Christian heard a knock on the door. It must be the rest of his friends he thought. He was having a guy's night tonight. It was Friday night and he was ready to party. The Fridays which he didn't work meant a lot to him. Today was one of those days.

"Chris, come on, let them in." one of his friends yelled.

He went up to the door and opened it. He got shocked when he saw who it was.

"Christina…" he said shocked.

"No women here. You should tell your dates about the guy's night out." His friend Darryl stated.

"Then you won't mind his cousin staying here. I'm Christina but you can call me Chrissie. So where is the guest room, cousin?" Christina asked.

"Who is this damn fine lady?" one of his friends who just came asked. He had three other guys with him.

"His cousin." Darryl yelled from the living room.

"Come in everyone. Christina, come with me to the guest room." Chris said really upset at her.

………………

"What the hell are you thinking? " Chris asked her as soon as he shut the door.

"I need to stay here for a few days. I have an interview and then I remembered you lived here." She answered.

"I don't think you have that good memory." Chris said not thinking she was telling the truth. Keeping to the truth had never been her thing and he knew he had to be aware of it.

"Your sister mentioned it. Hasn't she talked to you?"

"Since when do you talk to my family? I talked with Emma yesterday. Let me guess you've talked with Amanda."

"Go and call her. I'm waiting." Chrissie stated sitting down on the bed. Chris went out to get his cell. He called his sister who confirmed she had late last night talked with Christina in a three way call with Caitlin. They didn't really believe her when she said she might visit Christian soon in Seattle. She hadn't visited any in her family since she was 25 so why would she visit Christian. Christian then said that apparently the Alexandersons are family since Christina just told his friend she is his cousin. His sister then said that both families are as close as cousins. They talked some more and he found out some interesting things.

They then said their goodbyes and he went back to Christina.

"She confirmed what you said. You can stay here for a few days. I'll talk to you more tomorrow." Chris said still upset over this unexpected happening.

…………………………The next morning…………

"So when is your interview?" he asked when she came out from her room.

"Monday."

"Where and what is the job?"

"In a school."

"I can't believe they want to hire you. You don't have much experience in the field. I heard your parents cut you off a year ago."

"They gave me 3000 dollars every six month and that isn't much. I've always been able to take care of myself. So I don't care if they give me money…I've been honest with the school and they still want me. Just give me a break."

"Why are you here?" Chris asked her.

"The interview and I can't afford a motel. Is that enough?" Christina said before storming to her room.

Chris wanted to feel bad for her but he couldn't. She had screwed up her life herself. She has a great family who wanted to help her but she wanted to go her own way. He can't believe he is letting her stay. What is he going to do if she gets the job? It's in the middle of August so she would start the job in a week or so if she gets it. He knew he had to help her find an apartment and the search has to start today. If he talked to Caitlin and Amanda he was sure they would help him with the money for her rent. He didn't want her to live with him because he knew that could be forever at least until she decided to quit her job.

………………..Later that night…………………

"So did you get lucky last night?"

"It went ok." Chris answered. He didn't want her to know about his love life.

"It's been months then. I guess any girl would score with you then but you can't even find an ugly one...That's pathetic… So do you have some wine? I need some alcohol." Christina said starting to search the cupboards.

"They are there." He said going up to the cupboard where he has them. He knew she must have seen he had some yesterday. He became irritated over her response. She had now right to criticize his love life. He guessed she was doing badly on the dating front too because why else would she put him down.

To calm his nerves he drank some too. He wasn't going to drive until Monday.

………………………..

A few hours later they were sitting next to each other. Christina started to kiss him and Chris couldn't stop himself. The thought of having sex…It had been a while since last time but he had lived a stressful life. Still it was Christina but if she wanted then it couldn't hurt. Their clothes were soon on the floor. When they woke up they woke up in his bed naked. Chrissie was still sleeping. He regretted it a bit but he enjoyed it even more. Chris wondered how their families would react if they knew what they had done. He knew it could never happen again.

"Christina, wake up…" he said shaking her.

"What is it?" she said very sleepy.

"We're never going to sleep together again. I'm going to help you find an apartment."

"Do you know how much tension you released last night? So much that I know we'll do it again. Your friends said you haven't been dating that much and I think sex with me will help you function better at work and with finding dates. Anyway I need a ride on Monday so I can agree on not having sex with you tonight if you give me a ride." Christina said to him.

Christian wondered how she could come up with things like that so fast. It intrigued him but also made him mad. Maybe it was because she was right.

"So you talked to my friends…Why did you say you're my cousin?" he asked her quite harshly. He at least wanted to see if he could figure out how she was thinking.

"I didn't want to be alone in my room anyway…If I said I was your sister, they wouldn't be caught dead desiring me. If I said I was your cousin they would desire me, never tell you because they are too embarrassed, they would then desire me even more and eventually I would sleep with at least one of them. I know men including you." Christina said with a smile on her face.

"You have some tricky answers." He told her. Then he kissed her on the mouth.

"So did you know I would do that?" Chris asked her with a big smile on his face.

"Touché…You got me…" she said going up from the bed. She didn't put anything on so she just went naked from his room to her room.

………….Monday afternoon…………

Dr Dinozzo had got a visitor and he hadn't time for that person. He knew who it was without anyone telling him. It had irritated him a bit that everyone commented on how relaxed he seemed not to mention that he seemed to be in a better mood today than on Friday. It had all to do with Chrissie but he didn't want to admit it. He was now walking to Christina and he tried to look as uptight as possible.

"I can see that you got lucky…The big news is that I got the job. The other thing is that I need a car and a parking space. Do you have that?" she asked him.

"I'm not your charity organisation…Christina Alexanderson I know you can get that yourself if you only talk to your parents." He told her. He hated he was using his valuable break to talk to her.

"The faculty has a get together on Friday night and you have to take your family with you. I want you to come." She blurted out.

"Why?"

"I had to tell some white lies to get this job. You're apart of it. So you need to come." She almost demanded.

"What did you say?" he sighed. He knew this was coming. Christina always had an agenda and sooner or later it would come out and everything would fall apart. For once he had hoped she had learned her lesson but he was proven wrong.

"I told them you're my boyfriend. I've travelled a lot, we fell in love two years ago and that's why I've been all over the world. We love each other but have always wanted to pursue different things. Now when we want to pursue the same things I've moved to Seattle to live with you. We're thinking about starting a family soon since we both have jobs in the same city."

"Now I want to hear the whole story you told them and the truth on why you said that. Anyway I'm working on Friday evening." Christian asked upset.

"That's why you're finding someone who can work your shift. I'm sure you'll find someone if you say Mrs Dinozzo needs you that night." Christina told him knowing he would do as she said and she liked teasing him a bit.

"Christina, keep quiet…" he said before she interrupted him. He didn't want any of his colleagues to think she was his wife.

"It's Chrissie or Mrs Dinozzo from now on…"

"I'm not playing this game with you! You can't keep on doing this to everyone in your family and that means both Alexanderson and Dinozzo. You straighten up this mess now and find an apartment. Now I'm going back to work." He said without any regrets. Someone had to tell her off otherwise she would never learn.

"They would never hire a drifter. Can't you understand that?" She said and Chris wondered if he sensed right when he thought she was sincere and pleaded to him.

"We'll talk more later. I have to go." Chris said to her. He had wanted to stay longer but he just got paged and couldn't say that he did understand but it didn't change things. When he walked away he turned around and he saw her looking at him. Then he wanted to say he was glad she had got the job. Chris wondered if maybe that was all she wanted to hear. He promised himself to make it up to her when he came home. So many relationships had gone down the drain because of his lack of empathy in some situations. It wasn't that he didn't care but he hadn't time sometimes, just like now. Then he thought some more and wondered if it was that he didn't care after all or if it was that he didn't love the women enough.

………………………………….

Christina deserved a friend right now he thought after he had operated. Her parents paid for his high school education at a private school so he could go to a great college and get some good friends, let him live for free during high school and first year of college not to mention paying for college. The latter was an anniversary gift to his parents from the Alexandersons. Diana and Daniel even helped with his living expenses during college when he couldn't make ends meet and he even had a job at the time. He was too embarrassed to ask his parents because they were worried for him and he didn't want to seem like a failure. They had paid for college for his older siblings and were saving for the first time for something just for themselves. Diana visited him often as a favour to his parents and because she wanted to. She picked up on how bad things went for him after he had been living alone in his apartment for six months. Worrying about money made his grades slip, his fridge was almost empty and she saw how some bills were piled up. When Christian thought about he wondered how a stupid and determined 19 year old could convince everyone he could handle going to college and live alone in an apartment. He thought that Diana and Daniel had helped him so many times and for once he could repay them a bit by helping their daughter.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………