A knock on the door had Lucy groaning in complaint, snugging in close to her husband.

She didn't want to get up.

A soft chuckle had her opening one eye, and any complaints she was feeling melted away at the way Flynn's bright blue eyes sparkled.

"Good morning," he said softly, the shyness that had faded last night back with a vengeance.

Waking up in her arms, Flynn was overwhelmed with emotion... and Lucy could see it. She ran her fingers through his hair and over his ears gently, smiling at him warmly even as the pink in his cheeks deepened.

"Good morning," she said as she buried her nose in his hair, snuggling him closely.

When he blushed like that she couldn't not... he was just too cute!

Of course, the way he looked at her from between her legs flashed in her mind, and even as she continued to pet and snuggle him - her cheeks flared red.

How could a man this shy do what he did last night? Lucy couldn't make the two versions of Flynn sync up in her mind.

The knock at the door came again, a bit more urgently, and Lucy was distracted from the thought.

"I'm sure breakfast is ready," Flynn said quietly, holding Lucy and snuggling into her chest in a way that suggested he didn't want to get up any more than she did.

Even if snuggling her bare chest was eliciting physical reactions that made him just as disinterested in going back to sleep.

"I suppose we should get up," Lucy sighed, squeezing him once more before finally releasing him.

She slowly scooted to the edge of the bed, and a tenderness between her legs she wasn't used to made her blush deepen as she stood and walked gingerly toward the bathroom to get ready.

Flynn waited until the bathroom door closed, watching Lucy in awe, before he finally got up and dressed quickly. When he opened the door - planning to rush to his own room - he froze in place.

Evan's scowl was so deep Flynn flinched.

"Morning!" Flynn squeaked, surprised at Evan's mood.

"Took you long enough," Evan grumbled, eyeing the man with a fresh perspective.

After all, who would have guessed the youngest and smallest of them could make Lucy make those kinds of noises last night? And for that long? Evan had a new found respect for Flynn... as well as fresh competitiveness he never expected to have with the cat.

"Sorry," Flynn whispered, edging around Evan cautiously, "Lucy is getting ready. We'll be down soon."

Evan just grunted, stomping down the stairs.

Flynn eyed him nervously for a moment before rushing to his room to get cleaned up. He wanted to be waiting for Lucy when she was ready, so he sped through things quickly and was standing outside her door when she opened it.

The moment she smiled and her eyes lit up the way they always did, rushing forward to pet him as usual, a fear Flynn hadn't put words to eased in his chest. He'd been terrified things would change after last night... that if he was able to have one kind of affection he'd lose the other.

He was unbelievably happy when her arms wrapped around him, and he realized he could have both.

When he purred in her arms, Lucy's grin only widened.

She had been concerned too. What if snuggling him wasn't the same anymore? What if it wasn't so innocent after what'd they'd done? She didn't see petting or snuggling Flynn as sexual, and she was afraid that it would be now.

She was thrilled to be wrong.

Giving him a gentle squeeze, she pulled away and guided him to the dining room. Walking in to the strained looks on everyone's faces had them both pausing, though.

"What's the matter?" Lucy asked immediately, eyeing the four men around the table.

"We decided to check out the net this morning," Jasper sighed, crossing his arms, "We'd been putting it off and focusing on more important things. It was the first time since the mission we'd bothered to check in."

"And there's a problem?" Lucy asked slowly, making her way to her seat where a plate was already waiting for her.

Knowing it was Jasper who had made it, she gave him an appreciative nod before diving in.

"There's definitely a lot of talk about you," Rory said seriously, "You're all anyone seems to be talking about at the moment."

Lucy sat back, surprised.

"You mean, still? Like actively? The mission was weeks ago, now. Why are they still talking about us?"

"Not us," Evan corrected with a scowl, "you. It's all about you. Some calling you a sham, others a blessing. Some saying everything you do has been faked or a performance, while others think you're part of a government conspiracy. Some are straight up ready to worship you. You have fans and haters, and nobbles and celebrities are weighing in to feed one side or the other."

"It's apparently been going on since the rescue," Marco explained, stopping Evan's rambling, "Our rescue was noticed, and when people found out someone died on a Level 1 mission they were curious. It appears the hospital staff were all too happy to talk about you, feeding all kinds of rumors. Then your silence for weeks seems to have fanned the flames. Rumors and gossip about why you haven't done interviews, responded to inquiries, or engaged online has people both curious and suspicious."

"Then last week," Rory sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Some arial footage of the path we took for the mission was released. It's... well, quite frankly some people are claiming the photos are edited. After all, it barely looks real to see a bright green line starting from the wall and ending at the other side of the lake amongst the dark green of the rest of the forest."

"The path you cleansed has been revitalized," Marco explained, "and it genuinely is hard to believe it's real. If we hadn't been there and seen it, we probably wouldn't believe it either."

"It's kind of funny," Jasper chuckled, though it sounded forced, "you can tell each time we paused because there's, like, this wide dot within the path that shows you stayed still and cleansed more around you."

"Yeah, fucking hilarious," Evan grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Okaaaaay," Lucy breathed, sitting back and sipping her coffee thoughtfully, "So, what do we do?"

I couldn't care less about rumors or gossip, but no way this is going to end well, Lucy thought with a small frown, before there was just a video from the mall and nobbles were camping outside our door. This is definitely going to make everything worse.

"I'm going to ask the General to increase your security," Rory said seriously, "And I'm going to see if we can work with the university on security as well. The fact that you've been going to the campus was leaked, and people have started going in the hopes of seeing you. Once you attend regularly, it's going to be an issue."

"We should probably als-" Jasper began, but a notification sound none of them recognized had them looking around confused.

"Uh, that's the mail one, I think," Flynn said quietly, furrowing his brow.

They were all new to the fancy sensors and features surrounding them, so it was difficult to remember what all the dings and bells meant as they went off around the house. Thankfully, there were two master control panels, one on the main floor and one on the second floor, that tracked everything in one place.

Flynn got up and made his way into the sitting area where the large screen was embedded into the wall, and nodded when he confirmed he was right.

"We've received packages," he said softly, "and we're being notified that our mail unit is full, so we need to empty it before they can deliver more."

"Were we expecting a lot of things?" Rory asked, furrowing his brow and trying to remember if they'd ordered anything recently, "Why on Wurther would it be full?"

"I have a bad feeling we're not going to like the answer," Evan said seriously, looking to Rory, "We should send the security unit to empty it and go through it."

"What are you saying?" Lucy gasped, paling slightly at the implications.

"That your fans and haters all know where you live," Evan said seriously, "They can't reach you because of security, but the mail is delivered to a central location here in the community. If our box is full, and we didn't order things? There's only one reasonable conclusion for what's in it."

"Fan and hate mail," Jasper nodded, pressing his lips together, "and both can be dangerous for different reasons."

"You can't... you can't be serious?" Lucy's eyes were wide and her jaw slack as she stared at the men.

I'm not made for this, Lucy groaned in her mind, I'm a nobody from nowhere. Our town was so small we didn't even have a hospital! I can't handle being some weird celebrity! This is insane!

"I think Evan's right," Rory said, nodding as he picked up his phone, "I'm going to speak with the General. We need to have our mail scanned before we interact with it. We have no idea what people could be sending you, and we need to ensure it isn't dangerous before it's delivered."

"Why would they want to hurt me?" Lucy squeaked, standing up because the anxiety wouldn't let her sit any longer, "They'd hurt a stranger over something they read that might not even be real?"

"For all kinds of reasons," Evan grit, seething at the very idea of it, "To test you or punish you, to earn your attention or favor, to bribe or threaten you into doing something... people are insane. They don't need good reasons. They'll make up whatever reasons they want to justify doing whatever they want. It's just how people are."

"I... I don't... I..." Lucy's brain short circuited, and she was struggling to find words to express her confusion and frustration at the situation.

"Hey," Jasper said gently, standing and wrapping his arms around her, "It's going to be okay. We knew this was going to happen, remember? That's why we moved here. We've got this, we can handle it. Everything's going to be just fine."

Lucy buried her face in Jasper's chest and tried to pace her breathing, struggling with all the things that always felt so far outside her control. Things had finally felt like they were getting better, but the world seemed determined to pop their bubble of happiness as quickly as it formed.

"I'm going to go make some calls," Rory said, standing, "Evan, can you clean up breakfast, please? Then make some tea for Rachel. Flynn, it'd be very helpful if you could sync all of our devices to the master panel. I have no idea what any of these sounds mean. Marco, come with me. I'd like to have your help calling and dealing with the university. Jasper, stay with Rachel. When she's ready, I think it'd be best if we set up her watch with updated mods and made sure she starts wearing it more regularly."

The last part was more performative for Lucy, but Jasper nodded along anyway.

The men had discussed that Lucy didn't realize the importance of wearing the watches that most of the technology in Wurther was linked to, and agreed they needed to fix that sooner rather than later. Lucy hadn't worn a watch since she arrived, and that didn't mean a whole lot before. Now, however, for everything from health monitoring to location tracking, they needed her to have her watch on.

Orders given, Rory and Marco headed out of the dining area to start dealing with the mail situation, security, and Lucy's upcoming trip to campus. Evan, grumbling the entire time like he did any time he was given a task, began to clean up the table while Jasper scooped a startled Lucy into his arms and walked into the sitting area. Flynn followed behind, moving toward the master panel and starting to connect it to each of the men's primary devices.

The moment Lucy was calm, sipping the tea Evan had brought, Jasper smiled and nodded.

"Okay," Jasper said, reaching to the side and snatching up Lucy's tablet, "So, you haven't really been wearing your watches recently. We need to get you back into the habit before you start work. Which one is your primary device?"

"Uh," Lucy grimaced, having absolutely no idea what watches she even had left after she donated so much during the move.

Everything she'd packed up in her early days at their last house had sat around in bags and boxes in her closet while they waited for things to even out... but they never really did. Lucy didn't even bother going back through it when they moved, and just arranged for everything she'd packed up to be picked up and donated to the donation center.

She didn't realize that the watches were important enough to keep around.

I think I kept one? Maybe two? I can't really remember, she thought to herself, trying to recall, Rachel had so many! It was way too much! I didn't realize they might be different...

"Flynn," Jasper said with a chuckle, shaking his head at the look on Lucy's face, "Can you go grab Rachel's watches when you have a second? And her identification hub, bring that too. She may want to change out her primary device."

Identification hub, Lucy murmured to herself, one of Rachel's memories floating into her mind.

She recalled, suddenly, that everyone had an identification hub. This device was usually stored at home - sometimes in a safe or otherwise secured location since it was where all of the key details for a person's information was housed. Without some kind of tether to the identification hub, a person couldn't access their money, their health records, or anything else of value. It was the vault of all their important information, identification documents, accounts... everything needed to survive in society.

A primary device was connected to the hub - usually a watch, though sometimes an implanted device for the extra wealthy. This device needed to be wearable since it gathered information from the person, such as wellness checks and locations, and sent it back to the identification hub while also being able to pull data from the hub when needed.

Everything else, from tablets to phones, communicated with the primary device.

Lucy cringed instantly, terrified she'd gotten rid of her primary device by accident. She hadn't realized that was a thing when she was going through all of Rachel's things and tossing them.

"What's the matter?" Jasper asked, noting her grimace.

"I, uh," Lucy smiled awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably in his lap, "I can't remember which device is my primary... and, uh... I may have donated a lot of stuff when we moved..."

Jasper studied her for a long moment before his eyes went wide in understanding.

"You... did you donate your primary device?" he asked, a bit exasperated.

"I... may have?" she admitted, looking up at him apologetically, "If I did, it wasn't on purpose! I just... I had so much clutter and I was trying to reduce..."

Jasper sighed, shaking his head with a smirk.

If anyone got ahold of her primary device prior to now it could be problematic, he thought to himself. It's a good thing they decided to address this today. They'd just assign a new primary device and cut the connection to the old one.

Sure enough, when Flynn returned with the only two watches he could find - initially looking worried and nervous, then confused to find out that was truly all she had left - they confirmed she'd donated her primary device.

"Okay," Jasper chuckled, "Let's start with setting up a new primary device. That's easy. Which of these two do you like best?"

Lucy had kept two watches she genuinely liked. The first was a rose gold one that looked fancier than anything she'd ever seen - let alone owned - in her previous life. She'd kept it hoping she'd have an excuse to wear it someday for a fancy event, but never intended to use it regularly. So, she pointed to the other, simpler silver one that looked far more reasonable for day-to-day wear.

With a nod, Jasper put the fancy one aside.

"Flynn," Jasper said, starting to work on the silver one, "Can you review any pings to Rachel's hubs received since we moved? In theory, there shouldn't be any - so any pings that happened would be concerning. If any charges were made during that time, can you report them for fraud? Anything else send to Marco and Rory - they'll investigate and handle the rest."

While Flynn went about his tasks, Jasper helped Lucy set up her watch. Apparently Rachel had never even used it, so it hadn't been set up at all. It was a great excuse for Jasper to explain things to Lucy that would have otherwise seemed strange to anyone familiar with their world. He walked her through accessing the holo keyboard, how to navigate menus, and helped her install all the relevant mods she needed as a primary.

"Now," Jasper said, finally placing it on her wrist, "Don't take it off. It's set up to monitor your exhaustion level now that we've installed your primary mods, and that will be helpful when you start cleansing every day. It'll also allow all of us to track your location."

"Will you be able to see the health details too?" Lucy asked curiously, tilting her head as she looked at the watch that was far more powerful than anything she could have imagined for something so small.

"I didn't set up data sharing," Jasper explained, shaking his head, "after all, as the prim-"

"Let's do it," she interrupted, looking up to his face and smiling, "I want to see your corruption levels, so it's only fair if you can see my exhaustion level."

Jasper's eyes went wide for a moment, startled by the request. Then, reminding himself that Lucy isn't like others, his face softened.

Of course she'd want it to be fair and equal, he chuckled in his mind.

Other primaries wouldn't care about their health enough to ask for their data, but even if they did set up data sharing they wouldn't feel the need to reciprocate... but Lucy wasn't like others. In her mind, it wouldn't be right to set it up for her but not for them.

Jasper nodded, setting up the data sharing links and explaining how to access it all.

"Okay, now how do we do a group chat?" Lucy asked, trying to do it herself but struggling, "I want one with all of us so I can talk to you all when I'm working."

Jasper's small smile grew quickly, and he set it up without hesitating.

Lucy immediate renamed the chat 'Family Unit Chat' and added a heart shape at the end of it.

'What is this?' Evan messaged immediately.

'A group chat, obviously.' Lucy responded, rolling her eyes with a smirk.

'Did you need something from all of us at once?' Marco's question made her giggle.

"He sees chats as a tool to get things done," Jasper chuckled, "I can't imagine he has many social chats."

Lucy smiled widely, shaking her head. She appreciated that Marco was organized and logically minded, so it was cute that even something as simple as a group chat needed a purpose in his mind.

'Nope, just wanted to be able to talk to you all while I'm at work when I start to miss you.' Lucy typed back.

She couldn't see anyone but Jasper, but every single one of her husbands smiled warmly at her response.

"Okay," Lucy sighed, closing the holo view, "All set up?"

"Yep," Jasper confirmed, "Now, let's check out your exhaustion level. It's warmed up and should be able to give you a health report read out."

It took Lucy a little work, but she managed to get it up... then had no idea how to read what she was looking at.

"This," Jasper explained, pointing at the holo, "Is how you monitor each individual health statistic. The lower the percentage, the bigger the concern. So, this, for example, reads and reports out your nutrition. The higher the number, the better indicator that you are meeting your nutritional needs, like getting enough vitamins and minerals. This one? This is for your hydration. This one is measuring your body's stress, and it's the one you read for exhaustion. The brighter the color, the bigger the worry - so all these grey statistics? That means everything is fine - nothing to worry about. If they get brighter and brighter, eventually turning bright blue, that's a problem and is how it draws your attention to them to let you know."

"Got it," she said with a nod, "so everything's fine at the moment then. Everything's different shades of grey - that's good, right?"

"Right," he agreed, "this shows that, for a primary, all of your levels are in a healthy range at the moment."

"Fancy," Lucy muttered, scrolling through the page and playing with various settings and menus.

Jasper just chuckled, eyeing his own watch - the one Lucy had gotten him as a room-warming gift - and felt an unexpected flood of relief that he could now check on her health any time he wanted.

He never planned to ask for something like that since most primaries would consider that incredibly invasive, but to have it made a weight he didn't even realize he was carrying ease from his shoulders.

He was looking forward to telling the other men what Lucy had done, because he had a feeling they'd all feel the same way.

--

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