The Secret in the Garden

Lying there waiting to make sure they were in the clear. Steven felt complete comfortable holding Sam. Sam, now that the immediate concern had past, noticed that there was something hard pressing against her leg. With a sly grin she says "that was fast."

Steven laughs and says "yeah, I was convinced those foot guards were going to catch us. I did not mean to trip and fall."

"No you goof ball, I am talking about the banana in your pants."

Steven's face showed confusion for just a moment, the confusion disappeared as fast as it came. The confusion was replaced by a straight face. A face a professional poker reader would not be able to read. In one swift controlled movement Steven had moved Sam's hand from by his head and tucked it to her side. Then rolled them both over while pushing himself up to his knees. She had not even had enough time to drop her hand that was on his chest a moments before. The hand now hung in the air with nothing in it. If hands could be confused hers would be just that. She watched as Steven undid his belt and grabbed a black object and slid it back around his hip. "Sorry about that, are you okay?" He asked concerned, still knelling over her. He did his belt back up and adjusted his coat to cover up the gun.

Now it was Sam's turn to show confusion. "What was that?" She made a mental note that her right hand was completely useless pinned between his knee and her leg.

"That is an H&K P7." Steven responded in a serious tone.

"I don't care what is was. What is it, I mean, why do you have it." Sam said flustered.

Just then they heard voices coming back across the garden. "Come quick, let us hide." Steven said, playfulness coming back to his face. He grabbed her hand that was still sitting right where it was when Steven's chest had left it. Even though he held her hand he was not pulling her up, giving her a chance to decide to come. She paused too long and by the time she decided to use his hand to pull herself up the foot guards were there.

"You are not supposed to be in here." They reprimanded them.

"Sorry" Steven said immediately without looking at them. He was still standing there holding Sam's hand. Looking at the ground between the guard and Sam.

"Please show me your identification. We have to report your trespass." The guard stated.

"It was a harmless trespass, we will be going now." Steven implored.

"I could arrest you now. Please show me your identification." The guard demanded standing his ground. Sam thought "if you search us, one of us is going to jail for sure."

Steven reached for his wallet and Sam followed suit reaching in her purse. Before she could extract her ID from her wallet. The guards started apologizing. "Mr. St. Cloud. I am sorry I did not recognize you. Please forgive me for my tone. If I would have known…" Steven cut the guard off before he could say more. "We apologize for making your job more difficult. We just wanted to take in the garden a little closer."

"Be our guest." the guard responded. "When you decide to leave please go through the hidden gate. We don't want the general public to be in here. You know how the public can be."

"Of course." Steven replied to the guard, turning to a stunned faced Sam he grabbed her hand again, "Shall we walk, my dear?"

"Yes. Yes, of course." Sam stammered. Beginning to think that maybe she did not know Steven as well as she thought she did. "What was that all about?" She asked, half to herself and half to Steven.

"This is your night. I don't want to talk about me. Let's enjoy the garden. Tell me more about how you have dreamt of coming here. I admit, I may have been here before. But, I have never seen it. I want you to show me." he said stopping and turning to look in her eyes as he said it.