A/N: Thank goodness for Arrow of Time and the concept of entropy and the arrow of time moving things forward only. Beautiful concept and gave me an out for the entropy I had created in this story relationship. Yeah, we pull it out by that cosmological concept of time. Even so, I felt she forgave him too quickly so I have changed this chapter quite a bit.

Two Lonely Souls

Chapter 18

Isabella rolled over and reached for the clock. She could hear Colby in the shower, but had no idea what time it was. 9:00am. That meant that Tommy and Don had headed towards the mayor without her to brief him as much as possible. That was fine with her. The mayor was a kiss-ass and she had little tolerance for the mixture of politics and government. She moved her body, almost crying out at the residual pain from the bruising from the night before. She looked at her legs where Colby's big hand prints had left black and green bruises. She stood and wandered into the dressing area and looked at her back where more bruises and red rashes from the marble marred her pale skin. She brushed her hair, carefully tugging the tangles through the huge knots on her skull where her head had been pounded on the marble. She was no longer bleeding so she had to assume nothing was torn or seriously damaged. She brushed her teeth and watched Colby sitting in the shower on the teak bench letting the hot water pour over him. She could tell he was crying, regret, dread, anxiety, all those emotions one feels when they fear losing someone. He was unaware that she was even there until the door opened and she entered. The water was dangerously hot and she turned it down to something more tolerable.

"What was your plan baby? To boil yourself alive like the Apostle John? Or should I just get you a whip to flagellate yourself like Nathanial?"

"I deserve either, or both of those. I can't believe I took what I have wanted my whole life, a beautiful, intelligent, equally dangerous woman and thrown her away out of selfishness and stupidity."

Isabella reached up and took some sesame oil and began to massage Colby's massive shoulders and neck, hitting the release points causing him to immediately relax. She worked more of the oil into his upper back. She urged him to stand up and moved the long bench to the back of the shower where he got hit with less water and asked him to lay flat. While he was getting resettled, she put some relaxation and sexually stimulating oil into scented holders that filled the shower steam with the wonderful smell.

She picked up where she had left off with the sesame oil rubbing more into Colby's lower back where he carried so much of his pain. She rubbed the perfect orbs of his gluts until he moaned and she smiled at the sound. She finished the back part of his legs and asked him to turn over. She gently massaged his tears and pain out of his face, leaning down over him to kiss him deeply. She then moved on to his neck and under his jaw, spreading the oil down the fantastic chest.

"Colby, your chest is the most beautiful chest I have ever seen." She used her mouth and tongue to spread the sesame oil around, followed by her hands massaging his chest and his almost over developed arms. It was no wonder she used to feel so safe when she was with him. As she reached the middle section of his body, She moved around it and onto his legs and feet. "Colby," her hands never stopped moving along his body, but now she was ready to talk. "Have you ever heard of the arrow of time?"

"Sounds like something Charlie or Fleinhardt would come up with. What is it and why are you bringing it up now?"

"The arrow of time is a cosmological concept, but the beauty of it for us is that the arrow of time only flows one way. We cannot change the past and we cannot know the future. We can only live in what we have today. The Rubaiyat says that:

'The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.'
- Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald translation) (Wikipedia)"

Colby's eyes opened from where they were closed from her ministrations. "You are saying that this arrow of time only moves forward. There is nothing we can do to rewrite history, no matter the tears of regret cannot change the past. The arrow only moves forward in time, there is no going back, ever."

Isabella had not stopped her slickly moving hands during their conversation, as important as it was, and Colby was now beyond rock hard and ready for her, but he was not sure she wanted him. "Colby, I love you. We have kind of made a mess of things right now, but the arrow of time moves forward only. It cannot move any other way, no matter how much we want to change things. We can 'if only…' things into a death of regret. But if you love me too, and you want to be with me, and only me, let's put the past in the past and let the arrow of time propel us forward to a happier, healthier time."

"You know that is what I want, only you, forever you. I rescind my suggestion about you and Tommy. I will apologize one more time for my terrible transgression and the wound it inflicted on you, and I am sorry you got so hurt last night. I can see the bruises. I will never again bruise you again."

"Whoa, cowboy. Don't get carried away. You outweigh me by more than a hundred pounds, we get rough and when we both sign up for that, we like it. So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And apology accepted Colby. I feel no more need to talk about it unless you do. Even so, you have been with someone else within just a few days, and I have been hurt both emotional and physically as well. As hard as you are now, I feel no need to relieve your burden. It will take me some time. Do you understand?"

"At least you haven't thrown me out with the bathwater, Bella. I love you, even if my actions lately don't support that."

He gently pulled her battered and aching body up so they could start rewashing themselves, Isabella using the shampoo she was known for. He just used expensive soap and shampoo she had bought for him. She told him she thought it made him smell 'yummy.'

By the time Colby had on his jeans, there was a loud pounding at the bedroom door.

"What?!" Colby yelled as he walked to the door. It was David of course.

"That has to be the longest shower in the history of showers and sex. You two were wanted down there half an hour ago. Making the rest of us wait while we KNOW you are up here having great sex. You have a lot of testosterone laden rapidly regressing males downstairs. Get your ass down there immediately. And Isa, I would not wear one of you more provocative outfits. Things will get out of hand."

Isabella walked into the bedroom wearing jeans and a black lacy long sleeved fitted blouse, and black flat heeled boots. She looked amazing and there wasn't a bruise in sight. "I think we are ready aren't we baby? This outfit covers everything. Think it will do David?"

"It would be great if you weren't so damned beautiful. Don and Tommy just got back from the mayor's, not real happy you weren't awake to go with them."

"Yeah, I bet. Thanks for the heads up. What else has been going on?"

"The best I can say is there was a lot of attention paid as to how long the shower ran in your room this morning. Close to two hours. The level of imagination of what could have been going on was quite high."

"Great..." Isabella said sarcastically.

The three of them walked out of their bedroom door and headed downstairs with every eye in the house watching. Isabella chose to completely ignore the whole scene including Don's impending temperamental explosion.

Colby and David had a much harder time ignoring all the attention. David went back to where he had been sitting, before being sent to retrieve the delinquent couple. Colby stopped by the coffee maker and went to the back of the couch to perch. Isabella leaned against the wall, with one foot propped up on the wall. She had no need to apologize, neither did Colby, so they weren't going to.

Don finally couldn't hold back anymore, and Isabella just looked at him. "You were supposed to go with us to the mayor's. You decided to sleep in and then have shower sex allegedly for the last two hours. Are you on the team or not Isabella?"

There were several gasps of surprise, shocked surprise that Don would be pissed enough to accuse Isabella of not being on the team.

"So I slept in after a really rough several days and painfully long nights instead of going to the mayor's office where I would have been more of a distraction than a help. As for the last two hours in your imagination, you have a right to that, but understand it is none of your business. Sorry if you are jealous, or angry, or think he doesn't deserve me, whatever your issues are I don't care. Get over it, get focused. As for your accusation that I am not a team player, everyone in this room knows that is crap so I won't bother to defend myself. If you want me off the team, and you are pissed because we took two hours in the shower, and you can find someone else who can interpret what is going on, go for it. I am happy to clear these clowns out of my Penthouse and get back to my life. If you don't want me off the team, fine. But if you do, you don't disrespect me and my contributions to this operation."

Don stood there and stared at Isabella still leaning against the far wall. Her position had not moved, her foot was still propped against the wall. She was totally at ease, not even mad, just tired. Just like him.

"You're right, Isa. I was disrespectful and denied your significant contributions. I'm sorry. I am tired. We have to cover tomorrow night at the ball game. Even though we think the cells have been taken out and the searches on the houses have not brought anything new to light, there was a plausible threat on the game and we have to cover it. Isabella, Ian, Brian, and Cooper you are spread around the stadium in the boxes as our snipers. We'll put some spotters in there with you. The rest of you will be walking the floors looking for anything suspicious. We'll have to add significant resources from the police, marshalls, and FBI. Tommy and I will brief that team and get everyone organized across the stadium. Charlie, I'll need you and Amita to work on the best strategy for dividing the stadium from the ground and from the boxes. Tommy, some of your guys are going to clear the ceiling to where the rafters end. Colby and David can repel as well if you need them. If else has something to add, we'd be happy to have help. Get your gear and we'll head out in an hour."