Not fat, though, but solid muscle. More like Chyna, from the WWF way back in the day, big.

Her eyes were all for the man in front of me, real concern etched on her face.

"Oh, Red, honey. Are you okay?" The man-I mean woman-said.

She sounded like a man, though.

She could probably pass for one, too.

I wouldn't blink an eye if I saw her pissing in the stall next to mine.

"I'm okay," he said, eyes glancing at me. "But my, erm, toy is gone."

The woman's face didn't change, but her eyebrows did.

And they rose to the very top of her forehead, right to her hairline.

"And where," she said, "might I ask, is your toy?"

He bit his lip, then started to cry.

I chose that moment to load him into the back of the ambulance.

Maybe if we got out of here all this wouldn't seem so fucking messed up.

"Let's get him going," I ordered Tai, who'd miraculously been quiet this entire time.

His eyes, though, said something completely different than quiet.

They said he was dying.

Of laughter. Not actually dying.

"You will not," the woman said, getting down on her knees and looking into the Redmond's eyes, "let them destroy that toy. It's my favorite to use on you."

The man nodded, but I could've told him that promise was futile.

They'd do whatever they needed to do to get that thing out. Even if it meant destroying it.

And I felt that most likely Redmond wouldn't enjoy the consequences of this accident.

"That was a first," Tai said as he got into the passenger side of the ambulance after the call. "I don't think it's ever been so hard to hold my laughter in."

I didn't say anything, mostly because my eyes were on the woman directly in front of me.

She was laughing with Bowe who had his hand resting on her shoulder.

I'd heard through the grapevine that Bowe and Masen weren't together.

However, the way he was touching her so intimately said otherwise.

Masen threw her head back at something Bowe said, and her hair fell in soft waves down her back.

My hand gripped the steering wheel even tighter as he pulled her into his chest.

Masen wrapped her hands around his chest and laid her head against it, and I stared into her eyes as she did.

My jaw clenched.

She didn't look away, and neither did I.

"Medic two, MVA at Stone Road and Rural Route 22," the dispatcher said.

I still didn't look away.

"Booth," Tai said.

My teeth ground together.

"Mike," Tai said again.

Masen tightened her arms around Bowe, purposefully.

"Earth to Mike Jones," Tai yelled.

"Who?" The stupid student that'd been riding with us all day said.

I finally released Masen from my gaze and turned to glare at the student who'd be lucky not to receive bad marks on his evaluation report later on.

"That stopped being funny five years ago," I snapped.

He instantly shrank back from the venom in my words and sat back down meekly before turning his gaze.

"Sorry," he said.

"You fucking better be," I growled, throwing the ambulance into drive and pulling out of the bay in the next moment.

I didn't look back at Masen.

But she never strayed far from my thoughts as we ran ourselves ragged for the rest of the afternoon.

And by the time I arrived at the station and found Bowe sitting slouched on a bar stool with his back against the bar, my temper ignited.

He'd begged me to switch him the medic for the quint today, and I'd done it...for some stupid fucking reason.

I was normally a pretty easy going guy, but seeing him kicked back eating a fucking bowl of chili while I hadn't eaten a goddamned thing since this morning really set my teeth on edge.

That, or maybe it was the fact that he had his hands on my woman.

And that was more true than anything.

Masen was mine.

She'd been mine since I'd taken her virginity at seventeen.

And although ten years had passed, the feelings hadn't.

She hadn't moved on, and neither had I.

And I never would.

So when Bowe shot that smirk in my direction, I nearly lost it.

Nearly just because Tai stopped me before I could get two steps in Bowe's direction.

"Hey," Tai said, stopping me with a hand on my chest.

I looked down at him.

He was six foot or so. I was six foot five.

I had plenty of inches, as well as pounds on him.

He just plain didn't have the bulk that I did, but I respected Mia.

Respected the man she chose, even if I didn't necessarily like him.

"What?" I asked through clenched teeth, not taking my eyes off of Bowe.

"You need to take a step back. You're at work. Bowe's at work. You have to work with him for however long you plan on staying here. Don't fuck it up," Tai's voice of reason barely penetrated my brain.

I bared my teeth at him.

"She's mine," I snapped.

Tai snorted.

"Then fucking get her back. Stop fucking around, and get her the fuck back."

Chapter 8.

Just got 20 minutes of cardio from trying to pick an ice cube up off the kitchen floor. Do I still need to work out?

-Masen's secret thoughts Masen He was wearing my shirt. Or the shirt he'd taken back from me. The one he was wearing when we met.

It wasn't anything special.

Just a navy t-shirt with the words 'LETU baseball' across the chest.

The sight of him wearing that shirt shot me back years, to a better time...and a better place.

Making me freeze in the middle of the parking lot and stare at the man that loved to torture me.

Twelve and a half years ago Masen- 16 years old Booth- 20 years old "Please, please, please, please," Mia chanted over and over again.

I looked at her, blindly picking up a French fry and dipped it into the ketchup before I shoved it in my mouth.

"Why do we have to go to a college game?" I asked. "There's going to be no way in hell that any guy even takes a second look at us."

I was sixteen, almost seventeen, and I knew, logically, that I'd never get anyone that was that much older than me.

Not to mention it was illegal seeing as I was still sixteen.

Twenty-five days until I'm seventeen.

Those thoughts flittered through my head as I absently finished off my fries before I answered Mia.

"Who's there that you want to see again?" I asked.

"Jeff Tidwell's brother is playing today," she said. "And he invited me. And if you loved me, you wouldn't make me go by myself."