Title: The Heroine and Her Adversary
Rating: T/PG-13ish (just to be safe)
Pairing: Tessa/Grisham
Summary: Imagine if after a couple of months of being in Santa Helena, after Montoya demanded that Grisham court Tessa, and the Queen of Swords kept her duty, something sparked between the heroine and her adversary.
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Queen of Swords"; QOS and the rest belong to Fireworks. I don't own them.

Special thanks to Judy Lien for helping me out!

Prologue:

It had been around 9 months since 19-year-old Maria Teresa Alvarado arrived at the shores of California and gone back to the place she called home, the small town of Santa Helena. Everything was now "normal" compared to when she first arrived.

Her hacienda was doing fine and her life was going "smoothly". Her social life was all right; she attended most of the parties thrown by the Dons and their wives, but didn't really enjoy them. No, there was no real amusement if her was to spend her time alone when one was surrounded by couples so engrossed in themselves, that it made one sick just to catch a glimpse at them. Oh yeah, life was great, or so to speak. Why she kept attending these parties, she had no idea; actually, she had to keep the image that she was a silly twit of a girl so that no one would suspect her of being the Queen of Swords. The Queen of Swords— that was someone she enjoyed being; not having to worry about her love life, their social life, nope just the pleasure of riding on their horse--the feel of the wind in her hair and face-- and making one's nemesis fear one's next step. That was the only exciting thing in her life; waiting for the sun to go down and the moon to come out, announcing that it was her time to enjoy life. That was the only time Tessa Alvarado enjoyed being herself, when she got transform into the Queen of Swords.

Then there was the continuous persisting by Captain Grisham to court her. She would have considered him, perhaps, if it weren't for his arrogance she had noticed of him the first time she met him. Another reason for not considering Grisham's advances was that, he was the Queen of Sword's nemesis. She wasn't saying that she would have considered him if he weren't her enemy, but then again, there was that one time they were stuck in the cave--very close to dying—when his respect for her showed his true colors. Tessa could say that they had mutual feelings toward each other, not hatred but not great affection either. Nevertheless, his smug attitude, smirk and walk made her despise him at times.

Montoya, she despised at a great length. He was a monster who enjoyed destroying people's lives. Grisham at least had a heart, or at least she thinks he does. There was that one time when Vera was kidnapped—she saw the worry he wore in his eyes. Another when she fell into coma and woke up, she decided to leave him, and told Marcus Grisham that their affair was too risky and that while in coma, she had realized she truly loved Don Hidalgo. Tessa noticed a little while after that, (Vera hadn't told her yet about the end of her affair) Grisham's smug look disappeared for quite sometime and she was taken by surprise until Vera told her why; however, she was also surprised for the fact that Grisham, was actually showing feelings of remorse for losing the woman with whom he had had an affair with for God only knows how long. At first Tessa thought that he missed having a toy to play with, but then she noticed it must have been more because he no longer gave her those sadistic remarks when she was fighting with him, disguised as the Queen of Swords.

Tessa sort of pitied Grisham, but tried not to show it too much. After a few months had passed though, Grisham's smugness returned which lead to his continuous persistence to court Tessa.

And so our story begins here, 9 months after all of this(like it says in the first sentence), the beginning of something remarkable between Tessa Alvarado and her adversary.

Okay, hope you guys enjoyed it; working on chapter 1. Feedback truly and sincerely appreciated!