Harsh

♡ trente et un ♡

For the rest of the day, both men were anxious and on edge. By the time Luke and Tommy showed up Troye was desperate to see the babies again, but he stayed and sat quietly in his wheelchair. Their visiting friends had brought them both suitcases of clothes and their shampoos and conditioners, and Troye even got to shower and change from his gown, yet he couldn't make himself stop worrying.

To make matters worse, Jacob was quiet, too. But he knew that the Dom wasn't angry with him because Jacob didn't seem like he was ignoring Troye, he seemed like he was ashamed of himself, almost apologetic towards Troye. Tommy seemed nervous about the whole ordeal, shielding his stomach that held a ten week old baby, "They don't have enough evidence at all. They haven't even seen you with the babies." "Troye hasn't even gotten to hold them yet, right?" Luke huffed. "Yeah, they can't just jump to conclusions based off of what Nick says. They can't take them."

"You can just sue them if they try?" Tommy suggested. Jacob was still silent, looked exhausted, and Luke attempted to coax him into going home and resting, "I'll stay here with Troye and you'll be the first to know if anything happens. You're dead on your feet-" "I'm fine," Jacob finally huffed. "Really, I'm fine. I'm staying here with Troye. He and our babies might need me." Troye didn't dare protest, as whereas Luke was allowed to speak out and try to make Jacob do something, Troye, as a sub, was supposed to respect his Dom's wishes. Once Luke and Tommy had left, after Troye had caught Tommy's hand to quietly congratulate the boy, Jacob helped Troye into bed and helped him tuck the blankets around himself. "Sir," Troye murmured. "You should sleep." "The same goes to you," Jacob replied. Troye blushed a bit, "I need to pump before I do that, though. I was going to ask a nurse to get it for me though so you can-" But Jacob was already retrieving the breast pump from the corner of the room and bringing it over, "Don't be silly." Once Troye was situated with the pump, Jacob settled down quietly to wait. Troye, on the other hand, had had enough of Jacob's silence. He was terrified and when he was terrified it was always Jacob assuring him that made everything okay again. "Why are you so quiet?" Troye croaked out. "Did I-" "You've done nothing wrong, so don't start thinking that you have," Jacob said instantly. Troye tried not to squirm too much, he didn't want to disrupt the pumps he had attached to himself, "But you didn't do anything wrong either." After several moments, Jacob shrugged,

"It was just the questions she asked. They were very... she knew our weak spots, hmm?" "Was it about your parents?" Troye squeaked, reaching for his Dom. Even in the midst of worrying about his babies Troye had felt his heart go out to Jacob in that instance that the woman had brought up Jacob's parents' death. Jacob shrugged once more. Troye was beginning to grow very hesitant towards shrugging. "Not so much that. More so... what I've done. Mistakes I've made in the past that ended up badly." Troye stared at Jacob, at a loss for what Jacob was talking about. His mind churned as he attempted to run back through the dreadful questions the woman had asked. He didn't want to focus much on it, but he wanted to help his Dom. And then he realized it. By mistakes, Jacob was referring to letting Brandon stay in the house even after he had beaten Troye. Jacob was still bothered by that, and Troye was stunned because he expected that he and Tommy were the only ones who would have to deal with thoughts like that soon, and it made him feel incredibly selfish that he hadn't considered Jacob feeling that way.

"This is about him, isn't it?" Troye gasped, pulling the pumps away from himself. He'd already produced more than normal, which surprised him a little, but he set the bottles aside and flipped off the machine. "You never told me that it bugged you still." Jacob was going to try and avoid the subject, Troye could tell by the way he stood to try and put back up the pump and bottles, but Troye caught his arm. The Dom gave Troye an arched eyebrow, but upon giving the black haired man a pleading look, Jacob spoke, "That would be a very selfish thing for me to do. I know that thinking about it still makes you upset and I don't want to be the one to do that. Hell, you still have dreams about him and you won't even tell me what they consist of. You've only actually told me once that you've had a dream about him and the rest of the times you wake up in a panic you say you can't remember, but I know you Troye. You're my sub and I know you, so I try and go off of what I know to do what's best for you.