A Hard Day's Night

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So, here is the second chapter if anybody's interested.

Enjoy!


Later that night...

It was late but Ryan couldn't sleep. It seemed that his mind just wouldn't shut off. He was thinking about the last six years and all the lost opportunities. It wasn't that he hadn't honestly thought that they still had time to make things right… to start a family. It was more like that after the events of the nights and the decision they had made, he couldn't come up with a single reason that would sound convincing enough for keeping their relationship a secret all those years.

God knows, he wanted to end their sneaking around countless times. There were just so many men he could watch flirting with his girlfriend seriously thinking that they had a chance.

The Peter Elliott fiasco was easy to get over. That carnival clown of an FBI agent had never really worried him. And things blew into his face anyway. He was an idiot.

Jake Berkley was a completely other matter, though. That man made him nervous. And not because Calleigh paid him too much attention. She did, that was true, but their relationship had been secure enough by then for him not to even consider the fact that Calleigh might leave him. But who wouldn't feel just a tiny bit unconfident in the shadow of so much male ego and cocky confidence that the man had displayed. Ryan had told as much to Calleigh, who in turn just smiled at him and told him that he was talking nonsense. After a while he was inclined to believe that.

And then, with his head injury came Eric's newfound feelings for Calleigh. He had to give it to Calleigh that she'd been dealing with the Cuban's advances gracefully. She had even managed to make the other man understand that they would never be. The problem was that he suspected that the feelings of the man hadn't disappeared over the years. It worried him what would happen when he realized that all the while he'd tried to get Calleigh's attention, she'd been in a relationship with him. Ryan knew how dearly Calleigh valued her friendship with Delko, and he would hate to see it suffer because of him.

It worried him that hiding their relationship would turn out to have made more harm than good… and he feared that during all that time, Calleigh had been actually ready to come out with their relationship and he was the one keeping them back.

He sighed troubled. He guessed that was what happened when people instead of actually talking, assume.

"Go to sleep already." Calleigh's soft, sleepy voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Ryan raised an amused eyebrow as he looked down at her in the darkness. "I thought you're sleeping."

"I was," she told him snuggling closer to him. "Want to talk about it?" she repeated his words from earlier that night.

Ryan sighed. "I was just thinking about what will happen. It seems so simple now and I couldn't help wondering whether we've wasted too much time."

Calleigh pushed herself up, holding the cover in front of her naked body, and looked at him with a frown. Her long golden locks fell over her shoulders in messy curls while she sat leaning on an arm. "You've just told me that we don't have to worry about time."

"I didn't mean it that way." Ryan also pushed himself up to lean against the headboard and reached out to turn on the lamp. "That's not what I'm saying." He took his time to clear his head somewhat by pressing the bottom of his hands into his eyes then he turned to Calleigh, who was looking at him expectantly. He ran a hand along her arm soothingly. "We were so concerned about our jobs and Stetler then the FBI breathing down on our neck… not to mention all that other crap," he added ashamed, referring to his countless shady actions, during all which Calleigh was standing by him, always expressing her opinion, always calling him on his faults, but never giving upon him. It all seemed a lifetime ago. "Now, it's seems stupid." He shrugged. "That's all."

Calleigh considered it for a few moments. "Well, it may seem stupid now…" she shrugged, "but I guess at the time it wasn't so. I'm sure we'd have acted differently if it'd been the case."

"So you don't regret all these years?" Ryan looked at her shyly.

Calleigh leant closer to him and cupped his cheek with her hand that had been keeping the covers in place in front of her. "Not a single moment." She kissed him and smiled into the kiss when Ryan's arms circled her waist. He pulled her closer and shifted his position to lay her on the bed.

"Me neither," he smiled when they parted. Things had never gone smoothly, there were hard times for sure, but the fact that they were here, in the threshold of a new future, told him that everything was in its place. "Maybe it's the way things were meant to be," he mused and a smile appeared on his face when he realized that he truly believed that. There was nothing to regret - they got through the hard times and they became stronger for it.

"I'd like to think that." Calleigh smiled up at him with warm eyes and Ryan noted how happy she seemed. She had really scared him when he found her so lost and dejected earlier. Right then he was sure that whatever would happen when they reveal their relationship, he'd do anything just to see her as happy as she was at the moment.

"I love you," he told her and found his breath taken away by Calleigh's beaming smile.

"Love you, too."

"Just so you know," Ryan told her with all seriousness. "We'll do this whole thing the right way."

"Of course we will," Calleigh agreed and a mischievous smile appeared on Ryan's face.

"I'm glad you say that because…" The sentence died away on his lips as he shifted his weight over her so that he could reach for something on the nightstand. "I bought this for you." He turned back to her holding a small velvet box. He offered it for Calleigh to take it and when she did, he lay next to her to give her some room. With his head propped on one hand, he watched as she carefully opened the box and smiled at her when her eyes turned at him. They were wide with surprise.

Ryan watched her expectantly but Calleigh seemed hesitant behind her smile. For a long time they stayed like that, neither of them saying anything. After a while Calleigh's smile started to fade, though, and her gaze turned quizzical while Ryan's became uncertain. He let out a little embarrassed chuckle.

"So?" he prompted.

"So what?"

"What do you say?"

"Hmm…" Calleigh regarded the simple but elegant diamond ring that sat in the box. "It's really beautiful."

"That's it? Beautiful?" Ryan asked indignantly. Calleigh chuckled while she shrugged playfully. "And what's your answer?"

Once again Calleigh chuckled as she lifted her head to place a small kiss on Ryan's lips. "It depends," she whispered. Ryan was really confused by now. "What was the question?"

Ryan, closing his eyes, groaned. Of course, the question.

"I want to get married. Do you?" At that Calleigh laughed out.

"Very smooth, Ryan."

Ryan groaned again but couldn't help laughing with Calleigh. "I'm not doing so good, am I?"

"No, not really," Calleigh replied bemused.

"All right, I'll start again… but don't expect me to get sappy."

"Please, don't."

"Here we go…" he cleared his throat. "Calleigh, I knew that I want to spend my life with you right after our first date. You are amazing, gorgeous, funny, really smart, and… shall I go on?"

"That's all right," she reassured him.

"Right," he nodded. "That would take too long… the bottom line is that you are special and I consider myself the luckiest man on Earth just for you paying attention to me, not to mention that you spent the last six years with me putting up with all the crap I threw into your way. And I'm gonna push my luck here but I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you." Here he gave her one of his cutest charming smiles, the one he knew Calleigh couldn't say no to. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes." This time, he didn't have to wait for an answer and Ryan didn't waste any time, either, to pull the ring on her finger and seal the agreement with a kiss.

"Wow," he breathed as they pulled apart.

"What is it?"

"I've just waited for this moment for five years."

"You actually knew that you'd propose after our first date?"

"You don't believe it?" Ryan asked. "I bought the ring not long before our first anniversary. It was actually sitting in my pocket the whole time we were at Rafael's."

"You never asked."

"Does it matter?"

"After tonight," Calleigh mused, stroking his cheek. "Guess not. As you said, that's how it was meant to be."

"I'm sensing a serious turn in the roles here," Ryan noted wryly, referring to Calleigh's newfound confidence and his still lingering worries.

"Well," she smiled again. "You are the one who told me that everything would be all right. I believe you. And I think you left your hopelessly optimistic side in the living room." She indicated towards the door with a humorous smirk.

"I did, didn't I?"

"What's bothering you, Ryan?" The smile disappeared from Calleigh's face and worry took its place. Ryan sighed.

"I'm just a little worried about the others… especially Delko. I don't want this whole thing to cause a rift between you two."

"I don't want it, either. But if I'm as important for him as he claims I am, he'll come to terms with us." She seemed to be considering her own reply for a moment then she shrugged. "And maybe it's time he got a reason to get over me."

"I hope you're right,"

"I am." Ryan couldn't help smiling when her beaming smile reappeared. She looked completely smug as she ran her hand that wasn't trapped between them along his chest and petted his backside. "And now get you naked butt into the living room and find your positive side," she concluded their discussion. "I'm too tired for this and ready to go back to sleep."

"'S all right," he murmured rising above her and burying his face into her neck. "I can do without it for now."

"Did I mention that I'm tired?" Calleigh protested giggling as Ryan kissed her skin fully intent on not going to sleep just yet.

"I might have missed that part," he looked at her with a mischievous grin then promptly claimed her lips to stop any complaint that would leave her mouth. "What were you saying?" he asked cockily when they came up for air and Calleigh's chest was heaving heavily under him.

"I think my sleepiness's just left for the living room," she shared somewhat breathless as she ran her hands over his back. "I'm wide awake now."

"That's fortunate," he breathed against her lips – he could feel Calleigh smile against his lips, "because I am, too."

"No kidding?" Calleigh raised a suggestive eyebrow as she wriggled under him. They both grinned.

It was time to get back on the baby project.

The End

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