Breathe

But the only thing he saw was the inside of that shed.

And he still smelled it.

He needed Faye.

Deck was right and he was wrong. He couldn’t use the thought of her to get past what he saw.

He needed her.

And Malachi, whoever the f**k he was, needed everything.

* * * * *

Chace blinked away sleep and the first thing he saw was the soft, light blue sheets of Faye’s bed.

In other words, he saw sheets because Faye wasn’t in bed with him.

He sat up and turned in order to angle out of bed but stilled when he saw her on her couch. She was wearing his sweater, her knees to her chest under it, stretching it out. She had on a pair of bulky, thick socks. Her neck was twisted, her chin resting on her arm which she had laid along the back of the couch, her eyes aimed out the window lit by the first kiss of dawn.

She looked her usual cute but he also saw something in her profile he’d seen on her face before, once. Something he saw years ago. Something he didn’t remember until he saw it just then.

It was one of the few times they’d been in the same place at the same time and she’d caught his eyes for brief seconds before she quickly looked away then moved away.

It was right after he’d married Misty.

It was sorrow.

The memory, what he now knew it meant and her look sliced through him like a blade just as her head turned and her eyes caught on him.

She bent her neck, rested her cheek to her knee but held his gaze.

“I love this town,” she whispered.

“Come back to bed,” he whispered back.

“Lived in it most my life, left to get educated, came back as quick as I could.”

“Back to bed, honey.”

“I want to go places, see things, do things but always come right back here.”

“Bed, darlin’.”

“You saved this town.” She kept whispering and he felt his entire body get tight.

“Faye, baby, come back to bed.”

“I don’t know what secrets you hold but whatever they are, I’ll always believe you saved my town.”

“Come to bed, Faye, or I’ll come and get you.”

“You need to save him, Chace.” She was still whispering, her cheeks getting red and not because she was embarrassed but because she was fighting emotion.

Chace was done.

He threw back the covers, stalked to her, plucked her out of the couch and carried her back to bed. He planted her in it, joined her there, pulled the covers over them and gathered her in his arms.

She shoved her face in his chest and one of her hands under his body so both of her arms could close around him tight.

“If he loses his hands –” her voice was thick, scratchy, hard to hear.

“Stop it,” he ordered gruffly.

She sucked in a breath that broke and Chace pulled her closer.

Last night, Sondra and Silas had still been at Faye’s when he got there because they’d arrived minutes before. They all shared a drink and talked quietly in Faye’s seating area before her parents felt comfortable with the state of their girl and left him to see to her.

Close, long hugs were exchanged between Faye and her Mom and Dad. Chace got a shorter one, but a close one, from Sondra and a firm handshake with a couple claps on the arm from Silas.

After they left, Chace had poured Faye another glass of wine and opened himself another beer and she’d interrogated him about what he found and where it was.

He’d told her nothing and, as she kept at it, reiterated she didn’t need to know.

When she gave up, she did it by looking in his eyes and saying quietly, “I already know just because you won’t tell me.”

She likely didn’t and therefore he was glad she gave up.

He got her another drink. To relax her and in an effort to perk her up, he told her he’d watch the show she’d been begging him to watch.

It worked. She gave him a small smile and even acted a little excited as she sorted out the TV. She also fell asleep halfway through the episode.

Chace, however, didn’t. Luckily she fell asleep before he had to admit that, although it had an edge of geek, the show about two brothers who were on a self-appointed mission to save the world from a variety of phantoms, demons and monsters, whose best friends were an angel who wore a trench coat and a redneck who always wore a beat up baseball cap, wasn’t all that bad.

She woke slightly when he moved to take them to bed. So she groggily got ready and joined him there then slid straight back into sleep, curled close.

Chace didn’t follow her for long hours.

Now was now, Chace holding Faye in his arms while she struggled against tears.

He tipped his chin down and against her hair told her, “Honey, let it go. Nothin’ wrong with tears.”

“If he wakes up, I don’t want him to see my eyes red and face blotchy,” she replied, her voice still thick which meant her throat was still clogged.

“When he wakes up, Faye, all he’s gonna see is pretty. Trust me, he’s a guy, I’m a guy, that’s all we see.”

She shook her head as best she could seeing as her face was in his chest then she tilted her head back and caught his eyes with her brightened ones.

“Stop being sweet,” she whispered.

Never, he thought, caught in her crystal blue eyes.

He pulled her up so they were face to face.

Then he offered her an out.

“You want something to think of, not the vast pile of shit that all of this is?”

“Please,” she answered softly.

“I don’t know his story. I don’t know who his people are. How he got where he is and how he is. I also don’t care. We gotta think about how we’re gonna engineer this situation so he goes from where he is now to somethin’ good. I don’t mean possibly well meaning foster carers because there could be a ‘possibly’ in that. I mean somethin’ good. That goes without saying that if CPS gets him and can’t place him in foster care, he doesn’t go to a f**kin’ home for boys.”

Her entire face brightened and she stated immediately, “I’ll take care of him.”

Chace knew he’d get that.

So carefully, gently, he told her, “That isn’t going to happen.”

“Chace –”

“Faye,” he cut her off, “I’m a cop on a recently cleaned up local police force. I can finesse this but I gotta use that finesse above-board in a way questions won’t be asked and that kid gets what he needs. And, baby, I know you’d give him what he needs but right now you do not have the ability to do that since you live in a one room apartment over a flower shop.”