She'd walked home from the houseparty alone that night. Dismissing her staff and even shooing Dean off. It was a nice evening, the moon was full and the stars were brilliant. The cloudless sky was inky black.

Stopping to pick flowers along the road as she walked, the plan for a moonlit swim formed in her head. A smile on her face as she walks through the door.

Wait.

Something's not right.

Dark, the house was... dark. No familiar thump thump thump from the basement. As she flips on the light in the foyer, she calls out his name.

"Dakota? Babe?"

She went from room to room, turning lights on, searching for him. She'd become frantic, calling out his name.

"Dakota?! Where are you?!"

The silence was defening, she'd even checked the basement to find it empty, the fan turned off. Running back up the stairs, she goes the kitchen, she could think there. Laying there on the table was the note.




"Rosie,

Baby, you knew what I was when we got married. I'm a born outlaw, and tonight, I'm going outlawing. I love you, and I'll be home when I get home.

Dakota"


She couldn't breathe. What'd he mean, going outlawing? Home when he got home? She couldn't comprehend the meaning of the letter and she read it over and over again.

Finally, with tears in her eyes she rises from the table and walks to the door, stepping on the flowers she'd picked not too long ago. She didn't even shut the door. Into the night she walked, she needed to find her love, her heart, her outlaw.

She honestly did not know where to start. Usually very articulate and able to haggle down the most money grubbing vendor, she was at a loss for words. Staring down at the note on the table before her, even tears would no longer come.

"I don't know, Brian. I don't know why he's doing what he's doing."

As the coffee pot gurgled the last few drops of caffienated goodness, Brian would make his way into the kitchen and pour two cups o' joe. Then out to the living room he'd come, setting the mugs on the coffee table.

Leaning over, he'd cup her chin and force her to look up, make eye contact.

"We're wolves, remember?" He surely hated to see her like this. And if anybody could relate to our red head's situation, it was the Elder Ravenlock. Brows raised, somewhat demanding a response from Rosie.

And respond she did. Taking a deep breath, she'd straighten her spine and square her shoulders. "Wolves."

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Brian built a fire in the fireplace and his soothing words would soon have Rosie calmed down and actually falling asleep on the couch. He'd placed a blanket on her sometime during the night, and kisses her pale forehead.

When she does awake, Brian's still there. He would smile at her warmly. "Good morning, beautiful."

Perhaps it was her pale face and tired eyes. Perhaps it was the way Dean had to practically had to drag her to a barstool. Perhaps it was the way she searched the faces of the people of the common area. Or perhaps it was the way Rosie didn't respond in kind to Mile's typical greeting with a hearty "Ahoy, Cap'n!" of her own. Whatever it was, Miles was right on top of it.

""Rosie me dear, what's troublin' ye?""

Simple enough question, and she'd answer with one of her own.

"Have you seen Dakota?"

Through a series of questions that were to follow, Miles would learn that Rosie'd not seen her husband in over 24 hour period. She'd shown him the note and that brought out a new volley of questions that Rosie really did not know the answer to.

"Interesting. Ah, do you know what kind of 'outlawing' Dakota did? Does? Would make it easier to find out where he's about.
I do mean, should I look for him casing a bank or a jewelry store? Or more of a highwayman? Trust me, Rosie, this is a world I know almost as well as the sea."

A thought occured to Rosie and she'd inquire as to where to get some cocaine. She'd assured Miles that it wasn't for herself. She thought maybe, just maybe, one of the local drug dealers may have seen Dakota.

Right around this point, Rosie noticed that Dean hadn't moved. He was right there, by her side. He'd even lay his hand on her shoulder or gave her hand a gentle squeeze to show his support. She'd come to rely a lot on him the last few days. Not only as a damn good assistant in running the Deli, but as a friend.

Mile's neice, Mia and her pet had come in and it cut the conversation short. In most circumstances, Rosie adored children. But at this juncture in her life, dear reader, she didn't have the want, or need, to be around children. She'd tell Dean she wanted to go home.

Sure enough, the faithful friend that he was, Dean stood up and offered his tattooed elbow to her. He'd smile, trying to comfort Rosie. And Rosie would smile tiredly back and fold her hand into the crook of his elbow.

"Thank you, my friend."

Miles had requested a list of places that she thought Dakota may go. She'd be sure to give him the list once she'd made it, and thanked Miles for his help.

She'd not even noticed Brian's entrance with his female friend, so when he came up behind her at the bar, it was a bit of a surprise to hear those familiar words.

"Heya, bueautiful. Still no sign of him?"

She'd utter a soft hello and a negative reply to his question.

"Miles, is right. We can track him down.. I wouldnt lose sleep over it."

Was a bit too late for that. Sleep had not been her friend since she found that note.

"If ya want, I can come over again and sit up with ya, or just keep an eye on the villa."

Rosie nodded her approval of the idea. She loathed the idea of being alone. She'd offer him a simple thank you, then turned to Dean.

"You want to go now?"

It wasn't a rushed request, he'd never do that. He simply wanted to make sure she was ready. She'd nod to him gratefully.

Miles would offer a piece of advice before she left.

"Baking, unlike art, is not made finer with grief. Can't have salt tears in the sugar cookies."

She'd promised to keep that in mind as she and Dean headed towards the door. They'd almost made it until they heard Charlotte calling out from across the room. The very pregnant woman made her way through a crowded common area, and as she reached Rosie and Dean, she'd offer a comforting hug.

"I heard something in the market...and I had to com see you!"

She should have known better than to go to the MarketPlace and look for Dakota and she'd steeled herself for the rest of what Charlotte had to tell her about what she'd heard. She hated being the center of gossip and speculation and she'd put herself right into that position.

"You don't want to know. None of its true, because I know that man o' yours. But...behind all gossip is a grain of truth. So what happened?"

Something inside Rosie snapped. Dean could physically feel her body tense up as anger rose in her cheeks. She'd hold the note out to Charlotte and pratically snarled.

"You tell me. Is Jathara back in town?"

Charlotte would read the note and more importantly, the tone in Rosie's voice.

"What is this rubbish? ANd no...I don't think he's here."

Rosie would take the note back and place it in her pocket. Her moves were precise and subtle.

"Good, wish he'd never came here, Charlotte. If he'd never have come Dakota would never have acted so strangely lately. He'd be at home, not out alleycatting!

Charlotte would step back, several times, during the rest of Rosie's tirade. She'd never seen the spitfire in Rosie before and it almost scared her to see her friend so angry.

"You... you brought him here! You and your little pact! He said he came here to make sure you did what you and he agreed upon. So tell me, Charlotte, is this what you wanted? Are you happy now? Jathara destroyed your marriage and now he's trying to destroy mine!"

Dean tried to calm her, patting her hand softly.

"Easy Rosie."

She'd not have it though. She'd found a target to vent all of her anger, pain, frustration at.

"Rosie! That is not fair. Let's get you outta here, please."

Emerald eyes snapped open wide as Brian had seemed to come from nowhere and try to offer reason. She'd placed her anger crazed gaze upon him and nearly snarls.

Yea, let's get out of here, wouldn't want to upset anybody would we?

Dean's trying his best to calm Rosie down. He'd wrap his arm around her shoulders tightly, he was in agreeance with Brian. It was time to get Rosie out of the RDI.

"Rosie, it will be alright."

She'd watched Charlotte's eyes fill with tears and turn away, heading towards the bar. Brian had said something about how it was unfair to Charlotte for Rosie to say what she did.

Rosie couldn't think about that, she needed out. She was getting claustrophobic and was having trouble catching her breath.

Dean hurries her out of the door, to the Marketplace. Brian suggested it and Dean knew that was the one place that could calm her down.

"It will be alright Roise, trust me.."

And then they were gone.

While all of this had been going on, where exactly had Dakota been anyway...? Where could he have gone after essentially abandoning Rosie, with nothing more than a note and somewhat of a promise to "be home when I get home"..?

He was heading straight for an old friend's place. Well, it wasn't much of a friend, really. It was someone to buy a hit of cocaine from. Yep, he was definitely planning on becoming the old Dakota on this night. He was sick and tired of feeling penned up in his own home, and he was sick and tired of fighting the cravings for the narcotics that he had figured out by now he couldn't live without.

But along the way, he ran into a good friend of his named Cassie. She was pretty well known around these parts, being the daughter of one Alex Ravenlock, not to mention best friend (and roommate) of Charlotte.

From that point on, Dakota and Cassie basically talked for a little while, before she grinned at him and threw down the challenge for a little sparring..right then and right there. He had gone a round or two with her before, and she was always fun to take on, because the girl didn't know when to quit. If there was one thing Dakota Steele was about, it was competition.

That's the way it went for probably the next hour or so..just a back and forth, highly competitive spar between Dakota and Cassie that even included them falling into this little lake that was extremely close to the grassy area where the battle was taking place. But even that didn't stop the proceedings. They were hellbound and determined to have a real winner this time, and there was no winner until someone gave in.

Finally, Dakota had her stretched in this rather painful hold that involved her lying on her stomach and him gripping her by her chin, yanking her head back..putting extreme pressure on her neck and back. She hung on for as long as she could, and while she knew she could do something dirty to change the tide real quick, she signalled her submission. Well, he released her and immediately rolled onto his back, exhausted as all get out. She was quite spent as well, and almost immediately agreed when Dakota sat up and asked if she wanted to go drinking.

By this point, he had forgotten all about his cravings which were supposedly killing him. But he had no desire to go home and return to his little domesticated lifestyle. He was going to live it up tonight, and there wasn't one damn thing anyone was gonna do to stop him. When a man has lived by his own rules his entire life, and is suddenly thrown into the role of a responsible husband as quickly as he was, there's bound to be some trouble adjusting. And that was honestly the greatest of Dakota's troubles at home. He was pretty much rebelling against everything that was supposed to be right, and it just so happened to be with someone who had been a very good friend to him, namely Cassie.

They slowly approached the Inn, before Dakota just shook his head with a slight sigh..

"I ain't got no interest in goin' in that place. I don't want to deal with anyone, I don't want to face anyone.."

Cassie nodded, fully understanding how he was feeling. And she just nodded with a bit of a grin when he asked if she had any liquor at her place. Indeed, she most certainly did. And off they went, to Cassie and Charlotte's new house.

Along the way, they just talked about whatever...but it mostly involved Dakota spilling his guts about how he was having so much trouble trying to adjust to being a husband, and how he was starting to feel more and more incapable of the responsibilities, simply because he wasn't ready to give up his way of life.

Well, they approached the house, and by this time, it had gotten pretty late. Charlotte and Aiden were surely asleep by now, and turns out they were. Cassie unlocked the front door and the two of them stepped in. She gave Dakota the quick, silent tour before leading him on down to her room, which was basically the entire basement. She had it set up quite nicely...kitchenette, bedroom, bathroom..the whole works. Opening up the fridge, she showed him what he had to choose from, and Dakota immediately grabbed the six pack of beer. He cracked one open for the both of them, and from there, they just kept on talking about everything and anything they could think of.

Time would pass by, the hours would go deeper and deeper into the night, and before any of them could truly realized what was going on, a playful shove off the kitchen counter had led to the both of them ending up on the floor. Yeah, sparks flew..and in a slightly drunken haze, the two of them found themselves in somewhat of a kiss. It wasn't anything fiery or passionate...just something innocent. They flirted with each other for a while longer...but in the back of Dakota's mind, as much as he may have physically wanted to, he absolutely knew that he couldn't go any further with her. Well, he needed a place to stay tonight..because he knew that there was no way in hell he was going home, so he ended up going to sleep with Cassie in her bed. To ensure that Charlotte wouldn't find out, he would make himself get up early in the morning before the sun came up, which was only a few short hours away.

Well, the sun would indeed break through for another day here in the realm of Rhy'din, and guess who missed his cue to get up and get the hell out of that house...?

You guessed it..

Around 11 AM or so, Dakota's eyes began to flutter as he looked over beside him to see Cassie still lying there peacefully. He then glanced over at the clock and saw the time. Sitting up instantly, he cussed loud enough to jolt Cassie awake. Well, there was no way Charlotte didn't know by now. Surely by now, she had come downstairs and saw them lying there asleep. But Cassie reassured him that 9 times out of 10, Charlotte never even comes down here. Well, that was good enough for him, and by now, she was already gone for the day...so everything was still ok. He quickly threw his shirt on, got his boots on, and bid Cassie a great day, thanking her for listening to everything he had to say...and then headed back up the steps into the house. Meanwhile, Cassie laid back in bed. Dakota was absolutely clear, and everything was great....

"Bout time you got up..."

An all too familiar voice made him wince as he looked towards the kitchen, and yeah...there was Charlotte, wiping down the counter, and he knew that look in her eyes. She was just plain pissed.

Well, the first order of business was to convince Charlotte that ABSOLUTELY nothing happened between him and Cassie, which it didn't. She was skeptical at first, but he eventually won her over. He explained to her everything that happened, and from there..just went into detail about how screwed up he was feeling right now..everything that was going through his head, and she was understanding. She even told him that she could relate because it sounded so similar to her and Brian. They had both gone from living extremely selfish, self serving lifestyles to one that called for the both of them to not only be responsible for themselves, but for each other...and it was a terrible adjustment. That actually made Dakota feel a little better....knowing he wasn't the only person in the world who was struggling with this.

They talked for a long, long while....and honestly, after it was all said and done, Dakota was still confused as hell, but he didn't let Charlotte know it. All he knew was that he may have discovered something about himself...the fact that he was incapable of being a husband. He had a life that he wanted to live, and he was damned if he was going to give that up for anybody.

Well, he thanked Charlotte for the talk, and made his way out. It had been an interesting turn of events for Dakota. When he left home the night before, his plan was to inject as many narcotics into his body as he could, and to simply go on as long of a binge as he had ever been on. But someone came along...provided a distraction from the damage he could have done to himself, and he ended up spending the night with her. All the while, his wife was at home crying for him, going out of her mind because she didn't have a clue where he was.

You know how the preacher always talked about how there's a price to pay for your sins..?

Dakota Steele had no idea just how steep his price would be, and he would pay dearly in just a few short hours.....