Nic had worked late, later than late. He had been out in the field until two in the morning which was late for even the night-owl Auror despite his tendency to pub crawl and chase away the anxiety of work. Too many things followed him to bed if he didn't and sadly very few of them were beautiful women, but last night he hadn't had a single drink. No pubs, no midnight coffee, no beer, but sleep. Beautiful, exhausted, unadulterated sleep that only the truly worn out can achieve.

Aforesaid magnificent r.e.m. cycle was interrupted, however, by the sound of the door opening and the miserable jerking rock of Domino diving off his bed at full speed to greet the guest with all the enthusiasm that a guard dog should lack. He rolled his face into the pillow and dozed off again just as his mind began to form thoughts about who it might be. If he was getting robbed, maybe they would give him a day off. Blech…

Getting robbed would have actually been less of shock for him than what was really coming. Not that he would be surprised to see DanI, despite the fact that she'd been scarce since the wedding. That stung, not just a little. Being at the wedding and having to see how happy Sean was and feeling as miserable as he had made Nic's drinking habits come back in full swing. It was a lucky thing that the man didn't have a fetish for more hardcore substances because he would have been shooting, snorting, injecting, or smoking just about anything to chase away those demons by now.

But it was the familiar scent of DanI that perforated the darkness of his dreams and brought him to a semblance of consciousness more than anything else. He felt the weight of her shift his bed in it's light presence. His eyes stayed closed for a long second, even when she spoke he didn't shift too much. Half asleep he was thinking it was a dream. These dreams weren't so uncommon now, now that she wasn't coming around anymore. Why a guy like Nic would get so hung up was beyond even him, but he was and it just plain hurt.

Her babbling confused his already half aware brain. Nic blinked in the half light of his cave like bedroom and looked up at her face. Seeing the concern there and the seriousness in her eyes was sobering, even in his confusion. Without thinking he slid a strong arm around her hips and pressed his face into her lap next to the baby wiggling in her arms. "DanI, what are you talking about?" He mumbled, taking a deep breath and squeezing this married woman again for all the wrong reasons.





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Anyca McTiernan: Ready to Sissify the Shit out of Tobias Haddock.