A/N - Quick point of clarification - Meg is a paid EMT in a department that is not near her home town. We find out in this chapter that Dean works in construction. Both of them volunteer (or are members of) the local fire department in their town. This isn't meant to be confusing for the reader, it is how life is for many people who live the life.


It was afternoon before Meg rolled over, stretching and wiping the crust from her eyes. "How did I get up here?" Sitting up and looking around the room, she knew she hadn't fallen asleep in bed. She'd wanted to avoid the room because she and Dean had such glorious memories here, she didn't want to spend the night alone with things so unsettled between them. Something tickled at the edge of her mind, not quite coming back to her yet. She pulled her knees to her chest for a moment. "It will all work out. It has to." she sighed. Pulling herself out of bed, she wandered downstairs. The first thing she noticed was the chair pulled away from the dining room table. The next thing she noticed was the nearly empty notebook. Where she had filled pages with a letter to Dean, now there were only two lines.

We are on the right track. Talk tonight. Miss you.
Dean

"He was here. He carried me to bed and told me that we were fine. He promised that…" She choked herself up as she remembered. "I can't believe that he is almost a decade younger than I am. Not that it makes a difference because he is so with it." She sat at the table and held his brief note. "Short and to the point. I like it." Her fingers ran over the paper as she smiled. "You realize you're talking to yourself, right? Eh, who cares. Alrighty then… You need to get ready. Shower and get dressed so you can take your man out to dinner. You promised him that you'd be seen in public together. There's no time like the present." While she was talking to herself, her phone rang. "No. No, I can't. Are you serious? Argh! Yeah, I know. It's like the worst timing. Yeah, yeah. I'll be there. Okay." Meg smacked her head with her palm and dialed Dean's number. "Hi. Look, I know you aren't going to believe this and I am so sorry, but I just got called in to work early. I didn't want to leave you a voice-mail but it is what it is. I swear I tried to get out of it, but I won't be home for at least 36 hours. Really, I am so sorry. I swear I am not running." She hung up and headed for the shower.

It didn't take Meg long to get ready and check the house before she was ready to go. Her gear bag was secured. Her extra BDU's were stowed in the truck. The house was locked. She left Dean another message apologizing for not being home and then she backed out of the garage.

Arriving at the station 45 minutes later, Meg's unhappiness was apparent. "Aw, what's wrong with Meggie-poo? Man troubles?"

She slung her bag towards her locker. "I'm here instead of with my man. What do you think?" she grumbled. "He's certainly not happy. That makes me not happy."

"Poor…"

"There are times when smart people back off." Meg snarled. The room got quiet and everyone left her alone. Meg tried calling Dean again. Still no answer. I thought he wasn't retaliating? Tones dropped. "MVC with entrapment…" Meg took off for the ambulance. It was the first call of multiple that kept her running for the next ten and a half hours. When she finally crawled into her cot at quarter after three in the morning, she didn't think to check her messages.


Dean reread Meg's note throughout the day. He kept getting stuck on certain parts, doodling them on an order form that he had in his truck. 'Water gives me peace.' 'Doesn't have a spot at home…yet.' 'Meg needs a spot.' 'Our spot.' His doodles transformed from words to art. If Meg loved water and found water peaceful, she wouldn't have to go to the waterfront to find peace. He would create their spot at the house with water and flowers and a bench in the most serene way possible. It would be theirs. He started drawing on the order form, so focused he lost track of time.

Pulling his truck away from the construction site and heading back to the lot, his phone rang with missed messages. Listening to them, Dean cursed. Using his Bluetooth, he called Meg only to get her voicemail. "No harm, hon. This happens with your line of work. We are good. No worries. We have a date when you get home. Promise." When he disconnected, he called his friends. "Guys, I need your help. Meet me at Meg's. All's good. I'll explain when we are there."

Forty-five minutes later, Dean drove into Meg's backyard with his construction equipment. His surprised friends looked at him with wide eyes. "Care to explain?"

"Short version. You guys left. Meg finally came home. We didn't exactly talk things out."

"Where was she?"

"The waterfront. She said she finds the water peaceful. That's her 'spot'." Dean shared.

"Not the safest place for a woman to sit by herself."

"Agreed."

"Can I finish? Anyway, I told her we both needed some space and left." All of the other guys made sounds of dislike. "Not your call. At any rate, I came to check on her before I went to work this morning and she'd written me this long, long letter. No, you can't read it. All you need to know is she and I are good – golden in fact. We are so good that we need a 'spot'. Well, we need one and she needs one. A place where she can go when she needs to find that peace she was looking for last night. I'm thinking" he pulled out the sketch he'd made on the order form "if we do something like this here then she's got a place to sit and there's water, plants, animals, and all that peaceful crap."

"Peaceful crap. Love it!" Jay laughed.

"Is this a fish pond?"

"Are you thinking natural plant life?"

"You want to build a gazebo?"

"How fast is this happening?"

"She got called in to work tonight and tomorrow. I'd like it done before she gets home Friday morning." Dean said. "I want to surprise her."

"You are going to surprise her by tearing apart her yard? Not wise, man."

"Well, that's one way to look at it." he admitted.

Seth said sagely, "As the guy in this group with a woman, I'd suggest floating the idea past her first. See what she thinks about it, even though you've ripped up the yard with your equipment."

"I'll be here tomorrow."

"So will I."

"Count me in. I was off anyway." Seth said. "And I think Renee will come, too."

Dean rubbed his hands together. "Great. Great. I'll call her now. Then I'm going to get started."

"Has he ever built a fish pond before?" Jay asked.

"Are you going to be the one to stop him? He's going at this full-boar." Roman replied with a head shake. "He thinks this will make Meg happy. Nothing is going to stop him."

"Isn't young love so grand?" Jay laughed.

"It'll bite you in the ass when you least expect it." Seth muttered. "And then Dean and I will be the ones sitting back and laughing. Just you wait. Just you wait." Roman made a zipped-lips motion. "Smart man. It'll get you, too. You just never know when."

Dean came back to his friends. "She must be really busy. I got her voice-mail again." He glared at his phone before shoving it into his pocket. "There'll be shifts like this. At any rate, she left me messages, I left her messages, we both tried. That's what's important." With a nod of his head, he went to move the front-end loader.

"Are you sure you know where you want to dig?!" One of the guys yelled after him.


Meg knew that Thursday night was meeting night at the fire house. She was finally back at the station after another call, so she sent Dean a message.

'Missed talking w/U. Looking 4ward 2 Cing U 2morrow. Hope the meeting is uneventful.'

It wasn't long before she got an unexpected reply.

'The guys R helping me w/a project. Missing meeting. Will C U in the morning. Really hoping U like it.'

Meg read the message. Dean, Jay, Seth, and Roman are all missing a meeting to work on a project? It must be important. Dean's got something big up his sleeve to get them to help and miss a meeting. And it sound like he's nervous… She replied:

'I know it must be special and will be amazing. I am looking forward to it.' 'Looking 4ward to Cing U.'

His reply came back fast. So did the next call, a heart attack in a restaurant. Meg was on the road again.