Chapter 1

AJ and Emily had been back from their anniversary get away for about a month when things began to get rocky again.

“Babe? Are you here?” he called as he walked in the front door.

“Yeah, I'm in the office!”

AJ walked upstairs to the office and found Emily pouring over her textbooks as she made note cards. He smiled as she made a kind of, “What the fuck?” gesture at the page before groaning and slamming the book shut.

“I think it's time for a break!” he said.

“I don't know why I thought I could do this. It's too damn hard!”

AJ pulled her up and kissed her. “You can do this, Sweetie. You've already come so far!”

Emily wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his chest, inhaling his scent.

“How was your meeting?” she asked.

“It went really well! Aren't you impressed I even caught my return flight on time?”

Emily chuckled. AJ had earned quite a reputation lately for missing his flights home due to things running late in L.A. “Yes, I'm quite shocked!”

“We got our final tour schedule today!” he said, pulling a piece of paper out of his back pocket and handing it to her.

“Wow! I had no idea the tour was going to be this big!”

“Truthfully I don't think any of us thought we'd be going on another world tour but there it is!”

“Wow! Four months! And starting as soon as next month!” she said, trying her best to sound happy.

“I know but we have so many more days off this time, we'll have time to explore all the cities together! It'll be like our second honeymoon!”

Emily froze. Did he really think she was going to be able to come with him?

“Umm, yeah I guess so, it's just that typically you take your second honeymoon together.....”

“You're coming, aren't you?” he asked, shocked that her not going was even a possibility.

“AJ I can't! I have school.” she said, trying not to feel guilty as she saw the hurt and disappointment written all over his face.

“But can't you just wait until after we get back to finish?”

“I only have five months left! I'm not going to drop out in the middle of a quarter! Maybe I can join you after graduation, which I guess you won't be coming to.”

“Don't you know how important this tour is for me?”

“Don't you know hos important nursing school is to me?” she shot back.

“Em, I need you there!” he said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah well I'd like to have you here too but do you see me throwing a tantrum about it?”

“Come on, Em! This is different! School is just something fun for you. This is my life!”

Emily's jaw dropped. “Fun? You think I spend all those hours in class and labs and then come home and spend the rest of my day studying just so I can keep up FUN?”

“Well if it's not fun, why are you doing it?”

“Because I want to become a nurse! I've always wanted to do this AJ, you know that.”

“Well yeah but I don't understand why you keep doing it if it's making you so miserable, if it's making us so miserable.”

“School is what's making me miserable. In five months I'll be done with school and then I start my clinical training and then I'll be doing what I've really wanted to do. I never said getting there was going to be easy! And I'm sorry that I'm making you so miserable AJ, I'm sorry that apparently you're the only one who gets to follow his hopes and dreams in this relationship. I guess when we said those marriage vows I misunderstood my role as your wife. See I thought we were there to support each other but I guess I was wrong. I didn't realize that I was supposed to be there to support you all the time but you didn't have to support me in the things that matter to me, especially if those things are an inconvenience to you!”

AJ was silent. Part of him knew she was right but he was a nervous wreck about the new album and how the tour would go. He was terrified they'd be a failure and he knew if he didn't have her there, he'd never get through it.

“Whatever. Apparently this is all about you. Sorry.” he said hotly before storming out of the house.

She rolled her eyes as she heard his tires squeal out of the driveway. Part of her understood his fears and knew why he was acting this way but she also knew that didn't make it ok. For the most part he'd been supportive of her going to school but this wasn't the first time he'd made remarks about how much of her time it was taking and how she wasn't there for him anymore. Why was he the only one allowed to do things? Did he really just expect her to be at his beck and call for the rest of their lives?

Emily was fed up. She had enough stress with classes, she had a huge test in two days and now she had AJ to deal with. She didn't know where he'd gone and she decided she didn't care. She decided it was for the best, she had the house to herself and after she calmed down she could go back to her books and maybe she'd “conveniently” fall asleep in the office instead of going to bed and sleeping in the same bed as him.

As it turned out, AJ didn't come home until two in the morning and Emily really did fall asleep in the office before he got there but it wasn't intentional like she'd originally planned it to be. He didn't even bother to check on her, he just went straight to their bedroom and shut the door.

Emily was already gone for the day when he crawled out of bed the next morning. He groaned at the bright sunlight on his face. Emily must have opened the blinds before she left. He threw on some clothes and went down to the basement to work out. After a few sweaty hours, he took a long, hot shower before sitting down at the table with his laptop to start getting organized for the tour. As he checked his voice mail, he discovered he'd missed a call from Emily.

“Hi, it's me.” she said with a completely flat tone. “I just wanted to remind you that the study group is meeting at our house tonight, huge test tomorrow. You don't have to be around if you don't want to, it's up to you. We'll probably be up pretty late though. I tidied everything up this morning before I left, if you could just try not to make a mess.....”

AJ rolled his eyes. He knew he wasn't exactly the neatest person in the world, but really, how much damage did she think he was going to do in a few hours? Just to be nice, he went and swept up the cereal he had spilled on the floor earlier.

Later he sent her a text message telling her that he'd actually be out all evening with Brian, they had tickets to the ball game. When he got home he heard the intense study session going on in the living room and decided not to disturb them. He went up, took a shower and went to bed. He was vaguely aware of Emily coming to bed around four in the morning and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her. He was sound asleep when she got up again at seven.

Emily was not in a good mood when she came back that afternoon. She had a terrible feeling that she'd done horribly on her test, she was exhausted from being up two nights in a row and traffic coming home was terrible due to a new construction project near campus. She pulled her car in the garage at least glad that it was the weekend and dragged her tired body into the house. AJ was in the kitchen heating up some leftover pizza for lunch.

“Hey.” she said, dropping her things by the door and kicking off her shoes.

“Oh, hey!” he said, startled to see her home. They'd been avoiding each other so well the last few days he honestly didn't expect her to come home until later. “Everything ok?”

“No.” she answered, taking out a coke from the fridge and sitting down on a bar stool.

“Do you think you did bad on your test?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

“Are you hoping I did?”

“What? Why would I hope for that?”

“I don't know, maybe so I'd flunk out and then I'd suddenly be free to follow you around the world.” she said, taking a sip.

AJ sighed. “Yes, you're absolutely right.” he said, sarcastically. “I've been sitting here all day long just praying for you to fail. Jesus Em! Do you really think I'm that awful?”

Emily sighed. “No. I'm sorry. I'm just really tired.”

AJ pulled her up and wrapped his strong arms around her. “I know. I'm sorry things have been rough lately. Why don't you go take a long nap and later, if you feel up to it, we can try and talk all this through.”

Emily nodded. AJ helped her up to bed and tucked her in, giving her a soft kiss before he left, shutting the door behind him. Emily fell asleep almost immediately.

He was surprised when he heard her up an hour later. Even on a good day Emily would nap longer than that! He decided to go check on her and found her sitting on the edge of the bed, half dressed holding her head in pain.

“What's wrong?” he said, seeing that she was also in tears.

“It's nothing, I just got a terrible migraine and it came on really quickly.” she sniffed.

“I'm sorry sweetie. Here, lay back down.”

“No, I need to go to the pharmacy, I'm all out of my medicine.”

“Get back in bed, I'll go.” he said.

“Are you sure?” Emily looked truly surprised.

“Of course!”

She sighed. “Thanks. Get the shots and the pills, ok?”

“Ok. Do you need anything else?”

“No.” Emily groaned into her pillow.

“Alright, I'll be back in a flash.”

By the time he finally got back Emily was sick to her stomach from the intensity of the pain and was crying as she lay curled up on the bed.

“It's ok babe.”

“I threw up in the trashcan!” she wailed.

AJ chuckled. “It doesn't matter, I'll take care of it. Can you sit up and take your medicine?”

Emily shook her head. “It won't stay down, you have to give me the shot.”

AJ cringed. He'd only done it once before and he didn't like it because Emily had yelped in pain. She insisted it wasn't him, the Imitrex stung badly as it went in but he still felt terrible. She loaded the auto-injector for him and showed him where to place it. He squeezed his eyes shut as he pushed the button and heard the click. He felt Emily tense up for a few seconds and then relax.

“Come on, let's get you into a hot bath to help you relax.”

“I don't want to take a bath!” she said.

“I know you don't, but it always helps you feel better.” he said, going into their bathroom and running the water. He came back for her a few minutes later and helped her up before removing her clothes and helping her into the tub. He sat next to her on the ledge and could tell that even after five minutes the medicine was helping her feel better.

“Thank you.” she mumbled.

“You don't have to thank me. I'm sorry you're in so much pain.” he said, stroking her hair.

“It's just from not sleeping and all the stress of school and....everything else.”

AJ sighed. He knew he was partly to blame for stressing his wife out so much. He had meant to talk to her about it tonight but he didn't want to make her feel worse so he decided it would have to wait until tomorrow.

Chapter 2

The next morning Emily felt much better and well rested. She was surprised that AJ was already up and went to find him. Seeing his breakfast dishes still sitting on the table she knew she'd find him outside smoking a cigarette.

“You know, at some point you are going to have to give those up.” she said, stepping onto their deck.

AJ smiled. “You sound just like my mother.”

“I'll take that as a compliment.”

“Feeling better?”

“Much better. Thank you for taking care of me.”

AJ put out his cigarette and motioned for her to sit with next to him on the lounge chairs. “I'm just glad I could help you.”

Emily sighed as she relaxed in the sun. It was only early February but it was about 60 degrees out in the sun that day. Unfortunately, the forecast for the next day was back down in the forties and rainy.

“I'm sorry for blowing up at you the other day about the tour.” he said.

Emily looked over at him. Usually she was the one that had to initiate these kinds of conversations.

“Me too.”

“I'm just so nervous about how the album's been perceived so far. It's not exactly a billboard hit, you know? I mean I didn't expect it to top the charts but I really thought it would have done better. We poured our heart and souls out into this and the critics have been ripping it to shreds. And then with the tour, I mean what if the fans don't like it? What if we don't sell enough tickets? What if we suck on stage? I've never had to worry about these things before really with the group and I'm scared that if we fail and you aren't there to hold me together that I might not be able to handle it.” he admitted.

“What do you mean you won't be able to handle it?”

AJ sighed. “I don't know. I guess I just really wanted to have you with me. I don't want to be apart from you for four months!”

Emily grabbed his hand. “I don't want to either. I'm sorry that this has been hard for both of us but I promise, if you can stick it out for the next five months we can have our lives back. School will be over, I'll finish my training and then I'll have a job with better hours and you'll be home working on your solo project again and things will be better. I promise. And why are you so worried about the tour? Do you think they would have booked so many shows if they didn't think it would be a hit? Come on, you know it'll be great.”

AJ didn't actually know that but it felt good to hear her say it.

“That being said, I think I need to tell you something.” she said.

“What?”

Emily took a deep breath. “Look I was really hurt by what you said. I feel like you aren't supportive of me and that it doesn't matter to you and I'm not just talking about the other day. This isn't the first time you've acted this way about me going back to school. It hurts a lot and makes me feel like what I do doesn't matter to you, that I'm just doing it for kicks or something. I really need you to be more supportive. I'm sorry that I can't go with you, I really am, but I need you to remember how important this is for me because I don't think I can have this argument again.”

“I don't mean to be that way but sometimes I feel like I've taken a back seat to you ever since you started school. Sometimes you treat me like what I'm doing isn't important.”

Emily sighed. “I'm sorry. Look can we both just promise to work on this? I'm tired of feeling like I can't talk to you anymore.”

“I promise. Come here!” he said, standing up and grabbing her hand.

Emily stood up. “Where are we going?”

“Remember when we bought the house, you said you wanted to break it in by having sex in every room?”

Emily laughed. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, if I remember correctly there are still a few rooms left to go.”

“Oh, well if that's the case, we'd better work on that.”

“My thoughts exactly.” AJ said as he led her inside. “Laundry room or basement?”

“Hmm...basement.” Emily decided.

They walked down the steps together and as soon as she flipped on the light he pinned her against the wall at the bottom of the steps. His lips came crashing down on hers as he pressed against her. She coiled her arms around his neck and played with his hair, just like he liked. His hand found her nipple through her soft cotton nightgown and gently stroked it. Emily moaned softly into his mouth as she pressed back against his tight grip on her. He broke his kiss and began to nibble on her ear.

“Take off your nightgown.” he said.

Emily raised an eyebrow. She always liked it when he ordered her around during sex.

Emily did as she was told and slowly lifted the gown over her head and tossed it aside. AJ grinned as he looked her up and down. She wasn't wearing any underwear.

“No underwear?” he asked.

Emily shook her head.

“Naughty!” he whispered, pinning her back up against the wall. “Guess I'll have to punish you.”

Emily's breath quickened as he fondled her roughly. He grabbed her hand and placed it on the fly of his jeans. Emily slowly undid the button and slid the zipper down, sliding her hand inside and grabbing his hard member, gently stroking it.

AJ groaned loudly and began kissing her neck, alternating between kissing, nibbling and licking.

“Get down on your knees.” he ordered.

Emily smiled as she sank down in front of him. She slowly pulled down his jeans and boxers. He quickly stepped out of them and immediately felt Emily's hands on his ass, pushing him to her as she took his length into her mouth.

“Oh Jesus!” he moaned, leaning is hands on the wall. Emily worked him, giving him some punishment of her own as she taunted and teased, unwilling to give him a release. When he couldn't take it any longer he pulled her up and kissed her.

“You're going to pay for that.” he whispered.

“Oh really?” she said, her voice husky. “How?”

Before she knew what was happening, AJ had turned her towards the steps and bent her over with her knees on the steps and her hands resting a few steps higher. He grabbed hold of her breasts as he quickly entered her warmth from behind.

“Do you like that?” he asked as he roughly pulled on her nipples.

“Uh-huh.” she managed to moan.

“Do you want more?”

“Yeah....”

“Tell me what you want!”

“Harder.....”

AJ began to roughly pound her as she moaned loudly.

“Like that?” he asked.

Emily could only moan in response.

“How about this?” he asked as he slid one of his hands down and began playing with her clit.

Emily moaned even louder.

AJ continued until she came, practically screaming as he pounded her from behind with his own release. He collapsed beside her on the steps.

“Damn.” he mumbled. “That was....”

“Raw, dirty and amazing!” she finished for him.

“I love you.” he said, looking into her eyes. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I do. I love you too.” she said, stroking his face. “I love it when you're dirty!”

AJ laughed. “I love that you love it that way!” he said, kissing her cheek. “But tonight, I'm going to make gentle, sweet love to you. Many times.”

Emily grinned. “I think I can live with that.”

The next month was stressful to say the least. Emily had finals and AJ was spending a lot of time in L.A. with rehearsals. They barely had time to talk much more than a nightly call to say hello and goodnight and at least once a week, one of them snapped at the other causing the same argument over and over again about being supportive and not being together.

“Hey, after my finals are done this week I have Spring Break for all of next week. Why don't I just fly out to L.A. and stay with you?” she said one night over the phone.

AJ paused. “I don't know, things are pretty crazy here. I don't think I'd have time to see much of you anyway.”

“Oh.” Emily said, hurt by his rejection. “Well, ok. I guess I can find something else to do.”

“Yeah, ok. Look I gotta go. I'll try to be home next weekend for a few days before we leave.”

“Alright.”

“Bye.” he said, hanging up.

Emily didn't miss the fact that he failed to say I love you, something he always said at the end of his calls with her.

A million thoughts were racing through her head as she went to bed that night. She never dreamed he wouldn't want her to come see him, especially after all his whining about needing her around. She tried not to but she couldn't help imagining the worst possibilities. Was he cheating on her? With someone who was able to be at his every beck and call? Was he drinking again? Was he doing drugs again? Did he really just want to be away from her?

She knew what she had to do. She hated to go behind his back but she also knew he'd be furious with her if she came out and asked him all those things, true or not.

“Hello?” his deep, sleepy voice answered.

“Oh God, you were sleeping weren't you? I'm sorry, I'll call you later.” she stammered.

“Emily?”

“Yeah....”

“Hang on.” he said. Over the phone she could hear him sitting up in an attempt to wake up. “Ok. What's up?”

“Nothing, it's nothing. I'm sorry, look go back to sleep.” she said, feeling stupid for calling him.

“Emily Watkins-McLean if you don't tell me what's wrong right now....”

Emily sighed. “Fine Kevin. It's AJ. I don't know, maybe I'm making a mountain our of a mole hill or something but something isn't right.”

“What's going on?”

“Well things have been...stressful....lately with me being in school and the tour and he's been pretty nervous about it and upset that I can't go with him and we've been snapping at each other a lot. So I thought I'd fly out there next week when I'm on Spring Break and he told me he didn't want me to come, that he wouldn't have any time to see me! Then he hung up without saying I love you, which he never does. I mean never. And I keep thinking of all these terrible things.”

“Like what?” Kevin asked, sounding more awake now.

“I don't know, like maybe he's met someone new or he's drinking again or something. I know it's probably nothing but you're the only one who's ever been able to call him on that kind of stuff and I'm really worried about him. He'll be so mad if he finds out I even told you any of this.”

Kevin sighed. “No, you did the right thing. He is behaving out of character, that's for sure. Have you talked to Brian, he's at least been around him.”

“No. He'll be too obvious and then he'll tell Leighanne and she'll get involved.....”

“You're right. Look, I'll drop by their rehearsal tomorrow and play it off like I'm just saying hi. Don't worry, he won't suspect a thing they've been trying to get me to come out all week.”

“Thank you.” Emily said, feeling relieved. “Look, if you find out anything, promise you'll tell me? I need to know. No matter what it is.”

“I promise you but I don't really think it's anything huge. He's probably just freaked about the tour. I imagine he's driving everyone nuts, not just you.”

Kevin tried to be reassuring but the truth was he was starting to get worried about AJ. Emily wasn't the only one who'd said things. He'd talked to Brian over the phone the day before and he'd hinted at some tensions between AJ and the others when he'd shown up late to rehearsal. AJ hadn't been late to a rehearsal since he'd been out of rehab.

Chapter 3

The next day Kevin drove across town to where they were holding their rehearsals. He received a happy greeting from everyone before they all went back to work. Kevin stood in the back and watched AJ. He was looking for signs. A backwards step, a missed cue, anything that suggested he wasn't all together. Fortunately, he was flawless. In fact Kevin had rarely seem him better.

“So what do you think?” Brian asked him. “Think the fans will like the show?”

Kevin grinned. “You guys look great up there, man! I'm proud of you.”

He made the rounds and saved AJ for last.

“Hey man!” AJ said, giving him a hug. “You change your mind yet about leaving us?”

Kevin laughed. “Not yet. I'm too old for all those dance steps, anyway!” he joked.

“So how'd we look?” he asked, seeming nervous for Kevin's opinion.

“Flawless. Especially you man! You were great. Seriously.”

AJ grinned. “You must be losing your eye sight too!”

“So how's the little lady doing back home?”

“Busy as ever.” he said. “Thankfully she's almost done with school. She graduates right before we get back.”

“Wow! You must be really proud of her for doing that!” Kevin said.

“It's been tough.” was AJ's response.

“So is she going to make it out here at all?”

AJ quickly busied himself with some papers in his hand. “No.”

“Oh really? How come, you must really want to see her! I hated doing all this shit without Kris around!”

“Actually, I told her not to come.”

Kevin was shocked he'd actually come right out and said it. “Why?”

“I think we both just need some time to decompress. We've been at each other's throats all month and the closer to kick-off we get the more anxious I'm getting. I just didn't want her to come out here and not be able to tolerate my mood when we're already on rocky ground and have another huge blow-up with her, you know? That's the last thing I need right now.”

Kevin nodded. He did actually understand where AJ was coming from. “But everything else is ok?”

“Yeah man. Everything else is good. We'll be ok.”

“Good!” Kevin clapped him on the shoulder. “You take care out there, ok?”

“I will man.”

Kevin called Emily later that night.

“So did he tell you he told me not to come?” she asked.

“Actually, he did. I asked him if you were planning on flying out there and he flat out said he told you not to.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. He said things have been kind of tough and he knows he's getting more stressed and he knew that if you were there he might blow up at you and he didn't want to do that to you.” Kevin said.

“Are you sure that's all it was?”

“I really think so. He seemed fine, just stressed out. Just give him some time to get his road legs back on him and he'll settle down.”

Emily sighed. “Thanks Kevin.”

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess so.” She didn't want to admit how much it still hurt that he didn't want her there even if he was just trying to prevent more tension.

Emily spent her Spring Break watching TV and relaxing before her final quarter of school began. AJ never did make it home before they left for their tour but it wasn't entirely his fault, they'd been booked to do a lot of press at the last minute and there wasn't any way around it for him. He genuinely felt bad that he hadn't seen her before things kicked off and regretted telling her to stay home, especially when he heard the disappointment in her voice when he told her he wasn't coming.

“So, you must be excited that this is your last quarter of class, right?” he said, trying to cheer her up.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Em, I love you.” his voice softened. “I'm sorry I can't be home with you this weekend. I really am.”

Emily smiled. “I love you too. You make sure to take care of yourself out there, ok?”

“I will. Study hard, alright? When I get home we can play nurse and patient together.” he said with a devious tone in his voice.

Emily cracked up. “You have yourself a deal. Hey call me after the show, ok?”

“Which show?” he teased.

“How about all of them?”

“Ok.” he said. “I promise.”

It wasn't exactly an apology but it was the most civil conversation they'd had in awhile and Emily was finally starting to believe things would be better.

Kevin was right about one thing. Once the tour started and AJ realized it wasn't going to flop he was in a much better mood and in turn a much better husband. He sent her flowers on days he knew she had a big test and couldn't be more supportive of her. Halfway through their tour she managed to have a weekend with nothing huge to study and no homework to do so she decided to surprise him by flying out to Washington to meet him. She talked to Brian who'd made arrangements with their tour manager to have a key to his room left at the desk for her. She got there about two hours before Brian estimated they'd be back at the hotel. That gave her just enough time to take a long bubble bath and slip into her dark red silk nightgown she'd bought just for the occasion. She lie on the bed watching tv until she got a text from Brian saying they'd be there in about five minutes. She flipped off the tv and anxiously waited. About ten minutes later she heard his key in the door. She quickly flipped onto her side facing the door, resting her head in her hand.

AJ froze when he saw her there. Slowly, his face broke out into a huge smile.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to surprise you.” she said.

“My God, you look beautiful.” he said softly. “It's been a long two months without you!”

He walked over to the bed and swiftly picked her up in his arms, kissing her hard as he did so.

“Damn I've missed you!” he said as he set her back down on the floor.

Emily laughed. “I've missed you too. Now shut up and kiss me some more!”

AJ gently cupped her face in his hands and slowly brought his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly and passionately, almost as if he couldn't believe she was really there. When they parted, he held her tightly to him, resting his cheek on her head.

Emily couldn't believe how good it felt just to be in his arms again. Things had been so incredibly tense between them when they'd last been together that she wasn't quite sure how it would be to see him again.

“So you're really glad I came?” she asked, hesitantly.

“Of course I'm glad!” AJ said, suddenly realizing why she was asking since he'd been the one who'd told her not to come see him in L.A. last time she was free. He sat down on the bed and pulled her onto his lap. “Emily McLean, I love you. I probably don't even deserve you half the time, especially with the way I treated you before I left. I was being a selfish jerk. But I love you to death and I'm so glad you're my wife and there's nothing in this world that could ever change that.”

Emily wiped a tear from her eye. She was more nervous than she realized about seeing him again. “I love you too.” She laughed at herself as she cried. “I'm sorry. I just....wasn't sure what it'd be like to see you again. In a way I've been feeling kind of like we've been separated or something. I've felt so cut off from you.”

AJ wiped a tear from her cheek. “I know baby. I'm sorry. I've been thinking the same thing. Look it's just a little while longer, right?”

Emily nodded. “Right.”

“I've missed you like crazy. I've been doing a lot of thinking since I've had all these lonely nights without you.” he said.

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“When I get back and you're all done with school, how would you feel about trying to start a family?” he said, his eyes searching hers.

Emily's jaw dropped. The truth was, she'd been kind of thinking the same thing, she'd been thinking it ever since she started school that as soon as she was done maybe they'd start trying. She just never expected to hear him say it tonight, not with the way things had been between them.

“I...wow...I....yeah! Let's do it!” she said.

“Really?!” he asked, truly surprised.

“Actually I'd kind of been thinking the same thing.” she admitted.

He kissed her. “I'm going to be a dad!” he said proudly.

“Well don't jinx it, we're not pregnant yet!”

“I know but I'm still excited!”

Emily dug through her suitcase and pulled out her pack of birth control pills and ceremoniously threw them into the trash can. “There!” she said, sitting back down on his lap. “It's official!”

“Hey, so, do you think we should start practicing making a baby now?” he asked, winking at her.

“Couldn't hurt.” Emily shrugged.

AJ reclined them both back on the bed as he gently kissed her. Emily didn't want to wait. She'd been ready for him before he'd even gotten back to the room. She quickly helped him remove his clothes and he took off her nightgown and dropped it on the floor. Emily reached up and stroked his chest. She'd forgotten how much she loved his muscles, especially the way they tensed as she ran her hand along them.

“I love you, Em.” he whispered in her ear as he entered her.

Emily moaned loudly as she adjusted to his size. It had been nearly three months since they'd last made love and she'd almost forgotten just how good it felt to have him inside of her.

“Baby I don't think this is going to last very long.” he said, already feeling himself lose control.

“It's ok. We've got all night.” she said as she wrapped her legs around him and encouraged him in deeper.

AJ came soon after but he was so aroused that he was able to keep going. He rolled them over so she was on top and gave her control. He placed his hands on her hips and watched her as she rode him to her own release. She collapsed on top of him, sweaty and breathless. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled her over to his side. When Emily looked into his eyes she saw that he was crying.

“I love you.” he said. “I have missed you so much.”

Emily gave him a soft kiss. “I love you too.”

They lay together in each other's arms for awhile, AJ gently stroking her hair. They didn't talk, they just reveled in the feeling of being together again.

“So how are things at home?” he finally spoke.

“Pretty much the same.” she said.

“Is the house ok?” he asked, suddenly feeling protective of her with the knowledge that she'd soon be carrying his child. He wanted to make sure everything was absolutely perfect for her.

“The house is just fine. Although I think we need a new water heater. Sometimes in the morning there is absolutely no hot water.”

“Why didn't you tell me? I would have taken care of it for you!”

“I didn't want to bother you with something like that! Besides, I can take care of it myself I just haven't had the time to be home for a repair man.”

“I don't want you home alone with a repair man anyway. Those guys are creepy. Have Leighanne come over or something when he's there, ok?”

Emily laughed. “AJ, I'll be fine, I promise.”

“Are you setting the alarm at night?”

“Yes...where is all this coming from?”

“I don't know, I just worry about you being all alone. I want to keep you safe!”

“Well don't worry, I'm perfectly safe. The dogs sleep in bed with me.”

“Emily, you let them sleep in our bed?” he whined.

“Yeah, what's wrong with that?”

“They'll never want to leave when I get back!”

Emily laughed. “But it was so lonely without you! And Guapo doesn't take up nearly the same amount of space. I promise, I'll be sure to kick them out for you when you get back, ok? They'll live.”