Disclaimer: For one simple line and for the name Phoebe--I don't own the tv show Friends or characters--NBC does. :)

A/N: Everyone have a great weekend—and there is no doubt after yesterday's (Thursday's) episode why I love this couple so much. Until next time—I LOVE JOLIE (incase you didn't know already)—PCGirl.

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Cristian sat there at the small table in the hotel room looking at Natalie—she was putting her hair up for a nice dinner out but he could tell something was troubling her. "Tell me something--."

"Mmmm?" she said, turning around with bobby pins in her mouth.

"What is it you see in him?"

"Hmm whhh?" she said biting the bobby pins now.

"McBain. I mean we were leaving for our honeymoon finally and you said you had to go talk to him at the station. Why is that?"

Natalie took the bobby pins out of her mouth and put them on the counter, "I had to make sure I was fully cleared of Paul Cramer's murder before I left town. John's on the case—that's all."

"You sure?"

"Yes," she said with a reassuring smile.

"What's he like? I mean I guess I have a subjective view of the guy—but Antonio seems to be pretty cool with him, same with Bo—even you."

Natalie smiled a bit, "He's a white knight—he wants to save everyone from everything, sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he fails. He's a good cop though."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, he saved my life twice with Stephen Haver."

"Who?"

Natalie gave a slight shiver, "He came to the University as a Professor. Completely fooled everyone that he was this normal man while in reality he was killing women off every two weeks. It wasn't the first serial killing he'd done—he'd done two others, one in Chicago and one—."

"What?"

"One in which John was investigating five—almost six years ago. Things got bad and Haver killed John's fiancé because John got cocky on an interview."

"That—that right there is why I don't like him Natalie. He doesn't care who he hurts—I mean because of him being cocky to a serial killer his fiance died. And because of his attitude in Las Vegas you could have died too."

"But I didn't die—and do you think he didn't mourn Caitlyn's death? He didn't know Haver did it—not until he came to Llanview and a videotape of her death was thrown into his face. But he moved on—he finally moved on that night," she said as her mind wandered back to that night he called her while she was in Atlantic City.

"What night?"

"It doesn't matter. All that matter's is that John was able to help me try to move on after you because he'd been through the same thing. But I don't have to move on because you are back in my life and I wouldn't have it any other way," she said with a smile as she came and sat down in his lap.

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John couldn't believe he'd agreed to a week of paid vacation. But Bo had a point—he'd been working pretty hard and with the both the Santi case and Cramer's murder wrapped into a neat little package he could afford to take a week's vacation. Instead of going to California or Florida—anywhere that was warm he'd ended up with a rented room in Atlantic City.

Walking into the dark bar he sighed at seeing her sitting at the bar, "What in the blazing saddles are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," grinned Sonia as she motioned for the bartender to get him a beer. "The FBI gave me a week off since the Santi thing was done—and you?"

"Small world," he grinned as he gave a nod to the bartender. "You've been working on that case for seven years, have no life, and end up coming to AC for your week off? What is wrong with that picture?"

"I'm just here because I've got a long drive ahead. I need to be up to New York by the morning to catch a flight to see family in Spain. Why are you here? I mean they didn't find Paul's killer yet, have they?"

"We found some papers at Tico's putting a hit man of his doing the deed."

"Bet you're glad Natalie is off the hook," she grinned.

"And what do you mean by that?"

Sonia rolled her eyes at him, "Come on McBain—don't play coy with me. I know what I've seen when you two look at each other—and the rest of Llanview has seen it also."

"Yeah, well Cristian is back now so it doesn't matter," he shrugged.

"Trust me—Cristian is going to see it—and when he does you better be on your toes. Those Vega boys can attack when you least expect it," she said with a wink.

"You gave up Antonio without much of a fight on Jessica's part."

"I know when something is supposed to be—they are and so are you and Natalie."

"Don't you have a drive up to New York tonight or something?"

"Yeah, I do," she said as she pulled out a ten and handed it to the bartender. "Enjoy your week of vacation and if I need help on the next case I might call you up to pick your brain."

"That's fine as that's all your picking," he said with a laugh as she left and he sat there trying to think of something, anything, other than Natalie Vega.

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Natalie shifted in the bed a bit as Cristian rolled over in the bed, pulling the covers closer to his face. They'd gone to dinner and had a great time—on the drive back to the hotel she'd seen a twenty four hour pool hall and suggested they go in there for a few games. His response was, I don't want to see another pool table til the day I die.

So instead they came back to the room, she got into something comfortable for bed and he fell asleep instantly. She couldn't though—something was gnawing at her brain and she couldn't figure out what it was.

She was fooling herself she knew exactly what it was that was bothering her—it was her friendship with John. His friendship was important to her—she just hoped that as time went on Cristian realized that and didn't start stupid accusations.

She sighed as she flipped the channel on the TV and landed on the end of an episode of Friends.

See…He's her lobster.

Natalie laughed at hearing that line come out of Phoebe's mouth on the screen and then realized there were tears in her eyes. She had wanted John to be her lobster for awhile, but now—now Cristian was back and he'd fought to come back to her so she had to fight for their marriage to work, even if it wasn't what she truly wanted. So she turned the television off and curled up next to him, her silent tears soon soaking the back of Cristian's shirt.

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John walked into his hotel room and threw the plastic card onto the dresser for sitting down on the bed. He reached for his cell phone and saw he had two missed calls and a message—both calls were out of area though.

"Hey Sweetie—it's mom. I called Michael to see how he was doing and he told me about you being on vacation for this week. I'm glad you're taking a few days off John—you need it. He also told me about Natalie's husband came back—I'm sorry John, though you'll never admit it, you two deserved to be together. Tell her I'm happy for her though. I love you and call me when you get a chance."

John took a look at the clock—she was probably getting ready for a show on the boat at the moment. He'd make sure to call her and chat later tomorrow. As for deserving being together—no, Natalie deserved to be happy and with Cristian she was happy.

He flipped the television on as he undid his tie and flipped his shoes off at the end of the bed. Nothing was on—unless you counted infomercials on a food processor that slices, dices, grates, and purees. Finally he found a channel with a pool tournament from Las Vegas go on. A chuckle came out of his mouth as he got up to grab a can of beer and watch the show.

The game went smoothly for awhile until the younger guy was set up with either scratching to keep the champ from winning again or taking a chance. It's impossible said the commentator.

"No, what's impossible is Natalie and I staying friends through this," said John to himself before taking a swig of his beer. He kept the can up to his lips as he watched the kid hit his opponents ball and making it ricochet the eight ball into the side pocket. "Well, maybe it's not that impossible," he grinned.