A/N: Well I got this out quicker than I thought I would, I hope you enjoy it.

She couldn't think of what to say to him to change his mind so she sulked quietly in the passenger's seat.

"Maddie." He said as they sat in traffic. "I know you're mad."

"I'm not mad." She refused to look at him.

A few minutes of silence passed and they only moved up one car space. There was a bad wreck up ahead, jamming up traffic effectively.

"I don't get it." Even if she didn't know what to say she couldn't keep quite. She'd never been the silent type.

He didn't respond so she kept going. "You know I could have accepted it maybe if you'd admitted there's something here and said something like I just don't think it would work between us. Or I just don't have time or I just don't want this, but that's not what you said. You said there was nothing here. That's a lie or your just completely blind." It was in that fashion she kept babbling at him. Arms crossed, looking out the window at the people going about their daily lives. She was well aware that she was being a brat, but she didn't want to just come out and say he'd hurt her, because she did have some pride.

She figured he'd had enough of her when he slung his car out of the bumper to bumper traffic and in to a parking space outside of a bar. "Look Maddie." He nearly growled.

She glared at him; he wasn't going to cow her into behaving, even though it did make her a little nervous to have him angry at her.

"You're right, okay?" He snapped. "There is a lot more here than just something. I'm in love with you, but guess what? It's not going anywhere. Is that what you wanted to hear? Happy now?"

Her face flushed. She felt an odd mix of happiness and guilt at having acted like a child moments before. "That's half of it." She nodded.

"What's the other half?" He said a little more calmly.

"A chance, because I love you too." She'd barely admitted that to herself but she knew it was real.

He sucked in a breath. She watched his knuckles go white as he clutched the steering wheel. He shook his head and hair fell in his odd colored eyes. "I don't think…I can't give you that. I'm sorry." And he really did look sorry.

"Why not?" She wanted to cry.

He brushed a hand through his hair and looked straight ahead. "Because there's things I've got to take care of. I can't stop…I can't just let it go." He sounded bone weary.

"Nick, is it about your mother?" She asked gently.

He nodded once, still staring straight.

"I wish I'd gotten to have met her." She really did too, because he was an amazing man and his mother had to have been a remarkable woman to have such a son like him. "But I don't think killing Ash is the answer. It won't bring her back." Boy did she know that first hand.

"Maddie." He stressed her name like he didn't want to hear this argument.

"No really, Nick, listen. I understand grief and having to put your life back together. My older brother, Christian, was murdered when he was twenty-one. Jason, my twin, and I were only fifteen and I watched what it destroy my family. We had everything pinned on seeing the guy who did it being locked away forever, but he got off on a technicality. Daddy couldn't take it; he shot and killed the man who murdered Christian. He got thirty years. I think the guy deserved it, but it shouldn't have been done. It didn't bring Christian back, and my mother couldn't handle losing both Christian and Daddy. She's…" She blinked back tears at the thought of her mother. "Jason left home to joined up with the Navy right after turning eighteen. I took care of Mama for two years by myself and I hated Daddy and Jason for a long time for leaving that responsibility on me. Aunt Tia finally moved back to Charleston and to help. I took off for New Orleans a week after she moved in. I was barely twenty. We might have been okay if Daddy hadn't done what he did." It wasn't something she was proud of, leaving her mother, but she couldn't stand living with the shattered pieces of her family anymore. My whole family fell apart when Daddy killed that man." We might have been okay if Daddy hadn't done what he did. I guess my point is that sometimes the price for revenge is just too high. Sometimes maybe forgiving them would be the better thing, not so much for the person who did the wrong, but for the person wronged."

She looked up at him wondering if anything got through to him, or if she'd just dragged up her ugly past for nothing. She never talked about her family, she loved them but it hurt too much. She'd only given Amber the basics and that had been after knowing her for a couple of years.

"I'm sorry."He reached out tenderly brushed her hair behind her ears.

"Me too. About your mom I mean. She must have been a hell of a lady."

"She was." He swallowed and she could hear just how much he missed her in those simply words.

"I don't think I'm strong enough to just walk away." H said after a moment.

"I think you are." She replied.

"You've got that much faith in me?"

She nodded. "Yes." There was no doubt in her mind.

"I can't grantee anything." He said quietly. "But what if I promise to try?"

"It's going to take time, and it wouldn't be easy." She warned not to discourage him, but to let him know not expect results immediately.

"I don't want you getting into something you don't think you can handle." He looked intensely at her and she knew the topic had changed. "Let's take this slow, and talk more later?"

"Does that mean you've changed your mind about sending me away?" She raised an eyebrow.

He nodded. "Tell me if this gets to be too much for you."

"I promise, but don't think I'm going to just up and run away if it gets hard. Have some faith in me, okay?" She'd ran once, and she never intended to do it again.

"Oh, I do." He smiled then kissed her. Sweet and demanding; it was perfect.

When they were back on the road again, heading back to his home he asked her to tell him more about her family.

"There's not much more to tell. That's about it."

"You keep in touch with them?" He asked.

"I call my mom about twice a month. I'll go home for Christmas to see her and visit my dad. I write letters back and forth with him constantly. He still manages to try to be a parent from behind bars, and I appreciate it. I haven't seen Jason in two years though. Every once in awhile I'll get a phone call or a post card from him. He's the one I miss the most. Until everything started to come undone we were best friends." She shook her head, something's just hurt to much to dwell on. "Tell me about your mother."

"She was the best mother I could have asked for, and way better than I deserved." He flashed her a smile and she saw the dimples she liked so much, then he went on describing his mother and their life together.

A/N: Don't forget to leave a review.