She’s always hated taking depositions, but after a day like she’s just had, her hatred of them has only increased. Her flight from Chicago had been delayed and they hadn’t arrived back in Llanview until just before two a.m., and she was exhausted. It wasn’t that she hadn’t pulled all-nighters before, but she hadn’t been sleeping well at all for the past few days, not since the pre-Thanksgiving meal that she, Matthew, and Bo had shared.

She leans back in the chair she’s been sitting in for over three hours, as she waits for the next person to show up. She closes her eyes and immediately she’s brought to those moments in his office and the conversations they had about their past holiday celebrations and those feelings of regret she couldn’t get rid of.

She sits up and checks her watch, another half hour. All she wanted to do was finish this up and head back to the office, put a few finishing touches on some files and head home for a nice hot bubble bath. She stands up and stretches, rolling her neck as she walks out into the hallway. She looks up and down the long corridor, shivering for a moment. ‘Why do they always make hospitals so cold,’ she thinks to herself.

She crosses her arms and heads down the hallway towards the vending machines. She stops in front of the long bank of machines, staring at all of the selections in front of her, none of them satisfying the craving she has. She hears footsteps and turns towards them. She releases a sigh when she sees her turn the corner. She takes a deep breath and forces a smile, “Hi Paige…”

“Nora, how are you?” She walks over to the drink machine and makes her selection, “What are you doing at the hospital? I hope every thing is okay.”

She fiddles with the change in her hand, looking back and forth between the machines and Paige, “Every one’s fine, thank you for asking. I’m just finishing up a few depositions.” She sticks the coins in the machine and presses a button, not caring what the selection was. A few seconds of awkwardness comes between them. Nora clears her throat and speaks again, “So Bo tells me the two of you made plans for a ski getaway in a couple of weeks.”

“Bo and I aren’t going away.” She says as she waits for her bottled water to fall.

Nora looks down at the bag of chips in her hand and the bottle of water that Paige holds and sighs, wondering what exactly it is Bo sees in this woman, “I don’t understand. When I asked Bo if he could watch Matthew during the weekend of the 10th he told me that the two of you had planned a weekend away to go skiing.”

“Well he did call me the night before Thanksgiving and ask me to go away with him, but I told him that I had to work. I’m going to be giving a speech at a conference that weekend in Philadelphia.”

“Oh, Bo gave me the impression that it was a done deal. Something you had planned weeks ago.”

“When he called I tried to talk him into the weekend after, but he said it was no good. I’m really sorry for the misunderstanding, Nora.”

Nora shakes her head, “Its okay.” She says waving her off, “I really better get back to the conference room. Good night, Paige.”

“Good night, Nora, and again I’m sorry. Nora just nods as Paige watches her walk away, wondering what had just happened. She shrugs and walks the other way.

At the same time Bo and Matthew walk into his office after Bo picked him up from his scout meeting. Matthew sits down on the couch and pulls his gamebox out of his pocket. Bo sits down behind his desk and pulls out a few files glancing back and forth between Matthew and his work.

Bo stands up and sits down next to his son, “Penny for your thoughts, champ.”

Matthew smiles, “Mom says that all the time.”

Bo returns his smile, “Where do you think she got it from?” Bo nudges him with his shoulder, “You were awfully quiet in the car. Anything you wanna tell your old man?”

“I’m fine dad. I’m just worried about Ace and Granpa.” He shrugs, “I just don’t like it when he’s sad.”

Bo puts his arm around his son, “You know I’m doing every thing I can to find, Ace, right? Matthew nods, “And as far as your Granpa goes he has you to make him happy, and you do Matthew, you make him very happy.”

“He likes to watch me ride Midnight and he promised me that we’d go riding today before dinner.” Matthew says, his previous mood broken.

Bo stands up and grabs his jacket, “Get your backpack my little man, we’re heading over to your granpa’s a little earlier than expected. I think it’ll do him good to see you.”

Matthew wraps his arms around his waist, “Thanks, dad. I think you’re right. I think I’m gonna be just what the doctor ordered.” He says quoting Asa.

Bo tousles Matthew’s hair and together they walk out the side door, and down the back hallway, just missing Nora as she comes storming into the squad room. She glances once over at Bo’s office before rushing passed Marcie’s desk on her way to her office down the hall. Marcie stares after shaking her head.

Bo returns to the station forty five minutes later. He walks into the squad room, a smile on his face as he remembers the pure happiness on Asa’s face as he watched Matthew riding his colt around the training ring. Bo walks up to Marcie’s desk and picks up his messages. Marcie smiles up at him, “You sure are in a good mood, Commissioner.”

“I guess I am,” he said, his eyes twinkling. He looks at his watch, “Has ADA Buchanan come back yet?”

“Um…yeah well she came back earlier, but then rang up here for me to get a few files for her because she was going to be working from home for the rest of the day.” She looks around the squad room.

Bo raises his eyebrows telling her it’s okay to say what she obviously wants to say, “It’s okay Marcie,” he says barely above a whisper, “you can say it.”

“It’s none of my business Commissioner, but ADA Buchanan, well, she just looked really upset when she walked in here earlier and when I went back to her office to give her the files, well she was muttering to herself, waving her hands in the air, and then shoving things in her briefcase.”

Bo felt a sudden jolt in his stomach and he forced it down. He looks at Marcie and forces a smile, “I’m sure she’s fine,” although he knew that the scene she described in Nora’s office meant one thing and one thing only, she was mad about something. “I’ll see you in the morning, Marcie. Tell Michael I said hi.”

Marcie nods, “I will, Commissioner, and good night.”

Bo walks into his office and leans across the desk, picking up the phone, “Yes this is Commissioner Buchanan, I’d like to order two cheeseburgers, and an order of cheese fries, some twice fried onion rings, and umm, an order of ribs.” He waits on the other end of the line as Marcie walks passed his office, placing a file on the desk, overhearing him ordering the meal. She shakes her head and smiles; he was going to go to her. Marcie sighs and walks over to her desk and sits down wondering silently to herself when those two will ever get it right.

She’s pacing around her office, later that evening, talking into her hand held recorder when the doorbell rings. She sighs and snaps the recorder off, dropping it onto the desk harder than she had expected. She makes her way over to the door and notices Bo’s face illuminated by the light shining on her front porch.

She feels her anger return, boiling inside of her. She opens the door and sees the take out bags he’s holding in his hand and the smile plastered on his face and she decided then and there that she was going to see just how far he was going to take this little game.

“Hey, Bo,” she says, motioning him in, “Shouldn't you be getting ready for your big ski weekend!?"

"Nah, we've got plenty of time for that" totally blowing it off.

"You sure, you probably should take all the free time you've got right now since Matthew is with Asa"

He diverts, walking passed her and turns around on the landing, “I got a little bit of every thing. I wasn’t sure what you would want.”

“Well not that I don’t appreciate the spontaneous gesture but what’s the occasion?”

“No occasion, I just figured with Matthew at Pa’s and Daniel out of town, you’d be dining alone, so I figured we could eat some extremely greasy food and I could run some things by you on a few cases.” He says as he begins to empty the bags on the coffee table.

She walks further into the living room. She wanted to confront him right then and there. His obvious good mood showing no indication that he felt guilty about his little charade at all. Her stomach begins to growl and for a moment she her anger is lost in the smells that fill her living room. She smiles when he looks up at her, “You finish setting up; I’ll go get us some beers.”

Bo nods and continues to lay out the food, removing the lids and tossing them in the bags lying on the floor. He removes his coat and his suit jacket, dropping them and his tie on one of the chairs. He pulls the coffee table closer to the couch and sits down. She walks back into the living room and stops for a moment, watching him as he sits on her couch, his tie removed, and shirt un-tucked, making himself comfortable. She swallows the lump in her throat and reminds herself just how furious with him she is.

She walks over and sits down beside him, handing him his beer. She looks down at the spread and laughs, “When you said you got a little of every thing you weren’t lying.”

He looks at her and smiles, “I never lie about food, Nora.”

She nods, “Right.”

They continue to eat, talking about Matthew’s scout meeting, how happy Asa was while he watched Matthew riding, and their trip to Chicago. She filled him in on her parents and what was going on with Rachel. He kept watching her, trying to figure out what had put her in such a bad mood earlier, because she certainly seemed fine now.

He drops the last rib bone on his plate and sighs, “Well I’m officially stuffed. We should probably clean this up before we discuss those cases.”

Nora nods, “Right, those cases.” She reaches down beside the table and picks up a bag, beginning to fill it with the empty containers. She watches him, ‘could he really be this nonchalant about every thing?’ she thinks to herself. She reaches for the last few napkins and decides to gauge him a little more, try and figure out what exactly is going on, “So I ran into Paige at the hospital today.” She says, the look on his face giving the answers to her questions.

He busies himself with the label on his beer bottle, “Oh...really, so how did your depositions go?”

Nora ignores his question, “She told me that there was never a ski weekend planned. What gives, Bo!?” she asks, her voice getting louder.

He sits down in the chair with a sigh, "Nora..."

"No, Bo...don't Nora me...I WANT to know what gives...Why the lie? And it was a lie because you either knew beforehand that she couldn't go or you asked her after I told you that Daniel and I were going away” She crosses her arms in front of her, “So which is it Bo?!”

“I don’t think you should go away with him.”

”Is THAT was this is all about, me and Daniel?”

“I just don't like the man," he says with a sigh.

"Nobody asked you to like him!”

Bo stands up, his anger getting the best of him, “Nobody asked you to go away for the weekend with him!"

She walks over and stands in front of him, "Why do you care?!" she shouts "You said that there's no future for us so why does it matter who I'm seeing?” She points at him, “And don't you dare bring Matthew into this, because if I thought Daniel was any sort of threat to our son or to your relationship with our son I wouldn’t be seeing him, so explain yourself; and you better make it good!"

"There's just something about him that rubs me the wrong way Nora. I just don't think he's good enough…"

"Like Lindsay was good enough!," She yells, cutting him off.

"Yeah, just like Troy wasn't good enough!"

She points at him again, "Don't bring him into this!"

He continues, both of them talking over one another, “and SAM certainly wasn’t good enough! Sam, the man who willingly STOLE 8 years of my child's life from me! Not to mention stealing my wife!"

They stop for a moment, his words hanging between them, "You know what...this isn't going to get us anywhere." He turns to walk away.

"Great..." she shouts.”Walk away, you're really good at that.”

He turns around and walks back into the room, "What was I supposed to do, Nora? You slept with Sam! You were having his child!"

"Oh please, Bo, you left long before that night. You walked away when Drew died."

He walks over to her, the pain and anger evident on his face, and in the tears that have been welling up in his eyes, "Don't! Don't bring my son into this!"

"Why not Bo...that's what started it all. YOU got on that damn boat, without a single thought as to how much I was hurting! All you could think about was YOUR pain, your grief. You lectured me over and over again on how I needed to let you in., how I needed to trust in what we had, but when it came to practice what you preach you did the exact opposite. YOU left ME!” she shouts, pointing to herself, “You left ME on the night we conceived OUR son!” she yells pointing towards the stairs as though Matthew were asleep in his room.

“But I came BACK!” He shouts back.

"For the BABY, you came back because of the baby! Not for me, why wasn't I enough, Bo!?” She begins to cry harder, “You came back after I told you about the baby! I'd been trying for what seemed like a lifetime, to get you to come back to ME and you wouldn't even respond!”

"I told you that night in the hospital, while we were waiting to see if there was anything wrong with the baby, that I came back for you, that I couldn’t lose you.”

After the fact Bo...it was all AFTER the fact. The truth of the matter was that I wasn't enough. Your pain and what you were feeling was more important than letting ME in!" She wipes away the tears that had fallen, only to have them replaced with more, “I had thought after all that we went through with Georgie and the murder trial we had renewed our trust in each other. That we had learned that the most important thing we had was the love we shared, and we weren't going to shut the other out anymore! You broke that trust long before I broke our wedding vows!”

“But you slept with Sam, Nora.”

She nods, laying her hands over her chest, “Yes, I physically broke our wedding vows, I slept with Sam out of my desperation to save your life, BUT you broke them emotionally Bo. YOU told me that you would never leave me...that even if you had to go away you'd always find your way back, but when you left me that note, when you wouldn't respond, I felt like you were breaking that promise, and I knew I had to do something, anything to bring you back."

She begins to pace, reliving one of the worst times in her life, "I was so afraid for your life and before I knew it the words were out there and they brought you back to me. And I didn’t know about the tests then, I honestly thought that I would get pregnant. All I knew was that you were coming home.”

She turns and stares into the fire for a moment before turning back around and looking at him, standing across the room from him, “When I tried to tell you the truth you nearly DIED!” She swallows hard, trying to swallow the tears that are continuing to fall onto her face, “Died, Bo! You have no idea how scared I was! I thought I had killed you. All I knew was that I couldn't take your hope away again! I couldn't get the sounds of those alarms out of my head, the sight of you lying there on that bed, so sick and so pale. I was so afraid of losing you that I think in that moment, I actually went insane, insane with fear, with grief. I just knew I couldn't live my life without you."

"There were SO many times, so many opportunities for you to tell me the truth Nora. When you knew I would pull through, you could've come clean. We could've dealt with this together!"....

She shakes her head, “"Together!? We weren't dealing with ANYTHING together at that time Bo. If we were YOU wouldn't have left.”

“It always comes back to that!”

"And why shouldn't it Bo?! You stand here now and you tell me that I should've come to you, that I should've trusted that I was enough for you, well it's kind of hard to trust in something when you don't FEEL it, and you're not getting the same in return"

"And Sam was right there, waiting to give you what you weren't getting from me..."

"Sam meant nothing to me!” She sits down in the chair, rubbing her fingertips in circles over her temples. "Can we just leave Sam out of this and concentrate on what was wrong between you and me!?"

He presses his palm to his forehead and sits down on the couch. Silence comes between them. He looks over at her, her eyes puffy, her nose red from all her crying. God he hated to see her cry.

She looks up at him, not bothering to wipe the tears from her cheeks, "I never wanted anyone but you...It was always you…”

He walks over and kneels down in front of her "And you were more than enough...more than I deserved"

She throws her arms around his neck, as they both give into their tears once again. He pulls her up out of the chair and they hold each other for a while, neither one wanting to let go. After a few more minutes he breaks their tight embrace, still holding her. He reaches out and tilts her chin up, "You know I've always hated to see you cry..." he reaches out and wipes the tears....

She reaches out to wipe away the tears that have fallen onto his face, “so where do we go from here"

He shakes his head, “"I don't know, Red. I just don't know." He says as he turns toward the door.

TBC…