Elara Hayes - Spenser

Chapter 20: A deeper bond

 That night

Jason POV:

I slept on the couch while Clay was on a matress on the floor and Elara was asleep in the room.

Clay shot up rushing to the bedroom while Elara stirred and screamed and Clay rushed gently waking her and wrapping her in his arms

"Shh... sh... I got you baby..." He soothed as he sat with his back against the wall and hers against his chest as he held her tightly kissing her on the forehead "Your going to be okay, we're going to be okay, I promise you..."

After she had calmed down they both got up walking to the kitchen we're she made them both tea

"Are you okay?" I asked

"I'm fine, just night terrors again." She replied with a small smile as she handed Clay the cup "Do you want one?"

"Sure."

"All of us suffer from night terrors." Clay explained "It's why we're not allowed to be medicated..."

"Medicated?"

"It traps us in our night terrors." Elara replied sitting on the bench "You can't wake up or move and your stuck."

"It's that bad for you?"

"Usually we're able to scream ourselves away but we need someone there to calm us down. Anchoring us..."

"Clay?"

"His my anchor, he keeps me present when I wake up."

"And when he joined the seals?"

Clay had decided to leave going to check on the kids leaving us to talk

"I told Clay to go, he wanted to stay with us and the family but his always wanted to be a Seal and do better then his father." She smiled as she side on the matress across from me

"Your kids?"

"Phina got sick and Clay said it was better that you got treated here and Becca backed him." She replied "Atticus with Bash and Aurelia but Ames, Bailey and Phina came out."

"And what happened when Clay joined Seal? He left you with the kids?"

"Actually I had to convince him to come, he didn't want to leave me by myself but I knew he would be happier here."

"So you gave up your happiness..."

"No I gave part of my happiness, Clay makes me happy but being a Seal make him happy, so we had to work on it, but we made it work."

"She made it working for us." Clay smiled as he walked out hugging her from behind "By the way Bailey wants mummy."

Elara smiled leaning into the embrace before getting up and going back to the room after handing her cup to Clay.

"She worked on it?"

"She would call me everyday while I was here, making sure the kids be up to talk to me, if she was having a bad day if I was we'd talk, no matter what time it is she'd always answer my calls. Sometimes she'd miss them because she'd be on mission but the first step she took back on base she'd call me to see what it was about." He smiled "She's always there when I need her."

"Hey.." She smiled hugging him from behind while he turned to kiss her on the cheek

"Hey." He smiled back at her

"I'm gonna try to get to bed now, so I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, goodnight." He replied turning to kiss her cheek and she got up

"Goodnight Jason." She smiled brushing off her nightgown

"Goodnight Elara." I smiled and she went back to the room

"I'm going to sleep, night Jason."

In the morning

When I woke up, the first thing I had seen was Elara had crawled into bed with Clay. Even in sleep Clay was still protecting her, she had fall asleep with his arm around her pulling her close while her head rested against his chest. She began to stir waking up when she woke up, she looked to Clay first behind getting up only for Clay to start stirring

"Go back to sleep." She smiled kissing him on the cheek when she saw him squint trying to wake himself up

"You sure?"

"Absolutely." She replied going to the kitchen to make breakfast "I hope you don't mind, Clay doesn't have much."

"It's fine." I replied as she mean breakfast before going and getting the kids one at a time, she had finished feeding the kids and had Atticus in her arms giving him a bottle

"Are you going to wake Clay up?"

"In a bit, he hasn't been sleeping much." She replied and went to change Atticus before leaning down on Clay "Hey time to get up now."

"What?" He groaned

"Wake up." She laughed as she laid on top of him "Come on babe, time to get up."

"Fine." He smirked turning over and grabbing her as he got up

"Clay come on!" She laughed only for him to sigh putting her back down with a kiss to the cheek

"Where are the kids?"

"Getting dress, breakfast is on the table, I put your coffee there." She replied walking back to the kids

 2 weeks later

"There here." Emma commented as Clay truck pulled in and Clay jumped out of the driver side walking over to the back door and pulling out little Atticus as Elara got out of the passager set

It was the kids first day of school and Clay had brought Elara, she had refused to go back with Jason and Alana.

"Babe give it a shot..." Clay smiled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they walked up with Atticus in her arms. Elara had a backpack on and Clay had the diaper bag over his shoulder

"This sucks, I'd rather be working..." Elara replied leaning against him "Plus with Atticus I should be a home."

"We still need to look for a house remember and you need to use to civil life." He told her leaning into kiss her forehead

"I know but this still sucks." She replied adjusting her grip on Atticus

"Hey..." Naima smiled going to greet them, she had been talking to the kids and all of them had taking a liking to her like the team, she had become a source of comfort for them during the change

"Hey Naima..." She smiled walking forward to greet her who came and hugged Elara gently being careful of Atticus

"Could I..."

"Yep of course." Elara replied as Naima took Atticus from her giving Clay a chance to hand over the diaper bag

"His still so handsome." Naima cooed "But I thought he was going to school..."

"She's doesn't want to leave him right now so we just decided to bring him along." Clay replied while Elara zoned out taking in the building, she was physical present with Clay arm around her waist grounding her while she mental took in her surroundings

"How come you haven't ask her out yet?"

"We're still trying to find out footing especially since with both of us being here."

"Clay?"

"Yea babe?"

"The building..."