Archive of Our Own ^beta

Monday

“I’ll have this demon sorted soon, sweetheart, and I’ll be on the next plane home. Don’t be so anxious!”

Tuesday

“Yeah, I’ve seen the weather report, but I’ve still got time. This demon’s a nasty bugger, I can’t just leave it free.”

Wednesday

“I know, sweetheart, I wish you were here with me, we could kick this demon’s a-s and be done with it. But I’ve got a good lead to follow tomorrow and I can take the red-eye home.”

Thursday

“No, I feel fine, don’t worry about me. You know I need your hormones to lead me around! I will be home tomorrow if at all possible.”

Friday—Warm-Up Day

“Airport’s closed, city’s shut down—I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ll be there as soon as anything opens up. Just relax and have a good time, yeah?”

Saturday—Day 1

John was sitting in his hotel room, feeling slightly claustrophobic and boredly letting the TV run, when his phone rang again. This time it was Zari.

“Hey, love,” he greeted. “How’s it going over there?”

“Not great,” Zari admitted. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” John shrugged.

“No symptoms of heat?” Zari pressed. “Have you been taking your temperature?”

“Yes,” he promised her. “I bought a thermometer in the hotel gift shop, also a heat kit, but this place is full of lovely birds with cabin fever, so I’m sure I could make a new friend if it comes to that.” He’d eyed a few of them in the hotel bar but hadn’t made a move yet, although he wasn’t sure why not. Wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon, and he could think of worse ways to pass the time.

“I’m glad you’re giving yourself options,” Zari replied in a pointed tone, as if talking to someone else in the room.

“How’s Lenny?” John wanted to know, assuming that was the someone else.

“Oh, you mean Saint Lenny the Martyr?” Zari shot back, which told John all he needed to know. “Throwing up, running hot, and refusing to do anything sensible about it.”

John smirked dryly, imagining it. “Is he ready for the Alphas?”

“Physically, yes,” Zari answered. “Psychologically, no.”

“Can I speak to him, love?”

“Just a minute.”

Lenny took over the phone. “John?” He sounded slightly hoarse, and more than slightly desperate, which John didn’t like. “Are you still in Port City?”

“Yeah, sweetheart, we’ve got eighteen inches of snow here,” John conveyed to him apologetically. “Hotel staff’s sleeping on-site and just hoping they can keep the guests fed. How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” Lenny understated. “I miss you.”

John closed his eyes and leaned back against the couch. “I miss you, too, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You want me to tell you what I’d do to you if I was there?” He started to unbuckle his belt.

“No,” Lenny denied abruptly, “because you aren’t here, and it will just upset me. And it won’t help anyway.”

John released his belt and sighed, mood broken. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he told him again. “We think the demon had killed at least two homeless people, and it would have gotten more if—”

“I’m not mad at you, John,” Lenny interrupted, calmly. “You were doing your job. I’m mad about things I can’t control, like this f-----g weather!” He sounded a little less calm by the end.

John tried to set aside his usual guilt at disappointing those around him, although by now it sat comfortably on him. “So how long are you gonna make Sara and Ava wait, hmmm?” he asked cheekily. “What’s your favorite number—should we have an eleven-minute countdown?”

There was a hesitation before Lenny replied. “I don’t know,” he dismissed. “I just don’t want to see them. I don’t want to see anyone. Could you leave?” This abrupt question was apparently directed to Zari.

“That’s my phone,” she reminded him.

“Fine,” Lenny agreed curtly. “John, I’ll call you right back.”

“Okay—” John barely had time to acknowledge this before the call was ended. A moment later his phone rang again, this time Lenny’s number. “Hello, sweetheart,” John greeted warmly.

“Hi.”

For a few moments they both just sat there without speaking, listening to each other breathe. John closed his eyes and could almost picture him, the intense stare, the pale skin now slightly flushed with heat, the long pants and sleeves he insisted on wearing…

“You’d be more comfortable naked, sweetheart,” John observed with a smirk. Lenny just snorted. “Why don’t you take me in the shower with you?” he suggested, persuasively. “Let me walk you through a couple things. It’ll be like I’m right there with you.” John thought this sounded like a very good idea.

Lenny, not so much. “No,” he denied stubbornly, and a little petulantly, John felt.

“Oh, if you can’t have fun, no one can have fun, hmm, sweetheart?” John teased. “Well, sorry to say, we’re all having fun without you. Sara and Ava are having fun in their room. I’m having fun here,” he insisted.

Lenny saw through that rather transparent lie, and also he didn’t care if people were having fun without him. “What are you doing that’s so fun?” he challenged.

“Hmm, what time is it?” John asked instead. “I’m supposed to meet this cute little number in the bar soon. Omega, male, older than he looks, skinny, big old Bambi eyes—”

“Don’t involve me in your sexual fantasies, John,” Lenny scoffed. “And I suspect it is very much a fantasy.”

“Okay, well, I haven’t actually set a meeting with him yet,” John admitted, “but I’ll have no trouble picking someone up for a bit of fun, I never do.” He meant this to be bragging, but somehow it came out slightly defensive, and he tried to regroup. “Sweetheart, all I ever want to do is involve you in my sexual fantasies,” he promised. “Why don’t you take the phone into Sara and Ava and put it on speakerphone—”

“Hang on,” Lenny muttered quickly, and John was treated to some unpleasant sounds, only slightly muffled, which was probably Lenny being sick again. When he came back on he sounded pained and breathless. “John?”

“I’m here, sweetheart,” John responded, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“I think I should take a nap now,” Lenny informed him.

“Yeah, good, that sounds like a good idea,” John encouraged. “Take a nap, then go see the girls and tell me all about it on your break, okay?”

Lenny did not commit to this. “Bye, John.”

Sunday—Day 2

“No, no symptoms, I swear,” John insisted to Zari. “I mean, I think I’d notice, it’s not exactly subtle.”

“I suppose not,” Zari agreed.

“How’s Lenny?” That was what John really wanted to know, but Zari was withholding that information until she was satisfied with John’s responses.

Her sigh was a bad sign. “Still holding out.”

“What? No,” John countered. “He hasn’t been to the girls? At all?”

“He says he doesn’t want to,” Zari reported, sounding a bit helpless.

“Without me?” John ventured. He hoped Zari was going to tell him off for his arrogance and give some other reason for Lenny’s behavior.

“I don’t know,” she replied instead. “Maybe. You know he won’t explain himself. He’s just gotten it into his head that he can hold out and that’s what he’s going to do.”

“S—t,” John hissed. Later, he could be flattered, even moved, by Lenny’s dependence on him, when Lenny was normally so self-reliant; but not now, when Lenny was needlessly suffering for it.

“How’s the weather?” Zari asked.

He glanced out the large windows. “It’s snowing again,” he reported. “They’re predicting ice. I could try to rent a car—”

“Don’t you dare,” Zari ordered him. “You’re safe where you are. Lenny isn’t going to die. He’s gone through many heats alone. He’s just—” She sighed again. “He might be a little scared,” she admitted. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

“Of Sara and Ava?” John checked in surprise. “It was just the three of them for years—”

“It’s not rational,” Zari warned him. “He’s not thinking straight. But he’ll get through it.”

“Can I talk to him?” John requested.

“Call him,” Zari suggested. “He doesn’t like us ‘bothering’ him.” Lenny was, overall, a real joy right now.

“Okay, thanks, love.” John hung up and called Lenny. His phone rang until the automated voice informed him, idiotically, that the party he had dialed was not answering. He hung up and tried again, until Lenny finally picked up.

“Hello, John.”

“Hi, sweetheart. I hear you’re not being very smart right now,” John opened.

“I’m not feeling very smart right now, John.” Lenny’s voice was eerily calm.

“Lenny, will you please just go see Sara and Ava?” John asked, flat out. “One of them, at least. I’m fine here, except for thinking of you being sick there.”

“I’m not sick, John,” Lenny corrected. “I’m in heat. And I don’t feel comfortable sharing it with anyone right now.”

“Sweetheart, please—”

“Did you say you were fine?” Lenny interrupted. “You’re not in heat?”

“Right, totally normal, without you to set me off, sweetheart,” John explained, trying to keep his tone calm when really he wanted to scream, or maybe cry—whatever might make Lenny see sense. “It’s all about you, Lenny. Can you please take care of yourself?”

“I know how to take care of myself, John,” Lenny claimed flatly. “Excuse me.” He hung up, but from the slightly strangled tone at the end John guessed he was going to throw up.

Right. This was getting ridiculous. He was John Constantine, master of the dark arts (even if he felt like only a petty dabbler sometimes), and he was needed someplace else by someone he loved, right now. He had ways and means open to him that other people, who lacked the necessary knowledge and fortitude, did not—and it was time to use them.

Early Monday morning—Day 3

Lenny sat on the floor in his room, huddled against the wall, knees drawn up and arms locked around them. He tried to keep still, but the shakes racked him, a constant ache that kept him from sleep. He was perfectly aware of how miserable and pathetic his situation was; he had borne it when he was younger, somehow, because he didn’t know any better, but now he did know better and he also knew he was just being ridiculous.

If one of his Alphas came in right now, he would let them do whatever they wanted, he would be thoroughly in favor of it. But he knew they wouldn’t come in, because he had made it clear that generally, he wouldn’t appreciate that, and they respected his boundaries. Maybe, sometimes, he was a little too good at boundaries.

He was going to call Zari, because enough was enough. And she could send an Alpha to him. (He didn’t want to call Sara or Ava directly because—well, they would just call Zari first anyway, they weren’t going to burst into his room without documenting that he’d been the one to reach out.) He spent a long time thinking this through, going over what would be said, what would happen. He thought about it so much that sometimes he felt like he was just waiting for one of them to show up, before remembering that he actually needed to set things in motion first.

Then there was a weird smell, which he hoped wasn’t him, and his door was opened with no knock, and in walked—

“John!” His name came out wetly, half gasp, half sob, with a smidgen of hysteria thrown in.

“Sweetheart, sweetheart,” John murmured, forcing his way between Lenny’s knees to embrace him. “No, don’t kiss me,” he denied. “You would not believe what I had to eat to make that translocation spell work.” He nuzzled his face against Lenny’s damp neck, as Lenny desperately inhaled his scent, spicy lemon with a fair bit of sulfur today, but Lenny did not care at all and wrapped his arms tightly around him.

“John,” he sighed, cuddling him back when he could.

“You have not been taking proper care of yourself, sweetheart,” John chided, his fingers deftly massaging tense muscles.

“I know, I know,” Lenny admitted. “It was stupid.” He dug his nails into John’s ribs, as if trying to get a better grip on him.

“I mean, the weather interrupts plans all the time!” John continued to needle. Lenny did not mind, as long as John was there. “You need a better back-up than just sitting here suffering.” His hands slipped under Lenny’s shirt, thumbs circling his hip bones.

“I know, I’ll make a better plan,” Lenny promised, kissing John’s neck and cheek, the stubble rough against his lips. “I just panicked.” He grabbed the back of John’s belt, pulling him closer.

“Well, it is a little flattering,” John allowed, because he couldn’t not acknowledge that, and Lenny chuckled weakly. “But you made your point, sweetheart! Next time just send me another Valentine.” He rested his head on Lenny’s shoulder comfortably.

“Okay,” Lenny agreed. He wanted to just sit there holding John forever, but he was finally forced to admit this wouldn’t actually solve his problems, so he loosened his grip slightly.

John leaned back, one hand over his mouth as if to shield Lenny from his breath. “How about, you take a shower, and I’ll take a shower and brush my teeth a thousand times, and then I’ll come back here and take care of you?” he proposed, brown eyes flirtatious. “Then we’ll go see Sara and Ava, yeah?”

“Yeah, okay,” Lenny acquiesced easily. Only he didn’t want to let John go just yet. “Can you—can you get me off first?” he requested.

John grinned wickedly, or so it appeared above his hand. “I can definitely do that, sweetheart.”

A few minutes later Lenny stood under the cool water of the shower, feeling the gunk and grime wash away, more energized and clear-headed than he’d been in several days. He gulped some of the water periodically; he hadn’t been maintaining his fluids, which was foolish. He’d done a lot of foolish things recently, but he was only human after all; the important thing was that he didn’t repeat these mistakes in the future.

Drawn by the sound of running water, Zari peeked into Lenny’s room. Automatically she chucked his discarded clothes out into the hall and pulled some new ones from his bureau, then tapped on the bathroom door. “Lenny, how are you feeling?”

“Better, now that John’s home,” he answered.

She opened the door. “Sorry, what was that?” and he repeated himself. There was a long pause. “John’s home?”

Lenny froze. Then he stuck his head around the shower curtain. “Isn’t John home?” The thought suddenly occurred to him that maybe he was just hallucinating, and it was obviously occurring to Zari, too.

“How would he get home?” she asked carefully.

“Magic?” John did do magic, so this was not a totally stupid answer. “He said he, I don’t know, apparated here or something. We’re going to have sex, then go see the Alphas when he’s warmed up.”

“Mm-hmm, well, that’s a good plan,” Zari encouraged, restrained.

“Could you please go check if John is actually home?” Lenny requested, before she had to dance around it any longer. “And if I’m just imagining things, I’ll go see the Alphas anyway. I was just about to call you.”

“Okay, absolutely,” Zari agreed, wholeheartedly this time. “I will go check on that. Can I bring you something to eat and drink?”

“Yes, thanks,” Lenny told her, ducking back under the water. He was oddly not that concerned with the idea of hallucinating; it had had a positive effect on him, anyway. Maybe John could do magical psychic projections or something?

Zari seemed to be gone for a long time, which Lenny took as a good sign—it surely wouldn’t take long to not find John, but longer if you unexpectedly found him and had to go through all the ‘how did you get here’ rigmarole. He was brushing his teeth when Zari returned.

“Good news!” she reported brightly. “John’s here!” She sounded like she still didn’t quite believe it.

“Thank G-d,” Lenny sighed, surprised by how relieved he felt—he’d thought he was handling the whole hallucination thing well.

“He’ll be in, in a minute,” Zari went on. “I left you some food and Omegalyte. Probably John will warm up quickly, but call us to check him before you go to Sara and Ava, okay?”

Lenny did not need to be reminded of that. “Oh,” he suddenly realized instead. “It’s one AM. Sorry to get everybody up.” Though really, people fussed too much.

“It’s okay,” Zari assured him. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

She left, and Lenny contemplated putting on fresh pajamas. Then, feeling a curious mix of risqué and pragmatic, he just threw his towel aside and slid into bed, the sheets cool against his burning skin. There was a bottle of grape Omegalyte on the nightstand and a bag of trail mix, which he helped himself to.

The door popped open again and John entered dramatically, dressed only in a towel and carrying a bottle of Omegalyte like it was a fine champagne (but it was only orange). “It is I, John Constantine, master of the mystic forces, swooping in to rescue an Omega in distress—”

“John, if you are not inside me within the next sixty seconds, something unpleasant is going to happen,” Lenny interrupted abruptly.

John blinked. “As pickup lines go, I’ve had worse,” he decided, and dived into bed.

Break 1

Nate and Zari moved Sara out of bed first, and Zari stayed to talk to her in the bathroom while Nate went back to the bedroom on his own. His goal was John, who was being tightly clutched by Lenny; they both appeared to be asleep, although Nate was soon disabused of this notion.

Zari hurried back in when she heard Nate’s yelp. “What happened?”

“He bit me,” Nate reported in disgust. Lenny lay in bed, green eyes burning at them.

“Did it break the skin?” Zari fussed, checking his hand carefully. No—it was merely a warning, then.

“Just caught me by surprise,” Nate assured her. “I was trying to get John—”

Lenny snarled at them. He never seemed to learn his lesson about who was going to prevail here. “Listen, buster, we’re not having any of that,” Zari informed him severely, daring to waggle a finger at him. “I’m sure you don’t feel well, but that’s your own fault. We’re just trying to take good care of John.”

Lenny regarded her through narrowed eyes for a moment, then showily licked John’s neck, culminating in a bite to his earlobe. At this John, who had barely moved otherwise, batted ineffectually at his fellow Omega. “Stop, Lenny,” he complained automatically, and went back to sleep. Then Lenny released him, slightly and suspiciously. Ava, who was behind Lenny looking on with concern, finally relaxed.

“Okay, John, buddy,” Nate continued, reaching out to him, with no bites this time. “Come on, wake up, time for a shower.”

John made a negative, dismissive noise and tried to move away. Zari’s patience had been expended, however. “John, get up,” she ordered, and he sat up with comical speed.

“Right, the lady says get up, so we get up,” he muttered sleepily, allowing Nate to escort him away.

Zari pointed at Lenny one more time, as if telling him he’d better not cause any more trouble; his response, while not respectful, was vague enough to not set her off. “Ava, I’ll be back for you in just a minute,” Zari promised, going to move Sara to the tub.

Once alone, Ava gave Lenny a little shove. “What do you always have to put her in a bad mood for?” she asked him in exasperation.

“What?” Lenny replied innocently. “I never said a word.” He squirmed around to face Ava, expression turning suggestive.

“Don’t even,” she huffed tiredly. She was glad to get her breaks, even if Lenny wasn’t.

A few minutes later, relatively clean, Lenny rested in the tub with John leaning on his chest, quiet and still for once. Demon-hunting, stress, using major magic, and heat sex had taken a toll on him, and Lenny stroked his hair gently, attuned to every twitch.

“Check his temperature,” he ordered Nate imperiously when the Beta returned with drinks. “He feels too warm. Make this water cooler.”

“The water needs to be warm to relax your muscles,” Nate reminded him, nonetheless feeling John’s forehead. “Let him sit by himself, you’ll both be a little cooler.” Lenny was loathe to let John be parted from him. “You’re naked in the same bathtub,” Nate pointed out dryly. “He’s not running away to China.” Carefully, he arranged John at the opposite end of the tub; the two Omegas’ legs still overlapped substantially. “John? Hey, drink some of this, buddy.” He poked a straw leading to a cup of iced Omegalyte into his mouth, which seemed to revive John a little.

“How do you feel, John?” Lenny asked as Nate bustled around.

John did not have a ready answer. “Glad to be here with you, sweetheart,” he finally replied wanly. “How about you?”

“Alive,” Lenny allowed grimly. “Which is better than I felt before,” he promised John, so he wouldn’t think his actions were unappreciated.

“It occurs to me, squire,” John went on, addressing Nate, “that I didn’t properly check out of my hotel.”

“Took care of that,” Nate assured him. “I called and said you’d gone to stay with a friend nearby, and did the remote check-out for you. You brought your luggage, right?”

“Yep. Ta, love.” Nate was not the only one who was powerfully curious about John’s magic, having only rarely seen it for himself, but now was obviously not the time to ask for more details.

The trays of food appeared. “Where’s my Tylenol?” Lenny wanted to know.

“Zari says there’s a high probability you’re both going to throw up,” Nate conveyed cheerfully, “so we’re waiting until after that. Saves on Tylenol.”

Lenny grumbled uncharitably about them having a budget crisis and began to nibble his protein bar, while John sat up and attempted to eat his toast and banana (no eggs included today, why tempt fate). Nate placed a garbage can within reach of both of them and then waited a moment, as if that might trigger them. “Okay,” he said finally. “You guys good? I’ll be right back.” He stepped out, then immediately back in, to find all still peaceful, except for Lenny’s glare. Satisfied, he left again, for real this time.

“Can you throw up on command?” John asked Lenny, his tone deceptively idle.

“Right now, yes.”

“Would you mind doing so, sweetheart?” John requested politely. “There’s some nasty bits I’d like to get out of my stomach, and I need a prompt.”

Nate came back to chaos—sobbing, sniffling Omegas; overturned food trays; an unusually foul smell that was only mostly contained in the garbage can. Luckily he knew exactly what to do in this situation. “Gary!”

Recovery

“I’ve been cheated out of my full days of hot sex!” John complained bitterly.

“Well, you should have zapped yourself here sooner,” Lenny shot back unsympathetically. “Anyway, no one got more than you.”

“But are the Alphas suffering like this right now?” John demanded rhetorically. He and Lenny were bundled up in bed, shivering in their blankets, squabbling over whose turn it was to put a hand out in the cold and open their Omegalyte bottle.

“No, they’re sitting in the hot tub, stretching their sore muscles,” Lenny replied, acrimonious. John gave an indignant squawk. “That’s what Gary said.”

“Why don’t we get the hot tub?” John wanted to know. “We’re the ones who are f-----g freezing!”

“Too warm,” Lenny responded, in a mock-lecture tone. “Not good for us.”

“This is ridiculous,” John huffed, attempting to text on his cell phone.

This apparently summoned Nate, who was unmoved by their plight (having just been in there five minutes earlier). “John, your message was incomprehensible,” he noted.

“I’m too cold to type properly!” John asserted.

“Give us something to drink, Nate,” Lenny suggested, his tone just this side of reasonable.

Nate readily refilled their sports bottles with Omegalyte (which they’d refused last time) and placed them in the blanket-wrapped lumps that were their hands, so they could slurp greedily through the built-in straws.

“How about some tea, love?” John wheedled.

“Ooh, I’ve got a new vegetable tea that’s supposed to be good for recovery,” Nate proposed.

Lenny and John made eye contact, trying to decide if a hot beverage was worth it, if they had to drink Nate’s latest blend of pond water and weeds. “Okay,” Lenny finally agreed, signaling their desperation, though the pause was long enough for Nate to notice their lack of enthusiasm.

“Anything else I can get you?” the Beta asked patiently.

“Cheez-Its,” said John.

“Morphine,” said Lenny.

“Cheez-Its and morphine,” John corrected. “And spray cheese.”

“Not on Cheez-Its, John,” Lenny told him firmly. “You need a plain cracker for spray cheese. Like Triscuits.”

“Ooh, how about Chicken in a Biscuit?” John suggested. “Delicious and salty. And chickeny. In a cracker.”

Lenny approved of this description. “Chicken in a Biscuit, or morphine,” he allowed Nate.

“How about no-salt saltines?” Nate countered dryly. “And apple slices.”

“Only if the apples are room temperature,” Lenny directed.

“Yeah, no cold apples, love,” John supported. Nate acquiesced and left. “Did we win that one?” John asked Lenny in some confusion.

“We got more to drink,” Lenny reasoned. “When he comes back we’ll make him change the channel for us. And I’ll text Lisa about the crackers.” When he felt up to that task.

“Okay.” John rested for a moment, gathering his strength, then scooted closer to Lenny, rubbing his cold nose against Lenny’s neck. Had he been doing it mischievously, Lenny would have shoved him out of bed; but he sensed a nobler purpose behind it. “I’m glad I didn’t miss heat with you, sweetheart,” he remarked. “Although I think we deserve some do-overs when we feel better.”

Lenny turned so he could nuzzle John lightly as well. “I’m glad you didn’t miss it either,” he agreed. He left the question of do-overs untouched. “Let’s make Nate rearrange our blankets so we can sit closer,” he planned, “and make a fuss every time he lets in a draft.”

“I want to spill his wretched tea,” John wished darkly, but Lenny shook his head.

“The smell would never come out of the carpet,” he predicted.

“We’ll get Gary to bring us some Earl Grey,” John suggested instead.

“Maybe it’s time for a nap,” Lenny reasoned, scooting down on the bed more.

John yawned and did the same, snuggling close to Lenny. “Yeah, got to keep our strength up.” Omegas in recovery had a lot of plotting to do.

**

Sara was relaxing in the bath when she heard a tap on the door. “Come in,” she allowed, assuming it was Ava home early.

“Am I disturbing you?”

She nearly dropped her book in her haste to turn and double-check that it was really Lenny lounging in the doorway. “Um, it’s fine,” she finally answered, having forgotten his exact question. She set her book safely aside. Heat might be over, but her attraction to Lenny didn’t flip off quite as easily as his own seemed to.

He prowled into the bathroom—Sara was certain he did it on purpose, because who needed to prowl in a bathroom?—and then elegantly settled on the floor next to the tub, facing her, his arm resting on the edge, fingers just inches away from her bare knee. He looked… pensive.

“I wanted to apologize to you,” Lenny told her, meeting her gaze. He had taken in her naked form at a glance, but his eyes didn’t linger anywhere else.

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” Sara assured him. “It was an accident, my nose isn’t even swollen anymore.” Sometimes things got a little athletic with four people in the bed.

Lenny blinked at her. “No, not about that,” he denied. “Although—sorry.” He thought he’d apologized at the time—it was hard to remember—but since she brought it up, it seemed churlish to ignore it.

Now Sara was confused. “Is this about you calling out Ava’s name when we were knotted?” she guessed. “I mean, she was doing that thing to you—”

“No,” Lenny interrupted, realizing he was going to have to specify. And that maybe he ought to apologize for things more often? “For starting heat late. Because John wasn’t here. For not wanting to start with you and Ava.”

“Oh.” Sara shifted slightly in the water. “Well, it’s okay, Lenny, we don’t want you to do anything you feel uncomfortable with—” She stopped talking when he rolled his eyes, which was not the usual response to someone trying to respect your boundaries and independence.

“It’s not okay,” he corrected. “I panicked and didn’t handle the situation well. It won’t happen again.” He rested his chin on his arm, fingers now dangling in the warm water, even closer to her damp skin. “It wasn’t a problem with you or Ava,” he added, the words drawn from him painfully. He didn’t like having to admit to weakness, but it was worse to ignore it.

Sara captured his hand in hers. “We didn’t think it was a problem,” she promised him, “except that you were upset and not feeling well. We didn’t like that.” She felt she could speak for Ava on this.

“I didn’t like it, either,” Lenny admitted dryly, playing with her slender fingers idly. “I’ll have a better plan next time. If John’s—delayed somewhere.” He clearly did not want to imagine that occurring again, however.

Sara laced her fingers fully with his, feeling more confident. “John’s special, isn’t he?”

“Yes.” Lenny did not mind confirming this. “But you and Ava are special, too.” His green eyes brushed hers with a warmth she didn’t usually see outside of heat. “I’ll be sure to tell Ava when she gets home.”

“She would like that,” Sara agreed. Deliberately she let him go and leaned back in the tub, and he straightened up to leave. “Will you be up for some light sparring tomorrow?” she asked.

“Probably.”

“Good. I’ll see you then.”