We made it home safely, the little girl's father was going to live, thank God. He seemed overjoyed that I had taken care of his little one. Her name was Ashley and she drew me a picture of an angel. All I could think to say was thanks, and gave her a hug. Stephanie wasn't so well off, mentally at least, after she saw the guy shot that I loaded onto the flight that night, it freaked her out pretty good. "That's what they would have done haw?" It'd been a week, but I needn't press for information, we were on the same wavelength, I knew what she was talking about. "They would've shot us."

"Me, yeah, you probably not." We were at home, sitting on the back porch with lemonade in our hands. Stephanie wasn't worried about going back to school, she had graduated in June. I slid my arm around her and laid my other hand on her thigh.

"What would they have done to me?"

"It depends on who they thought I was. They were terrorists Stephanie, they would have taken you for torture, or bait. I don't want to think about what they would've done if you told them you were pregnant, they would've killed the baby, but kept you alive most likely." I squeezed her tighter. "I didn't want you to have to know that. I wanted to protect you for as long as I could."

"That was just as long as you could. I'm glad I know, and I can stop having the nightmares now." I rubbed my lips along her hair and laid back with her. "The baby wants cheese fries." I chuckled.

"Coming right up." I went into the house and began cooking.

"Hunter?" She asked a minute later. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, you know that."

"Do you want to know what it is? I mean if it's a girl, would you want the time to prepare yourself? Mentally? I mean we can worry about the nursery later, I don't care if the baby has to sleep in a white room for awhile, I worry about you." I stopped melting the cheese in the pan and turned to face her. She was just starting to show a little bit around the waist.

"Don't, I want this more than anything in the world, except you. I can handle it being a girl if it is. If you want to know for you, that's great, that's fine. I don't need to be surprised; I can't stand to be surprised. I want to know. Not to find out if it's a girl, but so we can go shopping for baby stuff in the corresponding colors."

"We have a few weeks to wait honey." She chuckled and stepped into my arms. "How're my cheese-fries coming?" I turned back and stirred the melting mozzarella in the pan. She gagged and turned away for a second. "I have one other question for you."

"Shoot."

"Why did the officer from the copter let you come back with him?" I paused, stirred the cheese again.

"See, Steph, there are one or two things you don't know about me, but this conversation is best to be held with Shawn and I both present. Take a seat; I'll bring your fries in a few."

"I'll call Shawn; I want to know what the big secret is." I grimaced, my past was to be kept a secret, as far as Shawn and I were concerned, both of our pasts were to be kept away from our wives. Stephanie sauntered back in holding the phone in her hand. "He'll be over, now that I mentioned cheese-fries." I wrapped one arm around her and slid the fries onto a plate. "You seem unhappy, or nervous."

"A little bit of both right now babe." I carried the plate to the couch and turned on the radio. Stephanie ate one or two of the fries, but decided to wait until Shawn came over to eat more, as to not be rude.

Shawn never knocks, never has, it wouldn't be shocking to me if he would've walked into my bathroom without knocking. It's not that he's inconsiderate, he's just a pig. Neither I nor Steph was shocked when the door swung open and Shawn pulled the plate from the coffee table. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" He asked with his mouth full. "Cause I have a job to do in an hour, I got a new one, some bouncer position or something." He stood up, placed the plate back on the table, scratched himself, and went to search the fridge for beer.

"She wants to know about our pasts man." I stated after he took his seat back.

"Shit." His lips were still against the rim of the Coors Light can. "Are we telling her?" Stephanie was still sitting next to me on the couch, Shawn and I were just talking over her.

"I don't see why not, it's not like she didn't get a little snapshot on the ship."

"Fine, you start."

"Fine then, it was a year after we got out of high school. Shawn wanted to go into the military, as did I, but that wasn't an option. Shawn's dad was very strict about what he could, and couldn't do, and ever since Shawn's uncle went overseas his mother had been a wreck. See, Shawn's uncle didn't come back. Shawn and I decided that an alternative could be law enforcement. We started taking academy classes at the college, both of us graduated high in our class. We took positions at the department, both of us. We worked as partners for awhile, but I branched out. I got called up," Shawn shot me a death glare. "I wanted to be called up, I applied for the position."

"Position of what?" I looked back to Shawn.

"He wanted to be part of the bomb squad. He wanted to go into buildings and disarm explosives. Your husband is psycho. The only thing wrong with being crazy, is sometimes, most of the time, in that field, crazy works. He was the fastest fucker I've ever seen go in and come back out. Normally fast means sloppy. But, normal doesn't work with him." I nodded, crossing my arms. "See, Steph, have you seen Hunter without his shirt on, in the light?" I noticed my foot was tapping against my will. "Probably not, he's pretty careful about it, wears a shirt in the pool, takes it off, but puts a magazine across his chest or something when he gats out." I stroked Steph's hair. "See, shit happens in that world, like crazy mothafuckers coming around the corner strapped with more explosives and shooting themselves in the head." Stephanie leaned hard into my shoulder, I continued to stroke her hair, working farther down and rubbing her back. "Or, someone faking a bomb threat, so Hunter would come in, and get hurt." Steph's eyes followed my arm and met mine.

"How hurt?"

"Shot three times in the chest." Shawn answered for me. Stephanie shook her head in disbelief. I raised my shirt and allowed her to, for the first time, see the scars. "See, I was on duty that too, told to wait outside the building, and to not do anything stupid. I was always real good at doing stupid things. And that day I decided to see how good the battery was in my tazer. So I held it up to a cat that was just kinda walking by, I thought the battery was dead, and that it wouldn't do anything bad. But umm, I guess someone at the department must've charged, cause I shot the cat full of electricity. After I tazered the cat I stood back up and waited for a few more minutes for trouble, but there hadn't been any yet. Everything was going as planned. Hunter went in armed, and paged me from the room with the supposed bomb. He paged in that it seemed disarmed already, but he would step up and make sure. He radioed back to tell me about a noise, that the bomb was disarmed and that he would need backup. I went in first, after I kicked the cat to make sure it was still breathing," Shawn stared at his feet, stood up and started to act it out. "I pressed myself against the wall, guided by my gun into the single story house. Hunter was in the back bedroom, talking. It's always hard to tell with cops if he's talking someone else down, or talking himself back. When I got back there he was being held at gunpoint, I tried to be steady, and quiet. Hunter was talking to the guy, trying to talk him down. Telling him how it wasn't the right thing to do, that the madman would spend an endless amount of time in jail, and that Hunter would be leaving behind a wife and infant girl. I aimed for the guy, but the shots went off before I could get to him. Hunter was wearing a vest, but at point blank, those pieces of shit don't work well. I was lucky, my shot caught him in the head, he was the first shithead I ever killed. It sucked that he died, he didn't have to serve the time he'd earned with his little escapade."

"Steph, what Shawn is leaving out is this guy's name. Vladimir Koslov. A Russian foreign exchange student. He went to school with us, and one time, we put a frog in his locker." She looked at me angrily, I knew hat she was blaming me for getting shot now. "See, it wasn't aimed for him. He switched lockers with the guy next to him. Trust me, no one wanted to mess with Vladimir. He was some kind of human backboard. He was tall, and muscled like you wouldn't believe. Worse than that, he hated me. I don't know what I did to him, other than the frog in his locker thing. Which came way later in the "Let's Hate Hunter" campaign. I can't say that I was his biggest fan, but I was a lot nicer to him than he was to me, obviously. What he didn't get was, Shawn had to kill him. Once he pulled the gun on me, Shawn had no choice." I was careful to keep the strain from my voice. "He shot an officer, Steph, don't think that Shawn's a murderer."

"Why couldn't you tell me about this before?"

"I was afraid you either would have left, or hated Shawn."

"I probably would've hated Shawn, you killed someone Shawn." He hung his head and came to sit next to her.

"I know, and it's not like I don't feel bad about it. But I couldn't let the bastard kill Hunter." He wrapped his arm around her as well, and we sat like that, both of our arms around Steph. Shawn left about twenty minutes later, but not before using my bathroom to apply baby oil to his bare chest, he said it made him more muscular and not as old. Shawn was only a year older than me, which made him twenty six He pulled his hair back, hugged Stephanie and left.

"Are you ok with the fact that your best friend killed someone?"

"He killed a crazy guy with a death wish who shot me three times in the chest. Stephanie, I wasn't, no for a long time I didn't think Shawn would ever talk to me again. Because when I came to in the hospital, and Shawn told me what had happened, the first thing I said was thank you. Shawn was bent up about what he'd done, I was grateful. I felt like shit about it, and I hadn't even drawn my weapon." pulled her to lie on her back, with her head on my thigh. "I fell bad Steph, but it was a long time ago. It's over. I don't have that job anymore."

"How long were you a cop?"

"Just over a year. Then I went to subbing, and got a job at Olympic, and then at Los Lomas, where I met you and fell in love." I pulled her up to kiss her. "You tired?"

"I'm always tired." She rolled over and fell asleep in my lap. I watched cartoons and stroked her hair while she napped. "Baby, what happened to the cat?"

"You know Rosie, Shawn's cat that tends to walk in circles and drag it's left rear leg? That's the cat. She had good days and bad days, but sometimes you can't even tell she got volted, except for the tick, and the missing patch of fur. She's all good."