"Totally and trying not to die laughing at the same time. The faces he was making were hysterical. I wished you'd been there to help me out."

"I doubt I would've been much help. I would've been too busy screaming. I never thought I'd be so thankful that a murder kept me away from home."

Laughing, he held her close to him, thrilled by her, by them, by their son and their life. He had everything he'd ever dreamed of, and it was so much more than even his vivid imagination could've come up with. "Love you, babe."

"Mmm, love you too."

Long after she drifted off, he lay awake enjoying the simple pleasure of having her sleep all over him.

Sam woke much later, roused by a sound coming from the hallway. She dragged herself out of bed, pulled on a robe and went to investigate. As she left her bedroom, she nearly tripped over Scotty's huddled form outside the door.

Sam squat next to him and rested a hand on his back. "Hey, buddy, what's wrong?"

"I had a bad dream," he said, sniffling.

She wondered how long he'd been there. "You should've come in."

"I didn't want to bother you."

"You wouldn't have bothered us." Sam reached for him, and he lunged at her, breaking down into sobs that brought tears to her eyes. She'd never seen him so upset. "It's not possible for you to bother us. Anytime you need us, you come in. All right?"

He nodded and clung to her. In that moment, Sam realized that while he might be growing up quickly, he was still a little boy in many ways and still in bad need of a mother. She was thrilled to fill that role for him.

"How about we get you back in bed?"

Shaking his head, he tightened his grip on her.

"I'll stay with you."

"You will?"

"Sure, I will. Come on. It's cold out here." She helped him up and got him tucked back into bed under the Red Sox comforter he'd chosen after much debate between sports and superheroes. The walls of his room were plastered with the posters he hadn't been allowed to have in the state home. Nick had insisted on as many posters as the walls could hold. In the glow of the nightlight, Spider-Man stood watch over them from the ceiling. "Move it on over, mister. Here I come."

He giggled as she made a big production out of getting in bed with him, "accidentally" hitting a few of his most ticklish spots in the process, which made him laugh some more. She much preferred the laughter to the tears that were so unlike him.

"Snuggle me," she said. "I'm cold."

He curled up to her, and Sam put her arms around him. Her cheek rested against his silky hair.

"Want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. You're safe. You know that, right?"

"I know."

"Was it about Willie?"

"Sort of..."

"I'm sorry you're sad. What happened to Willie shouldn't happen to anyone."

"I don't understand how someone could kill him for missing a ball."

"I don't get it either, but people are so invested in sports. They take it way too far and lose all perspective."

"I read online that he has kids. Little kids."

Sam winced. "Yes."

"Did you meet them?"

"One of them. Miguel. He's four."

"It's so sad that he won't remember his dad. My mom and grandpa died when I was six, and I barely remember them. He's only four."

Moved by his compassion as much as his grief, Sam hugged him tighter. "I wish there was something I could say to make you feel better."

"The snuggling makes me feel better."

Sam smiled. "It makes me feel better too. You ought to try to get back to sleep so you're not super-duper tired tomorrow."

"Do you promise you won't leave?"

"I promise. And I'll let you in on a little secret."

"What's that?"

In a conspiratorial whisper, Sam said, "You're a much better snuggler than Nick is." In truth, no one did snuggling better than her husband, but Scotty didn't need to know that.

He laughed, which she'd hoped he would.

"You can't tell."

"I won't. Don't worry." As he relaxed into her embrace, Sam rubbed his back in small circles.

"Sam?"

"Hmm?"

"It's really nice to have a mom again."

Oh God, he was going to make her cry! "It's the very best thing ever to have a son as sweet as you. I never knew how great sons could be." She kissed the top of his head. "Love you, buddy. Try to go to sleep. I'll be right here. I promise."

She kept rubbing his back until long after he released a deep breath and fell asleep in her arms.

When Sam's alarm went off at six, Nick realized he was in bed alone. Running his fingers through his hair, he stretched out the kinks and got up to find a pair of sweats before he went looking for his wife.

In the hallway, he noticed Scotty's door propped open and peeked inside to make sure the boy hadn't kicked off his covers the way he did most nights.

Nick was stunned to see Sam wrapped up in Scotty, both of them sound asleep. He stared at them for a long time, overwhelmed by the sight of her sleeping with the boy they both loved. As he ventured into the room, he wondered what he'd missed during the night.

He bent to kiss her cheek. "Sam." When she didn't rouse, he kissed her again. "Samantha." He kept his voice down so he wouldn't disturb Scotty.

"Mmm."

"It's six, babe," he whispered.

"No, it isn't."

"Yes," he said chuckling, "it is." He smoothed her hair back. "What happened?"

"He had a bad dream. I heard him whimpering in the hallway. He didn't want to come in and bother us."

Scotty never stirred as they spoke in whispers.

"Oh, poor guy. He should've come in."

"That's what I told him too."

"What time was this?"

"I have no idea. Maybe we should let him sleep in a bit this morning. Shelby can take him to school when he wakes up."

"Sounds like a good idea. You need to get going to your meeting."

"I promised him I wouldn't leave."

"I'll tell him you stayed until you had to leave for work. He knows you've got a job to do."

Seeming reluctant, Sam disentangled from Scotty and got up. She resettled the covers over him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "At times like this, I hate that I have a job that requires so much of my time."

In the hallway, he hugged her. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again-I always hate your job."

"I know, I know." She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. "Gotta hit the shower."

"Want some company?"

She smiled at the perfectly innocent expression he attempted to pull off. "Are we talking about you, or do you have someone else you're going to send in?"

"Very funny, Samantha." He gave her a swat on the rear and steered her into the bathroom where he pushed the lock on the door-just in case. "Speaking of 'someone else,'" he said as he watched her remove the robe while he dropped his sweats onto a pile on the floor. "I saw your pal Hill last night after he brought you home."

"He's not my 'pal.' He's my colleague." She leaned into the shower to turn on the water, giving him a spectacular view of her spectacular ass. "And he brought me home because I was too tired to drive safely. Nothing more to it than that."

"For you anyway."

She turned to him, nude and furious and absolutely gorgeous. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He went to her, put his arms around her and yanked her in tight against him. "It means I do not like that guy, as you well know."

"And as you well know, I have no control over who Director Hamilton puts in charge of his criminal investigation unit."

"You don't, but I could probably do something about that."

Her mouth fell open, and her eyes narrowed with rage, which he'd fully expected. "Don't you dare mess with his career! That's beneath you."

It wasn't beneath him in this case, but he wisely chose not to share that thought with his wife when he'd already managed to piss her off. Nick scowled at her back as he followed her into the shower. "I hate when you ruin my fun."

"I hate when you act like a jealous fool over nothing. And P.S. he's interested in Shelby, not me."

"He's interested in you and going out with her because she's close to you."

"Please, for the love of God, don't tell her that. I think she genuinely likes him."

"Someone's gotta."

"You're an ass hat, you know that?" She raised her hands to his chest, tweaked his nipples and tugged on his chest hair, bringing tears to his eyes.

"Ow. That hurt!"

"Good. Who am I naked in the shower with? Him or you?"

"You'd better not be naked in the shower with him."

"Ugh, you are driving me crazy! Stop acting like a jealous ass. I can't stand it."

"I can't stand the idea of some other guy lusting after you. That drives me crazy."

"I've said this before, and I'll say it again and again and again until you hear it, you big lughead-he's nothing to me. Stop manufacturing trouble where there is none and make love to your wife before you say something else that's going to get you into a shit ton of trouble."

"I don't want to make love to my wife. She's mean and calls me names."

She rolled her gorgeous blue eyes to high heaven. "Is that a challenge?"

"Take it any way you want to," he said with feigned disinterest. He loved goading her and making her mad. He filled his hands with soap and closed his eyes to wash his face. And then her lips made contact with his shaft and he swallowed a mouthful of soapy water that made him gag and cough. Blinking the soap out of his eyes, he found her on her knees. "Holy shit! What the hell?"

"All that talk of blow jobs last night gave me ideas."

"Sam, wait..."

"Shut up. You had your chance to do it your way, but you said you didn't want to, so now I'm in charge."

"Sam..." Oh God, she was seriously good at that with just the right amount of suction and tongue and hand action. Christ, she was totally making him her bitch again, one tug of her lips at a time, and that was before she opened her throat and took him deep. "Fuck," he muttered, clinging to control by a hair.