Here is the fourth out of five for today... hum interesting turn of events... Please review! OA

Chapter 20: All work and thinking about play.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters in this story. There owned by The CW, CBS Studios and the companies that work with the network. Any dialogue and or story likeness is coincidental and not intended to offend anyone.

We spent the next two days working! From sunup to sundown, we worked and worked. Well I might be exaggerating a little bit, but still, we worked a lot. We had a lot of meetings with clients to talk about the cases we were currently working with them or just checking that the final arrangement had gone through.

We also had some meetings with realtors since we were looking for a place to open a third branch and Hawaii was a good place to open a small one. Well, it also gave me a reason to come to Hawaii every once in awhile as an excuse to take a mini- weekend vacation whenever I felt extra stressed out. We were also tracking down different lawyers around the island and trying to convince them to join in the new branch we were opening (most of which said yes without even waiting to hear their potential salaries, if I do say so myself).

"Are we even close to done yet?" Damon asked as he was driving to our next meeting.

"We will be done when we finish, ok? May I remind you that this is a business trip, not a vacation?" I told him as I went through some papers that I had had the office fax to me at the hotel.

"And may I remind you that this was supposed to be a vacation and you said we would have some fun, and work does NOT count missy!" He whined as he took a sharp turn left.

"God, can you be a little bit more careful while driving, I do not have a death wish you know? Besides if I recall correctly I said that there could be fun when we finished work and only IF we finished it, or am I mistaken Salvatore?" I retorted with a victory smile, since I knew there was no way he could win this battle.

"I can beat anyone in court but I cannot even get through to this women!" Damon said under his breath and although I heard him I was tempted to ask and see if he would tell me to my face, if he could let me win for once and actually verbalize my victory.

"What did you say?" I asked him.

"Nothing. Just that you are the only woman in the world that can actually desire to move work that you had scheduled for 3 months in the future and put it all in the week she was supposed to be in her honeymoon. Are you even sure that you are human, hun?" He said trying to move the conversation back in the direction where I am the bad guy, or girl in this case.

"Well, first of all I am human, I'm made of flesh and blood and you know that. Second I am trying to keep my mind of what happened and I have been successful in it. And third if I am already here, why can't I take care of business and get it out of the way so the next time I come here there is an office here waiting for me?" I asked him in my logical tone.

"Although I would much rather be having fun in the beach or relaxing by the pool with a good crime novel, you do have a point about getting ahead in our plans of opening the branch here." He said in his defeated tone, which he used very rarely.

"Well thank you for agreeing with me at least on that part of my logic." I told him and gave him a little pat on the back so that he wouldn't feel so bad about losing the little battle we had just finished.

"Yes, Ok, Fine! But still, I beg you to just let loose for at least one day and do not work on anything, just take the day for yourself. And before you say anything, I am not doing this for me, I just think that with all you have been through this would be a good thing for you, like some kind of fun therapy session or something. Besides it might end up being a great adventure and the best decision you have taken in your life. Heck, you might end up thanking me for this one day in the future, or not. But who cares! The point is to dive in headfirst and be daring for once in your life, forget about controlling things for a night and let loose, you might be surprised to even find out that you like being wild every once in awhile." He said as he looked my way a couple of times, since he was driving. I noticed that he was trying to tell me something that he thought was important, so I bit the bullet and let him go on.

"Can you be a little more specific? An example would be awesome at this point." I told him to encourage him to go on.

"Ok its something like this. It is very bad to have an animal caged for a very long time. Lets say that we have a lioness caged up for about 30 years. (I rolled my eyes here cause he couldn't have been more direct if he tried!) She would end up with one of two fates. The First is that she would end up having a rage attack and freaking out because the captivity made her crazy and claustrophobic and she might end up doing something that she would regret the rest of her life. The second option for her is that she becomes so accustomed to this type of life that she gives up on trying to live and just goes on with the emotions of what she thinks life is." He said as he emphasized his example with hand movements.

"And what would you recommend that should be done so that neither of these fates is achieved, zookeeper?" I said to encourage him to go on but making fun of his example at the same time.

"Well so that we can get her to go for option three, we need to let her out of her cage every once in awhile. In a safe environment that is. The people that take care of her should create an area where she feels safe and loved and free so that she can let loose knowing that there will be no consequences where she will do something that she regrets, where there are people there that want what is best for her and will help her with her choices and her health." He said, a very serious tone of voice coming through his explanation meaning that all joke was off the table and that this was serious business now.

"And what is the third option that you just mentioned?" I asked him since know I was curious of what he was thinking and what he was trying to tell me.

"The third option" he said "is a way of life where she is happy with life and she isn't just a robot going through the motions, she lives life in a fulfilling way. Her life is filled with real joys and real happiness. A life where she can have fun and smile genuinely, a life where she loves and is loved, a life like the one she dreams about. She wants a love that consumes her. She wants passion and adventure, and even a little danger."

"That sounds wonderful, but I don't think that lives like that exist in the real world, at least not for me, I mean the tigress." I told him in all honesty as that is what I thought. I had never had the life that I wanted because every time I was close to having it, destiny or fate, whatever you wanted to call it, took it away from me. First my mom never loved me, then, when I did find my father and felt him love me, he died and then what, I was going to try to start a family and got stuck with a deceitful, manipulative pig (aka that british douchebag called Klaus).

"You're wrong there hun. Although a perfect life does not exist, I do believe that there is a perfect life for each of us, just like the fact that there is no perfect person but there is a perfect someone for each of us. I believe that the perfect life is the life where, although there are problems and sadness and hurt, you can get through it and still want to continue on. Its the life where you feel wanted and needed and loved and other people, important people in your life, feel the same way when they are with you. Its the life where you live to the fullest and you chase your dreams. Its the life where you decide to open yourself and share that life and yourself with others. Is a life filled with love, because, hun, love can conquer everything. It is what keeps you moving and keeps you wanting to become a better person for someone else, it is what gives meaning to life and what we all strive to find before our time here on earth is done." I could tell that he said all of those things from the bottom of his soul, of his heart.

We stayed silent for a little while. One of those comfortable silences we often had while we processed what had gone on. Me on internalizing what he just had said, and him trying to think of a way to get me to have fun, I presume. Just then we got to the office where our meeting was going to take place in and we parked to go inside.

"Here we go. If we get this guy onboard we can officially start the paperwork to open a branch here in Hawaii." I said with a smile as I checked my clothes before going in.

"Lets go, my lady." Damon said as he offered me his arm and we strode to the office.