Standard disclaimer, I don't own the rights to anything, this is done for entertainment not profit.

Chapter 3: Even the Best Laid Plans

So many questions race through my mind, I try to breath, try to focus on making my mouth work.

"Wha..." I try in vain to get a sentence out.

In a moment she clears the distance between, wraps one hand around my head and pulls my lips to hers.

It's not like any of my dreams, no slow gentle pace to our movement. This time we're both frantic.

She pushes me against the table and kisses me again, I never want her to stop. I suddenly become aware of every nerve and muscle in my body. The knife drops out of my hand onto the floor.

She tears the plastic apron off me, the starts on my shirt. I tear the buttons off her blouse. In a moment, everything we've worn is in a heap on the floor, soaking in blood.

She seems to realize doing this on the table isn't an option, unless we stop to cut Matt free of the plastic and move his body. Dead people are so inconsiderate of the needs of others.

She pushes me against the wall with the victims pictures on it. I grab her legs and wrap them around my waist. Our hands and mouths are constantly moving, trying to touch every inch of each others bodies at once.

I only slow down when I touch her scars, gently stroking the places those men hurt her.

She takes her lips of my neck so she can look into my eyes, I can see the desire there, the hunger. And just for a moment, I can see myself reflected in those eyes. I can't believe I never dreamed of this.

The moment passes and we continue to explore each others bodies. She digs her nails into my back as we climax, screaming each others names.

We finish the cleanup together, I'm almost on autopilot. She removes the plastic and cleans as I dismember the body and package it up in plastic. As much as I want to start asking questions, I'd rather do it in the car driving to my boat than sitting here with a dead body displayed for anyone to stumble upon.

As we get in the car, the silence suddenly becomes uncomfortable. "How long have you been back?"

"Three days, I was going to try and talk to you after work yesterday, but I saw you going to that guys apartment. Then today I saw you setting up plastic and I knew you'd be back here eventually. I'm sorry." She says.

Sorry? Does she mean for leaving? For coming back? For walking in on me like that? My head is spinning, I try to stay in control. "Sorry for what?"

"For leaving, for hurting you like that after everything you did for me. I was telling you the truth when I said I never thought I'd live to see the end things, that I'd die before I killed them all. After I didn't, I thought I could just walk away, pretend it never happened and have the normal life I ran away from. I realized I couldn't, that the darkness wasn't gone. All I could think of was getting back to you. I was scared you had let me go, that you wouldn't want me back. But I had to at least try, I couldn't stay away any longer." She says it all so quickly, like she can't stop. It might be the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

"I missed you to." I say quickly. "I couldn't stop thinking about you after you left. I tried to keep busy with the kids, make up for everything that's happened. Then I tried to focus on a new project, but even then I kept imagining you with me. I'm glad you're back. Sorry things didn't work out with your family." I do my best to stay calm even though I have the sudden urge to grab her and hold her, make sure that she's really here with me.

"I tried to make things work with my family. It was easy at first, they were glad to see me again. Then they started asking questions I couldn't answer, where I'd been, who I was with... apparently Owen told them I was seeing someone. Then a week ago my mom walked in on me as I was getting out of the shower, saw the scars. When she finally stopped screaming, she kept demanding to know who did this to me. When Dad got home they started saying I needed to file a police report, that they wouldn't just let whoever did this get away with it." She smiles for a second, I smile back. "When they said that I actually laughed, couldn't help it. I think they wanted to have me committed. I finally convinced them that I was going back to Miami to file a report. I knew I couldn't stay after that. It just wasn't home anymore." She finishes.

I park in the lot, still so many questions I want to ask her. Unfortunately, she beats me to it.

"Dexter, there are a lot of questions I wanted to ask you after I left, I realized we never really got to know each other, I mean like normal people. I guess, I never had to do that with Owen since we knew each other forever. But after I left, I kept thinking of you; at first it was what you were doing, if you were moving on without me. But then I realized their was so much I didn't know, so much I wanted to know. Is that ok?" She asks, afraid to pry.

I barely hear her after she tells me she's been thinking about me all this time, that she missed me like I missed her. "You can ask me anything."

"You told me about your mom, how doing this was the only way for you to feel, not broken. But how did you start on the whole code thing? And how did you keep what you are hidden all this time? I mean, I had trouble keeping all this from my parents, how did you manage it as a kid? Especially with a sister in the police force." She asks.

I wonder if this is how most guys feel when girlfriends want to know about their lives. I'm sure I've had women ask me about myself, it just never occurred to me to answer honestly. I guess I'll have to start at the beginning. "Mom died when I was very little. I was adopted by a cop named Harry Morgan, you're right, I couldn't hide what I was back then. He found out I'd been killing animals. At first, he tried to get me to stop, took me on hunting trips, tried to teach me how to look normal for everyone else. When he figured out I wasn't going to get better, he told me their were a lot of bad people out there, and the cops couldn't stop them all. He said some people deserved to die As a cop, it always hit him hard when a killer got away on a technicality or because their wasn't enough evidence. For most of my life, I thought he helped me because he loved me, that he accepted me for who I am."

The story of my life in a nutshell, it's actually kind of nice telling someone this stuff. I hope it answers her questions.

"What do you mean you thought that was why, why did he help you?" She asks.

"He was having an affair with my mother, she was one of his informants. When he died, I used to think his heart finally gave out. A few years ago, I found out he committed suicide, used his heart medication. A friend of his falsified the coroner's report so Deb and I wouldn't find out... he saw me in my kill room, chopping up a body. He taught me everything about how to get away with murder, but he never saw me actually do it. When he walked in, I showed him the body, I thought he'd be proud of me, happy I killed someone that got away with murder. He was disgusted; couldn't live with the reality of what I was. He was the only person who ever really saw me, and it killed him. I killed him." I was never this honest with anyone, I feel better and worse at the same time.

Lumen grabs my hand, she looks like she's going to cry. "That's not fair Dexter. I've seen the way you are with Harrison, with your other kids, with me. You could have left me where you found me, or let me go to jail instead of teaching me. Your father may have taught you a lot of things, but he never taught you that. There's more to you than you give yourself credit for. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, sorry I left you the way I did."

I hug her, needing contact in a way I've never needed it before. Her scent is intoxicating, and while I want so badly to have a repeat of the way we greeted each other over my kill, I realize we're in a semipublic place, and there's no sense in getting arrested for public indecency, especially with a dead body in the trunk.

Right, gotta keep things on track. First we dump the body, then figure out where we go from here.

A/N: Well, things are moving along for Dexter and Lumen. Coming up, Dexter has to explain to Deb that Lumen's back in his life.

Review are welcome!