Here's the latest installment of this older FF. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments and feedback. Sorry it's taken so long to update the FF stories but October turned out to be a very busy month!

C.J. poured them both some hot tea which they took to the living room and drank while they parked on the sofa.

"What an exciting night," Gracie said, "Do you always live like this?"

C.J. chuckled.

"Hardly," she said, "But it's been quite busy in the past few days."

"And then some," Gracie said, "But enough about work, what do you think about Brian?"

C.J. smiled.

"He's very nice and good looking and I had a good time with him," she said, "A couple of months ago, I would go for a guy like him."

"But…"

C.J. hesitated.

"I don't feel anything beyond that," she said, "He's nice enough and fun to spend time with…"

"But he's not who you want," Gracie finished.

"He just broke up with a legislative aide of a city councilman so I don't think he's looking for anything serious."

Gracie gave her a piercing look.

"Are you?"

C.J. paused to think about it.

"I think so," she said, "I love my life, my work, but I want someone to share it with and I want a family."

"Like you wanted to be pregnant," Gracie noted.

C.J. looked at her dismayed.

"Why would you say that," she said, "I'm just not ready to have a family now but I do want one later. I've got so much on my plate already I want to do first and I don't want to be alone when that happens."

"You've got Matt."

C.J. softened.

"Well yeah, as a friend," she said, "a very good friend."

"But you want more."

"Maybe," C.J. said, "but it's not just what I want."

"But what if it's what he wants," Gracie asked, "because it sounded to me like you sent him packing."

C.J. turned sharply to look at her friend.

"We both agreed it would be for the best," she said, "We didn't want to risk our friendship."

"But he didn't agree," Gracie said.

C.J. looked at her puzzled.

"Have you been talking to him?"

Gracie sighed.

"A little bit," she said, "Not a lot but enough to know that you slammed the door on any relationship not him."

"It was clearly for the best given that his former fiancée came back on the scene," C.J. said, "and as we've both seen, they are making up for lost time."

"I don't think so," Gracie said, "I think he's doing the right thing but it's taking him forever to get there but he's a guy."

"I think he's going to marry Elizabeth," C.J. said, picking up her cup and returning to the kitchen putting an end to that conversation.

Elizabeth looked at the dresses spread across her bed.

"I don't know which one looks best," she said, "any ideas?"

Ginger paused for a moment, taking in each one.

"That black number looks really nice," she said.

Elizabeth frowned.

"Do you think the frills are a bit much," she said, picking up the edges of the dress.

Her friend shook her head.

"It's perfect and Matt will just love it."

"I don't know about Matt," Elizabeth said, "I keep having the feeling he's pushing me away."

Ginger rubbed her arm.

"I don't think it's him," she said, "I think it's his life intruding on your quiet moments together."

Elizabeth nodded.

"Every time we get together, something happens," she said, "usually having to do with C.J."

"They're close friends," Ginger reasoned, "and they've gotten closer."

Elizabeth frowned at that and Ginger hated seeing her like that and knowing her words contributed to it but her friend had to face some facts. And that was that in all likelihood, Matt had moved on with his life and would keep doing so unless Elizabeth put it all on the line. And even then, she could still lose him.

"I know that," she said, "But Matt and I made it to the altar once…"

Ginger sighed.

"And look what happened," she said, "You broke it off with him and went to party in Mexico with me and he went on his honeymoon with someone else."

"Whatever happened between them is over, Ginger," Elizabeth said, folding her arms and pacing the room.

"Did he say that or did she," Ginger said, sighing, "Because there's a big difference between the two."

Elizabeth looked down at her hands, which gripped her dress.

"Well…he did say they were still seeing each other," she said.

Ginger shook her head.

"That's not really an answer Elizabeth," she said, "and you have to get one from him soon or if he does something to break your heart, it's just going to hurt you more."

Elizabeth sat on the bed.

"How am I going to do that," she said, "He's been so busy getting into scrapes as part of this career of his. We haven't had any time to really talk things out before the next interruption happens."

Ginger looked at her friend.

"You're going to have to confront him and put everything on the line if you want to get things back on track with him," she said, "but time has passed and he might have other things on his mind."

Elizabeth put her head in her hands.

"I really love him Ginger," she said, "I can't believe I was so stupid to call off the wedding."

Ginger didn't agree. If the chaos before the ceremony was any indication of how any marriage between her friend and Matt was going to go, she wasn't sure it would be a happy union between two such different people. But despite her own reservations, she had to support her friend…but not without a little more sage advice first.

"Maybe that was the right thing to do," she said slowly, "Honey, the wedding was a nightmare. Matt's a great guy, sexy as they come but he brings unpredictability and even chaos and violence out of his own world and to those around him."

"But…"

"Even his best friend and latest bed partner, C.J. has seen that violence," Ginger said, "She's been shot several times from what I've heard."

"That's because she works for him," Elizabeth pointed out, "He would never let that happen to me."

"How can he stop it," Ginger said, "He couldn't even stop it at his own wedding."

"That was C.J.'s ex-boyfriend who ruined things," Elizabeth protested.

"But Matt helped her put him away behind bars," Ginger added, "Until he was furloughed and set loose again. He was out for revenge against both of them."

Elizabeth couldn't argue with that. But it didn't change the way she felt. Now that she knew what she wanted, she was set to go after it.

"Matt is worth everything Ginger," she said, "I just know I want to marry him and live happily ever after and that can still happen."

Ginger studied her friend knowing how serious her intentions were and slowly nodded her head.

"Okay, well this gala tomorrow is a great place to set that course in motion," she said, "but we're going to have to think about strategy."

Matt looked into his brandy glass. He sat at the sofa at his penthouse suite looking up information on Baby but anything useful he could find on the gunman continued to elude him. Neither Jason nor Hoyt had contacted him with any more information. He sighed and looked back at the screen again. This Clyde Jenkins or whoever he really was just came up with nothing, totally clean. But people who were absent from the major criminal databases usually proved to be more professional and often more ruthless criminal who had the intelligence and resources to remain below the radar while engaging in mayhem and murder.

Roy walked in the room, bringing his drink. Matt looked at his uncle.

"What are you still doing here?"

Roy sat down and looked at him.

"I've just about finished up that workload on those outstanding invoices that Chris started and am relaxing with a drink before I head home."

"I've been busy myself," Matt said, "Baby can't dig up anything on this guy and that's unusual."

Roy nodded.

"That's because he's hiding in the shadows," he said, sipping from his glass, "He could be a covert operative."

Matt frowned.

"I'm not so sure," he said, "He might be skillful enough to keep out of the major international crime databases but he's been pretty clumsy when we've encountered him."

"He's shot two people," Roy said, "and only one of them wasn't on his list of things to do while in L.A."

"Yeah," Matt said, "And we still don't know why he shot that guy in the alley or what's next on his agenda."

"C.J. wasn't able to give much to the cops?"

He shook his head.

"She said it happened so fast," he said, "and she became a target. She could have been killed."

Matt saw his uncle hide a smile.

"What's so funny," he asked.

"Oh no, nothing," Roy said, "Except she often has said the same thing about you many a time."

"That's different," Matt said.

That caught Roy's attention and he turned to face his nephew.

"How is it different," he said, "Is it because she's a woman or is it because of how that makes you feel?"

Matt looked at his uncle, surprised but Roy simply raised his glass to his lips again.

"This brandy's very good," he said, "Better than the usual brand."

"It was a gift from a client," Matt said, "Why do you say that?"

Roy put his glass down.

"Matlock, I am not as the younger generation calls it clueless about what has been going on between the two of you since you returned from Tahiti."

Matt narrowed his eyes.

"How much have you figured out?"

"Enough."

Matt picked up his own drink and looked at it.

"Things changed between us there," he said, "but we've come to an understanding that it's not going anywhere."

"I see," Roy said.

Matt wondered if he did because he was having his own problems in that area.

"What do you see?"

Roy shook his head.

"Oh nothing," he said, "Except that C.J.'s always had a soft spot for you. In fact, before your wedding she admitted as much to me."

"She did?"

Roy watched his nephew carefully.

"She's like many women who guard their feelings towards someone they really care about," Roy said, "and in this case, it's probably the prudent thing to do."

Matt didn't like the sound of that.

"What do you mean?"

Roy sighed, patiently.

"Matlock, you are a Houston and like the rest of us, you play the field," he said, "but the rest of us, we had our…good times with women and settled down. You haven't done that yet."

"That's what I was trying to do with Elizabeth," Matt said, "but I couldn't get it to work out. My career choice makes it difficult to settle down with any women."

To Matt's surprise, his uncle didn't argue with him.

"To most women perhaps," Roy said, "but C.J. isn't 'most women'."

Matt nodded.

"I do know that," he said, "but she made it clear that what happened in Tahiti was going to stay there."

"Because she lost her father at a young age," Roy said, "And that can affect how a young woman deals with the men in her life especially those who she loves. It's difficult to get too close to them because she's going to worry about them leaving her."

Matt nodded again.

"She told me that too," he said, "when she was involved with Robert last year."

"She's lost men she's loved to her career like you," Roy said, "and she lost Carl to a man who was obsessed with her because of her success."

"Christian Dean," Matt said, rubbing his temple, "He nearly got what he wanted but she killed him."

"So you can see where she might get her cautious attitude from," Roy said, "But it has nothing to do with how she feels about you."

"I know," Matt said, "But Tahiti was when I realized that what I really wanted was in front of me the whole time and once I realized that, it became hard to give that up."

Roy nodded thoughtfully.

"Did you ever tell her that?"

Matt started to react then thought about it. He knew his uncle was just trying to help him in his own way, prodding him with questions to force him to confront himself. His uncle had told him his own stories about some of the women he had loved and lost including to betrayal before he had met Matt's aunt. He wanted better for his nephew and for him to find happiness and a family.

"No I didn't," he said, "She seemed so adamant and I was willing to go along with it."

"I am not going to tell you how to handle your own life," Roy said, "But I consider her family just like you and it's up to the both of you to decide what you want and I suspect it's the same thing."

Matt got up and took his glass back to the bar.

"We're both going to the gala tomorrow," he said.

Roy followed him.

"So is Elizabeth," he said, "and her feelings are important too. She deserves the truth from you whatever that might be."

Matt nodded.

"I'm going to have to think about how to handle that too," he said, "I never wanted to hurt her."

Roy sighed.

"You were looking for a way to prove to yourself that your career wasn't the most important thing," he said, "And Elizabeth filled that bill for you. But she's a woman who loves you and it's not going to be easy for her."

"It's not going to be easy for either of us," Matt said, "but I'll talk to both women after the gala is over."

They both cleaned up the bar and left the office to take the elevator down to the parking garage and Matt thought carefully about what his uncle had said and knew he was right. Now he had to think about how to handle it.

And somewhere in the heart of L.A. a killer waited.