Chapter 16

Taryn dived for her phaser at the sound of the blast from outside. The man fired, vapourising it with her hand just inches away.

"You're a popular girl." the man said with a shy smile. "The dashing Dr's Barclay and Houghton and your uncle all desperate to be close to you." He walked slowly towards her. "I'm not surprised, you're so beautiful. I warned you that Barclay was no good for you when we made love but you still went back to him."

"Barton, I think you have the wrong idea…"

"It's you that has the wrong idea, sweetheart." he said softly. "No one loves you like I do. No one will ever love you like I do. I had to come back for you." She stood impassively as he stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. "I told her it wasn't rape. I told her we were in love, it wasn't like it was with those other girls when we were growing up, but she just didn't understand. She was always so… melodramatic even at the foster home. She was just trying to protect me, like any big sister would. She always cleared up after me and kept me out of trouble. She always made my problems disappear. She was clever. She knew how to get rid of people."

"Lisa was your foster sister?" Taryn asked incredulously realising what he meant.

He giggled. "She caught us together. She sent me away and told me she'd take care of everything." He looked at her plaintively. "I thought she'd clean up the soiled sheets, I didn't know she planned to kill you. I came back later and she was cleaning up your quarters, there was blood everywhere and she said in less than twelve minutes it would all be over as soon as they tested the nacelles. She said she planned to put your combadge in Barclay's quarters and all the evidence would lead back to him, she'd even recycled all the letters I sent you." He turned away momentarily. "I didn't mean to kill her. She told me you were dead and I lost my temper. I took her to a nacelle too, then put the combadges in your husband's replicator once I'd dealt with the dog. I didn't kill him, I know how much the little guy means to you." He grasped her hand in his. "We can be together now. I'll be a good man to you. I won't ever divorce you or leave you." He pointed his phaser at the open front door. "I killed him for you. He never deserved you." He pulled her against his chest. "I love you Taryn."

Taryn fought down her urge to vomit along with her other emotions. She'd always been cordial to all Trip's staff, as she was with all her colleagues aboard ship. She had no idea this man was fixated on her. His face had been one of the first she saw after she regained consciousness and he was the one who raped her, stunned her dog and now he had murdered Trip. A man she loved more than anyone she'd ever met. A man who stood up and serenaded her in front of everyone in the bar on the day they met. A man whose love letters and poems stole her heart during the six weeks she resisted going on a date with him. A man who knew where the line was between a flirting, relentless suitor and a stalker and certainly never stunned her with a phaser and considered it a romantic overture. Her eyes fell on the closed bedroom door as she considered her options. The crossbow was on the floor by the wall but Barton was standing between her and it. He held a phaser in his hand and she recalled what she still held in hers by her side.

She gazed up at him and smiled, cupping his cheek in her hand. "Just let me change okay. I can't elope with you in my nightdress. I need to pack a bag." He seemed reluctant, still holding her. "Come with me if you like?" She smiled and led him to the bedroom by the hand.

There was a savage growl as she opened the door. J'hordak was bristling, his hackles up and his teeth bared. He was a quarter of the size of a husky but either no one had advised him of this fact or he never listened. As far as he was concerned he was the most badass big bad wolf on the block. All he knew was he'd met this man before, he'd had the nerve to enter his home, the audacity to try to kick him and the cheek to shoot him with a phaser. He was one pissed off pooch.

"Get him, J'hordak." Taryn ordered and hit Barton in the face with the glass she held in her hand, shattering it. The dog jumped and sunk his teeth into the man's inner thigh, refusing to let go as she grasped the man's wrist that was holding the phaser and shattered his arm with an upwards blow to his elbow. His phaser fell into her hand and she backed away towards the camp bed aiming it at him. "Heel boy." she called and her dog fell into place beside her.

"Why did you do that?" Barton asked plaintively as he cradled his shattered arm, his face bleeding. "You've got nothing without me. He destroyed your career, he wouldn't leave you alone even after he kicked you to the kerb. I killed him for you." She set his phaser to stun, green blood on her hand from the broken glass making it slippery in her grasp. "I knew you wouldn't kill me. I told you, if you just give me a chance...you'll love me more than you ever did him."

Her nostrils flared. How dare he say that to her? How could anyone sane believe she could love him after what he had done? How could he drug her, rape her and leave her at the mercy of someone clearly homicidal then rob her of the only man she'd ever truly loved and think she could ever fall in love with them? She let the phaser fall from her hand. He dived for it as she rolled, grabbed her uncle's automatic crossbow and cocked it. The bolt barely had time to settle into place as she fired.

She sobbed and the bow clattered to the floor as she stood over Barton. She looked out of the door at Trip's body slumped over her uncle, J'hordak licking his face trying desperately to rouse him. She reached for Trip's communicator on the coffee table with bleeding, fumbling hands and stumbled outside.

"P…Prior to Enterprise, urgent assistance required at this location." She dropped to her knees at Trip's side and fell across his body wailing. Lost in a paroxysm of grief and despair. Suddenly she froze on seeing a strand of her hair that had tumbled over his shoulder move. No, it was probably the cool breeze of the night air, he couldn't possibly be breathing. She felt for a pulse in his neck and her eyes widened. "Enterprise, medical emergency. I need a team down here now!" she shouted into the communicator as Data materialised with Worf and a security team, all with phasers drawn.

…

"Taryn?!" Trip screamed as he woke in a cold sweat.

"It's okay. I'm here." she said and grasped his hand. "Everything's fine." she whispered and kissed his forehead.

"It was Barton, he…"

"Don't worry. I took care of it."

"Did he hurt you?" he asked desperately, cupping her cheek in his hand.

She paused. "Let's just say he'll find it hard to hurt anyone else with a crossbow bolt through his forehead."

"Did he say why he did it? Or what happened to Lisa Meadows?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it when you're stronger." She smiled and stroked his hair.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around the room.

"The Starfleet Medical Facility in San Francisco." she whispered.

"I was that bad?" he asked and she nodded, avoiding his gaze. "Can you take off the restraint field? it's that button there. I need to go for a pee." he indicated on the cowl that covered his lower body.

She swallowed hard and tears formed in her eyes. "You have a urostomy implant in place, it's just... they said you may get some phantom sensations for a while. It's the residual phased energy."

"I really need to stretch my legs, just turn…" he looked at the controls with alarm, the restraint field wasn't on. "Oh God, he phased my…my…how much of me is left? I lost my legs?"

"They're still there, you're intact but he hit you in the back. Your spine…was…. They rebuilt it as best they could… It should have killed you." she told him with tears rolling down her face. "It may not seem like it but you were really lucky."

"Well… pass me my notes?" he asked plaintively. "Let me see?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea Trip." she shook her head.

"Just give me them." he argued.

"I'll fetch the doctor…"

"PASS ME MY FUCKING NOTES!" he bellowed. She grabbed the padd and tossed it onto his chest while trying to pull her hand from his. "Sorry, I'm sorry." he whispered and gripped it tight. He kissed her hand softly and rubbed it between his. "I've never shouted at you like that before and you don't deserve it now. I know…I know you only want to do what's best for me. Please stay?" She sniffed and nodded as she returned to the stool beside his bed.

He paled as he read the notes. With injuries this severe he genuinely had no right to be alive. In addition to widespread phaser burns most of the vertebrae in his thoracic spine had been phased from existence and his spinal cord damaged. The bone and musculature had been replaced genitronically, but the neural tissue was beyond repair. Two words kept striking him as he read, words he loathed putting in anyone's records. Inoperable. Permanent.

"They haven't looked into spinal regenerative therapy?" he asked her.

"They doubt you're a viable candidate with your genetic chemistry but the specialist said he would investigate further if you're willing. It's…"

"Pain versus gain." he finished the sentence he knew only too well. "How about further genitronic replication? It worked for Worf."

"They can't get it to work without killing the patient. Worf only survived because he's Klingon." she replied softly. "His redundant organs made all the difference to his outcome."

He swallowed and held the padd to his face as he began to sob. She cradled him in her arms and held him tight. "Did you talk to my Dad?" he whispered through his tears.

"He's been here with you the whole time, we both have. He just popped home for a couple of hours' sleep. He'll be back soon." she assured him. "He wanted to be here when you woke up but we didn't know when that would be and he was exhausted. We've been camped out here for days and he really needed a night in a proper bed."

"You're here though. And you'll stay?" he pleaded.

"I'm not going anywhere." she whispered into his hair.

…

"Okay Kiddo, what's this bullshit that your refusing to do your physio?" Reg II stated as he threw open the door of his room in the rehabilitation facility in London.

"I don't want to." Trip pouted, curled on his side away from him.

"This isn't your Geography homework and you're not ten anymore Trip. You can't say the cat pissed on your padd. Which no one believed incidentally."

"Miss Tremell believed it, she adored me." he replied.

"She didn't believe it and she thought you were a cheeky little shit." his father advised him. "A clever cheeky little shit admittedly."

"It's not fair Dad. She won't want me back now." Trip sniffed. "I'm a useless waste of space. They should have just let me die."

"I never raised my hand to you your entire life but if you ever talk like that again I'll slap you purple!" Reg II snapped. "Sit yourself up and talk to me like a man."

"I can't." he protested.

"Grab that trapeze thing and pull, it's not quantum mechanics." Reg II said as he stood with his arms folded. Trip grabbed the handle over his bed and pulled himself up with a struggle. "That's better. Now have you talked to her about how you feel?"

"No." he pouted.

"So you've just decided you know what she wants again?" Reg II asked. "Will you ever learn?" He shook his head. "Of all the traits you could have gotten from your mother."

"This has nothing to do with my mother." Trip snapped.

"The hell it doesn't. You decided she didn't want to adopt, you decided to divorce her and now you've decided she won't stick around just because you can't walk, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Your mother was just the same, she always knew what everyone else wanted and made damn sure that was what they got whether they liked it or not. It's why I couldn't live with her. The only good thing that came from our brief marriage was you and I'm not going to let you throw your life away and rot in that bed."

"I can't…she's green Dad. She needs a man who can…see to her needs."

"It's still early days. You know how these things work better than I do. Impotency isn't guaranteed with paraplegia. Besides, there's more than one way to skin a rabbit you know."

"Dad!" Trip protested with distaste.

"You're a doctor and a vet, how can you be so coy about sex?" Reg II stated incredulously.

"Let's change the topic." Trip suggested. "The Dragons are doing well. They might get the pennant again this year."

"I still remember your face when we had the talk." Reg II chuckled as he continued undeterred. "I thought you were going to pass out."

"Dad please?"

He laughed, "and when I showed you that book on biology and you saw the diagram of a vagina and asked where her winky was."

"Dad, give me a break?" Trip gripped the bridge of his nose despairingly.

"It was so cute." he laughed helplessly. "You went around asking everyone if they had a winky or a foo-foo for weeks."

"I was three Dad."

"I've got to tell the nurses that story. You know I don't think Taryn's heard it…"

"I submit okay. Get my chair." Trip snapped and threw back the covers. "Will you help me transfer?"

"Sure Kiddo." He smirked as he helped him move from the Biobed to the anti-grav chair. "Let's get you to that pool." He strode beside him amiably as they walked through the hospital. "When you get stronger we'll get you on a horse."

"I can't ride anymore." Trip protested. "I can't use my legs in case you haven't noticed."

"Paraplegics have been riding for centuries, maybe millennia. You just need a different kind of saddle. Taryn's already replicated one for you, but look surprised when she shows it to you. She's really excited about it."

"Thanks for ruining the surprise Dad." Trip shook his head. "How does the horse know what to do without you kicking?"

"You tell him. She says some of the horses at the school are trained that way. They have quite a few disabled riders apparently."

"I never noticed any." Trip replied.

"You weren't looking son." Reg II told him. "I've seen your new saddle, no one would know unless they were up close." he grasped his son's shoulder. "There's a lot you can still do. You just need to learn to adapt, and that's hard, no one's saying it isn't, but you're the most resilient person I know aside from that wife of yours."

"She's not my wife anymore." Trip stated. "Perhaps it's for the best. At least she won't have to feel guilty about divorcing me if she decides it's too much looking after me."

"So look after yourself, you idle prick. You have working arms and a brain. That's why you're here in this fancy rehab facility and what the exercises are for. So you can learn to fend for yourself and not be a pain in the ass. She's got better things to do with her time than wipe your butt and blow your nose. She'll have kids to do that for one day."

"That's unlikely Dad. Especially with me." Trip said sadly.

"She didn't tell you?" Reg II frowned.

"Tell me what?" Trip asked as they reached the door of the hydrotherapy room.

"She'll be in later, make sure you have a proper talk."

"Dad?"

"It's not for me to say. She'll kill me if I spoil all her surprises."

…

"These devices are to pick up the signals from your brain and stimulate your muscles in sequence and enable you to walk, they'll also prevent your muscles from atrophying…" the physiotherapist, a matronly woman of late middle years looked up at him as she fastened the belts around his legs. "You've heard all this before haven't you?"

"I've said all this before." Trip smiled. "Woah, sorry." he said as he nearly kicked her. "It's a little different on this side of the conversation." he said sheepishly.

"No that's good. Fine control can take a while to learn but a strong response gives us more to work with." She backed off a little. "Now let's see if you can walk a little with the parallel bars." He struggled to get up and stood unsteadily, gripping the bars for dear life. "Try not to overthink it. Just relax and take a step." she told him and his leg lurched forwards. "Excellent, remember all this will take time. You know the saying 'don't run before you can walk'." He took another step and smiled. He looked up as the door opened and Taryn entered. She cupped her hands over her nose and mouth and looked really thrilled to see him standing.

"I'd forgotten how pretty you are from this angle." He smiled as he reached the end of the bars. "Where do I go now? Woah!" he shouted as his legs gave way.

"I've got you." Taryn whispered as she held his upper body, his face close to hers. Their lips met in a searing kiss.

"Keep kissing him like that and he'll fall over all the time." the physio joked.

"Sorry, I didn't…plan to do that." he whispered. He hadn't kissed her on the lips since they separated and it was both wonderful and strange in equal proportions.

"Don't be sorry. It was nice." she replied as he managed to get his legs back under him and the physio brought his chair over.

"You're stronger than you look honey." the woman told her with a smile. "I think we'll leave it there and pick up again tomorrow. You did really well today." The therapist told him as they both helped him sit. "Your upper body strength is really improving."

"So did you decide to go for the implants?" Taryn asked as they headed back to his room.

"I'm still undecided and it all depends on how I get on with the removable stimulators first." he told her. "I talked to the doctor here about cord regeneration. They agreed to trial it to see if there's an improvement and how I cope, if I want to." he looked up at her. "Would it bother you if I did both? It's unusual to but from the research I've done the results might be better than the sum of their parts. Both treatments require a much longer time commitment than rehabilitation alone."

"Why would it bother me?" she asked as they arrived in his room.

"Oh okay." he forced a smile. He should have known, it's not as if they were still married or even together.

She took his chin and turned his face up to her. "I didn't mean I don't care. As long as you're happy, I'm happy and the options are yours to explore or ignore as you choose. If you just want to keep up the physio and leave things as they are that's fine too, either way I'll be here." She kissed him again and he pulled her onto his lap, cradling her in his arms.

"I love you so much. God I've missed your lips." he whispered and he kissed her again, a deep kiss fuelled with passion and yearning. "No stop…this isn't fair to you." He pushed her from his lap and moved his chair over to the window. "You deserve better than to be stuck with me like this and…we're already divorced anyway. Nothing's holding you here if you want to walk away."

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind and rubbed his chest. "I'm going nowhere. You're the one stuck with me." She kissed his ear tenderly and began to sing softly. "You say you hunger, for something you can't name at all and love is not enough anymore…"

"You called me an insincere prick when I sang that to you the day we met." he pointed out with a smirk.

"If I was queen for just one day, I would give it all away. I would give it all away…"

"…to be with you." he joined in. "If I was king for just one day, I'd have just one thing to say. You know that love is all we need to get us through." He sighed and pulled her arms tighter around him.

"But…I can't make love to you anymore." he said softly.

"As long as you have your clever fingers and your sweet mouth you'll make beautiful love to me." she assured him.

"You put that better than my dad. He said there's more than one way to skin a rabbit." He rubbed her wrist as she giggled. "He said to give it time, but nothing's going on down there."

"No one's told you you've lost all sexual function have they?"

"Well, no." he admitted. "But it's not working. I even tried looking at porn the other night, nothing."

"So you can't get a phsychogenic erection. The message isn't getting from up here," she kissed his temple tenderly, "to down there that you're turned on."

"You've been doing your homework." he said suspiciously.

"I learned this years ago. Edara sent me on a course when I was a kid." she nuzzled his neck. "So how about a reflexogenic one? Have you tried touching yourself? Applied a little...stimulation."

"Well I've washed down there obviously…no, not really." he admitted sullenly. "I haven't got any sensation in that area. It makes me miserable. I know what you're going to say… my body is different now and I should…experiment."

"Would you like me to….leave the room while you play with yourself?" She smirked.

"You are such a tease." He smiled. "Lock the door… and stay this side of it."

…

"Are you going to come for me?" she whispered breathlessly, between using her mouth and hands on him. "In my mouth?"

"Er…I thought I just did?" he replied with a puzzled look.

"Ooh a dry one. I thought you got a little vocal there." she giggled and slowly brought her caresses to a halt.

"A dry one? What the f…? I didn't ejaculate?" He buried his face in his hands. "Oh God. I bet it was retrograde. Into my bladder." he added at her puzzled expression. "It's common with paraplegia."

"Half an hour ago you were complaining you couldn't get it up at all." she advised him. "I had a lot more ideas on how to get you going and I didn't need any of them and that's before we even looked at drug therapy, suction pumps or electrostimulation." She gave him a knowing look. "Many men consider a dry orgasm the tantric equivalent of the Holy Grail you know? It can take years to master."

"I still harboured hopes of fathering your children." he said as she snuggled next to him and he wrapped his arm around her. "I need to ejaculate for that."

"Dr Barclay, you know perfectly well there are other ways to get your sperm out of you and into me." she stated. "While we're on the topic, the Captain called me. He made a suggestion and I sent the scans and tests you did when we created our mating bond off to Dr Mizan."

"Those scans are what, six years old? They're too out of date to be any use."

"Well, I was on the implant at the time so we couldn't get pregnant even if we'd wanted to and I wasn't long out of the Academy so we weren't ready for a family. But when Data told them what to look for they found a hormonal surge."

"Of course they did it was pon farr. It is a hormonal surge."

"Yes, but it triggered my Orion heat too, remember. It turns out I'm extremely fertile during pon farr, it's probably the only time I can conceive. Mizan says we're lucky the implant worked I was so fertile… and it was nearer seven years ago."

"But it was artificial…" he argued. "We triggered your cycle early didn't we?" she nodded. "What made the Captain think of that?"

"He said he was reading something about Vulcan history and spotted something on fertility."

"That doesn't ring true." Trip stated. "Vulcan mating and reproductive cycles aren't like that. This is something that must be unique to you."

"Well, that's what he said." she replied. "Maybe I misunderstood, but he's done us a huge favour if it means we can have a baby."

"A baby. Our baby." he smiled. "Little green hands and feet."

"Maybe little pink hands and feet?"

"Either way they'll be beautiful. So that's what Dad was being so cryptic about. I wondered…" His face fell.

"What?"

"Well you haven't been around much and it's not like we have an understanding between us. I thought maybe you'd fallen in love with Dr Heathcliff whatever-his-name is and got pregnant with him. I wouldn't care you know. I mean I'd care but…I'd still love you and want to be with you and your baby." He kissed her softly on the lips. "I'd never let you go to anyone else without a fight despite what I said earlier."

"His name is Houghton, you know that. Heath and I are still on friendly terms but he's dating Emily now." She smirked at his shocked expression. "They got chatting while she rendered first aid and helped him clean horse turds off his uniform, thanks to you. They really hit it off."

"Are you upset about it?"

"Of course not, I'm happy for them. I feel a bit guilty that I used him as someone to lean on knowing he felt more than I did but I was always honest with him about that. No, I've been busy trying to get a job. With you talking about resigning your commission and wallowing in self-pity I've been looking for work on Earth and I couldn't always get back to London during visiting hours." she explained. "The problem is everyone keeps telling me I'm overqualified or…. I may be paranoid but they seem enthusiastic when I send them my resume but when I go to interviews and they see me the post is suddenly already filled." She rubbed his chest affectionately. "Do you still want to get married again?"

"I don't know if I'll be able to walk you down the aisle."

"We did that last time. It's passé these days." She smiled at him.

"I expect a proper proposal and a ring and everything you know?" He smirked. "I won't marry just anyone who asks. I need to be wooed." He sighed and looked at his lower body with a pensive expression.

"So, how was it?" she asked with a smile.

"Different, very different but watching you…with your mouth and your boobies around my shaft drove me wild even if I couldn't feel everything and I definitely had an orgasm, not like before but it felt good. It was almost like watching you make love to someone else only I didn't need to be jealous."

"So I get to have a ménage a trois with both of you? Upstairs Trip and downstairs Trip." she mused.

"Was downstairs Trip hard enough for us to do it properly? Will he last long enough?"

"He seemed sturdy enough to me. You said you wanted me to get you a ring, that's something we can explore if you need help to keep going."

"A cock-ring?" he asked. "We've never really used toys before, perhaps that could be fun." he looked at her. "I'm glad my equipment seems to work but I'm not sure I'm happy that I'll have to take a more passive role. I liked going on top." he said with regret.

"You possibly still can. You're working on your upper body strength." she argued. "If you can commando crawl I'm sure you can go on top. We'll do what we've always done. Find imaginative and inventive ways to get the most pleasure out of our lovemaking. Physical love always changes over the years but you adapt and we'll adapt to this."

"You're so wonderful. How are you and Dad so positive about all this?"

"We thought we'd lost you. Barton told me you were dead that night and…I could have stunned him but I didn't because he told me he'd killed you and taunted me. I murdered him. And then I went outside and you were still breathing, barely. The first four days they didn't expect you to last each night let alone… then there were another ten days with you on the critical list and every surgery to stabilise your spine they told us there was a good chance you wouldn't survive it. Then it was days before you woke up. That put things in sharp perspective for both of us. We know you're on a hard road and sometimes you need a little tough love to keep you going but the alternative…your last words could easily have been 'cunt-sucking cock'."

Trip blanched at the thought. "I thought… Maybe you'd think I was a burden." he said sadly. "Too much of a burden."

"In sickness and in health remember." she whispered. "We may have divorced legally but I never forgot the vows we made."

"Neither did I." he replied and kissed her. "Dad said you told him you felt responsible for what happened. If you're with me because of guilt or pity, or just because you still feel bound by our vows…"

"I love you. I've always loved you and I always will. Yes, I feel bad that I never noticed how Barton felt and he insinuated himself into our lives but that has no bearing on how I feel about you." she told him as she nuzzled his neck.

"I was the one who let him in when I pushed you away. I know he made you feel you led him on but I don't believe that for a second, it was all in his mind. He was psychologically disturbed and so was Lisa. They were damaged by their experiences as children. If they'd gone to the Academy they'd never have graduated but they enlisted and slipped through the net. I never spotted it and neither did Duncan or Deanna when she was ship's counsellor. One good thing that came of it is they've been able to track down the other kids placed in that home and counsel them. Are you still remembering what happened, without Deanna's help?"

"I still have nightmares about it, every now and then something new pops up. I don't feel as frightened now he's dead, I don't even feel bad that I lied and said I dropped the phaser because my hand was bleeding. I didn't do it because of what he did to me, I had to avenge you. I just had to. I just feel sort of numb about the assault, not traumatised really." She looked away. "I really don't want to talk about it. It was ruled as justified and it's over. I just want to put it behind me and move forward, with you if you'll have me?"

"Of course I'll have you, I'm nothing without you." He kissed her softly. "I want to be married you. I can't wait to make a baby with you or adopt or even both." The kiss they shared was torrid and passionate as they held each other close. "Speaking of having you," he whispered breathlessly, "seeing as we're alone, in bed and naked how would you feel about pumping some more of my spunk into my bladder with your other lips this time?"

"You're such a romantic." She smiled and climbed on top of him, giggling.

There was a knock at the door. "You okay in there Kiddo?"

"We're not decent." Taryn shouted with a giggle as she worked with her hands to get him hard again.

"Um..er…. We're a little busy Dad. Do you want to get a coffee and come back in half an hour?"

"Okay." Reg II replied. "Go for it son. Give 'em hell."

"Twenty-eight minutes more than we need." Trip joked.

"My boy's in there getting laid!" echoed through the door as his father made a proud proclamation to the nursing staff, followed by cheers and what Trip suspected was the sound of a high-five. Taryn laughed hysterically at Trip's mortified expression.

"That's not funny. I'm here twenty-four seven remember?"

"So come home." she told him. "Be an out-patient. I know it's not really home but Miffy says we're welcome to stay at the cottage as long as we like."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm not…fully independent yet."

"I want you with me." she seized his lips in a deep hot kiss, desperate and intense. "I need you with me."

Author's note:

The song featured is King for a Day by The Thompson Twins