John went to bed that night and he didn't dream, didn't dream about his Caitlyn he slept. A good nights sleep he hadn't slept in five years, he woke with a new found feeling of hope. He felt alive for the first time in five years, he thought about it and knew why, because of her, the beautiful angel he met yesterday, Natalie Vega. Michael said he and Natalie were different, he said she been thru a lot, her husband was killed, as was his wife Caitlyn, they had that in common, death, murder, misery. For John it had been five years, five long years and for the first time since then he felt like he could over come those things, death, murder, his misery, maybe with her, maybe together they could over come those things, that was if Natalie was ready, ready to live again, to feel again. There was something about her, something about the kiss they shared, something about how she fit his arms perfectly. He knew even if she wasn't ready yet, even if she wouldn't give him the time of day he would still try, try over and over till she was ready, then they would be ready together.
John was dressed an at Michael's door by seven am and he was ready, ready to find out all he could about Natalie Vega. John and Michael went to the diner for breakfast, and that was where John decided to ask Michael, ask him for help, ask him about her, tell him he kissed her.
Natalie walked in the park towards the diner, she was up early this morning and she felt different, different than she felt the passed year. She knew it was that kiss, the kiss she shared with John Mcbain, a stranger, how could a kiss shared with a stranger make her fell like this, she thought. But, she knew it wasn't just the kiss, it was the way he held her in the rain, the way he looked at her, as if looking into her soul. Natalie shook her head and then remembered, he was one of them, one of those bastards responsible for her Christian's death, one of those men and woman who did and used anybody or anything to make their case, not caring who got hurt, there's something cold hearted about someone like that, better to keep away from someone capable of those things, she thought as she walked into the diner only to see him sitting at a booth with Michael.
Natalie walked into the diner and John spotted her the minute she walked in, they made eye contact for a brief second until she moved out of the path of his eyes. Natalie moved behind the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee, she was turning to head back around the counter when Carlotta came out from the back and greeted her. They spoke for a few minutes all the while John never wavering his eyes from her. He watched her; stared at her, when Michael noticed him staring at something he turned his head to take a look.
"So, is that why all the questions last night about if I was still interested in Natty?" Michael asked as he turned back around to face John.
"John, John" Michael said waving a white cloth napkin in front of his face.
"What? I'm sorry Michael did you say something?" John asked Michael as he looked away from Natalie for just a minute.
"You've got it bad for her don't you?" Michael said when he noticed John couldn't keep his eyes off of her for more than a second
"Bad for her?" John said
"Don't even deny it, it's all over your face, even that blind man over there can see it." Michael said pointing to the local blind man in the corner.
" I wasn't going to deny it, I..I just didn't want to make you feel bad, feel bad about what I did" John said taking a sip of coffee while focusing his attention on Michael.
" What did you do that would make me feel bad, I know you didn't get lucky with Natalie on the roof last night, she's not the type" Michael said as he saw John's eye's again go towards Natalie.
"But I did, get lucky with her, lucky to have met her, lucky to have kissed her." John said forgetting that up until last night Michael had a crush on Natalie.
"Michael tell me about her" John asked Michael as his pager went off,
"That was the hospital, I've gotta go in, see ya later, " Michael said to John as he noticed John's eye's were still fixated on Natalie. Michael left and a few minutes later so did Natalie. John watched her walk out of the diner and he quickly ran out of the diner to follow her, he didn't even realize she was standing on the side of the building waiting, waiting to see if he would follow her. He walked right passed her and stopped to look around, he looked right, he looked left, but he must have missed her, he thought, when he heard someone tapping their foot.
"Looking for someone, agent McBain" Natalie said in a teasing sultry voice, what was wrong with her, she thought, didn't she just tell herself she was staying away from him?
"It's John, just John," he said as he approached her staring right into her eye's, he felt it the spark. He wanted to push her up against the building and kiss her hard, hard and long, he started breathing heavy just thinking about it and he came back to reality.
" Well, John, you know I could get a restraining order against you if you don't stop staring and following me" Natalie said still flirting, still teasing. No! She told herself, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to play this game, play it with a man like this, a man I don't even know.
" You could, but you won't " he said as he moved even closer to her this time, close enough for Natalie to feel his breath on her skin, her neck to be exact. Natalie was losing all control, she was beginning to breath heavy having him so close, they were about an inch apart, staring at each other motionless, when the spark between them was just to much to ignore, john pushed her back a few feet till she was up against the building and ravished her mouth with his.
His hands went to the back of her head entangling in her hair while he kept pulling her head forward to deepen their urgent prolonged kiss. Natalie's arms flew around him the minute he pushed her against the building and she let him take her, take her lips, deeply, urgently, frantically as if not being able to get enough of them. She was caught up in it, the intensely that she felt and after a minute or so she realized this was wrong and she lowered her arms and pushed him back softly. John immediately felt her lips go numb, her arms were no longer around him, and she pushed him back.
"I.. I can't" was all Natalie said as she ran passed him, leaving John standing up against the building feeling like he had just made the biggest mistake ever.
Natalie ran all the way to the park before she stopped running. What the hell is wrong with me? She thought as she stood by the angel statue, I let him kiss me again, why? Why would I let him again? Why did I want him to? Why did I enjoy? And so much, she enjoyed it so much, so to the point that she found herself wanting to do other things with him, she wanted to feel him, she wanted to touch him and allow him to touch her, she wanted to make ... Natalie stopped her thoughts when she didn't even want to think about making love to anyone other than her husband. She looked up at the statue and wondered, wondered what Chris would think of her right now, what he would think of his wife making out with some guy she just met, up against his mom's diner in the middle of the morning. She was brought out of her thoughts when a man accidentally pushed passed her in a rush.
"Excuse me," the man said and Natalie nodded. She decided to finish her errands for the day before work, so she left the park alone, she only thought she was alone, their was a man following her, the same man that had pushed into her a few minutes earlier, he followed her to Foxy Roxy's and waited outside for awhile til he noticed she wasn't coming out that soon, so he left.
Later that night Natalie was working at Rodi's, it was a late week night and the place was almost empty except for a man sitting in a booth in the back by himself, Natalie thought nothing of it and she started to straighten the place up for the night, she cleared a table right next to the pool table and she stopped to look at it. She couldn't help but stare at it, how she would just love to pick up a stick and play, play until the sun came up but she couldn't, she hadn't, she hadn't since the tournament, the tournament that she won, one of the happiest days of her life, the day her dream came true and the day her nightmare occurred. The day Christian was taken away from her. She continued to think and she didn't even see him come over to her and start to stare.
John walked in and saw her by the pool table, she was staring at it intently, he walked over by her cautiously, not sure if she was going to run away screaming, not sure of how she was going to act when she saw him. He approached her.
"Wanna Play?" he asked her as she looked to see him standing near her, at first she was all set to shake her head no but instead she went over to the rack on the wall and picked up a stick. John saw her get a stick and he started to rack the balls. Without words Natalie broke and they played pool, they played several games with Natalie beating John every game, they played in silence, unaware of the man still in the back watching them.
