This is by far the largest update that I've ever done...Seven chapters all at once. I originally was going to post them one at a time, but then I was like, "hey, why not?" I mean, they were done and everything... and knowing that 19-23 are some of my favorite chapters in this fic, I thought I would just post them at the same time. Now of course... heh... I really have to work on chapter 25. Right now there isn't much to it...maybe about 2000 words, but as you can tell, these chapters are all closer to 3000 words and up. I couldn't help it! lol! Anyway, this chapter takes place several months after the last Locke/Rachel chapter. (It's technically April according to my timeline. Oh yes, I literally have a timeline written out of when each of these chapters occur...sad, isn't it?) All right...here ya are!

18. An Expression of Love

"Locke, when I get my hands on you, you better watch out!" Rachel shouted with a giggle, holding her arms out in front of herself so she wouldn't run into anything. Locke had blindfolded her with his bandana and laughed as she blindly walked around. Most of the way he had guided her by holding her hands, but now they were in a wide open meadow, so he let her walk around. "Are we there yet?"

"Are you aware that you've asked me that question about twenty-five times since we left Kohlingen?" He asked as he circled her in the opposite direction. She turned in a circle to try to follow his voice, causing him to stifle his laughter. "But to answer your question, no. We're not there yet."

"Well, are we almost there?" She asked, stopping to listen to his voice. "Which reminds me, where are you taking me anyway? You didn't tell me."

"If I told you, it would completely ruin the surprise, and what fun would that be?" She turned in the direction of his voice and started to walk closer to him. Right when her fingers almost brushed his shoulder, he jumped out of the way while stifled laughter escaped his lips. "Oooh, almost got me!"

"Oh come on!" She insisted with a turn so she could go closer to his voice again. Locke rushed up to her and grabbed her hands again, causing her to slightly jump and let out a yelp. "That's not funny, Mr. Cole!"

He brought her into an embrace and kissed her gently on the lips. "Yeah, it is!" With a chuckle, he cupped her chin with the palm of his hand and continued with, "Yes, to answer your other question, we are almost there. Let's go."

After another thirty or so feet, he put his hands on her waist. She smiled at him, moving her hand up his arm until she reached his head. She tenderly ran her fingers through his hair, then leaped and pounced on him. With a slight 'oomph!' from surprise, he caught her and swung her around, being careful not to lose his balance. When put her feet gently on the ground, he kissed her again. "Okay, we're here."

"Finally! Can I see now?" With a nod, he gently untied the bandana and let her open her eyes. She looked at him for a second then adverted her attention to the surroundings. In awe, she said, "oh wow. It's beautiful here."

"Yep, it's my favorite getaway spot," he announced as she looked around. The location was a few miles from Kohlingen on a grassy hill that overlooked the ocean. Flowers and trees adorned the area for scenery as the sound of the crashing waves gently ran through the still air. It was a clear night, so the stars shone brightly and twinkled like diamonds against the blue-black abyss of the sky. The moon hung low in the sky and had an appearance of a face from the craters.

Rachel sat down on the ground and propped herself up by her hands as she looked at the moon's distorted reflection on the rippling water. She turned her head up to gaze at her boyfriend, observing the way he stood. His legs were spread about shoulder-width apart as he tied his trademark bandana around his blond hair. His hair was getting longer now; he needed to cut it again but didn't have the time to do it. His eyes glowed as fireflies buzzed around his head, a careless hand brushed them away as he finished the knot.

The corners of his lips slowly turned up into a smile as he saw her stare at him out of the corner of his eye. He chuckled and without looking at her, he asked, "Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?"

"Why aren't you sitting with me?" She answered his question with another one as she reached up and grabbed his hand. He faced her and instead of sitting down, he pulled her up to her feet.

"I want you to stand with me," he said as he wrapped her in a tight embrace. She giggled as he gave her a gentle squeeze. He took one arm from her as he reached into his pocket to fish for something. To distract her, he brought her into a passionate kiss, causing her to let out a giggle with the pleasant surprise.

He broke the kiss, but only moved his face an inch away from hers. As he looked deeply into her bright blue eyes, he tenderly lifted up her left hand and slid a diamond solitaire ring on her finger, eliciting a gasp from her lips.

"Oh, Locke…" she whispered as she looked down at the diamond then back up at him.

"Rachel VanLente, will you marry me?"

A single tear fell from her eyes and slid down her cheek as she inhaled a shaky breath from shock. "Yes," she replied so quietly that Locke barely heard her. She flung her arms around his neck as she exclaimed louder, "Yes! Yes!"

"Oh, Rachel," he exhaled as he kissed her again, slightly tasting the salt from her tears that passed over her lips. His hands slid up her back and entwined through her hair as they kissed, their tongues in a dizzy tango with happiness.

Another reason why he loved that spot that he didn't explain to Rachel was that it was in the middle of nowhere, and they would be able to have their privacy. As gently as he could, he began to unbutton the buttons on the back of her dress.

"Right here?" She gasped as she looked at him with a tinge of fear.

"Of course," he replied as he began to nibble at her neck and continued to slowly unbutton. "Do you not like my idea?"

"I love it," she answered mischievously as she threw off his vest and began to undo his belt, again surrendering to his passionate kisses.

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"So, soon to be Mrs. Cole," Locke started as Rachel's pretty face broke out into a smile. He gently ran his fingers through her hair with one hand as he used his other elbow for support. "How are you feeling?"

"I can't even form my thoughts into words right now," she replied with a pleased exhale. "Just so you know, I pretty much have the entire wedding planned out. I want a pretty dress, a small wedding party, only a few guests. I want it to be more of an intimate thing than a big spectacle. I want to get married on a beautiful spring day, and if you haven't noticed, it is spring. Also, I want an outdoor wedding. Maybe right here."

"You're right, you do have it planned out," he said with laugh as he bent over and kissed her on the forehead. "Whatever you want though, I'll make it happen."

She smiled then shook her head. "The only thing is that I don't know if my father will abide to my wishes."

"What do you mean?" Locke furrowed his forehead when he saw her face turn downcast. "I know he doesn't like me all that well, but I think he'll have to deal with the fact that I am completely in love with his only daughter and I will do everything in my power to make her happy."

"You already do make me happy, but that's not what I'm afraid of." Locke waited for her to go on, so she sighed and started to run her fingers through the grass that she was laying on. "I'm sure my father will oppose, but like you said, he'll have to deal with it. I'm just worried that he'll want to have a big, huge wedding and invite all of his noble type friends he hasn't talked to since my party."

"Why would he do that?"

"That's just the way my daddy is, you know that." Hesitantly, Locke nodded in agreement. "That probably wouldn't be the smartest thing for my father to be doing since we are trying to be discreet and everything, but I know he'll mess it up again. He loves that diamond and wants the world to know that he has the most wealth in the world. It just bothers me because he was never like this when mom was around."

Locke could see the tears building up in her eyes and quickly kissed her. "Not to be completely selfish or anything, but this is supposed to be a happy day, not one filled with tears. Therefore, please don't cry or worry about the small things. Like I said, I'll do whatever I can to make you happy."

"And like I already said, you already do make me happy," she whispered softly as he brought him into a deep kiss.

"Okay, since that topic is over now, let's start a new one," he said quickly and she nodded. "If you had one wish, one wish at all right now, what would it be?"

"You mean besides have my father approve of my love for you?" Locke's cheerful look fell from the reminder, so she quickly smiled. "Okay, I'm sorry, that was the wrong thing to say."

"It's just a sore spot, that's all," he replied with a shrug then attempted to smile again. "Anyway, if you had any other wish, what would it be?"

She thought about it for a second, then looked at Locke slyly. "My other wish is to have you take me on a hunt," she replied earnestly with a touch of playfulness to her voice. Locke's smile faded away as he slowly backed away from her. "What?"

"Well, first of all, that was the last thing that I thought you were going say," he began with a sigh. "Look, Rachel, we've been over this a million times. It's way too dangerous."

"Oh no, not this argument again," she sighed as she sat up and wrapped her arms around her legs. "We've been engaged for less than four hours and we're already arguing about the one thing that you love."

"It's the second thing I love. The first is you," he clarified with a nod of his head and tapped her on the nose with his finger. Instead of grinning at his statement, she continued to frown. "Oh come on, Rachel, don't be that way."

"I'm not being 'that way,'" she interrupted as he put his hand on her ankle then slowly trailed his hand up past her knee to her thigh. "You promised me on the first night that we met that you would take me on a hunt with you, and that was over a year ago. Just once, please."

"You're not going to like it, I know you're not," he protested as he sat up and kissed her temple.

"Can't I judge that for myself?" She slightly pouted her lips as she looked at him, causing him to chuckle. "You think I'm boring."

"Ha, where'd you come up with that insane justification?" He asked as she put her head on her knees. He moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Come on, Rachel. I just can't take you with me. Don't you trust my opinion on the situation? "

"I do trust you, but please?" She turned her head toward him, pouted her lips, widened her eyes, and batted her eyelashes.

"Oh ho ho, you are number one with the guilt trip," he stated as she transformed her pleading look into a satisfied smile. "However, the answer is still 'no.' I could never live with myself if something happened to you."

"You'd protect me though, right?" She asked as he nodded. "Well, then, you have nothing to worry about!"

Locke remained silent with a grim look on his face as he slowly exhaled. "I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Oh, don't be such a pessimist," she said playfully, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "If I hate it, I'll never bother you about it again. I just feel like especially now that we're getting married, I want to know what you do after you say goodnight to me."

"You mean, what I do besides go hang out with my other three girlfriends?" He joked and Rachel gave him a friendly shove. "You know I'm kidding."

"I know you are, but that's not funny." Although she didn't find humor in it, she was still smiling at him. "Just one hunt. Please."

"Well," he started with a sigh. Why am I going to say this? He asked himself as he grabbed his bandana and tied it around his head. "There is something that Vaughn did want me to check out. He didn't give me a full explanation about it yet, but he told me that I had to see him sometime today and he'd fill me in some more. Once I find out all the details about it, I'll take you with me to find whatever it is."

"Really?" She cried, wrapping her arms around him with so much force that he fell on his back, letting out another 'oof' sound with the contact. He laughed as she showered his face with kisses and he slightly pushed her away. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Only once, Rachel," he clarified as he held up a finger. "Just one time."

"Oh, all right," she said as she leaned over and kissed him again. "Yay! I'm so excited!"

"I think I should get you back home." He quirked an eyebrow at her before he turned to reach for his clothes, which were tossed aside. "Your father will be wondering where you are."

"I can't stay the night with you?" She asked as she placed her hand on his bare chest. "I highly doubt my father will even notice that I'm gone. Besides, we better get used to sleeping together if we're going to get married, ya know."

He rose to his feet and put on his pants. He smirked at her as he zipped them up. "My, my, you are so coy tonight. What's gotten into you?"

"I'm giddy," she announced as she started to slip on her dress. "Am I not allowed to be giddy? I'm going to be married to the most amazing guy in the world. Mrs. Locke Cole. I like the sound of that."

"Well, thanks, but the compliment wasn't necessary," he started as he slightly blushed. He wasn't able to take compliments very well, and he hated the flushed feeling that he always got whenever he received one. She finished buttoning up her dress and faced him. "However, I must admit, I love the sound of that coming from your lips."

"How did I live without you?" She asked with a gentle smile. He walked up to her without his shirt on and kissed her on the forehead. With a loving gaze, he planted another kiss on her nose.

"I think I should ask how I lived without you." He bent over and grabbed his shirt. "All right, come on. Let's go back to the Quantz hideout. Just so you know, I'm not supposed to have guests there, but I would be lying if I said that everyone obeyed that rule."

"I'm a not a guest, I'm your fiancée," she clarified as she went on her toes with the final word.

"I like the sound of that coming from your lips as well." With a chuckle, he picked her off of her feet and held her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked him deeply in the eyes.

"You're giving me that look again," she told him as he put her back onto her feet.

"I know I am," he responded with a smile.

"So, that was your cue to explain to me what it means."

"It's a look that explains something that I can't explain." She giggled as he entwined her fingers with his own and they started to walk to the hideout. "It's a look that says a thousand words."

"Well, are they good words?" She asked as he bent over and plucked a flower from the ground without breaking his stride. He handed it to her and she gently inhaled its perfume.

"They're the best."