Noah awoke with an EMT was standing over him, after having shoved a smelling salt up his nose. "What happened?" he pulled the smelling salt from his nose.

"We found you passed out and couldn't wake you up, so we called a paramedic," Noah recognized the voice as one of the security guards.

Noah was still trying to figure out what had happened. "How did you find me?"

"Security noticed a look of panic on Mr. Snyder's face as he raced through the guard post," a police officer replied. "They tried to call your cellphone, without any success. They were worried that something happened."

"I moved the wrong way or something and pain was so intense from my ribs that I must have blacked out," Noah quickly stated. He did not want the police to get the wrong idea.

"Are you sure that's all that happened?" the policeman asked cautiously.

"Positive. Luke did not do anything to me. My ribs are still very tender. I over exerted myself earlier and I'm paying for it now," he did not want to share anything personal with the policemen. "Honestly, there isn't much else to tell, I swear."

The EMT felt around Noah's rib cage but stopped when Noah flinched and moaned out in pain. The EMT looked at the police officer, shaking his head that Noah was telling the truth.

"Miss Coleman came home as we were trying to gain access. She had to take the dog so we could get close to you. She's a real good watch dog," the officer continued. "We will need to talk to Mr. Snyder and get a statement from him."

"Security personnel found Noah Mayer passed out in his home today. Our sources tell us that Noah passed out because of severe pain in his chest. Noah is still recovering from being beaten and shot by his father. We believe there is more to the story since Noah's companion, Luke Snyder, was seen racing away from the house, minutes before security found him," the reporter announced.

The next morning, Noah's rental car pulled into the farm's driveway. He had called Lily, after the police left, to tell her what had happened and to watch out for Luke. Ethan and Natalie were making a snowman when Noah arrived. They walked over and hugged Noah quickly before Noah walked into the house. He walked to the parlor door as he heard Luke talking. Hershey stayed out to play with the kids and the puppies.

"We were laying there on the side of the pool when Noah asked me a question. I don't remember anything else until I was landing at the Oakdale airport," exclaimed a frustrated Luke.

"You had some type of panic attack," Noah replied.

Luke looked at Noah with fear in his eyes. "Noah!" He knew he did something bad but he was not sure what.

"Luke started having panic attacks after you left," Lily added.

Noah looked around the room. He saw Jack, sitting next to Luke, holding a tape recorder. The Los Angeles police department must have asked him to talk to Luke. "Can you turn that off for a while, Jack?" Jack complied. Noah walked directly up to Luke and knelt in front of him. "Do you remember the question I asked you?"

Luke thought for a few moments and nodded. "We had just finished having sex when you asked me to marry you." Gasps filled the room. Luke had left that out of his earlier explanation.

"Sex? You mean out of this world sex. The best sex you've ever had," Noah tried to lighten up the situation. He began stroking Luke's face. "You freaked out when I told you that I was never going to leave again. You got up and ran into the house. You said something about me fucking with you. I tried to calm you down and that's when you elbowed me in the ribs." Luke gasped and his eyes filled with tears. He was horrified at what Noah was telling him. "When my eyes cleared, I was on the floor. Hershey was on top of you and she was pissed. It was like the pond over Christmas. The fur on her back was standing up and you could see all her teeth."

"I think I might remember that part," Luke replied quietly.

"I've never seen her so upset before," Noah was still surprised by the scene running through his head. "Anyway, I pulled her off of you. You got up and ran off. I must have blacked out until the paramedics put smelling salt up my nose." Noah had a sour look on his face. "That stuff is horrible. I can still smell it." He chuckled as he waved his hand in front of his nose.

Luke leaned forward and put his forehead on Noah's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Noah."

"Don't worry about it."

"That's different than what I was told. Why didn't you tell that to the police?" Jack looked at Noah strangely.

"It would have been leaked to the press that Luke assaulted me or one of us raped the other. You know how the press manipulates situations. Look how they treated him after I was shot. I wanted to protect, Luke," Noah defiantly replied.

"Since nothing really happened, can't we bend the truth a little, Jack?" asked Holden.

"Okay, this time, but let's not make a habit out of it," Jack realized what Noah had said was true. "Don't tell anyone outside this room what really happened."

"One more thing did happen, Jack," Noah smiled at Jack. "I didn't get to tell you how great the sex was."

"That's okay, Noah," laughed Jack.

"It was the best sex I've ever had in my life. Luke came out of the house in only a towel and guess what was under it?" Noah said with a big smile.

"Honestly, you don't need to share that with me," Jack did not want to know these details.

"Oh come on Jack, I know you are dying to know," laughed Noah. He pointed to Luke. Luke was laughing into Noah's shoulder. He knew Luke needed a good laugh. "Besides, it if does leak, maybe something good should be in the report," Noah complained.

Luke knew Noah was right. "I'm so sorry, Noah. I'll understand if you . . . ."

Noah interrupted Luke. "I came to find you, to be with you, Luke. I learned the hard way, over five years ago, what will happen if I pull away. I won't ever take a chance on losing you again."

Luke carefully pulled Noah into a hug and started crying. When his mind was more clear, he whispered into Noah's ear. "Ask me that question again sometime."

"I'll do that!" Noah whispered back and then kissed Luke. With everything that happened, Noah had to agree that it was too soon for them to be thinking about getting married. They both had some demons to exorcise first.

"Darlings, did you try The Monkey?" Lucinda asked with a smile.

Luke started giggling again in Noah's shoulder. "Grandmother!"

"The Monkey?" Jack had a big confused look on his face. "What monkey?"

"No, we didn't try that position, Lucinda," Noah answered.

"Oh!" Jack's face turned red. "That monkey." A fresh round of laughter filled the room.

A few minutes later, the puppies came running into the room with Hershey behind them as Luke and Noah kissed. She stopped and scoped out the situation. Seeing no danger to her master, she ran over, jumped on top of Jack, who was sitting next to Luke, and started to lick the sides of both Luke and Noah's faces as they kissed. All was forgiven.

A month later.

"Hello mom," Luke said as he answered his ringing cellphone.

"Well hello there stranger," Lily replied. "It's been a while since you called last."

"Sorry about that. It has been busy here," Luke let out a huge breath. "I didn't get any sleep last night and I have an important meeting in an hour."

"Why didn't you get any sleep?"

"There was a storm last night and Hershey jumped into bed with us. She trembled and whimpered all night," Luke rambled without thinking.

Lily was surprised to hear her son tell her that he was now sleeping in the same bed as Noah. "So things are better with you and Noah?"

"Sure," Luke did not want to give too much information, not having realized what he had already shared. "We are taking things one day at a time and we are officially dating, now, I think you could say."

"That's great honey," Lily was excited that things were progressing along but she was still concerned that things would spiral out of control again. She had a feeling everything would work out since they seemed to be communicating better. "I'll let you get to your meeting, but you could call me a little more often, you know."

"Okay, okay, I'll call you after the meeting to catch up," Luke knew that his mother would not stop calling until she got what she wanted.

"Good," replied Lily.

They said goodbye to each other and Luke went to his meeting. On the way back, he called his mother, as he promised.

-P-

The End.