As Piper regained consciousness, she grew aware that she was not in a comfortable bed. Not that she wasn’t comfortable, but she couldn’t roll over because her back rested against something. Also, the pillow beneath her head seemed familiar, but it was more like a cushion, velvet rather than cotton. After a moment, she grew aware of a steady breathing somewhere above her face, and when she opened her eyes and twisted her head around, there was Sebastian, sitting up on the couch. She was lying on his lap with a pillow under her head.

Part of her wanted to scramble away, but her instinct not to inconvenience other people reined her in. Instead of lurching up, she very carefully leaned up, uncomfortably straining her ab muscles sideways into a sitting position. For several seconds, she could just hold herself steady and breathe as the pain in her side reminded her of the previous night. She stared back at Bash, relieved that she hadn’t wakened him.

After calming herself, she rose to her feet.

She stood in her sister’s living room, and she could tell by the light streaming through the slitted blinds that it was very early. No noise filtered from above or through the hallway from the primary bedroom, but Piper had to go somewhere. She crept to the breakfast nook and slid open the door to the little patio. Though the air was chill as she stepped out, she didn’t dare risk waking Bash by reentering and digging around for a jacket – not until she processed exactly how she had ended up where she had awakened.

She hadn’t remembered anything after the sight of his dimple, but she had awakened lying on the couch with her head in his lap, and she had no memory of anything between.

Unfortunately, her throbbing side wouldn’t let her relax now as she took in the sunrise from the patio. Cold and pain rendered her incredibly uncomfortable, and for the first time in a long time, she just couldn’t drum up any happiness. She should have felt relieved – now the Prados were safe for a while, and Lily was off Piper’s hands. But now she would have to face all the things she had been avoiding, specifically Bash; the way she had treated him and what would happen now.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the door slid open behind her, and Bash spoke into the air over her head. “You should not be out here without a jacket.” In typical protective fashion, he laid his own hoodie on her shoulders, and having remembered their last time on that patio, he set a cup of coffee in front of her.

Piper lowered her face into her hands and breathed as best she could. The ache in her side had lessened since the night before, but there was still a slight twinge of pain if she breathed too quickly. “We’re doing it again,” Piper complained lightly.

“What are we doing?” Bash wondered, confused.

“Acting like a couple, like we are in an established relationship. Like it’s the most natural thing in the world.”

Bash said nothing, just sipped his own coffee and stared at the sunrise. For him, every minute with her had been that way, except the time he had let himself leave. “I’m sorry for disappearing on you,” he murmured, a different type of ache in his gut.

“Oh, please, Bash. No apologies. If you apologize, then I feel sorry for you, and that hurts me, too, and I’m in more pain than I can really handle right now.”

“Okay,” he worried helplessly. He had no idea what to say to make her feel better.

“You and I don’t need to do that all the time. We need to save our apologies for – well, for when I’m not in physical pain.”

“But you will let me apologize once you are better?” he begged, scooting his chair to look at her, ignoring the strokes of color on the horizon.

“For what?” she sighed, exasperated.

“If I hadn’t left you, Isaac wouldn’t have forced you into that house.”

Though she had said she was fine, the thought of the house sent shivers up her spine. “You stopped him before he could do anything too bad.” She shrugged, forgetting her rib. As the pain hit her, she moaned.

“Piper!” Bash worried, crouching down in front of her chair so he could look in her eyes. “You should let me take you to the hospital.”

“Oh, please,” she complained tightly. “It’s a rib. They don’t do anything to fix it except make me lie down for two days. I mean-” she coughed and dissolved in a fit of moaning.

“Piper,” Bash soothed. “Shhh. Don’t worry about it.”

Breathing in slowly through her nose, Piper managed enough oxygen in her lungs to breathe normally.

“You are sure you don’t need a hospital?”

“Emergency rooms? X-rays? Long explanations of how it happened? Then sent home to recover anyway? It’s not a punctured lung – I’ve read about that in too many classes, and this is different.”

Holding in his sympathy because she would not want it, Sebastian decided to give her some good news to distract her from her pain. “I talked to Luke late last night, after midnight,” Bash offered.

“I’m glad he’s okay.” Piper offered a gentle smile.

“He said a woman from the FBI contacted him. Apparently, your friend Mitch has been arrested.”

This caught Piper’s attention, and she slowly raised her eyes to Bash’s. “Why is he in jail?” she wondered, perplexed.

“For the same reason that the Prados can go home now.”

“Mitch…was after the Prados?” Piper stared at Bash with utter disbelief.

“Not exactly. Mitch was involved in a scheme to stop production of the Prados’ research.”

“But why?”

“I only know this because Luke is CIA and gets to find out things that other people can’t. Apparently, Mitch was working for a senator whose daughter has cancer. The company was going to stop making the girl’s drug to produce the Prados’ medicine.”

“That’s awful!” Piper gasped, this time not from the pain in her chest.

“Except that the Prados’ drug treats the same cancer. It is a better drug, more effective with fewer side effects.”

“The poor senator.”

“Do not feel sorry for him, Piper!” Bash admonished. “He is the reason you are sitting here with a broken rib. He is also partially responsible for the deaths of the four Amazonian researchers, for Molly’s kidnapping, and for your nearly being killed in New Haven.”

Piper rested her chin on her hand, processing what she had just heard. “But why was Mitch arrested?” she demanded.

“Don’t feel sorry for him, either. He was even more responsible than the senator in a very direct way. He was a high-class drug dealer, but he had contacts in the gangs, for street drugs, and he used those contacts to stop the Prados.”

“He ordered a hit? I don’t believe it.”

“Not a hit, apparently. Just ‘stopping’ the research, without mentioning the method. He had expected they would burn the plants or something, not kill people. And then the senator lied that he would call off the hit on the Prados, but instead, he paid the gangbanger extra money to kill them anyway. Isaac was in on that one, somehow. And then Mitch sent you into that neighborhood hoping you would disappear.”

Bash had said the words so casually, as if he hadn’t just disclosed a man’s plan to kill her. When the sun broke the horizon a minute later, Piper finally found her breath. “He sent me there to die?”

“He had second thoughts, though. That’s why he showed up. If Luke and I hadn’t been with you, he intended to get you out safely if he could. It doesn’t fix what he did, but it seems like the thought of hurting you sent him over the edge. Once he realized you were safe, he went to the senator to confront him. When the FBI showed up, he started talking and hasn’t shut up.”

“So he’s going to jail?” Piper wondered, torn between righteous gratification and sorrow for the tragedy of wasted potential. “He is a smart guy, but he dug himself a grave.”

“He got immunity for the drug charges, and the crime against you was reduced to reckless endangerment. He’ll serve a couple of months in a white-collar prison for his part in state corruption, but the senator was the big fish the FBI wanted. Mitch caught him for them.”

For several seconds, Piper couldn’t move, but she eventually found herself leaning against Bash for support. “I’m gonna need so much therapy after this,” she sighed, and Bash managed a weak smile.

He reached up to smooth her hair. “You and me both, though you’re going to be fine,” he promised. “You are very strong.”

Placing her hand on his cheek, their foreheads touching, Piper shook her head gently. “You are strong,” she realized, brushing her thumb on his cheek. “You have been through a hell I can’t understand, and I feel like I’m going to die after this. But you have made something so amazing of yourself.”

“You are amazing, too, my dear. A soul of pure gold.”

“A sheltered soul,” she countered.

“Not anymore, I think.” Bash had made himself into a man he could be proud of, but it had taken years of dedication and determination. Piper had suffered awful things over the past couple of weeks, but her heart had not changed. He could read her compassion for himself, for the Prados, even for Mitch and the senator who had instigated her pain. There was something about Piper, something he had noticed almost immediately upon meeting her, that valued everyone she met. Bash could aspire to care as much as she did.

“Bash, Luke told me something about you, and made me thing that you might need to know a something about me, too.”

Even more than her physical pain, Bash sensed some emotional distress that had taken over Piper, and his anxiety erupted despite the safety of his surroundings.

“Luke said that you were terrified to get close to a girl, and that the reason you were so hard on me was because you cared so much that it made you afraid.”

The words touched so fragile and personal a place that Bash’s skin flushed. “I wish Luke would mind his own business.”

Piper smiled. “It’s not like I couldn’t see your fear, Bash. It’s why I didn’t hold on to my anger with you; it’s why I never judged you. But a small revelation about me might soften the edge of your fear. Probably not dissipate it, but ease it a little.”

“What could you possibly tell me…?”

“I’ve been through things in my life. I’ve been hurt by people – a lot of women have. Sometimes it’s family, friends, rarely strangers – at least where I come from. But what you’re afraid of? I’m not saying that you should just lay down your arms and leave me to whatever fate I chase, but women are strong. As long as we are alive, as long as we are in motion, we will survive. You’re so afraid that someone will hurt me. Someone has. When you were a boy, someone hurt you, too. Lots of someones. Someone hurt Luke. But you guys are here and alive, and making something powerful and good of yourselves. From what I know of you and Luke, if Mariana is alive, I bet that she has found a way to survive. You can’t live in fear because you’re afraid I will get hurt. I will, and you will. But we’re resilient, and we’ll be okay. You notice that I’m here with two cracked ribs, safe and of sound mind, and really wanting you to kiss me?”

“Two cracked ribs?” Bash queried, suddenly anxious again.

Piper huffed a gentle laugh, unwilling to tax her pain. “And I’m okay. Not perfect, not pristine but caring and loving and wanting to be good.”

“You are good,” Bash insisted quietly, scooting his chair closer as he leaned down so he could meet her eyes. “I understand what you’re saying, and it…” His eyes unfocused for a minute. “I guess it does help. If someone as amazing as you has lived and thrived through trauma, I guess I should be a little braver.”

“Oh, Bash,” Piper leveled, caressing his cheek with her hand. “You are the bravest person I know. But you completely ignored the fact that I said I wanted you to kiss me…”

With a smile, Bash leaned his face to Piper’s and she closed her eyes. His mouth warmed hers with an intimate tenderness that relaxed her for the first time in weeks, and she leaned in as much as she could without irritating her ribs.

“You know,” Bash whispered, resting his cheek against hers, “you and I have a few dates to make up for if we are going to do this right.”

Piper felt herself smile.

“I need to take you for coffee,” he asserted, “Del’s lemonade, a few walks on the beach.”

“Take me fishing,” she continued, and Bash huffed a pleased laugh, leaning up so he could take in her coy expression.

“Are you sure?” he begged.

“My only concern is that I’ll talk too much, and you’ll make me wait on the shore like my grandpa did.”

Bash sat up with a huge grin. He grasped her hand and didn’t let go. “Not for the first five or so times; I promise. After that, we will see.”

“Maybe we’ll find some other date options by then.”

“I have a million ideas,” Bash smirked, raising her hand to his lips again and keeping it there, brushing his lips over her knuckles.

“I think I’ve left you two out here long enough to resolve all your issues,” came Jennie’s unexpected voice, “and breakfast is ready.”

Bash did not turn around, but Piper smirked at her sister.

“So the flip-flop is over?” Jennie quipped sarcastically.

“Not that I’m admitting I was ever in the state you are implying, but if I were, I would say yes. It’s over.”

“Oh, it was not an implication,” Jennie sassed as she stepped out to pull Bash to his feet. “It was an outright accusation. Bash, use those muscles to get my sister up without causing her too much pain. I don’t want to hear her drama at the breakfast table.”

“If I didn’t have cracked ribs, I would show you drama,” Piper growled.

“Break it up,” Bash ordered, helping Piper to her feet.

Jennie turned her back on them and reentered the breakfast room, and Bash stepped to Piper, wrapping her gently in his arms as he placed a kiss on her head. “Coffee?” he offered.

“It’s a date,” she whispered, kissing under his chin.

“That is not okay on a first date,” he adjured her as his pulse sped, and Piper leaned back, her cheeks pink.

She bit her lip nervously. “I imagine not,” she realized and leaned away from him. Yes, she had been on dates, but not with anyone like Bash. Certainly not with anyone who affected her like he did. “I guess you’ll have to be cautious for both of us.”

Leaning down to kiss her again, he whispered against her mouth. “That is a very dangerous idea.”

She chuckled deep in her throat and kissed him back before they separated and strolled into the house hand in hand.