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Following Nathan’s return from the dead, when he’d finally admitted to Jack that he, Nathan Stark, could not re-marry Allison because he was in love with Jack, and Jack’s realisation that, far from being in love with Allison, the time loops had shown him that he and Allison would not work as a couple, Jack admitted to himself and Nathan that there was something between them.He wasn’t sure what it was.It had taken time, and dinner, and not as many drinks as Jack would have liked to think it would take to get to bed Nathan.He lay there, sprawled on his back, with Nathan’s weight pressing half of his body into the mattress, bathed in the afterglow of love-making that he was pretty sure he’d only ever heard about in romance novels and cheesy romantic movies, and Jack could finally let go of the pretence.He loved Nathan.He turned his head then, and his lips brushed the sleeping scientist’s forehead, Nathan made a little huffing noise and burrowed closer. Jack smiled.He wasn’t sure why he had imagined that Nathan would be a distant sleeper, as aloof as he was in his everyday interactions, distant, controlling even. His Nathan was nothing like that, the scientist craved touch, even in his sleep, he could gravitate towards Jack, sometimes burrowing up close, wrapping his body around Jack, sometimes squeezing Jack like a teddy bear.Jack was not a psychiatrist, and he hated to analyze people like that, it felt invasive, but it didn’t take much to connect the dots of Nathan’s past, what little Nathan had revealed was clearly painful. Until three nights ago, Jack had no idea that Nathan had an older half-brother. Stark was a fairly unusual surname, and it wasn’t as though billionaire Tony Stark was a recluse, if Jack thought about it, there was even something of a resemblance.Nathan wanted and needed family. When Jack wasn’t sure where this relationship was going, he’d hesitated to mention it to Zoe. He’d asked SARAH to keep quiet about it. But when he realised that Nathan had truly laid his heart on the line for Jack, he’d sat Zoe down and told her about them.On the quiet, he’d asked SARAH to find everything she could on Tony Stark, and Tony and Nathan’s father, Howard. Alone in the dark with Nathan, Jack wanted to give Nathan everything he needed, the love and security that came from family.Nathan sleepily nuzzled Jack’s shoulder, he could feel his lover plotting, and the waves of warmth and security that seemed to vibrate from Jack’s very soul. They didn’t need words, or gestures, for the first time in his life, Nathan knew he was loved, and not for his brains, or his doctorates, or his Nobel, or even his looks, but just because he was Nathan. The arm around his waist held him close and he felt cherished in a way that he wasn’t certain he’d ever thought of or needed before.They dozed together, warm and comfortable and happy, and SARAH cosied up the temperature a little, the vibrations of their souls beat as one, and for once she could find no fault with this love.