David paused outside the door of the apartment. He had to play this just right. Samantha would not take this well and she had to see that he was fine first, no damage done. The key was presentation. If he presented it to her in just the right way, preferably if he kept her completely in the dark about what happened, then everything would be fine.

Taking a deep breath, he finally opened the door and crossed the threshold. "Samantha?" he called out. "Samantha?"

"Be right there." She called from the kitchen. "I'm putting out some flames. No pun intended." The fire extinguisher went haywire and hopped out of her hands, sliding across the living room floor.

"What the hell?" he swore as he jumped out of the way. Bending over to pick up the offending object, he winced when he moved too quickly. "Why did you try to cook?"

"Stupid woman on the screen made it look so easy, but don't worry. I won't be doing it for a while now. At least not without life insurance." Sam promised, moving out of the way so he could throw the skillet into the sink of soapy water.

"Good idea." The toss should have been easy, but the pain made it seem harder. He bit his lower lip to keep from cursing. "How was your day?"

"Obviously better than yours. Why do you look like you're about to cry?" She wiped his sweaty hair from his forehead.

"Nothing. Just over did it at the gym today."

"Oh yeah?" Sam challenged, swiping her hand over his shoulder. "Is that why you're bleeding?"

He glanced over quickly seeing she was right. "Shit. I must have popped a stitch."

"Stitch?" She shrieked, pushing his blue overshirt off of him and inspecting the bloody streak running from the top of his shoulder to the end of his elbow. "Someone shot you?"

"Graze. It grazed me." He corrected.

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

"Well they did a terrible job. Go, sit on the couch."

"Samantha." He protested as he followed her orders anyway. "I'm fine. The bleeding will stop on its own."

"And if it doesn't?" Sam countered, reaching under the sink for a First Aid kit. "Just trust me. I'm going to get you all fixed up. This is not my first time."

"You had a career as a nurse I'm unaware of?"

"Well I didn't flunk out if that's what you mean. I dated an intern for a little while."

"I hate to break this to you, but that's not the same as going to medical school."

"But I don't have four years to waste on that."

"Who does?" he asked as she came near him with a rag.

"Cold." She warned him quietly, washing away the blood. "Are you going to tell me who was shooting at you?"

"Some punk." David dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Robbed the little grocery on Fifth and thought if he shot the gun around he'd escape. This is the result of his lousy aim."

"So you let him get away. I see." She teased before dabbing a bit of peroxide onto a cotton ball.

"Of course not. Tackled him to the ground."

"And then you went to the doctor?"

"After he was booked."

"David." Sam scolded rolling her eyes upward.

"Samantha I had a job to do."

"Then dodge the bullets. Aren't you supposed to be a superhero?" She took a large bandage from the kit and peeled the plastic backing from it.

"You took away my cape."

"Yeah, well, it didn't go with your eyes." He winced when she pressed the sticky bandage to his sore arm. "Sorry. Sorry."

"It's ok." He cast his eyes down to inspect her work. "Looks like I'll live."

"That remains to be seen." Sam huffed and returned the kit to its rightful place. It amazed her how often they had used it.

"Are you mad at me?" He teased as he followed her into the kitchen.

"Yes." She nodded. "Walking into bullets. That's such a loser thing to do."

David slid closer to her. "I didn't walk into anything."

Sam braced her hands against the counter. "I don't know how good a job I did, but at least the bandage should keep air from getting to the cut. I'll look at it later if you want."

David wrapped his arms around her and covered her hands with his. "So you're offering to play nurse?"

"David, I'm serious. You need to be more careful."

"I'm always careful."

"No you're not. You have no regard for your safety at all."

"I take the necessary precautions, but I'm still a cop. There are always going to be risks."

"Maybe if you could get along better with others, you could have a partner assist you. An official one who gets to wear a gun and those shiny handcuffs."

"But I like you using the handcuffs so much better."

"Nice try, but it's not going to work. I'm pissed at you." Sam assured him, glaring when he spun her around.

"But then we can't have fun making up." David reasoned as he slowly traced one of her arms with his fingers.

"I have plenty of reasons to be mad at you." Sam muttered roughly.

"You do." David whispered as he yanked her into him.

"No." Sam pushed him away and left the kitchen.

David chuckled to himself. Of course she was going to make this a bigger deal than it was. "It's not like you weren't aware that cops got shot before we met Samantha." He pointed out.

"I don't care about cops in the plural tense. I care about you."

"I'm fine. I'll continue to be fine. Getting shot at by a kid who couldn't hold his gun straight is not an everyday occurrence."

"You're right. That kid and too many like him are going to get better at it and aim lower."

"What do you want me to do? Quit? I'm not going to do that."

"Then why does it matter what I want?"

"You do matter." He promised her.

"I know that." She reluctantly agreed.

"Then we are going to have to come sort of compromise here because I am not planning on giving you or my job up any time soon."

"I just got scared. It won't happen again. Promise."

"Samantha, it's ok you got scared. I think it's cute."

"Cute?"

"Adorable." David snaked his hand out and pulled her to him. "It's nice to know you care so much."

"Then I shall continue to be extra adorable from now on. That said, if you think you can just come home all bloody with some macho crap about—" Her rant was cut off with a kiss.

"I'll come home bloody if you're going to play nurse." He taunted.

"That's not funny."

"You offered."

"I was going to say something else, but you interrupted me."

"By all means finish."

Shaking her head, she leaned up to brush her lips across his. "I'd rather kiss you."

"No argument here."

*****

"Elizabeth? What are you doing here?"

"Hi Steven. The twins begged me to come see you." Elizabeth pushed the stroller into the familiar living room past her brother. She had needed to get away and this was the first place that popped into mind.

"I'll bet." Steven walked to the closet and pulled out the portable playpen Grams bought when he was a baby. He unfolded it for the twins and helped Elizabeth put them in it.

"Well how else do you expect to win the favorite uncle war?"

"What's on your mind?"

"Why can't you just let me pretend? Just once?"

"I've never been all that great with façades. You know that. Something to drink?"

"No thanks." Elizabeth sat down on the couch and rested her head on her hand. "I've had so much coffee in the past few days I'm starting to think I'll never sleep again."

"I'm a big fan of avoiding sleep." He decided now might not be the best time to tell her about the nightmares.

"I wish this was all just a dream." She whispered. Ever since Lucky had told her what he suspected his sister was involved in, she hadn't been able to close her eyes without picturing the accident. She had wanted whoever hurt Steven to be caught. She just didn't want it to be Lulu.

"I guess you know too."

Elizabeth nodded. "Lucky told me right after he left you."

"Georgie said I should let it go."

"But you can't." Elizabeth finished quietly. "I know you can't."

"How am I supposed to? I haven't made my original dislike of your fiancé a secret, but I wouldn't seek out to destroy his baby sister's life."

"I know that. And Lucky does too. It's just such an incredible mess."

"I'm sorry you're in the middle of all this."

"I just don't know what to do. How to feel. I'm angry. I am so angry with Lulu for what she did to you. What she could have done to you. But at the same time, she's the same girl who faced down an armed kidnapper to save Cameron and she's the one who told me how to impress everyone in Lucky's family. I can't forget that, no matter how badly I wish I could."

"I don't expect you to stop caring about her. You're not a soulless monster and I would never want you to be. The difference is that I don't have any memories with her. I didn't know her before this."

"I wish you did." Elizabeth smiled softly. "You would have loved her."

"If you've come to plead her case, you're too late. I already promised to call the station and tell them that the only solution to this whole thing is Lulu getting into rehab."

"I didn't come to plead her case. I came to see you. But I do think rehab is part of the answer."

"What condition would you add on?"

"No conditions. Just the knowledge of how the Spencer mind works."

"I'm sure they'll clue you into that once you join their family. Probably some kind of cult."

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm already an expert. If Lulu really gets the help she needs, she'll punish herself far worse than anything anyone could do to her. I've seen it happen to her brother and cousin far too many times."

"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be reacting to all of this. In every scenario, I'm the bad guy."

"You're not the bad guy. There's just no way to win."

"I keep thinking there has to be a way I could have prevented it."

"Only if you could have kept AJ from hiring Courtney, Emily, and Logan."

"From what I've seen of the Spencer guilt, I think it's best that I'm not dead in more ways than one."

"Well for starters you would have stood a good chance of wrecking my marriage before it even started."

"I wouldn't miss the opportunity to walk you down the aisle." Steven promised.

"Who said that was your job?"

He gave her a long look. "Isn't it?"

"Well yes but I haven't asked you yet."

"Okay, ask me and I'll pretend to be surprised." He made his best shocked expression, his eyebrows lifting as high as he could get them.

Elizabeth laughed. "To be fair, you'd have to share the job."

"With?"

"Cameron. He found out everyone would watch me walk up the aisle and well he's a ham."

Steven laughed. "As long as I don't have to share the honor with Patrick."

"No. He'll be handling all the kids. But he doesn't know that just yet."

"Don't worry. I won't be telling him." Steven assured her, zipping up his lips with his thumb and index finger.

"Good. You know how I hate to ruin surprises."