Disclaimer: I do not own Josef, Mick or anyone else that you may recognize. Riley and all of the others that come out of my head are of course mine. No copy write infringement is intended.

Chapter 17

It had been two days since Josef had finally kissed me. I still hadn't totally figured out what had happened that night. The past 48 hours had been heaven. Any moment that we were both awake and at home we spent in each others arms, watching movies, reading, sitting. I was in love, it was plain and simple. I didn't know if he felt the same way, but for now, I was happy. He was sleeping at the moment. I was curled up in the window seat in the library. I was startled out of my book when there was a knock at the door.

"Beth, what are you doing here?" I was shocked but happy to see her. She laughed a little and walked over to join me.

"Mick needed to talk to Josef. He decided that since it was so close to twilight he could risk waking Josef up. I still don't think it was the best choice, but you know there is no talking sense to either of them. So, how have things been with Josef the past few days?"

"Oh things have been wonderful. This was exactly what I could have hoped for. I know that he cares, that's all I could ask for right now. I love him, I don't know if he feels the same way, but for right now, that's okay. I am just happy to be able to spend this time with him." I smiled and Beth returned my smile happily. "Let's go grab some coffee and wait for the boys down stairs." We walked down stairs and sat on the couch in the living room waiting for Mick and Josef to join us.

-Josef's POV-

I woke up to Mick banging on the door of my freezer. Oh, this is going to be one hell of a day. I pushed the door open and glared at Mick.

"What the hell do you want, St. John?" Seriously, would another hour have been too much to ask.

"I need Ryder to track someone down for me." I swear to god, he woke me up for work. I really am going to kill him. "I also wanted to talk to you about Riley."

"Fine, I'm up. Let me go put some clothes on and I will meet you in my office." I pulled myself out of the freezer and walked into my other room. I walked pulled on a pair of boxers and walked down the hall to my office. I walked in and shut the door behind me. Mick was already sitting down waiting for me.

"Mick, this case had better be important for you to have come over here to wake me up." I couldn't seem to help the slight growl in my voice and it caused Mick to laugh.

"There is a girl that went missing two days ago. I just need Ryder to trace something for me and then I was hoping that you might help me go get her once we have found her. But that isn't the main reason that I came here. I haven't talked to you the past few days but I have heard things from Beth. What is going on with you and Riley?"

"Well you just skip all of the preliminaries don't you? After we talked, I was able to get some work done, but I ended up coming home early. We spent some time together that morning and she basically told me how she felt. I kissed her. It was the best feeling in the world. I haven't felt this comfortable with someone, this at ease, since Sarah. Just being in the same room with her, even after just two days, she brightens everything up. She shines. Mick, even though I told you two days ago that it wasn't at this point yet, I think I have been in love with her since we rescued her. I love her." Even though I had known this for a few days now, it was still hard to say this out loud. I knew this is what I needed right now, but I didn't know how I could tell Riley. I didn't want to scare her off; I didn't want to hurt her. I had too much to think about this evening.

"Well, ok. Let's head downstairs. I have a feeling that the girls are probably waiting for us." This is why Mick was one of my only true friends. He just sort of went with the flow, most of the time that is. He was the only person that I could have told this to and known ahead of time that they weren't going to blow it out of proportion. I also knew that he would keep his mouth shut until I had figured out exactly how I wanted to tell Riley.

I laughed a little at him and we walked out of the office. We walked down the stairs and I couldn't have been happier to see Riley sitting on the couch with Beth. She looked over at me and I thought that the whole world had just lightened immensely. Mick walked over to Beth and kissed her lightly on the cheek. I walked over and joined them. I sat down on the couch and pulled Riley into my lap. She turned to look at me and gave me a small grin. I pulled her face towards mine and kissed her on her forehead. She then turned around and laid her head back against my shoulder.

"I see you two took no time in getting comfortable." I glared at Beth, which just caused her to laugh. Oh yeah, real comforting to know that I don't scare her at all any more. Riley also started to laugh when she saw the look that I was giving Beth.

"What can I say, he has a comfortable lap." I could tell by her tone of voice that she was smirking as she said this and that was only confirmed when I looked over at Mick. He was trying to damn hard not to laugh.

"You okay over there, Josef?" I was going to kill Mick, plain and simple, I was going to kill him. I leaned forward and kissed Riley again on the cheek.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why, Mick?"

"Oh no reason. It's just, I could have sworn that after Beth said something there was a bit of a blush there." He couldn't even say it with a straight face.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Beth and Mick both let it drop after that. Riley turned around and kissed me. I could tell that by the look in her eyes this was not dropped by everyone. I was going to here about this later and I have a feeling that was Mick's reason for doing this.

I called into work, letting them know that I was taking the night off. I watched Riley closely for the rest of the afternoon. Part of me was waiting for her to bring up our earlier conversation. She seemed so comfortable here. She and Beth seem to really become fast friends, but that wasn't surprising, that was just who Beth was, and I didn't know anyone that could really say no to Riley, I know I can't. But what did surprise me was that Riley was still so comfortable with Mick and me, even after all that had happened. I watched her all afternoon and I never saw one bit of fear or uncertainty in her eyes. Seeing all of this, I could help but fall a little bit farther in love with her.

At around midnight, Mick and I could tell that the girls were starting to fade. Mick and Beth left and Riley and went up to the library. We sat in front of the fire for close to two hours before I realized that she was asleep. I carried her into her room and pulled her blanket up over her arms. I walked back into the library and sat down at the piano. I put my fingers to the keys and play.

It had been such a long time since I had even thought about sitting down to play. The music flowed so easily, it was as if I had never stopped. All thoughts of anything except for Riley and the music stopped. She was the only reason the music flowed. She was the reason I chose to sit down again and play. I was so thoroughly consumed by the music that I didn't notice anyone come into the room. I didn't know she was there until she put her hand on my shoulder. Slightly startled, I turned around to face her.

"Ri, what are you doing up? I thought you were asleep."

"I heard the piano. I got up to see where it was coming from. I didn't know you played. It sounded amazing." The look in her eyes was so soft, so gentle. I could make out slight traces of fatigue around the edges of her eyes but mostly she just looked content.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. You should go back to sleep, you've had a long night."

"I'm fine, really. And don't apologize for waking me up. It was nice to be able to hear the music. When I was younger, my grandfather used to play. He died when I was really little, and I haven't heard any one playing in such a long time. I've missed it."

"Go lay down on the couch, over by the fire. I will play a little bit more for you if you try to get some sleep." She stuck her tongue out at me and laughed quietly.

"Yes, dad." She leaned down to kiss me and I pulled her closer to me, not wanting to lose the contact of her lips on mine. She pulled away and walked over to the couch. She grabbed a blanket and curled up into a ball on the couch. I continued to play until I heard her heart beat slow down. I walked over to her room and turned on a recording that I had originally made for Sarah almost 50 years ago. I put it into the CD player that I had put in her room and turned it on. I walked back into the library and picked Riley up once again and carried her back to her room. She woke up as I lay her down, pouting up at me.

"I thought I told you I wanted to listen to you play longer. You're no fun." I couldn't help but laugh at her.

"Riley, you keep falling asleep. Anyways, listen to what is playing. It's a CD I made a long time ago of me playing. Now, go back to sleep."

"Stay with me. At least until I fall back asleep." I really had no strength to say no to her. I wasn't going to be able to get any work done tonight.

"You're just trying to be stubborn aren't you? Just let me go grab a few things. I will be right back, try and get to sleep." I went and grabbed a few things that I could work on in her room and went back in. She was starting to dose off when I came back in, but sat up when I sat down with her. She leaned over and kissed me when I sat next to her. I put my hand on the small of her back and pulled her a little bit closer to me.

I didn't know if this was the right time to do this or not, but this was the only thing that was going through my head at the moment. I pulled away slowly from her. I looked her in the eye and could see the trust there. I only hoped this didn't screw anything up.

"Riley, There is something I have to tell you." I leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. I looked her in the eyes and held on to her as tight as I could without hurting her. "Riley, I love you."

A/N: Okay, I know this is still shorter than where I was. I am going to try to get them back up a little higher, but I had to stop this one where I did! Hope you all like it and I will try to update again soon!