paperwork ...! Why not devote less to danger? DeSConcentrated totally from the case and the situation, but attentive to her, to the perfume of her, to the soft sound of her slight breathing, she never saw Laura advance to the next pillar of the huge abandoned property but what she could see was the murderous arm of someone armed who reached out to her in the semidarkness and he did the first thing he felt: He rushed over the girl's body to protect her with his own since the angle was not enough to throw himself on the shooter and disarm him.

The sound of the shot, the weight of Remington, covering it to her, the police entering and throwing herself like a swarm over the shooter was all one thing for Laura, who saw Remington turn pale. I had given him, Jake Gerber had hurt Remington ... his lord Steele ... "By God, Re ... mington ... talk to me ... Re ... Remington ... My God, an ambulance. ..

Remington breathed barely, his eyes were fixed, his lips compressed, as if in excruciating pain.

Actually, he had not felt anything, the bullet at first anesthetized him but the blood began to flow. Laura could not contain it, several police tried everything, until the paramedics took over.

In the hospital he was admitted to a private intensive care room. They had just operated on it. Laura was a zombie, could not articulate a word. The nurse of the Ceddar Sinai repeated the question three times. Until the authoritative voice of Mildred swallowing the tears behind the stunned girl growled: It is the bride, not his wife, and the patient's blood group is A positive. No relatives in the United States is Irish. We will stay together to watch over him.

Only then Laura reacted.

He hugged Mildred in tears. Mildred, who had never seen her that way, destroyed, undone, returned the hug with motherly love.

Easy, Miss Holt, the boss is strong, he will recover.

Dear God, it has to be like that, you will see it.

When after three hours of surgery he occupied the sterile white room where he was now, Laura heard Dr. Fletcher, a prominent doctor in Los Angeles, say: "He is stable, his parameters are not normal yet, the picture is critical but the projectile did not interest vital organs, we only removed a piece of liver that is going to regenerate ... the bullet grazed the intestines there was a hemorrhage and it has lost a lot of blood but ... in 72 hours we will know what to expect ... it is young and it seems in good physical condition in general

Do not fear, Laura, we have cleaned everything, it will be very slow recovery but he will achieve ... is the great Remington Steele ... old wolf ... is not it?

Laura tried a half smile. He smoothed his hair ... then tried to pay attention to what Mildred said about Gerber, Colby, Vania and the actions of the police but nothing mattered more than that pale man who was tubed and full of wires everywhere.

He wondered why he had not seen him like this before, or more precisely since the attack of Buckner's thugs or the follies that they lived with Victor Janoff of the fortune magazine when he broke both legs with days apart. He had always risked going to save her. Now he had saved his life again ... why he had only seen his many faults, his bad side and not the helpless side, why he did not see him suffering ... or imagined him at least not to allow it ... He had interposed with his life at total risk to stop the bullet that could kill her. In that instant she realized that he should love her to react in that way and try to protect her even if she was hurt.

She looked at him tenderly. The unruly strand was in the same funny position of the time when drunk as a vat in the case of lawyer Malcom had told him that he had liked to be her fictitious husband. A Peppler. She gathered all the peace and the little conviction that she did not feel to tell her with a voice that everything would be fine.

Mr. Steele ... I know you can hear me ... and I know you never hear me ... but I'll be here, by your side waiting for you to open those eyes of yours where I'm lost ... and you're going to tell me pretty things or am I going to ... oh, my love ... why have not I told you so far that I love you? Why wait for a tragedy to happen to say what one feels. I know you will not leave me. You got into my life and I accepted it. I'm that crazy Laura because only a crazy Laura could have invented a boss and let an imposter impersonate him ...

And this crazy Laura had to stay with a scoundrel like you ... I admit that I made you suffer a lot ... darling ... but I wanted you to love me as if to stay ... I can not stand the idea now that you die to me without telling you and that you know and that you in turn tell me that you love me ... I love you honey, I love you more than anything in the world ...

I hope you hear me and you feel the same, my love, I can not wait for the hours to pass and for you to open your eyes. I NEED YOUR BLUE DARTS IN ME ...

Laura squeezed Remington's hand and found no reaction. The apparatus that controlled the heartbeat began to decline in its values. Remington was having a cardiac arrest. There was a whistle alerting the medical corps that immediately entered the room asking Laura to leave and beginning to reanimate him immediately.

Three days with her nights Laura did not change and just by dint of coffee and a few bites of cookies remained in the room waiting for the miracle that Remington came out of the coma in which he was. Mildred or a salvation team would move her from that place.

Bring me a change of clothes and my toothbrush, Mildred from here I will not move until Mr. Steele reacts,

After 72 hours the doctors noticed some improvement, blood pressure remained stable for a whole day and that was very encouraging. Remington was pulled out of the induced coma and slowly opened his eyes for just a few seconds. When Laura came in after the doctors' evaluation she saw that they had left him connected to fewer devices and that now she could bring him closer to her ear to speak softly and tell her that she expected him to open his eyes.

He took her hand.

Mr. Steele ... wake up, please, open your eyes for me ... I'm Laura ...

Six long hours passed.

Dusk.

Laura spoke to him then as if he were awake. He told her how the stars looked, the moon peeping out ... he told her that he hoped they would soon go to dinner at L'ORNATE and many sweet things in his ear. Exhausted by the unsuccessful effort, she sadly dropped her head on the comforter that covered his body to her shoulders with her whiteness and sobbed in frustration. But then what he had expected in those difficult hours happened. Remington moved a hand and tangled it in her hair ... She lifted her head with bright eyes ready to burst into tears.

He opened his eyes just a few seconds and could not focus just trying a half smile that encouraged her to say: Mr. STEELE ... although he dropped his eyelids heavily and did not wake up again in several hours. The only thing that encouraged her was that he did not stop squeezing her hand with little force.

At dawn, overcome by so much stimulate him to communicate after letting him rest for a few hours without achieving anything but a tiny reaction of his hand in hers ... he fell asleep and could hear a murmur ... barely audible ...

Miss Holt ... come back to tell me that you love me ...

Laura in a totally unexpected reaction covered her face with kisses and did not stop saying "I love you"