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Caterina remembered to what point Dannya had taken Steve’s warning. At first, they would talk into the night on the phone until either she fall asleep or he did.

Then one night Dan was so out of kilter from the day’s events that he needed more then a phone call with Caterina. So, he went over to Caterina’s beach house only to find her on duty that night. Caterina could see that morning in her mind there on her back porch was her sleeping Dannya with a police blanket over him from his car and next to him was some left over dinner and a couple of empty beer bottles. She went out onto the back porch at 4 AM to move her sleeping detective into the house and put him into a more comfortable bed. For the next couple of hours she watched him sleeping in her bed, he was in her bed for the first time. Caterina smiled to herself remembering that young detective on that special morning. Back then she worked the afternoon shift, so getting home after midnight or 1 AM was a common factor in her life at the moment but 4 AM was late for even her. She was studying for a US History midterm in the chair in her room when around 6:30 that morning he stirred and tossed over in the bed from a nightmare. Caterina was at his side holding him as he cried out from whatever the nightmare was about. He woke up a half-hour later in her arms. “Morning Dannya.”

Sleepily he said, “Morning, Caterina.” He was a little disoriented from where he was laying down, "What am I doing here?”

“You fell asleep on my back porch and when I got home a couple of hours ago, I put you into a more comfortable bed, then the lounge chair outside.”

Dan started to get out of bed only to discover that the only thing he had on was his briefs and then looked at her with an uncertain smile on his face.

“You couldn’t sleep in yours clothes, you might have to go to work in them.” Caterina said with a mischievous smile. “And sleeping with your gun is not one of the smarts things you can do. If you recall from that training you did when I was cadet, you always said it was not a safe thing to do.” Caterina smiled turned a little seductive with just a trace of laughter in it. She remembered the pleasure that morning of removing each piece of clothing off his body for the first time with very little help from him.

Dan got up to get his pants only to find they were not the pair he wore the day before, “Where did these come from?” He recognized the pants as his but they were supposed to be at the cleaners.

“Yesterday before work I had to go to the cleaners to pick up my uniforms and got your stuff as well. I thought I would save you a trip.” Caterina was not sure now it was a wise move.

Dan zipped up his pants then sat down on the bed to reach over and take her into his arms for a good morning kiss. “Thanks, Sweetheart.”

Caterina just melded right there on her bed. She had been waiting for him to say that to her since the New Year’s Eve party almost three years ago, and now he was sitting on her bed with his arms around her calling her ‘sweetheart,’ total meltsville for Caterina’s heart.

A short time later Dan came out of the bathroom to find Caterina had changed into a nightie and was climbing back into bed. She saw a look on his face that told her that he was feeling the same way she did about their developing relationship. It was a look of ‘I rather not go to work now, but a desire to go back to bed with you.’ The look was priceless to her.

He looked at the clock seeing the time. “Damn, I don’t have time to go by my apartment for a clean shirt,” he said as he reached for the shirt he wore yesterday.

Caterina thought about it a second before climbing out of bed again and going to the study closet. A moment later she was back as Dan was almost finished putting on yesterday dirty shirt, “If you don’t mind an early Christmas present,” she handed him the box, “Merry Christmas, Dannya.” She watched him take the unwrapped box and opened it to find a new light blue shirt with a matching tie.

“Mahalo, Caterina.” He handed the box to Caterina long enough to take off the dirty shirt and tossed it onto the bed with the tie still in the collar. “Why give this to me now?” as he took the new shirt out of the box.

“Like I said, it was supposed to be for your Christmas present next month, but you need it now.” Caterina was buttoning up his shirt when she looked into his blue eyes, and the next thing she knew they were engrossed in a passionate kiss that made her weak in the knees again. When the kiss ended, “Your welcome Dannya.”

He put the tie on while smiling at her face that was blushing from this early morning encounter, “Can I ask you something Sweetheart?”

He said it again, Caterina was melting again, “Yes Dannya, what would you like to know?”

“That is about the fourth time you have called me Dannya, why are you call me Dannya?” He was not objecting to the name, he just wanted to know her reason behind the new name.

There was a pleasant look in his blue eyes that really made her turn red, “Everyone calls you the same thing.” She was having a problem looking him in those seductive blue eyes, so she got his jacket out of the closet and helped him on with it. Standing behind him, she smoothed the back of the jacket into place as she continued. “I like you a little more then just as a good friend, and wanted a name that could be a little special that only I would call you and somehow Dannya just popped into my head one day.” She was looking down when he turned around, took her into his arms and then lifted her chin to kiss her once again.

“It will always be a name that ONLY YOU will be allowed to call me,” he had a seductive smile for her, then continued, “that is, only in private. I don’t think we are ready for the rest of the world to find out how much I truly care about you yet.”

Caterina remembered reaching up and touching his face with her hand and then pulling his head down into one more kiss before he had to leave for work. She realized now that was the first time she took the initiative to start a passionate kiss between them, the first of many in their lives together.

After that morning, Caterina never had a problem looking her Dannya in those gorgeous blue eyes to tell him anything. A couple days after that morning Dannya took her into his bed so she could sleep in his arms on nights when he needed someone to help him to get through the long nights. And a couple weeks later Dan had a key to the beach house for anytime he needed to get out of the city proper to relax or come to be with Caterina.

Dannya never liked the idea of drinking himself unconscious or taking sleeping pills. Caterina learned he preferred to sleep with a woman in his arms that would allow him to relax his mind with the pleasure of having someone there who really cared for him.

When it came to most women, they didn't like last minute get togethers or wouldn't stay the whole night when he needed someone just to hold onto. Many women are not made to deal with the pressure of being a cop’s lady. Dannya found in Caterina a bedtime partner that didn’t make constant sexual demands, but just to fulfill his need to have someone at his side sleeping with him. The key to their relationship was they would be together in bed in each other's arms talking over the events of the day or general nonsense, and then fall asleep in each others loving arms. This was a workable relationship because they both worked the same long and/or off-hours most of the time. There were times when their schedules didn’t match for these purposes of being together, in time things would work themselves out perfectly.

Dannya’s worst nights occurred when there was a shoot-out that he was involved in. These nights were always the longest and the worst, causing a need to hold on to someone special enough to understand the pain he was going through from the nightmares induced by shoot-outs. As a result, Caterina held him tightly on those nights giving him a little extra loving caresses and kisses. During those nights, she slept lightly or not at all while keeping a watchful eye on his abnormal sleeping pattern. Caterina would speak softly and lovingly when he would start to have his nightmares. The extremely bad nightmares would usually last for a couple of weeks, and then would lighten up over the course of several months to being only occasional nightmares.

When we went to bed, we enjoyed the passion of being together with minimal sexual relations, until our formal engagement to be married.

After a few moments of silent and private thoughts about their early sleeping habits, she realized that they were not all that different from their present sleeping habits. Of course, now there was a lot more sexual playing around then at the beginning, but then again, they were older and learned to enjoy the many pleasures of being together. Plus there was passion for each other knowing all to well that tomorrow may be the first night of many nights of never having one's bed partner again. Both of them had been in the hospital once to often with one kind of injury or another. Some injuries more serious then others, but that was part of the job, not to mention the number of friends that they lost through the years in the line of duty.

In front of her once again was her sleeping detective, the next Governor of Hawaii and all she wanted to do now was to lie down beside him and hold him in her arms. She knew she could not because he was still too unstable for such an action.

To be continued . . . . .