Heat snuck up on Sunset Beach, silently attacking every part of the town. The late autumn heat wave had everyone baffled. A cold shower would probably feel wonderful, but Olivia couldn't take off her robe. She couldn't put her head in the water without feeling icy panic close over her. Gregory was back to doing laps every morning. A few days off had let the gash on his arm heal, but as soon as he had permission he was back in the water.

She had always wondered what drove him. After the party, Olivia had a new appreciation for his morning routine. She didn't like thinking about what would have happened without his overprotective streak. She wasn't even sure what she remembered about that night. The whole awful experience was somewhere in the back of her mind, rushing back in flashes of panic whenever she was surrounded by water. Even the shower was terrifying.

The air in the house was hot and still, as if the air conditioning wasn't even on. Caitlin was out again. Olivia hoped she was with someone, her daughter spent all too much time alone lately. Sean was flying home on Thursday and she couldn't be happier at the thought of seeing him again. His recent letters made him sound so mature and so different from the young man who had left just a few months ago.

She rested a hand on her swollen stomach, smiling faintly as she realized her youngest wasn't even visible when he had left. How would he feel when he felt his little brother kick through her skin? Gregory claimed he could feel his son move within her, but Olivia wasn't sure if she believed he felt the baby each time he swore he did. He'd been so involved with the baby this time, sometimes she couldn't help feeling he had some kind of special connection he hadn't shared with her yet.

Her dressing gown stuck to her skin, tempting her to leave it inside. The self-conscious voice in the back of her mind reminded Olivia that the pale linen nightgown she had on beneath it left little to the imagination. It was better to keep the robe on, just in case Gregory wasn't alone on the patio.

He was still swimming, the rhythmic splashing would have been comforting if it wasn't a reminder of water. The heat outside was worse than the house. Even the morning sun was burning down and she didn't want to think of the inevitable heat that afternoon. The water would be cool and caress away the thin skim of sweat coating her skin.

The thought of swimming brought the sensation of cold dark water closing around her head and Olivia shuddered. The splashing of Gregory's morning exercise only added to the residual terror that gave her the nightmares. Cold, dark water crashed around her without end, promising to pull her under and make her disappear. She hadn't told him about the dreams, though it went without saying that he suspected. Even half-asleep, Gregory would remember the way she clung to him when she woke in a panic.

Her back spasmed suddenly, sending a jolt of discomfort up her spine. Olivia caught the back of one of the patio chairs with her hand and it rattled against the glass table. The rhythmic splashing ended with a larger splash. Gregory's hands slapped against the tile around the pool and by the time she caught her breath she could feel his eyes on her from behind.

"I'm all right." Olivia promised him without turning around. "Just surprised me."

The water from his hands sunk through her robe and cooled the angry muscles of her back. "You're always all right." He remarked softly as he lifted her hands from the back of the chair and took them into his. Giving her his arm, Gregory turned the chair with his foot and lowered her into it. "Sit."

"I didn't mean to take you from your swim." She protested, shutting her eyes and concentrating banishing the discomfort in her back.

"What hurts?" He asked as he ignored the wave of that pushed him away. "Your back again?"

"It comes and goes." Olivia opened her eyes and managed the tiniest of smiles for his benefit. "It will pass."

He brushed his hand against her cheek, kneeling down in front of her as he wrapped his towel around his neck. "I'm sorry Liv."

"Of course you are." The sarcasm cheered him almost as much as the smile. "It's easy to be sorry when you can't do anything about it, isn't it?"

Gregory chuckled and started to dry off. "Did you ask Roger about it yesterday at your appointment?"

"No darling," The pain in her back started to ease and she watched as he smoothed the water off his body with the towel. "There was an emergency case and we had to reschedule for tomorrow afternoon."

Her lie was transparent and Gregory stopped pulling on his robe. "That's the third time Roger's had to move back your appointment. How many medical emergencies can there be in a town like Sunset Beach?"

Olivia took a deep breath and straightened up in her chair testing the muscles of her lower back as she struggled for something to say. "It's just because he's in such demand as a surgeon. They want him for everything."

Tying the belt on his blue terry-cloth, Gregory left his towel in a heap on the patio. "You canceled again, didn't you?"

"I only canceled the first time because I was tired. The second time you promised to go with me and got stuck in court." Sighing heavily as she pulled herself to her feet, Olivia turned away from him and headed back inside. "I'll be seeing him tomorrow. I'm not on trial, am I?"

"Hey." Gregory caught her arm. "Where are you going?"

"Back inside out of the sun." Shading her eyes, Olivia retreated towards the shade of the door.

"You came out here to talk to me, didn't you?" When she reached for the patio door, he caught her hand and opened the door for her. "What's on your mind sweetheart?"

"It's not important." Olivia argued as she slipped past his arm into the house. "I was just seeing if you were ready for breakfast."

Gregory followed, leaving the door open behind him to capture what hint of a breeze there was in the already still morning. "Breakfast sounds like a good idea."

Wincing again, her reply was lost to the return of the spasm in her back.

Gregory's hands were quick to catch her, lowering her to the leather sofa. He took her hands away from arms and sat down next to her. "Has this been going on all morning?"

Olivia shook her head, biting her lip as he slipped one hand behind her back. "It started yesterday at the board meeting, I thought I had just been sitting down too long-" Even with tentative pressure, pressing his fingers into the lumbar muscle along her spine drew a sharp gasp of pain. "Gregory that hurts."

"Sit up straight." He ordered as he slipped one knee behind her back to get a better angle. "Now, don't scream. Wouldn't want Rose to think I'm abusing you-" Digging the knuckles of his fist into the taunt muscles of her back before she had time to tense further, Gregory felt her anguished cry lance through his chest.

Her fingers clenched into his knee. "Dammit Gregory- what do you think you're doing-" Suddenly the hiss of pain vanished from her voice.

"There." He whispered proudly over her shoulder. She leaned back into his arms, forgetting about breakfast for the moment. "Better, isn't it?"

His smugness was comforting. As long as Gregory could still fix everything, he was content. He settled them both into the sofa. Her head rested on the vee of the open neck of his robe. "You should have told me when your back hurt yesterday. I would have ended the meeting. You didn't need to be there, the whole meeting was just a formality anyway. Ben Evans and I worked everything out."

"I still can't believe you're signing away your responsibilities at the Liberty corporation." Olivia rested her forehead against his chin. "I know Ben's a smart businessman, but I never thought you'd give up control. You built that company. You and Alex and Del-"

"Ben is smart." He agreed with a smile of pride in his protegee. "He'll make the right descisions for the company and I'm counting on you to take care of my- our stock and our vote on the board."

"And you can live in the federal building." Olivia finished softly as he found her hand. "It's a lot more work isn't it? Being District Attorney I mean."

"Certainly more than just a defense attorney." He agreed as he played with her fingers.

"You were never 'just a defense attorney' darling." Olivia corrected firmly and with her own sense of pride in his accomplishments. "You were good enough that Ms Fitzgerald wanted you to succeed her."

Gregory chuckled, remembering a few dozen face-offs with the gray-haired firecracker he was following. "I was a hell of a thorn in her side." Taking a new position wasn't the bulk of his reasons for cutting back at Liberty and he realized she needed to know that. After a pause he squeezed her fingers. "I didn't just want more time at the Federal Building. I wanted more time with you Liv."

She sat up in confusion, disturbing their position on the sofa. "You see me twenty, thirty times a day when I bother you with press releases and stock quotes. How can you need more time?"

Gregory rested his hands on his knees and smiled at the floor. "I see you in your business suits. I listen to you talk about work and argue with Casey about the SEC and the EPA and a thousand other acronyms. I don't see you like this." His arm went around her shoulders, pulling her back into his side. Gregory kissed her temple and brought his free hand to her womb. "It's not the same."

He drummed his fingers over the firmness of her belly and she squirmed as their son responded by jabbing a leg into internal organs.

"Don't do that. She begged, giggling as he waited for the baby to move again. "You'll get him all stirred up and I won't be able eat without getting punched in the stomach."

Gregory drew lazy circles through the fabric of her nightgown. "I like feeling him move."

"You wouldn't if he was moving all of your organs around." Olivia teased as she nuzzled his neck. "If it was your back that hurt. Your body that's out to get you." She shut his mouth with a finger. "But no apologies darling. We were both there when we got into this mess."

He readjusted them again, reaching for the pitcher of water and presenting her with a glass. Olivia closed her eyes as she took a sip and he couldn't help remembering how awfully dizzy the fertility drugs had made her. "Maybe we were both there, but you certainly weren't trying to get, as you so delicately put it, knocked up."

She set down her glass, laughing too hard to drink anymore of it. "No, no but I certainly knew it's always been a side effect of letting you seduce me."

"You did let me, didn't you?" He kissed her, feeling the sweat on her upper lip as their faces touched.

"You're too convincing. I'd need my own law degree to stand up to you." His cheek was still cool from the water outside.

Gregory sighed as he ran his fingers through her hair. "You're the only one I ever lose an argument with. I'd be afraid of you with a law degree."

"You're never afraid." Olivia prodded him gently. "I'm the one who's afraid to take a shower by herself." His concerned expression drew the full explanation out of her. "I can't close my eyes when there's water on my face without feeling like I'm drowning."

That was why she wasn't dressed yet. "Want me to come with you?"

"Yes and no." His fingertips ran over her head, getting lost in the tumble of her hair. Relaxing back into his arms, she tried to explain. "When you're with me I feel safe. I always have." She rested her palm on his chest, feeling the coarse hairs curl beneath her touch. "But I can't shower with you forever."

Gregory nodded, moving her hair over her head playfully. "I suppose it would get difficult to make it to the office on time."

"Yes," Giggling as she agreed, Olivia slipped her fingers into the space between his robe and his chest. "It would be distracting, wouldn't it?"

Kissing her forehead, his fingers agreed with her. "I would never let you drown."

"I know." Olivia whispered back, surprised by the pain in his voice. "I knew you'd find me, I just had to keep my head up until then."

"This time." He corrected bitterly as he remembered pulling her from the water when she hadn't wanted saving. "You knew I'd find you this time."

The silence was nearly as oppressive as the hot, sticky air. "I only wanted to be lost for a moment. I didn't want to die-"

Gregory exhaled sharply, as if the word alone had hurt him.

"I just couldn't get back on my own." Olivia sat up, resting her forehead against his and falling into his eyes. "I would have died if it weren't for you."

His hand cupped her chin, his brown eyes burning into her as he watched the guilt in her face. "I cried. After you fell asleep, I held you and told you everything I couldn't say to you when you were awake." Gregory kissed her, buying himself the moment he needed to keep his tears away. "I loved you, even when I couldn't get past my own fears to show it."

"We were afraid. We both were so afraid after we lost the baby." Olivia found her head on his chest, listening to the slow, steady beat of his heart. "We both were drowning. It just took us until now to get out of the water."

"Now how do we stay out?" Gregory wondered as he ran his hand down her back. "Keep ourselves dry from now on."

"We have to be honest." Olivia offered gently in response. "Stop keeping secrets from each other and share our fears. Even silly things like being nervous about the shower."

"Or my childhood fear of seals?" She started to giggle until she realized he was being serious, mostly. "It was the barking." Gregory volunteered sheepishly. "I thought they were yelling at me and I didn't understand what I had done to make them so angry."

Love welled up at the vulnerability of that admission and Olivia felt his surprise at her tender kiss. "I'll never tell a soul. We'll just never take the baby to Sea World."

"You're making fun of me." He replied with mocking indigence. "And here I am just trying to be honest with you."

Olivia covered his mouth with her hand. "I love you Gregory Richards. Even your fear of seals."

"Good. I'm counting on you to save me from them if we ever have to go on one of those dammed school trips."