Jason turned off the tablet, and Diane, who had been sitting next to him on the couch while talking to Brett via Skype, stood up.
"Well, this has been a very successful prelude indeed," she said, yawning. "Tomorrow's gonna be even more interesting. But De Souza is right, we're far from finished."
Jason shrugged. "The real negotiation didn't even start yet. Especially you should know by now, how much time authorities take for any kind of decision."
Diane watched him with a thoughtful expression. Then she stretched out her arm and stroked over his cheek.
"Mum?" Jason asked, embarrassed and feeling uncomfortable by her touch. She took her hand away and smiled in an apologising way.
"Sorry," she murmured. "I know, you're not a child anymore. I just feel like I missed out the exact point when you grew into this wise man, who took the floor along the most influential politicians just like that."
Jason felt himself blushing. "I suppose," he assumed. "It helps if you know what are you doing it for."
"Or for whom?" Diane guessed.
Jason hesitated. "As I said today, this is bigger than a single person."
Diane sighed. The smile was gone. "You're right. But I'm afraid, this will nevertheless consume more than the life of a single person. I am scared of what this will do to Neri, and to you. Politics is an ugly place."
"All the more, why I won't leave her alone in this."
"Yeah, I already assumed that." She straightened up. "Enough of talking for today. I'm going to bed. Good night, Sweety!"
Jason rolled his eyes but grinned back. "Night."
Diane left through the intern door to her room and shut it behind her. Jason stood up, to make himself ready for bed.
He had just brushed his teeth, and changed into his blue checked pair of pyjamas along with a white sleeping shirt when a soft knock at the door to the floor stopped him on his way into the sheets.
"Hey," he said softly, and the butterflies in his stomach were wide awake again. He stepped aside to let her in.
Neri wore a grey pyjama, her hair still shimmering wet after her swim.
"You're alright?"
Neri nodded. "Can't sleep," she confessed and grimaced.
"Where is your mother?" Jason asked.
Neri entered his room. "Talking to council on the Ocean Planet."
Jason closed the door. "You don't wanna be alone, hmm?"
She turned around to smile at him. "I miss Charly and my island. It feel like the first night on ORCA," she explained. "So many stranger people."
"Yeah," Jason agreed. "I know, what you mean. I didn't like to be on ORCA at first. Not until I met you, I started to feel at home under the water." Startled, he shook his head at the memory. "I can hardly remember life before that."
"I remember," Neri said. "No mission, no battles. But also no family."
"No sister, no mothers," he ran on.
"No Jason," she added smilingly, but with a conclusive tone, which told him about her feelings.
He closed the distance between them. "Yeah," he sighed, and pulled her into a hug. "I wouldn't change a thing, either." She wrapped her arms around his neck and leant on to him. Her fingertips gently caressing the skin between the hairline and the collar of his shirt, sent delightful shivers down his spine. He allowed himself to breathe in her scent.
"Would you like to stay here for the night?" he murmured, lips close to her ear before he could stop himself.
Instead of a spoken answer, she buried her face in the small hollow between neck and collarbone. Holding her so close, and feeling her warm breath on his skin, made immediately some part of him regret the suggestion.
Another part, – a part which became more dominant every second, – told him to just forget any sanity. To kiss her neck, and to let his hand on her back slide deeper down, to touch the rounding of her butt, and bring her closer to his hips.
Jason almost moaned by the thought. Instead, he took a deep breath. It took him some force, to stop his imagination from running wild, but suddenly he remembered his own words when talking to Rugeaux.
I'm here to make sure, she is not harmed.
This was Neri, his Neri. And he had no intention of scaring her away by going too far too fast. He had always held her needs over his own. This was no different.
This was supposed to be a comforting hug. An embrace to assure her, she could count on him, not another occasion for him to touch her.
Curiously, it worked. Jason smiled and tightened his grip around her. This embrace was still arousing, but somehow manageable.
"Come on," he said quietly, and touched her cheek with his shortly while retreating. "Let's go to bed."
He didn't suggest sleeping on the floor. The bed was very big, and he even came to think, it was spacier than Neri's hut. So, in the end, this was no different from a sleepover on the island, was it?
"How was your swim?" He asked when taking the place of the left side of the bed. Neri had already slipped into the sheets on the right.
"Good," she answered, and lay down, facing him. "They were very nice. They tell me of other Charlys, they met."
Jason lay down on his back and pulled the blanket up to his chest.
"The woman did not like us."
Jason shrugged, then crossed his arms behind his head, resting it on the open palms of his hands. "De Souza is not exactly a people's person, but she is one of the good guys," he explained. "I wasn't very attentive to politics and stuff back then, but even I heard about this great corruption scandal, De Souza revealed five years ago in Brazil. She started off as a police officer, then took the lead of the FBI department in Buenos Aires. As a senator she brought in some really strict laws, to force especially big companies and financial institutes to be more transparent with any kind of cash flow. She can be really annoying, and suspicious, but people respect her. If we convince her, we won half the bet."
"If she is on our side, other people will follow her?"
Jason nodded. "Her approval is very important. But we need at least half the senators to support us."
They remained silent for a moment, both of them each lost in own thought.
"What did Madame President say to you?" Neri finally wanted to know.
"That I had an important part to play now. And, that your mother had been right about bringing me in," he summarised the last part of their conversation. "I guess, I fill out the part of an Ocean Man perfectly," he grinned. "Being the link between the people, and all that."
"You are a perfect man for both our people."
He felt his grin flicker, and himself blushing instead. Not just, because of the compliment, but also for the matter-of-fact tone, she had used, and the endearing look she gave him.
He cleared his throat. "We should sleep now, don't you think?"
She nodded, and he loosened his arms to push the light switch to his left.
"Good Night," he said into the darkness. "Sleep well, Neri."
Again, the answer came non-spoken, but by a soft touch on his chest. He chuckled and stretched out one arm. "Come here," he whispered, and there she was, cuddled up against him. He lay the arm around her, and took the hand on his chest into his own, just in case.
Who knows, what would happen, if she kept stroking his chest, while he was half off, dreaming of her?
He fell asleep, listening to the sound of her breathing.