"Heath?"

"Yeah?" He turned to face MJ, who was sitting next to him on the small jet that was carrying them to Rome.

"What exactly are we doing?" MJ kept her eyes carefully downcast as she asked her question. She'd been rehearsing it, going over the words in her head over and over since they left London an hour before. What she'd finally ended up with was the most innocuous but direct way she could think of to phrase it.

Heath smirked before replying. "Well, MJ, my darling, we're in a small craft with engines, and appendages which are known in the engineering world as wings--see them, just there, out the window?"--and he pointed. "And the turbines in the engines turn and create what's known as 'thrust,' you see--"

By now MJ was hitting him briskly about the face, chest and arms with the small pillow that had been behind her head.

"Wait, wait let me finish!" Heath begged, howling with laughter. "Don't you want to hear about the miracle of flight?"

"Dick! Heath Michael Spencer is a dick," MJ declared, hitting him harder. "Plus, unless you were going to say something about air slip over the top of the wings creating lift, you were explaining all wrong, anyway, hot shot."

Heath, who had grabbed the pillow away from MJ and begun to tickle her, stopped at her words. "Really?" he asked. "You're so clever, MJ, goodness, way more clever than I could ever hope to be."

MJ just shook her head at him and sat back, taking a deep breath and straightening out her clothes, which had gotten all twisted around.

"So sorry, you had a question?" Heath asked, blinking innocent eyes at her.

MJ bit her lips together and looked out the window, all her careful planning forgotten. "Yeah. I just wondered what exactly is going on between us," she finally said. "I mean, obviously, I know we're not picking out curtains or china patterns or anything, but I don't have any experience with this kind of thing, you know?" She shifted in her seat, turning to face Heath more squarely. "Though, in my defense, I bet even a girl with more experience would be having a tough time hanging a label on this situation, right?

"Is this, like, a harmless little flirtation?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

Heath raised his eyebrows back at her.

"Or, could it be, like, a meaningless distraction for you while you're touring?" she continued.

Heath grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles while he waited for her to continue.

"I'm not asking just so I know what to call it," MJ tried to explain. "I'm just not sure how to act around other people. Like do you want other people on the tour to know?" She squeezed Heath's hand. "Do you want Meredith to know?" she concluded, her voice quiet. "I'll do whatever you want, okay?"

Heath swallowed and kissed her knuckles again before putting an arm around her and pulling her close so their heads were close together.

"Okay," he said. Then, paradoxically, he grew silent. "Okay," he finally said again, nodding. "As far as the first question, I don't exactly know what it is, what to call it," he admitted. "It's very early days yet, you know? What I do know is that I like you, very much indeed, and it's definitely not a meaningless distraction or a--what did you say?--oh yeah, a harmless flirtation." Heath shook his head.

"As far as the other, as far as telling people, I think it might be better for you if, especially where Meredith's concerned, she knew as little as possible. She can be a vindictive little bitch, you know?" He turned his head and pressed a kiss into MJ's hair. "I mean, I don't want to have to stay away from you completely, that would be just awful, but perhaps we could just say that we've become friends or something like that? Keep the romantic stuff under wraps for now?" He pulled away so he could look at MJ's face. "What do you think? Could you manage to keep your hands off me?"

MJ laughed.

"Yes, I know, such a thought does defy logic and possibility, doesn't it, MJ, darling?" Heath said, snuggling in comfortably once again. "But if I can do it, you're just going to have to try to keep your hands off my sexy form."

And the two of them laughed together, snuggling as they looked out the window to see the blue Mediterranean sparkling below.

Three hours later the question of how to handle Meredith was taken out of their hands when Heath and MJ arrived at the venue, and were confronted by a furious Meredith.

"You lying, traitorous little bitch!"

Meredith's voice could be heard all over the arena.

"You have no experience, no references, you look like you swallowed a fucking elephant, but I give you a job anyway, and this is how you repay me?"

MJ stopped walking just on the stage, Heath next to her, and Meredith walked across the entire expanse, waving her phone and shouting the entire way. Her friends Kate and Donna were still with her, obviously, as they flanked her, one on either side, like pilot fish trailing a shark.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, you fucking cunt?" Meredith was right up in MJ's face now, her face nearly scarlet with anger. "You take off and go to another fucking country without telling me?" Her voice held nearly savage satisfaction. "Yeah, someone saw you, you sneaky little cow."

She shoved her phone practically into MJ's face, and MJ and Heath could see a picture of MJ, standing next to Heath at the Cunningham family plot at the pretty cemetery, in her black dress. It had to have been taken with an extremely high-powered lens, perhaps from as much as a quarter of a mile away.

Oh, shit.

"It's all over the internet," Kate, hissed from her place next to Meredith.

Donna just nodded.

MJ thought fast.

"I'm sorry, Meredith, you were so angry the last time I talked to you, do you remember? Over the photo shoot in Abu Dhabi being cancelled?" MJ asked.

Meredith was so surprised at MJ's quiet voice that she only nodded. "Well, I get that, I mean, it makes sense that you'd be that upset. And you told me that you didn't want to see me or hear from me until you were here, in Rome, you know? And you just arrived this morning, right?" She nodded, encouraging Meredith to nod along with her. "So, well, I just took you at your word, and I literally just shut my phone off until, like two minutes ago." She shrugged casually.

"In the meantime, Heath was so upset about his friend, and he needed someone to go with him to England who could take care of stuff, who wouldn't be a distraction, you know, who wouldn't attract crowds or fans or whatever, not like you would?" Again, she nodded, encouraging Meredith to nod along. "He needed someone useful, who could make arrangements without drawing attention to herself, who would fade into the woodwork, someone plain and boring, and, well, who better, right?" She laughed self-deprecatingly, gesturing to herself. "I figured, you had your friends to distract you, you'd said you didn't want me or need me until this morning, I might as well make myself useful, earn my money right? What better way than to help your friend?" She clapped Heath on the shoulder, much harder than necessary, nearly knocking him off his feet.

He turned and stared at MJ as if he were looking at a stranger.

MJ beamed at Meredith. "Was I wrong?" she asked. "Should I have hung around?"

Meredith was shaking her head uncertainly.

"I want to thank you, Mer," Heath chimed in, leaning in to give Meredith a quick hug. "MJ here was no end of useful, so thanks for lending her to me, really."

"No problem," Meredith finally said.

"I am sorry, though," MJ said again. "I totally understand how angry you were when I got here."

"No, it's okay, I lose my temper sometimes, I told you that before," Meredith said. "You're here now, that's all that matters, right? So could you go pick up some coffees for the three of us, please? They only have swill here at the venue--"

MJ flashed Heath a look as she walked past him.

Crisis averted.

And Heath gave her a look back.

You're amazing.

🌹🇮🇹🌹🇮🇹🌹🇮🇹🌹🇮🇹🌹🇮🇹🌹

"Well, dad, I know it's the middle of the day there, but it's really late here, so I have to go, okay?" MJ told the smiling man she was face timing with. "Everyone around me is sleeping, it's really rude." Which was true, though the people on the tour bus were so used to sleeping under any conditions that probably none of them even realized she was talking.

They were already finished with Rome, and were headed for Milan, six hours to the north, and the crew was exhausted and snoring all around her.

MJ was just settling back when Heath showed up and roughly shook Sawyer, one of the bass players, who was out cold next to her.

"Sawyer, mate, move your arse, please," Heath said, practically yanking Sawyer out of the seat. He aimed Sawyer at a seat across the aisle, and Sawyer more or less crashed into it and was comfortably snoring five seconds later, probably with no memory of ever having moved.

Heath happily tumbled into the empty seat and snuggled into MJ's side.

"Hey, you," MJ whispered. "I thought you were supposed to be on the other bus?" The other bus was for the more important people, and had bunks and sofas and refrigerators. Meredith had apologized to MJ, though not very sincerely, when it was discovered there wouldn't be enough room for her over there because of Donna and Kate.

"I snuck on this one, I heard the hot girls were over here," Heath confided.

MJ snorted really loudly, and this made both of them laugh.

"So apparently the story on social media is that Meredith and I are an item, and she was secretly in England with me, at Nigel's funeral. She was standing just out of the frame of that photograph that the pap took," Heath said as he put an arm around MJ and pulled her close. "Someone put it out there that you're her PA, so logically if you're there, she must've been there or some such twaddle, who the fuck knows?" Heath shrugged.

"The really hilarious part is that Mer herself has been on Twitter putting out oblique messages like, 'I wouldn't want to confirm or deny where I've been over the last couple of days,' and 'Of course I'd want to support Heath during his time of need, but I wouldn't want to use such a sad occasion to try to sell records,' shit like that." Heath made a sound of disgust. "God, I hate people like her," he said. "I can't believe I ever dated her."

He turned to MJ and stroked her face. "I missed you so much today," he murmured. "Even though it was only a couple of days, I'd gotten used to being with you all the time, you know?" He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. "I missed seeing the way your beautiful lashes curl when you blink, and your perfect little dimple--" he pulled back a tiny bit so he could take in all of her face, and he saw her shake her head slightly and cast her eyes downward.

"No, now, what? What's the head shake for?" he asked, leaning close again.

"Heath, you have to stop, please," MJ begged. "I can't do this, I can't go from zero to a hundred so fast, I feel like I'm going to drown on an overdose of feelings or something." She buried her face in his shoulder so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"Please, that made no sense, Ms. Jabberwocky," Heath teased. "At the very least, you mixed some metaphors or something, didn't you?"

He was satisfied when he got her to laugh.

"Everyone's going to know about us if they see us like this," she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

"Please, everyone's out cold," Heath answered comfortably. "Let's snog." And he lifted her chin, and put action to the words, loving the feel of her soft lips yielding to his. His hand stole down to her waist, where it slipped under her shirt to rest on her warm skin, and he felt it a victory when she didn't tense up, when she let him leave it there so he could keep touching her.