Weak in the Knees Ch. 03

Zach pushed the thoughts away of how beautiful this man was as he went over and sat down on the edge of the bed to gently shake Diego awake while saying his name. Diego's eyes shot open and were wide as if he was in a panic. He scrambled away from Zach, facing him the entire time as if he considered him a threat as he looked frantically around the room to assess for other threats. Worst of all to Zach, Diego did not appear to recognize him.

Zach stood up and put his hands up in front of him, trying to show he wasn't a threat. "Diego, it's me. Zach."

Diego squinted at him, calming down some as he failed to register any additional threats. The wild look went out of his eyes suddenly as recognition dawned in them. "Zach!" he exclaimed, "I'm so sorry! I... I don't know what happened. It felt like I was trapped in a dream..."

"It's okay," Zach told him in a voice he hoped was calming. "It's okay, you're okay. I promise. I was just worried. You're normally awake by now."

"Am I?" Diego looked confused as he tried to make sense of the time on the clock by his bed. "The doc started me on some new medication because I wasn't sleeping through the night. I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," Zach replied soothingly. "I understand. I have my own nighttime prescription for sleep. Do you need a bit? I can cancel my morning work."

Diego seemed to realize that he was standing there in only shorts. "Oh! Um, I can take care of Nadya, I just need to get dressed."

"Of course," Zach said with a nod. "I'll, uh, leave you to that then."

Zach turned and walked out of the room, going back to Nadya's to take her out of the crib so she could sit with him in his room while he worked on a few technical drawings he was still in the middle of. Before too long, Diego knocked quietly on the door and entered the room, dressed and looking more than a little embarrassed.

"I, um, have dreams a lot, about... back then. I was in therapy for it, but money became an issue and then my therapist left the practice, so I've been interviewing new ones," Diego blurted once Zach looked around at him.

Zach looked Diego over, taking in the nervous energy and worried face, then gave him a sympathetic look. "Trust me, Diego, I understand PTSD dreams. Maybe not your exact ones, but I watched my brother get injured and I was there when Kali died. I'm no stranger to nightmares. I'm just sorry you had to stop therapy due to money troubles. That should never happen in a civilized society, but unfortunately, that's not how it works. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

Zach wanted so badly to hug Diego and find a way to make it better, but he held back. Diego could catch some of that on his face, but Zach quickly hid it away as he looked down at Nadya. Diego jumped as if Zach looking at Nadya was a reminder that he had been slacking on his responsibilities and rushed forward to take her. The rest of the day passed in relative quiet as Zach sequestered himself in his office to finish work on an important project. He could hear Diego and Nadya playing downstairs and he checked in on them using the baby monitors whenever he felt the need to look away from his work.

Zach looked tired when he finally came down into the living room and sat down on the couch. Nadya let out a happy squeal and took shaky steps over to him, where he happily scooped her up and kissed her on the cheek over and over again, telling her how proud of her he was while she giggled at him.

In moments like this, watching Zach with his daughter, it made Diego think of all of the good qualities Zayne and Elias had listed about the man. He agreed with them, it was just hard for him to get over that concern about losing everything. Still, as he settled into more of a routine around the house, it was easy to begin to daydream about being part of this family for real, instead of as a paid helper. He was still scared it could go down in flames, but could he ignore this attraction to Zach forever, especially when he knew the feelings were mutual?