Luke was at the studio an hour early, but he didn’t mind waiting. Aaron was with Holden and he wanted some time to think about the next steps he was going to take.

He had talked with Lucinda all day and he was feeling better now. But he had to be careful. It would not be easy.

He saw Noah approaching the car and opened the door for him. He looked tired, and he though he noticed some limping…

“Hi, ba”

“You look tired, and is your leg bothering you? I told you to call me if you felt”

Noah kissed him. It seemed the quickest way to shut him up

“Hi, babe, how are you?”

“Sorry… I’ve been dying to see you all day… You do look tired”

“I haven’t worked in two months, hell, I haven’t done anything in two months. Of course I am tired. But is the usual tired after work, nothing else”

“And your leg?”

“It’s fine, Luke, I’d tell you otherwise”

“You sure?”

Noah smiled and kissed him again

“I am, can we go home now?”

“Yes”

“Where’s Aaron?”

“At the farm, he’s going to spent the night there”

“What’s going on?”

“Mh?”

“Don’t mh me, Luke. Aaron spends the night at the farm only when something happens. What is it?”

“He has stayed there a few times so we could have a quiet night just for ourselves”

“This night is going to be really quiet, believe me, I’ll probably be asleep before you know it. Why is he at the farm?”

“We have to talk about something…”

“What is it?”

“Can’t you wait until we are at home?”

“Whatever it is, I don’t like it”

Luke smiled

“How can you not like it if you don’t know what it is yet?”

“I know you, I just don’t like it”

Luke smiled. No, he will not like it at all, but he’d made up his mind and nothing would make him think twice about it. When they got home Luke took some bags from the back of the car.

“What’s that?”

“I picked up supper at the Lakeview”

“Mmh… I love you”

Luke smiled

“You are easy, Noah Snyder”

They set everything up in the living room and started eating

“Shoot”

“Finish first”

“What, is it so bad that I’ll lose my appetite?”

“Just in case”

They finished eating talking about Noah’s first day. They picked up everything and took it to the kitchen

“Come on, Luke. Now”

“Dessert?”

“No, tell me”

Luke sighed. This wasn’t going to be pretty

“I was at Lucinda’s office today”

“And?”

“I told her about the nightmares and the waiting… I told her what all this is doing to us… to me”

“I am sorry about the nightmares, and the waiting, but there’s nothing we can do about it”

“I spent 3 hours looking at the studio today, Noah”

“What…?”

“I couldn’t make myself go anywhere…”

“But…”

“Lucinda called me and told me that I had to go through some papers and I told her about it… she was very worried and told me about a shrink and… I don’t want a shrink, I want to do something to make the colonel stop”

“And you think I don’t? But there’s nothing we can do”

“Yes, there is”

“What?”

“We’ve come up with something…”

“Lucinda and you?”

“Yes”

“Luke”

“Have you ever realized how fine is the line between law and”

“Luke Snyder, don’t. Just don’t”

“But you don’t know what it is yet”

“And I don’t want to know, if it’s against the law”

“It’s not… not really…”