Okay here is another chapter. This one just came rushing out. Sorry if I added to much mush again. But this story is just so much fun to write, and Ami and Zach are such a mushy couple.

To those who have asked if I am going to make a story like this for ALL the Senshi, the answer is yes. I am not going to do a Usa and Mamoru one as of right now. I want to concentrate on the Inner Senshi.

This story only has about two chapter and a epilogue at the most left in it. Then I am going to go ahead with Day Care, which is Rei and Jason's tale. I hope all of you are going to stick around with me for those as well.

~Ravyn~

Disclamier: Do we have to go over this again?

Ami rolled out of bed and felt her face pull into a grin before she had even totally woken up to the bright sunshine. Today was going to be a beautiful day.

Ami sighed as her body fully woke up. She had had wonderfully dreams of many things. Each dream had been sweeter, better, allowing her a piece of her childhood dreams to resurface.

And it was all because of one green-eyed man.

Ami rolled out of bed with a hum…not even minding that it was closer to seven than she liked. A quick shower and she was in the kitchen frying eggs and making coffee.

Humming Ami stepped out into the gentle breeze and allowed the wind to ruffle her dark locks. The waves gently crashed on the beach and it was a perfect picture morning.

The phone ringing in a loud, abrupt noise shattered it, Ami grumbled as she marched back into the kitchen. Picking it up she found, to her surprise, that the phone was not even for her.

Ami blinked at the phone and walked up the winding staircase to Zach's room. A few gentle knocks later a wide-awake Zach opened the door.

Ami gave him a pointed look. "Phones for you." Ami said simply.

Zach gave her a surprised looked and he headed into his room. Ami shrugged and moved downstairs to the kitchen to hang the other receiver up.

~*~

" Zach Green." Zach said softly into the receiver. The fact that anyone had tracked his number down did not bode well for him.

"Zach." Came a voice as slippery as a snake, and as cold as shards. "This is your step-mother."

Zach grimaced. He had been fourteen when his mother had left, saying she could not bare another day in the same house as his father. Things had been downhill since he had lost his younger brother to drowning.

His father had remarried the most repulsive woman he had ever had the pleasure, or the torture, of meeting. With thick black hair and eyes to match, she was a dark as her looks.

Zach had moved out at the age of eighteen, getting an apartment with Kris, and had started to write. Between part time jobs and banging at his computer, college had been a blur.

The only time he and his stepmother talked was if she accidentally picked up the phone when he called for Christmas. Since they had invested in Caller I.D that had changed. He did not even have to hear her say 'Hello'.

"What do you want?" Zach demanded, skipping the happy 'how are you's'? It made his skin crawl to have to put up with her voice for five seconds longer than possible.

"Your father was in a car wreck. The doctors don't think he is going to make it through the night." Her voice snapped, as if he had done her a disfavor by being in the hospital.

" How?"

" What do you mean how?" Her voice snapped, lowering in tone. "His breaks went out or something, how should I know?"

Zach forced himself to breathe in and out. "Yes. I figured that part out…was he hit? Did he run into a ditch?" Zach's voice was as level as he could make it.

"County Drove hospital." And the phone hung up.

Zach buried his head in his hands and he sighed. It was just the way things went in his life. He was in a relationship with a wonderful woman, and now this had to happen. How to break the news to Ami?
~*~

Ami looked up from her second cup of coffee and frowned at the look on Zach's face.

"Are you all right?" Ami questioned. It was the closets she was going to come to asking who had called. She may have been on closer terms with this man…but they where not that close.

Zach ran a hand through his still loose hair. It tumbled around his head and shoulders, adding to the look of disarray. Ami felt her mouth begin to water.

"I am afraid…" Zach's word where choppy and rushed. Ami raised a cool brow.

"My father was in a car wreck…I have got to fly back tonight. They don't think he is going to make it." Zach said. His face was tight with hidden emotion and his face was stark white. Only his eyes held any color, and they where vibrant.

"Oh, Zach." Ami moaned, her hands flying to her mouth in shock. Her expression said everything her voice could not. Pain, worry, sympathy and hope.

Zach looked at her, his expression softening with a gentleness Ami had no idea existed. "I am afraid I must leave as soon as I can get a plane ticket. Don't worry bout the car…I borrowed it from a friend who lives a few hours from here…he should be able to pick it up."

Ami nodded, never noticing the small puffs of smoke that where coming from the stove. Her eyes were wide and they where filled with sadness. The paleness of her face only added to the nymph like beauty of her features.

Zach walked forward and cupped her face in his hands. His eyes scanned hers as if looking for something. Ami felt her heart breaking at the look on his face. There was sadness in his eyes, but an anger that Ami did not understand. And something that was almost hate.

"I hate to leave you." He told her, his voice gentle. His eyes where pulls that called her into his heart. And Ami felt herself wanting to fall so bad. Every nerve in her body was yelling at her to tell this man the effect he had on her. Was it possible to fall for someone is so short a time?

"I am going to miss you." Ami whispered. Her eyes were great jewels looking back at him.

"Not as much as I am going to miss you. Don't run off with any other man while I am gone, do you here me? I am coming back…we are going to finish this." His tone was soft but firm…almost like an involuntary command.

Ami had a since of Déjà vu. A feeling that the skies should be pouring out there sorrow and she should be soaked to the bone, and whatever it was that warmed this man's eyes warmed her soul as well. Ami smiled softly.

"Hurry back." Ami offered. Her voice was soft, almost the sound of waves crashing on a beach. Zach closed his eyes and gentle lowered his head and offered her his kiss, and in the process gave a little more than he intended.

Ami felt the emotions his lips gentle conveyed and felt her own heart hammer in her veins. Minako and Rei where right. This man was a keeper. Tears prickled at the back of her lashes, and Ami wondered why it felt like he was already gone.

Zach pulled back and brushed his fingers across her lids, taking the tears with his thumbs. "Wait for me."

And then he was up the stairs and gone.

Ami sat down and wondered how the feelings that raced through her veins could be so strong in coming. How that when he looked at her with that certain gaze, it caused her knees to weaken and her heart to thunder? Was this what love was?

Ami buried her head in her hands and allowed herself the luxury of crying.

~*~

Zach placed the last suitcase into the trunk of the taxi. His friend was willing to dive here, which gave him the extra time to make his plane. Turning he faced the woman in the window. To him he had already said his goodbyes. There was nothing he could say more. That kiss, Zach closed his eyes, that kiss had said it all. The things they where afraid to admit to themselves, the things they where hiding. A thousand emotions. If a picture was worth a hundred words, then a kiss was worth a lifetime of thoughts.

Zach raised his hand and opened his hand in a gentle wave, wondering how a small slip of a woman could convince him to loose his heart. Ami raised her back…and he saw the tears glittering in her eyes.

Zach slipped into the cab and settled down and allowed himself the comfort of sulking. Looking at the shops he had come to know and love he felt his eyes narrow. He would be back no matter what it took. If he had to raise heaven and earth he would.

For the little slip of woman was worth it.

~*~

Ami over looked the sunset from the beach, shoes in one hand. The dying sun lit her face with the light of a thousand candles. Her quite reverie was destroyed by a low voice, a voice that caused something inside her to recoil with anger and pain. Something that she could never quite put her finger on.

"Beautiful sunrise is it not?" Greg questioned his voice slippery, like the hiss of a snake.

"Yes." Ami answered in monotone, wondering how this…person could be related to the beautiful person of Mrs. Keys.

"I have been meaning to ask you a question." Greg said simply. No simple conversation, just jumping right into what he wanted.

Ami turned and gave him a look. Here she was moping because Zach was gone, and all he could do was want something from her?

"Are you busy Friday?" Greg asked.

Ami almost groaned and she was glad the sun was already turning her face red, she knew she was flushing. "More than likely." Ami said curtly, trying not to sound too rude, but there was something about this man.

"How bout I take you to the movies and then we go and do something?" Greg said firmly. His tone said he was telling instead of asking. Ami felt slightly sick.

"I said I was busy." Ami said her voice lowering. People might take it as shyness, which they had as a child. It was, perhaps, her best defense.

Ami turned to leave when someone roughly grabbed her forearm. Ami winced; the grip would leave a bruise on her delicate skin. Ami was spun and her wide eyed features where the picture of fear.

Greg grinned maliciously. "I said we are going out Friday night." He hissed.

Ami felt fear course up and down her spin. Something cold pooled in her stomach and Ami felt for once anger. Her face turned to ice and her foot delicately hit him behind the knees. Greg went down with a satisfying thud.

"And I said no." Ami growled back. Her face flushed. Ami turned and stomped off, her face already coloring in mortification at her actions. No matter how upset she became, Greg was still a member of Mrs. Key's family. Ami placed her hands over her face and ran up the steps to her still half sanded deck.

~*~

Zach walked into the hospital and allowed, for a moment, time to take him back to playing catch in the warm sun and the fun he knew as a child. The comfort of his father's arms and the strength in his voice. It was a memory from long ago. One that had faded with the death of his younger brother.

Zach walked up to the front desk and looked at the woman who worked there. Her dark hair was pulled back into an unattractive bun and her face was shadowed with dark circles. Yet she maintained a smile and a gentle word.

"Excuse me Miss." Zach said his words dragged from him, his eyes haunted. "But what room is a Mr. Grant Green in?"

The nurse looked at him and smiled. She rapidly typed onto the keyboard and Zach wondered how the anonymous sounds of the keys could sound so finale.

"Room 456. But only family members are being let in." She told him kindly. Zach nodded and headed to the elevators. Gentle he pushed the buttons but spotted a woman with a baby struggling to reach the elevator. Zach shot his hand out and stopped the closing doors. The woman smiled and Zach allowed himself to grin back.

The small child stuffed as much of her fist into her mouth as possible. She looked at him with wide green eyes. Zach smiled at her and she grinned around her fist as well.

Zach stepped off the elevator and allowed the apprehension that he had felt well into his heart. What if he was to late…that his father had already died? No matter the distance that had separated them since he was a teenager, her wished his father to live.

Zach took a shuddering breath and stepped into the door. His step-mother was sitting next to the bed, her expression blank. Zach felt no sympathy for the woman who had rejected him without knowing him.

His eyes landed on the figure next to the bed and he felt his breath leave him in a rush. The entire right side of his fathers face looked like it had collapsed in the accident. His nose was sunk in and his eyes looked like they had been shoved back as far as they could go.

His fathers right arm and leg where in a case and he was lying perfectly still. He was hooked up to one of those machines that breathed for him. He had only seen them in shows, or written about them. He had never been in a position to have to watch a family member breath from one.

He heard the door open and he turned and watched as a doctor walked in. He looked positively relived to see him. It had appeared that his step mother was being difficult again.

"Tell me about his condition." Zach said simply.

The doctor was a tall man of 6 foot and brood shoulders. His ice blue eyes where sharp and brooked a no nonsense type of air.

"The right side of his body was crushed in the accident. His right lung and the right side of his face have collapsed. We can not tell if there is any spinal injury until he wakes up." The doctor said the words and the unused word, if, was brought into the conversation.

Zach looked at him with a face that's lines where entirely too old for his young features. "What will it be like for him to get back on his feet?" Zach demanded.

"If he comes out of the coma then physical therapy will take several years. There is no guarantee he will regain the use of his right arm or leg." The doctor responded. He looked him straight in the eye. "Right now the machines are doing all the work for him. There is no promise that he will start breathing for himself. Right now it is the only thing keeping him alive."

Zach looked at him closely, pain on his face. "You want to pull the plug." He responded simply.

The doctor sighed. "I hate to sound cruel. But your father is not going to recover from this without heavy brain damage. There is no way he is going to come out of the coma without serious brain damage. Plus with possible spinal damage, at his age, it is more likely that he will die soon afterward any way. This way is much less painful."

Zach closed his eyes and breathed in and out rapidly. He knew things had been bad, but not this bad. Turning back to his step mother he looked at her. She starred at him coldly.

"Do what you want." Her voice was unaffected. As if she had no emotional store in any of this. This, Zach thought, was probably true.

Zach looked at his father and saw for an instant, the man who laughed at a Childs curiosity. A man who was worthy to love and to be loved. Zach felt a tear trickle its way down his cheek.

"Do it."

The doctor reached over and handed Zach a form. Zach looked for the place to sign and did so. When the monitor flat lined only then did Zach turn and walk away.

~*~

Ami sat in her swing and ran a towel over her face. With Zach gone she had gotten back on the schedule she had made for herself. The deck was more than 3/4 done sanding wise. Then she was going to have to recoat the fixture, but it was all going to be worth it.

Or at least that's what she had been telling herself.

The quite little life she had been living had suddenly not become enough. She wanted to do more than sit and watch people around her live in the paintings of the sun. She was tired of being in the shadow.

This was perhaps the last season that she was willing to keep her bed and breakfast open. She had enough money saved up, and when this was done, she was going to go on a cruise. Give herself time to find what she wanted.

Because so far all she wanted was a pair of green eyes.

Ami turned when she heard a car pull up. A tall man with light blond hair cut short waved the car up. Ami felt her jaw drop open slightly. The only phrase that came to mind was this. A male Minako.

He had the same coloring, and rich blue eyes that smiled into the sun. But there was one more thing.

"Jason?" Ami said in surprise.

The man looked up and grinned. "Ami! It's been a while!" He said as he jogged over to the gate and pulled her into a bear hug.

"What are you doing here?" Ami demanded.

Jason White was the ex-boyfriend that had broken Rei into a thousand pieces. Ami was not sure that Chad had managed to pick them all up. There was a fire that had been missing from her friends gaze for far to long for that to be true.

"Oh picking up Zach's car." He said his face mischievous.

"YOU'RE that friend?" Ami said her face flushing.

"Yeppers. I really would like to stay and chat, you know catch up with the good times, but my sisters' birthday is tonight. I need to get back." He winked and pulled out a set of keys.

"Take care Ami. I will keep in touch." With that Jason left as quickly as he came. It seemed to be his trademark. Am

Ami turned back to her porch. It was time to finish the evil thing. "Just pretend it's a math problem Ami." Ami told herself.

She never noticed the dark eyes that watched her, wrath hot in there depths.

Thanks to all my reviewers. You make this worth it. So guess what that means? REIVEW~! You would be surprise how much that helps!

Review, Review…repeat it with me…Review.