Oooh boy, here's an addition to this whatever it's going to be. Thanks for reading and the feedback.

Present Day

C.J walked into the penthouse suite from the elevator after the doors had opened and couldn't believe the sight that greeted her. A flurry of activity and over a dozen people, including most who weren't familiar to her milled around the office.

Ahead of her she saw one very familiar face belonging to her long-time business partner and best friend, Matt who sat in his bubbling Jacuzzi which had been installed in the middle of the lobby which adjoined the area which housed the wet bar and a sofa which rested in front of their extensive network informational system. The one that had become the model to the rest of the investigative profession.

She stood in front of him just sitting in there, looking like he didn't have a stitch of clothing on while several attractive women fussed around him including one who patted makeup on his face.

"Just a little foundation Mr. Houston," the blonde said, "So you don't disappear underneath the bright light during the photo session."

C.J. searched her mind to try to figure out what was going on here and couldn't come up with a damn bit of information which would help clarify the confusing situation unfolding in front of her. She approached the hot tub and then crossed her arms.

"Houston, what the hell's going on here," she asked.

He smiled at her, putting his arms behind his head and looking up at her.

"Why C.J. you remember that segment that was going to air on L.A. This Morning on our business…"

She sighed, putting down her things in the only unoccupied chair she could find.

"Oh that…"

"Yes that," he said, "They wanted to film some footage before the award ceremony tomorrow night."

She did remember that both of them were going to be honored by a crime victims' foundation for their work at helping to locate missing people, especially those that the police agencies hadn't the resources to find. Through his business conglomerate, Matt had developed a new form of software that would network law enforcement agencies better to each other and to organizations that focused on finding missing people so that they could have better luck locating these individuals to at least provide some form of closure to the families involve if they couldn't forge a more joyful reunion.

For all that work and their own tireless efforts with the agency, both Matt and C.J. would be given an award at the Hotel Buena Ventura in downtown, along with other people who engaged in similar work. She looked forward to it even though neither she nor Matt focused on the accolades that they received for doing work that they did for other reasons, reasons that only the two of them fully understood. When Matt had forgone his life as one of the wealthiest businessmen in the country, the stock market had reacted and many experts who consulted with the media had labeled him eccentric or worse, but he hadn't cared and had fully embraced the new and very challenging direction his life had taken both him and the woman he considered his right hand…woman.

Now that woman was looking at him very strangely as he sat in his hot tub with people scurrying around the office setting up cameras and lights.

"I'll be in my office," she told him pointedly.

"Oh C.J., after they film this part of the segment, they'll be doing an interview out on the couch and they have some questions to ask you."

She just sighed and continued on to where she could hole up inside her office and conduct her work and keep the madness where it belonged, outside of it. She looked up at Chris and the other secretaries who stood there with paperwork that needed to be signed, and appeared at a loss of what to do.

"Houston's got to sign some of these documents," Chris explained, "Murray's on his way back from New York and he faxed the merger papers with Dunkin-Forester Inc. ahead of him."

C.J. looked at the documents.

"Well he's going to be tied up here for a while," she said, "This is just crazy. We've got so much work here with the two mergers with Houston Enterprises and the caseload, the meeting with a couple of federal agencies…and then there's the meeting of the donors for the 911 memorial."

"That's quite a schedule," Chris said.

"I know," C.J. said, "and dropping this entertainment segment in the middle of it isn't helping."

Chris sighed.

"They actually wanted the other secretaries and I to sign releases to dish some dirt on the two of you," she said, shaking her head, "I think a couple of them were tempted."

"Not much to tell on my end," C.J. said, "Now Houston on the other hand…"

Chris whispered closer.

"They wanted a copy of his little black book," she said, "and they were willing to pay plenty for it."

C.J. sighed.

"I don't think anyone's actually ever seen one," she said, "Just another one of those urban legends…like the one where he convenes business in his hot tub…wearing only his favorite cowboy hat…better scratch that one off the list."

"It took a while to get used to when I first arrived here," Chris admitted, "though it's been quite the conversation at the water cooler."

"I'll bet…"

"Anyway, he's got to sign these papers pretty soon or Murray isn't going to be too happy," Chris warned.

"I'll handle it," C.J. promised, taking the documents from the grateful secretary and heading to her office.

The room wasn't large but stylishly furnished with photographs on the walls, mostly of her and her friends, including Matt. She sat back in her chair in front of a stack of files and her computer. Her phone was probably buried under there somewhere. Usually she kept her working surroundings neat and orderly but the past few weeks had been a tornado of activity. She and Matt had just returned to town from handling a missing child case which had ended happily for them in more ways than one, she thought with a smile.

Something underneath her pile of papers started ringing and she realized that she could check one item off of her growing list, which had been trying to figure out where her phone went.

"Hello…Simone," she said, leaning back in her hair to discuss the woman's case with her.

Not only had Simone been a client looking for her missing boyfriend but she had been a close friend of both Matt and C.J. since they had first moved to L.A. The case had ended with she and Matt going under cover on a cruise ship, he as a valet and she, as entertainment. They had discovered that Simone's boyfriend had been two-timing her with a wealthy beach boy who owned property on San Domingo, an island in a chain of them on the traveling itinerary of the cruise liner.

Simone had kicked the bum out and had moved onto meeting her true love in a night club on the Sunset strip and now had been married for a couple of years and had been thinking about relocating up to Northern California. C.J. knew that she would miss her friend if that turned out to be the case.

"What's up C.J.," Simone asked.

C.J. looked at her paperwork.

"A huge workload and a bunch of people running around outside the door," she said, "Houston's got that television crew down here filming a day in the life of, that kind of thing."

Simone laughed on her end.

"Never a dull moment…"

"Yeah well if this keeps up I might follow you and your husband up to Sonoma," C.J. said.

"Well you're certainly welcome," Simone said, "but I don't know how Matt would feel about that."

C.J. paused.

"He and I…we've been really busy since we got back from Las Vegas," she said, "Ever since that case turned out so well, it's been non-stop."

"The price of success…"

"I know it's great for the family and in a way, for us as well," she said, "but I want this office back."

"The crew will do its filming and then it will be done," Simone pointed out, "then you'll have some semblance of peace back."

C.J. hoped her friend was right about that because she felt a headache coming on and had wanted to head home earlier to rest up for another day's work before the awards ceremony tomorrow night.

"Do you have a date to that event tomorrow," Simone asked.

"Houston and I are going together," she said, "We're both in between relationships but he's put his broken engagement behind him and has moved on."

"Back into the swing of things, as they call it?"

"Maybe…"

She really didn't want to explain further. Suddenly a woman's head popped in her office after opening the door.

"What is it," C.J. asked the woman, really wishing she had knocked first.

"We need to mike you up for the interview," the woman said, then disappeared again.

C.J. looked at her phone and her workload.

"Listen Simone I'm being called for a damn interview session," she said, "I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, now be good C.J."

After she hung up the phone, C.J. gritted her teeth, sorely tempted to not…be so good.

As soon as she sank on the couch, a team of people armed with power puffs and make up brushes descended on her, fixing her up for the filming session. Not that she didn't have enough makeup already on her face, but they layered more on top of that. Matt already sat on the couch, having changed into his jeans and chambray shirt, all cowboy down to his worn boots. He looked like he was about to head off on a cattle drive or ride a busting bronco, activities he had enjoyed on that ranch where he used to live, a helicopter's ride from the office. He had moved out of there and purchased his current digs, a luxurious beach house in Malibu to cut down his daily commute and to remain more tapped into L.A.'s extensive network of wealthy folks including a barrage of pretty young ladies.

His engagement had stopped all that but after Elizabeth and he had called it off several months ago, he had slowly begun to pick up where he left off. Returning phone calls and coming into work, with that spring back in his step. The last girlfriend had been a news anchor that had taken the job position vacated by C.J.'s murderous ex-boyfriend Robert Tyler who instead of giving nightly reports on the local news was working inside the print shop of one of the state's penal institutions. She knew that because every once in awhile she still received these little postcards from him that had originated from his work assignment. After she notified the prison warden that she didn't welcome such correspondence, Robert's printing privileges were somewhat curtailed.

She had broken it off with another guy, Quinn who had become too much of a control freak and she had found that what had charmed her initially when she had met him had become stifling and even more than a bit unnerving over time. When she came back from Las Vegas, he had met her at her house with the smell of alcohol on his breath and picked a fight over her traveling and staying in a hotel with Matt. After he had insinuated that they had shared a hotel room with each other, she had showed him the door. She had to slam it on his face to get him to go away, but had tossed and turned all night in her bed wondering if there had been anything that she had done or said or thought that could have triggered his jealous reaction.

She finally had drifted off to sleep and had woken up, certain that of course there hadn't been any reason at all. The guy just had been unreasonably insecure about her interactions with her male friends. Her familial relationship with Matt's uncle Roy would probably have set Quinn off. Besides Matt, Roy had been the closest thing to family she had since her parents had died, leaving her to be raised by the uncle who never really wanted her.

C.J. scowled as the makeup artist patted her face one last time and then the lights turned on, brightly in her face. Matt looked over at her with a rueful smile.

"Ready for this?

Before she could retort something back, the host of the segment approached them with a smile on her face, despite having just engaged in a loud argument with her sound person that was mediated by a younger harried woman who looked like her personal assistant.

"Good morning, this is L.A. This Morning and I'm here with the two names behind L.A.'s hottest investigation firm, former business tycoon Matt Houstan and his associate and attorney C.J. Parsons."

Both of them smiled graciously for the camera although C.J.'s mind scrambled for an escape route.

"And they've been quite busy lately since the unveiling of that computer technology by Houston Enterprises which could redefine investigative practices across the country…"

Matt and C.J. weathered most of the interview that had to do with the creation of their investigative firm and its upward trajectory into becoming the success it was today and avoided any potential minefields. But then the correspondent moved onto their active social lives since they had moved to L.A.

C.J. sighed and ran her hand through her hair, leading some hair stylist to rush up during the transitional break to touch up her style. Then they went back to filming the interview, with the woman sitting companionably between C.J and Matt as if she were almost family and this interview was taking place in a casual setting. What a crock of...C.J. thought to herself.

"So who's the best that you've ever had…"

Both of them looked at the host, barely hiding the shock on their faces. But the woman smiled at Matt which left C.J. off the hook at least for a little while.

"Excuse me," Matt responded.

The host continued.

"Surely, a man of your rumored…dating habits has crossed paths with many if not most of Hollywood's A-list beauties to provide an informed opinion."

"Actually I haven't gone out with many people in the entertainment industry," Matt explained, "They pretty much stick to their own crowd."

C.J. just looked at Matt, good answer but the correspondent recovered quickly enough.

"Okay, so let's skip the actresses," she said, "What do you look for in a woman?"

Matt looked over at C.J. but she just arched a brow at him. He tried to look like he was putting some thought into his answer.

"Well Cindy…"

"Crystal," the woman corrected.

"Crystal…I look at the entire…package," he started, "I'm very much drawn to women that are…intelligent, well versed in what's going on with the world and can hold their own in that world."

Crystal just looked at him, nonplussed.

"Oh come off of it Matlock, can I call you that, all the women who are photographed on your arm at events and…other venues are gorgeous, knock them dead looking women, well endowed…"

"Crystal," Matt interrupted, "I like attractive women like anyone else but if it's only skin deep then I'm really not interested."

"Oh sure you are," Crystal goaded, "What about that model at the dedication of the statue downtown last month…she had a PhD?"

"Well no but…"

C.J. just shook her head, thinking that they really didn't have her friend figured out at all. Sure, Crystal had nailed it right on the head that Matt appreciated beautiful women but then what he had been trying to tell her had been true as well. He liked them smart, and he liked women who could roll with whatever life threw them and that could laugh too.

"So those rumors that you were in the locker room with a bunch of football cheerleaders lately…"

Matt shook his head. Okay, so maybe that story had some life to it when he had been a varsity football star at Rice University but he barely had time to attend a football game anymore let alone cavort with a any towel clad cheerleaders. Maybe Crystal had gotten a hold of one of his yearbooks…

C.J. had decided enough was enough.

"Look give the guy a break," she said, "Sure he likes attractive women like most men but he's gone out with plenty of intelligent women including an astrophysicist not too long ago and..."

A woman that Matt had bumped into after they had met when he had been working on getting his MBA from a nighttime program, at a university where she had been conducting research in a neighboring business. She had lasted until she received a fellowship in Paris and had relocated there and long-distance relationships, well they just didn't work too well for Matt.

Crystal turned her attention on C.J. and she almost wish she had kept her mouth shut.

"What about you," she said, "Who's the guy that knocked your socks off so to speak?"

C.J. remained mum. She didn't kiss and tell after all. Her silence didn't satisfy the persistent journalist.

"You can tell L.A. Ms Parsons, after all, we've already talked to several of your ex boyfriends including the one in prison."

Her mouth dropped at that. What the hell was this anyway, and why would it matter what Robert thought of their relationship? The guy was doing 30 to life locked up away from society, exactly where he belonged.

"How dare you go digging into my background," she said, anger filling her voice, "What kind of program is this anyway?"

Crystal didn't miss a beat.

"Rated in the top five in the local market," she said, "and climbing…because we get the nitty- gritty about our subjects so just spell it, who lit your fire?"

C.J. looked at Matt biting her lip and he just raised his brows.

"I'm taking that one to the grave, sorry," she said, finally.

After all, she knew the answer to the question but it was none of Crystal's business and the rest of L.A. could certainly survive not knowing. Even the man who had been involved probably didn't know the depths of her reaction to him back then and how it had changed her life. No, he almost certainly didn't know, as that interlude had been back in the past where it belonged. She rose from the couch.

"C.J.," Matt said, his eyes following her.

She turned around to face him.

"No, I'm finished here and I've got work to do," she said, "After all, we've got a business to run."

Matt knew that she left the interview angry and he really couldn't blame her as she had tend to view her affairs as private and in fact, greater L.A. didn't know nearly as much about her background as the people thought they knew about his own.

Crystal turned to Matt again, fidgeting with microphone to get it ready.

"Okay so what was your answer to that question again?"

Later, Matt wandered out to the helipad where she had been standing watching the sun set on yet another busy day in the metropolis that both lived and worked in, having left their years in Texas behind them. He saw her, glass in hand, looking out over the active city towards the horizon which was highlighted with varying shades of color, red and gold in a sea of blue.

He had poured himself a Scotch, believing after all that nonsense inside his office that he really needed one. The interview had ended and the television crew had packed up its equipment and left as if it had never been there. Business once again returning to normal inside the suite, meaning that right now, he had ducked away from his formidable pool of secretaries to hide away from the barrage of paperwork. She turned around to look at him and he took one of his hands and stroked the hair off of her face.

"Thank you for putting up with all that."

She tilted her head, having enjoyed his caress against her skin, which had tingled in response.

"I know it's good for our business and means we can help more people but I just don't enjoy that side of what we do."

Neither did he, really especially when the media probed beyond his professional world into his personal one, feeding the myth of him as this relentless playboy who wined, dined and bedded half of the eligible women of his social circle in the City of Angels and a few of the ineligible ones. Sure, he had his fun with the ladies but he came up for air now and then and every once in a while, he fell deeply in love and had his heart broken just like anyone else.

But at the moment, only one woman had that kind of power over him. And he stepped closer to her, taking her in his arms.

"Houston…"

When his lips captured hers, all thoughts of protest slipped away from her and her own arms found their way around him, drawing him closer to her. They held that pose for a long moment, forgetting about everything else around them but what was in front of them. Finally they separated, both waiting for their breathing to slow down, their heart rates to return to normal.

"I really enjoyed that," he said, stroking her hair again.

She nodded and welcomed his touch.

"So have you given any thought to where you might want to go?"

"What…," she said, clearly distracted.

"On our first date," he said, "You know after we sit through half of that ceremony tomorrow night and then sneak out the back and have the rest of the night to ourselves."

"Well, I…"

"Paris or Zurich," he tossed up.

She arched a brow at him.

"If we pick either, we'll be talking about brunch or maybe lunch."

He shrugged.

"Works for me," he said, "I'm really looking forward to this."

She sighed; taking in the enthusiasm in his eyes, the way his face lit up and felt heady knowing it was for her.

"Me too…but Houston I meant it when I said I want to take it slow, okay?"

He nodded, rubbing her arms reassuring her.

"That's more than okay," he said, "As long as we take it together…it's going to work out just fine, I know it."

She had struggled with that issue more than he had, before she had made the decision after that last case to accept his proposal to change their relationship, to embrace the risks along with what she knew would certainly be joyful dividends.

"I don't know," she said, smiling, "Both places sound so wonderful and of course there's the company to consider…"

"I'll have the Lear Jet ready to go and file two flight plans until a couple hours before we leave," he said, "So that will give you more time to choose our destination."

Instead of saying anything, she drew him in her embrace and they kissed again…not hearing the footsteps behind him. Multiple pairs of hard heeled shoes clicking against the tarmac surface. Then they heard a voice that sounded a bit ill at ease.

"Excuse me," a male voice said and something in it made both Matt and C.J. turn around.

Two men in dark suits stood before them.

"Are you Matt Houston and C.J. Parsons?"

The two of them looked at each other and nodded.

"Then this warrant is for you," he said, pulling out an envelope and handing the paper inside of it to Matt.

His eyes widened when he read it and just looked at it.

"What's this all about?"

The man's expression didn't change.

"We're members of the Laredo County District Attorney's office and this warrant is for Ms Parsons' arrest on first degree murder charges."