Chapter 4

We spent an afternoon being interviewed by police. By the end, they had come to the conclusion that she had tried to poison me, but made the mistake of drinking from the wrong cup. They didn't even think of me switching the cups, because in the commotion, she knocked her cup over and wiped my prints. I was treated as a victim, and Mia clung to me, overjoyed that I was okay. I was thinking to myself, I'm okay kitten. I stopped the poisoning and now I can protect you.

We went home together once they were finished. Now I could finish the plans I had for after that meeting. I went into my desk drawer and dug around for that little velvet box that every girl dreams of opening. I found it, safely hidden from any cleaning kittens. I pulled it out and entered her office, shutting the door behind me. She said, "Diego, I have lots of paperwork Mr Grossberg asked me to do. If you have nothing important to say then please let me work" I grinned at her and said, "Trust me, I need to say something very important". This caught her attention and she looked up from her mountain of work. I walked up to her and said, "My kitten. After today, I realised just how fragile life can be. If I hadn't been so lucky, I could very well be dead. Now I know the importance of being there for you. I want you to be my kitten. Mia Fey, will you marry me?" She looked shocked, then regained her composure and shouted, "Yes! Yes I will!" and she tackle-hugged me off my feet. Even the Grossberg himself with his loud throat-clearing, couldn't stop us now.

We spent that afternoon together, walking through the park, her finger now surrounded by a diamond ring. She had greatly admired it, and sobbed tears of joy when she found the inscription in the middle of the ring: My Kitten.

I had never felt so happy until that moment, knowing I could now spend my whole life with her. I knew that we would be so happy together.

We were at our now shared apartment, together in our home for the first time since I had proposed. We were lying down in bed, just talking. I sighed deeply, thinking of what had happened to me, or to be more accurate, what had nearly happened to me. I rubbed at my face, where that mask would have been on my face. I knew I would have nightmares about it for a while, that much was painfully obvious.

With Dahlia gone, Doug swallow was never murdered, so Phoenix was never prosecuted. Mia was finally ready to take on a case, and I felt so glad in knowing that she had recovered from that disastrous case. Catching Hawthorne had really helped too, knowing that she would never disturb us. We began preparing our case together- well she was working, I was playing Runescape on my computer. She whacked me on the head and told me to get to work. "Awww, but Kitten, it's so much more fun. I'll stop if you try it". After 5 minutes of arguing, she was signing up.

Several hours later, we were both playing together, me guiding her through quests and protecting her from stronger foes. We both whooped with victory as she finished her quest. We realised that it was well past our finishing hours and quickly packed up. Mia said, "Lets play some more when we get back". I grinned and replied, "I have a better idea".

And it was.

I woke up the next morning, tired but incredibly happy. I think you can guess what happened without me going into details. I saw Mia next to me, her fringe flopping over her eyes, floating upwards regularly with her breathing. I snuggled in closer and hugged her to me. At the contact she screamed and woke up. I recoiled quickly, horrified that somehow I had hurt her. She said groggily, "Dammit Diego, your hands are cold". I instantaneously laughed and sighed with relief. I replied cheekily, "Well hug me and we can both warm up soon". I pulled her under the covers and tickled her, as she squirmed and accidentally kicked me in the happy sacks. I yelped in pain and curled up, wishing the pain to stop. She saw the tears in my eyes, looked guilty and said, "Next time keep your cold hands to yourself".

I somehow smiled at her as we both started to get up. I let her go first, seeing as my clothing was on the other side of the room. She left to the bathroom and I took the chance to retrieve my clothes. Was I a big strong man that stopped fools from flirting with my girlfriend? Oh yeah, I kicked their butts. Did I blush furiously as I dashed across the open window with only a very small pillow? You betcha.

We finally were ready to go back to work. I suggested we ride my bicycle to work for a change. "But I don't have a bike" Mia whined. I scooped her up and said, "I can fix that". I grinned as I carried her to the shed, her playfully squirming. Somehow managing to hold her and get my bike up, I sat her on the handlebars and began to put her helmet on her. She realised what I was doing and went along with it, grinning at me and desperately holding on to a nearby box so the bike wouldn't fall sideways. I finally dug out my helmet, strapped our briefcases to the back of the bike, and began to pedal. We glided through the morning traffic, gently keeping the bike moving. As we approached a red light, we noticed a couple of teenage boys at the bus stop, making smoochy faces and wolfwhistling at us. Mia looked at them and shouted to them, "You're just jealous that you don't have the big strong man I have". Their mouths dropped open as they realised what she had just implied. They shut up after that. Mia looked at me and said, "Let's ride our bike more often". I nodded, knowing full well that I was going to take her up on that offer.

We finally arrived at Mr Grossberg's office as we took the bike into the small lot, and chained it to a pole. We walked in, still taking off our helmets and laughing together. At that moment, we heard a loud, "Ahhh-HEMMM!!" coming through the office door. Mr Grossberg had clearly seen the lack of work we had done yesterday.

This wasn't going to be pretty.