Waking up was one of Nick's least favorite activities. Especially not to jarring things like alarms, or ringing phones. He could control the first part by simply setting his own work hours, nice nocturnal schedule that he'd worked out for himself over the years, waking up slowly when his body was ready to- like the good lord had intended.

He had a lot less say over people calling him though.

At first he thought that it must be Sam's phone going off, the wildly unfamiliar ringtone playing through the little apartment. He half sat up, pushing to his elbows and taking a stunned moment to just look down at the man in his bed. The rather bare and sleep rumpled, slightly bruised man who had stolen his pillow and still had an arm around his waist.

His own sore body reminded him exactly why he was so fortunate as to have such a glorious sight taking up most of his bed with long warm limbs and not an ounce of decency or apology. Nick kissed the corner of Sam's mouth and was rewarded with a sleepy little smile as the man rolled over, almost taking Nick with him. But Nick could see that it was his own phone ringing angrily at him from the dresser top where he'd left it yesterday afternoon so it wouldn't interrupt the carefully planned evening.

"Just a sec." He kissed Sam's shoulder and grinned to himself as he rolled out of bed, breath punched from his lungs at the staggering cold of the apartment. Apparently in all the excitement he'd forgotten to turn the heater on last night. But… there had been slightly more important things going on at that time.

With his brain slowly waking, he realized that he recognized the song for his ringtone. He had no recollection whatsoever in setting '99 Problems' as anyone's ringtone but as he picked up his phone and squinted at the display and saw the name 'freaking Glenn Close psycho-ex' he realized that Gabriel must had updated some of his contacts for him. How nice of his brother.

Reluctantly he hit the little green button. "Yeah?" Soft voice, and not just because he really didn't want to have whatever conversation was waiting for him- but because Sam was just a few feet away, cocooning himself deeper down into all those blankets.

Lilith always had such a delicate way of speaking. "The fuck, Nick? - why haven't you signed the god damned paperwork yet?"

So it was going to be one of those conversations.

He grabbed a pair of boxers off the chair in the corner of his room piled with clean clothes that he was never going to get put away- and shuffled out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"What paperwork?" Pulling on his boxers would have been easier if he wasn't so sore in such delicate places- but he wasn't going to have whatever conversation this was naked.

"Don't you play cute, you son of a bitch. We're leaving in less than a month and I need the passport paperwork signed off. Then my lawyer calls to tell me that you're refusing to sign."

Nick rubbed at his face. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Lilith made a furious little noise into the phone. So familiar in physically painful ways.

"June's passport paperwork. It has to be signed by both parents."

What a horrible thing to say to a man. Especially before he's had any coffee. "She doesn't need a passport… she's not going anywhere."

"Don't do this, Nick. I am taking her with me. And if you don't sign then I will get a court order." Which was a lot more reasonable than Lilith usual was with him, even if it was said in what Gabriel always called her 'hold my hoops' voice.

"I never saw any damn paperwork. Why does she need a passport?" Nick returned with the same less than gentle tone.

"Because I'm getting married. And then I'm going to Spain, because he has money unlike other people, and I'm taking my daughter with me so she can get some damn culture."

Nick looked at his phone skeptically. "Are you telling me that there is actually another man who's dumb enough to agree to marry you?"

"I don't need your passive agressive bull. You not signing isn't going to mean that I'll leave her with you. Fucking sign the paperwork, Nick."

"I never even saw your damn paperwork."

"My lawyer sent it to you almost a month ago."

And that's where the breakdown in communication was coming from. "Your lawyer must have sent them to Gabe, I never got 'em."

That horrible growling sound again. All kinds of disapproval and aggression that hit Nick like a physical blow. He could feel his shoulders getting tight and his stomach souring. He and Lilith were only ever good at two things. Having sex and fighting. And there had always been a lot of crossover between the activities. He didn't like this. He didn't like it in the slightest.

"Oh my god. Your fucking brother. I swear, Nick. He does this to me on purpose."

"You did hit his wife with a shoe." He reminded with only a moderate amount of spite.

"That middle east, terrorist, man-stealing bitch called me a whore."

And see, Nick had grown up a lot over the past few years, because despite the fact that he was almost positive that his ex did actually take money from men in exchange for sex- he didn't point it out to her.

Old dogs and new tricks and all that. He was so proud of himself.

"Just send June to your mom's until you get back from your nasty honeymoon." Tahoe was a hell of a lot closer and didn't require legal documentation of immigration.

The line got real quiet for a few heartbeats. "He's from Spain, you know. His name's Marco and he wants us to come visit so we can look at schools out there for June."

As stupid as it sounded, Nick had always just assumed that there would come a point that he could magically get custody of his daughter, or at least visitation rights. Vegas wasn't so far away. Just an hour or two by plane. Spain on the other hand was… it was a giant NEVER put between him and his child. He found himself suddenly choking on something very much like panic.

"Lilith, you can't. It's- that's completely unfair to her." By which he meant that it was unfair to him. "You can't just drag her to fucking Spain."

"She's not yours anymore, Nick. I can do whatever the hell I want with her."

"You can't treat her like she's a stack of records that I left at your place when we broke up, Lil. She's a child. She's our child, and you can't-"

"Nick, I'm not asking if it's ok with you that I take my daughter- I'm telling you that I am, and I'm telling you to sign the fucking passport paperwork."

"You fucking can't do this, you bitch. I have rights and- don't, god damn it, don't hang up on me!" But she was gone. The line resonating with this quiet, dull noise. The panic in him had turned to something else far too quickly. And he'd never hit Lilith. Not even once, and right then he realized that if she was in the room with him he would have gone for it.