Just to all who have been reading my fanfic and mostly the ones who have given me reviews. Thanks a lot! Me thinks us Stevie/Alex shippers need to stick together in this tough time ;) I don't know exactly how many chapters there will be, knowing that it also shows I'm not near the end yet. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 16 Ain't no particular way

The next morning Stevie awoke from the noise in the kitchen. With a sleepy head she stood up and walked to the kitchen door, still rubbing her eyes she thought she would find Alex. 'Hey you're not Alex', she concluded surprised when she saw Dave sitting at the table eating his breakfast. He looked up and laughed. 'No I'm not, as far as I know. I didn't knew you were still here.' 'Well ...', Stevie said while she went through her hair, and didn't had a clue what to say next.

Dave just looked at the dazed expression on his friends face. 'Oh sorry, did I woke you?' Stevie showed a soft smile and nodded. 'Well, I could make you some breakfast'. 'Thanks but you don't need to go through any strain for me ... how late is it anyway?' She still stood just near the doorway. 'It's 5 a.m. I probably will leave within five minutes.' 'Oh yeah, you've got that congress with all the vet people'. Dave grinned, not only amused about what she said, but also how she looked.

Her hair was wild, her body just covered by one of Alex old shirts and the somewhat confused look on her face. ' I think I try to get some more sleep than'. Still dazed she turned around and walked to the living room. 'Hey the bedroom is that way', Dave pointed. Stevie came back, looking into the kitchen. 'I sleep on the couch.' Geesh, Alex, you don't let a girl sleep on the couch, Dave thought and he shook his head seeing Stevie leave again.

It was not even half an hour later when Stevie decided to leave the couch for what it was. She didn't succeed in finding her sleep again and wondered if Alex was still sleeping. She walked to his bedroom and knocked on the door, but there was no reply. Carefully she opened the door to see if entering was save. 'Alex?' There was still no sign. As she walked into the room she saw Alex fast a sleep. 'Alex ... you're still a sleep ...'

She stood next to his bed and just looked at him. Well, he won't be awake anytime soon. A soft smile appeared on her face as she saw him laying in his bed, one hand holding softly on to his pillow, his blankets half covering his body, his hair all messed up, a peaceful look on his face. He was beautiful like this, she noticed. At the same time she realized it was stupid standing here and watching him. He wasn't awake, that was all she needed to know.

She didn't want to wake him and decided to leave and go to Drovers. There was still a lot of work to do cause of her absence last week.

It was almost 9 a.m. when Alex aroused. He remember last evening pretty quickly and it made him already happy knowing he would see Stevie within a sec, well he thought he would. But when he got to the living room the couch was empty, the blankets were folded up. 'Stevie?' he said, hoping she would be in the kitchen. But he got no reply and when he noticed she was really gone he felt disillusioned and not a sec later he wondered if she was gone cause of the kiss. What if she hadn't liked it, that would explain why she was gone. And the thought of that made him feel even worse, but the phone interrupted his thoughts. 'Ring ...'

He picked it up. 'Alex'. 'Oy Alex, I didn't woke you too, did I?' Dave asked, while he noticed the bluntness in Alex' voice. 'Ah Dave, no you didn't, what's up?' 'Oh just calling to see if you are all right. I mean the both of you. How's Stevie?' Dave was surprised to see Stevie this morning and wanted to know more about it, but Alex already got annoyed by Dave's liveliness and definitely the fact he was asking about Stevie.

'Don't know'. 'What don't know?' 'I don't know ok? She isn't here, I haven't seen her'. Dave could hear the disappointment in his voice and the irritation towards his questions. Which made him decide not to be too hard on his friend. 'Oh, well she probably left early, she was up early'. 'You've seen her?' Alex asked, hoping Dave would know more. 'Well, yeah but she went to bed, uh the couch again ... which brings me to my next question ...' but before Dave could finish his line Alex' eyes had noticed a note on the kitchen table and he picked it up. 'Have to go', was all he said and clicked Dave away. Nice mate, Dave thought, he called again but Alex let the phone ring when the note got all his attention.

Alex,

Sorry that I already left to Drovers,

but I didn't want to wake you. There's

a lot of work to do. Thanks for the stay.

See you soon!

Love,

Stevie

'Love Stevie ...' Well that didn't sound bad, not at all, Alex thought and it immediately took away most of his bad feelings.

In the afternoon Alex got a bright idea and although they needed him at Killarney he couldn't resist paying a quick visit to Drovers Run. Not much later Alex found Stevie cleaning the stables. He just leant to the post smiling about the fact she didn't noticed him immediately. 'Hey cowgirl, got a moment?'. She looked aside and saw his pleased face. 'Hey Alex', she swept some sweat of her forehead, a bit tired from work. 'What brought you here?' She gave him a soft smile and Alex knew right away everything was all right.

'Well, first of all did you sleep well tonight?' 'Yes I did', she laughed, 'you have found my note did you?' 'Yes I have', Alex waited for a moment. 'I was wondering, well I had this idea ... you were talking about getting supplies next week and cause I have to go to town myself this Monday, I thought, maybe you would ... uh ... like to come with me?' A hopeful look appeared on Alex his face and Stevie thought for a moment, but it didn't take her long. 'Good, so I don't have to take one of the girls with me to help dragging all the heavy stuff. Great!' She smiled contented. 'Ok, that's a deal, Stevie', Alex said.

He knew it would be a good idea. Just hanging around his best mate for work, well best mate ... It made Alex smile thinking of it. 'So gonna pick you up at half ten. Is that ok?' 'Yeah, great'. They shared a glance. 'So I won't hold you up ... have a lot of things to do myself'. Stevie laughed. It was adorable seeing him struggle to find words. It wasn't often she saw him behave like this. He even seemed nervous, was this truly cause of her?

She couldn't get that grin of her face when he had said goodbye and left.

Just a minute later Jodi showed up to saddle her horse. She noticed the grin on Stevie's face immediately. 'What are you smiling at?' 'I'm not smiling', Stevie replied quickly, putting on a straight face, feeling caught. 'Yes you were, you had that strange grin on your face. Is there something in the water, cause Kate has it too.' 'Don't know what you're talking about'. And as quick as possible Stevie resumed her work in a very serious way.