The twins and Lexx were already asleep by the time the car pulled up to the estate, worn out from a night that had asked more of them than either had understood until the exhaustion caught up all at once. Franz carried Lily in first, Arianne following with Leo half-draped over her shoulder, and between the two of them the transfer from car seat to bed happened without either child stirring enough to notice they’d changed rooms.
Franz tucked the blankets around Lily’s shoulders, checked that Leo’s door was cracked the way he liked it, and found Arianne already in his own room, lowering Lexx into the crib with the same careful economy of motion she used for everything that mattered to her.
"He didn’t even wake up for the car seat buckle," she said, straightening. "That’s a first."
"Lily didn’t wake up when I put her shoes back on either. Usually that’s a whole production." Franz leaned against the doorframe, tie already loosened, looking at the crib like the sight of it surprised him all over again some nights. "They ran themselves into the ground tonight."
"In the best way."
"In the best way," he agreed.
"Big night for a seven-month-old." Franz lingered on her a moment longer than the observation required, something in his chest that had been building since the toast at dinner finally catching up to him now that the house had gone silent around them. "I’m going to shower."
"I’ll join you in a minute."
She didn’t get her minute. Franz gave her less than that, the bathroom door opening before the water had even finished heating, and by the time she turned to see who it was, he was already working his shirt free of his shoulders, eyes on her like the two weeks ahead of him had made every second before he left worth claiming twice over.
"Franz—"
"I know." He stepped in behind her, steam already collecting between them. "I know I said I wasn’t going to make tonight about the trip."
"You’re not exactly succeeding."
"I’m aware." His hands found her waist, turning her to face him under the water, and whatever restraint he’d managed to hold onto at dinner didn’t survive the door closing behind them. His mouth found hers first, unhurried for exactly as long as it took her to answer it, and after that there was nothing unhurried about either of them.
He walked her back until her shoulders met the tile, water running down between them, his hands slow and unhurried everywhere they went, mapping her the way he did every time he had to leave, storing up what he could before the distance turned it into memory instead of fact. She arched into him, fingers finding purchase in his hair, and the sound she made when his mouth moved to her throat was lost somewhere in the water and the steam and the low, wrecked noise he made in answer. The glass fogged around them, every sound swallowed by the shower stall until neither of them had anything left but each other’s names.
They didn’t make it out of the water fully steady, and they didn’t stay in the bathroom long after. The bed took the rest of what the shower had started, unhurried now in a different way, the two of them moving like people with nowhere else they needed to be for the next several hours. Arianne recognized the particular hunger in him for what it was somewhere in the middle of it, the same one that showed up every time he had to leave for more than a few days, like he was trying to store up enough of her to last the distance.
When the last of it finally eased, Franz pulled her back against his chest under the covers, one arm banded around her, his mouth pressed to the curve of her shoulder.
"Why doesn’t Nate ever talk about the Jacobs family?" he asked, low against her skin.
Arianne considered the question longer than she needed to, tracing one finger along his forearm. "Because there’s nothing about them worth talking about, in his opinion. He only ever went to that house because his mother got sick and Warren’s money was the only thing standing between her and no treatment at all. It’s the same reason he’s asking us for help now. Mikaella’s in the same position his mother was in fifteen years ago."
"I didn’t know that."
"Most people don’t. He doesn’t advertise it." She turned in his arms enough to look at him. "Most of what he earns from the bar and the restaurants goes straight into her medical bills. Has for years. It’s an enormous amount of money for one person to carry alone, and he’s never once made it anyone else’s problem until tonight."
"That’s why it mattered, him asking."
"He doesn’t ask unless it’s serious. That’s the part that worries me." Arianne’s hand settled flat against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm underneath it. "If he’s finally willing to pawn three businesses he built out of nothing, it means whatever’s happening with Mikaella is worse than he’s letting any of us see."
Franz didn’t answer right away, his thumb moving absently along her spine. "We’ll find her someone. I don’t care what it costs or who I have to call."
"I already told him the same thing. Between what I can arrange overseas and whatever Ellie knows, we’ll have a name within the week." Arianne tipped her head back to look at him properly. "He’s spent fifteen years making sure nobody else ever had to carry what he carries. I’m not going to let him do it alone this time just because he’s too proud to ask twice."
"He won’t have to ask twice. Not with either of us."
"I know." She pressed closer, letting the last of the night settle over both of them. "That’s exactly why he came to us instead of a bank."
"Do you think Warren knows how bad it’s gotten?"
"I doubt he’s asked. A man who wouldn’t help pay for a sick child’s treatment fifteen years ago isn’t losing sleep over her now." Arianne’s voice had gone flatter, the edge she reserved for people who’d earned it. "Nate stopped needing Warren’s approval a long time ago. I just wish it hadn’t cost him this much to finally believe that himself."
Franz pressed a kiss to her temple, unhurried, and let the observation sit between them without adding to it. "Two weeks is a long time to be away from all of this."
"It’s two weeks. You’ve survived longer."
"I know. It doesn’t make tonight any easier to leave behind once I have to." His arm tightened around her, just enough to say what the words hadn’t. "I’ll call every night. Both of you, all three of you, whichever one of you picks up first."
"We’ll be here." Arianne turned enough to press her mouth briefly to his jaw. "Go pack in the morning. Tonight, none of it exists yet."
Outside, the house held everyone finally asleep at once, twins down the hall, Lexx in his crib three feet away, and for a while neither of them said anything else, content to let the silence do the rest of the talking.