Which was… true, as far as Ray could remember.
Cal tugged and Ray released him. Cal offered up his hand again, smiling when Ray put down his coffee to wrap both hands around his wrist. “But it is rare,” Cal admitted. “I suppose it takes a certain kind of fairy. Or a certain kind of were. Or maybe it would be more common if more weres were in cities, since that is where the fairies tend to be these days.” His pulse was fast. Ray wanted to lick it and settled for bringing Cal’s wrist to his mouth to breathe in his scent. “In fact,” Cal’s voice rose, “some people have ideas about that. Should weres live among humans, or away from them? But that is much too serious of a talk on a morning like this one, with so much else to focus on. Is this… helping you calm down? It’s not helping me be calm, but don’t let that stop you.” He was breathless. “Does your head ache again? You have a crease in your forehead.”
Ray pulled in another deep breath, then straightened at a sound outside. He recognized the stride a moment later. “It’s Penn.”
“I’ll get the door,” Cal volunteered, and was off like a shot.
The front door opened and then Penelope said clearly, on a sigh, “Cal, you’re naked.”
The door closed, presumably behind her.
“I’m in my own home,” Cal replied merrily. “I think it should be expected at this point.”
Penn turned the corner to greet Ray with a tight smile, but kept most of her attention on Cal. “Look. You get naked, I have to deal with your junk on display and Ray here emitting every kind of arousal signal there is, and I have enough on my plate today.”
“I love sirens so much.” Cal grinned at her, then at Ray. “But yeah, that’s fair. Pants, I guess, since it might get colder by this evening.”
He headed off, hopefully in search of pants. Ray watched him go, then looked up in time to catch Penn’s eyeroll. But she got serious once Cal was gone. “How are you, really?”
She held out the paper coffee cup in her hand, indicating it was for Ray, but he gestured to the mug on the counter so she kept the paper cup and drank from it without hesitation. She’d probably already had some but the day before had been exhausting. She was nonetheless in professional clothes, intending to work.
“Fine,” Ray answered, and received a glare for it. He bowed his head in acknowledgement, then gave a slightly more detailed response. “What is he doing with me?”
He sounded as lost as he felt and he didn’t like it.
At least it made Penn’s expression soften. “He has bad taste,” she answered first, deadpan, before going on. “You almost died for him.” Whatever Ray’s face did made Penn pat his arm. “He knows what he’s about with you.”
Ray would demand that history later. “I don’t defend him. Do I defend you? Others?”
Penn stopped with her cup halfway to her lips, then went poker-faced as she took a drink and calmly put the cup down. “Do you believe that?”
“Last night….” What he and Penn had not discussed out loud in the elevator was still in the air.
Penn met his stare. “Have you checked your messages today?”
“No.” He should have, would have from almost the moment he woke up, on a normal day. Ray supposed he ought to make allowances for a head injury, but he scowled as he went to get his phone. He checked it as he returned to the kitchen.
One message from Penn, saying she was on her way over. Several missed calls and a few messages from his mother and then his sister. One text from another detective, hoping he was well. That was it.
He scrolled through them again, not sure why, before looking up. “Some work emails,” he said shortly, which was true, although one was an automatic bulletin about the department softball team and the other was something from Lex’s office.
Penn went to the freezer, pulled out a breakfast sandwich for herself, and popped it in the microwave. “Shopping in bulk is the wisest thing you two ever learned to do.” Ray knew that tone. She was trying to be bland and soothing. “A few people asked me how you were,” she revealed next, as if she suspected that Ray had no personal messages from anyone they worked with. “Some of the admin staff… mostly the admin staff. Our actual captain messaged me, asking if I would be working today. I told him I’d be in, but I had some stuff to do first.” Penn’s gaze was level. “He seemed disappointed to hear that.”
The microwave beeped. She hit a button again, confident that her sandwich was not cooked all the way. Apparently, part of the reason Ray and Cal shopped in bulk was to feed Penelope too.
“That you won’t be in?” Ray prompted at last, then got a bottle of hot sauce so Penn could douse her sandwich with it.
“That I will be.”
That’s what Ray thought she’d meant.
Ray nodded slowly, letting her eat even though his mind was full of holes and every one he poked his nose into was dark and endless. He clenched his hand, unclenched it, then made himself reach for the mug of coffee and take a drink. The spices weren’t bad, but the creamer was lightly sweetened. The growl stayed in his chest.
He put aside the fact that the people he had worked with for years were avoiding contact with him. “What if I went in just to grab some things?”
Penn gave him a knowing look.
Ray rubbed the space between his eyes with his thumb, then caught Penn’s eyebrows rising and quickly dropped his hand.
