“If you think it might help at all, I wouldn’t stop you from trying.”
He knew she’d probably try even if he didn’t want her to, but if he was honest, he wouldn’t mind a little company at least, even if he didn’t get any sleep, and he’d especially prefer it to be her.
“Sleep and dreams are what I am, you should know that much by now,” she teased gently before reaching out and letting her fingers skim over his wrist. “I um… I worry about you, okay?”
“Extremely,” she said, laughing softly. “I could never stay mad at you. You’re far too cute for that and I like you just a little too much.”
“Cute’s genetic. Got two older brothers cute as buttons and a sister. But it’s a tie between me and Cole over who’s cuter.” Okay, she had three older brothers, but the eldest wasn’t around much at all and he had a different mom. “Good because I think I’d die of a broken heart if you were ever too mad at me.”
“The E.R is better than a jail cell. Do I get credit for that, at least?”
Parker knew he was taking a risk running his mouth, a habit that seemed to run in the family, but it honestly hadn’t been his fault this time and he was in too much pain to be polite right now, struggling against a few cracked ribs to get his shirt on.
“I’d rather you be in jail than hurt.”
She sighed loudly and crossed the room to help him, resisting the urge to smack him upside his damn head in the process. “Oh would you just sit the fuck still and let me help? Honestly, it’s a good thing we’re moving.” Not the best way to break the news, sure, but at least he couldn’t really put up a fight.
“Good to know that I literally cannot leave you alone for more than a week,” she muttered as she leaned in the doorway, studying the kid in front of her. “Seriously, pup, what the hell are we going to do with you?”
“Maybe not, but the difference between him and you is that you didn’t want to turn out like him. The stuff you did to me, that was just because you were fighting that so hard. That’s not your fault.”
One of the things that still pissed Luna off was just how much Ollie would jump to Jeff’s defence for what he did, but honestly, it was just part and parcel of how deep the denial ran for him to cope with it, so if Jeff expected anything else from him on that front, he’d be disappointed.
“We can’t always change our nature, Ollie. The boy comes from a genetic line of killers, just like I do. Just like my dad and my grandpa. Hell, even grandma Britt has blood on her hands. Pheme likes to spill all the gory details on everyone.”
He had heard the details of what Britt had done when pregnant with his grandpa and he knew how Az had helped her through that, but it didn’t change the facts. Just like how Ava was now didn’t really negate the things she had done in her youth as well. It was so deep in his blood that nothing could scrub it out and Jeff was still coming to terms with it.
“That was different. You had… problems. You weren’t someone who had been trained their whole life to hunt and kill me, regardless of whether that was their choice or not.”
They weren’t getting anywhere going around in circles, and Ollie didn’t exactly want them to get back around to Jeff continuing to remind him of the past. He’d just rather stop talking about it altogether.
“You have met my dad, right? The dude that killed my mother twice and blew up a school? Not sure Teddy’s what I would call an A plus parent. ”
The conversation was go nowhere and he was starting to get agitated which was never a good thing given his stress relief methods. A part of him was tempted to just go straight to Zeke and tell the boy to stay the fuck away from his daughter, but he knew well enough that doing that could actually tip the kid on the wrong side of the scale.
“So sit down and talk to her. Explain your concerns and ask her to be a little more cautious. She’ll listen and understand if you just speak to her calmly and don’t try to be over-controlling, I promise.”
Hell, he’d sit down with them and play mediator if he had to, but he was sure that Gwen would at least consider things if they approached it the right way.
“Would you have listened if your dads had done that with you about me?”
He had a feeling Ollie wouldn’t be able to give him a good answer to that one, but it was worth pointing out with the things he had done. Their daughter was never going to listen to warnings, no matter how kindly put. She was just too damn trusting for her own good.
“You know what I mean, Jeff. You wouldn’t hurt our kids or any of the pups you’ve saved. That already makes you better than any hunter.”
Ollie would have included Zeke in that statement, but given that Zeke hadn’t been given a choice and had been through almost as much abuse as the pups, he was more of a grey area right now.
“Like I said, at least give Zeke a chance to prove that he’s not like the rest of his family. If he’s a liar, then he knows what’s coming to him.”
“I’d really rather our daughter not get attached to him until we know for sure he can be trusted. I don’t want her to hate me if I have to kill that boy.”
It was the item ranked second on his list, topped only by the idea of Zeke killing Gwen. He didn’t really think the boy would kill her, but he still didn’t know him well enough to rule that possibility out.
“You wouldn’t hurt ours or anyone else’s kids, would you?” Ollie asked, looking Jeff square in the eye as he did so.
Ollie knew deep down there was always the risk that Jeff would relapse and things would get bad between them again. He hoped like hell that wouldn’t happen, and he refused to acknowledge the possibility out loud, but he was more painfully aware of it than he would ever let on, but he was unwaveringly certain that Jeff would never be able to bring himself to hurt any of the kids.
Jeff was silent and he took a step back, unable to meet Ollie’s gaze.
“Had Arcadia not intervened on his behalf, there’s a good chance I would have killed Zeke and he’s still pretty much a kid himself,” he confessed quietly. Hell, he had still been considering despite what Cadi had said until the hunter proved himself more useful breathing than buried.
“I saw hunters deliberately run my mom down with a car when I was about the same age Gwen was when you brought her home. What you do to them is nothing short of what they deserve.”
Their arguments always ended up in a stalemate; Jeff trying to convince Ollie that he was exactly what others accused him of being, and Ollie stubbornly refusing to let him put himself down like that.
“Especially after what you’ve told me they’ve been doing to Matt’s birth family.”
“I’m not sure that makes me any better than them.”
It was a concept he struggled with down to his core, but it was better than the alternatives. It was better to take his issues out on those people than to keep hurting Ollie, but he wasn’t entirely sure he could keep it up for the entirety of his life.
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