(an author's note: so like I said in the last post, most of the story is sort of in a flash back, telling us how they got to the point where marissa goes and meets seejay in jail. A prologue is just the sneek peek of the future. read this like you read a story book. I hope I have made myself clear and not confused the hell out of ya'all.)

Chapter 1: the perfect life.

The couple sleeping on that huge, massive bed was blended seamlessly in each other, their arms entangled, their bodies spooning, their faces mere inches apart, their eyes closed in a deep and peaceful slumber as the early morning light pervaded through the curtains basking them in its warmth.

Suddenly the alarm rang, disturbing the ideality of the scene.

No response.

The alarm persisted, used to the indifferent treatment for seventeen years now.

The only response was the man turning his body to the other side as he burrowed his head even deeper in the pillows, trying to block out the shrill sounds.

It was of no use. The alarm was ever so adamant.

The man groaned, holding on to the last vestiges of his sleep, as he tried to shake his wife awake. "Riss, honey, Wake up."

No response.

"Riss, common, it is your damn alarm. Wake up."

Her only response was snuggling even deeper into his body, as she burrowed her head in his arms, a soft moan of denial escaping her lips, "Nuh uh".

"Oh common", he grumbled, getting irritated now. "Why do you set the damn thing, if I have to be the one to wake up every time to shut it off?" Every night she set the alarm because she grumbled that she didn't want to be late for work, and every morning it was he, who was the one getting up. Knowing that it was a lost cause; that he had lost any chance of falling back to sleep now, he muttered angrily under his breath and leaned over her body to shut it with a single flick of his wrist.

A long delicate arm snaked around his waist pulling him back and causing him to fall on her, just as her beautiful blue eyes fluttered open. "It's because you look so damn hot when you get mad and you pout," she whispered huskily, giving him a sleepy kiss.

Still mad at her, he refused to be cajoled. He glared sternly at her. "I am not getting up again ;you can get up early tomorrow for a change and… and I do not pout"

unknowingly said in a cute pout, it were his last words that made her laugh. Interrupting his charade, she traced his lips with a long delicate finger, "You do too"

"Do not"

She giggled, linking her arms around his neck, and looking deep into his eyes "do too"

When she looked at him like that, her blue eyes slumberous with remnants of sleep, a soft smile playing on her lush lips, even as her hands lightly traced patterns on his chest, it was impossible for him to stay mad at her. Getting into their playful banter, he fixed her a mock glare. "Take it back or I won't be responsible for the consequences"

She just laughed as her eyebrows shot upwards challengingly, "oh yeah? And what are you going to do?"

He nipped at her lush lips teasingly, "maybe this", he trailed down her neck sucking at her pulse point, "or this", he moved downwards, "or…"

"Did I mention how much I love your consequences?" she whispered, her words slightly undercut, her hands entangled in his soft hair and she pulled him upbefore joining their lips in a passionate kiss. Rolling over so that she was the one on top, she swirled her tongue against the thick column of his neck and his head fell back onto the covers, eliciting a deep moan from the back of his throat at the sensations that she was evoking.

"Hmm… morning's used to be our time, what happened?" he questioned huskily, looking deep into her eyes. Her already aroused blue eyes changed to a passionate indigo and it was at that moment that Ryan lost all control. Flipping their positions, he took her mouth forcefully in his, as he melded their palates together hungrily, their hands seeking each other desperately, and their bodies rolling together under the covers in the all too familiar dance.

"Mommy… Mommy"

Ryan's roving hands instantly stilled under the covers and his head dropped onto her neck in a frustrated groan.

Marissa let out a loud, frustrated sigh. "I guess, kids happened", she whispered, just as their bedroom door crashed opened with a loud thud revealing a tiny, blonde hair, blue-eyed girl in her cute little pink Barney P.J's standing apprehensively in their doorway.

To Grace Atwood, who was five years old, she was 'the perfectest big girl in the whole world' and her daddy and mommy were 'the bestest daddy and mommy ever'. So, when she had found out this morning that there were monsters under her bed, she had to immediately tell everything to her daddy and mommy so that they could fix it. She had been about to go into a detailed description about exactly that, when her gaze fell on the rapid shuffling of her parents under the covers. She stared suspiciously from her dad to her mom and back at her dad, all thoughts of monsters forgotten. "Daddy, what are you doing?"

His head fell back in a half laugh/ half cry and a strangled groan escaped his lips. "Uh, I, uh..." he tried to come up with something quick as an embarrassed flush tinged his cheeks. "Baby, mommy and I were playing a game." He gave her the best answer he could hoping that it would suffice.

Unfortunately for him, it didn't.

"Oh really?" his daughters eyes rounded in excitement at the very mention of a game. Playing a game especially with daddy was her favouritest past time ever. Her blonde curls dancing, she jumped up on their bed and squealed excitedly, "what is the game like? What are the rules? How do you play it? Then can I play too?"

Ryan almost choked on her questions, his panicked blue eyes seeking Marissa's, never expecting his two year old daughter to come up with this.

Luckily for him, his wife was way better at this than he was.

"Princess" she whispered leaning down and stroking her cheeks soothingly, even as a soft chuckle escaped her lips, "this game is only for grown ups, okay? That why you can't."

Her blonde curls dancing, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, their five year old daughter cocked her head to one side, thinking hard on what her mom had said and considering it. Her every emotion and thought was so adorably reflected on her expressive face, that Ryan and Marissa both had to laugh at how cute she looked. Finally, as if she had just solved a mystery, she acknowledged it with a silent nod, "oh okay. Then it must be hard"

Referring to the lack of alone time they got, his laughing blue eyes clashed with Marissa's, "make that very, very hard."

"But, daddy, then when did you learn how to play?" her eyebrows furrowed in a frown, as her inquisitive blue eyes looked up at him,

Never expecting that, his mouth opened and then closed, no words coming out of it. "Whhh… what?" he finally gasped.

His daughter looked at him patronizingly, "Daddy you are such a dork, you forgot already?" Pointing towards herself she said, "Grace asked when you learned to play this very difficult game."

"Uh… I… uh… never mind"

"But daddy, I mind. I mind no?" she looked towards her mommy for confirmation and Marissa couldn't stop the laughter from escaping her lips. Hearing Marissa's silent giggles, he scowled at her. Then knowing it wouldn't help his cause at all, he begged with her over Grace's shoulder, to do something, anything, to get their daughter to stop. Finally, she took pity on him.

"Okay, who wants cookies?"

That diverted Grace instantly and she completely forgot about their earlier conversation. "Really?" she looked towards Marissa with hungry, hopeful blue eyes, "like for breakfast?"

"Yup, for breakfast" Marissa confirmed, scooping her up in her arms and walked towards the door, "In fact, you get two. Because you managed to call daddy something that nobody has managed to call in like ever without getting injured."

"And what is that?" Ryan called from the bed.

Marissa threw a laughing look over his shoulder, carrying their ever-inquisitive daughter on her hips as she sashayed out of the room, a mischievious glint lighting her blue eyes. "A dork!"

Really, one Marissa was difficult enough to handle, he groaned falling back onto the covers, why had he agreed to two?

------

He was tired.

He had had a long day at work, everything he had planned to do had gone on hold due to some problem or the other, his secretary had called in sick and then he had been stuck in the damn traffic for two whole hours. Rubbing his neck tiredly to get the kinks out of them, he dropped his keys in their usual place, shrugged out of his jacket and loosened his tie as he made his way into their kitchen.

The sight that greeted him gave him an abrupt pause and a slow smile spread on his lips.

Marissa was humming something to herself, as she pattered around their kitchen trying to cook them a meal, music blaring through her earphones. Completely oblivious to her surroundings, her eyes were blissfully closed, and she was dancing to its tune moving her hands in circles around her body. Looking at her rapturous expression, he felt all of his earlier exhaustion melt away at her sight and happiness filled his heart.

"Hey you…" he whispered in her ear, slipping his arms around her waist. For a moment her body stiffened, before it recognized his familiar arms and she leaned back against him.

"Hey…" she softly greeted back. Removing her earphones, she turned in his arms and a worried frown creased her eyebrows as she took in his tired expression. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing really, just… hard day" his arms tightened around her and he softly kissed her forehead, "but the day is getting better and better". It never ceased to amaze him, how just holding her in his arms made him feel better, made him feel like he was… home.

For a moment they just stood like that, enjoying being in each others presence, as they allowed the familiarity and the comfort to envelope them. They had come a long way so that they could enjoy these uninterrupted moments of bliss. Looking back to their teenage years they had always hoped, but never thought that they would have this one day. Their life had seemed so complicated then, but standing here, holding her in his arms, inhaling the scent that was uniquely Marissa, and knowing that she was alright, that their kids were alright… it had all been worth it.

"So the house looks silent?" he questioned looking around.

"Yeah, thankfully I got Grace to take a nap, she wanted to know why the elephants can't be pink because she likes both the color pink and the elephants, but she doesn't like the color grey or pigs." Looking at Ryan's confused expression, she immediately shot his next question down, "don't ask me how she came up with that, but I do know that she just wouldn't let it go" Marissa heaved an exaggerated sigh causing Ryan to choke back a laugh, "I swear she is the most stubborn person I have ever seen".

Ryan smirked. "Wonder where she gets that from…"

"Okay… I believe there is a dig in there somewhere but I am going to let that go, coz we have more pressing problems than that. Jason got…"

No sooner were the words even out of her mouth that their fifteen-year-old son came bounding down the stairs. Catching sight of his dad, a broad smile swept across his face.

"Hey dad," He said, in that irritatingly cool drawl that teenagers sported these days.

"Hey…" Ryan ruffled his hair and they shared a high-five "so how was school?"

"He got into a fight today". Marissa folded her arms across her chest and glared pointedly at their son. It wasn't that he was a difficult teenager, well, not by Newport standards anyways. He got into small, little fracas, normal for any teenager, but he didn't drink, didn't smoke, played ball, was reasonably popular and well adjusted and got good grades. But lately, he was exhibiting a freakish tendency to get into brawls and fights.

He looked from Marissa's furious expression, to Jason's guilty one. "What? Why?"

"Yes Jason…" Marissa raised her eyebrows challengingly, "why don't you tell your dad exactly 'why' you got into that fight?"

Ryan leaned on the counter until he was eye level with his son and fixed him with a quelling glare. "Explain." He said, in a low angry voice.

Jason cowered under his dad's gaze, his expression becoming guilty and contrite. "Whoa, whoa, dad, stop with the look thing. It is scaring me"

"Good. It should." Ryan said angrily. "We've been over this once; we've been over this a hundred times. You cannot get into fights."

"Okay dad, I know that" Jason said, putting his arms up in surrender, "I swear I didn't want to do it, but there was this kid. He was getting beaten up by a couple of guys in school. What was I supposed to do? Stay back and not do anything?"

Ryan's expression softened at that. He could certainly understand it, he didn't condone it, but he didn't blame him for it. "Okay. I am going to let it go just this once, but if I ever hear this again…"

"You won't dad". Jason said immediately,"I swear"

"Good". Ryan gave him a small smile. "Now why don't you go and wake up your sister so that we can all have dinner?"

Jason was out the kitchen door in a shot.

"So that was handled well…" Marissa said coming over and standing next to him as she looked up at him. Her soft hands rubbed his back comfortingly, "you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just… I don't want him to have the same issues that I had as a kid." When she stared up at him like that, it struck him anew how well she knew him.

They never talked about that night, the night that still had the capacity to scare the shit out of him, the night when Volchok had driven their car off the road.. For three whole days he hadn't been able to breathe, for three whole days he hadn't been able to live. When he had seen her like that… it was the only time when he had been so broken, that tears had streamed down his face. But, it was also the night that had eventually changed it all.

Through all the mess that had happened in that one night, there was one realization that had glared at them, dazzling like gold. There was no way that they would ever be able to live without each other, and somehow that realization had cemented their entire relationship in a way that nothing else had been able to. It was as if an epiphany had suddenly hit both of them. It had been reckless, it had been emotional, and it had been something that he never would otherwise do, but that was the night when he had proposed, and a week later, they had been married. They had gone to Berkeley as planned and two years later, to everyone's surprise Jason was born. Although it had been difficult, with his classes and a job that he had taken, and Marissa having deferred classes for a year, they had managed and they had been happy. Four years later, he had graduated in architecture, and year later Marissa had graduated in fashion and design and they had never looked back after that. They had come back to Newport when jimmy had died, and they both had worked their asses off to get to where they were.

"You ever think of that night?" she whispered against his chest and he wasn'y surprised by it. She had an uncanny awareness of exactly what he was thinking.

"Sometimes…" he replied back honestly, his arms tightening around her "I keep thinking what would have happened that night if you had actually died and I keep thinking how whatever had happened with Volchok was my fault. If I hadn't hit him at prom, and if I had gone to sandy instead of stealing that car none of it would have happened. And I see so much of myself in Jason, I can't allow him to make the same mistakes that I did. I can't lose you… lose any of you…"

"you wont"

Ryan knew he wouldn't, because he would kill, before he allowed anything or anyone ro hurt her again...

-------

"Mommy, I does not like 'pas-ghe-tti'. I wants chocolate"

They were all sitting down at the dinner table and their five year old daughter, Grace, was creating a ruckus, throwing her 'pas-ghe-tti' everywhere. Marissa sighed, bending down to her level and gently wiped her mouth where her 'pas-ghe-tti' was sticking.

"Sweetie, its not 'pas-ghe-tti'. Its spa-ghe-tti and I will give you that chocolate only if you promise to finish it"

"The spa-pas-tti is yucky. Do I havta mommy?" Grace whined, blinking her big, blue eyes up at her.

"Yes" Marissa said, laughing and ruffling her hair, and pinched her cheeks playfully. "You have to, but I know a big, yummy chocolate cake with a little girls called Grace's name written on it"

Catching his father staring intently at his mom's and sisters interaction, Jason mused, "They look cute together, don't they?"

"Yeah", Ryan said, his voice softening and becoming husky unbeknownst to him, "I don't know where one begins and the other ends; they are so much alike. The same blonde hair, the same blue eyes…"

"Hey, dad…" Jason said in a low voice, "can I ask you a question?"

Ryan turned his attention to his son, catching his troubled face and a frown creased his brow, "sure, whatsup?"

"It's just… you remember this guy that I was telling you about earlier? The one that was getting beaten up when I… intervened?"

"Yeah?" he could feel Marissa's eyes upon them and he knew that she was listening.

"Well, see, it was the weirdest thing really. I mean, you know you get the feeling that someone is weak or cant defend himself, well he wasn't weak, or even a geek. He looked like he could really take on those kids. And they were abusing his parents or something, but he didn't say a thing, not a word. He just silently listened to all that they were telling and then calm as he may walked off. I was watching the whole scene, when the boys came after him and started beating him up. But still he didn't say or do anything, just walked off once again. I have never seen a guy do that before".

"It takes a lot of strength to walk off." Ryan said looking at Marissa and catching her gaze as they silently communicated.

"what happened then?" she asked.

"I don't know, mom, after that we got to talking, I think he lives with his dad and his mom is no more, I don't know, but the way he said it, it was like he was purposely avoiding any personal topic, like some parts of it were scary even to him. it definitely scared me… he looked so hurt, even though I think he always puts up a brave face, but in that moment I really wanted to do something, to help somehow".

The one thing that Jason had inherited from Marissa was her heart so it was completely natural for him to want to help out this kid. He always thought with his heart and that Ryan knew was a recipe for trouble.

"Who is he?" Ryan asked.

"Uhh… some weird new transfer student named Seejay."

------------

A/N: there is a little blue lutton to the side. click it! you know you want to.