The Burned Man

BURNED MAN

Bambi set her phone down quickly and turned back to the vanity table. Red hair whipped around her shoulders damply, and somewhere in the back of her busy mind, she realized she'd have to braid them before she went to work. Tired doe brown eyes scanned her bedroom at a glance, and she sighed deeply again. She needed to do this now, she just wasn't sure how she'd do it.

"Bambi! Marcus is here!" Her mother called from downstairs and she started back to reality. Well, if this was what life was going to throw at her, then this was what she'd take.

"I'm coming!" She cried and snatched up her backpack and a spare elastic band, because she still needed to braid her hair.

Marcus was the nerd next door who just happened to work at the same diner. Rushing from the house in her red uniform, she felt urgency give flight to her feet, and her fingers were shaky as she opened the car door.

"Hi Marcus." She smiled in a friendly manner, but not too friendly, because Marcus was into her, it was plain as day, but he was just everything she didn't want. Everything. One of these days she'd have to tell him, but not today, today there was something entirely different on her mind.

"Remember how I told you about that scholarship I applied for?" Angie was the matronly matriarch of the diner and she only quirked a blond eyebrow in question. "Did you get it?" Bambi nodded quickly, and then stifled a moan.

"But I need to be there in two weeks and its half way across the country, and... I haven't told my parents yet." Angie quirked the same eyebrow again, and tossed the cleaning cloth her way.

"Start cleaning and when you get home tonight you tell them. Easy as pie." Yes, Bambi wanted to interject, but pie wasn't easy. There were so many steps to creating the perfect pie. The crust had to be just right, and the ingredients fresh and the puff pastry just the right amount of flaky. Pie wasn't easy, and neither would be telling her parents she wanted to move to Los Angeles for an internship at a chef school!

"For heaven's sake child! You are twenty one years old. Get a life?" This was also true, very true. Small town USA was great if you wanted to settle and have babies and bake mundane kind of pies all your life, but she wanted to savour the greatness of real life! She wanted to live and make pies the likes of which no one in her town had ever seen!

"I have been trying to get a life since Daisy so spectacularly tried to take her own. Mom doesn't trust her, and she watches me like a hawk because of it. I think I'll just leave them a note and get on a bus. I have some savings and I know Marcus will lend me some money if I ask him. Ugh... I might have to kiss him though." She caught the damning look in Angie's eyes and pulled a face.

"Yes, yes I know. I'd never do it for real." Her laughter rang through the diner and Angie laughed with her. This child had been like a ray of pure sunlight in her dreary days.

"Bambi honey. Your mother settled you with a silly little girl name, but you are no silly little girl. You are a smart young lady, and I know you will do the right thing. Besides honey, you can always call me to come fetch you home if it doesn't work out, and I always got the apartment upstairs if they don't want to let you back in the house." Bambi rushed the older woman and hugged her happily for a long moment. "Thank you Angie."

"So let me get this straight? I get to go to Los Angeles if I agree to stay with Aunt Martha? Really? She's like the crazy cat lady from hell mom!" Bambi wasn't just a little worked up, she was plenty aggravated and Daisy just made it worse by snickering.

"That way you'll not get into trouble." Closing her brown eyes to the reality of her living with her seventy year old spinster aunt she managed to come to terms with it, and forced a weak smile.

"Fine." She was automatically cleaning the counter top she realized and tossed the rag aside, her eyes finding her little sister's accusingly. It had been Daisy's idea for her to live with Aunt Martha.

"At least you get to go." That was true. Aunt Martha was a drawback, but she could work around it at least. "The idea was to get out on my own. I am twenty one years old and I haven't even been across the state line. It's only for six months and I'll call every night, I promise." Her mother's equally red head nodded and she stifled a sob.

"Now you just need to tell your father." Why, she wanted to scream! He didn't care about them! He was happily married to wife number three and working on child number four!

"I'll tell him mom, but I'm not asking his permission. He gave up the right to order me around the day he left." Daisy suppressed a yawn and tumbled a hand through her black hair. She was as EMO as they came, right down to the studs on her boots.

He didn't order her not to go, though he did offer to buy her a car. Bambi really wasn't sure why though? Was he simply that eager to get rid of her? Or did he really want to help? The man was conundrum, and no matter how hard she tried, she could never figure him out. She didn't want the car though. She'd not be indebted to him for anything. So perched on a seat in a bus, she was off to Los Angeles!

Two months today, Bambi thought and at least I have the transport system figured out. School was great, but that's all that's great. No friends, no lounging on the beach, and absolutely no free time. She was busy from sun up to sundown six days a week, and Sundays she used to catch up on sleep and laundry. This was not the adventure she'd imagined. Still better than home though.

"We need a fourth for a concert tonight. Wanna come?" Amy could have been Daisy's doppelganger, with the black nails and EMO hairstyle and WTF attitude, but she could say this for the girl, she could make the most intricate spun sugar decorations! It was simply amazing what she could do with pastry.

"What concert?" Bambi asked automatically and looked up from the onions she was caramelizing. "Vastum." Bambi looked up. Yep, this could be Daisy.

"I'm only asking 'cause I have this ticket left over, and if you're a party of four, you get in easier. So are you in or not? I don't even care if you don't stay for the show." Bambi turned her head at an angle, and tightened her jaw.

"Contrary to what you think I do know the band and I would like to go. Where do I meet you?"

This was a bad idea. This was a really bad idea. In her jeans, t-shirt and converse sneakers she felt really out of place in Burned Man Club. She should have worn a hoodie and some black eyeliner as well in retrospect, and black nail polish; but she'd still have looked like she didn't belong.

As soon as they were inside Amy deserted her, and Bambi realized she was in a massive underground club alone and unarmed. It was a disconcerting feeling indeed. These were not the type of pies she'd dreamed of making out on her own...

Her unease drew her to the large bar spanning the back of the club, and she found an empty seat way at the end and turned her head to watch as the band was set up.

"You need a frilly passion fruit laced drink right?" He was big, and brutish, and bearded and tattooed and... big. She couldn't help staring at the very tall man on the other side of the bar. He was wearing a leather vest and a faded black t-shirt and he'd asked her such a weird question, not that she could remember the details, but still, it had been weird... and that voice. She was a tall girl and would have to tilt her head to meet his eyes. Wow.

"What will it be girl?" He must be used to this type of attention, because he just sighed and then quite unceremoniously slapped the bar between her balled fists. She jumped and stifled a shriek.

"I realize you must be in awe of my beauty, but would you please stop staring and answer me? Do you want a drink?" This jolted her back to reality and she blushed crimson!

"Yes... sorry. Please?" She bit her lower lip and risked a look into his charcoal gaze. "Okay. What kind of drink?" He was smiling, sort of and she noticed that one side of his mouth drooped a bit. Her eyes started to find other details like burned skin that covered the right side of his face and disappeared beneath a neat beard, and unruly dark hair that he pushed back with a large hand.

"Vodka." Bambi managed finally and he grinned before he turned, found two shooter glasses and slapped them on the bar before her. Filling them up with the clear liquid his eyes darted to hers and found hers glued to his hands.

"You look decidedly out of place in this dump." Shrugging she handed over some money and tried to force a smile. "I was thinking the same thing. Not that you don't look like you belong here, but that I am really very much out of my depth... and this is not a dump. I'm pretty sure of that." Without blinking she downed the shooter and replaced the glass, rubbing one hand across her full peach lips.

"So why are you here?" Telling him someone just used her to get in easier seemed so lame, so she risked a look across her shoulder to the stage.

"I like the band." This he seemed to find amusing and tossed away the second vodka with a grimace. This girl and this band didn't go together at all. "Xander Gane and you are?" Biting her lip again she found his darkling eyes and smiled slowly. "Bambi." This time he really laughed and she couldn't help her own chuckle. It was a deep rich sound that carried even over the maelstrom of noise in the Club.

"And I can be Thumper. Wanna get thumped Bambi?" Grinning sardonically with an arched eyebrow she sighed exasperatedly.

"Oh yeah. I've never heard that one before. My mother went through a Disney phase. My sister's name is Daisy, and if I had a brother he'd probably be Mickey." Deep laughter stilled and he poured her another vodka.

"This one is on the house Bambi." He lifted the small glass and she did the same, and then downed the burning liquid. "Want some advice?" Nodding she suppressed her blush at the way he was looking at her. Folding both arms onto the counter before her she met his eyes again. This pushed her breasts up, and created a cleavage angels would weep over, at least that's what Xander thought.

"Don't go into the crowd. Sit here, listen to the music and don't get wasted. This is not a crowd or club you need to get wasted in." She simply nodded in understanding and pushed a stray lock of light red hair behind her ear.

"Thanks." Xander winked at her and reached beneath the bar to hand her a bottled water. With one last glance he moved away to attend to others and left her there staring after him.

Maybe she should just go home, but wasn't this the adventure she'd asked for? Admittedly this was a blackberry pie with burned crust type of experience, but still, at least she'd met someone friendly, and she was out of her comfort zone; and there were no cats around; she was getting decidedly sick of cats.

Around two o'clock the following morning she decided to call it a night and gathered her phone and change together with a grimace. She had a headache and she'd been right about not fitting into this place. She was afraid to talk to anyone, and had refused free drinks from other men with a slight shake of her head. Nope... she might as well give up and just go home. Just how she was gonna go about doing that was another question. She'd come here with Amy, but they were nowhere to be found. The bus?

"Leaving so early?" His voice was just suddenly there reverberating down her spine. He had to lift the tone to be heard over the music, and she grinned slowly as their eyes met and held for a long moment.

"Yes!" She answered finally, and his nod was curt as he held up a hand to still her movements. "I'll walk you out." He's going to walk me out, she thought; feeling panicked, but then swallowed her fear of the unknown and turned to the milling maelstrom of bodies behind her.

The music wasn't that bad, but it reminded her too much of home and Daisy, and therefore was making her depressed. She missed her sister terribly, and could tell from their text conversations that Daisy missed her too.

"Shall we?" Nodding up at him she tried to follow, but gave up as soon as the crowd closed in behind him. Moments later he was standing before her again holding out one hand. It took all the guts she had to slip her slim hand into his, and as the long fingers closed around hers he pulled her against his impossibly broad chest.

"Bambi; really Bambi?" Laughter bubbled from her throat and she wasn't sure if it was nervous laughter or insane laughter, but she couldn't stop! She did let out a shriek though when he easily lifted her across one shoulder and nonchalantly elbowed his way through the throng.

"That was different!" She giggled when he set her down a block or so from the pulsating life in front of the club. "What with a name like yours you've never been bodily carried from a club before?" His voice was a deep, rich timbre and she shook her head quickly.

"I haven't been carried since I was probably like five years old. I've also not really ever been to a club like that. Thanks for the help and the advice tonight." Out in the fresh air she could finally feel the effects of the shooters she'd downed, and a buzz enveloped her skull. The soft street light illuminated tattoos she hadn't seen before, and with a tentative hand she reached out to touch a rose motif that snaked around his wrist and up his inner forearm. He was being very nice to her; but, and this was important, most serial killers were nice. Fuck, hope he's not one of them, she thought and tilted her head back to meet his gaze. He was so tall. How refreshing.

"How are you getting home?" Xander seemed sincerely concerned, and she had yet to feel a he's-going-to-rape-you vibe come off him. "Are you trying to pick me up?" She didn't mean to sound sassy, but it came out that way anyway.

"You think?" A smile curved his lips and she couldn't help her chuckle. "I'm taking the bus I guess. The people I came with seemed to have genuinely deserted me." Her voice drifted off as her eyes scanned the dark street, and the buzz fled as quickly as it appeared. This was a burned blackberry pie of a situation alright.

"I solemnly promise not to rape, mutilate or kill you, but I think I should take you home." She was going to trust him she realized. Xander was a tall, brutish... beautiful biker and she was going to let him take her home, and she felt no fear at the thought at all.

"I'm not in the habit of trusting strangers, but I could use the lift. I didn't plan on being stranded." They were both smiling again and she followed him into the darkened alley on their right.

Perfect scenario for a crime, Bambi thought, going into a dark alley with a stranger at two in the morning alone. Nobody knew where she was and thus it would be the perfect crime. He could drop her in the desert and no one would even know what had happened. Swallowing down the little wellspring of fear she looked around her furtively.

"Have you ever been on a bike?" She shook her head and touched a hand to the seat of the Harley Davidson. It was black. No flames and skulls and spikes. Just black. It was kinda cool actually.

"Hold on tight, lean into the turns with me and you'll be fine. Where are we going?" When she told him the address he quirked an eyebrow. "Old's-ville?" So that's what they called the old age community her aunt lived in.

"Yes. My Aunt is the original crazy cat lady. I'm staying with her until I can afford a place." Strong shoulders shrugged and he handed her a helmet and his jacket.

Long powerful legs climbed astride the Harley and kicked away the stand with a fluid motion. With the helmet in place, and wearing his leather jacket against the chill, she finally managed to climb on behind him. The feeling when her legs slid into place against his had her blushing again, and she smiled as she pulled herself against his back. Warmth spread through her as the Harley roared into life and vibrated up her core and through her body.

"Awesome." She breathed to the world in general and slipped her arms tentatively around his chest. Chuckling softly to himself Xander reached around and patted her upper leg before he steered the bike from the alley.

Now this was the type of pies she'd wanted to make!

During the entire ride out to the Valley Xander kept glancing down at her slim white fingers where they were fiercely gripping his t-shirt against his belly. She had taken it to heart when he'd told her to hold on. This was a bit of luck, he thought, being at the bar when she showed up all pale and peachy and fresh.

He'd caught himself thinking that she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. The way her large brown eyes had stared at him couldn't conjure a feeling of distaste in him. Girl's didn't look at him like that. All women saw were the scars, but not this girl.

He had no urge to frighten her or make her look away in disgust. He'd wanted, needed her eyes on him, and that was alien to his nature. After the fire destroyed his cheek, neck and left shoulder he hadn't wanted anyone to see him. She was so trusting too, and that wasn't a good thing. Not all men were as honorable as he was. She could have been dead and raped by now.

Bambi on the other hand was thinking how scared she was, but that she was more exited and exhilarated than really scared and that was so... exhilarating!

Pressing herself tightly to him, she grasped his t-shirt between her fingers and held on for dear life as they sped down the hi-ways and bi-ways that would take her home.

To her surprise though they stopped off at an all night diner on the way, and he pulled her after him into the brightly lit interior. It was nothing like where she'd worked, and she felt herself instinctively reach for a rag to start cleaning.

"You hungry?" His voice sounded gruff against the background of an eighties hair band, and she nodded. "Do you come here often?" His shrug was noncommittal, but the recognition in the waitress's eyes contradicted that.

"The usual?" She drawled and he nodded. "What is the usual?" Curiosity tinged Bambi's cheeks and he couldn't help his grin. "Fry bread with eggs, cheese and ham, and a cold beer." Soft brown eyes scanned the menu and she shrugged. "I'll just have slice of pie and a beer. Thank you." The waitress winked at her and sauntered away.

"So you do come here often?" This time he couldn't help but agree and cast her a dark charcoal look. "My bike shop is near here." Confusion clouded her eyes. "I thought you worked at the bar?" His shaggy black hair fell into his eyes when he shook his head, and she longed to wipe them away; as she was always doing for Daisy.

"The regular bar tender took the night off. I was just helping out. Glad I did." She couldn't help the blush that comment caused, and averted her eyes. "I'm glad you did too, otherwise I'd have been stuck there and probably in a lot of trouble by now; you said you have a bike shop?"

The beer arrived and she took a slow sip before perusing the label. "You've never been drunk have you?" He avoided her question with a question of his own and she shrugged.

"I've never been anything. Grew up much protected in a prison with my mother as the warden. I've been here for two months and this is the first time I feel as if she's not looking over my shoulder." She was staring out the window as she spoke, and he could tell that she was not used to talking about herself like this.

"You're lucky. My mom split when I was ten and my father wasn't around to begin with. So a prison sounds nice." Her doe brown eyes drifted to his.

"There should be a balance. In a perfect world there should be a balance between what you let your kids experience and what to shield them from." How on earth did he make her confess these things? She was so completely comfortable with him; it was a foreign feeling.

"It's not a perfect world girl. In a perfect world you wouldn't be called Bambi. You'd have a grown up name of your own. Hell! In a perfect world I would have the looks of some celebrity and not this shitty burned mess; in a perfect world, Bambi... I'd be thumping you right now." Her laughter took him unawares and he couldn't help but grin at the mirth in her eyes.

"Ahhhh... Thumper. How can I believe you?" Elbows propped onto the table and he leaned forward very slowly, his dark eyes capturing hers, and the serious sincerity there was too much for her heart to take. It was so intense.

"Believe me girl... but I'm thinking I'd have to wine and dine you first or will beer and pie work?" Bambi's smile faded and she leaned forward as well.

"If I let you thump me tonight Thumper I might never see you again. Will you still want me tomorrow?" A ragged sigh escaped his lips as one large calloused hand reached up and slipped across her cheek, fingers tracing into her thick hair. "Will you want me tomorrow?"

A smile teased at the corners of her lips and she tilted her chin up just a fraction. "I am thinking wine and dine sounds pretty nice." It was an answer in itself and his large hand fell away as laughter spilled from his broad chest.

"Fuck me girl! I'm thinking I'm gonna wine and dine the fuck out of you." Bambi's eyes widened at the wicked glint in his and she shrugged a coy shoulder. "I just might welcome that."

It was near daybreak when she finally got home and watching him roar away on his black bike made her belly clench nervously. Would she see him again? He'd saved her number on his surprisingly sophisticated cell phone, and again she felt that all wasn't as it seemed with this man. He was coarse and gruff and sometimes downright rude, but he was so compelling.

Closing her bedroom door against the multitude of cats she crawled into bed for a Sunday of sleeping, and her dreams of him woke her with a flush of heat not much later that morning.

Sighing she ran both hands through her hair and wondered if she'd ever even see him again. Something was telling her to be a bit more cautious, but that was her mother's voice. Another little voice was telling her that if she didn't jump sometimes she'd never get anywhere.

She so wanted to get somewhere in her life that wasn't so safe and narrow and... boring. If he called, he called, she told herself, and if he didn't... she'd cry for a week and get over it. Easy peasy... ha, nothing was ever that easy.

She got up to start on her laundry and tried to avoid her aunt. It wasn't that easy though since the old lady was a bit of a busybody and wanted to know all about her night out. So this was her life for now. Get used to boredom Bambi...

Two Sundays later Bambi was sleeping in after an all night job serving at an event the school catered for. She'd lost all hope of hearing from Xander.

Her cell was ringing by her hand and she answered without opening her eyes. "Are you still sleeping girl?" Xander's voice was as rough as his beard had felt beneath her fingers. "Xander?" She sighed sleepily and turned onto her back. "I'll pick you up in an hour Bambi." That was it; order given and with a hoarse chuckle he rasped a good bye.

Needless to say she was wide awake within seconds and scrambling for clothes. She met Aunt Martha with one of her cats in the hall, but managed to get out of it with a hug and a kiss, and then she was in the shower and scrubbing and shaving madly.

Bambi had just finished her hair when she heard the tell tale roar of the Harley. Again needless to say she made it to the front door and outside before her aunt could even make it out of her bedroom door.

"I'll be back later!" She called over her shoulder and shut the door with a final click. Dressed in skinny jeans, sandals and a new pink boho shirt she pulled her hair across one shoulder and met him as he ran a hand through his hair and took off his sunglasses... and again she noted that they were the expensive kind.

"That was quick." Shrugging she shouldered her small bag and risked a grin. "I thought you'd forgotten about that promise to wine and dine me?" An eyebrow quirked as he handed her a helmet with a shy grin. "I was on a run and I didn't want to seem... eager? You ready?"

What was she letting herself in for she could remember herself thinking much later as they sped down the highway! The world went by in a blur, and she held onto him for dear life, cheek pressed to his back, hands twisted into his shirt.

It was a wonderful feeling though the bunching of his thigh muscles against hers, the flex of his shoulder blades as he maneuvered the large bike. This was such a wonderfully blissful freedom. These were the pies she wanted to bake.

"Not what you expected?" Slim shoulders shrugged as she handed him the helmet, the slow grin made her blush and she let her hands fall through her hair. "Not really. I expected the beach, and a flannel blanket and sparkling wine. Maybe some soft music?" An eyebrow quirked, and she was drawn again to the strange tilt of his smile, the burned side turned down just a bit.

"You look at me and you expect sparkling wine and the beach? Do you see me at the beach?" Bambi couldn't help her laughter at the sardonic cadence in his words.

"All this is too much for the beach girl." He motioned to himself and she laughed and sized him up with her eyes. Xander couldn't help laughing with her, and the feeling to simply laugh was so unfamiliar to his nature that it sobered him up a bit.

The way those brown eyes were looking him over made him feel a bit flushed suddenly, and he cleared his throat. Women had appreciated him before, but it was nothing next to the way she was doing it.

"I can see you spandex." She grinned saucily and he laughed with her. "I'm glad you can because that's never gonna happen. So keep the image to yourself please girl?" Bambi looked around at the roadhouse/bar they'd stopped at still smiling to herself. Xander in spandex would be something to see. He had the body for it.

"Where are we anyway?" This was exactly the type of place she saw him as frequenting. Biker bar next to a long stretch of highway out in the desert. Gloriously adventurous.

"My place. I own it; which means I'm not at all afraid to take my pretty girl in pink in there today." Slim fingers threaded through his and she shook her hair out a bit, a grin still on her petal pink lips. "Oh, so I'm your girl today? You don't call for two weeks and call me your girl when you finally show up?" Xander's nod was serious, and she bit her lower lip.

"Ahhh Thumper I also remember you promising to wine and dine the fuck out of me?" His eyes darkened and rested on her soft lips for a long moment before he stepped in front of her and held up her hand still wrapped in his. "That is a promise I mean to keep girl. Do you want me to wine and dine you?" Somehow she was sure that meant something else than wine and food, but she nodded up at him, tilted her head back a bit and lifted herself onto her toes to let her lips slip softly across his. It was a moment before a large hand at her back drew her deeper into the embrace, and his mouth opened and claimed hers. Masterful, Bambi thought, even with the beard it was a masterful kiss. Her fingers slipped across his bearded cheeks and encountered the burned flesh.

"There's beer and pie?" He groaned as the kiss ended and she stepped away from him with a dizzy head. Heat suffused her entire body, but her hands stayed trapped in his and he pulled her back lazily. "Who are you really girl? There's just no way you can fall into my arms like this." The pure sincerity in his words stole her smile and she tilted her head slightly to gaze into his eyes.

"Anything wrong with just liking you? I like you; and... I feel comfortable with you. That doesn't happen often... and you're taller than I am and that is a rare occurrence." She knew a kiss was coming, but she wasn't ready for the intensity behind it. He simply took her breath away as one arm slipped around her shoulders and the other, with her hand still clasped in it, reached up and behind her back and pulled her against him in a vice lock.

The roar of bikes broke the moment and he pulled away, but kept her clutched to his chest as he lifted his head to have a look around. "I like you too... can I buy you a beer?" Bambi nodded slowly and touched her thumb to his lower lip then traced the line slowly. To his amazement she simply reached up and pressed her mouth to his for a long warm moment. Disentangling herself from his arm she headed to the bar and tossed her red hair.

Xander followed with a grin and a tried to think of dead puppies. She'd aroused every sense he had with that last kiss, and in truth he should be lightheaded cause all the blood was somewhere else.

"You're here with Xander? Really?" This time the biker babe was blonde, very leggy and dressed all in leather and breasts. Red lips, red acrylic nails and crosses around her slim neck. She was simply perfectly stunning! Like a pic on Pinterest!

"Yes. Bambi, and you are?" Even her chuckle was sultry and sexy. "I'm his cousin Carmen." They shook hands. "Really Bambi? You aren't from around here I can tell." Was it that obvious? "Is it the sandals?" Carmen couldn't help her laughter at Bambi's infectious grin and she reached out to touch her red hair.

"Actually sweetie it's all of you, but maybe that's what the old dog needs. Where on earth did he find you?" Bambi related the story in short, and she could tell that Carmen was not just a bit interested.

"He's not the spontaneous picking girls up at a bar type; especially not his own club." That was his club too, Bambi wanted to ask, but she spotted the object of their conversation coming down the stairs from the office and just grinned instead.

"We sort of clicked. It's not the type of thing that happens to me either." Xander's brawny arm slipped around the blonde's shoulders and he winked at Bambi with a sexy grin.

"I see you met Carmen. What's up cousin?" She kissed his cheek with a voluptuous grin and then reached over to slip a soft palm across Bambi's cheek. "Don't let him scare you off sweetie? His bark is worse than his bite." Bambi's eyes traveled to his and she could feel the intensity of the moment there. It crackled like electricity in the air around them.

"I will remember that. So tell me Carmen? What type of girl does he usually go for?" Xander looked away with a bark of laughter and reached over easily to pull her against his side. Carmen stood fluidly and dropped a hip with a flourish. "He usually goes for girls like me sweetie." Bambi's face fell in mock disappointment.

"Then I can see why you are wondering what the hell I'm doing here." Carmen patted a hand to her own ass and grinned coyly. "I'll take that as a compliment." Bambi's bright brown eyes widened and she held up a slim hand quickly. "It was meant as a compliment!" Xander's laughter drew many wondering looks, and Carmen pointed a languid finger at the red head. "It better be. I don't wanna cut you." She joined in with Xander's laughter and Bambi just hid her face against his ample chest, her arms slipping around his waist.

"So how many bars and bike shops do you have? Every time I talk to someone another one pops up." It was very late in the afternoon and the bikers have been coming and going all day. She'd been introduced to many of them, and all of them, all of them, had looked at her as if they couldn't believe she was sitting there beside Xander, sharing shots and stories about tattoos.

"One Club, this bar and three custom shops, but this place is home. It was my first. I grew up upstairs with my uncle and Carmen. He taught me to fix my first bike and when he died he left us this place." He poured another shot and she watched the way his hand moved. Everything about him was so masculine. She'd read about Alpha males, and he was that in abundance.

"How did he die?" His hand rubbed at the burned side of his neck and her eyes followed for a moment. "Car accident." He just knew another question was coming when she took a quick breath, and he couldn't help but smile because he knew exactly what she was going to ask.

"Is that how you got burned?" She didn't disappoint. "Yes. Guy in a truck blindsided us. He was driving and... I tried to get him out through the window, but my jacket and shirt caught fire. He was already dead by then." Her fingers reached into the collar of his t-shirt and she traced the thickened skin. "I'm sorry." The touch of her fingertips made him shiver and he wrapped his hand around hers and pulled them down to his chest. "Makes me look bad ass, doesn't it? Which is good for my rep."

This was not the time to chuckle, but she couldn't really help it from happening. "Very. So that's why the club is called Burned Man?" Xander leaned in for a kiss and just touched her lips. "Clever girl. So... you wanna go home?" Shrugging she looked down at her fingers still wrapped in his, and then back up at him. "We probably should right?"

Xander was about to answer when a fight broke out behind them and he jumped to his feet quickly, his deep voice reverberating through the music. Easily he manhandled one of the fighters through the door and the other followed just as quickly!

"Outside motherfuckers! Does this look like a bloody boxing ring! And when you are done get in here and clean up this fucking mess! I should kick your fucking asses from here to Arizona!"

Carmen showed up at her side while Xander was still shouting bloody murder at the suddenly docile bikers. "The bouncer in his own bar. He's a good ole boy." Bambi was still so mesmerized by the sight of Xander that she barely noticed the leggy blonde by her side.

"He is." She managed and ran both hands through her hair. So that was her first bar room brawl. Cool. Really cool. Scary, but cool.

"Carmen can you lock up?" Carmen nodded, and watched as Xander gripped Bambi's hand and pulled her after him. "Make sure those fuckers clean up!" He tossed across his shoulder and they disappeared outside.

"Sorry about that." The timbre of his voice was harsh and cut through the still night air. He'd driven them a short way from the bar into the darkness of the desert. The simple two story house stood half hidden behind a garage and he parked the bike under an erected car port, and helped her down with a grin.

"No need to apologize. Is this your house? I thought you were taking me home?" Dark eyes dropped to hers for an intense moment. "I didn't say whose house girl." The way she grinned melted away everything but her in his arms, and he pulled her against his chest for a deep heartfelt kiss.

"This is strange, isn't it?" His eyes narrowed at that. "What's strange?" He was getting the wrong idea she thought, and lifted her arms around his neck. "This; I am not an easy girl Xander." Large hands slipped around her hips and up her sides languidly, pulling her closer to him, the overhead light creating dark fire in his charcoal eyes.

"Seems if something feels this right then we should go with it? I really wanna do this with you, but if you'd rather I take you home Bambi, I'll do that and this can... wait." Her smile was soft and she cleared her throat. "A gentleman on top of everything else. You did wine and dine me a bit... so that gets you a kiss." She pressed her mouth to his and parted her lips as the pressure of his increased, and yielded to his power. There really wasn't anything else she could do.

"Ah Thumper..." The whisper against his lips tightened his grip around her hips and then he was kissing her again. "If I promise you breakfast can we go upstairs?" Bambi grinned and nodded slowly, then chuckled as he heaved her across his shoulder and carried her inside and up the stairs.

Xander shrugged off his shirt and she gasped at the expanse of his chest. He was as hard as she'd thought he'd be. The burned skin covered one side of his neck and down across a shoulder. It wasn't ugly though, she thought, as her hands slipped over his warm skin and felt his shoulders bunch up at the contact. With shaky hands she slipped her own shirt across her head and her breath hitched as those large hands skimmed up her waist and around her back to draw her into a hot embrace.

Bambi had expected him to be rough, and he was, but his hands didn't so much as brush her skin as memorize the feel, his lips sought parts of her she didn't know could be kissed, and as they rested upon hers fervently she couldn't help but arch her body against his, clasp her legs around his waist and pull him deeper into her warmth.

He was as hard and powerful as she'd imagined he would be, and the length of him filled her as he pushed past the opening. She couldn't help but cry out his name, couldn't help her fingers from digging into his shoulders, and she couldn't help but gasp his name.

They finally tumbled into sleep after they'd both been thoroughly loved. Xander was good to touch and there was so much of him that she still wanted to touch. She'd loved the intensity of it most... the deep gratifying pleasure of his body grinding into hers deeply and languidly until she couldn't help but cry out. Masterful.

Deep into the night Bambi awoke naked against his strong body, and her hands slipped across the hair on his chest. It hadn't been her first time, but she'd wished it was, because everything he'd done had been new and so perfect.

The room, and the world outside was utterly dark. There was only a crescent moon in the sky and she could see it through the open window. "Please moon don't let this be the end." Words fell softly from her lips, and she pressed her lips to the burned skin beneath her cheek and tumbled into sleep again.

Early morning sun woke her from sleep and for a long moment she simply let the feel of it engulf her. Then she remembered it was Monday and a feeling of such dread overwhelmed her that she bolted upright and grappled for her cell phone.

"Past ten. Damn." She breathed and looked around the empty room. From somewhere outside she could hear the revving of a heavy engine, and something in her heart started fluttering.

She was in Xander's bed, in his bedroom, in his house... very naked. Her lips felt swollen and she was sure her breasts were as well, his hands had loved them especially hard.

Grinning despite the fact that she had totally missed her class she slipped from the bed with a sheet pulled around her and started gathering her clothes. There was an en-suite bathroom and she headed in there for a much needed shower.

Bambi had just rinsed her hair when she heard the door open and close. Her eyes flew open and she couldn't help her laughter when he unceremoniously joined her beneath the water. "Thought I'd have to drag you from bed, sleepyhead. Mind if I join you?" Her eyebrows lifted as she allowed him to pull her against his hard chest.

"As if saying no would stop you..." Her lips lifted to his and he claimed them languidly, one hand roaming down her back to cup one softly curved cheek. Xander's kisses turned hungry and she could feel him growing hard against her belly, so she wasn't very surprised when he turned her around and pushed her up against the wall of the shower.

Long fingers tangled in her hair and as he entered her the same hand slid around to the back of her neck and pushed her forward slightly. Bracing herself against the wall Bambi let out a slow groan as friction built and built in her belly. Both strong hands were anchored to her hips and she cried out when his questing fingers slipped forward and cupped her to push her even tighter to him, the pad of his thumb swirling around her clitoris.

"You are sweet to fuck my girl." His harsh laughter made her blush and she laughed because she was blushing considering what he was doing to her! What did she have to blush about? It was silly!

She came with a soft cry of his name, and moments later he joined her, and turned her around against his chest. He pinned her against the wall again and kissed her deeply, his tongue thrusting against hers unhurriedly.

Bambi let her hands slip across his ass and felt his smile against her mouth before he was devouring her again. That led to a few more screams before Xander was done with her.

"Do you need to be anywhere?" Xander was watching her braid her hair after they'd finished dressing, and the sight of her slender hands tangled in the damp mass had him thinking all sorts of things again. He wasn't usually this energetic, but he simply couldn't get enough of her.

"I did, but I probably should go home. My aunt will be worried, and if she gets worried she'll call my mother, and mom would be on the first flight here, and trust me? It'll be a mess. Besides... I need clothes." Lounging on the side of the bed he eyed her through sleepy slits and ran a hand through his own damp hair.

"Bambi... you don't really need clothing you know?" Her laughter made him smile as well. "Fine, fine. I'll take you home." He sat up and bent down to his combat boots to lace them up.

"Why are you in chef school?" It wasn't a question she could immediately answer, and she stared down into the yard from her vantage point by the window for a long quiet moment.

"I've been applying for bursaries since I was eighteen in the hopes of getting out of my house. My sister tried to commit suicide, and my mother's craziness just escalated from there. The chef school was the one I got and I thought... okay, as long as it's far away from home I can do anything." Xander took a deep breath when her soft doe eyes met his.

"Do you like cooking at all?" Bambi just shook her head and then shrugged. "I mean I like to cook and the work is interesting, but when the bursary is up and I don't get a job, I'll have to go home. I'm actually quite good at the cooking part... I've been cooking since I was ten. It's just not what I want to do with the rest of my life." His charcoal gaze narrowed as he wiped a hand across his beard. That told him so much about her. "You should be doing something you like; not something to get you out of your mom's house." Her shoulders shrugged and she sighed softly before she turned to face him.

"That's easier said than done. I've been looking for other work since I got here. Used to waitress so I know all about that, but going to school and working after meant I'd never sleep, so... for now I have a place to sleep, even if it's full of cats." Finished he leaned back on his hands and pinned her with a serious gaze.

"I'm going on a run, and I'll be gone for about three weeks, maybe less if all goes well. It's a charity run I organized so it's a done thing. Carmen is staying behind to manage things. I was thinking that-" Closing her eyes briefly Bambi looked away as he stood up, and he couldn't read the emotion crossing her face.

"That when I come back we could continue... this?" Relief lay etched deep in her smile when she met his gaze again, and without a word she moved and slipped into his arms.

"I'd like that." She breathed against his neck and he held her tightly. "I thought you were going to take me home and forget about me. You won't forget about me, will you?" His arms tightened, her feet lifting from the ground as he straightened with her still held against his broad chest. "Will you forget about me my girl?" Lifting her head from his shoulder she pressed her cheek to his and whispered no against his ear, and pretty soon they were naked again.

"Well, hello there sweetie!" Carmen called when they finally managed it downstairs and into the kitchen much, much later that morning. "I didn't think we'd see you today!" Bambi blushed and sat down slowly, her eyes never leaving the tall figure as he moved around the table and sat down as well.

"Morning Carmen." Bambi grinned, and scanned the sunny interior of the kitchen quickly. No frills, no fuss and nothing feminine. Befitting two people who weren't in residence much, if she understood correctly.

"See anything you like?" Xander drawled and her eyes met his, the brown heavy lidded and sated. "Yes. I was wondering about that breakfast you mentioned though?" Carmen let out a giggle and touched her cousin's hand. "You promised her breakfast?" Bambi leaned forward against the table and rested her chin on one palm.

"Well initially it started out as lunch, then dinner, and finally breakfast. I'm thinking he can't cook?" Carmen shook her head still laughing and tugged at her white t-shirt as she leaned back in her chair.

"Not fair girl we had lunch at the bar. Not my fault we didn't get around to food last night." This time Bambi couldn't help her laughter either, and avoided Carmen's eyes at all costs. "It is actually." Bambi grinned saucily and he widened his eyes at her. She didn't want Carmen to see how much she hadn't minded not having dinner. Xander had been all the food she'd needed.

"All right, all right. I'll buy you lunch at the diner before I drop you off." With that he stood quickly and left via the back door slipping his mobile phone from his pocket. "He has been on that phone constantly this morning. This ride is a major one and he's one of the biggest sponsors. Hey, here's my number if you need anything at all. I'll be around here to take care of stuff while he's out of town." Bambi feigned a smile, but her heart wasn't in it. Three weeks was gonna be a lifetime...

"So I'm part of the stuff then?" Carmen nodded with a thoughtful grin. "You are The Stuff honey, in capitals. I have not seen that man so relaxed since my daddy died and he got burned. He brought you here to his home. This is not something that happens. Being part of his stuff, sweetie isn't all that bad." Bambi hid her smile behind her hand and averted her eyes away from Carmen's.

Even in sweats and a t-shirt this woman was still ridiculously beautiful. Xander returned after they had coffee and held out a hand for Bambi, which she took without thinking and he pulled her up against his side.

"Gonna dump her ass somewhere safe, and you can get over to the Burned Man and sort out the concert please Carmen? It needs to get done before I leave?" Bambi drew in a sharp undignified breath and he pulled her against his chest and patted her bottom with a grin.

"Just kidding... but I wasn't kidding about the club Carmen." Carmen lifted her eyebrows at him and wove them off.

Xander left her with a wet burning kiss and she watched as the big bike roared away, the last wave of his hand as he turned the far corner drew tears to her eyes. So that was it. The end to the best weekend she had ever had in her entire life!

When she turned back to the house though, Aunt Martha was standing there with one of her cats in her arms and a phone in her hand. "She called my mother." Bambi whispered to herself and let out a groan. "What if she called my mother."

Two weeks later the proverbial shit hit the fan and her mother and Daisy showed up in a rented car. Daisy was outside on the porch stroking a cat when Bambi made it home that evening, and the first thing Bambi did was dig her phone from her jacket pocket. "Daisy?" She called and her sister set the cat down and ran to meet her half way.

She'd memorized Carmen's number, but her fingers were shaking by now and by the time she'd hit call Daisy had almost reached her. Why did she feel the need to call Carmen anyway. It's not as if anyone could just take her. Your mother will, she thought, you know she will.

"You need to run now." Daisy hissed and forcefully turned Bambi around to steer her away from the house. "If you go in there she'll take you home. Just get out while you can." Carmen's voice came on the line and Bambi's voice caught in her throat. Daisy calmly took the phone from her sister's shaking hands.

"If you're Bambi's friend you need to come and get my sister, because our mother is inside and she is as close to being batshit as she can get. Please come now?"

Carmen stood with her phone in one hand and her jacket in the other. That had been the weirdest one sided conversation she had ever had, and she'd had a few.

"I need four guys to rescue Xander's girl! You too Big Max!" She called over her shoulder, and six of the guys at the bar volunteered. A chance to ride with Carmen was not to be wasted.

Bambi headed inside with her sister's hand clasped in hers but she only made it as far as the door before the screaming started. Their mother was hysterical and the words leaving her mouth cut to the bone.

"I'm trying to explain mom! Why won't you just listen to me!" Bambi cried, still holding her sister's hand. "You left with a biker! A big hairy dirty filthy degenerate biker! Is this how I raised you? To be a slut! I knew you coming out here was bad!" Bambi set her shoulders and looked down at her mother.

"He is none of that! Xander is good and decent! And I am not a slut! I'm twenty one years old and I can do as I-" She didn't get to finish before her mother was screaming again. "You are coming home today! This instant! Start packing!" Bambi shook her head definitely and looked down into Daisy's soft blue eyes. They were large and pleading.

"I'm not going home. You can't force us." Daisy sidled up closer to her and found her mother's eyes. "Neither am I. I'm staying here with Bambi." She'd known the older woman would get seriously worked up by that and took a step back and then turned.

A hand tangled into her hair and pulled and Bambi turned with tears staining her cheeks. She backed away again, but she didn't see the slap coming. For a moment she just stood there and then shook her head sadly. "I'm tired of being your punching bag mom! That was the last time you lift a hand to me ever again."

Daisy was crying as well and Bambi turned and headed to her bedroom with Daisy short on her heels. They packed frantically and Bambi stood looking down a the small suitcase and bag with a sigh. That was all she owned in the world. Daisy only had a back pack. Well, they'd make do somehow. She did have some money at least.

Then the shouting started, and at first she could only hear her mother's voice, but then, Carmen's cry of outrage filled the front of the house. Bambi jumped when the door opened a few minutes later. She didn't expect the unknown burly biker. Carmen had brought back up, how cool was that!

"You are coming with me Daisy. I can't leave you here now." Daisy just nodded quietly and shouldered her back pack. "Are you girls coming because I think your mama just called the national guard and the cops and the president." Max, she remembered, his name was Big Max, said as he peered down the hall and Bambi nodded quickly. "Thanks Max." He just shrugged a fleshy shoulder and followed them out.

Her mother's hands closed on Daisy's shoulders when they headed through the living room and she cried out sharply. Max simply liberated her and lifted her up across his shoulder and then glowered at the older woman menacingly. Carmen with her hand in Bambi's led the way out and neither of the girls spoke until they made it back to the bikes.

Max set Daisy onto the back of his bike and handed her a helmet in one smooth movement. Bambi doubled with Carmen and they roared away quickly, but she could see her mother screaming at them in the rear view mirror across Carmen's shoulder. This was a fucked up situation...

"I wanted to call Xander... thanks for coming Carmen. Can you take us to a motel or something later? I've got some money." Daisy was staring up at the sign of the Burned Man with her mouth open.

"Oh Bambi sweetie. I told you I was here to take care of his stuff. So is this your sister?" Bambi nodded and nudged Daisy with her shoulder. "My sister Daisy meet Carmen our rescuer." Daisy accepted the outstretched hand a bit gingerly, and even managed to pull her pale features into a grin of some kind. The freckles on her nose and cheeks bespoke her age and her true hair colour.

"She doesn't talk much, but she's house trained so that helps." Bambi chuckled with Carmen and tried not to fly into a complete panic. Daisy was still staring up at the building.

Carmen eyed the two girls and came to a sudden, yet serious, resolve. Xander would fry her alive if she dropped Bambi off at some cheap motel anyway.

"I'm driving you two out to the desert. You can stay at our place, hell, it wouldn't have been long before Xander took you out there himself. We have a couple of extra rooms, but first I need to open this place up, and do some bashing of heads." Bambi held up a hand and took a deep steady breath.

"I can't let you do that. Xander and I are still very new and... this is-" Carmen stopped her with a look and a wave of her hand. "Don't be silly. He told me to look out for you and that's what I'm doing. I'm not leaving you at some motel. He'd only make me go fetch you anyway, so we'll just circumvent that." Bambi stepped closer and hugged the older woman with tears in her eyes. "Thank you Carmen. It just feels like such a burden now..." When Bambi turned Daisy was staring at the posters plastered to the walls.

"I've heard so much about this place." She whispered in awe, and Bambi touched a hand to her thin shoulder with a grin. "How about I get you in for free?" Daisy looked up at her with wide eyes and then very carefully wrapped both arms around Bambi's neck, pulling her effectively into a warm embrace.

"I missed you Bambi. Thanks for taking me too." She whispered against her ear, but Bambi was so in awe of the emotional gesture from her sister that she could only hug her back tightly.

Daisy had cut herself off from any physical contact shortly after their father left, and after the suicide attempt had drawn even more into her shell. A willing hug like this was rare. "I missed you too baby sister."

The evening air was cool against her flushed face as Bambi made her way back across the still warm sand to the back porch of the house in the desert. Daisy was sitting there on a step in all her black misery, twiddling with her iPod, but it was clear she was agitated and nervous.

"Did you tell him about mom?" Daisy asked anxiously and Bambi tried to placate her with a grin and a flash of her doe brown eyes. "Yes. I had to tell him the whole entire thing. He's fine with us staying, and now he can't wait to come home. I did mention that you were completely house trained."

There was still something behind her sister's soft blue eyes though, and Bambi sat down beside her. "Will mom call the cops? Do you think? I don't want to make trouble for you here, or for him. He sounds cool." Again Bambi felt the nervousness clearly, and truth to tell, she really wasn't sure herself what her mother would do.

"We'll just need to wait it out. We're both legally adults so she can hardly make us do anything. You can go to school here, and we can find a place and get a life. Xander offered me a job, and... I think I'm gonna take it." Daisy turned to her slowly, eyes narrowed and her full lips pursed together.

"You didn't even ask me yet? How can you just decide you know what's best again? Everyone thinks they know what's good for me, but you don't Bambi!" By now she was standing, and Bambi found herself looking down at the combat boots her sister insisted on wearing. They used to belong to her.

"I thought you'd want that. Do you want to go home with mom? You can if you do, I won't stop you, I just thought that there are so many opportunities for you here. We can get you into a good school, and you wanted to come with me Daisy. I just don't want to get a phone call from mom telling me you tried to kill yourself again or that you did kill yourself." Daisy exhaled slowly and sat down beside her sister again, then reached out to take her slim hand quickly.

"I won't mess up like that again. Maybe I could... stay for a while. See how it goes?" Bambi nodded, and she cast her eyes across the sunset for a moment. "Great."

Bambi slipped beneath the covers of a bed in the spare room and took a deep breath. Her mind was going eighty miles an hour with no chance of stopping any time soon.

She'd effectively dumped herself in Xander's home, and it didn't feel right. She didn't want him to feel obligated to have her here. Their relationship was still so new and... what if this messed it up. He was used to his freedom and being able to go and come as he pleases. This would pin him down and she didn't want to do that! That and this felt as if she'd found a rich guy and was slamming her hooks into him without him wanting it!

Angry at herself she sat up and picked up her phone, then shrieked when it rang in her hand. Answering with a gasp she stood and closed the door to her bedroom.

It was Xander. How had he known she was thinking about him? This felt almost telepathic.

"I was thinking about you sleeping in my bed..." He drawled and stepped away from his bike to gaze up at the sky. "I'm not in your bed." Bambi answered, emotion thickening her voice. "Why?" The gruff question made her frown and she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I can't just sleep in your bed Xander." He was quiet for a moment and she could hear his breathing pick up as he walked.

"Of course you can girl. I want you too... thinking of you there between the sheets... maybe naked, will make this trip go so much quicker." Her laughter made him stop and he kicked at a lose rock with the toe of his boot.

"Not naked though... I have my sister here too remember. I'm so sorry about all of this. I don't want to-" She stopped and pressed her lips together. He was still walking she could hear, and he called out a goodnight to someone else.

"You don't want to do what?" He breathed as he closed the door of his room behind him and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. "I don't want to be an obligation... and it might turn into that eventually, and... I just didn't know what else to do. This feels like I'm a gold digger who fabricated the whole thing just to... trap you. I would never do that." He took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"Pretty girl. Stop being so worried please? I want you there, in my bed, in my kitchen... on my bike and in my bar. Eventually I'd like to fuck you in all those places too." Her soft laughter soothed over his grated nerves. "That sounds adventurous. Are you sure you don't mind?" It was his turn to laugh and she sighed.

"I do not mind at all my girl. Go get in that bed and send me a pic so I know you're there." Bambi stood and walked to the door quietly and padded down the hall to his room and slipped inside.

With the phone still in her hand she slipped from her tank top and slipped beneath the covers. "There naked in your bed. I'm not gonna get a wink of sleep though." Xander's voice was hoarse when he spoke and she shivered at the sound. "Now I really want that pic. Go to sleep sweetheart. Everything'll be fine." She said a soft good bye and he hung up.

With a grin she positioned herself, pulled the sheet up to just cover her breasts and bit down on her lower lip. She sent the pic as she was slipping back into her tank top and grinned at his reply. Fuck girl. How do I sleep now?"

Tired and dusty Xander made it across the yard to the house and frowned when he saw the young girl sitting on the back porch. She was so completely out of place there. All in black, black hair, black combat boots, an iPod stuck into her ears. This must be the sister then. When she saw him coming though she jumped to her feet and pulled the earphones from her ears quickly. She was short and a bit too skinny. She and Bambi hardly looked alike at all.

"I'm Daisy." Deep blue eyes met his fleetingly, and he took the proffered hand. "Xander Gane. Where's Bambi?" He hadn't meant to sound abrupt, but he wasn't the sociable type, and he didn't like strangers in his home. She might be Bambi's sister, but he didn't know her yet. Besides it was easy to tell she was strange.

"She's down at the bar with Carmen doing inventory." His eyes narrowed and he pointed back at the house. "And you're here alone?" She nodded her dark head, and then simply lifted an eyebrow. "I am nineteen. I hardly need supervision." Typical smart ass teenager, Xander thought and took a deep breath.

His need to see Bambi was greater than his need for a shower and some real sleep though, so he turned and walked away quickly to find her. "Don't get in trouble!" He called across a broad shoulder, and heard her sarcastic reply.

Bambi was crouched behind a shelf in the store room when he finally found her, and for a moment he just stood and watched as she counted bottles. In a red loose fitting dress with her hair unbound across her shoulders she looked really beautiful, and again he wondered at his luck in finding her.

"You need some help with that?" He drawled at last and she jumped to her feet and turned in one motion, a wide smile on her lovely lips. "Xander!" She cried out happily and threw her arms around his neck. The force of his embrace lifted her feet from the floor, and drove the air from her lungs. His mouth on hers though stole her breath completely and she just held on as he overwhelmed her.

His mouth tasted like the shot of bourbon he must have downed while looking for her, and the tickle of his beard against her chin made her shiver. The sheer size of him hit her then and the steady beat of his heart pressed to her chest brought home his vitality with such clarity; and it gave root to the blossoming of her heart in her chest. Love bloomed and overflew and she couldn't help but to let the heat of that love, of him, suffuse her completely.

"I missed you." Bambi breathed when he finally lifted his mouth, and his smile was all the reward she needed. "Did you really my girl?" Xander set her back on her feet his large hands staying on her shapely hips. "I really did. When did you get back?" She asked as she noticed the dust on his clothes and the wind ruffled hair. "About an hour ago and I'm starving."

His hoarse voice came out in a low growl as he pulled her closer to him again, large hands slipped around her waist and gripped her lower back and butt to lift her against him slightly, letting her feel all of his hardness. So he really had thought about her in his bed; it was obvious in the way he was looking at her. Starved alright, and ready to devour her.

"Carmen's in your office-" She managed just before his lips claimed hers again, and he simply let go of her and shut the door behind him quickly. Bambi couldn't help a soft chuckle when the key turned in the lock and after covering up the camera as well he sauntered back to her like the wolf who caught the deer.

"Bambi honey..." He growled as he pushed her back against a table. "Yes Thumper?" The innocence in her soft voice made him laugh and he kissed her lips before he lifted her onto the edge of the table and lifted her dress. "I missed you too." The hoarseness of the syllables as he entered her filled her being and she cried out his name softly with barely controlled ardour.

Resting back on her palms she wrapped her legs around his waist and let her head fall back. He picked up speed and she knew this was going to be the first of a few such encounters before the night was out.

Finally he leaned across and caught her groan of release just as he stiffened against her. Two more strokes took him over the edge and Bambi wrapped both arms around his neck and plastered her mouth to his. Long arms gathered her close and she could feel his heartbeat slow down against her breast.

"I knew I was gonna like having you here." He murmured against her mouth and kissed her again.

"So this thing with your mother; tell me, and I want all of it this time?" The light outside had turned to dusk before she'd finished telling him, and they made their way out to his bike in the cooling twilight.

"You said to call Carmen if I had trouble, and I didn't know what else to do. All of this is so messed up. I just dumped us here, and I... are you all right with that? You're used to freedom and coming and going as you please, and you can still do that. I don't want to lose this now, but we hardly know each other, and you hardly know me and..." A heavy arm around her shoulders silenced her and she risked a look into his eyes.

"I know what I need to know about you girl. Stop over thinking this. Gives me a reason to have you around sooner rather than later."

Daisy was in front of the television watching a sitcom when they entered via the kitchen, and she heard Bambi's laughter first, and that was always a good thing, but then Xander's voice joined hers and melded together; she wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe she was just really jealous, but all this had fallen so easily into Bambi's lap, and she deserved every moment of it. Maybe she was just going to be a burden to them now?

"Daisy?" Bambi's head appeared around the doorway and she brightened up when she saw Daisy. "We brought dinner? Come get some?" Bambi had noticed the signs of withdrawal, but she was trying equally as hard to ignore them. Daisy just needed to get used to all this, that was all. Then she'd be fine; or whatever passed as fine for Daisy anyway.

"Something tells me you aren't really a brunette?" This from Carmen made Daisy reach up to touch her hair and she shrugged. "Blonde; not red like my all natural sister." She looked down at her food, and ignored her sister's furious blush. "Well sweet pea. I could tell cause your roots are showing, and since I'm not naturally blonde myself I have this wonderful hairdresser who can do wonders with roots." Daisy looked up sharply and touched her thick black hair again.

"I don't want to be blonde again." Carmen took a deep swallow of her beer and tipped her head to one side, eyes meeting Bambi's. "Blonde, red, brunette... who cares, as long as you don't do black EMO with yellow roots. That's just ugly. So tomorrow it's you and me and Suelynn. Then we'll show you the new school?" Daisy pushed her food around on her plate, and her eyes lifted at the exact moment that Xander's rested on her. There was something there that frightened the life from her and she quickly looked at Bambi.

"It's a good school. I checked and they have music and art and I know you like both, and... you do need to finish up the last year first." Daisy shrugged and then tried a nod. "Thought you were nineteen?" Xander asked and Bambi looked up sharply, but Daisy sat forward a bit and cleared her throat.

"I was home schooled and when stuff went wrong so did school. I'm behind a year, because when I finally went to public school the curriculum's overlapped and I had to catch up. I've done most of the work already, but I need the certificate."

He nodded slowly at that and took a deep swallow of his beer. Bambi was eating thoughtfully and Daisy watched her for a moment not sure really what she was supposed to say now.

"After school I'll pick you up, and you can hang out at the Burned Man with me until I go home?" Carmen smiled and that sparked a lot of interest in Daisy's eyes and Xander frowned again. Carmen might be good for the girl. She liked rescuing strays.

"My club, my rules. If your grades go down, and I know all about your grades, because your sister told me, I yank you and you get to wash the floors in the bar, but if you perform like I think you can, well the sky is the limit. You'll have backstage access, and I might even let you meet and choose the bands. Deal?" Daisy's eyes lit up like the fourth of July, but the pure excitement was there before she remembered that she was supposed to be sulking. Bambi saw it and hid a smile behind her hand.

"Fine. Deal." She tried to sound surly, but the wideness of her baby blue eyes couldn't be missed. She was psyched as hell!

"I can't help but feel that there's something you are not telling me about your sister." Xander stated quietly. He was sitting on the side of the bed in his jeans waiting for Bambi to finish up in the bathroom. The door was open and he could see her slip a strappy t-shirt across her breasts. Man he couldn't wait to take that shirt off...

"Like what? There are lots of things I am not telling you." She emerged with a smile on her face, but the smile faded when she noticed how serious his eyes were. His elbows were propped up on his knees, and he was just watching her without an expression. "Why is that kid so messed up and you aren't?" He was referring to Daisy, naturally.

"Well, she took it hard when my father just left us for another woman. My mom and dad were forever fussing over her when she grew up, and Daisy even shared mom's bed most nights. Dad slept in the spare room. Things were really over between my parents just after Daisy was born, and I don't know why he stayed for fifteen years and then just left, but it wasn't because he loved my mother." She slipped a brush through her long hair and stared at herself in the mirror for a moment.

"I don't think he even loved me, but he loved Daisy. Between the two of them they treated her like a queen. Then he left, and he didn't just leave mom he left Daisy, and she couldn't cope with the rejection. He now has a little boy and another baby girl on the way... and he hasn't even seen her since he married his new wife."

Bambi was still standing in the center of the room, arms crossed in front of herself. Her big brown eyes were searching for something on the ceiling. "So she's a spoiled little girl who tried to commit suicide cause her daddy left?" Was that how that had sounded, Bambi thought and shook her head vigorously before joining him on the bed.

"I told you I grew up in a prison, and I wasn't kidding. Mom warped her mind something terrible. They kept her wrapped up in bubble wrap and dad even home schooled her himself. I got to go to public school, because my dad physically forced my mother to let me, but Daisy was home schooled until three years ago when he left. She couldn't cope with any of it, and her mind just shut down." Xander's sidelong glance at her spoke volumes as he reached around her shoulders with one naked arm.

"Therapy?" Bambi nodded quickly and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "She's been in therapy for a while now, but since mom's not here maybe she could get better somehow... are you sure you want us here? All this is so batshit-crazy-Stephen-King stuff." His bark of laughter drew a smile to her lips, and he hugged her to his side.

"I promise that if I see your sister floating down the hallway all Shining-like I will at least try and speak to her first before I shoot her ass." Their laughter filled the room, and she knew a kiss was coming even before he leaned into her.

"What are you going to do with my ass?" Charcoal eyes narrowed a bit as he pulled her easily astride his hips, large hands grasping her hips and then running down across her butt to pull her in closer. "Oh Bambi honey... I can think of a few things better than shooting it."

"Can she fix my hair to look like yours?" Carmen cast Daisy an inquisitive look and started the truck up. She had some shopping to do, and there was nowhere to put shopping on a bike. So she took the truck.

"You want to be blonde?" Daisy nodded. "Yes. It'll make Bambi smile, and I want that too. I want to be..." There wasn't a word to apply to her thoughts.

"Happy?" Carmen asked and Daisy nodded. "Yes. Happy... I didn't want to be happy for a long time, but now maybe I can start to really get a life." Carmen was a bit confused at the sudden change in opinion, but she left it at that and just nodded.

"And you think a new hair colour will do that?" Daisy nodded again, and pulled at a fray on the hem of her shirt. "Yes and no, but it's a start." That was true. It was a start. Carmen swung onto the road with a smile. "Blondes do have more fun honey." They laughed together and settled into a nonsensical conversation.

"We'll need to buy you some leathers for the bike, so I thought we could go shopping today. Carmen alerted me to the fact that your current wardrobe, although it's perfectly sexy, won't work on a bike. She has your sister so we can do that." Bambi threw him a smile across the counter.

"Remind me to thank her then. You don't do shopping, do you?" The definite shake of his head widened her smile. "No. The stuff I have is ancient and if I need anything I just buy it. I go to one place, the only place I've ever gone. I don't shop." Bambi grinned at his answer and poured them each a cup of strong black coffee.

"I heard there's a Boho fair on the beach this weekend. You always find the best stuff there." His face was a blank, and then he narrowed his eyes a bit. "A hippy thing? Are you a hippy?" Bambi looked down at her loose maxi dress and sandals with laughter dancing in her throat. "You didn't notice? I'm not all flower power, but I do like the look. Would you prefer another look? Something like Carmen perhaps?"

The question was perplexing, Xander found, and he couldn't answer her any way but honestly. He didn't want her to change to please him after all. "I wouldn't want to change you girl." The softening of her eyes gave away how much that meant to her, but he knew another question was coming by the way she drew in her breath a bit.

"Why aren't you with someone like Carmen?" A smile tilted his lips and he rubbed the burned side of his cheek out of habit. "I'm just over the what the fuck attitude that she has. As soon as you put a girl on her own bike, she suddenly becomes all bad ass bitch and I'm just tired of the attitude. I've been in a few relationships like that, and it wasn't worth the time I put in." She wanted to know more, and he just watched her until she'd formulated her next question, but before she could speak he stopped her.

"I'm going to buy you some real biker gear, but if you wear a hippy shirt beneath the gear, that is perfect. The gear is only protection." The smile she gave him couldn't have been more sincere, he noticed, and something in the back of his mind started nagging at him. "You don't need to do this much for me Xander." His broad shoulders shrugged. "Just so happens that I like your skin peachy cream like it is now and not scarred. Falling from a bike is dangerous." Her eyes widened a bit and she frowned at him.

"So you're planning on taking me on these runs you take?" His nod was curt and serious. "You'll be part of the Club with me if you want. That means riding gear." She was still frowning, but her nod was quick and she leaned away from the counter. He was behind it sorting through empty bottles.

She'd simply fallen into his arms from the beginning. Was she really as real as he thought her to be? She'd inserted herself into his life in the blink of an eye and it felt surreal.

Now she was living with him, along with her sister... and he didn't mind, he very definitely didn't mind, but he didn't want to be the means to an end for her. He'd offered her a job she hadn't taken yet, but he knew she was looking for one.

What he liked so much in this girl was everything he disliked about Carmen. Bambi was pliable to his moods, and she soothed his ego? That sounded really... for fuck sake he sounded like a bleeding cave man! He couldn't just take over her life and control it! Decide what she needed before even talking to her!

"Do I need to change?" He shook his head and took a deep swallow of the cooling coffee. "We'll take the truck. I've got some other stuff to get too." He murmured and she disappeared into the back to emerge moments later with her bag.

"Are we going to the fair, because I have some money and I want to buy Daisy some stuff? She's been wearing some of my clothes, and Carmen's... neither of which fit. She's a skinny little thing." His eyes darkened as he cleared his throat and pushed away from the bar.

"You and Carmen can go do that when they get back. Your sister might like to buy her own stuff if I know girls."

Considering their conversation of earlier Bambi found his sudden sullen mood strange, but she didn't comment on it, and just followed him out to the GMC parked behind the bar.

The ride into the city was quiet, but she wasn't disappointed when they pulled up outside a tattoo parlour/bar/biker boutique. The amount of leather inside was only surpassed by the amount of studs on everything. She'd never know the level of aroused Xander was by just watching her try on stuff. Caveman, he thought, and rubbed a hand across his bearded cheek.

They did find boots though, that fit comfortably, and with leather pants, a cropped vest and jacket they made their way back to the truck.

Xander was carrying a box underneath one arm that she couldn't remember buying, and her frown made him grin despite his sullen mood. "It's a helmet girl. Looks like mine but it's smaller, and I had Ray fix it so we could talk on the ride. Earphones inside or some such shit..." After lifting herself into the passenger seat she leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, her hand pressing onto his upper leg for a moment.

"Thank you." His first impulse was to push her back against the seat and kiss her properly, but he frowned instead and narrowed his eyes at her. "That stuff was expensive girl... it's gonna cost more than a kiss on the cheek to thank me properly."

Bambi bit down on her lower lip and lacking anywhere else to look let her eyes rest on her folded hands. "I'm not for sale Xander. If you want me you can have me, but you don't have to buy me. I... don't know what's gotten into you suddenly. One moment we're talking about realness, and then you just go all cold."

The truck started up with a throaty purr as he pulled out of the parking lot. "I knew this would happen when I phoned Carmen. I knew you'd be threatened by me being there, and Daisy... I only knew you for a few days and then we just moved right on in." Xander just stayed quiet, knowing she'd want to fill in the silence, and he needed to know what was really going on inside her head. He just really needed to know.

"You said you didn't mind, but I should have known that you would eventually. Everybody does... it feels like a trapped you." Her voice drifted off, and he looked down at her hands. They were folded around each other so tightly that her fingertips were turning blue.

Feeling like an ass he reached out slowly and slipped his large hand across both of hers. "Please don't make me sound needy?" Those words cut to the bone though and he pulled off the road, bringing the truck to an abrupt halt.

"You are such a contradiction Xander! Your mouth says one thing, but your touch says another. What are you trying to tell me? We've talked this to death. I can find a job, take Daisy and find a place for us if you mind having us in your home. I told Carmen to take us to a motel, but she refused. You said you didn't mind, but I knew you would and now-" With a low growl he turned in his seat and reached for her, pulling her nearly into his lap in his haste to just hold her.

"I just needed to see a bit of the genuine you my girl. There is too much about you that is sugar coated and unclear; and I don't want you to pretend to have feelings for me cause you have nowhere to go." She tried to push away from him, but he held fast, lips pressed for a precious moment to the side of her head.

"I need to see beneath the surface. I want to see why you aren't as messed up as your sister. I want to see all of you my girl." My girl, Bambi thought, there was nothing she wanted to be more.

"I thought you were serious." Her voice was a mere whisper, but he heard and pushed her away to clasp her shoulders in his large heavy hands. "I am serious."

Soft brown eyes widened and she blinked rapidly, her hands lifting to slip quietly across his chest, and where her fingertips rested against his scarred neck her touch seemed to sear into him.

"If you see all of me; if I take away all the layers of the years and give you my naked soul and you refuse it Xander. What will be left of me?" Dark charcoal eyes narrowed and his grip tightened as he pulled her closer, lips nearly touching hers.

"I would give you mine in return." Slim fingers gripped the edge of his shirt into her fists and her lips trembled as she pressed her mouth against his. "There is no pretense in my feelings for you. None." His lips slanted over hers and she lost herself in the feeling.

"I have feelings for you too." He whispered as the kiss ended, and attempting a smile she nodded and lifted one hand to touch his burned cheek with her fingertips.

"Are you okay with this now?" Still only worried about him after he put her through a whole morning of strangeness. Instead of answering her though he just pulled her closer and slipped his lips across hers for a deep heartfelt kiss.

"You're blonde? This looks so pretty Daisy." Bambi touched both hands to her sister's soft blonde hair and grinned into her blue eyes. "It feels kind of weird, and I keep looking into the mirror and thinking WTF! OMG!" The sisters laughed together and with a grin of his own Xander headed for the garage. His bike was in need of some love.

"What hippy thing are we going to?" Carmen drawled from her spot on the kitchen counter and Bambi just sighed. "I told Xander about the Boho fair down by the beach, and he went all hippy on my ass. I have some money and Daisy needs clothes, and hippy fairs are always so cheap and you find the best stuff there, but... we don't have to go Carmen. Really."

Bambi busied herself with unpacking the groceries they'd bought, and she smiled at the stuff he'd insisted on getting. Bachelor food like crackers and peanut butter filled her hands and she turned to the shelf behind her.

"Boho... like bohemian? I like stuff like that." Bambi turned back to her with a sardonic look in her eye. "Really?" Carmen smiled and ran a hand through her perfectly streaked white blonde hair. "We are all dressed up already sweetie. Wouldn't want to waste all this goodness on the bar. So lets go? We can buy ice cream and get fat. I need one of them sarong skirts." Daisy was laughing, and Bambi smiled at just hearing the sound coming from her little sister.

"Carmen is taking us to the fair like you asked her to. Thank you. So we'll see you later?" Xander looked up from the engine he was fiddling with and smiled slowly. She had some colour back in her cheeks, and her eyes seemed less sad.

"Can I bring you something?" Shaking his head he didn't speak until she bent down and bestowed on him the most innocent and chaste of kisses he'd ever experienced. There was nothing behind it but heartfelt emotion.

"I'd like some candyfloss as pink and soft as your lips." Those words promised him another kiss and she slipped away with a chuckle like the breath of cool spring air that she was.

"What do you need Big Max?" Xander asked as the shadow loomed over him. He was still watching Bambi walk away and tore his gaze away to squint up at the tall, stocky biker.

"Keys for the shop? Carmen said I need to go lockup. That's a pretty girl boss." Max grinned and Xander stood to wipe at his hands.

"Left them at the bar. Walk with me?" Max followed and Xander patted Max's extended gut with a grin. "You serious about the girl? I'm only asking cause I heard she's gonna work somewhere... for you." Xander nodded slowly and then frowned.

"Extended grapevine we have in the club isn't it?" His voice sounded silky and deceptive, but Max fell for it every time. "You know them man, everybody up in everybody else's asses." Max laughed nervously and cast a sidelong eye at his boss.

"Whose been talking?" Xander breathed and the older man ran a hand over his untidy beard. "Women mostly. Saying this girl moved in right quick. Not me. I don't give a fuck, but you know women." Sadly he did know women, Xander thought and shrugged his broad shoulders quickly.

"I took you in and gave you a job and all the help you needed to kick the habit. Did that for lots of folk, men and women, did it occur to them, you think, that maybe this girl just really needs my help? Her and her sister?" Max nodded vigorously and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"She's not playing me Big Max. You took them from that house so you know the truth. Spread the word? Bambi is off limits, and if I hear gossip it'll be dealt with." Max nodded solemnly and followed Xander into the bar.

You didn't fuck with Xander Gane, and he felt sorry for the one who ever tried.

The fair was right on the beachfront and for the first time since her arrival in the city she had the pleasure of just walking along the sand, the water lapping at her feet and the sun on her cheeks. It was a singular experience... much like Xander.

Daisy and Carmen found her just standing there and laughingly handed over her ice cream. The chocolate was cool against her tongue and she laughed with her little sister. Daisy hadn't had much to laugh about lately, and it made it so much more endearing to hear her giggle now.

Carmen, and Daisy's golden locks, had a profound effect on the surly teenager. She seemed less burdened; although that could be the lack of her mother's presence as well. Together they sat down on the warm golden sand and watched as the water lapped at their naked feet.

A month later

"I'll lock up tonight and you can take the girls home? Got some things to discuss with Michael when he gets here." Carmen nodded up at Xander and smiled slowly at the way his gaze turned knowing.

"Please don't scare him away Carmen?" Carmen's laughter drew Bambi's eyes to them for the first time and she found herself jealous of Carmen suddenly. The blonde was so confident and sexy and beautiful. Just the way she spoke sometimes was so mature. For a long moment she just watched as they talked, and finally her thoughts drifted away.

"Last one." Xander grinned when he set the shot of bourbon down in front of Bambi. Daisy was asleep at a booth in the corner stretched out without a care in the world.

Standing slowly Bambi leaned against his chest, and slipped one arm around his waist, her hand slipping into his jean pocket.

His whole body stiffened at the movement and both strong hands rested against her hips to hold her steady. "If I drink this Thumper are you going to thump me when we get home?" The words were only meant for him, and again he wondered where she hid this saucy wench when the world was watching?

"I would fuck you twice with or without the bourbon." He growled against her lips and she chuckled softly, then turned serenely and raised the shot to her lips. "Yay me then." She tossed it down and licked her lips, the motion wasn't lost on him and she cried out softly when he threw her hastily across one shoulder and headed for the back door.

"Hey Big Max! Bring the baby!" He tossed across his shoulder and she laughed when the big biker just nodded and headed for the corner where Daisy was still sleeping.

The ride home was over in a heartbeat Bambi thought as he parked the big bike by the back door and bodily carried her inside again. "I can walk you know." She laughed as he headed for the stairs, and his gruff response filled her with warmth.

"There will be no feeding of the cat or cleaning the sink or loading the washing machine tonight. We are going straight to bed and if I don't carry you there, it's gonna take another hour!" The fact that they did now have a stray cat that she fed scraps to outside made her giggle, and when he deposited her unceremoniously on the bed and started taking off his shirt she reared up quickly and stopped his hands.

"I want to do that." She cajoled and started unbuttoning the cotton shirt slowly. With each button that opened she revealed more of his skin and her lips trailed a path down his chest, her tongue just touching his navel.

"You have such a lovely body." She sighed and reached up to slip the shirt and jacket across his shoulders and down his long muscled arms. "I love the tattoos and the burns..." With her lips, her tongue and her hands she traced the tattoos across his arms and the scar across his shoulder. Her lips just nipped at his earlobe and that's when his hands captured her neck and the kiss that followed was so intense and deep that she could feel his raging heart inside her, and it fired her passion and drove her hands down to unbuckle the belt and pop the buttons of his jeans quickly.

Then his hands were pushing her down on the bed and she was naked against him. True to his word he fucked her twice, and then a couple more times later that night just to make sure she was good and sated. Though she'd probably never be sated where this big man was concerned. She'd never get enough of touching him.

"Do you want some tea Max?" Daisy asked sleepily as the big man walked her into the kitchen and he smiled oddly then nodded. Sure, he could drink tea. "Yeah sure. You should get to bed?" She nodded while refilling the kettle and got two cups from the cabinet.

"I'm going to have tea anyway. How old are you Max?" The big biker sat down at the small table and let out a small laugh. "Old enough to be your daddy baby." They'd all started calling her the baby, and although she had felt weird about it at first, Carmen had explained to her that it was a biker thing. She was part of them now they'd given her a name. Bambi though was Xander's girl. It was a badge of office and neither sister could figure out just how that worked.

"Do you have kids and a wife?" Max took a deep breath and ran a hand over his lank blonde hair, the blue of his eyes stark in his sun darkened face. "I got a son. Little Max, though he's about twenty, and I got my little Angelina living with her mother in Mexico. She's ten. Why you want to know all this?" Daisy shrugged and set the tea and sugar and milk down on the table between them.

"You took us from my aunt's house and Xander always asks you to cart me around, so I just wanted to know more about you. Where is your son?" Here his eyes misted over. "He doesn't care much for his old man. He's a nomad, and I don't see him much. Always on the go, Little Max, just like me when I was his age." They drank their tea in silence and when Max stood to leave Daisy stood as well and hugged him tightly. "Thanks for carting me home again." His laughter was deep and fatherly as was his tight hug. "Get to bed baby."

Bambi was up very early the next morning, early enough in fact to see the sunrise from the kitchen window. It was a quiet moment before another hectic day, and she found herself wondering if this is where she'd always be. These were the pies she'd wanted to bake. Golden flaky crust filled with sweet apples and cinnamon. Perfection.

Xander's heavy tread sounded on the stairs and she turned slightly to see him enter. He was still only in boxer shorts and with his tousled hair and bare chest she couldn't imagine him looking any better. He wasn't shirtless often, and aside from the burns, which she found deeply arousing for some reason, he had very well contoured chest and shoulders. Actually all of his body looked like that.

Strong heavy arms settled around her from behind and pulled her against his chest for a deep hug. "Why are you awake so early?" He breathed and yawned against the top of her head. "I couldn't sleep anymore. Besides I had to feed the cat and put the clothes in the dryer and do the dishes I couldn't do last night. Today is gonna be busy."

He hugged her once more and then moved to switch on the kettle and take down some mugs for coffee. "The baby is going to school. Are you and Carmen taking her?" Bambi nodded in an aside and fetched the milk from the fridge. He liked his coffee black, but she liked milk and sugar.

"Thank you for the uniforms and everything you're doing for her." Leaning a hip against the counter he watched her walk back to him, the sun through the window catching the red of her hair and making the colour burn and blaze like a flame.

"I do it for you. Money I have my girl, and I'd spent millions to have you here." He took the milk and pulled her against his chest, her arms slipped around his waist and he shivered as her cheek rested against his breast, her breath stirring against the hair there. "Thank you Xander." Strong arms tightened as he pressed his lips to the crown of her red head.

"Hey you two get a room." Daisy said disgustedly from the doorway, but Xander just held onto her more tightly when she moved to step away. "Five minutes later Daisy and you'd have found us needing a room on the kitchen table. You want to witness that?" His drawl drew laughter to Bambi's throat and she moved suggestively against him only to disgust her baby sister a little more.

Daisy left giggling and Bambi moved from his arms to start breakfast. Xander finished the coffee and sat down at the table to watch her fry bacon and eggs. Carmen would be down soon, and Daisy was bound to return for her tea. So for now he was just relishing having her all to himself for a bit. The comfortable silence between them was precious.

"I cannot imagine not having you two here anymore." Carmen smiled as she sipped her tea and watched Xander, who'd gained a shirt, wolf down his breakfast. "I would think you miss having all of this to yourself."

Xander looked up at Bambi's soft words, and the look in his eyes was questioning somehow. "Us actually having breakfast together with eggs and bacon and real toast? Do I look like a domestic goddess sweetie? Before you came this place was just a place to sleep, you've made it ahome. Both of you." She reached out a hand to touch Daisy's braided blond hair and grinned at her.

"Don't you agree Xander?" He did agree, and his smile said as much as he started eating again. "I'm glad then, because tonight I'm making dinner and you two had better be here." Daisy laughed at the look on Xander's face and she reached out to pat his shoulder. Direct contact coming from her was rare and he smiled a bit. "I'll try to pencil you in honey." He grinned and Bambi couldn't help her laughter. "Just you be here. Time I started earning my keep."

"Can you take me to school Xander?" Xander frowned down at the little blonde and hooked his thumbs into the loops of his jeans. They were downstairs in the kitchen and the other girls had gone to fetch whatever it was women needed so badly before they could leave.

"Why? It thought Bambi and Carmen were taking you?" Daisy's eyes found his unflinchingly and she took a deep breath before answering.

"I won't get any shit from anybody if I arrive on my first day on the back of a Harley with a badass biker. Please? You can just drop me off. I can't deal with Bambi's fussing today." Still frowning he scratched at his beard and then nodded quickly.

"Sure. I can always get Big Max to drop you off in the mornings." Her eyes widened and she actually smiled at that. "He's a good guy, isn't he?" Xander nodded. "He has a bit of trouble when he gets drunk, but other than that there is no one else I trust more. Get a leather jacket from your sister and a helmet. We should get going." Daisy smiled slowly and headed back up the stairs.

"Dropping kids off at school cuz. You going soft?" Carmen drawled from the stairs and he turned to frown at her. "Just a bit. Call Max and tell him I want to see him at the downtown garage at nine." That was the end of that conversation.

"Hitch a ride with Carmen to the downtown garage? I'll meet you there. There's some stuff we need to do." Bambi nodded over her shoulder and finished braiding her hair with a grin. "Sure. Drive safely." She always said that, Xander mused, as he bent down to place a warm kiss on her slightly parted lips.

"I love you." She whispered against his lips and he couldn't help but grin slowly. "So do I." He whispered back, and her giggle made him laugh as he found her eyes in the mirror. "You love you too?" The intoxication of her laugh made him chuckle and he bent down to kiss her again. "No. I love you, silly girl."

"Do you need me to come in with you to the office or something? I feel weird just dropping you here." Daisy moved quickly from her perch behind him and took off the helmet and jacket with a grin, depositing them into the carrier neatly.

"And what will you say? I'm her sister's live-in boyfriend? I'll be fine Xander. I'm a big girl. Thanks for the lift." He grinned and sighed softly as she walked away, her backpack slung across both slim shoulders. There was a hidden agenda with that little one, he just couldn't put his finger on it, she wasn't anywhere as sincere as Bambi.

Starting up his bike he headed for the garage and his thoughts turned to bikes and figures and Daisy drifted from his mind. Anyway, he reminded himself, Carmen would sort her out.

In jeans and a boho shirt, which was the correct term for the hippy shirts she wore, he was informed, Bambi looked decidedly clean and completely out of place in the large garage.

Big Max was making tea in what he really hoped were clean cups, and two of the other mechanics were industriously cleaning the floor.

"Hey boss! Want some tea?" Max called and Xander cast him a furtive glance. "Only if there's no tea in it. Where did Carmen get off to?" Bambi shrugged and cleared her throat when Max handed her the cup shakily. It spilled and he apologized profusely. Xander couldn't help a chuckle.

"Said she had an appointment at Burned Man that she couldn't help, but that Max would keep me company. I only just got here. Is Daisy okay?" Xander thought about that for a moment.

"I think she'll be fine. Do you have some work to do? I see a workshop full of bikes and no one working on them! Get going and stop staring!" The two who were cleaning kept on cleaning with their eyes glued to the ground and the other four were suddenly very busy. Max just laughed until he noticed Xander's eyes on him and then he too ambled away to start overhauling a Harley that needed lots of love.

"You scared them Xander. You shouldn't scare people like that." He grinned at her and reached out to pull her against his chest. "That is why I'm the boss, my girl. Part of my job is scaring them shitless. Your job is looking pretty; I like this hippy shirt." Her laughter made him smile slowly and she patted his shoulder before pushing away from him.

"Talking about jobs; although I rather like being a kept woman, my conscience will not allow me to just go on sponging on you like this. I need a job." Xander sighed and sat down behind the large battered desk, hands behind his head. "You have a job."

Blinking slowly she realized his seriousness and then frowned. "This is the year 2019 Xander, cooking and cleaning and giving sex is not a job." Colour rose to her cheeks and she leaned a hip against the edge of the table, arms folded over her breasts.

"You're right; that would be the job of a wife." It would, she thought, but she wasn't a wife and this was still 2019.

"Even wives have jobs other than housework. That is so archaic. Besides, I am not a wife." His eyes narrowed. "Do you want to be?" This caught her off guard and she nodded without thinking.

"Wait? What?" Laughter spilled from his chest and he reached out to take one hand in his, running his thumb across her slender fingers. "This finger needs a ring, and I need you to be my wife. What is it, my girl that you need? Except a job."

Bambi's eyes widened, then widened more and for a long moment she just stood there staring at him. "Are you proposing?" He nodded sincerely, a frown etching his brow as he let go of her hand. "Did you plan this or did it just come up? I mean Xander this is a big decision. When did you decide you want to marry me? You've only known me for like a couple of months" Licking his lips slowly and then biting down on one corner was her cue that he was thinking deeply.

"I saw you at the bar and I thought you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and then you looked at me, and just for a tiny split second, it was reflected back at me. I think I knew then. You didn't see the scars, did you?" Bambi felt her jaw go lax. She had thought him very handsome when they'd met... that was true. He'd seen that in her eyes?

"I didn't see them at first, but I did think you were handsome... that's true. Big brutish and bearded and beautiful." A smile tinged her lips. "Am I not handsome any more?" Laughter spilled from her throat and she wove a dismissive hand. "I might find you marginally good looking now. Stop fishing for compliments? You know I think everything about you is gorgeous. Marriage is a big step though." He sat back in the chair again and captured her evasive eyes.

"So you're saying you don't want to marry me?" She shook her head. "No that's not what I'm saying." Nodding his shaggy head at her, Xander folded both arms across his chest. "So you do want to marry me?" This is where she was confused, he could tell, because he'd wanted her confused, and the look on her pretty face was priceless. "Yes. I do." A bark of laughter made her jump and he stood quickly to pull her into his arms. "Great. Let's go buy a ring?"

He could also tell exactly when the confusion cleared up. "This is serious Xander. I'm not going to marry you if you think you can leave me in a few years. You can never leave me." His hold on her tightened and his lips touched hers gently, almost sweetly.

"Why the fuck would I ever want to leave you girl?" They kissed again and he knew the answer would have been yes anyway.

"Hey baby." Big Max smiled when Daisy sauntered across the pavement to his side, her back pack slung across one shoulder and a few books held in her other arm. She'd been crying, and was still wiping at her eyes.

"What's the matter?" The big man seemed truly worried and Daisy just shrugged then deposited the books in her back pack before taking the helmet and jacket from him. "Hey Big Max. I'm okay. I just thought Bambi was picking me up?" Max shrugged.

"Her and Xander had to be somewhere, and you know the boss, I'm the go-to guy. Why the tears baby?" Daisy tried a smile and slipped onto his chopper behind him, her small hands resting against his large belly. He started the chopper up with a low rumble and pulled away, oblivious to the looks they were getting.

"You know how I told you about little Max, Baby?" Daisy nodded and handed the helmet over when they'd dismounted. "That's him there. Wonder what he's doing here?" Little Max turned out to be a younger, leaner, version of Big Max. From the blonde beard to the uncut blonde hair that grazed his leather shoulders he was Max, just younger, and cleaner.

"You said-" He stopped her and handed her the back pack with a grin. "I know what I said. Xander and your sister'll pick you up later. You can wait in the office?" Daisy nodded and flipped a hand through her white blonde hair. "I want to meet little Max first." Big Max bit down on his lower lip and then just shrugged his wide shoulders. There was no way to dissuade her from doing what she wanted to do. He'd learned that pretty early on.

"You'll be sorry; he ain't as nice as his old man." Daisy just grinned and followed the biker as he made his way to the other man slowly.

"Hey little Max. What brings you here?" The younger man looked down at Daisy with a lifted brow and then reached out very quietly and shook her hand.

"Donald." He grinned and she frowned. "Daisy. I thought your name was Max?" He shook his head. "Biker thing. Big Max... Little Max. It's Donny for short." His blue eyes lifted to his father's. "You're picking them a bit young these days, dad?" Max took a deep breath and was about to let lose with a string of curses, but remembered that Daisy probably wasn't used to violence, and instead just smiled through his beard and nodded.

"Belongs to Xander's girl. I just cart her around, and look out for her. You go on inside, baby? I'll just be a minute." Daisy nodded up at Donny instead and retracted her hand from his. He was still clasping her fingers, the warmth of them stayed on her palm for a moment longer.

"Nice meeting you Donny." Both of them watched her go. "Likewise." He breathed and his blue eyes turned back to his father.

"Salina called yesterday. Angelina is sick and she needs money. Kid's been sick a lot lately." Max frowned and sighed deeply. "I told her not to move out that far. I'll take a ride down there, you could have called." Donny eyed his father and ran a hand over his full short trimmed beard.

"I was around. Thing is I'm looking for a job, and I thought you could ask the Burned Man. I never ask you for nothing, but I'm strapped for cash, and I need a job." This was hard as hell to do, Donny thought to himself, but he had no other options right now.

"I could give you money." Max knew the moment he said it that it was the absolutely wrong thing to have said. "I don't want your money. I just need you to talk to Xander." He nodded at his son and dug both hands in his pockets. He'd never done right by him, maybe now he could try.

"No problem. Come by tomorrow morning? I'll talk to him when he gets back. Think he's fixing on marrying the baby's sister so he'll be in a good mood." Donny nodded and cast his eyes to the large roller doors of the old garage. They caught a flash of white.

"The baby. She's probably all of seventeen... not a baby." Max lifted his light blue eyes and found his son's menacingly. "Nineteen. She's the baby, little Max. I'm responsible for her." Donny shrugged. "I'm not little Max anymore. I'm all of twenty three years old." That was three years that he'd drunk away, Max thought morosely and shook his head. "Thought you were still a pup. You been growing up kid." Donny ran a hand through his hair and turned to his bike.

"I been doing a lot of that lately. I'll see you tomorrow Big Max." Max just walked away, and Donny slid onto his bike, his eyes subconsciously checking for that flash of silver hair again. She was like a clean ray of sunlight... and he knew he'd be looking for her again. Though girl like her probably wouldn't go for a dirty biker anyway.

"Little Max needs a job and I thought you could give him one for a bit, that and I have to get to Mexico. My little Angelina is sick again. I just called her mother and she says this time it's the fever. Salina's worried." Xander watched as the two women headed out to Xander's pick up and the flash of sunlight in Bambi's red hair made him grin.

"Little Max asked you to ask me?" Max nodded. "Yeah... you know him." Xander nodded, he did know Donny very well. Good at heart, but a wild nomad too. "Sure. I can always use another mechanic. Tell him to bring his own tools and he gets paid for what he fixes. Let me know what Salina says about your girl?"

Max nodded and ran both hands through his dirty hair. "Donny had the misfortune of having me as his dad, Xander. Don't blame the chip on his shoulder on him. He's a good kid." That remained to be seen though Xander thought and grinned at the older man.

"So how was the first day of senior year?" Bambi was making dinner and fussing around the kitchen and Daisy just watched her quietly as she peeled the potatoes. "Fine. I'm going to have to study my ass off though. The kids are way ahead of me. There's this one guy, Tristan, and he smiled at me and asked me for my number." Bambi turned wide brown eyes on her.

"I told him I wasn't interested, don't worry! He's pretty cute though." Saying nothing Bambi turned back to the stove and grinned down at her hands. "Why are you making dinner anyway?" Shaking her red hair quickly Bambi glanced down at her hands again.

"Tonight is special. The club can survive one evening without Carmen and Xander. Daisy wasn't sure why that seemed so cryptic. Nothing about Bambi was ever secretive or cryptic. Bambi these days was a completely open book! That little smile was secretive though, and Daisy frowned down at her hands.

She liked secrets when they were hers. She liked that she could manipulate people when she liked, and discard them when she didn't. That didn't mean that she was proud of herself for doing it, but she liked it anyway.

Xander she couldn't manipulate though, but Bambi was easy. All she really had to do was smile more and laugh a bit. Being a bit happy made her older sister feel she was okay, and that was probably fine, but... how did she tell her that she wasn't as okay as they all thought she was. Changing her hair back to blonde didn't change the darkness inside her. Going to school and meeting boys didn't cure the blooming depression. She was just pretty good at hiding it.

"I also met Little Max." Bambi turned to her again, holding a pan in one hand. "Little who?" Of course she wouldn't know Little Max. "The son of Big Max. His real name is Donald... Donny for short. He is as big and completely biker as his father. Bit handsome too." Bambi let out a slow laugh and wondered at the irony of both of them liking bikers. Their father was a banker, straitlaced and a bit... silly.

"As in Donald Duck? Daisy Duck." Okay! So that was funny! Daisy couldn't help laughing with her sister, and then handed over the bowl of potatoes with a flourish. Bambi had called her Daisy Duck when she was little because she waddled like a duck, so for her to meet an actual Donald was funny.

"How old is he? I thought Max only had little Angelina in Mexico?" Daisy shrugged, and started the washing up out of boredom.

"Nope. I think he's about twenty three or something. Big, bearded biker. You'd like him... hey, how old is Xander anyway?" Bambi's hands stilled and she looked across her shoulder at her sister's innocently hunched shoulders.

"He's twenty nine. Sometimes he acts older... especially when he's being the boss of the club. You should see him when he's sorting out fights and stuff. He's very mature." Daisy sighed softly and leaned her elbows onto the table.

"Are you going to have babies with him?" That question dislodged itself with her hardly thinking it, she thought, and peered at her sister quickly. Bambi was stirring something, but she was contemplatively quiet.

"I don't know, it's a bit early for that still." She kept stirring and Daisy watched the silence. "What kind of mother would I be do you think?" Daisy cleared her throat and shrugged; this was a big question for Bambi. She hadn't had much of a mother or father growing up, so her mind was probably trying to rationalize what she had to offer a baby.

"A good one. You would love a baby more than it deserves even when it doesn't deserve it. Just like you loved me all these years." Bambi turned to her sister and tried to smile, but the feeling wasn't behind it. This was a rare honest moment from Daisy.

"A baby deserves unconditional love. You didn't always get that from me, and I never got that from mom and dad. I had to work to be loved. I don't want to be that kind of mother Daisy." Her voice drifted into a whisper as she turned back to the stove.

"I hated them for putting me on that pedestal and then expecting me to stay there by myself when they weren't interested anymore. I hate him for just pushing us aside and having other kids... you'll be a good mother Bambi. I know that in my heart, and I think Xander will be a great dad too... he has a lot to give." Bambi agreed with a grin and sighed slowly.

"So why are we all here having dinner?" Carmen asked as she spooned more potatoes onto her plate. "I'll be working this off in the gym for a week." Daisy perked up at this and her eyes found her sister's enquiringly, but Xander beat her to the punch with a bark of laughter.

"I asked Bambi to marry me, confused her when she said no and finally got her to say yes." Daisy and Carmen both squealed in delight and jumped up happily to hug first Xander and then Bambi.

"I knew you were a keeper sweetie! From the first time I saw you in the bar, I just knew you were a keeper!" Bambi nodded quickly and then laughed out loud, tears burning the back of her eyes.

"I don't want a big over the top wedding, but I do want to ask you both to be my bridesmaids though?" Daisy was nodding happily and Carmen let out another high pitched shriek of happiness!

"You can't have Carmen, girl. She's gonna need to be my best man." Carmen's already large blue eyes widened even more and she was hugging him before he could get up from his chair! "I still want a sexy ass dress though?" Xander grinned and watched as she sat down again tearfully.

"You'll get what you need. I'm going to have to invite everyone in the Club, and everyone else'll just crash it anyway, so we might as well do the big wedding thing honey. Carmen's been doing the fund raisers and stuff for a bunch of years now, and we got Michael at the club for the finances. I trust you all to pull this off on one condition?" Bambi eyed him with wide eyes and a loving grin.

"I am not wearing a white suit, and if I see pink... I might just run." The women laughed again, and Bambi sat forward with sparkling eyes. "A hippy/biker wedding; that should be something to see."

Bambi spent her days working in the bar since she'd taken over the admin there, which left Carmen free to get to the Club and the other businesses more. She couldn't believe sometimes that they'd been here for nearly four months now.

She liked her new job. It was satisfying. She didn't work the actual bar though, since Xander would probably have a fit if she did, but as she'd told him in no uncertain terms she wasn't his wife yet and could do as she pleased. He'd just smiled and widened his dark charcoal eyes for effect in an attempt to be intimidating. It didn't work though.

She was in her small office making out invoices for new orders when she heard his bike roar in and his boots coming down the corridor a moment later. He had a way of dragging his right leg a bit when he walked and the gait was imprinted in her mind now. He'd broken his leg on a dirt bike at sixteen. Daredevil.

"Hey. Come on we gotta go?" He breathed and held out an impatient hand for her. "I'm busy honey. I can't just go?" He bit down on his lower lip and shook his head quickly. "I'm the fucking boss and I say come on. Lock up." Worried now Bambi stood, fetched her bag from beneath the table and followed him out. She locked the door and then the one at the back of the bar too before following him to his truck.

"What's going on?" She breathed getting in and he sighed deeply. "Daisy's teacher called. She's in some kind of situation." Bambi's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open a bit. "What kind of situation Xander?" He shrugged. "She wouldn't say over the phone, only that we need to get there soon." Bambi cleared her throat and tried to calm herself.

"Why did they call you?" Xander shrugged. "Name's on the file I guess." She found that strange but shook her head anyway. "I thought everything was going so well." He disagreed with a grunt. "She's a closed book, and I don't think you know how to read her." Bambi's soft eyes turned to him and he shrugged his broad shoulders.

"She laughs and smiles and you think she's fine, but there's something dark in her eyes sometimes. That's why she's spending afternoons with Carmen at the Club and not home alone. I told you about her crying when Max picked her up?" Bambi nodded and stifled a soft heartfelt sob.

"You think we should pull her from school?" Xander shook his head. "No. She needs to learn how to process adversity." Bambi did not agree with that and Xander let her be when she didn't answer.

At last they pulled up to the school and headed to the Principal's office. Daisy was sitting in the outer office nursing a cut lip and bruised eye. Bambi went to her instantly and Daisy just let her coddle her for a moment before she pushed away and slipped a hand over her eye again.

"What happened?" Bambi asked concernedly and the Principal spoke up behind them. "Can I speak with you inside please? Daisy will you be alright out here for another minute?" Daisy nodded her blonde head and avoided Xander's frowning dark eyes.

"What is this about?" Xander asked as they entered and joined Bambi on a chair. "Are you her guardians?" Bambi nodded and then shook her head. "She doesn't need a guardian since she's already over the legal age. I however am her sister, she lives with us and I'm responsible for her. What happened to her?" The much older man introduced himself as Principal Waterhouse, Gill, for short. He was grey and going to flab and had small little watery blue eyes that she didn't like at all. One look at Xander confirmed he didn't either.

"Well, she was in a fight. She was with her class at the pool for the leisure period, and got involved in a kerfuffle with another girl; whom I've already sent home with a stiff warning of suspension. Thing is, Miss. Williams, this has been happening a lot. She has a very confrontational personality. She has trouble fitting in possibly because she's a bit older than the others in her group. It also doesn't help that she's dropped off and picked up by an assortment of undesirables." Xander let out a bark of laughter.

"Oh, you mean bikers like me?" Bambi reached for his hand and squeezed tightly. "Why do you think that has an effect on her?" She asked quietly and Xander sat up a bit straighter, his charcoal gaze cutting. The little man was not to be intimidated though.

"Children with the kind of intelligence she has are often set somewhere on the Autism spectrum. She is incredibly smart, and she knows she is, and having her in the kind of environment where she sees violence on a regular basis can affect how she responds to a situation." Xander's eyes widened and he sat forward.

"She... what the fuck. I own a bike shop where we fix bikes, and a Club downtown that only opens at ten, when they're both home, which means she's not around any kind of violence. Did you take into consideration the fucked up past she has?" Bambi patted his hand again and cleared her throat.

"I can get you the therapy reports that go back almost four years. She was home schooled... and when she went to public school she was behind and had to catch up. Do you even know what the fights were about?" The principal nodded.

"A variety of subjects from music to philosophy. She had a row of a discussion with Mrs. Blakely in English lit. about famous poets and their need for kinky sex to write what they do... in class. It got very heated. I say kinky sex, but she called it BDSM. I don't think she fits in with us. For one thing as I said she is very intelligent, and for another she doesn't find school stimulating enough so she acts out." Xander stood quickly and took Bambi's hand.

"As I've already paid her full tuition I'll be expecting a return remuneration. We'll find her a school that fits her personality better." Bambi ran a hand over her mouth and then stood as well. "Thank you for making me aware of this." With that they left and Xander nearly tore the door from its handle.

He was mighty fucking angry and the way he simply took Daisy's hand quickly and pulled her against his side to lead her outside made Bambi smile. He was obviously not angry at her sister.

In the truck he sat very quietly for a long moment before he took a deep breath and started it up.

"I have to get to the shop first and then we'll head home. We have a lot to talk about baby." Daisy nodded and took the tissue Bambi held out to her to dry her tearing eyes. They drove to the shop in silence and Bambi followed him inside. Daisy slipped from the truck and leaned against the side to take a few deep breaths. She liked this place most of all.

Max wove from his perch behind the counter and she wove back with a smile and hid her eye beneath the other hand.

"Nice shiner." A deep voice drawled at her side suddenly and she jumped a bit, then looked up into Donny's soft blue gaze. "Thanks. I try not to get them, but they seem to happen all by themselves." Broad shoulders shrugged; they weren't as broad as Xander's but she was sure he was just as tall. Wiping his hands on a rag he reached for her wrist and pulled her hand away to take a closer look.

"Sheesh... looks painful. Cold compress will take the edge off. What happened?" Daisy shrugged and traced out the pattern on his chest with her eyes. Some kind of skull and bones with wings and teeth. Biker thing.

"Girl at school didn't like the way I didn't want to go for a swim and started a thing. I told her to go fuck herself and she hit me. Still I told her to do it with a cactus." His face split into a grin.

"Nice. You don't like water?" Her shoulders shrugged and she peered into his eyes again. He really was handsome though. "Not particularly." His eyes widened a bit and he sighed softly. "You hit back?" Daisy lifted her hands with a flourish.

"And break a knuckle? No I kicked her when she slipped on the wet floor and into the pool she went. Principal thinks I'm too violent because I'm around bikers a lot. You think there's any merit in that?" This time his laughter was rich and warm and she found herself laughing with him.

She'd been watching him every day after school, and by now it was a bit of a habit. What she didn't know was that he did his own watching from time to time. She was a very pretty girl.

"Sorry, but that's probably true. You hang out with Carmen enough you'll end up in more fights than you need to. She's not known as Queen Bitch for nothing." Daisy was still smiling when Xander and Bambi got back.

"Hey big man." Donny greeted and Xander nodded his greeting. "You done with Winston's Chopper?" Donny nodded quickly. "Just putting on the finishing touches. See you later." His gaze shifted to Daisy's for a split second and she watched him walk away before she got in the double cab with a sigh.

One thing was certain... Donny filled out his jeans pretty well.

"Okay. So... what the fuck?" Xander said and Daisy frowned at him. "Is even half of what the principal said true?" Bambi asked softly and handed her the cold pack with a shaky hand.

"That depends on what he said. Look, Lucinda Grainger doesn't like me because I didn't want to be one of her bitches. I try to stay out of her way, but she's... like a gnat always buzzing around. She hit first and when she slipped I made sure she fell. She's not even hurt... the big old butch. She's always trying to grab my ass! It's a mission to take a shower in that place when she's around."

They were sitting at the kitchen table, well, she and Xander were sitting. Bambi was industriously making coffee to keep her hands busy. She was afraid she might choke her little sister!

"That true?" Xander asked and Daisy nodded with a deep heartfelt sigh. "Yes! Thirty other girls saw what happened!" Bambi sat down for a split second. "Okay. That's sorted and fine I understand; but what about the stuff with your teachers? Poets and BDSM Daisy? What? He said you were always confrontational and violent and blamed it on you being around bikers too much... which is horseshit! So explain that away?" Bambi stood again and Daisy shrugged then cleared her throat.

"Mrs. Blakely?" Xander nodded and leaned back in the chair his eyes following Bambi around the kitchen. "Bambi? Sit down." She turned to him, lifted her hands to her hair and sat down with a sigh of surrender.

"I was bored and she's a prude, and she gave me a B when I deserved at least an A+ for my paper on Tennyson. I'm sorry... I was just having some fun with her. Didn't think she'd go all principal on my ass." Bambi lifted an eyebrow and took a deep swallow of her coffee.

"He suggested we put you in a school that can stimulate your higher intelligence." Xander stated with a slow blink and Daisy frowned at that. "Told you I was on some kind of autistic spectrum right? I'm not... mom had me tested pretty extensively. I was just blessed with a higher than average IQ." She placed inverted commas on the blessed and Bambi kicked her leg.

"Stop being so glib about this." Bambi was angry and Daisy just cleared her throat at that, her slight shoulders setting. "Look... I can finish up school anywhere, or with the merits I already have I can just go to college now. I only have like five months left anyway." Bambi exchanged a glace with Xander and he nodded.

"Was that your plan all along?" Her head shook and then she bit down on her lip. "No. I was looking forward to going to the Prom and stuff. I actually like school; it's just that some people make it unbearable. Look this is what... I am. Did you miss the whole EMO thing Bambi? You were there please tell him this is what, who, I am. I'm trying real hard to... stay above the darkness, but sometimes it just snaps and I do something stupid. Please just let me get a bursary and go to College? I'm old enough anyway to do what I want, but..." Her voice drifted off and Bambi was up and doing something again.

"But?" Xander asked, man, she wished she could read him already. Those coal black eyes were like pools of ether drawing everything from you until you tell him the truth.

"You've done so much for me, and you didn't need to. Her you love and I understand why, but me? I'm just a burden that she couldn't help but carry with her. I feel like such an... intruder." Xander frowned deeply and leaned his elbows onto the table to capture her baby blue eyes with an intensity that made her swallow hard.

"If I didn't want to have you here I wouldn't have Daisy. As you can probably tell I'm not the suffer in silence type. You girls needed my help and I'm giving it. Just so happens that I kinda like you, and I fucking love her. Could grow to love you too if you let people see who you are." Bambi's arms slipped around Daisy from behind and she hugged tightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Well I fucking love you my sweet baby sister." Xander smiled at the scene and watched Bambi as she sat down beside him again. "Do you fucking love me too?" Daisy giggled and leaned back in her chair at the look that passed between them. "This is supposed to be about me?" She interjected and Daisy met her eyes.

"College. Fine. You're an adult and I'm gonna treat you like that. Until you get a driver's permit though Big Max or one of us can still drive you around... and I'm not buying you a bike." Xander's tone of voice was not meant to be brooked and Daisy nodded slowly.

"Thank you. Can I go take a shower now?" Bambi nodded and Daisy left with her bag across her shoulder. Bambi watched her leave and then leaned her forehead onto her open palms.

"I should've seen all this. Am I horrible for not noticing she was in this much trouble?" Xander shook his head. "No sweetheart, she's just good at hiding like I told you." She slipped a hand through her thick red hair and lifted her eyes to his.

"I fucking love you too Burned Man. Can we have dinner at the Bar? I wanna finish up those invoices and I'm in the mood for bourbon." Grinning she stood and slipped onto his lap to twine her arms around his neck. "Bourbon? I'm in the mood for a lot more than bourbon girl." She pressed her mouth to his and smiled at the way his arms pulled her in, one hand slipping across her hip and down her upper thigh.

"Thumper honey... there's a mighty big possibility that I will be too." His kiss was deep and warm, but she stood quickly to head upstairs laughing. Xander crossed his legs to alleviate the pressure and sighed. She had him drawn and quartered like a beat up chopper, and he didn't even fucking mind.

The bar was busy as usual and while Bambi finished up in the office Xander caught up on gossip from a bunch of club women. Daisy found herself sitting at the bar counter sipping on a long island ice tea. Xander thought it was just tea, for some reason, but the tequila in it didn't hurt so she told no one. She just fixed herself a drink when she got there and looked innocent. It worked.

She felt more than noticed the large bulk loom up behind her and looked up quickly not prepared for Donny's grin. "Just a beer thanks Bill." He smiled and handed over some money. Bill handed over the beer and Donny took a long pull before he turned back to her again.

"That looks worse." She agreed with a grin and pushed her hair from her brow. "Thank you. I tried to match my shirt to it so it'd blend better." His warm smile made her smile and he looked back at where Xander was still surrounded by the women. "He's lucky Bambi's not the jealous type." Daisy remarked and Donny finished his beer and got another before shrugging.

"Are you the jealous type?" Daisy's eyes widened at the strange question, and she shrugged languidly. "I don't share my toys, and I don't play nice with other girls. So... yeah I suppose I'd be the jealous type when the opportunity presents itself... eventually." She sipped her drink again and he leaned an elbow on the counter.

Man, she thought, he was getting better looking every time she saw him. In faded jeans, boots and a black t-shirt with his dark hair grazing his shoulders like that he was... sex in boots. Not to mention that she didn't even like beards, but his just did it for her.

Donny was thinking she was probably the closest thing he'd seen to an angel. With her hair unbound across her shoulders like that, and those perfect pink lips. They'd taste like the tequila he knew was in her drink.

"Makes two of us." Her shoulders shrugged and she pulled at the t-shirt self consciously. "Do you have someone to be jealous of?" The question was out before she could think not to ask it and his shoulders shrugged as he dug one hand into his pocket. "Girls are trouble, and I don't need more trouble. Do you? You probably do right, pretty girl like you." Her mouth went dry and her shoulders mimicked his shrug.

"No... I'm in enough trouble as it is. Besides do you see anyone here with me?" He leaned in the tiniest bit and Daisy sat forward too, her breasts pushing up against the shirt without her noticing. Donny couldn't help but notice. "You wanna get into some trouble with me?" A slow smile tilted her lips, but before she could answer someone called Little Max from across the room and he turned in the direction. "To be continued... hopefully." He breathed and left quickly.

Daisy watched him go and turned back to the bar and Bill watching her with narrowed eyes. "Little Max is trouble. Burned Man won't like Little Max with the Baby." Bill was Mexican and she just tried to nod knowingly at the way he spoke. He shook his dark hair at the very notion of her having something to do with Little Max and she finished her drink with a sigh.

"Can I have another one of these please Bill?" He nodded, took her glass and turned away. Daisy used this opportunity to glance across her shoulder and found Donny laughing with a bunch of guys. His arms lifted to explain something and shifted the shirt up to expose that bit of underwear that drove girls crazy.

At precisely that moment he looked over at her and she cast him a smile and winked. Why she had no idea, but it just happened. Then she took her glass from Bill and headed over to Xander.

"I'm gonna go home. I'll just walk. Need some solitude please?" Xander nodded and she set the glass down and wrapped both arms around his neck for a tight hug. "Thanks Xander." With that she picked up her glass and left via the side door.

She was halfway home when someone called her name from behind. Looking across her shoulder she relaxed when she recognized Donny and slowed to a halt.

"Aren't you scared of the dark?" Her head shook and she took a deep swallow of her drink. Although why she'd carried it with was still a mystery to her. "The dark holds no horrors for me. What are you doing out here?" His one sided shrug drew her eyes for a moment.

"You wanna walk me home? I could make you a cup of tea?" She was grinning while she said that and Donny's grin was as lost as he felt. This girl was something else.

"Xander won't like that. I'll walk you there though...?" She started walking and he fell into step beside her. "Little Max..." She breathed and headed around the back out of habit. He followed, but stopped at the steps leading up.

Daisy set her glass down on the porch and turned back to him, then took a step down to put her at eye level with him. He leaned in with that same intoxicating intensity that drew her in like magnetism every time she saw him. "You are very beautiful." He murmured and she moved closer as her hands slipped across his thick shoulders and she pulled herself closer to him. "You gonna kiss me?" She teased, and his lips found hers.

His thumbs were still hooked into the loops of his belt, and he shivered as her arms slipped around his neck and she pressed herself closer to deepen the kiss. He could get carried away with her pretty damned quick, and he shouldn't, but somehow he couldn't stop his arms from reaching around her waist and pulling her in even deeper.

The moment her hands slipped into his hair though he knew this was probably the point of no return, and he'd better stop; so he lifted his lips from hers, but he couldn't let go of her body yet. She was so soft and slim and yielding... inviting.

"Donald." She managed and he nipped at her lower lip gently. "We shouldn't be doing this Daisy." He murmured against her mouth. "Why not?" She lapped at his lower lip and trailed her fingers over his beard and around his neck to draw him in close again.

"Fuck sweetheart..." His breath was warm against her mouth and Daisy simply kissed him again. One large hand tangled into her hair as the other arm pooled around her and drew her in tightly, his mouth devouring hers. She cried out softly when his mouth lifted again and he set her away from him with a groan and a deep breath.

"You're not the one night stand type of roll in the hay that I'm used to. So that's it baby." Daisy sat down on the step since her legs felt like rubber. She felt flushed and on fire and hyped. This was alien and she took a deep breath before running both hands through her hair.

"Are you sure?" He took another step back and nodded. She found her glass and took a deep swallow before she felt steady enough to stand. She laughed softly and after a moment so did he. "That was good though. Come back anytime you want more?" With that she turned, unlocked the door and stepped inside.

"Fuck." Donny thought and took the first step without thinking. What the fuck dude, you can't do this! That's Xander's house! He'll fucking kill you! The inner voice was screaming at him, but somehow his feet moved by themselves.

She was sitting on the kitchen counter with an ice bag on her eye when he entered and leaned a shoulder against the door. "Why?" Her shoulders shrugged. "You're good looking and... why? What kind of a question is that even?" He smiled slowly. "A good one; a reality one. Girls like you don't go for guys like me." Her slim shoulders shrugged again.

"They should... question here is why don't you want to?" Direct to the point, he thought, and looped his thumbs through his jeans again. Her eyes followed the movement and then slipped up his chest until she met his eyes. "Let's just do this and worry about logistics tomorrow?" In one movement she'd slipped from the counter and lifted herself against his chest to claim his lips. Donny's hands slipped beneath her arms and he lifted her higher against him, groaning when her legs twined around his hips and her arms around his neck.

Somehow he found the edge of the counter again and slipped one hand beneath the shirt to encounter a soft warm breast. Her breath hitched at the touch and she pressed closer. "Bedroom." She managed and he set her down to follow her upstairs.

Her room was dark, and she locked the door before whipping off her shirt and helping him with his. "Ah... I knew you'd be this hard." Her voice was like a caress as her hands smoothed up his naked chest and her mouth found his again. Large hands slipped over her naked back and down across her hips to tug at the jeans she was still wearing; then he hunched and slipped the material down her legs, his tongue dipping into her navel first and then upward to close around a soft rose tipped breast.

Her hands slipped into his hair as his caressed over her ass and around her waist. Then he was looming over her and his mouth claimed hers hungrily. Somehow he lost his jeans and boots too and he lifted her up against him again, her legs closed around his hips and she gasped as he pressed her up against the wall and thrust into her wetness with a satisfied groan.

Daisy stiffened for a moment and gasped for breath as he started his onslaught of her in earnest. She simply immersed herself in the glorious feeling of him buried so deep within her and kissed him again as her hands slipped into his hair and closed into fists. She was panting by now as her orgasm neared, and it had to be that, she'd never had one before, but she was certain this was what it was supposed to feel like.

"Donny..." She panted against his mouth and then her whole body splintered into warmth and light and stars as the orgasm tightened her body. The tightening of her orgasm around him pushed him over too and his mouth found hers warm and waiting. The kiss deepened and he moved slowly against her to draw out the perfect sensation.

"Baby? Was this your first time?" Her head shook and he moved over to the bed still carrying her and sat down with her in his lap. Her hands trailed around his neck before one thumb caressed his lips. "With someone I chose yes." Donny went cold and leaned back as her lips sought his again. "What?" He asked and she sat back too.

"That has nothing to do with us right now." She smoothed his hair from his brow and met his dark blue eyes for a long moment. "I just wanted this so much..." Leaning forward she rested against his chest with her cheek on his shoulder and took the comfort she needed. One hand slipped up into her hair and his other arm tightened around her to draw her into a deep embrace. "I did too... but Xander's not gonna like this Daisy." Her slim shoulders shrugged and she pressed her lips to the warm skin beneath her cheek.

"I don't really care." His embrace was everything she needed it to be she realized before she tilted her head back and pressed her mouth to his. "I have to care. I need the job... and-" She moved away, but his arms held her back. "Understand? If there's a way I'll find it, I promise." Her sad smile made his heart ache and then he was kissing her again... and this time he made her scream.

Daisy pressed a last warm kiss to his lips after he'd taken the few steps down the back porch and savored having his arms around her like this. She might not have it again very soon. Then he was gone and she watched as the night swallowed him up.

So she made tea and sat down on the steps and just listened to the wind and the distant music from the bar and let it soothe her mind. Tonight she wouldn't have dark memories of squeaking doors and pain, tonight she could replace those fears with Donny's warmth inside her, around her... and she'd sleep. That was good.

"It's not pink." Xander breathed as he stepped into a church for the first time in a while. Everything was decorated in very tasteful purple and grey, and he found himself wondering when Bambi had gotten the time to do all this. Then he remembered that she'd had a lot of help from Carmen and Daisy.

"You thought it would be pink?" Instead of a best-man he'd gotten a best-cousin in the form of a very beautifully dressed Carmen. Her dress was deep jade green, skin tight, obviously, and very well cut to show just enough, but not too much cleavage.

"Not really; though my girl is a bit pink." That Bambi was, a pink hippy with laughter on her lips and love in her heart.

"Purple worked for her, green for me, and grey for Daisy. So we used all three cause we could. We better get you up the isle, cousin. Daddy would be so proud..." Tears crested her sky blue eyes and he tried to smile. It wouldn't come though.

Tears choked his throat and the burn itched around his neck as he thought of his uncle. Yeah, he'd be proud of them both and what they'd made of themselves. With Bambi's insistence and Carmen's wholehearted applause he'd opened up a halfway house for bikers. They had groups and therapy, and even a work program. It was all good.

In a sleek fitted double breasted black tuxedo that accentuated his broad shoulders, crisp white shirt and jade tie, he felt so alien. He wore boots though, new patent leather high-end boots, but boots nevertheless. He was still a biker.

He'd had a professional beard trim for the first time in his life and even he couldn't tell where the scars began. His hands had been scrubbed and oiled and buffed until he was sure the roughness of them wouldn't snag on Bambi's veil, and all in all, he felt really, really clean.

"We should get going then?" With her arm resting in his she patted her elegant coiffure with a shaking hand and then led him down the isle between the rows and rows of friends, acquaintances and family, but mostly bikers.

A respectful, though no less loud, cheer rang up and broke the silence and Xander just took a bow for the hell of it. This was going to be epic.

"Are you ready?" Daisy breathed as she helped smooth the veil down. Bambi just looked up through wide pools of soft doe brown, and the intensity there made Daisy gasp softly. "I am scared shitless, Daisy; but I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

The gown was soft flowing white silk and velvet, the cupped sweetheart bodice covered with soft lace. She wore her hair taken up in intricate curls she was sure would not come loose ever again. The veil was trimmed with the same lace as the bodice. On her feet she wore white lace up kid boots and white stockings. She was sure Xander was gonna like them.

The underwear was less virginal though, but that was for Xander to find out later. With pearls around her neck and wrist she felt really beautiful and knew she looked it at the way her sister was watching her in awe.

With no parents to give her away she'd asked Daisy not only to be her bridesmaid, but also to walk her down the isle. It was fitting. No one had the right to give her away but her sister, and one day she'd do the same for Daisy.

The wedding march reverberated through the small chapel and Bambi simply concentrated on setting one foot in front of the other. Daisy's hand was tight around hers and she risked a look at her sister's angelic face. "Just walk." Daisy breathed, and stopped when they reached Xander and Carmen.

Xander had to swallow down the obstruction in his throat at the sight of Bambi. He'd thought she couldn't be any more beautiful than she had been that night at the bar, but he had been so completely wrong.

Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes wide and shining as they gazed up into his. Still smiling she reached out and took both his hands in hers, realizing she'd have to do the movement for him. He was just staring at her, and she couldn't help her blush. That intense stare could always make her feel flushed, and she swallowed down the feelings clamouring to the top with a smile. Finally he smiled back and she reached up to just slip a hand over his cheek before they both turned to the Preacher.

After the vows were spoken and the rings exchanged Bambi glanced down at her hand still wrapped in his and reality doused her with the shivers.

She was Mrs. Bambi Gane. She was married. She really did belong to Xander now; it was overwhelming and when he tipped her chin up to capture her lips for their first married kiss, she really couldn't help her tears. "My pretty girl." He breathed against her mouth, and she pressed her lips to his again.

Xander had closed down The Burned Man for the night and the entire club was turned into a reception, a proper reception with tables and flowers, and even a dancing area.

"I'm just a burned man. Marked by fate and accident, but happy coincidence brought this lovely girl into this very club on the exact night that Gary the barman got sick. Fortune smiled on me; and I knew I had to hold onto her. Luckily she decided to hold onto me too. I love you my girl." Bambi blushed as the cheer rose and stood slowly, her legs feeling like rubber. It was her turn.

"You reeled me in with pie and beer, and how could a girl say no? Thanks for a home, for your love, making us part of your family, and for making me seem more real to myself. Besides how could I not fall in love with all that you are. Even if we never got around to a picnic on the beach." In two steps he was by her side and lifting her against his chest as his hug tightened. Then he kissed her soundly, and with her still in one arm he lifted a hand in the air and grinned at his teary eyed cousin.

"The bar is open friends! Tonight is on me!" Xander bellowed and the cheer was as loud as he'd expected. There was nothing else this crowd liked more than free beer!

Daisy in a sweetheart neck silver grey dress sat watching her sister and Xander open the dance floor and a smile tilted her lips. She felt really grown up for the first time ever. The dress ended just above the knee and the black velvet ribbon around her waist made her look like she had a body and hips for once. She felt less like a stick, and more like a woman.

"I haven't seen you around the garage much? Were you hiding?" Donny sat down beside her, and minus his tie and jacket from church, he looked very handsome. His hair was clean and just grazed his shoulders and his beard was short and trimmed for once. He was still big though, still a biker beneath the fake cultivated veneer. Oh how she wanted him to envelop her in those long arms and just hold her tightly.

"Hi. I was busy with my sister and the wedding... and I started College so I have a lot of studying to do. Did you look for me?" Donny leaned forward and captured her bright blue eyes, his own blue eyes burning into hers.

"Of course I looked for you." She blushed, and her creamy white skin lit up with an inside glow that nearly took his breath away. He'd thought of nothing but her for a solid three months, and had spent nights just imagining her in his arms again. There just wasn't any way he could do it.

"With so many girls, or rather, women here to talk to tonight, and the bar being an open one, why is a handsome young guy like you talking to the baby? I doubt you are still into anyone as boring as me." There was a bit of the dark he'd seen in her eyes that first time, but man... she was stunning.

"I happen to like you... a bit too much actually." She leaned back in her chair, and smoothed a hand across her belly, noticing all too well as his eyes followed her movements.

"Well, that's good to know." His grin was knowing, and then he leaned into her, his breath a heartbeat from her cheek. "Would you like a drink?" Daisy turned only a little and brushed her lips across his cheek in a touch so light he wasn't sure if he'd felt that or not.

He stood fluidly, and his hand reached down to slip around hers. The smallness of her bore home again. She really was a delicate little thing. Delicate and soft... her arms wrapped around his neck as her mouth panted against his.

"Three shots of bourbon please; one for me and one for me, and one for Daisy." The barman grinned, and Daisy turned to face Donny as he sat down beside her on the bar stool.

"Are you allowed a shot?" Donny asked, his large frame leaning against the bar, eyes blue and intense. "I'm allowed whatever I allow myself to have. Tonight I might just allow myself anything I want." His eyes slanted, and she let her tongue just trail down her lower lip. What she wanted to do was climb into his lap and kiss him with all the pent up longing she'd felt the last couple of months, but she couldn't do that here... so she just smiled instead.

"And what do you want?" Biting down on her bright red lower lip she smiled coyly and then shrugged an elegant shoulder. The gesture wasn't lost on him.

"I want to get drunk... and then I want you to take me for a ride on your bike, and then I want to see the sunrise over the desert." His smile was sweet and she grinned with him, lifting her shot in a salute. "That sounds like a plan."

They were still talking when Xander appeared by her side, his tie wrenched loose and minus his jacket. "Since Carmen is already dancing on the tables, and Big Max is still in Mexico, I'm giving into your care our baby here, Little Max. Get her home? I trust you Donald. Don't fuck this up?" Daisy looked up at him guiltily and accepted his hug with a grin. That had been easy.

"I got the wife and me a suite at the Hilton for the evening; glad Carmen is dancing with Michael like that, because he is going to have to get really creative with the finances to pay for all of this. A little incentive is always a good thing." Donny let his eyes wander to where Carmen was dancing with the accountant, and he swallowed down a lump in his throat. She was a thing of beauty that was true.

"How does any woman compete with her?" Daisy sighed and Xander looked down at her curiously. "They don't. God and life made her a hard, cold girl and not many men can stand up to her. I'll see you tomorrow, and you better not be too hung over." He kissed the top of her head and gravitated like a magnet to where Bambi was talking to some of the club women.

"So that means you get to cart me around...?" Donny grinned and handed her another shot. "That was easy." Chuckling softly she downed the shot and noticed her sister watching her, but the contact was broken when Xander pulled the red head against his chest and spun her into the crowd of dancers.

"You are such a lady." Daisy bit her lip again and shrugged. "Is that a compliment or an insult? I can't decide." Donny leaned in closer and pinned her with an intent blue stare. "Her and Xander I get, 'cause he's a class act. She's prim and proper, but she's a hippy and hippies love bikers; but you... little princess talking about getting drunk and waking up in the desert with the likes of me? I'm just little Max." Daisy shrugged delicately and leaned toward him, her eyes wide and innocent.

"Don't call me princess? It makes no difference to me what you think or don't think Donny, but as you are the only one who seems to take me seriously I can tell you this. Everyone else has me in a glass box labelled "the baby". I'm not a baby, and I haven't been for a very long time." No, she wasn't.

"Is that why you didn't come to see me? Cause I'm the baby?" He shrugged and downed another shot. "I saw an angel in a school girl uniform on a bike with Big Max. A man, I might add, that had once been convicted of beating a man nearly to death with a wrench. Xander trusts Max, but I didn't think he trusted him that much." Daisy frowned deeply and he reached out to tip her chin up with his thumb.

"So you saw a child?" He shook his head. "I'm not finished. I saw great blue eyes staring up at me; no, I didn't see a child. It was no child who wrapped herself around me and let me love her hard and fast." Her breath hitched in her chest and she downed his shot with a grimace, then met his dark blue gaze.

"No it wasn't... so tell me, Donny, why the hell are you a mechanic?" His bark of laughter made her grin, and he touched a hand to his dark hair. "You're a conundrum sweetheart, but okay. Fixing things always came naturally. It seemed the only thing to do. What are you going to do?" Shrugging she smoothed the soft material of her dress across her legs languidly, her hands resting for a moment longer on her knees.

"Xander said college, and what Xander says Bambi says. So college it is. Exactly what I'll be learning there is an ongoing debate. Right now I'm finishing up the high school degree thing first." His frown made her grin again and he looked down at her slim hands then took one slowly.

"You're smart. You'll figure it out. Xander will never steer you wrong. What kind of music do you like?" Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward, lifting the shot glass to her lips before she spoke.

"Acid/Speed/Screaming metal in overdrive! Not much of a lady there... sorry. Sometimes I'll listen to real 80's hair band oldies too, but I like noise it drowns out life." Music was an obsession; Donny realized with a genuine grin and handed her another shot.

"Metal I like. Anything dark and heavy... Viking Metal is good." Bambi nodded quickly, liking the way his eyes stayed glued to hers as he spoke. Those eyes looked right into her soul and he rather liked the feeling. Usually she guarded her feelings and her thoughts jealously, but letting him get a glimpse of her felt as natural as kissing him had felt.

"Why haven't I seen you around the bar more?" Donny shrugged, and then threw back another shot. "I tend to keep off my old man's radar when I can help it, and I stay out of Xander's way as a rule; but when I saw you sitting here all alone I couldn't help myself. I had to just talk to you. They can hardly get mad at me for talking to you at a wedding, right?"

Daisy nodded with a soft giggle and swiped a stray tendril of silver behind her ear. "Now let's find out how much we have to talk about so we can get drunk and do the desert thing?"

"Have I told you how pretty you look yet?" Bambi blinked lethargically up at Xander and smiled coyly. They were heading to the Hilton in the back of the limo Carmen had insisted on.

"You have believe it or not." He grinned, and she grinned back just because she loved him so much. "Have I told you how pretty you look yet?" This time his bark of laughter drew forth her giggle, and he pulled her against his side tightly.

"Knew all of this would go down pretty good." Still laughing she traced a languid hand down his chest, her eyes following the glinting movement of her ring. She belonged to him, with him; she'd never thought she would have this much to call her very own.

"So what are you wearing beneath that perfect dress?" Her eyes lifted to his, and she blinked tiredly. "You'll see." She sighed and felt his arms tighten. "Will I like it?" Her shrug was noncommittal.

"You'll just have to wait and see." His head bent as he cupped her cheek to bring her lips to his. "I'm so glad I married you." He whispered and she touched his lips with hers. "I'm so glad you married me too."

"You said no pink at the wedding, right?" Bambi called from the adjoining room and Xander's laugh was her answer. "Because I thought that after the wedding wasn't the same as at the wedding, and..." Xander sat down on the edge of the bed and shrugged out of his shirt. "You better get out here real soon, girl! Or I'm coming in there!"

Her giggle was his answer and she opened the door quickly. Everything she was wearing was pink velvet, but that wasn't saying a lot because she wasn't wearing much, except for a corset, suspenders, and a lace g-string.

The stockings were white and topped with velvet ribbons, and still in her white kid boots she looked like a teaser from a men's magazine.

"I thought you might like this?" She swayed her hips a bit and then twirled slowly to give him a good look. He hadn't spoken yet, but she could tell that he liked what he saw."If there's music we can dance a bit?" She teased and did a slow sensual twirl.

"I think we danced enough, girl." He bit out and the thickness of his voice told her exactly how much he liked what she was wearing. The effect she was having on him was palpable in the electricity of the air around him.

"Are you sure? I love to dance with you..." Her arms slipped around his neck, and she swayed her hips slowly, this only brought forth the growl she knew had been building in his chest, and her throaty laughter filled his eyes with lust. Large strong hands caught her hips and he held her steady against him, his lips burning hot and wet against hers.

"Do you have a jacket?" Daisy shrugged, and pulled the pins from her hair with both hands. She felt deliciously warm and floaty and her steps were a bit askew.

It was the bourbon, she knew it was, but just maybe it was the sense of freedom she felt too. He was carrying her shoes beneath one arm, and she knew for a fact that he'd consumed as much as she had, but he didn't seem drunk at all.

"I was supposed to go home with Carmen in the SUV remember?" Donny laughed softly, and handed her his jacket and a spare helmet. Her shoes went into the saddlebag and a moment later he lifted her onto the back of the large red bike with a grin. He didn't really trust her to get up by herself.

Minutes later they were roaring from the city. Daisy had slipped her arms around his waist, rested her head between his shoulder blades and closed her eyes.

She just wanted to feel the motion of the bike, but very soon what she was feeling had little to do with the bike, and much more to do with the body she was pressed against. Oh what a body he had.

Warmth vibrated to her core and suffused her cheeks. She could feel the strength of his arms as he moved and his belly contract where her hands were resting. Pretty soon her hands were freezing though, so she simply slipped them in beneath his shirt and let her fingers rest against the hardness of his belly. The sharp intake and wince as her cold fingers made contact with his skin made her smile. This was so much better and she closed her eyes again.

"You still wanna wake up in the desert?" He'd stopped at the dark bar, and she lifted her cheek and nodded. "Yes..." His chuckle said it all and he kicked the bike into life again.

"I'll make a fire, and there's a blanket in the back." With her toes dug into the cold sand she smiled and fetched the blanket. "You do this a lot?" He shrugged as he gathered up some logs and started building the fire.

"Used to; when mom died and Big Max left I sort of drifted around for a while. Xander found me and brought me into the club, but I still like just roughing it." Still in his jacket Daisy found a spot and spread the blanket, then just pulled up her legs and hid herself in his large jacket.

"I take it you don't like to be held down?" His head shook again as he tossed a match into the kindling and watched it catch flame. "No. I get itchy for the road." Tossing wood on the slow burning flames he watched the firelight turn her hair into pure gold.

"Like a Bat out of Hell?" Yeah, he thought. "Like that... what the hell are you doing out here with me, baby?" Her eyes met his innocently and he moved to her side lithely, considering his size.

"Enjoying freedom with someone who knows what it feels like." Her large eyes peered up at him, and he couldn't help but feel something kindred with her. "This is only freedom if your belly is full, your bike has juice and there's a full bottle of tequila in the carry. Otherwise this is drifting." Daisy agreed with a nod of her head and straightened her legs out to the fire, the flames warming her cold feet.

"That makes sense. Still protection makes you feel as if you are in a cage." Donny let his eyes travel down her slim legs and they lingered on her tiny white feet, her toes were painted soft pink.

"Which is why every now and then I just break out of it and run like a bat out of hell... are you cold?" He could tell by the way she shivered just slightly.

"I'm wearing satin and silk in the desert at night. Yes. I'm cold." Her laughter made him smile too and he pulled her easily between his legs, his arms closing around her, her feet tucked beneath her. He'd been waiting to do this all night.

"You are always such a lady." His breath against her ear made her shiver again, but not from cold this time. "I try to be... aren't you cold? You can have the jacket?" She moved quickly, and he watched as she shrugged from it. "How will you stay warm then?" Daisy bit her lower lip and moved back into his arms, her back against his chest. "Like this."

Donny couldn't help but tighten his grip on her, his fingers closing around the very soft white skin of her arms. For a long moment they simply stared into the flames not talking. When her head rested against his shoulder, exposing her slim white neck Donny couldn't help either but press his lips to the pulse point just beneath her ear. A gasp escaped her throat.

"You ever done this?" Her head shook. "What? Freezing in the desert? Kiss me, Donny..." She breathed as she turned her head a bit and his arms tightened. "I think you should be kissed by someone better at it than me." Small hands slipped across his and he felt her shift slightly in his arms, her head positioned so she could see him better.

"You're a very good kisser." He lowered his lips and pressed them to hers, not really amazed at the softness. Everything about her was soft. It was only when he felt her relax that he deepened the kiss a bit and pulled her tighter against him.

When he lifted his mouth, one slim hand slipped across his bearded cheek and rested there for a moment. "That was a pretty good kiss. I bet if you tried again it could be even better." Laughter filled the quiet air and his quick kiss was just that, quick.

"I think you've been kissed enough for one night." Daisy settled herself against his chest again then grinned as she stared into the flames. "I don't think you could ever kiss me enough."

Honestly he had to admit that he could go on kissing her forever, and never get tired of her mouth or body.

"I'd like to take you to a real bonfire one night. Where there's music and dancing. Think you'd love that. It's on the beach." Her head nodded once and then she reached her arms around his neck, lifted herself and slanted her mouth across his. She was tired of asking for kisses and simply took what she'd needed from him. She'd needed this for three solid months.

Donny had been kissed plenty by women before, but this was an experience he remembered fondly. Something gripped his heart tight and squeezed his chest. "I want you to really, really kiss me... fill me to the brim. I've wanted you so much..." She breathed as her mouth lifted. His hands tightened around her waist as she moved to her knees between his bent legs, and then slid up her back to cup her softly rounded shoulders.

One large hand cupped the back of her neck as the other gripped her waist again and brought her in closer. Then he was kissing her. Deeply and slowly until he felt her knees go weak beneath her and she sagged forward and allowed him to cradle her against his chest once more. He never stopped kissing her though, and it wasn't long before her hands had found their way into his hair and his own breath hitched.

"There is a point of no return, honey... and we just reached it." He murmured against her throat and Daisy opened her eyes to meet his intent gaze. "Just love me under the moon for a bit Donny?" She whispered and he kissed her again until her head was spinning.

"Does anyone ever say no to you sweetheart?" Her answer was a soft kiss as he pushed her back onto the blanket and covered her partially with his large body... the sunrise was particularly amazing.

"I told you to take her home, little Max, not to take her into the desert like some biker chick. She's better than that!" Xander hadn't meant to cry out, but he couldn't seem to help himself.

Donny looked up at the big man from his hunch by the bike he was working on. "She wanted to see a sunrise in the desert. Then I took her home. You told me to take care of her, and I did. What is the problem? She was completely safe and I didn't even drive that far from your place Xander." Xander looked back at the garage where Daisy was waiting for him to take her home and he growled.

"This is not happening, little Max. She is too smart and too well brought up for the likes of us. She's going to College and she has a future in the world." Donny stood slowly and realized he was just as tall as Xander. The Burned Man had always seemed larger than life.

"I get it. I know I'm not good enough for a girl like her Xander. Let me drive her around until Big Max comes back so I can prove it to you? Max trusted me to do this and I don't want to disappoint him there's been too much of that between us." Xander nodded. "She's really too good for the likes of us Donny... her and her sister both. Still wonder why my girl wanted me. Anyway, don't fuck up Donny. She's frail." Donny nodded quickly and Xander took a deep breath.

"I'm taking my wife on our honeymoon. So I do need you to drive her around. I'll pay you extra. I don't think your dad'll be home any time soon. Your sister's pretty sick and he needs to stick around. Job starts now. I have a shit load to do before we leave tomorrow." Donny nodded with half a grin and wiped his hands on a rag.

Daisy was this perfect picture of clean serenity when Donny met her an hour later in the garage. She was at Xander's old table reading from a thick book, her hair soft and white blonde in a messy bun. In a blue jumper, brown knee socks and Mary -Jane's she was the poster child for learning.

"I get to cart you around and get paid for it." Daisy looked up at him and grinned sweetly, her blue eyes large and innocent. "Xander said no kissing though." Her face fell and she pouted a bit, but he could see the humour behind her eyes all too clearly. "And I really liked the kissing."

Donny grinned down at her and took her bag as she stood to follow him to his bike. "We can get lunch then? I'm starved." Daisy grinned as he lifted her onto the bike and his nod was quick. "Anything you want sweetheart." He handed her a spare helmet and she shrugged into his leather jacket with a sigh. It was a five minute drive to the diner and he lifted her down with a smile. She had a tendency to burn her ankles on the pipes. This he knew from just watching her...

"Hey little Max! Who's the kid? You pick them up kinda young!" Daisy had just shrugged out of her jacket when a few other bikes also stopped close to them.

Donny turned at the sound of his name and lifted a large hand in greeting. "Donny? We can go somewhere else?" She breathed at his shoulder and he looked down at her quickly, a strange smile on his lips before he pulled her to his side but she stepped away to pull at her dress and socks with a frown.

"I like my girls young and fresh!" His hand had slipped around hers by then, and she swallowed down her indignation quietly. Hopefully this was just a ruse. Ribald laughter followed them in and she allowed him to lead her to a vacant table biting down on her lower lip. He was still holding her hand though.

"They're idiots. I rode with them a while back, and they were idiots back then too. Agreeing with them is easier than disagreeing with them, getting into a fight... and never seeing you again." Daisy was wearing the pinched look she always had when she felt threatened. He'd been watching her for a while, and he knew that when she got that look something was up.

"You didn't have to make me sound like meat." His frown was genuine. "Meat?" Her nod was very curt. "You're a girl on the back of a bike with a guy like me. How else did you want me to make that sound? They know you ain't my sister." This was a different side of it. She'd not thought of it like that.

"I mean, honey, have you seen the type of girls who hang out with guys like us? No wonder Xander told me off, and he was right. I don't deserve you. You are the complete opposite of any girl I had ever liked." That was also very honest.

"Xander told you off?" He shrugged and wove the waitress over. "You are a very smart lady and I'm just little Max." Her wide blue eyes narrowed at his answer and she leaned forward very deliberately.

"Donny? I'm not that special. I know Xander and my sister just want to protect me... but I'm not a kid anymore. I used to have some real problems, and there were times when I just didn't want to live anymore. I think my sister still thinks I'm out to hurt myself; but I'm not. Since I've been with her and Xander, here, my life is so much better. I haven't cut myself for the longest time."

He was biting down on his lower lip by the time she'd finished, his soft blue eyes shifting down to the scars on one wrist. On impulse he reached out and let his fingers slip around the scarred wrist, his thumb stroking across the fine silver lines.

"You need to tell me about this?" Her head shook slowly. "No. I don't really. I don't need pity. I just want you to know that I'm human." His grin was genuine and he swallowed hard when he caught the sad gleam in her baby blue eyes. "Friday night you can show me how human you are?"

They ordered food and she sipped her drink slowly while watching him eat. He had impeccable manners; and he really was well spoken sometimes too. "Did you finish school?" The question popped out and Donny lifted his eyes to hers. "Yeah... I lived with my grandma Ruby and she made me go. Grades were nothing like yours is supposed to be, but I made it. Went to school, worked on bikes... and that was my life."

Her mouth was set in a small o and she returned to her drink. "What do you know about my grades, hmmm?" One broad shoulder shrugged. "Xander hinted at it." She set the cup down and bit down on one lip as she formulated the question she needed to ask him.

"Please don't feel that you're not good enough please? I really like you; and just I'm... we get along so well and it's not just the sex, talking on the phone like we did, we have so much in common. A grin lifted the side of his mouth and he nodded quickly.

"I learned a long time ago that we are what we are, and there's no sense in telling yourself you're better than you are. I like you too Daisy... maybe a bit too much." She blushed at that and reached across to trail her fingers across his cheek. "Well then Donald... at least we have that."

"Carmen?" Daisy asked softly. Carmen was at the kitchen table working on orders and looked up quickly to meet Daisy's wide blue eyes. "Yes honey?" They were home alone. It was a week since Xander took Bambi on their honeymoon and the two women had settled into a nice routine of take out and evenings at the bar.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Carmen nodded quickly and folded her hands on the papers."What's up?" Daisy got them each a light beer and joined her at the table.

"I've been... wait, promise that you won't flip out and phone Xander and the cops and the national guard first? I'm not pregnant and I'm doing fine in school." Carmen leaned closer, her bright blue eyes narrowed. "That's a pretty hard promise to make." Daisy nodded and shrugged. "I need advice and... it needs to be private please?" Carmen rubbed across her unbound hair and sat back with a decisive nod.

"I've been in a relationship with Little Max for about three months. I kept it to myself, and he's so in awe of Xander that he'd rather get run over by a semi than talk about it. Xander told him off they day they left, and... I think I'm in love with him." Carmen took a deep steadying breath and licked her full lips.

"With Donny?" Daisy nodded and folded her arms across her chest. "He's nothing like the hard ass he pretends to be." Carmen nodded and took a deep swig of the beer. "Pretty true that Xander won't like it. I think he's a good kid that got settled with his dad's bad rep; and he had no choice but to be who they thought he was. What advice to you need? You're mind seems made up?" Daisy lifted her beer to her lips and then set it down again.

"I want to tell Bambi and Xander. Even if there isn't much of a future for me and Donny, like Xander predicted, I want to be able to have what they do. Not that I'm jealous of them, or that I'm falling for the first guy who pays attention to me; Donny isn't like Xander. I wanna go on a date and have him for dinner and do... normal stuff. I wanna find out what type of future there can be." Carmen's eyes widened, but she kept quiet and just let Daisy say what she needed to.

"Am I being silly for wanting him?" Carmen shook her head and rubbed at her mouth again. "Not at all. He's good looking and a bit more educated than most. That and he's... tall." Daisy giggled at that and drank down a swallow of beer. "He's funny and sweet too; and he fills out his jeans pretty well." Carmen laughed at Daisy's blush and pinned her with a sincere gaze.

"Talk to Bambi when they get back, get her in your court and then you both tackle Xander. I'll be behind you." Daisy grinned broadly and finished her beer.

"That brings me to my next request." Carmen's eyes narrowed. "I want to go with him on Friday night. There's a beach bonfire thing and I know in my soul Xander would never let me go, but I'm safe with Donny. Will you cover for me?" Carmen nodded and remembered bonfire nights. She'd been to a few herself.

"Okay, just because I trust him too. No funny business?" Daisy nodded solemnly wondering what Carmen would put in a funny business category; nothing she and Donny did was funny...

"I'll wait while you get dressed quickly. It's a bit of a drive yet." Daisy nodded as she traipsed up the steps, slinging her book bag across one shoulder. She had been living and breathing for tonight!

In cut off shorts and a psychedelic tie dye t-shirt she felt really comfortable, but also pretty and that was important. Next came the heavy black leather pants and jacket and boots and by the time she was finished she felt like she was carrying a cow!

Donny called her name up the stairs and she jumped to get her back pack. Inside was an extra set of clothes, a cardigan and her sneakers, and soap. Why soap she wasn't sure, but she took it anyway.

"I'm coming!" She called and pulled her hair into a knot behind her head. "I went from EMO to biker chick in six months, but I have to tell you my Mary-Jane's and black hoodie are way more comfortable than these boots." Grinning Donny took her helmet and watched as she locked the door behind her and slip the key under the mat. Carmen would probably be home later.

"Well, it's either the leather or the skin. I'm also going to pretend I know what the hell Mary-Jane's are." Her laughter at this caught him off guard and he took a deep breath before handing her the helmet and helping her onto the large bike.

"Shoes. They're shoes. The ones I always wear." His eyes blinked slowly as he grinned and slipped his own helmet on; then he settled in front of her, and she let her legs glide snugly against his, her arms already about his waist, small black leather covered hands resting against the leather of his belly.

It was really hard not falling in love with this chick, Donny thought to himself and started up the bike with a heavy roar. It was really very fucking hard.

The music was heavy in the air and the lights of the bonfires dotted up and down the beach. It was alive and vibrant.

As Daisy stripped down she didn't notice Donny's eyes on her at all. He was watching the grace of a ballet dancer, he thought, and he'd picked her up from enough classes to know that she did ballet. Bending low she slipped into her sketchers and tied the light cardigan around her hips.

Donny grinned incredulously at the circumstances he was in. Girls like her didn't go out with guys like him; it was an unwritten rule in the universe somewhere. So what in the hell was she doing here with him? It was a constant question that he'd asked himself daily since that first night in the bar she'd winked at him.

Her eyes met his after he'd secured her stuff into the saddle bag of his bike, and he held out a large hand. Her small hand slipped into his and he pulled her against his side, both arms hugging her to him for a moment.

"This can't last." He breathed as she looked up at him and her arms reached up to slip halfway around his neck. "A heartbeat can't last either, but it does. Come on little Max. Buy a girl a beer?"

Donny made himself comfortable on the sand and pulled her into his lap, she was out of breath and he laughed at her rapid breathing. Tequila and dancing had taken over and in no time at all she was laughing with the other girls and they'd pulled her into a quickening dance around the fire. He'd only watched. She was breathtaking in her radiant innocence.

His lips rested for a breathless moment against her temple and she turned in his embrace slightly, dangling her legs across his upper thigh. "I knew I'd love this!" Daisy smiled and ran a hand across his bearded cheek.

"I knew you'd love it too." Her lips lifted to his and his arm slipped around her shoulders and hugged her closer, loving the feel of her smallness against him.

"I think you need to tell me about these now." He hadn't known how to breach the subject, but he wanted, no needed, to know about the scars. What made a girl as smart, and sweet and privileged like this cut into her own arms?

Daisy found herself cradled against a strong hard chest, held by strong steadfast arms and all she could think about was how much she really did want to share all her stuff with him... but would he understand?

"I tried to kill myself... but before that I just dug anything sharp I could find into my arms. I don't know why I did it, Donny, I guess I just needed to see the blood. I needed to feel the pain." He bit his lower lip, his arm still tight around her as the other smoothed up and down her bare thigh.

"Why did you want to be dead?" Her sigh was heartfelt and she hid her face for a long moment into his neck, inhaling the aroma of grease and fuel and strong soap that was so very him.

"Because I was already dead inside. I just didn't want to be awake and numb and alone anymore... my daddy used to come into my room at night, and... I thought it was supposed to be like that because mom never cared. She drank sleeping pills so even if I was in bed with her, he'd still come and... get me. " A knot formed in his throat, and he let his lips rest against her forehead before she looked up.

"Then he left, and I found out not all fathers did that, and no one knows this. Not even Bambi." She sighed slowly and hid her face in his chest for a long moment. "Bambi got us rescued... and with you... you filled me up Donny and I'm not scared of the dark anymore." Her head tilted back and the sorrow and compassion in his eyes made her chest hitch.

"Would you try again?" Her shoulders shrugged. "That's why I only think as far as the next step these days. Anything past that might drive me insane. Is your curiosity assuaged now?" His nod was curt. "If that means did you answer my questions, yes." Her laughter was like bells and they kissed again.

"Why did you want to know?" His eyes narrowed and he hugged her tight for a moment. "Because you can't be this perfect and not be a bit flawed too..." His voice came out hoarse, but the words carried on the breeze and Daisy moved her back against his chest, and drew his arms tightly around her.

"Donny I'm not perfect, but this is a perfect moment. I could stay like this forever." Donny agreed with her complacent words, and his heart seemed to swell with the realization.

"I'm afraid it'll end up hurting you." Her frail shoulders shrugged as she leaned her head against his broad shoulder. "Then we're afraid of the same thing. Hurt and pain is a part of life. I'm not afraid of it anymore. At least when there's pain you know you're still alive. I'd rather have a knife stabbed through my heart than feel that numbness again. Let this just be what it is for now?" His lips pressed against the side of her head and he nodded, arms hugging tightly. "You talked me into it, honey."

Some of his friends arrived on their great bikes with girls strapped on like so many gaudily dressed hood ornaments, and the drinking really started. The girls joined in on the arm wrestling and the whiskey shot competitions, and the loud in-your-fucking-face-ness took over; as it always did.

Donny only realized how rowdy they were becoming when he turned and found Daisy almost hiding behind him, her hands only then lifting to press against the belt around his hips. Her eyes were large and round as saucers and her mouth a little "o" of fear.

"I think we've had enough of this!" He said loudly and swung his arm around to slip around her waist beneath her arm, and lift her against his side like a child, her arms around his neck instantly. "I think so too!" She cried and the pitch in her voice had him a bit worried.

With her still dangling by his side he called out his retreat and it was met with loud calls of disappointment, but he simply turned, lugged her higher over his shoulder and with his hand on her ass walked away.

As they hid the dirt road he let her slide slowly to her feet and she looked up at him, her face pale in the streetlights. "Your friends are scary." She breathed and he picked her up against his chest again, her tiny hands behind his neck. She was laughing though, and that was good.

"I should scare you too, sweet thing." Her already wide eyes widened even more and without trying very hard she simply wrapped her legs around his waist and felt his arms shift to accommodate her.

"It just so happens that you do not scare me, sweet thing. You intrigue me, and excite me, but there is no fear." Excite was a good word for what he was starting to feel right at that moment.

If there had been a table around and no people, she'd be naked in a minute. "Exciting am I?" Her shy smile turned a bit coy as she wound her arms around his neck teasingly.

"Just a bit. So are we spending the night on the beach?" His head shook. "Hell no! They'd rob us blind." Her lips rested against his for a heart stopping moment. "I know a place a bit up the beach. I stay there sometimes." Donny set her on her feet again and grinned down at her.

Daisy followed him to the bike, slipped astride by herself and settled behind him, her arms tightly around his waist. This was such a good feeling; maybe this was how safe Bambi felt with Xander?

At a slow idle they cruised up the short dirt road, and she laughed at all the salutes and cat calls he received! It seemed everyone knew Little Max!

They greeted her with knowing lewd calls though, and by the third one she had turned her face into his back and ignored them. Her platinum blonde hair was left to trail down her shoulders and she did seem like a pale little ghost on the back of Little Max's big red bike.

What was a ballerina doing in the middle of a biker club beach party? Somehow Bambi would have fit in, but she didn't, and she knew it. She had felt alien among them, and the women had been so loud and obnoxious.

Carmen wasn't like that at all, and neither were any of the other girls she'd met at the Desert Bar. Donny had a whole different set of friends and that scared her a bit.

The house Donny drove them too was set well apart from the busy part of the beach, and the porch light cast a welcoming shadow on the small rocky garden behind the white picket fence. The door opened when he pulled up and she waited for him to dismount before she let him help her down.

"Donny!" The female voice cried and he took her hand firmly in his. "That's my grandma; Max's mom." Swallowing her obvious delight she followed him up the gravel path and smiled when the old lady, who had the girth of her son, grasped her grandson against her able chest. She was a large woman, not fat, just big and imposing. Again Daisy felt like a little girl. A pale little ghost.

"Daisy this is my grandma Ruby." She was folded into a warm hug but managed to smile up at the friendly lady. "Donald? Where did you find this child? Come in? Come in? I'll get us something to drink." They followed her in and he related the tale of who she was and why they were there. Upon hearing that she was Xander's sister-in-law the old blue eyes, Donny's eyes she noticed, lit up with condemnation.

"Your father will skin your hide and tan your insides for bringing her to this hell hole of a heathen broil! Have you no sense?" Donny just watched her with a knowing glance, but Daisy spoke up before she could go any further.

"Carmen said it was okay, that he'd look after me. She trusts him and so do I." Her eyes went to Donny's and he couldn't help but just grin sadly.

"We just need a place to crash, Grandma." Ruby lifted her hands to the roof and then prattled away while she headed for the kitchen. "Why is everyone so in awe of Xander?" That was a complicated question with a straightforward type of answer.

"He's the Burned Man. He's picked up more of this club's members from the gutter than I can count. Not only is he the president of the club, but he's also the champion of everyone in it. Best guy there is." Burned Man her lips mimicked.

"He walked through the fire and came out the other side a better man. Could have let it mime and cripple him, but he simply grew a beard and drove his bike harder. Then he built the Club and the garages and he gave them as needed it jobs and respect. Guys like my dad... heroin addict. Burned Man paid for rehab. If it wasn't for Xander I'd be in jail for doing some really stupid shit."

They'd walked back out onto the porch and she sat down with her mind whirling. "So what makes me so special then? Is it just because Bambi married him?" He shrugged, and then nodded.

"It would seem so. Big shadow to be in." Large blue eyes met his and he couldn't read the expression there at all. "I am not part of Xander's stuff just because Bambi is. I owe him so much, but he doesn't own me. I own me." His arm slung around her shoulders, and he felt her resist for only a fraction of a second.

"Being part of his stuff is actually pretty amazing considering how much worse life could be. He just loves you a lot and he's looking out for you, and I think you get the wrong idea of what it means." Her head snapped up at that and she tried to meet his gaze, but he looked away.

"What does it mean then? Enlighten me?" This was her I-am-upset-voice; and he'd heard it enough to know the sound. Clearing his throat he heard his grandmother approach from the kitchen and pulled his arm away from her shoulder to stand quickly.

"It means you're family." Really, she thought, and turned her face away from him, wondering what his intentions really were.

When they were alone he was almost like a boyfriend, but then, like now, he withdrew and it's all hands off and treating her like work. He treated her like work... and maybe that was all she was to him. Work. After sharing her deepest hurt with him she was still just work!

"Instead of treating me like Xander's stuff, Donny, you could try treating me like I was important all on my own. Like I'm a person." He reached out to touch her cheek, but his grandma appeared and he rushed to take the tray from her.

"I got the guest room ready for you dear, and Donny you can have your old room. Have some tea? I'll be sayin' goodnight then. Lock up, sweetie." She smiled and pecked a kiss on his cheek, her old hand simply slipped across Daisy's soft white blonde hair.

"Good to have you here Daisy." They bid her good night and then Daisy stood quietly to pour herself some tea, an ache around her heart she'd not thought to ever feel.

"How don't I treat you like a person? Xander trusted me to take care of you, and I'm doing my best to do it right." Her eyes lifted to his slightly, the wetness there evident.

"I'm not an it or a job." She spat and set the cup down since her hands were shaking so much the hot liquid spilled onto her naked leg. He sat down and then stood again, both hands hooked into his belt. "You're not listening. That's not what I meant." Sitting down primly, her hair shining like a halo in the porch lamp, she deigned to answer him and folded her hands in her lap, eyes large and accusing.

"How the fuck can you be so complicated?" He breathed and she shrugged but didn't answer. She just sat there motionless for a long moment, until she could feel the electricity crackle in the air around him. Sooner or later he'd say something.

In one stride he was standing before her and then he simply reached down, slipped his hands beneath her arms and lifted her against his chest, and let his arms snake around her to smother her against him.

"You are important to me. Do you think I'd risk everything to hold you like this, or see you and... be with you if you weren't important. I can't stay away from you baby." He breathed hoarsely and she simply held him closer; her hands tangling into his hair as her legs twisted themselves around his waist. "I just want you to want me for me. I just wanna be important cause I'm me."

That did it, he thought, and wondered if he could crush her ribs if he held her any tighter. The force of it enveloped him in a stranglehold and he tried to pull free from her, but she wouldn't let him.

"Please just hold me like this?" She groaned against his cheek, his legs moved by themselves to find a place, any place to sit down. She'd taken the strength from him completely.

"I'll hold you 'cause I need it too. I need you so much sweetheart that I can't breathe sometimes." His words were harsh by her ear and they sat like that for a long time. Daisy clasped to his chest in his lap, her cheek resting against his shoulder, fingers twined into his hair.

"Please love me?" A groan escaped his lips and she felt the hardness of him clearly. "Take me down to the beach and love me Donny?" He groaned again and then stood quickly with her still in his arms. This was a bad idea again, but he was doing it anyway.

"I'll lock up, and you get the blanket. I know a place..." Daisy slipped on her cardigan as she walked around the side of the house to where the bike was parked, and easily liberated the blanket from the side carry.

Excitement clenched her belly as she turned back and found him coming, and the butterflies expanded even more when he took her hand with a slow grin and pulled her after him.

The place he'd mentioned was a short way down the beach and then up between some rocks. A tumble of large boulders had created an artificial sort of gazebo and she watched as he spread the blanket and then took off his shirt.

"Baby..." She sighed and pulled the cardigan across her head, followed by the t-shirt she'd felt so pretty in. His face turned serious as he pulled her into his arms and let his hands roam up her back languidly, drawing her closer and deeper into him.

Their lips met deeply and he groaned as her hands slipped up his arms and around his neck. Would he ever get tired of her touch? Lifting her feet from the ground he brought them down to the blanket and for a long moment he just gazed at her lying there with her white gold hair spread on the old red tartan, her eyes sleepy slits of passion and her skin as warm and soft as velvet.

With a grin he realized she was looking at him the same way and felt the world spin around them. "You shouldn't like me so much." He whispered and her lips grinned as her eyes sought his lovingly. "You should stop telling me what to do and kiss me." The kiss was deep and languid and he loved her well with his hands and mouth until he was sure she was as ready as he was.

He nudged her knees apart and thrust inside slowly, drawing out the feeling of her warmth closing around him and drawing him in deeper. A sigh fell across her lips and her small hands slipped across his breasts, then down his sides to hold on.

"Now it gets good. You ready for the ride honey?" His mouth lowered to hers and she accepted him into herself with a sigh. Such a good ride, she thought as her breath turned to a gasp and her body arched against him to draw him in deeper. Her fingers dug into his skin and she could feel the muscles moving beneath his taut skin, driving him on.

Donny let one hand slip beneath her waist and tilted her pelvis up; her cry of pleasure hitched his chest and he lowered his mouth to claim her parted lips. She hadn't meant to cry out against his mouth, but she felt her climax gather deep down in her belly and then he pushed her over and quickened his movements until he sagged spent on top of her, grunting as one arm tried to hold himself up.

Her soft lips pressed to his throat and he growled at the touch. Fuck, this girl was everything he'd never known he needed, and holding her like this at this moment was worth death and all it held. Sagging to the side he let out a slow breath and stretched his arms above his head in an effort to bring his heartbeat under control.

Daisy rolled to his side and slipped astride his hips, her small hands perched on his belly. Perfection, Donny thought, utter fucking perfection. With the moon turning her hair into a shimmering halo, the paleness of her skin and the proud upthrust of her breasts. He loved everything about her... the realization hit him like a brick. He loved her... but how could they have future? She was... she deserved better than him.

Daisy shook her hair out and chuckled as she felt him go hard beneath her again. Still grinning she lowered herself onto him and bit down on her lower hip in pleasure. Her climax made her sensitive and him nestled there again was a titillating feeling.

His large hands slipped up across her belly and around her breasts to just squeeze gently, kneading as she started moving her hips, small hands slipped around his and she groaned.

His hands increased pressure on her breasts and that quickened her hips. He joined in with her rhythm and bucked his hips to drive himself even deeper.

The climax tore through them both and she sagged forward onto his ample chest and closed her eyes as the pleasure rippled through them both.

"I love you..." She whispered against his skin and Donny just held her tightly. "I love you too." He sighed and wrapped his arms around her and just held on.

Daisy woke up to the sound of the ocean and a soft humming coming from somewhere in the house. Opening her eyes groggily they rested on Grandma Ruby where she sat in a chair in the front room, idly knitting some kind of bright scarf. She had a clear line of view through the door.

"Morning?" Daisy croaked, cleared her throat and then sat up quickly, her legs swinging to the floor. "Morning dear. I sent Donny out for some orange juice." The old lady's voice had an edge to it this morning that frightened Daisy, but she simply cleared her throat and rummaged in her back pack for the clean clothes she'd brought along.

"Come sit here for a moment?" Daisy moved to the couch and sat down to run both hands through her hair and tie up the tousled mess. "I love that boy with all my heart, but what are you doing with him? He has a streak of trouble a mile wide. Just like his daddy and his daddy's daddy."

"He makes me feel safe, and I trust him." Ruby's eyes lifted and rested on the petite little blonde. "These men do make you feel that way, I know. I loved his grand daddy more than I should have, rest his soul. Just do some growing up first? He can wait; love can wait honey or else you'll end up in a broken down old house alone like me with nothing to your name but the memories." Daisy nodded and clutched the white blouse and jeans to her chest, one hand rubbing across her tired eyes.

"I'm scared he won't wait. I don't want to lose him. I just love him, and..." Ruby cleared her throat and stood laboriously, the knitting in a basket by her slippered feet.

"I saw his eyes honey, he'll wait; but he's a wild one. Needs the wind in his hair and the desert sun on his back. He was little more than twelve when his mamma died and I tried to raise him up well, but he needed a daddy with a steady hand, and Max couldn't handle the job. Donny grew up wild."

Daisy nodded slowly and then a sad smile lifted the side of her mouth as she stood to stare out at the blue ocean. "I think I grew up too privileged and spoiled, and when my father left I couldn't believe it. I tried to kill myself, and then Bambi left and my mom followed her to L. A to bring her back... and the next thing I knew there was Big Max rescuing us from my Aunt's house. I love Max. I want to make life better for Bambi, my sister, because she'd suffered a lot because of me... but there was still that numbness in my heart; and then I met Donny. I've never wanted to be alive as much as I do now." Ruby stood and reached out to pull Daisy against her chest, and just held her tightly. It had all come out so quickly and not much made sense, but Ruby could clearly see the heartfelt words were sincere.

"I am so sorry poor lamb. You've been through so much I can hear it in your voice. Maybe love can tame that wild streak Donny has." Bambi just let herself be hugged and wished she'd had a grandmother like this.

"We've spoken our parts, so let me fix you some breakfast? I hear my boy pulling up." Ruby led her to the bathroom and Daisy made short work of the warm shower and pulled her damp hair into a knot behind her head after she'd dressed.

Still barefoot she found Donny in the kitchen slicing tomatoes and smiled at the way he was nodding as his grandmother lectured him on some or other matter. The nod was generic though, and she had a feeling he wasn't hearing a word spoken to him.

"Morning sleepyhead." The grin he had for her was sweet though and she joined him quietly. "I never sleep this late." She said by way of apology, but it was lost on him.

"I do, but this old nag had me up at dawn to go and buy a whole month's worth of groceries. That and I had to fix some other stuff too." Daisy laughed and took over the chore of slicing the tomatoes with a grin. He got up to pour her some coffee.

Ruby was frying the bacon and Daisy felt her belly rumble. "Your grandma is not an old nag!" Daisy laughed, and Ruby turned with a nod. "Yes I am honey. I have to make good use of a pair of skilled hands around the place when I get them here, and if I don't nag at him it doesn't get done." Donny laughed at this as well and set the mugs down on the table.

"From the stove to the truck everything needed something fixed. Now you see why I don't visit grandma?" Ruby clucked and turned back to the bacon, starting to hum again.

"I called Carmen and told her we'd be back later. She's hosting a gig at the Club so I'll take you straight home." Back to the real world, she thought sadly, and sipped her coffee as he handed the tomatoes to his grandmother, one burly arm slipping around his grandmother's drooping shoulders for a hug. Yep... the real fucking world.

"School's a bitch! I studied my ass off and she gave me an A! It was worth a solid A+!" Daisy's eyes were flashing midnight blue and Donny took her bag from her with a frown, thinking he'd never gotten an A for anything!

"I went to see her and you know what she said?" His head shook quickly and he looked around as the other kids were ushered to expensive SUV's by soccer moms in bad jeans. He stood out as always like a bad penny.

"My points were valid but not feasible. Stupid idiotic hag!" Taking a deep breath he tried to look understanding, but it was hard as hell. Who used the word hag? Daisy did.

"What was it about?" It was the only thing he cold think to ask. "Bio chemistry. The influence of cocaine, heroin and other hallucinogens on the brain chemistry of a child under the age of seven." His jaw sagged a bit.

"An A isn't so bad honey." Her eyes flared here and she stomped her foot angrily. Little thing had a lot of fire in her!

"I deserved the A+! She's just an entitled, stuck-up white collar spoiled brat that doesn't like me." On impulse he reached for her and pulled her against his chest, lips resting against the top of her trembling head. What kind of idiot didn't like Daisy?

"I'll come back later and cut up her tires." He breathed and she looked up with an exasperated grin. "Really? You think that'll help my situation any?" She was being sarcastic, but he just shrugged and bent to press his lips to hers. "No. She'll still be a bitch, but she'll be a walking bitch, and it'll be fun. Nobody messes with my girl."

My girl, she thought and pressed her nose into his chest, the words filling her with such a degree of pure joy that her heart couldn't contain it. "I think the other entitled parts of your school are giving us the eye. So we should go." Nodding she pushed away from him and took the helmet he held out.

"Am I your girl now?" His grin was slight, but the nod was definite. "You've been that for a while now sweetheart." Her nod was definite as a grin lifted her pretty mouth. "In that case I don't give a rat's ass what the entitled one's think." He chuckled as she lifted herself onto her toes to place a warm kiss on his parted lips. "Neither do I."

With the helmet secured he boosted her onto the back of the classic Harley Davidson road bike and roared the engine to life. The entire long drive home he couldn't help but wonder how long this was going to last or if he could ever really have her.

Carmen's bike was parked next to Xander's truck when they drove up around the house and Daisy let out a shriek of happiness when Bambi appeared on the porch! The two weeks without her around had seemed endless!

Small hands pressed on Donny's shoulders and he got off before helping her down. Undoing the helmet she ran to meet her sister and they hugged happily.

Donny just watched and a sigh clenched his chest. With Xander and Bambi back it was going to be hard to be around Daisy as much as he wanted to be.

Xander met them there as well and he just nodded over at Donny with a look that said he knew exactly what was going on, and that it wouldn't continue. Donny took that as his queue to leave and turned to watch as Daisy hugged her sister. So that was his answer then. He couldn't have her. Not even if he loved her more than anything there was now way he could have her.

"Have a nice day Xander." He sighed and with a long longing glance at Daisy he bit down on his lower lip and turned back to his bike. Moments later he was roaring away. "Donny!" She called after him, but of course he didn't hear.

"What happened?" Daisy asked as she turned back to Xander and he just narrowed his eyes at her. "I know him, you don't. There is no way I'm letting that boy mess up your life! He is trouble!" Daisy let out a string of curses and rounded on him again.

"You have no right to do this to me Xander! This is my body and my heart and who I let into it is my choice! Never yours! Never again anyone else's! If he hurts me or leaves me or stays with me at least that will be our decision! I can't believe you just did that!" With that she stormed into the house and left Bambi on the steps to look down at her husband with a sad sigh.

"She's not a baby Xander." His broad shoulders shrugged. "I'd rather not pick up the pieces when Little Max fucks her over girl." Bambi just shrugged and headed into the house after her sister. Xander headed to the Bar at a brisk walk wondering why women had to be so fucking complicated!

Donny drove to the garage picked up his gear and took up the road like a mad man. A fire was building in his chest and he needed to drive it away. Maybe he also needed to put a lot of space between him and her right now. It had been obvious that Xander didn't want him there, and he had promised the Burned Man that he wouldn't go after her, but the thing was, he hadn't.

It had just happened. It just fucking happened and he'd had no control over it at all! He wanted Daisy! Not having her was hurting like a bitch! He'd explain later, but right now he just needed to eat up the black top and burn.

"Carmen? Have you heard from Donny? I tried calling him, but he's not answering. I just need to talk to him." The pretty blonde was sitting on her bed reading a report when Daisy sidled in, and the look on the younger girl's face made her heart contract. She'd gotten the entire thing from Xander, and it didn't help that she didn't agree with him, he was hell bent on not understanding!

"No, I haven't sweetie. Why aren't you asleep yet? It's late?" Daisy nodded slowly and looked down at the phone in her hand. "I'm just worried about him. He just left without saying goodbye and he's not answering my texts either. Can you call him? Just ask him if he's okay... wherever he is?" Carmen nodded and reached for her phone.

Daisy was still just standing there in her pajama bottoms and t-shirt, hair undone around her shoulders. "Donny? You been drinking? Where are you?" Carmen insisted, and her shoulders sagged visibly while she listened to his explanation.

"Get some sleep dude and call the baby? She's worried sick about you. You need to talk to her Little Max. You owe her that." With that she hung up and her eyes rolled heavily as she looked back at the stricken girl.

"He's been drinking, and he's going to Mexico to Salina's. He'll call you sweetheart." Daisy nodded and left quickly, clasping her phone to her chest like a shield before Carmen could get into questions and need answers that she couldn't give.

"I'm sorry baby. You deserve much better than me." The text seared into her heart and she let out a soft keening wail. "Please don't do this." She typed as the tears started down her cheeks. "I'm your girl you said I was. You love me." Minutes ticked by and when the phone vibrated she nearly dropped it. "I don't deserve you. I wish I did." And that was it.

Daisy drifted between school and home and dance classes like a ghost and each day she pulled back more and more from the world. Bambi took to driving her around herself and watching her very carefully. These symptoms were not new, but at least this time she knew where they were coming from.

"I just don't know why he just left like that. We were doing so good Bambi. I knew he wasn't just out for a good time, I know in my heart that he feels the same about me... so why did he just leave like that? I don't understand and he won't talk to me. Carmen says to just give him time, and that he's in Mexico at Salina's, but I'm so worried about him." They were in the kitchen making dinner and Daisy was sitting at the kitchen table cutting up the salad.

Bambi looked down at her for a long moment and noticed how the knife drifted closer to her fingers. "Don't cut yourself sweetie." She'd meant it as a warning, but Daisy took it up a whole different way.

For a long moment she sat there staring at the knife and then she looked up, the anguish in her blue eyes tangible. Bambi felt tears wet her own eyes and sat down beside her to pull her into a warm embrace. "Who knows why men do what they do?" The salad and the food was forgotten as they sat there holding each other tightly. Daisy cried and Bambi let her.

Neither of them noticed Xander stepping into the kitchen, his heavy boot falls echoing on the wood of the porch. He found them crying and bit down on his lower lip in indecision. He could just leave and come back later, but it was better to face this now! He could face a charging biker high on heroin and booze, but going in there with two crying women he loved a great deal was a very hard thing to do.

In the end though, Bambi saved him by looking up and saying his name softly. Daisy looked up as well and only cried harder when he stooped and lifted her against his chest like you would a little girl. She hid her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You'll be okay sweetheart. Little Max has a wild streak, but he'll be back. I'm so sorry." Daisy nodded against his shoulder and he set her back on her feet with a sigh. "Leave all this. We'll order pizza and watch a chick flick and I'll braid your hair." The words were so sudden and so ridiculous that Daisy and Bambi both burst out laughing.

"I have a sensitive side! That and I googled what a girl needed when she was having troubles of the heart. This is a once in a lifetime deal?" Daisy nodded up at him and wiped at her cheeks. He'd completely changed the mood. The ache was still there, but it felt better. She'd had no idea that laughter could do that.

"Good. Wife! Order the pizza!" Bambi nodded with a wide grin of her own and reached up to place a quick kiss on his bearded cheek.

Carmen found them in the living room much later that evening. Xander was sitting on the floor with Bambi curled on the couch behind him and Daisy nestled in his lap. He was watching the end of the chick flick they'd started watching together, The Notebook, it was called, and he could see the humour in her eyes when she noticed the wetness of his.

"You want pizza?" Carmen joined him on the carpet and linked her arm with his as her finger slipped over Daisy's soft pink cheek. "These here girls are domesticatin' you cuz. Big bad Burned Man crying over a chick flick and eating pizza with his wife and her sister." Xander shrugged at her whispered question. "I braided their hair too." That had her giggling.

"It's Donny?" Xander nodded. "The kid has been through a lot. I think he just needs the road for now. He'll come back, and when he does I'll kill him." Carmen looked up at him through diaphanous blue eyes and he grinned. "No you won't, but you'll scare him plenty enough. He's a good kid. You know that." Xander did, but it didn't make what he'd done any better.

He'd told him not to go there, and Donny had gone there anyway. Still how could he blame him? Daisy was a singularly amazing girl. "Yes I will."

"I have six heavy rides scheduled for the coming year. The club is doing better than I ever thought it would... and here I am. Married. Life is good." Xander smiled as he pulled Bambi's soft body closer to his side. They'd been married for four months now. Four months of happiness the likes of he'd never thought he'd know.

"I might not be able to go on those with you." She breathed and he shifted to look down into her smiling eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Giggling she maneuvered both arms around his strong neck and placed a soft kiss on his slightly parted lips. "I'll have none of this my girl. What is going on?" She kissed him again and he pulled her closer still, hard hands slipping across the peach satin of her night dress.

"I am having a baby." His body stiffened as his arms tightened and she relished the power of him as it hardened all around her. "Are you sure?" She nodded. "I am. I went to the clinic this morning. I'm ten weeks along and there is a strong heartbeat." The smile took a moment longer to grace his lips and then he was kissing her.

"I'm going to have to drive you on those rides; because there is no way that I'm leaving you behind... wow, my baby." His hand slipped between them gently to rub across her still flat belly and he smiled again. "Our baby." She breathed and their lips met gently as his hand slipped lower.

Little blonde Daisy found a new world to loose herself in once she'd decided on a major. Chemistry and math filled her days and pretty soon it was not only four days, but four months later.

Bambi was happily pregnant, as she'd known she would be, and Xander was deliriously cheerful. It was disgusting. Carmen was still hot and single, and Daisy was still a little ghost. Lost and lonely.

Walking down the street from the bus stop near Xander's garage she found herself listening to that special Harley roar and her heart sighed. Bambi kept saying the pain would go away, but she was hoping it wouldn't, that way she knew she was still alive. She finally understood why Donny had left, and though she'd known it couldn't have lasted, she'd hoped it would.

She hadn't expected to see a familiar bike parked on the corner two blocks up, and her eyes scanned the surrounding area quickly as her heart leapt into her throat!

Her feet slowed and then stopped all together. It was Donny's bike. Hefting her books higher to her chest she took a deep breath and looked around again.

He was standing there just inside the door to her right and his eyes when they found hers were filled with regret.

"Donny?" She breathed and he nodded. "I was afraid Xander might beat me up if I waited closer. I just had to see you. I couldn't stay away anymore." A wavering smile lifted the corners of her mouth as her books dropped to the ground and with a soft cry she flung herself into his waiting arms.

"I missed you." The words were spoken into her neck as he inhaled deeply into her hair. The slight vanilla scent filled him and his arms tightened. "I missed you too. Oh I missed you so much. Oh Donny." Her booted feet lifted from the ground as he pulled her tighter to him and she couldn't believe he was holding her again.

A powerful kissed seared the pain from her heart and she smiled against his mouth before he set her back on her feet. "I won't let them beat you up! Your dad is back too, but I said I can take the bus like other adults and enough of the carting me around like the baby." She stepped from his arms to peer into his eyes and her smile faltered a bit. He was thinner.

Donny bent to pick up her books where she'd dropped them and he took a deep steadying breath. "I didn't think you'd want to see me after that stupid stunt I pulled. I should have stayed and faced it down." White lace covered shoulders lifted quickly and she reached up with one hand to trace her fingers through his much shaggier hair.

"I talked to your grandma a lot until it sort of made sense... I'm not angry any more." A strong arm slipped around her shoulders to pull her against his chest again, just loving the feel of her all soft and sweet.

"Can I buy you some lunch?" Nodding she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and grinned when he took her bag and books and stashed them in the carry on his bike.

"I just need to tell Bambi. She's waiting to take me home." The conversation that followed was short and to the point, the grim set of her lovely mouth tearing at his heart again.

The took the road to the diner and she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek tight to his chest. He felt so good.

"So are you back for good this time?" The diner was quiet this time of the afternoon and she watched him eat slowly. "Where did you go Donny?" He didn't answer immediately, but when he finally looked up she sighed at the look there. It was a resigned type of wildness that said he didn't know at all.

"I went to Mexico. Salina took me in, and I drank a lot of tequila... so much in fact that I don't really remember when I woke up and decided I couldn't do it." The cup stopped halfway to her lips.

"Couldn't do what?" The question was very soft. "I couldn't stay away from you." Tears crested her large blue eyes and she swallowed hard. "You didn't have to stay away from me in the first place Donny." Wide shoulders shrugged and she longed to run her hands over them. "I'll just drag you down. You don't need an unemployed biker in your life sweetheart. What good am I?"

Daisy wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and reached across the table to take his one large bent hand in hers. "I wish everyone will stop deciding what will drag me down, or hold me down and just leave me to decide by myself, for myself. I am very capable of making my own choices. Why do you think you'd hold me back anyway? If you'd just talked to me none of this would have needed to happen."

Donny looked down at his fingers twined around hers and frowned. "I've never been the sharpest pencil in the packet, all I know how to do is fix stuff. I drink too much and I've been to jail a few times. I will never be more than what I am, and I still think you deserve much better than me. I proved that." Her fingers tightened and she leaned forward unhurriedly.

"You don't have to prove anything to me. I'd love you anyway." A grin tugged at his mouth and his other hand slipped around both of hers. "You still love me?" She nodded. "Thought I'd get it in the open before you disappear. I'm still not so sure that I'm not dreaming." The grin widened. "I love you too Daisy."

She smiled at his heartfelt words and winked at him. "You staying?" He nodded and leaned back to take a deep breath. "For better or worse baby... I won't leave again."

Xander and Bambi were sitting side by side on the steps of the porch when Donny and Daisy arrived much later that afternoon. They were obviously waiting for them, and Donny felt his belly clench up at the sight of the Burned Man in his faded grey t-shirt and leather vest. The man just instilled respect without doing a damn thing.

He pulled up nice and slow, got off and then silently helped Daisy from the bike, his hands opening the carry without him even thinking to retrieve her bag and books.

When he turned back, Xander was there, and the big fist catapulted him across his bike! Donny sat up and heard Daisy shriek and ran to his side quickly, placing herself very bravely between Donny and Xander. Both were rearing to go! Donny moved her in behind him with a frown and thumbed his cut lip.

"You wanna take me on Burned Man. I'm ready to go, but I'm not leaving without her this time! He set his shoulders and turned his feet to receive another blow. Xander took a menacing step closer and then stopped at Daisy's shrieking.

"No! Stop! Xander stop!" She screamed and then Bambi was there as well, wondering where her entire lecture had gone! Xander obviously hadn't heard a damn word!

"Give me one fucking reason why I shouldn't be breaking his fucking neck! I told you I'd beat the crap out of you Little Max! I told you not to go start something with her!" Donny nodded grimly and thumbed his cut lip with a grimace.

"It just happened, and I tried to fix it, Xander, but it still just is what it is." His voice was on the verge of shouting and Xander took a step forward, but Bambi's hand on his bicep stopped him. He tried to pull away but she was adamant that he was not gonna hit Donny again.

"What? Why did you leave? Explain it to me please?" She asked, and Donny's eyes met the deep baby blue of Daisy's where she was clinging to his arm.

"Because I wasn't good enough for a girl like her, and Xander you're right. I'm not, but... it's love. It brought me back. I couldn't drink it away, and I couldn't fight it away, and I couldn't ride it away. I can't be sorry cause it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Maybe I still don't deserve her, but I'm gonna try anyway." Xander took one look at Bambi's condemning brown eyes and gave in, both hands flung into the air.

"Fine! Just fucking fine! I'm telling you, little Max, you pull that crap again and I will pound you into the fucking earth and not even my wife will be able to stop me? If you make a commitment to her you will keep it and be around! You got that?" Donny nodded and touched his lip again. He had no wish to be beaten up by Xander, but he'd risk it if it made him listen.

"I expect to see you at work at seven tomorrow morning! Now get down to the Bar and help Gary! The apartment up top is empty so you can have that. Screw up again boy and you are dead! You got that?" Donny nodded quickly and wrapped an arm around Daisy's shivering shoulders.

"Thanks Xander. I appreciate it. I won't let her down." Bambi cast her sister a slow grin and then followed her large husband back to the house.

Daisy was in his arms and he was kissing her before the door closed though. His fate seemed to have been sealed by a kiss from an angel, and he could very easily live with that.

The end