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The clatter and sizzle of utensils searing up bacon, hashbrowns and eggs sang to the morbid couple. A quaint diner met them as they sat across from each other, black and white pictures of the town of Jackson from its early history. It was the perfect place for a hearty breakfast on a cold morning unless the current pair didn’t receive some stark news. From what Max just imparted on Elianora was sickening to say the least, the color drained from her scales as she processed the new information from his best friend. The silence sat between them as Max didn’t know what to feel. A pit settled under his heart making him feel queasy and swallowed his appetite to tie his stomach in knots. “I have to help him.”

The words fell lazily out of his mouth and shocked Eli from her silence, ruby eyes widening at his statement. “Max you can’t, they're forcing your move. Everything so far was pushed into place by you, you had them on the backfoot and the one time you didn’t you were almost killed out in the snow!” Her shoulders slumped as she added her final point. “Even when you were the one forcing them to react you were nearly killed.”

“I know but I won’t be able to stop him. This is beyond just us now and I know that the only way I can keep Noah out of prison is if I'm there with him.” Max sipped from the simple ceramic mug in his hands, the black coffee being surprisingly tasteless to him. “What else am I supposed to do?”

Eli truly didn’t know. The police might as well have told them that they were on their own. That the wolves gnashing at their ankles were in the right and their hands were tied. “So what am I supposed to do? Let you run off to get yourself killed in the woods? I can’t lose you, just like how you’ve said you can't lose me.”

Max just sat silently across from his scaled lover. No words coming to his mind as he was torn between his best friend and the love of his life. His mind was screaming as the two prospects warred in his conscious mind. He was slipping and he knew it was showing. The lines on his face creased deeper, bags under his eyes darkened and his eyes were bloodshot as he just wanted to break something. “I don’t know.”

Eli sat up as he spoke, the words surprised her as he always seemed to have a plan. A contingency in place for any occasion. Her heart warmed to know that underneath the grizzled vet peppered with wounds he was just as much alive and could feel the pain of the situation. Certainly more than her. She decided that she would be the shoulder he could lean on just like he did for her after the home invasion and her saving his life. “We’ll figure it out, we’ve got each other like how you’ve got Noah.”

His jaw clenched, muscles straining under the stress piling up upon his shoulders. A cool sensation washed over his hand as she spoke, her sweet words bringing a small amount of assurance into his form. Her grip grounded him, even if it was a small amount, enough to shoulder the new problems in his life. For once he really felt like he could count on someone as much as his best friend. He mentally slapped himself when he thought of that, ‘you should have already trusted her that much you idiot!’ His own words cut but didn’t sting so badly. She was there to cool that burn. “Yeah we’ll figure it out…together.”

Max’s heart warmed as he looked up to his red eyed partner, adoration and assurance creased her features. “So the cops are out, fuckers still have my gun. Going public at this point would burn the candle at both ends yes but we’d be burned as well. Meeting them on even ground would be a death sentence because they know we’re packing heat and would just bring more guys with guns. Eli, I think our only play is the nuclear option.”

Eli only lifted an eyebrow as their breakfast reached them. An older human woman placed their plates of greasy food down between them before refilling both of their coffees with Max making sure that Eli got decaf. As she left Eli returned her attention back to Max. “What do you mean by nuclear option?” Her tongue went mad as she tasted the air wafting in front of her, the steam tickling her scales and tongue with warmth and the hearty flavor. “The only thing I can think of is the media and we both don’t like that idea.”

“Well that would be part of it but it’d be twofold. Get the national media tuned in but we’ll also need to get the national authorities attention at the same time. That’s easier said than done. Maybe the Marshalls outside of the town?” Max began to run through ideas that he knew Noah wouldn’t stand for. “Problem is that Noah only wants blood and I don’t know if I can stop him long enough for us to execute anything we come up with.”

Dropping three entire sausage links into her mouth before swallowing them whole and starting to work on the hardboiled eggs on her plate. “Wait, why do you call it the nuclear option?”

A fork full of hashbrowns was shoveled into his mouth and swallowed before he answered. “Because I’ll likely go to prison. At the very least I’ll have to go to court.” His tone was deadpan and matter of fact as he spoke and an eerie silence fell between them. “That’s best case, worse is I get maimed or worse in the crossfire.”

The fork fell from Eli’s hand with a clatter as it hit the blue plate in front of her. Her mind stopped as the words replayed in her head over and over. ‘Maybe worse…’ She felt cold as if with those simple words he had drained the feeling of life from her limbs and it seemed that Max wasn’t doing much better either. “Anything else…I can’t lose you.”

“It’s the only plan I can think of that has a possibility of everyone walking away. For better or for worse.” his eyes were screwed shut like he was bracing himself against the waves of reality. It was painful for him, hearing the desperation in her voice, her cool hand gripping his tighter as she looked for an answer in the storm. But there was none. No answer made itself known to either of them and they reeled from that harsh reality. “I’ll make a few calls, get some things in order and hope we can get some support. My hopes aren’t high though.”

“There has to be someone…” The steam rising up from her plate tickled her scales and condensed in warm water against the smooth surface. “Anyone…” For some reason one name flashed in her mind that made her eyes widen. He might be able to help. “I’ll be right back alright Max?”

Max was deep in thought as he gave a simple nod, pushing the majority of the food in front of him around the light blue plate. His appetite suddenly disappeared as he had to weigh the consequences of not only his actions but his best friend’s as well. He was lost. There were no other solutions, he had to turn the key. The single action that might cause Jackson to burn.

Eli rounded a corner to the bathroom and pulled her cell from her jacket pocket before quickly going to her contacts. Her finger hovered over a name that recently hurt them, that maybe he could help fix everything. At the least he’ll be another body to help out Max in his crusade to rid the town of the Gray family. Her phone dialed as her finger fell and raised it to the pocket on the side of her head that was her ear. It only rang twice before the voice of Jeffrey cracked through the tinny speaker. “I didn’t expect you to call, thought you would still be too pissed to talk to me.”

Eli’s jaw clenched as his somber voice reached her ear, she was still mad and those feelings that were pushed aside by the last few major events and last night to this morning bubbled back up to the surface. She choked down her anger as she prepared to reply. “If it were under any other circumstances you’d still be the last person I’d call but as it stands you’ll be the greatest help. My family is in Florida, Max’s best friend is on a warpath and Ian is in the hospital. You’re the best bet to help bring this whole squabble to an end so I’ll talk to Max about letting you into the loop…if you’re willing to help.”

A sigh escaped The tired stag's lips, an air of defeatism coming across in his tone alone. “Eli…I don’t think this will be enough for my daughter to forgive me. Even if Max lets me help I don’t think she’ll talk to me. Not anymore.”

“It’ll be a damn good start.” Eli was done mincing words and cited her lover as the main influence. “You can certainly begin to make amends by helping us out here. Either you can be the coward your Jess thinks you are or prove her wrong. Your choice.”

The line was silent for a moment. The internal war with the stag was apparent in the empty air until he finally spoke with a level of conviction she hadn’t heard in years. “I’ll do it.” A partial amount of weight resting on her mind lessened and gave the growing headache she was feeling a lessened edge. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re still working on that but Max’s best friend had his kids taken by the Gray family. He’s barely holding it together even with Max telling him that he’ll make sure they aren’t harmed.” Eli let out a sigh of her own as she tried to rub the stress from her perpetually scowling eyes. “I’ll talk to him but I make no promises if he’ll accept.”

“Yeah…sounds good.” The line ended with a click as Eli allowed the phone to drop from the side of her head. Her eyes were met with a picture of Max she had taken the last time they were on a real date. His smile was infectious and caused her own scaled lips to upturn in a softer form of it. She was tired, more tired than she could ever remember being and just for a moment wondered if this was what Max felt like. As if all the color had drained from the world and the one person that brought it back was her. Just like he was doing for her now.

“Damn that smile…” Eli gave a soft chuckle as she looked at the still image smiling warmly at her over a plate of their shared dinner. She shook her head from the realization that she wasn’t even with him and he was brightening her mood. Comforting her even, made her feel like she could do anything. Even stand up to…

She shuffled her way back over to Max, the air noticeably warmer by their seats due to them being so close to the open griddle and open air kitchen. He was tapping away at the table as he stared at his phone, eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the paragraph that was sent to him. “This is a mess of jumbled words and legalease. From what I can decipher the guy will help but, and I quote, ‘You need it to be a real story and it needs to be live.’ So in other words we need a live feed of the conflict, to really show how bad it’s gotten here to get the support we need. Chelsea isn’t doing much better, riding around town and harassing everything with a pulse if they knew anything about the current situation. It didn’t help that she had visited a couple of hardware and gun shops in the last few hours too. If I didn’t know her better I’d say that she was gearing up for a full scale assault.”

Eli blinked for a moment as she thought about their situation. “You don’t think Noah and her are planning on assaulting the Gray ranch themselves…right?”

Max thought for a moment as that particular idea didn’t cross his mind. “That…makes a little too much sense. We need to move, I’ll pay. Get the car started?” She nodded before the rest of their food was shoveled into their mouths with Eli handling the excessive amount of food much easier before Eli nabbed his keys and Max moved to the counter and quickly tossed down a few bills and told them to keep the change.

Sig and Sauer could tell something was wrong but knew well to stick to the back half of Max’s car as he peeled out of the small parking lot and made his way back home. “I hope they haven't burned my place down, it would be a real setback because of how much work I put into that place.”

Eli’s fingers intertwined with her lover’s before she turned the heat in the vehicle up a few more clicks. She knew he probably wouldn’t like the idea but she had to bite the bullet and just tell him. “Jeffery wants to know how he can help.”

“So that's what you did when you went to the bathroom.” Max grit his teeth as he thought about how Jeffery handled and left the situation with his daughter. It was rash and stupid but at the same time he understood how one’s emotions can cloud their judgment. “He wants to help huh?”

Eli nodded as she looked out to the passing landscape of snow covered pines and gray skies. The perfect day to stay in and just spend a lazy day with her lover next to the fire in their shared space. Life had other plans though. “Yeah he does, says that he wants to ‘redeem himself in the eyes of his daughter,’ whatever that means.”

“It means she’s not talking to him and he knows he fucked up. He may be honest with wanting to help but I’m not sure. What kind of experience does he have with this kind of stuff?” With a heavy sigh he looked over to Eli with a very tired look in his eyes. “Sweetheart, do you trust him?”

She was silent, her past flashing through her mind with her ‘sister’ and Jeffery. He only ever wanted what was best for her. To make sure she was safe even when her birth father didn’t care what happened. “His heart’s in the right place and I know I’m not his real daughter but I think he isn’t trying to make it up to just his daughter. I think he’s trying to make it up to me too.”

A questioning glance was tossed her way. “You think that’s enough to trust him?”

“I think it’s a start.”

“Then let him know to meet at our place in a few hours.” Another thought crossed his mind as the trees and snow swept landscape slipped by. “Oh and that Noah will be there too, might not be too happy to see him though. Seeing how he tried to get me killed.”