On Punishment

An Elani Short-Short

By Lou

"I wish you would," Eli spoke. "I wish...you would." The two men stared each other down, neither willing to give. "Is it the badge and gun; because I can put that on the table. It's nothing to me. I. Wish-" Eli unhooked his badge from his hip putting it on the interrogation table between them; took his gun from the holster, ejected the clip, jacked the round from the barrel then set them down next to it, single bullet and all. "That you would."

"Oh," Brady shook his head. "That way that I feel right now, you couldn't handle me, Detective."

"Badge is on the table." Eli shrugged. "And I'm so high on straight don't give a fuck right now that neither you nor your mad will be an issue."

Lani rolled her eyes at the testosterone poisoning the room. "Eli-"

"Not here," he told her. "Not here. That's not what you want."

Brady shook his head. "You santim-"

He almost had to laugh. "Are you really going to stand here and be upset at me for doing what you couldn't?"

"My child's mother is going to j-"

Eli crossed his arms over his chest. "And I was supposed to...what? Rollover? Give up my wife, and our life so that your girlfriend, your baby mama, could remain free? I was supposed to sacrifice my children's safety, trade their mother for you? My daughters haven't taken their first breaths yet. And their mother hasn't tried to kill anybody."

"You don't know Kristen; my grandfather-"

"I don't care."

"I can see that."

"I had a choice to make," Eli told them. "My children, my wife, or your happiness. I'm not about to apologize," Eli looked his wife dead in the eye. "For a damned thing."

Turning his back to them both, Eli snapped his badge into place, reloaded his weapon, and holstered it. Lani and Brady watched as he set a flash drive on the table in their place.

"What's this?"

"Oh, this? I meant to tell you," Eli's voice dripped with sarcastic condescension. "That's Trask blackmailing me into getting Kristen's confession. That's Trask admitting to this investigation being about Kristen killing her daughter Hailey, remember her? This is the District Attorney admitting that your grandfather being knifed being a convenient reason to go, legally, after the woman who killed her child.

"I don't know how much good it will do seeing as Kristen did stab his ass and both you and Victor tried to play me, but it's something. I guess."

"Eli-"

"Uh-uh, no," He told his wife. "You want to talk to me, man and wife; you know where to find me. Detective Grant is off duty."

"Thank you, Detective." Brady managed.

"Detective was just doing his job," Eli replied. "Eli Grant the man though; the husband and father? Oh, you can kiss all his ass. Peace."

He would have slammed the door when he came home to his wife waiting for him, but he didn't. Lani hadn't slept well last night. He knew that because he hadn't slept either. If they hadn't slept he knew that the tension had kept their babies awake.

He'd done enough.

For now.

For long minutes they laid in the dark, breaths quiet with so many emotions beating up against each other in the tense night around them.

After a silent dinner together, and quiet time apart in the same space, the other wondered what would happen when he lay down for the night. He wasn't about to leave his bed, and she wasn't either.

She sighed out a breath rolling to her back; and bit the bullet. She knew he wasn't asleep. "If Kristen hadn't confessed," Lani finally asked him. "Would you have turned her in?"

"In a heartbeat," Eli replied automatically, his eyes remaining closed. "I fully expected that that was what it was going to come down to, that that was what I would have to do to make sure our children would never be without their mother, that I wouldn't have to live a day, sleep a night without my wife."

"Eli, she's-"

"No," He turned to her, eyes wide open. "She's not. Kristen isn't the reason. We are the reason, Lani. You and I. You're going to stop saying that mess."

"You were going to marry Gabi."

Eli snorted. "And you were going to marry Jesus." He replied. "What about it? Gabi didn't know what she did when she sent me to Italy." He told her. "I knew that I wasn't going to marry that girl because I knew where you were, Lani." In her silence, Eli kept going. "Do you mean to tell me that you were going to be the Lord's wife after you looked me in the face in that church? Hm?"

"No, but Kristen,"

"I don't want to hear about Kristen." Eli cut in. "That is some established bullshit. You were coming for me just like I was coming for you. You had already made your mind up then or you wouldn't have been trying to tell me what to do when you learned I was with Gabi's tampering ass. Kristen didn't do anything. She may be your friend-"

"My best friend."

"You were going to be Sister Wives of Christ. I get it."

"Keep playing with God."

"My Lord and Savior knows my heart. He's cool with it." Eli told her then he sighed. "I'm not trying to- no, I am. I am Lani...I'm disregarding what this woman means to you, and I'm sorry. I'm going to have to accept that this is friendship is going to be something that I'm not supposed to understand. I will try to be better at not disregarding that."

"Thank you."

"Kristen may be your friend, but she isn't the reason." He went on. "Love is. Yours and mine for each other; and now, for these kids. Love like that doesn't die. It's why you're still here instead of staying with Abe and having Belle draw up divorce papers.

"It's why I was able to turn shit around on Trask. It's why I didn't whoop Brady Black's ass all up and down that interrogation room. Don't sit up here and tell me about Kristen, Lani Price. Don't disrespect us, and everything we've been through like that."

"Lani Price-Grant." She corrected him. "If you're going to yell at me, put some respect on my name."

"Put some on our marriage then." He sat up looking at her. "Because that's what your ass put in jeopardy doing for others."

"I didn't know I was pregnant.

"But you were engaged to be my wife," Eli replied. "For the record, I wouldn't have been okay with that shit either."

"Kristen-"

"I'm your husband. You know what your problem is-"

"Okay, now you need to hold one damned minute," Lani told her husband. "I understand what I have done, and you are rightfully upset, but don't you-"

"You try and fix everything," Eli told her. "Even when you need to leave well enough alone, Lani. And you think that you have to do things alone. That's how you get into shit. Your heart is so huge, but...goddamn it can be misguided."

"Helping a friend in need will never be misguided to me."

"Kristen's problem was not yours to fix." Eli told his wife. "She should have stayed her ass in France and Skyped them titties Brady for a pick me up."

"Eli!"

"Dammit, girl, I'm tired." He told her, his voice cracking. "I'm tired of dumb shit. And I'm scared. I'm scared for my wife and our kids."

He allowed the luscious. He was still mad. Highly upset. But not a dammed fool. His wife wanted to kiss on his face and apologize, he was damn sure going to let her.

And try not to laugh when she snickered.

"'Skyped them titties'? Eli Grant; sir...no. Please don't say that again."

"Saying people name like that...and I didn't say I would be looking at them. Not the point. Stop sidetracking me." He told her. "You got on your knees for Gabi; and, instead of telling me what was going down from jump, we spent a year apart. My grandmother's life was still in that psycho bitch's hands. We, Lani. There's no I anymore."

"I know."

"Do you?" He didn't want to be mad, but he needed her to understand. "You can't be putting us at risk anymore. Those kids, our kids; are coming. Soon. And if you think I'm about to raise two big-hearted, hardheaded ass little Lani's without their mother, who made them that way, you've lost your mind."

"I'm sorry."

"You've already said."

"I'm waiting for you to accept," Lani replied. "The question is, can you? Will you?"

"You know I can."

"Will you?"

"No."

"No? Why?"

"Because you're on punishment." He told her.

"I'm on what?"

"Punish-" he replied as he laid back down turning away from her. "Ment."

Lani stared at her husband's back for all of three seconds before she realized and snapped out of it. "Oh. OH, hell no. Uh-uh. No. We are not doing this."

"Oh, but it's done. It's done. And believe ME. This hurts me more than it hurts you, pregnancy cravings or no. You're not getting it means I'm not getting it; and you're not getting it because your ass is on punishment."

"This is ridiculous."

"You going without dick for a few days is nothing compared to a damned lifetime away from our kids and our family. Take your medicine."

"The horse is dead, Eli."

"And don't you ever do some shit like that again."

"Okay, look-"

"Everything we do affects us." He said quietly.

"I know, and I'm sorry." Her voice broke this time.

"I love you. Get over here."

"You expect me to lay under you and do nothing? Okay."

"Turn your body that way, and put your hands under the pillow, woman," Eli told her. "I'll go sleep in the damned tub. I don't want to, but I'll do it."

She did it, shaking her head, and smiling when Eli pulled her body into his. Slowly that smile fell away.

"Eli, I couldn't let Kristen lose being with her daughter; not when there was a chance for her. Not after..."

"David." He finished. "Because she's your friend and you wanted to spare her that pain. I know what, too. What I need for you to understand is that what you did for her damn near cost us, and it still may cost you your job.

"You gave Kristen her chance and she came right back to Salem. I love you. That's the only reason I didn't..."

Lani looked back at her husband over her shoulder, her gaze questioning. "Didn't what?" She asked.

He was so quiet for so long, Lani wasn't sure he would answer. "Loving you saved a lot of people. See how that works?"

"Yes." She replied. "Horse is dead, remember? You can stop beating it anytime."

"You first."

"I'm ready to stop fighting when you are."

Because your ass lost, he thought but was smart enough not to say. "Not fighting when it's the end of discussion." He wasn't so smart to keep in his drafts. Eli felt her turn to look back at him when he turned to check the alarm on this phone out of habit.

"Maybe you should go sleep in the tub."

"I'm not, and neither are you. It's done. Whatever happens after this we'll deal with it together."

"What if Brady comes for you? What if Victor?"

"If Brady and his grandfather know what's good for them, they'll take this L and live to see another day."

"What do you have on them, Eli?"

"Nothing that they need to worry about; unless they take it there."

"You're scaring me."

"I'll protect you, and our girls, until my last breath."

She was looking at him again.

"Lani?"

"Yes?"

"...Take your hands from under the pillow."

-End-