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| The SURPRISE Weekend By: Dakota July 1998 |
| Part one: 'The Surprise' |
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| As Alex sat down at her desk, she suddenly realized just how very tired she really was. It was only ten o'clock Friday morning, but it seemed like it should be midnight. She stretched, rubbing her neck, trying to get some of the aches to leave her weary body. She was totally exhausted. It had been a very long, demanding three months. The case she had been working on had been one of the most aggravating cases she could remember prosecuting. It had turned into an attorney's worst nightmare. The case concerned an abusive husband who had inflicted some of the worst mistreatment she had ever seen. The man, both very wealthy and powerful, knew how to use these assets to his advantage. The sad thing was, his wealth and power had almost won the case for him. When Alex had been assigned the case, she had known little about the power this man had. With the amount of witness's her team had compiled, she had been tricked into a false sense of security, thinking that it would be a relatively easy case to prosecute; she could not have been more wrong in her thinking. This man had hired a very high power attorney, one that knew every trick in the book to make the prosecution's job even harder. Every witness that Alex had called to the stand, no matter how creditable, had their testimonies torn apart in his cross examinations. He knew just how to twist their words and how to manipulate everything they said until even they began to doubt themselves. Alex had left the courtroom everyday praying that they would get the break they needed to nail this guy, often doubting in herself, her ability, to even win the case and bring this man to justice. Alex's fear of failure consumed her thoughts and often her soul as well, knowing that if she couldn't make the charges stick, he would probably be set free to keep on terrorizing his poor family. Finally; the break they had so desperately needed had been found by Alex's favorite Texas Ranger...Cordell Walker. How Walker had managed to find the witness they needed was a mystery even to her. "It must have something to do with his Cherokee heritage," she said to herself, because the witness had been overlooked by everyone, including the defendant himself. Thanks to Walker's "never give up attitude" today the case was finished. The man would never be able to hurt anyone ever again. Now maybe things would get back to normal and she would have some much needed time to spend with Walker and of course C.D. and Jimmy too. Alex sighed heavily and thought..... "I wonder where Walker is and what he is doing right now?" As if on cue, Walker came walking into her office. "Hi!," she said as she once again stretched and smiled at him fondly. "He looks different," she thought to herself, not quite knowing how. He was dressed his usual way, with nice fitting black jeans and a black western shirt. "Maybe the shirt is new," she thought. No. It wasn't the clothes that were different, it was Walker himself. There was a look about him that Alex had never seen before, a look that said he was up to something. Maybe it was just her imagination. She really was tired. "I thought you would be out catching another bad guy for me to prosecute," she said as he walked over to stand beside her. "No, I decided to take the rest of the day and all weekend off. That's why I'm here, to see if you would like to join one of your favorite people for a weekend of nothing but peace, quiet and relaxation," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Are you feeling all right Walker? You never take time off voluntarily! What's wrong?" "Nothing is wrong. I just needed some time off. I finally took your advice to slow down a little, that's all." "That sounds wonderful, God knows I sure need some time off. I don't think I have ever been this wiped out from a case, not in a long time anyway. But, do I really have to wait until C.D. and Jimmy to get back next from their fishing trip to get my much needed rest and relaxation, you did say my favorite people." she said teasingly. "HaHa. Very funny Alex, but I said one of your favorite people" Walker said teasingly as he moved behind her pretending to choke her. Alex laughed as she tried to remove his hands from around her neck. Walker laughed also, then slowly moved his hands downward and tenderly started massaging her tired neck muscles. Alex closed her eyes and sighed as Walker's hands slowly and expertly moved along her neck and upper back. Almost immediately Alex felt relief from some of the tension that had been there for far too long. "He has such wonderful hands...hands that are strong and powerful, yet soft and gentle all at the same time," Alex thought as she softly sighed again. "Ummm....that feels wonderful. But if you keep that up too long I will fall asleep right here," she said yawning. Walker leaned even closer and as his lips brushed her ear he whispered very softly, "If you fall asleep, you won't be packed and ready to go away with me for the weekend and believe me, I don't think you'll want to miss it. I have made allot of plans," with that said, he gently kissed her neck. "I haven't said I would go with you yet. How do you know that you are my favorite person?" she said as she looked at him with a grin on her face. Abruptly releasing her, Walker started for the door saying over his shoulder, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to find someone else to take with me. Maybe that new girl filling in for our secretary, I sure hope she can get ready fast. I'm leaving in two hours. Bye Alex, see you on Monday". "Walker!!! Wait!!! I was only teasing. I'd love to go away with you for the weekend!" Alex hurriedly rose and moved across the room to stop him before he could get out the door. Walker turned, laughing and immediately took her in his arms. As he held her tightly he gently tilted her head up so he could look into her beautiful blue eyes. As his lips slowly descended to hers, he softly said "I knew you would. I was counting on it." He then tenderly kissed her. Alex accepted his kiss very willingly, she loved kissing Walker, but somehow the kiss was different. They had kissed many times before, but this one was definitely different. How? She didn't know, just different. Alex scolded herself for letting her mind wander while this magnificent man was kissing her. "What's wrong with you Cahill. Enjoy being in Walker's arms and kissing him. Heaven knows it doesn't happen often enough for my liking." When Walker finally released her, she smiled and laid her hand on his cheek stroking his unusually soft beard. She looked into his eyes. There for a split second she saw...What? A flash of something, but it was all to soon gone. "What is he up to?" she questioned herself, for now she KNEW he was definitely up to something. Suddenly, Alex realized that Walker was talking to her and trying to get her attention. "Alex. Alex? You're wasting time day dreaming. We have to be at the ranch and ready to go by noon." Alex shook her head and said, "But Walker, you haven't told me were we are going. What kind of clothes should I take?" But he was already headed out the door. "Just pack some clothes and I'll pick you up at your apartment in 45 minutes," he said over his shoulder as he closed the door. Alex stood there for a moment thinking of what she would pack and how she could ever possibly be ready in such a short amount of time. She slowly shook her head and turned to get her things as she said to the empty room in front of her, "Oh Walker, will I ever be able to figure you out?" Walker leaned against the door grinning; for he had heard her comment about figuring him out after he had closed the office door. His grin widened as he patted the left breast pocket of his shirt. "I sure hope you don't figure me out, too soon that is, it will ruin my surprise." In the past, every time Walker and Alex had tried to take a vacation or be alone together, something had always gotten in their way. They often joked about this fact, saying that they were just jinxed and that they would never have the kind of time together that they were always trying for. Even though they joked about it, it was none the less irritating to both of them. "Not this time," Walker smiled. He had had a vision dream last night that was so vivid and real that he knew for a fact that NOTHING would go wrong this time. With that thought, Walker headed for the parking lot to get his truck and to do some last minute errands, feeling Happier than he had in a very long time. ******** It had been almost 45 minutes since Alex had left her office. Walker would be here any minute to pick her up and she still wasn't ready to go. It would have been so much easier to pack if she had an idea as to where they would be going. What should she take to wear? Dress clothes? Casual clothes? Would it be hot or would it be cold? Alex had not a clue. How far away were they going? She didn't know...only Walker knew. Finally she got the biggest suitcase she owned out, threw it on her bed and began packing a little bit of every type of clothing she had, just hoping she was taking something that would be appropriate to wear. Where ever they were going. ******** Walker had made the last of the stops he had to make before going to pick up Alex. He hoped he hadn't forgotten anything. He double checked the items he had picked up. He had eight beautiful long stem roses...all yellow...Alexs' favorite...one for each year that they had known each other and two very special bottles of champagne. No, he had everything, and everything else had been taken care of by C.D. and Trivette. He hadn't wanted to let them in on any of the surprise for Alex but he had known that without their help he would have never gotten everything done for this weekend. They truly were the best friends and family a man could ever have. He lifted his eyes to the sky and silently thanked God, something he made a point of doing everyday, that he was lucky enough to have them...and Alex...in his life. How C.D. and Trivette had ever kept the secret, he didn't know. Maybe it had something to do with him telling them that he would use them as human dummies for his karate practice. Walker laughed out loud as he thought of their responses to his threat. C.D. had said, "Now Cordell, you know I'm to dang gum old to be your work out partner." And Trivette had responded with, "Oh no you don't pard. I'm STILL trying to get over the pain of you whooping' on me the last time we worked out together." Anyway, his threat had worked. Alex had no idea of what he was up to and C.D. and Trivette had managed to keep the SURPRISE a secret, at least the part that they knew about. They didn't even know the full extent of the SURPRISE. Only Walker and three other people knew; these three people being very needed to make his surprise become a reality. C.D. and Trivette were definitely in for a little bit of a surprise too! ******** By the time Walker had picked Alex up at her apartment, loaded her huge suitcase into the back of his truck and drove the almost hour drive to his ranch it was exactly noon. "Perfect timing," Walker said, as he turned the dodge off, hearing the distant sound of a helicopter. He looked over at Alex, who had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had gotten into the truck. "She sure needs the time off," he thought to himself, "she's exhausted from all the overtime and mental stress from this last case of hers." Walker smiled hoping she didn't plan on sleeping the ENTIRE time they were away. He had more...let's say...Romantic plans in store for her. As the sound of the chopper got closer, Walker decided he had better wake Alex up. He gently reached over to move a piece of her hair that had fallen onto her face. "She is so beautiful," he thought as Alex stirred just long enough to change her position a little. He really did hate to wake her but the chopper was almost here. "Alex," he said softly, as he gently leaned over brushing his lips against hers. The only response he got was a wrinkling of her nose as his mustache brushed against it. He grinned and decided he was going to have to try a little bit harder if he was ever going to get her awake. He reached over and gently pulled her sleeping body into his arms and began a very slow and seductive kiss, trying to tease her into waking up. As Alex started to wake up, her first thought was that she was dreaming...a very GOOD dream...and in it she was kissing Walker. It didn't take long for her to realize that she wasn't dreaming...she was really being kissed by him. She quickly decided to pretend she was still asleep not wanting the kiss to end, but somehow Walker knew she was awake because he quickly ended the kiss and started to move away from her. "It's about time you woke up, I thought I was going to have to kiss you forever," he said with a smile, having decided that he too could tease her like she had teased him. Then he wiped his hand across his mouth, much like a small boy would do to get rid of every little boy's greatest fear...girl germs. Alex laughed and stretched trying to wake up fully as she said, "Well, if that's the way you feel about kissing me, I just won't kiss you ever again." After hearing this, Walker grabbed her, pulling her back into his arms and began to kiss her again, a very slow and passionate kiss that all but took Alexs' breath away. When the kiss ended this time Walker looked deep into her eyes and said, "I have decided that I don't want to even think about living without your kisses!" Walker's statement took Alex completely by surprise. Walker was not the kind of man to talk about his inner most feelings, preferring to keep his emotions well hidden from even his closest friends. There really was something different about him today, but she didn't have the time to really think about it. This wonderful new side of himself that he was finally showing to her, after all these years, would have to be thought about a lot more at another time, because just then a helicopter landed in Walkers' front yard and Walker was now trying to help her out of the truck saying, "Come on Alex, our ride is here." The next few minutes were spent loading their suitcases and a large box from the back of Walkers' truck onto the helicopter. When everything was loaded and the pilot had climbed back in to the chopper, Walker turned to Alex and handed her a bandanna telling her to tie it over her eyes. Walker laughed as he saw the look of total disbelief in her eyes and he then proceeded to turn her around, putting the blindfold in place, making sure she couldn't see anything. Alex reached to remove it, protesting, but before she could, Walker stopped her, promising it would be well worth it if she waited and to just trust him. Alex decided she would do as he told her but, she had also decided to tell him he wasn't just acting strangely...he was acting CRAZY!!! And she did. Walker just laughed and helped her into the chopper thinking, “Yah, I'm crazy all right. Crazy in Love with you!!!" Alex knew that Walker would tell her no more about where they were going or what he was up to so, once they were in the air, she decided to get more comfortable, snuggling up to Walker's chest and deciding she might as well go back to sleep. She couldn't see where they were going anyway. As she was getting comfortable, she had thought about what he had said to her..."Trust me." Alex wondered if Walker knew how deep her trust for him really was. Of course he knew. He had to know. He knew she trusted him with her life, God only knew how many times over the years that they both had had to put their trust in each other into use. But...Did this strong, silent, caring man have any idea how much she had grown to Love and care about him? When exactly had she fallen so deeply in Love with this mighty Texas Ranger? "I think," Alex said to herself as sleep once again began to over take her, "I think I fell in Love with him the first time he took the witness stand and I looked into his eyes." And with the memory of that day still running threw her mind, Alex fell into the most peaceful and restful sleep she had had in a very long time. As Walker moved to make Alex more comfortable and to hold her even closer as she slept, he too was thinking about the first time they had met. ******** Everyone had been talking about the new Assistant District Attorney in the office. Walker had not had the chance to meet her but he would in just a few minutes, because he had to testify and she was the prosecuting attorney. Everyone had been talking about how tough she was and especially about how pretty she was. He began going over the case in his head, preparing himself for the job of testifying; a part of his job he hated to do. He had made a bust in an alley, stopping some thugs from beating up on a young policeman during a riot situation. There had been seven of them but, with his martial arts experience, they had not been too much of a challenge to arrest. Little did he know, but the young policeman he had saved that day would someday become one of his very best friends and someone he would become so close to that he would even start to think of him as a brother...none other than his partner of six years now...James Trivette. When Walker had taken the stand that day, he purposefully did not look at the new ADA. He wanted to wait until he could look into her eyes. It was something that had been taught to him by Uncle Ray. Uncle Ray had told him once that the eyes were the windows into a persons soul...you could tell if they were someone you could trust or if they were someone to beware of. "The eyes don't lie Washo," he had said, "they will tell you everything you need to know about a person, if you only take the time to look into the eyes." As Walker had grown older he had always remembered what Uncle Ray had told him learning early on that it was true, making a point of using it in his everyday life, both on the job and off. As the new ADA., Alexandra Cahill, made her approach to the witness stand that day, Walker sat waiting for her to ask her first question of him. As she spoke to him for the first time, he looked up into the most beautiful set of blue eyes he had ever seen. He saw gentleness, kindness, stubbornness and a great inner strength in her eyes. Everything he had heard said about her had been true, especially the part about being pretty. She had seemed kind of nervous though, just staring at him, before she finally got back to the job at hand. Walker laughed to himself as he remembered they had not really gotten off on the right foot with each other that day and both had complained very loudly to CD about how stubborn and mule headed that each other were for days to come. But even then, CD had known that with a little bit of time and a whole lot of patience and understanding on both their parts, that they would make the perfect couple. He could see, even then, that although neither one would attest to liking the other one, that they were very attracted to each other, and that they, without knowing it themselves, had already begun the delightful journey of "Falling in Love." Their next meeting had happened three days later at CD's big New Year's Eve bash. The place was packed, of course it always was on special night's like that, because everyone knew that CD Parker threw the best parties in all of Texas. It was a fact CD was very proud of and very anxious to tell anyone that would listen. Walker and she had bumped into each other accidentally and the first thing they had done was start to argue about that day in court. The second thing they had done was, kissed, for the very first time. "Why?" Walker had asked himself. "Was it because the clock had just struck midnight. Was it because it was New Years Eve and he wasn't there with anyone? Was it because she just happened to be the one standing there?" No. Walker knew now, as he did even back then, that he had just met the woman of his dreams and that eventually she would steal his heart. He also knew that his life was never going to be the same! Oh, he had fought against it. He had been hurt very badly by falling in love before, but with each day that went by, he knew in his heart that he was slowly losing the battle and after awhile, he didn't fight it as hard, until finally he wasn't fighting at all. As Walker came back to the present time, eight years later, he looked at the sleeping woman in his arms. They had become the best of friends in those eight years and they had learned to trust each other with their lives. In fact, they were closer than Walker had ever thought he could be with another human being. And yes, they had fallen in Love with each other, even though neither one of them had said those three little words out loud yet. "I LOVE YOU!" The three little words that made life worth living, Uncle Ray had said, on more than one occasion. But, that would all change this weekend, he would make sure of it. Walker could not imagine his life without Alex and he prayed, he would never have too. Stroking her hair, ever so gently, while she slept, Walker again went over his plans for the weekend in his mind. As the helicopter landed at their destination, Walker gently woke Alex, making sure the blindfold was still in place, and helping her out of the chopper. He then hurriedly got their suitcases and the box unloaded and quickly spoke to the pilot and thanked him. While Walker was doing all of this, Alex stood shaking off the last effects of sleep. She wondered where they were. There was a soft breeze blowing and in the distance she could hear what sounded like water flowing...a stream or river maybe? She was really excited about being here with Walker. Wherever here was, but then again, it really didn't matter where they were. She was here with Walker, the man she Loved with all her heart and soul and she vowed to herself, right then and there, that she was finally going to tell him that. This weekend! Lost in her thoughts, Alex soon heard the sound of the chopper starting back up and taking off. "Well, it won't be long now before I finally know what Walker is up to.", she thought becoming even more anxious. Walker slowly walked over to where Alex stood, deep in thought, and he took a deep breath. "This is it." he thought to himself looking to the sky, saying a silent prayer. "Are you ready for your first surprise?" he asked stepping behind her, slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against his body. "I sure am." Alex replied. “The suspense is killing me!" she said as Walker began to kiss her neck and playfully bite at her ear lobes. Alex sighed, snuggling closer to him, thoroughly enjoying this new side of Walker. He had never been this way with her before. Sure they had kissed, even pretty heavily a few times. And once, when they had gone white water rafting, they had been to a point were Alex had thought they might have gone a little farther; if they hadn't been interrupted. But it had not been meant to happen then and sometimes Alex wondered if it ever would happen! Every time Walker took her into his arms, she thought about making Love to this attractive, powerful man. "What would it be like? What kind of a Lover would he be? WILL I EVER KNOW?" All these thoughts, combined with the sensations that were racing through her body because of Walkers' "playing", were almost too much for Alex to handle. She quickly turned in his arms to pull his lips to hers. She needed to kiss him. She needed to feel his full lips against hers. NOW! The kiss seemed to last forever. Who pulled away first, neither knew, but by the time the kiss had ended, they were both trying to catch their breath. Not speaking, Walker removed the blindfold. He looked at her flushed face. Her eyes were still closed and she was trying to catch her breath. He smiled as he turned her around. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!" Alex was having a hard time coming back to her senses. When she finally realized that Walker had even taken the blindfold off, she found herself looking at the sweetest little cabin she had ever seen, in the most beautiful place she had ever seen. The cabin looked as if it had just been freshly painted white and it had black wooden shutters framing the windows. It had a front porch, with a porch swing on it and in front of the porch there were hundreds of yellow roses growing from bushes that had been planted there. On the front door was a huge yellow ribbon, with a long stem yellow rose tucked into it. Looking at the area surrounding the cabin, Alex could only describe it as...breathtaking!!! The cabin stood in a small clearing surrounded by nothing but trees as far as her eyes could see and behind the cabin was a majestic looking mountain and nothing else. Nothing but the beautiful, quiet wilderness. This place had to be a little piece of Heaven here on earth. Walker stood silently by, watching Alex take in their surroundings. He smiled, knowing just how she felt and what emotions she was feeling. He had been here hundreds of times over the years, but every time he came here he experienced the same feelings of amazement, awe and wonder. This truly was the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth, and he was the luckiest man on earth. He was here with Alex! Finally speaking, Walker said, "Well? What do you think of your birthday present?... ALEX?" Alex turned looking at Walker. "I don't know what to say. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I...My Birthday? Oh, my God! I forgot. It IS my birthday Walker! I forgot my own birthday. Oh Walker!!! THANK YOU!!! Thank you so much!!! Laughing joyfully, Alex threw herself into Walker's arms, placing small little kisses all over his face, saying "Thank you!" after each one. Page Two |