A/N: thanks for all of the amazing feedback! Hope this doesn't suck.

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Natalie came walking through the open sliding glass door. The sun was shining brightly behind her, lighting up her flame red hair and making the drops of water on her tanned skin sparkle.

Cristian was right behind her and slid his hands around her waist.

Natalie closed her eyes and bit her lip. Cristian glided one of his hands down her stomach and slid his fingers underneath the turquoise cloth at her hip. His other hand made a slow trail of wet up to where he cupped her full breast.

Natalie held herself stiffly as her husband's fingers circled her sensitive nipple through the wet bikini top.

Cristian began to kiss her neck and slid his fingers up her body to her back where he unhooked the clasp. As it slid from her shoulders he put his hand underneath and cupped her now naked breasts. He pressed his arousal against her back.

"I want to make love to you."

Natalie bit her lip harder and laid her head back on his shoulder.

"Kiss me."

Natalie turned her head at his command and welcomed his lips and tongue into a long practiced dance.

Cristian's grip on her breasts tightened and he pulled her more firmly against him.

"You're hurting me." Natalie whispered against his lips.

As if struck, Cristian backed off. His quick movement sent Natalie off balance and she stumbled and fell on the floor, her sprained ankle giving out under her.

She was on all fours on the kitchen floor, her hair falling over her face. Her bikini top discarded next to her. She was breathing heavily both from shock and pain.

Cristian was also breathing heavily and obviously trying to rein in his temper.

"You've been here two weeks, when the hell are you going to get over this?" he demanded. When she didn't respond he sighed and walked around her and held out a hand.

Natalie looked up at him, her own glare fierce. She took his hand and allowed him to help her stand. She limped over to the couch in the sun room and sat down.

Cristian sighed and went to the freezer to get some ice.

He handed her the towel and sat across from her while she put her ankle on the coffee table and applied the home remedy.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm tired of your sorries." Natalie looked up at him. "I need to call and let people know I'm all right!"

"You mean McBain," Cristian accused.

"I mean my mother who has a heart condition. I mean my father. I mean my family. My Uncle Bo. Roxy. Rex. God, Cristian. They think I'm being held hostage by a serial killer or even dead."

"It's safer if they think you're dead."

"Like your own family is safer thinking your dead? Like I was?"

"I'm a killer Natalie. It's better that they don't know I'm alive." Cristian paced restlessly in front of the floor to ceiling windows.

"And I'm supposed to stay dead with you?"

"You're my wife."

"I want to go home. I want you to come with me."

"Your home is with me."

Natalie sighed and leaned back on the couch. They'd had this argument over and over again over the past two weeks. Ever since she had gotten over the shock of waking up in this beach house and finding the John Doe impersonating her husband standing over her. An imposter telling her again he was her husband. He went on to tell her things that only Cristian Vega could know about his childhood. About their first meeting. About how he loved her. She still didn't believe him. Not until he told her about the DNA test. About the promise he had extracted from an unwilling John McBain.

Suddenly all the things that John had said and done over the past six months made sense.

Over the next few days she learned how the government was using Cristian to get to the people responsible for his brainwashing and the murder and attempted murder of the Santi heirs. That he had never planned to come back to Llanview of let her or his family know he was really alive. Then he found out that she had been targeted by a serial killer and kidnapped and he had insisted that he would not cooperate unless she was brought to him.

Cristian wanted her to never go back. She would be presumed dead and they could live out the life of their dreams.

Natalie didn't tell him she didn't know what those dreams were anymore, but she did tell him that she couldn't have a life without her family around her.

She told him that most of her life had been a lie and she would not go back to that.

He wouldn't listen. Nor would the people protecting them. She was just as trapped here as she had been with Evangeline in that basement. At least she knew that Evangeline was safe. They had told her that much.

"I need to go home. I need to make sure my mother is ok." She had to try and reason with him one more time. "If you truly love me you'll let me go home and come with me."

Cristian clenched his hands and rounded on his wife. "I'm not going back there."

"Then I don't see how we can have a future together." Natalie stood up and turned and limped away. Tears pricked her eyes. She never thought she would speak this way to Cristian. But everything about this situation was unbelievable.

"Do you really think you can forgive him for lying to you?"

Natalie turned around. "I'm not even sure I can forgive you." With a sad look on her face she headed for her bedroom. Once there she locked the door. It was the only freedom she had. Though she knew if he had wanted to, Cristian could break down the door and claim what he felt was rightfully his. Her.

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Her sleep was restless. She was tossing and tangled in the white sheets of her bed. It was hot inside the room because she preferred a fresh heat to a manufactured cold. She was also soothed by the sounds of the waves. It sounded like being back home in AC the times when they lived near the beach; or the nights she had to be away from home and slept near, or under, the boardwalk.

Usually the sounds soothed her, but it wasn't working tonight. The heat just made her feverish and the sounds permeated her dreams.

She was walking in the sliding glass door from the beach. He hair hung in red clumps around her head. She was laughing and trailing her yellow towel behind her. She could hear his rushing footsteps as he rushed after her.

With a laugh Natalie dropped the towel, hoping to slow him down. She could hear the rush of the ocean, but maybe that was just her heart. She rushed into the living room and up the stairs. Instead of heading for her bedroom she ran for his.

She should have known she couldn't get away. He would always find her.

He grabbed her just inside the doorway. She heard him kick it shut behind him, but she didn't care. Not with his hands on her body. Where his fingers touched she burned and she could swear she heard a sizzle of the ocean water drying on her skin. He slipped one hand under the turquoise material at her hip. His other hand brushed the hair off her neck to make way for his lips.

"You know," he whispered into her neck. "The water in Jersey is saltier."

With a gasp Natalie awakened and sat up in bed.

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"Answer the damn question!" John McBain growled at the FBI agent sitting across from him.

"You'd better do that lady. You better tell him where my granddaughter is our you'll..." Asa Buchanan stormed into the office without knocking.

"Pa. Let me. What my father means, Agent Kelly, is that if the FBI has been withholding information regarding the whereabouts of my niece not only is the FBI going to reimburse the City of Llanview for its efforts to find Natalie Vega, but it will face the mother of all lawsuits from the Buchanan lawyers on behalf of Natalie's many, many suffering family members."

"Not to mention the politicians that we so generously support will come down hard on your damn federal bureau of idiots!" Asa threatened.

"Now, I'll ask you again." John was standing now. "Does the FBI know where Natalie Vega is?"

Marcia Kelly looked around the office at the angry faces crowding her.

John had to hand it to her, she didn't lose her cool or look remotely intimidated.

"Is she in Miami with Cristian?" Bo demanded.

John had filled Bo and Asa in on what he knew prior to Agent Kelly's appearance.

"Yes."

"You bitch!" John was both relieved and furious at the same time. The pressure on his chest and the knot in his stomach eased. She was all right. She might hate him for the rest of his life, but she was all right.

Bo looked at John in shock that he would be the one to say it. Asa looked impressed.

"Did you stage the kidnappings?"

"No. We just took advantage of the situation to extract Mrs. Vega and take her to her husband."

"Why the hell on God's name did you let us believe all this time that my granddaughter was kidnapped by a maniac?" Asa's face was red with fury.

"Because Cristian was refusing to cooperate unless you got his wife," John answered for her.

"That is correct," Marcia confirmed.

"Were you ever going to tell us?" Bo asked, certain he already knew the answer.

"That was undetermined."

"What about the photograph?"

"We didn't have anything to do that. I was actually sent here to help you catch the serial killers."

"And to keep us off the scent of where my niece was. Get the hell out of my department."

"No. Wait. I want to talk to her and make sure she's all right." John held out his telephone. "Call her."

"I'm afraid that's not possible."

"It better damn well be possible or I'm going to call that cowboy in the White House and make it possible!" Asa threatened.

"Could everyone leave Agent Kelly and I alone for a few minutes?"

"I normally don't advocate hitting women, but if you have to beat it out of her I'll pay for your lawyer!" Asa yelled as Bo pushed him out of the office and closed the door behind them.

"If you don't tell us, someone else will. I promise you that." John still held out his phone.

"If that were the case someone would have told you already."

"Then why admit it now? You could have kept us the official story and disappeared."

"Because Mrs. Vega is not happy with the situation. She doesn't want to go along with the deception, nor does she want to disappear with her husband into the witness protection program. And because we are very close to toppling the people behind everything."

"How close?" John asked.

"Days. Maybe hours."

"Are they in danger?"

"Very likely."

"Are they really in Miami?"

"No."

"Where are they?"

"I can't tell you that."

"I need to talk to her."

John and Marcia just looked at each other silently for a long moment.

"I'll see what I can do." Marcia turned to leave.

"What was all that questioning about my feelings for Natalie Vega?"

"I figured it was the least I could while I was here and you would expect it."

"What do you mean the least you could do?"

"Helping ease that battle you have going up there."

"I need to talk to her."

"I know." Marcia walked out the door.

John turned towards the window. He put his hand on the wall and leaned forward. She was all right. She was with Cristian. She knew he had lied.