Together Again (Never Too Late Book 5)

by Aiden Bates

  "And they're supportive of you. Even though they know what really happened, they love you. They know you have some issues, and while they might be a little angry, they still love you." He put his hand on hers. "I need for you to understand that."

  Zavia stared at him for a long minute. Then she collapsed onto her bed, still holding Pat's hand. "They don't hate me?" Her sobs shook her whole body.

  Pat wrapped his good arm around her. "They don't hate you. I don't think they'll ever hate you. They want you to get better. And they want you to find happiness." He nodded to Doug, who pulled Pat's phone out of his own pocket. "They're not going to be allowed to come and visit, not for a while yet, but they wanted to send you a message."

  He pulled up the video and hit play. Then he set up the phone so that Zavia could watch it.

  The video was pretty simple. Each of the kids gave an update on their status, and told Zavia that they loved her. Even the ones that had the tracheotomy due to loss of airway wrote out signs, which they decorated with hearts and glitter.

  Even the older kids really got into glitter, he noticed.

  Zavia held Pat's hand while she watched the video. "Those are my kids," she told him. Tears still streamed down her face. "They're okay. They're safe."

  "And I'm going to keep them safe, as much as I can. Merab and Eliezer are staying with me right now. Merab will probably go back to her birth family, eventually, but Eliezer might stay a while longer." He gave her hand a squeeze. "The kids will always be a family, Zavia. They'll always have each other. You don't have to worry about that. I'm going to make sure that you get updates, okay?"

  She looked at him, and this time her eyes were focused. She was still crying, but her eyes were focused. "You were right, I have heard a lot of promises, from a lot of people who called themselves authorities. You… you did something. You did something for my babies. I'm going to trust you."

  He didn't look away. "I'm not going to let you down, Zavia." He wouldn't let himself.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Elias wasn't sure that he necessarily approved of the whole plan to go and visit with the woman who had kidnapped so many children, and who had been responsible for the deaths of so many. He got that she wasn't in her right mind. He accepted that. He just couldn't quite accept the idea of his alpha going and holding her hand, of Pat going to be her friend.

  He got over it. He knew he would. He knew that he had to. He had to get over it because Pat had already done it, and he couldn't change the past. He had to get over it because whatever her sins might have been, she was still a mother figure to the two children who depended on him for food, shelter, and support. And he had to get over it because at the end of the day, he knew that Pat was right.

  Elias had no moral problem with punishing predators, but that wasn't part of his job. His job was saving children. The children had been saved, but Zavia Nixon hadn't been. She'd been failed by the system so often that she couldn't trust them to save children, and she wasn't capable of making rational judgments about who needed saving. Hers was a sad case, deserving of compassion. Maybe Elias himself couldn't display that compassion in such a direct way as his mate, but he could admire Pat for showing it.

  When Pat got home that night, bringing with him a recording of Zavia Nixon telling the kids she loved them, and that they needed to try to be good for their birth parents now, Elias cried. This was about as good an outcome as they were going to get. It didn't erase the years that Zavia had stolen, and it didn't tear down the barriers between the birth parents and the strangers that their children had become. What it did was outline where the secret doors in the barriers might be. It would still take a lot of work to open them, but it gave every family a fighting chance.

  A few days later, the case was officially closed. Pat and Elias officially got their New Claim Leave. It wasn't what they'd expected. They had two teenagers in the house, who still had needs that didn't go away just because the grownups in the house had time off. They did have time to sort things out without the job interfering, and there was a lot of sorting out to be done.

  After about a week, during which the youngsters in the house learned about television, grocery shopping, and the internet, Asra went on her first overnight visit back to her birth parents. She agreed to stay for the weekend, if she could bring her brother.

  The Randalls hesitated, and then they agreed. Eliezer had been terrified to spend any time with his birth parents, and for good reason. They emphasized punishment—of him, of Zavia, of everyone. Janine, the caseworker from DCF, and Eliezer's therapist Reggie, wondered if spending some time with a functional family like the Randalls might not help Eliezer to realize that they could find some middle ground.

  Elias wasn't about to complain. He loved having the kids around, but he and Pat needed to have some alone time. They agreed to have Sunday dinner with the Randalls, and to bring the kids home afterward. Once they dropped the kids off in Brockton, they headed back to Providence and locked themselves in the condo.

  Pat buried his face at the junction of Elias' neck and shoulder, right where his mark was, and breathed deeply. "God, it's good to be alone."

  Elias laughed. "Right? I love Merab—Asra—whatever—and Eliezer, but it's nice to not have to hold back for once."

  When the baby got there, they would have to hold back all of the time. It was something they would get used to. Pat's mind was obviously running along the same lines, because he dropped to his knees and pulled Elias' shirt out of his pants. He kissed Elias' belly reverently, like he was kissing a statue in a church. "We'll just have to make the most of the time we have." He looked up at Elias, gray eyes full of intent.

  Elias rubbed a hand against Pat's golden-brown skin. "Why don't we get right down to that?"

  Pat lost no time. In the days since Elias' pregnancy had been announced, Pat had been careful to not make too big a deal of it. Elias could see that he wanted to. Pat made sure to drop a hand to Elias' belly when he kissed him good morning or rub along the line of his hipbone if he happened to be passing by in the kitchen. He didn't do much else, though. He'd said he didn't want to increase Elias' anxiety. Right now, though, he seemed to be inclined to make Elias feel beautiful specifically as a pregnant man, even though he wasn't showing yet, even though not many people knew.

  He kissed around Elias' belly in a wide circle, as though he could mark out all of the places that Elias would stretch. It should have been a little off-putting, but it wasn't. Instead, Elias found himself stripping his shirt off as quickly as he could. He felt like he was being worshipped, like the future was being worshipped, and he didn't want to let it go to waste even for a second.

  Pat met his eyes, though, and licked a trail up his body until their lips met. They kissed for a long moment like that, and then Pat pulled back. "Bedroom," he said.

  Elias nodded. The bedroom was the right place for this. Maybe they had the whole apartment to themselves, but it just felt weird to have sex in the living room now that someone was sleeping in it on a regular basis.

  He walked backwards, still kissing Pat as they moved back into the bedroom. They kept walking backward until Elias hit the bed. He let himself fall, gently, onto the mattress. Pat fell after him, breaking his fall with his one good arm. He heaved himself up with just the strength of his core. "I've been thinking about this all day," he said. "All week, really."

  "Have you?" Elias smirked and lifted up his head, but he couldn't keep up a teasing act for long. He was aching in his dress pants, longing for his alpha to remove these awful constrictions and take him the way that he wanted.

  Pat didn't disappoint. He reached into the nightstand and grabbed the lube, tossing it near the head of the bed. Then he unbuckled Elias' belt, moving slowly so that Elias could feel every inch of movement. Next came the zipper, oh so close to his hard and aching cock.

  Finally, Pat stripped him of his dress pants and of his boxers. He generally took care of both garments at once, and right now Elias couldn't fault
him for it. He sighed as the cool air touched his flesh. "Pat," he whispered.

  "I've got you." Pat knelt down on the ground and settled between Elias' knees.

  Elias cried out as his cock was engulfed in a moist heat. Pat was sucking him down like he really had been dreaming of this all day, like he enjoyed it. Elias wanted to pause. Pat didn't have to do that, not to get him excited. He was already hard, already wanted Pat. As he looked into Pat's eyes, though, he could see nothing but enjoyment. He lay back and enjoyed every moment of Pat's skilled attentions.

  Pat went to great lengths to make sure that his injury wasn't a problem for Elias. When he was in this position, it wasn't. He could stretch Elias open with his good hand, and Elias would never have realized that his other arm was strapped down. He gave himself over to pleasure and cried out as his orgasm overtook him.

  Pat swallowed everything that he had to give before letting him go. Elias scooted up onto the pillows while Pat fumbled with his pants. He was getting better at the whole pants thing, although he was still sensitive about the challenge involved. After a few moments, he finally managed to divest himself of his own dress pants and kicked them aside. Then, he crawled into the bed and lay down on his back.

  Elias climbed on top of him, straddling Pat's hips. Pat smiled up at him and stroked his face. Most alphas didn't like this position. Most omegas didn't care for this position either. Pat wasn't most alphas, and even if he had been his injury made it a practical choice. Elias thought that he might enjoy it even after Pat healed.

  He slicked Pat up, and then he lined Pat up with his hole. Then he sank himself down slowly, carefully, deliciously, onto Pat.

  They both groaned this time. Elias loved this sensation. He loved the visual, too. The sight of Pat looking up at him with so much adoration was something that he would probably never get over. As soon as he felt that he could move, he did, lest he get mesmerized by that face for all time.

  He set a comparatively languid pace. He was still supposed to be taking it easy, after all, and he truly didn't want to hurt the baby. Moving so slow helped to let him control the angle and depth of the thrusts, which meant that they hit the sweet spot more often than they didn't. Elias came again, long before he meant to, just on his own efforts.

  Pat followed not long after, and they lay together for several minutes after simply enjoying one another's presence. After they'd recovered enough, Pat pulled out and got a washcloth to clean them up, and they molded their bodies together once again.

  They lay together in silence for a long few moments. Then Pat spoke. "So, after I went to visit Zavia, the doctor who was in charge of her treatment came out to speak with me." He cleared his throat. When Elias looked over at him, Pat's gray eyes stared at the ceiling. "He asked me a couple of questions, and then he told me that he's also a professor at one of the universities around here. He teaches criminal psych. Um. In a grad program."

  Elias held himself still. "Okay. That's… interesting. What did he want from you?"

  Pat huffed out a little laugh. "An application."

  Elias rolled over to look at his alpha. Graduate school didn't usually happen like that. Graduate school took weeks of agony, and testing, and sweating over bowls of ramen while waiting for results. Then again, this was Pat. Pat was unique. "What do you want to do?"

  Pat sighed. "I don't know. I've been a cop for ten years. I like working cold cases. I like the guys that I work with, except Nenci sometimes. I think that the work we do, it's important. At the same time… I mean I don't like being an interchangeable part." He chewed on his lip for a minute. "I don't. And I kind of like the idea of helping people before they're dead."

  Elias pursed his lips. He didn't want to be the overbearing partner; forcing his mate into a role he didn't want. He'd tried that once and lost the man he loved for ten years. "You were incredible with those kids. The thing with criminal psychology is that, well, they usually come to your attention after they've done something bad." He splayed his hand out over Pat's chest. "I think you'd be incredible in the job, actually, but that's something to consider."

  Pat's eyes darted over to Elias. "Really? You think I could be okay at something like that?"

  "I think you'd be amazing at anything you set your mind to. I mean you're the one who figured out, pretty quickly I might add, that the perpetrator was unstable, and that she'd been traumatized. You've been accommodating her needs the whole time, while the rest of us have been thinking of her just as someone to fight. That helped us to find her, and save more kids. So, yeah, I think you're almost a natural."

  Pat took a deep breath. "I'll sell the condo in JP."

  "I figured you would anyway." Elias smiled at him. "We're going to have to get a real house. Rooms for three kids? And maybe a nanny?"

  Pat's eyes widened. "A nanny. I hadn't even thought in that direction."

  "Whether you're in school or still a cop, your hours would still be erratic. And I'll be traveling again someday." Elias rested his head on Pat's shoulder. "We'll find a place. And figure out child care."

  "Looks like we've got a future."

  Elias smiled and closed his eyes. "I think we do."

  ***

  The hardest thing that Pat had to do was to tender his resignation to Lt. Devlin.

  On the one hand, he wasn't being kicked out, and he wasn't being abandoned. He was making a choice, to pursue a new opportunity that would make him feel more fulfilled. On the other hand, he couldn't help but feel as though he was doing to the team what had been done to him, over and over, for most of his life. That left a giant pit in his stomach, and he lost a lot of sleep over it.

  Not that they seemed to mind. They razzed him a little bit, sure, but they congratulated him too. They were happy for him. They made him promise to keep in touch, and after Pat's last day, they actually reached out and kept in touch with him. Langer was the first, because he was like that, but little by little every member of the Cold Case squad made the effort to meet up with Pat socially. Even Nenci kept in contact, and they rarely came to blows without a case to fight about.

  It was all a little overwhelming, to be quite honest. He wasn't sure what to make of it. He made a conscious choice to accept it, though. There were times that it was easier to accept than others, but he tried not to let that show through and over time it became less of an act.

  Starting school again after such a long time was challenging. The school was a place of privilege, and even when he'd been an undergrad that hadn't been him. He was a privileged man now, though. He had more than a little bit of money saved, having lived pretty frugally over the years, and his mate insisted that what was his was theirs. Pat didn't have to work three jobs to put himself through school this time around. He could focus on learning.

  The change made a huge difference. The classes were a challenge, but so had most of the cases Pat had worked on. He took to academia like he'd taken to detective work. He was, in short, a natural. His clinical work was top-notch, and he soon won glowing praise from his professors and peers.

  Merab, increasingly known as Asra, re-acclimated herself to her family as the weeks wore on. Hers was the real success story, out of all of the Nixon children. She had a strong desire to open up her heart, and she wanted to be part of the Randall family. The Randalls wanted her to be part of their family, and they were willing to make accommodations for everything that she'd been through. Because of that, both sides were able to see the good points in the other.

  That wasn't to say that everything ran as smooth as glass. Asra was significantly more religious than her birth family. They wanted her to go to school in Brockton, and when she went to be tested she found that while she was well ahead of her age group in some areas she was woefully behind in others. That frustrated her, and made for an emotional scene in the condo.

  Still, for the most part Asra moved between her two families with increasing ease.

  Pat and Elias liked the Randalls. They were good people. They were educated, and
they were open-minded, which wasn't always the same thing. As the weeks wore on, the two couples grew to be friends, and they became increasingly comfortable with one another. The younger Randalls, Darius and Amara, became more comfortable with Pat and Elias as well.

  Asra had made the decision to move in with her birth parents by Thanksgiving, but there was a problem. She didn't want to abandon Eliezer, who now went by Eli. Eli's reunification process with his birth parents had more or less stalled. They couldn't accept the young man he'd become, and he was terrified that they wanted to send him to prison.