She appeared in her doorway, an absolute vision. Moving through it, she approached him with the most beautiful smile on her face. Hair up, messy and beautiful, and a long black dress flowing behind her as she took long strides to him… she looked like a dream. He was standing at the passenger side door waiting to open it for her. She moved right up on him, wrapping her arms around his waist, her scent moving through him as she placed her lips on his.

"Can you please do that again?" He said with a dizzy smile on his face.

She leaned up to kiss him again but he moved away stopping her, "I thought you…"

"No, can you go back inside and come out again, that was beautiful. You are beautiful." And he kissed her bright smile before opening the door.

He went to close it to go around the other side, but she gave him a tug and he practically fell on her into the car. They laughed lightly as she scooted over and he moved in next to her, arm around her shoulders, leg crossed toward her. Once again, feeling they had sat like this on the way to everything in life, for years. They always fit so perfectly. The driver was smiling at them in the rearview mirror as Lucien told him they were all set.

"Where are we going?" She asked, curious but not really caring.

"My favorite Italian spot, if that's okay?" She nodded and he continued "Mum made me promise to take you. We have been going there since we first moved to the city a lifetime ago. I grew up with them, sort of. A wonderful family and the most delicious food, you can taste the love they put into everything there." He was overjoyed and she could tell it was special, which made her feel special too.

"I would go anywhere with you." She leaned into him happily.

"And I want to take you everywhere you want to go." He kissed the top of her head.

He told her about the family on the way. How he and Genevieve had even gone to visit the town in Italy where they were from. Stayed with them there many times and felt it was a second home. They were one of his favorite things about growing up in the city, his Italian family. Especially Angelo, who had been a surrogate father after losing his own as a young boy.

"So, introducing me to the family already? This must be serious." She gave him a teasing smile.

"They are going to love you. My zia has told me about you for years." He said smiling back at her.

He explained briefly how his "aunt" had a dream about him being happily in love years ago, and had been reminding him of it ever since. Her grandmother was in the dream as well, so she believed it to be a very real premonition of his future. By the time they got to Amato's Ristorante, Jean was adequately nervous to meet this other family that was so important to him.

"Lucien! Il mio cucciolo!" His zia shouted across the packed tiny room. "Angelo! Lucien è qui, vieni a vedere."

He leaned in to kiss the woman, still holding Jeans hand, as a large man came barreling toward them. The beautiful older woman then came to stand in front of her as the two men embraced, her hand now dropped and by her side.

"Ah! questa è la tua bellezza?" She said looking intently into Jeans eyes, grabbing her hands, smiling. "So sorry. I asked if this was his beauty. I forget my manners when I'm excited. You know us Italians, always thinking, speaking and moving too fast." And she gave Jean another sweet but reserved smile, kissing her cheeks.

Lucien moved back beside her, "Jean this is my zia e zio, Aunt Frankie, um Francesca, and Uncle Angelo Amato." He said in a sing song voice that made him sound Italian too.

"And yes," he said to his zia, "This is my beauty, Jean Beazley." And he gave Jean a shy smile.

"A true beauty." Angelo said moving up on her for a hug and kiss on both cheeks "It's lovely to meet you Jean. We have been looking forward all day. I have a special meal for you. Come, sit." He was somehow moving their whole group through the crowded room to their table. Three of them sat as Angelo disappeared into the back.

The two women locked eyes. There was a strange comfort in the questioning gaze of the older woman. She could tell this was a woman who felt people very deeply, and she was getting a read on Jean. Touching her arm or hand the whole time as they continued a bit of small talk. She was asking Jean a few quick pointed questions, but Jean wasn't fooled, as light as the subjects were, Francesca was digging deep. She also clearly loved Lucien very much, all the Amato's she met that night did. She felt enveloped in a slow deep warmth there, even though the energy was almost manic. People flying by kissing and chatting briefly with her, and some with Lucien too. He always introduced her, but she knew she would remember none of them.

Francesca read Jeans face, "I know we are a lot, as are most of the patrons who come here, it's all love. I believe that you are 'a lot' as well. Si?" And the two women shared a knowing smile.

"Yes, most would probably agree with you on that." Jean laughed, then trying to move the conversation off of herself. "The energy is wonderful here, I can feel the love you speak of. And the scent is glorious." She said referring to the intoxicating aroma of spices, garlic, and baking bread hanging in the air.

"You know, I call Lucien my puppy. Because he loves as beautifully and pure as that." She levelled a gaze at Jean, eyes squinted, studying her. "I suspect you may be a puppy too." And her whole face relaxed as she took Jeans hand, giving it a squeeze.

None too soon, Angelo returned with a bottle of wine, exchanging a few words in Italian with his wife before she rose and went into the back. Everything was whirling around them, the air was hot and delicious and everything was so close and intimate in the tiny place. Suddenly Jeans eyes that had been surveying the room, darted back to Lucien. She smiled an odd smile at him and he raised his eyebrows in question.

"Is that Robert DeNiro in the corner?" She asked quietly in his ear. Not that it mattered in this loud space.

"Yes. It's his favorite Italian spot too." He said as they both watched his Aunt Frankie approach the table with a few plates. When she turned to leave, the actor grabbed her hand and gave it a kiss. They exchanged a few words before she returned to the back.

Jeans eyes flew back to Lucien's, she was properly impressed. Returning her attention to the table, she realized plates of bread, oils and cheese were now there although she had not seen it arrive. Angelo and his wife came out from the back with more plates, joining them at the table. Food, wine, conversation and laughs followed for hours. Jean felt as if she had been transported to Italy as the language continued to be infused into the conversations around her. A few times, Frankie, which she had told Jean to call her, had reminded the men to return to English. But Jean could have listened to Lucien speak their language forever. It was a night she didn't want to end. But as the hour grew later, the tables emptied and it was time for them to go.

Angelo was packing up extras for them to take home while Frankie continued a long farewell with them. Hugging and kissing Jean the whole time. At one point, she turned to Lucien and spoke in Italian, with tears in her eyes.

"L'hai trovata. Lei è la donna dei miei sogni per te. L'ho vista solo da dietro. Era un'energia, non una faccia che ho visto per te. E non la sua energia, ma la tua reazione a lei. Capisci?" She nodded to Lucien in question and placed a hand on his face. "lei è il tuo destino. lo sai, si?" And she kissed him hard on the mouth as a mother would reassuringly to a small child.

She turned to Jean with tears now flowing, "Lucien will tell you, my dear. When I am emotional, only my native tongue will carry my thoughts." She embraced Jean and kissed both her cheeks a dozen times more, bringing tears to her eyes as well.

"Oh wife! You sure know how to end a perfectly happy evening" He winked at Jean.

They all said goodbye for another twenty minutes, with promises to return soon with Genevieve. When they dropped in the car, the wine and enormity of the evening hit Jean and she began to cry, burying her face in Lucien's shoulder. He placed a hand under her chin lifting her eyes to his, then kissing her through the tears until she finally calmed. Pulling back, he gently took her face in both hands, "Marry me." It wasn't a question, it was a plea.

There was not even a single heartbeat's pause before, "Yes." She wiped the tears from his cheeks and kissed him softly before turning to place her head on his shoulder, curling into his side.

The rest of the ride was a charged silence. Both looking at their hands entwined. Fingers moving to keep some energy flowing or they might explode, stuck in this car. Each tiny new touch of their fingertips with its own magical feeling. When they pulled up to his building, Jean asked if they could go to her place.

"I would like to have you in my home tonight. Please." She needed this to be celebrated in her own energy, surrounded by her things. She needed the comfort of it all to know this was real, that it wasn't all some dream she could wake up from. Because a life without Lucien Blake would be a living nightmare.

They made it up to the first landing in her building, their fingers still in the easy grasp they had been holding since she uttered the word in response. But she still feared it wasn't real. Three days. She had known the man for three days. Multiple lifetimes, and three days.

They hit the landing and she turned pinning him in the corner, her mouth taking ownership of his in the most desperate way. Her leg reached up over his hip, he grabbed on and turned them. She was now cornered as his hand went up under her dress, reaching around her lower back brushing his fingers under her from front to back, then giving her bum a hard squeeze. Her hand reaching down to rub over his zipper. They smiled on each other's mouths at the tell-tale signs they had felt. Her leg dropped as his hands flew over her breasts, aggressively cupping them, pushing her deeper into the corner as his mouth continued to take her breath away.

Finally making it the rest of the way up to her apartment, they couldn't seem to move fast enough. The moment the door closed he lifted her dress up and off, leaving her completely naked before him in the one swift move. She made a teasing face at his state of dress, then feigning annoyance, made quick work of stripping him too. They fell into her bed and were taken quickly to climax the first time. It had been sitting there, waiting for them for too long for it to go any other way. She had almost lost it on the landing from one single touch. As they lay staring at each other through light touches in the afterglow, she finally broke the silence.

"So… can you tell me what she said now." She ran a hand over his head and down his face to land on his chest. Her beautiful, tired eyes waiting.

"About five years ago, she had a dream, a premonition for me. I mentioned it earlier. She dreamed of me in a life full of love. Truly happy in the love of a woman." He brushed the damp hair from her neck, running his hand down her arm. "You were the woman in the dream. That's what she told me." He stared lovingly into her eyes as they shined with tears again.

"She saw me?" She blinked.

"Sort of. She saw you through me. My eyes." He said softly. "She never saw a face, it was the way I looked at the woman in the dream, and the energy felt in it. She saw me with that look, with you, tonight. You are the one." And he leaned forward to kiss her nose.

"Ask me again." She was beaming at him.

"S'il te plaît, veux-tu m'épouser?" He smiled.

"vuoi sposarmi per favore?" And he took her in his arms, turning over onto her.

"Jean Beazley, will you please make me the happiest man in the universe and marry me?"

She looked up into those beautiful bright blue eyes, "Oui, sì, yes."

He went down on his elbows, hands around her head, his weight on her, and kissed her with all the energy he could muster from his head to his toes. He was home. They were home. They celebrated all through the night. Sleeping in spurts after the adrenaline of each high was spent. Waking only to reach immediately for each other, hungry to be as close as possible again.

"I'm hungry." She said just before dawn. "Are you hungry?"

"God bless Angelo." He said remembering the food he sent home with them.

They sat at her dining table, naked as the day they were born, stuffing their faces with cold ravioli and flat breads. Tired, happy eyes never breaking connection, counting the minutes until they could be in each other's arms again.

"Come to lunch with me and mum tomorrow. We can tell her together." He took one of her hands.

"Sunday is your special day with her." She raised a brow, asking him to consider her first.

"Well I can't think of anything more special. And you know she will be thrilled." He kissed her hand.

She told him she would let him take the lead on this. She would be wherever he wanted her to be as he let his family know. And she would like him to go to San Francisco with her to meet Lee, who would be nothing but happy for them.

"Sons are easy. But weaving through your world of women, may prove more difficult than you think." They were getting back into bed for some much-needed sleep with full bellies and full hearts. "I'm going to let you include or exclude me as you see fit. None of it will hurt my feelings, but I would like it to all happen as quickly as possible."

They were tucked together, her hand on the arm around her, and they both knew who she was talking about. Lucien knew Jacq was going to take a little more care and finessing, and he appreciated Jean letting him know that was okay. But also, that she wouldn't let it hold them back.

"Three days." She said sleepily.

"Maybe we should get married at Medici Café." He laughed into her shoulder before sleep took him. "Best decision either of us ever made, twice, to be here."