A/N: Is it just me, or is everyone else finding the hit counters disheartening? Oh well, anyway - This chapter is for my gorgeous turtle dove, just because i feel like dedicating it to you. Thankyou for your continued encouragement with this fic hun.

Leon rifled through his pockets. His head was aching, his hands shook and he was in desperate need of a cigarette.

Ruby was inside putting Cade down to bed after his big afternoon at the beach. She seemed to have gotten over being upset with him now, maybe even understood somewhat thanks to a comment made by Cade. They were on their way back to the car around dusk when the first stars had started to appear in the sky. Leon had been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed at first, not until Cade tugged on the leg of his shorts and told him to say goodnight to mommy. That it was time for bed.

His heart had dropped into his stomach at the sudden dawning look Ruby got on her face. He was fully expecting her to say something to him but instead she leaned down, picked up Cade then quietly told him she would help him say a special goodnight when he got home. Home was her house for the night – It had already been agreed to before all was said and done. The little boy had been quiet after that and so had Ruby.

He finally found his lighter and managed to light his cigarette, his hands shaking the whole time. Kicking off his shoes, he sat on the top step of the porch and dropped his head into his hand.

It was with great reluctance that he had decided to stay the night at Ruby's house. It was a small place right on the beach. Three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms and a big assed enclosed front porch. Ruby said she usually slept there when it got too hot to sleep inside. He could hear the rush of the ocean, just down the hill through the brush and the air smelled of salt. It was beautiful there. He had no idea why she insisted on going to the ocean baths when she could just walk down the hill and be on the beach.

He wasn't sure why he had reservations about staying over at her place. He used to crash anywhere he fell down while he was living with the team, but that may have been because he wanted to avoid seeing Letty with Dom.

That had all changed. He'd gotten her – eventually – then, he lost her.

He could hear the beaded curtain that hung across her front door jingle and he swallowed his grief. Slowly he turned his head to look back at her over his shoulder.

Ruby's red, red hair hung in waves down over her shoulders, a result of swimming in the sea, and she was wearing a light blue shift that came to mid thigh. Leon could see even in the dim that she was a little pink across her cheeks and shoulders. He lifted a brow slightly and spoke, cigarette still pinched between his lips.

"You got sun burned."

She waved it off. "It's not too bad at all. I put some cocoa butter on it."

Leon frowned. "Is that that stuff that smells like food?" he sniffed the air, trying to see if he could detect the smell of cake. All he could smell was salt and cigarette smoke.

Ruby grinned and nodded. "It always makes me hungry – I drove an hour and a half for a cookie one night because I'd put some of that on." She gave him a thoughtful, faraway look. "How long has it really been since you slept?" she asked suddenly.

Leon puffed on his smoke and shrugged. "Can't remember. Days – a week maybe."

Her face turned incredulous. "Have you been napping?"

"No, mommy, I have not been napping." He spat sarcastically. He stubbed out the remainder of his cigarette and reached for another one.

"Let me give you a massage."

He froze, the new cancer stick halfway out of the packet. He quirked a brow at her. She was always doing that. Just when he though she was going to be quiet she would spit something out. Most of the time it was random little facts that nobody in their right mind would care about – yet she seemed to know a ridiculously large amount of them.

"I'm sorry?" he asked after a while.

Ruby hopped to her feet and walked over, tugging on his arm. "You need sleep, Leon. I know you don't like me touching you, but it'll really help I swear. You'll feel like a new man." She promised.

He groaned, clamouring to his feet. "Ruby.." he gave a long suffering sigh and allowed her to lead him inside and into the living room by the arm. He stood rigidly, watching her go through a black gym bag.

"Ruby – I don't know about this."

She turned to face him, a bottle with an amber coloured oil in it in her hand. "If you really don't want me to, then I wont Leon." She threw the bottle down on the couch and took his hand. That seemed to be the only form of comfort he could tolerate.

"I'm worried about you is all – you're not sleeping, you're jumpy, you're getting headaches – don't look at me like that, I've noticed!"

He looked at their entwined fingers and gave a long suffering sigh. "Where do you want me then?"

Ruby gave him a warm smile and pointed toward her bedroom. "You can stretch out on the bed in case you fall asleep." As he started toward the bedroom, "Oh! Do you prefer vanilla or peppermint?"

He screwed his nose up. "Neither really – but vanilla would be the lesser of two evils."

"Ok – go lay down and take your clothes off."

"I'm sorry – clothes?" he laughed slightly. "I'm not getting naked."

She looked unaffected and went about gathering some towels. "Alright. To your boxers then." She glanced at him. "Quick! Don't make me cut them off you!"

Leon shook his head, resigned and shuffled down the hall to her room. He'd been in there earlier to change out of his trunks. "What the hell was I thinking?"

Ruby couldn't believe just how knotted some of his muscles were. Not only would they be making him grumpy – he had to be aching all over. When she'd first sat on the backs of his thighs he had been so tense that it was like touching a block of ice. Your hands would slide over the top easy enough, but there was absolutely no give underneath the surface whatsoever. It had taken almost a half an hour of kneading to loosen up the bunched and knotted muscles at the base of his neck.

He groaned into the pillow, long ago given up keeping quiet. It hurt, but at the same time made all his limbs feel heavy and weighed down. Better.

Ruby smiled softly, pleased that he was more relaxed now than he had been the entire time they'd been getting together for Cade's lessons. "Feel better?" she asked him softly.

Leon nodded, his eyes drooping shut. "Tired."

"Don't stay awake for me, precious. Go to sleep if you need to." Her hands swept down his spine in long soothing strokes, arcing out around his lower back, then up his sides.

He mumbled something unintelligible into the covers, then turned his head and nestled down, eyes lazily closed.

Ruby leant forward from her perch on his thighs and swept her hand across his shoulders, then up the back of his neck. Her hair brushed the oiled skin on his shoulder with the movement and she heard him sigh.

Judging from what Cade had told her when she'd put him to bed earlier his mother had died while he was just a baby – very nearly two years ago. Leon was still grieving for her, that much was obvious now that she kind of knew what the hell was going on. He was still fragile inside and unwilling to let anyone in.

Her hand swept the longish strands of light brown hair back behind his ear and she brushed a kiss across his brow.

"Sleep sweet, precious."

He murmured in his sleep and rolled slightly, forcing Ruby up onto her knees. She lifted her leg back over him and started to back off the bed.

Leon sighed, his eye cracking open. Ruby winced.

"I'm sorry, Le. I didn't mean to wake you." She apologised quietly, stroking his hair. He blinked sluggishly and touched her hand.

"Stay?"

His almost inaudible request destroyed all intentions Ruby had of sleeping out on the porch in her hammock and she crawled back up beside him. Laying on her back, she was surprised when he draped his arm across her chest and lay against her shoulder. Still slick hands came up to knead the muscles in his bicep and forearm and she pressed a kiss to his temple. She was the only friend aside from the family he was staying with that he had in Miami. There was no way she'd deny him anything. She just couldn't see him suffer any more.