Here's chapter 6. This was probably the most difficult chapter to write because I had the middle and the ending, but I needed the beginning to flow right. Oh well you all will see what I'm talking about. Enjoy! Note this chapter was prewritten, I have 1 more chapter on my computer already finished and I'll most likely post that tomorrow. I'm going to start on chapter 8 in a bit. Here is Chapter 6…
Natalie checked her watch; it was just before six, as Crisitan and she crossed through Angel Square. He had wanted to walk her to the diner and she didn't protest. The last hour or so had been filled with good emotions and she didn't want to ruin that. Things were finally felling right again. They continued their onward stride, and Natalie halted at the sound of her cell phone ringing. She pulled it from her purse and recognized her sister's cell phone number.
"Hey Jess." She said answering. "I'm almost at the diner; I should be there any minute."
"That makes one of us." She said as she sat behind a desk at the Banner, going through papers that were sprawled out in front of her.
"What do you mean?"
"Natalie I'm sorry, I'm running late over here. It's just I'm trying so hard to finish this article for the deadline tonight so it can be printed in tomorrows edition. I'm sorry." She pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face with her free hand.
"It's…its okay. Do you want to cancel; because we can do this another time?"
"No! I want to come. I may be a little late, but…I'll be there."
"Okay; if you say so."
"I do. I'll see you in a little while."
"See you then." She said as she hung up and slipped the phone back into her purse.
"What was that about?" Cris asked staring at her intently.
"It was Jess; she's running a little late at the Banner; just wanted to let me know."
"You mean we didn't have to rush after all?" He asked giving her a knowing look.
She let out a small laugh "Looks that way." He leaned in to kiss her and suddenly pulled back with a look of distress on his face. There it was again, the voice that would not go away. He held his temples with his hands in an effort to try and make it stop, but it was useless.
"You must complete your mission in Llanview. You must kill; someone who is hated and, someone who is loved. You must let nothing get in your way, nothing."
"Cristian…are you okay…" He wasn't answering, just holding his head in pain. It was evident he couldn't hear her. She was growing increasingly worried. "Cris?" She reached out and touched his shoulder lightly not sure what else to do.
He pulled away from her grasp sharply, causing her to take an involuntary step back from him. He retreated within himself for a short while, and then was brought back to the here and now abruptly. Realizing what had just happened Cristian looked up to meet her gaze with his own. Her crystal blue eyes were clouded over with fear from his actions.
"Are…are you alright?" She asked not sure of how she should react to the scene which had just unfolded in front of her.
He looked down for a second and then back up at her. "I'm…I'm fine. It's been a long day. I just have a really bad head ache." He lied
Natalie relaxed feeling a little bit better about the situation. Her first instinct was telling her to run; that this man could possibly hurt her, but she quickly pushed that notion out of her head remembering that this was Cristian she was talking about, her husband. There was no way he would ever hurt her even if he tried to.
"Why don't you go back to Llanfair and get some rest. The diner is just down there." She pointed behind her. "I think I can manage." She said with a reassuring smile.
"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you like this."
"You're not feeling well, the best think you can do is just go back home and rest. The diner is a few feet away, I'll be fine."
Cristian reluctantly agreed to her request. "Okay. I just don't want to leave you again like I did this morn-"
She gently raised a finger to his lips to silence him. "That was different; we're past that now. I'm telling you that I want you to go home, there's a difference."
He gently pulled her finger from his lips and brought the top of her hand back up to his face placing a soft kiss on it. He pulled it away but still kept her hand in his. "I just love you so much."
"I love you too." She smiled gently at him. "But you need to be home."
"You're right." He pulled away from her. "I'll see you back at Llanfair." He turned to walk away and Natalie watched him fade into the background.
Cristian stood off on the side lines for a moment to recollect himself. It had happened again, the voice had over taken his thoughts once more, but this time it was stronger. It was getting stronger and stronger each time, and harder and harder to fight what it was telling him to do.
Natalie stood there for a slight moment to collect her thoughts, and then turned in the direction on the diner. As she did so she ran smack into the last person she needed to see.
"Hey." He smiled at her, giving her the same lopsided grin he always seemed to give.
"Hey John." There was an underlying hint of annoyance in her voice.
"How you' doing?"
"I'm fine." She answered the question a little too quickly and she realized it. When he said nothing she softly spoke. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap like that, it's just…it's been a long day."
He looked down at her and saw in her eyes there was something else, but he didn't want to pry. The last thing he wanted was to get into a confrontation about Cris right now and have her bite his head off. No he would keep the conversation at a comfortable level to be safe. "You don't have to apologies; I should probably be the one doing that. The other night I was out of line with my accusations and-"
"It's okay." She interjected. "We already apologized for that, lets just leave it there."
"Fine by me." The air grew silent for a second "Where were you headed?" he wanted to keep the conversation going."
"To the diner; I'm meeting Jess there."
"I don't want to keep you then."
"Your not; she said she was running a little late, so I should have a few minutes."
She sat on the bench next to them putting her purse down next to her. He stood there for a second and looked out onto the sky.
"It's a nice night." He said softly not really knowing what else to say, and also wanting to end the silence that was plaguing the moment.
"Yeah." She replied even softer then he had. "Are things that bad off between us that were reduced to…this?" She asked abruptly.
He looked at her not knowing what she had meant. "This?" He asked a bit puzzled.
"Small talk was never out thing." She let out a sarcastic laugh. "I'm just wondering how things got this bad." She looked down and brushed the stray hair from her face.
"What…what do you want from me Natalie?" He grew agitated. "You confuse the hell out of me, do you know that?" He sighed running his hand though his hair, something he always did when he was aggravated. "You tell me that things can't be like they were before when we were friends, because of Cris coming back. You practically told me to ignore you, act like we never knew each other, and I go out of my way to do that and now you come out with this." He looked into her eyes and saw she was just as frustrated with this as he was. "What do you want Natalie? You just want things to go back to the way they were between us?"
She wasn't sure how to answer that. She stood from the bench and faced him
"It used to be different between us John and you know it." She was almost shouting. "We didn't have to play these games, we could actually talk to each other, have a conversation and it would be real, one hundred percent real. Not like this, I don't even recognize this." She exhaled sharply and continued, in a much different tone then she had started out in. "I know things can't go back to the way that they were before, I know that, but I just…I don't want it to be…" She couldn't find the right words "Like this." Was all she could manage to say at a loss for something better to fill in the blank.
He stared at her intently for a minute, "It's my fault it's like this."
"How do you figure?"
"I've been pushing about Cris, it wouldn't be this bad if I would stay out of it.
She looked away for a minute and then back at John. "Look I know I've said this a million times, and I must sound like a broken record by now to you, but here I go one more time. I know my husband, and I know he would never hurt me. I mean yeah he's changed, but he's still my husband, still the man I fell in love with."
John looked down and ran his hand through his hair again. He didn't want to hear this again. She said this every time, and every time he felt worse and worse about it. He realized she must hate him by now, because of his constant pushing when it came to Cris. He looked back up at her and her expression changed.
"That being said, I want to thank you."
He stared at her for a second trying to make sure he had heard her right "Thank me?" He asked surprised
"Yeah…I know what you say, it's your way of trying to protect me and underneath it all, what ever has happened between us, it shows me that you care about what happens to me."
"Natalie, I-"
"John." She cut him off. "By doing what you do, and saying what you say, I can see that our friendship is still important to you, and it means a lot to me, more then you'll ever know."
He looked into her deep blue orbs, and felt a feeling in the pit of himself that he often felt when he was around her. It was more intense now then it ever had been before.
"You…you know I care about you, and I care about what happens to you." He was barley able to stammer out the words. "You have to know that by now. Everything I've done-"
"John" She held her hand up stopping him. "Let's just leave it at that okay?" She didn't want him to continue knowing that the conversation could very well take a wrong turn and end up in forbidden territory. Then again a part of her did want him to go on. She wanted to hear why he did what he did to help her, why he cared so much, but her sensible part won the argument. "I'm not upset now, even though maybe a part of me should be, but I'm not, I'm touched that you care. So let's just leave it at this."
"Okay." He replied simply never breaking the intense stare between the two. He finally lightened the moment by giving her one of his very one of a kind smiles.
"Thank you…For caring."
She closed the gap between the two quickly and leaned up and lightly kissed him on the check. As she did so he could feel her warm breath on her check as her lips lingered there for a second longer then they needed to. As she pulled away, he had to resist every urge he had to pull her to him and claim her mouth onto his. He some how managed to do so, and met the gaze she gave him with one of his own. He looked down at her and saw the beauty in her eyes. The woman standing in front of him was breath taking. She looked up at him and her big blue orbs danced in the moon light. He reached out and lightly brushed a stay strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. His thumb lingered on her delicate ivory check and slowly wandered to her lips tracing the outline of the bottom one slowly.
Natalie tilted her head back slightly, as her eyes began to close. Her senses were tingling, telling her to give into whatever was happening, but her rational side was fighting back. When his thumb reached her top lip all logic slipped away as her reflexes sent shivers of pleasure up her spine. She began to loose herself in the moment and let the feeling overtake her. She redirected her gaze back on John and saw something she had never seen in his eyes. The moment was deep; his thumb still resting on her lip.
"John…" Was all she could manage to say in an almost undetectable whisper. She had meant it to come out as a final plea of rational thought, meaning to break the moment, but it only strengthened what was happening, sounding more like a lovers cry for more.
He removed his thumb from her lips and returned it to her cheek. Looking into her eyes one last time he leaned into her gently.
His lips were mere inches from hers, and she could feel his warm breath reaching out to her. And finally it happened. His lips gently grazed over hers, sending a shock of electricity into her body. He was slow and gentle about it as he let his lips linger on hers without any movement for a brief moment. He began to kiss her once more, and to her surprise Natalie found herself kissing him back.
She felt so good pressed against him, so right like she was made for him. Her kiss tasted so sweet. Was he dreaming? She was kissing him back; he had to be in a dream state. As she parted her lips to allow his tongue to enter her mouth, he quickly realized that no dream could fell this good, this was all real. Their tongues danced for what seemed like an eternity, but in all reality it couldn't have been any more then a minute. Then it hit him, the reality of the situation came crashing on him like a ton of brick, she was a married woman, and while this felt so right to him at the moment, she would without a doubt regret this at a later time. He pulled away from their embrace abruptly, breaking the moment, and the connection between the two.
She looked up at him startled by his actions at first, but then she realized what had happened. Her sensibility washed over her like a rush of cold water, and she realized her fatal error in judgment.
"Natalie…I…" He trailed off. His voice was low and raspy
"I…I need to go." She had no idea what to say, but figured her best option was to leave the situation where it was. She couldn't deal with this, not now. "Jess is probably there by now." She turned and walked towards the diner, not turning back once to see his reaction. A part of her wanted him to stop her, but he did no such thing.
He stood there motionless staring after her, and watched her walk away from him. Right now he had so many emotions running through his mind, but regret was not among them.
He was pulled out of his gaze by the ringing of his own phone. He snapped out of it and quickly answered it.
"McBain."
Cristian looked on at the Lieutenant curling his fists into tight balls. This was the final straw. If he had doubts before he had none now. He would put an end to this once and for all.
Chapter 6; this one was pretty long, I think. So let me know what you all think; more to come soon.
Robin
