[Aiden]

Shoulders tensing, Aiden contemplated the extent of Thanatos' involvement with Ashton. Perhaps Thanatos had just seen Maaike at a public function and happened to remember her. Or Ashton spoke to Thanatos enough that "Mrs. Dyer" stayed memorable. If Thanatos was truly Alexshire's version of Ashton, Thanatos could have been keeping tabs on his potential business rival. Anything was possible.

While attending hearings, Aiden had seen lesser judges pry deep into the minds of criminals. He wasn't surprised to hear that Thanatos was able to freeze Maaike to the spot. When he heard that Ashton could do it too though, Aiden clenched his jaw. From what he'd heard, Ashton was the sort of person who controlled everyone with fear, oppression, and violence. The sort to beat someone while they're
defenseless. For a person like that to have mind control abilities...Aiden's stomach churned at the thought of Maaike and Sammy being around such a monster. How long had she endured that?

Breath hitching when Maaike mentioned the sleeping powder, Aiden finally opened his eyes and sat straight. That night, everyone had simply assumed that the chief magistrate was skilled enough to knock someone out with his mind alone. Mind blast, coercion, or something similar to that nature. But Maaike's story didn't match up, and there wasn't an ounce of reservation in her tone when she told him about her fears that day. She was so convinced about Thanatos' corruption that she'd expected to arrive in a slave pen. Thanatos---the Chief Magistrate of the Red Wardens.

Aiden was still disappointed and angry at Maaike for deceiving him for so long, yet he pitied the suffering she and Sammy had gone through with Ashton. He was furious at Ashton's ghost, and his belief in Thanatos was rattled. Maaike was driving him crazy with everything she'd said tonight. Frustration clouded his mind, yet deep down, he still trusted that Maaike would never lie to him out of spite. Feeling all sorts of confused, Aiden's gaze wavered across Maaike's serious expression and at the truth in her eyes. “Guardsmen carry tranquilizers for prisoners, and some magistrates too. But Thanatos said he'd commanded you to sleep that night. Nothing about the powder.” He hated saying this, but--- “Maybe it wasn't the standard tranquilizer, so he had to lie about it.” Aiden inhaled, and he meant every word he said next. “Whatever his reasons for giving you to the Guard, I'm glad he did. Otherwise I never might have met you. Again.”

[Maaike]

Maaike would not have thought so at the time, but handing her over to the Guard -- to Aiden -- was probably the worst mistake Thanatos had ever made, so despite the tension still lurking around them, Maaike quirked a soft, fond smile and said, “See, I knew I'd grow on you, Sweet Cheeks.”

There was so much more she wanted to tell him, so much more she wanted to say. It meant so much to her that he hadn't just shoved her away the second he learned the truth, that he'd given her a chance to explain. He was even still prepared to work with her, and if that was all their relationship could ever be... Well, she probably deserved it.

It was for him to decide, at any rate. She couldn't force him to forgive her for the lies and omissions, couldn't force him to think of her as anything more than a woman he'd reluctantly partnered up with. She'd bared her soul to him today, first by revealing the existence -- and location -- of her son, and now by spilling her last secret. She was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and sore and aching. Whatever else she had to say to him could wait, assuming they were ever back in a place where she could tell him he'd come to mean so much more to her than "partner" without ruining whatever professional relationship they salvaged.

Because if she walked away from this conversation with only one thing, it was the knowledge that the attraction and the "feeling stuff" that had been building since she met him had solidified. Ashton's ghost still clung to her shadow, but when she looked at Aiden, she could see her way to a brighter future and she wanted that desperately.

So she shifted her weight and held out a hand to help him to his feet. “You ready to go back?” She didn't mean for there to be subtext, but the unspoken "are you ready to trust me again, at least in a professional capacity" wove its way in anyway. “Sammy's probably bursting at the seams waiting to sing his mama the new lullabies he's learned.”

[Aiden]

A long time ago, Maaike had elbowed her way into Aiden's life by leaving obnoxious deliveries at the Guard's doorstep. The other guardsmen had a good laugh out of the notes most of the time, at Aiden's expense. But she was right---she'd grown on him. She mattered to him so much that he was always worried for her safety. Those days in Acantha had taken years from his life, especially when he watched Maaike dying of a sickness that only a deity could fix. Biting back an exasperated grin, Aiden glanced at her outstretched hand. Was he ready to go back? Could he accept...?

All those truths meant that she finally trusted him enough to deal with it and not use it against her. It still stung though, that she'd waited to blindside him about Sammy until the kid actually appeared. It hurt that she couldn't trust him with the knowledge about Ashton until now, when she was in the safest territory, and he was on foreign soil. Despite all those secrets, Aiden still knew that this was the same old Maaike that had fought with him through Acantha and back, and pulled him from the doors of Hel after his own people backstabbed him. Aiden believed he could trust her with his life, more than he trusted anyone else. That didn't change just because she'd told him all those things today.

Wrapping her hand with his own, Aiden stood. “Let's not keep Sammy waiting.”

Continued in At your (rescue) service.