John Paul McQueen awoke and noticed it was raining outside. He yawned and stretched as he turned around in the bed. He smiled, watching the person lying next to him safe asleep. Craig Dean's hair was at the age of 26, longer than ever. It covered his neck and curled softly around his beautiful face. The long, dark lashes rested on his cheeks and he was breathing slowly, probably dreaming about something nice, because he smiled in his sleep. John Paul never got used to waking up beside this man, even after six years being lovers and three of them living together, the sight of Craig in the mornings still stunned him. Craig grunted and reached out for him and when John Paul grabbed his hand and kissed it tenderly, he too awoke.

"Morning, you damn sleepyhead," John Paul whispered and leant over him for a kiss.

"Morning," Craig mumbled before he embraced John Paul and pulled him close. Craig was usually horny in the mornings and this Saturday was no exception. John Paul could feel his cock already pulsing against his thigh.

"So mister, what do you want to do? It seems to me you could need a cold shower," John Paul teased.

Craig let out a snort of laughter. "Shut up," he said, smiling. John Paul looked into those beautiful brown eyes filled with affection. Craig stroked his hand over his face and kissed him. Then he leaned his head against John Paul's and said with a low voice full of desire: "Do me."

Craig smiled as John Paul turned him around and started nibbling on his ear. He loved their morning shags. It was a great way to start the day. He almost always awoke with John Paul's look upon him and it made his heart ache with love and passion, seeing his lover's blue eyes looking at him tenderly. John Paul kissed his neck and slowly moved his hand to Craig's most sensitive spot. He started stroking him carefully, and it made Craig moan with pleasure. He wasn't the only one who was in the mood – he could feel John Paul's arousal on his back. John Paul was biting his ear again and whispered: "You sure you don't rather want a cold shower?" Craig laughed and turned his head. They met in a passionate kiss, their tongues fighting for dominance, and John Paul kept stroking him, faster now. Craig moaned again, his mouth clinging to his lover's.

"JP… Please…" he begged. John Paul loved torturing him like this. It was a slow, rackety stairway to heaven. But he noticed that John Paul also seemed to lose his patience. He let go of Craig for a second, rolling over and taking a little bottle with oil from his nightstand drawer. It didn't take long before he was back, slowly pushing his way inside the other man. Craig felt him slowly conquering his body and started trembling with lust and desire. John Paul's breath was hot against his neck.

Filling Craig completely, John Paul started moving with a slow, steady rhythm.

"My God, Craig…" he moaned, biting his neck and still stroking Craig's length carefully.

Slowly and tenderly the two of them made love.

But after a while John Paul became more desperate and suddenly he stopped moving. Before he knew it, Craig found himself standing on his knees, John Paul doing him doggy style. Craig almost had his release there and then. It so turned him on when JP was dominating in bed. He held Craig's hips with hands like steel, moving in and out with increasing speed and every single thought Craig might have had in is head that day just disappeared, because it felt so good. Then John Paul bent over, reached out and got a hold on his cock, and Craig couldn't control himself and… oh, oh, oh, OH!

Nancy was standing in the kitchen having a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper when John Paul and Craig entered an hour later. She didn't look up, simply said: "You know guys, I consider my sex life as pretty darn good but compared to you two I'm practically a nun."

John Paul blushed while Craig smiled embarrassed. "So you heard us then?"

Nancy finally looked up with a teasing glint in her eyes. "Are you joking? The whole town of Chester must've heard! Normally you keep it quiet, but today… Luckily the kids have their rooms in the basement."

Craig snorted. "Well, Nance, it's not like you and Jake are the most silent item in this world either – that bed of yours makes more noise than JP's stereo."

Nance smiled at him. "You know, we can't all afford the kind of luxurious, king size bed you have, Mr. Real estate agent! Aren't you supposed to work today, anyway?"

Craig smiled and put his arms around John Paul who was cutting bread for breakfast. Nancy thought that she'd never seen them so happy before. "No, Hannah's bringing Rosie over today and I want to spend some time with her." And he kissed John Paul's neck.

"You know Craig; she's staying with us for two whole weeks this time, so there'd be plenty of time to spend with her," John Paul said. "You didn't have to skip work."

"Well, you know. A lot of stuff happens when they're in this stage, don't they. I don't wanna miss out on a thing."

John Paul rolled his eyes before kissing Craig softly.

"Is Rosie staying for two weeks?" Nancy asked. "Is this a new sort of arrangement?"

"No," Craig answered as he sat down beside her. "Hannah and Gilly are taking a trip to some Greek island, getting away for a while, you know. What, Hannah didn't tell you?"

Nance searched her brain. "Well, I guess she did, but I had a lot on my mind lately so I guess I didn't pay attention."

John Paul put his arm around her. "No one can blame you for that, Nance," he said sympathetically. "But Jake and Becca are fine now. Considering the circumstances they're both dead lucky!"

Two weeks earlier, Jake and his and Nancy's daughter, Becca, had been involved in a car accident. Nancy froze when she thought about it. How they both survived was a miracle – they should both have died, but got away with concussions, one broken arm for Jake and a cut in Becca's for head. 14 days had passed and Nancy still had nightmares about how close she was to losing two of the people she loved the most.

"I know," she sighed. "Thank God! What would Charlie and I do if we'd lost them? Just thinking about it-"

"Don't think about it Nancy," Craig said. "It's over now. Where are Jake and the kids, anyway?"

"Jake and Becca went to the hospital to check out Becca's cut. Charlie's at the Barnes' playing with Leah."

"The two of them really get along, don't they?" John Paul said. "I see them in school, playing together. And Leah helps him in math. She's a great kid, Leah is." John Paul was a teacher in the local elementary school and brought them updates on all their friends' kids. For instance he'd told them a couple of days earlier that Darren and Zoë's son was slippery, clever and rude, just like his father, selling his lunch to the other kids.

"Yeah, Amy's done a great job with her," Nancy said. "We should invite the Barnes over soon."

She rose from the table. "Oh yeah, by the way, I spoke to Sarah the other day." Craig looked up from his sandwich. Seven years had passed and he still had that same guilty look in his brown eyes. After Sarah's finding out about him and John Paul, the two of them never spoke again. When he returned to Chester after finishing his education in Dublin, Sarah had moved to London. John Paul had at least made his peace with her and they still e-mailed now and then, but between Craig and Sarah, things would probably never be ok. It didn't bother him much, but when it randomly came up, he still felt the same sting of guilt. John Paul squeezed his hand.

"How was she?" Craig asked.

"She congratulated you both," Nancy said. "Said she was really happy for you guys."

Craig looked at John Paul with affection. "That's great," he said and John Paul kissed him.

Nancy left the two of them alone and walked into the living room. She stared out of the window on the pouring rain. Jake and Becca came through the gate. They were laughing while they jumped in all of the water ponds on the cobbles in their yard, water splashing everywhere. Nancy laughed and gave them five more seconds before she opened the window.

"Jake Dean, you're not supposed to get water on that plaster!" she called. "Get inside, the both of you, before you catch a cold!"

Jake laughed. Nancy was so cute and funny when she pretended to be mad like that. He peeped down on Becca. "Better do what mummy tells us to do," he said, and blinked.

"No!" the five year old girl said. "This is so much fun, dad!"

"Well, we don't want you to catch a cold, do we?" he asked and before she got to run away from him, he grabbed her with his good arm and carried her with him. Becca screamed with laughter.

Nancy met them in the hall. "So, how did it go?" she said and tip toed to kiss him.

"We can remove her bandage on the day after tomorrow," he said. "You've had a good night," he said, looking at her with concern.

"Not really," she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Still nightmares?"

"Oh Jake, I just can't stop thinking about what almost happened!" she said. Some tears were dripping.

"Becca, sweetie," Jake said to the little girl. "Mummy is a bit sad. You go and play with your uncles."

She ran towards the kitchen and Jake took his wife in his arms.

"It's okey, Nance," he said softly. "But try not to think about it, ok? Focus on the good thing – we're still here, and we're not going anywhere."

"Yes," she whispered.

The two of them remained standing in the hall, he stroking her back and she crying silently on his shoulder. "We're really lucky, Nance," he said. "We have each other. Charlie's doing great in spite of a troubled start in life. And we have a beautiful and funny little daughter, who looks exactly like you and acts exactly like me. What more could we ask?"

Nancy wiped away the tears and smiled. "Well, I rather hope that it'll be the other way around with our next kid," she said. "The way Becca acts like you, worries me sometimes."

Tears turned into laughter and Jake took her hand and led her to the kitchen. Becca was sitting on John Paul's lap, telling him everything about her trip to the hospital. Craig was doing the dishes.

"You all right, mate?" he asked Jake when they entered.

"I'll be fine, Craig" he answered. Then he got a teasing look in his eyes. "Or maybe we should call you, Cr-Cr-Cr-Craaaaiiiig, now!"

"Oh, shut up!" Craig said, smiling. John Paul had turned a light shade of pink.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"No, it's all right," Jake said. "The batteries in my clock are flat, so it's nice having you and my baby brother to wake me up, so I don't miss my appointments with the doctor."

"Sorry mate," Craig said. "We didn't realize we were making that much noise."

"What noise?" Becca asked, eagerly.

"Nothing, love," Nancy hurried to answer. "Grown up stuff, you know." She gave Jake a strict look.

He laughed. "We better get ready," he said. "I called the Barnes. We can pick Charlie up on the way to mum's."

The little family left the kitchen.

"You know, they've actually made machines that do this for you," Craig said grumpily, struggling to get the bacon fat away from one of the plates.

John Paul didn't answer. He was too wrapped up in the news paper. Craig looked at him.

"Hey, where are your contacts, man?" he asked and John Paul was finally looking up. At 25, John Paul's vision was not the same and he sometimes wore spectacles. Craig preferred him wearing contacts, because he couldn't stand something covering his boyfriend's beautiful blue eyes.

"Craig, I'm not even out of my pajamas yet," John Paul said, laughing. "I promise I'll put them on later, all right?"

He got up and walked up to Craig, putting his arms around him from behind while Craig kept washing up."

"You know," the brown eyed man said. "Sometimes I'm still amazed. For the first time, I can actually say that I'm completely happy with my life. I wouldn't change a thing."

John Paul kissed his neck and Craig continued. "And Jake! I mean, you remember how he was when he first found out about us? And now he's like making jokes about our sex life! I can't quite believe it."

"Well, we can try to do it a bit quieter, "John Paul said. "But you're right. We have been so lucky."

Craig finished up and turned around to face him. He looked at John Paul, feeling the love for him running through his veins. John Paul was just as gorgeous and fit as he'd been at the age of 17. The only thing showing that he was older was the spectacles and a single wrinkle on his for head.

"I love you," Craig said. "I want you to know that the last three years have been the best in my whole life. Living with you, waking up beside you, having meals with you, making love to you – I couldn't ask for anything more. And when I think about you never losing your patience with me, standing by me, waiting for me, I'm so grateful I almost can't breathe."

John Paul kissed him tenderly.

"I fell for you, Craig Dean. I fell in love with you from the first time I saw you, even though you had the ugliest clothes and the worst haircut ever," he teased.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" Craig said, looking embarrassed.

"Well, never mind all that," John Paul said. "Hannah's bringing Rosie over in about an hour, so I think we should hit the showers. What do you think?"

Craig smiled. "I think I like what you're thinking!"

Okey, that's it for now, but I'd like to continue. Please review! There might be a lot of mistakes - I'm Norwegian so English is not my mother tongue...