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Taavi led the way inside, following my mother, who was already busy fussing around in the kitchen.

“Mom, go get some sleep,” I told her.

“Val, people need breakfast.”

“No, Mom, we all need sleep. We can do brunch later if you want.”

My mother turned too-bright eyes up at me, her lower lip a little unsteady.

Double fuck.

“Come on, Judy,” came my dad’s reasonable voice. “He’s right. We all need at least a couple hours before we try to face the day.”

I mouthedthank youat my dad as he guided my mother over to the stairs, gently urging her to go up with a hand on her back.

“But Val, if you can’t do the stairs—”

“I’ll get him up there or settled on the couch, Ma,” Elliot told her.

“Come on, Jude,” my dad repeated, and my mother finally gave in with one more look over her shoulder.

Taavi stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment, watching Elliot and I, then turned and went up them, disappearing around the corner at the top of the stairs.

“He’s so pissed at me,” I muttered.

“Yeah, he is,” Elliot confirmed. “I wasn’t there, but Jesus, Val, what were you thinking?”

“That I didn’t want to watch a cop die in front of me if I could do something about it.”

Elliot went quiet. “You went out there to help somebody?”

“Yeah, I went out there to help somebody. What, you thought I just decided to commit suicide by violent mob?” It was an insensitive as fuck thing to say, and I regretted it the instant it was out of my mouth, wincing. “Sorry, El.”

“It’s okay,” he said softly, although I’d felt him flinch a little when I’d said it. “I didn’t realize someone else was in danger. I don’t—I don’tlikeit, but I—” He sighed heavily. “I know you, and I know you’re going to do that kind of stupid shit.”

“I wasn’t the only dumbass to get out of that car, you know.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed that your boyfriend is currently adog, Val.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, El.”

“The hell it doesn’t. Butyoudo not have sharp teeth and claws, Val. A razor-sharp tongue doesn’t go nearly as far as actual fangs.”

I snorted softly. Elliot might be annoyed with me, but he wasn’t really mad. Scared, worried, sure. But not mad. He, in fact, seemed shockingly okay with this whole thing. Of course, he hadn’tbeenthere, so he hadn’t seen the epic level of stupid into which I’d thrown myself. If he had, he might be singing a different tune.

“Are we actually going up there?” he asked, then.

I looked up the stairs. “I… don’t want to sleep on the couch,” I admitted. “I’m too old for that shit anyway, and especially not now.”

“We could pull out the futon in the basement.” My parents had an admittedly high-end futon and another TV in the basement that Elliot and I had basically lived on in high school and during college vacations. It was where he’d been sleeping when he’d stayed here, since Taavi and I were up in my old room.

“I’m not sure down stairs is any better than up,” I told him.

“Fair. Let’s do it, then.”

It wasn’t fun, but we got me about four steps up before a very quiet—human—Taavi came down and slid under my other arm, bracing his hand on the small of my back in order to avoid touching my injured side.

I was ridiculously happy to just have him touching me, even if it was for practical reasons like getting the injured and slightly woozy elf up the stairs to bed.