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ONE

A haunted moan could be heard from across the hallway as Farren held and rocked little Harley for his routine two o’clock a The sound yanked her out of a sleep-deprived haze, and wild panic pierced through her chest as she sprang fro chair, placed Harley in his crib, face-down in case he spit up his just-eaten food, and rushed into the bedroom she shared with the father of her child

Rogan lay paralyzed in his bed, a night his consciousness hostage He was unable to wake, unable to escape the horrors that replayed through hishied him forever

Sweat drenched the pillow and sheets beneath him, and when Farren reached his side, she threw the blanket from atop his body and cupped the sides of his face

“Shhhh, shhh, shhh,” she said, trying to soothe him, and his eyes flew open as a violent intake of air filled his lungs

He shuddered beneath her fingers before her face ca breath His hands reached up to grab her wrists as she continued to hold on to hi strokes She could feel his heart racing in his chest, as her body leaned over his from where she knelt beside him in their bed

“Farren,” he breathed,to sit up

“It’s okay, everything is okay,” she assured hi into the roo on the nightstand a few feet away from her

She hadn’t finished feeding Harley, and she’d laid hiet back to him quickly, but concern was etched in her forehead with her loyalty torn between the two people she loved the most in the world, who both needed her at the moment

“You were gone,” Rogan acknowledged It was the one thing that guaranteed the reappearance of the terrors that claiht

It killed her, seeing hi, powerful, brilliant , even, so to know that de him to his knees made her feel helpless

He needed her

“I’ht here,” she reassured hi Harley”

Even through the dark of the night, she could just make out the steel in his expression as his face hardened, and he forced away the vulnerability, regaining his control This was the Rogan Rayner she was used to, the one who feared nothing

“I’ his legs over the side of the bed to press his bare feet to the cool hardwood floor

She reached for his ar hi hio”

He turned back to her, s, brown hair she had pulled back into a ponytail to keep out of tiny baby fingers He softly kissed the tip of her nose She wrapped her arainst his hard chest, still standing on her knees on the bed beside him

Then she let go and turned to go back across the hall to soothe another tortured soul, though this one was entle sway, and a soft huh to satisfy the smaller of her two men

If only the other were so easy

TWO

“I can’t believe you did that!” Farren cried, her body rocking with laughter as Rita went on about how she had eht before after finding a dirty azine under his bed

“Hon, you just wait When Harley hits the terrible teens, you’ll be wishing for the sleepless nights you have now, instead of the ones you’ll have then It’s a whole different ball ga her Southern-accented wisdom to a horrified Farren as the woe

Farren sighed, rubbing the area of dark circles beneath her eyes “Please tell et some sleep Would you believe I actually dozed off yesterday when I was supposed to be going over the progra off to Kansas tomorrow? I didn’t realize it until I fell halfway out of e of the desk trying to catch myself I have the battle wounds to prove it”

She pulled her sleeve up to show the bruise forh until she cried