Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money. Don't sue. Also there's a scene which is almost stolen from an actual scene on the show (no, not as good as the last scene I stole) and a scene which is almost stolen from Anna Karenina. Yes, I did just reference Tolstoy… I never denied my nerdiness.

Natalie hesitated at Paul's door. The last thing she wanted to do was knock, but she needed to get this over with. She needed to tell them both and she figured it would be easier to tell Paul since her feelings for him didn't run nearly as deep as the ones she held for Cristian. If she could make it through this, it would be a warm up for the much more painful conversation with her husband. Finally summoning all of her courage, she knocked.

Paul didn't come to the door for several minutes but she could hear rustling around in the room so she figured he'd probably just passed out drunk the night before and was still struggling with consciousness. He finally flung the door open wearing nothing but his boxers and dog tags and smelling so bad her nausea came back. His eyes roamed quickly up and down her body and he grinned. "Hey there sexy! I didn't expect to see you so early."

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Always," he said stepping aside to let her pass. He reached for her as he kicked the door shut but she swerved out of his range.

"We need to talk."

He tilted his head to the side, "I thought the rule was no talking?"

"It was," she said biting her lip, "rules change."

He stared at her and thought this over for a moment before a realization seemed to hit him. "He found out, didn't he?"

"No," she said, "not yet anyway. I think he knows something's going on--I mean it's just a matter of time. But no, that's not what this is about."

"Then what?" he asked. A moment later he gasped and put his hands on both sides of her waist before she could stop him, "You're leaving him, aren't you?"

"Paul, look," she said squirming out of his grasp, "you have to listen to me."

Paul didn't seem to hear her at all as he continued, "You can stay here if you need a place. I mean just until I can get something better. I have some jobs in the works that are gonna set me up real good for a long time. Baby, we-"

"It's over," she finally blurted out, frustrated with trying to get his attention.

"What's over?" he asked looking at her blankly.

"Us," she said, "whatever has been going on between us it's done. Over. I can't do this anymore."

"No," he said shaking his head, "no, it can't- you can't do this!"

"I have to."

"Why? So you can stay with your husband who's sleeping with your sister? I would never do that to you Natalie."

"This has nothing to do with Cristian," she tried to protest.

"He doesn't love you. Not the way I do."

"Paul, how many times have you even seen me sober?" she shot back, "How can you begin know what you feel about me?"

"I thought you liked that I knew how to party," he said looking genuinely hurt.

"I did," she nodded, "but that's all it was supposed to be, Paul. Partying. It was never anything serious, you knew that."

"Like hell I did. It wasn't just about partying," he shot back, "you know that. I was your tool for getting back at your husband. I was just a way to hurt him back. Every time he made you mad, every time he ditched you somewhere so he could go fuck your sister. Every time, who did you come looking for? Yours truly. And I was always here for you, wasn't I?"

"Yes you were," she said closing her eyes, "and I'm grateful for that. But this is wrong and I can't do it anymore."

"No!" he said, "I'm not going to let you just-"

"It's over, Paul," Natalie said as firmly as she could, "I'm leaving now."

She turned to leave but Paul caught her arm. "No," he said again. She glared at him and ripped her arm out of his grasp before wordlessly leaving the room.

John pulled up at the rundown motel on the outskirts of town. Sonia Toledo had called him half an hour ago and instructed him to meet her in one of the rooms. She offered no explanation and simply hung up when he asked for one. He wasn't as offended as she probably hoped he was; it was too easy to see she just needed to prove to herself and to him that she was still in control of the investigation. And he was willing to let her believe that as long as it made his life easier than fighting would.

He knocked on the door and was not the least surprised when Antonio Vega answered. He could see Sonia standing behind him inside the room. Antonio raised an eyebrow, "You?"

John walked in through the door which Antonio quickly closed behind him and held his hand out. "Special Agent John McBain."

"Yeah we've met," Antonio said conspicuously not taking his hand, "You were at Carlotta's diner and then at Rodi's."

"That's right," he nodded.

"I should have known better than to believe that 'visiting my brother' excuse. So hanging out at restaurants, that what you call investigating?" he asked.

"It served me pretty well," John replied.

"I'll bet," he said suspiciously.

"So what's your angle on this whole investigation?" John asked.

"Manuel Santi was my father," he said still scowling. "The man calling himself El Tiburon killed him. He probably killed my mother too."

"Isabela's death was an accident," Sonia chided from behind him.

Antonio glared at her but didn't even acknowledge her comment. "My involvement is personal," he added looking intensely at John.

"I got that," he said, "what I wanted to know was are you working for anyone?"

"Not anymore," he said.

"But INL is aware that he's working with me," Sonia interjected.

"And they were okay with that?" John asked dubiously.

"They trust my judgment."

"Well it's actually a nice set up for you," he pointed out, "he's not bound to follow the rules and regs and he can feed you everything he finds no matter how he finds it."

"I'm more interested in how you find your information," Antonio said, "where did you get this tip that Paul Cramer was involved with the Santis? I've been working on this for months and his name never came up."

"I didn't exactly get a tip," John explained settling down into an avocado green chair that looked like it had been in the room since the 70s and hadn't been cleaned since. "When I first got into town I met with an informant who's worked with our office in the past. He tipped me off about a shipment that was coming in the following night. Said he knew about it because someone had approached him about moving the cargo. He declined because he knew it was a Santi shipment and he didn't want to get involved. He wouldn't give me the name of the guy who talked to him, but I found out the informant had been involved with Cramer in the past. I confronted him and asked him if it was Cramer and he pretty much admitted it."

"And you're certain this was a Santi shipment?" Sonia asked from where she was seated at the foot of the bed. Antonio continued to pace like a stalking tiger.

"Two of the three men we took into custody when we intercepted it had known Santi connections," he said, "and there's no reason to doubt the informant."

"Who is this informant?" Antonio asked.

John shook his head. "Sorry. I don't give out the identities of my informants to anyone. Even the guys in my own office. Not unless there's a real pressing reason and I don't see one right now."

"Well it's pretty flimsy evidence. All you have is a possible connection from this informant to Cramer to the shipment," Sonia said pensively.

"There's also the large sums of money being put into Cramer's bank account that aren't coming from his job at the hospital," he added, "and the high powered attorney who someone hired for him when I had the LPD bring him in."

"I looked into that. Cramer's blackmailing the Lieutenant Governor," she explained, "and his ex-wife. And who knows who else. It could have easily been one of them."

"True," he nodded, "but my gut tells me it wasn't. There's also the fact that I went looking for information on Cramer in the first place after seeing him talking to one of our suspects." He wasn't sure he should be throwing this information out yet, but hoped putting all his cards on the table would make it easier for them to move forward.

"Who?" Antonio asked stopping his pacing.

"Tico Santi."

Both Antonio and Sonia reacted immediately. A look of triumph washed over his face followed by a return to his scowl that grew even more intense and determined. Sonia shook her head desperately and stood up so she could position herself in Antonio's line of sight. "Tico is not El Tiburon," she said.

"You have proof of that?" John asked.

"No she doesn't," Antonio said, "because he is."

"He's my brother," she insisted, "he might as well be. I've known him since he was a little boy he's not capable of the things this El Tiburon has done."

"But he fits the profile," John said, "we keep hearing whoever it is it's a relative of Manuel Santi's. If you're also confident that it's not Antonio here, who else could it be? The daughter's too young, Cristian Vega doesn't seem the type-"

"First of all," she said, "the rumors that it's a relative of Manuel's are only rumors. We can't treat them as fact. And second of all I think you're keeping your field of suspects too small. Manuel had countless cousins, nephews, for all we know he could have more children. No one knew about Antonio or Adriana until recently."

"You have anyone else in mind?" John asked.

"What about Dorian Lord?" she suggested, "She's Manuel's ex-wife, power hungry, money hungry, not afraid to get her hands dirty… I think if she thought she had a chance to take over his empire she'd take it. And I'd like to point out she's also connected to Paul Cramer."

"Who she doesn't get along with," said Antonio resuming his pacing, "At all. Cramer would never work for Dorian and it's highly unlikely she would ever hire him."

"It's a large organization," she said, "she might not even know who was working for her."

"Sonia-" Antonio said sounding like he was about to start a lecture.

"I'm just saying you can't settle on a single person and ignore other suspects."

"Fine," he said, "but you can't ignore evidence because you have a personal connection to the suspect."

"Antonio your reasons for suspecting him are just as personal as mine are for wanting him off the list," she said folding her arms across her chest.

"I won't deny that," he said before turning to John and adding, "but he doesn't have any personal connection to the case and he suspects him too."

"Although I wouldn't say I've excluded other suspects," John said, only slightly grateful that they'd remembered his presence in the room. "And now that I've shared what I know with you all I'd appreciate you doing the same."

"As far as the identity of El Tiburon we aren't much further than you," Sonia said sitting back down on the bed.

"You get anything from your meeting with Ramon Falu?" he asked looking at Antonio, "I'm assuming you were the one he was meeting with."

"Yeah," he said, "he didn't know as much as I'd hoped. He's fallen out of favor with the organization since Manuel's death. That's actually why he agreed to meet with me, he's scared for his life, wanted an ally. All he could tell me for sure is that Tiburon is new to the organization. He's not someone who worked his way up from the lower ranks."

"I'd imagine that's creating a lot of dissension," John thought aloud, "we might be able to get a couple other captains to turn if they're scared enough for their position anyway."

"We're working on that," Sonia said. "Where are you going from here?"

"Barring a sudden strike of inspiration elsewhere or another tip I think I'm gonna stick with the Paul Cramer angle, see where it leads me," he said. "He lives in the same building as I do so it'll be easy for me to keep tabs on him without being obvious. Even if he can't lead me to El Tiburon I think there's a good chance he'll lead me to someone who can."

They agreed to keep each other posted on any progress they made on the case though it was clear that none of them really trusted the others to hold to the bargain. John was ushered from the motel room as brusquely as he'd been summoned there. He probably should have been insulted but he was too relieved to have the opportunity to go back to his own work. There were reasons he preferred to work alone and the tension and bickering that he'd seen between Antonio and Sonia was a big part of it. He wasn't in a position to turn down any hard leads on this case but he didn't know how helpful it was going to be in the long run being partnered up with those two.

He was mulling this over while simultaneously trying to figure out what his next step should be as he parked his car in the garage in Angel Square and made his way back to the hotel. As he crossed the square he heard voices ahead of him. Suddenly Natalie came charging towards him with Paul Cramer a few feet behind her. Neither of them seemed to notice John standing to one side.

"We're not done, Natalie," Paul called out.

"Yes, we are," she said without turning around, "in every sense of the word."

"It's not like he's going to care," he said, "you can dump me, do whatever he wants you to, spend the rest of your life barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and he's not going to care about you like you want him to."

On the word 'pregnant' Natalie froze; Paul didn't seem to make any connection but John did. Turning around suddenly she spat, "You think I don't know that? You think I'm dumping you for Cristian's sake? I'm not. This doesn't have anything to do with him. This is all about me and what our relationship has done to me and about how I don't like the person I've become since we got together. So I'm making this decision for myself and no one else."

Paul shook his head in disbelief and said, "You know, I knew you were messed up Natalie, but who knew you were such a cold hearted bitch? All your talk about how I was there for you when your family and your husband deserted you and all that. That was just a line to get what you wanted from me, wasn't it?"

"You came on to me Paul! I didn't have to work to get anything out of you. And I never lied to you. But it's over now, move on." Natalie spun on her heel and started to walk away but Paul grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"I'm not done with you yet," he hissed pulling her closer to him.

"Let go!" she said pulling her arm away but this time he held fast.

"Not until I'm finished," he said.

Natalie kicked him hard in the knee and he released her arm. "Keep you hands off me!" she shouted at him.

Seeing him quickly recover and lunge towards her again John stepped forward. "I think the lady told you to let her go," he said walking towards them.

"I don't think this is any of your business," Paul said turning on him.

"Maybe not," he shrugged, "but you lay another hand on her, the lady could start building a pretty good case for assault charges and I'd be happy to call the police myself on her behalf."

Paul glared at him. "I've seen you before."

"We live in the same building."

"No," Paul shook his head, "you were there. At Rodi's that night. That night she-" He turned back to Natalie with a smile. "That's what this is really about. You're hooking up with him now, aren't you?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Natalie said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah well don't get too attached to her," Paul said stepping closer to John, "she'll just dump you as soon as the next flavor of the month comes along."

"I suggest you move along," John said not flinching although Cramer's breath was enough to make him want to.

He shook his head and looked back and forth between her and John. "This is not over," he said to her as he stormed away.

As soon as he was gone John turned to Natalie. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said starting to walk away.

"You're welcome," he said pointedly.

"I'm sorry," she said turning around, "you wanted me to thank you for interfering in my life?"

"I wasn't trying to interfere," he said, "I was trying to help you out of a bad situation which seemed to be escalating-"

"I had it under control," she said.

"Yeah it looked that way."

"I can handle Paul," she said though by her tone he wasn't sure she believed it.

"So what was that all about anyway?" he asked guessing from the fact that she wasn't trying to walk away anymore that she might want to talk.

"I broke things off with him," she said, "He didn't take it well."

"Did you tell him about-?"

"The baby?" she said finishing his sentence before he had a chance to, "No. I'm not going to tell anyone until I decide whether I'm going to keep it."

"I'm probably gonna get my head bitten off for asking," he said taking a step towards her, "but can I ask why you ended things with Cramer?"

She smiled knowingly at him. "I suspect you heard what I told him, which was the truth. I don't like who I've become lately. Finding out I'm pregnant… it's kind of been a wake up call. Made me realize exactly how out of control things had gotten and I need to take some control back. And getting Paul out of my life is the first step."

"So what about Cristian?" he asked.

She bit her lip and even though she was still smiling he could see she was fighting back tears. "I think he's got to go too. It's not going to be as easy with him though. There's all the legal stuff and I still-" she cut herself off and took a deep breath to steady herself. "Let's just say things are more complicated with him."

He put a hand on her shoulder and caressed her gently. "Well if you need to talk or anything you know where I live."

Shaking her head she said, "No. If I'm going to take control of things I need to do it myself. It would be way too easy for me to lean on you. And then there's… this thing between us that you don't want to admit exists. This attraction or chemistry or whatever and I don't know that it's real healthy for either of us." Gently she took his hand in hers and removed it from her shoulder.

He retracted his hand and nodded. He wanted to argue with her but he heard too much of himself in her words. He knew that need to be alone and prove you didn't need anyone. That's all his life had been about since Caitlyn's death. "Okay," he said, "just take care of yourself, Cramer seemed pretty determined."

"I will," she said.

"And if you change your mind-"

"Thanks for the offer," she said, "but I doubt it."

She started to walk away but stopped and added, "Good luck. You know with the case and everything. If there's anything I can do…"

"Thanks," he said, "but I think this is another one of those things I need to do on my own. Good luck yourself though."

She nodded. "Thanks. Well I guess I'll see you around."

"Yeah," he said, "you're gonna be okay." It was only half a statement and half a question; he wished he could be certain of that. She smiled at him one last time but made no response as she walked away.

To be continued…