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“Fuck me. What was that?”

Gideon groans and reaches inside his sweats to adjust his hard cock upwards so he can tuck it under the waistband instead of how it usually lies, soft down his leg. He then pulls his hoodie down over it, for good measure.

“You are making this up to me later, puppy.”

They exit into the lobby and find only the night clerk there finishing up his shift, shuffling papers and pasting on a tired smile.

“Good morning, is there anything I can help you with?”

There’s no one else in sight, despite what that mysterious voice told him.

Relief washes away Finn’s worry about having been responsible for bringing Carnell to their door yesterday, but it flows back like a wave when the front doors slide open and a harried, middle-aged human in a suitbursts in.

Gideon tenses beside him, and Finn feels a reassuring hand resting at the base of his spine.

“Oh hey, did I leave my credit card with you? Stopped for gas for the drive to Jacksonville and I didn’t have it in my wallet.”

Holy shit.

“Mr. Lethe, welcome back. Oh dear, I haven’t seen it; we should look in the breakfast area. You sat there finishing your coffee before you left.”

The clerk comes around the front desk. “I’ll be right back. Why not help yourself to breakfast while you wait?”

He smiles, following the harried Mr. Lethe into the small dining area.

Squeezing his elbow, Gideon says something about getting some air before disappearing out the front door.

Finn doesn’t waste a moment before following the duo into the dining area, monitoring the two searchers out of the corner of his eye.

Spotting the credit card slipped under the edge of the iced coffee machine, he slides it into his palm while he toasts three bagels and puts an assortment of pastries into small white bags.

When Gideon finally reappears beside him, smelling of thunderstorms and the outdoors, Finn hands him a bagel and his coffee as a reward.

Making a show of squinting at the pastry display and reaching under it, Finn pretends to pull out the credit card as he walks up to the human, extending it toward him.

“Is this it, sir?”

“Oh, thank goodness. How did it get over there? Goodness, I really appreciate that, er…”

“Dr. Merritt,” Finn offers, and the emphasis on his title makes Gideon snort.

“Doctor? Well, that’s lucky. Thank you. I’d better be off. I’ve got a long drive today, and again tomorrow. Such is the salesman’s life.”

He gives a last wave and scurries out the door.

The desk clerk smiles and goes back to his desk and paper-shuffling, while he and Gideon make their way back onto the elevator, breakfast inhand.

“Did you do it?”

“Easy peasy. I put it in the lining of the back seat. Turned it on, though, and I remembered to erase your data. I set it back to default. It’s what kept me a bit longer.”

“It was lucky I found the card, then, so I could delay them.”

Gideon is quiet, and Finn thinks it might not have been luck at all, given that the dream had been real.

“Was it a dream?”

“Mmmm, I don’t know; but whatever it was, this will buy us a bit of well-needed time.”