Now that she knew the big secret that surrounded Rose House, Beni's job had expanded considerably. There were now several days at a time when she didn't go home, although admittedly that had only happened once or twice so far, when new children had been brought to the big house and Ro needed help to get them settled. Of course, Ro hadn't warned her that Edward was likely to be the one who brought the kids to them tonight, or that he would be bleeding from his temple and adorned with a promising black eye. Which was how Beni found herself seated in front of the never-lit fireplace, in her pyjamas, gently cleaning the blood from Ed's face. "What happened?" she asked softly.

The four children that he'd brought to Rose House had been settled long before he sat in front of the fireplace with his face being tended to. He sat through it, quietly; the only sign of any kind of pain was a clenching of his fist from time to time. Her question had him exhaling a small sigh. "Things didn't quite go as planned." He really didn't want to go into details that would worry Beni, but knew she wouldn't settle for that vague of an answer. He grinned suddenly as he looked up at her. "Would you believe I got into a fight with a door jam and lost?"

She chuckled softly, teasing the gauze carefully along the edge of the tiny split in his temple that had bled so profusely over everyone when he'd arrived. "How about we leave that at no, and you can tell me later?" she suggested with a small smile. "You're staying here tonight, no arguments. Head wounds can do funny things to people, and I'd rather you were here if you get weird."

"You do mean weirder, right?" Ed sat back and closed his eyes, folding his hands over his stomach. "I just ran into a tree branch that I wasn't expecting. Nothing so glamourous as getting into a fist fight with a slaver or anything like that. We make it a point to avoid them as much as possible."

She made a face at him. "I'd rather you didn't call fist fights glamorous," she told him, turning to grab a band-aid. "Not that I'm sure you wouldn't win any fight you got into, but I'd really rather not worry anymore than I do already, if you don't mind." Her lips twitched into a teasing smile as she pressed the plaster into place.

"Oh you'd rather not, hmm?" He opened up one blue eye just in time to see her apply the band-aid to his temple. "Thank you, Beni," he murmured softly. "Instead of telling me what you'd rather not, tell me what you'd rather." Ed smiled then and seperated his hands, offering his lap if she wanted to sit.

She gave him a wry look, setting the various things she'd used to clean him up to one side. "You know the answer to that," she reminded him. "Or has the expression in my eyes changed in the last couple of weeks?" Grinning teasingly, she took up the unspoken invitation, sliding into his lap comfortably.

His arms curled around her, resting on her hip. "You know how I feel about that, Beni." Ed was a contradiction walking. He didn't want to worry Beni, but did so on a daily basis. He didn't want anybody so close that they could be used to retaliate against him. Yet there he sat, with Beni in his lap. It was moments like this that the instinctual need for someone to hold onto came into play. The fact that Beni had already stolen his heart made him blind to the contradictions.

"I know," she agreed quietly. "It doesn't make it any less frustrating." She chuckled softly, the sound taking the sting out of her comment. She was prepared to wait until he was ready to move ahead with what they had, not even faintly perturbed by the fact that it had to be kept a secret. Not even Ro knew that her friends were growing closer by the day. Beni's hand rested on Edward's arm, gently squeezing. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry," he sighed and shook his head. "We got the kids here safely, and will bring in more by week's end. The team is gelling well with Charlie and Dec as informant. Ro's doing well and you seem to be pretty happy with things, for the most part. So yes, all seems to be alright."

She tilted her head back to look into his face with intelligent green eyes. "That isn't quite what I was asking, Edward," she said, still in that soft tone. "I don't want to know that everyone else is fine. I want to know how you are."

Ed had known what she was asking, but talking about himself was something that he rarely did. Even to those closest to him, he rarely complained or bragged, much less spoke of anything normal or mundane. He shrugged to her question. "Yeah, I'm fine Beni. Don't worry so much. I'm an old hand at this now."

"Mmhmm." She gave up pushing at that point, though it was fairly obvious that she didn't believe his assertion that everything was fine. Lowering her head, she rested her cheek against his shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment with a long sigh. "I guess we'd better find you somewhere to sleep."

There was a low, rumbling laugh in his chest when she lay her head down. His arms tightened about her and he rested his head against the top of hers. Except for the headache from the run in with the unexpected security guard that had left him bleeding, Ed was just fine. And being where he was, with Beni, things couldn't be better. "I am fine, Beni. We saved some kids, I'm with a beautiful woman and in a safe place. What more could I ask for?"

"Can I meet this beautiful woman sometime?" she asked promptly, chuckling, unable to keep a serious mood when offered such a tempting opening. "You're not sleeping in the basement tonight, there won't be anyone else there."

He stopped when her hand landed upon his arm and he turned about with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, habit. Lead the way." Pulling his arm back just enough so that his hand fell into hers. "But remember, just for tonight."

"I know," she nodded, turning to pick her way through the collection of armchairs and tables toward the dorm rooms. "I'm not asking for anything more than to be allowed to make sure you're okay, no matter what you say."

"The only reason I'm agreeing to this is to make you happy," the smile could be heard in his voice. "Though I need to be out of sight before the kids get up. I took them from their families. They're not going to be overly excited to see me just yet."

She looked at him with another of her wry smiles, leaning against her door to push it open as her free hand turned the knob. "I know," she said again. "But the least you can do is get a couple of hours' sleep before you absolutely have to disappear again. I warn you, I am not above giving you another egg on the other side to make sure it happens."

"Oh, so violent," he laughed and walked into the teen dorm when the door was opened. "Should I sleep with one eye open?" He gently caressed her face, pausing before he passed her on his way into the room. "No worries, Beni. I'll get some rest. You should, too."

She smiled to him fondly, her head tilting to lean her cheek into his hand as he caressed her. "I will," she promised. "But not until you do. See, I can be stubborn, too." She chuckled, pushing the door closed behind them. Of the two beds in the room, it was easy to see which she had spent all of an hour in earlier that night.

"A woman after my own heart," he teased as he dropped down onto the bed that wasn't rumpled. He began to unlace the steel toed boots, getting prepared to sleep. "It shouldn't take too long, I'm bone tired." The boots were set aside and he lay back on the bed, pivoting so that he lay along its length. The pillow was gathered and placed under his head.

Beni laughed softly at his tease, moving to cover him with the quilt as he settled down to sleep. She couldn't resist gently stroking his hair back off his face as he hugged the pillow. "Sleep sweet, Edward," she murmured softly to him.

It'd been a very long time since he'd been tucked in and it brought back memories of eiderdown quilts and the sent of lemon verbena that his mother wore. There was a very contented sigh as he snuggled down. "Sleep well, Beni. And thank you, again."

"Anytime," she smiled, leaning down to brush a soft kiss against his hair. Then she straightened, moving across the room to slip into her own bed, curling up beneath the covers. Reaching up, she flicked the light off, letting her eyes adjust to the moonlight so she could watch him from across the room.

It was the kiss that did it. Edward knew he was in deep trouble because the tenderness shown in that soft kiss melted his heart. His eyes opened and he watched as she got into the bed and turned off the light. He wasn't sure what to say, and just as he was getting it figured out, his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep. A little known fact that Ed kept a close guarded secret was that he spoke when he slept. And those feelings for Beni, kept to himself when conscious were completely set free in his unconscious state.

She watched him drift off, reluctant to fall asleep herself, trying to tell herself it was only out of concern that he might have done more damage than just cut his head and blacked his eye. That was a lie, though, and she knew it. She watched him because she wanted to, because the peace that spread across his face as he slept wrenched at her heart. She'd never realised how much he kept bottled up and hidden until she saw him sleeping. And she knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that she wanted him to find that peace while he was awake, too.

((Adapted from Live Play.))