WOOOOOOOOOOOOW all the way to Easter and I haven't posted, I am so sorry. Well here is the next chapter for thoughts who are still reading. Mentions of past sexual abuse in this chapter, you have been noted, and as always reviews are a big help!

The next morning Vert awoke to the smell of cooking eggs and hash browns. He put on his shirt and some pants and went out into the dining room and peeked around the corner into the kitchen. Cheza was at the stove, heating several pans with different ingredients at once, she was even chopping up the potatoes into very thin slices to make the hash browns. Vert smiled, she had her hair up, she had her gym shorts on and a tank top, she had an apron on that was denim, she even had a bit of flower smudged on her cheek. Stanford had been right, she did know her way around the kitchen and he had to admit, never out loud, but she looked rather cute in the apron. He sat on the ledge, leaning against the wall and waited to see if she would realize he was there. She still seamed stiff but once she started playing some music from the radio she began to loosen up. The music seemed to come from everywhere, like there were speakers in the walls. After about 15 minutes, right as she was finishing up, he decided to make his presence known.

"Hmmmm, something smells good" he said.

She had been in a trance as she cooked, her father said she had always done it. She would be off in her own world as she cooked. This time was no exception. She wanted to make breakfast this morning as a thank you to Vert for being her knight yesterday. Once she turned on the music she really got into her stride. She was just finishing up putting things on the plate on the island when she heard Vert. She jumped, nearly dropping the hash browns she had just finished cooking.

"Oh Vert, I didn't hear you." She said, trying to recover, but she was still a bit shaky from yesterday, Vert could tell.

"It's ok, I am sorry I scared you" He said as she started putting the food on the table and bringing the milk and OJ jugs out. Vert decided to help her by taking a few of the plates of food. They both sat down and began to eat their meal while the music played.

"So" Vert said. "Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?"

She froze midd chew, looked at him, and continued chewing in silence, she even turned off the music.

"I guess not. I don't want to be an ass, but if we are going to work together we need to get over this and the first step is to talk about it."

"I don't want to."

"Why? Bad memories just like this Cabin that you regretted not coming in sooner?"

"It's what James did in the house that started everything."

"Ok now we are getting somewhere. What did he do?"

"Nothing you want to know, trust me, it's bad."

"And another dead end. Cheza I am serious, we are team mates now, well we always were and I know I have been a major jerk and a pain in the ass before but it's all going to stop I promise. Everything starts with trust, you need to trust that I won't judge you in any way."

"No Vert, everyone I have ever known has judged me when they found out."

"And it looks like they are doing a good job protecting you."

"Yes but when they found out...I hate when people look at me like that. They knew me my entire life. You just started liking me last week."

"Cheza that's not true. Ok I was intimidated by you, and that's the only time I will admit it. You made me almost loose control of something and it angered me, I know I shouldn't have taken it out on you but I did and I am sorry."

'What did you almost loose control of?"

"I will tell you when you tell me what happened."

"Then I hope you are satisfied with disappointment."

"Same to you."

They both finished their food in silence. Cheza cleared off the side porch, making sure there was plenty of room as well as places to sit. She lit the fire and also brought out the grill for Chief. Vert was making sure all the breakables were put away, just in case, then after that he sat on the porch swing. Cheza began setting up the grilled cheese sandwiches to cook but didn't cook them just yet, she placed all of the snacking food on a long table she had gotten out of the spare room so people could munch, and she had put all of the drinks in the outdoor fridge to keep cool all before people started arriving.

"They are arriving!" Vert yelled from out front as boats started heading their way, personal boats and even police boats. She could even hear the sound of cars. She would need to remind herself to change the code on the gate when everyone left. There were easily over 50 people with their families. All of them seems to know Cheza very well and they all expressed how worried they had been when she had left and also about learning of yesterdays incident.

"He broke his restraining order by getting within 30 feet of you. We will be on the lookout for him." Chief said as he opened a bottle of bear.

"Thanks Chief, I feel better already" she said opening a bottle of Strongbow hard cider.

"Hay no drinking. You're not of age yet."

"Oh yes I am, turned 21 in May"

"Oh yah, crap well everyone be careful now!" Chief yelled as he began cooking the steaks.

After that there wasn't time to keep tabs on everyone. She began to cook the grilled cheese, someone had brought home made tomato soup, another person brought cheese meatballs, so much food was brought, enough to feed an entire army, which it felt like at her place right at this moment. Vert stuck to Chief as well as Jeff since everyone looked at him with a dangerous edge before they were explained that he was not James and that he had saved Cheza from James yesterday. The day went buy and Vert got offered a few drinks. Most of them were fine but then there was one he knew had alcohol in it. He didn't tell anyone he wasn't 21...yet, just a few more months. The party lasted until the moon was high in the sky before everyone started taking off. Vert was in the sitting room...sitting on the ground.

"Vert? Vert where are you?" Cheza called outside. She hadn't seen him for a while now...not since the sun went down.

"Your sapos to say Marko when trying to find someone." Vert slurred out.

"Vert?" she said, going down the steps into the sitting room.

"Say Marko!" he said, throwing his arms up in the air.

"Ok Marko."

"POLO!" He yelled then started laughing, his face red all the way to his nose.

"Why are you sitting on the ground?"

"Well...I kept running into things...and the room kept moving...so I just sat down." He said, taking another swig from his glass before it was taken out of his hand. "Give it back is mine!"

"Oh no you don't Vert, you are drunk. Oh god I need to get this on Video." she said as she turned one of the security cameras in the house to face him. She took a drink and nearly choked. "Holly crap this stuff is strong, where did you get it?"

"Well Mitchell gave me a cup."

"Mitchell...the old man with the firemen's hat?"

"HAY that's him. Nice guy, he had a red face though" He slurred trying to take another drink from the glass not remembering it had been taken away from him just a few moments ago.

Cheza looked at Vert, at the drink, then back to Vert. Oh dear, that man was a alcoholic with a very high tolerance built up over the years. "Have you ever had anything like this before?"

"Well beer mostly but nothing really hard."

"Would you excuse me for a minute." She said with a smile, going over to get her cell phone and looking up Mitchell's sons number. "Hay Lykin can I speak to your father please...yes now...I don't care if he is out of it...PUT...HIM..ON!" She growled into the phone and waited for a while. "Hello fire chief Mitchell, yes its Cheza I have a question for you. You know my friend Vert...yes the one with blond hair...yes I know he looks dashing what I...What drink did you give him." She waited, her face blanching, then losing its color. "You gave him a cup full of Spirytus Polish Vodka 192 Proof alcohol, you know he has never drank anything harder then beer right...oh shit is right!" She yelled into her phone. "I DONT CARE IF YOU WERE THANKING HIM, YOU DONT GIVE ANYONE DRINKS LIKE THAT MUCH LESS PEOPLE MY AGE...I DONT CARE IF YOU THOUGHT HE WAS OLD ENOUGH IF HE DOSNT HAVE GRAY HAIR THEN HE IS TO YOUNG! Now I have to watch him and make sure he doesn't loose conciseness all...night...long." She sighed as she hung up the phone and went over to sit next to Vert as he was looking at his hands. "Vert, I have some bad news. You were given some of the strongest alcohol in the world. You may get alcohol poisoning and you are shit faced right now."

"Cool."

"No...bad Vert, you may die if you get alcohol poisoning."

"OK not cool. So what do we do sweetie?"

"Sweetie? Oh god I am to sober for this. Start singing it's a small world and I will be back. Don't stop until I come back." She said getting up, taking the glass of Spirytus Polish Vodka 192 Proof and chugging the rest of it. She had had some food as well so she felt she would be ok. It would probably get her buzzed. She had a higher metabolism then practically everyone she knew thanks to her father.

She went upstairs and put on her short shorts and a green tank top and headed back downstairs. The entire time Vert was singing, very off key, it's a small world. Once she sat back down with a strongbow and a big glass of water for Vert he stopped. "So what now?"

"We talk until you sober up."

"About what?"

"How about this, since you probably won't remember this, you tell me what you lost control of with me and I will tell you about James."

"You promise?" He said, making a pouty face. It was very cute and it took all of her strength not to squeal at his face.

"I promise."

"Pinky swear?" He asked, extending his pinky.

She sighed and wrapped her pinky around his, their faces very close. "Pinky promise."

"You really do have beautiful eyes."

"You go first." she said as she was just feeling the effects of the alcohol on her cheeks.

"Well let's start with, I use to be a major man whore."

At this Cheza spewed all of the drink she had in her mouth all over the floor before gasping for breath. "Oh my god Vert, don't joke about things like that."

"I wasn't joking." He said, looking at her. He looked almost like his normal self except his pulps were overly dilated.

"Wow...I...I never would have expected that from you."

"I know, it's a part of my past I am very ashamed about. When my dad disappeared, I was 14 as well. My mom had already died so it was just me and my dad. I never told anyone that my dad was dead. I was kind of use to doing things on my own. But with the absence of both my parents...it was a hole that was hard to fill so I distracted myself with girls. Mainly one night stands but in a place like Handlers Corner it's hard to keep that up without having repeats. I made sure I wore protection so nothing would come from it but still I just kept going. Every time I finished I would leave and have to be alone again, so I would come back days later for another round just for the few hours of forgetting. After about 4 years of that I knew how to please the ladies well."

"Dang I can fathom, 4 years of it, did you have a nickname?"

"Yah Mike Midnight."

"Wow...ok I am still to sober for this." she said, getting a glass of Desarono. "Ok, continue."

"Well there was this one girl who proclaimed me her boo, and there have been a few who did that but after I talked to them and told them I was not interested in any commitment they would stop. But this girl was crazy. She said that I was hers and that if I stopped having sex with her she would kill herself."

"Power play, toping from the bottom so to speak."

"How did you know that."

"I read...a lot...of fanfiction" She said, smiling shyly.

"Wow the things you don't know about a person until you get drunk." He said taking a sip of water. "Ok well she was the last person I had sex with. And to be honest I didn't care until that night. When I was plowing into her...I felt nothing. I felt alone, and not just the alone with no one around. You know when you are in a room full of people and they ignore you and act like you are not there. I felt that kind of alone and I hated it because the pain came back. The pain I had been trying to forget. That was the reason I became a man whore, to push away the emptiness and pain of being alone, even if it was just for a few hours. But with her, Victoria, that feeling of being alone and the pain of it was right there, staring me in the face the entire time. So I decided I would never have sex again until I found the one girl, no the one woman that would make my life worthwhile. Never being alone, me needing her and her needing me. We could talk for hours and yet at the same time we could sit in silence and it would be fine and we would not feel alone. So for two years I didn't have sex. I didn't even get the itch to have sex with anyone until Agura came. I was able to ignore that itch, enough to just keep going and not let it affect me." He said, taking another drink and belching. "And then you came along."

"Me?"

"Yes you. When we drove up to you and I got out of the Saber and really looked at you. Your flowing firey hair, your posture, and then your eyes, I could see myself in your eyes. Eyes that had seen and experienced more in their life than one would like, I felt a different kind of itch really, almost like a longing. I thought it was the longing of just having sex again, kind of like with Agura, so I ignored it. It actually wasn't until I saw you in civilian clothes that the longing became a full blown desire, an itch I just couldn't get rid of, and I hated it. And then I was able to observe you as a person. You were so thoughtful and kind to everyone, but you wouldn't let anyone push you around like Simon. I loved how you verbally bitch slapped him and just walked away. You should have seen the look on his face. You are beautiful on the outside and radiant on the inside. The moves you do in the battle zones are calculated and you always think of the team. But you never think of your own safety and it makes me so angry that you would think your life is worth nothing. 2 years I had been fine then this red haired green eyes temptress comes into my life and just throws all the self control I had built up out the window at high speed."

"Oh...so you found me attractive?" She said, her face red with drink now, her mind a little fuzzy.

"Attractive, that is an understatement actually. Please don't take this the wrong way, but you are one of the most sexiest women I have ever seen. I thought Agura was beautiful but you...gah" He said in a huff, placing his face in his hands. "The subtle curve to your cleavage, the way you walk and your hips sway, and you gorges ass. Every time I look at thoughts mounds I just want to squeeze them and feel them and...ok hold on" he said, placing his face in his hands again.

"A little to much for you?" she teased.

"Don't tempt me. Please don't tempt me." he said back, smiling.

Maybe it was the drink, or maybe it was the fact he was trying to be chivalries, but something made her stand up and turn her back to him, wanting him to touch her mounds.

Vert sighed, getting control of himself only to lose it again when he saw her behind facing him and within arm's reach. He just stared, not willing to believe it, but since she was there he reached up and cupped her cheek and squeezed. "Oh my god I was right. Your ass is perfect, just the right amount of firmness and fitness and fluffiness" he said as he began to kneed her cheeks slowly and thoroughly.

Cheza was feeling very warm indeed as he played with her cheeks. She could feel a warm and tight sensation in her abdomen and she couldn't help let out a pleasurefull sound when he started using a hand for each cheek. "I...need to get some water" she said, walking away into the kitchen and splashing some water in her face. She could feel herself sobering up. Maybe James was right, maybe she was a slut. She nearly threw up at the thought that that asshole would be even remotely right about anything about her. She got some more glasses of water and headed back. Vert looked like he was savoring his little fondling experience with her cheeks. She blushed at the thought before she sat down next to him.

"I knew your posterior was perfect, I just knew it. If you couldn't tell I am an ass and hip guy."

"Really I had no idea" she said sounding shocked. Vert gave her a look of mild humor before taking the rest of water from his glass and splashing his face with it.

"Anyway, so that's why I treated you like that and I am sorry."

"So...sex every week for 4 years."

"Yes."

"Then you went cold turkey for 2."

"Yes."

"And finally, 2 beautiful females show up in your life?"

"You catch on quick." he sighed.

"Sooooo...I have to say this...sexual frustration?"

"Yup"

"No wonder you were so fierce in battle. I can only imagine how you have dealt with it for the past few months."

"Masturbation, daydreaming, and kicking alien ass."

"I said I can imagine not that I wanted to know."

"Well now you know"

"Wow you are a blunt kind of drunk."

"Yes I am" he said turning to look at her. "Now it's your turn. What's with this James guy?"

"Well" she said, rolling the drink she had in her glass around the rim. "I met him when I was 12 years old. We kind of hit it off fairly fast. My father didn't like it but he never said no to me calling him my boyfriend. He was really sweet during that time. He was always there to help me and he would kiss my hand and open doors for me. He had me and almost everyone else in town fooled. The day I found out my mother and father had died in the fire saving a family with 3 little kids was the day he came to my house. He took me in his arms, he calmed me down. I felt so much pain that when he started touching me I didn't say no. But when he went further by taking off my cloths I told him to stop." She said, looking away from Vert. "He said that he was going to make me feel good and forget about the pain I was feeling at the loss of my parents. I kept telling him no, I tried to fight him off, but I was so weak from my depression and crying all day I couldn't get him off, so I stopped because he wasn't listening and I began to cry, to sob. He was right, I did forget about the pain I felt for my parents, I was feeling an entirely new pain, both physically and emotionally. He told me it always hurts the first time and finished up and then he called me a slut and that he was going to leave me as sloppy seconds for someone else. At that time I felt so alone, even from my friends because everyone knew. He had boasted about it in town by claiming it was consensual. I felt like everyone was avoiding me, and looking down at me, so I ran. I was 14 years old, he was 16."

Vert was quiet the entire time, watching her as she told her story, no emotion, just like she was reading it off a script. He nodded his head and got up, heading for the door, wobbling a little.

"Where are you going."

"To find the fucker and kill him."

"WOH WOH wait Vert, you are in no shape to do that. Besides you will be arrested, I mean he was a man whore as well, like you."

Vert turned on her, grabbed her arms and brought her close to him, his eyes full of anger. "I am nothing like that fucker, all the sex I had WAS consensual, I would never rape someone, I would never have sex after they said no until they said I could continue. What he did was rape you and he needs to pay for it. I hate men like him, taking advantage of women and ruining something that should be cherished."

"Ok ok, maybe he does but not here, and not like this." She said, placing her hand on his shoulder. She could see that he was very bothered by this. She didn't want him to hurt himself. "And for all its worth, I never thought you were like him. I only thought you looked like him."

"God...oh my god no wonder you were scared of me all the time. I am so sorry"

"It's ok Vert" she said, pulling him back into the sitting room and sitting him down at the end of the coffee table. "I know better, you are nothing like him."

Vert growled as he sat down, bringing her down with him and holding her in his arms. He was so gentle with her. "You don't have to worry about him, I will protect you from him, I promise."

Cheza just sat there, her body against Vert's, his arms around her, and when he said he would protect her, her heart started beating a mile a minute. She felt like she was being held by someone...someone who truly cared about her. Like her father did, like her godfather. It was a kind of gentle masculine protection, and it calmed her mind. They sat there for a while in each other's arms before they started talking again. They asked simple questions to get to know each other. From light questions like what was their favorite color to deep questions like what is the meaning of life. Before they knew it the sky was starting to turn dark blue.

"How do you feel Vert?"

"Like my head is going to explode and that its to fucking bright but other than that I think we had a good night." He said, covering his eyes.

"Yah we did, let's get you to bed and get some aspirin in you" She said, handing him a glass and heading for the downstairs room. once in she got him some aspirin, watched him take it, pulled the blinds so he would not get a head ace from the sun, put a bucket on the other side of the bed then closed the door. She finished cleaning up the party. "Good thing we put the food away before the party was over" she said, whipping down everything and making sure everything else was put away before going to her bed and going to sleep faster than you could say sober.