Kristen woke with a groan, burying her face in the pillow in protest against the glare of daylight. She nestled close between Edward and … and … She opened her eyes, blinking in disbelieving realization as the drunken memories came pouring in. She, Deidre, and Edward were all sprawled across the bed together in a sleepy, naked tangle of limbs. Edward's boxers were on the floor a few feet away, Kristen's slip was flung over a chair, and Deidre's jeans had somehow landed on the kitchen table. They must have fallen asleep like this … She blushed more and more deeply as she remembered everything else they had done. This … was going to be awkward.

Edward groaned as he rolled over, his hand moving to Kristen's breast as …. Edward paused. That was definitely not Kristen's breast. It was a bit … Larger than hers. He pulled his hand away and opened his eyes to see Deidre laying on the other side of Kristen, his hand now on Kristen's stomach. He moved to sit up but groaned, grabbing his head and laid back down.

"What happened?" He asked, not remember anything from last night. He remembered strip poker, and coming upstairs. A conversation about their asses and the rest was a blur. "And why does my butt hurt?"

Kristen looked over at Edward, and blushed even deeper. "You … Don't remember anything at all?" What had they been thinking? They hadn't given this any thought at all, hadn't even discussed it; they had been far too drunk for that. She hid her face in the pillow again, mortified. "I … Ask Deidre."

Deidre groaned and turned over in bed, wrapping herself around Ed who tensed uncomfortably. "Both of you shut up, I'm trying to sleep."

"Deidre," Kristen said, awkwardly stuck between them. "I think we need to talk about what happened last night."

Deidre groaned though it came out more like a purr. "What's to talk about? We both sucked his dick, we all had lots of sex, I fucked Ed's butt which, might I add …. Ed those noises you made where …. Mmmm." She said moaning at the memory of it. "It was fun."

"You what?!" Edward said looking up at her.

Kristen hit Deidre with the pillow. "That," she said, more embarrassed than ever. "Is definitely something we need to talk about. I don't think Edward even remembers any of it, and you seem to remember more than I do, and …Edward and I are in a relationship, but all three of us just had sex, so… We need to talk about that."

Deidre groaned as she was hit with a pillow. "Can you stop yelling please?!" She said as Edward put his hand up to his own head.

"Okay, okay we need to talk … Again … First …. I'm going to go locate some aspirin." He said detaching himself from Deidre who had her hand on his arm while Kristen' hit her with the pillow. He moved towards the bathroom, grabbing his boxers on the way. A few moments later he came out in a bathrobe and had a bottle of aspirin in his hands. "Either of you want one?" He asked, grabbing three bottles of water from the fridge.

Kristen nodded, before dragging herself out of bed with a groan and pulling the slip back on, since the rest of her clothes were downstairs. "Yes, please," she said. Now that she was upright, her head was killing her.

Ed dished out two aspirin each and handed them both a bottle of water. He downed both of his aspirin and moved to sit back down on the bed, leaning against the pipe headboard. "So who wants to tackle this one first?"

Kristen downed the aspirin gratefully, before sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Edward, crossing her arms. "So … That just happened." Which left a number of questions. Not the least of which was why Deidre just happened to have certain items in her purse. "So … Where does this leave us now?"

"That's a very good question." Ed said. "Do we walk away from this and pretend it didn't happen? Or does something come of this? And if so then what?" He asked.

"There ain't no way I'm letting go of this. I've had Ed's ass and now I want more." Deidre said pinching Ed's ass jokingly, making him jump.

"Deidre can you be serious for once, please?" Ed asked.

"Sorry." She said sitting up. "I just tend to make jokes when things are tense or uncomfortable."

"I know you do," Kristen sighed. "This is just kind of weird for me, since I've been with both of you before." Though, last night, it hadn't felt weird or complicated at all. She hadn't felt jealous or insecure. It had just been fun … Though now they had to deal with the ramifications. She shook her head. "I just … Want to know how you both feel about it. Other than your obsessive fixation with my boyfriend's ass."

"Well, I'm not the one in a committed relationship … So personally I enjoyed it, I'd love to do it again some time. But I don't want to put any strain on your relationship … So whatever you two decide … I'll respect that." Deidre said as Ed stared at the sheets, slowly starting to remember some of the events of last night, more particularly how much he'd enjoyed it.

"How do you feel about all this?" Edward asked Kristen. Did she still have feelings for Deidre? He didn't feel like he was in competition with her at all, in fact he didn't even feel any jealousy towards her if Kristen did …

Kristen looked up at him. "I enjoyed it," she admitted. "With both of you. It's confusing, but …" She shrugged, unable to explain it to them or to herself. "It felt weirdly … right. But our relationship is what's most important to me, and I don't want to risk messing that up." She hesitated nervously, then asked, "How do you feel about this, Ed?"

"I don't know. I feel weird about it but … Not a bad weird." He said with a slight shrug. "I think the main question here is what are our options?"

"We could dismiss it as a one-time occurrence, and move on as normal," Kristen said, stating the simplest option. "Or, if … If everyone's interested in doing something like that again … Then we need to figure out what all three of us are to each other. Is Deidre somehow involved in this relationship too, or is this just … something else we do together? And are there ground rules?"

"Well," said Deidre. "You two are sickeningly cute together … I might be inclined to try that out, see what it feels like, but that's really up to both of you."

"You mean like …. A three way relationship?" Edward asked curiously. He'd never thought of it before but the idea didn't seem like a bad one. He couldn't imagine being in one but …. Perhaps they could try.

"It's one way we could approach things," Kristen said, surprised that Edward seemed so open to the idea. "It's not something I've ever tried myself, but … some people seem to make it work."

"As long as no one suddenly becomes the jealous type," Deidre added, eying Edward appraisingly. "You haven't seemed to have that problem, but …" Her gaze moved over to Kristen. "It can creep up on people."

"I think we could try it." Edward said looking at Kristen. "If that's something you wanted to do. I'm open to the idea. I think it would be a bit weird, and I'm not exactly for or against it. But I'm willing to give it a shot, see how it goes."

"I don't know if indifference is really a good reason to do this," Kristen said, trying to interpret Edward's expression. "If you're interested in trying, that's one thing," and she had to admit she was. "But if someone's just going along with it because they think that's what everyone else wants … That seems like it could only end disastrously."

"Well, I'm not going to know if I like something unless I do it right? I've never thought about being in a relationship with two people before … I mean, two other people. It's just … Odd I suppose. But I would be entirely willing to try it. I meant I wasn't for or against the concept of being in a three way relationship … Maybe I'm not making sense I don't know." Ed said, honestly wishing his head would stop throbbing long enough for him to think clearly. "I'd be willing to try it though."

"Makes sense to me," said Deidre. She turned and looked at Kristen. "So, what's the verdict? Are we giving this a shot?"

"I …" Kristen looked at both of them. This all still didn't seem real. "I guess we are. So … now what? Are there ground rules, or do we just figure things out as we go along?"

"I think a main ground rule should be don't be stingy …" Edward said. "No jealousy, though I can see that maybe becoming an issue, but I'm not sure. Communication is a must, more so now than in a relationship between just two people."

"That seems like a good start," Kristen agreed. Though she wondered just how much Edward would be willing to communicate to Deidre. But he was going to have to work his way toward trusting her at his own pace. "If we're all communicating, I think we can keep jealousy from getting out of hand." She knew her insecurities could get the better of her from time to time … And Deidre knew it too. But consistent communication was the best way to put those to rest.

"No problems there," Deidre smiled slightly. "I don't do jealousy … And I tend to communicate way more than you really want to hear."

"I think honesty would be another big one." Edward said leaning against the headboard of the bed again. "No keeping anything from each other. If we're going to build trust then we're going to have to be open about everything." He said looking at Kristen, knowing she would know what he was talking about.

Kristen's eyebrows raised slightly as she looked over at Edward. "Is that something you would be comfortable doing?" she asked. They had accumulated so many secrets by now, and he had been so unnerved to learn that Deidre knew one of them. Granted, he might not feel that way if he revealed those secrets on his own terms, but … it was still a big adjustment to make.

"Why?" Deidre laughed. "Any more deep, dark secrets I should know about?"

"What do you think?" Edward asked Kristen, "You know her better than I do." He said.

"Well …" Kristen glanced over at Deidre. "Personally, I trust her completely. And she's always lived up to that trust." And she deserved to know what she was getting into. "But … I can't decide for you what you should or shouldn't tell her." That had been disastrous last time.

Edward sighed as he leaned his head back against the wall. He looked at Deidre. "Anything we tell you would stay between us right?" He asked.

"Sure," Deidre said, her expression neutral, as she crossed her arms. "As long as you're not hurting my Kristen … You may have noticed, I can be a teensy bit protective."

"When Kristen told you that I killed my father …. He's not the only person I killed." He said watching Deidre's expression.

"Not the only person?" Deidre repeated, shooting a glance at Kristen. Really, after all the times Kristen had gotten on her case about terrible decision-making, they were going to have to have a serious talk about her dating history. "Okay, then," Deidre said, before turning her attention back to Edward. "Care to tell me your total body count so far?"

"So far?" Edward asked, she made it sound like it was going to continue. "Four." He said honestly.

"There were reasons," Kristen said quietly, watching the guarded expression on Deidre's face.

"Well, I would hope so," Deidre said, running a hand through her hair absently. "I think I've already got the picture on what happened with your father … So, what's the story with the other three?"

"The first Kristen didn't know until recently. Until after the events that happened with my father. Her … Boyfriend at the time was rather abusive. I tried talking to him and he attacked me. The second was when we were … Hiding my father's body. A hunter found us, so I killed him before he could tell anyone. The last … Is probably less excusable. Galavan hurt a friend of mine … He killed his mother … So I found one of his employees. Helped him exact some sort of revenge." He said with a shrug.

"Though Galavan's employee wasn't innocent either," Kristen pointed out quickly. "He was looking for … for Edward's friend on Galavan's behalf, so …"

"I get it," Deidre waved a hand, shaking her head. "Sounds like that hunter was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, though … One crime tends to lead to another like that," she said, still trying to process all of it. "Sounds like you killed first one guy in self defense, and then another, and after that things … escalated." She looked over at Kristen. "And how many of these murders were you an accomplice to?"

"Well," Kristen said, looking up at her with a slightly pained expression. "Except for Daugherty, I was there at some point for all of them."

"Jesus, Kristen," Deidre said, still more shocked than she was letting on. "You're in way over your head here. Both of you." She sighed. "On the bright side, Daugherty won't be bothering you again, so … There's that." She'd never met the guy, or she might have done something herself, but from what she knew about him, she didn't feel much sympathy toward him.

"This doesn't scare you?" Ed asked surprised. He was sure she was going to bombard him with questions, or leave … Perhaps inquire about their own safety. But she didn't … She tried working out the situation logically, despite there being little logic to his actions.

"I didn't say that," Deidre pointed out. "Though at the moment, I'm a little too stunned to be scared. It'll set in later, I'm sure. On the one hand, you've killed four people, which if you ask me, sounds like it's becoming a habit. Not to mention, you've gotten Kristen involved in your twisted little world … On the other hand," she said, with a tone of great solemnity. "You do have an amazing ass."

Kristen snorted. "So you're really still here for his ass?"

"No," Deidre said, shoving Kristen slightly. "That's just a bonus." She looked at her, concern in her eyes. "I'm here for you," she said seriously. "If you insist on following Ed into all this madness, then I'm coming with you. Heaven forbid I should have to be the rational one, but … It looks like you're going to need it."

"And if it continued?" Edward asked. "What then?" He asked looking at Deidre. He had already told Kristen that he enjoyed it, but he didn't know Deidre's opinion on the matter.

"If it does continue," Deidre said, her voice taking on a cold, hard edge, her stare becoming deathly serious. "Then you had better make damn sure that it never becomes a threat to Kristen."

"Deidre," Kristen interrupted defensively. "Edward has never hurt me. He's not like that."

"I know that," Deidre said, though her tone didn't soften in the slightest. "Which is the only reason I haven't personally kidnapped you away from him. You make terrible decisions where men are concerned, Kris, you always have. I refuse to let that happen again, but I'm willing to give this one a chance." She turned her glare back on Edward. "So, do we have an understanding?"

Edward nodded. "I would never willingly put you or Kristen in danger." He said. "I'm also not sure if you know but I also have a kid, and no matter what, he will always be my first priority. I hope you can understand that."

"Yeah, about that," Deidre said. "I haven't seen him around, but I've been told apparently there's a custody battle going on, or something like that. What's the situation there?"

"It's … complicated," said Kristen. "His mother has primary custody, but seems … indifferent toward Rubix at best. And lately we have reason to suspect …" She looked over at Edward, uncertain whether she should tell her, or whether he would prefer to do it. She knew it was a deeply painful and personal subject for him.

"She's abusing him." Edward said. "Her or her boyfriend, possibly both … And it's not suspicion, we have proof." Edward said pointing to his phone. "I just recently found a lawyer that's actually willing to help me … He's trying to get a court date set up, and advised that I get a job before then."

"Jesus," Deidre shook her head. "We'd better get you employed, and fast. You've got interviews on Monday, right? What are your other prospects?"

"Well … If push comes to shove and I'm not employed by then I could always say I'm self employed. Fake it like I did with my education … Thing is if Barnes catches wind of it, and I'm sure he's watching me, I could be arrested. So I think finding a job is in my best interest." He said with a sigh. "I was also thinking of contacting Jim again. See if he can dig up anything that can be used against her in court."

Edward paused as his phone buzzed. He grabbed it off the side dresser and looked at the call display. "Speak of the devil." He said answering the phone.

"Ed … I got good news for you!" Jim said happily. "Bullock contacted a few of his people, we have justifiable cause for an arrest on Brittany Free and her boyfriend … I can't give you the details but we're going to the apartment today. I'll contact you once we have Rubix here. Normally we would put a child in protective care, but since you're his father I don't see it being an issue for him to stay with you until the court date." Jim said.

"That …. That's fantastic!" He said looking up at Kristen despite the fact that she couldn't hear what Jim had said.

"Even if she doesn't serve jail time the arrest would be on her records … It would be a severe mark against her and will help in the custody battle. What?" Jim asked clearly talking to someone else. "No I'm not telling him that. No I'm not asking him that. Let-"

"Ed." Harvey's voice came onto the phone. "I don't know what you're doing but you better get your ass up and be applying for jobs. I ain't pulling in these favours for you just so you can sit on your-"

There was clearly a slight scuffle before Jim came back on the phone. "Sorry Ed." Jim said. "Good luck with the job hunting. And seriously, take whatever you can get, so long as it's full time. Get this settled and then look for a job you want."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know. Thank you so much Jim." Edward said before letting the call go.

"What was it?" Kristen asked, standing up. "What did Jim say?"

Deidre watched them both intently. Kristen seemed as invested in this as Edward was, and she couldn't have even met the kid more than once or twice. But Deidre thought she understood her reasons. She'd always wanted so badly to be a part of a functional family.

"Jim has cause for an arrest. He's going to call me today when I can pick up Rubix. In the meantime I'm going to apply for more jobs." He said happily. "All I really care about right now, is he's here until the court date!"

"That's great!" Kristen said, running over and hugging him. That would be a huge relief, to know that Rubix was here with them, that he wasn't being hurt while he was away. "So we just go and pick him up from the precinct?"

Deidre shook her head. "Still must be rough for the kid," she said. "He won't understand what's going on, why the police are there arresting people … But at least he'll be safe. And he'll probably feel better once he's here."

"Yeah I know it'll be hard on him, but at least it's better than the alternative." He said, grateful that that advil was finally kicking in. He got up and moved over to his laptop, clicking it open.