Jason Fisher had to admit, life was rather amazing these days, and he found himself thinking about it more and more with every passing day. Lee was, in his eyes, perfect, and he knew she was as in love with him as he was with her. Even though they didn't sleep in the same room, due to her mutation, he knew this was his dream come true. Though he still wasn't too keen on her working a job where she had to flirt and lead people on for more money, he could know rest easy, knowing that he was the only one she was coming home with, and the only one that she even thought about in that light anymore.

And it'd been awhile since he'd heard from Gladys. Maybe she'd given up on trying to make his life hell, after all. It was evening, and the sun had long set, the city outside the apartment window still just as bustling as ever. The canine shifter was wearing nothing more than a tank top and a pair of green boxer-briefs, his feet propped up on the coffee table next to his phone. His glasses still on his face, his head was leaned back on the back of the couch as he breathed softly yet steadily. The TV was on, playing some sort of late-night trash, the remote having fallen from his hand onto the couch and then bounced onto the floor.

He'd fallen asleep, as he sometimes did while waiting on Lee to come home from work. He'd had an exceptionally busy day today, but judging by the bank statement on the desk from where he'd cashed a couple of checks, it was not only a well-earned nap, but it'd been a productive day.

A small smile spread across the private investigator's face as the sleeping mutant was having a rather engaging dream, and not the bad kind, either.

It had been a pretty typical night at work, though Lee had to admit ‘typical’ had changed quite a bit now that she was working at the Inferno Club rather than the crappy top 40 place she had been working. Sure, there were always men at the club that flirted with her, who hoped that she may actually be as interested in them as her demeanor led them to think. But the men at Inferno tended to behave much better. And for those that didn’t, the security staff made sure they learned their lesson. Overall, Lee much preferred the new bar, and that was before she even thought about the dramatic increase in tips she brought home each night.

And then there was Jason. If Lee was happy with her new job, that was nothing compared to how she felt about Jason. Lee knew that her boyfriend would have been much happier if they were to actually sleep in the same bed, at the same time, but that was one thing Lee wasn’t ready for, wasn’t sure she could do. But everything else with him...it was even better than a dream come true. And the time that they spent together...since discovering her powers, Lee hadn’t thought that anyone would ever want to spend that much time with her.

That day, however, had been a bit of a rarity. Lee hadn’t been able to spend that much time with Jason before she had needed to head to work because he had been busy with his own job. Busier than normal. But it really was a good thing; not only for the bank account, but Lee was glad, and a little proud, of how well word of mouth was getting around about Jason. Unfortunately, the flip side of that was that she hadn’t been able to spend much time at all with him that day, which had left Lee counting down the minutes until work was finished.

So when she finally was able to escape the bar, Lee hurried home. Walking, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night in New York. She preferred that, because it allowed Lee to work off at least some of the energy she had gathered at work before she ended up getting even more from Jason once she got home.

Finally, though not nearly soon enough for her liking, Lee was stepping into the apartment, locking the door behind her. As she slipped her boots off, Lee took a look around to see Jason sitting on the couch, TV on. But he didn’t turn to look at her. Shaking her head with a slight smile, Lee walked over to her sleeping boyfriend. Normally she would have just sat down beside him, but it’d been a long day and she’d missed him, so instead Lee sat down on his lap before leaning in to kiss him softly.

Jason stayed asleep as Lee walked in and the door locked behind her, and only stirred slightly when she sat on his lap. When she kissed him, his eyes opened, and his arms wrapped around her as he returned the kiss affectionately, his hand moving to tangle in her hair as a shudder ran up his spine.

When the kiss broke, he pulled back just to look at her, a smile forming on his lips. "Hey hun," he murmured, his arms moving to her back as he pulled her into a hug, which was rather easy to do, considering. "I missed you today, but the good news is I got everything done so I can take tomorrow off," he said with a smile as he leaned in to kiss her cheek.

He must be tired, Lee thought, when he didn’t wake up as she sat on his lap. But at least the kiss didn’t take long to wake Jason up, and Lee couldn’t help but smile against his lips as she felt his arms wrapping around her. Her own arms circling his neck, Lee was about to deepen the kiss when she felt Jason pulling back. So reluctantly, Lee loosened her arms around him, opening her eyes to smile back at him.

”I missed you too…” Lee murmured. Then she smiled as she heard what else Jason had to say. He could take the day off? Lee smiled as she felt Jason’s lips against her cheek. Then she leaned closer, snuggling against him as they sat there. ”That sounds amazing. Do you have anything in mind for us to do?”

"Anything for us to do....?" he asked, looking at her with a fake look of confusion as he pondered over ideas. Not that he needed to, he already knew what they'd both had in mind, he just liked messing with her sometimes. Or...all the time, as it were. "No, I haven't the slightest," he said innocently as his hands slowly slid up her back to her shoulders.

Then, he leaned in and kissed her again, his hands continuing to roam her clothed figure as he kissed her more passionately before pulling back and trailing kisses up and down her neck. "Or maybe....I do have a few..." he whispered in her ear.

When Lee heard Jason start speaking again, she leaned back just enough to be able to look at him. And see his fake look of confusion. Lee raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer even as she pressed her lips together. Then he claimed to not have any ideas, and Lee nodded even as she felt his hands running up her back. He was playing this game tonight? Well, two could play that.

”Hmm, Maybe we should take a walk around,” Lee suggested, knowing full well as she said the words that it wouldn’t happen. ”There’s always something going on in this city.” By this point, Jason had started to kiss her neck, and Lee couldn’t stop the shiver from running through her body as she felt his lips moving up and down her skin. Nor could she stop her head from tilting to the side a bit, giving Jason better access to her neck.

Then he whispered in her ear, causing another shiver to roll through her body. ”Oh you do?” Lee asked with a grin, leaning in to lightly kiss Jason’s ear. ”Does it include bowling? That’d be fun…”

Jason smirked as she spoke, this game had actually grown quite amusing to the private detective. He smirked, continuing to kiss her neck as she kept speaking, practically ignoring her suggestions as he turned and lightly pushed her back onto the couch.

And then his phone vibrated, and he sighed because it was likely that it was from work. So he stood to his feet and peeked at it, and his face went white, as it tended to in this situation. His eyes narrowed as he looked down at the phone, who it was from,the message inside. It made his blood run cold, and then boil to a breaking point. This was...too far.

"She's crossed the line this time," Jason said angrily as he passed the phone to Lee. "She wants me to--or she'll..." He shook his head. "I'm not doing that."

Lee certainly had no intentions of leaving the apartment again that night. She just thought that it was fun to play innocent and tease Jason like this. Though, she thought as he pushed her back against the couch without the slightest bit of resistance, nor a single word from him, Lee thought she may have to come up with a new game soon; Jason wasn’t exactly reacting to this one the same way anymore.

But she’d worry about that later Lee decided, her eyes slipping closed as she felt Jason’s weight pressing her against the couch as he continued to kiss her neck.

Except, then Jason was standing up, grabbing his phone off the coffee table. ”Come on, hon, worry about it tomorrow,” Lee said with a slight pout as she reached out to him. It was then that Lee saw the look on his face, and her pout disappeared.

Sitting up, Lee took the phone from Jason. She already knew who the message was from, Lee only knew of one person who would make Jason this angry with one text message. But she didn’t understand what he was talking about, what it was Gladys was demanding of him now until she looked down at his phone. It took a few seconds, and two read-throughs of the message before it fully sunk into her head, but then Lee’s eyes widened in shock and anger. How could she even…

”I should hope you wouldn’t cheat on me,” Lee said as she set the phone on the table in front of her and stood up. ”Even if you’re being blackmailed into it.” Placing her hands on each side of Jason’s face, she turned it gently to look at her before speaking softly. ”Let’s just be done with it. Let’s leave.”

Jason didn't know why he always had to go straight for his phone like that; his dedication to his work was both a strength and a weakness, he guessed. But as soon as he'd seen the text, he knew he should have just let it stand.

He thought a few moments, trying to clear his head. This was crazy; there was no way he'd do what she was asking, but he couldn't just let her do this to them either, could he?

Taking a deep breath, he looked at Lee, his girlfriend. His girlfriend. The girl that he hadn't realized would be the girl of his dreams, yet there they were. Happy. Together. And here this woman was trying to tear them apart merely because she couldn't hold her own relationship.

"I wouldn't," he answered softly. "But where would we go? I mean if you come with me I'd have no problem starting over....again." He gave a light smile.

Where would they go? Lee stood silent for a few moments. She hadn’t ever really thought about leaving New York; her powers were much more controlled now than they had been when she was younger and she wasn’t discovered and forced to leave like she had once been. And even if something like that did happen again, the city was large enough that Lee would have just moved to a different area. With so many people, it was easy to get lost.

But in this case, Lee knew that wouldn't’ work. Staying in the same city, just a different part of it, wouldn’t be enough to get Gladys off their backs.

Lee couldn’t help the smile that came to her face as she heard Jason’s final comment, though. If they actually did this, they would really be starting a life together, much more so than simply moving in together. That really was an unbelievably wonderful thought.

Then Lee got another, more serious thought, and her smile faded slightly. ”What about that rip?” Lee asked as she looked up at Jason. ”I’ve heard that they’re much more accepting of mutants over there, that they can actually be open about what they are. Plus, what are the chances that she’d be able to find us if we go there? Would it even matter if that’s all true?”

It was starting to sink in; she was serious. He was going to pack up all of his things and leave again, start another new life because something went wrong. Again. Only this time, Lee was coming with him. She was the only reason he'd stuck around to even deal with Gladys's blackmail to be honest. But...they'd be together. This, he was okay with.

He listened to her words, and she actually had a good idea. Fresh start in another reality. Gladys would never get them there. They could be happy. Peaceful. "That sounds like a good idea, actually. We won't have to worry about as much. We can be happy. Together. I say let's do it." He smiled, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her.

Lee simply looked at Jason after she made her suggestion. Moving and going somewhere else was a big decision, even if at the moment it looked like the only one they really had, but what she had just suggested was even more massive.

Then he smiled and spoke, telling her that he liked the idea. Lee wrapped her arms around Jason's neck, returning his kiss. "I like the idea of us being happy together," Lee said, smiling up at him.

Another thought came to Lee’s mind, and she smiled wider. ”As long as you’re with me, I doubt I’d even really need to be around people for energy. So we really could go anywhere, it wouldn’t have to be a big city.”

"I do too," he said with a smile. "I like the idea of that. As long as you come with, I don't really care where we go. Besides, on the other side of the rip, even New York would be a good start, from what I understand," he added, kissing her cheek.

----

It had been maybe a day or two since Gladys sent that fateful text, and the couple had decided to take matters in their own hands. There was a lot of packing and planning to do, but...Jason wasn't home. He hadn't told Lee where he was going, but he managed to slip out while she was asleep and hoped that it wouldn't take that long so he could be back before she woke up, and shed' be none the wiser.

He was up to something, though as it stood, Lee couldn't know what. That was just how it had to be.

But of course, he got stuck in line at the coffee shop, and then his other ordeal took longer than expected. But he could still hope she slept in a little, not that it was likely.

Quietly, he opened the door to his apartment, and he slipped inside, easing the door behind him.

It had been a busy couple of days since Jason had gotten that message from Gladys.
Packing, planning, still working at the bar. At least she was able to put the time after Jason went to bed to good use by packing. That alone had allowed them to pack more in the apartment than they otherwise would have been able to. They were close to being done, in fact, which was good considering they were in a bit of a time crunch with Gladys’ threat hanging over their heads.

But Lee wasn’t packing now. She actually wasn’t doing much of anything except sleeping as her alarm clock started to blare through her room. Lee didn’t do anything other than groan for five full minutes before she finally forced herself to roll over and hit the snooze button. Only then did Lee open her eyes, and when the time finally filtered through to her brain, she frowned. Normally Jason would have come in to wake her up with how long her alarm had been going off. But Lee didn’t have the energy to wonder much more about that at the moment, the coffee on her night table was much more important just then.

Only after she had made her way into the kitchen, pouring herself another cup of coffee there fifteen minutes later, did Lee set about looking for Jason. Yet, he was nowhere to be found in the apartment. Her frown deepening, Lee sat on the couch to drink her coffee. It wasn’t uncommon for Jason to not be home when she woke up, he did have to work sometimes too, but given the situation they were currently in, Lee was surprised that he left without telling her.

Now, there was one very simple way for her to get an answer, but the problem was Lee had left her phone in her room without thinking when she got up. Just then, that was too far away. So, unfortunately, that meant figuring out where Jason had gone would have to wait.

A few minutes later, Lee was just getting up to grab another cup of coffee (her caffeine intake was always much higher when Jason wasn’t there when she woke up) when the door opened. And Jason didn’t even seem to notice her at first. Coming to a stop, Lee just waited for him to turn to face her. ”Where did you disappear to?” she asked, the frown still on her face.

Very quietly, Jason slipped into the apartment, looking around to see if he'd made it in successfully. And...he didn't. Inwardly he cursed as Lee was standing face to face with him, and she didn't look too happy. He knew he couldn't tell her where he'd been, at least not yet, but she was looking for an answer and she was looking for one pretty damn quick.

He exhaled a deep breath through his nose; both of them knew he never left like that without telling her, so that was her first clue that something was up. And it being this early meant his coffee hadn't really digested yet and he didn't have that good of a lie prepared; not that he was any good at lying to her anyway.

"I had some things to take care of," he said finally, just leaving it at that. "Nothing too hard, just making sure everything's perfect before we leave, is all."