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Mark woke and looked at the red light of his digital clock, four in the morning, he frowned, what the fuck, he sat up and sniffed, there was a burning smell.

He jumped up and turned on the light and went down the hall and headed to the kitchen, he switched on the light and looked around, he hadn't left anything on.

Mark walked out of the kitchen and then rolled his eyes, maybe the dingbat was burning something up again.

He knew there was a connecting door between their apartments, Kevin said he left it in for fire safety reasons.

He turned and went down to the front foyer and tried the door, it could be locked on either side and he wasn't surprised to find it open, he walked in and the burning smell was awful, the door opened into the hallway leading to her kitchen. Mark was getting madder and madder. He walked in the kitchen to see her coffee pot smoking, the pot long since empty but left on, he turned off the coffee pot and took the smoking glass carafe and put it in the sink.

Mark stalked back down the hall and into the living room to find her once again engrossed in her computer, Mark was pissed. "Are you nuts?" He said very loudly.

Sammy blinked as the loud booming voice pulled her away from her world of numbers, she blinked and then turned to see a very angry Mark towering over her. "You are going to burn this place down, you left a coffee pot on, it smoked up the whole place, the smell woke me up, are you telling me you didn't smell that?" He boomed at her loudly.
Sammy sniffed the air and closed her eyes, she had forgot to turn the pot off. "I...I..." She trailed off not knowing what to say.

Mark crossed his big arms. "I'm putting fire detectors in tomorrow, before you kill both of us."

Sammy tried to think of something to say, but she was at a loss, what was she supposed to say? "Sorry I'm so stupid."

Mark looked her over and realized she didn't even dry off last night, she would probably be sick as a dog.

Mark grabbed her arm, it wasn't hard, but firmly and pulled her up, he noticed she shrank back like she was scared of him. "Get up take a hot shower and get your ass to bed, you have black circles under your eyes. How long has been since you slept?"

Sammy looked down. "A couple of days."

"Move." he boomed. "At least if you're asleep, I can go home and sleep without worrying about you burning me up."

Sammy felt tears sting her eyes, she was a screw up she knew that, thats why Kent had took the money over her, and then he had come back to try to get her to sleep with him, cause he thought that was all she was good for, what she hadn't been willing to give he had taken. "Sammy!"

Mark's booming her name out caused her to snap out of it and she looked up at the big man.

Mark groaned dammit tears, just what he didn't want to deal with, she looked do damn sad standing there with tears in those big blue eyes, her hair still in tight curls from the water yesterday.

"Stop crying , I ain't gonna hurt ya." He snapped.

Sammy tried to but his tone wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Mark sighed. "Look, I mean it, stop crying." He said in a quieter voice.

Sammy rubbed at her eyes and Mark shook his head. "Stop, you'll just make them burn worse. He took her hands and held them in in big hands.

Sammy was startled by the feel of his big warm hands, she jumped startled, she never let men touch her.

Mark thought she looked like a startled doe, with those big eyes, ready to run at any moment, and then a odd thing happened to him, standing there looking at her, how sweet she looked, every bit of his anger drained, it was just gone. "Sammy go on, its okay, I'll fix you a cup of tea, go shower and then off to bed, you're tired."

Sammy just stared at the big man for a moment, she was thinking about the fact, she had to get undressed with a man in her house and it scared her, Mark saw the fear and for some reason the last thing he wanted was her to fear him. "I'm not gonna hurt you, go on." His voice now a quite rumble.

Sammy believed him for some odd reason, seemingly mesmerized by his green eyes. Mark let go of her hands and she turned away breaking the eye contact and heading down the hall.

Mark walked down to the kitchen and microwaved a cup of water and opened the cabinets looking for a tea bag, he frowned at the food in the cabinets, peanut butter, crackers and bread, he shook his head as he pulled a tea bag out of the box, no wonder she was so damn skinny he thought.

Mark made the tea and put honey in it instead of sugar, she sure didn't need any sugar in her system, she needed to sleep.

He carried the tea into the living room and sat it down on the table, he should really leave, but he ignored that voice and sat down on the sofa to wait.

Mark looked up when she came in, her hair was wet and she had on a big t-shirt and shorts, she hesitated, but Mark waved her over. "Sit down here." He indicated the place on the couch beside him, and watched as she skirted around him and sank on the sofa.

Mark took the towel from around her shoulders. "C'mere."

She scooted closer and Mark used the towel to dry her dripping hair. "Wonder you don't have pneumonia, you need a keeper." he growled.

Sammy sensed the words weren't angry, that he was just growling and she sat still while he dried her short hair, when he seemed satisfied he laid the towel over the back of the couch and handed her the cup of tea. "Thank you."

Mark nodded and sat there while she drank it down. "Okay get on to bed, no sleep in two days, I never heard of such nonsense." He grumbled.

Sammy got up and looked at him. "Sorry I was such a bother." She said softly.

Mark stood and took the empty cup. "It wasn't a bother, not yet anyway, the faster you get to bed the sooner I can get back to sleep."

Sammy nodded and murmured a hurried goodnight and slipped past him and down the hall. Mark went and set the cup in the sink and went back down the hall to the connecting door, he went through it, but left it unlocked , he figured it would better to leave it open, with her for a neighbor, he knew he would have to use the door again.

He suspected Kevin had tricked him into moving in here to baby sit his spacey sister in law, he knew that Kevin was fond of her, he could see he worried about her, as did Mia. He sighed wondering how he had slipped into the role of baby sitter so easily.

Mark stepped out on the deck at eight in the morning, Mia was pounding on Sammy's door. "Let her sleep, she was up working till after four."

Mia looked at Mark wanting to know how he knew how late she stayed up, but she didn't ask. "Is she okay?"

Mark nodded. "Just tired, I'll tell her you came by."

Mia suppressed a grin, he was circling like a guard dog, maybe Kevin was right. "Okay, thanks, I'll call later."

Mark nodded and sat on the deck watching the waves roll in on the shore, he pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the deck and walked out to go for a swim. He got in the water and started swimming out. Mark cleared his mind as his powerful arms stroked evenly.

Mark couldn't keep Sammy off his mind, he had enough sense to know that there was something damaged in her, he could see it in her fear, and the way she shrank back away from him, she was scared of his anger, he would have to tone down his sometimes hot temperament around her, why he gave a damn ,he didn't know, but he did.

Mark looked at the time, he was heading over to Kevin's in a while to play cards. He walked out on his deck, he could have just used the connecting door, but this wasn't a emergency and he didn't want to just be walking in her house whenever he felt like it.

Mark knocked on the door and Sammy came to the door a minute later. "How did ya sleep?"

"Good." She said.

Mark held up the fire detectors. "I'm going to install these, I'll be at Kevin's playing cards this evening. if you need anything."

Sammy nodded but couldn't help but wonder why he was trying to help her, but then he was Kevin's friend, he was just being nice. She shut the door behind him and watched as he put one of the detectors in the kitchen.

Sammy hadn't been up long, she opened the cabinet and pulled out her peanut butter and a handful of crackers.

Mark was done with the one detector and stomped over. "Is that all you eating?"

"Umm yeah." She said looking at him, he was very handsome, even if he did frown a lot.

Mark opened her refrigerator and her cabinets, his frown becoming worse. "Your eating habits are terrible."

Sammy shrugged. "Well I try not to cook, I usually just end up burning it or starting a fire."

Mark turned to look at her. "You're too skinny, you need to eat right." He said and shut the cabinet back.

Mark went to put the other detector in the living room. Sammy definitely needed a keeper, he wondered how she had took care of herself all these years.

Mark finished up and came back to the kitchen. "C'mon, I'm going to fix you dinner."

Sammy just stared at him. "Well let's go."

Sammy was mighty confused by Mark, she still wasn't even sure he liked her. Sammy got up and followed him to his side of the house. She looked around and was surprised to see, it was neat and clean, she followed him down to the kitchen and sat down at one of the barstools, watching him pull steaks out of the fridge. "Can I help?"

Mark pulled out the stuff for a salad and handed her a knife. "Make a salad, while I throw steaks on the grill."

She pulled the bowl closer to her and watched as Mark took steaks outside. Sammy busied herself chopping the vegetables for a salad, Mark came in and threw a couple of baked potatoes in the oven.

"Ouch." Mark turned around and seen Sammy was bleeding, he grabbed her hand and a handful of paper towels pressing them to the cut to stop the bleeding.

Sammy felt like a idiot, she couldn't even do something simple. Mark took off the towel and looked at her finger. "Its not to bad." He led her to the sink and washed the cut and then grabbed a band aid and wrapped it around the finger. "Okay." Mark said and let her go.

Sammy sighed. " I'm sorry I screw up everything."

Mark lifted her chin with one big hand. "Sammy its just a salad, not the end of the world."

Mark seen tears shining in her eyes, she took things way to serious."Why don't you finish up, okay?"

Sammy suddenly smiled, she was surprised he would let her near a knife again. "Okay."

Mark just shook his head and went outside to check on the steaks. Sammy finished the salad and set it on the table, then she got up and found the dishes and set the table.

Mark came in to check the potatoes. "You can pour us some iced tea."

Sammy found the glasses and poured two tall glasses, the smell of the steaks cooking were actually making her hungry.

Ten minutes later they were seated at the table eating and Mark was happy to see she was actually eating and not playing with it."So Mia said you write software?"

Sammy nodded. "yeah I work for a company, I do some of their stuff and write my own software too, but I have a contract with them, I only sell my stuff to them."

"Well you seem to have plenty of work, thats all you seem to do." Mark commented.

"I stay busy." She agreed, but she liked busy, it left little time to think.

"Too busy, you have take time to eat and sleep." He scolded.

Sammy didn't comment, she often went days without eating or sleeping .

Mark watched her, she really was pretty, she needed to gain a little weight, she was a small little thing, he knew her and Mia were twins, they had similar coloring, but Sammy was shorter than Mia.

They finished dinner and Sammy helped him wash up the dishes and put them away. "Thank you for dinner, but I should get back to work."

Mark leaned on the counter and nodded. "No problem, see you later."

Sammy left and Mark grabbed his keys, it was time to get to Kevin's, he had a night of card playing and beer drinking to look forward too.

Mark sipped his beer and looked at Kevin. "Lay the cards down , let me see what ya got."

Kevin grinned and laid the cards down. "Full house."

Scott threw his cards down in disgust. "You're killing me bro."

Kevin just grinned and Mark grabbed the cards and started shuffling. "Hey Papa, you keep winning, will I ever win? The boy said handing his cards to Mark.

Mark smiled as the boy sipped his root beer. "Don't worry kid, You'll be a card shark before you know it."

Seth grinned and looked at Kevin. "Hear that Papa, I'll be as good as you."

Scott and Kevin smiled at his enthusiasm.

By ten that night Seth was asleep in his chair, and Kevin got up and put him to bed.

Kevin came back and had more beer. "So Mark, do you like the house?"

Mark leveled his friend with a look. "Don't think I haven't figured out what you're up to."

Scott smirked, he didn't think Mark would catch on that fast.

"What?" Kevin asked.

Mark opened his beer and took a drink. "You needed a keeper for Sammy, thats why you moved me in there, The little girl don't eat, don't sleep and works all the time."

Scott and Kevin just looked at each other. "Yeah well, I know she works a lot, she come up to play with the kids some, but other than that unless Mia drags her out, she stays right there and works."

Mark frowned. "Yeah, all she has in her house , is bread, crackers and peanut butter, a few vegetables, I made her eat dinner tonight, she's way to skinny."

Kevin smiled, this was going better than he planned. "Mark if its to much, I can move her in with us, I mean that was my intention, but she wouldn't hear it, she wanted her own place, but I'm sure Mia could talk her into moving in here."

Mark shook his head. "Naw, she's not that much trouble, at least she's quite and I don't have to worry about wild parties."

Scott spoke up. "She needs to start eating right and get out some, she stays holed up in that house all the time staring at a computer screen, that cant be good for her."

Kevin nodded in agreement. "She only gets out to play with the kids some, she hardly goes anywhere."

Mark looked down at his cards, Sammy seriously needed to get a life besides her work, maybe he could get her out of the house some, its not like he had any thing else to do since he was retired.