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"So I've totally messed up the canned goods, hung my clothes in between your nice and orderly t-shits and put my stuff in the medicine cabinet. You're world has officially been shaken up. Still love me?" Christa asked lowering herself on to the sofa next to Ray.

"Yep, still love you." Ray said putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in tight for a hug. "So was there enough room in the medicine cabinet for your stuff? I can take some of mine out if there wasn't."

Christa laughed, "Ray, why do you have three different kinds of pain relievers?"

He thought a moment, "Well, cause they are for different kinds of pain. You know headaches take a different pill than a back ache."

She seemed to think his explanation was quite funny. "Well you better load up on the headache kind cause I'm guessing I'm gonna cause you lots of headaches."

He tilted her face to his, "No you won't. I wanna be less organized and more like you."

She wrinkled her nose, "Just how would you describe me?"

Ray looked into her eyes, "Christa you are a free spirit. You leap and then look, you're just what I need." He kissed her again, "You're everything I need."

They sat in silence a moment. "Ray"

"Yes"

"It feels like we're playing house. I've never lived with anyone other than my parents. I've been on my own for several years. What if we find out we aren't compatible? I don't think I could stand it if that happened."

"Babe, just because we haven't spent tons of hours together doesn't mean anything. I've known since I met you that you were going to be the one. Think of all the time we've spent talking on the telephone together. We know each other better than a lot of people who physically spend lots of time together. We got to know each other without the physical distraction that happens to people."

Christa thought about what he was saying and it made sense. The hours that they talked on the phone while he was on tour allowed them to get to know each other so well. He took her hands in his and smiled.

"So since we know each other so well mentally we can concentrate on the physical now." He leaned in and kissed her passionately. Soon the kiss wasn't enough.

"Ray, I'm not sure you're supposed to be doing this. When they let you out of the hospital they told you not to overexert yourself." She said breathlessly as his hands roamed under her sweater. His fingers found the clasp of her bra and soon it was unhooked. "Uh, I thought we agreed to wait a while before this happened."

He looked into her eyes, "Do you want this?"

"More than anything, but I'm worried about you." She answered honestly.

"Well than since I'm not supposed to overexert myself than I guess that means you have to make all the moves." Once more his fingers began roaming.

Christa pushed him back slightly, "Hold on Buster. Are you saying that I'm supposed to initiate this sexual encounter?"

Ray's brown eyes bore into hers, "Yep. Got a problem with that?"

Christa smiled seductively, "Oh hell no, I got no problem with that but let's move into the bedroom. I've been dying to mess up your neatly made bed."

"You wanna mess up my bed?" he laughed.

She just smiled and led him into the bedroom. Ray walked over to the bed and pulled back the comforter. He was shocked to see that his nice white cotton sheets were gone. In their place was a set of fire engine red satin sheets. "Fuck, nice sheets." He said as he grabbed her and pulled her to him.

"Told you I was gonna shake things up." She unbuttoned his shirt and ran her hands over his muscular chest.

"Shake away, babe. Shake away." He said as they fell onto the bed.


Kara, what's the problem? This was your idea and now you're having second thoughts?" Bob asked, looking over at an obviously nervous Kara.

"I don't know. Now that we're here...." Her voice trailed off as she concentrated on picking off non-existent lint from the center console of the car. "I don't know." In truth she was thinking about the reaction of a certain parental unit. Mom was really going to be pissed. She always said she wanted to be with her when she did this. Crap.

"Well, do you want to go up and look around? Maybe you'll change your mind when you see inside. It's really nice. You said you wanted somewhere nice." No answer from Kara. Bob started to add something but stopped. "It's okay, Hon. It's no big deal." His words said one thing, his tone quite another.

Kara looked over at him and saw the disappointment.

"Well, maybe I could just check it out." She thought awhile longer, eyeing the outside of the building. "Or maybe you could just go yourself."

"Kara, it just wouldn't be the same without you."

"Fine, Bob. I said I'd go." she sounded like a petulant child. She flounced out of the car and through the front door of Pittsburgh Pete's Tattoo Emporium where she was met by a bear of a man.

"Well, hello Darlin'. What can I do for you?" Kara took a step back and ran into Bob as he was coming in the door.

"Oh, hi Bob. See ya made it. This must be the little woman. Are you ready for the needle?"

Kara was stunned speechless. Bob spoke up. "Actually, Kara was having second thoughts. I thought maybe you could show her around and let her see what it's really like." If looks could kill, poor Bob would definitely be dead. There was no way she wanted this man mountain to think she was chicken. Men could be such idiots.

"Ah shucks, come on over here, Darlin'." Kara reluctantly stepped toward him.

"Don't worry, Darlin'. I don't bite - more than once." He laughed loudly at his own joke. This, of course, did nothing to sooth Kara's nerves. "You're sure a pretty little thing. Tell me, what do you see in that ugly old cuss?" Kara laughed. "Come on over here and meet Tonya. She's getting her first ink."

Tonya was a 26 year old getting a tattoo of a guardian angel in memory of her father who recently passed away. She happily answered all of Kara's questions while Ron, the tattoo artist, put the finishing touches on his artwork. Soon Kara forgot all about why she shouldn't be doing this.

"Are you getting a tattoo?" Tonya asked Kara.

"Oh yeah. My fiancé' and I are both getting one. He wants to get matching ones, but I think we should get our pet names. His is Pookie. Isn't that cute? Doesn't he look like a big teddy bear? Can't you just see it? Pookie right here." She said pointing to her hip. "That would be hot."

"What's his pet name for you?" Tonya managed to get the question in as Kara took a breath.

"Stinkerbell. Can you imagine? It would serve him right to carry around a pic of Tinkerbell with that name under it. On second thought, I wouldn't want people to know he calls me that. We should get matching ones. Yeah, like that fish." She was pointing to a Japanese Carp on the wall. "Mine could be purple. I wonder what the hold up is?" She turned back toward the front counter. "Bob, are you ready yet?" She turned to Tonya. "He was a little scared."

Bob looked a little confused, but Pete just guffawed. He slapped Bob on the back. "Let it go, Son. Let it go. You can never figure them out."

Kara came back to the counter where Bob showed her the design that he had helped create. It was a taijitu, the traditional symbol of yin and yang, but with a twist. Yin was represented by water and Yang by fire. Although traditionally yin was feminine and yang masculine, Bob thought that Kara was yang; sunny, bright and active. He was darker and more passive. Together they made a perfect whole and a lot of steam.

An hour later, they left the shop with their new ink. Kara was beaming. They had both gotten the designs on their inner forearms, his on his left arm and hers on her right. Now when they walked hand in hand, their artwork could actually rest against each other.

"I can't wait to show Mom the tattoos" said Kara admiring hers through the protective covering. "She's going to shit a brick."

"Oh, fuck." was Bob's only comment.