A/N: thank you once again for your kind reviews and your patience. Hope this chapter was worth the wait.

Chapter 31

It was late at night when Mac entered Randi's apartment, the end of a very long shift for him. The lights were off, with the exception of her kitchen night-light, which glowed warmly from its position in the open kitchen.

There was an odd feeling of coming home as he stepped inside the cozy apartment and dead-bolted the door behind him.

He heard a snuffling noise and looked down to see Fabio padding towards him from the vicinity of Randi's bedroom. Mac took off his coat, hanging it on the coat tree, knelt down, and offered his hand to the dog. Fabio sniffed and then permitted his ears to be scratched. He smiled and as he did so, a memory came to him.

It was an incident that had occurred when Randi had still been working at the NYPD during the first round of storage clean-outs, just before they had seriously started dating.

Flashback:

Mac saw the little boy waiting in the waiting room, swinging his feet absently. The boy had to have been no more than about six or seven, with sandy brown hair, jeans and shirt, Caucasian, and a lonely, lost look about him. As if sensing he was being watched, the boy looked up at Mac and smiled hesitantly. Mac smiled back.

Just then Flack joined him.

"What's with the boy?" Mac asked.

"We're questioning his dad in regards to a robbery and then we may question him, depending on what we hear," Flack said.

Mac nodded. "When was that?"

Flack had to think about that and said, "I think about an hour ago." His brow furrowed as he realized the implications of what he'd just said. "Has anyone even checked on the kid?" he wondered aloud.

Mac went over to the boy, just as Randi and Fabio came in the building, heading towards the elevator. She smiled at him, blushing as she did so.

Today she had chosen to wear a pretty burnt velvet jumper dress in black with multi-colored panels inserted in the wide, flowing skirt that brushed her ankles. It was shaped to her body by a curving under-corset in a brightly red Chinese brocade material, decorated with gold and silver dragons. She also wore a white white pheasant blouse, gold-colored high-heeled sling-back sandals were on her feet, and her hair was pulled back in a loose braid, decorated with a fake orchid flower.

As they passed them, Fabio looked at the boy, who looked at him, curious, which was understandable. After all, how many kids had seen a dog quite like Fabio?

While Randi waited for the elevator, Fabio, who was still on his extendable leash, went over to the boy, snuffling. The boy grinned and cautiously held out his hand, to which Fabio promptly stuck his head under, silently demanding to be scratched.

"That's Fabio," Mac said, joining them.

"He's weird, but in a kinda weird-cool way," the boy said.

Mac grinned in understanding. "I know what you mean. Hey Randi?"

"Yeah?" She smiled when she saw the situation and came over. By now Fabio was enjoying a really nice belly rub. "I see you've made a new friend, Fabio," she said to the dog, crouching down beside him. The dog gave her a dopey-eyed look that clearly suggested he was quite happy where he was. "Tell you what, if you want to stay for a bit and enjoy the attention, Mac can always take you to me when you're done." Mac nodded in agreement.

The boy's face lit up. "You don't mind, ma'am?"

Randi smiled warmly. "Not at all. Fabio makes friends all the time and I've noticed he really likes kids. As long as I know where he is, I'm not going to worry about him. He's already done his thing so he's good for a while," she said. "Oh, if he decides he's going to jump in your lap, give him a hand. He makes a good lap-warmer but I should warn you, when he snores, he drools."

Both Mac and the boy laughed. Randi gave the dog an affectionate pat and headed for the elevator banks, flashing Mac a shy smile again, which he returned.

Mac elected to stay with the boy, Davey, until the detective involved came for him. Once Mac explained Fabio's presence, the detective, Detective John Flaghorn, upon Mac's suggestion, allowed Fabio to come in to the interrogation room. A child's advocate lawyer joined them a few moments later and raised a question about Fabio's presence.

"He belongs to a friend who works with the NYPD," Mac explained. "It seems Fabio gets along pretty well with kids and he's well trained."

By now, Fabio was in Davey's lap, looking very content and, certain that Davey was in good hands, he told Flaghorn to page him when Fabio was ready to be returned to Randi.

Flaghorn paged him roughly half an hour later and he was chortling when Mac caught up to him, Fabio's leash in hand and Fabio at his feet, dozing.

"What's so funny?" Mac asked.

"Did you know that dog snores?" Flaghorn asked.

"Randi did mention something about that," Mac admitted. "How bad?"

Flaghorn grinned. "Bad. The inhale sounded like a large grinder while his exhale sounded like someone had put a bunch of bolts and nuts in a blender and turned the thing on to high speed. His snoring made the table vibrate because his whole body was vibrating with every snore."

Mac grinned. "That's bad."

"Yeah, but despite the snoring, he really helped Davey. Too bad we can't use him for a therapy dog. He was really good with him," Flaghorn admitted. "He may not win any points for looks but that dog has a good heart."

Present day:

Smiling fondly, Mac headed for the bedroom, Fabio snuffling behind him. Without turning on any lights, except the one in the bathroom, he stripped off his work clothes and slipped into the pajama bottoms Randi had kindly left for him in the bathroom. She'd even provided him with a clean toothbrush and razor and shaving cream, knowing he shaved in the morning and preferred gel instead of soap.

He smiled at her thoughtfulness.

A few minutes later he slipped in to bed beside her and took a moment to study her sleeping form. The moonlight played over her delicate features, reminding him of a goddess or a nymph, or even a sleeping fairy.

It hit him hard just how much he'd missed her. Never again, he promised himself. Never again will I let myself go for so damn long without seeing her, without touching her. I need her too much.

With that, he lay down and drew her against him. She sighed in her sleep and snuggled against him, reaching for him in her sleep.

Never again.