The curtains fluttered in the soft breeze. The air smelt of rain and wet grass. Jonathan shifted in his sleep and turned over onto his stomach. One arms groped and found cool sheets, something that puzzled his sleeping mind and drew it back to consciousness. After his eyes drifted open, he lay still for a moment trying to figure out what had woken him.

Kat. He sat up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he searched the room for her. The curtains ruffled in a particularly strong surge of wind and he automatically looked over. Hidden among the white cotton, Kat sat on the window seat, with one arm out the window, letting the summer rain flow over it.

Jonathan lay back down and regarded her. The sadness emanating from her was palpable. Again he felt guilty. He should know how to help her but he didn't. Katerina had withdrawn after the double funeral and he couldn't reach her anymore. A touch of panic ripped through him. He was losing her and he was powerless to stop it. All the success, all the money wouldn't help him now... And then the indomitable part of him awoke. He might have to lose her, but it wouldn't be without a fight. He threw back the covers and went to her.

"Kat..."

Her head swung around towards him. She looked so tired and very small, wrapped up in her robe.

"I couldn't sleep. And it was raining so I had to watch it..." Jonathan sat opposite her on the seat.

"You were thinking about your parents..." She nodded, leaning her head back against the wall and looking out the window, with a remote look in her eyes. Jonathan winced. He had come to hate that look with a passion. So dead, it had nothing of the woman he loved in it. He snapped.

"I've had it!", he growled, reaching forwards and hauling her into his arms. The shock in her eyes was laughable in the split second before she was crushed against his chest. "I want you back, Kat." He gave her a not too gentle shake. "Now!"

She took the wind out of his sails with a single sniffle. The sob that came after that floored him. Shame flooded through him over the way he was treating her. The woman had lost both her parents in a single day for God's sake, he snarled at himself bitterly. And then there was no more time for self-recriminations because all hell broke loose on his shoulder.

She felt like she was coming apart in his arms. Dry, heaving sobs that seemed to be ripped out from someplace deep inside her and hurt like hell. Her hands dug into him painfully as she held on, trying to stop the horrible sobs. She could barely breathe and what air managed to get in seemed to burn her lungs. And every time she thought the tempest was dying, something seemed to set it off again. Jonathan hung on to her determinedly all through it, rocking her and murmuring endearments into her ear until at last the pain of her raw throat brought the storm to a halt. Thankfully, he didn't let go then and perhaps in that moment, he became a pillar to replace the two that had been knocked out from under her. Not alone anymore...

The rain pattered down rhythmically, as they huddled together that way for a while. At last when she pulled away, she said the last thing he expected to hear.

"Make love to me..."

"What?", he asked cautiously, not believing he had hear right.

"Please, Jon. I need to forget...", she replied with a look of quiet desperation in her eyes.

Jon's mind raced. Help me, he sent up a silent prayer. Don't let me hurt her...

His lips settled on her delicately, softly questing. She lay in his arms passively, without even a glimmer of a response. Jonathan let his instincts guide him, kissing her with all the feelings he felt for her, hoping that that was enough... And then suddenly, her arms wound slowly around his neck and her lips were answering his. Hesitantly, as if for the first time. And the curtains flowed around them.

He shifted her into his lap and then stood, with her in his arms. A moment later, he was lowering her onto the bed and then he was flush against her. Her eyes fluttered shut as his lips found her forehead. Softly, he rained butterfly kisses over her face, each delicate and almost worshipful. Then he transferred his attention to one hand, planting a slow kiss on its back and later a deep one on the middle of her sensitive palm. Tears stung at the back of Katerina's eyes. The gentleness was so wonderful it hurt...

"I love you.", he whispered and she nearly broke down and cried. The draining loneliness she had been living with for weeks receded slowly but surely. She drew in a gasping breath to answer him. "Jonathan, I love you too. I always have..." A wave of pure relief washed over him. He didn't know what he would have done if she hadn't answered him... He kissed her like he had never kissed anyone in his life, and for the first time in a long time, she responded for real...