"Jesus Christ, Trager." She sucked against the taste of leftover toothpaste, a palm shunted to the corner of the kitchen counter as she'd rounded into it, her lungs caught up in her throat. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Toast." He nodded quickly as he used a the toe of one boot to kick one of her bottom cupboards closed, head lifting on a smirk that slowly canted his head to the side as he studied her, brows lifting, "Good morning, Lieutenant."

Ally glared sharply into the way his eyes banked fully down the length of a black button down shirt and very bare legs, a smirk twitching against the corner of his mouth as he blew out a whistling breath. "Eyes front, Tig."

"I'm on the front." He cast a sparked glance down the way the shirt was open farther down than it was closed up against freshly scrubbed skin.

She ignored the taunting and mischievous smile that was curling his lips as he leaned lanky hips back against the counter and watched her move toward the coffee pot, a sighed appreciation banking off her as she realized it was already steaming full. He was very obviously making a leering show of teasing on her and she accepted the playful smirking he gave up as he handed her a mug from her own strainer. He had a dish towel over his shoulder and his cut was slung to the back of one chair.

"This is not acceptable." Ally murmured annoyance into the way she poured the cup, lifting it into her chest with both hands as the smell traced her toward waking, her hair still laying damp against her shoulders.

"Too strong?" he glanced at the pot and back.

"No, I meant you being in my kitchen without me knowing." She slapped perfunctorily between them, embattled between finding him somewhat awkwardly adorable and still being annoyed that he'd invaded her home just to be a pain in the ass.

"VP's not ridin' alone today." He shrugged off, tone brooking no argument between them. "It's perfectly acceptable."

"How did you even get in?"

"How did you not hear me?" he snorted back, "Some cop you are."

Ally lifted a low lidded glance, letting a smile writhe her lips as she leaned toward him teasingly, "I was very very distracted."

"Gah." Tig lifted his hand as he pushed away from the counter and headed toward the table, grinning back wildly as he banked into the chair, "Naw, go ahead. Tell me. I wanna hear."

"To be fair," Chibs' voice was a soft intrusion as he moved into the kitchen, roughing his wet hair back off his forehead as he tiredly balanced a glance between them. "She had her hands full."

"Just her hands?" Trager asked up playfully, using his boots against the table legs to tilt the chair back on an angle. "You're slackin', Chibby."

"Among other things." The other man shunted his denim covered knee into the back of the chair, slamming it back forward as Trager's boots flattened to the floor and his laughter coughed off his chest.

"You two are deplorable." She waved her coffee between them, squinting a curbed annoyance in the Scot's direction as he prowled toward her, his hands breaking to the counter at her sides as he intentionally flushed up into the front of her.

"I didn't tell him what other things." He teased against her, keeping her coffee blocked up into her chest as he broke his mouth against hers, hands catching up against the dark fabric of the shirt as he tucked tighter down the front of her.

She caught against his fingers tightly, swallowing his laughter as she kept him from prying the shirt hem any higher in front of the other man. "Deplorable."

"You're gonna hurt his feelings." He smiled warmly over her as he cocked his head back toward Trager, pinching lightly against a tensed thigh before moving toward the coffee pot. "Be kind."

"Did you know she has a Ruger hidden on top of the fridge?" Tig waved toward Telford in surprise. "That's damn sketchy."

Ally pinned him a harsh glance. "You searched my kitchen? Not acceptable."

"Ally." Chibs rolled her a plaintive glance, voice treading a softened pleading as he lifted his coffee. "He's watchin' you just as much as he's watchin' me."

"More so, actually." She cocked a derogatory glance into the way Trager threaded laughter throughout the kitchen before turning her glance back over the Scot, face composed toward assertion. "I am not comfortable with this, Filip."

His cup rounded back onto the counter with a clipped thud as he turned his head toward her, eyes glittering dark. "And I'm not comfortable with August Marks puttin' a target on our backs, Althea. But I'm dealin' with it. Whattcha want? Y'want him to leave? Because he goes when I go. And I can go any time you like, love."

He knew he'd clipped a nerve on her when her jaw tightened down and her shoulders came up and damn him if he didn't like to watch the way it tensed up every muscle under the dusty black of his own softly worn shirt.

"Obviously," she leaned the low grated whisper into his shoulder as she stepped along his back, "it seems I've got an open goddamn door. So feel free."

He fluttered his eyes closed into the wreckage of her anger, sucking against his teeth as he turned into the way she walked from the kitchen. Chibs backed his hips into the counter, lifting the coffee he'd temporarily forgotten as he caught the half concerned and partly amused smirk Trager was panning him from the kitchen table.

"Looks like you're the one with your hands full, Chibby." Tig hushed between them, glancing toward the hall and then back. "You got a handle on this, brother? Really?"

Chibs blew out a slow breath before taking a sip of coffee on a shrug. "She'll be fine. Let her breathe. She gives a good slap and then soothes it. Just her way."

"Sounds like another sorta hands on woman we know."

"Don't go there." The full roll of the accent was hazed in coffee steam. "I don't wanna hear it."

"Uhkay." Tig grinned into it as he let his arms ride onto the table, shoulders forward as he lifted his jaw into questioning. "So you knew about the Ruger?"

The Scot just grinned over the cup, "Y'think that's the only one, Tigger?"

"Man, I like her." Tig lifted his hands off the table in exasperation. "Why's she gotta be a cop? It really ruins the flow of so many perfect possibilities. "

Chibs smirked into his cup, "Because she's contrary."

He caught against her fingers lightly, prying them down from the way she was pulling her hair up, his other hand shading along the back of her head so that the chestnut darkness went down under his ringed fingers. The tightening of her back was so harshly drawn up that he let the movements go slow and soft, palms catching onto the dark blue fabric of the uniform and holding against her ribs as he dropped his face into the still damp smell of freshly shampooed hair.

"Y'can't have me without the club, Ally." He told her softly. "And regardless of me, if you're dealin' with the club, y'deal with the club. That's what comes of wading this far in, Lieutenant. And that was your move, not mine."

"Just," her shoulders reflexively lifted into the way he was pressing on her, hand catching up against his jaw to keep him from shifting away. "let me accept it. It's gonna take awhile to adjust, okay?"

"It's a family. It's my brother in your kitchen." He pleaded into her shoulder quietly. "Sure, mightily dysfunctional, but my family."

"Your family is beyond dysfunctional." She muttered off tightly as she graced a chaste kiss against his jaw and leaned forward from his touch, easing back into the way she was rushing to be on time. "They're sociopathic."

He was always delaying her daily life.

Always dragging her still when she was trying to move in her predetermined direction.

It was both endlessly annoying and hedging on a comfortable intimacy that had her longing for a little more delaying.

"This is going to take time." He told her as he angled himself onto the edge of the bathtub, leaning forward so that he could idly rub dark fabric along the back of her knee as she swept her hair up quickly.

"Tell me about it." Ally sighed off wearily. "I'm trying, Scotty. It's not like I expected this situation when I walked into Charming, okay?"

"I mean Marks."

She cast a glance down into the succinctly angry and brittle dryness of his tone as she tied her hair off. "I know."

The press of his fingers was heavy on the vulnerable softness of the inside of her knee, pressing an intent there, "He's smart, Althea. We have to be smarter."

She nodded down over him, exhaling slowly as she wiped a palm against the rounded and muscled curve of one shoulder. "He picked the wrong people, Telford."

"He picked the perfect people." Chibs sharply answered, his eyes thin as he shook his head up at her. "He picked the two that could kill each other off on his behalf if they don't trust in each other just a bit."

He knew the blackened look that would wipe over her face before it came along.

And he nodded into it tightly. "Aye. Exactly, my love."

"I can trust you in this." She admitted softly, letting her hand lift from his shoulder so that she could turn back toward her bedroom.

"In this." He snorted off as he pressed his body up from the tub, following after far enough that he could let his bare arm rest into the doorframe, watching her lift her gun belt as he chewed against his cheek. "Just this?"

"Really, Scotty?" Ally breathed out quietly, voice treading derogatory. "You wanna have this discussion now? Your pal just broke into my kitchen and went rummaging through my house while I was going down on you in the shower. And it's okay with you because he's family. It's not okay with me yet, all right? Gimme the time."

Chibs swallowed the smile that threatened to take his lips. "Seem to remember a pal of yours breaking in once too. Ended a little differently, I believe. Least Tiggy's watchin' your ass because I asked him to, not because he's got a wandering eye and a habit."

"Bullshit." She snarked at him as she looped the belt on. "Teller sent him out here for you. Don't make it sound like it was your idea because you're thoughtful and romantic and charming."

"I've asked him to watch over you before, Althea. And I am those things, occasionally." He taunted in her direction, voice hushed quiet as he lifted his glance from her hands and over her face.

"Among other things, yes, sure." Ally countered quietly, catching the softness that was still curling his shoulder into the doorframe, his hands stuffed into his pockets in a peace keeping that made her reel in some of the frustration with a curtailed breath. "What are we doing, Filip? This is… it's been beyond just fucking for awhile. And now it's beyond what either of us can control on our own. You won't even tell me what road we're on but you just keep gunning the engine, expecting me to hold on."

He arched a brow into the assertion, sleeking his tongue against his bottom lip, "You came for me, Lieutenant. You kept pullin' me back in here. And you - "

"Guys." Tig's voice was truly apologetic as he wedged his boot against the half open door, his leg the only thing visible until he leaned into the way their silence had suddenly hushed the room. "Sorry, AJ. Hap's callin' us in, Chibs."

"I'm already late." She lifted her hands defensively before she reached for her boots, letting her body settle into the mattress as she moved to pull them on.

"In a minute." Chibs told the other man with a softened nod. "Gimme a minute, yeah?"

"Yeah." Trager gave up a breezy smile between them, crooking a gloved wave of his fingers in Ally's direction that was teasing and playful and, frankly, too close to possibly heartfelt for her to ignore, "Be gentle, doll. He's an old man now."

"Hey," She shied him a graceful smile and let up a breathy laugh, the hued brown in her eyes going a tip toward caramel as she blinked softly at him, "you keep him close, Tigger. Don't let him be an idiot."

"Do my best." He gave her a widening grin, eyes a suddenly shined blue at the use of his nickname.

Her face went warmly playful, "Now get the hell outta my house."

Trager snorted off a laugh, palm thwacking the frame before he stepped away, "Yes, ma'am."

She caught the humored and interested way Telford was watching the smile ride her lips, his head angled into the doorframe. "What?"

"Y'do like him, Ally." He murmured assuredly. "Can't help yourself."

"It's not about whether I like him or not… but he loves you just as much as you love him." She tugged a boot on with a jerked movement, head cocked into the assertion. "And he doesn't hold that love over your head like - "

"Ah." He lifted his fingers swiftly. "Just leave it where it's sweet, darlin'. Don't take it there."

"Sure." Ally agreed softly, tightening down the laces on her boots. "Denial and omission. Because they make trust flourish in a relationship."

"It is that now, isn't it?" his accent curled adorably around the words and she intentionally didn't look up into the hushed teasing. But she felt the movement of him as she pulled on the other boot, sighing into the way he bent his fingers to wipe along the back of her neck.

"Be careful, please." She spoke softly after him as he grabbed his shirt off the chair and tugged it quickly over his head. "Stay with that lunatic brother of yours, huh?"

"And you don't go out to Morada without a second car or makin' a phone call." He nodded into an agreement as he turned into the way her head was finally lifted. "Deal?"

She shrugged into a slowly made nod, "Deal."

"I mean it." He hushed down into the way he tweaked against the edge of her black banded badge before stepping toward the door, catching his cut off the bed on his way through.

"So do I." She caught the way his shoulders urged to turn before the rest of his body leaned into the movement, his features slackened in a calmed acceptance.

The slow smile that crested his face and drew his eyes to hers was well worth being very late. "I gotta go."

The smirking he'd twisted through the words was enough to tell her that she wasn't going to get away from hearing them over and again. He seemed to take far too much pleasure in the way they annoyed her.

And she let it go. Because it seemed as though they were more and more often an apology for having to leave her when he absolutely didn't want to do so.