Another installment of this FF story. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading and the feedback!
Matt tossed and turned in his bed all night when he should have been sleeping. After all, he had a big day ahead of him when he would have to meet with two of his exes and let them down easily. Meaning that yes, the wills including their respective codicils were legally binding and no, he would not be getting married or siring a child with either one of them. Not conversations he was looking forward to having but hopefully at least there would be some closure in these visitations from his past. He had wondered why three of his ex girlfriends had come to him for favors in one week but had chalked it up to coincidence. When it rains, it pours that kind of thing.
But he didn't dream about anyone of those women had been part of his past, he dreamed of someone else. A beautiful woman with wavy mahogany hair, a sexy smile and two tattoos, who did these amazing things with her hands. The problem is, when things got really interesting, he always woke up breathing unevenly and drenched with sweat. And feeling a touch of embarrassment because if she only knew what he were dreaming.
He had rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the waves crashing against a nearby shore. The ocean, one more transparent and cast in an aqua blue had factored heavily as the backdrop of a couple of those dreams. He would try to clear his mind and then when sleep came, his dreams would continue.
So at about six am he quit trying to sleep and got up to throw on some running clothes to go pound out some miles on the packed sand closest to the surf to get his mind back on the track it needed to be for him to face this morning.
While the sun rose over the horizon turning the sky a rosy pink, Matt set out on his morning run.
C.J. rose up early too but she had woken up from dreams about taking Rodrigo to some strange version of the Medallion Ball and losing him there. She would look for him and then suddenly find herself in a maze, a labyrinth really guarded by one of those creatures which guarded the mazes in Greek mythology.
But when she woke, her conversation with Elise the night before had rankled her. The part where she had told her that she had enjoyed playing marriage with Matt. Maybe not the marriage aspect itself but the kissing part, most definitely. It's not like they hadn't done that before but it had been several years since what happened after the frog jumping competition and had naturally been a joke. But as far as thinking about anything further with her best friend, she could just forget it because he just didn't look at her in that way. After all, Matt went after whatever he wanted and when it came to women that seemed to include everyone of them in the vicinity except her.
And that was cool with her really because she had her own life to live and thinking about Rodrigo, that was pleasurable too because the other night when he had kissed her on the dance floor, that had jump started her body. Besides the dance and their physical attraction, they really didn't have much in common but that avoided a lot of complications.
She had a feeling that if she and Matt ever stepped outside the careful boundaries of their friendship, life would definitely get a lot more complicated. No, better to stick to the terms of what she valued as her most important relationship, the one that had lasted the longest whereas her boyfriends came and went and in one case…died.
Her cell phone rang while she made a quick breakfast before heading into the office. She really needed a couple rounds with a sparring partner or a bag but a pile of work awaited her at the office not to mention the next step in helping Edwina with her case.
"Hi, Rodrigo," she said, smiling.
"Hi, how are things going," he asked.
"Busy but I'll be able to meet you at the club tonight."
"Good…I'll look forward to you there," he said, "and hitting the dance floor."
She heard the hopefulness in his voice that they would do more than dance tonight.
"I'll be there by eight," she said, "Save a dance for me."
She clicked off her phone, shaking her head as she prepared her omelet. Tonight no doubt would be fun but she had to get through an arduous day first.
Matt got off the elevator and looked up to see Serena sitting coolly like a queen over her kingdom, dressed to the nines. When she saw him, her face brightened and she smiled. Matt smiled back a little warily, wondering what she had up her sleeve. With Serena, it was always something being sprung on him when he least suspected it and most of the time the surprises weren't pleasant.
"Well Matlock, have you found a way for me out of this mess?"
She looked at him hopefully, running her hand through her mane of hair.
"Come back to my office," he said and they both walked together.
When they got inside and he sat at his desk, she folded her arms.
"Well did you," she said, "My bastard of a father has struck from beyond the grave."
"The will's ironclad," Matt said, "I could have my associate C.J. look at it but I think she'll agree."
Serena snarled.
"I don't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing my problem," she said, "She's got her designs on you I can tell my darling."
Matt stroked his chin.
"You can fight the will in probate, but you'll probably lose," he said, "The bottom line is that it's his money, he can do as he chooses with it."
She shook her head.
"He's chosen to be evil with it," she said, "When he died, I thought it would all be mine but alas, not so."
Matt just studied her wondering if money were truly the only thing in life that made her happy and he actually felt sorry for her. She confused that for something else.
"Oh mi amore, please reconsider my request," she said, "Our child could be perfect."
Matt shook his head and she frowned.
"Serena, even if I were interested, it's not the right course of action," he said, "A child deserves to be loved by both of its parents and not seen as a chip to be cashed in for money."
She tilted her head.
"I would spend time with it," she said, "I would hire the best nannies, send it to the best schools…"
But Matt remained firm.
"Any child I father, I'm going to raise," he said, "I would never walk away."
She just rolled her eyes at him.
"Matlock, you are so damn sentimental," she said, "Not that it's not cute but the real world has no room for that."
"I'll try to remember that Serena," Matt said, "Now are we through here?"
She sighed and tossed her scarf back.
"Perhaps for now," she said, "but you know I won't stop at nothing until I get what I want and you darling have it."
"I don't think that's what you really want at all," Matt said, "You just want more money than most people could ever spend in one lifetime."
She shrugged.
"Oh the things that I could buy with it…for the child of course."
Matt sighed, just looking at her and how her beauty stopped right at the surface.
"I've got work to do Serena," he said, "You know if you really want a baby that bad to trade for a billion or so you could always try artificial insemination."
Her mouth twisted into an expression best described as horror.
"Matlock, are you daft," she said, "What do I look like one of the cows on your ranch?"
Matt just gave her one last look and headed back to his office to make some phone calls. Serena stomped past him towards the elevator.
C.J. got off the elevator and judging by the harried looks on the faces of the secretaries, she guessed that at least one of Matt's exes had paid a visit. Now which one would that be?
"Did I miss anything?"
Chris just stared at her still looking shell shocked so C.J. figured that since Erin had been returned to the mental institution, it had to have been Serena. She ducked her head in Matt's office.
"Are you ready to go to the clinic?"
He saw her and nodded.
"I've got to change," she said, "I'll be right up…are you going dressed like that?"
Matt looked down at his jeans and jersey shirt.
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"
She smiled, leaning against the door.
"Nothing…but you're posing as a CEO so you need the suit and tie," she said, "but you can change back to your play clothes when we get back."
"Only if you change into yours…"
She turned around and headed back down to change into her costume.
They drove in his Mercedes convertible to the clinic which looked exactly as they had left it despite all the excitement which had happened there. He parked the car and she saw that his tie was askew so naturally she tried to straighten it while he fidgeted.
She chuckled.
"Don't move…I almost got it," she said, "You've got to look like you came out of a business meeting not like you just parked…"
"C.J. I did just park…oh yeah you meant."
She liked the color that lit up his cheeks as they walked towards the clinic.
"Now remember, it's Mark and Ellen," she reminded him.
"I remember…the newlyweds who still can't keep their hands off of each other."
She slapped his arm lightly.
"I don't think that engaging in PDAs is wise," she said, "We're here to do a job."
He shrugged.
"We have to sell the married part C.J. and when people get married they don't stop them from getting frisky."
She bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"I'll keep that in mind."
The same no nonsense secretary met them and told them that Dr. Wilkinson would be ready to see them soon so they sat down and waited. Matt placed his arm casually around C.J.'s shoulders.
"Now honey, I think we're just going to have to hold off on that until we get home," he said, "unless the doctor tells us not to do it that way."
C.J. just turned to look at him.
"Well dear, I'm not a contortionist," she said, "but if that's what it takes to have a baby then I suppose I'll try anything once."
He waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Music to my ears…"
Finally a woman wearing a nurse's outfit called for them to follow her to see the doctor and they walked down the hallway to the same office they had been held hostage a couple of days earlier. Dr. Wilkinson sat at his desk, looking rather unperturbed while he filled out paperwork.
"So who's going to have their examination first," he asked.
Matt and C.J. looked at each other.
"He…"
"She…"
Clarence looked at them confused.
"Do you want to toss a coin or can we come to some agreement here?"
C.J. and Matt sat in the office, a while later. She looked over at him.
"That fainting spell was just brilliant," she told him.
He sighed.
"It bought us some time," he said, "Until the doctor comes back."
She got up and walked over to search the desk she had looked at the last time. More files were located inside the same drawer. She began to flip through them carefully.
"There's no way I'm providing him with any kind of sample," Matt said, "I'm not sure he's even a real doctor let alone a fertility expert."
She harrumphed from behind the desk.
"Do you think any woman's in a hurry to put her feet in the stirrups Houston," she said, "and I'm not talking a saddle here."
He sighed.
"I suppose not," he said, "but when I told him that needles make me pass out, he just looked at me funny."
C.J. slipped a piece of paper out of one file and examined it. It looked like some kind of invoice.
"Houston, you called his bluff and that's what matters," she said, "This looks interesting."
He walked over to where she sat with the paper.
"What is it," he asked.
"It's some kind of regular transaction," she said, "it's quite large and it's from some medical examination board."
"Maybe he bought all that fancy calligraphy on the wall."
"Could be," she said, as she examined other documents from the same file," here's another list of payments."
"Anyway we could smuggle a few of those out of here," he said.
She looked at him and walked over to a copier, removing some papers on top of it.
"I'll just borrow this one," she said, making copies while Matt stood by the door hoping no one would hear the machine.
Not to mention that they would have some explaining to do if Clarence returned with the smelling salts.
"I'm finished," she said, tucking them in her shirt.
Just then Clarence returned but they were both sitting and smiling at each other when he walked in.
"You're looking much better Mr. Carver," he noted.
"I feel much better," Matt said, "I don't know what hit me."
Clarence nodded.
"A lot of my patients are queasy about needles, although it's usually ones that are going to be used on them."
"I've been scared of them since I was a young boy," Matt explained, "Even hearing the word just about sends me into a dead faint."
Clarence watched him carefully.
"I'll keep them in mind," he said, "Now I'm not really going to be able to help you until you have your physical examinations."
Matt hedged.
"I just don't think I am up to being poked and prodded right now," he said, "Maybe next time."
Clarence turned to C.J. who smiled back weakly at him.
"I don't want to leave him alone for even one minute…in case he passes out again."
Clarence sighed.
"Okay…we'll reschedule you for your physical examination and tests," he said, "For now, I would advise you, Mr. Carver to stay out of the Jacuzzi…because it overheats the little guys."
Matt's brow rose.
"And you Ms Carver, you need to relax a little bit more," Clarence said, "You seem a bit tense, uptight and that can affect the hormonal levels enough to shut down the old ova factory."
"The what…?"
With that, he nodded and walked out of the office.
"He's the strangest doctor I've ever seen," Matt said, "little guys?"
C.J. put her hand through her hair.
"Can we just go now?"
They left the building and headed back to the office to do some work. Chris had already called Matt and warned him that Elizabeth wouldn't be in today but she planned to drop by tomorrow morning. C.J. had wanted to finish up some legal documents before heading off to meet Rodrigo at the club. She had even brought her clothes from home to change into before heading out.
She thought about what they had just been through at the clinic and whether or not she would ever want a child so much that she would jump through so many medical hoops to have one. Children were something that she knew she wanted but she had pushed forward some distance into the future, but what if she were ever in the position of having to see a doctor for real? Having to undergo examinations and numerous medical tests to conceive a child? And she didn't even want to think about having to resort to artificial insemination if she couldn't find a guy to take the natural route.
Still pretty young but in no way close to finding a good man and settling down to begin her family, no that would just have to wait in the future. And she had to concentrate on the here and now which was getting her work done so she could go out and have fun with a good looking guy she wasn't serious about.
Matt poked his head in just then.
"Busy working?"
She nodded.
"I should have the documents reviewed and ready for you to sign," she said, "and you are right about both wills and testaments."
"Serena wasn't happy with the news and she's not giving up," he said, "I guess Elizabeth will be here tomorrow."
"Houston, you have to do what's right for you," she said, "what makes you happy and if they care about you, they'll understand."
He nodded, knowing she was right.
"What would you do if you were in my shoes," he asked.
She thought about it but not for long.
"I wouldn't marry someone I didn't love and I wouldn't have a child with a man I didn't love and respect," she said, "and who I couldn't want to share in that experience with me."
He listened, picking up the resolution in her voice.
"I guess it's something that I feel strongly about…because I didn't have a family most of my life and I do want one someday when the time's right."
"And the guy too?"
She nodded and he smiled at her in return, before heading back to his office. `She watched him go, shaking her head.
Look but don't touch, she reminded herself, it was just better that way.