The Real Deal (15)

Author's Note: This is long overdue, hope those of you still around enjoy it! :)


"I got a letter from Harley," Mark said waving the envelop in Laurel's face the second she opened the door.

"Yeah I got one too, post marked from Seattle," Laurel said as she stepped aside to let Mark inside.

"Doesn't sound you like buy it," Mark said following Laurel into the den where she showed Mark her letter.

"I'm not, I know Harley, she would never settle down in Seattle, not even for a little while.

"How can you be so sure?" Mark asked quizzically.

"Harley hates the rain she always said the only way she would spend any amount of time in Seattle is if she was buried there," Laurel said with a sad chuckle.

"So the letters are just another elaborate way to throw us off track even more," Mark said with a sigh.

"Looks like it," Laurel said with a shrug, "so what did your letter say?" Laurel asked curiously.

"Basically it said 'Thanks for being my pretend husband but I don't need you anymore so you can fuck off," Mark said handing Laurel is letter.

"Harley would never," Laurel started to say as she read the letter, "well damn that is kinda what this say's isn't it?" Laurel said looking over the letter again.

"I'm going to do what she asked me to do," Mark said.

"And that would be what exactly?" Laurel asked already knowing the answer.

"I'm calling off the PI, hell if Harley doesn't want to be found then let her stay lost. I won't try to find her anymore. I'm done!" Mark boomed as he balled up the letter that Laurel had just handed back to him.

"Mark, you don't mean that! You love Harley, you can't just look the other way while she continues to run," Laurel screeched.

"Watch me!" Mark said as he turned and headed for the door.

"Mark wait, don't be like this, Harley loves you, you know she does," Laurel said following Mark.

"If she ever calls again don't bother to tell me because I don't care," was Mark's reply before walking out the door.


Harley tossed and turned. She hadn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks and tonight was no different. She finally gave up trying at around three a.m. sitting up in bed she placed her hands on her swollen belly and sighed. She was miserable, but it had nothing to do with her pregnancy. She missed Laurel, she missed Shawn and more than anything she missed Mark. She pulled her cell out of her purse and looked through all the pictures she had of him there and the tears came easily. Not being able to stand not hearing his voice any longer Harley grabbed her burner phone off of the night stand and dialed Mark's number. It was late so Harley expected to get the voicemail, but on the third ring Mark answered and Harley's heart stopped.

"Hello? Hello? Harley is that you? Talk to me sweetheart, please," Mark pleaded causing Harley's heart to break.

"I'm sorry for calling so late, I wasn't expecting you to answer," Harley said so softly Mark almost couldn't hear her.

"It's ok darlin' I'm glad you called it's so good to hear your voice," Mark said sincerely.

"What are you doing awake so late?"

"Haven't been sleeping too much the last few months," Mark said.

"Yeah me neither," Harley answered.

"Look, Harley, we should talk about why you left," Mark started but Harley cut him off.

"What do you mean?" Harley said playing dumb. She knew Laurel must have told Mark what Harley saw at his shop with the "blonde bombshell".

"Harley it was all a mistake," Mark said and again Harley cut him off.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I should have never asked you to pretend to be with me it was wrong of me, and I know I shouldn't have called you tonight, I just…I don't know. I'll let you go and I won't call again," Harley said in a rush of words.

"Darlin', that's not what I meant. Look, tell me where you are and I can come to you so we can talk about this face to face," Mark said hopefully.

"There's no need for that. I'm sure you got my letter and I said all I had to say with that," Harley said.

"Yeah, Laurel and I got the letters. How is Seattle anyway," Mark asked.

"Umm…Seattle is fine," Harley said uneasily.

"Stop lying to me Harley, Laurel told me how much you dislike Seattle, so tell me how did you get those letters post marked from there?"

"That doesn't matter, look I have to go, I'm sorry, Mark," Harley said.

"No, Harley don't…" Mark started to say before he heard Harley disconnect the call.

"Damn it!" Mark cursed. He wanted to turn off his emotions and act like he didn't care, god knows he had been trying to since he declared he was over her a few days ago to Laurel, but that phone call shot down any hopes of Mark forgetting about Harley. He was now more determined than ever to find her and the only thing that would stop him from doing so would be death.

Harley cried until there were no tears left in her, "why did he have to answer?" Harley sniffled as she rubbed her belly. "I just needed to hear his voice, but not like that, not with him telling me that it was all a mistake," Harley said as a fresh set of tears emerged.


Laurel sat at her desk and attempted to look over the stack of new profiles that stared up at her, but her mind was on her best friend. This was the longest in twenty years of friendship that she had gone without talking to Harley and she couldn't help but be extremely worried about her.

Laurel looked up at the sound of the bells chiming above the door and was surprised when she saw Mark standing there. She hadn't seen him since the day he swore he was done looking for Harley. At first she thought that he was bluffing but it had been two weeks and this was the first time she had seen or heard from him.

"Can I help you?" Laurel asked scowling at Mark.

"We need to talk about Harley," Mark said ignoring the scowl and taking a seat.

"Oh, you mean the woman that you claimed to be done with? What could you possibly have to say about Harley that you didn't say two weeks ago?"

"Ethan is back on the case," Mark said.

"What changed your mind?" Laurel asked intrigued.

"Harley called me last night," Mark started.

"Really?! That's so great! What did she say? When is she coming home?" Laurel questioned Mark excitedly.

"Calm down, Laurel, she's not coming home," Mark admitted.

"What? Why? I don't understand, why did she call you if's she's not coming back?"

"I don't know. It was three in the morning and she sounded tired. She said that she wasn't even sure why she called and before I could explain anything to her or get her location from her she hung up on me," Mark said with a sigh.

"That doesn't make any sense! What the hell is wrong with her?" Laurel said picking up her phone and calling Harley's cell. "Straight to voicemail just like always," Laurel said as she waited for the beep. "Harley Davidson Cooper you are really starting to piss me off! How dare you call Mark and not me? I don't care what your letter said about not looking for you anymore, Mark and I are not giving up! Do you hear me? You better call me and soon or I will have the entire National Guard, FBI, and State Police looking for your ass! I love you, dearly! Call me," Laurel said before sitting the phone back on the base.

"Think she'll call?" Mark asked with a smirk. He knew that Laurel loved Harley but hearing her leave that message only proved how much.

"She better!" Laurel said sitting back down at her desk.

"Care if I hang around to see if she does?" Mark asked.

"Not at all, but this time if she does call don't be a grumpy cat and snatch the phone away, you'll only scare her off again," Laurel said looking up at Mark.

"Promise," Mark said as he drew a cross over his leather clad heart.

"Then take a seat, I can put you to work to help with organizing these papers," Laurel said handing Mark a huge stack, "I'll even make it simple for you, sort them based on "smoker" and "non-smoker".

"I can do that," Mark said taking the papers and getting to work.


Harley slept most of the day away, waking at around five p.m. to a grumbling tummy, "I'm sorry baby, mommy is gonna feed you right now…right after I pee!" Harley said practically running to the restroom.

Harley called and ordered herself an extra-large Hawaiian pizza with a side order of onion rings. "One of the best parts of being pregnant is not feeling guilty about eating fatty foods," Harley said with a laugh as she rubbed her belly.

After ordering her pizza Harley dialed her own number to check her messages. She had a feeling that Mark had told Laurel about her phone call by now and was fairly certain her bestie was not going to be happy about it and of course she was right.

Harley cringed as she listened to the message. She could hear anger, fear and worry all rolled into one and she felt terrible for making her friend so scared for her. Picking up the burner phone Harley called Laurel's phone.

"Harley! Oh god I've been so worried about you!" Laurel said and Harley could tell that she was already crying.

"How'd you know it was me?" Harley asked as she shed tears of her own.

"No one else would call me from a blocked number," Laurel sniffled.

"I'm sorry, I just still can't have you knowing where to find me," Harley said sadly.

"I don't understand why, It's been months Harley, do you not care about that? Do you not care that your best friend has been going out of her mind with worry? And don't you dare tell me not to worry because you know that I always will when it comes to you," Laurel told her friend.

"I do care Laurel! You know that I do, but things are so messed up there," Harley said quietly.

"You mean between you and Mark?" Laurel asked.

"Yeah, I'm guessing he told you about me calling him last night."

"He did, he said that you didn't know why you did that, but I don't believe that," Laurel said looking over at Mark, who was now standing beside her.

"I missed hearing his voice, I just wanted to hear it on his voicemail, but then he answered and I don't know, I didn't have the heart to hang up on him," Harley admitted.

"The man is going crazy without you, Harley; you at least owe him a real conversation," Laurel told Harley.

"No need, he made it clear last night that things were a mistake."

"What was a mistake sweetie?" Laurel asked as she eyeballed Mark.

Mark grabbed a piece of paper and wrote furiously. He didn't want Harley to hear his voice and freak.

"I meant what she saw was a mistake not US!" Mark wrote and held it up for Laurel to read. "She misunderstood!" He wrote and held the paper up again.

"Us of course! What else could he have meant?"

"Maybe he meant that what you in the shop that day was the mistake, he told me that the woman was no one, that he sent her away and told her that he was happily married, don't you see? The man loves you! So stop being so damn stubborn and come home," Laurel said.

"Good try Laurel, I know what I saw that day and I know what I heard last night. Mark and I are over and I'm sure one day I'll get past the hurt and I'll show up at your door step and hopefully you'll forgive me, but for now I can't come back, everything would get too complicated, Harley thought about how Mark would react to finding out she was carrying his child and was almost in tears again. Harley was about to say more but then there was a knock at the door, "Hungry Howie's" the delivery guy shouted through the door. "Sounds like my dinner is here, but I promise to call in a day or two. I won't make you worry so much anymore, I love you Laurel," Harley said before disconnecting the call.

"Sounds like you had about as much luck as I did in convincing her to come back," Mark said once Laurel sat her phone down.

"I think I may have a way of finding her!" Laurel said enthusiastically.

"Really? How is that?" Mark asked cautiously.

"While we were talking someone knocked on the door. Hungry Howie's that's what he said," Laurel said as if Mark should have understood where she was going with that revelation.

"And…"

"Hungry Howie's is a small chain Mark only a few places here in Texas have one! She's still in Texas!" Laurel practically shrieked.

"How can you be sure?" Mark asked sounding more than skeptical.

"It makes sense, I mean she knows the PI already searched the area for her so what better thing to do now than hide in plain sight? I got to give it to her it was a brilliant idea, but I would bet my entire life savings that she is here in this state, now all we have to do is find out where," Laurel said.

"I'll call Ethan right now and have him locate all of the Hungry Howie's here and take it from there; I just hope you're right about this. I would hate for both of us to get our hopes up again over another dead end," Mark said as he pulled out his cell to call Ethan.

"It's not a dead end this time Mark, I feel it in my bones, Harley is closer than we think," Laurel said with confidence.