Looking as though they were lost in a dream, they slowly looked around the kitchen, taking in every cookie, brownie and delicious treat that she’d spent the last seven hours cooking and…..

Was that a whimper?

Yup, definitely a whimper, she decided, biting back another smile as she gestured to the food around them. “Are you hungry?”

“Always,” the men said in unison, looking deadly serious as they continued to gaze around them.

“Help yourselves,” she said, gesturing to the food.

“Bless you,” Aidan said, reaching for a brownie only to come up empty handed when the large plate suddenly disappeared.

“You should really be looking her over,” the older man said around a large brownie as he backed away, plate of brownies lovingly cradled in his arms.

“Greedy bastard,” Aidan muttered as he, reluctantly, turned his attention away from the brownies and looked at her. “Can I see your arm?” he asked, looking close to pouting over the brownies, she assumed since he couldn’t stop himself from sending the plate in the other man’s arms a wistful glance.

“Oh, God, these are so damn good,” the older man groaned, taking another large bite.

Pleased that he was enjoying the brownie, a recipe she’d created a few years ago, she pulled up her sleeve and tried not to cringe as she showed the incredibly handsome doctor the hive thingies covering her arms. With a frown, he shifted his attention from the brownies to her arm. He gently traced the outer edge of one hive with the tips of his fingers.

“You had prolonged exposure,” he said, sighing heavily as he pulled the backpack off his shoulder and started rummaging through it.

“Is it contagious?” she whispered, throwing the food around them a nervous glance and calling herself all kinds of stupid for not considering that before she offered them any food.

“No,” Aidan said with an unconcerned shake of his head as he searched through his bag. “Tell me, did you take anything after you were exposed?”

“Benadryl,” she answered, looking down at the things on her arm with a frown, wondering if she was going to need to have them surgically removed.

“Are you allergic to anything?” he asked, pulling out a small vile of medicine.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I just-Ouch!” she nearly shouted when he took her by surprise and jammed a needle in her bicep.

“Sorry about that, but I needed your muscles completely loose. The medicine seems to work faster if your muscles aren’t constricted as they would be if…………are you okay?” he asked, his words trailing off as he studied her, looking concerned and probably for good reason, she mused as she felt the full force of the medicine work its way through her system.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, nodding to herself as she looked around the kitchen and wondered why she hadn’t baked anything with jelly. God, she loved jelly…..

*-*-*-*

“Help!” the scream tore him from a heavy sleep. The second scream for help had him throwing his legs over the bed. The third had him muttering a curse and racing to the door as he registered the sound of his little brother screaming for help.

“Danny!” Aidan yelled just as he stumbled to a stop in his living room. “Help us, you bastard!” Aidan demanded as Danny stood there frozen, trying to make sense of the scene before him.

His Uncle Jared was on the floor, his arms wrapped around Tinkerbelle who was squirming wildly in an attempt to get to the front door while his brother wrestled with her legs, struggling to get her to stop kicking their uncle. Tinkerbelle didn’t seem all that concerned with having two large men trying to restrain her. In fact, she didn’t really seem to notice them at all.

But, she did notice him.

As soon as she spotted him she stopped struggling, propped her head up on her hands, sighed dramatically and said, “I need to run to the store and get some jelly.”

It was at that moment when he realized that he was in for one hell of a night.

*-*-*-*

“But-”

“No,” he said firmly, rubbing the back of his neck as the small woman sitting across from him continued to glare in his direction.

“But-”

“No,” he said, gesturing to the sandwich that he’d made her. “Eat your sandwich.”

“But-”

“Just accept the fact that they cleaned you out and eat your sandwich,” he said, once again cursing his uncle to hell and back for not only ditching his ass with his drugged up neighbor, but for eating what he’d surmised was an incredibly delicious buffet made by none other than the woman that he was currently stuck with.

“If you’ll just let me go to my apartment I’ll grab some flour and sugar and-.”

“Try to run off to the store again,” he finished for her, in absolutely no mood to deal with this, not tonight.

All he wanted to do was to grab one of his books, sit in a corner and read. That was it. It’s how he spent most of his nights when he didn’t force himself to go over to one of his relative’s houses for dinner, slap a smile on his face and pretend for their sake that everything was okay. It wasn’t, but they didn’t need to know that.

“But, I need jelly to-”

“I’m not letting you near the stove,” he pointed out for probably the hundredth time that night, praying that she would just let it go and pass out so that he could salvage some of this night.