At the door to the garage she almost collided with Tyler, who was coming in.  He grasped her by the shoulders, steadying her.

"Something the matter?"

Her first reaction was to say 'no', which was clearly a lie, and trite at that.  She couldn't bring herself to say 'yes' and then have to explain a feeling she couldn't understand herself, so she said nothing.

"I think I know what the matter is," Ham said blackly when she didn't respond.

"I don't know, Ham," Alex sighed, "It's confusing.  I'm trying to sort it out, but all I get is ..."  She concentrated on describing the feeling, but gave up.  "Oh, I don't know.  Maybe it'll sort itself out.  How's the chest?"  She drew away slightly so she could meet his eye.

He considered saying 'fine' then changed his mind and replied, "Getting better."  Alex smiled.  Honesty really was the best policy when neither could fool the other.  She was about to speak when Tyler stopped her with a sharp hand movement.  His sixth sense was working overtime again.

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know... I thought I heard something."

They both listened intently.  Alex heard nothing out of place, but Tyler still looked uneasy.

"Ham...?"

"Come with me."

He led the way back down the steps to the basement-cum-garage of the Resistance HQ.   The exit did not lead directly onto the street, but through an alleyway.  Tyler peered out through the glass but saw nothing unusual in the small lane. he was about to close the hatch when he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye.  At the same time, gunfire broke out above them, the alarms going off too late.  Tyler threw the bolts on the door and pulled Alex back the way they had come.

"Visitors," he said tersely.

"How'd they find us here?"

"I don't know.  C'mon."

"Wait!  What about the others?"

"There's a contingency plan for this.  Everyone for themselves.  They'll know what to do."

As they passed through the weapons room, Ham scooped up three rifles and two handguns, plus four belts of ammunition.  He handed a rifle and gun to Alex, along with two ammo belts.

"I've always wanted to do this," she muttered, throwing the belts over her head so they criss-crossed, making her look like a Mexican bandit.  Tyler took one look and grinned broadly despite himself.  He relieved her of the handgun which she'd stuck in her belt and replaced the safety catch.

"It suits you," he said, handing it back.  "But be careful with this stuff, okay?  It's live."

"Okay," she agreed.

Above them, the shooting continued more intensely and loudly than before.  They exchanged glances.

"This way," Ham nodded.

He led her through a series of tunnels, at which Alex had at first screwed up her nose.

"It smells like a sewer."

"It is."

"Oh."

They continued in silence, keeping out of the water and slime where they could.  It didn't help that it was also pitch black, with no sound save that of their own breathing and the occasional scrabble of rats.

When they emerged, blinking, into daylight again, it was through a manhole in an alleyway much like the one at the back of the resistance headquarters.

"I hope you know where you're going," Alex whispered.  "I'm lost."  She dusted herself down, wrinkling her nose in disgust.  "What an introduction to L.A."

She stared around her as Tyler climbed out of the hole after her, nervously fingering the M16.  In her small hands the large weapon made a ridiculous sight; in Tyler's it merely seemed like a natural extension of his body.

"We'll have to leave those here," Tyler said, relieving her of the gun and lowering it quickly back down the manhole.  "We're conspicuous enough as it is."

Regretfully, Alex handed over her ammo belts.

They moved cautiously out of the lane in search of transport of some kind.  The contingency plan, as Tyler had explained to the vet, was to scatter throughout the city and rendevouz as soon as possible at a safe-house in Beverly Hills.  And since Beverly Hills was a good 20 kilometres out of the central city, a car was essential.

"What do you think of this one?" Alex asked Tyler, as they both leaned against a store window, trying to blend in with the scenery.  Visitors were everywhere: a real rat's nest had been stirred up by the attack.  Tyler ran his professional eye over the specimen, a run-down '69 Volkswagen and sighed, very quietly.

"Well don't blame me," she retorted, sotto voce, "at least it's not locked."

"Who'd bother?"

They transferred themselves to the car with a minimum of fuss, but the mercenary's hot-wiring skills had grown a little rusty in the years since his teens.  He struggled with the fuse box while Alex kept a look out for Visitors.

"Hurry up!" she urged.

"I am, I am."

"Hey!" a voice yelled.

Alex looked around in time to see a red-clad Visitor walking quickly towards them.

"I don't want to rush you, Ham, but get this:  we are going to DIE if you don't get this heap started -- right now."

"That's a great approach," he grunted.

A few more seconds and the car burst into life.  Tyler looked more surprised than relieved as he floored the accelerator.

Volkswagens go only so fast, under any circumstances.  It wasn't long before the more powerful Visitor jeeps began to catch up.  They had gone far enough to be past the city limits and were bordering on the agricultural land surrounding the city, which left no convenient side-streets or alleyways to duck into.  Sooner or later, they were going to aim straight and...

"We're going to ditch this," Tyler yelled.  "Get ready!"

"How?"

"You've got to jump.  I'll tell you when."

"Are you KIDDING?"

A well-aimed laser bolt struck the small car, making a wreck of the right tail-light, and only just missing the tire.  As they lurched violently, Tyler struggled to keep the small car on the road.

"Does that answer your question?"

"What about you?"

"I'll be right behind you.  Get ready -- at this next bend...  Okay -- NOW!"

Alex didn't give herself time to think about the stunt-like thing she was doing.   The passenger door flew open and she threw herself clear as Tyler braked around the turn.  He paused only long enough to jam his boot which he'd removed earlier against the accelerator, and sliding across the seat, he jumped clear himself, a few hundred metres along the road.  He tucked and rolled with the ease of an expert, keeping the momentum going so that he rolled into the bushes along the side of the road, and out of view.  He only hoped Alex had enough sense to do the same.

Alex had suffered several cuts and scratches as a result of her fall, and was sporting a gravel rash on her right arm that would probably take weeks to heal.  She lay silent in the bushes for several moments, mentally checking herself over and getting her bearings.

The Visitors jeeps chasing them had followed the Volkswagen several hundred metres up the road before it had crashed, thanks to them both jumping clear as the Visitors lost sight of them.  If the lizards were running true-to-form, they would begin searching where they found the crashed car.

Alex peered out through the bushes, but saw no sign of any red uniforms.  She got to her feet, still crouching, and scrambled back into the relative safety of the denser forest.  She'd gone fifty metres when a hand snaked out from behind a tree and grabbed her across the mouth.  Instinctively, she used an old technique, slamming her left elbow into her assailant's ribs, and on hearing a satisfying 'oofffh', grabbed the arm covering her mouth and tossed the man over her right shoulder.

"Ham!"

The battle-wise mercenary lay in some considerable discomfort on the ground, trying to get his breath back.  Alex knelt down beside him, helping him up.

"Damnit, don't sneak up on me like that -- all you had to do was say 'hi'."

"I'll remember that," he promised, rubbing the area around his kidneys with a rueful grimace.  "Nice move."

"Dennis wasn't much good at many things, but he taught me how to defend myself."

Tyler looked like the was going to keep that in mind for a while.  They continued on into the forest, emerging after half an hour onto a smaller road.  Keeping to the bushes, they tracked along it heading eastward.  As Tyler had explained to the vet, who had no experience in matters of tactical warfare, the lizards would expect them to head back to the city where they could easily melt in with the population, so they would probably be searching in that direction.  If they could stay at large for a few days, the lizards would probably give up on them, having better things to do than chase a couple of nondescript fugitives.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Alex, overcome with curiosity, asked,

"Ham, what happened to your other shoe?"

"I took it off," he muttered darkly, trying to minimize his limping gait.

"Oh."  Alex fell silent for a few more minutes, but curiosity won out.  "Why?"

Tyler sighed, and explained how he'd kept the Volkswagen going after he jumped out by jamming his boot against the accelerator.  They discussed the pros and cons of using shoes for this, when Alex had reasoned that he could have used any one of the lumps of wood that had lined the back of the VW, looking suspiciously like firewood.

They came across a small corner store and gas station 5 kilometres down the road, and after observing it from a distance, approached warily.

There was a battered old pick-up, obviously owned by a local farmer by the looks of the bales of hay and Collie dog in the back, standing by one of the pumps.  The owner was inside the gas station, in deep conversation with the attendant.

"What do you think?"

Tyler nodded, refraining from making any comparison between it and the Volkswagen.  The keys proved to be in the ignition, and the tank had just been filled.  It was definitely a better proposition than their last vehicle.

"This is where you come in, Alex," he muttered, nodding to the dog in the back.

"What do you want ME to do with it?"

"Just get it out of there.  I thought you were good with animals."

She rolled her eyes at him, and sidled around to the back of the car.  As it turned out, she had no trouble coaxing the Collie out.  She spoke conversationally to it about how her companion would probably use his M-16 to get him out of the car if he had it, and a couple of grenades for good measure, and the dog, lulled by her friendly voice and gentle cuddles, obligingly hopped down when bidden.  Alex put it on 'stay' by the pump.

They pulled out of the gas station and were almost out of sight before the farmer realized what was happening.  The Collie cringed under his master's string of oaths and curses, but remembered to 'stay' where he had been told.

"Not bad," Tyler admitted grudgingly as Alex looked to him for an opinion on her animal handling skills.

"Just gotta know how to talk to 'em," she grinned, then started laughing and Tyler wondered what was so funny all of a sudden.
 
 

"Can't we find a place to stay tonight?" Alex asked, coming out of her doze in time to see Tyler manoeuvre the old truck down a dirt track.

"Where do you suggest we go?  If we knock on somebody's door we risk getting caught."

"What about all the abandoned farms I've been reading about?"

Tyler lifted a sceptical eyebrow at her.  "Have you ever seen an abandoned farm?"

"Can't say I make a habit of it."

"Most aren't any better than burnt out shells.  Looting, vandalism..."

"'s gotta be better than this," she grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and easing the cricks in her neck.

Tyler considered her point, privately admitting to himself that a night and the next day in the cab of this old truck held no attraction for him.  They would have to find shelter at some stage.

"Okay," he said at last.

The old pick-up bumped down the rough track until they came to another, even smaller turn-off.  There was a run-down gate with a rusty mailbox marking the entrance to the property.

"It says... ah, 'Simmonds'," Alex said, peering closely at the name carved into one of the large posts.  "Shall we...?"

The place had an abandoned feeling to it, from the squeak of the old gate to the wind causing a loose shutter to bang in the house.  But it didn't look burnt-out, and Tyler even had to admit to a pretty fair structural condition.

With less reservation and more fatigue, Tyler guided the pick-up into the open barn and shut off the engine.
 
 

She glanced back inside the house, where Ham Tyler lay sprawled on a moth-eaten blanket, still fully-clothed.  He looked like he needed the sleep, and Alex wasn't about to disturb him.  Watching him brought back memories of his first night at her place, of his stay in her barn, and of Solomon and Homer, who had kept him company.  The painful twinge accompanying those two mental pictures made her tense up, and suddenly all the affection for the man she was staring at evaporated.  A cold nothingness replaced it.  Alex turned and stepped off the verandah.

Ham, accordingly, woke up alone.  He blinked in the bright sunlight, squinted and rubbed his eyes.  The space next to him was empty and its lack of warmth told him that its occupant, Alex Bailey, had been gone for some time.  He checked his watch -- 9:15 am -- and grunted to himself.  Hell of a time to sleep in.

Getting to his feet, he stretched, winced as his shoulder gave him a stab of pain, and went on a thorough exploration of the property.  After he'd been around the buildings -- house, barn, storage shed -- twice, there was still no sign of Alex.  The car was still in the barn, so the options were limited.  Ham sat down on the verandah and thought things through.  The house was in better condition than he'd bargained for.  It couldn't have been deserted more than a few months.  It was dirty and dusty, all right, but the structure was sound.  And the other bonus was that the owners had left in a hurry, apparently taking nothing.  The inevitable looters and vandals had taken all decorative items, but left all heavy furniture.  Food might be a problem, but hiding out for a few weeks would not be the ordeal it might otherwise have been.  That left Alex, or the lack of her.

Almost as the thought entered his head, he spotted a figure bumping along the dirt track on an old bicycle.  It waved as she caught sight of him standing on the verandah.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, more angrily than he wanted to.  Alex treated him to her most unrepentant look.

"Getting us breakfast," she said, depositing a bag of groceries into his arm, "and me some coffee."

"You...?"  Ham closed his mouth again.  Alex noticed the expressions playing across his face and stared curiously at him.

"What did you think I was doing?  Hey, c'mon, I don't just walk out on men I sleep with, and if I did, I wouldn't be so stupid as to take a bicycle when I could take a car.  Ham, really..."

"It was a risk you didn't need to take."

"The local store is only an hour away by bike.  I saw the sign on the road when I was taking a look around this morning."  She grinned, hefting the other parcel of groceries off the carrier and poking him playfully in the ribs.  "While you were getting your beauty sleep."

Reluctantly, Ham pulled a face.  Alex grinned even wider.

"C'mon, you hungry?"

"I still don't like it," the other insisted as he followed her indoors.  "You could have been spotted, this is not an Open City, you know."

"We've got to eat, haven't we?"

If it had been up to Ham, a few days fasting would not have gone astray, but he attacked the bread and assorted meats with vigour, not being one to waste any opportunity.  Alex fumbled for the coffee jar.

"Hot water," she muttered to herself, and went outside again to start a fire.  Tyler, who did not suffer from a caffeine addiction, watched with a gleam of amusement in his eyes her attempts to light a fire, but remained silent when she came inside again looking for a suitable container in which to boil the water.

"Okay, so I need my coffee first thing in the morning," she said, seeing his expression.  She knelt down and began rifling through the cupboards.  "Even Homer and Solomon..."

Alex withdrew her head from the cupboard and stared at Tyler, who frowned.

"What is it?"

"Ahh... nothing."

"Alex..."

Tyler watched as the woman turned whiter and her eyes grew vacant.  Just the look set off alarm bells inside him.  Tyler chose his next words with care.

"Tell me what's happening."

"I... don't...know.  It's..."

"What is it?  The dogs?  Solomon and Homer, is that it?"

Alex gasped and her expression changed from vacant to one of hatred.  She snatched up the handgun from the sink next to her and aimed it squarely at Tyler's stomach, before the mercenary could so much as push out his chair.  Very carefully, he raised his hands.

"Fight it, Alex.  You can fight it."

"You... killed... them."

"No!  I didn't.  Think!  The lizards are using you."

Alex's hands were trembling visibly as she pointed the gun.  It wavered, very slightly.

"Ham... help... I can't, I've got to kill...  You killed them, DAMN YOU!"

Tyler saw her finger tighten on the trigger and he threw himself to one side just as the gun went off.  She swung around to cover him, but Tyler was on his feet and running to tackle her.  All her instincts cried out to shoot, to kill, and she had plenty of time to obey.  Not quite knowing why, she side-stepped his rush and chopped down neatly on the back of his head.  Tyler fell with a cry of surprise at her feet, and at the same time, all her hate and anger disappeared as if a switch had been thrown.

The gun dropped from her hand.  For the first time in days, her thoughts and feelings focussed sharply.  All the things that had been a blur she now remembered as vividly consecutive events: her capture in Vancouver, the conversion chamber, her rescue at Tyler's hands...

She stared down at the man on the ground, and memories of Vancouver rushed back.  In horror, she knelt down.

"Ham?"  Tyler groaned as she rolled him over onto his back, but did not wake up. "Oh, shit."

Another thought occurred to the vet as she sat watching the unconscious Tyler.  It was a hazy, tenuous memory...  Very slowly, she raised her left arm and turned it over, palm upwards.  She probed uncertainly around the skin until she found it, a small lump embedded just before the elbow.  Her eyes widened as the implications struck home.  Hurriedly she got to her feet and rummaged through the kitchen drawers.  The Staysharp knife she unearthed had done just that, and she proceeded to make a small incision in her arm.  Gritting her teeth she eased the implant out and quickly wrapped the bloody arm in a towel.  It hurt more than she'd expected, but in her newfound state of awareness she ignored it.

"Ham, wake up!"  Gently she slapped his face.  "Ham!  C'mon, wake up."  When there was no response, Alex sighed.  "Well, I guess I deserve it," she muttered.

Tyler was not a tall man, but he was fit and well-muscled and that muscled weighed plenty.  Alex carried him with effort in a fireman's lift to the pick-up and hurried back for their guns and what was left of the food.

At top speed, she threw the old pick-up down the dirt track and onto the main road.  The bumping did much to bring Tyler back to his senses, and by the time she'd put 5 kilometres between them and the old farmhouse he was starting to come around.

"You okay?"  Alex wanted to pull over to examine him properly, but didn't dare.  "Ham?  C'mon Ham, wake up.  You're scaring the shit out of me."

Without warning, a squad of Visitor shuttles passed almost silently overhead.  Alex craned her neck to watch them disappear in the direction of the abandoned farm.

"God, that was quick!"  Again, she floored the accelerator, but there wasn't much left in the old pick-up.  The speedo read '100' and that was miles per hour.  "Ham, wake up will you?  I don't know what to do."

Ham was semi-conscious, but in no state to take control, as Alex realized.  Scanning the horizon, she saw the shuttles take off again, this time spreading in an orderly pattern.  She cursed all lizards in a manner of which Tyler would have been proud and pulled off the road into the thick grass that lined each side.  Leaping out, she began pulling at the dry grass and hurling it over the pick-up.  Just as the first shuttle passed overhead she scrambled back inside.  Tyler was awake now, and rubbing ruefully at the base of his skull.

Alex's face fell.  "Oh, gee, Ham, I'm sorry, honest..."

"You throw one hell of a punch."

"But Ham, it wasn't me... it was like someone else was trying to get me to pull the trigger.  I couldn't help it..."

Tyler held up a hand.  "It's okay.  I've been there myself."  As much as his aching head would permit, he smiled.  "You handled it better than me, too."

"You were converted?"

He nodded.

"Holy shit."  Alex let this piece of information sink in.  She met his eyes, about to speak, then saw the total understanding in them, and fell silent again, contemplating.

"Where are we?" he said quietly, trying to see out of the windows.

"We... ah... had to get out of the place fast."

"Why?" he prompted.  The vet looked embarrassed.  "Alex..."

"They knew where to find us."

"But..."  His voice trailed off as Alex held out her bandaged arm.

"It was a bug, I think, some sort of homing device.  I remember them implanting it now.  The only reason they didn't pick up the entire Resistance was because it was activated by adrenaline -- supposedly the adrenaline that was released after I killed you."  She smiled wryly.  "Only things didn't quite go according to plan."

"You cut it out?  With a knife?"

"No, I used a submachine gun.  Of course with a knife."

"I'm not all here," Ham admitted, massaging his neck.

"That bad, huh?  Let's have a look."  Reluctantly, Tyler let himself be examined.  "No apparent damage," she announced.  "Your pupils are equal and reacting to stimulus, so there'll be no concussion, thank God.  Though anything with the brain is tricky.  Damnit, why did I have to thump you in the head?"

"Because it's better than being shot there."

She glanced at him to make sure he'd actually cracked a joke, and chuckled.  "You have a point there."  After a moment she slid across the bench seat and took over the massage on his neck.  Tyler didn't complain.

"Hmmmmmmm... where did you learn to do that?"

"I never did.  Must be a knack."

Tyler closed his eyes and submitted almost willingly to her ministrations.  Alex smiled, visualizing a promising few hours ahead.  Carefully she kneaded the tense neck and shoulder muscles for a few more minutes.

"Ham..." she whispered into his ear.  "Ham, how about we --"  Alex broke off abruptly and her green eyes went wide with indignation as a gentle snore interrupted her proposition.  "Ham Tyler!" she yelped.  "Damn you...".  The snores continued unabated.  In utter exasperation, Alex slid back to her side and glared out the window.  "This never happened in the books I read," she muttered in disgust.  It was going to be a long day.
 
 

"Something wrong, Diana?" he asked, too innocently.

"You know what's wrong," she flared.  "They escaped.  Right from under our noses, they escaped!"

"How ever could that have happened?"

Diana seared him with a glance, to which Charles raised an eyebrow.

"That... that woman," Diana spat, "discovered the transponder and removed it before we could accurately pinpoint their location.  If we had continued with the conversion as I suggested at the time she would not have been able to recall anything and all this would never have happened."

"And if your appalling security measures hadn't allowed Mr. Tyler to walk into your ship and steal his lady-friend from beneath your very eyes," Charles responded sharply, "she would have made an excellent operative."  He seated himself elaborately and without haste.  "As it is, the evidence would suggest that the conditioning has been broken, even though we can't be sure the trigger phrase was a failure..."

"No body was reported at the farmhouse," Diana replied coldly.  "Only the transponder, useless now.   No sign of a struggle, either."

"Quite a feat, then.  I'm impressed.  There must be more to our Mr. Tyler than I originally uncovered in his conversion," he mused.  "Do you think we've misjudged him, Diana?"

The alien commander merely glared down at him, scorn and tightly controlled anger written clearly over her features, and continued pacing while Charles pondered this weighty question.  He tapped the arm-rest with the stylus he was holding and shook his head.  "No," he said slowly, "I don't think so."
 
 

"Are you sure --?"

Tyler held a finger to his lips.  "Shhhhh."

Looking much better for his impromptu rest, Tyler eased himself out of the pick-up, reached back for the hand laser and motioned for Alex to stay put.  She glared at him, but didn't make any move.  Five minutes later he was back.

"It's clear.  I don't think they'll be back, either."

"Ham, it's the oldest trick in the book."

"Believe me, it'll work.  When Diana can't find us, she'll assume we've made it back into the city.   Until then, we lie low."

Alex shrugged, not pretending to know anything about Tyler's kind of warfare.  "You're the boss."

Tyler nodded and grabbed the rifles and ammunition.  Without a word he turned and retraced his steps to the house.  Alex frowned.  She couldn't REMEMBER saying anything out of the ordinary.  Tyler's manner had been distant almost since he woke up, not overtly, but enough for her emotional sensitivity to be alerted.

Feeling concerned as well as curious, Alex scooped up the rest of their belongings and followed him inside.

"Ham?"

"Over here."

Tyler was busy hanging heavy blankets over the window.

"Listen, I saw some old kerosene lamps in the barn.  Should I go back and get a few?"

"Yeah, okay."

Silently, Alex left.  She was really worried now.  It was as if his entire personality had disappeared, or at least it ws so well submerged that even she wasn't privy to it.  As the vet trudged back to the barn, she wondered if this was what the other resistance fighters saw of Ham Tyler, and she grinned.  If that was the case, she could now understand all the strange-but-fascinated stares she'd been subjected to when the word had spread that she was 'Tyler's girl'.  It had never occurred to her that what she saw in Tyler was not what others saw.  To see him from their perspective certainly was an eye-opener.

Alex collected 4 kerosene lamps and headed back for the house.  A wind was starting to blow, one that would bring the temperature down, she guessed, to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit tonight.  Chilly, but for a person used to the snows of Canada, not unbearable.

"Going to be cold tonight," she said, entering the house.  She deposited the lamps on the main dining table and proceeded to hunt for matches.  "Ham, have you...?  Oh, thanks."  She lit the lamps with an ease borne of much practise.

Once they had light, Alex gave her companion a searching stare.  He turned away and proceeded to empty the contents of the grocery bag.

"Hungry?" he asked absently.

Alex came up behind him and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.  "Ham..."  He stiffened slightly but did not face her.  "Have I done something, said something?"  No response.  "You've gone all distant."

Seeing that he was not going to turn around, Alex moved herself to stand in front of him.  Tyler turned his head, but could not prevent Alex from turning it back.  Conflicting emotions played over his face, only now giving her any hint of an internal struggle.  Alarmed, she blurted,

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Bull's shit.  Ham...  Please...  tell me what's wrong."

"What business is it of yours?" he snapped, breaking out of her hold.  Stubbornly, she followed him across the room, catching him by the arm and swinging him around to face her.

"I love you," she said simply, frank green eyes staring into dark brown ones.  Tyler flinched.  "And unless I'm mistaken, that makes it very much my business.  Ham," she murmured, reaching up to turn his face towards her again, "I thought you knew."

"It's ... dangerous to make attachments," Tyler said with effort.  "Especially in a war.  People get killed... sometimes."

So that was the problem.  Alex wasn't the sort of person to want or need a full-fledged confession to satisfy her curiosity, and certainly not at such a point in their relationship.  It was then the thought crystallized that she wanted longer than a few weeks to get to know this man.  She smiled.

"I'll risk it if you will."

She watched as the mercenary struggled to come to grips with his emotions.  A part of him did not want to let go of his past, and his family left behind in the jungles of Vietnam, but another, more insistent part wanted the woman standing in front of him, and wanted her desperately.  For the first time in almost 20 years he found himself looking forward to the future, planning, thinking ahead...  His face cleared as he reached a decision.  Then hesitantly at firs, his hands lifted to cup the vet's upturned face and draw her close.

"What the hell," he murmured, "I like to live dangerously..."  She was treated to a real smile from Tyler before he bent to kiss her, gently and without hurry.

When they parted, Tyler drew a deep breath and rested his forehead against hers with a sigh.

"I liked that," Alex informed him.  For a long time, they stayed standing in each other's arms, not speaking.  It felt comfortable, although Alex did not object when Ham lifted her easily into his arms.  Alex's own arms went around his neck.

"I guess this means I don't get to say 'your place or mine?'," she sighed wistfully.  "I've always wanted to say that."

"Well, say it."

"Okay..."  She lowered her voice, "Your place or mine...?"

"Mine."

"Oh.  Where's your place?  I hope we don't have to jog a few blocks like this..."

"In case you haven't noticed, this is a 2 storey house..."

"Ahhh..."

"Any objections?"

"Do I look as if I'm struggling?"

"No," he admitted, his eyes running over her totally relaxed form, "you don't at that."

"But I think," she continued, in an all-too-innocent whisper, "that you should put me down now..."

"Why?"

"I wouldn't want to tire you out... just yet..."

Tyler looked astounded, then a wicked grin rose to his lips.  "Never," he assured her.

Alex sighed in good-natured resignation, but had never shown any signs of resisting his hold.  "Well, if you insist..." she demured.

"I insist."

"But Ham,"  He'd turned and was beginning to carry her up the stairs, "I'm going to have to talk to you about this Rhett Butler fixation of yours..."

Tyler was heard to chuckle, and his voice floated back down the staircase, "Frankly, my dear, I don't GIVE a damn..."
 
 

On a piano.  Right now.

She toyed with the idea that she was still asleep; the sense of well-being she ws experiencing was just too good to be real.  But the music continued, filtering in from somewhere.

Reluctantly, Alex opened her eyes.  "Ham...?"

The space next to her was empty as she reached across.  She frowned as she stretched and yawned, but the contentment persisted.  Alex smiled, then leaped out of the bed in one energetic movement.  She dressed almost as quickly and made her way downstairs.

Alex paused on the lsat step as she caught sight of the source of the music.  Tyler sat at the keyboard of a dusty piano, playing quietly but surely.

"That's beautiful," Alex said quietly, coming up behind him and placing two hands on his shoulders.  For a change, he didn't tense or draw away, but leaned back into her arms.

"I know that music..." she murmured after a few moments listening to the gentle, melodic rhythm.

"It's called the 'Cavatina'."  He continued playing, content to use Alex as a back support, and quite at ease with her arms around his chest.  "It's been a long time since I've hear it, let alone played it."

He finished the piece with a sad, almost wistful kind of expression, wondering what had possessed him to start playing it at all.  It reminded him too much of the old days, memories which had been very close to the surface since his conversion not 2 months before.  The dreams still persisted, but since Alex had been around they had dropped off sharply.  Tyler shrugged off his memories, easily this time, and turned to face the woman behind him with a smile.  Alex promptly sat on his lap.

"How are you this morning?"

"Good," Tyler said, and meant it.

"Good?  Is that all?"

"Okay, pretty terrific," he admitted.  "How about you?"

She smiled, leaning down to kiss him, a gentle yet complete answer.

"I see."  Tyler cleared his throat, and tried to get his breath back.  "How about breakfast?"

"How about upstairs?"

"I just got dressed!" he protested weakly.  Alex grinned.

"So did I."

Leaping up, Alex pulled the unresisting man to his feet and raced up the staircase, Tyler following not far behind.

"How long did you say we had to stay here?" she asked, jumping onto the bed.

"Could be a long time," he replied, with just the right note of despair in his voice.  Alex aimed a pillow at him, missed, and was tackled before she could throw the next one.  Alex laughed and even Tyler chuckled deep in his throat.

There were worse ways, he decided, to spend a week or two.
 

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