15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Leigh

L eigh had no idea what time it was when he started to rouse, but it wasn't near dawn like he had been waking lately—or rather, been forced to wake from a knock. He'd slept, not only because he hadn't been disturbed, but because his sleep had finally been peaceful. Tolly had sung him to sleep after….

A smile and swirl of warmth brought Leigh to full alertness. Tolly wasn't buried under the covers for once, but slept with his arms clinging to Leigh's waist, creating a heat all down his side, their legs interlocked. There was not a single regret in Leigh that he had given in and stolen this remarkable creature's virginity. It hadn't really been stolen, after all, but freely given.

Though there was something nagging at the back of Leigh's mind, something sour that had almost pushed through their connection before Tolly began to sing, like maybe Tolly had been lying about something, but Leigh had no idea what it might be.

He chalked it up to paranoia and chose to enjoy the continued afterglow of waking up with someone in his arms.

Eventually, he decided to let Tolly sleep and carefully extracted himself from the bed without waking him. He watched with a fond smile as Tolly stirred only enough to roll farther onto Leigh's side of the bed and bury his nose in the pillow.

After taking a quick shower, Leigh returned to find Tolly still asleep and decided to wake him with breakfast. He still didn't have what was needed for muffins, but he could manage French toast. He brought his phone with him into the kitchen to check for messages. Nothing of importance yet, but he knew that the powwow with Moretti could come any day, and the further along in the week it got, the more anxious he would feel until it happened.

For now, he tried not to think about it, until just as he was dishing up the French toast, his phone rang, and instead of Alvin, he saw Tabitha's name on the caller ID.

"Beckett. Good news for me, I hope?" he answered, excitement replacing his anxiety, which was not what he usually felt when speaking to his parole officer.

"Hello, William. I wish it was good news."

Leigh's stomach dropped as she continued, telling him plainly but sympathetically that an ex-con getting a business loan was not so easy an ask, something he knew and should have expected, but still he'd hoped.

He could get one, eventually, but not so soon after he'd been locked away. It would take a long time before anything would be possible, maybe years, to build back credibility, prove he was a worthwhile investment, and a handful of other phrases that meant society didn't trust him to become something other than what he'd always been.

He'd never get out from under Sweeney without a better plan, but as good as he usually was at forming new ones on the fly, he couldn't think of any way to escape his fate. How was he supposed to tell Tolly that he might have traded one prison for another by choosing to be with Leigh?

"Thanks for the heads-up, Beckett. I'm sure I'll figure something out."

"Call me if you need advice, anything more I can do—"

"I will," Leigh said and hung up promptly, because there wasn't more to say. He would figure something out, he had to, but it likely wouldn't be legal.

"That smells divine." Tolly startled him from his thoughts. He'd grabbed fresh underwear but had chosen to put on that too small T-shirt again, hanging in the doorway looking coy and delicious, even more so than the French toast.

Leigh had to smile despite fearing that someday he'd let Tolly down.

Somehow, with seemingly so little to do, the rest of the week passed quickly, waiting on news from Alvin of Jake and Rosa's movements. Some days Leigh went out. Some days Tolly joined him. Every day there were people stopping by for Leigh's skill set, but never anyone unsavory trying to take him out.

Most nights they ended up at the pool—and eventually in bed to revisit their first experience. Leigh wasn't used to having a regular partner, but by getting to know each other's bodies, each successive time together felt better than the last.

They hadn't tried with Tolly topping yet or anything with his merfolk self, but after the first few days, Leigh couldn't stop thinking about both and almost asked several times before he chickened out.

He really was some nervous preteen when it came to Tolly, blushing and fumbling for words. He'd never been good at flirting, expressing feelings, seducing someone, but Tolly made him comfortable in so many other ways, made him happy—and that just made his inability to ask for what he wanted worse for fear of saying the wrong thing and screwing this up.

It wasn't easy to be someone else's fairy tale.

Maybe he could find some other way to get the money he needed to buy that shop and make an honest man of himself. It was hard to change one's stripes, but not impossible. After all, Tolly usually had a tail and now he had legs. Surely Leigh could manage something simpler.

He might have believed more in that too if his hope in the universe hadn't been dashed one afternoon late in the week when he and Tolly slipped out to grab lunch somewhere that wasn't his living room, and he saw a familiar figure pickpocketing someone.

"Is that Ralph?" Tolly asked.

Leigh quickened his pace, the victim already heading away, unaware that his wallet was gone.

Unfortunately, Leigh wasn't the only one who'd seen. Perez and Horowitz really did get around lately, and they crossed the street to intercept Ralph before Leigh and Tolly could reach him.

"Well, I'll be, they sure are startin' 'em young, eh, Horowitz?"

"Mr. Abbott, shouldn't you be in school?" Horowitz said. "And returning that man's wallet?"

Leigh rushed forward as Ralph turned with wide eyes that proved he had no idea how to talk his way out of this. "I'm sure he was planning on informing the guy he dropped it, detectives ."

All three spun at Leigh and Tolly's approach, Ralph looking cookie-jar caught before he mouthed an earnest "thank you" at Leigh.

"Hurley," Perez scoffed. "Showin' him the ropes to make sure his form's up to snuff?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. All I see is a kid trying to be a Good Samaritan."

Perez eyed Leigh with barely a glance spared for Tolly. "What are you pullin' a Captain America for?"

Again with the Marvel reference, but any time Leigh went out, he wore the glasses and ball cap to play it safe. "Trying something new. What, not a fan?"

"I'll, uhhh… catch up to that gentleman and let him know he dropped this," Horowitz said, taking the wallet from Ralph and dashing away.

Ralph inched closer to Leigh and Tolly's side of the standoff, causing Perez to shoot him a glare before he snarled back at Leigh.

"I was too easy on ya for too long. Maybe if Abbott lands his ass in juvie sooner, he'll learn better."

"No, you can't." Ralph shrunk behind Leigh. "The Moretti guys made me—"

" Ralph ," Leigh snapped before he could incriminate himself further. Moretti guys? Shit. "Don't say anything else."

Horowitz came back over at a jog, having hurried to make sure his partner didn't lose his temper.

"Look," Leigh tried before this escalated, surprised at the plan forming in his mind that before today hadn't dared rear its head, but if all this was what it looked like with Ralph, it might be the only way. "Maybe you let this one slide for the kid, huh, because he's gonna promise me "—he looked at Ralph pointedly—"that this is the last time he ever pulls something like this."

"I swear!"

"And why would we let him off?" Perez growled.

Leigh was either a genius or out of his mind. "Coz maybe I know why you've been hanging around, and I might have a lead on bringing Vincent Moretti and a few rats on Sweeney's side down."

"Leigh?" Tolly questioned his seeming betrayal, but Leigh added:

" Only if you stop there and leave Sweeney and the rest of his people out of it."

"You mean leave Sweeney's kid out of it." Perez sneered.

"Whoever isn't at the location once I learn it, yeah."

"You don't even have a place? Or a time?"

"I'll have it," Leigh said, leaning into Perez's space.

"And you'll inform us?" Horowitz asked.

"As soon as I'm sure it's not a false alarm, I'll send a message and record everything I hear until you get there. I'll even testify if it comes to that," Leigh said, aware of how dangerous having this conversation in the open might be, but fairly certain there wasn't anyone around with traitorous ears—other than Ralph . "But you let the kid go and leave Sweeney and his people alone. That's the deal."

Horowitz looked all for it, the eager puppy type like an eternal rookie who never lost faith in people, even if he was pushing forty, but Perez was a realist.

"You must want something big from Sweeney to make this kinda play."

"Yeah," Leigh said—the biggest thing he'd ever wanted. " Out ."

"Ch. Heard that before."

"I mean it, Nick." Leigh used the man's first name like he hadn't in years. "I don't want to do this anymore. And I don't want anyone else taking my place." He shot another pointed look at Ralph.

Eventually, the gruffness seemed to soften from Perez's demeanor, if only a little. "This is the last time I trust you."

"I know. Blame him for being a good influence." He thrust a thumb at Tolly. The last thing he needed was for Perez and Horowitz to expect otherwise since Tolly wasn't a familiar face.

Tolly, of course, beamed at the compliment.

"Think I hear a call comin' in," Perez said to his partner. "Better get back to the car so we can check it out." He looked Tolly up and down like he didn't quite get it, but he nodded and turned on his heel.

"You got it, Nick!" Horowitz hurried to follow. "Thanks, Hurley. You got our numbers?"

"How else am I supposed to avoid 'em? I'll call, any day now."

As soon as the detectives were gone, Leigh seized Ralph by the shoulders and ushered him off the sidewalk into the nearest alley.

"Hurley, I owe you big-time—"

"You better believe you do." Leigh pushed him just shy of harsh as Tolly crowded in with them. "You're joining us for lunch, and you are going to tell me everything you've been keeping to yourself. Then you are heading right back to school. Understood?"

Ralph's head nearly popped off as he nodded like a bobblehead.

They made sure to head the long way to a diner well out of any territories, and Ralph spilled his secrets. He'd been running for the Morettis for months, but he'd also been running on the down-low the past couple of weeks for Sweeney .

"You are the last snitch," Leigh said, though he'd figured as much. He would have been more pissed if he wasn't impressed he hadn't caught on sooner.

"They said it was the only way they'd stop giving me grunt work and take me seriously." Ralph sat alone on his side of the booth, facing their scrutiny, shoving fries in his mouth every few sentences. "I figured a few tidbits of info wouldn't hurt anybody, and I'd be set."

"It never works that way, Ralph."

"I know. I didn't think mentioning your name would mean they'd send someone after you." He slowed his chewing and stared at his plate with a thick swallow. "Then someone said these thugs were in the building and you weren't answering your door when I went to check and I… I was so freaked I'd gotten you killed."

He almost had, but Leigh didn't want to make things worse by telling him that. "Jake and Rosa would have fed the Morettis the info I was alive within a day anyway. What matters is that you're in deep with both sides and your only way out is by letting me take care of this through those detectives. Hopefully after that, Sweeney will be so pleased to have the competition out of the way, he'll listen when I ask him to forget you ever did errands for him. But you stay low, and you stay safe, you hear me? You go to school, you come home, that's it."

"Totally." Ralph nodded rapidly again as he glanced up. "I was thinking about what you said, really, about other options, but they wouldn't let me stop."

"It's a lot harder to get out than in, kid. But I'll take care of it."

"You are the best, Hurley." Ralph smiled brightly. "I'll make this up to you. I promise."

"The only way I need you making this up to me is by getting out of here someday any way other than by heading to lockup."

"Of course!" Ralph laughed, the way only a teenager could in a deadly situation he didn't fully understand, then he turned to Tolly as he shoved more fries in his face. "You are a good influence, Tol, but he's always been like this."

Tolly had been annoyingly quiet through it all, watching Leigh with a knowing smile. "He has trouble believing that, and I think you have very much in common in that regard."

"Yeah? Well, save the doe-eyed glances for him . I'm spoken for."

"You are not," Leigh said.

"Ralph, perhaps you should pursue someone closer to your own age," Tolly tried, since they all knew he was talking about Deanna.

"Hurley said that once I'm eighteen, the age difference won't matter."

"That is not what I said, I said…." Leigh sighed. "Aren't there any girls at school you like?"

"Sure, but they all laugh at me."

"Laugh?" Tolly repeated.

"The crappy pickup lines might have something to do with it," Leigh said.

"I don't sound like that around them!" Ralph defended. "I just… kinda fumble and don't know what to say." While Deanna, being her wonderful, motherly self, had never made Ralph feel like he was a gangly, geeky goofball, so of course he'd fallen for her.

"Would you like to practice?" Tolly said. "You could pretend we are one of the girls you fancy, and if you say the wrong thing, we can lead you in a better direction."

"Really?" Ralph brightened before instantly deflating again. "I don't know, Hurley's tried that before."

"Ah, but I think your problem is trying too hard to woo when first you need to befriend." Tolly took on an air of authority, maybe because he'd succeeded in wooing Leigh. "A friend will not laugh at you. A friend will make you feel comfortable enough to be yourself and express how you feel. Do you have any girl friends ? Or boys, I suppose."

"Girls," Ralph affirmed, though without the reflexive disgust someone might have responded with when Leigh was that age. "And not really, I guess."

"Then we shall start there."

Tolly was a good influence, on everyone and everything in Leigh's life.

They let Ralph play hooky for another hour to help him forget his mess with the families and focus on romantic troubles instead. Then Leigh pushed him in the direction of the high school and threatened to call to make sure he showed up, but Ralph swore he'd be good. He would be, Leigh hoped. Better than he'd ever been.

"Are you sure about this?" Tolly turned to him on the way home.

He knew Tolly meant what he'd promised the detectives. "Don't tell Alvin. Not ‘til it's over. If it doesn't work out, I don't want him to get hurt. If it does, then we'll come clean."

"Okay. I trust you."

Leigh just hoped that trust wasn't misplaced.

Maybe Tolly had banished more monsters than his own reflection in Leigh's subconscious when he sang that night, because the tides had been changing ever since, and he saw only hope on the horizon.

Leigh was getting restless again, however, as the days passed, and no word came from Alvin of the meeting between the other snitches and Vincent Moretti. When they did see Alvin, it was for social reasons, which Tolly preferred. Alvin had not known Ralph was working for his father. Few people had, or Leigh would have caught wind of it sooner.

Thankfully, Alvin finding out Tolly's nature had only strengthened their bond, and the lessons in sign language continued. Alvin was very dedicated to learning and was making notable progress.

"You and Cary are growing closer then?" he asked during one of their lessons as they sat on Leigh's sofa.

"Actual conversations are definitely the right direction," Alvin said. "And they're friendly too. Like he asks questions sometimes instead of only grunting and nodding, wanting to know my opinion and interests. Just a little longer and I'll be ready to ask him out. It's gonna be amazing, too, coz I'm gonna use everything you've taught me. Hopefully, he'll be so stunned, he won't remember to tell me to get lost."

"Oh, I am sure he will not respond that way. He will say…." Tolly signed the rest, and Alvin giggled as he understood: You are my heart's desire too.

"Done," Leigh called from where he had been sitting at the table fixing a microwave. "Hey, Al, think you can drop this at Roy's place downstairs so Tolly and I can head out? We're gonna be late."

"Late? Where you guys going?"

"Leigh will not tell me," Tolly said. "He says it is a surprise."

"I bet I know then." Alvin grinned. "Galaxy?"

"Yep."

"Galaxy?" Tolly parroted.

"You'll see when we get there."

Tolly loved surprises. Or at least he believed he did, since he had never had one before. Leigh clearly wanted distraction as the week ended, claustrophobic from staying in so often, so he donned his hat and glasses as they headed onto the streets after dark on a path he seemed to know well.

"Most people would use a car, but Alvin and I always cheated a little since we never had one or much cash. If you don't mind a little criminal activity?"

Tolly was far too excited to say he did, unsure where Leigh was leading them until they reached a back alley and a fire escape that Leigh began to climb. Tolly followed. Only when they reached the top and Leigh walked to the edge of the roof did Tolly realize that beyond the building was a cleverly hidden outdoor movie screen.

A drive-in with a vintage sign proclaiming Galaxy Theater, and they had the best seats.

"When I heard they were playing Princess Bride , I figured we had to."

Tolly rushed to Leigh's side, bringing his hand down to lace their fingers together. "You said it was a happy story, yes? A romance?"

"One of the best." Leigh smiled in his half-crooked but adoring way, accepting Tolly's contact more readily every time. "You'll love it."

Little did Tolly know that Leigh had stashed sodas in his jacket, and a box of Milk Duds he had procured from the store. They sat on the ledge of the roof, feet dangling, with the perfect view of the screen and all the people in their cars below. The audio was loud enough echoing up to them that they had no trouble hearing, but there were subtitles as well to be sure everyone could clearly understand even if they were far away.

This was much better than watching from the water, especially with Leigh beside him. Tolly was riveted by the film, the humor, the cleverness of it all, and the romance—oh, what a romance, even with every obstacle in their way. The eels were not Tolly's favorite, but the rest was perfect, every moment of sharing it with Leigh and leaning into his body whenever something startling happened.

"All this love of film and there's still so much about humans you don't know," Leigh said with a fond smile.

"It is not the same as firsthand experience or being formally taught." Tolly blushed at the tease. "I suppose sometimes I do not pay as much attention to the details as I should, more the relationships and emotions. The way a film makes me feel. But I do so want to learn more."

"Happy to help with your continuing education, then." Leigh held him to his side.

It was fun watching everything close after the film ended as well, and the people started to drive away. A few noticed them up on the roof and waved, to which Tolly happily waved back, even if they had cheated and not had to pay for a ticket.

Their hands were clasped between them as they enjoyed the evening together, the stars above and Leigh warm against Tolly, with an air of wonder about them after watching a fairy tale with a perfect ending kiss.

"Are you sure you want this?" Leigh asked softly, not looking at him but keeping close. "Me, I mean?"

"Why do you continue to ask that? My answer is not going to change."

"So much could go wrong, I just… I want you to be sure." Leigh sighed as though he had never believed in happy endings for himself, but Tolly was determined to have one now that he had banished the plague of his true form from Leigh's nightmares.

It must have slipped in through their connection somehow, from Tolly's subconscious, but it was gone now, and Tolly meant it that he would never allow Leigh to see it again.

"Did you ever hear the line: a bird may love a fish but where would they live?" Leigh asked.

"I have, and it has an easy answer: the fish must grow wings and the bird fins so they can live wherever they wish."

"It's not always that easy, Tolly."

"For us it could be, if I am able to keep my legs."

"Able to?" Leigh repeated, pulling away to look at him.

What a fool he was for letting that slip when he could not tell Leigh more. "Forgive me, I… I cannot explain. The spell prevents me from giving you details about the pact." Even that much was difficult for Tolly to say, but if he tried to explain more, the words would vanish on his tongue, unable to flow past it.

"You could lose them?" Leigh asked with the dawning fear Tolly had been holding at bay.

"I hope not."

"I can't grow a fin, you know."

Tolly smiled because Leigh did not know how wrong he was. "Magic makes many things possible." While his left hand remained tangled with Leigh's, Tolly reached with his right to draw him into a kiss.

A honk from below startled them, one of the last cars leaving with smiling faces inside. Tolly and Leigh both laughed as they broke apart, that rare, lovely flush in Leigh's cheeks again.

"Hey, umm, I think I'm ready to try—"

Leigh's phone cut him off, sounding with Alvin's ringtone—the only reason Leigh had not put it on silent.

"Yeah?' Leigh answered, and Tolly was close enough that he could hear Alvin on the other end.

"I got a time and location."

"Where?"

"East docks, that old warehouse that's been out of commission."

"When?" Leigh asked with hardening resolve.

"Tomorrow night."