"Wait." Alison knelt before Alexei. "You gave me pleasure last weekend," she said. "I want to give you pleasure as well, but I don't want to hurt you."

He chuckled. "Just don't use teeth."

She took him into her mouth, and he told her how best to pleasure him. When she heard him moaning she knew that she must be doing it right and felt really happy.

"That's enough," he said laughingly after a few minutes. "Now it is your turn."

She lay back on the bed and parted her legs, and he very quickly brought her to orgasm with his lips and tongue. Then he handed her the condom and she fumbled with it for a moment before giving up and handing it back to him. He quickly slipped it on and then entered her. He used his fingers to bring her over the edge a second time before going there himself.

"That's the first time I ever did that for a man," Alison confessed as they lay cuddling in one another's arms afterwards.

Alexei gaped at her, disbelief in his eyes. "What about Dennis?"

"We barely had time to do anything at all before he was sent to Vietnam," Alison said sadly. "We had just enough time for me to get pregnant, and that was all."

"Is very sad for Denny to grow up without his father," Alexei said sympathetically. "He seems to have turned out to be fine young man anyway. You have my admiration."

"Thank you." Alison smiled. "And Alexei...thank you for being patient with me. I know I'm not very skilled at...well, you know..."

"It is all right, Alisonka," Alexei said tenderly. "You are honest, don't pretend to know what you do not, and for that I respect you very much. We are from different cultures, so of course there will be adjustments. That is to be expected. But it is all right." He hugged and kissed her for reassurance, and she contentedly fell asleep in his arms.

"I promised Annie Price I'd go shopping with her this afternoon," Alison told Alexei the following morning. "Her name was Annie Whitaker before she got married. Do you remember her? She was the little girl I was babysitting the day you and the others came."

"Of course I remember!" Alexei said.

"Why don't you come along? I'm sure she'd love to see you again."

"What kind of shopping?" Alexei asked warily.

"She's expecting another baby, and she needs some furniture for the nursery."

"Ah, baby furniture. Reminds me of going shopping with Nadya before Dasha was born. Of course I will come. It will be like reliving old memories." Alison thought of being pregnant with Denny, of shopping alone for the things he would need and having to just guess at what Dennis would have approved of.

After lunch, Alison drove to Annie's house, where Annie sat watching her three-year-old son, Tyson, play.

"Annie, do you remember Alexei Kolchin from the Russian submarine? You were very little then..."

"Oh, yes! I remember you." Annie smiled at Alexei.

"You are all grown up now, and so is little boy who fell from church tower. Where is he now?"

"He and my husband are both in Iraq now, trying to save the world from a real dictator, Saddam Hussein. Your Nikita Khrushchev was a kitten compared to him."

"Let me tell you something about Nikita Khrushchev that I'll bet you did not know," said Alexei. "He went to your President Kennedy's funeral. That happen in my last year of school, before I join navy. We were all so shocked, so sad."

"I was in the tenth grade," said Alison. "We were all shocked and saddened as well."

"How come you talk funny?" little Tyson asked Alexei.

"I am spy," Alexei told him. "I come to steal atomic secrets so that we can build better bomb and blow you up first. Let me guess. You are CIA, right?"

Tyson looked puzzled. Annie burst out laughing. "He says that with such a straight face."

"Alexei's from another country," Alison told Tyson. "That's why he sounds different when he talks."

"You mean like ALF?"

"Yeah, kind of like that." Alison giggled. "Well, if everyone's ready, let's go."

They went to four different stores, and Annie bought a crib, a rocking chair, and a changing table.

"That's enough shopping for one day," she said as they left the last store. "I'm tired."

"Well, you certainly shouldn't overexert yourself," said Alison.

"You sound just like my Mom sometimes," Annie told her.

"I remember your Mom," said Alexei. "She was nice lady. She and your father still live here as well?"

"Oh, yes," said Annie. "My Dad's retired now, of course."

"And your brother?"

"He still lives here too. He's married with two sons. So you never married, Alexei?" She'd noticed that he and Alison were holding hands.

"I was married, once," Alexei said softly. "My wife, she die of cancer."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Annie. "Do you have any children?"

"I have one daughter, Darya. She is eighteen. She is here in the U.S. as well."

"Wow, the same age as Denny. Have they met yet?"

Alexei and Alison laughed.

"Oh...I see." Annie laughed too. "Well, I think that's really neat. And you guys are together again, too. That's just too cool for words."

"Alison, she was alone for very long time," Alexei said. "I hope that I can make it up to her."

"You already have," said Alison. Suddenly there was a lump in her throat and she couldn't say anything more. Alexei hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

Annie giggled. "You two are so cute together."