Sell you a Bridge chapter 262

June 5th 2016 The Nightside 10:00 AM EDT

Waking  up the next morning in bed with my girls was...odd. Not because I was  in bed with them, that was pretty consistent. I was stupidly in love  with both of them and they were absolutely knockouts, aside from the  consistent sex with both of them, I also never missed a chance to hold  them as I slept. No, what was odd was the feeling of waking up with the  two of them nuzzled against me and knowing I didn't have to actually go  anywhere. I'd been going non stop for a while now, and the feeling of  relaxation was almost a novelty at this point.

The first  thing I saw when I woke up was a shockingly beautiful face gazing  placidly into mine, violet eyes fixed and pink lips turned up in a soft  smile. I just froze. Zee and I had been together for what felt like an  eternity at this point. Only a bit less than a year in terms of linear  time, but we'd been sprinting from crisis to crisis together, and our  hearts were literally one. We'd done things that would make most  professional escorts blush and shared so much emotionally I doubted  there was anyone in the world I would consider as close to me as she and  Drea. All that aside though, her beauty still took my breath away  sometimes.

Seeing her there, head resting on a bare  shoulder, pitch black hair cascading artfully over the top half of her  body and body only covered by a thin sheet, it hit me harder than ever.  Every line of her, every flash of color from her eyes, every curl of her  hair, was absolutely flawless. She looked like someone had decided to  paint perfection and leave the portrait in my bed. I just drank her in,  unable to look away, until I hear a low giggle behind me and turned to  find a certain busty goddess with her head propped up on a hand watching  us both.

She quirked her lips at me. "It's not wonder  she's so smug when you sit there staring and focusing on how perfect she  is." She raked her eyes over both of us hotly. "Admittedly, I can't  blame you, the both of you are absolutely breathtaking, but since we can  feel your emotions she's getting a front row seat to bask in the  adoration, which is terrible for her already inflated ego." She shot me a  teasing wink reaching out to pinch Zatanna's side, drawing an offended  squeak from our girlfriend.

I laughed at Zee's aghast  look. "Seems like you have that more than handled. You're always here to  bring us down to earth if either of us let our heads get too big. I  leaned down to kiss Dreamer softly. I thumped back down to the bed  between them, smiling at Zee. "So, you had a point about us needing  downtime, but I admit I didn't have any existing plans on what to do. I  suppose we could chill here at Juliens for the next few days. Or did you  have something you wanted to do specifically with our time off?" I was  pretty sure I knew what she wanted to do, but I wasn't going to assume. I  was down for whatever she wanted to do.

Despite the  horror show of Kit being missing and all the horrible things that lived  here, I couldn't bring myself to hate this trip. Sure it was stressful  and dangerous, but at the same time this was the absolute most upbeat I  had seen Zee in quite a while. The chance to learn more about her  mother, to get to know someone who had known and loved her when she was  our age, had brought about a huge change. Zee was getting the chance to  explore a part of her past she thought she had lost forever and it meant  so damn much to her.

Even more than all the help with  Kit, Taylor's stories, him giving this back to her after all this time  when her dad never would, meant so much to me. I would owe that man for  the rest of my life, because I was pretty sure he was giving Zee  something she had never gotten, and it was something she deserved more  than anyone. He was giving her peace. She felt how much I loved seeing  her like this too. I could feel through our bond that she loved how  happy I was for her, that she was touched by how much I cared.

I  personally thought that was crazy, she was everything to me, they both  were, and I absolutely worried about how she was feeling. I'd been  barely containing myself from tracking down Doctor Fake and ripping him a  new keg hole, but I knew she was worried about her dad being hurt, so I  forced myself not to try it. She would let me if I asked, she trusted  me, but it would hurt her to ignore that fight looming, and that was the  opposite of what I wanted to do.

Switching to a topic I  knew would make her happy, I glanced at her phone resting next to mine  on the end table. "So, did you call our girl today? I know how much you  hover, not that she doesn't adore it. She's a big softy like her mom." I  smiled and leaned over for a kiss. "It's one of the things I love most  about you. I trust she's getting into unbearable trouble without us  there?"

Zee snickered. "You mother has conscripted the  girls in our absence. Apparently since we're gone she was worried they  would get into trouble. Rana, Tina, and Cassie have been put to work,  making repairs, cooking, and babysitting. Apparently they even roped the  puppy into it. Patches has officially been designated as Hana's best  friend full time. She rides him everywhere. Rana couldn't stop gushing  about how cute it is, apparently he's a complete mother hen, constantly  pushing against her to make sure she never falls or gets hurt."

I  snickered at that. Patches had gotten huge in the last month, but he  was still a sweet boy. Cornerhounds were intelligent and loyal to their  masters, and mine at least was fiercely protective. We'd left his  brothers behind in the OZ with DG and Azkedelia and their parents, but  the first of our Cornerpups had come back with me, even if he'd spent  most of the whole reach debacle prowling the island and enjoying himself  in our castle.

Given how boxy those big stone buildings  are, Patches was basically in Cornerhound heaven. Constantly jumping out  from behind corners at people and just generally running amok, with  some time pandering to Zee (who spoiled him rotten) between pranks. He  usually left me alone, though he seemed to take special pleasure in  trying to scare Jim, even if he never really managed it with any  effectiveness. I let my smile slip. "So...how is Rana feeling? She still  mad we didn't bring her with us?"

My girlfriend winced.  "Yeah, you know how she is. Every inch her father's daughter. She got  that Falcone grudge holding gene." She gave me a teasing grin, but it  wilted soon enough. "But in all seriousness, she's more hurt than angry.  You can feel it too, you're just ignoring it. She feels like leaving  her behind means that we don't trust her. Not to mention her natural  instincts as a void paladin that drive her to be protective of us in  particular. She wants to be here keeping all of us safe, putting herself  between us and any danger that may come out way. Having to sit at home  when she can feel us in danger... it's not easy for her."

I  winced. "That's the whole reason behind me wanting to do this without  her. Instincts aside, she's not a meat shield. She's our daughter. The  ritual may still be pushing her to feel like she should protect us, but  in my eyes it's the other way around. I'm strong enough to take care of  myself, and you're not exactly weaklings either. We can watch out for  each other without using our daughter as cannon fodder." I felt the hot  ember of rage in my stomach at the thought of someone using Morana like  that. I was still ashamed about the original reasoning for the ritual  we'd created her with. I knew she didn't hold it against me, but it  still affected her.

Zee reached out to squeeze my hand.  "Hey, I know baby. I don't see her like that either, and neither does  Drea. You know that. We want her to be safe just like you do. It's  just...hard. Feeling her hurt, knowing we caused it. I'm not sure how  you're keeping yourself from sensing it, but I don't have that knack. I  can feel every bit of uncertainty and helplessness that goes through her  heart, and it breaks mine. Don't worry though. I know we're keeping her  safe. I won't cave and convince you to bring her here just because I  feel bad about all this."

I could  feel her worry and discomfort thinking about how much our daughter was  hurting. Now that I reached for it, I did feel her pain, at least  partly, but I also might have been blocking it out a bit. I wanted to  keep her safe, and feeling all this stress and guilt after Kit went  missing just compounded that. Imagining that happening to Rana terrified  me. Sure, she was damn powerful, but this whole trip had been one  compilation of 'there's always someone stronger'. I forced that pain and  worry back down in a way I hadn't realized had become a habit. I needed  to talk to Morana sometime soon, it seemed like I had some things to  work out, and maybe so did she.

For  the moment though, daughters were less of a worry than mothers.  Specifically Zee's mother. "So, if we don't have any concrete plans,  maybe we could have Taylor bring you around to some of her old haunts.  See what her life here was like. It would be nice to relax a bit and  take in some scenery that we can actually spend some time in that isn't  trying to secretly kill us or turn us evil, which is apparently going to  be a concern here." She giggled slightly at that, a small smile teasing  her face, but her eyes were distant.

I whistled a bit, waving a hand in front of her face and snapping, and she jumped, pouting  at me. I loved her pout, it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. Made me  want to nip at her bottom lip. But we had other things to do. "Well, if  you can't decide then we can just go as him." I hopped to my feet.  "Come on then, lets go." I reached down, picked her up and swung her  over my shoulder easily, drawing a mortified squeak from my girlfriend.  She flailed her legs in the air, squealing at me to put her down.

So  I did, dropping her from my shoulder height down onto the bed with a  muffled thump and she rolled over to glare at me, frazzled and hair  askew. "I cannot believe you just did that!" I hadn't been planning to  carry her out of the room wearing nothing but a sheet and she knew it,  I'd just been trying to get her smiling again once the conversation  turned serious. Dreamer was watching us both with laughter on her face,  and Zee rolled her eyes as she noticed we were both amused. "Fine, go  ahead and gang up on me." Her lips were quirked up in a smile despite  the sulky words. "To your earlier question though, yes. Let's go see  where my mom grew up." The look of excitement in her eyes was worth  every bad thing we'd been through here. I would do anything to keep  seeing that look. Visiting an old house was nothing much.