"Ma." Lisa groaned as she stretched out on her sofa. "Stop. Please. You're wearing me out just watching you."

"So turn on the TV. You can watch a chat show instead."

"Ugh, Ma!"

"Lisa, you have a hole in your shoulder."

Lisa looked down at her right shoulder, now padded with bandages and supported with a sling. Her mother was right. Somewhere, underneath all the gauze and the antiseptic film, was a neat bullet-sized hole.

But that didn't explain why her mother was getting the hoover out.

"Ma, I've been home, what...half an hour? You've already done my washing up and tidied away my laundry. Which didn't need doing. And now you're going to hoover?"

But Chitthip was not to be put off.

"This place is a tip, Lisa, and you won't recover properly with all this clutter everywhere."

Lisa's eyebrows shot up, and she looked at her mother in frank amazement.

"I like my clutter exactly the way it is. I won't be able to find stuff if you tidy it away."

"You never know who might call in, especially with you being sick and all, and it would be real embarrassing if visitors were to find this place looking like...well. This."

"There's nothing wrong with it. And anyway, I'm not sick. Just...walking wounded."

Chitthip rolled her eyes as she switched on the hoover, and Lisa just caught her next words before they were drowned out by the whine of the machine. "Think it would be easier on everyone if you weren't walking."

Slumping back into the cushions, Lisa sighed deeply and closed her eyes. She was a terrible patient, and would be the first to say so. But she was also sore - although she would never have admitted that to anyone, least of all her mother - and she ached all over, a throbbing, dull ache that seemed to radiate out from her shoulder and reach all the way down to her toes. She knew Chitthip meant well, but all she really wanted was a hot bath and her own bed.

And Jennie.

When Lisa had come round in hospital, the first thing that she had thought of had been Jennie. Even before Bambam, and even before Jungkook, both of whom had been with her that night. And, once she had ascertained that both were fine, it was Jennie that occupied her mind almost all the time. She had quickly found out that Chitthip and Taehyung had both spoken to her girlfriend to let her know what had happened, and to start with she had been a bit pissed off. She hadn't wanted to worry Jennie when there was nothing that the other woman could do, and she had known how much Jennie would worry. And the stubborn, proud part of her hadn't wanted Jennie to see her weak. She hadn't wanted her to think of her as wounded and fragile.

That wasn't who she was.

But when she had finally managed to speak to Jennie, on her second day in the hospital, she had felt so overwhelmed that she could barely speak. She hated to appear vulnerable, but suddenly that was exactly how she felt, and she didn't have the energy to hide it. All she had wanted was for Jennie to be there with her and hold her while she cried - and not tell anyone afterwards. Hearing Jennie's voice had helped soothe her as it always did, but, this time, the voice alone hadn't been enough.

She had missed Jennie desperately ever since she had left Paris almost four months ago...but never more so than that moment. And, after that phone conversation, every time she thought about Jennie she had wanted to cry again.

She had blamed her pain meds.

She had also initially blamed her medication when, after having had her dressing changed on her fourth and last afternoon in hospital - she had been told that she would be discharged the following morning, and she had never been so relieved - the nurse had left her room and, on her way out, had held the door open for someone else to enter...a visitor that had turned out to be Jennie. Lisa had been totally convinced that it was a morphine-induced hallucination, and it was only the very real feel of Jennie's lips on hers that had eventually persuaded her otherwise.

Normally, Lisa hated surprises. But this one, she thought, had been pretty much perfect.

After Lisa had finally accepted that she wasn't just dreaming, Jennie had told her, in between kisses, that she had decided to book herself a flight after she had spoken to Chitthip and Taehyung on the morning after Lisa had been shot. She couldn't, she said, have stayed in Paris, worrying and fretting and not being able to be with Lisa when she most needed her. And, just then, Lisa had been too high on pure happiness and pain-killing drugs to ask many questions.

"Lisa?"

Lisa opened her eyes. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't even noticed that the hoover had stopped, and she looked over at her mother. Chitthip was now standing in the tidied kitchen area, balancing a casserole dish in each hand. And judging by the questioning look on her face, she wanted Lisa to make some sort of decision.

Lisa closed her eyes again.

"Left hand."

"Chicken and mushroom bake?"

"Right hand, then."

"Lasagne."

"Cannoli after?"

"What else?"

Lisa laughed, but quickly stopped as she knocked against the back of the sofa and sent a spasm shooting down her right arm. "Thanks, Ma."

There was blessed quiet for a few moments while Chitthip busied herself with the oven, and Lisa found herself thinking about Jennie again, smiling as she reminded herself, for the hundredth time since she had woken up that morning with Jennie lying beside her on the hospital bed, that her girlfriend was actually here. But, now that she was a bit more with it, she also realized that they would need to talk. She was beginning to feel a creeping guilt that Jennie had evidently dropped everything and flown halfway around the world just to be with her, and she needed to know, for her own peace of mind, what arrangements Jennie had made for the pâtisserie. What she had done with Kuma. And how long she was planning on staying.

But all of that could wait until after lasagne. Hospital food, Lisa had discovered, left a lot to be desired and, even though she was tired, she was also suddenly starving.

Checking her watch, she wondered how much longer her girlfriend would be. Jennie had ruefully explained that only flight she had been able to get on at late notice was one that connected in London, and that her suitcase, unfortunately, had remained in London when she had flown on to Boston. But she had received a call from Air France that morning to confirm that it had now arrived, and so, with Taehyung busy at work, Jungkook had offered to drive her to to the airport to collect it. Lisa had wanted to go with them, unwilling to let Jennie out of her sight for even a couple of hours, and it had only been Jennie's firm promise to be as quick as possible, combined with a sudden lightheaded feeling of queasiness as she had climbed out of the car at her apartment, that had persuaded her to stay.

Just as she was about to ask Chitthip whether she would have time for that bath before the dinner was ready, the front door opened and Jungkook staggered in, lugging the biggest suitcase that Lisa had ever seen. She had thought that maybe - hopefully - the fact that Jennie had brought a suitcase meant that she would be staying longer than a few days. But, judging by the size of it, Jennie was planning on moving in.

"Glad she's staying with you and not me." Jungkook grinned as he indicated the suitcase, now sat in the middle of Lisa's living area, and Jennie shrugged unconcernedly as she closed the front door and kicked off her heels.

"I wasn't exactly thinking straight when I packed."

Lisa smiled wickedly as she reached out her good hand for Jennie. "You got more heels like that in there?"

"Three pairs. Plus two pairs of sneakers and some winter boots - I didn't know how cold it would be over here."

Lisa chuckled, and was about to join Jungkook in teasing Jennie some more when Chitthip called from the kitchen.

"Dinner's up!"

No one bothered sitting at the table to eat. Lisa, now quite happy to play on invalid status, claimed pride of place on the sofa along with control of the remote and, she decided, the mix of her Ma's lasagne, baseball, and Jennie next to her was the closest to heaven that she would ever get. She could have done with being able to use both hands, but, since the bullet had got Jennie here, she thought that she had better not complain too much. She grinned as she thought of the look on the guy's face if he ever realised that, by shooting her, he had actually done her a favor.

After they had eaten, and after Chitthip and Jennie between them had cleared everything away, Lisa stretched out on the sofa again, and closed her eyes as Jungkook and her mother prepared to leave. She heard goodbyes being said, heard hugs being exchanged, and waved her hand in the vague direction of her front door as a goodbye to her brother. She didn't get off quite so easily with Chitthip, however, who came over to the sofa to ruffle her hair as she had done when Lisa was small. Then, finally, she heard the front door close, heard her mother's voice receding down the stairs, and felt the movement at the other end of the sofa as Jennie sat back down.

It had been nice having her mother and brother there. But now, she was more than ready for some time alone with Jennie. She didn't count the previous night in the hospital when Jennie had refused to leave her bedside. And although it could have felt slightly strange - it was, after all, the first time that she and Jennie had been physically together for four months - she just felt comfortable. Natural.

It felt completely right.

"You must be tired."

Lisa opened one eye, and looked over to where Jennie was sitting. She was tired. Very tired. But there were some things that couldn't wait.

"Yeah." She nodded, and reached out her hand. "But not so tired that you need to sit all the way up there."

Jennie chuckled as she took Lisa's hand, and moved to kneel on the floor by Lisa's end of the sofa. Lisa closed her eye again, and almost purred as she felt Jennie's fingers tracing the lines of her face - over her brows, down her nose, round her cheekbones, over her lips. There had been so many times when she had ached to feel that touch. And now she could, whenever she wanted.

Lisa kissed Jennie's fingers as they passed over her lips again, and then reached out with her good arm to pull Jennie's head down for the deep, slow kiss that she had been dreaming about for weeks. Jennie's lips on hers were so soft, familiar and exciting at the same time, and Lisa felt her skin begin to tingle, felt her body begin to throb lightly - and this time, the ache wasn't coming from her shoulder.

Despite her tiredness, and despite her injury, this was the first thing that couldn't wait.

"Lisa..." Jennie pulled back, her breathing coming hard and her darkening eyes dancing. "You're injured. You have a hole in your shoulder."

"Yeah." Lisa nodded lazily as she tucked a stray strand of Jennie's brunette hair back behind her ear. "Ma kindly reminded me of that too, but this arm's fine."

She waved her left hand.

"And there's nothing wrong with my mouth either."

Lisa smiled as she heard Jennie's breath catch in her throat and, with her own heart beginning to pound, leaned closer again.

"Which means I can still do this." She kissed Jennie again, capturing those sweet-tasting lips with her own. "And this." Her left hand brushed over Jennie's breast, and she gasped into the kiss as she felt Jennie's nipple already hard underneath her top. "And this."

This time, the gasp came from Jennie as Lisa's hand moved down her stomach and round her hip, but it was prevented from going any further by the way that Jennie was kneeling. And, Lisa decided, there was only one way to fix that. Gently breaking the kiss and sitting up, she swung her legs over the sofa and took Jennie's hand, tugging her to her feet.

The sofa probably wouldn't have been very comfortable anyway.

Lisa had wanted this for so long. She had thought about it, dreamed about it, fantasized about it, but none of her imaginings had even come close to the reality of having Jennie there, with her. And she took it slowly.

With her shoulder, she didn't really have a choice, but she found herself wanting to savour every second. She wanted to kiss every inch of Jennie's skin, feel every curve with her fingers as Jennie sat on the bed in front of her while she knelt on the floor.

She lingered over her hard, rosy nipples that begged to be teased. She took her time working down Jennie's stomach, marveling at the softness of Jennie's skin and ignoring her gasped, half-hearted protests that they should maybe wait until Lisa's shoulder was at least a bit better. She was languid in moving her lips down Jennie's thighs, waiting until Jennie had stopped protesting and was instead begging Lisa not to tease her any more, before finally pushing Jennie back and slipping her fingers into the wet, throbbing heat in between Jennie's legs.

Even then, she tried to control herself. She wanted to explore. She wanted to bring Jennie to the brink, and then bring her back again to hear her moan and whimper in anticipation. She wanted to know the feel of Jennie against her face, wanted to feel Jennie tighten around her fingers as she worked the hard bundle of nerves with her tongue. She wanted to memorise everything, because she had no idea how long she would have this for...but she had never forgotten the taste of Jennie.

Honey and lavender.

Jennie was so gentle. Lisa could tell that she was worried about hurting her, but with Jennie's fingers working their magic on other parts of her body, her shoulder was the last thing she was thinking about. Even in Paris, she didn't think that she had felt the kind of sensations that flooded through her now - sensations that were better than any pain medication. Jennie's hands on her breasts, on her stomach, and round her hips.

Jennie's fingers slipping in between her legs, teasing her where she needed it most before moving down to the tops of her thighs, and then back up, a darting tongue flicking her nipple as two fingers slipped inside her. And as her bedroom disappeared in a kind of sensual haze, Lisa had the absurd thought that they really should put this on prescription.

Afterwards, she found herself wondering just how she had managed nearly four months without this. Without Jennie

She felt the mattress shift as Jennie propped herself up on her elbow, and shifted on her back so that she could see her...and felt her breath catching her throat again. She loved everything about Jennie. But the other woman's smile was probably the thing that she loved most of all.

Had she ever told her that?

Probably not.

"I love your smile." She reached up to trace it with her good hand, and felt a little tingle run down her arm as Jennie caught her fingers and kissed them, tenderly, one by one.

"I love you."

They had said it before. She had heard Jennie tell her before. But somehow, it had never sounded like that. And she could no longer ignore the niggling feelings of guilt and shame that Jennie was here for her, when really there was no need. Her injury wasn't that serious...and she couldn't help feeling like she had somehow taken advantage. Jennie, clearly, would do anything for her. And suddenly she felt terrible that she hadn't made more effort to reassure Jennie herself, instead of letting everything go down the phone. She should have been stronger - and she shouldn't have allowed Jennie to upend everything, just for her.

"Jennie, I'm sorry." She didn't know what else to say, but took a deep breath regardless. "I..."

She was stopped by Jennie's finger over her lips.

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I do," Lisa mumbled against Jennie's hand. "You came all the way here for me, and there was no need to. I should have told you I was fine instead of bawling down the phone like a baby, and now you've left the pâtisserie, Kuma and spent thousands of dollars on a plane ticket, and..."

"And all that was my choice." Jennie sounded firm, almost cross, and when Lisa blinked up at her she saw that Jennie did, indeed, look serious. "I never told you I was coming, and besides, everything's taken care of."

Lisa reached up and lifted Jennie's finger from her mouth.

"The pâtisserie?"

"Jisoo and Irene between them. I told them to shorten the opening hours so that it's not too much for them - I've done that once before. And Kai - you remember Kai? From the bakery two doors down? He offered to help them out if they need anything. And I'll ring in every day, just to check, but I'm sure they'll be fine."

It sounded so obvious, yet Lisa knew what it must have taken for Jennie to leave the patisserie. And...

"And Kuma?"

Jennie's firm expression changed to a half-smile, half-grimace. "Jiyong."

Lisa looked at her, amazed. "What, cheese guy?"

Jennie nodded, unable to help giggling. "He stopped by when I was packing, with an invitation to an evening tasting session that they were having at the fromagerie. And when I told him that I was going to be away for a couple of weeks, he offered to look after Kuma."

She leaned back on the pillows. "I think they'll get on very well, actually. You saw him - head to toe Lauren and Givenchy. He's almost