"So, who are they from?" he asked, interrupting the impromptu dance of joy. She looked surprised, then smiled down at the flowers.

"Hmm, yellow roses...probably my brother Chris. He knows that they're my favorites. Pink roses would be from David, 'sweet sixteen bouquets,' I call them." She picked up the envelope from where she'd dropped it when she opened the box.

"Your brother sends you flowers for no reason?" He immediately thought of Marilyn, and grinned to himself. Kermit had been known to send her things he thought she and the kids would like, or could use, but a random floral delivery was long overdue. When he got back, he'd have to remedy that.

"Oh, he has a reason." Jewel peeped at him from under dark lashes, and smiled, this time at him. "You see, he loves me." Without further ado, she ripped open the envelope and read the card. Then she read it again. Kermit watched, unable to look away, as her lower lip began to tremble, to be caught in small white teeth. Her sapphire eyes darkened and filled, tears caught in her lashes. However, he was still unprepared when she slowly sank to the floor, back to the wall, dropping flowers and note to bury her face in folded arms.

"Whoa, kid, it's okay. Don't do that." Uneasily he stooped for the card, swiftly reading the hand penned note.

" 'To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens'. Without you, I might have never known my time to laugh, my time to dance, my time to love. But I know that those times are now, with you, my Jewel. Forever. Love, Kermit."

In HIS handwriting. He finally got it. As much as he cherished Savannah, his twin cherished Jewel. As much as he needed his wife, his child, the other needed and depended on, and loved this funny, fey woman. Loved her black cat, and her in your face honesty, long red plait and jeans, loved their comfortably cluttered life together. He felt it. She was finally real to him and he couldn't stand to see her sobbing silently, head bowed and shoulders shaking as she wept.

"Jewel." She flinched from his hand on her shoulder and he knelt awkwardly. Some inner voice was urging him on. She shouldn't be crying. She was special, fearless and laughing and beloved, she shouldn't be crying. It hurt watching her cry. <Do something!> That odd urging drove him on and he leaned in, putting his arms around her and drawing her against his chest. "Hey, kiddo, don't cry. I've got you. It's going to be all right." And she wasn't fighting him, her arms were around his neck and her face was buried in his shoulder. She felt...right. He could barely make out words as she sobbed them out.

"What if we're wrong? What if I lose him? Oh, gods, if I never see him again..." She pulled back a little, looking up at him with tragic eyes and a nose already pink from crying. "I love him so much and he's just gone, right from our bed, he's gone. How could I not know that? Feel it?"

He held her close, his shaggy head on her shoulder, his body warm and solid and reassuring against hers. "It's going to be okay, sweetheart. We're going to get him back. Shsssh, it's all right, it's going to be all right, darlin'." He crooned, his voice soft and comforting, and he held her tightly, letting her storm safely in his arms.

"It was the note." She explained softly, and unnecessarily, between occasional shuddering breaths. "It just hit me, I mean, I've been trying to focus on getting through, on doing stuff...I know that he loves me. I love him too. But, we make these plans for a quiet date at home and he goes all out. Good champagne, roses, that sweet, sweet card. Nobody in my whole life, including a very nurturing family, has ever made me feel so cherished. Tonight was important, and I can't stand that he is missing it."

Kermit needed desperately to lighten the mood. The emotions were running way too high on both sides here. "I always knew I was a great catch." She laughed, a quick puff, so he went on. "He's got good taste, I'll give him that. If a date with you WASN'T top priority, I'd have to recommend a stay at the Rubber Ramada." He was still reacting to her, vulnerable and soft and so very much in need, against him. Kermit began a slow disengagement. "So, let's not let roses and good booze and what I suspect is a knock out dress go to waste. Go put on your dancing shoes, Milady, and I'll rustle up some music."

She raised her face to his, her eyes like rain washed pansies. "What?"

"I said, I've got a ready made date with a gorgeous dame and I'm in the mood to trip the light fantastic."

A smiled hovered on her lips as they scrambled to their feet. "You want to dance with me, seriously?" Then, the smile was in her eyes, and gratitude as well. "I think dancing sounds good. I'll go change," she said then, swiftly, she kissed his cheek before disappearing up the loft stairs. Kermit took off his shades and stared after her for a long meditative minute before heading for the CD shelf.

Upon returning, she descended into a darkened room studded with starlight. Kermit had been busy while she changed. "Songs for Sleepless Nights" played softly, and every candle in the large open room had been lit. The fire was low in the grate, and the couch had been pushed back to clear a large floor space before the hearth.

The low hall table was heaped with food. "Our dinner! It arrived!" Her stomach growled and Kermit laughed from the shadows, choking on it when she turned blindly in his direction. Jewel had brushed her hair loose again, into a garnet drift of silk, and her bare arms and shoulders gleamed like antique ivory in the warm light. A deep blue velvet bodice molded her to the waist, where a swish of silver taffeta belled out into a delightfully rustly, and feminine, skirt. Black velvet slippers covered sheer silk stockings and she had fastened her mother's sapphires into her ears. She was beautiful. Kermit moved forward on automatic pilot, bowing with a hand on his heart when he reached her.

"May I have this dance?" She stepped into his embrace as an answer and "Stardust" played around them as they swayed through a waltz. His arm encircled her waist and she fit snugly against him, eyes liquid indigo and raised to his unshielded gaze. They didn't speak, they didn't need to, and only when "Stardust" had ended did they remember the supper waiting for them.

*****

Kermit sat staring at the pile of bed linens his would-be wife had thrown at him an hour earlier. At first glance, she didn't seem like the type for bursts of fury. Looking around the room, moonlight washed over a collection of roses, lace, and cushions. Savannah had seemed delicate and frail, much like one of those roses sprayed across the room.

The error of those impressions was still stinging his cheek where Savannah had slapped his face to defend her true husband's honor. Gingerly touching the spot, he couldn't help but smile at the wallop packed by such a petite woman. <You had it coming, Griffin. Crossed the line.>

Making himself busy, he struggled to keep thoughts of his own woman from rising. He moved quickly in the dim lighting that poured through the large bay window. Tucking cool white sheets over the chintz sofa, he tried to reconcile the tandem realities. Here there was no Jewel, no brilliant sapphire eyes, no fiercely independent young woman to rage at his chauvinistic flare-ups...no lover. The thought of her gone, dead at the hands of some maniac, overshadowed his own predicament. Sinking down into the silence of night, he allowed himself to miss her, allowed the crushing grief that flared even with the knowledge that the woman he loved was alive and well on the other side of whatever cosmic practical joke separated them. There, she was alive with another man at her side, or against her.

The gentle swish of tiny feet on carpet yanked his attention outward. Kat, bundled in a pair of footed pajamas, half-walked half-toddled through the darkness. A tangle of ebony curls bounced as the child staggered into her father's office then out again after finding it empty. Kermit stifled his laughter at the way she rambled her way to his side as if she had made this sleepy trek a thousand times.

He didn't want to confuse her any further. This afternoon, she had warmed up to him and seemed to accept his foreign body in her universe. Now, half sedated by exhaustion, the little girl seemed to abandon her doubts and accept him at face value, at the face of her father.

"Storeeee..." The request trailed off into a yawn that stretched her little pink mouth into a perfect oval. Kat ambled over his knee without any assistance at all and settled into his lap. There was no opening for her request to be denied as pink fleece and round body snuggled against him.

Even as he opened his mouth to formulate an escape, his large arm closed in to cradle the warm little body that suddenly trusted him. He let the air pass his lips without forming a word.

"Daddy? Storee, pleeeeez."

Daddy. Here, in this world, he was Daddy. What chance of meeting or circumstance had made this possible? His arms closed around her more tightly. Her true father must have this every night. Was this inside him somewhere longing to come out? Suddenly his own uncleanness oozed subconsciously forth. A bundle of innocence, fresh baby powder-scented innocence, was cradled in his bloody hands.

<No.> Long ago he had made that choice and it was the right one, right for him, at least.

But now, tonight, his choices didn't matter. Consistency for a little girl mattered more. Softening his voice made hoarse from exhaustion, Kermit gave into the luxury of the moment. "Promise to go straight to bed after one story?"

With a smile that could melt glaciers, Kat looked up at him and bobbed her tiny head up and down. "Pwomeese."

He was hooked and he knew it. <What a first class sucker, you are Griffin.> One look and she had him. He had wondered how this man, this Kermit who belonged on this sofa, could bring his past into a child's life. One look from those eyes, one soft breath of innocent trust, and he knew. "What story, Sweetcakes?"

Without much hesitation, Kat's squeaky voice answered, "Piggies."

Smiling with relief, Kermit gathered the little girl more closely to his chest and settled into the role of storyteller. Luckily, he knew this one well. Kissing the silky curls nesting beneath his chin, he began the tale.

"Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who left their parents' home to make their fortune. There were two little boy pigs named," he searched quickly for names, "Rykker and Steadman. Now they were lazy little piggies who spent the summer drinking and chasing little piggy barmaids. Nothing like the smart little girl pig -- I believe her name was Katherine -- who began to build her shiny new brick home straight away. She knew when the cold winds came, the hungry wolf who lived nearby would soon come searching for a ham sandwich."

At the mention of her own name, Kat perked up. Green eyes focused completely on her "father," the little girl sat in rapt attention.

"Well, Rykker Piggy and Steadman Piggy made big fun of Katherine Piggy as she toiled away in the sunshine building her house." Kermit swallowed quickly and wrinkled up his nose. Twisting his voice into an irritating, tauntingly British squeak, he gave life to the naughty little pigs. "Silly pig, wasting all day building a brick house. Come play with us and have fun, fun, fun." Adding several "Oinks!" to the end, sent the child into uncontrolled giggling. "But Katherine Piggy was far wiser than those two slovenly porkers and she replied, 'All work and no play will make me nice and safe in my brick house while you two are turned into bacon when the wolf shows up.'" Kermit's high-pitched sing-song version of a female voice was part Billy Burke lilt and part Mae West phrasing. The combination sparked another round of laughter.

Kermit absorbed himself in the event, treasuring each moment. "Soon, the winter winds came and the two lazy piggies dragged themselves from the local pub and threw together a couple of sorry, sloppy houses out of straw and sticks." Leaning over, he whispered, "Stupid piggies, huh?" and stole another kiss. "While Katherine Piggy was warm and snug in her brick house perusing her copy of 'Guns and Ammo', those two lazy piggies were shivering in the cold. And with the cold...came...the...WOLF!" He began to growl and tickled Kat's stomach. "The big, bad wolf came first to Rykker Piggy's rickety straw house." In a deep, menacing whisper, Kermit gave life to the wolf. "Little pig! Little pig! Let me co--"

"No. That not the wolf." Kat looked up at him warily, the mistrust returning to her big green eyes.

Now, he was on the spot. So far, all had come naturally, easily. He was ad-libbing and charming the kid. <Not the wolf?> After a few seconds of memory search, the right voice came to mind from long ago storytelling practice.

Reflex snapped into place and he began to huff and growl the Wolf's breathy voice. Puffing out the words, he began again, "Little pig! Little pig! LET ME COME IN!" He snapped his teeth and shook his head in the air.

Mission accomplished, Kat clapped her hands and shouted, "Bad ole wuuff!"

"You bet he was, Kitty Kat. Rykker Piggy was shaking in his boots and answered, 'Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.' So the Wolf said, 'Then I'll HUFF,'" Kermit huffed, "'and I'll PUFF,'" Kermit puffed, "'and I'll BLOOOOW your house in!" Kat clapped loudly at his wolfish performance. "The wolf blew and the straw house was history."

"Piggy?"

"Rykker Piggy ran as fast as his piggy legs would carry him to hide out with Steadman Piggy and drown his sorrows in the stick house. But, as you might guess, the Big Bad Wolf wasn't far behind." Gearing up the puffing, snarling voice, Kermit said, "'Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!'" Shifting to a shivering piggy tone, he answered, "'Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!'

"'Then I'll HUFF and I'll PUFF and I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!!!' And he did. That wolf blew stick house from here to St. Louis and sent those two piggies scrambling for their sister's brick house. Being an ever vigilant piggy, Katherine Piggy disarmed her security system and let her brothers inside to safety.

"'Run and hide!' screamed the terrified piggies as they pushed past their sister and ran inside. But Katherine Piggy was cool as a cucumber. 'No need, Brothers. This brick house is perfectly safe from the Big Bad Wolf. Go change your diapers and we'll have dinner.' Well, no sooner had she calmed down her 'fraidy cat brothers who do you suppose started bellowing on her front lawn?"

"Wuuf?" Katherine spoke with a tremulous voice, knowing the answer but anxiously playing along.

"You bet it was! The Big Bad Wolf was in an awful temper after having chased his potential ham sandwiches through the countryside. Now, the wolf wasn't very inventive so once again he tried his same ole tired routine. 'Little PIGS, little PIGS, LET ME COME IN!'

"Steadman Piggy and Rykker Piggy hid themselves under the bed with only their shaky tails sticking out. Katherine Piggy was annoyed, but in the spirit of cooperation, she gave the required response through the handy dandy intercom she'd installed on her porch, 'Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin, yadda, yadda, yadda, let's get this over with.' Needless to say, the wolf was furious and growled back, 'THEN I'LL HUUUUUFFF, AND I'll PUFF, AND I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!!!'

"'Blow until you turn purple you silly wolf!' Katherine Piggy replied. So...," Kermit paused and gave Kat a conspiratorially grin then tapped her chin, "he did. He huffed and puffed and huffed some more. He huffed until his eyes were buggin' out. He huffed so hard the he huffed himself right out of his boots. But the brick house stayed put around the piggies.

"Katherine Piggy was very pleased with herself and grabbed her brothers by the tail and pulled them out from under the couch. 'There, you see? My brick house kept us safe and sound.'"

"The end?" Kat hadn't taken her eyes off of Kermit's face for an instant. He wasn't quite ready to end the story just yet.

Snuggling her closer he said, "Not quite yet, Sweetcakes. Suddenly, they heard a sneaky scratching sound on the roof. Big wolf claws were scraping on the chimney. 'OH NO!' screeched Steadman and Rykker Piggy. 'He's going to eat us!'

"'Chill out, you two. Are you pigs or chickens?! Watch this.' Well, Katherine Piggy went straight to her gun cabinet and pulled out the trusty Desert Eagle she'd purchased for just such an occasion. She locked and loaded and when the Big Bad Wolf came sliding down the chimney," Kermit pointed his finger-gun across the room and fired, "BOOM! When the smoke cleared, the Big Bad Wolf became the main course. Katherine Piggy called her brothers to dinner and as they ate tasty wolf stew, she said, 'See, Boys. Now that we've got a sturdy house and the wolf is toast, we can play all winter long.' Rykker Piggy and Steadman Piggy were ever so grateful and they lived--"

"Happily evah after!" Katherine clapped and squealed.

"And the moral of the story is it's the smart piggy with the best firepower who outlives the wolf." Kermit ended the story with another round of "oinks" delivered directly into Kat's stomach.

Giggling and wiggling all over the little girl threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. "Lub you, Daddy."

The sentiment caught him by surprise. It felt like stealing to enjoy it so much. She didn't love him. This tiny girl child loved her father, not him. But, those warm arms clad in pink pajamas were too hard to resist. Gathering her tightly, he hugged back. "Daddy loves you, too, Sweetheart." Standing up with Kat wrapped safely in his arms, he carried her back to bed and tucked her under a blanket. Her tiny hand reached to snare a battered cloth frog and drag it beneath the covers before she surrendered to sleep and dozed off. Kermit ran a few fingers through the soft dark curls then backed away, satisfied that she was sound asleep.

For a few moments, he lingered inside the nursery. It had been a long, long time since he'd been near a child, this near. The room was a nest of comfort. Soft blue walls dappled with white clouds surrounded a collection of frills and toys. Here lived a little girl who was loved, protected, and cherished. Maybe the man she called "Daddy" had led a different life, a life with less blood on his hands, a life with fewer secrets, fewer enemies. "Sleep well, little one. I'll bet your Daddy misses you. I know I will."

With that said, he went back to the living room to wait for morning.

*****

He could feel her staring at him before she entered the room. Savannah drifted inside the hall before approaching him. If she were still angry with him, Kermit couldn't blame her. If she were afraid, it would be natural. He amounted to a stranger invading her home, her life. But as he turned away from the window where he'd stood gazing outside and calculating odds, fear and anger weren't the emotions that reached out to him. Even hours before when he had descended on her with accusation, nearly throwing her to the ground, there had been relatively little fear in her eyes. Desperation and heartbreak had pooled there, but not the intense fear he expected.

Wearing a soft mist of white satin, Savannah drifted over to him in her bare feet. Her voice was soft and sweet. "So, she has you, too."

"You heard?"

"Yes, I could hear Kat get out of bed if I were ten miles away." Moving closer, Savannah smiled and moved her sleep-tangled hair back over her shoulder. "I was on my way to get her, but you were doing such an excellent job I thought I'd leave things alone."

Looking down into her warm, open features, Kermit returned the smile. "It's easy to be good to her. Is he good to her?"

"Yes." The reply lacked all of the defensive bite Savannah had used earlier in the day to defend her husband and their life choices. "He was terrified at first, so was I, but he embraced parenthood the moment he held her." The love in her voice was unbridled, for her own husband and her child. "How did you know the right wolf voice? Even I don't attempt 'The Three Pigs' because she'll pitch a hissy for that voice only you, uh, only Kermit can do." The momentary slip flushed her features and she looked away, out the window and into the night.

"It was the voice I always used with David. That was my younger brother." And David's reaction had been the same as Kat's, wide open giggling. It was one of the kinder memories Kermit held of time with his brother.

"Yes, I know about David." The look in her eyes as she turned her face toward him again was filled with sadness. It was the answer he needed to his unasked question. David was gone in this life, too. Kermit stood silent for a moment, adding David's name beside Jewel's in his grief. His arm was rigidly bowed by his side and he stuffed his hand inside his pocket to hide the frustrated fist. A gentle hand broke the stiff line of his arm.

Savannah's small hand rested softly on his arm. "I'm so sorry. I know how much you miss him." Her words were bending his reality, drawing his own hand to cover hers.

"And you, is he good to you?" He wanted to know that he was leaving her in good hands, leaving both of them in good hands.

"Oh, yes. He loves me. I couldn't ask for a better man," she said, leaving her hand under his. "When I was completely out of courage, he shared his with me. When he was on his knees, I wouldn't run. That's all anyone could ever need from a partner."

"He's told you everything, hasn't he?" He already knew the answer. She knew it all, every filthy detail. How could he tell her those things? How could she look at him, knowing who he was, what he had done?

"Everything. It only made me love him more and I'm grateful to God for helping him to survive so that we could find each other."

In a gesture of trust, he peeled off his dark shades and looked down into her lovely green eyes. "Please forgive my stupidity this afternoon. I took out my frustrations on you. You didn't deserve that." Almost reflexively, he used one finger to ease a stray golden curl from her forehead.

The rose-tinted cheeks were pierced by dimples as Savannah's lips curled into a genuine smile. "Please, there's nothing to forgive. I haven't exactly been the ultimate hostess. Here you are, thrown slap into the middle of another life and I should have been more accommodatin'. Besides, you always tend to snap when you're worried."

"No one should ever snap at you," Kermit answered softly. Savannah was moving closer, bridging polite distance and stepping into intimate. "I want you to know that you have nothing to fear from me. I'd never hurt you or that child."

Brilliant green eyes sparkled up at him, moist with emotion, with passion and love. Her hand traced a warm path across his cheek. The caress lingered in apology along the place where she had slapped him. "Of course you wouldn't. You've always worried about that, even from the first. And I'd never hurt you." Savannah continued to stroke the side of his face, the warmth and love in her eyes was overwhelming. There was no line between the man who belonged here and the Kermit Griffin who was bathed in this woman's intoxicating scent and touch

His hand was drawn to the nape of her neck, stroking gently, finding an odd disturbance to the soft skin. Instantly, a vision exploded in his mind. Savannah's body thrown over concrete steps. Blood covering her. His breath choked in his throat. "You were shot," he whispered, the vision blurring with remembered agony that felt newly born, "here," his hand moved to her shoulder, "and here," his hand traveled lower, stroking another scar through her gown, "and here."

Savannah let his hand guide her closer to his body. "Yes."

"You were dying," he said, actually seeing her eyes for the first time. He loved her desperately and had nearly lost her to those stray bullets. "And I wanted to die with you." First Ericson had almost raped and murdered her then a drive by shooting-- "I'd do anything to undo all your pain. Anything."

Savannah's voice simmered with a building intensity as her body rose and his lowered to meet her lips. Emotional gravity pulled him toward her as she closed her eyes and offered her lips. "Oh, baby. I know," tripped from her mouth as their breath mingled. Something whispered a paper-thin protest in the back of his mind. The kiss traveled past the first brush of flesh and blossomed into a dizzy tangling of bodies. Arms closed around each other as the kiss blended into an endless ribbon of passion. Her hands eased inside his jacket to stroke his back and paint her love around his body. The taste was sweet, with an enthusiastic offering and reception.

He craved her touch, her taste. Thinking about her often derailed his days at work and sent him on long "official business" back to her during the day. Roaming over her body, he filled his hands with her. Savannah. Soft, warm, and sexy. She'd been gone for so long, so long. All those months she lay trapped in a coma, he lay awake at night wanting her. He'd never let go now. Not ever.

The thin veil of pale satin exhaled from around Savannah's shoulders and his hands touched her flesh. The robe was gone, only tiny white strings broke the line of her shoulders. Soft woman's skin lay beneath his hands and the contact sent an impassioned groan from her mouth into his own. Breaking the lengthy tangle of lips and tongues, Savannah planted soft kisses over his mouth. Her hands slipped to his shoulders and pushed his jacket to the floor. Dizzy kisses wrapped around his mind, choking out any other thought than desire. His shirt was gone. Hungry fingers inched up his chest, exploring. Hot pink lips kissed along his jawline then down his neck, sucking at his pulse, setting him on fire.

The need was everything. The need to touch her, to be with her, to be inside her. Brushing the straps down her arms, Kermit bared her body to more exploration. The watery fabric gathered at her hips, exposing her bosom and her soft pink flesh.

"I want you," she groaned into his ear as Kermit's hands cupped her breasts. "Touch me, please touch me."

Melting to the floor, they never lost contact. He devoured her, kissing her forehead, her mouth, her neck. Hot, hard beads rubbed against his tongue when he sucked in her breast. Flames flared in his body as elegant nails trailed down his back. On his knees, he crawled between her legs and she wrapped around him, pressing tightly to his body. With both hands, he tangled into her wild blonde hair, rubbing her bare chest with his own, troublesome fabric below the only barrier to complete oblivion.

Burying her mouth with his own, he kissed her deeply. He didn't need air, only to make love to her, to love her. One delicate hand wriggled between them, pouring gasoline on the fire in his crotch. She cupped him, stroking roughly then tenderly gliding one finger over him.

"Please, baby, please," she moaned against his mouth, stopping the kiss only long enough to speak.

His hand tangled in her brief satin panties, roughly pulling them down and away. He pulled away from her mouth, wanting to see her face, to experience her like every other time since the first. The first time. He remembered that virginal enthusiasm, the way she fluctuated from wanton to timid to desperately passionate. The way he had held her, kissing her through the pain of that first thrust.

In the filtered moonlight, her eyes were a beacon, absorbing him.

Absorbing.

<The universe could attempt to expel or absorb you>

"Savannah," his voice was a harsh pant against her cheek, "wait." He was pulling back into himself, away from the false reality that had sucked him inside.

His zipper was sliding down, hot needy hand reaching through to stroke him. "I love you, Baby. Please...now...," Savannah's lips reached up to him once again, smooth thighs wrapping around him, drawing him closer.

<Damn...>

He broke away, gently pushing a breath of distance between them. Grasping both of her hands, he pulled them away. "This isn't right, Savannah. I don't love you."

The words slammed into her with the force of a closed fist and her body fell back to the floor. Her lips, still wet from his kiss, trembled and tears raced down her flushed cheeks. A gasp caught in her throat, not quite reaching the air. She lay there, almost naked before him, growing pale with shock at the words.

Immediately, he moved away from her, groping for his shirt and yanking his zipper back in place. "Honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

Savannah scrambled back into her gown and robe, crawling across the floor away from him. "Oh, God...what have I done? Oh, God...I'm sorry." Savannah babbled on through her embarrassment and sorrow.

Now, the passion that had flared was gone. He was who he was, not being confused into this other man's life. Buttoning his shirt, he went to her, pulling her gently to her feet. She was trembling, almost as violently as earlier. "No, don't be. This is Twilight Zone territory. I let it get hold of me, too, and I'm very sorry." The erotic flame now extinguished, it was safe to be close again. Savannah sobbed into his chest, clinging for dear life. "What I meant to say is that I'm not the man who loves you."

The sobbing slowly subsided and Savannah released him, pulling her robe more tightly around her body. "It was just so hard to hear those words come from your, from his, mouth. I love him so much. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done this but...but you're Kermit...you're...I love him so much."

He held her tightly again, letting her relax slowly. Keeping his voice deep and soothing, he said, "And by god, he loves you, Lady. For those few moments, I was him, your husband. I had his memories, his feelings."
Pulling back, he tipped her chin upward with one finger. "Don't ever doubt how he feels."

Sniffling once, she looked back with curious eyes. "His memories? So you know about," she paused, swallowing a stray sob that remained, "everything?"

"Yes, everything." He looked into her eyes, sharing his sympathy for both of them, also his respect. "You've both gone through hell and you deserve to be happy." Holding her face with one hand, he said, "You deserve to be happy and if he makes you happy then I'm glad. He's a lucky man to have you."

Kermit took her small hand in his own and led her to the sofa. Side by side, they sat gathering their own fears and emotions and settling them back into place. "Savannah, I won't lie to you," he said, returning his shades to protect himself. "If this switch doesn't work out, I don't know if I can live his life, his life with you."

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Savannah reassembled the strength she'd used to get through the event thus far. Kermit watched walls of pride and determination form. She sat up straighter, head a little higher, and wiped her eyes. Finally she withdrew her hand and placed both in her own lap. "I know," she said, only a slight waiver remaining in her voice.

"But, I won't hurt you or that little girl. I'll try to--"

"Don't. Please don't," she said, sharpening her voice. "Charity and pity aren't something I require. You won't have to be a human sacrifice, Mr. Griffin."

"I didn't intend to be insulting, only honest."

Savannah took in a deep breath, then exhaled the reactive anger. "I know you didn't. I'm sorry for that," she said in apology. "We'll deal with that if it happens. Now, we have to get some rest." She rose quickly but before she left the room, she smiled and kissed him chastely on the forehead. "We have to get you back to the woman who loves you."

Catching her hand, he kissed it. "I'll do everything I can to get him back for you."

"I know you will. Try to get some sleep." Quickly she disappeared to her own bedroom.

Kermit gave up the notion of sleep. He doubted he would ever rest in this life. He wanted to go home and give this woman and her daughter the man they needed. He couldn't be that man, he knew it now. Savannah was a beautiful, brave woman and her daughter was precious. They weren't his family and he wasn't the man who could be part of their daily lives. He had given his heart to a reality, one that fit as perfectly as his own skin. She stood before him whenever he closed his eyes. Hands in her pockets, long hair braided back, indigo eyes steadfast and loving, contrasting with her teasing grin. To stay in a world that had snuffed out her fierce, loyal heart would break his beyond any repair.

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