It was almost a half hour before Lance and Willa moved from their perch on the edge of the coffee table. He'd wanted to move for a while, but hadn't mentioned it to her. He wasn't sure if she was done with her crying and he didn't want to rush her if she wasn't done.

By the time his cell phone began to ring, causing a need for both of them to move, Lance's feet were tingling from being asleep. He didn't complain or even mention that to her, but when he got up he felt sharp pains as he tried to walk and she couldn't help but to notice the way he limped across the living room.

He caught her looking at him strangely. "What?"

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"My feet are asleep," he said with a shrug then reached and pulled the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey LB," the voice said.

"Dave is that you?" He asked.

"The one and only." His friend's cheery voice was startling to hear that early in the morning.

"What are you up to?"

"Running around in circles."

"How's the business going?"

"Good. Good." He sighed. "I've been so busy that I've been out of circulation for a while. What's this I hear about you being hitched?"

"No hitched," he said and reached for Willa, who curled herself automatically into his arms, holding herself against him as he spoke into the phone. "I've got someone in my life at the moment."

"She hot?"

Lance let out a laugh. "Yes she's hot."

Willa looked up at him. "Who are you talking to?"

"One of my buddies from high school," he whispered.

"She's there right now?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, want to say hello?" Lance said.

"No that's ok."

Willa looked at Lance as if she was ready to take the phone away from him to talk then pouted. "No love for you then."

"Oh so that's how it is?" Dave asked Lance.

"I guess so," Lance teased.

"Well I'll let you go be with your woman. I'll give you a call next week. I'm going to be back in the states for a while and I'm planing a trip down south."

"I'm going to be in New York in a few days," Lance said.

"Really?" Dave sounded excited to hear his news. "What days?"

"From the 5th to the 10th."

"I'll be there on the 7th. Wanna catch lunch?"

"Sure," he said, "I'll have to check the schedule and all, but maybe you can meet up with me and the guys for an hour or so."

"Sounds good, give me a call back before you leave town."

"Ok."

"And be careful with that woman of yours. I heard she's a real hellcat."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"I read it in some newspaper."

"I told you not to believe what you read in the papers about me."

"Well there was that one time when I read about you being the southern version of Dirk Diggler...want me to forget that part too?"

"No," Lance said with a laugh.

"Ok then, see...you can trust some things you read in the paper."

"I'll see you in a few days Dave."

"But of course," he said with a laugh and a moment or two later they both hung up.

"Who was that?" Willa asked.

"Dave," Lance said with a smile thinking of his friend. He hadn't seen the guy in a while, but their long friendship wouldn't suffer from the time away. They always seemed to pick up where they left off when they found each other again. "He and I went to high school together and he just graduated from college and moved to England to work for an advertising agency in London. I haven't seen him in about six months."

"Wow, you're still friends with people from back home?"

"You're not?"

"I lost track of people. I traveled around a little more than you did."

"That would surprise me."

"I went to fourteen different countries the first two months I was working."

"Whoa. Maybe you do beat me," he hugged her. "So who do you hang out with now? Other than me of course."

"Well I see Elena a lot and before this whole New Years fiasco Amy and I were like the double-mint twins, but now I don't know what I'm going to do. Amy was the first person in New York I met. We were like sisters, which is why it really amazes me that she would go and hang out with Brennan."

Lance listened to her talking, but at the same time he couldn't ignore the tingling pain in his still asleep foot. He shook his foot a little trying to get the circulation going.

She turned and looked at her bottom. "I didn't think my butt was that big to cut off the circulation to your legs."

"Yeah," He swatted at her bottom with a laugh then winced when he went to take the first step up the stairs. He leaned down and rubbed his calf with one hand. "Owe."

"Oh leave it alone you big baby," she teased.

"But it hurts," he sneered.

She put a hand out and tried to comfort him. "Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine," he said pushing her hand playfully off of him. He pointed towards the front of the house where the stairs were. "Naptime missy."

"Whatever you say DAD."

"Oh no...don't call me THAT."

"Why not? I thought all guys' dreamed of being called BIG DADDY."

"Not quite."

With a smile and a kiss to his cheek she took his hand and led the way to the stairs and eventually to his room.

Once inside his room he let go of her hand and moved to the side of the bed, flopping down on the bed with a thud. "I need a nap," he groaned. He hadn't realized how tired he was. He usually was used to partying all night and working the next day, but for some reason he was more tired than he thought he would have been, not that he was complaining about WHY he was tired.

Willa followed his lead and made herself comfortable next to him, moving his arms out and around her again.

"We're too old to be staying up all night like that."

"Are you complaining?" He asked.

She leaned and kissed him. "No," she said, "We just don't need to be getting up at four am after staying out until one. That seems reasonable."

He nodded. "I'll remember that."

"You do that," she said with mock seriousness.

*****

[[The next morning]]

"I don't want to go," she whined leaning her cheek flat against his chest, near his heart, tipping her chin up so that she could see his eyes with hers.

He tipped his chin down and looked at her sad hound-dog face she was making for his benefit. He made eye contact with her and smiled. It was almost the hundredth time she'd repeated her opinion on the current situation which only made him want to roll his eyes at her. The two of them were laying in bed, him on his back, bare-chested, and her cuddled against him, after a long afternoon of cuddling and kissing and talking.

Willa was wearing only a huge T-shirt that she'd stolen out of his drawer after she'd taken a shower when they'd returned from being out shopping and he was in a pair of basketball shorts that she'd thrown to him when he'd stepped out of the shower himself.

"Well Fred," he said running his hand along her cheek and threw her hair, moving the part from one side of her head to the other. "I'm not the one who says you have to go. I'd keep you here forever if I could." He pulled her against his chest tightly, trying to mask the real pain he had in his chest with the weight of her body against his.

Willa maneuvered her body up so that she was face to face with him when his arms lightened their hold on her. "Good then I'll stay."

Lance moved his lips away from her when she leaned and tried to kiss him. It didn't seem to stop her, she leaned and kissed his cheek instead, then moved and nuzzled his neck. "Oh no you will not," He made a face at her hoping that it would make her smile. "Do you think that I have a death wish?"

"No." She laughed. "Honey, Elena won't be mad."

"Maybe not at you...you're the golden child, but she's not making any money off of me, which means she'll have no problem killing me."

"You're over reacting."

"You wanna bet?" he said.

Willa sat up a little. "How would you know?"

Lance looked up at her, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I know. Believe me. I know. That woman is scary enough listening to her over the phone. I know she'll come after me if I cause her little girl to miss work."

"I can just call Elena and say that I'm sick."

"Well don't just do anything until I'm out of the country. Not at least until I find a hideout. I'm sure she'll be blaming me if you don't make that shoot."

"Whatever," she laughed and hugged him.

Their lips met and they kissed a comfortable kiss. Lance had been nervous about them getting more physical with each other and there had been a little resistance at first, but now it was almost second nature for him to lean and kiss her. He'd done it so many times in the last two days that he couldn't imagine being away from her for two days and not being able to do it.

"Are you worried about going back to New York, Fred?" He asked.

"Right now I'm worried about being out of this house without some kind of protection. Actually Amy should be afraid of me being without someone around who will pull her off of me."

"Get her girl!" Lance let out a bark and a growl teasing about her sudden fierceness.

Willa sat up next to where Lance was on his back and sat Indian style, tucking the shirt around her so that her underwear were covered. "I let that girl get to me, but at the time there wasn't much I could do. I'm not going to start a brawl with her in the middle of a huge party like that. I'd look like the bitch and I'm not messing up everything just because she's got a little chip on her shoulder."

"Ok, what did you do with Willa who was here last night and yesterday and when is she going to be back?" Lance asked. He knew that she loved to confuse the hell out of him, but this was ridiculous.

Willa picked at her fingernails with a nervous energy. "That girl may have said a few choice words to me at the party, but believe me, this is far from over. I have a few choice words of my own to say to her and believe me, she'll hear them sooner or later."

Lance put a hand on her knee that was closest to him, patting her skin, as if he was patting her on the back for her efforts. His hand finally rested on the skin of her leg. "Just don't go picking any fights ok slugger?"

"I won't." She motioned that she was crossing her heart with her promise. "At least not without Spanky around to pull me off of her when she's had enough."

He reached and messed up her hair. "Whatever Fred."

Willa automatically smacked at his chest. "Don't patronize me!"

"Owe," he said and covered the stingy skin of her bare chest with a hand.

"Oh," she gave him a patronizing look. "Did I hurt the big bad pop star?"

A smile spread across his face. He hadn't seen that bluntness, that boldness, since before New Years and he was relieved to have her back. "There's my girl."

She put her hands on her hips. "I'm offended. I didn't go anywhere."

"Sure you didn't honey," he said.

"I was thinking...you know...planning...I wasn't dead or anything."

A smile formed on his face as he watched her search for words. It was laughable to see her struggling for the confidence that had gotten her in trouble a million times with him in the past.

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