A few hours later Callie and Grayson found themselves alone in Grayson's hotel room. The sun was setting and the lamps they had lighted cast a glow in the room and cast shadows on the walls. Instead of the romance that most newly reunited couples would be enjoying Callie and Grayson were standing toe to toe having a battle of wills and Grayson was quickly losing.

"You need rest!" Callie said putting her finger in his chest.

"I am fine, Callie." Grayson replied though he really wasn't. He was in a hell of a lot of pain and he was feeling a lot of guilt over leaving Callie alone after hearing from her friends about all the hell she'd been through the last five years.

"No you're not! You almost bled to death yesterday, Gray, and you need to rest." Grayson sighed. "Now get in that bed and get some sleep."

"Do you realize that you are the only person in the world that I have ever let boss me around?" he asked as he stretched his long frame down on the too short bed. Callie laughed when she saw that his booted feet hung several inches off the end.

She walked over and pulled his boots off earning a deep rumbling chuckle from him as he looked at her.

"What are you doing?" he asked. She sat his boots at the foot of the bed.

"I am making sure you're comfortable." she replied. Grayson held his left arm out and motioned for her to come to him.

"I'd be more comfortable if you would lay down here with me." he said cursing at the way his heart was beating out of his chest at the thought of her in his bed. He had been dreaming for as long as he could remember of holding her in his arms. Making love to her and falling asleep with her head on his chest. He knew the making love part wasn't going to happen tonight since he was in so much pain he could barely move but he could hold her in his arms and he could fall asleep with her head on his chest.

"Gray…" she whispered uncertainly and she saw that familiar grin that made his handsome face look boyish and the familiar rise of his amused left eyebrow.

"I just want to hold you while I sleep, Callie." he assured her. Callie bit her lip and Grayson's eyes were immediately drawn to her perfect white teeth pressing against her plump pink bottom lip. Callie felt like her body was on fire as she blew out the lamps in the room, pulled off her boots and climbed into the bed.

Her heart had never beaten as fast as it was currently beating as she stretched out on her side and pressed herself against him, laying her head on his chest. She heard the familiar sound of his heartbeat. She knew its rhythms and beats because she had listened to it the whole time he'd been unconscious at the docs.

Grayson wrapped his arm around her and traced patterns on her arm with his fingers. Holding her in his arms like this felt better than he had ever imagined it would. It was almost enough to make him forget about the pain in his shoulder.

"Gray, didn't doc Mason give you anything for pain?" Callie asked gently.

"I'm not in pain." Grayson lied and he could practically 'hear' her eyes rolling.

"Yes you are." she countered and she felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled. "Didn't he give you anything?"

"He offered but I refused." Grayson replied moving his hand up to her light blond hair and wrapping it around his fingers. It felt like silk against the roughness of his hand.

"Why would you…." Callie stopped talking when the answer to her question popped into her mind. She knew why he had refused the laudanum.

"You fool headed stubborn man." she scolded, raising up on her elbow so she could look at his face. "You refused it because of me didn't you?" Grayson refused to meet her gaze as he laid there and remained silent giving Callie all the answer she needed.

"I'm going to go get you some right now." she said trying to rise. Grayson muttered under his breath and wrapped his arm tighter around her locking her in place. Callie was surprised by the amount of strength he had in just this one arm. She was not a small woman and he was holding her in place as if she were no bigger than a child.

"Gray, let me up. You're in pain and you need medicine." she said. He shook his head.

"Callie Logan, I have been waiting for a long long time for the day to come that I could hold you in my arms like this. Now I can handle the pain just fine as long as you're laying here with me so you're staying right where you are." Callie had never heard sweeter words in her life. Sure it wasn't poetry and his voice had a very possessive and demanding tone to it but coming from Grayson the words made her heart swell.

"Well I wouldn't want for you to be in pain." she replied with a smile as she relaxed against him once again and laid her head on his chest. They lay there in silence for long while simply enjoying the closeness and the intimacy. The only sounds interrupting the quiet were the occasional voices floating up to the window from the street below as people went about their evenings and the steady ticking of the clock on the wall.

"Gray." Callie said finally, ending the silence.

"Hmm."

"What Garth said yesterday about you always being in love with me and just waiting for me to be old enough to marry…. Was that true?" Callie felt like a swarm of butterflies were attacking her stomach as she waiting for his answer.

"Yes." Grayson replied. "I knew I wanted to marry you but I was five years older than you and had to wait until you were old enough."

"Am I old enough yet?" Grayson chuckled and kissed her hair.

"I sure hope so." he replied. Callie snuggled closer to him and breathed in the scent of soap that was still clinging to his body from the bath he had taken after they'd left the diner.

"I'm sorry I haven't been here for you the last few years." Grayson said and Callie felt her heart break at the guilt she could hear in his voice.

"Gray, you have apologized one hundred times already today. I told you I understand why you left. It couldn't have been easy to have your family and friends turn their backs on you."

"No it wasn't." Grayson replied. "Do you know how much it means to me that when I look in your eyes I don't see any of the doubt or blame that I see in everyone else's."

"I believe in you, Gray. If you say what happened that day was self defense then that is what it was. I understand why your father and Lauren want to hear the full story about what happened but I don't need to hear it in order to believe you with my whole heart."

"Phillip had left out early that morning from the farm to go into town. He was hoping to catch the stage before it left town because he was in love with that singer who had been in town and he wanted to ask her to stay with him. He was gone a long time and then the storm hit. Do you remember how bad that storm was that day?" Callie nodded her head against his chest.

"Yes I remember. But, Gray, you don't have to tell me about this." she said. She knew that he had kept what happened that day a secret for five years.

"Yes I do have to tell you, Callie. I don't give a rats ass what anyone else in this town thinks about me other than you. I want you to know what really happened." he replied. Callie kissed the bottom of his jaw and then laid her head back down and waited silently for him to continue.

"Lauren and dad were worried about Phillip when he still wasn't home after lunch so I saddled a horse and rode through the rain into town. I found him at the saloon. He was already three sheets to the wind and that shocked me because Phillip had never been a drinker. The saloon was empty other than the bartender and the two of us because of the storm. It had everyone staying at home I guess.

"I asked Phillip what was wrong and he took me upstairs to a room saying he wanted to have privacy. He took his whiskey bottle with him and once we were in the room he broke down in tears. I didn't know what to do because I'd never seen another man cry before. He said that the woman, I don't even remember her name now, had laughed at him when he'd proposed to her. She had let him know that he wasn't the only farm boy she'd been spending time with and he certainly wasn't enough to make her stay

"I didn't know what to say. I'd never had to try to cheer my brother up before, he'd always been the one that was there for me. So I told him to forget about the whore and find him a decent woman. This sent him over the edge. He was so damn drunk he didn't know what he was doing. He attacked me and was trying to beat the hell out of me. I was always bigger than Phillip and since I knew he was drunk I didn't try to hit him back I just held him down.

"Once he was calmed down some I let go of him and he apologized and started crying again." Grayson paused a moment before continuing. "Then suddenly his whole face, posture and attitude all changed." Callie noticed that Grayson's voice was becoming more cold and more sad with every word he was saying. She looked up at his face. He was staring at the ceiling and even in the darkness she could see the haunted shadows on his face as he remembered that night.

"He accused me of sleeping with her, whoever she was, and I knew then that he was so damn drunk he didn't have a clue what he was saying or doing because he was the one person who knew how I felt about you and he knew I wouldn't ever had slept with some singing woman that was passing through.

"The rage in his eyes shocked me because it just wasn't like Phillip to act that way. I was always the one that lost my temper, not him. I tried to calm him down but it was like he couldn't hear me as he screamed and yelled. I turned to open the door so I could leave because there wasn't any getting through to him and that's when he fired the first shot. It missed and I turned back to him in shock and he fired another shot. The second one grazed my hip." He paused and Callie laid a comforting hand on his cheek. The clock continued to tick as Grayson took a deep breath, cleared his throat and continued in a voice filled with so much sadness it made her heart ache.

"I remember saying 'Phillip what the hell are you doing? I'm your brother.' He was just so angry and drunk and it was like he couldn't hear me and he wasn't even the same person. He wasn't my brother in that moment, he was just some crazy ass man that wanted me dead. He aimed the gun at me again and I knew this time he was going to kill me…." Grayson's voice broke and he took another deep breath before continuing.

"I didn't have a choice because I wasn't ready to die. I pulled my gun and I shot him in the chest. He died instantly and I just stood there. I knew that the thunder and the rain outside had probably hidden the shots we'd fired. I looked down at my dead brother and I couldn't let it end that way. Phillip had always done everything for everyone. I couldn't tell people what had really happened. I didn't want anybody to think less of my brother. So I reloaded his gun but I kept it in his hand because I knew if I didn't the sheriff would arrest me for murder, and I left.

"I went to Doc Grayson's to get patched up and I told him Phillip was over at the saloon. I didn't go home right away. I just kinda rode around in circles in the woods for hours and by the time I made it home my father and Lauren had already heard the story that Thomas had made up. At the time I thought the bartender had made it up since he'd been the only person around but it didn't matter to me who made it up, all that mattered was that everyone believed it.

"Dad pointed his gun at me and told me to leave and that both his sons were dead to him. Lauren screamed at me and called me a monster. I went back into town but left quickly because the stares and the whispers and the accusations were just too much. The sheriff stopped me in town and told me he believed it was self defense but by then it didn't matter. I knew I couldn't stay. I was going to just take off but then I remembered that you would be waiting for me and I couldn't leave you without saying goodbye."

"Gray, I'm sorry." Callie said. She wished there was more she could say but she didn't know what she could possibly say to make up for all the pain he'd suffered the last five years just because he'd wanted to save his brothers reputation. He had sacrificed his family, friends, everything in his life for his brothers memory.

"Don't be sorry, Callie, you didn't do anything and I don't want your pity. I just wanted you to know what really happened."

"I love you, Gray." Grayson squeezed her tighter and kissed her hair. He felt some of the weight he'd been carrying around disappear from his shoulders now that someone else knew what had happened that night.

"I love you too." he replied. "But there is something that's been bothering me all day."

"What?" Callie asked.

"You thought I'd left you didn't you?" When Callie didn't respond Grayson realized he needed to be more specific. "Earlier today when you walked into Doc Mason's office and I was gone, you thought that I had left you."

"No…" Callie lied. "I didn't think that." Grayson nodded.

"Yes you did. Don't lie to me, Callie, you never were very good at it." Callie grinned a guilty grin.

"It's just that I never expected you to come back and now that you are back I just keep expecting you to disappear again."

"I won't leave you again." Grayson promised. Callie nodded.

"Okay." she said and Grayson felt his heart break just a little when he heard the smallest shadow of doubt still in her voice. "What about what you said to Thomas. Do you really want to marry me still?"

"Of course I do." Grayson replied. "But I think we need to wait." he added. Callie sat up quickly and looked down at him.

"Why?" she asked. "I have been waiting to be your wife for as long as I can remember." Grayson saw her temper flash in her eyes. He had missed the spark that lit up their blueness when she was mad.

"Because you don't trust me yet." he replied gently. She rolled her eyes.

"Yes I do." she said. "I would trust you with my life, Gray." Grayson smoothed some of her hair from her face and ran his finger along her cheek.

"I know that but you don't trust me with your heart yet. You still think I'm going to leave and hurt you." He saw her take a deep breath and knew she was about to give him a piece of her mind so he laid his finger over her lips to silence her. "Now before you say something mean to me, I don't blame you for not trusting me. I know I hurt you and I know that it's going to take time for you to trust that I'm not going to do it again. But until I've earned that trust back, I'm not gonna marry you."

"But.." He raised his brow and gave her a stern look and she stopped speaking.

"I'm not going to marry you just to convince you that I'm going to stick around. I'm gonna wait and be at your side everyday for a while. I'm going to be around so much that you are going to get sick and tired of seeing my face and you are going to be begging me to marry you in the hopes that maybe then you'll get a break from me." Callie glared at him and he couldn't help but laugh.

"Let's get some rest, Callie." he said.

"You are going to marry me, Gray." she replied matter of factly. He nodded.

"Yes I am." he agreed. "Just as soon as I deserve you again." Callie wanted to argue with him but she knew it was pointless and she could see the lines of fatigue and pain on his face and knew that he needed rest.

"Goodnight Gray." she said softly. She pressed a gentle kiss to his lips that caused sparks to shoot between them and then laid her head back on his chest.

"Sweet dreams." he whispered in the darkness. He knew this was going to be the best night of his life thus far because he was finally falling asleep with the other half of his soul wrapped in his arms.