Name: Memories Bonded in Steele
Author: Magbeth
Summary: Two years after Bonds of Steele the subject of
what comes next is going to arise. Also the questions of
why Steele acted the way he did.
Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't know own Mr. Steele, Mrs.
Holt Steele, Clarise or Mildred Krebs. Someone else owns
them. Oh and I'm not making any money off of this.
Things hadn't been going well for employees of Remington
Steele Investigations. Two years had past. Mildred was
worried her two kids would end the one thing that made them
both so happy. She was concerned for them. Their
relationship was under a strain, had been for two weeks
now. Every morning she would watch as they walked in, said
their good mornings to her, and walked into their separate
offices. No more touches, no more long glances and none of
the teasing banter that she enjoyed listening to over the
years. Something was wrong and she had a feeling it was
because the two years of their unofficial marriage was
coming to an end and they had no idea what the other one
was going to do. It was so like them to not talk about
their problems.
It was 9 o'clock and the agency was now open and when the
phones started to ring Mildred momentarily forgot about her
previous concerns as she was caught up in answering the
caller's questions.
Laura Holt Steele was sitting in her office staring at an
open file on her desk. She had been doing a lot of that
lately. Just staring that is. She couldn't concentrate on
anything important when her life was about to fall out from
under her once again. After Ireland things had gone back to
normal for the most part. The only thing that changed was
the fact that her and Mr. Steele were a "married" couple.
They had gotten the hang of that pretty fast and as far as
she could tell Mr. Steele was happy. God knows she was. But
now that the two years were coming to an end was he going
to suggest that they go their separate ways? Was he going
to leave her like she always feared he was? They of course
hadn't talked about it.
She sighed and rubbed at her aching eyes. The silence was
frustrating. Not knowing what was going to happen was
slowly killing her. There wasn't even any cases she could
burry herself in. It was that time of the year when there
seemed to be no one that needed help from a detective.
When Laura heard someone softly knock on the door to her
office, she glanced up at the doorway and muttered a
halfhearted "Come in". Mildred opened the door a crack and
poked her heard inside.
"May I make a suggestion hun?" Mildred asked.
At Laura's confused look she continued. "Go and talk to him
about it." She gave her a knowing smile. "It will make the
both of you feel a lot better." Mildred silently closed the
door behind her, a smug smile tugging at the corner of her
face. There, maybe that would give Laura a little push in
the right direction.
After Mildred had closed the door, Laura had laughed a
little to herself. Only Mildred would understand what was
going on.
Remington Steele paced nervously back and forth across his
office. Things between Laura and him were fast approaching
a disaster. And he didn't know what she was thinking. He
knew Laura to well, and he would make a bet that her
reasonable side was getting in the way of what her heart
wanted. And that reasonable side was telling her to go
ahead and take the divorce. There wasn't a doubt in his
mind that Laura loved him. And he was fairly certain that
she knew he loved her. The thing he was most scared of was
how she was going to react when he told her that their
marriage wasn't as fake as he had led her to believe.
Remington stopped in mid stride when the connecting door to
Laura's office flew open and Laura came breezing through.
"I can't take this anymore!" She bellowed. "We need to
talk, and we need to talk about it now. What are we going
to do?" There, she got it out. Now all she had to do was
wait patiently for him to tell her that he was going to
leave her.
Remington recognized that look her in eyes all to well. It
was the defensive one, the one that read, I know your going
to leave me so just get on with it. His shoulders slumped
and he let out a small sigh of frustration. Laura for her
part just stood there with her hands on her hips observing
him.
He slowly walked up to her and placed his hands on her
shoulders. He peered down into her eyes, forcing her to
look at him.
"Laura, "He shook her a little for emphasis, "I am not
going to leave you, lets make that clear right now." He
took her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad" She responded, her head barried in the crook of
his arm.
His fear of her leaving him dissipated instantly, obviously
if she was glad that he wasn't leaving it certainly had to
mean that she wouldn't be leaving him, right?
"So we are going to stay with this fake marriage of ours?"
Laura asked hesitantly. "There are still some things we
never talked about that day, you know."
"Yes I know. There are something's that you need to know."
He told her, gently leading her by the elbow over to the
love seat. She sat down with him right next to her.
"Like what?" She asked.
"First lets get all of those things we never talked about
over and done with, shall we?" He smiled, trying to buy
himself some time.
"Okay, for starters why didn't you come to me in the first
place? Why a hooker? Did I really mean so little to you
back then?" She inquired, only slightly nervous about his
answer. She knew he loved her, but exactly how far back did
that love go?
"Laura," he started, reaching across and gently taking her
smaller hand in his larger one. "I fell for you the first
day I met you. That's why I stayed. And the longer I stayed
the more I fell in love with you. There were times I
suspected that I would never be able to get through that
wall you had built around yourself and at those times I
would try to get your attention by making you jealous.
That's not why I asked Clarise to marry me. I honestly
don't know what was going threw my mind that day. At the
time it seemed to be the only way out, finding Clarisa's
number at the bottom of my nightstand drawer gave me the
idea. So I called her up and explained why I needed her to
marry me and that I was willing to pay. It was simply a way
to keep me in the country, nothing more. I felt guilty
about not telling you, but I didn't want you to worry, it
was my problem and I was going to solve it." He paused,
searching for the right words. But Laura interrupted him.
"I would have helped you know. After all it's the passport
we gave you that got you into that mess." She told him,
squeezing his hand.
"Yes well, I was determined to take care of it on my own,
prove to you that I could do it. I should have known that I
wouldn't have been able to keep something this big from a
wonderful detective like Laura Holt. But I couldn't ask you
to risk everything. I was trying to protect you." He
explained. "If for some reason they had found out that we
married just to keep me in the country it would have meant
trouble for the both of us, more importantly…you. I
couldn't allow you to risk it, the agency, your license,
and even if I had been caught with my marriage to Clarisa I
was prepared to take the fall, if only to spare you. And
even though we did love each other, we would still only be
marrying each other to keep me from leaving. If we were to
ever take that step Laura, I wanted it to be for all the
right reasons and not under those circumstances."
Laura's eyes grew moist at his confession, only now
realizing the depth of his devotion to her. He quickly
wiped away the tears threatening to fall.
"You do realize that I can take care of myself and that
just maybe I did want to take that risk? I agree with you,
it wasn't the marriage I always imagined us having but it
hurt to think you chose a hooker over me." She said, glad
that she was wrong, that he really hadn't chosen Clarise
over her.
"There is another reason why I didn't go to you in the
first place." He told her gently, looking straight into her
eyes. "If I was so scared of you getting hurt why didn't I
just let myself get deported? I asked myself that same
question a million times and I always came up with the same
answer. I couldn't leave you. I didn't want to put you into
that kind of position yet I was going to marry Clarise and
break both of our hearts. But the main reason was I was
scared to go to you. At the time I didn't know where I
stood with you. Why would someone as attractive and
brilliant as you want an ex-con man like myself? To say the
least, I took the easy way out."
"Of course I wanted you! I have always wanted you. I
realize that some of that was my fault. I should have never
have pushed you away so many times. I'm surprised you stuck
by me as long as you did." She slowly scooted closer to
him, laying her head on his shoulder and burrowing herself
into him. He put his arms around her and held her close. He
closed his eyes and inhaled her scent.
Outside the door Mildred listened intently. So far there
was no yelling. She smiled to herself, thankful that
everything seemed to be going well. A noise from the door
caused her to turn around, she gasped when she saw who was
standing there. Not now she pleaded. Not now when
everything was going so well.
Inside Steele's office he was preparing to tell Laura the
truth. He pulled her closer to him, praying that she would
still be there when this was over.
She pulled back a little to glance up at him. "So now that
I know why you did what you did what are we going to do
about this two year deal? Do you want to end this fake
marriage and proceed with the way things were before that
day? Or would you care to take a real exchange of the
vows?" she asked, smiling up at him through her tears.
"Laura, love, I'm afraid that those wedding vows couldn't
get more real." He grimaced at the confused and wary
expression on her face.
"What is that suppose to mean!?" Laura exclaimed. Her voice
rising an octave.
Mildred heard Laura's raised voice and slumped in defeat.
Things weren't looking so bright after all. She took a
glance at the person who had just walked in. Tony Roselli
had a smug look on his face. He obviously had also heard
the shout.
"Is everything not going so well in paradise?" He asked.
Smiling a sure smile.
"Everything is just fine I assure you. Now just crawl back
into the hole you came out of!" Mildred's eyes were blazing
fire.
"Not until I speak to Laura." He made a move toward the
office door but Mildred effectively blocked his entrance.
"Now Laura…" Steele said, trying to calm her.
"Don't you now Laura me! What did you mean by that!" She
was standing now, looking down at him from his perch on the
couch. He better mean what she thinks he means by that.
"Laura just calm down." He tried to reason, standing up and
grasping her shoulders firmly with both hands. "Remember
what I told you about not letting you risk everything?"
"Yes"
"Well, once you found out about the wedding and stopped it,
thank god, I still wasn't going to let you put yourself on
the line like that for me. What if they had found out it
was a fraud? And you would have never agreed to marry me by
then. You were as mad as hell. So I did what I do best, I
conned you into believing it wasn't real. I was surprised
you didn't catch on. I mean, did you see anyone else
manning the boat? It was the captain who married us. The
certificates were real and so were the witnesses. In the
long run I ended up with the kind of marriage I didn't want
for us but I did manage to marry you. Everything was way
out of hand. I'm not proud of what I did."
Laura was glaring at him. She roughly pulled out of his
grasp and stalked over to the window. "You did what! I
can't believe you would do that to me! Then again what else
could I have expected from you. You were always trying to
work angles. Trying ways to get to me! How would you know I
wouldn't have married you?" She turned to stare out the
window. Her back ram rod straight, stubbornly refusing to
look at him.
"You said so yourself for one thing. And it wasn't just
another way to get into your bed Laura. You weren't going
to let me marry Clarise but your weren't going to let me
really marry you either. At the time it looked to be the
only way to ensure you didn't loose everything you worked
for. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you had."
Looking back at him she said, "I was angry, I didn't mean
it." She told him truthfully. She turned away from him and
continued to stare out the window. "And you can't honestly
stand there and tell me it was a purely unselfish reason
for conning me into marrying you" The edge had returned to
her voice.
"I realize that now. Everything was so messed up. I don't
have any real excuses. And no, there are some very selfish
reasons. I can only hope that you will forgive me,
understand that I love you and that you won't leave me." As
he said this he walked up behind her but made no attempt to
reach out for her.
She turned around and gave him a sad smile. "Well, on the
one hand what you pulled was deceptive and I should be mad
at you, which I am. But then on the other hand no one has
ever done anything like that for me before, no one has ever
been that desperate. Some of it is still my fault I guess.
I understand more than you think I do. I don't hate you, I
just need some time to think." She reached out and squeezed
his arm. She gave him one last smile and headed for her
office. She went in and grabbed her purse, opened the door
to the outer office and stopped in her tracks.
Mildred had positioned herself between the door to Mr.
Steele's office and Tony.
"There is no way I am going to let you interrupt them." She
said firmly.
"You can't keep me from talking to her Ms. Krebs." He
responded. They both turned at the sound of Laura's office
door opening.
"What are you doing here?" Laura asked suspiciously.
"I came to rescue you from that con man you call a
husband." Tony said, moving in her direction.
"You picked a bad time Tony." She said, holding up a hand
to keep him at bay.
"Didn't sound like it to me." He told her smugly. The two
years are up, he will leave you and I will be here to pick
up the pieces."
"He isn't going to leave me. For right now we are still
married and even if we did divorce I certainly wouldn't
come running to you." She said angrily. "I suggest you
leave before you start some serious trouble."
"Laura…" Steele called, pushing the office door open. His
eyes narrowed at the site of Tony. "What the bloody hell
are you doing here!"
"I was just leaving. See you around Laura. It was nice
talking to you Mildred." He waved his hand and disappeared
through the double doors. They hadn't heard the last of
him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~
After Laura had left Remington filled Mildred in on what
had happened. She couldn't believe what the chief had
pulled. Inwardly she wished someone would love her as much.
She had watched with a heavy heart as he walked back into
the office. He was afraid she wouldn't take him back. Tony
showing up hadn't helped either. Mildred busied herself
with her work, trying to forget for a moment what a mess
things had become.
Laura drove around for a couple of hours before pulling up
in front of the house they had shared for the past two
years. She had done a lot of thinking. She knew she would
never have the courage to send him packing. And to be
truthful, if she hadn't been so persistent at keeping them
at a professional distance then maybe he would have had
enough trust in her to come to her with the marriage issue.
She just couldn't believe that he would con her of all
people. Cant live with him and cant live without him.
Making up her mind to forgive him, she had climbed out of
the car and went inside. She decided to cook them up a
dinner. Contrary to popular belief, she did have some
cooking skills.
Half hour into making their dinner a knock sounded at the
door. "Coming" she called. She wiped her hands off on the
dishtowel she had been holding and hurried to answer the
door. The smile she had been wearing vanished as she saw
who was on the other side.
"I thought you were gone." She said, disappointment evident
in her voice.
"I'm hurt Laura, you don't sound happy to see me." Tony
replied, holding a hand to his heart acting like she had
truly wounded him.
"I'm not. Now go away. I don't want to see you. I thought
my silence after that phone call we shared might have
proved that." She answered, not moving to let him in.
"Quite the opposite actually. You made no move to dissuade
my feelings for you." He made a gesturing sweep with his
hand. "Aren't you going to let me in?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Nope, I am going to stand here until you talk me out of
loving you." He said, the smug smile once again gracing his
features. Laura sighed and reluctantly allowed him
entrance.
Laura gestured for Tony to have a seat on the couch while
she headed to the kitchen to pour some drinks. She checked
on her dinner and headed back out.
"He can't make you happy Laura. Not like I can." Tony
wasn't wasting any time. "We had something back in Ireland
Laura. There was chemistry between us. I felt it and I know
you did to."
"You only felt what I wanted you to, Tony. I used you. And
I'm not proud of myself for it either." Laura answered,
handing Tony his glass and taking a seat as far away from
him as possible. "I wanted to make him jealous. In a way I
wanted to hurt him. And I suppose I liked the attention."
"I don't believe you."
"Then don't believe me Tony! In the end it won't matter.
I'm married. And happily married at that. Leaving with you
was never an option. My heart belongs to Mr. Steele. It
always has and it always will."
Steele was just pulling up into the driveway when he
noticed the blue Ford Taurus parked out in front. "Oh
great" he muttered to himself as he got out of the car and
walked up to the front door. He quietly unlocked the door
and stepped inside un-noticed.
Tony's back was to the door but Laura was facing the
doorway but she was to caught up in what she was saying to
notice that her husband had just walked in.
They both jumped at the sound of his voice. "And my heart
belongs to her, and I will stop anyone who tries to take it
away from me." Steele declared, his expression turning to
ice when it met Tony's shocked gaze. "Now I suggest you
make a quick exit mate, unless you want to have an
impromptu meeting with the south American government. I am
sure they will be happy to know where their former number
one agent is."
"This is my last offer Laura. Come with me now. I wont be
back."
"Then the sooner you leave the sooner we can both move on."
Laura answered.
Tony gave one curt nod and stormed out of the house. The
couple stood staring at each other until they heard the
screeching tires of the Ford Taurus leaving the property.
"Did you mean what you said? About your heart always
belonging to me?" Steele asked, uncertainty glistening in
his bright blue eyes.
"Yes."
"Does this mean you aren't kicking me out?"
"Yes" Laura said. Smiling as she took a small step towards
him. "And you do realize that we haven't seen the last of
him? Despite what he said?"
"Yes." Remington replied, taking a step of his own towards
Laura. "If he does return, we will handle it. Together."
Laura walked the last few remaining steps and rapped her
arms around her husband's neck. "These past two years have
been wonderful. I don't want to throw them away."
"And neither do I." Remington replied, his head descending
to capture her lips in a gentle kiss. "Not to change the
subject or anything, but what do I smell burning?"
Laura's eyes grew big, as she too smelled something
burning. "MY DINNER," she cried, untangling her arms from
around Remington's neck, she made a mad dash for the
kitchen. Remington was close behind her. "I cant even
manage to make spaghetti." Laura whined, close to tears.
"How about that wonderful little Italian place down the
street? I hear they have wonderful Italian cuisine. " He
said, a teasing smile playing across his face. He wrapped
his arms around her waste as he awaited her reply.
"Indeed Mr. Steele. Indeed." Hand in hand they took their
first step towards a new future. One built on memories of a
wonderful past and hopes of a wonderful future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later, after their heartfelt discussion and their
meeting with Tony, Remington awoke to the smell of eggs
frying and the soft sound of sizzling bacon. He heard his
stomach growl and threw a quick glance to Laura's empty
side of the bed. 'I better get in there before she burns
down the house,' he thought to himself. He threw back the
blankets and grabbed his robe. He was almost to the kitchen
when he heard a muffled curse.
Laura had been up early this morning, unable to sleep. Not
wanting to wake Remington, she had dressed in a pair of
faded blue jeans and white shirt and sat down in the living
room to read a book. At around eight thirty she got a
craving for eggs and bacon. 'Why not surprise him with
breakfast?' She thought. So there she was now, up to her
elbows in grease and doing a pretty damn good job at not
burning the eggs. The bacon was looking absolutely
scrumptious. She went to flip some of them over when some
grease popped out of the pan and landed on her hand. She
jerked her hand back, a muttered curse slipping past her
lips.
"Remington! Breakfast is ready!" She called.
"So I see."
She gasped and turned around to find him leaning up against
the doorframe, hunger for her blazing in his eyes.
"You scared me. How long have you been standing there?" She
turned back to her task of preparing the plates. She picked
them up and headed for their dining room.
"Not long. Are these edible? Or do I need to put them under
scientific testing?" Remington teased.
"I am perfectly capable of making eggs thank you very
much!" There was anger in her voice but the light in her
eyes betrayed their intent. She set the plate down in front
him and took her seat beside him.
Mr. Steele carefully put one spoonful of eggs into his
mouth and chewed. "Well, they taste like eggs. I must say
Laura... I am impressed. Never knew you had it in you."
"There are a lot of things you still don't know about me
Mr. Steele."
"Yes, but I am going to spend the rest of my life finding
them out Mrs. Steele." Steele replied. 'And for once in my
life, that doesn't bother me.' He said to himself, a warm
smile spreading over his handsome features as he gazed at
the love of his life seated across from him.
The End
Notes: This narration takes place two years after they were
married. And yes, in this fic they were actually married. I
am half borrowing and half creating my own little tale. I
remember a fan fic somewhere some place about Steele faking
their already faked marriage if that makes any sense… I
used that because I had also thought about it and always
believe that Steele would have never put Laura in that
position. To me they will always be Mr. and Mrs. Remington
Steele… and I have no clue what that hookers name is, and I
really don't care, does anyone? Any suggestions you might
have would be beneficial
Author: Magbeth
Summary: Two years after Bonds of Steele the subject of
what comes next is going to arise. Also the questions of
why Steele acted the way he did.
Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't know own Mr. Steele, Mrs.
Holt Steele, Clarise or Mildred Krebs. Someone else owns
them. Oh and I'm not making any money off of this.
Things hadn't been going well for employees of Remington
Steele Investigations. Two years had past. Mildred was
worried her two kids would end the one thing that made them
both so happy. She was concerned for them. Their
relationship was under a strain, had been for two weeks
now. Every morning she would watch as they walked in, said
their good mornings to her, and walked into their separate
offices. No more touches, no more long glances and none of
the teasing banter that she enjoyed listening to over the
years. Something was wrong and she had a feeling it was
because the two years of their unofficial marriage was
coming to an end and they had no idea what the other one
was going to do. It was so like them to not talk about
their problems.
It was 9 o'clock and the agency was now open and when the
phones started to ring Mildred momentarily forgot about her
previous concerns as she was caught up in answering the
caller's questions.
Laura Holt Steele was sitting in her office staring at an
open file on her desk. She had been doing a lot of that
lately. Just staring that is. She couldn't concentrate on
anything important when her life was about to fall out from
under her once again. After Ireland things had gone back to
normal for the most part. The only thing that changed was
the fact that her and Mr. Steele were a "married" couple.
They had gotten the hang of that pretty fast and as far as
she could tell Mr. Steele was happy. God knows she was. But
now that the two years were coming to an end was he going
to suggest that they go their separate ways? Was he going
to leave her like she always feared he was? They of course
hadn't talked about it.
She sighed and rubbed at her aching eyes. The silence was
frustrating. Not knowing what was going to happen was
slowly killing her. There wasn't even any cases she could
burry herself in. It was that time of the year when there
seemed to be no one that needed help from a detective.
When Laura heard someone softly knock on the door to her
office, she glanced up at the doorway and muttered a
halfhearted "Come in". Mildred opened the door a crack and
poked her heard inside.
"May I make a suggestion hun?" Mildred asked.
At Laura's confused look she continued. "Go and talk to him
about it." She gave her a knowing smile. "It will make the
both of you feel a lot better." Mildred silently closed the
door behind her, a smug smile tugging at the corner of her
face. There, maybe that would give Laura a little push in
the right direction.
After Mildred had closed the door, Laura had laughed a
little to herself. Only Mildred would understand what was
going on.
Remington Steele paced nervously back and forth across his
office. Things between Laura and him were fast approaching
a disaster. And he didn't know what she was thinking. He
knew Laura to well, and he would make a bet that her
reasonable side was getting in the way of what her heart
wanted. And that reasonable side was telling her to go
ahead and take the divorce. There wasn't a doubt in his
mind that Laura loved him. And he was fairly certain that
she knew he loved her. The thing he was most scared of was
how she was going to react when he told her that their
marriage wasn't as fake as he had led her to believe.
Remington stopped in mid stride when the connecting door to
Laura's office flew open and Laura came breezing through.
"I can't take this anymore!" She bellowed. "We need to
talk, and we need to talk about it now. What are we going
to do?" There, she got it out. Now all she had to do was
wait patiently for him to tell her that he was going to
leave her.
Remington recognized that look her in eyes all to well. It
was the defensive one, the one that read, I know your going
to leave me so just get on with it. His shoulders slumped
and he let out a small sigh of frustration. Laura for her
part just stood there with her hands on her hips observing
him.
He slowly walked up to her and placed his hands on her
shoulders. He peered down into her eyes, forcing her to
look at him.
"Laura, "He shook her a little for emphasis, "I am not
going to leave you, lets make that clear right now." He
took her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad" She responded, her head barried in the crook of
his arm.
His fear of her leaving him dissipated instantly, obviously
if she was glad that he wasn't leaving it certainly had to
mean that she wouldn't be leaving him, right?
"So we are going to stay with this fake marriage of ours?"
Laura asked hesitantly. "There are still some things we
never talked about that day, you know."
"Yes I know. There are something's that you need to know."
He told her, gently leading her by the elbow over to the
love seat. She sat down with him right next to her.
"Like what?" She asked.
"First lets get all of those things we never talked about
over and done with, shall we?" He smiled, trying to buy
himself some time.
"Okay, for starters why didn't you come to me in the first
place? Why a hooker? Did I really mean so little to you
back then?" She inquired, only slightly nervous about his
answer. She knew he loved her, but exactly how far back did
that love go?
"Laura," he started, reaching across and gently taking her
smaller hand in his larger one. "I fell for you the first
day I met you. That's why I stayed. And the longer I stayed
the more I fell in love with you. There were times I
suspected that I would never be able to get through that
wall you had built around yourself and at those times I
would try to get your attention by making you jealous.
That's not why I asked Clarise to marry me. I honestly
don't know what was going threw my mind that day. At the
time it seemed to be the only way out, finding Clarisa's
number at the bottom of my nightstand drawer gave me the
idea. So I called her up and explained why I needed her to
marry me and that I was willing to pay. It was simply a way
to keep me in the country, nothing more. I felt guilty
about not telling you, but I didn't want you to worry, it
was my problem and I was going to solve it." He paused,
searching for the right words. But Laura interrupted him.
"I would have helped you know. After all it's the passport
we gave you that got you into that mess." She told him,
squeezing his hand.
"Yes well, I was determined to take care of it on my own,
prove to you that I could do it. I should have known that I
wouldn't have been able to keep something this big from a
wonderful detective like Laura Holt. But I couldn't ask you
to risk everything. I was trying to protect you." He
explained. "If for some reason they had found out that we
married just to keep me in the country it would have meant
trouble for the both of us, more importantly…you. I
couldn't allow you to risk it, the agency, your license,
and even if I had been caught with my marriage to Clarisa I
was prepared to take the fall, if only to spare you. And
even though we did love each other, we would still only be
marrying each other to keep me from leaving. If we were to
ever take that step Laura, I wanted it to be for all the
right reasons and not under those circumstances."
Laura's eyes grew moist at his confession, only now
realizing the depth of his devotion to her. He quickly
wiped away the tears threatening to fall.
"You do realize that I can take care of myself and that
just maybe I did want to take that risk? I agree with you,
it wasn't the marriage I always imagined us having but it
hurt to think you chose a hooker over me." She said, glad
that she was wrong, that he really hadn't chosen Clarise
over her.
"There is another reason why I didn't go to you in the
first place." He told her gently, looking straight into her
eyes. "If I was so scared of you getting hurt why didn't I
just let myself get deported? I asked myself that same
question a million times and I always came up with the same
answer. I couldn't leave you. I didn't want to put you into
that kind of position yet I was going to marry Clarise and
break both of our hearts. But the main reason was I was
scared to go to you. At the time I didn't know where I
stood with you. Why would someone as attractive and
brilliant as you want an ex-con man like myself? To say the
least, I took the easy way out."
"Of course I wanted you! I have always wanted you. I
realize that some of that was my fault. I should have never
have pushed you away so many times. I'm surprised you stuck
by me as long as you did." She slowly scooted closer to
him, laying her head on his shoulder and burrowing herself
into him. He put his arms around her and held her close. He
closed his eyes and inhaled her scent.
Outside the door Mildred listened intently. So far there
was no yelling. She smiled to herself, thankful that
everything seemed to be going well. A noise from the door
caused her to turn around, she gasped when she saw who was
standing there. Not now she pleaded. Not now when
everything was going so well.
Inside Steele's office he was preparing to tell Laura the
truth. He pulled her closer to him, praying that she would
still be there when this was over.
She pulled back a little to glance up at him. "So now that
I know why you did what you did what are we going to do
about this two year deal? Do you want to end this fake
marriage and proceed with the way things were before that
day? Or would you care to take a real exchange of the
vows?" she asked, smiling up at him through her tears.
"Laura, love, I'm afraid that those wedding vows couldn't
get more real." He grimaced at the confused and wary
expression on her face.
"What is that suppose to mean!?" Laura exclaimed. Her voice
rising an octave.
Mildred heard Laura's raised voice and slumped in defeat.
Things weren't looking so bright after all. She took a
glance at the person who had just walked in. Tony Roselli
had a smug look on his face. He obviously had also heard
the shout.
"Is everything not going so well in paradise?" He asked.
Smiling a sure smile.
"Everything is just fine I assure you. Now just crawl back
into the hole you came out of!" Mildred's eyes were blazing
fire.
"Not until I speak to Laura." He made a move toward the
office door but Mildred effectively blocked his entrance.
"Now Laura…" Steele said, trying to calm her.
"Don't you now Laura me! What did you mean by that!" She
was standing now, looking down at him from his perch on the
couch. He better mean what she thinks he means by that.
"Laura just calm down." He tried to reason, standing up and
grasping her shoulders firmly with both hands. "Remember
what I told you about not letting you risk everything?"
"Yes"
"Well, once you found out about the wedding and stopped it,
thank god, I still wasn't going to let you put yourself on
the line like that for me. What if they had found out it
was a fraud? And you would have never agreed to marry me by
then. You were as mad as hell. So I did what I do best, I
conned you into believing it wasn't real. I was surprised
you didn't catch on. I mean, did you see anyone else
manning the boat? It was the captain who married us. The
certificates were real and so were the witnesses. In the
long run I ended up with the kind of marriage I didn't want
for us but I did manage to marry you. Everything was way
out of hand. I'm not proud of what I did."
Laura was glaring at him. She roughly pulled out of his
grasp and stalked over to the window. "You did what! I
can't believe you would do that to me! Then again what else
could I have expected from you. You were always trying to
work angles. Trying ways to get to me! How would you know I
wouldn't have married you?" She turned to stare out the
window. Her back ram rod straight, stubbornly refusing to
look at him.
"You said so yourself for one thing. And it wasn't just
another way to get into your bed Laura. You weren't going
to let me marry Clarise but your weren't going to let me
really marry you either. At the time it looked to be the
only way to ensure you didn't loose everything you worked
for. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you had."
Looking back at him she said, "I was angry, I didn't mean
it." She told him truthfully. She turned away from him and
continued to stare out the window. "And you can't honestly
stand there and tell me it was a purely unselfish reason
for conning me into marrying you" The edge had returned to
her voice.
"I realize that now. Everything was so messed up. I don't
have any real excuses. And no, there are some very selfish
reasons. I can only hope that you will forgive me,
understand that I love you and that you won't leave me." As
he said this he walked up behind her but made no attempt to
reach out for her.
She turned around and gave him a sad smile. "Well, on the
one hand what you pulled was deceptive and I should be mad
at you, which I am. But then on the other hand no one has
ever done anything like that for me before, no one has ever
been that desperate. Some of it is still my fault I guess.
I understand more than you think I do. I don't hate you, I
just need some time to think." She reached out and squeezed
his arm. She gave him one last smile and headed for her
office. She went in and grabbed her purse, opened the door
to the outer office and stopped in her tracks.
Mildred had positioned herself between the door to Mr.
Steele's office and Tony.
"There is no way I am going to let you interrupt them." She
said firmly.
"You can't keep me from talking to her Ms. Krebs." He
responded. They both turned at the sound of Laura's office
door opening.
"What are you doing here?" Laura asked suspiciously.
"I came to rescue you from that con man you call a
husband." Tony said, moving in her direction.
"You picked a bad time Tony." She said, holding up a hand
to keep him at bay.
"Didn't sound like it to me." He told her smugly. The two
years are up, he will leave you and I will be here to pick
up the pieces."
"He isn't going to leave me. For right now we are still
married and even if we did divorce I certainly wouldn't
come running to you." She said angrily. "I suggest you
leave before you start some serious trouble."
"Laura…" Steele called, pushing the office door open. His
eyes narrowed at the site of Tony. "What the bloody hell
are you doing here!"
"I was just leaving. See you around Laura. It was nice
talking to you Mildred." He waved his hand and disappeared
through the double doors. They hadn't heard the last of
him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~
After Laura had left Remington filled Mildred in on what
had happened. She couldn't believe what the chief had
pulled. Inwardly she wished someone would love her as much.
She had watched with a heavy heart as he walked back into
the office. He was afraid she wouldn't take him back. Tony
showing up hadn't helped either. Mildred busied herself
with her work, trying to forget for a moment what a mess
things had become.
Laura drove around for a couple of hours before pulling up
in front of the house they had shared for the past two
years. She had done a lot of thinking. She knew she would
never have the courage to send him packing. And to be
truthful, if she hadn't been so persistent at keeping them
at a professional distance then maybe he would have had
enough trust in her to come to her with the marriage issue.
She just couldn't believe that he would con her of all
people. Cant live with him and cant live without him.
Making up her mind to forgive him, she had climbed out of
the car and went inside. She decided to cook them up a
dinner. Contrary to popular belief, she did have some
cooking skills.
Half hour into making their dinner a knock sounded at the
door. "Coming" she called. She wiped her hands off on the
dishtowel she had been holding and hurried to answer the
door. The smile she had been wearing vanished as she saw
who was on the other side.
"I thought you were gone." She said, disappointment evident
in her voice.
"I'm hurt Laura, you don't sound happy to see me." Tony
replied, holding a hand to his heart acting like she had
truly wounded him.
"I'm not. Now go away. I don't want to see you. I thought
my silence after that phone call we shared might have
proved that." She answered, not moving to let him in.
"Quite the opposite actually. You made no move to dissuade
my feelings for you." He made a gesturing sweep with his
hand. "Aren't you going to let me in?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Nope, I am going to stand here until you talk me out of
loving you." He said, the smug smile once again gracing his
features. Laura sighed and reluctantly allowed him
entrance.
Laura gestured for Tony to have a seat on the couch while
she headed to the kitchen to pour some drinks. She checked
on her dinner and headed back out.
"He can't make you happy Laura. Not like I can." Tony
wasn't wasting any time. "We had something back in Ireland
Laura. There was chemistry between us. I felt it and I know
you did to."
"You only felt what I wanted you to, Tony. I used you. And
I'm not proud of myself for it either." Laura answered,
handing Tony his glass and taking a seat as far away from
him as possible. "I wanted to make him jealous. In a way I
wanted to hurt him. And I suppose I liked the attention."
"I don't believe you."
"Then don't believe me Tony! In the end it won't matter.
I'm married. And happily married at that. Leaving with you
was never an option. My heart belongs to Mr. Steele. It
always has and it always will."
Steele was just pulling up into the driveway when he
noticed the blue Ford Taurus parked out in front. "Oh
great" he muttered to himself as he got out of the car and
walked up to the front door. He quietly unlocked the door
and stepped inside un-noticed.
Tony's back was to the door but Laura was facing the
doorway but she was to caught up in what she was saying to
notice that her husband had just walked in.
They both jumped at the sound of his voice. "And my heart
belongs to her, and I will stop anyone who tries to take it
away from me." Steele declared, his expression turning to
ice when it met Tony's shocked gaze. "Now I suggest you
make a quick exit mate, unless you want to have an
impromptu meeting with the south American government. I am
sure they will be happy to know where their former number
one agent is."
"This is my last offer Laura. Come with me now. I wont be
back."
"Then the sooner you leave the sooner we can both move on."
Laura answered.
Tony gave one curt nod and stormed out of the house. The
couple stood staring at each other until they heard the
screeching tires of the Ford Taurus leaving the property.
"Did you mean what you said? About your heart always
belonging to me?" Steele asked, uncertainty glistening in
his bright blue eyes.
"Yes."
"Does this mean you aren't kicking me out?"
"Yes" Laura said. Smiling as she took a small step towards
him. "And you do realize that we haven't seen the last of
him? Despite what he said?"
"Yes." Remington replied, taking a step of his own towards
Laura. "If he does return, we will handle it. Together."
Laura walked the last few remaining steps and rapped her
arms around her husband's neck. "These past two years have
been wonderful. I don't want to throw them away."
"And neither do I." Remington replied, his head descending
to capture her lips in a gentle kiss. "Not to change the
subject or anything, but what do I smell burning?"
Laura's eyes grew big, as she too smelled something
burning. "MY DINNER," she cried, untangling her arms from
around Remington's neck, she made a mad dash for the
kitchen. Remington was close behind her. "I cant even
manage to make spaghetti." Laura whined, close to tears.
"How about that wonderful little Italian place down the
street? I hear they have wonderful Italian cuisine. " He
said, a teasing smile playing across his face. He wrapped
his arms around her waste as he awaited her reply.
"Indeed Mr. Steele. Indeed." Hand in hand they took their
first step towards a new future. One built on memories of a
wonderful past and hopes of a wonderful future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later, after their heartfelt discussion and their
meeting with Tony, Remington awoke to the smell of eggs
frying and the soft sound of sizzling bacon. He heard his
stomach growl and threw a quick glance to Laura's empty
side of the bed. 'I better get in there before she burns
down the house,' he thought to himself. He threw back the
blankets and grabbed his robe. He was almost to the kitchen
when he heard a muffled curse.
Laura had been up early this morning, unable to sleep. Not
wanting to wake Remington, she had dressed in a pair of
faded blue jeans and white shirt and sat down in the living
room to read a book. At around eight thirty she got a
craving for eggs and bacon. 'Why not surprise him with
breakfast?' She thought. So there she was now, up to her
elbows in grease and doing a pretty damn good job at not
burning the eggs. The bacon was looking absolutely
scrumptious. She went to flip some of them over when some
grease popped out of the pan and landed on her hand. She
jerked her hand back, a muttered curse slipping past her
lips.
"Remington! Breakfast is ready!" She called.
"So I see."
She gasped and turned around to find him leaning up against
the doorframe, hunger for her blazing in his eyes.
"You scared me. How long have you been standing there?" She
turned back to her task of preparing the plates. She picked
them up and headed for their dining room.
"Not long. Are these edible? Or do I need to put them under
scientific testing?" Remington teased.
"I am perfectly capable of making eggs thank you very
much!" There was anger in her voice but the light in her
eyes betrayed their intent. She set the plate down in front
him and took her seat beside him.
Mr. Steele carefully put one spoonful of eggs into his
mouth and chewed. "Well, they taste like eggs. I must say
Laura... I am impressed. Never knew you had it in you."
"There are a lot of things you still don't know about me
Mr. Steele."
"Yes, but I am going to spend the rest of my life finding
them out Mrs. Steele." Steele replied. 'And for once in my
life, that doesn't bother me.' He said to himself, a warm
smile spreading over his handsome features as he gazed at
the love of his life seated across from him.
The End
Notes: This narration takes place two years after they were
married. And yes, in this fic they were actually married. I
am half borrowing and half creating my own little tale. I
remember a fan fic somewhere some place about Steele faking
their already faked marriage if that makes any sense… I
used that because I had also thought about it and always
believe that Steele would have never put Laura in that
position. To me they will always be Mr. and Mrs. Remington
Steele… and I have no clue what that hookers name is, and I
really don't care, does anyone? Any suggestions you might
have would be beneficial
