Franklin pushed open the door to his office and practically threw Kelly into it. His heart had been in his throat since he had heard the Harpy had grabbed her again, and now his heart was beating wildly out of control with anger.

He had been there to catch her as she tumbled out of the tree. Before he got to her, though, Cooper had been observing them through the iron sight of the hunting rifle and he had told him it looked an awful lot like they had been talking.

And he would believe that one hundred percent.

Because she would do this to him.

It was almost like she was punishing him.

He pushed her down into the chair across from his desk and then just towered over her.

"What the hell are you playing at?"

Kelly blinked her eyes, clearly thinking that she'd go for the innocent approach. "Uhm... I'm not sure what...."

"What were you talking to the Harpy about?"

"We were mostly arguing about how stubborn you are... and how you're not my mate."

Franklin frowned. "What?"

"Yeah I told her all about how I want to help her but you won't let me and she agreed that you're pig headed..."

"She still thinks I'm your mate?" he asked because that was what his mind was stuck on now.

Kelly paused as if she wasn't expecting that. "Oh. Yeah. That's still a thing. I keep trying to correct her but she doesn't listen to me. The two of you are similar in that regard."

Franklin rolled his eyes at her and then sighed heavily. "Kelly, I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you this..."

"Oh I know I'm not your mate."

Franklin almost roared in anger. Obviously that was not what he was talking about. He had to take three deep breaths before attempting to talk to reason into her again.

"Not that," he snapped. "You need to wrap your head around this. We are not giving the Harpy back her daughter. So no more secret rendezvous, no more convos. Just.... Just..."

"But I'm not safe!"

"I mean, you might be if you weren't throwing yourself out windows for the Harpy to grab you!"

She winced. Right so she had hoped he wouldn't find out about that. How stupid did she think he was? He wasn't going to ask her, he knew right away that he wouldn't like the answer.

He looked her up and down. He needed to come up with a better game plan or she was going to end up as Harpy food when it realized that she couldn't help it.

"Right, it's clear I can't trust Cooper with you. You can shake him too easily. I'll have to be the one who monitors you."

Kelly's mouth dropped. Oh boy, she definitely hadn't expected that. Franklin stepped away and moved around his desk, he pulled out his calendar and began to look it over.

"Uh.... What did you just say?"

He ignored her though. "I'll have to clear my calendar for this week until we can get settled into a routine. It might be easier to move you in here..."

Now that got her attention. Kelly shot to her feet. "Wait a second? Move me in here? As in, move in with you?"

Franklin looked up. "Well obviously I mean you and Sammy."

"NO!" she cried. "I'm not living here. Not with you. Nuh-uh not happening!"

Franklin struggled to ignore the disappoint that welled up in his chest. Right. Of course. Why would she want to live with him? He was her jailer. She hated him.

"Okay, look," she said moving towards the desk. "Thank you for caring so much about my safety. Thank you for being the white knight that constantly rides off to my rescue but I need you to like... chill."

Franklin cocked an eyebrow of disbelief. "Chill?"

"Yes. Chill. Honestly, Franklin, you're a control freak and I'm worried that if you move me in here you'll get worse and we might kill each other... probably me because I don't think you can die... and you're stronger than me..."

Well she had a point there.

"And maybe... maybe you need to realize that you're not always right, that I might have some good ideas too. That maybe, if we work together things would work out better. But that's not going to work until you trust me."

Yes. Except he didn't trust her. That was clear as day because when he tried to trust her, she did things like this.

"Kelly..."

"Just... can you maybe just think about it?" she asked. "About trying things my way? Please?"

She then turned around and headed towards the door, clearly meaning to go back. "No, no, wait. I'll walk you back to Granny's," he cried rushing to follow after her. "It'll be safer."

Kelly turned to him. "I mean, okay, but what are you really going to do against the Harpy? Sooner or later you're going to have to let someone else be the White Knight."

Yeah no. No he was going to do that. His job was to protect everyone in town and that meant protecting Kelly, whether she wanted it or not.

But he was too tired to argue with her, instead he just wanted to get her back to Granny's and then set himself up with a room there for the night.

They got out of the door to find that Margaret was at the bottom of the stairs staring up at them. He could have sworn he had told her to go home once he had stormed in there. Either she didn't hear him, or a purposely pretended that she didn't hear him.

Margaret loved to gossip, she no doubt wanted to stay to hear the fight unfold so she could tell everyone about it.

"Oh, you're still here," he said and she smiled no doubt guessing that he might be happy to see her and he sort of was, just not in the way he knew she wanted. "Well, since you're still here, can you clear my schedule for the rest of this week and all of the next? You don't have to do it all tonight, but definitely get tomorrow dealt with."

"Wait... but... why..."

"I'll be busy with Kelly until further notice."

Margaret's jaw dropped but Franklin didn't stay to see what she had to say about that. Instead he put a hand to the small of Kelly's back to guide her down the stairs. Once again his heart began to beat wildly, but it wasn't anger or fear this time. No, this time it was butterflies.