A/N: Alright- new chapter, same thanks. Buggleywoo (yay - 4 weeks!), leslienicolespeaks, betty-boo, o.O, Dani and Jet are all wonderful bunnies for reviewing and as for all the other people who read but didn't review - well thank you too. Still hate that hit counter though..


Leon hissed at the sharp stinging and closed his eyes. He could feel the peroxide bubbling away in the wound on his head, still oozing blood and filled with gritty sand. He and Vince had finally had their talk – he'd managed to avoid it for the first three days but the bigger man's patience had finally run out and he had taken Le by the back of the neck and dragged him down to the beach.

It had started as just talking, then elevated to shouting, then a full on fist fight. Leon had no choice but to fight back, if he hadn't then Vince very well could have killed him.

"Le, this isn't going to work. Either tilt your head back or we can stand you in the shower. Would that be easier?"

He squinted his eyes open and looked up at Ruby, the bitter tang of blood still in his mouth. He'd been lucky the first time Vince had hit him when he was younger – it was just the once. But this time, this time that nasty left hook had been thrown more than once, many times actually. His jaw hurt, as did his ribs, his head was bleeding and he was sure he would have a black eye soon.

"I'll need help." He replied reluctantly, his hands sliding over hers slickly and wrapping around her forearms as she helped him stand. He had blood in his eyes and couldn't see very well. Vince's wedding ring had busted him open close to the hairline and as a result the blood was just pouring out of him. Tala assured him that it was completely normal for a head wound to bleed so much, given it's location.

Ruby guided him carefully down the hallway of her home and into the bathroom.

"Clothes off or on?" she asked gently, sitting him down on the toilet seat to turn on the shower.

Leon blinked rapidly, pressing his tongue against a cut on the inside of his mouth. "May as well leave them on," he patted his pockets to make sure they were empty and dug out his lighter, cell phone and wallet, then tossed them in the sink, "- the water will rinse most of the blood out of my shirt that way."

Ruby nodded, shucking out of her skirt to stand there just in her panties and a tank, then took off her bangles. She didn't want to scrape any of the sore spots on his face or ribs with them as she was cleaning him up. She didn't bother with closing the bathroom door as Tala may have needed to come in to get something for any of Vince's own wounds.

Her hands slipped into his, her face screwing up at the slick, sticky feeling of the blood on his palms. He'd been holding his head all the way back to the house and given the tiny gash was bleeding so freely, by the time he got back his face was a mess and Vince had to guide him. Not that the bigger of the two escaped unscathed himself – he was sporting a nasty welt beneath his right eye, had a limp from where Leon had kicked him and his bottom lip was well and truly split. Tala was out in the kitchen cleaning him up at that very moment. She'd tried to see to Leon first but he'd have nothing of it. Ruby had been a little surprised when he'd insisted on her helping him.

"Alright Le, that's it." She glanced back and stepped into the shower first, then helped Leon in. He shrunk away from the warm water at first and Ruby helped him sit down, then tipped his head back to start cleaning him up. Her hand ran back over his forehead, smoothing his hair back away from the cut. The water ran pink as it started washing away the blood.

"So did you two work things out?" She asked, carefully picking some hair from the wound on his head. Once that was done, she carefully brushed over the bloody gash with the tip of her finger to rid it of any lingering sand. The water was flushing most of it out anyway.

Leon flinched. "Yeah – we established that I am an insensitive prick, and that Vince has fists like cinder blocks. Even with his bum arm."

Ruby giggled. Despite the fact that he'd just gone round for round with his much larger big brother, he was in good spirits. "I could have told you that you were a prick Leon," she knelt beside him, just under the water's spray, "-all you had to do was ask."

He smirked, swatting at her blindly. "None of that now," he cleared his throat, "- we managed to sort things out though."

She tenderly wiped over his face with a washcloth, careful not to press too hard over the swollen curve of his cheekbone. His eye was starting to blacken and there was a distinct darker stripe just near his eye from Vince's wedding band she was guessing.

"That's good then." Ruby ran her thumb over the swollen skin and Leon hissed, blinking his eyes open beneath the stream of water to clear them.

She thought back to what Leon had said about Vince and sat back on her heels, watching him rub his eyes.

"Precious?"

He grunted, signalling for her to go on, that he was listening.

"What happened to Vince's arm?" she asked quietly, hesitant. Leon blinked, able to see now and looked at her for a long moment, then sighed and ran his hand back over his head. He winced when his watch band caught the wound on his head and it started to bleed again. Ruby immediately pressed the washcloth over it and held it down, waiting.

"We used to do stupid things, Ruby – very, very stupid things. Vince got caught out and got hurt."

She noticed he was wary of talking about it and nodded, letting it go. It was much like the Letty situation – if he wanted her to know, or needed to talk about it he knew that she was there to listen. Standing up, she held his hand over the washcloth and started easing him out of his shirt.

"You could be a little more helpful, Leon." She muttered, working his arm out of the wet sleeve. His lips brushed her thigh, over one of the purple marks where his fingers had dug in three days earlier and Ruby stopped, looking down at him.

"Leon – less mouthing, more helping." She scolded gently.

He leant back and held his arms up slowly, wincing at the ache in his ribs. Ruby frowned at the red marks but she wouldn't sympathise, not when she knew that he'd had this beating coming for the past two years. He'd been a total jerk to his family from what she could gather – who knows, it might have knocked some sense into him.

"Alright, Le, I'm going to go and close the door so you can strip off completely. You can't be comfortable in all that wet denim."

He nodded slowly, already fumbling with the button on his jeans before she was even out of the shower and padding across the tiles to shut the door. She was just about there when she saw Tala out in the hall.

"Is he alright?" she asked the younger woman quietly.

Ruby nodded. "He'll be fine," she glanced back at Leon still struggling with his jeans, "-though you might want to take a look at that head wound. It's bleeding fairly badly."

Tala lifted a brow but nodded. "I'll do it once he gets out of the shower."

Leon eased the bedroom door open and peered inside, quietly creeping in to sit beside the bed on the floor. Cade lay sleeping, his hair a riot and his thumb securely in his mouth with the covers tucked up around his chin. Tentatively Leon reached out and stroked his hair. The little boy shifted in sleep and burrowed deeper into his pillow. He'd lost count of the amount of times he'd done this when Cade was a baby, just sitting beside the crib watching him sleep, listening to him breathe. For hours on end he'd sit there, his arm hanging over the side of the crib, fingers barely touching his baby son's belly as it rose and fell in sleep.

It had been the first night he had him at home that everything had sunk in, that he was alone now. He'd been laying on the bed just staring at the ceiling when Cade had woken up and started to cry. So many emotions had hit him all at once – concern, fear, anger, sadness, love. There'd been a moment where he'd just lain there and considered not getting up again, but that had only lasted seconds at the most and he'd been on his feet, carefully lifting the wailing infant into his arms. Only once he'd gotten him fed and back to sleep did he allow himself the luxury of crying for his loss, for Cade's loss.

Leon edged his hands beneath Cade gently and lifted him, easing him across the single bed before he climbed in himself and pulled the blanket up over them. Cade snuggled into his chest right away without waking and Leon brought his hand up to cup the back of his son's little head. He brushed a kiss across the caramel skin on his forehead and sighed against him, cuddling him closer. Cade hadn't been sleeping with him much since he'd come to Miami as he usually shared a bed with Ruby and Leon had found himself missing the tug on the side of the bed in the middle of the night, the little hands tapping on his arm until he woke and lifted him into the bed. That had happened a lot once he'd learned to walk steadily on his own. He would start out the night in his crib and somehow by morning he would end up in the bed beside Leon, sprawled and snoring contently. It was the same thing Rory did with Vince – no matter how many times you'd put them back in their beds they would always end up with their respective fathers.

Leon knew that's what had happened tonight. Rory had been curled up in bed with Cade for some time when she'd appeared in the kitchen, bleary eyed and half asleep looking for daddy. Despite his sore ribs, Leon had picked her up and taken her into Vince and Tala, already in bed. Once she was securely beneath her father's thick arm she was happy and readily went back to sleep.

Ruby had been more than generous putting the family up for the next week over the Christmas break. Angie's older children were all coming home for the holiday's and there had been a small issue with space that had been overlooked. That was why he, Cade, Vince, Tala and Rory were at Ruby's place now. Not to mention the whole Marissa issue – after the debacle where he'd tore her down in front of Vince, she'd backed off him and had started pursuing Vince himself. Leon grinned at the memory of the day prior when they'd all been out on the back deck at Angie's.

Vince had been lazing back in one of the chairs with a beer, as he did best, when the persistent teen had showed up and tried to sit on his knee. Her ass had no sooner hit his jeans when Vince's hand had calmly reached out and shoved her off him. The move on his part had been unexpected by the girl and she had toppled to the deck with a thump. Vince had merely quirked a brow and took another sip of his beer as Rory clamoured into his lap and got comfy. He'd then quietly informed her that if she tried something like that again he wouldn't be as polite about it the next time. Poor Ruby had almost fallen over laughing at the stunned look on Marissa's face and Angie hadn't been far behind her. The teenager had stormed off humiliated and proclaimed she was never coming back – a total joke as apparently she'd shown up not a half hour after they'd left the house that morning.

In a completely unrelated matter, his head still hurt from where Vince had socked him earlier.

Cade stirred against Leon's chest and blinked his big selkie brown eyes open. His little hand pressed to Leon's cheek.

"Daddy not sleep?"

Leon almost cried at how grown up his little boy sounded now, he was only two but some of the things he would come out with made him wonder. The boy was an old soul.

He shook his head. "Daddy bumped his head earlier, remember? I'm not allowed to go to sleep for a little while so I thought I'd come in to you." He rubbed Cade's back lightly. "Do you want me to go?"

The little boy snuggled closer. "Where Miss Ruby?"

"She's in bed, sleeping." Leon replied, "Do you want to go in there with her too?"

Cade nodded sleepily and sat up, waiting for his father to climb from the bed before he held his arms up. Once he was in Leon's arms he laid his head against his shoulder and dozed off again before they'd even reached the bedroom. He woke momentarily when he was set down against the soft mattress but fell back to sleep straight away. Ruby on the other hand woke up just as Leon was crawling into bed and was surprised by their visitor.

"Something wrong, precious?" she asked softly, touching both Cade's head then his own briefly.

He shook his head. "He wanted to come in," he motioned vaguely to the TV, "-do you mind?"

The red head nestled back down into the soft bedding, shaking her head. "Just keep it quiet and make sure the door's closed so you don't wake V or Tal."

Leon bent to kiss her head. "Thanks for fixing me up earlier."

She gave him a ghost of a smile and yawned, snuggling with Cade. "Don't mention it – you'd do the same for me."

"If that happened to you I'd hunt down whoever did it and kill them." He muttered, flicking the TV on with the remote. Ruby's hand pat his stomach, reaching over Cade to do so.

"You're so sweet, Le."

He smirked. "Don't get used to it."

Ruby snorted, already halfway back to sleep. "Don't worry, sweetie," she yawned again, "- I wont."