Cleo staggered in from work the next evening, looking deeply green around the gills. OK, she'd never admit it, but Quinn was right, she shouldn't have been to work.
Quinn was sitting in the kitchen reading whilst waiting for the kettle to boil. "Clee?" he called as he heard the front door close.
"Hey," she moved straight to him. "Jess is doing tomorrow alone. I'm worried the place might be on fire."
"Well, it's got a fire alarm or something hasn't it?" Quinn set the book down and held his arms out to her. "How you feeling?" he asked.
"I feel bloody dreadful, to be honest," she sank into him. "And yeah, mostly magic too."
Quinn wrapped his arms around her. "Want something to eat?"
"Mmm, and a bucket of tea, please"
Quinn chuckled and kissed her temple without thinking. "I'll use the biggest mug we have. Would you rather order something?"
"Mmm, pizza do?" Cleo asked. She felt so sick she didn't know if she could eat but at least pizza couldn't be eaten cold.
"You know me, I'll eat whatever," Quinn replied. "Go sit down and I'll sort it."
She leaned her head into her neck. "You're brilliant."
"Go sit down, put your feet up."
Cleo yawned and did as she was told, still marvelling at him.
Quinn reboiled the kettle as he ordered pizza before grabbing two mugs from the cupboard. He handed her one before sitting down next to her.
"So what about you, you must still be wiped out too?"
"A little I guess, but I'm OK."
"See, you're selfless and nice, so I don't believe you," Cleo yawned again.
"Do selfless and nice people lie?" Quinn asked.
"To protect people, yeah," she smiles
"Still, compared to you or Annabelle and Erin, I barely have anything to complain about."
"Erin's even worse than me right now, 'Belle's...she'll get better fast," Cleo murmured
"Did the spell affect her too?" Quinn asked about Erin. "Mansell seems to be hanging around your boss quite a bit. 'Follow up' he calls it."
"It seemed to make her really fuzzy, and yeah, she's enjoying the follow up," Cleo smirked
Quinn chuckled and gave a short shake of his head. "I did not see that coming at all."
"He must like being yelled at," Cleo smirked. "Apparently she saw us coming."
"She did?"
"Everyone did 'cept us, it seems. We're just crap."
"Maybe. But we know now," he said, squeezing her hand before the doorbell went. "That'll be the pizza." He rose and headed to the door.
Cleo tilted her head to watch him. She covered her face with her hands, trying to fight the worry she felt about her new relationship with Quinn.
"One pizza," Quinn declared as he dropped back down next to her with the box.
"Guard it from Cat...Quinn? You'll tell me right, when you've had enough of everything?"
Quinn chuckled before his face fell into a frown as he opened the box. "What do you mean?"
"Well me, I suppose."
"In case, no. Because I won't," he said and grabbed a slice of pizza.
"You can't know that, it's tiring, living like this."
"Maybe. But right now, definitely not," he said, holding out the box to her with a smile.
Cleo took some pizza from him, and settled. "Least we don't have to handle family"
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked in between bites.
"Well, don't they always complicate things?"
Quinn chewed, not answering for a while before nodding. "Yeah. I guess."
"Mine hate me, they'd just try to put you off"
"Try being the word."
"I know," Cleo replied, biting back 'I think'
"Mine would like you."
"Really? An ex junkie?"
Quinn caught her hand with his. "A good person."
She squeezed his hand. "I like this, I..."
"You?"
"I'm an addictive personality and this feeling, I like it. This accepted feeling."
"I'm glad. I do too," Quinn said, reaching for another slice of pizza. He hesitated for a moment. "Cleo I... What do you remember about what happened in the cave?"
"Not a lot, you seemed damn strong though," she admitted
"What do you mean?"
"I felt connected to everyone, someone was bloody strong, and it wasn't 'Belle."
"Well, she wasn't part of the spell was she... And it wasn't Erin?"
"Wouldn't have thought so, but I suppose,"
Quinn stared at his pizza slice. "And it wiped her out, like it did you?"