It wasn't that first morning finding them, nor the second or the third, it was the following night when Tall Boy turned the volume of the television up to block out their muffled voices that he finally sighed knowing he couldn't keep dragging this out.

"How long has he been out?" Lane asked laying beside Sweet Pea with a sheet carelessly thrown over them.

Sweet Pea shrugged not remembering the specifics, only that FP hadn't been by the Wyrm and they hadn't heard from him. "Long enough to get a job at Pops," he answered sounding bitter.

She turned her head to look at him feeling his fingers light as they trailed the length of her thigh. It'd been at least a few days, she figured that much herself. "And you what, just forgot to tell me?" she asked with a faint underlying teasing in her tone.

"Can you blame me?" he asked grabbing the thick of her leg and rolling her onto her side so that she lay facing him. "You're very distracting." He let his hand trail up her hip and sneak under her shirt to settle over her waist, which was as far as he was okay pushing her.

"You're full of crap," she said before he covered her mouth with his, which is what he normally did when they talked about Serpent related things. "Is Toni behaving?"

He pulled back fixing her with a curious stare. There was no reason Lane would know how much crap Toni was giving Tall Boy, calling him a jailer and Lane a prisoner. "You cheating on me?" he asked joking only mildly.

She knew part of him was serious, he was gauging where her head was at in relation to him – to them. "Well if it wasn't you it was gonna be her," she shrugged watching his expression harden unamused.

"You wanna try that again?" he asked running his hands up and down her sides making her yelp quietly as she squirmed in effort to get away. It ended in her back to his chest and his hands pressed firmly over her stomach as he nipped at her ear. "Now who's full of crap," he said hearing her breathless chuckle. But he thought about it, as she always made him do, and he came over every night so there was only one option. "You've been calling her."

"You got that faster than I thought you would," she said finding it a little too amusing to make him think things through and wait for how long it took him.

He was aware she did this, and had she been facing him and the room light enough to see her he knew the way her eyes would glitter. "Sure you wanna have said that?" he asked letting it hang between a warning and a dare.

With a playful grin she rolled over to face him finding her nose brushing his from how close they were. "What are you gonna do to me if I say yes?" she asked instead hearing the sharp breath he took at the way she teased him.

She was gonna catch him in a particularly weak moment and he didn't know how he'd stop himself. "That mouth's gonna get you in trouble," he warned her.

"So do something about it," she said in a soft breath.

His own grin had turned to an almost happy smile and he leaned closer brushing her lips, but a loud pounding on the door had him pulling back.

"You two decent?"

While Sweet Pea answered yes and sat up to address Tall Boy fully, Lane only turned on her back and propped herself up on her elbows wondering if this was the night he was gonna tell her Sweet Pea had to go. When Tall Boy told her to do something she didn't so much as shake her head, but she'd fight him on this. So when he stepped into the room looking down at the two with moderately irritated eyes she got prepared.

As if he could see her resolve, as if he'd been seeing it when every morning she came out to have breakfast and looked up at him knowing he knew Sweet Pea was crawling out the window, he sighed and nodded. "Fine," he told her watching how quick she sat up with a leg over the side of the bed. "Two days a week."

She was on her feet in a flash feeling Sweet Pea's arm fall from around her as she moved to stand in front of Tall Boy not caring that she was in just a shirt and underwear. "To do what?" she asked, throwing those words at him so fast her anticipation was clear. "Go to the Wyrm, the shop, him?" she jerked a hand to where Sweet Pea sat on the bed watching them quietly, knowing better than to think he had any say between them.

Kid was after something, but that's all he knew. "You can go to the Wyrm two days a week, that's all I'm comfortable giving you right now." Now he waited her out hearing in her silence she was thinking.

"Still no shop?"

A faint smile pulled at his mouth the same way it did when the guys asked about her, she'd made quite the place for herself here. "Too many windows," he told her seeing her nod in understanding. "And as long as you keep the noise down I don't care if you come over," he said looking over her head to the boy still waiting on the bed, who gave a quick nod and a quiet okay. Turning back to Lane, who'd uncrossed her arms and now stood in a less defensive position, he told her, "don't forget to call the step-mom tomorrow, because she will call me and I'll tell her he knocked you up."

She smacked his arm with a faint laugh hearing his rumble deep in his chest. "Take your sass with you," she said shooing him back into the hall. He ruffled her hair bidding her a goodnight and she turned shutting the door and climbed back in the bed laying on her back with her legs curled.

It wasn't long before Sweet Pea laid down with her, but as he'd been doing more recently he laid with his head over her chest and wrapped his arms around her waist. And she wondered if he did it because he liked to hold her or because he liked when she held him. Either way her arms came around his broad shoulders and her hand cupped the side of his face pulling him closer feeling him sigh as he settled further against her.

At some point during the night she'd rolled onto her side so that when Sweet Pea woke that morning it was curled around her holding her tight. He sat up on an elbow staring down at the side of her face resisting the want in his fingers to touch her because she was the lightest damn sleeper, so instead he laid with his legs tucked behind hers and an arm still wrapped across her chest as he hovered over her tracing the length of her nose to her mouth and along her jaw to her cheekbone. She had such delicate features and the word pretty was meant for softer things than her but he thought it then as she took too deep of a breath and stretched.

"You stare too loud," she said in a voice made deeper by sleep and rolled onto her back so that his face was above hers. She looked at his dark eyes made warm as they only ever seemed to be when they were alone and sighed having to force herself to remember one of them at least had somewhere to be. Regretfully she reached a hand to his chest before rolling away and climbing out of bed.

He reached for her catching her leg so that his fingers held the soft inside of her thigh, and she turned back to him with heated eyes. "Come back, I'll skip today."

Her response was to swat at the back of his hand hard enough to sting and as his brows drew together unhappily she walked around the bed grabbing a pair of pants. "I've seen your grades, Sweet Pea, you're not skipping."

"What would you do if I smacked your ass like that?" he asked looking from her generous hips to her dancing eyes.

He'd done it once a few days ago after she'd said something particularly biting, and it was as close as they'd gotten before he eventually rolled off of her with a pained groan. She'd laid there so disappointed that she'd convinced him to get himself off in front of her. And she'd looked at him in the same burning way she was looking at him now. "I'd enjoy it," she answered coyly as she left him there.

Shaking his head at how effortlessly she riled him up he was slow to get up and follow her; he found her in the bathroom and stood pressed against her back as she brushed her teeth. She bent to spit and his hands came around her hips holding her against him as she stood up looking at him in the mirror. Pressing a chaste kiss to the back of her head he said, "we'd have the house to ourselves."

She turned to him giving him the toothbrush and fixed him with a stern look. "Get a good grade on your test and I'll think about it. I'll see you later." She left him grumbling about how he shouldn't have asked for her help studying. There was no kiss goodbye, no looks of longing at having to spend time apart – they weren't the type.

"Morning," Tall Boy greeted from the kitchen table when she came around the corner. She gave a soft good morning in return as she grabbed a bowl and cereal, and he sat waiting for the roar of the motorcycle Sweet Pea was now parking in the driveway to let them know he'd gone. But while she sat beside him pouring milk in the bowl Sweet Pea came around the corner and stood with a hand on back of Lane's chair.

"I'll take her to the Wyrm," he told the older man. A heavy look passed between the two, an unspoken dare in Sweet Pea's dark eyes asking to be challenged. Lane glanced between them before she raised the spoon to her mouth wondering what had happened the night Tall Boy had come home livid several nights before.

"Pick her up after nightfall," was Tall Boy's only stipulation. And from the way he smirked Tall Boy knew he wouldn't listen.

His hand brushed Lane's cheek fondly before he marched out of the house letting the door slam behind him. Casually Lane continued eating pretending not to notice.

"He'd listen to you," Tall Boy commented as his eyes returned to the newspaper he'd been reading before she came out.

"Tell me what happened," she countered without looking up.

He fixed her with a sharp stare hearing so much of her old man in that simple statement, and it had his hand tightening around his mug. "It's Serpent business."

"Then it'll take a Serpent to fix it." She jumped at his hand slamming on the table with a loud bang and looked at him with such knowing in her eyes it made his skin crawl.

"I'm sorry," he told her quickly, nursing the sting in his palm against her warm hand. "Things have been a little difficult lately."

She blinked feeling his hand trail up her arm to her face and she leaned into his touch wondering what he wasn't telling her, because that morning he looked like a guilty man. "Is it what you're doing for me?" she asked him, because she still didn't know. All he'd tell her was to give him a little more time and he'd fix things, she didn't understand how since he didn't know who was after her.

Rubbing her cheek with his calloused thumb he stood putting his dishes in the sink, buying himself a little time to come up with a response. "They won't understand why I had to do it," he said dancing as close to the truth as he dared when she was too smart to not read between the lines.

Staring at his back as he leaned over the sink with his head hung low it hit her all of sudden, harder than any physical blow and she turned back to her now soggy bowl of cereal trying to catch the breath she'd lost. He knew who killed her father. Her mind stuttered and couldn't seem to pick back up and she looked at the cereal on her spoon like it might have the answers for her. "Would I?"

With a sigh his head sunk lower thinking it was nothing short of a miracle she hadn't remembered more before now, and the fact that she was still sitting in this kitchen with him meant she hadn't remembered the worst of it. Taking a breath he righted himself and moved to stand beside where she sat at the table, and she looked up with eyes so young and trusting. "I'd never hurt you," he told her, as he'd told her once before. And when her eyes didn't change he bent to kiss the crown of her head still feeling her draw into his touch.

As he left she sat staring at the wall in front of her with a realization she didn't want and it anchored her to the chair so that she couldn't move. And she blinked trying so hard not to think it, refusing to remember things she'd forced herself to forget because she didn't want it.

…

If it wasn't for the fact that they'd both driven their bikes to school Fangs would've come with him to pick Lane up. And he still would've but Sweet Pea had refused telling him they'd meet up at the Wyrm. It seemed like so long since he had to share her he just wanted a few minutes.

He was uneasy by her not answering the door, and when he opened it to find there wasn't a single light on or a waft of cleaning supplies his stomach dropped. His thoughts were so focused on her he forgot to shut the door and he glanced at the empty kitchen as he continued for the dark bedroom. "Lane?" he asked hearing the panicked edge in his voice.

"I'm in here."

Releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding he flicked on the light and looked at the unmade bed before he stepped further into the room looking into the closet. She was on the floor with her knees drawn to her chest and he crouched down beside her and asked, "what's going on?"

She took a breath and opened her mouth long before she spoke. "He wasn't there," she said sounding very small.

"Who?" he asked as he sat half in the closet, too big to fit all of him inside.

She was sitting in the closet the same way she'd been when her father died, and she looked up but it wasn't her step mother who found her like she'd always thought and it wasn't some faceless person with long dark blonde hair she'd been remembering lately. It was Sweet Pea, and she sighed finally letting her world fall apart because she knew he'd hold her together. "Why would he have been? He isn't the type to get his hands dirty." She looked at him shaking her head, thinking things he hadn't caught onto yet. "He would've paid someone else to pull the trigger."

"Okay," he said knowing there was more but not enough to know what. There was a thought she hadn't shared yet, and he knew well enough to know that meant she didn't feel safe enough to say it out loud.

She felt his hand on her arm and she jumped to her feet lunging out of the closet. "We should go."

He was slow to stand with her seeing a cagey look in her eye. "We don't have to if you're not feeling up t-"

"I don't wanna be in this house anymore."

"Okay," he said again and followed her outside. But he stood for a moment watching her catch her breath thinking about what to do before he finally made a decision.

She figured it out in less than two minutes they weren't going to the Wyrm, he'd turned the wrong way. And she sat with her head on his shoulder holding him as he drove feeling it all swell within her too much for her to hold, so that when he finally stopped on a secluded overpass she didn't move.

He gave her time because he couldn't give her anything else feeling her hands clutching his shirt as though to hold him to keep from sinking into the ground. And as she climbed off the bike and stood looking at the darkening sky he finally asked what he realized as they left the house: "how'd you know he killed your father if he wasn't there that night?"

Her face cracked like glass and her shoulders shook from the sob she refused to let out, and she knew if she looked at him she'd never stop crying. So to the sky she said, "because I saw something I shouldn't have." She took a breath that sounded more a gasp and felt her chin quivering. "I was the target," she said and her head dropped as her shoulders shook. Bringing her hands to her face she felt the first tears slide down her palms. "He's dead because of me."

She'd barely choked that out before Sweet Pea gathered her against him feeling her knuckles dig into the center of his chest from the way she covered her face as she cried. This wasn't like before, it wasn't just the release of pent up tears, this was pain. Gut wrenching, heart broken pain. And he stood with his arms around her and not a damn thing he could do to make this okay.

The sun had fully set by the time she'd finally caught her breath enough to get herself to calm down, to just keep breathing. And when the weight of it all came back she counted to ten, because as her mother had taught her anything was manageable for ten seconds. So she counted to ten as many times as it took before her mind could settle on her being okay, on him holding her so she didn't fall apart. Until finally she settled against him with her head on his chest and her arms around his waist, and when he was sure the worst had passed he cupped the back of her head and bent to kiss her forehead.

"I'm okay," she said softly. She didn't need to be able to see him to know the look he was wearing, he knew she wasn't. "I'm okay enough to go." But that wasn't completely true because she left out the most important part, him being there is what made her okay enough.

So they left. And again it was only a few turns for her to know they weren't going to the Wyrm, and she appreciated the hell out of that. He parked the bike outside his trailer and let her in. They kicked their shoes off by the door, or rather he kicked his and she set hers neatly on the floor before grabbing his boots and setting them beside her small keds.

There was a disconnect between them that she could feel, he didn't want to be there what she didn't know is whether or not it was her he didn't want to be there with. And she found herself suddenly afraid of him leaving. "Maybe I should go home, I'd be terrible company," she said sitting on the bed not looking at him.

He sat beside her and they stared at the small kitchen space he rarely used for more than packaged noodles. "Are either of us ever really good company?" he asked as a joke, but even to his own ears it fell flat. He couldn't keep his hands still, or his leg that kept bouncing up and down.

"Then go hang out with your friends and I'll be here when you get back."

With a sigh he stilled realizing he was gonna have to say it, he really hated this sometimes. "It's not you."

"Then what is it?" she snapped feeling too vulnerable to be anything but short.

Another sigh as his head hung. "I don't know what to do," he finally admitted. "You're sitting there and you need me, and I just," he ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know what to do."

She looked at her hands too small for what she was carrying, and realized for the first time that these last couple months had been bearable because he'd been picking up what she couldn't carry. "Are you gonna leave?"

It was the most honest she'd been and with a hand under her chin he turned to head toward him. "Not unless you ask." He watched her swallow as she took his hand from her face so she could turn away, so he wouldn't see her relief.

She sat for several moments blinking back the swell in her eyes, and she wondered what it was about him that made her feel like it was okay to cry. "I'm very uncomfortable."

"Good god yes," was his gruff agreement, hearing her small laugh beside him. "Fangs showed me another one of those stupid videos you find funny."

She stood with him prepared to crawl in the bed and she paused looking up at him. "I hate to break it to you, but that laughter you're hearing is coming from you."

"Okay, smart ass," he said seeing her faint smile, "take your pants off and get in the bed."

She climbed in the bed after him and settled next to him with her back against his chest and his arm around her middle. And it was enough.

…

They were woken by a pounding on the door, and Sweet Pea sat up with an arm still around her shoulders as she laid across his chest. Looking at the clock he saw it was after the time Tall Boy would've come for her and he sighed hopping out of bed and answering the door.

"She's in there, isn't she?" Fangs asked when he saw Sweet Pea's messy hair and squinty eyes from the bright sun. "Morning Lane," he called but Sweet Pea pulled the door closer to him so he couldn't see inside.

"Hey F-"

"Don't answer that," Sweet Pea grumbled rolling his eyes at the way Fangs grinned.

He knew it, as soon as him and Toni realized he wasn't bringing Lane like he'd said they both did. "Lets not tell Toni," Fangs said watching Sweet Pea's brows draw together. "We placed a bet, I thought you'd get together earlier. She doesn't need to know she won." His eyes lit up when he saw Lane's tired face emerge from around Sweet Pea, and his smile grew when he noticed she was in a tank top without a bra, and underwear. "Good morning," he said again.

It was anyone's guess whether she opened her eyes or not as she told him, "he's staying with me today, we'll see you tomorrow," and promptly shut the door in his face.

Locking the door Sweet Pea turned to see her laying on her stomach and he laid down beside her, but mostly on top of her. They were content to lay there drifting in and out of sleep, at some point she'd rolled onto her back and his hands had crept up her shirt as his head laid over her chest. The next time he woke it was to an empty bed and he sat up to find her at the sink with his toothbrush in her mouth as she rifled through his junk filled pantry.

They settled back on the bed sharing a half eaten box of store-bought donuts watching a movie on his laptop. It was a quiet, serene, morning and it almost felt like a dream in that they might wake at any moment and it all be in their heads. He shut the computer when the movie ended and sat back with his eyes closed content to keep laying there with his arms around her.

And she laid against him feel safe and warm. "I wanted it to be you," her mouth said before she had enough time to think about it. She heard his quiet hum as he turned to her wondering what incomplete thought she'd given him. "I needed someone, and I wanted it to be you."

He looked at the side of her face as she absentmindedly played with her hair, and he wanted them to be something. He knew why he wanted her: because he thought she was beautiful, nad before that he wanted to protect her, and before that he thought she was strong. He could imagine driving with her head on his shoulder and her feet out the window not knowing where they were going and never once getting bored. "Me too," he told her, admitted to her.

They didn't know who moved first, if it was one or the other or both, but they came together like they were jumping off a cliff: scared, but reckless. And when they'd reached the bottom they came up for air gasping, laying side by side with sweat on their chests and their clothes on the floor.

"How was that?" he asked out of breath feeling her hand running gently along his shoulder as she stared at the ceiling.

"It was fine," she answered with a nod.

His once relaxed face hardened with a concern that bordered on hurt. "Just fine?" he asked wanting to clarify further.

She turned to him and shrugged, never one to mask the truth to avoid hurt feelings. "It was good while it was going," she told him honestly. There was a light in his eye as he smirked and she watched him with a stomach-clenching anticipation because it was similar to the way he looked at her right before he tickled her, but this was hungrier.

"You should've said something sooner," he mumbled against her neck trailing kisses down her chest feeling her breaths growing short when she finally caught on as he moved lower. Her hands curled into fists around the sheets as his head sank between her thighs. He didn't stop til she was shaking.

He laid back with a satisfied grin hearing her catching her breath beside him. "Was that better?" he asked mostly to piss her off because she'd made known how much she'd liked that. And he chuckled at her hand smacking him as she scoffed.

"The first one, fine. But that second one, you just wanted to gloat," she said refusing the smile that tugged hard at the corners of her mouth.

"You're damn right," he agreed, "I rocked your world." He turned seeing her roll her eyes but he caught the way her mouth twitched. "Wanna know something else?" he asked and he waited as she turned to him, meeting her dancing green eyes. "I failed that test."

A beat passed between them as she remembered her words from yesterday and she laughed, loudly and without care, something she hadn't done in what felt like forever.

.^.

Sweet Pea lay on the bed with an arm propped under him watching her towel off her hair. "I don't know where you think you're going," he told her, after several failed attempts to convince her to come back to bed. "I'm not taking you anywhere." She turned to him with a dry look and he pulled the sheet lower on his hips and raised a brow as her eyes refused to follow. "You can have all you want if you come back to bed."

She'd fallen for him enough that morning and they'd already missed lunch. "We said we'd go, so take a shower and get dressed." And with that she pulled on the jeans she'd worn last night and rifled through his drawers for a shirt that wouldn't end up looking like a dress on her.

With a disappointed sigh he stood up stretching and picked one for her, and as she put it on and irritably looked down at herself his smile returned. He'd picked a v-neck knowing it'd fall too low on her chest and as he'd hoped it ended where her bra did. "Guess you'll just have to take that off."

She looked up at him and raised a finger in warning. "Shut your wonderful mouth and take a shower."

He stood back watching her work the bra out from under her shirt. "You remember, it was like the second day you were here, and you admitted you were a virgin and I said no wonder you're so uptight? I was wrong."

It was her turn to smirk and she looked at him over her shoulder. "I could've told you that."

She straightened up while he showered, putting back the things he'd left out, making the bed, cleaning a stain off the counter, convinced him to put his pants on by promising he could take them off that night.

It'd been weeks since her last visit to the Whyte Wyrm, she forgot how smoky and neon lighted it was – she'd missed it. "Oh my god," Toni exclaimed at the sight of her, jumping from behind the bar and throwing her arms around her. "I was about to kick down his door and steal you myself."

Lane stood with her arms at her side and huffed. "Are you gonna let go?"

"Not til you hug me back."

With a roll of her eyes she patted Toni's back miserably. "Thank god," she muttered when Toni finally stepped back. She turned planning to head to the bar and collided with Fangs who'd been waiting his turn and she groaned.

"Shouldn't have been so likeable," Sweet Pea said leaving her there.

"You're gonna pay for that later."

He called back to her over his shoulder, "what are you gonna do, kick me in the shin?"

Finally getting Fangs off she ran her hands over her chest as though to wipe the remnants of them both off of her. "Yeah enjoy your kneecaps," she told Sweet Pea as she passed him on her way to the bar, "I'll bust them later." She slid onto a stool and waited for whenever Toni would come back and give her a shot of something and stilled at feeling Sweet Pea at her back.

"I'll be busting something else later." He laughed at how hard she smacked him and raised an arm as she hit him again.

"Go be gross over there," she told him pointing in the direction of the pool table. Shaking her head at him as he left she turned back to the bar to see Toni stepping back behind it.

She and Fangs had waited seeing something between them but not in the way they spoke to each other. "Not sure if I'd call that getting along," she said no longer knowing what was happening with them.

But Lane was preoccupied with downing her shot and she, as she always did, wanted another. The girls fell into it as easily as before, Toni was more forthcoming in what all had happened since she'd been confined to the house: Tall Boy and Jughead were heavily opposed, a few days ago the Serpents had sided with Jughead and his decision to talk with Mayor McCoy and had sided against Tall Boy who wanted retaliation, and the bit Lane found less interested was FP was retiring from the Serpents. Lane would've fallen quiet as she thought of what all that meant but Toni had refused and instead kept her talking.

"Lane?"

Lane turned following the familiar light voice and found herself staring at Betty Cooper.