Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. The rights to those characters and to the show belong to the creators of the show, to CBS, The Sullivan Company and to A&E.

The Places to Love

Chapter Two

Sully looked down at the tray and knew something was missing. Looking back at the counter he saw the rose, perched beside the coffeemaker and realized that was what he was missing. After he added the vase to the tray, he picked it up and headed back to the bedroom where Michaela was reading his letter to his mother. She looked up at him and smiled, stretching her arms lazily over her head as he entered. "Mmm.. .that looks good. I'm starving." Michaela sat up leaning forward to prop pillows behind her. Once she was situated Sully sat the tray over her legs, his lips meeting hers at the same moment. "You really have to stop spoiling me like this."

"I'm not spoilin' ya. I'm taking care of you. There is a difference you know."

Michaela narrowed her eyes but the edges of her lips were curling. "Hope that you aren't going to spoil this one," she said rubbing her stomach.

Moved by this display of affection, Sully laughed placing his hand over hers. "Gonna take care of her, just like I do her mama. Sides I figure soon morning sickness is going to set in. Abby had it bad in her early months, could barely keep anything down."

Picking up the fork eagerly, Michaela smiled down at the pancakes. "Well no morning sickness yet. Some women never get it." With that she took a large bite, rubbing her stomach appreciatively. "Your letter's good," she said after swallowing.

"Ya think it's alright?"

"I think it's perfect. You've told her how you feel, the things you've always wanted to say." Michaela raised her hand to stroke his cheek. "You spoke your heart honestly. That's what is important."

Sully sat back and took his own plate from the other side of the tray. "It's really hard to know what to do. Part of me doesn't want anything to do with her but it's fighting with the other part that wants to see her – make her explain why she left me."

Michaela nodded thoughtfully. "I don't want you to be disappointed, Sully. She might not have answers for you." A silence settled over the room as Michaela leaned over to touch his arm. "You alright?"

"Fine," he whispered. He looked her in the eye as he spoke, his hand coming to rest against her abdomen. "If you weren't pregnant, I might feel differently. But the decision is being made for more than just me. If I don't see her, I'm saying she won't ever see her grandchild either. That ain't right."

"It's still your decision Sully. Our job is to stop our children from being hurt. If you choose not to let her see them or know them – it would be for that reason."

Sully smiled at her. "You're right." He continued to watch her. "I love you."

Michaela smiled back at him. "You cooking in the nude again?" Her eyes ran the length of his body, drinking in the sight before she turned back to her pancakes.

"Could have gotten dressed if someone had been up a little earlier this morning."

Michaela looked over at him curiously, her fork stopping in the air mid-bite. "What does my sleeping in have to do with your ability to dress?"

Sully gave her a smirk and leaned over to eat the bite of pancakes off her fork. He chewed watching her face the entire time. "Knew what ya'd want after ya got up. Figured no need to get dressed just so you could rip the clothes off of me again."

"Sully!" Michaela chastised, though she continued to smile. There was no denying their weekend routine. The bed was seldom left until close to noon as they enjoyed the chance to simply be close to one another. Michaela took another bite of her pancakes chewing thoughtfully as Sully watched her. Normally she was a bit of a fussy eater, too busy to really enjoy food. Yet since the week before she'd found out she was pregnant, Michaela's appetite became voracious. Sully enjoyed watching how every meal was eaten with gusto but it never occurred to him that his staring might make her self conscious. Throwing down the fork, she turned to look at him abruptly. "Why are you staring?"

"I like watching you eat," he confessed leaning over and placing a kiss to her bare shoulder.

"Wait til I'm fat," she said with a slight laugh.

Sully picked up on the edge in her voice and leaned over taking the fork in his hand. Loading the tines with a piece of pancake and then strawberry he brought it to her lips. "You're eating for two." Michaela accepted the piece chewing slowly as she watched Sully's face. Again he lifted a bite of pancake to her mouth, before raising the napkin to wipe at a little strawberry juice.

"I can feed myself," she protested weakly but Sully wasn't listening. Three more bites he fed to her, each time drawing closer to her. Michaela picked up a strawberry with her fingers and offered it to him. It was her complete undoing as he not only ate the strawberry but sucked her fingers into his mouth. The tray was hastily moved to the floor, Sully's plate the bedside table. The small nightie that Michaela wore was tossed to the side as Sully's mouth moved down her neck to her collarbone. He felt her tense uncomfortably for a moment and he stopped pulling back.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No, There's something underneath of me." She squirmed to the side producing the television remote which made them both laugh.

"I wondered where that got to." He leaned back to resume his amorous advances as something occurred to him. "We won't hurt the baby will we?"

"Hurt the baby? How?" Michaela looked confused.

"Well I …" Sully seemed flustered, which never usually happened especially not in moments such as this one.

"Are you worried about us making love?" Michaela asked, beginning to understand what his concern might be.

Sully laid his head against her shoulder, his fingers running down over her still flat abdomen. "Abby was never very interested when… we never… well almost never…"

"We will not hurt the baby, Sully. Some women have a very high sex drive during pregnancy with the surge of hormones."

Raising his head a little, he cut his eyes up at her. "Sounds good to me," he laughed before kissing her hard on the mouth.

In a small apartment outside of Denver, Katherine stood looking out the window. Two strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and she smiled laying her hand over one of his. "I missed you beside me this morning."

She turned slightly to see the side of his face as she gave a nod. "I couldn't sleep. It's been over a month now. I guess he doesn't want to see me."

"Kat you can't give up so easily. We don't even know when he was given the letter. Cloud Dancing only said he would give it to him. Maybe there was a delay."

"I just wish Cloud Dancing would have told me where he was. If I could see him…" Her voice drifted off as tears filled her eyes once more. "Not that I blame him."

Max sighed unhappily, feeling unable to do anything for his wife. It had started before he'd ever met her, this obsession with finding her son. It was what drove her to the drug rehab program where they'd met, both with questionable pasts but somehow managing to find love in the midst of the pain that they both tried to medicate away. It was Katherine's second stint in such a place. The first time twenty years before – for heroin addiction. This time, both she and Max for addiction to prescription painkillers.

"I did try to find him," she whispered. "So many times I was so close but it was as if he slipped through my fingers."

"I know Kat." He pulled her back against him, closing his eyes and speaking in a low tone near her ear the prayer that was part of their recovery. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace, taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will, that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next."

Kat closed her eyes as well squeezing Max's hand as he prayed. "Amen," she whispered as he finished. She felt Max kiss the side of her cheek and she moved to lean completely against him. "I am trying to do that."

"I know you are and I know this isn't easy. I'm here for you Kat but you have to tell me what you're thinking, what you're feeling. Whether or not Sully lets you into his life, has to be his choice and you have to accept that."

"I know but I feel like I am still paying for one mistake I made a lifetime ago. I was so young…. And his father…" She stopped herself there and took a deep breath. "I can't change the past, only the future."

"There ya go. That's what I want to hear." He patted her hand again with a half-smile on his face. "Now come on, I'm gonna take you out for breakfast."