Chapter Twelve

The moment her lips touched his warmth flooded through him like the first rays of morning sunlight. It cast a glorious sensation along every nerve ending in his body, which made him shiver with wonder at the sheer power a mere kiss had over him.

Not just any kiss, but Alison's kiss.

Each caress of her lips over his felt like a new touch that he had never felt before and he wanted to experience every single one. Then the tenderness in the way she kissed him made his breath catch in his throat and his heart pound in his chest.

Had it always been like this kissing her? It had to have been. Even when Jack had locked him and Alison in her grandmother's attic he recalled the breathlessness of their kisses, the hunger she had stirred inside of him, and the overwhelming urge to be with her in the way that he longed for what seemed like forever.

Then Alison leaned away from him, just ever so slightly, and gazed up at him with hooded eyes. Written within their depths were the very same emotions and feelings he was experiencing. His hand then lifted from his side and his fingertips sought out the gentle curve of her jaw line just below her chin. "Alison," he breathed out in a shaky voice. His gaze then fell to her kiss swollen bottom lip and was about to recapture it in another kiss, when Alison was suddenly torn from him.

"You bitch," Rafe then heard. He immediately pulled himself from the daze he was in to witness Livvie whipping Alison around and punching her square in the mouth. Being caught completely off guard by the hit, Alison stumbled back into Rafe's body, her hand lifted to her mouth and then came away with blood.

"How dare you kiss my husband!" Livvie yelled and then began to storm at Alison again.

Rafe quickly tucked Alison behind his back and then he moved forward to head off any further attack Livvie had in mind. His hands flew up before him and grabbed a hold of Livvie's forearms to hold her in place. "Calm down," Rafe instructed his wife in an even tone.

Her dark eyes were focused on Alison, murder clearly blazing within them. "Calm down? How can you ask me to calm down when she kissed you right in front of me?"

Alison wiped the back of her hand along her bleeding lip and laughed softly. "Hurts doesn't it, Livvie? Watching someone take something from you that doesn't belong to them."

Livvie charged at Alison again, but Rafe kept his hold upon her. "Alison," he said over his shoulder, his eyes still on Livvie's face, "I think you had better go." He didn't need to see the shock on her face to hear it in her voice.

"Go? But-"

"I think it's best," he said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "Livvie's pregnant and I don't need her upset any further. So, please go."

The following day…

The Recovery Room

Jamal tucked his hand beneath Alison's chin and turned her face from side to side. "It doesn't look all that bad, Spunky," he insisted, even though the bottom right corner of her lip was swollen and a tear marred the skin. Then there was the area about the corner of her mouth that was slightly off color, but the damage could have been worse.

"I can't believe she hit you," Jack muttered and then picked up his drink. "I mean I know we should all expect the unexpected from Livvie, but I never thought she'd actually attack you."

Alison gently touched her fingertips to her lip before flinching back from it. Her blue eyes flipped from Jamal to Jack as she sighed. "Oh, I believed she'd attack me, I mean why not? She's already stole Rafe from me, why not punch me when I decide to fight back?"

That caused a smile and a short snicker from Jamal. "I still can't get over how you just kissed Rafe right in front of her." He chuckled then, envisioning the scene, which had both Alison and Jack joining in. "That took a lot of guts."

"Not really," Alison lamented and then looked down at her ice water, wishing she could press it against her sore lip. "Kissing Rafe was something I did without thinking. She just made me so angry calling me the home wrecker, while it was her who steam rolled through my life making sure nothing was left standing." Her fingers began to drum against the tabletop as her brow drew together, the only frown she could manage without experiencing pain.

"Hurricane Livvie," Jack added as his fingers toyed with the condensation on his glass. "Blows right into your life and she's not happy if she doesn't leave you broken or worse for wear." He cleared his throat and then looked up from the cup he had been staring at. "So, what are your plans now? You basically have Rafe right where you want him."

Alison pushed some of her blonde hair back from her face as she continued to stare down at the table. "I'm not sure yet. I guess we wait for the information Lucy's investigator dug up."

"Uh-uh," Jamal insisted. "You've got to strike while the irons still hot. Your boy is ripe for the picking. If he's telling you that you're in his system, Ali, don't ease up on him. You've got to convince him that you are the one he's supposed to be with."

"Jamal's right," Jack added, which had Alison looking up at him. "Don't give Livvie the opportunity to change his mind about anything. The faster you can get Rafe away from her, the faster her lies can be exposed. I don't know about you guys, but I am far too ready for the world to know what kind of lying, betraying, awful human being that bit-"

"Don't look now, but she just walked in," Alison murmured as she leaned in toward the two men she sat with. Her eyes were focused upon the table before her, so not to give away the fact that Livvie had indeed been spotted.

Jack and Jamal turned slightly in their chairs to witness the sight for themselves, which had Alison hissing at them, "You're not supposed to look!"

Jamal shook his head and grinned while he watched Livvie find a table near the door. "Sorry, Ali, force of habit. When someone says, 'don't look' it's instinctual to in fact look at what we're not supposed to. Besides, I think this is something you ought to see."

That had her gazing into the direction Jack and Jamal couldn't seem to take their eyes away from. What she found was Livvie sitting alone and looking awfully upset. Alison's head shifted slightly to the left as she continued to watch her ex-best friend glare at everything and yet nothing at all.

"I wonder what has her in a foul mood," Jack muttered so only his tablemates could hear.

"Probably has something to do with Ali planting a big kiss on her husband," Jamal supplied in a voice filled with humor.

Alison's blue eyes flicked on to Jamal's face and frowned at him, all the while trying to not smile. She had declared herself a small victory the previous day against Livvie. She proved to the woman that not only was Rafe's heart still hers, but no matter how many lies Livvie fed him he still wanted her. And did he ever.

Her heart sped up slightly as excitement raced through her body at the thought. Her lips still felt warm from his kiss, her jawline still tingling from the caress of his fingertips, and her body seemed to sing with a fire she hadn't felt in a long time. She was alive with feelings and sensations that had she had been forced to bury when she discovered the depths of Livvie's treachery and Rafe's lack of memory. But now she no longer had to deny herself anything, for within in reach was everything she had ever wanted.

Rafe.

She felt herself sitting up a little straighter in her chair as she watched the man she had just been thinking about enter the Recovery Room. Alison then felt Jamal's hand upon her arm and Jack's eyes upon her. "Here's your chance," she heard Jamal inform her quietly. "Go get your man, Spunky."

It took only a moment to consider her options and then pushed her chair back from the table she sat at. The movement had to have caught Rafe's attention, because his gaze that was roaming about landed on her. The moment those beautiful blue eyes of his fell upon her everything in the room seemed to stop except the wild beating of her heart.

Alison wasn't sure if it was excitement or nervousness that effected her heart, but the harder it pounded the more she was sure it was nerves. Normally seeing the man she loved didn't evoke this kind of feeling in her, actually it was the exact opposite. But seeing him now, seeing him after he practically rejected her after their kiss, she couldn't help but be unsure of how to approach him.

Especially with Livvie in the room.

Damn Livvie. The woman had a penchant for sensing moments where she wanted to be alone with Rafe. Livvie always managed to pop up at exactly the wrong moment and put a damp towel upon the situation. Much like she had the day before.

Her blue eyes flew into Livvie's direction to see if she had noticed Rafe's arrival. When it looked like she hadn't, Alison practically ran at Rafe, grabbed his arm, and then dragged him back out the way he had come in. When the two of them stood outside, alone, Alison let a nervous smile trip over her lips as she gazed up at Rafe's somewhat shocked face.

"Forgive me for like pretty much tackling you out here," she apologized in a soft tone, her face then focusing towards the ground. "But I wanted to talk to you."

A gentle grin tugged at the corners of Rafe's mouth as his eyes danced over her blonde hair that hung freely about her face. "I figured as much. I needed -- I needed to talk to you too." He paused a moment as his hand traveled towards her chin. "This would be so much easier if you were looking at me." When he tipped her chin up to face him, Rafe immediately noticed the discoloration about her mouth, the swollen lip with the tear in it.

An emotion Alison dare not put a name to, for fear she could be wrong, had Rafe's brow furrowing together and his lips forming into a frown. "You needed me to see that look upon your face?"

"What?" He asked in a puzzled tone and then quickly shook his head, as if he were pulling himself from a daze. "Oh, no. I was just admiring Livvie's handy work." Rafe swallowed then and let his eyes slip to his fingers that still held Alison's chin, then sighed.

Thousands of emotions flooded through him pounding him over the head trying to get their point across. At the forefront, as always, was his sense of duty and obligation to Livvie and the baby. He knew that yesterday had really hurt Livvie deeply and he had caught hell for allowing Alison to kiss him. Not that there was any allowing involved in that kiss -- it was done of his own free will. Livvie just assumed otherwise and he hadn't felt the need to correct her.

But just passed the duty and obligation lay another emotion that no longer wanted to be ignored. No longer was it willing to just sit idly by and be pushed off to the wayside like it didn't exist. Not that he was doing such a brilliant job of ignoring it anyway. With everything in him he wanted to be with Alison. When he lay in bed at night Alison filled his every dream. Then when he awoke in the morning, eyes still closed, it was her that he prayed was laying snuggled up against him. It's her face that he wished were across from him at breakfast and every meal that followed.

He wished it were Alison that carried his child.

Rafe pulled himself from his thoughts and trailed his fingers from Alison's chin to her bottom lip. What he wouldn't give for Alison to be carrying his child. For her to complete the dream he longed for, a dream he never realized he had wanted until Livvie announced she was pregnant. Life would be so much easier and wonderful if only it was Alison that was pregnant.

Then suddenly inside of his head he heard her voice, Alison's voice, cutting into his thoughts as clearly as if it were his own.

Make a baby with me.

His brow pinched together as his eyes flew to Alison's face. The voice had so clear and vibrant it was like she had spoken it from right beside him. But her face told him she hadn't said a word. Actually she was looking at him curiously like he had said something strange. His gaze fell to the ground as he tried to search his mind for the source or memory from where Alison's voice came.


Just as the imagery of the living room in Lucy's house where Alison was living popped into his head, so did Rafe's own voice.

You want to run that by me again? You said you want to have a baby?

The scenery outside of the Recovery Room faded away and before him now was Alison looking at him with pleading eyes. Pleading eyes that begged for understanding and that he say yes to her question. Rafe found himself feeling hesitant over the thought of having a baby with Alison, not that he didn't want to, but because he could leave her to raise a baby by herself.

But before Rafe could analyze the feelings pulsing through him as this memory cascaded over him, Alison spoke again, her voice filled with calm and a smile, which almost distracted him from the look of pleading still in her eyes.

…Rafe, listen to me -- I know that this sounds crazy, ok, and I know that this doesn't even come close to being practical, but, Rafe, let's face it, I mean, you and I together are anything but practical, and yet here we are. Somehow it was our destiny for us to find each other and to fall in love … Somehow, someway, our having a child is what's meant to be. Please tell me that you see that, too.

"Rafe," Alison murmured gently as her hand covered Rafe's that was still lingering near her mouth. When he still continued to look out into space, she felt a smile tug at her lips. "Rafe," she said again a bit more firmly. When Alison saw him blink his eyes and shake his head she laughed softly. "Where did you go?"

"I-I think -- I mean I'm pretty positive -- I think I just had a memory."

Her eyes widened with surprise as her hand involuntarily squeezed Rafe's. "What? What did you remember?"

Rafe's gaze connected with Alison's while he shoved his free hand through his hair and breathlessly chuckled somewhat unsure of himself. "I -- well, you asked me if I would have a baby with you."

~*~