I decided to go ahead and continue this, and to focus about half Natalie/Joe and half Jason/Gavin. I have never written a M/M relationship before, so be gentle.

"How's she doing?"

"Better. They're going to keep her overnight and see how she is tomorrow."

Jason moved behind Gavin, who was chopping red bell peppers on a wooden cutting board. He wrapped his arms around Gavin's torso from behind and kissed the side of his neck gently. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Gavin leaned his head back against Jason for a moment before continuing to cut the vegetables. "Your lawyer called."

"Oh?"

"He has the paperwork drawn up and is almost ready to meet with Natalie's attorney. He needs a few more documents from you." Gavin scooted a group of diced peppers over on his cutting board and placed an onion on it.

Jason was quiet for a moment. "That was... Fast."

Gavin paused his chopping; he couldn't quite pinpoint the tone in Jason's voice. It almost sounded like disappointment or even regret. "Were you wanting to drag out what should have happened a long time ago?"

Jason dropped his hands from Gavin's body. "No, but..."

"Because it sounds like you're upset that the divorce is moving along."

"What? No. I just never expected her to be the one to file for it." Jason said. He moved to lean his back against the counter next to Gavin where he could face him. "I always thought it'd be me, and it feels... Weird."

"I see." Gavin said, not looking up.

"We are talking about dissolving the last fifteen years of my life. Natalie and I have been through a lot together. Don't you think that it's difficult to call it the end?"

Gavin rolled his eyes. "It's been the end. You've been living separately for months."

"That's not the point." Jason rubbed a hand over his face.

Gavin wouldn't understand, and how could he? He was only twenty-four years old. He'd come out at thirteen, and he'd had only one serious relationship before Jason. Gavin had been in elementary school when Jason and Natalie were married. Even if they were no longer a real couple, the history between them couldn't be erased.

"I respect the hell out of her. She could have filed for divorce as adultery and ruined me, but she filed it as no-fault." Jason pointed out.

"Ruined you." Gavin echoed, hurt, shaking his head. "So that's what you think of us."

"Gavin, that's not what I meant." Jason reached for Gavin's hand, but he refused to give it to him.

"Are you still in love with her?"

"No." Jason said firmly. "I'm in love with you."

"But you still love her."

"There's a big difference between the two. You knew going into this that I had a wife, a marriage, a past."

"Natalie's like a doll that you don't want to let go of." Gavin argued. "You're still putting her in cocktail dresses and fancy updos and Louboutins, parading her around events while you keep me in the shadows."

"You know it's the act we have to put on." Jason sighed. "If my constituents find out that I have a boyfriend, they'll think I lied about everything."

Gavin whacked the onion a little harder than was necessary with his knife. "Didn't you?"

Something cool and moist being plopped on her head roused Natalie from her nap in Joe's bed the following afternoon.

Natalie opened her eyes and rolled up to look at the wet washcloth on her forehead. "Seriously?"

"I didn't mean to wake you." Joe said apologetically.

"Then why would you throw a wet washcloth on my head?" Natalie tossed the washcloth to the nightstand.

"Your forehead felt warm, and you were thrashing around in your sleep. I was worried. I thought you had a fever again."

Natalie arched a brow. "Have you just been watching me sleep?"

"You're making it sound creepier than it is."

Natalie began to respond, but Joe took advantage of Natalie's open mouth to shove the metal tip of a thermometer under her tongue. Natalie sighed in exasperation, but closed her mouth around it and allowed it to take her temperature.

The thermometer beeped and Joe pulled it out of her mouth. "100.5. I'm going to get you some Tylenol."

"Is any of this really necessary?" Natalie sighed.

"Would you rather go back to the ER?"

"Fine." Natalie relented.

He returned with a tray that held a bottle of Tylenol, a bottle of water, and a bowl of soup. Joe set the tray on the nightstand and sat down beside her on the bed.

Natalie shook her head as she sat up in the bed. "You don't need to do all of this."

"I know you're not used to being taken care of, but you are sick. I want to do this, so would you just let me?" Joe fumbled with the bottle of Tylenol.

"Three." Natalie supplied.

"It says two on the bottle." Joe said, scrutinizing the label.

Natalie rolled her eyes and accepted the Tylenol from Joe, downing it with a sip of water from the bottle. When she'd finished, he moved the tray with the bowl of soup on it to her lap, then crawled next to her on the bed, sitting beside her on top of the covers.

"It smells good."

"It's Nonna Caputo's recipe."

"An Italian lady had a chicken soup recipe?"

"Hey, Italian people get sick, too."

Natalie laughed a little as she tasted it. "It reminds me of boarding school."

"I didn't know you went to boarding school."

"Yeah, sophomore through senior years." Natalie stared down at her bowl, swirling her spoon around in it to avoid Joe's eyes. "After my mother died, my father kind of… Lost it. He ended up institutionalized, and my grandparents were too old to deal with a teenager, so they shipped me off to Connecticut."

"I'm sorry that happened to you."

"It wasn't too bad. I had lots of friends. There was good chicken soup." Natalie looked at him and smiled a little. "It was never lonely, which was probably good because I'm not sure what… Decisions I would have made if I hadn't constantly been surrounded by people. I was… Safe. My father had these psychotic episodes and…"

Natalie suddenly stopped talking.

Joe placed a gentle hand on her leg. "You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."

"He's been in and out of mental hospitals since. Last I heard, he was in."

"Do you ever see him?" Joe hesitated before asking.

"Rarely." Natalie ate a couple of bites of the soup. "And then only out of guilt and obligation."

"I know it's not easy for you to talk about things." Joe said quietly, brushing a piece of hair away from her face. "So, it means a lot that you feel comfortable enough with me to tell me that."

Natalie cleared her throat. "The soup is really good, though."

"Some other time, I'll make you her Italian Wedding Soup."

"Speaking of wedding…" Natalie looked down. 'I assume Jason told you that I filed for divorce?"

Joe nodded slowly. "He did. I was a little surprised."

"It was past time." Natalie paused. "Is it weird that one reason I stayed married to him this long is that I didn't want to 'divorce' his family? They're this crazy Mexican-American bunch. Huge family, tons of nieces and nephews. I liked that. I never had that until I married him."

"I think that sounds pretty normal."

"It's time for both of us to move on."

Joe looked at her almost shyly. "Do you want to move on with me?"

Natalie laced her fingers through Joe's and smiled at him. "I thought I already had."

The next morning, Gavin reluctantly followed Jason into the huge house in picturesque suburbia that was purchased after Jason won the senate race. They rarely went there because Gavin always felt awkward in the house that Jason shared with Natalie, even though "shared" was a relative term; they could probably count the number of nights they'd spent there together on their fingers.

"I need to get some clothes. If you want to look for those documents for the lawyer, they're probably in my second or third desk drawer." Jason called over his shoulder as he headed upstairs.

Gavin walked through the glass door that led to Jason's office and crossed the room to the giant cherry desk in the middle of the room. He rifled through the second drawer, not seeing anything that Jason needed, and he moved to the third drawer. Gavin moved a few papers out of the way until he uncovered something that made his hand freeze and hover over it in shock.