Title: The Kiss

Author: Pegasus

Fandom: Magnificent Seven

Rating: G

Summery: This is a Magnificent Seven story, set in Modern Times

Disclaimer:The Magnificent Seven is owned by Trilogy, Mirish and MGM. Magnum PI characters are owned by Glen A Larson Productions.

Seattle Mid 1999

Walking out to the garage, Brandi passed a calendar and seeing the day of the week, she smiled. She thought to herself 'If he follows the pattern he set for himself, he'll be here in a couple of hours.' Chris was there every weekend for the weekend, if not for a longer amount of time if he could swing the time off, and had been since he showed up last year unexpectedly with the flowers and an apology at Joe's. If she hadn't already been hopelessly in love with him, that alone would have done it. She knew he was still trying to apologize, but she didn't know why. Hell, he was easier to forgive than her first husband. Her face darkened with that thought and she immediately told herself that Methos wasn't worth thinking about right then, if anytime. She was surprised with herself in that she hadn't done anything with Chris except actually sleep with him in the last year. But then again, since she got home from Paris, and she could include some of that time while in Paris, she hadn't had any kind of a physical relationship with a man. Okay, so there was only one man she really wanted and she hadn't been with him only because this new beginning that they started was still fragile.

Coming out of her musings, she shook her head and cussed at herself for agreeing to design and build a new motorcycle and for agreeing to fix what the so called team of experts couldn't fix on the original one. Both bikes sat in the garage of her step-dad's home waiting to get finished. With a resigned sigh, she started to make her way to the original bike when a blinking light caught her eye. Turning to see where it was from, she noticed it was her light for the telephone. She checked the caller ID first, and when she saw the name, knowing she would 'hear' him, she answered with "Hi daddy."

"Hello Brandi. How are you doing?"

Smiling at the always formal Robin Masters, she said "I'm doing great. Just about to work on a couple of motorcycles that I promised to get finished this weekend. But this is a nice break. Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine," he told her. "I wanted to see if you were available for lunch today?"

She found it strange that he would call and ask that, so she said "That depends. Why are you asking?"

"I thought I would take you to lunch."

"Well, for that, yeah I am, but, where are you."

"We are coming up Hwy 99 to the house from Seattle."

'What the hell?' she thought to herself. "So you're almost here?" she asked, walking out of the garage. Seeing the car pull in, she hung up the phone and muttered to herself "No, you are here."

Getting out of the limo, Robin came over to hug the youngest of his three children. "Are you where you can leave now?" he asked.

"Sure, as long as I can go looking like I do in these clothes," she said. She was wearing a well worn pair of jeans with holes in them at spots, and a equally well worn t-shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks – okay, so that was only because of the stains it had on it that wouldn't come out. She was glad she put on a bra when she got dressed earlier, which was surprising since she hadn't planned on going out anywhere, just staying at home working.

Looking at them, he said "They're fine, and if where ever we go disapproves, we'll leave and eat somewhere else."

Laughing, she got into the limo. Once they were both in and the limo was moving, she looked at him and said "Right. I can see it in tomorrows paper 'Robin Masters refused to eat at' oh lets say 'the country club because the waif he had with him was unable to enter the establishment due too her less than stellar outfit. Who is this girl he was helping? Why is he helping her, what kind of a hold does she have over him? She looks like she has been sleeping on the street and not eating enough. Do his children know he is doing this?' Yeah, that's what it will say, with my picture all over the front page and then some yahoo will suddenly look closer at the pic and say 'That isn't a waif, that's his daughter, Brandi' and I won't be able to walk out the front door because they'll find out where I live and camp on the door step." When she saw the look on his face she said "All right, so maybe Alex won't let them camp out, but you know the rest of that would happen. Because then they would follow me around all the time and possibly see me doing something they shouldn't see, and brand me a witch. That was part of the reason we are still using Alex's last name. To help prevent any accidents from happening since you're in the public eye, it's enough that they know about the three of us, I don't want to give them any fuel or ammunition."

"You're right sweetheart. Anywhere in particular you would like to eat then?"

"No, anywhere causal is fine. Applebee's, Marie Calendars, anything like that."

Nodding, he pushed the intercom button to be able to talk to the driver, telling him what Brandi said about somewhere causal.

They had a nice lunch at Applebee's and amazingly enough he didn't get recognized. She still felt underdressed next to him, but she wasn't worried about it since it was rare she felt that way, she was comfortable and she was planning on getting very greasy.

They enjoyed their lunch, just visiting and catching up since they hadn't talked in a couple of months because of his book tours. It was a nice father/daughter lunch and made her realize she and her two brothers should make a point to find out if he was going to be in one spot for any length of time and go spend time with him.

After lunch he took her back up to the house and walked her to the door. After giving her a hug, he said "You and your brothers let me know if you need anything. Even if it just coming to visit, either at Robin's Keep or Robin's Nest, but you know you three never need an invitation to come see me."

Smiling at him, she rose up to give him a kiss on the cheek and said "I know daddy. And if we do need anything, we'll let you know. Thanks for lunch."

"You're very welcome. I'm glad you came back home Brandi and I'm glad you and Chris are working things out."

"Well, trying is more the word, but yeah, I think we are." Suddenly thinking of something, she asked "Are you in town long?"

"No. I wish I was though. I would have liked to have seen Michael and Jessica, and also see Alex."

"Yeah, there is them, but I was thinking that Chris would probably like to see you also. He's most likely going to be here with-in the next hour."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart but I have to get back to the airport. Since we were on this coast, I had them stop so I could at least see you, since I know you are home most days. I know you like to work only when you want to."

She laughed and said "That's true I do, and it's more just to keep my hands in it and I enjoy the work doing it on an as needed basis. I help the government, I help Seattle PD, and I help at the University of Washington when they need it. So, I keep busy enough, when I want to be."

"Good. Tell your brothers and Chris hello for me and give my love to your brothers."

"I will, and have a safe flight, dad."

Nodding, he gave her a kiss and went back to his limo as she went in the house. She was glad he called and that they had lunch.

She walked back into the garage, hitting the automatic button for the big door to open, and going to sit in front of the bike she had to fix first. Looking at it, she started wondering again why she agreed to fix it. She took a long glance over at the new one that was still in the building stages, wishing she could work on it and then go try out all the new toys she was going to install on it. She smiled to herself, thinking about how much she liked the designing and building of something, whether it was a motorcycle, a helicopter, or any other secret government project. She knew she didn't need her Ph.D. in Physics for anything she has helped design and build, but it has helped get her in places that she wouldn't have been able to get into without it. And it gets put to use with all that she has done.

As she started on the motorcycle, she let her mind drift over what she would like to be doing as a regular job, but wasn't sure if she would be able to because of her hearing loss, and having it in her Naval records that it was from an accident five years ago since no one would believe that she actually lost it in 1848. She never got back to thinking about the job she wanted to do, because her mind wandered to a green-eyed Cowboy that stole her heart, when he was fourteen, those long years ago. She agreed with her dad, she was happy they were working things out. She came to the realization recently that she wanted no one else but him in her life.

Not paying attention to what she was doing, she suddenly hit her thumb. "Ow," she muttered to herself. "Stupid. Thinking about that green-eyed Cowboy, right now" she continued quietly to herself sucking on the sore thumb.

He noticed she was concentrating on what she was doing and didn't notice the change his shadow threw across what she was doing. As he came closer, he heard her start muttering to herself and watched as she stuck her thumb in her mouth. Coming down next to her, he said "Let me." He took her hand, gently rubbing the sting away. He then leaned into her and took her lips, feeling her melt against him. He gave to her what he could feel her giving to him, all the pent up emotions from the last year if not longer. His last coherent thought before getting fully swept up in the kiss was that they never lacked passion or love.