The summer was flying by. Marlowe was so busy with quidditch, he scarcely had time to think about anything else.

It wasn't until the full moon in July forced him to slow down that he really stopped to take a breath.

He'd had training that morning, but they'd just come off back to back game days so the schedule was a little lighter, thankfully. He wasn't feeling fantastic.

He went to the greenhouse to sit and watch Caiti brew her many potions, something he hadn't had the luxury of doing since February, and it was nice just to lie there on the couch in the quiet and watch her work.

She had her hair in two french braids — something she used to do often but hadn't in a while — and it made him feel nostalgic. He kept thinking about those couple of months before they'd started dating, before he'd been bitten, when everything had seemed so possible. Caiti had been single for the first time in years and he had been so sure there was something sparking between them, something that wasn't one-sided. The Ballycastle Bats had scouted him. He was months away from graduating. It had all seemed so bright. He had felt so ready to step into his new life, to be an adult (sort of), and then everything had gotten messed up.

But then, he had to remind himself that he still had everything he could want and more. He had his dream job, with a team full of great people. He had Caiti. He was lucky.

Knowing this helped him get through the hard days, like today.

Caiti had just wrapped up another potion, her fifth batch. She bottled it up and added it to the collection she already had going on the desk, and then looked up at him.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"Not the best," Marlowe said. "Not the worst."

She got up and came and sat on the edge of the couch beside him, put her hand in his hair.

"Don't you have more to do?" he asked, closing his eyes at her touch. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I can take a few minutes," she said softly.

They didn't talk. Caiti ran her fingers through his hair again and again, sometimes drawing her fingers all the way down his spine. It was amazing how just her hand on his back could make him feel so much better.

With a final press of her fingers to the back of his neck, she got up and went back to work. Marlowe's eyes opened again to watch her.

His mind felt blank, a clean slate. It surprised him therefore, when she finished another batch, to hear himself say, "I'm really sorry for how I acted when you first made this and everything." He hadn't even known he was still thinking about that period of time.

She looked up at him in surprise.

"Marlowe, that was a very long time ago," she said softly.

"I know."

"And you already apologized."

"I know," he repeated. He started to sit up. "I just want you to know that I really am sorry. I had a lot of anger pent up and I just feel bad that I took it out on you. It wasn't your fault. And you didn't deserve it. Out of everyone, you didn't deserve it the most. You were the only thing getting me through those first few months. And I never really let you know that at the time. I didn't really want you to know. 'Cause I wanted to seem like I was fine. I didn't like you knowing that I was having a hard time. And somehow that meant that I took everything out on you and I'm just... I really am sorry."

"I know you are," she said. "It's okay." Then she took a deep breath and added, "I don't care how angry you get or how hard a time you're having. I'm here for you. Even if it means it's sometimes hard to be nice to me. I'm sure someday I'll have a reason to snap at you when it's not your fault."

"It was more than snapping," Marlowe said in a low voice.

Caiti gave him the ghost of a smile. "The point is, I know things aren't always going to be smooth and seamless between us the way they have been lately. We haven't always gotten along perfectly. But I know when you apologize you mean it and I know that we'll work through anything, because we love each other. I loved you then and I love you more now, and I'll love you even more in a year. I'll love you even more by tomorrow. Helping you get through hard things is sort of my job," she said. "We take care of each other."

Marlowe swallowed. Nodded. Looked down at his lap.

"I'm so fucking lucky," he said to his knees.

"Me too," Caiti said firmly.

She came and sat beside him again.

"I'm sorry too, you know," she said, taking his hand between both of hers.

"For what?" asked Marlowe, truly flabbergasted. She had nothing to be sorry for. Nothing.

"That you have to do this tonight," she said. "When I know it could be easier on you."

"Caiti," he said, "I am not nothing if not patient. It's really okay. I waited for you to get on board with me for six and a half years. I can manage this, too."

Caiti cracked a smile, this time a little more lively. "Sorry about that," she said sheepishly. "I don't know what I was thinking."

He laughed. "It's for the best."

Caiti smiled bigger. "Do you even know how many times you tried to get me to kiss you?" she asked.

"Millions," said Marlowe proudly. "I really should have counted. Would have made it so much more satisfactory when you finally did."

"Oh please," she said. "You couldn't have been more thrilled."

"No," he agreed. "Sometimes I still can't believe it."

Caiti wrapped her arms around his neck, hugged him tight for a few seconds, then kissed him quickly. "Yes you can," she said.

And she got back up. She still had two more potions to brew.

—-

Usually on a full moon night, Caiti would go straight to bed after Marlowe left, even if she knew she wasn't going to sleep much. Tonight, though, she went back to the greenhouse.

She'd had something on her mind all day that she hadn't been able to give her full attention with everything else she'd had to do. She worked late into the night, only finally leaving at two in the morning, exhausted and with nothing truly accomplished except a vague sense that she was on the right track.

It was because of her late night, that she did not wake up early enough to get to Marlowe's house at sunrise as planned. Normally she just slept at his house so she was already there when he came inside, but she had felt it would be a little strange to go into someone else's house that late at night, even if his parents wouldn't have cared.

It was Marlowe who came to her instead.

She woke up when the mattress depressed next to her and blinked her eyes open groggily. "Oh god, I'm sorry," she said, her voice all crackly with sleep still.

"It's fine," Marlowe said. "You weren't there so I figured you were here. Don't worry about it."

He crawled into bed next to her.

"I made—" Caiti started to say, but Marlowe already had the bottle in his hand of the potion she had made for him yesterday morning, before all the others. She had put it next to the bed so she could grab it when she left to see him.

He just nodded, said a quiet, "Thanks," and drank in three long gulps. He set the bottle back on the bedside table and lay beside her, eyes already closed.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

Marlowe shrugged. "I'm fine," he mumbled.

Caiti figured he didn't feel like talking.

She pulled him into her arms and let her own eyes fall closed again. Marlowe's skin was hot to the touch. He moved around for a moment and then once he'd found a comfortable position, he lay perfectly still.

Caiti fell back to sleep, but it was just a light sleep. After a while, she could hear — somewhat distantly — the sounds of her family getting ready. She kept her eyes shut, afraid to move and wake Marlowe who appeared to be sleeping soundly, but her brain started to rouse itself.

Before long, she was thinking about what she'd been working on so late into the night and she was doing what she usually did these days when trying to sleep: problem-solving.

Without looking at the clock, she had no idea how long she thought for. The house had gone quiet again, so she had to assume that everyone had left for work.

Marlowe readjusted his arm and Caiti opened her eyes.

She stared up at the ceiling. Slowly, something started to sink in inside her brain, so slowly that she didn't even realize she was putting something very crucial together, something that had been eluding her for months now.

When it finally hit her, it was like a jolt of electricity running through her body and she jerked upward.

"Sorry," she said quickly, because Marlowe had just made a noise of protest.

"D'you have that falling dream?" he asked, starting to settle himself back down.

"No," Caiti said. She sounded breathless. She felt like she'd been running a marathon even though she'd been lying still. "No," she repeated. "I think I just figured something out."

Marlowe lifted his head back up. He scrutinized her for a moment and then just said, "Go."

"But-"

"Just go ahead, Caiti. I'm good."

She sat up the rest of the way. "Okay," she said. "Okay." And then she climbed out of bed, hurried to throw something on other than pajamas, ran a brush through her hair and was about to go when she turned back to the bed. She leaned down and kissed Marlowe on the forehead. "You can stay here," she said. "Or come there if you want."

Then she left and she got to work.

—-

Marlowe didn't follow Caiti to the greenhouse for hours. He knew she wouldn't have minded if he were there, but he also knew she'd want to focus and she focused best when he wasn't around.

He'd fallen back asleep at first after she'd gone, and then when he'd woken back up, he'd laid there thinking about the look she'd had in her eyes when she'd spoken. It wasn't like anything he'd seen in her before and he couldn't put a finger on what it was all day long. In fact, it wasn't until much later, at eight pm, when he finally decided he'd better go at least make sure she'd eaten something, that he felt like he could give it a name.

Hope.

She'd looked like she had hope.

Her whole face had been practically sparkling with the possibility of this being it.

The greenhouse was an absolute disaster when he arrived. Caiti had things spread out positively everywhere and he expected to find her busy with something, but she was not. Instead, she was lying on her back like a big X, underneath the largest of the greenhouse tables. He would have missed her except that one foot was sticking out.

"Hey," he said, crouching down. "What are you doing down here?"

"There was nowhere else to sit."

Marlowe laughed. "I can see that."

She sat up, scooting out from under the table.

"Marlowe..." she said. "I mean I don't know for sure but I think I might've... I just have this gut feeling..."

"You think you did it?"

"I'm too scared to say yes," she whispered.

Marlowe laughed. Caiti managed a smile that looked both happy and terrified. He pulled her in close and kissed her, then pressed his face down into the crook of her neck. Her hands pressed into his low back, one just above the other.

"This is either it or it's really, really close," she said. "I really think it's at least close."

"Tell me," he said, letting go of her. And they sat there on the floor for at least an hour while Caiti tried to explain her breakthrough. Marlowe forgot all about how ill he had felt.