Matt walked in the double doors from the helipad after flying in from LAX. He'd allowed one of the pilots to fly his Lear Jet while he caught up on some finance reports that Murray had emailed him.

Everything looked as good as he'd left it even if he didn't mess with his conglomerate which he'd left in capable hands ever since he'd decided to focus his energy on his investigative agency.

Besides, Murray hadn't found too panicked in his emails. Houston Enterprises hadn't dropped into the cellar when trading opened on Wall Street. Murray had C.J. and Chris and the others on staff to help keep the company in excellent stead.

After the plane had landed, he hopped onto his helicopter and headed back to the office. Just to check in, look at his messages and get updates from his uncle on some of the cases. His uncle had cleared the books on some of them and had picked up two others…which meant that he'd be jumping back into a heavy caseload. He felt more than ready for that after several months traveling the world

Chris sat at her desk though her feet rested on top of it. She smiled at her boss.

"Welcome home Houston…"

He smiled and she got up to go embrace him before he went to pour himself a scotch.

"Long flight…?"

He sipped it thoughtfully.

"Just from Arizona…the jet had to get a part fixed overnight so I was in Phoenix."

She smiled.

"Have a good time?"

He eyed the Jacuzzi longingly but he knew that he'd have to wait until all the employees left before he could strip buck naked and slip beneath its bubbling waters. After Madeline the new secretary had arrived one morning before he left and had been so shocked to see him there wearing only a cowboy hat, she nearly passed out.

Murray had chastised him telling him how much they needed someone of her skills and couldn't lose her. Matt had apologized once he'd gotten out and showered and changed into his business attire.

"I crashed at my hotel suite," he said, "I'm worn out from the traveling…"

Chris arched her brows.

"You had a great time didn't you?"

He sighed and went to go sit on a couch with his scotch.

"Yeah I did…saw some pretty incredible things…met up with some old friends…but I'm ready to be back."

"Houston…we're all so sorry about what happened with Elizabeth…"

She'd remembered that for a week after, he hadn't been to work and some had thought he'd be at the beach house drinking it up. But no, when C.J. went to check on him, he wasn't there. She checked in with some friends and when she reached Ramona, the actress she found out that he'd been out at her place helping her and her daughter had built a small barn on their estate so that she could house some Arabian saddle horses she'd bought while making a movie in New Mexico.

They'd all been relieved by that but then he'd shown up in his faded jeans, chambray shirt and that old five o'clock stubble and just announced that he'd be taking off for a while. He'd flown out on his helicopter to the airport the next day, took the Lear Jet and the flight plan had been a total secret. Everyone had theories about where he'd be heading and C.J. figured he'd start in Miami where the Novelli family still headed by Mama lived and had started a new restaurant.

Matt just sighed as that was all water under the bridge at Salt Creek.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out with her…I did love her but we're just two very different people."

Chris just listened; she had always thought Matt had questionable taste in women. He didn't really have a physical type, he dated blondes, brunettes and redheads and everything in between. In between cases, he wore socialites from various families domestic or otherwise on his arm and in his bed but during his cases, too often Matt fell hard for the women that he helped, even some of the morally ambiguous ones. Like how he had so easily fallen back into bed with that spoiled witch of a heiress Serena who her cousin Pam despised. She'd had to be so polite to Serena even when she broke crystal during one of her tantrums. Did Serena play into Pam's role to join the convent not long after? Her sister wouldn't say but based on what she heard…certainly possible.

But when Matt got engaged, they were usually to the women that most desperately needed to rescue him. Some brunette chick a while back…then her identical twin sister and then…Elizabeth. There'd been a few almost engagements in between usually women who were gold diggers and usually it was his business partner C.J. who had to buy him a clue.

Naturally the engagements didn't work out. The preppy brunette chick was violently killed by a madman stalking beautiful woman…and her twin sister followed suit…and Elizabeth nearly slaughtered by another madman…did anyone detect a pattern here?

Dr. Sonya, psychotherapist and psychic to the stars certainly did and had discussed Matt's relationship history at length in a three part series on her radio show a while back. Chris thought Matt might sue and C.J. had gone into overprotective mode and threaten to kick box the woman out of the window of her 14th floor office but the woman still lived…after she offered to donate the advertisement earnings on those record setting broadcasts to a new research wing at the pediatric hospital. C.J. had brokered that deal for Matt.

Speaking of….

"Where's C.J.?"

Chris went to go pour herself some scotch to join Matt in the lounge area.

"She's with her kickboxing instructor…"

"Oh Spike…he's taught her very well."

Chris knew that Matt had worn some bruises after sparring with C.J. She had turned into one finely honed and toned lethal machine especially with her roundhouse kicks. Matt had started her out but Spike had taken over with his triple black belts in various martial arts.

"Yes…she's going out for her double black belt in a couple weeks…"

Matt smiled.

"We'll have to celebrate that…I'll tell Uncle Roy…"

Chris just sighed quietly. Matt and C.J. had turned to Matt and Uncle Roy almost seamlessly after Uncle Roy had sold his ranch in New Mexico and decided to live in L.A., a decision that was cemented after he reunited with his long lost son last year. Will had some intense psychological problems from his long captivity and UCLA's hospital had some of the top PTSD expert outside of Beverly Hills. Anything to get his troubled son the best of help and Will had made tremendous strides since he'd come back.

Uncle Roy of course had plenty of time left over to become heavily involved in Matt's caseload. His extensive experience in covert operations and spying gave him a critical edge and greatly enhanced Matt's investigative agency. But it came at a price…C.J began to slowly fade into the background and it had hurt her feelings. Chris knew that, because she'd taken C.J. out to Tequila Tuesdays at her favorite Mexican joint in Santa Monica and get enough tequila into her and she'd confessed that she felt excluded. Chris thought about telling Matt but C.J .warned her not to and she did have those lethal roundhouse kicks and uppercut punches.

So she'd harbored C.J.'s secret for months and held it even when she thought that this time, Matt's trip to the altar might stick. But as she looked at him now, she felt tempted to spill. After the way C.J. had been acting, wanting to run off and get pregnant to raise a child on her own…where the hell had that come from anyway?

Childhood probably…what she knew, was that C.J. had loved her parents as a child but lost them both within a year while quite young and then been farmed by the state out to some distant uncle. Yes, that had probably shaped her relationships with men, not to mention what had happened to some of the men she had dropped her defenses enough to love. Carl, dead by a homicidal stalker after C.J. Robert Tyler, rotting in prison on murder and fraud convictions and wait, what had happened to Jerry? She'd remember in a minute but the way Matt looked at her now…

He looked at her like Matt the highly trained and experienced investigator and not the former corporate CEO who had hired her straight out of the Midwest after she'd come to California on a bus to try to stop Pam from running off and joining the convent. Not that she'd succeeded but Pam, aka Sister Prudence was apparently very happy in a convent up in Napa Valley that bordered winery country.

But those piercing brown eyes of his that could melt a woman like butter, he knew something was up.

"Chris, is there something you're not telling me," he said, "Something about C.J.?"

She just looked at him.

C.J. stopped her car not for the first time since being stuck in a traffic jam on the damn Hollywood Freeway just out of the valley. Why had she taken this route, oh yeah because the surface streets were closed off for some parade later that night. She'd be out there watching it from a reserved booth with Lance, her date for the night. She'd met him at the Salsa Club where she went after work to burn off some calories and steam and to get away from the fact that she missed Matt more than she'd be willing to admit.

Okay, so their last conversation while he'd still been in L.A. could have gone better. He'd gotten upset because her friend Elise had been trying to have a baby with her husband Rick but so far nothing had worked so after giving it some thought and doing some research on the internet she'd stepped in and offered to be their surrogate. Just like she'd once offered to Julia…back years ago before her cancer had returned. She really thought she could help her friend achieve her dream of having a child…and she was young and healthy enough to carry a child to term. She'd get impregnated by Elise' fertilized egg and just incubate it, give birth and then hand over the baby to Elise and Rick…then life would return back to normal.

But first she'd run it past Chris who'd had concerns and Matt had overheard her plan. To say he didn't like it, huge understatement. He'd told her she'd be making a huge mistake, he couldn't believe she was even considering it and didn't she know the repercussions of a surrogacy situation. She retorted back, did he? He hadn't known how to respond to that and she'd lit into him butting into her life where it wasn't wanted, without knowing where that came from. Then he brought up the time before his wedding when she'd admitted she might be jealous about his eminent nuptials.

They'd gotten into one of their first major fights about it and she'd almost…just barely stopped herself from telling him how she felt about being shunted into the background by her uncle reemerging in his life. But she stopped herself…she loved Uncle Roy more than her own uncle and she was glad he'd moved to L.A. after Matt had lost his own father. But she missed the camadarie that she and Matt enjoyed working side by side on cases together.

But how to tell him that without making it look like she resented his uncle?

She heard honking behind her and moved forward a couple feet before pushing the brakes again. Damn Southern California traffic turning the freeways into parking lots. She'd thought about her idea she'd sprung on Chris about having a child…the more she thought about it, the more it appealed to her but how would she go about it?

It would take at least another hour to reach Houston Enterprises in Century City which of course gave her plenty of time to think about it and organize a plan of action.

This time she wouldn't take it to Matt and she certainly wouldn't ask his permission.