A.N.: A sequel to When SHE Came Home After He Married A Witch, and chapter 10 here on story bits.

Anderville is a city Mickey got stuck in during the comic series, Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine.

Happy Turkey Day!

Spring cleaning was a lot easier now that they were married, as they got more done when they were together. That, and it was only one house to deal with rather than both of their houses and offering to help the other in the first place.

As Minnie, tidied up Mickey's work desk for his detective cases she accidentally knocked over a box that spilled envelopes all over the desk and onto the floor. Annoyed at her careless mistake, she huffed and picked them up, only to immediately notice that they were addressed to her…from all of her old addresses. The earliest being when she still lived with her parents on the farm, then to her own house, her apartment downtown, and the apartment in the Bowtique building, and even when she had lived in the Happy Helpers building. They were marked with dates on the back to indicate the order that he wrote them in but they had no stamps even though they were sealed and had his return address, some were even from when he was stuck in Anderville. It baffled her as to why he never sent them.

"Mickey?" She called out to him as her curiosity was getting the better of her. She heard him bound up the stairs and round the corner and stopping at the door frame as he came at the sound of her call.

"Yeah, Min?"

"Why in the world do you have so many letters addressed to me that you never sent?" She couldn't help but ask in a firm tone, though her genuine curiosity was still laced within it.

His ears drooped and his pupils shrunk in shock, he wasn't expecting her to find them so soon. That, and when they got married he had forgotten about them anyway. Still…hoo boy how best to explain? Oh well…the cat was out of the bag now.

"They're uh…love letters that I didn't have the guts ta send ya. Ya can open 'em if ya want, but just remember that you'll be reading a roller coaster of emotions of mostly pure genuine, bona fide, unadulterated puppy love." He managed to explain with a small roll of his eyes at his own description upon vaguely remembering what he had written in most of them. She raised a brow at him, and he couldn't help but sink his ears lower in embarrassment.

"Even the recent ones?" She asked skeptically in a playful way, as she pulled out and waved one with her Happy Helpers address on it. She was immensely flattered that every single envelope was a love letter that he was obviously too shy to send.

"Nah, those ones were just too cheesy ta send ya. And the ones I wrote from Anderville were too depressing. It's really just the early ones that are incredibly sappy from puppy love. I think the very first one I wrote was sometime after we met, but I didn't pick up on writing more ever again until after the Mr. Slicker incident. Not that I remember much of what exactly I wrote anyway." He told her casually as he finally entered the room and plopped down next to her. He had felt the need to explain that much since, knowing her, she'd read every single one in a sitting.

They were going to have to continue spring cleaning tomorrow, granted that she finished reading them by then, as there was a lot there, and she had knocked over the whole box of many, many, years' worth of unsent love letters.

"Still, you could've given me the older ones even sometime before we got married." Minnie teased, trying to prod a better explanation out of him. She knew him, and she knew there had to be more to it than what he already explained.

Mickey chuckled and shook his head before he had another thought and started to sort through the letters with her, all while he spoke again. "No, it wouldn't have meant as much if I just randomly gave 'em ta ya. I was savin' 'em fer a rainy Valentine's Day on the off chance that I didn't have any good ideas of how ta spend it with ya. But as you already very well know, that never happened." At that, Minnie kissed his cheek, giggling at his blush and was equally pleased when he kissed her cheek in return.

However, he paled shortly after as Mickey managed to find what he was looking for and had hoped that they weren't actually there. He managed to swipe them away from her sight, but she still caught him by the ear in just knowing that he swiped the two envelopes away because they were the only ones that didn't have her name on them, but she didn't catch whose name was on them.

"Who are those for?" She asked in a low tone, she wanted to growl, but she hated being mad at him.

"Samantha of course, and fer the record I'm burning these since I ain't gonna send them." He replied simply in an equally low tone to get his point across.

She let go of his ear and crossed her arms as the name held no meaning to her and she became incredibly suspicious. "Who's she?" Now she growled.

Mickey turned to her with a deadpanned look because he knew he had already told her about Samantha upon finding her picture in the photo album that had all of his and his cousin's adventures in it.

"The blonde girl I almost married after only knowing her fer a month, her picture is in mine and Manfred's photo album, and ya even managed ta have a nightmare about me having actually married her and suddenly askin' ya ta be my mistress when ya came home from yer 'Around the World' cruise." He deadpanned. "That Samantha." He watched as the realization finally came to Minnie's face, then she pinched the bridge of her muzzle to that awkward dent in between her eyes.

"You actually wrote love letters for her?" She nearly growled again.

"Pipe dream love letters actually." He corrected casually, unable to help that he suddenly looked forlorn as he managed to remember the gist of what he wrote for Samantha. "I spent every day of that month getting to know her and everything, that I didn't have time to write any love letters during that courtship, not even before I went to bed. I wrote these after the fact and sometime before you came home, and before I knew if you even wanted me anymore."

Any irritation she had vanished at the last part of his last sentence, as she recalled that he had told her that before. Even long after the fact, she still couldn't fathom ever not wanting him, even hearing the idea of it coming from him was just about the most heart breaking thing in the world to her. It didn't help that at the time she was mad at him for something typical of him that she should've just let go, especially since in the end he didn't have to do it because it was already done by somebody else just as he left her house that she all but shooed him away from her life, what with her throwing dishes at him and getting Clarabelle to continue throwing dishes at him after she left to go on a cruise to forget about him…even though she never could forget even if she wanted to.

"Oh, Mickey." She cooed apologetically and hugged him from behind. "I will never not want you." She had to tell him for the sake of it.

"I know…" He replied easily, turning around in her arms to return her embrace. "Ya wouldn't've married me otherwise." He said cheekily.

"Piffle," Minnie scoffed at his cheekiness. "You and I both know that I was being stubborn back then."

"True, but that wasn't the only time I thought ya didn't want me anymore." He decided to tease her a little, and to bring up other memories to get the feelings out of the way.

"What?! When else did I-?" Minnie queried in confusion before Mickey filled in the blanks for her.

"The Mr. Slicker incident was the very first time, before I realized how ya really felt about him of course. Then the Mortimer Rodawn incident, believe it or not the neighborhood kids bullied me about losin' ya ta him. Lastly there was that time ya dated that movie star, but I deserved that one since I was kinda seein' Ingrid at the time, it still throws me for a loop every time I think about the last time I went ta pick her up she was getting married ta someone else and heading off ta her wedding. But I was so glad ta see ya alone in that malt shop that evening."

"Oh, it was complete luck that we both got dumped, and that movie star was right, I never did see him again, not even in the movies I don't think." She giggled at that memory. "Oh, but Mickey, I still feel bad about the Mortimer Rodawn incident. I remember alright, but I still can't believe the kids bullied you about it! It was none of their business!" No words needed to be said about the Mr. Slicker incident, they had already discussed it during their heart to heart chat after looking through Mickey and his cousin's photo album.

"Ya can blame Morty and Freddie, and especially Clarabelle on that one, hence why I purposely did what I did in hopes that she'd spot me doin' what I was doin' and spread it around town." Mickey countered playfully as his way of silently saying he forgave her.

"Heh, no wonder you 'graduated from the sucker class'." She quipped just as playfully with a snicker.

Mickey outright guffawed at that because he was still proud of that line of his to this day, and because his laughter was contagious, she giggled right along with him. When their laughter settled down, Minnie captured his lips with her own to show that she had no hard feelings for everything. However…

"I hope you don't mind me being curious about what you wrote for Samantha." Minnie fluttered her eyelashes at him hopefully, silently asking permission to read those particular letters with him before he burned them.

"Ya wanna know what I wrote that badly, huh?" He asked smugly, snickering at the fact that she was even bothering to use her wiles and charm to persuade him. So he relented. "Fine, just as long as ya keep the mantra in yer head that ya got no reason ta be jealous. Not that it matters much anymore anyways I reckon, 'cause if I remember correctly, I mostly complained 'bout what could've been."

"I'll keep it in mind, Mickey." She reassured him, pecking his lips once more for emphasis.

"Alright." He replied in a tone that could be interpreted as skeptical, but that was only because her little kiss there, even if it was just a peck, felt slightly possessive.

Regardless, he opened the first letter and they read it together, and sure enough he mostly complained, same went for the second one, but they ended up keeping that one (by Minnie's decision) because he made a poem out of it, and left it vague enough that despite the 'Dear Samantha' and the 'Still yours for now Mickey', there was no direct references to either of them that could be distinguishable, thus it was a poem that had the potential to be published. So Minnie put it in a little collection of all things that either of them wrote that had potential to be published.

Once Mickey burned the first one that was for Samantha, Minnie was happy as a clam reading all of her own letters, squealing every now and then at how adorably sappy he was for certain lines that he wrote especially in the earliest ones. She'd even showed him what he'd wrote since her reactions were so strong, and in turn he'd groan at how cheesy he was, hardly able to believe that he actually wrote it way back then. She even kissed him after every one that she read, and it made Mickey happy that she had found those letters sooner than he intended since they made her this happy already.

It wasn't until she reached the Anderville ones the next morning that something else had to be discussed.

"Mickey Theodore Mouse you could have been killed!" She shrilled at him from the stairway and stomped the rest of the way down and scurried into the kitchen, where he was making breakfast, and hugged him tightly from behind, he could feel some moisture back there and knew she was more worried than angry…about something from the past.

"Yer gonna hafta help me on that one dear, because without context, I don't have a clue about what you're talking about." Mickey told her simply.

"Anderville." She popped her head out to answered simply and then put it back into his back.

"Ah, well, I did warn ya that those ones would be depressing." He was interrupted by her wailing, and quickly turned off the stove so that he wouldn't burn the pancakes he was making, and turned around in her arms so he could comfort her.

"You sugar coated everything you ever told me about Anderville! In the letters you did send me, when you came home finally-!" She wailed, but he stopped her right there at when he came home and told her everything.

"Ah, ah, ah, I did not sugar coat it when I came home, the letters I did send ya, yes, because I didn't want ya ta worry any more than ya already were, but when I came home I told ya everything, you just don't remember." He argued lightly, as he kissed the top of her head and rubbed her upper back to comfort her further. "'Cause I'm pretty sure I told ya 'bout the bomb on my apartment's bathroom door ta yer face when I came home."

Her ears went back as if she were cringing, and Mickey knew her well enough to know that she was. She then sighed in what seemed like exasperation, but in any case she was merely trying to gather herself. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, she finally pulled away to look at him, almost incredulously but she knew how he was. He shrugged off anything life threatening to him like it was nothing because he survived it and it was in the past.

"And that was just 'cause the court date fer my testimony against Henry J. Lasswell was coming up, then the day of, they sent helicopters to the town I was stayin' fer safety precautions and those fired on the whole town and not just me, thank goodness that they had a cannon ta fight back with, and it helped me as a distraction so's I could hijack one of the helicopters myself anyway. But despite all that, by the power of political bull honkey, even when I was legally allowed ta come home I couldn't because there were still hitmen working fer Lasswell after my head, and I had ta find that out the hard way." He finished the thought in hopes that it would help.

As much as Minnie pouted at him for putting everything so bluntly, she couldn't stay mad at him, nor could she be mad at him for coming home safely after all that he's been through in Anderville. Besides he himself was not at fault for ending up in Anderville.

"I'm still mad at Sonny Mitchell for dragging you into it." She huffed indignantly.

"And ya have every right ta be, but also the I.R.S. since they technically told me I co-owned the business, but still mostly Sonny fer putting my name on it in the first place. Trust me, as soon as I saw him again since he was actually under the F.B.I's eye witness protection program, the first thing I did was sock him a good one." Mickey agreed, and then kissed her to make her pout go away. Which thankfully worked since she even giggled at Mickey giving a notorious friend of his a wallop that he had coming for years.

"Good, I'm glad you taught him a lesson even if you had to stay in that awful city because of him." Minnie chirped proudly when she eventually pulled away from the kiss.

"And I'm glad yer not upset anymore…'cause our breakfast is gettin' cold!" He announced as he gave her one final doozy of a smooch on top of her head and turned around to plate the pancakes since they were pretty much done.

Even as they ate breakfast she kept reading his letters, and even kept reading on into the next day since there were that many. Half the time Mickey didn't know what to do with her whenever she squealed giddily at something extra romantic that he had apparently written. But it was still fun to see her so undeniably happy. He was starting to regret not hiding them in a better place, as she really should've been reading them in bursts, but oh well…

It happened the way it happened, and in the end that was all that really mattered.