Sorry it's beenFOREVER since the last update… unfortunately my world requires that in order to stay on an all honors track one must actually do their homework and keep their grades at a 4.0.… but! There is light at the end of the tunnel, volleyball ends in a week for about a month or so until camp and two more weeks of tennis! Yay! But, in the mean time I've been super-busy! Ahh so here's the next installment of this fic… lately I've been sorta into the whole one-shot scene. I've decided that it's easier to write fluff that way b/cz you don't have to limit yourself to a storyline, but I will try to make this story my number one fanfic priority, that is if its what you guys want, but I wont know unless you all review!
Disclaimer- i dont own the oc

Ch 16

"Sandy… c'mon, honey, wake up, we need to get going if we are going to make the train up to the top of the mountain! Sandy…" Kirsten coaxed, trying to wake up her sleepy-head husband. Golden sun rays swept through the master bedroom of Caleb's mansion in Hawaii, where Kirsten was next to him in bed. She kissed his cheek softly, trying to awaken him from a peaceful slumber. With that not working, she playfully stroked his chest, and whispered into his ear before getting up out of bed, and tying her silky bathrobe that had been carelessly tossed onto a chair the night before around her bare body. Sandy rolled over onto his side, wrapping his arm around what would be Kirsten's waist, had she still been in bed. He immediately noticed her absence, and awoke with a startle.
"Kirsten….?" he mumbled half awake. He felt around the bed, searching for his wife. Kirsten smiled at her goofy husband, with her hands wrapped around herself, as she stroked her upper arm, shivering. Seeing that he was confused, she spoke again.
"Sandy, honey, I'm over here, its time to get up. You promised we could go on that mountain hike-y thingy today- the train leaves in an hour so we need to get going." Kirsten answered, coming in and out of the bathroom, before turning on the shower.
"Whaaaaaaat? We're climbing a mountain?" he complained. "Well don't sound too enthusiastic about it." she laughed.
"Honey- you know I'm all about this fake-nature-touristy stuff, when we are with the kids… but I can think of a couple of other ideas that may be a little bit more…" he coaxed, desperately trying to persuade her.
"Sandy. Stop whining. We are going to hike up that mountain or I'll call the boys and tell them that they are getting on a plane and coming with us, and we can do it again tomorrow." she ordered, walking over to the bed, and with all her might, grabbing Sandy by the arm and pulling him out of bed. He clung to the bedpost, not moving. Kirsten rolled her eyes at him, before letting go of his arm, and walking back into the bathroom to put toothpaste on her toothbrush. She stuck it under the faucet to put a spritz of cold water on it, but before she could put it in her mouth, Sandy, who she could obviously see in the mirror, trotted on his tip-toes into the bathroom, attempting to be "stealth" as he slid his arms around her waist, and brushing aside her sunny hair, dropped a few sensual kisses on the groove of her collarbone. He grabbed the toothbrush from her hand and set it down. As she tried to reach after it, his hand grabbed hers and he locked her fingers with his. Kirsten opened her mouth to speak, but Sandy turned her around and kissed her, leaving Kirsten in silence. She tried at first to resist the kiss, holding firm her ground, but had no such luck. Sandy's arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her tighter against his body, kissing her softly. When he pulled away, her eyes were still closed and she didn't speak. She opened her mouth, but didn't say anything.
"Do we still have to go?" Sandy tried.
"Yea...no. Fine-- we can go to the beach instead… I need to work on my tan anyway." she finally gave in.

"Ok- if you insist, but there's no point on you wearing a suit- it'll give you a tan line. You're better off without one." Sandy said innocently.
"Oh, sure. But you being on top of me the whole time isn't going to help my tan either, but thanks for your concern, honey." she retorted playfully.
"I'll let you go on top…" Sandy coaxed in a sing-song voice, wrapping his arms around her again, and kissed her forehead.

"No you won't. But I'll take the kiss anyway." she said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and cocking her head to the left before kissing him squarely on the lips. After, she trotted off into the closet to throw on a suit, despite her husband's wishes. However, he wasn't completely impartial to the skimpy white bikini with which she needed help tying. She held up her hair, and Sandy took the opportunity to drop a few kisses again onto her neck and shoulders. After he tied the strings, he slipped his arms over to where the front of her swimsuit bottom met her stomach. He traced lazy lines on her golden skin and felt her fall into his body.

"Hey! I have a great idea! Why don't you come surfing with me? Come on, baby, it will be fun." Sandy coaxed.
"You're kidding." Kirsten replied, throwing a laugh at such an idea.
"No." Sandy said smiling.
"Well, how about we just spend some time TOGETHER on the beach." Kirsten said, placing seductive emphasis on the word'together'.

"You know- I almost like that idea better."

"Do you?"

A while later, Sandy and Kirsten lay tangled up on the beach again, feet sticking out of the blanket again, holding on to each other. Sandy asked her,

"Hey baby, do you remember the first time we…" Kirsten blushed, and looked down briefly before finding his eyes.

"Of course, we had that whole day together, that was the first time you told me you loved me-- of course I remember, sweetie." Kirsten replied, smiling at him before he kissed her nose.

"That was a great date…" mused Sandy.
"It lasted three days, honey." Kirsten laughed back at him.
"It was still a good date." Sandy commented, his thoughts drifting back to his Berkeley days, the days where Kirsten and he had just met. When Kirsten wore clothing of questionable cleavage and mini skirts that were a form of public entertainment-- back in the days they got kicked out of the library for their various types of studying-- or rather, making out. It was just the two of them, when they had no work or kids to take care of, just them. Sandy missed all the stupid and crazy things they did together, just to spend time in each other's company. Things were simpler then, they weren't parents, or successful career people who dealt with Newpsie conventions every week. They were two kids, smart and willing, passionate and fervent, young and in love…

Dressed in her most length-questionable mini skirt and her pale pink top, Kirsten Nichol stepped forward, and eagerly rapped on the door to her boyfriend's apartment. Taking a deep breath, she bit her lip and smiled to herself, rocking back and forth on her heels. Twisting a lock of sassy blond hair around her left index finger, she waited for Sandy Cohen to answer, wanting to be perfect for him. After two urgenttaps on the grainy wood, the handle turned and the door opened. The goofy eye browed Jewish kid appeared, and smiled at her.
"Hey! You're wow…" Sandy's voice trailed off a minute as his eyes wandered up and down her perfect figure. Kirsten looked at her feet, and blushed as she pushed a stray blond hair away from her eyes. Pulling himself together, he continued, "You're here, and you look… come in, come in." He said, inviting her inside.
"How are you? Looking forward to our on-campus getaway?" she said, taking his hand and leaning in for a short kiss. After a moment she tried to break away, but to her surprise, Sandy held her close, tightening his arms around her, while lifting her up off the ground and spinning her around, and finally putting her back down.
"I'll take that as a yes." she said with a giggle, smiling up at him.

"Of course, baby. We should get going, we've got a lot to do today"
"Let's get to it then! Where are we going first? Do I need my jacket?" Kirsten inquired.
"It looks pretty sunny to me- but just in case- I think it is supposed to rain later." Sandy answered.
"Ok, well let's go! Come on honey!" Kirsten took her boyfriend by the hand, and raced out the door with him down the stairs. At every landing, one pinned the other against the wall, stealing a kiss through an unsuppressed giggle. Collecting themselves before lacing fingers and heading outside onto the street, Kirsten left a soft kiss on his cheek, and whispered sweetly into his ear. Standing out on the concrete,

"Which way?" she asked, shading her face from the sun as she while looking out into the luminous horizon.
"Umm, how about… this great little place on the beach where I go surfing-- no you don't have to go swimming, we can get some food and have a picnic?" he asked.
"Ok sounds great"
"Good, it's just a few blocks this way." he said, pointing to his right as his scruffy hair was tossed by a slight breeze. Hand in hand, they made their way over to the pier, where Sandy bought her a hamburger and fries for lunch, and a chocolate covered ice cream cone for dessert. Barefooted, she walked down the beach next to him. Every few minutes he would tickle her sides, causing her to retreat in laughter, and she turned to face him. The wind whipped her hair behind her, and she flashed him a toothy smile before grabbing him by the cheeks and kissing him fervently.
"C'mon, I think we should get going, I want to show you something." Sandy said, smiling.
"Ok, let's go"
Looking up at the sky, the blue was starting to be taken over by a roll of gray storm clouds from the ocean. The rain would be coming soon. Sandy grabbed her hand again, and lead her up the beach quickly, and told her to put her heels back on and throwing her coat over her other arm, he practically ran up the road three blocks to a little hole-in the wall place that was titled 'Berkeley's Finest' . Stepping onto the glossy hard wood inside, the rhythmic click of Kirsten's heels moving forward and the energized gasp that escaped her lips brought smile to Sandy's. Surrounding them were student art pieces, all original works of art.

"These are all pieces done by students that either go to or have graduated from Berkeley. Here, I gotta show you this-- you're gonna love it!" Sandy said, dragging her by the hand again. Kirsten was mesmerized by the ambiance of the quaint brick walls filled with paintings and lined by sculptures. Some modern and abstract, others classical, by-the-book styles. "Sandy! This is perfect, I've never even heard of this place before, I love this!" she exclaimed, kissing him on the cheek.
"You haven't even seen the best part yet- come through here." Sandy wrapped his arm around her waist, and guided her through the brick arched doorway, and into a room on their left. Sandy turned her around so she could see the wall behind them, and Kirsten's hand immediately flew to her mouth when she saw the picture.
It was a portrait of a ballerina sketched in black and white posed in an arabesque position, while reaching out to a deeply red rose. Hanging off of her limbs and neck were small little colored creatures, pulling at her and nagging at her. A few trying to untie her slippers, a few falling down off of her skirt. The creatures were desperately searching for attention, but somehow she seemed completely uninterested in their words and actions, she reached for the blood colored rose. The muscles in her flexible body strained to it, her being magnetized to the rose and its symbolism. Kirsten snapped out of her daydream in the painting, and Sandy out of his daydream in watching Kirsten.

"How did you get this? I mean I turned it into my professor, but I thought he would keep it"
"I went and asked him if could use it for here, he thought it was a great idea-- I guess a lot of his students have tried to get their work into this place.
"Sandy, you have no id ea... how much this means to me... thank you." Kirsten squealed, stepping behind him, putting her arms around his neck and whispering into his ear.
"For you, the world, my dear." he said, turning around to face her, and gave her a quick kiss. She turned around to face the painting, with Sandy behind her, and arms around her waist.

"It's a self-portrait, you know, I guess the whole 'ballerina' thing is a bit of a stretch though." Kirsten said with a chuckle.
"No, not at all baby, you're a great dancer." Sandy said, laughing right back at her.

"I guess it's just about how I have a ways to go, I have my whole dance left to dance-- little things can get in the way, but when I finally know what I am meant to do, I guess I will have that rose, and I'll have color, and true happiness, and no one to bug me about it. You know, there's so many things that take us off track, but as long as we keep in sight of what we are in search of, or what we think we are in search of, we'll all be ok. But I guess that's just a sort of fairytale…" Kirsten said, not looking at him, but staring at the rose in the painting.

"Not at all- my rose is standing right in front of me." Sandy said, resting his chin on her shoulder. Kirsten melted at his sappy remark, and turned around to face him, and kissed him again, very softly. Later on, after they had moseyed through the rest of the gallery, Kirsten interpreting, and Sandy mocking, they saw the time, and Sandy insisted they should get going or miss their dinner reservations. Stepping outside, the clouds were now overhead, threatening a shower at anyone who stepped on a minefield. A few more blocks away from the ocean, Sandy led her to a small Italian restaurant, where they enjoyed a quiet meal together, including a toast to their relationship. After dinner they stepped outside to a dark sky filled with storm clouds about to explode into a flurry of showers. Putting on long white jacket that matched her heels, Kirsten took Sandy's hand and he pulled her close as they started to walk home. A block away from her building, the rains came, and Kirsten shrieked, and started to run, letting go of his hand. She turned around, looking back at Sandy, who stood there, rain pouring down onto his floppy hair, and stared directly at Kirsten. She shook her head, smiling at him, and motioned for him to come to her.
"I'm getting all wet, c'mon let's go! It's pouring!" she yelled to him, a smilechiseled across her cheeks.
Sandy had been thinking about a way to tell her, ever since they had been at the gallery, watching her fall in to the deepness of her painting and feeling her passion about her goals in life; her dedication to find what will make life worthwhile. He had been watching her every smile, her laugh, her silly expressions, as well as her more serious ones. He watched the sway of her hips back and forth when she walked, and the bounce that her brilliant blond hair carried as it stretched past her shoulders. Sandy saw the way she pursed her rose lips together as she narrowed her eyes, concentrating on something that she thought deserved a good deliberation. He loved seeing her cerulean eyes sparkle when she smiled. He always had believed the smile was a work of the mouth, when the muscles open and show one's teeth, but when he met Kirsten, he decided that it was actually all in the eyes- whether or not that pure light exists within them is the measure of a true smile. Sandy decided that this smile-deciphering business was obviously an acquired skill, but for him, reading Kirsten's smiles was an inherent trait he possessed. So, Sandy still stood out in the rain, Kirsten's eyes lit up only for him in her smile, as she motioned him to come forward.
"What?" She asked, moving toward him, wondering why he wasn't moving. Finally, Sandy walked over to her, took her hand and decided this was the moment to do it. He kissed her with all the feeling in him that he possessed.
"Well hi there," Kirsten said, laughing, and brushing the rain away from his face.
"I love you." Sandy uttered, barely above a whisper. Kirsten's smile melted, but her eyes stayed the same. She threw her arms around him and kissed him, not caring anymore that she was getting all wet. She was in love with Sandy Cohen, and she was about to tell him, as soon as she was done giving him the most romantic kiss of his life. Breathless and wet with rain and tears, Kirsten came up for air and smiled at him.

"I love you too." Still facing her, Sandy wrapped his arms tightly around her, and pulled her close as she closed her eyes, resting his forehead on hers. The rain continued to beat down on them, and he whispered to her softly, and kissed her lightly again and again on the nose and lips.

"I think we should go inside, its getting cold." Kirsten finally demanded through a fit of giggles as a shiver settled through her shoulders.

"Ok sweetie, let's go." he replied, wrapping one arm around her waist as she rested her head on his shoulder, and they continued to walk through the rain to Kirsten's building. Soon, lightning was flashing and thunder roared over head and she shuddered in surprise, shaking her head, half-laughing. Sandy grabbed her hand, and forced her to run in order to keep up with him. They raced to the front entrance of the apartment building, and Sandy leaned back against the door once they were inside. Kirsten fumbled through her bag for her keys, and grabbed Sandy by the hand and lead him upstairs.

Normally, Sandy would kiss her goodnight, and tell her he would call her later, and Kirsten would continue inside, put her keys down and make herself a cup of tea, and would pull on her pajamas and climb into her bed. Across her duvet, she would spread all of her books, and she would study a few hours, with the phone close by as she waited for him to call. She would think about him, as he would walk home thinking about her. His hands would dig into the pits of his pockets, trying to occupy themselves, after he pushed back his dark hair. He would take a deep breath, and exhale with his chin up, eyes towards the sky. He would walk slowly, and once home, rush to the phone to call her. Tonight, however, was different. Sandy had known a lot of women during his years here at Berkeley, and none of the relationships-- other than Rebecca-- had really meant anything to him. With Kirsten, however, he challenged himself to be a gentleman, wait for her, to not rush into anything too quickly. He wanted to give the relationship time to develop, not just throw themselves some physical thing that would eventually be boring and would soon pass. He cared too much.
Tonight Sandy Cohen had told Kirsten Nichol the most honest thing that he could possibly say, that he loved her. Now all he had to do was prove it to her. She turned her key in the door, and the handle slid to the right the door opened. Leading him inside, she turned around to meet kiss again and again. They made their way to the couch, his hands finding hers and then letting go, and roaming her back, tracing the hem of her shirt. She broke away from the kiss suddenly, looking at him with her glistening blue eyes.

"Sandy?" she asked, implying the question of what was going to happen.
"Kirsten?" Sandy said, joking back at her, mocking her serious tone. She rolled her eyes at him and kissed him again. He knew exactly what she was asking.
"I love you, baby." Sandy whispered as he kissed her neck.
"I love you too honey." Kirsten replied.

That was the first night they shared together, pledging their love to each other over and over again. Kirsten had always classified it in the 'top ten' of her memories of Berkeley, and memories with Sandy. "Hmm that was a fun night. Nights…" Sandy corrected himself. Kirsten cuddled close to him, resting her head in the crook of his neck. He kissed the top of her head, and stroked her hair with the tips of his wide fingers. "I love you, honey…" Kirsten whispered.
"I love you too, baby." Sandy said, finishing her sentence.

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OK yah, so umm definitely want the real Sandy back… like the one in this story. That line about Caleb in 3.22was classic, but then Kirsten just relapsed… hmm I see a bit of a problem arising…at least it was like champagne or wine and not vodka… the glass is half full, not empty right? Actually she drank all of it so I guess it doesn't even matter anymore. Please review!