Thanks for all the reviews!

Same part 2 as before, just edited

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The Gamble - Part 2
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Natalie: Cristian said you were looking for me?

John: You're Natalie?

Natalie: Yeah. Why?

John: Well, if I didn't have a reason before, I got one now.

Natalie sat on the window seat of her bedroom at Llanfair remembering. This time, unlike when she was trapped in that pit, she was remembering only the good times. She had sworn back then to not remember the bad times again and she hadn't lived up to her bargain. Not in the months since she had found out about the lie.

Natalie sighed and touched the glass wishing John was once again just up the hill watching her. Her breath hitched as she remembered how back then Cristian had been the one sitting in prison. She put her arms around her knees and rested her cheek on top of her knees. She had been so damned happy she and John were finally together. Happier, she could admit now, than she had ever been in her life. Including when she had been with Cristian.

John never made her feel unworthy, that she had to prove herself in order to be in his life. She never had to be anything other than herself in his eyes, even when he was pushing her away and denying his feelings he was her best friend. That had abruptly ended a few months when Evangeline Williamson had gotten Cristian sprung from Statesville and dropped him off at Natalie and John's door.

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John stood stoically as the prison guard rifled through the bag of personal belongings he had brought with him. He wasn't even seeing the first of many invasions of his person he would be enduring once he was locked deep within the prison walls, he was still picturing his last night with Natalie. He clenched his right hand and forced himself back to the present. He memorized the not-quite green paint on the walls. The peeling warning signs. The scuffed floors. The stale smell that he knew would eventually worm its way into his bones and become his own.

"We need you to remove your clothes, sir."

John nodded, ignoring the look of guilt in the guard's eyes, and began to unbutton his shirt.

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Natalie glanced over at the criminal justice textbooks lying open on the carpet at her feet. Nothing, just nothing in there that gave her a niggle of an idea on how she could help John. He had taken a plea, there wasn't even anything to appeal. There was no evidence she could investigate, or get Rex to, because John had done the things he was accused of. He had withheld evidence. Evidence that let a sick man sit in prison for months. Her own husband.

John: I have kept this from you too long, to protect you . That's what I told myself, but I can't do it anymore. I -- I need to get it out in the open, and then maybe there's a -- a chance for us.

Natalie: John, you're scaring me. Can you just tell me what it is?

John: It's about Cristian.

God, how she had hated him when she opened the door to find Cristian standing there, his lawyer flanking him with a knowing gleam in her eyes. It was Evangeline's expression and John's that told her that this really was Cristian, because the man standing before her wasn't him. Genetically yes, it was Cristian Vega the man she had married and this time he even had all the memories he'd had to fake the last time. In spirit, though, this was not Cristian Vega the man she had loved and planned to spend the rest of her life with.

Not knowing what else to do she had invited them into her and John's home.

That night and for many afterwards she would have gladly driven John McBain to the front gate of Statesville herself, but last night she had realized that all the feelings she had tried to erase from her heart and mind hadn't gone anywhere. They were still there, these strong feelings that wouldn't let her hate him anymore. Not for trying to protect her, even if how he went about it was just plain stupid.

Stupid and technically criminal, but he didn't deserve to spend the next three years in prison for it. He should have gotten probation, all the pundits said that. Even the so-called experts that worked for her Uncle Todd at the Sun and they had excoriated the disgraced officer more than any media outlet. Natalie suspected that John himself had something to do with the harshness of the sentence. It was just like him.

"Some sort of stupid penance, McBain."

Natalie stood up and kicked the book aside and began to pace. There had to be something she could do. It couldn't be too late.

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John didn't even flinch as the guards gave his naked form a cursory examination. He even felt bad for them as they pushed a prison uniform at him and hastily ordered him to cover up. He didn't bother telling them that he understood they were doing their jobs. He knew it wouldn't have made him feel better in their position.

One of the guards handed him back his bag just as the door opened and the warden came walking in.

"Good morning, McBain. I guess those connections of yours aren't as connected as I thought. Welcome to our humble institution. I'm sure you'll make a lot of new friends while you're here."

"Thank you, Warden Stevens." John smiled placidly at the man.

Irritated that he wasn't able to get a rise out of the fallen man, but not willing to lose temper and face in front of his men, Darren gritted his teeth and moved on.

"We're going to put you in solitary for a few days before we release you into the general population. There are undoubtedly guests who would like nothing better than a piece of a former cop."

"I understand."

"Take him," Warden Stevens ordered. His irritation dissipated as he watched the cop led by the arm in his prison gray through the bars. He smirked when they locked behind his newest charge.

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"I need to talk to a good attorney," Natalie said into the telephone. "I'm asking you because you get into so much trouble I figured you'd know a good one."

"Tempting, but Ms. Williamson is currently facing disciplinary charges from the bar," Natalie said with relish. "Give me another name Todd. Fine, Uncle Todd."

"That's next on my list. You know, uh, thanks."

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"John Doe, uh, Cristian Vega asked to leave this here for you."

John looked at what the guard, Julio, was pointing at. His expression hardened when he saw the tattered painting of Natalie in her wedding veil.

"Do you want me to take it away?"

"No. Leave it. It's fine. Thanks," John rasped.

"If you need anything, holler. We look out for our own."

"Thanks, man."

John stood stoically as the cell door crashed closed.