Surprise bitches! Hope everyone had a really good belated Valentine's Day. I turned 18 a few days ago and decided to give all of my readers and myself a gift of getting back in touch with this story and I hope all enjoy what I came up with. Hope all of my readers are doing well. Let me know how you feel about my return and this chapter in the reviews should you choose to leave one. Thank you and I'm happy to be back - XOXOXO MJ123 :)

The cops came 15 minutes later, flashing lights, lots of questions regarding Steven's mental state and if everyone was injured. No one really gave much description on anything, some were still in shock, some were slowly coming to terms with the events that happened. Norma for instance, got a lot of praise from Alex for defusing the situation and selflessly taking care of her family.

It was only later, when Steven was long gone on a trip to the best jail in Portland and everyone was asleep, did Alex truly sit down with his fiancee and talk about the events of the night. They were perched in bed, too tired and awake all at once.

"Were you scared?" he asked, his hand slowly making soothing patterns on her upper thigh.

She shook her head and thought internally about all that had gone on that night, she had a loaded gun to her forehead, if she thought really hard, she could still feel the metal about to implant into her skull. "No, not at all actually. This town has made me practically desensitized to that kind of shit."

Now he was intrigued, of course he understood but only from his viewpoint, he had been Sheriff of the damn town for so long he had his fair share of near death experience from seedy criminals, nothing phased him. But Norma, the woman he fell hard for, was a gentle bird with a broken wing when they met, he wondered if the strength was internal before tonight. "How do you mean?"

"Well, before I moved here, I started to wonder if I would live to see 39 years old. Anything would make me flinch back in Arizona, maybe because of Sam, maybe because of growing up with the combination of my father and Caleb, I don't know. Then I moved her and I killed someone. I killed a man for doing something so horrible to me. And if you really wanna know...it felt good." She took a pause and scootched over to face him, "I'm not claiming to be a sociopath or anything of the sort, I'm just saying that after years of being held down, I was brought up. And now...I don't feel a thing in those types of situations."

He sat silent and nodded, feeling foreign to the admission of the murder out loud. He hadn't heard her honesty with the situation since the first year of her arrival. He was a cop and strangely enough, he didn't feel weird about her confession. "I know what you mean."

"You know what I mean? Like...killing someone and feeling good afterwards?"

He nodded. "Back in 2002, I was called down to the bar downtown, some altercation going on in the alley outside. Anyway, I show up and see this guy viciously raping this poor girl. She had to be 18 years old at the time. I shot him, right in the back of the head to stop him and save her. I felt good after that, just the feeling of killing someone who was doing something so bad to someone so innocent killed me internally."

At that moment, she knew she picked a good man. It was ironic, she picked a man that wouldn't have harmed a butterfly but would've demolished a lion. He was simply someone who wanted to kill all evil. "It's so weird to sit here with you now, Alex. Remember our first few months knowing each other?"

"I hated you. I hated you so much to be completely honest. I couldn't understand you or your family and why all of you seemed so shady and then I saw who you were, who you all were and um...now I can't get enough of you," he admitted, it an incredibly odd dynamic, he still got teased at the station every now and again because he fell for someone so crazy.

"You can't get enough of me, huh?" she laughed, she couldn't get mad at him for admitting previous hatred, it was utterly mutal, "You know, you were a pretty huge ass when we first met. So closed, so tight lipped, you never let me in. Now you tell me everything." Her chin raised in the air adorably, "I have complete control."

He rose an eyebrow and looked at her, "You like control over me?"

She nodded with a smile. It was something inside of her, she loved having men under her spell, it was the way she was raised. Her mother always told her she would add fuel to a man's fire no matter what. One could say that she was certainly making Alex's world a bit more crazy.

"Do you feel like taking control right now?" he asked seductively, moving his hand higher up her thigh.

"No...it's not you. I'm just really tired, it's been a long day, y'know."

He nodded, "Understood. But um...speaking of that, I was thinking the other day. I keep thinking about our wedding and our honeymoon and all of that stuff. I don't want anything big to be completely honest with you, we are too old for a wedding, let's face it."

She thought about this. Did she really wanna get married like that for the second time? A ceremony and family and all of that stuff? It wasn't something they could afford anyway, right? But then a different question came to mind, one that stroke the most worry in her mind, "Wait...do you still wanna marry me?"

He took her hand and kissed her cheek, "Yes. I want to marry you 100%. I am ready to be your husband. I just don't like the idea of a wedding, traditionally I mean. I'm just ready to take you and run away with you somewhere and put a ring on your finger."

It came out of her mouth so simple, so casually, "Wanna elope?" It fit after all, she was one of the most impulsive women out there and figured she loved Alex enough to respect his wish.

"How about I find somewhere really pretty and get a really good minister and I'll surprise you? I promise to make it something special that we will love."

She nodded and leaned over to kiss him, a silent reassurance that his suggestion was fine with her.

She loved him and he loved her and that would only become more concrete whenever they attended whatever their ceremony was set out to be.

Thank you and leave a review if you'd like. Remember, they help me get better and influence me to write more - MJ