Juno nodded, her head lying across Jamie's chest, her finger lazily tracing circles on his stomach. "Yeah, that was me." She confessed with a Cheshire Cat grin. "With the help from a couple of fellow devious girls."

"Why did you make me deliver fifty pounds of kitty litter?" Jamie asked, trying not to laugh.

Juno giggled and sat up on an elbow so she could look down at Jamie. "It was one of the biggest things I could think of for you to deliver. I wanted you to be all bulgy and muscley when you walked through the door." Juno said seriously, but with an eyebrow cocked.

"Bulgy and muscley?" Jamie repeated, and Juno nodded her assent. "I'm feeling very objectified right now." Jamie said, sounding mockingly defensive.

"Made you look studly and hot." Juno shot back, and Jamie puffed up his chest a little.

"Well." He relented. "That's alright, then."

Juno giggled and lay back down. "Did you really hire someone to track me down and buy a plane ticket to Chicago?" She asked after a long pause.

"I did." Jamie admitted. "I've been going mad without you around. Seeing you pulled through the airport like that… I couldn't let that be the end of us. I had to find you. I was due to leave day after tomorrow."

"What would you have done? Just shown up on my doorstep?" Juno asked.

"Something like that. Possibly bearing flowers, or some sort of hot meal." Jamie grinned and kissed the crown of her head.

"Good thing you were coming soon, since the doorstep isn't going to be mine much longer, but the street corner outside might be." Juno said.

"What?" Jamie asked, sitting up in bed and gently tugging Juno up so he could look into her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Juno took a deep breath and launched into her whole sordid tale once again – the eviction, the divorce of her parents, the total lack of available writing assignments and her rapidly dwindling bank account. As Juno recounted all the trials and tribulations of the last few weeks, Jamie's eyes grew steadily larger and larger, unable to fathom what she had shouldered in such a short time.

"Funny thing is…" Juno said, finally winding down from her tale of woe. "I didn't really care so much about all that – I mean, yes, it was awful but it wasn't my focus of every breath. I've just been mooning over you since I got home. Totally moping." Juno paused and sighed. "Kind of pathetic, really."

"Well, if anyone is worth moping over, I am." Jamie said with false bravado.

Juno shot him a death glare. "Really pathetic, as it turns out."

Jamie grinned and kissed Juno's left ear tenderly. "I'm sorry you’ve had such a rough go. My life hasn't been quite so upside down, but I've missed you terribly. I knew you two days, but it felt like you'd walked out after thirty years together."

"I know." Juno agreed. "Really weird. And now I don't feel so pathetic since you were pining for me too."

Jamie snorted and Juno gave him a playful shove. "Yes." He said after a long, lingering look. "I was pining too, I admit it."

"It was so odd… I mean, I'm at home and all this horrible stuff is going on, and if it had happened before I went on vacation, I think I would have just totally fallen apart. But somehow, it's like I knew all this was happening in an alternate universe, because I was only really alive, really only myself when I was here with you." Juno paused and looked at Jamie. "Is this freaking you out? It's kind of freaking me out. I'm not trying to freak you out."

"I'm not freaked out." Jamie said seriously.

"So we can talk about our feelings some more and hold each other tenderly?" Juno teased, and Jamie stuck a tongue out at her.

"Darling, I don't care if you want to wrestle a sheep or attend some sort of interpretative dance production, as long as I get to come along for the ride." Jamie murmured, making Juno blush at his words.

"In Thor the Thunder Car?" Juno asked with a smile. "We might be destitute, homeless and stupid, but we're together and we have a bitchin' ride."

Jamie looked up at the ceiling, trying to decide exactly how to tell Juno what he so desperately needed her to know. "Juno, darling…"

"Yes?" Juno asked, snuggling back against his side and closing her eyes.

"If you're going to be in my life, you should probably know about my life." Jamie said, his voice low and serious. Juno's eyes flew open and she glanced up at him, alarmed at his somber tone, and silently begged with her eyes to be filled in on his own story.

"Okaaaay." She said tentatively. "Tell me."

"Well, to be perfectly honest…" Jamie began. "We won't exactly be destitute. Or homeless."

"Jamie?" Juno said with a warning tone in her voice. "What haven't you told me?"

"As you might have noticed, I haven't told you very much about my family life." Jamie said and Juno nodded emphatically.

"You haven't told me anything." Juno shot back quickly.

"Well, the thing is…" Jamie struggled to find words and Juno felt the panic rising in her throat and threatening to cut off her air flow.

"What, Jamie?" She asked, sitting bolt upright in bed and facing him. "You're a convicted murderer? You're already married? You're gay? What??"

Jamie laughed and ran a warm and comforting hand down her spine. "None of the above, I promise. The truth of the matter is, I actually have a home. Or rather, my family has a home. And it's less of a home, per se, and more of an… an estate."

"An estate?" Juno repeated dumbly, and Jamie nodded.

"With a castle." He added as an afterthought.

It was Juno's turn for her eyes to grow bigger and bigger. "Castle?" She parroted again and Jamie nodded again.

"My family is… rather well off." Jamie faltered. "Very well off. We have a lot of land, and a lot of… income. My father is actually in the House of Lords."

Juno gasped in shock. "Your father passed away?" She asked, suddenly feeling grief stricken for Jamie's loss. She'd known the man was ill, but…

Jamie snickered and shook his head. "Not in the House OF the Lord. In the House of Lords. The upper house of the British Parliament. It's the house that…"

Juno took a deep breath and held up a hand to cut him off. "I took World Government in college. Your father is in the House of Lords? Whoa…"

"Yes." Jamie said, still deeply embarrassed. "And I'm the first born and next in line, and we're still very old fashioned here in the UK, so my father has decided that due to his health and all, it would be best if…"

"You're a freakin' LORD?" Juno burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. "With a CASTLE?"

Jamie nodded, his cheeks reddening. "There's even a small moat. You'd like it, though. We don't actually reside in the castle, there's actually a large house nearby that serves as the main residence for the family." Jamie watched Juno carefully, gauging her reaction to his bombshell. "It's right by a nice pond." He added sweetly.

"You live in Pemberley." Juno repeated dumbly. "You're freakin' Fitzwilliam Darcy."

"A younger, much studlier version, but… yes." Jamie trailed off, his eyes downcast.

Juno sat for a long moment and tried to process this new and vaguely interesting nugget of information. Jamie Fulham was not actually a courier with only a Mini to his name. He was the son and heir of…

Holy smokes, Juno thought dumbly. He really is straight out of Pride and Prejudice.

"Wow." Juno said, feeling stupid for not having known any of this before now. "This is a fairy tale."

"You understand why I didn’t tell you before?" Jamie asked, eager for her to understand. "You understand my reluctance to tell anyone I've just met? I've fought this automatic, built-in life of mine for so long that it's just become habit to hide who I am. I wanted to be a courier for a while to live a little, see the countryside, meet the people who live here, and be my own person for a while. I've always been resigned to the fact I would take over my father's business and estate someday, but I wanted to be my own man first. And then you came along, and I didn't want you to think I was… stuffy, I suppose."

Juno nodded bleakly. "You aren't stuffy." She said automatically, certainly secure in that affirmation.

"Studly, yes, but not stuffy." Jamie joked, trying to break the tension, and Juno finally met his eyes and smiled.

"I really do understand. I'm just… it's going to take a minute to adjust." Juno said, her voice quavering slightly with pent up emotion.

"Alright." Jamie agreed. "But no more than a minute."

"It's a fairy tale." Juno repeated quietly to herself. "My life has suddenly become a fairy tale."

"Is that good?" Jamie asked skeptically, overhearing her.

"Pinch me." Juno said suddenly, looking up at him with searching eyes. "Pinch me and wake me up."

Jamie cocked and eyebrow and looked at Juno with a lusty expression. "Can I pinch you anywhere I want?"

Juno squealed as a hand quickly snaked under the covers and firmly pinched her backside. "Your family would never approve of someone like me being in your life." Juno said quietly after she had good naturedly slapped Jamie's hand away. "I'm not right for you."

"You're exactly right for me." Jamie said, his lips against her ear as he leaned his body against hers. "And now that I've found you, I'm never letting you go."

As Jamie gently pulled Juno against his chest and kissed her deeply, she ordered her brain to shut off and for her heart to take over.

It was finally time to surrender her itineraries and plans, her careful life and her shuttered emotions.

Jamie had taught her that in just two short days.

As Jamie rolled her back onto the pillow and began tracing a line of kisses from her neck to other vacation spots on her body, Juno could only think of one thing.

The plan had been accomplished with truly fantastic results.

A real life fairy tale, complete with Prince Charming and a castle with a moat.

And a bitchin' car.

1790 / 49588 / 50000

before . after