"Hmm..." A voice groaned beside me as a hand crawled up my back and rubbed the back of my neck. "Why are you awake?"

"Couldn't sleep." I replied looking back to the laptop.

It only occurred to me, as I led in bed this morning that I have been taking advantage of Zak. Yes, I was only meant to move in temporarily, but had somehow moved in, and not left..

"Apartments? You going somewhere?" He questioned sitting up to nuzzle into me.

"Maybe."

His movements stopped instantly. "What?"

I turn to face him "Well it was only suppose to be a temporary measure and I've just taken over your home."

"And?"

"And... It's not right. I came here as a friend, were a couple now kinda of, things are different."

"Couple now, kind of? Delilah what the hell? I thought it was pretty obvious we are something, after everything you just presume that I wanna be friends with you? That I only want you around for sex?"

I shrug "I don't know."

"Sweetie, I told you I'm in this as much as you are, I want us to be something, if you want there to be."

Looking into his eyes, I can see the worry and desperation, something I never banked on.

"You're worried." I noted.

"Damn right I am." He confirmed.

"So I just stay here? Forever?"

"Pretty much."

"A-and what if we split up?"

He smiled "I don't plan on doing that any time soon. Look, the house is big enough, we just remain on good terms and you take a room until you're able to find somewhere else. Okay?"

"So I'm not taking advantage of you?"

He smirked "No, but I'm totally open to the idea now." He whispered kissing my neck.

My eyes fell shut at the sensation as my hands shut the laptop and pushed it aside.

"Play with me.. I've missed you."

"We need showers."

"After." He replied.

"Nope." I answered slipping out of bed and walking to the bathroom, fully aware that he was watching, I stripped off his t-shirt and allowed his eyes to roam over my naked body. "You coming?"

His legs kicked at the sheets as he pulled it from his body and walked to me quickly. I giggled as he barrelled us into the bathroom.

Whilst he fixed the shower, I looked at myself in the mirror, doing my usual routine of placing my arm over my scars to see what a normal body would look like.

"You're perfect." Zak spoke coming to stand behind me. Removing my arm, he pushed my hair aside and laid kisses along my neck, biting playfully.

Grinding back against him was all the distraction I needed before shifting my legs apart and helping myself to his body.

We both groaned as I took all of him in greedily. His heavy breath fell across my back as his hands took my hips.

"You're sinful." He said huskily as I braced my hands onto bathroom sink. We locked eyes in the mirror and a wicked gleam can across his face. "Let me give you, your moving in present..."

+++

"Zak!" I giggled swatting his hand away, as we led on the couch together watching a documentary.

"I can't help it.." He sniggered tightening his arms around my shoulders, drawing me in closer. "I love hearing your laugh."

My cheeks flush with embarrassment as I always considered my laugh awful, it was never cute or sexy, it was fully belly laugh ugly. But he said he loved it...

"I want to find out who killed them." I whispered back looking at the television.

"It's cold case, they never found the killer."

I pause and cock my head back "Well now you've ruined it."

He laughs "What? It's true. That's why it's called a cold case, it's unsolved."

Giving him a pouty expression, he leans over and turns the TV off by the remote "Now I have you're full attention..." He grins making me tut.

"That's all you wanted huh? Feeling left out?"

"A little. But I wanna talk and you can't use the TV as the excuse."

I detect the serious tone in his voice and lay still looking up at him. "What do you want to talk about?"

"How you're doing for one? And don't say you're fine. You're clearly not."

I sigh and mull my answer over, because I didn't know how I felt. There was some conflicting factors there, of course. Do I fell sad because she's died? Or do I hold hate because she's killed her self and escaped any form of punishment?

Do I wish her freedom? Or hope that she's stuck in some form of purgatory?

"Delilah?" Zak asks waiting for my answer.

"Honestly? I don't know. I just find it easier if I forget all about it."

"But that's not healthy, suppressing things is not healthy."

"I know that, but I don't know how to feel. So until I do, I'm canning it away."

"Can I tell you something?" He asks making me look up into his eyes and nod. "I find you, incredible. Not because I like every inch of your body or how your eyes lead me on or the way you moan. I find you incredible because no matter what's thrown at you, no matter how many times you fall, you keep getting back up."

"But what if it's one too many knock downs?"

"Then you accept my help and I will help you up." He replied a beat later. "Because I don't want to live with a poltergeist."

I frown. "I don't..."

"It's nothing like the film. The film? It's all Hollywood." He speaks rolling his eyes as he pushes his hand under my top to feel my skin and brush his fingers over my hipbone.  "Poltergeists are created by human form. Which means they can be created by me, or you.. They are created when someone experiences physical, mental and emotional trauma, who then suppress their emotions and feelings. It's like filling a water balloon, eventually it's going to burst. Each source of energy is stored up, thus far creating spikes in the energy field and when it gets too much...."

"Kaboom."

He smiles "Kaboom indeed. I get it must be difficult, but you do need to talk about this, if not to me, then maybe a counsellor."

I open my mouth to speak when he lifts his hand.

"I know what you're going to say, but hear me out... I say a counsellor because it's neutral ground. I don't judge you sweetie, I don't. But maybe you'd feel better talking to a stranger? I don't know."

"So you're saying, if I suppress, I could create a poltergeist bomb?" I conclude, causing him to nod. "They're pretty serious."

"Not to mention dangerous. You can't control them and they're difficult to get rid of."

"So talking will prevent it?"

"Yeah.. And I know what you're thinking. People bottle stuff up all the time. But all it takes is one push from the spiritual side of things and in our jobs?"

"Wow. I never knew.."

"So talk, if not to me, then to a counsellor. But I will only get the best."

I smile "You're too good to me."

"Nonsense."

+++

They're lead together in a comfortable bliss, letting the day pass them by. Delilah settled against Zak whilst he savours the good day they are experiencing. Happy that she hadn't reverted back into her shell.

Happy that he had talked her out of renting out an apartment and leaving him alone.

He didn't want to be alone. He didn't like it and how he managed to last so long without someone like Delilah in his life, he wasn't sure.

Because he loved the way she looked up at him. The scent of her skin and the feel of her hair, silky and smooth against his face. How soft her skin felt and the way their feet rubbed together, giving a weird sense of intimacy.

For once he was happy to waste a day, and any other day that may follow, as long as he had her, here like this.

He felt the temptation of a nap rising, and nuzzled in to get comfortable when Delilah's phone tore the silence apart. Even she grumbled at its sound and reached back.

But Zak knew the moment had shifted when she sat up and answered it quickly.

The phone call was short and tense. He saw her back go ramrod straight and knew something had happened over the phone. So he waited.

Once the phone was down, he pounced.

"What is it? What's happened?" He asks.

Delilah blinks unable to process anything that was said, so she just repeats the words that was said to her.

"They want me to go down to the station, tomorrow."

"About your mom?" He guessed.

"About Randy... He uh, um.." She paused and frowned slightly. "They want to charge him."

"For murder? Attempted murder?"

"For sex trafficking... Zak, I wasn't the first girl." She replied before swallowing the lump in her throat thickly.

She knew Randy was evil, but now? So did the world.