Written in 68 minutes. Sorry, went over because the cat was being a pain and the first scene took a bit of extra time but I figure you won’t argue.

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Jason opened his eyes, instantly awake. In the shadows of the room, lit by nothing more than the streetlights outside, he saw the white ceiling above him, not the popcorn ceiling of his room at the diner, and took a moment to orient himself.

He turned his head to the side, and saw Elizabeth curled on her side, both hands clasped and tucked under her chin, strands of her dark hair laying across her cheek, her eyes moving just slightly beneath her lids, indicating she was still in deep sleep. In the short stretches of time they’d had together, he’d only woken beside her a handful of times — and only once after spending an entire night together.

And yet, laying here, watching her sleep, her chest rising slightly, it seemed as natural as taking his own breath. It had been that way for them in the beginning, the night they’d met at the bar, and he wondered what it meant that after all they’d been through, after all the stops and starts, tears and angry words, the months of not seeing each other at all — that they could slip back into each other’s lives like no time had passed at all.

Now, he laid in her bed, with their sons asleep in various rooms along the hallway. Hers, his, and theirs. It was the first time Jason had slept under the same roof as Jake and Danny in years, and it was better than the handful of nights when he’d had them before. Better because this wouldn’t be a a visit — this would be forever. Even if they moved houses or Jake went back to Spain or Danny went away to college —

He looked back at Elizabeth, at the ring glinting in the shadows. It hadn’t even been two full days since that day at the other house, when he’d stood in an empty kitchen and asked her for just one more chance to show that he wanted to be with her, to renew those promises they’d made a life time ago — even laying here with her, it didn’t seem real. Too good to be true.

“I can feel you staring at me,” came her soft murmur, her eyes still closed. “You should sleep more. It’s early.”

“You haven’t even looked at a clock,” he teased, though she was right — it wasn’t even five.

“Mom superpower.” Her lashes fluttered, and her lips curved when she looked at him. “Can’t sleep?”

“I never need a lot of sleep. Not like you,” he teased, and her smile deepened.

She opened her eyes more fully, and lifted a hand to stroke his cheek. “But you didn’t sleep almost at all the other night.”

“I’m okay. But you should get a few more hours—” he started, but she was already sitting up, bracing her upper body on her elbow. “I didn’t meant to wake you up.”

“Well, you did, but you can make it up to me.” Elizabeth leaned down, brushed her lips gently against his. He cradled her jaw, then stroked the sides of her torso before sliding his fingers beneath the soft, stretchy fabric of her tank to the heated skin beneath.

It should have felt awkward, and strange after all these years of not touching her, but he’d know her anywhere, her voice, her scent, the way she felt, he’d be able to find her in a dark room, the way her breathing hitched when he cupped her breasts, stripping the tank over her head.

He rolled them so that she was on her back, and her hands were stroking his chest, across the scars she recognized, and the ones that she didn’t—her fingertips dancing across the tattoos he’d acquired in his travels—and then dipping below the waist of his sweatpants, using her legs to tug the material down his legs until they joined her shirt on the floor, then her shorts—

They were quiet, just soft whispers, words that barely made any sense or were even audible—he knew just where to touch, to stroke, to use his mouth to make her eyes roll back and her back arch from the bed, but so did she, and showed him with that wicked smile that he only saw in these moments, when there was nothing between them but skin, no tomorrow, no today, no yesterdays, just this moment and how much he needed her. Did she know? Could she know?

She curled up on his damp chest after, their bodies cooling in the chilled room, her nails lightly stroking at his collarbone. “Wasn’t how I planned to seduce you,” she murmured. “But it’ll do.”

He laughed, his arm curled around her waist, his heart thudding. “Yeah, not bad.”

“Now go back to sleep or I’ll do it again,” Elizabeth said, closing her eyes. He nearly laughed again, but didn’t want to disturb her. He tugged the sheet up from the bottom of the bed with his leg until he could reach it, then pulled it over them — more for her than him, closed his eyes, and slid back into a light doze.

—

Several hours later, across town, Kristina paced from the fireplace to the landing by the front door, then back again, trying very hard not to peer over her mother’s shoulder. “We should take a few days, Mom. To really think about this. Let’s let Danny’s charges get dismissed—”

“Kristina—” Alexis looked at her, then sighed. She turned back to the petition she was drafting — the petition to withdraw her custody suits against Jason and Drew. “All I wanted was to do right by Danny and Scout. I was wrong about what that was, but I’m making the right choice now—”

“But Jason—”

“Jason wouldn’t have been my choice, but he was your sister’s. And he’s Danny’s.” Alexis tapped the print command, then got to her feet. “I’m doing what’s right. If you can’t—or won’t—support it, then you don’t have to go with me to court. But this is happening.”

—

“I have to go to school?” Aiden dropped his spoon back in the cereal bowl. “Mom. Come on—why am I the only one—”

“You have to go to school because it’s the law,” Elizabeth said, setting down a glass of orange juice.

“And don’t smirk, Danny. I made an appointment with your guidance counselor tomorrow to find out about getting you caught up,” Jason said, and the smirk in question faded.

“Oh, come on, Dad. Don’t you think I’ve been through enough?” Danny grumbled, but picked up spoon. “I don’t want to go back there with this bruise—”

“We’re going to see about getting homeschooling approved until this is all figured out,” Jason said, “but, yeah, you’re going back.” His phone rang, and he tugged it out of his pocket. “I have to take this,” he said, looking at Elizabeth. He slid off the stool at the counter, and headed to the kichen.

“And hey, remember, we’re supposed to be pretending to be perfect kids,” Cameron reminded Danny. “You want Jason and my mom to get custody of your little sister, right? So  you gotta play the Webber way and make the honor roll. Mom goes easier on you when you bring home that little gold card.”

“I never made you get on the honor roll, Cameron,” Elizabeth protested. “I wouldn’t—you don’t need to do that,” she said to Danny hastily. “You’re going to make him think I’m strict—”

“But Cam’s right. If I get good grades and stay out of trouble, it looks better for you and Dad in court, and I want Scout to live here.”

“I’m always right,” Cameron said. “We’ll get along better when you figure that out.”

“If by always you mean never,” Jake retorted.

“Don’t start—” Elizabeth said, but stopped when Jason returned. “What’s up?”

“That was Molly. Uh—” Jason cleared his throat. “The DA’s office just dropped the charges against Danny.”

“Whoa—what?” Danny straightened, his eyes wide. “I don’t have to go back to jail?”

“That was fast—” Elizabeth said. “It’s not even eight — did she drop them last night, or — ”

“She got the call from Turner — apparently she did it first thing when she got in this morning. It still needs to go through the court process, but—” Jason released his first easy breath, looked at Danny. “It’s over.”

“That’s awesome, but I—I thought you said it might be a few days—” Danny said. He furrowed his brow. “How come they dropped them now and not today?”

“Maybe this is why.” Aiden slid his phone across the counter to his mother who snatched it up when she saw the headline on the social media post.

“Elizabeth?” Jason asked. “What is it?” He came around the counter, hoping to look over her shoulder.

“It’s the Sun. Front-page news — Congressman-elect accused of child abuse—” Elizabeth looked at Jason with wide eyes. “There’s pictures of Danny and Scout. With the bruises.”

—

The headlines had made their way around town, and by nine am, Curtis Ashford was in his office at Aurora, fielding calls from the media, national and local. “I hope you’re sure about this,” he said to Michael who was across the room, staring out the window at the street below. “Are you really prepared for this level of scrutiny?”

“Nothing you printed this morning was a lie,” Michael said.

Curtis opened his mouth to respond, but the office door crashed open, and Drew stalked in, a copy of the newspaper crumpled in his hand. He didn’t notice Michael right away, who took advantage of that to send a handful of texts.

“What the hell is the point of this? What were you thinking?” Drew demanded. “You’ve destroyed my career!”

“Not yet, he hasn’t,” Michael said, pressing send on the last text. Drew whirled around to face his nephew. “But if you don’t sign this—” He tossed a sheaf of legal papers towards Drew who caught them with one hand, and tossed the newspaper aside. “Then we’ll finish what we started.”

“You got a lot of nerve—” Drew looked down at it, snorted. “You’re insane if you think I’m signing over guardianship and custody of my daughter to Jason. There’s nothing you could do to me that would ever make me —”

“Sorry to hear that.” Michael looked at Curtis. “What do you think, digital today and print tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah. We give it to the gossip sites first. TMZ is old reliable—” Curtis picked up his phone.

“What the hell are you talking about? What’s worse than this?” Drew shook the paper at them.

“Worse than abusing two minor children in your family?” Michael lifted his brows. “Not much. But I guarantee if there’s anyone left who wants to take your call, after Willow publishes her story, they won’t even remember your name.”

“Willow—” Drew went still. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, my wife whom you lured away from her job at the hospital, manipulated her into working for you—” Michael paused. “Then stalked and harassed her until she slept with you. You’re in the wrong party, Uncle Drew, if you want to get away with that kind of thing. But hey maybe the other guys will want to take your call.”

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