Author's Note: First off, I'm not so great with all this mushy stuff, so if your computer gets clogged with saccharine or cheese or something, I apologize.
Secondly, I was raised on telenovelas (Spanish language soaps) on an equal basis with American ones, and since they don't run for a limited time not years and years they have a tendency to just skip the boring parts and jump ahead to the next interesting thing. This is all by way of warning you that the story's about to start making some jumps forward in time.
Natalie awoke to the feel of John's hand caressing her hair. She opened her eyes to find his face inches from hers, the morning sun splashing over their bodies. "Good morning," she murmured languidly. They'd been together just two weeks, but she felt incredibly natural waking up next to him. As though she could hardly remember waking up without him. He kissed her softly. "Time to get up?" she asked.
"Unfortunately," he said without moving.
She couldn't convince herself to get up either. Instead she wrapped a hand around his head an kissed him back, a little more deeply than he had kissed her. She hooked a leg around his to pull him closer as he caressed the soft skin at the base of her ribcage.
The kiss was suddenly interrupted by a banging on the door. They pulled away simultaneously and gave each other a questioning look. "Ignore it," he said pulling her back to him.
The banging continued. "Open up McBain, I know you're in there!"
"Roxy," Natalie whispered. John rolled his eyes in response. "What does she want?"
"Is today Wednesday?" he asked.
"Thursday," she said.
He sighed. "I'm late on rent."
"I have a key, Johnny," Roxy called. "You don't open up and hand me a check right now and I'm coming in."
John jumped up and grabbed a pair of pants. "Coming," he called.
"I'll hide," Natalie volunteered. There was really no reason for hiding their relationship; things were going well between the two of them. Jessica, Bo, and Rex already knew. It was remarkable that with Rex knowing the whole town didn't know already, but he'd managed to keep quiet. And part of Natalie enjoyed having a secret that the rest of Llanview didn't know. And a big part of her didn't want to deal with Roxy's lewd comments about the whole thing. So she decided to avoid it for a little while longer. She tried to roll over and swing her legs to the floor, but her legs tangled in the sheets and she fell in a heap to the ground. "Ow!" she giggled.
"You okay?" John mouthed.
She nodded and waived him to the door. She tried to stifle her laughter and hoped she was out of sight. John opened the door, trying to look collected. Roxy looked him up and down suspiciously. "Don't think I won't evict you just 'cause you look so good half dressed."
"I have your check right here," he said grabbing the check book off the slot machine where he'd left it and hurriedly filling out the check.
"Late fee's an extra ten percent," she said.
"You're kidding," he said looking up at her.
"I don't joke about money," she assured him.
He signed the check and handed it to her. She didn't move. "Anything else?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said folding the check and sticking it in her cleavage, "You can tell Natty to come out from under the bed or the bathroom or wherever you have her stashed."
He tried to look at her blankly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure you don't," she said, "You can also tell her that shirt's gonna get wrinkled lying there like that." She indicated Natalie's top which had been tossed on the ground the night before.
"Goodbye, Roxy," he said moving to close the door.
"And just so we're clear," she said, "sleeping with my daughter don't get you a rent break either."
He shut the door with her and turned back to Natalie who had sat up and was looking back at him with an expression of amused embarrassment. She rubbed her hip. "Ow," she said again.
"You all right?" he said helping her up.
"Yeah," she said, "just feeling a bit like a fifteen year old whose mother just caught her making out in the driveway."
"You think Rex told her?" John asked handing her the incriminating top.
She shook her head, "I just think we haven't been as secretive as we thought we were."
"You're not exactly great at hiding how you feel," he pointed out.
"Yeah," she said slipping on her skirt, "I kinda left you to do the heavy lifting where that's concerned."
"You okay with everyone knowing about us?" he asked cautiously. He hadn't quite understood why she'd wanted to keep it a secret in the first place.
"I am," she said smiling at him, "I am ready to start bragging I think."
"I'm worth bragging about now?" he asked.
"Uh huh," she said, pulling her hair back quickly. "Oh, Jessica's getting out of the hospital today," she added.
"That's good," he said.
"Yeah, and Mom's leaving for England tomorrow to go see Joey and Dad, so we're having a combination "Welcome Home"/"Bon Voyage" dinner tonight."
"That's fine," he said, "I understand you want to spend time with them. I can give you up for one night."
"Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to come along," she said cautiously.
"I don't want to intrude," he said.
"Please," she said, "you won't be. You'll be saving me from being the only one without a date. Antonio will be there. And Adriana will probably be there with Duke if he manages to make it out of the office. And Kelly will be there with Kevin-"
"I thought they were divorced," John asked, confused by the last pairing.
Natalie shook her head indicating she didn't quite grasp it either. "They were. They are. They're also acting like a couple of teenagers."
"Like us?"
"Worse," she said, "my mom apparently walked in on them making out on her couch the other day. It's very bizarre. Anyway, the point is, you won't be intruding."
"You're sure?" he asked.
"Yeah I'm sure," she said, "but no pressure. I mean if you don't want to, I totally understand. We're a lot to take, my family."
"I'll come," he assured her. "Am I gonna get a bunch of that Buchanan/Texan, 'mess with our girl and we'll put you down like a rabid dog' stuff."
"Possibly," she admitted, "but if Kelly and Adriana are there, Asa will be plenty distracted; I mean two Cramers, that's like something out of a nightmare for him. And the only other one likely to say something that stupid is Rex and as he's neither a Buchanan nor a Texan so he won't be there. You're getting off easy truth be told."
"Yeah, Rex has been quiet on the subject so far," he said, "I'm kind of surprised actually."
"I'm kind of nervous," she said, "When Rex is quiet he's usually up to something."
"Well whoever wants to warn me or threaten me or whatever, I can handle it," he said smiling that smile which was small but full of so much tenderness that it gave her a slight flutter in her chest every time she saw it.
"Thank you," she said, then wrapping her arms around his neck added, "I'm so lucky to have you."
"We'll see if you're still saying that a couple months from now," he said, trying to make it sound like a joke.
She took it that way and laughed before kissing him. It wasn't really. Sooner or later she had to get wise. Even if she didn't find out about Cristian, eventually she was going to realize how much better she deserved.
"Well, I guess I don't have to bother with creeping out anymore," she said grabbing her purse.
"Just when we were getting so good at it too," he said opening the door for her.
"See you at work then," she said stepping past him. Before she could walk away he pulled her back and kissed her one more time. As she turned to leave she stopped short.
"Hi Michael," she said, a hint of discomfort in her voice.
Michael McBain had rounded the corner just in time to see their good-bye. "Morning," he said, trying to sound chipper. Why shouldn't he? Why should it bother him to see his brother and Natalie together? It was hardly a surprise.
"Can we help you with something, Mikey," John said when Michael didn't continue down the hall.
Michael shook himself to his senses. "Nah," he said, "I mean I was about to tell you two to get a room but…" he motioned to the room that they already had.
Natalie noticed the hint of bitterness in his words, the trace of hurt in his expression; she just hoped John didn't. Or discounted them as general crankiness; it wasn't out of the question. Deciding the best course of action was to end the situation as soon as possible she turned back to John and said, "Bye." She hurried down the hall, hoping that these encounters with Michael were going to get less awkward eventually.
The Buchanan family dinner was much less threatening than it could have been. The attention was rightly focused on Jessica and Viki, so John and Natalie were spared any questions regarding their situation. They did receive a few curious glances when they arrived together from the members of the family who hadn't already figured them out. Only at the end of the evening did John receive anything near the anticipated threats from the family.
Natalie had stopped by the restroom on the way out and John found himself waiting with Kevin Buchanan who was waiting on Kelly. John shuffled around, his hands in his pockets, trying to think of reasons to avoid eye contact. Kevin finally said, "So this is the part where I tell you to be good to my sister. Grandpa would probably throw in something about how he's successfully used the 'he needed killin' defense a couple times and wouldn't mind doing it again."
"You don't need to tell me to be good to Natalie," John said.
"I know," Kevin said, "and I'm hardly in a position to be lecturing anyone on mistreating women. You two have been through a lot together already, so I'm just going wish you well."
"Thanks," John said, "It means a lot."
"Natalie deserves it," Kevin added, "especially after everything that happened with Cristian."
And there it was all of a sudden. The reminder of exactly why he didn't deserve to be with Natalie and how he was bound to hurt her sooner or later. Natalie emerged from the ladies' room a moment later and smiled at him, "Ready to go?"
John said nothing on the walk out to the car or the ride back to his place. Natalie noticed the change in his mood and demeanor, but couldn't figure out the reason for it. "Something wrong?" she asked.
"No," he said with no further explanation. Not that it was uncharacteristic for John to not say things or not explain things. It was irritating, but normal.
When they walked back into his room she realized he was also avoiding eye contact. "Did Kevin say something to you?" she asked. "I saw you two talking when I came out of the bathroom."
"No," he said sitting down on the bed and trying to pretend that he was tired, not brooding.
"If he did, tell me and I'll set him straight," she said.
"All he said was to be good to you," he said.
"Then what's set you brooding this time?" she asked. "Is it something that I did?"
He looked up at her. "No," he said truthfully, "you haven't done anything. I swear."
"Well then what is it? Is it just my family? I know they're overwhelming-"
"Natalie-" he tried to interrupt her but she continued.
"I mean this is why Cristian and I always tried to duck out on big family functions, you know."
"I'm not Cristian," he snapped. He would have regretted it anyway, but the look on Natalie's face made him want to slam his head into a wall for putting it there. She looked as though she'd been slapped.
She stared at him for a moment then finally said very slowly. "Thank you, John. I'd noticed that."
"I- I didn't mean for it to come out like that," he stammered.
"You usually don't," she said quietly, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood across the room. "You think I don't realize that you're not Cristian? Am I somehow trying to force you into being him?"
"No," he said standing up and crossing to her, "but sometimes I wonder if you know what you're in for. Being with me versus being with someone like Cris."
"I don't," she said, "but I'm willing to wait and find out. If you'll let me."
He didn't say anything, but brushed her cheek with the side of his index finger, hoping to get her posture to relax, to soften somehow. It didn't work; instead she continued. "John, Cristian would be happy for us. He would want us to be together if he knew how much we cared about each other."
"None of us can really know that for sure," he said.
"I do," she said, "I knew him better than anyone. You know when he was with Jen he let her believe he hated her rather than tell let her be in danger. That's how he was. He would want me to be with you and happy rather than alone and miserable."
"What about with me and miserable?" he asked softly.
"Stop it," she said. "Stop trying to create problems before we even have them."
"I'm sorry," he said, pacing, trying to formulate either an apology or and explanation.
"You know, John," she said, "I can understand why I would have some Cristian issues. And I can understand why you would have some Kaitlyn issues. But I don't understand why the biggest obstacle we have is your Cristian issues."
"Look it's late," he said running his hand through his hair, "can't we talk about this tomorrow?"
She looked at him for a moment, clearly unhappy with this suggestion, but nodded nonetheless. "Okay," she said, grabbing her purse.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm okay with us discussing this tomorrow when you're feeling better rested," she said, "but I'm not about to crawl into your bed in the meantime. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Natalie wait!" he called as she opened the door. She slammed it behind her without turning.
He fought the urge to break something. There really wasn't much to break anyway. "I don't know," he said to the air, as if somehow the message would reach all the way to Statesville, "what do you want us to do?"
To be continued.