A/N: thanks for the lovely reviews and the author fav/follow :)


"0300, right on time," Zaeed muttered to himself when he heard soft footsteps padding down the back staircase. As they had every night for the past week, the footsteps stopped just outside his bedroom for a few moments before continuing on into the kitchen.

The first night it had happened, after the sonogram appointment, he'd gotten up to investigate and found Lucy dancing around the kitchen in her pajamas as she mixed ingredients for what turned out the next morning to be chocolate chip muffins. Every night since, he'd just left her to it. He knew the revelation that she was carrying twins had increased her stress levels to the point where she couldn't sleep, and just about the only thing that would quickly calm her down was baking.

He still wasn't entirely sure why she paused outside his room every time.

He'd just about drifted off to sleep again when a sound of breaking glass made him bolt upright in bed. A moment later, he heard a string of loud curses, a gunshot and more breaking glass followed by a dull thud. He was out of bed in an instant, pulling on a pair of jeans while he grabbed for the pistol he kept bedside. He ran out of the room and up into the kitchen, skidding to a stop when he saw Lucy sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by broken glass and batter.

"What the bloody hell is going on out here?" he asked as he walked around and gently picked her up and set her on the kitchen counter.

She sighed. "Might have... mistaken a shadow thrown by the fireplace as an intruder," she muttered after she'd watched him picking up pieces of the broken mixing bowl for a couple of minutes.

"So you shot a shadow?" he asked with a smirk.

"Not... exactly. The shadow startled me so bad I dropped the mixing bowl, obviously. I'd been cleaning my pistol earlier and it was still lying on the counter, so I went to pick it up, just in case it wasn't just a shadow. I slipped in the batter, the gun went off and I fell on my ass."

Zaeed tried very hard not to laugh, considering she could have been seriously injured by a fall like that, but it was a couple of minutes before he could compose himself enough to ask, "What'd the shot hit? I heard glass breaking twice."

She waved her hand in the general direction of the living room. "I think the bullet may have hit the window. Didn't go through though, that probably would have shattered the whole damn thing if it had."

The buzzer on the front door made them both jump. Zaeed heard Lucy jump from the counter and follow him as he walked over to the security monitor by the door and turned it on. He was surprised to see Chris and another C-Sec officer standing outside.

"Y'all all right?" Chris asked. "The silent alarm was triggered, and then a couple of minutes later, somebody called in saying they heard a gunshot coming from this apartment."

"And it took you this long to get here?" Zaeed frowned. "Wait. What d'you mean the silent alarm was triggered?"

Lucy grabbed his arm with both hands. "You mean that was... somebody was actually in here?" Her grip tightened when he went to open the door and found it was indeed already unlocked.

Shit.

He wrapped his arms around her as she leaned back against him while Chris and his partner went through the apartment room by room.

"Unless they've got an invisibility cloak, whoever it was is gone," Chris said when they'd finished.

"You mean like this?" Lucy said as she tapped a key on her omni-tool to activate her tactical cloak and Zaeed was left looking like he was holding empty air until she shimmered back into view several seconds later.

"How common are these?" Chris' partner asked.

Lucy shrugged. "I can't imagine they're exactly rare, especially in military and criminal circles; they're extremely useful. Mine was programmed by one of my former crew, who also uses one. And Valern, the salarian Councilor has one, probably from the STG. But neither of them would have any reason to break in. Even if they did, they'd never be stupid enough to do it when they knew we were home."

"What about stalker ex-boyfriends?" Chris asked.

"Or Cerberus?" Zaeed added.

"Shit, I didn't even consider Cerberus." Lucy shook her head in thought. "They're more into being in the public spotlight though. Breaking into my apartment isn't public enough for the Illusive Man. But Tony..." She shuddered. "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past him to have gotten his hands on a tactical cloak, which makes him that much creepier."

"And that much more dangerous," Zaeed said, tightening his arms around her ever so slightly when she shuddered again. "In the morning, I'm gonna look into tightening security around here."

Chris nodded. "Great idea."

When the two officers had left, Zaeed changed the passcode on the door and messaged it to Chris so he'd be able to get in when his shift was over at noon. As he turned from the door, he glanced over at the window and saw the hole where Lucy had accidentally shot it. Spotting the bullet lying on the floor next to the piano in the corner, he crouched down to pick it up and was surprised to see something else: blood.

"What the hell are you doing, snooping in the corner?" Lucy asked as she walked over to him, a batter-covered sponge in one hand. She knelt beside him and her eyes widened as she looked at the floor. "Is that blood?"

He nodded. "Whoever was in here, you clipped the fucker."

"I dunno if that makes me feel better or worse." She sighed heavily as she stood up again. "In any case, I'm never gonna get to sleep tonight. Unless..."

"Unless what?" He raised an eyebrow when she started chewing her lip. "What are you thinking about, sweetheart?"

She smiled as she held out a hand to him. "I'm thinking maybe it's time my bed went back to being our bed."

"That's one thing you can say for Tony," he muttered as he took her hand and followed her up the stairs. "He may be a goddamn creepy bastard, but he's bloody good at bringing the two of us together."