"You sure?" Kenny gasped that afternoon in her bedroom, as Max kissed him again. "Once we start, I don't think I can stop."
Max grinned wickedly at him, and pulled her shirt and bra over her head. "I want you."
Kenny drank in the sight of her toned body, as she began unbuttoning his shirt. He pulled her into his arms, as she began to kiss his chest. Pushing him down on the bed, Max dragged her tongue across him, as he worked on getting her shorts off. Kenny flipped her onto her back, as she pushed his pants down with her leg. Kenny watched her face carefully, as he touched her. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt or scare her in anyway, but he saw nothing but happiness. Groaning again, Kenny lowered his body to hers, and as they lost themselves in each other, they ignored the ringing of the phone.
"We have to tell someone about this," Max said a few hours later, lying in his arms.
"We do?" Kenny teased. "I didn't know people were so interested in our sex life."
Max smacked him with a pillow, turning over to look at him. "No, the other thing."
Kenny looked down on the ring on her hand, and caught her drift. "I kind of like it the way it is now. They'll all know soon enough."
"True," Max agreed, reluctant to move from where she lay, as someone rang the doorbell. "I really want to ignore that."
"Lets," Kenny replied, kissing her again, as the ringing continued.
"Hmm," Max murmured. "All I want is one day where I don't have to worry about anything. I just want to lie here and not move."
"Not at all," he teased, pulling her on top of him.
"Well maybe a little," she conceded.
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"He wants to cut a deal now?" Jimmy asked surprised when Georgia walked into his office. "He must know that he won't win his appeal, no one would ever let him out."
"Edison is questioning Max's testimony," Georgia said coolly. "The creditability of her actually being raped."
Jimmy recalled that night in the woods, and the expression on Max's face. "She was. I'll never forget the look on her face."
Georgia paused before responding, choosing her words carefully. "You are all Max's friends, and of course you want to believe her. This department knew all of the victims, and Edison will work that into his appeal. I want to be ready, and if we make a deal with him Danny will have jail time. Not as much as we had hoped, but it's a guarantee. I have no doubt that this man is guilty as sin, but that doesn't mean that his appeal won't be heard or the verdict overturned."
"There are no guarantees in this job," Jimmy said. "And we're not cutting a deal, I told you that earlier."
"Fine. I'll continue working on my arguments."
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Carter Pike moved stealthily down the row of holding cells until he came to the one that Danny was in. Carter knew that he was being transferred to Federal Prison the next day, and he wanted one last look at the man who had taken Sue away from him. Danny looked up when he saw Carter, and widened his grin at him.
"If it isn't the esteemed medical examiner," Danny drawled. "What gives me the honor?"
Carter sized up his wrinkled appearance before saying icily. "I just wanted to look at you one last time before you're locked up for the rest of your miserable life."
"Oh, you must still be angry about Sue," Danny replied rising. "I enjoyed her. A virgin, Carter? I didn't know you were such a romantic."
"Don't say her name," he hissed.
"Why not? You lost your one shot at happiness, but I'm not going to lose mine. Hear this, I will get out of here and then Max and I are going to live happily ever after," Danny replied casually. "I just have to make her understand."
Carter backed away slowly, seeing the madness in his eyes and regretted this adventure. Walking down the hall to Jimmy's office, he saw Georgia leaving and went in to talk about his conversation with Danny.
Jimmy listened as Carter filled him in on the details, but none of it came as much of a surprise to him.
"He won't get out," Jimmy repeated. "His obsession with Max… it's something I don't want her to have to worry about."
"She's tough," Carter replied thoughtfully. "This is deeply personal stuff. I can see him sending her letters from prison, and I know she feels guilty about all of this. Hell, I made her feel that way."
"He's leaving tomorrow," Jimmy said,. "And we'll take it from there."
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Max flipped through a bridal magazine that afternoon at the drugstore. Feeling giddy at the thought of wearing one of those long, white dresses, she couldn't resist the impulse to pick one up. Not a big fan of lace and ruffles, she decided as she tossed it into her basket, but it was going to fun to shop. Remembering her sister's tiered, ruffled silk, Max tried not to laugh because privately she thought that Caroline had looked like the cake.
"Max?" a voice called from behind her. "Wait up."
"Jill, hi," Max replied. "How are you?"
"Fine," she replied giving Max a once over and was pleased to see that she had finally gained some of the weight she had lost back and looked radiantly happy. "And you?"
"Life is looking up," Max said grinning thinking that this day was definitely in the top three. "I don't think that anything could spoil the way I feel right now."
"You've earned it," Jill said watching her toss in a bag of M&M's on top of the bridal magazine. "What's that?"
"What," Max asked following Jill's gaze into her basket. "Oh."
"Maxine?" Jill trailed off feeling excited for her two young friends. "Are you and Kenny…"
Max held out her hand, and Jill grasped it and pulled the younger woman into a spontaneous hug. Both dropping their shopping baskets, Max hoped everyone's reactions would be this good.
"It's about time," Jill replied. "It's only taken what? Six, seven years? What took you two so long?"
Max rolled her eyes. "C'mon, it's Kenny and me; I think between us we've had a total of four serious relationships. It just took us awhile to figure out what we wanted, and then we were too stubborn to admit it. The whole commitment concept is kind of foreign idea."
"When is the wedding?"
"We haven't gotten that far yet. He just asked me this morning, and I picked one of these up on impulse. I couldn't help it."
"I'm so happy for you two," Jill said truthfully. "I think we've all needed some good news lately."
Max nodded in agreement, as they made their way to the registers.
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"Married?" Jimmy asked flabbergasted when Jill told him that night. "Max and Kenny?"
Jill nodded enjoying the shocked expression on his face. "It's great, and it certainly took them long enough."
Jimmy thought back to when both of his two young deputies arrived in Rome, and he realized then that they weren't kids anymore. Both were so young, he thought, and they had worked so well together. He was glad about that, and the fact that they were friends. He was happy for them, and wanted what was best for them.
"They've been circling each other for years," Jimmy conceded. "I've seen the way they look at each other, and I suppose it was just a matter of time."
"You should have seen Max this morning. She was glowing," Jill replied. "They deserve this, and I pray that everything will work out for them."
Jimmy pulled his wife into his arms, and knew that they were too stubborn to have it any other way. "I'm going to see them, want to come?"
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"You had to tell," Kenny teased her later. "Women."
"It's not every day I get engaged you know," Max replied flippantly. "Poor Jill, she almost fell down. She asked what took us so long."
Kenny shrugged. "It's us. What did she expect?"
"I wonder sometimes," Max trailed off, and hesitating before continuing. "If we had started this thing between us sooner. It was always there, but if we acted on it. You know, like on that Thanksgiving, or that night we almost, you know, or any of those other moments that the tension was going to explode. Where do you think we would be?"
"It was all I could do not to toss you on my desk on Thanksgiving," Kenny admitted. "And take you there, and tell you everything that I felt. For months afterwards I wanted to."
"I used to be so jealous of all your women," Max replied. "I was terrified of losing my best friend if I told him. And I almost did."
"You're stuck with me," Kenny said trying to lift the mood, but knowing they still had some issues to hash out. "I didn't like your boyfriends either and most nights I would have rather of had a beer with you."
Max tried not to blush. "The timing was never right before. Between other people, work, and the fact that we antagonize each other half the time… it feels right this time. Still I wonder what if."
"We wouldn't have known each other the way we do now if we hooked up earlier. You know you were the first woman that I'm not related to, that I can talk to about stuff like this. Hell I was attracted to you, and I was from the first time I saw you smile at me. Max, you make me want to be a better person, and change is a scary thing. Maybe it's not wasted time between us, we built a more solid relationship before we started the rest of it before that Valentines Day," Kenny replied softly trying to make sense of the thoughts in his head. "I would've rather waited with you, then made all those mistakes I made with them. And I know I've made some with you too. The only part that we wasted was this past year, and I wish that we could have it back."
Max nodded. "Me too."
"Hell, maybe we'd be married and have a couple of kids," Kenny continued. "I don't want to worry about what ifs. I want you, and whatever future that we're going to have."
"Do you want kids?" Max asked hesitantly. "We've never talked about that."
Kenny recalled Max's response to the woman who had left her the baby, and he knew that she was going to be a fantastic mother. Lately he'd catch her looking at mothers with their kids, and he was thinking that having a few was a good idea.
"How about a half dozen, or so?" he asked to get a rise out of her.
"Six?" Max asked, as a knock came at his door. "We might have to work on that number a little. Six?"
She tossed a throw pillow at him when he went to answer the door, and placed her hand on her flat abdomen. The thought of having a baby in there, it was even more foreign then the one about wearing the long, white dress, Max thought. Finishing her beer, she went to see who was stopping by at 10 at night.
"And here she is," Jill called. "We were just talking about you."
She saw Jimmy shaking Kenny's hand, and Max felt a surge of love for these people who were like family to her. Knowing that telling her own family wouldn't be as good as this, Max promised herself that she would enjoy it.
"Congratulations," Jimmy said holding out his hand to her. "It took me to surprise, but it's about time."
"I know," Max said, shooting Kenny a knowing glance. "We took our time with this."
His arm came around her waist, as the two couples moved into the living room to talk.
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"Mom, would you just listen to me," Max begged into the phone three days later after her first day back at work. "Mother!"
Max rolled her eyes at Kenny and listened while her mother rattled off ideas for her wedding. Ice sculptures, string quartets, ribbon poles, dress suggestions, all before Max could get in a word edgewise.
"Mom, please," Max broke in on her ramblings. "I'll look at all of that, I promise. And I'll let you know, and I know that you and Dad are going to be away then."
Max pulled the phone away from her ear again as her mother began spouting off about the chic flower arrangements of the year, and was tempted to bang her head against the wall in protest. If she was unconscious, Max reasoned, she couldn't hear. Tuning back in to her father's voice coming onto the line, he demanded to know what was going on to have her mother in such a tizzy.
"Hi Dad," Max said carefully, remembering last Christmas with her parents, and how her father told her she was wasting her life and was an embarrassment to the family.
"Maxine, I didn't expect to hear from you," her Dad replied. "I thought you were to busy getting yourself into trouble to talk to us."
Groaning to herself. "I've had a tough few months, but life is looking up."
"How so?"
Max took a deep breath before responding. "I'm getting married."
"To some dumb Wisconsin local. I don't think so," her father bellowed. "When is this nonsense going to stop? You're 30 years old, and it's time you start living up to your responsibilities."
"What would those be?"" Max retorted. "Going to the opera, and being on the society pages every day? Dad, I'm not Caroline and we've been over this too many times in the last 10 years."
"We'll keep going over it until you understand that the life your living isn't suitable for someone in our family."
"It's suitable for me. And I'm happy Dad, why can't you just get that?"
"Why can't you be more like your sister, and I won't stand for this. If you want to be part of this family, you do so by our standards."
"You sound like a bad movie. I'm hanging up now," Max snapped. "Thanks for all your support Dad; it's made all the difference in the last few months."
Clicking the phone off, she tossed it across the room onto a chair, and wondered if she really expected a better response from the man who had belittled her for most of her life. She could feel Kenny's eyes on her, and she just shook her head. "I don't know what I expected from him. Mom's ready to plan one for 500 people, and my Dad flipped out. Something about moving back to Boston, and living up to their standards. Ugh."
"What standards?" Kenny asked seeing the tension on her face.
"Proper society, and not marrying, as Dad put it, a dumb Wisconsin local. It's the same shit that I've heard for 10 years, and I don't know why I expect anything different from him. I'm glad your family is happy for us."
"They're going to love you," Kenny replied confidently, trying not to feel stung by her Dad's comment. "You're not Catholic, but they can't have everything."
Max shook her head in astonishment. "I love you. And I can't believe we're doing this, it seems surreal. Listening to my Mom talk about flowers and cakes… The whole white dress thing… it's us, you know? Who would have thought it?"
"Me," Kenny said. "And you. Who cares what anybody else thinks? This is for us."
"When are we going to do this?" Max asked hesitantly, knowing how long it took them to get to this point.
"Soon. I promised myself, in the woods that night that we wouldn't waste any more time. It's October, how long does planning one of these things take?"
"I've never done it before. Mom was saying a year and a half."
"A year? How long does it take you to buy a dress?"
"It's not just the dress. There are guests, booking a place to have it, flowers, food, drinks, music, rehearsals, and probably a lot of stuff I forgot."
"How about April? Six months from now. You can be very ambitious when you put your mind to it."
"Hey, I'm not doing this alone," Max protested, "April it is."
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"How goes it?" Carter asked a few weeks later, as Kenny came down to the morgue. They just found a body in the river a few days ago, and Carter just finished the autopsy report.
"You have any information on this one?" Kenny asked.
"Forty year old man, lungs filled with water, hypothermia and no sign of a struggle. My guess, he was fishing and he fell in."
"Max is going through missing person reports, I'll pass it along," Kenny said.
Carter pushed the body back into the drawer. "How's the planning going?"
Kenny shook his head. "Women, you know? They're the only ones who can tell the difference between shades of white. Max's mother and sister are coming down in a few weeks, and she's stressed about that. We want this simple, small, but it's beginning to spin out of control."
"Yeah," Carter agreed distantly. "I met one at the grocery store yesterday. It's not too soon, is it?"
"Sue's been gone for four months," Kenny said carefully. "It's up to you."
Carter nodded. "She gave me her phone number."
"Would she want you to mourn her forever?"
"No," Carter said softly. "I'll have to sleep on this one."
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I can't believe they showed up to help me buy a wedding dress, but not when I was in the hospital in a coma, Max thought as the salesperson zipped up the back of the dress. Cursing Carla for canceling on her at the last moment, Max modeled the dress for them.
"Ooh, I like that one," Caroline Stewart Richardson squealed, fingering the lace on the skirt. "The bow is adorable!"
Max eyed her reflection warily, and thought she looked like a fairy tale reject. "It's not really my style. I'm not a bow person."
"Oh, you spend most of your time in a uniform," her mother said airily. "We know fashion, trust me."
Max shot a desperate look at the sales woman, who smiled sympathetically at her before offering a suggestion,. "Why don't we try something else? This over powers your frame. You've got great shoulders, a tiny waist, and we want to show those off."
"Thank you," Max whispered to her on the way back.
"That's my job. Here," she said handing her another dress. "Try this."
Max knew it was the one, the minute she put it on. The strapless silk dress fit her frame perfectly, and there were no bows in sight. The bodice was subtly embroidered, and the skirt was a sweep of white silk that fell to her feet.
"Oh, I love this," Max breathed to them. "I want this."
"It's so plain," Caroline replied. "It's your wedding day Maxie, don't you want to stand out?"
"Not with bows and lace. That's yo,u Caro, not me."
"You do look lovely," her mother conceded, seeing the happy expression on her younger daughters face. Despite her husband's response to Maxie's choices, Hannah was secretly thrilled that she had veered from her planned path. She glowed when she talked about Kenny, who Hannah was looking forward to meeting. "You do dress more simply then we do."
"I'll take it," Max said.
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"I liked them," Kenny said after they had dropped Max's sister and mother off at the airport. "I never knew the difference between pumps and high heels before."
"Shut up," Max said jabbing him with her elbow playfully. "It's an important one because the shoe just has to match the dress."
"Why don't we just elope?" Kenny asked, half kidding. "You have a dress, I own a tie, why not just do it?"
Max stared at him for a minute. "Does that mean I won't have to listen to my mother talk about how the cake frosting has to match the flowers?
"I'd marry you right now if I could," he said honestly.
"I thought you wanted that big Catholic wedding thing," Max said. "I know that's important to you."
"You're important to me."
Max thought to how he'd taken care of her the last few months, and how much she wanted to do this for him. She knew how important this was to Kenny, and however tempting eloping might have sounded, she shook her head. "Well, you're important to me too. And it's January, we have less then four months to pull this together."
"If you can handle matching flowers to guests," Kenny teased. "I bet you look pretty hot in that white dress."
"Oh, you're going to love it," Max said, throwing him a seductive glance before deciding if she wanted to continue. "I have to ask you something though. I want to do this before we get married, sort of closure."
Kenny didn't say anything, so she continued. "It's been a wild year to say the least, both good and bad… I want to go see Danny."
"No way," Kenny snapped. "You're not going near him Max. Don't even think about it."
"Will you let me finish?"
"There's nothing to finish. Look at everything that he did! Why would you want to ever see him again?"
Trying not to feel resentful of Kenny's response because she really understood where he was coming from on this one, she struggled to keep her voice neutral. "For closure. I want him to see he didn't win. I want to be able to look at him, and for him to see that I'm still here and that he didn't destroy me. I don't want to have to live with this fear of him, and I don't want to start our life together with him still haunting me."
"Does he?"
"Yeah. Sometimes I wake up, and I can practically feel him touching me. Then I think of the others, and I just need to do this. I don't want to, but I don't think that I'll be free of him until I do."
"Okay," Kenny said reluctantly. "Max, I don't like this. I won't ask you not to do this, but I don't like it."
"Me either," she said.
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"It was," Max asked a few weeks later. "Are they going to appeal it again?"
Jimmy nodded. "Edison is convinced that he can get him out because of some testimonies."
"Mine," Max said. "I know it cast doubt at the trial."
"No," Jimmy argued. "Anyone who thinks that isn't using their head. Have a seat. I had an interesting talk with Kenny the other day about you. Wanting to go see Danny."
"I know he's upset about it," she said, feeling pissed at him for going behind her back like that "It's something I feel like I have to do."
Jimmy saw the intensity in her eyes, and a big part of him wanted to protect her from this man. He had expressed his concern to Kenny about this, and had to agree with him. Jimmy also knew that when Max dug her heals in about something, it was very hard to change her mind.
"I know you have a lot on your plate now," he said changing tactics on her. "Kenny said something about coordinating cake and flowers."
Max smiled despite knowing what he was trying to do. "My mother has these ideas, and I try to humor her. Bows, lace and ribbon, and even I didn't know that there were so many different shades of white. I know you're changing the subject on me."
"Carter talked to him before he was shipped off," Jimmy said, not wanting to bring up that conversation. "He's convinced that he's going to get out, and the two of you are going to be together."
"He's wrong," Max said quietly, trying to shake the creepy feeling away. "And that's why I want to go see him."
Jimmy nodded. "Be careful."
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"I'll be back soon," Max said, reluctant to let go of Kenny's hand. "Thanks for coming with me."
"What did you think? No way was I letting you come up here alone," Kenny said looking at her worried expression. "Max, you don't have to do this."
"Yeah, I do," she said, turning towards the door.
Kenny watched her go through, and hoped she found what she came for.