"You need anymore help?"

"I didn't need help to begin with, so no."

"The doc told you not to walk on that leg."

"She also prescribed me strong meds to keep the pain down - me, an ex-addict. That shows the intelligence levels on that one."

"Russ." Leon set down my bag of clean clothes - a bag of clean clothes that Michelle had washed for me while I was recovering in the hospital - on the floor next to the door and looked at me as I limped to my couch. "Will you be okay by yourself here?"

"We both know I won't be alone. I heard you talking to Amy outside my room in the hospital as I was getting changed. You two are conspiring against me. I believe your exact words were 'check up on him every now and then and make sure he eats--'"

"Alright!" Leon barked. "Just look out for yourself, yeah? I know how you get, you can't sit the goddamn down and relax like the doc told you to."

"Of course I can't. Now that this case is closed, I gotta find a new one. Unless you want me to start taking those pills the doc gave me--"

"The case might be closed but there's still a lot to be done," Leon replied and watched as I started sifting through all the case files, gathering them in an orderly chaos. "Vahlov still needs to face trial, you might have to take the stand, you know. I'm still pissed you didn't tell me he had an agenda towards you."

"What about the little girl? Rose?" I asked, wincing as I accidentally stretched the wound on my back by leaning forward. Ow.

"She's under Child Protective Service. She'll go into a good foster home, get the right counseling. Hopefully she won't have any longterm traumas."

"Good."

A long silence stretched. I was still gathering the files, using one hand since my shoulder and arm was wrapped up in a sling. I could sense that Leon wanted to say something but he was hesitating for some reason.

"Spit it out, will you? If not, then go make oxygen into carbon dioxide out in the hall. You're annoying me."

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" He then said. When I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, he continued, "You don't have to say, I can tell, Russ. You're crazy about this girl."

"I take it back, don't spit it out, swallow it. Gag on it. Now please leave, I have things to do."

"What is it about her, if I may ask?" Leon continued, ignoring my request for him to go. "I only talked to her a little out in the hall in the hospital, she seemed nice, but that's all I can say. I'm assuming you've spent more time with her, so tell me, what makes her special to you?"

I opened my eyes again and stared straight ahead at the wall. "The same thing that makes Michelle special to you."

When I stood up, wincing as I did, Leon just looked at me with a small frown. I limped to my bedroom, but stopped up in the door. I looked down at my feet.

"She's my match."

~~~

Rolling us both over, Amy moaned as I pushed deep inside her while kissing her down her neck. Her legs curled up and her fingers dug into my shoulders, moving down to my lower back. "Mmm, Russell..."

I let one hand slide down the canyon of her breast, placing it over her heart. I felt her cardiac muscle beat fast beneath it, increasing as her impending ōrgasm neared. My mouth found her mouth and I kissed her deeply, savoring the feel of her warm soft lips against mine.

I then thrust deep inside her and she broke apart from my lips, letting out a garbled breath. She bit her lip and strained her head back into the pillows, her eyes closed, cheeks flushed. "Russell..."

I cupped her face and kissed her mouth again as my hips sped up. Her nails dug firmly into my back and her breath pitched. Then she exploded.

Crying out and screaming my name, I joined her shortly after, grunting as I spilled into the condom. By the end we were both panting, both just lying there.

After a moment, I rolled off her, removed the condom and disposed of it in her bin. When I laid back down in her bed, Amy curled up to me, placing her head on my chest. "My sister called today. She's getting divorced."

"Sorry to hear."

"No you're not."

"No I'm not."

I faintly saw her smile as she traced a random pattern over my chest and stomach with her fingertip. It tickled but felt nice. "Have you ever thought about ever marrying again?"

"No, but that would surely make your sister's life a living hell if we did that."

"Hell yeah it would," Amy snorted, fighting a smile, probably from the thought of her sister's face if she told her she was getting married while she was getting divorced. "But seriously. Have you?"

"My first marriage was a stupid mistake, Amy, I shan't attempt a second try. That would be like volunteering to step onto a grenade; It's bound to implode."

"Alright, what about kids, then? You never wanted those?"

"Are we having the talk?" I asked, giving her a deadpan look even though she couldn't see it. Hopefully she could hear the tone in my voice. "Are you asking me where this is going? Because I told you right from the start that I--"

"That you don't do love. I know," She cut me off. A smiled slipped onto her face. "And yet here we are. I didn't expect my battery supplier-slash-plaything to fall for me, yet you did. And as you should know by now, I like more than just your dick."

"What a compliment coming from a nymphomaniac."

"I know, right? Therefore, let's just give up our pride and call a spade a spade," She said, now turning over and folding her hands over my chest, leaning her chin on them. Our eyes met. "You love me, I love you. The sex is ah-maz-ing and we both clearly enjoy each other's company. You're smart as hell, I'm sexy as fuck..."

"Are you asking me to put a ring on it?"

"I'm asking you if you want to implode with me."

I looked at her for a long moment. Something - some devious part of me was yanking at my good sense, telling me I should just go for it again. Give it another shot. But my good sense - the part that was left untouched - told me I should let her down as easy as I could because it made no sense for me to marry someone again. Logically speaking and statistically speaking, we were likely to get divorced within the first year of our marriage since we were too different. In a lot of ways, she was perfect for me, but would she still be perfect with me?

Love was a fickle thing. I think the truth as to why I got divorced the first time wasn't because I got too consumed in my job. I deliberately pulled away because love was too unpredictable for me. Normally I liked dealing with stuff that was unpredictable - most things were predictable in my life, deducible, so I lacked the excitement. But I quickly learned that love was too fickle to be tampered with and I therefore decided to leave the force alone.

In other words; I was scared.

I couldn't figure it out, there was no legit mathematical equation to love. It was a mystery I couldn't solve. The chemistry of it all? Yes. But the actual logic of it? Nuh-uh. No logic.

"I can practically hear the cogwheels in your head turning," Amy chuckled, placing a velvet kiss on my chest. Her lips lingered a little, tickled my skin. She then exhaled, blowing out a warm breath through her mouth that warmed me. "I understand if you don't want to, Russ. It was just a suggestion. I just want you to know I have no expectations. I don't want a big suburban house with a white picket fence, nor do I want a heaping bunch of little rascals to run around us and give us gray hairs. This right here is enough," She smiled, her eyes fluttering up to me. "You can take it or leave it."

"Why is marriage so important to you then if you just want to keep things the way they are?"

"Because I want stability. I want to settle down but I want to do it my own way. There are more ways to be married than just one," She smiled, leaning her cheek against my chest, looking distantly at her bathroom door. "You only tried one way and that clearly didn't work out for you. Why not try another way? With me?"

I closed my eyes and sighed. I had to be seriously delusional if I thought this was going to work out. All the logic inside me was screaming; 'it doesn't make sense, it's not logical, it's not rational!' And how true it was.

But then again, neither of those things applied when it came to love. Love was the only enigma I probably never would be able to solve.

- And that to me was my greatest mystery. Why not marry it, then?

"Let's make your sister's life hell."

• • •

Oh, love. What are you, right?