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Ally went to bed without Lauren again last night. But as she slowly woke up under the warm covers the next morning she could feel the weight of Lauren on the other side of the bed. Ally changed her position so she could see her. Lauren was lying on her left side facing away from Ally. She was still asleep, her breaths deep and slow. There were red cuts on her back, long but thin and not very deep. Ally knew those hadn’t been there yesterday. She sighed and let her head fall back on her pillow.She only realized she fell back asleep when she woke up to their daughter’s cries coming from the nursery. Lauren was still asleep next to her in the same position she was before. Ally pushed the thick white covers off, slowly rolled out of bed and walked through the hallway to the nursery to lift the 6-month-old baby Rosa in her arms.After a minute Lauren peeked through the door.”Hey,” she said quietly. Ally looked up. Lauren had put on a big grey T-shirt, which made Ally wonder if she was hiding more new scars underneath it. She almost asked.”Hey, baby,” she replied instead. It was still early in the morning and Ally couldn’t bring herself to break the silence. Lauren had a warm, loving smile on her face as she slowly walked to her wife and their daughter. She kissed Ally’s cheek and sat down onto the floor to gently caress Rosa’s head, and Ally took in the moment.-Lauren left the nursery to go check on their son James. The cold tiles under her bare feet changed to a soft grey carpet when she entered the living room where she found the 5-year-old sitting in the corner of their couch watching early morning cartoons, wrapped in a yellow blanket, hugging his fluffy Chewbacca plushie that looked so adorably huge compared to the small boy.”Good morning, Jamie,” she said quietly so that she didn’t scare him. James turned his head to look at his mother in the doorway. His brown hair was sticking up at the back of his head.”Good morning, mommy,” he replied with a sleepy voice. Lauren moved to stand behind the couch and wrapped her arms around her son. She kissed his cheek and stayed there watching TV with the boy for a minute. The colors of the TV were bright and colorful in the dim room only illuminated by the morning light that was coming through the blinds.Lauren stood back up slowly and ruffled the hair on Jamie’s and then the Chewbacca plushie’s head.”We’re going to make breakfast,” she told the small boy. ”Come to the kitchen when you’re hungry, okay?””Okay,” James replied without moving his eyes from his show. Lauren smiled and went to the kitchen, leaving the door slightly cracked open so she could just barely hear the quiet sounds from the TV.It was Saturday, which Lauren thought was the perfect excuse to make waffles for breakfast. She got the waffle iron and a mixing bowl from the kichen drawers and started collecting ingredients from the cabinets.She was buried in her thoughts mixing the ingredients together when she noticed Ally walking through the doorway into the kitchen.”Hey,” Lauren said again.”Hey,” Ally replied, walking towards Lauren. She gently took the bowl from Lauren’s hands and went to stand in front of her so that Lauren could stand behind Ally and wrap her arms around the shorter woman. Ally started mixing, leaning on the counter slightly as Lauren hugged her from behind, resting her chin on Ally’s shoulder. They were quiet for a while. Ally was the first one to break the silence.”Were you in the forest last night?” she asked quietly, not raising her eyes from the bowl. Lauren sighed.”You don’t have to answer,” Ally said, almost whispering. They both knew she knew. Lauren squeezed her a little tighter.”You know I’d never put myself in danger out there. Not anymore. Now it’s more like just… Letting out steam,” Lauren assured her wife, speaking in a low voice. Ally didn’t seem so sure, but she remained quiet.She moved away from the kitchen counter. Lauren let go of her and Ally started spooning the batter onto the waffle iron.-Late in the evening of that day Lauren was lying on her back on the couch with Ally on her back on of top of her, sitting slighly in between her legs. Lauren’s arms were resting over Ally’s stomach, Ally’s hands over Lauren’s, the yellow blanket covering both women. James had already gone to bed a while ago and Rosa had just fallen asleep too. The lights were dim and the TV was on low volume.Lauren was happy to be lying close to her wife but she could still feel the tension. She knew Ally didn’t like her going into the woods. Maybe she would’ve been fine with her just running there in her werewolf form, running as fast as she could go, just getting rid of that bad energy. But a lot of the time it wasn’t just running alone. She still got into fights with other wolves. Not necessarily anything serious, just playful little fights. But the scars she returned with didn’t let Ally believe she wasn’t putting herself in any serious danger like she had used to before Ally got pregnant with James.They had some pretty big fights about it, too. Back then Lauren would come home with some seriously deep wounds that always made Ally almost call the ambulance despite Lauren telling her she couldn’t possibly do that. Ally was scared of something happening to Lauren and her being left alone with the baby. Lauren hated seeing Ally worried like that but it was just as hard to deny herself of her second nature that kept pulling her back into the forest every once in a while.Ally squeezed Lauren’s hand in hers and pulled Lauren out of her thoughts. Lauren lifted her other hand into Ally’s hair and started playing with it gently.”I’m sorry,” she said absent-mindedly. Ally turned her head to look at Lauren with a surprised expression on her face.”For what?” she asked.Lauren sighed and almost rolled her eyes a little bit.”Well, you know… Last night… And in the morning. And you know… I know you hate it,” she rambled, keeping her gaze at her hand in Ally’s hair, avoiding eye contact with her.Ally let out a quiet ”mmh”. She understood.More silence followed.”Balance,” Lauren mumbled.”Hm?””It’s about finding balance,” Lauren explained. ”I can’t keep getting hurt out there. But you know I can’t stay completely out of the woods, neither. I need it”, she continued.”I know you need it. But I need you too,” Ally replied.Lauren didn’t know what to say.”I think we’re already pretty balanced. We have to be, I mean, it’s been over 5 years since we had Jamie…” Ally said. ”It’s not like we would’ve gotten by for this long without having some kind of balance,” she continued.”I guess,” said Lauren.”I just worry for you,” Ally mumbled barely audibly. Lauren hugged her tighter, burying her nose in her hair.”I know you do. And I don’t try to make you worried on purpose.””I know.”The two were quiet for a moment. Sleep was making Lauren’s eyes heavy, but she didn’t want to fall asleep while they were still basically mid conversation.”You’re tired,” Ally pointed out.”You’re tired,” Lauren blamed her wife. Ally laughed, Lauren could feel her body shake a little bit because the two were lying so close to each other. Lauren couldn’t help but smile and squeeze the other woman’s body even tighter than she already was, which made Ally laugh even more.”Let’s go to bed,” Ally said finally. She started getting up from the couch, pulling at Lauren’s arm while she whined about being too tired to move.”Come on baby, let’s go,” Ally encouraged quietly. Lauren got up slowly and Ally turned off the lights and the TV.Still holding Ally’s hand Lauren followed her through the hallway with the cold tile floors, peeking into Rosa’s room through the door left slightly ajar as they walked past it, finally into their bedroom with the fluffy white carpeting and into their bed under the warm covers, next to her wife.”Good night, baby,” Lauren whispered, spooning Ally from behind.”Good night, wolfie,” replied Ally. Lauren was silent for a second.”What? Wolfie? That’s the worst nickname so far, god please don’t let that stick-””Shh.””I’m not going to be called wolfie.””Be quiet, Big Bad Wolf. Red Riding Hood is trying to sleep now,” Ally whispered. Lauren could hear in her voice that she had a silly smile on her face.”Why do I love you?”, Lauren wondered.”How could you not?”Lauren didn’t need to answer that.