by Ciana Stone
*****
Cord heard the engine of the McLaren as it pulled up the driveway. Watching from the edge of the woods he saw Morgan get out of the car and walk toward the house. This was the moment he had been waiting for.
"Hi!" he said quietly.
Morgan whirled around, obviously startled by his sudden appearance. Seeing her standing there in front of him made all the words he had so carefully formulated, all the things he wanted to say, disappear from his mind.
He longed to tell her he loved her and how sorry he was about all that'd happened. He wanted to hold her in his arms and make it all right again. But there was a dense wall between them, so thick he couldn't even feel her. His need to look into her mind and share her thoughts was not to be met. The barrier was too solid.
"What are you doing here?" her voice was cold and sharp. It sliced through him like a blade and knocked him off balance. She marched by him to the front door
"This is where we belong."
"We?" She stopped just inside the door and looked at him like she could not believe what he said. "Do you have that tramp here with you?"
"There's no one here but Ghost and me," he replied.
"Ghost?" her eyes widened. "Ghost's here? Where?"
Cord gestured to the back door. "Right out back."
Morgan ran to the back door and almost tore it off its hinges in her haste to get outside. Jumping out onto the porch she looked around. "Ghost!" she called. "Ghost?"
Cord stood in the doorway and a smile rose on his face. This was the first sign he had seen that the Morgan he knew still existed. But the smile faded as she turned to him.
"Well, where is he?" she asked then narrowed her eyes. "Or is this just some kind of sadistic trick
"No," Cord told her. "He's here. Ghost? There's someone here to see you." He spoke as if he were calling an old friend over.
The dog bounded out of the woods. Morgan sank to her knees and tears glistened brightly in her eyes as she saw her long-lost companion.
But he passed her by without a glance and stopped beside Cord. Morgan looked them both over for a long time.. Ghost walked over and licked her on the face. She threw her arms around the big dog and hugged him tightly, whispering softly to him.
Cord watched in silence as the reunion took place. When Morgan finally stood, he walked into the kitchen. He poured her a cup of coffee and set it down on the table. A few minutes later she entered and took a seat.
Morgan sat down with her arms hugged around her body. Cord sat down across from her. "Morgan, I know you've been on a roller coaster ride the past six months, never knowing when the next drop would happen. And I know that it will take time for you to believe in me again. But I'd like for you to at least let me tell you my side of the story."
He looked into her extraordinary eyes, seeing the wall that held firm behind the clear blue.
She remained silent for a moment, considering her words carefully. "Until you disappeared," she said with her eyes locked to his, "I thought the sun rose and set on your shoulders. But what you did was–" she paused for a moment. "–was worse than death. You broke my heart and I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you."
"Well, what if you found out I didn't run out on you?"
"Oh, yeah, right!" she shot back at him hatefully. "I suppose you were kidnapped by aliens?"
Cord reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "Let's start with when I left to go to Andrews," he suggested.
Morgan folded her arms across her chest and sat rigidly, preparing herself for his confession. She knew this would only close the final chapter, and she steeled herself for it.
"To start with," he said, "I didn't tell you that while we were in Washington, I was almost killed in an ambush. People were actually shooting at me. So, the reason I didn't want you to go with me was that I was concerned about your safety."
"I know all about your adventure in Washington," she snapped.
"How did you know about that?" her comment surprised Cord.
"That's not important," she answered then asked, "so you didn't go to Odessa with that girl?"
"No!" he shook his head. "I didn't even know she was there. But how did you know about the ambush in Washington?"
"Ha!" she exploded. "So, she was there!" Again, she left his question unanswered.
"Yes," he raised his hands, palms up, "but not like you think!" He saw the wall between them growing steadily denser. "But how did you know?"
"The FBI." Morgan's voice was flat and hard. "They've been around so much they're becoming regulars around here. Now, let's get back to you and that red-headed tramp."
In desperation he continued, deciding to tell her about the waste and steered the conversation away from Cassie.
"I had this hunch that somebody had realigned the tracking satellites so that they could move the waste without being detected. So, I had to check it out. I spent the first day in the lab comparing the existing alignment patterns with the ones Juan and I originally set up. And sure enough, there was a discrepancy!"
"Wait, a minute!" she cut in, holding up one hand. "I don't care about your precious nuclear waste and tracking satellite. I want to know about this affair you've been having!"
"What affair?" Cord looked at her with wide eyes. "I haven't been having an affair."
"Then how do you explain the tape that Cassie woman gave me right after you left?"
Cord looked down at the table for a moment. He'd hoped that Morgan would never have to find out about that. But now that she had, he had to make her understand somehow.
"That was only a one-night stand that happened over five years ago," he admitted. "While I was in Rome. I swear to you, I never saw that girl again until I ran into her in Carlsbad."
"Oh! I get it now," Morgan said sarcastically. "This girl has a tape, made five years ago when you supposedly have this one-night stand, which of course, doesn't count as cheating. So, she brings me the tape and goes off to Odessa to steal you away for six months. Then she dumps you and now you come crawling back with your hair all bleached, expecting me to believe all this shit?"
"That's not the way it happened. She's part of some terrorist group and they beat me up and left me for dead in the desert!"
"Yeah, right!" she leaned back, looking at him cynically. "Well, you don't look beat up to me."
"That happened on the second day I was there," he clarified, "and my hairs not bleached!"
"Then how do you explain the picture?".
"What picture?" Cord had no idea what she was talking about now.
"The one of you and that bitch on some beach, God knows where!"
"That's impossible!" he shook his head. "There is no such picture!"
"Oh?" she gave him a scathing look. "Would you like to see it? I saved it for you!" She got up and went into the office. Cord followed her. Standing at the door he looked at her beautiful shape as she bent over to open her briefcase.
"Here!" she said, throwing the envelope containing the photo at him. "Explain this!"
Cord opened the manila envelope and pulled out the picture. His mouth dropped open. But before he could say anything the phone rang. He looked up at Morgan, indicating he wasn't expecting any calls.
She looked from Cord to the phone, not wanting to answer it. But it continued to ring. Finally, she lifted the receiver, "Hello?" She turned her back on Cord as she recognized Victor's voice on the other end.
"Oh, hi!" she said, glancing back uncomfortably at Cord. "I didn't expect you back until tonight." She paused then spoke again, "Oh, you're still there?"
Cord looked down at the picture as Morgan cast a look over at him. "I just came to do some work on the computer," she said into the phone. "The clinic has been a madhouse lately, so I thought I'd get more done here without so many interruptions."
Cord watched as Morgan nervously twirled a strand of hair around her finger, glancing over at him every few seconds.
"Okay," she said after a long pause. "Well, ha
ve a good return flight and I'll see you later this evening." After a couple of seconds, she added, "No, I don't know how long I'll be. What difference does it make, anyway? I'll be here until I get finished with what I'm doing."
Cord saw her face suddenly pale as she gripped the receiver tightly. "No!" she said, "there's no need for that. I'm perfectly fine, I don't need anyone here with me."
Her voice grew calm as she continued. " I appreciate it, but I'm just fine and having someone around would just distract me. So have a good meeting and I'll see you tonight. Okay?"
Knowing who she was talking to wasn't hard to figure out. But it cut deep in Cord's heart when he heard her say, "I love you too." He felt like someone had stabbed him with an ice pick.
Morgan hung up the phone and turned back to him. "Well?" she demanded. "That is you, isn't it?"
"Yes, but I never had my picture taken with her. Morgan, you've got to believe me. I wasn't with Cassie!"
"Then who's that?" she walked over and stabbed at Cassie's face in the photo. "Big Jeff in drag? Come on, Cord, I'm not a fool!"
"I know you're not! But I'm telling you that this thing is a fake. I was never with Cassie on any beach, anywhere. I don't know how to explain this picture, but I know that I wasn't with her!"
Morgan walked past him and went back downstairs to the kitchen. "Yeah, sure," she said, tired of the conversation and the bickering, yet not able to let it go. "That's not you, just like it's not you on that damn tape!"
Cord followed as he studied the photo. Something about it wasn't right. If he could just figure out what it was. Suddenly he spotted it. Dashing over to Morgan he stuck the picture in front of her face.
"Look!" he pointed to the shirt he wore in the photo.
"What?" she snapped.
"The shirt. That's the shirt Trevor gave me on Father's Day, remember? You made me put it on and then took our picture outside on the deck!"
"So?" she asked, stubbornly refusing to really listen to what he was trying to tell her.
"Don't you remember what happened to that shirt?" he shook the picture in front of her face.
Morgan's eyes widened as the memory of that day came back to her. Only a couple of hours after she had taken their picture, Cord and Trevor had gone into the garage to work on the motorcycle. And Cord had ruined the shirt when he got grease all over it.
She took the stairs three at a time and flew into Cord's office. Searching frantically, she looked everywhere for the picture. "It's gone!" she said as Cord entered the room. "Did you move it?"
"No," he went to his desk. "It was right here on my desk next to the one of you and Cable."
Morgan continued to search, opening drawers and looking under the furniture as Cord continued to stare at the photo. "That's it!" he said, "that's how they did it!"
Morgan looked up from her position on the floor where she was looking under the couch. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't you see? Someone took the picture of me and Trevor and substituted Cassie in Trevor's place then added a new background. Only they didn't know the shirt had been thrown out a long time ago."
"Oh, come on, Cord!" Morgan just figured that he was making it all up. "Surely you can do better than that! Why in the world would anyone go to all that trouble?"
"Morgan!" he reached out and grabbed her arms. "Will you please just stop and give me a chance to tell you what really happened?"
She jerked away as though his touch hurt her, which in a sense it did. Even enraged his nearness made her weak and she couldn't let him know the effect he had on her. She walked over and sat down on the couch. "All right," she said, crossing her arms. "I'm listening."
Cord sighed and sat down on the couch near her. As completely and concisely as possible he told her everything that had happened since he left to go to Andrews. He left out nothing. Not the part about Cassie's attempt to seduce him, not even the fact he'd been tempted.
During the entire story he was aware of Morgan's eyes. She looked at him as though she could see through to his soul. With an almost physical force, he could feel her eyes probing for the truth, and so that is what he gave.
When he finished, he leaned back and searched her face for some sign she believed him. For the longest time she said nothing. Unmoving and unblinking, she sat with her eyes glued to his.
Morgan was in a state of turmoil. She felt as if she were suddenly two people sharing one mind and body. One part of her could do nothing more than hang onto the pain that Cord had brought on her when he left when she found out he cheated on her. That part didn't want to believe anything he said.
But the other part wanted to throw herself in his arms and beg for his forgiveness for having doubted him. While she listened, she'd used her newfound abilities and had opened her mind, seeking the truth in his mind. What she learned was that Cord wasn't lying to her.
But the truth presented new problems and dilemmas. Shaking her head, she dropped her eyes. "I don't know what to say to you, Cord," she whispered sadly.
He sat up and leaned toward her, his heart beating rapidly in anticipation of her answer to his next question. "Do you believe me?"
She nodded then looked up. "Yes, I do." She smiled the saddest smile he'd ever seen then stood and walked over to the window.
"Then what's wrong?" he followed her, not understanding why she was so sad. He reached out to take her arms in his hands.
Her body was tight with tension. He could feel the vibrations that ran through her, making her seem like a bow stretched out taut before the arrow flies from it.
She turned with a bleak expression on her face. "There have been a lot of things that've happened since you left," she said, dreading what she had to tell him.
"You mean you and Victor Vinsetti."
She looked up at him in surprise. "Yes," she nodded. "Cord, I thought you'd walked out on me, that you didn't love me anymore. Then Victor came along, and..." her voice trailed off.
"And you fell in love with him," Cord finished for her in a strained voice.
"Yes," her voice broke as tears flowed down her face. "I'm sorry." she wept. "I was so alone, and I felt like my heart had been cut out. Cord, you can't know how awful it was. I didn't want to go on. I just wanted to slide into a safe dark place somewhere that I wouldn't have to feel anymore. But he made me want to be alive again. Oh god, if I'd known, I'd never have been with another man."
Sobbing, she turned away and covered her face with her hands. Her words were like icy claws tearing at his heart. Cord could hardly breathe from the pain he felt, knowing Morgan loved another man; that Victor's hands had been on her, and that he'd made love to her.
He wanted to scream with his own pain. But the sight of her so filled with grief and despair hurt him even more than his own pain. "Morgan," he softly spoke her name and touched her gently on the back.
After a moment she lowered her hands and turned around to look at him. He wiped the tears from her face and his touch sent her flying into his arms. She clung to him with all her strength.
"Oh, god, Morgan," he breathed in the smell of her as the feel of her body against his ignited a fire within him. "I love you so much," he whispered, burying his face in her long hair.
She held on tightly for a few moments then released him and looked up with tears sparkling in her eyes. "I never stopped loving you Cord," she said. "Never. Even though I tried, I couldn't."
Cord wanted to tell her that everything would work out and the pain would all go away. But she touched him, putting her hand on his chest. A bolt of desire so intense passed into him he gasped.
With a groan deep in his throat he tangled his fingers in her hair, drawing her lips to meet his. Her lips parted, letting him devour her, their tongues touching and exploring.
Morgan let go of the passion she held so tightly in check, returning the kiss with untamed desire. Locked in the embrace of their bodies moved against each other, fanning the flames higher.
Breathing hard, Cord pulled bac
k and looked down at her. Their eyes met and connected. He saw beneath the desire a breach in the wall that separated them and through the opening he witnessed the despair and heartache she had suffered.
Morgan felt him enter her mind. The wall crumpled, to reveal the truth. She held nothing back and let him see it all. Her love, her pain and even the love she felt for Victor.
A long interval passed then Cord nodded. His desire abated with the knowledge she gave him. He understood why things had happened, why she felt as she had and even why she had turned to Victor. But the love she felt for Victor ripped his world apart.
Morgan saw the desire fade from his face and knew the moment of truth had arrived. Now it would be decided. Either he would forgive her, or he would turn away. She saw the hurt in his golden eyes and wanted to cry, knowing it was she who was to blame.
"I'm sorry," she hung her head in dejection. "I never meant to hurt you, Cord. I love you more than you can imagine, but I won't lie to you. You don't deserve that."
His hands dropped to his sides as he listened. Morgan looked up and his expression made her anguish grow. "Why did this happen? Cord, please believe me, I didn't know. I thought you didn't love me."
Cord didn't know what to say. He realized she’d been through as much torment as he and she’d turned to Victor because she thought Cord had forgotten her. He also realized they'd both been manipulated from the beginning.
He put the pieces together. Victor and Cassie were working together all along. Victor's the demon who must be vanquished.
With tears gathering in his own eyes as he knelt down beside Morgan. "There's something I have to tell you," he said softly, "something about Victor that you have to know."
With red-rimmed eyes she looked up at him. Before he had time to tell her all of what he had figured out they both heard Ghost in the back-yard barking furiously. Cord rushed to the window just in time to see the dog disappear into the trees at the edge of the backyard.
Morgan jumped to her feet and followed Cord to the window. No sooner had she reached him, they both turned at the sound of cars pulling up in front of the house.
