Daughter didn't seem to notice anything awry when she got home and I tried to go on about my business without stressing over what had gone on too much. I didn't call him, and he didn't call me. I figured he had made his escape after we had both gotten a little crazy and he was probably just as freaked out about as I was, so I wasn't going to fuel any fires for anything until I knew one way or another. The Captain was the only person who seemed to realize that something was up with me. I caught him staring at me in a meeting Monday afternoon and I gave him my "WTF?" sneer and flipped him off, and he very casually reached up and scratched his neck in the exact location where I had the hickey on my neck! Fuck! the concealer had worn off and he could see the faint shadow of the hickey on my damn neck and I knew I was in for it the minute the meeting broke. I tried to bail as soon as the meeting was over, but curse his damn long legs! He was right next to me before I could make it to the safety of my office and he had a "I just fucked the neighbors cat" look that said he was dying to let the teasing begin. ' Just get it over with, you know you want to !" He grinned like his face was going to split, and he said, " Why Swan, you would think that someone bearing evidence of finally luring some poor soul back to their lair, would be a little more jovial about it, so do tell? Is the poor soul still alive?" I sighed and just looked at him, it really was a shame he was probably gay, he was so damn handsome and had a wicked sense of humor, " You know, a lady doesn't kiss and tell." he laughed at me and said, " But Swan, we are talking about YOU!, so who was it ? Somebody we know?" I thought about it and figured what the hell, if I tell him the truth he is NEVER going to believe it, to I went with it. " Actually, it was the 25 year old lead singer of the band we went to see, I assaulted him in the parking lot and he followed me home after getting my info off my ID when my daughter bought a t-shirt for me. I heard him on my front porch around 2 am so I jerked the door open naked, whacked him with my pr24 and then drug him in to my apartment. He was exhausted and a little stunned, so I tucked him into my bed until the next day when he awoke and we went at each other like a pair of wild monkeys. I woke up Sunday afternoon to find him gone and the only remaining proof I have of him was this mark on my neck which leads me to believe he may be a vampire." The Captain looked down at me with his mouth hanging open and then he just snorted and said, "Damn Swan, if you really didn't want to tell me, you could have just said fuck off." I said to him, 'With all due respect Cowboy, fuck off" and with that I went into my office and shut the door.

The week seemed to drag, and I resisted the urge to call or text him several times, and I wondered if he was dealing with the same thoughts, but then I realized, what the fuck was I thinking, he was a guy and was probably already onto the next piece of ass. Daughter had mentioned that his band was going to be playing two nights a week at a local bar and she asked if she could attend one of the shows, but I used the, "Its finals time and you need to be studying." line to get her to drop it. She wasn't happy with me, but she knew I was right. I had followed his activities on the web as best I could, and saw he was in Portland still though I imagined he was not anywhere that was readily accessible to random people. I made an very dreaded appointment with my doctor and went in and had a very frank talk with her about what had gone down and how many times. She initially gave me a fist bump,(she's my age and single as well), but when I told her about the following days activities, she smacked me in the back of the head and gave me a "What the fuck were you thinking?" along with an exam so thorough she now knows me better than God, and orders for every test for STD's known to man as well as a blood pregnancy test. "What are you going to do if you are pregnant, you do know all the risks involved with that at your age don't you?" Oh yeah, as if I didn't have enough stress to keep me up at nights, I knew exactly the risks to not only myself, but to any fetus. I left the office lighter a whole lot of blood and my co-pay, went to go home and worry until I got the call about the lab results sometime in the next week.

I got called out over the weekend on a SWAT standby and there is nothing like laying for 6 hours in the rain trying to keep the sights on your rifle unfogged while you wait for a clear shot and the order to shoot or stand down on some guy who has decided that he was going to ruin every ones weekend. After it was over, we all went out for choir practice at Kells, but due to my undetermined status, I didn't drink anything but soda and this did not go unnoticed by my ever observant Captain. I saw him eyeing me from across the booth as his friend and I chatted about Texas and places we had in common,(oh my God his friend was too cute!) but I just gave him the sneer again and asked him what his problem was? " You always have a whiskey after a no shoot, how come you are breaking with tradition tonight Swan?" I tried to think fast and luckily the Captains young and cute friend came to my rescue, " Well isn't the gal allowed to turn over a new leaf? maybe she's trying to cut back a little on the boozing, that wouldn't hurt any of us to try." I about kissed him in gratitude, but instead I said, " Yeah, my kid has been on my case about my drinking so I have been cutting back." He looked a bit skeptical, but then he got distracted when his friend put his hands under the table and I decided that I had the perfect escape time, so I excused myself and headed out to my car and home.

Daughter was over at her friends hour again for the weekend so I planned to spend the evening cleaning and drying out my soaked gear that was currently fermenting in the back of my car. I was dragging tactical gear bag out and my rifle when I noticed the strange, fugly little car sitting across the parking lot. I just figured that young, gay neighbor finally had met someone and I headed on into my apartment. My gear was soaked, as were my BDU's so I was stripping by the front door with the intention of throwing as much as possible in the washer and my cold butt in a hot shower. I tossed my boots over towards the drying rack and headed down the hall to grab some towels so I could lay my rifle out to dry. It couldn't be allowed to sit in the case with any water on it, so I was planning on field stripping it and laying it out while I went and showered. I was in my underwear and a wife beater with my rifle in my hands when I heard a knock on the door. I wasn't expecting any company, its 1100 at night and Im in my unders so they were getting the me with the rifle treatment.

I jerked the door open and low and behold there stood my little rock star looking like he didn't know whether to run or put up his hands. "What are you doing here?" His eyes got really big as he looked at the rifle and then at me in my underwear, and he said, "Please don't shoot me, I came to ask why you aren't returning my calls?" I looked at him standing on my porch looking like he was about to piddle himself and I was a bit confused, " You haven't called me at all. I figured you had just moved on to greener pastures and were done." "That's not true, I called you that night, and at least once a day since then, I have left you message after message and after I saw you on the news over the standoff, I figured I was going to come and find out just what the hell was going on, Look!" He pulled out his cell phone and started pulling up his sent texts and he showed me text after text asking me to call him, all send to a phone number that had the last two digits of mine transposed. "Are you dyslexic?" He looked at me stunned, "I was sending them to the wrong number?" "Ya think there , Sparky?" His face fell and he looked like he was pretty bummed. 'Jeeze, come on in, I don't assaulting my neighbors with my girly bits more than once a year, otherwise they might get upset and move, and I kinda like them.

He came in and I told him to have a seat while I took care of my rifle and gear real quick, so I went ahead and field stripped the rifle and got it wiped down and airing out, and the rest of my gear laid out in the mud room to dry while he watched like he had never seen anything like that before. I made small talk with him while I debated bringing up my worries, but considering I wouldn't know anything until at least the next week, I decided on just keeping it to myself until I knew there was something to worry about. It wasn't as if he was going to be making any big difference in my situation one way or the other, he was a rock star and an actor so essentially just an overgrown kid himself. I had already raised one child on my own and I didn't need a man around for anything, and I didn't need his money because truthfully, I didn't think he had that much. He was a bit player, his band was fairly small and unknown though they had a loyal and rabid following of devoted fans. He was obviously allowed to wander about without a security detail, and he always looked a bit grungy, so I figured he was doing okay for a young, single, guy, but probably not as good as I was, so either way I didn't need him, though I kinda enjoyed his company, if he freaked the hell out about things, I wouldn't force him.

He was sitting on the floor near me, watching me work on my gear, being pretty quiet when all of the sudden he asked, "So why didn't you call me?" to which I replied, "You are a Texan aren't you?" he nodded, " Were you taught that it was proper for a woman to go chasing after a man?" he shook his head. I told him that I had been on my own for so damn long that I was used to being alone and that it really didn't surprise me to find him gone and when I hadn't heard back from him after a few days I had just chalked it up to a good time was had by all but that all good things must end and that being he was a pretty wild and free young man, he had probably moved on to the next notch on his guitar, it wasn't a big deal, it was just the way things worked and I was okay with it. "If I hadn't been, I would have hunted you down and whooped up on you again, we both know I could have," I said with a laugh. He shook his head and said, " You have me all wrong, I don't just go around sleeping with everybody that wants me to , because if I did, I wouldn't ever get anything else done." I laughed at that comment, and said, "Yeah, I have read your fans comments and stuff, you would have no problem getting pretty much any woman, girl, man or whatever to put out for you I have a feeling, you got those eyes and dimples going on in all kinds of wrong ways." He shook his head, "But its like having lobster, the first few times its really freaking awesome and you want to have lobster just because you can, and then you have it just to show off, but after awhile, it gets really to be just like everything else and you miss the things that you used to have, home cooking and the normal things in life." I had to laugh at him just a little, leave it to a boy to come up with a food allegory for sex and I just had to tease him about it, "So its really kinda funny that you compare all the random sex you are able to have to a fishy tasting crustacean and what we did as home cooking and normal." I got done sorting out my gear and found myself just leaning back against the couch talking to him, I finally remembered my manners and went and got him a beer and myself a cup of chai claiming that I was still on call, and we talked though an entire 12 pack of beer and into the wee hours of the morning. He became increasingly funnier and more handsy as he downed more beer and before to long we were making out like a couple of teens on the floor of my living room.

Even drunk the boy was pretty damn good at what he did, and I was damn sure enjoying not being alone. He seemed to be trying to take his time and make it less of a mad rutting than the last time, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that, I really wasn't looking to get involved with anyone, especially some boy that was almost young enough to be my son, and who could possibly be on the rise in a career that would draw attention to me that I really didn't want or need. All I wanted was a fun time, and if there was a complication arising out of what we had done the other night, his signature on the paperwork signing away his rights, other than that, he was free to roam about the country and let me get on with my life without some man wanting to hang around and complicate things. I don't think I had even referred to him by his given name once, and that was just in an effort to keep my distance and keep it simple. Unnnngh, oh Goood lord the boy was soo talented with those hands! I could keep the hands. That part was wearing me down and could quite possibly be the nick in my armor. He was doing his level best to …and there we go, I'm totally undressed again and he's got his jeans down. How the hell does he do that? He moved so damn fast that I swear he had to be double jointed or something because that just wasn't normal. In for a penny in for a pound, we ended up spending most of the rest of the night contaminating the carpet in my living room and my couch and then migrating to my bedroom before the beer finally caught up with him and he fell asleep wrapped up around me like he wasn't ever going to let go.

He looked all sweet asleep like that, and I found my stone, cold heart melting just a little bit looking at him in the half-light of my room. He had wonderful cheekbones and eyelashes that women would commit homicide over. His hair was thick and soft with a nice curl to it that made it perfect to tangle your hands in for all kinds of perverse reasons, and he had the fullest and most kissable lips that I have ever found on a man. He actually would have made a really pretty girl and wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes in jail without being someone's girlfriend with his slender build. I don't know if I was having a hormonal moment or what the hell was going on with me, perhaps the infamous mid-life crisis that I have heard so much about, but I found myself cuddling him up and contentedly drifting off to sleep.

I heard voices. Not only did I hear voices, it was full on day light which tells me that I had slept waay past what I normally slept and my phone was not in the room with me so I didn't have my alarm clock. He was still out like a light and snoring softly in my ear. I laid still, listening to the voices trying to tell who the hell was in my house, and then I realized I recognized both the voices. My Captain was in my house! He had a key because he often took care of Jack when I went to trainings and I had a key to his place, but why in the hell would he be in my house this morning of all mornings? I was a little pissed off and a lot freaked out. I was busted with the evidence of my misdeeds wrapped around me like a drunken sloth. I worked to gently extricate myself from him without waking him up and then I started hunting up a pair of pants and a shirt. Getting dressed and running my fingers through my hair to tame the worst of the tangles, I covered his goods up and slipped from the room, hoping that he stayed asleep while I handled the intruders in my living room. I stalked down the hall like an angry lion and sure enough I found the Captain sitting in my recliner while his friend nudged the young rock stars cowboy boots with the toe of his boot, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but in my living room at that particular moment. "Just what the fuck do you think you are doing in my living room on my day off?" The Captain looked up and grinned at me like he knew he had just found out the answer to all the secrets of the universe. 'Well Swan, we came by to take you to breakfast and when we knocked on the door, it popped open because somebody forgot to secure it last night, I wonder, perhaps you were a bit distracted?" He nudged the pair of jeans that lay inside out on the floor by his foot with the toe of his boot, and it was then I noticed he had a wallet in his hand, the same damn wallet that had started this entire fiasco.