Damian sat on the edge of his bed and sighed. He rubbed his face with his hand and then ran that through his hair. He couldn't relax tonight, not even to hold Carrie in his arms as she slept. His head was a mess, his mind refused to be silent.

He tensed when he felt Carrie's hand run up over his back and over one of his broad his shoulders to drape around him as her other arm wrapped around his waist. The fingers of her hands laced together to cradle him in her arms. A difficult feat considering he was a man of considerable size, much like his Father had been. She buried her face into his neck and pressed her bare chest against his back. The sheets were wrapped around her middle and he felt the soft Egyptian cotton brushing against his lower back.

Damian slowly relaxed his muscles. He might not have been able to relax and enjoy holding her, but it seemed his body found it perfectly acceptable for her to hold him. As did he, he discovered.

"You okay, Boss?" Carrie asked. She had completely ruined the peaceful moment by referring to him by that title, but she had done it in her own perfect way.

"Must you always refer to me as that? I think we both know I'm not the Boss of you," he said. Certainly not in the bedroom, he thought. He wasn't about to admit that, of course. But in the field she had always been her own person, she knew how to adapt. After all he couldn't plan out everything to the letter, there were too many variables. His mind was running away from him again. He forced himself to focus on the present, on Carrie.

She smiled against his neck in response to what he had said and that gesture spoke volumes. She would always call him 'The Boss', it had stuck and that was the end of it.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

He gave another sigh, a soft one but not in any way directed at her. He knew, of course, that he should have gone to the study or to the cave to brood rather than to stay here where she could make an issue out of his mood. "I'm fine. I just can't sleep."

"I have never once seen you sleep."

He frowned and thought back. No, he supposed that she never had, even from the beginning. He didn't need more than a few hours of rest and he often used meditation to accomplish that. He still preferred to do both sleeping and meditating alone. However he hadn't obtained much of either now that he and Carrie were sharing a bed and had been for two months. He only stayed for so many hours to hold her and watch over her. He thought it was the right thing to do, the normal thing in a couple. He wanted to, it was his right, not just an obligation as the other half of their relationship.

"Go back to sleep, I'm fine," he reassured her.

She tightened the grip of her arms around him and he gave yet another sigh. She was determined to stay, he was determined to shut her out.

"Aren't I allowed to keep some things to myself?" He asked in response to her unvoiced refusal. He spoke calmly, he didn't get irritated. She was only trying to care for him.

"No. You're supposed to talk in a relationship," she reminded him.

"You never tell me these things."

"I don't have any concerns or worries, I haven't for five years."

"You cannot possibly be telling me that since we came together then that your life has been simpler."

She sighed this time and rolled her eyes. She didn't think she'd be able to convince him, she never could. He was constantly questioning her happiness with him, even before their relationship. Damian was stubborn about these things. For a man so wildly confident she'd never seen him so insecure when it came to their relationship.

"You're being impossible," she told him.

"You should be used to it by now," he replied, his mouth twitched with a slight smile. She saw that and knew she had begun her slow victory. But she knew exactly how to speed it up.

Carrie straddled Damian and pushed him onto his back with her hands on his chest. He allowed himself to be pushed down and looked up at her as she looked down at him with her intense stare. Her blue eyes glinted in the slither of light escaping a gap in the drapes. Her short fiery red hair was sticking up in places. He always believed her hair gave her a fierce quality, that when it was messy she could look almost wild.

His eyes travelled lower over her body, she had an athletic build but she was a woman and any hot blooded man could see that, and enjoy it. They did, much to Damian's chagrin.

Damian gasped when her hand wrapped around his flaccid member. He felt both shocked and a little worried by her firm grip but otherwise aroused. His flesh began to slowly rise and engorge. She smirked mischievously down at him. He had been so busy ogling that he hadn't noticed what she'd been up to.

"My new interrogation technique," she said with a smirk.

"Then I suppose I'll have to castrate every criminal in Gotham," he said with a slight grin as she stroked him. He closed his eyes but she stopped. He reopened his eyes and his brows knitted together in a slight frown.

"Talk and you get a reward. This is an interrogation."

"I never reward the people I interrogate."

She smiled. "You leave them with the ability to move."

He returned her smile. He supposed that was true.

"That's a good point." He placed his hands on her hips. He decided he may as well talk about this. After all, when Carrie, got a target in her sights she never let up, not for a second, like him. Nevertheless he feared a fight. To a man of his skill this notion was truly preposterous, he was born to fight and born to win. However he felt that if they did fight and she saw how evil he could be, just for a single second, she'd leave him.

"It's an accumulation of the little things," he began. "Recent arguments with my Mother after I stopped another of her crusades, Drake's ability to exist, Brown's insistent determination to return an stay in my city, thanks to some new-found confidence, and after I spent such considerable time to drive her and the others out, and not to mention Red Hood's latest crusade partnered with his suggestive comments directed towards you."

"Some of these things happened two years ago."

It was just an assessment, he didn't need to answer, he only acknowledged her with a slight nod. He began stroking her hips while her hand continued to caress him. He was leaking pre-ejaculate and she was using that to aid the movements of her soft, strong hand of hers. He wished she'd move it faster.

"You should have said something. Or...I should have noticed," she told him. She looked guilty.

"It isn't your job to worry about me," his voice cracked when she squeezed him a little too hard in her hand.

She looked amused and he glared. "You are treading down a dangerous path now," he warned her.

She let go of his penis to take his hands in hers and lace them together before pinning them down on the bed above his head. "Whatever issues you have you can talk about them with me, like I know I can with you. And it can be whenever. We can be on patrol or sparring of even in the middle of having sex and I'll listen. I might get pissed if I'm doing something important but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear it and I'll try and say something reassuring or relevant to the situation."

He smiled. "You have done, Carrie." It was time this ended and they could move onto a far more enjoyable pastime for the early hours of the morning.

She gasped when he flipped them over suddenly. "But the last thing I'm going to do is whine about what's on my mind when I'm supposed to be making love to you." He pressed his lips against hers and she gave a soft moan as his tongue slipped into her mouth. His tongue explored, teased and played with hers. He let go of her left hand and cupped her left breast. He squeezed it gently and pulled another moan from her.

Damian broke the kiss and looked down at her as he dragged his thumb across her stiff nipple. She bit into her bottom lip and stared up at him through her eyelashes. He didn't know if she knew what that look did to him but it was just so...so indescribable. It made him burn.

She parted her thighs slowly and he settled between them. He nestled his hard member against her entrance. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through her mouth, her body was flushing and her eyes were filled with unbridled want. He felt so weak, no longer angry or frustrated over such minor things. Carrie understood, that was all that mattered.

"Carrie, I..." he said.

She smiled and nodded. She knew how he felt.

"And I know, too," he added. She continued to give him that gentle assuring smile that gave him a sense of peace.

He entered her slowly and they both shuddered. She wrapped her legs around him and he began to move.

They pulled apart when the pleasure began to subside and to catch their breath. Damian turned his head and looked at Carrie. He watched her chest rising and falling with every breath and the sweat that made her body almost glimmer.

"Carrie," he said.

"Shut up," she replied and turned her head to flash him a grin. "Go to sleep."

"Yes, Boss," he smiled back at her. He closed his eyes and he felt her curl up next to him and her hand slowly stroking his hair before he drifted off.

Carrie smiled. "Finally," she whispered.

"What?" Damian asked as he flinched awake. Carrie sighed and shook her head, covering her eyes with her hand. "What is it?" He repeated. She dropped her hand back onto his chest with a soft smile.

"Never mind, Boss. Never mind."