Chapter 7

He awoke three hours later in bed with the sheets wrapped around his waist. He looked over to find Sam gone. He sat up in the bed, trying desperately to regain himself. Once his eyes focused to the darkness of the room he saw a note lying on her pillow.

"Dear Luka,

I had to go pick up Alex. He called, Teresa wanted to know when I was coming to get him. I'll tell him everything on the way home. You looked too peaceful to wake. I'll be home soon. If you read this before I get home, go back to bed. I'll be back in your arms soon. I love you.

Sam"

Luka smiled. His memory was real. She was going to marry him. It wasn't just an amazing dream that he had had so many times over the last few months. He lay back down and felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He smiled thinking about why he was so tired. He closed his eyes and drifted back off to sleep.

Sam had just pulled up to pick up Alex. She was going to go inside and talk to Teresa, when Alex came running out the door saying bye to his friend. She figured he must have been tired. 'I know I am' she thought to herself with a smile.

"How was your night Alex?" She asked him as he got in the car.

"Fine. Jason got Grand Theft Auto Vice City on Playstation and we were playing it all night. We found all the codes and got to blow things up. It was cool."

"You know I don't like those games." She shot him a disapproving look.

"I know but it was so cool!" Alex began to ramble on about the game and how you could blow helicopters out of the air with a rocket launcher and other extremely violent features when she finally had to cut him off.

"Hey Alex, you remember what we talked about earlier today?" She asked him. He nodded to her.

"About You and Luka?" He asked.

"Yes. Well, tonight we talked about a lot of things like you, and the accident, and his life in Croatia, and…" She trailed off, smiling to herself about how it happened. "He asked me to marry him again. I said 'yes' this time." She waited for a response from. Silence filled the car, a very uncomfortable silence for that matter. "Alex say something. This afternoon you were excited about this. Now you're not saying anything." She pleaded with her son to open up to her.

"I just didn't think that it would happen so soon. When are you getting married?"

"I don't know yet kiddo. We didn't really talk about that just yet." She answered honestly. 'we didn't talk about anything much after that.' She thought to herself.

"Then what did you talk about? I mean I was over there for like ten hours!" Alex began to exaggerate. She could always tell when he was doing that because the tone of his voice would raise to annoyed wine that a 10 year old usually had.

"We'll talk about the details together ok. I want you to play a big part in this wedding. I don't want you to think that I'm forgetting you ok. Remember what we talked about earlier today?" He nodded. "Ok, we're almost home. Be quite when you go in Luka went to bed before I left."

"I bet he did" Alex muttered under his breathe. He might have been 10 years old but he wasn't stupid. He knew what had happened tonight between his mother and Luka. He'd heard enough kids talk about it in school and sex-education was a very popular, though controversial, subject in his school.

Sam heard him but chose not to acknowledge the remark. Alex was a smart ass, she'd known that since he was two years old. She didn't want to fight with him. Tonight was the best night of her life. She wanted it to stay that way. . Alex turned on the radio. She blocked out the song that was playing. It was some rap song. She never did take to rap.

Finally, as the song ended they pulled up to the apartment.

"When we get upstairs take your blood sugar then go to bed ok? It's late and you have school tomorrow." Sam said, a motherly tone in her voice.

"I know mom, geez." Alex muttered running up to the building.

Once they walked in the apartment Alex ran strait to his room. She heard him turn his radio on and shut the door.

"Keep it down! Remember what I told you!" She said softly against the door. Luka walked up behind her.

"Don't bother, I'm awake. I got your note. I just couldn't fall back asleep." He had a sheepish grin on his face.

"What are you smiling about, as if I don't already know?" She asked walking over to him, right into his welcoming arms.

"You, of course" He kissed her softly. "I missed you. Did you talk to him?" Sam nodded smiling slightly. "What did he say?"

"He was shocked that it happened this fast." She pulled him back into the bedroom. "I told him that we didn't plan anything without him and it would be awhile before we did get married." She said taking off her shirt to change into her pajamas. Luka watched her intently.

"Why would it be a while?" He asked. He remembered when he and Dani were married. It took only two months from when he proposed to her to be married.

"Well, it depends on how you want to do it. Do you want a big wedding with my family and yours and our friends or do you want something small?" She asked walking back over to him, now feeling completely comfortable in the clothes that she was in.

"You and Alex are my only family" He declared, looking down at the floor sadly. 'Shit! Way to go Sam.' she berated herself.

"I'm sorry that's not what I meant… I mean…" He stood up from his spot on the bed and pulled her into a hug.

"It's ok. I know, it's however you want to do it, just as long as at the end of the day I can call you Mrs. Luka Kovac." He said smiling at her, kissing her forehead. "I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too. Let's go to bed." She said as she pulled away from him to fix the mess that they had made of the bed earlier. She was becoming accustomed to smiling this much as the memories of earlier tonight washed over her mind chain reacting yet another enormous grin to spread across her face.

He disrupted her efforts to fix the bed and pulled her down so that she was wrapped safely in his arms. She laughed lightly and did her best to get as close to him as possible. After just a few minutes they both drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning Sam woke to find the spot next to her on the bed empty. She realized, after a few moments of sleep endused confusions, what had actually stirred her. The banging of pots and pans in the kitchen could only mean one thing: Luka was cooking breakfast.

She walked into the kitchen and placed her arms around his waist. "Hey you," she whispered in his ear. He turned and gently kissed her forehead. She looked over at the clock on the microwave and groaned loudly, sitting down at the kitchen table. It was 6:30. She had to be at work in an hour and a half.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Work, I'm on at 8." She put her head on the table. "Tell them that I'm in an alcoholic endused coma!" Luka laughed and placed his culinary accomplishment on the table in front of her.

"Eat, it's my first attempt at blue berry pancakes, I thought Alex would like them. Should we wake him up?" Luka asked sitting down at the table beside her.

"No, it's Saturday, let him sleep. You're off today right?" She asked.

"Yea, I thought I'd just hang around the apartment, maybe talk to Alex a bit about the wedding."

"Don't push it on him. He might not what to talk about it with you."

"Why not?" Luka was confused.

"It's just that he hasn't completely warmed up to the idea to me yet. He says he ok with it but I just don't want to push him." Sam knew her son. Nothing was ever expressed to his complete honesty. "I'm going to get in the shower. Breakfast was great." She got up and left Luka to think about what she had just said. Once again, he was at a total loss as to what to do next.

When Sam left for work, Alex emerged from his bedroom and lay down on the floor in front of the TV. Luka walked out of the kitchen and observed his future stepson and his habits.

"Alex, I've got blue berry pancakes, you want any?" He asked. Alex looked up from the TV and his eyes lit up.

"Sure!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and running into the kitchen. Luka began to head into the bathroom to take a shower when he heard a knock at the door. Before he could turn around to get answer it he heard Alex jump from the table and scream "I got it!" Luka smiled, and continued his retreat. The next sound he heard would hit him like a dagger to the heart. His blood ran cold and he stopped dead in his tracks.

He heard the door open and Alex yell, "DAD!"