Henry reached for Mouse, and made a sound of displeasure when he didn't find her. He groped farther, and found her sitting on the edge of the bed, shrugging her pajama top on.

"Why'reyougettingalldressed?" he slurred, stroking her legs as he blinked at her groggily.

"I'm putting on my shirt, that's hardly dressed," Mouse laughed, tousling his already messed up hair. "It's going to be light soon, I thought I should go back to my own bed before Leo gets up, you know?"

"Oh," Henry muttered into the pillow. "I guess." He opened one eye and looked up at Mouse. "Is that how we're going to deal with this? Keep it a secret, I mean?"

"Not a secret, necessarily," Mouse answered with a smile. "Maybe letting him know gradually, though, might be kinder than having him find me naked in your bed, though, don't you think?"

"I guess," Henry said again as he pulled Mouse back to lie in his arms. "But I like having you naked in my bed. It's actually my favorite way and place to find you, now that I think about it," he chuckled, nuzzling in to kiss her extravagantly on her neck. "God, there has never been a better texture or smell than that spot, right there," he declared, planting a kiss on the place in question.

Henry inserted a knee between Mouse's legs, rubbing, and he saw her wince a little. He stopped immediately, though she tightened her thighs around his leg, keeping it imprisoned where it was.

"I like it," she insisted. "It feels good."

"I saw your face," Henry said quietly. "That wasn't an 'it feels good' face, that was an 'I've been ridden too hard and put away wet' face."

Mouse laughed. "First of all, the saying is 'rode too hard and put away wet,' you fool," she corrected, giving Henry a gentle shake. "It's way less funny if you don't mess up the verb tense, you know?" she continued, pulling her warm body into Henry's, curving herself to mold to his. "Second, I resent the implication that I'm a horse, of any kind, sir." She leaned up to kiss him. "It's normal that I'd be a little sore, right? Wasn't last night a lot of, um, activity, for anyone?"

Henry nodded, sighing.

"No, Henry, no sighing," Mouse said. "Last night was wonderful, perfect, so no sighing, please. Please?"

"You're right," he said, giving her a squeeze. "It was, last night was amazing and incredible, definitely not deserving of sighs of any kind." He dropped a kiss on Mouse's nose.

"Thank you." Mouse released Henry and rose reluctantly from the bed. "So I'll scoot back to my own bed, and maybe even try to sleep a little bit before Leo comes to wake me up. At least today is Saturday, so we don't have school."

She smirked. "You, however, have work, if I'm remembering correctly. Enjoy." She walked from the room, swinging her rear end obviously as she did so, knowing he was watching. "I might even wake up and make you coffee if I feel like it."

"Bitch," Henry called comfortably from the bed.

"Yeah, whatever," Mouse replied with a grin as she shut his door.

Mouse crawled tiredly into bed, where she slept a glorious, deep sleep for two more hours before Leo came tiptoeing in, smiling, to wake her up.

He stood at the edge of her bed and looked at her as she slept, thinking how pretty she was, before reaching out a pudgy finger to poke at her arm.

Mouse opened her eyes and regarded her young charge, who looked perfectly adorable in the morning light as he stood in his footy pajamas. "Good morning, young man. What time is it?"

"I don't know, I didn't look," Leo admitted. He picked up Mouse's phone, which was charging on the nightstand. "Eight fourteen. In the morning," he added, nodding.

"Oh." She blinked at him. "It's Saturday, Leo, don't you want to sleep some more?"

He shook his head violently. "I know it's Saturday. I already slept a whole hour extra. I'm good."

"You are good, aren't you?" Mouse asked, smiling. "Can you at least get in bed with me for a sec so I can wake up slowly?"

Leo shrugged amiably and climbed up on the bed, snuggling under the covers. "You smell like daddy," he announced.

"I, uh, ran out of my soap so I borrowed his," Mouse explained. She felt the buttons of her shirt, making sure they were buttoned all the way up so Leo wouldn't see any errant marks on her neckline or front.

After snuggling for a few minutes, they got out of bed and wandered to the kitchen, where Mouse put the coffee on, and began making pancakes and cutting up fruit. As usual, Leo sat on the counter and supervised.

Henry came out a little bit later, freshly showered, looking smug and happy, Mouse thought. He went to Leo, giving him a good morning kiss, then followed it up with a good morning kiss for Mouse, as well.

Leo watched and smiled. "Hey! You got a kiss too!" he exclaimed, clapping, fingers spread, kicking his feet delightedly against the cupboards from where he sat on the counter.

"I did, aren't I lucky?" Mouse asked, turning around with the spatula in her hand.

"Daddy loves you," Leo declared, putting his hands on his hips and nodding for emphasis.

Henry smiled at his son's happiness. "I do," he told his son. "I love you, and I love Mouse."

"Do it again," Leo entreated, eyes dancing. He looked back and forth from his father to his nanny. "Kiss her again, daddy!"

"Okay," Henry agreed. He put his coffee cup down on the counter, took the spatula out of her hand, put his arms around her, and kissed her soundly on the mouth, holding it so long they both started to laugh into the kiss.

"Idiot," Mouse said, slapping at his chest. "The pancakes are burning." She flipped them from the griddle expertly onto the plate, and set the plate on the table.

Henry helped Leo down, and the three of them sat to eat.

It was a regular meal, like so many others they'd shared, and yet it was different, and Leo looked often between Mouse and his father, at the joy and sparks that were flying between them.

"I don't know when I'll be back," Henry said as he prepared to leave. "We have a lot of decisions to make about spring and summer, and it all has to happen soon. A lot of contracts need to get signed, so I could be late, okay?"

Mouse nodded. "We have stuff to do, don't we?" she asked Leo.

He nodded energetically, and the two of them went out into the brisk weather to run their errands, to do the marketing, buy some birthday presents for a couple of parties Leo was invited to, and stop at the dry cleaners.

"Hey, Leo," Mouse began, as they walked through Washington Square Park, admiring the leaves. "I was wondering about Amya."

He looked up at her, but didn't say anything.

"You haven't mentioned her in a while," Mouse finally continued. "How is she?"

Leo looked ahead, his grip on her hand getting tight. "I don't really see her very much anymore," he finally said. "I haven't seen her up close since we were at the beach. Remember when you carried me up the stairs and I was too heavy and you fell?" Worried blue eyes focused on her as they walked. "I saw her then. She was outside the window, looking in at us. That was the last time I saw her up close."

"What does that mean?" Mouse questioned. "Up close?"

"She used to be close," Leo said. "Like she would wrap around me when I was sleeping, so I could pet her and feel her scales, and feel her breaths and stuff?" He looked up at Mouse again as they waited to cross the street. "Or she'd follow me when I was walking, or she'd be watching me on the playground at school, like through the fence?"

Mouse nodded.

"But after I saw her through the window when I was crying for you when you were bleeding at the beach after your carriage--miscarriage, I mean," he corrected, shaking his head, "she's been far away. Like I thought I saw her once on the Empire State Building when we were walking to school, and I saw her on the upside down U at the park once, but she flew away." Leo shrugged. "So I don't see her all the time, and she's far."

"I see," Mouse said. "Thanks for telling me, Leo. Do you miss her?"

Leo considered, then shook his head. "I used to want to see her, like I'd look for her all over, before I'd shut the door, or when I'd walk to school. But I don't think about her very much anymore."

He stopped walking suddenly. They were on Astor Place, a busy street, and people had to walk around them, giving them curious looks as they did. "Do you think she's mad, Mouse? Do you think she's mad at me because I don't talk to her as much?"

Mouse knelt on the sidewalk so she could look into his eyes. "No, Leo, I think she's happy that you've become such a brave, big boy, and really, really proud of you." She pulled his small body into a hug. "I think if she could talk, she'd tell you that she's so proud of you, you hear me?"

She felt him nodding into her shoulder as he hugged her back.

They made a pitstop at a local dog park on their way home, at Leo's insistence. He'd been asking more and more often for a dog, and Henry had put him off, saying that he wasn't home enough to take care of a dog, and that Leo was simply too young.

The addition of Mouse to their household had changed things somewhat, however, and Leo had ratcheted up his requests since starting school. A few of his classmates had gotten dogs over the summer, and his yearning for a canine of his own grew every time he saw them greeted by their pets after school.

"Mouse, look at that one, it's so curly and bouncy," Leo shouted, leaning over the fence and pointing. It was indeed, both curly and bouncy, to the point where its eyes couldn't be seen.

"Is that the kind you'd want?" Mouse asked, stroking his hair.

Leo shrugged. "I don't care what kind it is," he confided. "I just want a dog to love who loves me back." He looked at Mouse. "We could rescue a doggy, right? From that doggy jail place? The SCPA?"

"The SPCA," Mouse corrected with a laugh. "Yes, that's the best thing to do, I think."

"How do they end up there?" Leo asked, watching the dogs frolic. "Were they naughty?"

"No, they just don't have a place to live, no one wants them," Mouse explained.

"Oh. That's so sad," Leo said. "Why don't their owners want them anymore?"

"A lot of them never had owners," Mouse explained. She didn't want to have this conversation with him. She remembered talking about this with her mother when she was little, and crying when she found out about the existence of animal shelters. "They're born homeless, and they live on the streets, so they're lucky if they get captured and taken to shelters, you see?" She patted Leo's back. "That's why we need to get animals from shelters whenever we can, and make sure we get them fixed so they can't reproduce and make more unwanted babies."

Leo nodded. "I just want a doggy," he reiterated. "To love, that will love me back."

Mouse nodded. "That's always a wonderful thing, big guy. Let's get home, okay?"

They joined hands and headed home.