Title: The Secret of Love
Author: DancingStar
Crossover: PSI Factor / Sue Thomas F.
Pairing: Jack/Sue, Connor/ Lindsay
Category: Romance, AU
Rating: 12
Summaries: Sue gets the opportunity to hear again.
Notes: This is a story, which is not about the OSIR or FBI.

The Secret of Love

Lucy Dotson, who still had a cold, checked dreamily a photo of a five floor high cream pie with a little bride and groom between marzipan roses on a Monday morning.
"This is a very beautiful wedding cake," she said, "By the way Miss Adams left a message at the mailbox and ordered the same wedding cake that you baked last weekend for the Hudson/ McKinley wedding... She probably was a guest at the wedding and she loved your pie", Lucy said this while she turned to Sue, who just cleaned up the kitchen of her small Café. Sue was deaf, but she could read lips and that's why it was important she could see her interlocutor. This wedding was a big topic of conversation because in addition to offering cakes and pies, catering was a special service of Sue's Little Café and Bakery.
"That's great," her friend Lindsay agreed, "Unfortunately, the wedding was canceled then."
"Why?", Lucy asked, took a chair and sat down next to Lindsay. Lucy and Lindsay worked for years in Sue's Café.
"The bride had an affair with a co-worker of the groom and when she told him about this in the morning, he canceled the wedding. But, however, the catering was paid."
"And how do you know?"
"It was just a small wedding, but guess who brought the catering", Lindsay called and then she added Connor luckily stepped into the breach for the sick Lucy that day and both were witnesses of the drama. Sue already knew the story: Lindsay and Connor reported about this when they had returned Sue´s small van in the evening.
Lucy wiped her nose. She was still a bit cold and that´s why Lindsay had to do the catering at the wedding last weekend by herself, if there wasn´t her lovable fiancé Connor, who had helped her.
The Café opened every Monday at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and Lindsay and Lucy decided to help Sue carrying the cakes she had already baked in the early morning hours to the show case. Each day started for Sue two hours earlier. Today there were cherry pie, raspberry tarts, coconut tarts and many other small cakes that were waiting to enjoy the temper of the people with their excellent flavors.
"Good morning", Connor said when he reached the counter and saw his fiancé.
"The same procedure as every day?", Lindsay asked.
"The same procedure as every day, Miss Lindsay…. And one good morning kiss, please."
She giggled and while she leaned across the counter she gave him his usual order and a kiss. "Have a nice day", Lindsay said and he waved when he left the Café.
Lindsay and Lucy then served their usual clientele and today Sue helped them a little. There wasn´t much to do in the kitchen.
Suddenly, a dark-haired man walked into the Café. "That's him," Lindsay whispered, pushing Sue, who didn´t understand what had happened. "Who is that?"
"This is Jack Hudson. This is the man whose girlfriend ordered wedding cakes from you. Connor and I told you his girlfriend had cheated on him with his co-worker."
At that moment, Jack reached the counter. Lindsay went to the cappuccino machine to pick up two cups.
"Hi, I'd like a White Coffee and one Morning Glory Muffin," he said to Sue then another guest got his attention, "Are dogs allowed in this Café?", Jack asked and she turned around. Sue saw Levi, a Golden Retriever with a gray muzzle, dozing under the pay desk, looking at her bored. "Oh, don´t worry. He isn´t allowed entering the kitchen," said Sue in a hectic. Finally, she didn´t want a guest would find a dog hair in a cake one day and that´s why her Café was closed.
"No, it wasn´t meant that way. I own a dog, too."
"This is Levi."
Jack then told her Levi was a very kind dog, he paid for the white coffee and the muffin.
"I´m sorry about your wedding by the way," Sue said and now his face told her she had probably raised an uncomfortable topic. He seemed to wonder how she knew about it.
"My Café provided the catering. One of my employees was there."
"You are Sue Thomas, the boss?", He asked and she nodded. The way he tensed his face didn´t please her. "If you are the boss, you tell your employees, they shouldn´t stick their nose into everything," with these words he left the Café without even turning around only once.

Sue's and Lucy's apartment was located on the floor above the café and how each night they were sitting there with their friends to talk about or discuss a variety of things, while they ate cake which hadn´t been sold today. Sue's cakes were very popular in town and her friends weren´t surprised when a reporter who had recently got married and was very excited about the wedding cakes, wanted to write an article about it. Connor saw the article in the newspaper today and Sue, Lucy, Lindsay and Peter sat on the couch to listen to him.
"It's in the newspaper," Connor said and began reading a few lines: "Without doubt the cakes and pies, available in a bakery and Café in downtown, are the best in the entire city. The beautifully designed wedding cakes are the hallmark of the bakery and many happy couples say the cakes have a magical flavor. Many couples have fallen in love during eating a piece of cakes together. Sue Thomas, the young, talented owner won´t like to tell us what the secret of love is."
"Sue, tells us what´s the secret ingredient", Peter asked. He was sure there was one.
"There is no secret ingredient! "
"I would say this, too... This is a very nice article," Lucy gushed.
"Yes, but unfortunately, the secret of love doesn´t seem to work with me," Sue sighed.
"Don´t worry," Peter ate a piece of cherry pie, "It hadn´t worked with this Hudson guy and his girlfriend, too."
"He was at the Café today!", Lucy interrupted him. Because Sue was sitting right between Peter and Lucy, she got all the details of the conversation. Lucy talked about how good-looking Jack Hudson was and Peter joked if she probably wanted to go out with him and the dark-skinned woman said he was talking to Sue the whole time.
"I need to tell you something very important," Sue got up from the couch and kneaded her hands excitedly. She was very uncomfortable when everyone was looking at her. She felt transported back in time in which she went to school and all the children were staring at her and laughed. Here, she wasn´t in school but with her only friends. She met Lindsay and Connor in College. Both were a couple even back then. Peter was Connors best friend. After Sue's grandmother had died and Sue started to own the Cafe, Lindsay had decided to help her friend with the business. Sue met Lucy when she came to the city and desperately needed a job and an apartment.
"I am traveling to New York in one week. There´s a very good doctor who can help me regain my hearing with a surgery." Sue saw the astonished faces of their friends.
"Do you really think so?", Lucy asked. Sue once told her that the doctors didn´t even know at all why she lost her hearing as a child.
"He's one of the best doctors in the country," Sue said, "He already helped twenty deaf people by engrafting little implants in the ear and...", she smiled at her friends, "It can´t be worse now." Sue's world was completely silence. If the surgery didn´t help, it wouldn´t change much and then she wasn´t disappointed too much.
"You know... Sometimes I wonder how it sounds, when suddenly the rain begins on a warm summer evening. I often try to imagine the sound of a laughing child on the playground, but...", she shook her head. Sue was afraid of never finding someone who could love her and the more she was afraid to spend her live alone because she was deaf. Many of her classmates already had children and when they met by chance, when Sue was still living in Ohio, she realized how much she wanted a family. But Lindsay, Lucy, Peter and Connor didn´t know...
"It´s my dream," she said, "And I've saved every cent in recent years for this surgery... While I'm in New York, you haven´t to take care for the Café without me, you can have vacations." She was excited for what they would say now.
'If you really want, then of course we will help you", Connor said and Sue was finally relieved.

"Can you tell me what we´re doing here?", the Australian Bobby Manning asked his mate Jack. He didn´t understand why he hoped at this late hour, that Sue's Little Café & Bakery was still open. Jack looked disappointed into the Café and realized no one was here. He read the opening times on a sign and decided to write down Sue's mobile phone number immediately.
"Have you ever seen the owner of the Café before? Perhaps she´s old and ugly," Bobby suggested.
"Sue's a very pretty, young woman... Today there´s even a picture of her in the newspaper," Jack discovered a newspaper box outside the Café, bought an issue and showed him the newspaper article about her bakery. Bobby read the article then he nodded knowingly: "Maybe she forgot in chocolate bathed strawberries on the cake, what you like most but maybe it was not because of the strawberries and she forgot the secret of love in your wedding cake and that's why your ex- girlfriend cheated on you.."
"Very funny, really. Why would she do that? We have never met before and Sue had no reason to ruin my wedding", said Jack, "I really should apologize to her. Today, I´ve been very rude."
"You see no one is here," Bobby said as he tried to decide for one of the surrounding bars, then he had an idea, why Jack wanted to meet Sue again, "But perhaps you´re happy about your wedding was canceled."
"Why are you saying this?", Jack was shocked.
"If you had married your ex- girlfriend it would be too late for you because one day later you met Sue…. And you obviously got a crush on her", Bobby was still noticing how Jack was searching for a proof on life inside the Café, "You can also apologize to her tomorrow. Come on, let's go drink a beer..."

Jack was really planning to apologize to Sue, so he appeared again on the next morning in the Café and ordered raspberry cake. He asked for Sue when he received a cup of coffee from another tall blonde woman. "Sue isn´t there. Tuesday is her day off."
That wasn´t quite right: Sue came to the bakery on Tuesday to bake fresh cakes, but she left at 7:00 a.m. to get a day off.
Disappointed, Jack left the Café and broke the leash of his female Mastiff, which he had tied to a lamppost. He hoped when he brought his dog, he and Sue could talk a bit. Maybe he would bring his dog tomorrow again.
They were jogging in the park and, as always, the female dog panted excitedly. She was even more excited when she discovered another dog, a Golden Retriever.
Jack knew the owner. "Sue!", Jack called and Levi jumped on her. She turned around.
"Good day, Mr. Hudson," Sue said shyly. Their first meeting yesterday was still covered with a shadow.
"Please call me Jack," he stopped before her, holding the leash of his dog, "That's my dog Zsa Zsa." His plan had worked and Sue told him Zsa Zsa was a very pretty dog: She had white fur and her eyes were framed by huge black spots. Jack watched how Levi and the Mastiff sniffed curiously.
"Oh, don´t worry: Levi is castrated," Sue also took the leash of her dog. Apparently she and Levi were also en route to sport.
"I´m very glad to meet you here," he said suddenly, "I was already at your Café because I wanted to apologize about yesterday, but you weren´t there. I was very unfriendly yesterday. I´m sorry."
"No, that's okay... Actually I should apologize."
He frantically shook his head. Jack didn´t like to remember about yesterday because finally she wasn´t responsible his ex-girlfriend had cheated on him.
"You shouldn´t have to apologize for my wedding. Maybe you should congratulate me, because otherwise I would have married the wrong person and regret it all my life", he decided to talk about something else now, "Shall we go for a walk together?"
Sue agreed and they walked together through the park. Their dogs seemed to like each other very well. Jack told her about his job and then he asked her: "Why owns someone like you a bakery?"
"The Café was previously my grandmother´s and I have taken it after she died. It´s hard work but I love it." She felt like she could tell him everything about her Café and they spent the morning together. Then Jack invited her to eat a cake with him. "Sorry, you surely must be tired of cakes," he said, remembering her job. Sue shook her head. "Don´t worry. I love cakes very much."
"Do you mind if we buy the cake at your competition?"
"No, absolutely not," she replied and Jack realized he liked her smile very much. He found it very attractive, how the smile spread on her whole face. He liked her merry way very much. When they tried to enter The Columbian Coffee Shop, both grabbed for the doorknob at the same time and Jack felt the almost electric tingle as his skin touched hers. He wondered how it was possible to have this feeling, after his fiancé left him last weekend at the aisle and his heart was broken. Sue was special because he hadn´t believed he would never have that feeling again and certainly not after such a short time. But she made him fall in love with her head over heels.

"Sue, a certain Jack Hudson left a massage on the mailbox, if you and Levi want to join him and Zsa Zsa on a walk again tomorrow… Who is Zsa Zsa?", Lindsay hung off her apron, when Connor entered the Café to pick her up after work. Sue came to her Café to see if everything was okay.
"That's his dog. Today, we met by chance at the park."
"You met him again?", Lindsay asked and Connor gave her a wry glance. He had reserved a table at a restaurant and didn´t want to be late.
"He is very friendly..."
"Just friendly, or...?"
"He's really just kind," Sue agreed, "He's just a friend. If he knew I am deaf, then..."
"Wait a second", to get her attention, Connor reached across the counter and grabbed for her arm, "He has no idea you're deaf?" He wasn´t sure if this was a good idea.
"Don´t worry. I will tell him on occasion", Sue promised.

Next day Sue and Levi were actually walking with Jack and Zsa Zsa again. He had told her yesterday he now had plenty of time, because actually he should relax in this and the following week with his wife on a beautiful sandy beach. The thought of his canceled wedding and ruined honeymoon and were very bitter. On the other hand, so Jack thought to himself, he wouldn´t otherwise be able to spend his time with Sue. In some ways he was even glad he hadn´t married his ex-girlfriend.
Sue tried to convince herself their meeting in the park wasn´t a date: Indeed, he left a massage at the mailbox, if they wanted to take their dogs for a walk again, but Sue didn´t answer: They met again the following morning accidentally in the Park and at the same evening they met by chance in a fine restaurant: Jack was waiting for a co- worker, who canceled the diner at this moment and Sue was waiting for Lucy, who told her on the phone she now also had another date (Sue had no idea Lucy and Bobby met by chance outside and after they were talking for a while about their friends Lucy pointed to Sue and told her it was funny she and Jack were waiting for their friends on two different tables. Then Bobby asked to cancel their diner so Sue and Jack would spend the evening together.) It worked: Jack asked if he was allowed to sit down on her table and she decided to accept his offer, so they both didn´t had to eat alone. They talked about various things. Sue soon knew that Jack was born in Wisconsin, he had once been working as a lawyer, he played hockey in school and he knew his best friend Bobby since childhood and both opened a ghost train in the age of 12 in the basement of Bobbys grandfathers house (the old Grandfather Manning put an end to the sincere establishment of his grandchild when he heard horrified screams in his basement in the middle of the night) and Jack told her how he found his dog Zsa Zsa when she was a puppy at an abandoned rest stop in winter. Then he told her his doctor advised after him a heart attack past year to find a woman, raise some kids and enjoy life (Afterwards he thought it was really stupid to tell her about this because she surely didn´t want to hear how he almost started a family with the wrong woman). Sue told him about her childhood in Ohio, about her brothers and how her grandmother had taught her how to bake all the excellent cakes and how she had taken the Café after her death. She couldn´t bear to tell him she was deaf.
After dinner Jack took her home. Along the way they talked about the upcoming wedding of his sister. Jack explained how macabre it was, his sister Lara wanted to get married just one week after his own marriage had never taken place.
"I hate being put at the single-table," he said sulkily, "Now that I'm not married my sister wants I´m sharing a table with the other singles... Hey, I got an idea: Would you accompany me to the wedding? It takes place on September 18th ." He didn´t know why he had invited her. He met her three times in the past two days and he already knew he was crazy about her.
"Sorry, unfortunately I have to work on Sunday", she was sorry to reject his invitation. They arrived at the Café. The door to the staircase, which led to her apartment, was located next to the glass door to Sue's Little Café and Bakery.
"This is where I live."
"You´re living above your Café?", Jack was amazed when she nodded, "That was a very nice evening, Sue Thomas."
"I think so, too, Jack Hudson."
"I'm looking forward to our next date," he grinned and walked away. Sue also went back to her apartment. She didn´t know that Lucy had been at the window for a while and watched them.

Next day, Sue had no time for buying items for her bakery before it was late in the evening and it was already dark when she left the small grocery store. In Levi's accompaniment she stowed her purchases in the trunk and got behind the steering wheel of her old Ford. When she tried to start the engine, she felt that the accelerator pedal under her feet didn´t begin to tremble, as usual, and the steering wheel wasn´t vibrating in her hands. Sue tried to start the car, but again it didn´t work. "Oh no," she told Levi, "We should have drive the van." She had just bought fresh cream for her cakes. If she and Levi would have walk home, the cream would be ruined until then.
She got out, grabbed Levi´s leash and got her shopping bags out of the trunk. If she hurried, she might reach the bakery in time. Then Levi got her attention when they already walked a few meters on the sidewalk and a red car appeared next to them. "Hey Sue!", Jack yelled to her, "Are you taking a walk?"
"No," she shook her head and tried to carry her many bags, "My car won´t start."
"Then I'll take you home," Jack suggested, "I can´t allow you walking home alone in the darkness."
"Thanks, that's very kind," Sue showed him all the bags she had with her, "But I've bought quite a lot."
"Never mind," he turned off the engine, got out and then helped her to stow her bags in the small trunk of his cabriolet. He almost had to squeeze the trunk door.
"I hope you don´t mind I stuff your things in my trunk," he said when they sat Levi on the small back seat.
"No," said Sue, "This is a very nice car."
Jack looked at her. His ex-girlfriend had never said this. He wished she would have done that. But she even asked him to sell the car. "You mean, you like cars without roof?"
"It's the most beautiful," Sue said and they drove off. Ten minutes later they reached the Café and Jack helped her to carry her purchases inside the house and they cleaned up the kitchen. He noted he had never been in her kitchen and he noticed amused that Levi was still sitting on the doorstep. Jack looked at the large oven and all the other kitchen utensils. "I've never been in your kitchen," he said but Sue didn´t answer, "Sue?", He touched her shoulder.
"Excuse me... What did you say?"
"I said, I've never been in your kitchen... I have imagined differently", he saw an old book full of cake recipes on a table, "What about this cake?"
"This is an ordinary cream pie," she glanced over his shoulder and read the recipe.
"Sounds very good," he was thinking about how he could still scrape a little time, "That reminds me, I desperately need a cake for tomorrow. Will you help me to bake one?"
"Now?", She had never met a man who wanted to bake a cake.
"Why not?"
"Okay," she gave in, "But you don´t get the cake for free." She guessed he was probably just too cheap to order a cake like all the other guests, so she was very surprised when he also gave in. "What´s the perfect cake for you?", he asked and she smiled: "It´s decorated with in chocolate bathed strawberries."
He looked at her surprised because he found another similarity. They mixed eggs, flour, vegetable oil and yoghurt in a dough when Jack suddenly asked: "What is your secret ingredient?"
"There is no secret ingredient," Sue replied, "Why do you think there is one?"
"The reporter in the newspaper told about the secret of love and I wanted to know what it is and why it hadn´t worked with me," he joked, picked up the mixer and wanted to prepare the cream. While the small metal broom turned, cream shot from the bowl. "You have been hit by cream," Jack said when a small drop of cream landed directly on Sue's lower lip.
"Never mind," she complained. Didn´t he see she was busy with the dough? Even before she could think about it, she felt like Jack gently put his lips on hers and kissed her. All of a sudden she found herself in his arms. Jack broke the kiss and looked so deeply into her eyes that a warm shiver ran through her body. No one was looking so deeply into her eyes before.
"So that's the secret ingredient", he murmured and leaned to her for another heart stopping kiss.
Sue felt his warm touch on her waist and a nervous tingling spread through her belly. It was so nice and felt so good, but before she admitted that he deepened the kiss, she tore herself away from him. "I can´t", she apologized, "I must... I forgot that I have to bake another cake!... You have to go now", she hurried to the door and asked him to go.
"And our cake? We´re not done."
"I´ll ask Connor to deliver the cake tomorrow." She was very relieved when he left the kitchen and she had closed the door behind him. Confused and excited at the same time she touched her mouth then she shook her head in tears. Sue threw the cake dough into the trash, took Levi and then they made their way upstairs to her apartment.

"You still haven´t told him?", Lindsay asked horrified when she and Sue were waiting on the next morning, Friday, for their first guests, "Sue, at some point you have to tell him!... What will you do if he finds out?"
Lindsay was worried: Sue had told her a few minutes ago that Jack had kissed her yesterday evening and she still had no opportunity to tell him she was deaf.
Sue had no answer to the question of her friend, but when Jack found out that Sue wasn´t hearing, he would disappear out of her life on the spot. Exactly like the children in school which Sue met on her first day, the kids in high school, the guys in college and all the other people. Sometimes, when Sue met one of her former classmates from college, they acted as if they wouldn´t know her and it was almost the worst feeling for her. She hated the thought Jack would probably react the same way.
"Maybe it isn´t necessary to tell him," Sue hoped, "Soon, I´ll travel to New York. If the surgery helps he will never know." She imagined how it was if she could hear again after the surgery. First, she would visit her parents, Sue would bring Levi, too, and when her mother then turned around and said something, she would tell her that she had heard it. Her mother would be very happy. Sue knew that she shouldn´t aspire to this but the more she thought about it the more she wanted to hear.
"But...", Lindsay wanted to talk to her, but she saw how Sue put on her jacket, then reached for Levi's leash. "Where are you going?", Lindsay asked, "You can´t leave me alone!"
"Lucy is coming in a few minutes... I'm taking the day off", Sue left. She decided to leave her Café until next weekend as early as possible, so she didn´t meet Jack.

On the weekend before Sue traveled to New York where her surgery took place, there was a wedding and Sue's Little Café and Bakery provided the catering. Lucy and Lindsey told her on Saturday that Jack had come to the Café to see her and how disappointed he was when he realized she wasn´t there. She didn´t answer his calls. Sue was in love with Jack. She felt things that she had never felt before for another man and she wanted to avoid the disappointment of having to tell him she was deaf.
Lucy and Lindsay talked about her upcoming job, when they carried all the cakes and the rest of the catering in the small van on this perfect sunny Sunday morning.
Lindsay was carrying a lemon cream pie to the car when she said: "The wedding will take place in a villa on the outskirts, we don´t have to go very far. The house belongs to the groom."
"I would also like to marry into a wealthy family one day," Lucy gushed.
"So your future husband just can offer lots of money? Where is his sense of humor?"
"Connor, of course, has a lot of humor," Lucy said and for one moment she turned to the radio, which was already turned on inside the car, "This is a beautiful song for a wedding, don´t you think?"
Lindsay understood immediately and she listened for a few beats. "If someone would play this horribly cheesy song at my wedding, I would punch him or her with a bouquet of flowers."
They both laughed.
Sue, who wore a summery dress, came out of the house and sat behind the steering wheel of her car. The three women drove to the villa where the wedding took place and Lucy was amazed: The building looked much nicer than she had imagined.
The three finished in time to bring the catering and all the cakes and pies to the table, because when Lindsay smoothed her apron, the first wedding guests entered the ballroom. Sue was horrified when she saw Jack with them and he immediately came to her when he saw her. Jack greeted her with a "Hi." Apparently he was relieved to see her.
"Hi... you... uh ... you didn´t tell me that Lara Grady is your sister..."
"Half-sister," Jack corrected, "My mother married her father when I was two years old... It's very nice you're here, too. You dance with me later?"
"No," Sue shook her head and at that moment a woman in a long wedding dress appeared next to Jack. "Jack, Dad is looking for you," she said and when she noticed how Sue relieved exhaled, she wanted to know if he was annoying her. Sue shook her head again.
"Lara, this is Sue. She is the fabulous baker from whom I have told you", Jack said and Lara's eyes lit up. "Jack persuaded me to order your cake for my wedding," Lara said with a beaming smile and Sue now knew her presence was no coincidence. It was also very strange that someone ordered cakes on Wednesday for a wedding on Sunday.
Lara told Sue how thrilled she was by her cakes and that they had something almost magical. Sue was relieved when she served the rest of the guests with food then the bride and groom opened the dance.
"That's nice, don´t you think?", Lindsay wanted to know from her friend, when she sat down next to Sue at the table and pushed her slightly, "I can´t wait to get married."
"You're getting married in two month!", Sue recalled and she watched how Jack came to her now. Lindsay let her alone and at that time Sue felt this tingling nervousness.
"May I have this dance?", asked Jack, smiling. Sue shook her head almost in panic.
"I can´t go dancing in my work clothes," she tried to avoid him. Jack looked at her peach-colored dress, which she wore under her catering apron. "I think you look perfect. Please dance with me", Jack almost begged her.
"Sue, can you please come?", Lucy yelled and Levi touched her leg with his paw.
"Maybe we´re dancing later," she lied and went to Lucy. Sue was very relieved Lucy now needed her help. Throughout the evening, Sue watched how Jack kept trying to get her attention, but when he looked at her, she broke the eye contact. The party was in full swing and finally Levi touched Sue's arm with his paw. "What´s wrong, boy?", she asked and Levi ran to the glass door.
"Looks like he has to pee", Lindsay suspected and Sue nodded. She freed herself from her apron, went out with Levi and watched how he ran searchingly through the garden of the huge mansion. Suddenly, someone grabbed her wrist and Sue cried out in alarm. When she saw Jack, her pulse began to race again. "You got me scared," she was still breathing heavily and he apologized.
"I need to talk to you," Jack's face looked very serious, "I want to know why you're avoiding me since our last date. Did I say something or…?"
"No," Sue shook her head frantically.
Inside the building, Lucy and Lindsay stood side by side in the catering sector. Both had their arms crossed over the stomach and watched the two. "I would do everything if I could read lips like Sue", Lucy sighed and Lindsay nodded, "I´d like to understand what they´re talking about."
Jack tried to hide his impatience, but there had to be a reason why she ignored him. In the last days she stole into his heart and he hated the imagination of being without her. "Are you already married?"
"No, I... Jack, it's much worse than that. The truth is... I... I...", she took a breath, but suddenly Jack pulled her close and kissed her deeply. Jack noticed how soft her lips and her skin under his hands were and he was amazed she couldn´t resist him. She returned his kiss demanding and wrapped her arms longingly around his neck.
Lucy smiled very happy and she and Lindsay decided they should take care for their work and so they didn´t notice how Jack grabbed for her hand and entered the villa through a side entrance. They went upstairs and when he closed the door to his room which he occupied only during his sister´s wedding, Jack pulled her close. His lips found hers and then he kissed her neck and her shoulders. Sue put her hands in his dark hair. It was going to be her first time and it was so wonderful with him even now. She actually wanted to wait until she found the one, the man she was married to and it wasn´t her style to rush into this but Jack caused feelings in her she never wanted to miss and in some way she knew it was right to give herself to him.
He heard her gasping for air when he carried her to bed and helped her out of her dress. He kissed every inch of her warm skin, he felt her, loved her and it was perfect.
After that they stayed in bed and because he had glanced at the watch he knew it was early morning. Breathing heavily but smiling, Jack pulled her close to him in his arms and he gently pushed a wisp of her blond hair out of her face, kissed her one last time before he fell asleep and dreamed about her.

Next morning Jack woke up alone. He remembered how he had entered his room with Sue and how the spent the night. Therefore, he was very surprised, why she disappeared without a trace. He would love to wake up with her and still hold her in his arms like he did yesterday night when they both finished exhaustedly.
Jack got dressed and went downstairs into the banquet hall of the villa. On the way there he met his mother, who told him she had seen how he kissed a very beautiful woman last night and she wanted to know if she could meet her.
The table on which the catering was prepared last night was gone. The bill of the catering service was on a small table. He tried to call Sue but she didn´t answer her cell phone.
Jack decided he would met her at her Café, but even there she couldn´t be found. Today, Lindsay and Lucy took care of their customers alone. Lucy had packed just a piece of cake for a man.
"Where is Sue?", Jack asked when he stood at the counter.
"She's not here," the dark-skinned woman literally tried to hide behind her tray.
"I´ve noticed... Where is she?"
"I don´t know," Lucy lied, "But maybe she ran away because of you," she surmised, "I had no chance to keep an eye on you and Sue at the wedding yesterday."
Sue didn´t return home last night with her and Lindsay and Lucy suspected her friend had taken a taxi later.
"We were... I don´t think that´s your business."
"You could at least tell me what you did."
"What people in love do", he´d like to keep everything else in private.
"Oh, I knew you love her!", Lucy yelled loudly and everyone in the Café could hear it.
"Yes, I would also like to tell her, but I can´t find her."
"Hello everyone!", Peter said when he entered the Café. He stood next to Jack at the counter and waited for his usual order. As always, Lucy had prepared a muffin and a cappuccino to go. Peter paid. "Tell Sue Get well, Lucy!", he called to her then, "I hope the surgery helps her!"
"What surgery?",Jack asked, "What is he talking about?"

"We persuaded Sue to tell you. Please believe us", Lindsay apologized to Jack, "We´re sorry you learn about it in these way." They met in Lucy's and Sue's apartment and like each evening also Connor and Peter had gathered when Lindsay's and Lucy's last working day before a vacation came to an end. After they had told Jack why Sue went to New York City, he had asked many questions. He wanted to know how Sue was dealing with the everyday life and he wanted to know why she didn´t tell him. No one had an answer for his last question. Lindsay certainly knew a good reason to hide Sue's deafness. "We guess, she loves you", she told, "She never had a boyfriend before. Since we all know her there was never a man who came so close to her and now she´s afraid of losing you if you learn she´s deaf."
Jack wondered why he hadn´t even noticed. He remembered she hadn´t heard many things last night: She hadn´t heard, when he told her how captivating beautiful she was and how sexy the little birth mark near her navel was and she hadn´t even heard when he whispered a gentle "I love you" in her ear. At first he had thought she wouldn´t respond because she didn´t return his feelings, but now he realized she knew nothing of all these words.
"Can anything go wrong in this surgery?", he asked, as Peter explained to him there was an element of risk in every surgery. Jack had to leave for a moment and went down the small hallway in the apartment. He wanted to go to the bathroom, but the door to Sue's room was open. He peered inside curiously.
The room looked very normal: A few pictures of friends, family and even Levi were hanging on the walls and Sue seemed to like the color Red a lot. Jack came in and looked at the photos closely. A framed picture, standing on a dresser, showed her grandmother. Right next to the picture frame was a handwritten note. Apparently she had thought about what she would do if she could hear again:

Learn how to dance
Travel to Brazil by myself
Ask Jack on a date

When he read that, he wondered why this was on their list. She could always ask him on a date: It wasn´t important for him if she was hearing. She was the kind-hearted, dearest and most wonderful person on earth... The fact she was deaf changed nothing. Moreover, they already had spent so much time together he actually thought they had been on many dates. Then he remembered they met in the park just by chance, the dinner at the restaurant was a coincidence and that evening, where he had kissed her for the first time he had noticed by chance her car was broken. And their date at Lara's wedding wasn´t intentional. At least, not really...
Jack put the paper back on the dresser, left the room and went back to Lucy, Lindsay, Peter and Connor in the living room. "I´ll fly to New York," he decided.
"That's impossible," Connor said, "After the surgery she needs some kind of therapy..."
"I need to see her. I want to be with her when she wakes up after the surgery." In addition, Jack didn´t want the first thing Sue heard in her life was a ringing phone or the voice of an annoyed nurse.
Jack grabbed his jacket: "The Bible already says: Those who are late will be punished by life itself." "That is not written in the Bible. It was said by Mikhail Gorbachev!", Peter corrected. Jack didn´t care who he quoted, but he didn´t want to be late.

Was it something I did
something I never said
that made you slip away?

And I´m supposed to leave now
my heart is on the line.
And do we say that we try
when that it is goodbye?
And I'm supposed to move on
like it didn't mean a thing?
It was just too perfect
to ever have to end.
Will I ever love again? ("Too perfect" by Nik & Elif)

"Sue, wait!", Jack yelled after her when she ran out of the hospital one week later. He wasn´t allowed to see her in the past week and even not allowed to call. He had spent seven days in New York to wait for her. When she met him at the entrance of the hospital, his pulse quickened and he was very puzzled why she past him. His first thought was that he was no longer good enough for her when she was now able to hear.
As usual, Levi jumped to Sue and she stopped. Sue turned around to him.
"I'm sorry it didn´t work," he apologized and came to her. After Sue had run past him, he talked with her doctor who told him unfortunately the surgery had no effect. Sue regret she decided for this surgery. The fact it didn´t work almost broke her heart because she knew now Jack would never wanted to see her again…
When he noticed the tears in her eyes, he pulled her into his arms comfortingly. She sobbed bitterly. The disappointment was too great: She came to New York City to see the best doctor in country and Sue wondered why he just couldn´t help her. "This is so unfair," she cried. Jack wished he was able to protect her from the biggest disappointment in her life.
She let him go a little bit. "It's just I... I wanted to... I already had plans for what I would do after the surgery, if I can hear."
He nodded. Jack had read the list, but she didn´t know. "I'm sure for all these things, it doesn´t matter if you can hear."
"But I´ll never know how your voice sounds", she cried. Now he placed a finger under her chin so she had to watch him: "Like this", his hand slipped down and then gently stopped in her neck, so he could kiss her lovingly and sweet and then he let her go, "Sue, I love you, even with this small difference and I would date you even now." Then he kissed her again.
Sue's heart stopped for a second, but then she relaxed and kissed him back. She wrapped her arms around his body and Jack noticed her gasping for air. It was she who deepened their kiss on this public sidewalk in the middle of New York City. Finally she broke away from him. "Let's go home," he suggested and she nodded approvingly, "We both shall sign up for dance lessons."

One year later
Sue enjoyed the warm air that blew over the blue South Atlantic Ocean and she breathed in deeply as if she wanted to remember for always. The wind danced in her blonde hair, where an orchid was attached, and gently moved the white, long summer dress she wore. Her feet felt the coarse sand on which she stood. Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand and she turned around. "We want to take a picture," Jack told her, pointing to their friends, who had already gathered at a different location to the beach. Connor wrapped his arms around his wife and Lucy asked Peter and Bobby if they dive. Levi rolled in the sand and Zsa Zsa barked. Actually, it was Sue's dream to travel to Brazil by herself, but then her friends came along.
"I'd rather enjoy the beautiful sea," she smiled at him.
"We´re married since five minutes and you already disagree," Jack looked impatient, but then he laughed and pulled her for a loving kiss into his arms, "Come on. The priest has to leave, he´s having another appointment…. Probably another happy couple who wants to get married romantically on the beach and I want the day to come to an end." (Sue knew why because this morning she saw the nice honeymoon suite with white flowers on the bed.)
They took their photo, the newlywed couple Jack and Sue in the middle. Jack told her how pretty she looked. Then they went to the little table where dinner was prepared. As it was usual for a wedding, there was a huge cake with bride and groom on the top floor and in chocolate bathed strawberries were also there.
And the secret of love was everywhere.

Tell me is it only me
Do you feel the same?
You know me well enough to know that I'm not playing games
I promise I will not turn around and I will not let you down
You can trust and never feel it now
Baby there's nothing, there's nothing we can´t get through
So can we say
I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo
Oh baby, I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo, I do ("I do" by Colbie Caillat)

Fin