Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. The rights to those characters and to the show belong to the creators of the show, to CBS, The Sullivan Company and to A&E.

The Places to Love

Chapter One

This is a sequel to A Sense of Belonging.

The water lapped against the side of the tub as Michaela moved forward to touch Sully. A trail of bubbles clung to her arms as she lifted them from the water. "You're too tense," she whispered running her hands down his shoulders to his arms. Sully made no response at first, though he continued to massage her foot. Michaela leaned back against the tub and pulled softly on his shoulders until he was lying against her. She kissed the side of his neck and wrapped her legs around him intimately, holding him tight against herself. "Are you thinking about your mother again?" she asked letting her fingers settle against his chest.

"Yeah." He sighed and she felt some of the tension leave his body. "But you're doing a great job of distracting me," he added running one of his hands up her leg to her hip and letting it settle there.

Michaela giggled. "Good to know I haven't lost all of my appeal after six weeks of marriage."

"Never," he whispered closing his eyes and resting his head against hers. "You're the best part of everyday."

Kissing his temple, she let her lips linger there as she dropped a hand to search out the sponge. "Do you want to talk about it?" She felt him tense again. "You don't have to."

"I wrote her today." His voice was quiet.

"You did?"

"I haven't sent it. I thought I'd have you read it first, if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind." She found the sponge and then reached for the soap lathering the former, before washing his chest. "I know this isn't easy for you."

"No it's not but I don't want to regret not writing her when I had the chance. We all deserve second chances I suppose."

"Sometimes second chances turn out better than the first chance."

Sully smiled. "True." He knew she was talking about them, about the fact that they'd both given up on love only to find one another. "Inspectors come tomorrow to look at the wiring. We're getting closer."

Her condo, where they resided temporarily was crowded with wedding gifts and stuff from Sully's house as they waited for their new house to be completed. There was hardly any room to walk in the living room. "I'll be glad for some more space," Michaela remarked absentmindedly beginning to lose herself in Sully's gentle movements.

Sully's hand was back beyond him, caressing the outside of her thigh in deep long strokes but he wasn't cognizant of the fire he was lighting inside of his wife, thoughts of his mother still weighing on him. "What if she wants to see me?"

The random questions like this had become quite common since Cloud Dancing had given Sully the letter so that Michaela knew what he was referring to. "Sully why don't you talk to someone about this. I have some good friends."

"Ya mean counseling?"

"Just give it a try…"

"Michaela, I don't know," he interrupted. "Sides what do I need a counselor for. I got you to talk to." He varied the pressure against her leg as he spoke and moved his hand towards the inside of her thigh making Michaela squirm. "You got the best counseling that I could want."

Michaela laughed. "Mr. Sully, I don't think making love is the same as counseling."

"Mrs. Sully, why would I want to go to counseling when I could be making love to you?"

There were a thousand arguments she could give him but now was not the time for talking. He was standing already pulling her up towards him as bubbles fell back down into the water. The knee deep water in the garden tub lapped against their legs as Sully pressed her close to his chest in order to speak softly in her ear. "Ready for bed?"

Michaela giggled. "Well there was a program on television I wanted to see tonight," she said playfully stepping out of his embrace onto the waiting bathmat. Sully followed her, pressing himself against her back so that she was cognizant of his growing arousal. "You might enjoy it too."

"Oh will I?" he asked with a smirk as his hand trailed down her arm. He dipped his head and planted three quick kisses to her damp shoulder. Her hair was up to keep it from getting wet but he reached up and pulled down the band holding it in place so that it tumbled down her back.

Michaela stepped away from him again. "It's about global warming – some really top notch debate."

"It's getting rather warm in here," Sully added. "Let's skip the show and we'll see how much heat we can generate."

"Don't you care about the polar ice caps melting?" Michaela asked as she continued to move away from him, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself. She smiled seductively over her shoulder as she slipped through the bathroom door. Sully followed without a towel, dripping water as he walked. At the end of the bed, he caught up with her. "Come to bed with me."

His voice was warm and inviting but Michaela shook her head, continuing the charade. They both knew they would be lying next to each other soon. Sully reached for the edge of her towel but the ringing of the phone distracted him long enough for Michaela to move out of reach. "Let it ring," he said knowing she wasn't on call but Michaela already had the receiver in her hand as he spoke.

"Hello." Sully looked at her questioningly as asking who it was without words. "Oh hi, mom." Sully groaned and plopped down on the bed crawling across to be next to her. Michaela couldn't help but smile at the way he was looking at her and she covered her mouth to keep from laughing into the phone. "Sorry mom, what did you say?"

Michaela's eyes grew large as she listened to the response. "I never told Marjorie that mother. I never said I was pregnant." Another pause during which Sully rose up on his knees gathering her hair to one side so he could kiss her neck. Michaela squirmed and slapped at his hand that was just reaching for the edge of the towel. "Mom don't you think I'd call you first if I was sharing news like that." Her cheeks went red now but it had little to do with Sully's manipulations. "Well yes it could happen. I guess you could say we're trying to get pregnant."

It was Sully's turn to laugh now, taking Michaela off guard. She moved her arm again this time sending the towel tumbling to the floor. Sully raised his eyebrows at her with a smile that Michaela knew meant he was pleased. His eyes roamed over her form, his hands reaching around to cup her backside as his mouth settled in the valley between her breasts.

"Actually mother could we talk tomorrow. There's a program coming on that I wanted to see." Sully giggled against her knowing this was an out and out lie, not the first she had told in the conversation though. Again she swatted at him as he pressed his vibrating lips against her skin. "Yes, I'm off tomorrow. Call anytime. I love you too. Bye."

Michaela returned the phone to its base and let Sully pull her down into the bed with him. "Does your mother have some sort of sensor that knows when we're about to make love?"

Laughing Michaela shook her head. "She wanted to know if we were trying to get pregnant. Apparently Marjorie told her I went off birth control."

"Your sister has a big mouth."

"Tell me about it," Michaela rolled her eyes, moving her hand down Sully's chest then tracing the hair line that ran downward from his navel.

She heard him growl back in his throat, the reaction of his body evident to her. "When are you planning on telling them?"

"It's so early. I mean things happen. I just don't want to get their hopes up."

"'Chalea you worry too much." He pulled her on top of him as he spoke, making his request for position silently known. Her face was inches from his now and he leaned up to kiss her soft lips. She pushed down against him, her legs moving to straddle his as the heat rose between them. They kissed repeatedly, Michaela rocking back and forth slightly, exciting them both further. When she pulled back to catch her breath, she felt Sully's arm stroking her sides. Her eyes closed as she anticipated what was to come. "I just know how happy they'll be for us… how happy I'll be to tell them."

Sully's eyes drifted to the bedside table where a little brown teddy bear sat, smiling at them. When he'd woken up two days ago to see the stuffed animal snuggled between them, he'd been perplexed. Yet the tee shirt on the bear left little questions in his mind. "World's Best Father to be." Still he felt his heartbeat quicken when he read those words. "We're going to have a baby," he whispered as she smiled down at him

"I'm happy," she assured him. "Very happy. Just let me get a little further on before we tell them." Sully nodded as he felt her reaching between them ready to join the two of them.

"I love you," he said with a grunt lost now in the moment.

"I love you too," she said kissing him once again as she began to move against him.