Chapter 18---This FF story has been updated and is nearly done. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading and your comments. I'll be updating and nearly completing four of them hopefully soon. "Glimmer of Twilight" probably will take a little bit longer because it's more complex. Also I completed the Valentine's Day story and will be doing holiday themed stories throughout the year. So keep an eye out for those. Possibly the next one will be St. Patty if my real life slows down enough, lol.

Above everything, thanks for reading and remember, the first season of this show is finally coming out on DVD in March.

This story is dedicated to George Wyner who's taught me how to curtsy in my much younger days…

Jason looked at the expression on Matt's face and knew he wasn't going to like his plan whatever it turned out to be.

"What are you going to do," he asked.

Matt reached for his gun.

"Stop this before it goes further."

Jason put his hand out.

"We need backup before we go in there."

Matt prepared his gun.

"We don't have time."

C.J. looked at Clyde who still had his gun aimed at her.

"I can't let you do this," she said, "You can't go and hurt anyone."

"I plan to kill someone and if you're in my way, it will be you first."

She shook her head.

"I'm not ready to die," she said.

He began to press on the trigger.

"I didn't ask…"

Suddenly, Matt lunged into the room, with his gun drawn. Clyde heard him and looked up, turning his gun towards the man heading towards him with his own weapon.

"No you don't," C.J. screamed and put herself between them when the gun fired.

She felt the impact slam into her like a moving car and fell to the ground. Matt looked at her lying there for a split second and then when Clyde began to press his finger to the trigger again, Matt pressed the trigger of his own gun without thinking.

Clyde didn't fall to the ground from the first gunshot but went down for good when the second hit him in the chest. Matt had been raised around guns all of his life, been trained in their use and rarely ever missed his intended target.

He then turned towards C.J. whose face had gone white and her body into a fetal position. He knelt down beside her and stroked the hair off of her brow.

"Where is it?"

She didn't respond and he gently moved her and found an expanding blood stain on her gown in her abdomen. Jason put his own gun and rushed towards them as other police officers flooded the room to deal with the dead hit man.

"Call an ambulance," Jason yelled back at the officer and one of them took out his radio.

Matt heard a voice and realized that C.J. was still conscious, murmuring something that he could barely hear.

"C.J. honey, it's going to be okay," he said, "The ambulance is on its way and we're going to take you to a hospital…"

She reached up for his face with her bloodstained fingers.

"I…."

"Don't try to talk," he said, turning to Jason, "Where are those damn paramedics?"

"Our men called them," Jason said, "They should be almost here."

Elizabeth and Ginger had run to the room after hearing gunshots and saw what had happened.

"Ginger, go tell the others," Elizabeth said.

Her friend's eyes widened.

"What just happened?"

"Just do it," Elizabeth repeated.

Ginger took off. As she exited the room, in rushed the paramedics pushing a stretcher and carrying medical equipment. They quickly took over as they worked to save C.J.'s life. Matt stood up but remained close by.

"She's going to be okay Matt," Jason said.

"It happened so quickly," Matt said, "She saved my life."

"Are you surprised," Jason said, "The woman loves you. "

Matt rode with C.J. to the hospital inside the cramped ambulance. At first the paramedics had refused to let him board the vehicle with them but Matt rejected that and said he wasn't leaving her. He had held her hand in the ambulance just as she had done for him while the paramedics worked on her. A couple times, they nearly lost her, as her heart struggled to beat, her lungs to draw the next breath. But after each time, he thought he felt her squeezing his hand back, faintly but she definitely still had life within her.

They rushed her down the corridor which seemed to be endless to surgery and the surgeon told Matt he had to wait with the others, who had driven to the hospital. Uncle Roy had put his arm around his nephew's shoulder and taken him to the coffee machine. Matt remembered another day like this one, when his now deceased friend Too-Mean had done the same for him the first time that C.J. had been shot, that time by some Chinese gangsters who had been working for a crooked DEA agent. She had nearly died that day because she had been so intent on clearing her friend from college, Connie Ling, on a drug smuggling charge. Elizabeth, Ginger and Gracie sat nearby, the conversation between them minimal as they all waited for word on C.J. They gave Matt his space but let him know they were there if he needed them.

That left Matt with his own thoughts and more than a few memories of the long life that he and his best friend had shared together. Visions of them riding their horses back on their respective ranches in Texas, long before they had moved to L.A. They had made that major move to first expand his business empire then to pursue their dream of setting up an investigative agency to help other people. He remembered how she had been shot in the shoulder, nearly bleeding to death before she would let him know. His brow knitted as he realized how she always put him first before herself, even when it met risking her life. Not that he would do any less for her, but he wondered if she knew how much that and she meant to him.

Then he thought about Tahiti, and when she had come into his bedroom accepting his invitation to take their friendship out of the platonic stage. Her lovemaking had been both generous and passionate, because like she did with the rest of her life, she put everything into what she did. Matt had thought he had given her back what she had wanted but realized now, that he had held himself back. And when they had woken up the morning they had to leave the wonderful island and head back home, she had lain in his warm embrace and as he kissed her neck where she loved it, she had tried to tell him from her heart and he had answered with his body. Matt had always been a man of action and few words but he realized now that she had really needed those words.

"You really love her don't you?"

He looked up from his reveries and saw that Elizabeth had sat down beside him and rubbed his shoulder with her hand.

"Yes you do," she continued, "I knew it when we were at the altar and she had agreed to marry Robert to save your life. I knew that I could never offer you the same."

He looked down at his coffee cup.

"So why…"

She smiled.

"I couldn't let you go Matt," she said, "No that's not it. I couldn't let the idea of what I thought we would have, go. But I realized that it's not worth anything if it's not with the person who wants it as much as you do."

He sighed.

"I did love you."

She nodded.

"I know," she said, "but you're not in love with me and there's a big difference between the two."

He looked back towards the operating room.

"I can't lose her."

She reached for his hand.

"That's not going to happen," Elizabeth said, "She's a very strong woman and very determined. That will pull her through this."

Matt nodded, knowing both to be true but he had trouble believing in luck or fate.

"And when she does," she said, "You have to tell her how you really feel."

Matt knew that if C.J. lived, he wouldn't have trouble finding the words to do that.

The surgery took hours and they sat there waiting until the surgeon, his mask lowered came out to the lobby and Matt sprung up from his seat to meet him.

"How is…"

The surgeon betrayed a smile.

"She's survived the surgery," he said, "The bullet missed any major organs but there was heavy bleeding that had to be stopped from some blood vessels. The next day or so will be critical but I think she's going to make it."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and said a couple prayers of thanks. Matt closed his eyes for a moment, allowing the emotion to rush through him again. He had braced herself for news of her death without realizing it. But he knew now that she was going to live and recover from her injuries, because she knew she had too much in life awaiting her.

"Can I see her," he said.

The surgeon hesitated and then nodded.

"For a minute," he said, "She's going to be in and out of consciousness the next couple of days."

A nurse came and led nurse to her hospital room and he almost stepped back at the sight of the medical equipment including a heart monitor attached to her. Her eyes were closed, but her face had lost its ashen look. Slight bruising rested beneath her eyes as she slept. He sat down in a nearby chair and took his hand in his own two, rubbing it.

"The doctor said you're going to make it," he said, "God, I thought this was it. That I was going to lose you."

She opened her eyes then and as she took in the sight of him, a small smile curled her mouth.

"I'm not going that easily," she said weakly, "I guess we're two for two for getting shot this week."

He smiled at her attempt at humor to put him at ease.

"The others are outside in the lobby," he said, "Everyone sends their good thoughts."

"I hope I didn't ruin the party," she said, "or worse, get written up in the society pages."

He reached with one hand to stroke her forehead.

"Oh you'll make a column or two."

Her face became serious.

"I'm so sorry Houston…"

"For what?"

She struggled to find the words.

"To make you worry so much," she said, "The doctors…"

"Say you're just fine," he said, "but you're going to need plenty of rest and good care before they're going to let you out of here so you can go home where you belong."

She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry about Tahiti too."

That admission startled him.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about…"

"I lied to you."

His brow furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

She struggled to keep any tears at bay.

"I was just so scared," she said, "Not of you but of my own feelings. About you. About what happened between us and how that would change us."

He digested that.

"I thought it was just me."

She tilted her head as much as she could manage.

"You?"

He sighed.

"I never thought of you as a good time to add to my list," he said, "I woke up that last morning and I realized that part of my life was done."

"But you agreed…"

"Because you weren't ready C.J.," he said, "and unless you were, I had to wait and hope that day would come."

She smiled.

"You…wait," she said, "There's a world of women and you could have any one of them."

"Why would I want them when the woman I want is right in front of me," he said, "It took me much too long to realize how much I really wanted that."

"But you and Elizabeth…"

"You were right about me C.J.," he said, "I needed closure with her and I got it. I'm just sorry for what I put you through to get to that place."

She slowly reached up to touch his face.

"You're here with me right now," she said, "And that's what matters."

"I should have never left you thinking you were pregnant with my child…"

"If I had been, we would have worked through it," she said, "And I would have been perfectly fine having our child."

Matt had smiled when she said that, and then kissed her gently on her forehead before leaving her to get some much needed sleep so that her injuries could continue their healing process. He had gone out to sit with the others for a while before Roy suggested they get a bite to eat in the cafeteria before resuming their vigil.

Gracie walked beside him.

"She's got to find another line of work."

He smiled.

"I can't wait until you try to convince her of that."

Both of them knew it would be a futile exercise at best. C.J. loved her work and her life, with a passion that caught the eye of everyone around her. Gracie laughed at his statement.

"You're right," she said, "But she's not going to be doing anything too active for a while."

"Not if I can help it," he said, "though try containing a tornado."

They both laughed at that and the world suddenly felt like a better place.