Chapter 11 Mountain View

Nathan took Robin to his family's cabin in the Catskills. It was beautiful. The drive there offered some nice views. She took in the landscape.

"This is amazing." She looked at him.

"Wait until we hit the trails. There is a great seafood spot nearby too." He used his keys to open the door.

"I thought we were roughing it?" She smiled.

"We are but… We have to go there at least once." He grinned. He let her go in first.

"This is not too shabby." She walked around. She saw the pictures. "This is your family's place?" She asked.

"Yes. I usually come out a couple times a year. We rent some weeks. You have a pick of any room or you can just not be shy and take the master where I will be." She smiled.

"Aw you were so cute. Look at your cute little haircut." He took the picture.

"I was so cute." He raised an eyebrow.

"Mmm hmm. You aren't so bad now." She teased.

"Oh is that right?" He reached for her and she moved. He chased her and caught her. She laughed and he swung her around. He kissed her. He backed her into the wall.

"Well look at who we have here. The prodigal son with his latest." His mother said.

"Mom this is Robin Scorpio. She is my girlfriend and not the latest." He lied.

"Dr. Robin Scorpio?" She said. "I have been reading about your story. Remarkable." His father noticed that Robin became uncomfortable.

"I am sure she doesn't want to relive it. Hello dear, I am Nathan Chase." His father introduced himself.

Robin was embarrassed but she shook their hands. "Very nice to meet you both."

"Not to be rude but what are you guys doing here? Dad we agreed that I would check in on the renovations and so far so good." His father smiled. Robin looked at him.

"I know you said that but you said that last week. So, I wasn't sure if you would be called away and we have a booking next week." His father said.

"But since we are here. We must have dinner." His mother supplied.

"I am sure they want to be alone Claire." He said.

"I have not seen you since you left. I think a dinner would be nice." He gave in. She looked at Robin. "You look pretty healthy. Were you given your medicine while… You know?"

"Yes, they were generous that way." She said. "I don't mean that the way it sounds. Just that they needed me healthy." She said.

"Humph. That is good dear." She said. "So what are your numbers like? I know a little bit due to charity."

"Mom that is not appropriate." Nathan said.

"Well it is if you are engaging in sexual activity." She said.

"Okay then, how about we skip dinner." Robin stopped him.

"My last test showed an undetectable viral load. No viral activity. There is a time during my captivity when I was in a coma. I don't know if it is related or if I have been on the protocol so long and it was caught so early to exposure that has caused it. We don't say cure but in remission." Robin explained.

"It is not something I talk about because I can't explain it." She stared at her.

"No she will not speak for any of your charities and you will not discuss it. She didn't have to tell you and please respect her privacy." He told his mother.

"Of course. I didn't mean to pry. I am.." Robin nodded.

"I understand. Trust me. I have a daughter. I get it." She looked at her.

"Oh, your husband had moved on." Robin nodded. "I am sorry. I will not bring it up again."

"We are going to dress for dinner." He took Robin's hand and grabbed their bags.

IN the bedroom he apologized to her. "It could have been worse. Why didn't you tell her?" She asked.

"It is not my story to tell." She looked at him.

"Why did you lie about us?" He sighed.

"Because she likes to set me up and I didn't want to deal with it. I am sorry if you would rather stay here." She looked at him.

"I mean, I shouldn't be meeting the parents but since I have, dinner does sound nice since I am starving." He smiled. He pulled her to him and kissed her.

"I will try to make it quick and painless." She smiled.

"You never make it quick." He let out a low growl.

"Complaining?" She shook her head.

"Not in the slightest." She grinned. She went through her bag to find something suitable to wear.

Robin joined Nathan in the Jacuzzi with a bottle of wine. "That wasn't so painful." She smiled.

"You handled it like a trooper. My dad likes you. My mom, she is still suspicious." He said honestly.

"She thinks that I am a hussy coming to take her son away." He smiled.

"Probably but she respects you. She didn't respect my ex. She thought she was needy and didn't have a life of her own. Never mind that she was big in the PR game." She looked at him. "I say ex because we were going through a divorce."

"Did you regret it after…" He sipped his wine.

"I don't think we should talk about that." He said. He didn't want that vulnerability out there. He kissed her.

"Why do you do that?" He looked at her.

"What?" He asked.

"Dodge questions with the offer of sex." He frowned.

"Robin do I ask you about your marriage? Do I pry into the intimate details of your life?" She stared at him.

"No but you have a file that gives you most of it. You don't need to ask." His eyes met hers.

"Are we keeping notes or something?" He asked.

"You know what? Forget that I asked." She got out of the Jacuzzi. "Taking this." She wrapped the towel around her and then grabbed the bottle. He ran his hand through his hair.

Nathan found Robin lounging in the recliner. She had lit candles and turned on music to enjoy her wine. She didn't see him. Her eyes were half closed. He watched her then sat on the couch.

"My last name is Chase but when I became a cop I changed it to West which is my mother's maiden name. I decided to become a cop when I went to visit my sister and noticed no change. I was 18 but the agreement was that I needed to go to college before the academy. It was beneath them but honorable so… That is one part of my life that I don't like to talk about. I need you to respect it and not analyze because I have been consistently honest about that." She looked at him.

"Okay. I will not ask again." She said.

"I am sorry for snapping at you." She shrugged.

"I shouldn't have pried." He studied her.

"You are looking for an emotional connection. You think those details will give you that." She looked at him.

"I never said anything about an emotional connection." She moved to the couch. Good. The sex is out of this world but I am not looking to be a transition or rebound. This is good.

"I was curious." Besides you are not exactly available emotionally nor am I for that matter. This is good. She kissed him. "Besides when this is all over we probably won't be in each other's orbit. So it will probably be out of our system by then." He looked at her.

"I am not going to agree with that." He grabbed her ass to pull her closer. He carried her upstairs.

Robin lay on her belly with her hands crossed above her head. Nathan held him together with one hand as he stroked her from behind using his other hand to balance her leg on his hip. She tried to move her hands but he held them in place then moved to kiss her neck then her ear. She pushed back in small circles to match his strokes. She would pause mid circle then move her hips in smaller quick circles then shake her ass he could feel the added sensation when she clinched around him.

"I like that. Do that again." He whispered in her ear. She repeated the motion again and again until she could fill him ready to burst. He pulled out of her.

"Mmm, not yet." He turned her on her back. He kissed between the valley of her breast then lavished each one with attention. He nibbled a trail down her belly. She threaded her fingers through his hair and arched her back. She put her feet on his shoulder and he lavished her leg with small bites and kisses. She turned on her side and he moved behind her. She hooked her leg at his waist. He entered her and began picking up the pace. She cried out then reached back and grabbed his head deeply kissing him. She sucked on his tongue. Within minutes she was crumbling but she kept going. He let out a loud cry with his final pump. He held himself inside her putting his head on her back as he held her tightly.

"Damn, ." She smiled.

"Back at you man." She was exhausted. There were no other words but they fell asleep like that once he discard their protection.

Chapter 12

The next day they had gone hiking. "You are right this is beautiful." He wrapped his arms around her.

"This is a natural fall. I have fishing on the agenda then there is a place where we can bungee and Skyline." She looked at him.

"I have never gone bungee jumping." He looked at her.

"It is for beginners. It is not like you will dive off a building or bridge." He explained.

"Stone bungeed off a bridge at night." She said. "Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? You don't talk much about him. I have wondered about him but you never said much outside of Sonny." He admitted.

"What do you wonder about?" She asked.

"Well you said that you didn't like Sonny. Stone was his friend. What drew you to him?" She sighed.

"He was a street kid when Sonny found him. He ran away from foster care. I didn't like him at first. He was obnoxious. I knew his brother. My friend Karen was dating him. We met again through them. We started hanging out as friends. Fell in love. He was my first. He had been tested but he needed a second test. He didn't know that. The girl before me used needles. He hadn't been with her for three years but he looked out for her. She died of an overdose. I stuck by him and just wanted to make whatever time we had count for something. He went bungee jumping arranged by my dad's best friend who was also a friend of Sonny's and mine. After that we made a list and we did a lot of things on the list. I was there when he died. That is the cliff notes version." He held her.

"Did he know that you were positive?" He asked.

"I was afraid to get tested but I did. It was negative. I was tested again when I had strep throat and that was negative. He was given three weeks to live and he asked me to be tested again. I wasn't going to tell him but we were always honest even when we fought which was about Sonny. He was loyal to him. He got his shit together and worked on the legit side. The music end and the club, Luke's. I told him, it killed him but I made t okay. I think once he saw that I was okay and surrounded by support he could let go. He lost his sight. It wasn't pretty." She sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." She sniffed.

"You didn't. I brought it up. It was just sad. I had gone on the pill and we thought we were being safe but we were kids without all the facts. So I shared my story with more people than I can remember. I went to Africa a few years ago. Patrick wasn't happy about it." She shivered. He got her his jacket and wrapped it around him.

"Because you were helping people like Stone?" She turned to him.

"But that was just it. I was also helping people like me. I don't think he got that. Not really anyway. I had become so wrapped up in our life that I stopped being active. I will admit I did have survivor's guilt for a time but that was before Patrick. It is just sad to see anyone so young lose their life. I think about him, BJ, Georgie, Emily. Gone too soon." She explained.

"Yeah, it makes death that much harder to deal with. My sister lost her life basically. It tore my family apart." She looked at him.

"Do you still go see her?" He nodded.

"A few times a year. I used to go all the time but it was hard. Part of me was angry because my parents were so focused on her and things at home seemed to be so… Just dark. My mom started to drink and my dad started to stay away. They got through it. We all did but it wasn't easy." She took his hand.

"It never is." There was silence for a beat. "There is a Coney Island here right?"

"Oh we are going but don't fill up on junk because we are going to feast on what we catch and some stuff from the farmer's market. Not exactly roughing it." She smiled.

"But it is peaceful." He kissed her.

"Exactly."

Chapter 13

Just hold on to me, he says. Well, I may have adventure junkie in my blood but I usually held off on a lot of this stuff. So forgive me if I am a little nervous. Robin thought as she stood with Nathan on the platform. She was shaking.

"Didn't you tell me a story earlier about you in the Markham Islands? Didn't you say something about adventure girl?" He teased.

"Adventure girl no like jump from high area." He laughed.

"Trust me. Hang on and if we fall you land on me." She frowned.

"That doesn't help." She took a deep breath and started to look down but he lift her chin.

"That really doesn't help." She held on and they went over the platform.

Robin screamed on the way down but it was exhilarating she had to admit. She opened her eyes, he grinned.

"One piece and that was a rush right?" She kissed him. He ran his fingers through her hair.

"That was a rush. I always wanted to do that." He smiled. Why did you say that? Lame. The operator helped them off the ride. She tackled skylining with no trouble. They had spent so much time enjoying Coney Island that they had forgotten about going fishing. She sat on the other side of the Ferris wheel, determined to stay away from the sexy. He was hanging out with the bear she had won him. She snapped a photo with the phone. He was looking out at the park.

"You will give me that picture." He invaded her orbit.

"Don't rock the boat, besides I am over here to get away from all those lustful vibes you are throwing off." He laughed.

"I am great at self restraint. You however, are just trying to control yourself." He smiled then leaned forward.

"Please." He kissed her. "And you use all your sexy to distract and get your way." She stopped him reaching for her phone.

"We don't have sex every day." He furrowed his brow. He wasn't counting. "Do we?"

"No but you are usually working on rest days." She said casually. She didn't seem bothered or she was good at hiding it.

"Huh." He mumbled and there was a beat of silence. He remembered other things like how comfortable he had gotten with holding her and laying in her lap when no one was around. Watching her work or mull over a journal. She had a nasty habit of chewing on her pen. It drove him crazy but it was a habit that he didn't mind.

"I am not complaining, I am just on to you." She grinned.

"Well there goes my plan for sex on the Ferris Wheel." He moved his eyebrows up and down then kissed her.

"I can control myself." I just haven't been this horny since college. Odd.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, tucking her under his chin. "Can I at least see if you got a good angle?" She showed him the picture.

"This is one of those rare moments that the camera captures perfectly. I wondered what you were thinking." She looked at the picture.

"I was looking at that game over there." He pointed. "It is a racing game. One summer we all came out. Nina was having problems in her marriage. She married young and was beginning to wonder about her choice. We had never met Silas. Anyway, Hayley and I were playing and I won but I gave my bear to her because she was a brat. I was too cool for girly stuffed animals anyway. However, it was a Yankee bear. It was the last time we saw her. She hung with us that week. She took care of us when our parents were too busy in their social circles or working. That week we would not leave her alone. We knew she was sad. We were just so happy to see her. It had been a year." She smiled then leaned in resting her head on his chest.

"I was just reminded of that. We didn't come back for years. I used to come out to make sure it was being maintained. It wasn't until I got married that I vacationed here." He paused then kissed the top of her head.

"We used to fish and do things together. I wanted my kids to have that. It was here that I found out that I was going to be a father. I came to get away. She came up and dropped the bomb on me. I was happy but it was fleeting. There was a question of paternity. It…" He realized that he had said too much so he stopped talking. He was getting too comfortable. He felt her gentle squeeze and released the breath that he didn't realize that he was holding.

"I am sorry. I was feeling like a kid again and it looks like we missed the fishing part of the day." She said as they exited the ride.

"It is cool. There is a nice fresh market where we can get supplies." He smiled then took her hand.