BACKGROUND:
After the safe house was attacked, Leya became ill. She has yellow fever, from her recent trip to Bogota.


Steven returned with a gray Army T-shirt and clean sheets. "You can wear this. It'll cover as much as what you're wearing," he said and added under his breath, "Hopefully more."

"I heard that." Her cheeks turned crimson.

"I want to go on the record saying I don't approve of this shower idea." He paused, knowing he didn't have a choice. "Let's get it over." The scowl on his face showed his disapproval. "Are you sure you're strong enough? I'm positive you don't want my help."

"I'm sure I'll feel better after I shower and wash my hair. I feel grubby." She glanced across the room at the dresser. After a deep sigh, she pulled the blankets up under her chin. "Could you ... please ... get me some ...," Her voice dropped to a whisper, "clean underwear?"

Steven glared at her, knowing this was already a fiasco, and would only get worse. He searched through the underwear drawer. How can one person have so much underwear?

"Just grab a pair," she snapped. "It doesn't make any difference."

"It does. When you crawl out of bed and run to the bathroom, I can't help but notice your underwear."

"No, you can't!" Her arms crossed her chest.

He stared at her. "You're wearing pink bikini panties."

Leya lifted the covers and noticed she wore hot pink panties. "Sorry." She hesitated, before she continued, "I can't help it."

He grabbed a pair of blue bikini panties and handed them to her. "I know, but since I have to see them, I'd rather they cover as much as possible. What happened to the white briefs I tossed into the cart at the mall?"

"They were granny panties. I put them back." Her hand pushed her hair behind her shoulders. "I wish I had them now."

"So do I." Steven held out his hand to help her up. As she tried to get out of bed without showing her underwear, he laughed. "I've already seen them. It's too late to worry about it." He shook his head, as she covered her lap with a blanket and stood. He held the bathroom door open for her. "If you need anything, yell."

"I won't need anything." She slammed the door.

Steven began changing her sheets. Leya is a paradox. She acts innocent, yet dresses seductively. I never know how she's going to react.

After twenty minutes, Leya was still in the bathroom. As he sat on the bed, he wondered how much longer she was going to be in there. He glanced at his watch, then knocked on the bathroom door. "Leya?" He waited and called, "Leya?" When there still wasn't an answer, he began to worry and banged on the door. "LEYA. LEYA!"

Ralph came into the room. "What's all the racket?"

"Leya hasn't answered my knocks." Steven slowly opened the door. "Leya?" When she didn't respond, he walked in and discovered her lying in the corner of the tub unconscious. He grabbed a bath towel, covered her, and carried her to bed.

Ralph turned off the water and then helped Steven cover her with blankets.

"Ralph, lie beside her and hold her until she warms up. I'm calling the doctor and Matt." He left the room.

*****
When Steven walked in the room, Leya searched his eyes. "I'm sorry. Taking a shower wasn't a good idea. You were right."

Ralph patted Steven. "I'll be downstairs if you need me."

Leya whispered, "I'm freezing, would you hold me?"

Steven rubbed the back of his neck. "I see you're dressed." After he released a deep breath, he continued, "I'll hold you, but I need to be angry for a while. Can you let me be angry?"

"Yes." She swallowed.

He sat beside her and held her. As her body warmed, she fell asleep.
When she woke up, Steven asked, "How are you feeling?"

"About the same."

"The doctor said you need to stay out of the shower until you're stronger. You fainted because you haven't held any food down for a few days, you are weak, and attempted to do too much too soon. He said if you didn't hurt yourself when you fell you'll be fine."

After a pause, he stood as he said, "Now that I'm sure you're all right, I have a few things to say and I want you to stay quiet until I'm finished." He glared at her as he continued, "It would be to your advantage to listen once in a while. If you had listened this time, you wouldn't have scared Ralph and me to death. If you had listened, I wouldn't have entered the bathroom and carried you to bed. If you listened to me, I wouldn't have seen you naked."

She gulped.

He answered her gulp. "Yes, as you would say, you've been officially violated, and I had no choice." His voice rose sharply with his next sentence. "And it happened because you're so damn stubborn you won't listen to anybody!" He slammed the bedroom door, then opened it again and yelled, "Don't you dare get out of that bed for any reason!" After slamming the door, he stormed off.

*****
Steven went straight to his office and slammed that door too.

Ralph cracked it open just enough to ask, "Do you want me to stay with Leya?"

"No! Well, maybe. Hell, I don't know." He slammed his fist on his desk. "Are all females this frustrating? Why can't she just listen once in a while? Is that too much to ask?"

Ralph smiled. "Steven, you're in love with a very beautiful, very intelligent, and very stubborn young lady." He paused a second. "Good luck." Then he turned to leave.

"Wait," Steven called after him. "Don't leave. Tell me what to do."

"I can't tell you what to do. You'll have to travel this road by yourself and see where it leads you."

"Where could it lead?"

"It could lead to the lady you want to spend the rest of your life with, the one true love of your life. Or it could be a rough ride, where one or both of you get hurt."

"What do I do right now?"

"Cool off and then apologize."

"But I deserve to be angry. She ...."

"A real man takes other people's blame upon himself," interrupted Ralph as he patted Steven on the back and then left him to his thoughts.