Like all airline terminals the last few months, it wasn't possible to meet arriving passengers at the gate. Like most airports, the Indianapolis airport had made inadequate provisions for people waiting to pick up an arriving passenger. The area near the baggage pickup was small, crowded and rather confused. It was well after dark, long after the scheduled arrival, but Dave knew from a phone call earlier that the flight from Denver would be delayed for several hours, so there wasn't much he could do but wait uncomfortably.

A hell of a way to spend Christmas Eve, he thought. At least Shae is easy to pick out of a crowd.

In time she appeared, dragging a wheeled bag from the baggage claim area, wearing a jacket, blouse, and button-up medium-length skirt. He made a beeline for her. "Dave! There you are!" she cried when she saw him emerge from the crowd. As he hurried up to her, she dropped the handle of the bag and spread her arms wide to enfold him; in an instant he was enveloped in them. "Oh, God, it's good to see you!"

"Tough trip?" he asked, hearing the note of desperation in her voice.

"Christ knows why I fly on airlines," she snorted. "The flight was all fucked up, and when I finally could get on the plane I was jammed into the seat like you wouldn't believe. I've seen bondage scenes in clubs that had to have been more comfortable."

"Yeah, I'll bet you don't fit in those seats very well," he said in an attempt to comfort her.

"No shit, Sherlock!" she sneered. "When I fly, I always specify a bulkhead seat since I need the extra legroom, but this time it was take what I could get after they fucked something up. Then I had some idiot in front of me who had to have his seat all the way back."

"Hey, it's all right," he said. "The next leg of the trip you'll be jammed into the front seat of the Chevy, and we can stop so you can stretch your legs whenever you want to."

"Good," she said. "Let's get out of here. I've had all the airlines I can handle for one day. Maybe one century. How are the boys?"

"Just fine," he replied as they broke their embrace. "They're staying at Grandma's tonight, mostly because she has a fireplace where they can hang their stockings."

"Good," she sighed as they started for the exit, with Dave taking her bag to drag behind him. "I take it that means we're going to be able to spend the night alone?"

"What there'll be of it," he smiled, understanding what she was saying perfectly: she was horny. Well, he was, too. He hadn't really planned it that way, but when Cameron raised the issue of not having a fireplace chimney for Santa to come down, it was a no-brainer to build on. Not that Cameron had ever had a fireplace before, and who knew where he'd gotten the idea, but Dave would take what he could get. "It's still going to be a couple hours before we get home."

In spite of the busy Christmas season, Dave had managed to get a parking spot in the short-term lot fairly close in, so the hike to the Chevy was relatively short. He popped the trunk, put her bag inside, and then held the right-side door for her. "Oh, Christ, this feels good," she said as she sat down. "After that fucking airline seat, I feel like I have all the room in the world."

It took a little time to get out of the airport and onto the highway. As Dave got up to speed, he asked, "So, how are your folks?"

"Pretty good," she replied. "Dad is giving some thought to retiring in the next few years, but I think they're going to stay in the Denver area. There's some talk of moving down where it's a bit warmer, say Phoenix, but there are downsides, too. My sister lived there for a while; she says it gets hotter than hell in the summer, worse than putting up with the cold in Denver. Her kids are both in school, now, so she's thinking about getting back into the work force. My brother works for General; he's getting transferred to the Pumpkin Patch distribution center and he's not too thrilled about it. He says Pumpkin Patch makes Bradford look metropolitan."

"I'll bet the weather is better than Bradford," Dave suggested. As a son of an office worker at General, and having grown up with General kids like Shae, he knew a fair amount about the company.

"Yeah, better than Denver, too," she agreed. "He says that's about the only compensation."

They talked back and forth for a few minutes about news from her family. They were not real close anymore; all the kids were grown up and had scattered across the country. It was rare for them to all be together at once. "Dave, I have to admit something to you," she said. "I know we agreed we were going to keep it between ourselves, but I mentioned I'd been seeing you, and told them about Julie. I didn't, uh, go into any details about what we did the last time we were together."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter with them," he said thoughtfully. "I guess I don't mind family knowing something is going on. I mean, Mom knows. I told her that things were getting a little more serious than 'just friends' between us and didn't go into any details, either. But she can read between the lines, too. I think that was why she was so helpful about having the boys tonight. But they're special circumstances; we won't be able to pull that trick every trip you make to Bradford."

"At least we get to pull it this time," she agreed. "A few hours of good sex ought to hold me until we can drive back to New York next weekend."

"Did I mention we happen to think a lot alike in a many ways?" he grinned. "I have to ask, though. When were you in a bondage club? Is this another fascination of yours I haven't heard about?"

"Well, no," she replied, sounding a little abashed. "Oh, I've often thought it might be fun to play around with a little but I've never met anyone I trusted enough to play with until you. That episode came back when Eve was working on her master's, before she re-met John and Cheryl. She was doing some research; I'm still not very clear about it, and wanted to check out some various scenes. She wasn't very happy about the idea of doing it alone. I had some time off coming, and it had been a while since we'd been able to hang out together, so I spent a week nosing around the Chicago scene with her. Carl set it up for us, of course. I learned a lot, and some of it I would be just as glad not knowing."

"I suppose," Dave sighed. "Julie and I stuck our nose into some off-the-wall places when we were at Columbia and saw some of that kind of thing. I don't think it particularly inspired either of us, but it was kind of interesting to see what people will do for fun."

"There is that," she agreed. "I mean, I thought I was an exhibitionist, and I am to a degree, but good God!"

They drove along for a bit, exchanging some of the things they'd seen in such places. As usual, Shae had the better stories since the places she and Eve had gone had been rather more extreme than the rather mild scenes he and Julie had observed. After a while, the conversation died out a little, more from lack of interest in the topic than anything else. "So, how are things in Bradford?" she asked finally in an effort to get the conversation going again to help pass the miles.

"Nothing much changes," Dave shrugged. "Hell, you know that; you grew up there, too. If there's anything I haven't heard about, we'll probably hear it when the gang gets together the night after tomorrow."

"Looking forward to it," she smiled. "I've seen a lot of those kids recently, but not together. It ought to be interesting. We're still going to be 'just friends' with them, right?"

"About have to be," he said. "Emily will be there, and I think she suspects something is going on. Sometimes it's been hard to not talk about it in front of her. I wish we didn't have to do it, but I think I should maintain appearances for a while yet."

"I do, too," she agreed. "I think it's more important in Bradford than it would be in the city."

"Why?" he teased. "Are you thinking about moving back to Bradford to stay with me?

"It's not beyond the realm of possibility," she said slowly. "Dave, I don't know what's happening with Avalon."

Dave glanced at her. This was not the response he had been expecting. "Do you think they're getting set to cancel it?"

"I don't know," she said with a frown. "It's a possibility. In fact, I'd have to say it's more than just a possibility, although I don't know exactly what's what. What I do know is that this time last year we were deep in negotiations about a contract renewal for the talent; we're on one-year terms. This year the subject hasn't even been raised, and people are getting worried."

"Don't get too nervous," he advised. "It may be something further up that has things held up."

"Could be," she said. "But when Charley's House morphed into Avalon, it was on a contract dispute for the talent. Don't forget, Avalon is pretty low budget, and I think it's on the chopping block."

"I'm surprised," Dave said, wondering how this was going to change things. "I mean, I figured it was something like Sesame Street or Mister Rogers that goes on forever and ever."

"No," Shae shook her head, "I knew from the beginning, it wasn't going to be that way. In fact, it's held on longer than I expected. What you have to remember is Avalon only appeals to kids of a very narrow age range, say two to five or six. The thing of it is that the show is written so it doesn't reflect current events. That means once there's a collection of shows built up, after three or four years they can start the same shows over at the beginning with a whole new audience. CTN is a very low budget operation, and it's cheaper to air reruns than it is to continually shoot new material. I'll continue to get residual payments for it for years because it'll be more or less current until the tapes wear out. That's why we still see all those old Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons from back in the thirties and forties. They're just as funny as they ever were, cost nothing to shoot and only a small fee to run. There has to be a continual parade of new shows, but it's a relatively small portion of the total, and especially for that age range."

"You make it sound pretty bleak."

"It is pretty bleak, Dave," she said softly. "My own best guess is if it's renewed, it'll only be for a year, two at the most, and I've done enough nosing around the network offices to make me suspect that's the case. Remember, I spend a little time around the network because I'm still a WSN reporter, although pretty rarely anymore. That gives me an in at the network that some of the other people on Avalon don't have. The point is I went to Avalon thinking it was going to be a steppingstone to someplace else, and it's proving to not be the case. In fact, I've lost ground since I'm not real visible at WSN anymore. In fact, right now, I wish they'd just cancel the goddamn thing, so I could pick up and move to Bradford to be with you and the boys."

"I have to admit my plans aren't too well worked out," he told her. "But this puts a different spin on things. I'd more or less been figuring on moving back to the city once school lets out so the boys and I could be with you. But if it weren't for that, staying in Bradford looks pretty appealing right now."

"It does to me, too," Shae admitted. "And for more reason than just you and the boys are there. I have friends in Bradford, Dave. I hadn't really realized it until recently, but after being lonely in the city as long as I've been, it's looking pretty appealing."

"It would end your career, though," he noted.

"What career?" she snorted. "I'm getting pretty tired of playing Shaella Sunrise. I've pretty well made a commitment to myself to stick it out for another year or two, if for no more reason than to protect the jobs of some people who went to bat for me when Charley's House bit the big one. But I'm beginning to think my career is elsewhere, whatever it is, and I'm going to have to make it for myself. And what about your career if you stay in Bradford?"

"Good question," he replied. "I haven't worked out all the details yet, but it's beginning to look like Julie's money and settlement money when everything is said and done should go a long way toward supporting me and the boys in Bradford. I could probably do some editorial consulting part-time, or contract editing or something if the book doesn't work out, so I'm thinking about it pretty hard. But I can't get over the idea that Bradford is probably a much better place to raise the boys than in the city."

"You're right," she agreed. "It does put a different spin on things. It's nothing we can do anything about now, but it is something to think about."

"My thinking exactly. Assuming for a moment that they do cancel Avalon, you'll still be shooting until around spring, right?"

"That'd be my guess," she said. "They're contracted for a certain number of episodes, but it doesn't really mean a lot. I could go back to work right after the holiday and discover I don't have a job to go back to. But, odds are spring."

"Even if it works out that the boys and I come back to New York," Dave said. "It won't be before school is out. I'm not going to put the boys through that trauma again this year. Besides, it could well be then before all the financial stuff is ironed out. So, we've got some time to make up our minds."

Shae turned at him and smiled. "I guess it means that we just have to wait and see what happens. But however it works out, we're going to be together, right?"

"That's what I'm hoping," he told her.

It was late when they got back to Bradford. Unlike her previous visits, Dave had made up the spare bedroom -- he'd sleep in it while she was there, so she could have the bigger king-sized bed and they could be a little more discreet in front of the boys than they had been in the past. Showing a little restraint, they didn't rush right off to bed -- the king-sized one tonight, since the boys weren't there -- but sat in the kitchen with a cup of hot chocolate. What it did was make her kiss taste like chocolate when they did head for the bedroom.

A couple hours later they lay cuddled close together under the covers, the bodies sticky and crusty with the results of their exertions, kissing lightly, winding down. It was very late now; they knew they would be lucky to get a few hours sleep before they had to get up, shower, and get across the street to beat the boys getting up.

"Shae," he whispered to her half-awake mind. "I love you."

"I love you too, Dave."

They snuggled a little closer, if such a thing were possible, and just held onto each other until sleep came to claim both of them.

The alarm clock went off much too early, but there was no choice -- Christmas morning was for kids, and this morning of all mornings, they certainly came first. "Damn," she said as she fought sleep, still holding on to him much as she had done the night before. "I want to stay in bed but I guess we can't."

"Right, no way," he said, squirming a little preparatory to getting up, but still in her embrace. "But we better haul our butts out of this bed and get up before we fall back asleep. I'll let you go first in the shower."

"No showering together, huh?"

"I think we could both get in the shower together, but I'm not sure there'd be any room for water," he said.

"Besides," she grinned, wakefulness coming to her a little more firmly, "If we shower together, we're likely to get distracted, and who knows when we'd get done."

"That's not an issue," he laughed. "The water heater in this house isn't very big. We'd run out of hot water pretty quick. But then, that might not slow us down."

"True," she sighed, letting go of him and twisting her body to sit up. "That's one thing about the apartment, for sure. If it works out that I wind up moving here, I'm sure going to miss my big shower."

"Well, it's much too soon to make plans," he yawned as he winched himself upright as well, muscles complaining of stiffness and aches in strange places. "But I never figured on being in this house permanently. If we decide to move to Bradford, we'll have to look into building a decent-sized house."

"This place is big enough," she protested. "It's just, well, there are things that don't work right for me."

"That's what I meant," he said. "We'll build a decent sized house. I mean, vertically. Ten-foot ceilings, eight-foot doors, forty-two-inch counters or higher, things like that. You know more what you need than I do. Of course, if we decide to stay in the city, we can do the same there, too."

"You mean it?"

"Of course I mean that. It really wouldn't be much more expense than a normal house, and I want my Shae to be happy where she lives because I want to be happy with her there for a long time."

Dave suddenly found himself flattened against the bed, buried under the nude body of his tall, sexy woman as her mouth headed for his. They kissed for a couple minutes before she pulled away and breathed, "Oh, damn, Dave! You're so nice to me! Why couldn't we have worked something out in high school?"

"We weren't ready," he smiled. "I think we both needed to grow up a little."

"Yeah, you're right, I guess," she said. "Guess we have to get moving, huh?"

"Afraid so. You have dibs on the shower."

"Fine, I'll try to not take too long."

"Yeah, leave me some hot water, too."

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