Avery had a harder time sticking to her guns working around Easter and the sheer number of missions Angelo had her going on in April. They went to the Cruzes since their last holiday had been spent with the Slaters but they ended up having dinner with them the following Sunday when she was exhausted and running on two hours of sleep.

"Are you alright, Avery? You seem worn out,

" Nancy said with a frown.

"I haven't been feeling very well lately,

" she said half-truthfully. She never felt well when she wasn't properly rested.

"You need to take better care of yourself. It's no good if you run yourself ragged. That doesn't help anybody, let alone you. What sort of not feeling well is it? Do you need to go to the doctor?

"

"No, I'm just tired and achy. Don't worry about me.

"

"Tired and achy? Could you possibly be pregnant?

" Nancy asked, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Mom!

" Christian protested.

"We've only been married for a few months! Don't start on the grandchildren thing yet. Please. We're not ready for that.

"

Avery appreciated him standing up for her as she blushed.

"Definitely not pregnant. Just overworked. Things have been really busy lately. We want to spend more time alone together first before we even think about that.

"

"Lay off her, Nancy,

" Brian said, waving his fork around.

"I know you want grandkids but let them do things at their own pace.

"

She appreciated that too. What she did not appreciate was how gleeful Liam was trying and failing to stifle his laughter. She supposed he thought it was funny because if his mother's attention was on getting grandchildren it wasn't on him getting a girlfriend.

The subject blessedly changed after that but Avery was more exhausted than before when they left the Slaters. Christian could tell exactly what it was about and was incredibly apologetic.

"I'm so sorry about my mom.

"

"Don't worry about it. I can't blame her for being excited,

" she said wearily.

"She has wanted grandkids for a really long time but it still isn't fair to put pressure on you. I know you're busy and still figuring things out. We can wait to have kids until that happens so don't worry about it.

"

"Is that really what you want?

"

"You already know what I want. I want to have a family with you but I knew you weren't ready before we got married. Ignore my mom, okay? When we have kids is our business. But I have to ask…do you know how long you're going to be this busy?

" Christian asked.

Avery sighed.

"Unfortunately, no. I don't really have control over what's going on. I just do what I'm told.

"

"Hang on, what? I thought whatever it was you were doing was your idea!

"

"I never said that. I said I had obligations. I have to see them through to the end but I'm not the one calling the shots so I have no idea how long it's going to take. I'm sorry I've been busy lately but I'm kind of on call.

"

"On call for what? What on earth are you involved in that takes up this much time?

" Christian demanded.

"Why do you feel obligated to keep doing things for other people at your own detriment?

"

Avery should have expected questions like this. Honestly, it was surprising he didn't ask them sooner. He had been letting her do her thing up until now but it seemed he had reached his limit. It was a good thing she had prepared for this. Otherwise she might be in real trouble.

"You know how I help out that family hiding from the mom's abusive estranged husband? It's like that but on a larger scale. It's all very secretive to protect the people we're hiding so I can't talk about it much but work with an organization that's kind of like a women's shelter but operates on a larger scale.

"It's very important to me so I can't give it up until I reach a certain milestone of people helped but I don't know how long that will take. Can you understand that? I'm just trying to make a difference.

"

Christian narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why can't I help you with that?

"

"I told you, it's very secretive. Run by women for women. There aren't any men involved at all because it would make the people we're helping uncomfortable. So just…let me be busy, okay? It will be over eventually but for now I go where the leader tells me to go when she needs it. Alright?

"

"Okay! There's no need to get so defensive about it. I just want to help you because you seem stressed.

"

Avery could tell that he was stressed by the way he said that and her heart twisted but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't tell him the truth.

"I know. I can handle it though. I've handled much worse.

"

Christian sighed.

"Maybe so but you shouldn't have to, Avery. Think about that the next time whoever's in charge asks too much of you. I'm going to go take a walk. See you later.

"

She felt terrible that he was so upset he needed to leave to cool down but again there was nothing she could do. She was stuck until the whole mess with Hunsacher was over and done with. They were closer than they had ever been but the mission still seemed to stretch endlessly in front of them. Would they ever be done? Or would she spend the rest of her life spreading herself too thin and avoiding answering questions about when they would have kids?

===

Christian was frustrated enough that he needed to go flying. Avery was always putting other people before herself and as someone who had been there he knew what that could do to you. Sooner or later she was going to snap.

Angelo's concern about their political differences made more sense now. She was majorly involved in some sort of nonprofit and was putting it first while trying to juggle her relationship with him. Had been for months. They were married but she felt further away from him now than she had before when they were just living together.

Probably because her excursions were less frequent then. What had changed? Why were they expecting more from her now?

Christian knew Avery loved him but that was about all he knew at this point. Whatever she was doing she wasn't cheating on him. He was sure of that much. But he hated that she couldn't talk about what was stressing her out.

He felt like the world's biggest hypocrite because of the weight of his own secrets. Everybody had things they couldn't tell anyone else but it was a special kind of aggravating being on both sides of the equation at the same time. He wished there was something he could do but there wasn't so he ended up flying around doing loop-de-loops for a while until he cleared his head.

He needed a better distraction than solely that because his frustration was back come morning when Avery was little more than a zombie on their way to work but it came from an unexpected source. He was scrolling on his phone during his lunch break and happened to see a rather blurry shot of someone leaping through the air that couldn't be anyone but Nox.

The article was speculating about the

"new hero

" who saved Mercury (Delta had kept his word and let everyone know he was still alive) and why he behaved so mysteriously. It must have been a slow news day to bring this back up since it happened months ago.

But it did get Christian thinking. He had so much else going on since retiring that he completely forgot about Nox.

The man had kept his word. Not a peep had gotten out about Mercury's secret identity so he had kept up his side of the deal. What had he been up to all this time aside from most likely continuing to steal insulin?

He couldn't look up what Nox was doing directly since no one knew about him but he could look up what was going on with Nolan Hunsacher. There was a lot to wade through but he discovered two things of note. His wife had filed for divorce and there had been several bombings of Hunsacher labs in different states in the same night.

That sounded an awful lot like Nox's handiwork. But how on earth would he have hit multiple places separated by so many miles in so little time?

Nox may claim to be omniscient but there was only so much a single person could do. Either there was more than one Nox running around or he'd had help. Christian's money was on the latter though he always seemed to work alone when they fought each other every week.

Who was working with Nox? Other enemies of Nolan Hunsacher's?