AN: Sorry for not getting around to this for so long. I've been doing more of writing it on paper than on the computer. Oh well, here is chapter 3.

Chapter 3

The New Adventure

Marina quietly cried into her pillow. Why does Ashley have to be such a jerk? Can't he think about how anyone else feels? About how I feel? Sometimes I . . . A sharp knock at the door interrupted her thoughts as a voice called from the other side of the door.

"Marina, may I talk to you?" This was not at all the voice that she expected to hear.

"Go away, Steve. I don't want to talk to someone I hardly know."

"You may not know me, but I know you. I also know Ashley. That's what I need to talk to you about."

"I don't want to hear it."

Steve tried turning to doorknob. It was locked. "Sometimes what people want to hear and what they need to hear are completely different things." There was no sign of movement on Marina's side. "If you don't let me in, I can and will go through the door." Steve listened intently for any signs of movement. Finally he heard soft footsteps coming toward the door. Then a click and the door opened. Steve stepped into the room as Marina closed and locked the door behind him.

He turned to face her. Marina's eyes were streaked with red so that anyone could tell that she was crying. As he looked up he could see that her eyes still held a few unshed tears. He let go a sigh before anything else.

"Okay," he started. "Why are you mad?"

"What kind of question is that?" Marina grumbled.

Steve sighed. "Bear with me here. I'm about to provide you with a rare look into the mind of a man, and more importantly, your man. So . . . why are you mad?"

"Fine," came an exasperated sigh. "I'm mad because Ashley wants to risk his life for a guy that he doesn't even know."

"Very good. Now, before Ashley went on his big adventure, he did what for a job?"

"He was a soldier."

"Right. And did he risk his life for people he didn't know when he went on his great adventure?"

"Well . . . yes."

"Do you see what I'm getting at here?"

"Yes. Ashley likes to put himself in very dangerous situations," Marina sniffed as she wiped away the last of her tears.

Steve chuckled. "Well, that may be so, but that is because he is an adventurer. He craves the excitement, the challenge. He can't just be cooped up in one place."

"But he promised that he would stop. For me."

Steve gave a deep sigh. "Marina, I'm going to say this slowly. One because I want you to hear every word of it, and two because it's kind of hard to say faster. You can take the adventurer . . . off the adventure . . . but you can't take the adventure . . . out of the adventurer. This is something that he was born to do. You can see it burning in his eyes, but there's also something else.

"When you left us down there you weren't able to see it. He was sad. Sad that you couldn't approve. That you weren't part of this world."

"Well what does he want me to do?" she asked sarcastically. "Come with him?" Steve's eyebrows shot up, as a grin slowly crept across his face.

----------------------------------------

"Okay, all better," Steve said as he came down the stairs. Ashley's look was one of utter amazement.

"But that didn't take you all that long." Steve smiled. He knew that he didn't have a whole lot of experience dealing with the opposite sex, probably less than Ashley. He did, however, have a knack for understanding other people's problems.

"Marina couldn't understand why you wanted to go off on an adventure with someone that you just met. I just asked her to give you a chance. By the way she is coming with us, just so you know." Ashley nearly jumped out of his skin at the boy's comment. He was about to protest when Steve cut him off. "And there's no way to get out of it, so don't even try."

Steve was almost out of the door, and heading for the inn, when he stuck his head back in the shop. "Oh and by the way. Marina said that you're not totally off the hook yet. She said that you are sleeping on the couch tonight. Sorry man, I tried."