A/N: Finally! This chapter is a bit long but I'm hoping that the muse will strike again real soon!

Shawn sighed wearily as he fumbled with the keys in his hand. Today had been a long day; while he loved his job and was glad that he could combine his love of writing with photography, working for a magazine like Rolling Stone meant long hours at work and grappling with people that spanned the gamut of human personalities.

A smile crept across his tired face as he imagined his wife's arms around him and her delightfully comforting aroma – it was the perfect antidote to any depression that he suffered at work.

As the keys finally gave way and allowed the doorjamb to unlock, Shawn let himself in and made sure that he wiped his feet carefully. Angela was a stickler for neatness and while Shawn prided himself on not being as much of a slob as he might have been in the days when he shared a place with Jack and Eric, there were some things that he had to be constantly reminded of – wiping his muddy shoes thoroughly on the doormat and not bringing wet garments dripping into the house, were just two of them.

The flames of their fireplace sent a cheery glow around their living room and instantly Shawn knew that Angela would probably be curled up on the couch with a book of poetry in her hand. He walked in, already feeling the weariness ebb and his face lit up at the warm grin on her face at seeing him.

'Hey, you' she said, lifting her face for a hello kiss which Shawn immediately responded wholeheartedly to. After ensuring that they did indeed exchange very thorough hellos, he dumped his bag on their coffee table and winked at Angela, 'Scoot over, my feet are cold too.'

She winked at him slyly, 'If you get in on the other end, you can make my cold feet warm with a nice rub. And yours will be warm too – they'll be under the blanket anyway.'

Shawn smirked, 'Nice try. But I'm getting in on this end. More interested in your face than your feet tonight.'

She pouted, but Shawn caught the twinkle in her eyes, 'But you like my feet, honey.'

Shawn nodded sagely. 'Oh I do, I do, believe you me. I love all your ten toes, bunions and all.'

'Shawn!' she exclaimed, exasperated and Shawn chuckled as he wormed his way in beside her on their couch. Angela was still a tad sensitive about her feet, and had tried everything she knew to ease the bunions that somehow still formed in spite of her best efforts. Shawn himself was never bothered; he liked the fact that she had a human flaw albeit on her feet – he couldn't count the number of times he'd been crazy with jealousy on the way innumerable men would admiringly gaze at his fiancée and wife, despite the engagement and wedding rings on her finger.

He gave her a loving grin as she continued to stare balefully at him. Leaning forward, he reached up to kiss her forehead, made his way down to the tip of her nose and then placed kisses on her eyelids and cheeks. Cupping her cheek in his right hand, he stared into her eyes and whispered, 'Forgiven?'

She rolled her eyes but said teasingly, 'For now, I suppose that will have to do.'

Shawn poked her in the side and delighted in her infectious giggle. 'The things I do for you…' he dramatically sighed and closed his eyes, resting his head comfortably on the veritable bed of cushions that covered their couch.

Soft, beloved fingers stroked his forehead and he moaned thankfully, 'Oooh, that feels wonderful, honey. Don't stop for the next half-an hour or so, ok?'

Angela pulled his nose smartly and registered his cry of protest in satisfaction. 'Serves you right' she scolded. 'Half-an-hour?'

Shawn gave her the puppy dog look, complete with pleading eyes, jutting lower lip and drawn face. Angela waggled a finger at him, 'Don't you dare, Shawn Hunter. I'm not falling for that, and while those eyes may have made me give in to some crazy things, I'm well and truly immune to their total effect now.'

'But, I've had such a bad day' he pleaded and caught her hand, bringing the knuckles to his lips and slowly yet steadily lavishing kisses on them. Angela scoffed but the little shiver that skimmed her shoulders told Shawn that she had given in and inwardly he crowed in smug satisfaction.

'Why, honey? Did something happen?' Angela resumed stroking his forehead and hair, occasionally stopping to press a small kiss against it when he burrowed closer.

Shawn's reply was drowsy and Angela suppressed a spate of chuckles at how incoherent he sounded. 'Hmm…not sure…the usual…you know how it is…boss from hell…mmm, that's great honey, I'm sure that I married you just for those hands…ow!'

Angela had flicked his forehead at the last comment and Shawn focused his bleary gaze to see her looking questioningly at him. 'What? That was meant as a compliment!'

She shook her head but resumed her earlier task, 'You're home early, too. Boss from hell away?'

Shawn laughed. 'No, he's there alright but I have the next two days off, actually. He was so pleased with my last assignment that he offered me a two day holiday bonus which I decided to take now, seeing as we've got our latest project to be working on.' He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and got a mouthful of pillow in reply as Angela whacked him with two cushions soundly.

'Well, I'm glad to see such a high level of interest in it.'

Shawn tucked an arm around her and pulled her to him. Placing his lips against her cheek, he inhaled deeply and then sighed, feeling halfway normal again and forgetting that a chaotic world and stormy weather existed outside their little nest. Angela kissed him softly in return and then pulled back, concerned. 'You look more tired today than usual – are you sure that everything's ok at work?'

'Yeah, no sweat' he waved a hand dismissively. Looking up at her, he asked, 'And what about you? What did Meryl-the-Devil say?'

Angela shrugged her shoulders. 'Not much, as usual. Its like pulling water from a stone to get a compliment from her…' she trailed off and then hesitatingly continued, 'Shawn, I want to tell her tomorrow.'

'About what?' he questioned.

'Quitting…I have to give in a month's notice anyway, but before she saddles me with something else, I'd really like to let her know.'

Shawn rubbed a hand thoughtfully over his face. 'Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't tell her today.'

His wife poked him but her eyes were soft and shining. 'And not discuss it with you first? Haven't we told each other this stuff first and then taken a joint decision up until now?'

Shawn smiled warmly and kissed her forehead. 'That we have, love, that we have…'

'Except for back in college when you decided to….'

'Yes, yes, yes' interrupted Shawn hastily. 'I remember all too well and I know that I'll never be hearing the end of it for the rest of our lives.' He reached up and brushed some stray curls that had escaped her impromptu bun and tucked them gently behind her ears. 'And I'll never stop kicking myself too. I knew even back then that I was the world's biggest idiot so there's no danger of me doing that again.'

Angela laughed and hugged him. Shawn laced his fingers with hers and asked. 'So how was your morning with Topanga?'

His wife was quiet for a long while before she finally answered. 'Very illuminating, to say the least. There's a lot of trouble brewing there.'

Shawn looked at her, surprised. 'Really? As in real trouble? Not just a marital spat?'

Angela nodded. 'They're in a difficult place right now, and a large part of it stems from the fact that they're just so different in terms of what they want from life…and oh, by the way, please do not tell Cory that we're trying for a baby, ok? No matter what.'

Shawn goggled. 'Why not? I'm guessing Topanga knows anyway!'

'Because Cory wants them to start trying for a child too, and…'

'…and Topanga doesn't want one yet, right?' finished Shawn with a rueful sigh. He didn't want to keep something of this nature from his best friend but he could well see Angela's point. It would only take Cory knowing that his best friends were having a family to constantly badger his own wife about the same thing.

'I never thought Topanga had held in so much, though' Angela mused, and Shawn brought his thoughts back to what she was saying. 'What do you mean?'

She threw up her hands and Shawn could feel the regret in her voice. 'Now, she believes they should have waited a bit before getting married…'

'What?!?' broke in Shawn. He stared at her and she rolled her eyes. 'She actually told you that?'

'She's given up a lot to be with Cory, you know' pointed out Angela.

'But…but…' stammered her husband. 'She was the one who asked him to marry her! And at high school graduation, no less!'

'Yes, yes I know all that' Angela rubbed her temples. 'But it's coming to a head now…I mean, she gave up Yale for Heaven's sake! And she didn't stay with her parents in Pittsburgh either – she stayed back in Philly…and she's just not ready for a child, Shawn…there's so much more that she wants to do but she feels she can't because they married too young…'

Shawn blew out a breath. 'Well, they needn't have a child rightaway…wait a minute, she knows about us, right?'

Angela nodded. 'Yeah, I told her and she sends congratulations to you too. But no way is she ready for a kid yet and neither is Cory – they need to work out these issues first before any thoughts of family expansion. And it doesn't help that Cory doesn't want any marriage counseling – he prefers talking to his parents instead or comparing their marriage to ours and neither of those options is going to help!'

Shawn rubbed her back soothingly, 'What do you mean?'

Angela replied frustrated, 'They're not the same. You can't compare marriages Shawn; it doesn't work that way! Cory just doesn't get that we're different and that his parents are different too! He thinks that because his parents had Eric at a very young age and then three more kids, once he and Topanga get started on a family, things will automatically resolve themselves!'

Shawn sighed, 'I never thought I'd be the one to say this but perhaps Cory and Topanga were too focused on what the ideal thing to do would be rather than reality.'

Angela raised her eyebrows 'Meaning?'

'Well, I guess since they were always together, it seemed like they were destined for each other, you know? And I honestly thought that was something unique but I guess at that age, a marriage brings in a whole new set of issues that maybe they weren't ready to face yet.'

'And I never thought I'd feel so bad about being right, but you remember when they first thought of eloping?' Shawn nodded and Angela ruefully continued, ' I told Topanga then to wait and not rush into it – I told her that she could stay engaged and have fun; it just seems so much more sensible to finish college and then get married; today, when she told me that she remembered what I'd said and that she wished she'd listened, I felt horrible; I never wished for this to happen!'

Shawn cuddled her closer. 'Hey, its ok, you were actually a better friend to her than I was to Cory at the time – I was the fool; I urged him to get on with it but you did the right thing. And we did the right thing too - we may have gotten engaged in college but we waited until we both had jobs…'

Angela agreed. 'That's what Topanga was saying to me today. I honestly don't know what they're going to do but I credit her for wanting to go to counseling and solve their issues – I just wish Cory was a little more understanding; he's still like a child about so many things.'

'Hey! Maybe he was at one point, but don't you think he began to change once he and Topanga were engaged?'

Angela ticked off items on her fingers as she recounted them. 'Let's take their wedding night then, shall we? This is what I heard straight from a distraught bride's mouth – her husband clumsily threw her on the bed, fumbled anxiously with his clothes, didn't want to slow, didn't see the need for foreplay, became dramatic when his wife wanted to change, screamed like an excited banshee when she did appear, then threw himself on top, checked under the covers again to make sure that the honeymoon was really happening and when they finally went to Hawaii, made his wife carry him!!'

She stopped to take a few deep breaths and Shawn stared at her, dumbfounded. 'Cory did what?'

'Shawn' she said quietly. 'How do you think I would feel if you behaved like that on our wedding night?'

He rolled his eyes. 'First off, I wouldn't behave like that to begin with, and secondly, I wanted a night of romance for us, not just me alone.'

'That's it!' exclaimed Angela exasperatedly. 'Cory might be sweet and what not but he doesn't have a romantic bone in his body – his brand of romance is unique alright but isn't it about time that he stops goofing off over everything?'

She stopped again to take another breath and then slowly leaned over Shawn, pushing her husband back into the cushions. 'And for the record' she breathed 'I quite enjoyed our wedding night…you were absolutely incredible and I loved what you did to our little home.'

Shawn's eyes glinted as he fervently kissed his wife. Pulling back, he stroked her cheek softly, 'Given that our wedding night was at home itself, I wanted to make it as wonderful as possible; my intention was to give you the night of your dreams.'

'That you did baby, that you most certainly did.' Angela pressed her lips lovingly against the corner of his mouth and fingered his goatee gently. 'What you did to our room…I thought I'd stepped into another world that night.'

Shawn's eyes lowered in regret, 'I'm sorry that it was just a one bedroom apartment but it was all that I could offer you at the time and…'

'Hush' she remonstrated warmly. 'That may have been just a one bedroom apartment but it was the first place that we got together Shawn…it was our place. And spending our wedding night together in a such a place where you worked so hard to make it perfect for us meant more to me than any expensive or lavish honeymoon you could have taken me on.'

'I wanted to take you to someplace like Hawaii though…you know, some place that was like paradise' he replied quietly, clutching her fingers tightly and looking at her with heavy regret.

She put both her hands on the sides of his face and stroked his cheeks, 'You did take me to Barbados the next year for our first anniversary, remember? And have I told you how proud I was when you told my father that you wanted to make our wedding night and honeymoon special with your own efforts?'

Shawn blinked to clear the tears in his eyes and the lump in his throat. 'It just didn't feel right, Angela. I know that he and Jack pooled in and wanted to give us a week in Vermont as a wedding gift but I wanted to be the one to make our first time special. And since I didn't have the means to take my wife anywhere at the time, I was hoping that you wouldn't be too mad at me.'

She smiled sweetly. 'On the contrary, honey, I respected you all the more. I loved you for all the effort you put in and we did go to Vermont the next day, so we were able to accept their present as well.'

'I love you' he whispered and placing a hand on his wife's neck brought her face to his. So engrossed were they in themselves that Angela's cell lying on the coffee table went unheeded for a long while until she caught the backlight flashing out of the corner of her eye. Reaching over and inspecting it, she turned to Shawn. 'Its from Topanga; she says that she's going to talk to Cory tonight and she'll let me know tomorrow.'

'Mmmhmm' answered Shawn, again resting his head comfortably on the cushions. 'Something smells good by the way.'

'Don't get your hopes up – I ordered Chinese because I was just too pooped to really try and make anything.'

'Suits me fine' he answered and laughing, got up yanking Angela along with him.