Scott hadn’t ever thought of himself as a “needy” guy. He’d never categorize himself that way. It would be weird. That said, going back to sleeping in his own room when he’d been sleeping so well and so happily next to Danny wasn’t working out well for him. He was waking up every couple of hours, hoping to see that someone had even noticed he’d gone and hidden himself away again, but no one had.

He hadn’t slunk back to his room with his tail between his legs to get Danny’s attention or sympathy, of course. That would have been absurd. He hadn’t even planned on it at all, when they’d come back from Honolulu. His intentions had been entirely to stay right by Danny’s side. But when he told Danny what Jeanine had said, and Danny told him no, his entire world had crashed.

Love, as it turned out, wasn’t enough.

Scott had known there would be a line. Everyone had a hard limit, a finite amount of drama or bullshit they could stand. Apparently, asking to try again with sex, when they worked up to it, was Danny’s. And Scott could hardly blame him. Scott might not have ever had a normal or healthy sexual relationship, but he knew what they were and were not supposed to look like.

Sex was supposed to be beautiful, spontaneous. Sex was supposed to be a freely given expression of a couple’s love. Sex should not be something that had to be negotiated. Sex should not be something that had to depend on whether or not one partner had to interact with the police, and so wasn’t feeling up for being touched by another human being. Sex should be something people could just do.

Scott couldn’t be that. Danny needed someone who could.

It bothered him a little bit that he’d been able to just slink off, and go back to a non-contact and frankly kind of standoffish relationship, without a word from Danny. Then again, Scott hadn’t said much after that initial discussion. He’d taken Danny’s no at face value. Maybe Danny was being kind. Maybe he didn’t want to make things worse than they had to be. Maybe Danny was trying to escape from all of this with his dignity intact too.

Scott plastered a smile onto his face and kept putting one foot in front of the other. It was what it was, and he only had a few more months of this to deal with. He would always love Danny, of course. He’d spent the happiest days of his life with him, but he could take a hint. For Christ’s sake, when your husband refuses to even try to have sex with you, and he pretends not to notice that you’ve gone back to separate bedrooms, your marriage probably isn’t retrievable.

He tried to keep things as normal as he could as January stretched into February. He kept making dinner for Danny, although he wasn’t usually around to give them to Danny anymore. Danny stayed at work later and later as the weeks wore on, and Scott had to leave for work before his husband came home. He left a note on the microwave now, with reheating instructions.

Weekends were the worst. He usually worked at the dojo, but Danny was often out by the time Scott came home. Sometimes Scott tried to wait up, but he couldn’t outlast Danny’s apparent appetite for carousing. And Yates made sure Scott knew Danny was at the Hellion Club. Scott knew he shouldn’t get jealous, because he’d be the first to say Danny was a man of his word.

It was hard not to get jealous, when he sat alone in an empty apartment.

Valentine’s Day fell on Tuesday. Scott’s boss had already given him the day off. He stayed in, making a surprise dinner for Danny with all of his favorite dishes.

Danny didn’t come home. At least, he didn’t come home before midnight.

Scott left the meal exactly where it was, congealed on the table in the dining room. He went to bed. When he got up in the morning, it had been cleared away without a comment. For all Scott knew, someone from the show had cleaned it up. He couldn’t tell if that made him feel more or less pathetic.

He went down into the building’s expensive gym. New York had been hit by another messy, slushy snowstorm, and while he certainly didn’t mind getting hit by a taxi, he didn’t want to wind up an invalid. He got onto the treadmill, put on his headphones, and ran. He ran and ran, until everything around him and inside him disappeared. There was nothing but his own breathing, and the music, and he was at peace.

He didn’t stop until he’d been through his playlist twice, and someone was desperately waving her hand in front of him. “Are you okay, buddy?” she asked, eyes wide and concerned. “You’re looking pretty red, and you’re leaking from the eyes.”

Scott brought his hand up, but it was just wetness. Tears. He’d been crying, and he hadn’t even noticed. Christ, he was a mess. He brought the treadmill to a stop. “I’m fine,” he assured her, despite the fact that he still had to struggle for breath. “Thank you, though. I’ll, ah, go get cleaned up.”

“You going to make it back to your place?” His would-be rescuer eyed him suspiciously as he wobbled. His legs felt like jelly.

“I should. Thanks. I just overdid it a tad, that’s all.”

He headed upstairs and hosed himself down, barely making it to his therapy appointment on time. If it weren’t for the stupid limo the show made him take, he wouldn’t have gotten there on time at all. He hung his head. He was cramping something fierce, and his limbs screamed with the effort of keeping him upright.

But he was upright. And now that he’d humiliated himself in front of everyone in the gym, he had to say he was done crying over Danny. He loved him, but it was over, and that was all there was to it.

Jeanine saw the state he was in. She couldn’t not see it, of course. He explained himself. He explained how Danny had reacted to his overture, and how things had deteriorated since then. And he explained about the dinner, the one he’d worked so hard on, and how he’d found the whole thing in the trash.

“I’m just done,” he said. “I’m done. I can’t keep doing this anymore. I don’t blame him, I don’t, but I can’t.”

Jeanine tapped her pen against her notepad. “Okay. I can see your point. I do want to know, though. Have you talked to him about, ah, any of this?”

“No.” Scott tried to sit up a little straighter. When he couldn’t do it, she passed him some water. “We haven’t been in the same place long enough. He spends his weekends at the Hellion Club and his weeknights at work. I literally don’t see him anymore. I would’ve happily talked to him before now, but for one thing I kind of feel like you have to take the hints you get. I didn’t give him any hints, I told him outright that I want to try again, I’m worried about my own responses but I love him and I want to try. He said no. And then he basically disappeared. So.”

“And what’s Yates been saying to you?” Jeanine’s voice was neutral.

Scott bit down on the inside of his cheek. “He’s made very sure I knew where Danny was over the weekends. And he’s made a point of telling me how good the omega accountant at the office is. How smart, how educated, blah blah blah. And it’s like, he probably is all of those things. Hell, Danny might even be attracted to him. Danny signed a contract to be faithful until the end of filming, and he will be. I’m confident in that.”

“But Yates is doing his best to make you feel less attractive.” Jeanine’s mouth twisted, just for a second. She recovered her calm neutrality quickly. “What do you think he’s telling Danny, hm?”

“No idea. My only real friend works two jobs, so I don’t get to go out and see him the way Danny gets to go out and distract himself. I can’t exactly go and drown myself in work the way he does. The show even had me quit my day job, so I could spend more time with Danny.” He gave a bitter little snicker. “I should go and ask to come back early from my leave of absence.”

“So you’re giving up.”

“I am.” Scott felt like a weight had fallen from his shoulders when the words passed his lips. “Wow. I feel like I just got out of prison.”

“Do you characterize your relationship with Danny as a prison?”

“No. Not really. He’s a good man. I characterize my expectations, I think, as a prison. When I let myself get attached, and when I let myself see a future for us, that was a prison. I was in this cage of always worrying. Before, I felt stronger. Now - well, I don’t feel strong yet.”

“How do you feel?” She leaned forward.

“Dehydrated. Overextended. Stupid. But I also feel like…” He trailed off. He’d never been all that great with words. “I feel like now that I’ve let go, I don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s happened. I tried, I think I did my best, and that’s all I can ask for myself.”

Jeanine wrinkled her nose, like something didn’t smell quite right. “And if someone came along tomorrow, and said, ‘Scott, I’m in love with you, let me give you everything you had with Danny only this time forever,’ what would you do?”

“I’d have the good sense to back away.” Scott met her eyes. “I know better now. I probably won’t ever be ready to be what someone else needs. I shouldn’t be working on getting better so I can be good enough for someone else anyway. I should be doing it for me, so I can feel more comfortable in my own skin. The rest of the world doesn’t matter.”

Jeanine blinked a few times, eyes lowered. “Well, I’m sorry to see you give up on your dream. I can’t exactly disagree with your reasoning but I could wish for better for you. I think love suited you. That said, it’s good for you to want to get better for your own sake. You’ll have a lot more success that way.” She smiled brightly at him as her alarm chimed. “I suppose I’ll see you next week?”

“Absolutely.” He gave her his most winning smile, and he strode out the door with his head held high.

At home, he found Yates waiting for him. The gleam in his eye was downright evil. It reminded Scott of some of his father’s “friends’.” Danny sat by his side, dark circles under his eyes and a slight curl to his lip. Scott didn’t take that personally. Danny always looked like that whenever he had to deal with Yates.

Ty Cunningham was there too, sitting off camera. He sat up straight, and seemed to be staring Yates down like a swordsman before a duel.

Yates rose when Scott walked in, like he was the host and Scott the intruder. Well, it wasn’t Scott’s home, was it? Scott was only the guest, for a year or until the end of filming. “Ah, Scott, my good friend Scott. Today we’re going to do something a little bit unusual. We’re still going to have Confessional time, but I have a huge announcement that involves both of you. I thought it best if we had you both together.”

“Apparently this involved pulling me out of three meetings, one of which was with the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. This had better be very good, Yates, or I’m sending them after you next.” Danny glowered at their nemesis.

The Defense and Justice Departments? That was some pretty big stuff. No wonder Danny had been burning the midnight oil. It still shouldn’t have been enough for him to avoid texting, or to keep him out all weekend too, but Scott wasn’t here to be bitter. He hadn’t expected this to be a forever match anyway.

Scott narrowed his eyes at Yates and took a seat in one of the armchairs. “Go ahead. Share your huge announcement.” He sounded bored, and he was bored. Nothing about this show, or this marriage, affected him anymore.

Yates met Scott’s eyes, like Scott had challenged him personally. “Very well. When you both filled out your applications to be on this program, were you truthful?”

“Yes, of course.” Scott snapped at him. “We both have work to do, Yates. Come on, we’ve got places to be.”

“Ah yes. The dojo. The closest thing you have to a family, isn’t it?” The smallest sneer crossed Yates’ face. “The only person who would truly miss you if you disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow is your boss there, and that’s only because he can’t find a replacement.”

“You sound like my father.” Scott didn’t look away and his voice didn’t waver. “It’s not a complement.”

“Ouch.” Yates giggled. “All right. So neither of you, to the best of your knowledge, had children at that time.”

“Of course not.” Danny let his head fall back until he was looking at the ceiling. “And if you ever say no one would miss him if he disappeared again, I’ll make mincemeat from your intestines.”

“Spare me the alpha posturing, Danny Boy. You haven’t even noticed he’s been sleeping in his own room again.” Yates snorted, and Danny jumped. “Oh, that’s right. We were going to talk about that in Confessional. Oops, broke the seal. Anyhoo, do you remember, Danny, an omega by the name of Brian Kean? You would have met at a holiday party thrown by your father’s firm maybe ten years ago.”

Danny blushed, faintly. “I remember him, sure. Nice guy. Smart.”

Scott refused to be jealous. What did he care if some other omega was smart? Let Danny go off and hang around with this Brian guy. He didn’t want Scott, he should be with someone he did want.

“You shared a night together.”

Danny’s blush deepened. He glanced over at Scott. “Look, did he sign off you talking about him like that? Because it’s not okay to go throwing someone’s name around like that. It might even be illegal.”

Yates chuckled. “Oh, he signed off on it, Danny Boy. He signed off on talking about your one night together - seems to be something of a thing with you - and he signed off on us talking about his son.” His sneer turned into a wolfish grin. “His nine year old son.”

Scott got up and ran for the bathroom. He barely made it in time to be sick.

* * *

Danny noticed Scott getting up to go puke. Danny ran right past him on his way to one of the other bathrooms. As he emptied the contents of his stomach into the master bathroom toilet, he wondered exactly how this could possibly be true. Brian would have known who he was, and how to get in touch with him. Surely he’d have reached out and said something if he’d been pregnant?

Danny rinsed out his mouth and took stock of the vanity. It had been a while since he’d managed to do anything other than fall face first onto the bed here. He hadn’t been paying attention. He’d gotten so caught up in crap at work that he hadn’t realized Scott had moved back into his own room. When had that happened? It certainly had. His toothbrush was gone. So was his shampoo.

Sure, Danny had been burning the midnight oil. He’d been working his ass off at the office trying to contain the dual federal investigations. On top of that, he was trying to deal with the Internal Affairs investigation at New Rochelle PD.

Oh, right. The one he was supposed to have told Scott about. He just hadn’t seen Scott long enough to actually do it.

Well, crap.

Danny headed back out into the living room. Scott was already back there. His back was straight. His jaw was tight, and he moved stiffly into the Confessional room. He couldn’t be mad at Danny, could he? Not about something that had happened before they’d even met? For crying out loud, Scott had been all of twelve when this had happened!

Cunningham gave him a cool look. “Bathroom?”

Danny sighed. He was in trouble. Might as well get it over with. “Yeah, sure, come on.” He led Cunningham into the bathroom.

Once there, Cunningham leaned up against the wall. “Okay. So, that happened.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You were going to tell me the two of you were on the rocks when?”

“We’re not on the rocks!” Danny craned his head to try to look out the door. “Are we on the rocks?”

Cunningham sighed and shut the door. “Do you have any idea how many divorces I’ve handled? Trust me, you’re on the rocks. Was Captain Charming right about you guys not sleeping in the same room anymore?”

Danny crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, lots of couples have separate rooms. It works for them.”

“You didn’t notice?”

Danny rubbed at his own temples. “Look. There’s been a lot going on.”

“So much that you didn’t notice your husband more or less moved out?”

“Um. Yeah?” Danny licked his lips. “Listen, it’s complicated.”

“I’ll bet. For what it’s worth, he hasn’t told me anything either, okay? He won’t say a bad word about you. What happened, man? Last I knew the two of you were the incarnation of lovey-dovey. Now this.”

“Now this.” Danny made a face. “Like I said, it’s complicated. Let’s just say…” He trailed off. He couldn’t make himself admit it, not to another person. He couldn’t admit he’d chickened out of sex with his own husband.

Objectively speaking, he’d had plenty of better sex with other people. Brian Kean, for one. The only difference was that he’d been in love with Scott, and he was still in love with Scott. He was afraid to set him back, and he’d said that. Apparently Yates was right, and he’d taken Danny’s words as a rejection.

But it wasn’t on Danny to make himself do something it he wasn’t comfortable with it. Of all people, Scott should understand that. And while Danny had wanted Scott with every fiber of his being, he couldn’t make himself touch Scott and risk hurting him. He wanted to. He wanted to bury himself deep inside of him like he had that one night, feel him lose himself in joy and pleasure.

He just couldn’t bear the thought of it being something Scott had to work himself up to.

So maybe he didn’t need to spend every waking minute, and a few non-waking minutes, at the office or at the Hellion Club. The Club was a place where alphas went to get away, wasn’t it? He never touched, he didn’t even want to, but he needed to get away from the pressure. He needed to get away from the desire, and from the conversations he didn’t want to have.

“We’ll work it out. We have time. Right now probably isn’t the best time, though, because of this whole… thing.” He swallowed. “This kid… thing… is it real?”

Cunningham took a deep breath. “The child is real. His name is Abraham. He lives in Brooklyn. He’s got a pretty decent life, all things considered. The show did pay for DNA testing before they decided to go with this angle. They got the DNA from the blood sample you gave for your pre-wedding test. Abraham Kean is your son, biologically speaking anyway.”

Cunningham put his hands into his pockets and stared up at the ceiling. “I’ve met the boy. Met Brian, too. As near as I can tell, it never occurred to him to reach out to you. It was a one night stand and he was independently wealthy. He doesn’t bear you any ill will, and he says that if you want to be involved in Abraham’s life, they’re both open to it. They’d prefer his life not become a sideshow, but they get that for the next few months you’re stuck.”

The room seemed to spin for a minute. “I have a son.”

“You do.” Cunningham chuckled, and then he held out his hand. “Congratulations, man.”

“I have a son!” Danny jumped. “I mean okay, I’d planned to be married to the person I had kids with, but you know. I have a child.”

“This is pretty important to you.” Cunningham watched him carefully. “I mean I can’t exactly object, but it’s interesting.”

Danny laughed. In spite of everything else, the news was good. He had a child. At the end of the day, he had someone he could leave things to. Someone who might care about his legacy. Maybe he could teach the kid how to code or something. “It’s just… it’s one of those things a responsible alpha does. He has a kid. And it turns out I’ve done that. That’s something Scott can take off his plate.”

Cunningham’s face froze over.

Danny waved a hand. “Not like that. I know - because he’s said so - that he’s been pretty anxious about giving me what I want from our marriage. And one of those things is a kid, right? Well, the pressure’s off now. There is a kid. He doesn’t have to worry about that. He can just focus on himself, and getting better.”

Cunningham grimaced and put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “So yesterday was kind of a big day.”

“What day was it? Was it his birthday?”

Cunningham pinched the bridge of his nose. “February 14. Not his birthday.”

“Okay.” Danny shrugged. “What’s so special about it?”

“Valentine’s Day, Danny. I’m guessing you didn’t do anything?”

“I worked late. Got home around three. He’d left some kind of huge mess on the dining room table. Candles were burned down to the ends. I don’t know. Congealed goo in the sauce boat, looked nasty. I cleaned it up for him. I figured he’d just been tired and needed to go to bed.”

Cunningham patted his shoulder. “The good news is you’re not going to have to worry about Scott and kids. The less good news is that on your next marriage, I’d recommend getting an administrative assistant who can keep track of important dates like that.” He shook his head and headed back out into the living room.

“Okay?” Danny followed. “So… I shouldn’t have cleaned it up?”

“Talk to him about it. I’m your lawyer, not your couples counselor. And you guys have a prenup, so I can’t even make money off of that.” He held his hands up as he sat back down in his chair. “I’m literally just here because Yates called me. He figured you’d be concerned about both of your legal rights in this situation.”

Danny frowned, but he knew he wasn’t getting anywhere with Cunningham.

Scott was in Confessional for a while, longer than Danny would have expected. He didn’t slam anything when he came out, either. He just gave Danny a cool look. “Congratulations, Danny. I know you’ve always wanted to be a father. This son is the answer to all your prayers.”

Danny beamed at Scott. Scott was amazing. Things were tense between them, sure, but he could still be happy for Danny. “Thanks, Scott. You’re the best.”

Scott scoffed, but he left it at that and headed into his room. The door closed softly behind him.

Danny marched into the Confessional. It really did feel like Confession, the one abortive time his mom had made him go. “All right.” He sat down in his assigned chair, which still smelled like Scott. “Let’s make this quick, I’ve got a son to meet. And apparently a husband to make up with.”

“You do have a husband to make up with.” Yates scoffed at him. “Not only do you ignore him, you ignore Valentine’s Day and you throw his Valentine’s Day offering into the trash? Yikes.”

Danny knew, he just knew, a laugh track would be pasted into this scene, right there. “Look. I’ll talk to him, I’ll smooth it over. We didn’t have any plans for Valentine’s Day, I’ve never celebrated Valentine’s Day in my life, so I just didn’t think of it. It’ll be fine.”

“You go right on thinking that.”

Danny scowled. “Why does everyone think Scott’s some needy little middle-school kid who needs to be wrapped in cotton wool? It’s one day. I’m sure he’s pissed if he went through a lot of trouble to make the meal but it’s not like we normally take our meals together, especially on weeknights.”

Yates’ eyes sparkled with malice. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. By this point I think all of America is aware of exactly how few meals the two of you take together. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone is aware just how little time the two of you have been spending together at all.”

Danny wasn’t having any of it. “You’re the one who wanted a CEO on the show. It’s not all sitting around the golf course sipping champagne and eating caviar. You yanked me away from my business for three weeks. Do you honestly think I’m not going to have to put the work in when I get back? Are you on drugs?”

“This isn’t about me, Danny Boy. This is about you and your vices. Or did you think we’d miss the amount of time you’ve been spending at the Hellion Club?” Yates steepled his fingers together in front of himself. “Maybe, though, maybe Scott was right. Danny, maybe this son is the answer to your prayers.”

“Other than the fact that I’ve always wanted to be a father, and Abraham is a very wanted child, how do you mean?”

“I mean you’ve made it pretty clear for the past month at least that you don’t want to be here. Scott invited you to resume sexual relations and you flat-out refused. You avoid this place like it’s contaminated and you spend so little time here that you had no idea Scott had moved back into his own room. He moved back into that room a month ago, Danny.”

“No he didn’t.” Danny scoffed at him. “I’d have noticed.”

“I have hours of tape. A month of it, if you can find the time to watch it.” Yates gestured to the screen with a flourish.

Danny held up a hand. “Fine. Fine. He’s in his own space again.”

“So that doesn’t trouble you? What about the fact that he worked himself to the point of collapse at the gym today, to the point where another little athlete down there intervened? She told us he was in tears.”

“Over a dinner?”

“Come now, Danny. I’m on my fifth marriage and even I know the dinner was a minor detail. You’ve been ignoring your husband to the point where you might as well not have one. And filming for Make It Work should end in only a couple of months. If you already have a child, you won’t need to keep Scott around.”

“Of course I’m keeping Scott around, you freak!” Danny ground his teeth. “Look, I’ll admit we’ve hit a rough patch. But he is still my husband. I’m not giving him up without a fight.”

“I think you already did.” Yates’ chuckle was something straight out of a horror movie. “But then again, he didn’t really want to be here in the first place, did he?”

“He got over that. He’s happy here now. He loves me.”

“Oh, I’m sure. He assured me of that several times. Even as, of course, he pointed out that he had very little to offer you and he in no way blamed you for getting bored with him.” Yates all but purred. “That’s the real problem, isn’t it? You’re bored. You need someone who can stimulate that intellect of yours, and Scott just can’t be that for you.”

“That’s a load of crap. Scott’s the most amazing man in the world, and the only thing you ever got right in the history of time was putting him with me. Okay? He is a thousand times stronger than you could ever hope to be, and he’s a better man than you or I. So you can just go to hell, sooner rather than later.” He threw his mic onto the chair and stormed out of the room.

He didn’t go back to his own room. He headed down to Scott’s, but Scott wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He’d taken off already.

Cunningham had followed him down there. “He headed in to the dojo a little early,” he said. “He told me he needed to blow off some steam.”

Danny frowned and turned on his heel. “Did he mention to you that someone had to intervene at the gym today? According to Yates, he made himself sick on the treadmill.”

Cunningham frowned. “He did not. I’m a little concerned about that, actually. Should we go and check in on him?”

Danny bit his lip. On the one hand, he wanted to hop in the limo and go tearing off to find Scott. Scott was tough, and Scott was strong, but he was also dealing with an awful lot right now and that kind of stress could do funny things to people.

On the other hand, Danny had responsibilities. He’d already been dragged away from one important meeting to deal with this crap show he’d signed himself up for. Scott was important. So was Danny’s company, and the DoJ and DoD needed to know the CEO took their concerns seriously. “Look. I’m dealing with some pretty intense stuff at the office right now. Would you be willing to run down there and peek in on him? We’re talking federal investigation here. I want to go, but I also don’t want to blow these people off.”

Cunningham sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I get it. I’m sure he will too.” He waved and left the apartment.

Danny hadn’t had a choice, had he?