Daniel reached for his phone when it chimed, as it had been doing every day at 7 like clockwork. The text from Ethan was likely the usual, an innocent-sounding text one might send to a date, that meant he was home from "work" and all was well.

Daniel sighed, running a hand over his face. Infiltrating a criminal organization wasn't going at all like he'd expected. So far, despite his history with them, Ethan had been relegated to working on projects for the club, with no sign at all of any illegal activity. They'd only met up in person once since the incident, as he'd mentally named their kiss, for Ethan to explain what he was doing and that he'd let Daniel know if anything changed.

The break-ins had continued, with another two since Ethan had started. Thankfully, there had been no more murders, but he'd still had to sit through three separate meetings to argue against his case being handed over to Homicide.

Daniel saved the document he was working on, a breakdown of similarities each of the break-in sites had, and opened his phone, raising his eyebrows in surprise at what he saw there.

Garrett looked over from his desk, chuckling at the look on Daniel's face. "Hot date?" Daniel scowled, unwilling to admit his heart had thudded a bit at the message before he had realized it was just Ethan being circumspect again.

"It's Ethan," he replied, as if that explained everything. Garrett was the only one who knew about the secret undercover work, and though he wasn't fond of the idea, he liked the thought of backstabbers in the department even less.

"So… hot date?" Garrett repeated. He threw up his hands at the look Daniel shot his way. "Hey man, I don't judge. The dude's your ex and suddenly you're working together? You're telling me nothing's happened there?"

"Nothing has happened there," Daniel replied seriously. "And nothing is going to happen there," he added as he stood.

"Of course not," Garrett agreed. "I'm just saying, if it did, it might not be the worst thing in the world. You need a hobby." Daniel opened his mouth to argue, then shook his head. It wouldn't do any good, anyway.

He stopped by the locker room, changing out of his button-down shirt and khaki slacks and into jeans and a t-shirt, which Ethan claimed made him look "less like a cop." He had to admit, the other man probably had a point. He ran his fingers through his hair before heading out the door, exiting through the office and ignoring the catcalls Garrett sent his way.

It only took him about fifteen minutes to get to Ethan's apartment, and a good portion of that was spent looking for a parking space; he hated street parking in this part of town. He jogged up the stairs and knocked at Ethan's door, blinking in surprise when it was jerked open almost before he was done knocking.

"I thought you'd never get here," Ethan said, eyes darting around the hall before opening the door farther to let Daniel in.

"Everything okay?" Daniel asked, his eyes roaming Ethan's body instinctively, looking for injuries.

"No. I mean, yes. But no." Ethan huffed out a breath. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt. I don't think anyone suspects anything." He paced the room. Daniel watched him move, waiting for an explanation for a few moments before grabbing Ethan by one arm.

"Calm down," he said, trying to keep his voice soothing. "What made you call me out here?"

"Maybe it's just 'cause you're prettier than the asshole bouncers I have to see every day," Ethan said, huffing out a laugh. Daniel raised an eyebrow, surprised by the unsolicited compliment, and warmed by it despite the circumstances.

"Um… thanks, I think? But really, Ethan. What's got you so worked up? Here, sit." He nudged Ethan toward the couch.

"They're ready to bring me in for real," Ethan finally said. "I guess two weeks without the feds barging in is enough for them to trust me," he said with a humorless laugh.

"That's… a good thing, isn't it?" Daniel replied slowly. "Isn't that what we wanted?"

"Yeah… yeah, I guess," Ethan sighed, running his hands over his face. "It's just… I got out. I thought I was done. I hated being involved with them, I hated everything about it, and now I'm going back in voluntarily, and…" He buried his face in his hands, and Daniel couldn't just watch him suffer; he reached out and put an arm around him. Ethan accepted the comfort, leaning into him.

"You're not going in alone this time," Daniel said, keeping his voice low, trying to be comforting. "You have backup." Ethan nodded.

"I know," he said, taking a deep breath. "I'm just being an idiot, panicking over nothing." Silence fell on the room for a bit, Ethan leaning into Daniel's side. Daniel wasn't sure what to think of this breakdown. Ethan had spent a good portion of the last ten years involved with criminals; why was he panicking about it now? Of course people he'd arrested in the past had shown remorse, but only after they were caught, when it was hard to believe the truth in their emotional pleas.

"If you hated it so much," Daniel asked slowly, "Why did you get involved with them?"

"The accident," Ethan said, as if that explained everything. Daniel frowned.

"Your parents' accident?" He remembered it clearly; it had happened while they were dating in college, and Ethan had been devastated. Daniel had tried to be supportive, but it had also marked the beginning of the end for them. Ethan had started pulling away not long after, and Daniel had always blamed the accident, in a way, for them breaking up.

"Yeah," Ethan replied. "They died and everything went to shit. Alex was 18 so there was no help from the state, he was just expected to support himself. He had so much potential, I couldn't let him work some minimum wage job to support himself when he needed to be going to school. And I couldn't make enough to support us both with any job I could get at the time, even after I dropped classes, so…" He shrugged. "It seemed like the only option at the time."

Daniel stared down at Ethan, who was still leaning against him but staring straight ahead. He'd always wondered what made Ethan choose the path he did, but by the time he'd realized what Ethan was doing, they'd broken up and Ethan refused to speak to him. Over the years, he'd somehow come to believe that maybe he'd always been bad, deep down, that maybe the good he'd seen in him when they were together had been hopeful thinking on his part.

Now, looking down at the man who was trembling at the thought of committing crime, the thought seemed absurd.

"I'm sorry," Daniel said. "I wish I had known." Ethan shook his head without looking up.

"I didn't want you to, at the time. It's… it's part of why I broke up with you," he admitted. Daniel had suspected as soon as Ethan had explained, but the confirmation hit him like a punch to the gut.

"Why?" He forced the word out past the lump in his throat. Part of him thought this was ridiculous, this was distant history, ten years past, but another part of him needed to know. "Why wouldn't you let me help you?" Ethan stifled a laugh.

"The same reason you treated me like trash when you saw me in that interrogation room, Danny. You see everything in black and white. There's no shades of gray where you're concerned. There's good people and bad people, and nothing in between." He shrugged. "I didn't think you'd understand. I didn't want you to lose all respect for me. It was easier to pull away." After a pause, he added, "I also didn't want to put you in danger. I told you what they tried with Alex, they would have tried to use you as leverage as well." Daniel shook his head.

"Ethan, I… God. I wish I had known. I don't know what I could have done, but-"

"You couldn't have done anything without going against your morals," Ethan said firmly. "I'd do it all the same again if I had the chance." He took a deep breath and pulled away from Daniel a little bit. The distance he put between them made him feel cold, but also helped clear his head. "Anyway. Like I said, they're pulling me into the illegal side of things now. I have a feeling it's another sort of test -- they want me to design some things to help with communication during the robberies. It'll be easy enough, but they want me to be nearby when they use them to monitor a field test of them next week." Daniel went still.

"You're going to know when one of the break-ins is going to happen?" Ethan shrugged.

"I honestly don't know. If I were them, I'd arrange a 'fake' break-in to see if the cops show up. Best way to weed out snitches. Either way, if I pass, they'll start me in on the real thing, and if we're going to find the cops that are dirty, you won't be able to stop them without them knowing I'm a…. Double-agent, I guess." Daniel nodded slowly.

"I see. They're not going to put you in any dangerous situations, are they?"

"I doubt it. The closest I'll get is monitoring their progress from a distance, maybe from a nearby van. On the bright side, if I'm able to get involved on that side of things, I may be able to prevent more murders." Daniel raise his eyebrows, impressed. "How so?"

"They mentioned that most of these houses have security cameras." Daniel nodded.

"Yeah, this is a really fancy neighborhood."

"Well, most of those things are absurdly easy to hack," Ethan explained. "I might be able to suggest I start scoping out each house before they go in, to help prevent them from walking in on someone. I get the impression they already have some way of knowing when people should be home, but obviously it's not a perfect system or they never would have killed that woman." He paused. "Michael seemed oddly upset about that. It's weird -- the guy usually wouldn't bat an eye at murder. But he didn't like that the woman ended up dead. Like it wasn't part of his plan." He paused, shook his head. "Doesn't matter, I guess. I just wanted to let you know that… things will be changing, but we still don't have anything to act on." Daniel nodded.

"We won't make a move until you've found something actionable for us," he promised. "But I do worry about keeping in touch. With them possibly spying on your phone, it's going to be hard for you to convey anything to me about where you'll be when they send you out." Ethan's lips twisted as he thought.

"You're right. And if my 'boyfriend'," he said, making air-quotes around the words and not meeting Daniel's eyes, "keeps getting invited over the night of something big happening on their end, they're going to start getting suspicious." He was drumming his fingers on Daniel's thigh as he thought, a distracting reminder of how they used to work on homework together, Ethan tapping out distracted rhythms as he was doing now.

"What if we take that to the next level?" Daniel mused aloud. Ethan looked up at him, shifting against Daniel's side. The words had an electric possibility to them, one Ethan was afraid to read too deeply into.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… what if your 'boyfriend' moves in?" Daniel said slowly. There was a long silence as Ethan blinked at him in disbelief. He was flooded with mental images of Daniel in a domestic setting, helping with dinner, doing laundry, shaving in the tiny bathroom. They rang all too familiar of the thoughts Ethan had once had when they were much younger and he had dreams of them building a life together. Here, now, when he'd been nervous and Daniel had come running to his aid, it was almost enough to hope again.

"Are you asking to move in with me?" Daniel flushed, but pushed on ahead.

"Well, you can hardly move in with me, the property is registered under my name, and it's easy enough to figure out where I work. But if I take some time off work so there's no way they can follow me straight from here to there, and I stay here so you can report in what's happening at home…" Ethan started nodding slowly.

"Okay, but if you move in here, the gang's going to look more into you. I doubt they have the know-how to dive too deep -- I can order a fake ID for you and you can 'drop' it out front, and we can have a couple social media accounts set up when they search that name." Daniel cringed at the thought of owning an illegal ID, even briefly, but he had to agree it was for the best.

"Okay," he agreed uneasily. "I'll get some pictures together that might work for the social pages."

"It's a plan," Ethan said, taking a deep breath. Daniel was momentarily captivated by how his chest moved under the thin fabric of his shirt."This is an awfully small space, though." Ethan's hand was now running up and down his thigh, his skilled fingers drifting inward and down to the inner thigh, where the light sensation transferred through the fabric of Daniel's jeans.

"It is," he agreed, turning just a bit on the couch to face Ethan. This was a bad idea, it was unprofessional, it could backfire spectacularly… but it felt like every cell in his body was pulling him closer to Ethan.