The move into Blaine's apartment made the flat seem smaller than it already was. They're had to buy new furniture and clothes to accommodate Chase and Kenzie – and a new bear for Marlee, she never slept without one. Her new bear, she named Rocky the fourth. They replaced Marlee's bed with a set of temporary bunkbeds. Kenzie took the top bunk as Marlee wasn't keen on heights and they squeezed her clothes and a few new toys into the tiny room she shared with Marlee. The room shouldn't really have been a bedroom, but until now Blaine figured he would have had a few years before Marlee would have outgrown it.
One drawback to moving in with Blaine meant Chase no longer had an office to work in on an evening. He was splitting his work between the kitchen and lounge, neither of which were ideal places for him to conduct work from. On top of this, some of Blaine's employees seemed to drop by, more frequently than he was accustomed to. Marlee seemed familiar with all of them. Chase tried to make himself scarce while they were around.
Looking for a new house was no picnic either. They needed to find the right house for them. Chase needed an office for a start, the girls would need their own rooms, if them living in one now was anything to go by. Blaine was determined they needed a decent kitchen and they both knew they needed a yard for White Fang. Chase had started taking him to the office, so he could take him outside during the day.
So far, in three weeks, they had viewed and rejected 13 houses and apartments. Chase was getting a little tense. Not so much over moving, no, but he was getting closer and closer to the leak in their supplies. Major had been accepted by Roache and inducted into his group. It was only a matter of time before he was taken to meet the guy in charge. Chase remained firm on the fact if couldn't be Roache. The guy wasn't leader material.
He got the call two weeks later. He was watching the girls from home, it was a Saturday. Blaine was at Romero's, brain selecting. He bundled them into the company car, he had yet to attain one of his own yet and dropped them off with the weekend childcare provision. He also texted Blaine, to explain where they were and not to contact him except in an emergency. Chase suited up with the rest of Major's unit and followed the tracking signal at a safe distance.
Blaine was at a house in a gated zombie community with Zombie guards. There had been zero Dead-Ender attacks beyond the gates. The house was large, it had a walled off pool, a large yard that White Fang could run around in. There were enough rooms upstairs that the girls could have a small room each and a connected playroom, Chase could have an office and they could have a large master suite to themselves. The owners had been humans and escaped Seattle before the wall went up, they weren't asking much in the way of money either. Much less than what the property was worth. Blaine was particularly impressed with the kitchen. There was even a room downstairs, which he could use as an office, he knew how much his crew visiting unnerved Chase, it had an outside access door. His crew could come in and out through there and not bother him. Blaine thought it was perfect. It would need some care, sure, but it would work. He shook hands with the real-estate guy and said he'd get back to him before the weekend. When he left he got Chase's messages and went to pick up the girls and take them to the Post.
Chase crouched in hiding with Jordan, the young girl on Major's squad. They'd arrived just as Major had been fed some brains that considering how quickly they had taken effect they must have been blue-juiced.
"…Has it crossed my mind? Yeah, I mean look how he's built. Where does he even find the time to work out? But hey, it's not like I have pictures of Chase Graves taped up in my locker." Chase rolled his eyes as Jordan bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"Looks like the truth brain's kicked in." Roache said.
"Let's get down to it," came the voice of the boss. Footsteps echoed towards Major, "are you with us or Fillmore-Graves?"
Major leaned forward in his chair. "Fillmore-Graves. Duh. Oh, yeah. I've been pretending to be on your side the whole time, just playin' Russ, gaining his trust, hoping he'd eventually bring me to you. Which he did – because, he's not exactly Ivy League material – like maybe Brown, if he's got connections." Major chuckled as Russ grunted as he was held back from attacking him. "It's actually kind of interesting how he did it. See, Chase and I figured if he announced that I was in charge of deciding whether or not to buy the fancy new security measures, which never even existed, by the way, we just made 'em up, then Russ would bring me to you so you could convince me to veto it, which is exactly what Russ did, because Russ is a, um… Oh, what did Chase call him? 'A dolt.' So yeah," Major sighed, "Short version, I'm here to take you down."
"AJ, I had no idea, I swear," Russ begged his boss desperately.
"Shut up!" He snapped, "well, too bad things won't work out the way you planned, Major. Looks like you'll never get that gondola ride with Chase Graves in the Grand Canal." Chase heard him cock his gun and signalled Jordan to be ready.
"Actually, things worked out exactly as I'd planned because I swallowed a tracking device before coming here and I've got cotton in my ears." Jordan threw the stun bomb over their cover and when it went off Fillmore-Graves soldiers leapt from their hiding places to arrest Roache and AJ. "Hey guys, great work," Major told them, still handcuffed to the chair. "My squad's top notch," he continued. "Three of the four of them at least."
"Major," Jordan cautioned him, "zip it."
The men were arrested, and Major was freed. Chase handed him a brain tube to counteract the truth brain, which he confiscated the rest of, figuring it could come in handy.
The prisoners were carted off and Chase told everyone there that they would be celebrating at The Scratching Post, where the company would be covering drinks for a few hours. Chase had filled out paperwork in advance for the take down, so his officers could celebrate their success. He changed out of his combat gear and arrived ahead of his officers, walking straight to Blaine's office. He had pre-arranged the party with Blaine, so the bar was fully stocked and prepared for the onslaught of officers on their way. He bent down and kissed Blaine in his chair. Blaine pulled him down by the jacket to sit on his desk.
Chase returned to the bar where his officers were starting to arrive. Blaine made an appearance when the party was more in full swing and Chase was explaining to the girls why they were celebrating. "So, no more zombies going hungry?" Marlee asked.
"That's right, sweetheart." The girls were stood on boxes behind the bar so they weren't crushed by the celebrating soldiers. Blaine leant against the bar beside him, he checked his watch.
"You girls getting hungry?" They nodded, "Don-E, could you take the girls and batter and fry some frozen tube chunks?"
"You got it, vamanos girls," he pointed to the kitchen where they ran happily.
"You trying to get me alone?" Chase teased him.
"What, me, never. Why would I want to be alone with my boyfriend at his party?" Chase leaned closer but pulled back when cheers erupted behind him and Major arrived.
"Man of the hour has arrived!" Chase cheered on his officer. Blaine squeezed his hand and began to return to his office. He paused at the top of the stairs and watched over the party. He caught sight of the door opening and someone walked in. He recognised them immediately. It was Russ Roache. He watched through the lighting as cocked a gun and began to raise his arm, pointing at Major and Chase. They caught sight of him, stepping in front of Major's younger squad members. Blaine reacted instantly, pulling his own gun from the back of his jeans and firing across the room, shooting him in the head.
The room seemed to freeze, soldiers took cover, Chase saw him and followed his gaze to where Roache laid dead on the floor. The music cut out as Chase kicked the gun out of Roache's hand. "He's dead," he confirmed. Blaine seemed in shock, he'd only ever seen Chase after his brushes with death. Never had he witnessed one, or in this case, prevented one. Chase's voice was the only thing cutting through it. "Check on the transport officers, get the body back to Fillmore-Graves," he walked over to Blaine as he spoke, his officers began reacting to his instructions. He nudges Blaine, urging him into the office. He turned to Jordan, "Don-E is in the kitchen with two kids, don't let them come through here," she nodded. Major started dispersing the officers. Chase locked the door. "Are you OK?"
"Am I OK? Chase, you almost just got shot. Again. Are you OK?"
"We'll find that out when I switch off," he told Blaine. Blaine knew what he meant. Chase had two modes. Chase and Fillmore-Graves Chase. Right now, he was Fillmore-Graves Chase, he was all business. He turned off his private emotions, so he was a more efficient soldier. He took a deep breath, resting his head against Blaine's shoulder.
"Would now be a bad time to tell you I think I found us a house?" Chase perked up, normal Chase. "I went to look today. Owners left Seattle, not asking much for it. It's pretty perfect. Gated community. Practically zero crime." As he spoke he felt Chase relax more into him.
"Why don't you take the girls, it's getting late. I need to make a call, check on my team, when I get home, I wanna hear all about it." He said, Chase pecked his lips and moved away from Blaine. Blaine nodded, leaving to check on his bar, Major was waiting outside his office.
"He's making a call," he looked past Major, the body was gone, the blood was being washed away by the younger guy in Major's squad. "Hear anything?"
"Roache shot his escort team. We were transporting them separately, so we still have the other smugglers." Blaine nodded.
"While we're here, I wanna thank you, for keeping what you know about me and Chase to yourself."
"It's not really my business."
"And you haven't made it your business. You're a good guy Major." Blaine walked away, to the kitchen to check on the girls. There was a lot of soundproofing in the club and they fortunately hadn't heard a thing. They were just happy eating deep-fried brain bites.
He took them home, where they took White Fang outside for 10 minutes before starting the bedtime routine. It was Kenzie's turn to pick a bedtime story and she brought the book of fairy tales his grandfather had given him years ago – which the girls adored listening to stories from. Sitting on the couch the girls sat close on each side so they could see the pictures. They laughed as he put on funny voices for the characters and quickly fell asleep. He carried Kenzie to bed first, brushing her hair from her face and kissing her goodnight as he tucked her in. Next, he took Marlee, tucked her in, kissed her goodnight and switched on the nightlight before pulling the door closed.
Anxious, Blaine began neatening up the apartment as he waited for Chase, White Fang curled up on the chair. Chase arrived two hours later. Blaine was stretched across their bed, reading a book when he heard the door open, close and the lock click. Marking his page Blaine put his book aside as Chase – regular Chase – entered their bedroom. He removed his jacket and shirt, tossing them in the hamper along with his pants. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and sat in the bed beside Blaine and sighed. "Sorry I was so long. We lost four soldiers; the ones escorting Russ. I had to tell their families and then Hobbs insisted we give the press the story of solving the leak in brain supplies, this very minute."
"It's alright," Blaine said softly, moving behind Chase he rubbed his shoulders. Chase melted into him.
"So, tell me about this house?" Chase enquired, and Blaine was all too happy to indulge him. Blaine laid back against the pillows, pulling Chase to him he began describing the house.
"It's in a gated community, no attackers have been able to get past the gates, it's all zombies up there. So, there's a garage, we can both get cars in there, with room. It has a kitchen that, while I think could be better, I can get by until I can arrange a remodel," Chase chuckled. "There's a room I can use for an office on the ground floor, it has a door so my guys coming and going won't be as noticeable. Upstairs the girls can have a room each that joins together on a third room for a playroom. Bathroom each. There's a pool, walled off, we can get the alarms installed. Huge yard for White Fang. And our master suite is huge. We'd have a walk-in closet. Huge bathroom, just for us. I'm sure you could have it arranged for a getaway tunnel to be put in if you really want one."
"Sounds perfect," Chase mumbled sleepily. "Can't wait to see it," he said drifting off. They slept above the covers, Blaine's front to Chase's back. Blaine woke first, and he left Chase to sleep. He could already hear the girls moving about. Checking his phone, he saw it was 9:30 so he went to prepare breakfast and play the news on his iPad as he cooked. They were playing the story Chase had given them last night. Hobbs was featured, stating that zombies would be steadily getting more rations as the fringe groups were picked up. Blaine rolled his eyes as he prepared omlettes for breakfast. He left the girls eating in front of the TV, taking Chase and his own breakfasts back to bed. Laying the tray between them he stabbed a fork through a chunk of brain and waved it under Chase's nose, grinning as his lips closed around it. "Morning," Chase said softly after eating the piece of brain. "This smells amazing."
"Glad you think so," Blaine leaned across the tray to peck his lips. "Eat up, judging on how your phone is blowing up over there, I have no doubt you're gonna be in demand today." Chase had put his phone on silent last night, needing just some time to himself to process the evening.
Chase groaned as he looked at the screen. Then he put his phone down, screen down to the duvet. "I'll worry about those later. This morning, I just want to spend time with you and the girls."
