A/N: thank you guys for all the lovely reviews. I'm really glad that you are enjoying the story. it really is unlike most of what I've written so far and I was basically just putting down one scene after the other the way they popped into my head. there's some more to come and I did enjoy writing this kind of Kahlan/Cara/Denna dynamic despite not knowing where exactly I want to take this.

The law of gravity

.-.-.-.-.

We all fall

Chapter 4 - One step at a time

There was a knock on her door and Denna almost dropped the glass of water she was carrying from her kitchen over to the small living room. She glanced at the clock underneath the television and furrowed her brow. Who could possibly want something from her this late? Maybe it was some pizza delivery guy who was at the wrong address or the police were there to tell her that she'd been living next to a mass murderer for the past couple of months without knowing it. Yeah right.

Denna backtracked a couple of steps and put her glass down on one of the counters in her kitchen. On her way to the door she glanced into the mirror in the hallway. She had her hair tied back into a messy ponytail and dark circles showed under her eyes. She pulled on the collar of her black turtleneck and shrugged. Whoever was on the other side of the door would just have to deal with her looking like she hadn't left her apartment all day which, well, she hadn't.

She pressed her forehead against the cool wood and looked through the peephole only to see a slightly distorted image of Kahlan and Cara standing in her hall. She leaned back and raised her eyebrows before unlocking the door and pushing the chain aside. She opened the door wide, attempting and failing to hide the surprise on her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Good to see you too," Cara answered and shoved a bag into her arms before slipping past her and into the apartment. Kahlan had the decency to at least wait until Denna invited her inside with an incline of her head.

"We haven't seen you in a while and since you shot down our last invitation we thought we'd just come by instead," she said.

"How'd you know I would be here?" Denna asked, kicking the door shut with the heel of her sock-clad foot.

She looked down into the bag, finding several ingredients for some kind of pasta dish.

"Where else would you be?" Cara called from the kitchen where she was unpacking her own brown paper bag, producing fresh green herbs, tomatoes and a wine bottle. "Plus we talked to Jennsen and she mentioned that you look like you haven't slept in days."

"Cara," Kahlan admonished her quietly.

"And you thought you'd come here and do what? Cook me dinner and send me to bed with a hot milk?"

"Actually I suggested that some company might help you relax," Kahlan answered with a smile and took the bag from Denna she was still holding on to.

Denna watched them with narrowed eyes taking up the space in her kitchen and littering the counters with food.

Since that night after the housewarming party she had formed a tentative friendship with both Kahlan and Cara, and while she enjoyed the banter and fun they actually had together, the two of them had somehow managed to wriggle their way into her life without her really noticing it. Now they met every other weekend for drinks at either her or their place and sometimes ended up talking well into the night.

However in the previous two weeks she had been avoiding them, not entirely on purpose, but knowing that the court trial was going to start soon the nightmares had returned with a vengeance, costing her most of what little sleep she'd started getting.

Denna smiled lightly as Kahlan bumped into Cara to stop her from grabbing the tomatoes and instead jerking her chin toward the pasta that needed to be unwrapped.

She wasn't entirely sure how much Kahlan and Cara knew about her past. They hadn't talked about it, not once, but the only thing they needed to do was google her name and the articles would start popping up inevitably.

"Are you going to help or just stand there and stare?" Cara asked her with a small smirk.

"Since it's you who showed up here uninvited I should at least expect that you cook dinner for me. But I also need to keep an eye on my kitchen so I'll make dessert."

Kahlan's eyes lit up at that. "Are you going to make these chocolate ball things again? They were amazing."

"If I wasn't so sure you love me I would be scared you'd leave me for her and her stupid chocolate balls," Cara mumbled and Kahlan shot her a look.

"You liked them just as much."

Denna tried to hide her grin by pressing her lips together and tugged on the collar of her turtleneck before joining them in the kitchen where she started to gather the ingredients she needed.

It wasn't long until she was settled in her comfortable chair in the living room, Kahlan and Cara occupying the space on her couch, each with a plate in their laps and a glass of wine on the table. They were watching some kind of show but Denna was hardly paying any attention to what was happening on her TV. Instead she happily chewed on her tomato-herb pasta dish. "This is really good," she mumbled, pointing at the plate with her fork.

"Of course it is, I made it," Cara replied, raising her wine glass to her lips.

"I helped," Kahlan added, reaching for another piece of the homemade bruschetta that was sitting on the table between them.

Denna watched them, her food abandoned for the moment.

The first time she'd seen them together after Kahlan's yoga class she'd thought they were gorgeous together and that hadn't changed a single bit.

Sometimes she averted her eyes when they shared one of their looks because it felt too much like intruding on an intimate moment. Then again Cara kept teasing Kahlan who took it good-naturedly, but on some days Cara couldn't even as much as smirk haughtily in Kahlan's direction. On these days she tended to walk funny as well.

She knew that what they had was special and every once in a while it reminded her with sharp intensity that she in fact would possibly never have anything like it. The intimacy and the love they so obviously had for each other was something Denna could hardly imagine finding, let alone allowing into her life. Not that she'd ever thought about wanting it, but knowing that it was out of her reach now had put a few things into a different perspective.

Something wet and sticky smacked against her cheek and Denna's eyes snapped up to Cara whose hand was still suspended in mid-air. She reached up and plucked the piece of tomato from her face, staring at it disbelievingly.

"I said could you please get your chocolate thingies so we can have dessert," Cara said with an eye roll.

Kahlan clasped a hand in front of her mouth and snorted quietly, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. Denna raised her eyes again. "Did you seriously just…?"

"What? It's not like I threw my pasta at you, and I called your name several times, how else was I going to get your attention?"

Denna stiffly dropped the piece of tomato onto her plate and grabbed it as she got up to carry it into the kitchen. She put it into the sink and braced her hands against the counter, lowering her head before she burst out laughing. She threw her head back and laughed like she hadn't in months.

Kahlan chuckled as she placed the remaining plates into the sink and leaned against the counter with her hip.

"I sometimes feel the need to strangle her, is that normal?" Denna asked, her laughter slowly subsiding.

"Absolutely," Kahlan answered with the straightest face.

"I can hear you, you know," Cara called from somewhere in the living and she laughed again.

It felt good. It felt like she was finally beginning to shake off some of the weight that was continuously pushing her to her knees.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Denna was trying to focus on the pages of her book when there was a knock on her bedroom door. She looked up and glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Furrowing her brow, she pulled the collar of her silken pajama top around her throat. "Yeah, come in?"

She was propped up against the headboard of her bed and lowered the book into her lap when Cara opened the door and walked in like she owned the place. "Your couch is uncomfortable."

Denna narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "Well it was you who insisted we open the second wine bottle and then refused to take a cab."

"Why would I take a cab when my car is in front of the building?"

"Because you have been drinking?"

Cara huffed quietly. "And then I would have to come back tomorrow, paying for another cab ride to pick my car up."

Denna shrugged. "And your point is?"

"My point is that your couch sucks and your bed is big enough to share."

Denna blinked. "Are you serious?"

Cara crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"You're serious."

Cara strode through the room until she was standing beside her bed, looking down at her. "Please?"

"What… what about Kahlan?"

As if on cue the brunette stuck her head into the room as well. "We honestly don't want to intrude but it is really quite hard to get comfortable out there."

Denna cocked her head to the side, her narrowed eyes traveling from one hopeful face to the other. She knew something was up. Cara had never actually asked for something before, let alone used the word 'please'. Whatever it was they were trying to do, she wasn't in the mood to think about it. She gestured to the empty side of her bed. "Sure whatever, make yourself at home. It's not like I had any say in this since you showed up."

"Are you sure?" Kahlan inquired, stepping into the room while Cara simply walked around the bed and wriggled under the covers, causing Denna to bounce up and down with the mattress.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have said so if I wasn't," she answered with a small smile in Kahlan's direction.

Cara leaned over to her and snatched the book she was reading from her lap, reading one of the headlines on the open page. "Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?" she asked out loud and looked at Denna with a blank expression.

She grabbed the book out of Cara's grasp and put it on the bedside table. She was saved from having to explain her reading of choice when Kahlan sat down on the bed and snuggled up against Cara's side who immediately wrapped both arms around her. "Much better."

Denna sighed quietly and glanced around her semi-dark bedroom. She hadn't planned on putting her book aside any time soon or going to sleep.

She hadn't taken anything to help her fall asleep yet. The medicine bottles were in a drawer of the bedside table. But with Kahlan and Cara not only occupying her space but basically invading her privacy she wasn't sure if she wanted to take anything at all.

She could just wait for them to fall asleep before escaping into the living room and watching some late night show until the early hours of the morning.

Sometimes it was just easier to avoid sleep as much as she could instead of taking the sleeping pills and waiting with tightness coiling in her stomach for the nightmare that would wake her up mere hours later.

Cara had found a comfortable position on her back beside Denna with Kahlan tucked against her other side. She had an arm wrapped around Cara's middle and her head was resting in the crook of the blonde's neck.

Denna was still sitting up against the headboard and met their amused smiles with a sigh. "I hope you're happy now."

"Very much so, thank you," Kahlan answered and Cara only hummed quietly.

How was she going to lie down with them so close? Last time she'd been drunk or at least pleasantly drugged but now there was no excuse for this kind of closeness. She took a breath and reached out to switch the lamp on her bedside table off. The sooner they fell asleep the quicker she could get out of this admittedly awkward situation. She scooted down until she was fully lying on the mattress and immediately rolled onto her side away from them. She was as close to the edge of the bed as she could be without falling off. It did get a bit crowded with three people in her bed after all.

She tried to remain still while she stared at the digital clock almost unblinkingly. Fifteen minutes - nine hundred seconds - later Cara shifted around and she heard labored deep breathing coming from behind her. One asleep, one more to go.

A hand landed on her back and she immediately stiffened. The hand traveled upward and began gently massaging at the base of her neck.

"Oh my… what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get you to relax," Cara whispered, her voice closer than Denna had anticipated, "you know that we didn't just show up here for dinner."

Denna couldn't decide whether she wanted to purr quietly at the feel of the hand gently rubbing away the tension in her neck and shoulders or if she rather wanted to squirm away from it. It felt good but she self-consciously tugged on the collar of her pajama top to hold the front together.

"You look like you've haven't been sleeping," Cara continued, "and Kahlan is convinced that some company will make you feel more secure, allow you to find some rest. I agree. I just want you to be okay, we both do."

Cara's voice was quiet and laced with genuine concern. Denna smiled into her pillow. "Fine."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Worked like a charm didn't it?"

Denna mumbled quietly as the noises of a conversation floated into her consciousness. She became aware of fingers soothingly running through her hair and she curled into the wonderful feeling. She hugged the blanket closer to her body and shifted so that her cheek was pressed against nice smelling warmth.

"We should let her sleep."

"And leave?"

"Can't we just curl up again?"

"Really? This late?"

"Why not? Got anywhere else to be?"

Denna heard the words but her drowsy mind couldn't make sense of them at all. She was too cozy and comfortable to care and whatever was happening around her didn't seem as important or urgent. She rolled away from the noise and hugged the big warm thing in her bed closer to her until she was sure nothing could make her wake up until she was ready to. Her half-coherent thoughts drifted away and she released a deep breath before slipping into darkness.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"This needs to stop happening."

Denna was lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom. Dark red rays of sunshine were coming through the half-drawn curtains and she sighed deeply. A warm body was pressed against her on either side. Her arms were spread and Cara's head was resting in the crook of her elbow. Her fingers were starting to feel numb. Kahlan was pressed against the entire length of her body, her forehead touching the side of Denna's jaw. Breath tickled across her throat and she sighed again.

"Yeah, this needs to stop."

Denna didn't make a move to get up. She felt completely calm and relaxed. Again she had slept more in one day, and night, than in an entire week. Kahlan and Cara were more effective than any sleeping pills ever produced.

She glanced over to her left where she could see Kahlan's dark hair splayed across her pillow. Her eyes traced the delicate slope of her jaw and neck before she swallowed and turned the other way. Cara's face was completely relaxed in sleep and her full lips were slightly parted.

Denna quietly cleared her throat and returned to staring at the ceiling.

The last time she'd found herself in such a situation had been junior year of college. She chuckled at the memory and blew a strand of blonde hair out of her face. Times had been wild back then.

Denna exhaled when Kahlan shifted in her sleep and slapped her hand onto her stomach right below her scarred abdomen. She tensed and tried to free her arm so she could remove the hand but all she accomplished by wriggling around was making Kahlan's fingers travel even further south. She felt heat creeping up from her neck and bucked her hips to the side to dislodge the offending appendage. Cara groaned quietly next to her and her heart started beating faster. She didn't even have the time to think about her anxiety and about the proximity of two warm bodies, and about how this should scare her and everything else that would usually have her freak out in such a situation, because all she could think about was how Cara would wake up and find Kahlan's hand way too close to her private parts.

Next to her Cara made another little noise and scooted even closer, effectively trapping her arm under her head. Kahlan roller further into her and threw her leg over Denna's hip so that her knee was almost meeting her hand at a very precarious location.

Denna felt a drop of sweat trickle down her temple. This was not good. And it needed to stop the hell happening. Both of her arms were completely useless and even if she managed to wrench the one Cara was sleeping on free, her hand was so numb that she didn't even feel her fingers wriggling anymore. Cara mumbled something and her breathing changed as she was waking up. Kahlan also seemed to feel the restlessness and shifted yet again, pushing her knee further up. Denna gasped and ripped her arms out from under the two sleeping bodies as she shot up into a sitting position.

"Alright who wants an early dinner," she yelled into the silence of her bedroom and awkwardly scrambled off her bed head first until she was pulling herself forward with her hands, dragging her legs off the edge until they hit the floor.

She jumped to her feet and turned back to the other two occupants of her bed. Kahlan had rolled onto her back and was stretching her arms above her head. Cara sat up and raked a hand through her hair, raising an eyebrow at Denna.

"What's gotten into you? And why are you smiling like that?"

The completely fake smile dropped off Denna's features and she cleared her throat. "Fine, no early dinner for you then."

She turned on her heel and marched out of the bedroom. She quickly brushed her teeth and freshened up in the bathroom before changing into comfortable sweats and moving into the kitchen where she started digging through her fridge. She had slept away the entire day and felt completely rested. The excess energy had her bounce on the balls of her feet as she decided to prepare something light. She had several fruits left over from her shopping trip the other day and began chopping them up for a salad.

Cara and Kahlan were absolutely in love with anything that contained chocolate so by the time the two of them emerged from the bedroom she filled little glasses with chocolate mousse and piled whipped cream across the top. Cara came to stand on the other side of the counter while Kahlan was glancing over her shoulder. "This looks really good."

"I know," Denna answered with small smile.

"So, how did you sleep?" Cara asked, causing her to glance up from sprinkling little chocolate chips on top of the whipped cream.

"Good."

"Only good?"

"Very good. Happy now?"

"Yeah," Cara said smugly before snatching a piece of fruit from the large bowl and popping it into her mouth.

Apparently that was all they were going to say about falling asleep far away from each other and somehow ending up in completely different positions in her bed. Denna was okay with that, it wasn't like this was going to happen again anytime soon. Hell no.

Instead she quietly grabbed the fruit bowl and carried it over to the small table that sat in one corner of her kitchen. Kahlan did the same with the chocolate mousse glasses before sitting down in one of the chairs.

"By the way I've been meaning to ask you something but I completely forgot about it yesterday."

Denna sat down and waited until Cara had found a comfortable position on Kahlan's lap.

"About what?"

"Well you know Cara plays tennis at the country club," Kahlan said and Denna nodded. A change of topic. Good.

The first time they'd told her Cara swung the racket in a short white skirt she'd burst out laughing, but it turned out that Cara was pretty serious about her weekly matches. She'd eventually stopped teasing her about it, but Denna still smirked at the glare Cara sent her way.

"Yeah I remember," Denna answered with a small laugh.

"Good, well I was wondering if you would take my spot as Cara's partner since I'm traveling out of town for the weekend to meet with my sister," Kahlan continued.

"You want me to play tennis?"

"Well you said you used to play when you were younger."

"Yes, younger as in years ago."

"I'm only asking because I don't want Cara to miss this particular match while I'm not here."

Cara mumbled something and Denna raised her eyebrows, resting her chin in her hand as she propped her elbow up onto the table. "What was that?"

"Would you please play with me because I told one of the snobby chicks at the club that I would beat them anytime. Of course she had to pick the weekend Kahlan is gone," Cara said quietly and rolled her eyes.

Denna laughed silently and tried to hide her smirk. "Alright fine, if you want me to come I will, but I can't guarantee that I'll be of any help, I haven't played in ages."

She figured that after Cara had a hand in helping her get a full night's rest, participating in a tennis match was the least she could do. She hadn't expected Cara, of all people, to play tennis at a country club but she'd found out that through her family, Cara had a membership by default and after playing tennis for many years in her youth she'd developed a kind of liking for the sport. It was kind of cute, really, because Cara was pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.

With the first hand experience of actually seeing Cara in a tiny white skirt she would have ammunition for months to come and she couldn't let that opportunity pass by however uncomfortable it might turn out to be.

After their light early dinner, Kahlan and Cara gathered their things and left Denna with some pasta in the fridge and half a bottle of wine. She walked them to the door. Kahlan pulled her into a brief hug and pressed a kiss against her cheek.

"Thank you for having us over."

"Sure."

Cara was quick to follow and Denna didn't even have time to react before the blonde had wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled their bodies together. "It was fun, we should do it again," Cara said quietly and squeezed her briefly before letting go.

Denna remained silent and smiled to herself she watched them walk down the hallway to the elevator. With a last wave of her hand, she closed the door and turned around, leaning against it with her back. Apparently hugging them didn't bother her anymore. Hell, even having them in her bed didn't seem like that big of a deal and she actually felt pretty good about it.

She wondered when she'd started getting better. The bottle of Xanax was staying in her purse more often recently and whenever she did venture outside she felt calmer, knowing that she could just head over to their house and spend a quiet evening with friends.

She wasn't stupid, of course she knew they'd stayed the night so that she could actually find some sleep, and it had surprisingly worked. She felt better about the upcoming court trial and she was halfway confident that she could make it through without regressing into old habits. Maybe she would even tell them about it. But that was for another day. She just wanted to enjoy the calm that had somehow settled over her and relax until it was time to head back to work in the morning.

She pushed herself away from the door and stretched her arms above her head before heading back into the kitchen to put away the dishes.