Adrian locked up his door, and said a quiet good-bye to Roni, smiling slightly at their earlier conversation.

' I'll be damned if the woman doesn't have a spine,' he thought, his smile gradually getting bigger.

He hopped into his Corvette and took a familiar route over, it shouldn't be familiar, but it was hard for it not to be when he… loved her.

' Dammit, how am I going to tell her that when I can barley say it to myself,' Adrian thought to himself, a frown marring his face. ' Do as Roni says, and take it like a man, I guess,' Adrian thought to himself as he rounded the street to her apartment building.

He slowly made his way up the stairs, trying to reverse what he was going to say to her, how he was going to make her come back to him.

He walked up to her door and knocked, holding his breath. He hoped she'd at least let him in. Adrian looked around while he waited, and waited! He looked at her door and knocked again, still receiving no response.

" She isn't here. She went to a party of some sort," the plump landlord told Adrian at his consistent pounding.

" Thanks," Adrian said to her retreating backside. When the door closed Adrian slowly lowered himself to the ground, deciding to wait for her return. Knowing Kalie she wouldn't be gone long.

' I was wrong,' Adrian thought to himself two hours later, once he'd finished counting all the paint chips on all the doors in the corridor. ' Come on Kalie, come home, please,' he thought to himself.

" Finally, I think I'm going to soak my feet for two days!" Kalie groaned to herself as she slowly made it up to stairs. "Damn, our janitor needs to get at that elevator," she smiled as she fished her keys out of her purse.

The next time that her grandmother wanted to have a friendly get to together, Kalie was going to come up with the plans. If she had to suffer through ONE more game of Yatzee she was going to kill someone! Not to mention the two hour LONG game of the hooky pokey, yeah that was a dozee!

" Yes!" Kalie laughed, finally having found her keys through her mess of a purse.

And yelped when she tripped over something in the hallway, which sent her flying and sprawling to the floor. Kalie would have laughed at the funny position she was making, if she hadn't been so curious as to what was in her path.

She slowly got up to check it out, and covered her mouth with her hand when she saw what it was; Adrian's arm.

" Adrian," she whispered in disbelief, tears rushing immediately to the surface, but Kalie refused to cry.

She bent down and shook Adrian slightly.

" Come on Adrian, get up," she added, still keeping her voice down, the hall were thin and she wasn't prepared to annoy her neighbors.

" Ummm…Kalie," he said softly, smiling when her face made it's when into his blurry vision.

" Yes it's me, what are you doing here?" Kalie asked him confused.

" I came to talk to you," Adrian said as he groggily made it to his feet. Kalie looked at him, he didn't look drunk, but still, why on earth was he here!

She shrugged and unlocked the door, not inviting him in but not closing the door in his face either. If he had something to say then fine, he could say it, and then let her get on with her life, or at least pretend to get on with her life.

" I'll go and make us some coffee, decaf okay with you?" Kalie asked, not even looking at him and already halfway to the kitchen. She'd be damned if she made this easy for him!

" Kay, I love you," Adrian's quiet voice and those simple words had the power to stop Kalie in her tracks.

" What did you say?" She asked, slowly turning around to look at him.

Adrian cleared his throat, and walked up so he was standing close to her.

" I said that I love you. When I proposed to you, that was why, not for protection, that was just a simple reason. The only one at the time I'd been able to live with. But with the fear of living without you thrown in my face, I've come to grips with the fact that I love you, hard as it was to come to terms with," Adrian smiled down at her.

" I know this doesn't forgive my actions, but I just wanted you to know that I do love you, I always will love you," Adrian spoke softly into her ear. He was shaky, not from fear of saying to words, fear of her reaction to the words.

Kalie looked at Adrian in shock, the words not yet making there way into Kalie's head, into her heart. She wasn't really letting them though; she kept stubbornly repeating in her head the same mantra.

' Kalie you know Adrian doesn't believe in love, he's told you enough times!' But she couldn't help looking up at him hopefully.

" Why?" Was all she was able to ask, not about to get her hopes up!

Adrian looked closely at her, then sighed realizing that it was going to take more then a simple 'I love you' to win Kalie back.

" Because ever since you stormed out of my house I've felt horrible, been horrible. I haven't slept, I've barely eaten, hell my partner was even worried about me.

"But even before then I knew I was in love with you, I've known since the day I found you in the hospital, I was just to scared to say anything," Adrian admitted, seeing no other way around the situation then total truth.

" Really?" Kalie asked him, eyes wide, she couldn't believe it!

" Yes Kalie, since the hospital. I know I should have told you earlier, but I was scared," Adrian admitted, cupping her cheek in his hand.

" Scared? Of what, by then I'd told you that I'd loved you many times," Kalie smiled weakly, she too was afraid. Afraid that she would wake up and find this all a dream.

" Scared that I'd lay my heart out on my sleeve for you and then you'd realize that I wasn't worth it, worth you. Scared that you'd turn away from me. It's easier to go around life when you don't care, and I'd gotten pretty good at it, until you pushed your way into my life, pushed emotions into my life," Adrian confessed, smiling at how easy it was to talk about himself to Kalie.

Kalie, in turn cupped Adrian's cheek in her hand, a stray tear falling down her cheek.

" Oh, you big stupid lug! I love you, and you are worth it Adrian, worth everything I could ever hope to give you! Don't you see sweetheart, you are a good person," she whispered, hugging him tightly.

" I love you Kalie," he told her seconds before his lips made conversation impossible. "And I really do want to get married, as very fast as possible," he told her when they finally came up for air.

Kalie smiled and slung her arms up around his neck.

" Yeah, I'd like that too cowboy. The sooner the better, I'd hate to be fat at my own wedding," she whispered into Adrian's ear.

" What? Fat? You mean? Are you?" At Adrian's wide-eyed look Kalie laughed and shook her head.

"No, but the way this conversation is going, where I hope it's headed, I'd rather be safe then sorry!" She laughed and kissed Adrian.

' Finally, I'm right were I need to be.' Both Kalie and Adrian thought as their lips meet once again!

*** Finish***

AN ~ I have started a continuum to this story, staring Marge as the main character. The story is called "Marge Gets Her Man!" If any of you are interested! Thanks!