The inside was very spacious considering how small the outside looked. It was one large open area. The cabin smelled of burned wood and earthy scents. Brenda dug a cooler out of a cabinet then carried it over to the refrigerator to fill it with ice. Val began to put cans of beer into the cooler while Brenda spread the ice around the cans to make sure they stayed nice and cold.

Once they were done with the task at hand, Brenda lead Val to the kitchen where a plate sat piled high with the most lucsious brownies she had ever seen in her life. They smelled very good and Val was practically drooling over them.

"Go on, dear, help yourself." Val grabbed one thinking it was too soon in the day for a brownie, but it was as Luke had said. They were on vacation. It was kind of mandatory that one do things they wouldn't normally do in their regular lives and if that meant eating a brownie for lunch, then by God Val was going to have a brownie for lunch. She snatched one up and took a small bite.

It had an odd taste to it that tasted somewhat familiar to Val, but she couldn't place it. It was something she hadn't tasted in years. She could almost remember what she was doing when she tasted the taste for the first time. She wanted to think of white walls, but she couldn't really think as to why. They were still good even if they did have an odd taste to them. Brenda ate one with her and watched Val as she ate the entire square.

"They're really good," Val admitted though it was partially a lie. Val reached for another one and took a bite of it. Brenda hummed catching Val's attention.

"You might want to take it easy on those, Val. You're not going to be able to function if you're not careful." Val gave her an odd look.

"Why wouldn't I be able function?" she asked as she took another bite. Brenda chuckled and pointed to the pile of brownies.

"Because there's a pound of my finest grass in these brownies." Val paused glancing down at the morsel in her hand. She dropped it back on the plate as it came back to her. She was in college doing a study group and someone had brought pot brownies in. Val had already been smoking weed during her college days because that was what kids at college did. They were all in one of her friend's dorms that had white walls.

"Brenda, I'm a doctor, I work in a hospital. If I get caught with this shit I could lose my job." Val wasn't trying to panic, but panic was happening no matter what. She thought of Luke. He was a cop. Well, not a cop like LAPD or anything, but still law enforcement. What would he think about his girlfriend eating pot brownies with an eighty year old hippy woman?

"Oh nonsense!" Brenda defended waving her hand around in front of her. "I worked as a lawyer for forty years and never once got tested for drugs." Her words eased Val's nerves slightly, but she still had to worry about how Luke would feel. She knew that sometimes he was a little unorthodox when it came to his missions, hell he had called on her family to assist him in taking down Owen Shaw because he knew he needed the help. Even in the end, the fact that her family had helped him take down Shaw never reached his reports on the mission. As far as anyone was concerned, he had brought down Shaw and his little traitor whore.

"Besides," she said catching Val's attention once more. "This isn't a drug. This was only made illegal because it could really take down not only the pharmaceutical companies it could take down the lumber companies too." Val grinned shaking her head.

"You're one of those, huh?" Val said. Brenda grinned pulling out a joint from a hidden pocket on her clothes and offered it to Val with a smile.

"You're damned right I am." Val sighed running her hand through her hair as she stared at the joint in the woman's hand. She really seen no issue with marijuana. She wasn't sure why it was so illegal since she had heard so many different reasons it was hard to tell which one was the actual truth. The worst thing she had ever done while smoking it was eat everything in her dorm then would be calling Dom the next day seeing if he could send her more money because she was out of food. She always loved the fact that he would never huff or puff or even ask any questions except how much she money needed.

Granted, maybe using some of the money Dom had sent her to buy more weed was a little worse than eating herself out of house and home, but it could have been much worse. Luke couldn't really be all that mad at her for getting high. She was a doctor. She had spent countless hours pouring over book after book about drugs, both illegal and pharmaceutical, that told her how to identify what kind of drugs people were on just by the way they were acting. She had seen all of them and most of the books had it right, but weed was never really that bad. If they came in and said they were smoking weed, the only thing Val would have to worry about was that her favorite vending machine would be empty by the time they left with their friends. There was truly no real bad side effect to weed.

Besides, it was already going to be in her system because of the brownie and she was on vacation. Just as she was about to reach for the joint, Luke stepped into the cabin. Brenda made no motion to hide the fact that she was offering a joint to Val. Luke eyed Brenda as he approached Val and placed a hand on her hip. Val wrung her fingers together and stared at them. She could feel Luke's eyes on her. She knew that he knew what she had done. She couldn't tell if he was mad or not, but she wasn't going to look at him and find out.

"You ate a brownie," he said. He didn't say it as if he were wondering. No, he knew. Val finally looked up at him. Of all the emotions she expected to see in Luke's eyes, amusement was the last one she figured she would see. Val grinned.

"I did," she admitted freely. Luke shook his head then looked back to Brenda who was lighting up her joint.

"I told you that she couldn't smoke," he said sounding a little stern in his words, though he still had a hint of amusement. Brenda shrugged her shoulders taking a nice long hit off the joint. She held in the smoke and let it out slowly.

"I know. That's why she ate it instead." Val bit her lip trying to hold back a laugh. "But now that it's in her system anyways, she might as well go ahead and smoke." She offered the joint to Val one more time. Val wasn't sure if she should have reached for it or not, especially with Luke standing there, but Brenda did have a point, it was already in her system. Val took a chance and reached for the joint.

"You know that's illegal, right?" Luke asked dropping his hand from her hip. Val stared at the joint resting between her fingers.

"Brenda says that the only reason this stuff is illegal is because of the pharmaceutical companies would go under," Val said nonchalantly with a shrug.

"And the lumber companies!" Brenda reminded. Val giggled.

"You know, I can arrest you for this," Luke teased leaning up against the counter next to her. Val grinned leaning into him holding the joint away so the smoke didn't bother him.

"Oh, so this is what it took to get you to pull the handcuffs out?" Luke smirked raising an eyebrow. Brenda tried to stifle her laughter, but was failing miserably. Luke leaned closer to her to where their lips were just inches apart.

"All you had to do was ask." Val giggled again as an odd excitement coursed through her veins.

"Alright, you two," Brenda said. "Either hit that or give it back." Luke leaned away from Val and looked to Brenda.

"So, you going to arrest me?" Val asked. Luke shrugged.

"Maybe later, I have a lot of work to do right now." Val went ahead and took a long draw from the joint and held it in. It didn't take long before it had choked her up and she handed off the joint so she could get over her coughing fit. She looked back to Luke who was trying not to laugh at her.

"I haven't smoked this stuff since college." She coughed one more time before changing the subject. "So, wait, you're on vacation and you're going to spend it working?"

"It won't take long," he said making his way out of the cabin. Val rolled her eyes then looked to Brenda who was handing her the joint.

When Luke had found Carl, he was in his workshop throwing pieces of wood around in a frustrated manner. Luke had met them a week after he started building his cabin on the water. They had brought their boat up right to the shore and introduced themselves. Brenda had brought him brownies as a way of saying "Hello, new neighbor" but they had been pot brownies. He grinned at the memory. It had taken him a while to realize what was happening with him. He had thought the brownies had tasted weird, but he didn't want to be rude and mention it to Brenda. After that, he never really trusted her treats because mostly they had a lot of weed in them.

As years went by, he noticed that Carl was starting to slow down in his old age so every time he came up to his cabin, he would help him with as many projects as possible to take the burden off him. He always found Brenda's and Carl's relationship odd since they were polar opposites, but they had been married since Brenda was eighteen. They mostly argued with each other, but at the end of the day, they were cuddling on the couch watching Perry Mason whilst eating a fudge pop. Was it wrong for Luke to want something like that? Well, except the Perry Mason part.

The project that Carl was working on currently was making his dock into a boat house. When Luke entered the workshop, he could hear Carl complaining about his wife, but he stopped when he realized Luke was standing there. Carl frowned as he collected himself.

"Where's Val?" he asked.

"With Brenda." Carl grinned.

"You mean to tell me that you left your girlfriend alone with my wife?" Luke thought about it for a moment.

"Oh, shit," he said hurrying out of the workshop and headed straight for the cabin. As soon as he entered, he knew he was too late when Val wouldn't look at him. Brenda was offering her a joint, but he wasn't sure if she had smoked any of it or if she had just eaten her brownies.

Luke wasn't against marijuana and found it stupid that it was still illegal in a lot of countries. Sure, a lot of countries had been decriminalized the drug and more had even legalized it or just stopped caring if people did it or not, he had never heard of someone robbing a convenience store or a bank because they were smoking weed. He used to argue with Brenda about it, but she had changed his mind about the dangers of it. That and he had simply just gotten tired with arguing with her about it. He knew he was stubborn and rarely backed down, but Brenda was a special breed of human. There was a reason why she was a lawyer.

It had irked him that Brenda had slipped Val a pot brownie knowing full well that Val was a doctor and was subject to random drug testing, but Brenda was too good at finding loopholes in everything. He wasn't even sure if Val had even smoked weed or anything of the sort and wasn't sure if she was going to be able to handle it. Brenda was always able to get potent stuff and it was guaranteed to knock one on their rear every time.

He had warned Val about Brenda, but he supposed he should have specified. Knowing how Val was, her imagination probably had went wild and who knows what she had managed to think up about Brenda. But not telling her was more exciting for him. He figured let her imagination run wild and see what happened. He had just never pegged Val for a stoner.

He supposed he couldn't expect anything less of her. In the time that they had spent together as a couple and even as not, she had always been an adapter.

He recalled their times together when she had patched him up when he had dropped all those feet to Shaw's suped-up dune buggy and hurt his arm. Her brother had been shot by Letty and Val had tried to take care of him, but Dom had turned her down no matter how hard she tried. Instead, she had come to him and had taken care of him.

It was odd at first because she was a criminal, but he was the one that had made her a criminal. She had no connection to what her family was doing and yet, he had turned her into a miscreant. She had given up her entire life to be with her family. Had given up her love life just so she could be there for family. Had given up marriage and a family of her own all so she could be there for her family. And he exploited it. He had found the weakness and he played it.

But she barely knew him and yet, she made herself feel so familiar. Like she could be trusted. It was such an odd feeling for him since the only thing that he could consider being familiar was Samantha and his mother, especially since his team had been murdered in Rio. He hadn't been assigned a team big enough for a job as big as Owen Shaw, but he was the best at what he did and that was why DSS had approached him. They knew he would find a way and he did, even if it meant teaming up with the people he was trying to take down a couple years before.

Looking back, Luke figured out that the only reason Val had approached him was because she wanted to take her mind off her brother. She had known that he was in pain and was injured, but there was nothing that she could do to ease it. Maybe that bothered her and she hid it well, but Luke had caught onto it. He could see it in her eyes.

After smoking half the joint, Brenda put it out in a small glass dish that Val supposed was an ashtray though she wouldn't classify it as an ashtray. Apparently that didn't matter because as soon as the joint was put out, Brenda grabbed Val's arm and dragged her outside. She had tried to take in as much as the porch as she could when she was led up to it, but apparently there was so much more.

Brenda cut the corner and lead her to a glass top table and patio chairs that was shaded by some trees that were planted near it. Val took a seat and took a deep breath. She honestly couldn't say she had taken such a clean breath since she had returned to LA.

There were little patches of sun peeking through the leaves of the tree that hung over the porch in a natural canopy. She wasn't sure what type of tree it was, but she could tell that it had been there for a long time. There were little flower pots filled to the brim with different types of flowers that lined the border of the porch and Val swore she could smell every single one. She could hear birds in the tree that she had never heard before.

"You alright, there, dear?" Brenda asked catching her attention. Val stared at her for a moment because she had forgotten that she was even there. Val licked her lips only to discover that they were very, very dry.

Then that was when she realized.

"I'm stoned," she admitted. "And I need a drink." Brenda chuckled.

"Do you want a beer?" Val thought for a moment, but she came to the conclusion that a beer was a wonderful idea. She was on vacation after all. Then she remembered that the cooler was still inside and she couldn't let Brenda carry it out by no means. Val stood from her seat.

"I'll go grab the beer." Val walked back into the house long enough to grab the cooler full of beer that Luke had designated as hers and carried it back out to the table to Brenda had taken them to. She opened it and pulled out a beer. She slid it to Brenda then pulled one out for herself. They cracked them open together. Val took a sip of her beer.

"So," Brenda started, "How did you and Luke meet?" Val was taken aback by the question. How could she explain their meeting? Did Val talk about the first time that she had ever laid eyes on Luke? At that point, he was the bad guy. She had at least heard of him by the time she had laid actual eyes on him, but the first time she had ever seen him, her brother had tried to kill him.

And she wanted him to. There was some sick part of her that wanted Dom to end his life just so he was no longer a problem, but Mia had stopped him.

Did she talk about how she and her family managed to get away with a ridiculous amount of money and the only reason why Luke had come back into their lives was because it was convenient for him? No, she couldn't do that to him. He had too much of an ego. Admitting something like that would destroy him. Especially if Brenda knew that the only reason why he managed to bring down such a target like Owen Shaw was by asking for help from someone he had as a former target.

"He was hurt on the job and I was the one that patched him up," she said before taking a sip of her beer. Brenda frowned leaning back in her chair.

"Well, that doesn't seem too exciting at all," Brenda said truly sounding that she was bummed out by the simplicity of their meeting. Val just wished that she was able to go into full detail because it was a very exciting story about how they had actually met. Especially since Luke started off as the bad guy in the beginning. Val chuckled to herself. It amazed her how much everything had changed.

"Because what I heard," Brenda continued pulling Val out of her thoughts. "Was that you were in trouble and he was sent to take you down." Val gave her an odd look. Had Luke really told them about that? "At least, that's what Samantha has been telling me." Val shrugged her shoulder running her finger down the side of her can. Was it okay that they knew what had happened? It seemed too personal for her.

"It's a long story," Val mumbled. She felt herself becoming a little self conscious about it. In all the time that she and Luke had been together, they had never really discussed how they were supposed to go about telling people how they met. They never really had to worry about it honestly. The people who asked, were close enough in their lives to know the truth and the others already knew how they had met. Brenda hummed as if she was considering Val's words.

"Luke said the same thing." They fell quiet for a moment letting their buzzes settle over them. Val felt as if her entire universe was enhanced. She was completely relaxed. She hadn't felt that good since before she had started working at Sacred Hearts again. She hated how stressful the job could be, but she loved it nonetheless.

"Where did you and Carl meet?" Val asked after sitting there for what seemed like hours, but Val was sure that it was only a few short minutes. Brenda chuckled as a fondness entered her eyes.

"I had just started college and was working at a waitress in a twenty four hour diner. He and a bunch of his buddies came in every single morning at three o'clock completely ripped out of their minds and would hit on me and the other waitress that was there with me. It went on for months before Carl finally approached me by himself and asked me why I never wanted to go out with him. I told him it was because he was a drunk, but that didn't stop him from coming in there every single morning at three completely drunk. I went against my better judgement and finally agreed to go out on a date with him thinking that he would be too drunk to remember that he had asked me, but he wasn't. And we were married a month later."

Val blinked. Just a month? And they had been married all that time? Val wondered how they could possibly have made it work so well for all those years. It was admirable. She wondered if her mother and father were still alive if they would still be married. She was still very young by the time her mother had passed away, but she could remember that they had a very wonderful marriage. She couldn't remember them ever fighting, but then again, maybe she had blocked out all of the negativity in that time so she could just focus on the good times they had shared while her mother was still alive.

"Have you ever been married?" Brenda asked before taking a sip of her beer. Val frowned. She hated when people asked her that question. She felt so weird admitting it. Someone her age should have been married at least once by that time or at least a child running around.

"No. No children either." Brenda grinned as if she realized how uncomfortable the question had made her. She leaned forward and lowered her voice as if she was telling a secret.

"That's okay, dear, you were just waiting for Luke to come into your life before you started doing all that." Val rolled her eyes then chuckled.

"Maybe you're right, but we've not been together long enough to make those types of decisions." Brenda shrugged her shoulder and leaned back in her chair.

"What was the first thing you noticed about him?" Brenda asked. Val smiled and shook her head. She wasn't sure why Brenda was asking all of those questions, but she wasn't going to get mad at her. She remembered the first time she had ever laid eyes on him and the first thing that came to her mind was, "Holy shit!" She wasn't sure if it was because he had found them or if it was his sheer size, but that was her first impression.

"Have you seen him? What do you think I noticed about him first?" Brenda let out a laugh then raised her arms as if she was flexing her muscles. They both began to laugh.

Val had noticed his eyes second or maybe it was his scent. She could remember as she was patching him up that she had gotten a whiff of his cologne. She remembered that she had loved the scent and was curious as to what it was. It wasn't until after they had started dating that she had discovered that it was English Leather.

She had avoided him as much as possible when he and her family had teamed up to take down Shaw since she was still having some trust issues with him. He had promised their freedom, but there was a part of her that was telling her that he was just saying that to gain their cooperation. When she was patching him up, they had locked eyes for the first time. Sure, he was annoyed with her because he kept telling her that he was fine, but she wasn't having any part of it. Even though there was a hint of annoyance in his eyes, she could still tell there was a gentleness in them. It was then that she knew there was so much more to the man that was once her family's greatest enemy.

She took a deep breath leaning back in her seat taking in the sun's rays. She was so glad that she got the chance to get to know him. There wasn't a day that went by that she had spent with him that he didn't amaze her. There wasn't a day that went by that he didn't bring butterflies to her stomach. There wasn't a day that she didn't wake up and immediately think of him. She knew she had it bad. Way bad. But he made her happy. Happier than she had felt in such a long time, she wondered if she was ever that happy.

Val glanced at the old woman in front of her who had been trying to get her attention. Val blinked a couple times as she came to.

"What?" Brenda started laughing.

Author's Note: Hello again my lovely readers! Not really much to say here except this would have been uploaded Sunday, but I was recovering from the killer weekend I had up at my uncle's house. My cousin got married and we partied like it was 1999! Anywho! I'll wait a week for the next chapter to give everyone a chance to read this one.

Also, I didn't get that many reviews last chapter, I hope everyone liked it. Don't forget to review and let me know what you think!

Aven