Fair Warning: This chapter contains some big spoilers for Free Love. That's going to be true for a lot of chapters, so consider this a blanket warning going forward-- if you hate spoilers, you may want to go read Free Love and then come back.

This chapter also contains some non-graphic discussion of child exploitation and intimate partner violence that may be triggering. No abuse is portrayed, just recounted.

Gabriel Cooper had looked for Will for a good ten minutes before he’d spotted him. He had promised to introduce Will (although Will had clearly seen it as more of a threat than a promise) to someone eligible at the party. Ahmad fit the bill perfectly. Gabriel already knew where Ahmad was, so he’d just gather Will up and shepherd him over. Before Gabriel could get across the room to intercept him, though, he watched Will walk up behind Brent James, almost get mown down, exchange apologies, stare at Brent with odd intensity, exchange a couple of words and a handshake, become the recipient of a smolder and a comment from Brent, and then Will very obviously went smooth off on Brent who looked rather startled. A couple more words were exchanged before Will stalked off purposefully while Brent stared and looked like he’d just been struck by lightning. 

Very Interesting. Gabriel abandoned his original plan sur place and walked back to his husband, brain whirring.

“Alex, I just found Will, finally. He's stealthy-- guess it's all that undercover work. Ok, though. I want you to brace yourself. I don’t want this to be like Story of an Hour or something.”

“Whoa. Swift subject change. Story of an…? Ah, the joy that kills! See, I’m learning your ways, book nerd. Okay. I’m braced. Hit me.”

“I think I was wrong about something.”

Alex's flawless Face filled with simulated horrified amazement. “Whooooa. There’s no way I could have braced myself sufficiently for that. You could have broken it to me at least a little more sensitively. What were you wrong about, though?”

“Ok, Smart Ass. I just don’t think Will and Ahmad would be the cutest couple after all.”

“No? Okay, I’ll bite, why not?”

“Because right this moment, I am ‘shipping Will and Brent James pretty hard.”

“Brent?? Plot twist. Based on?”

“So, I just saw them run into each other, and to me, it looked like: Accidental Collision, Normal Apologies, Thirsty Brent Conversational Gambit Laced With Heavy Overconfidence, Absolute Annihilation by Will, Hilarious Shock from Brent, Will Says Something Less Hostile, Will Walks Off, Hilarious Shock from Brent Intensifies, Becomes Very Thirsty Stare.” 

“Huh. You might be right. Annihilation, you say? I like the cut of this Will person’s jib. You should introduce us and he can teach me how to not like Brent.” Alex turned and bent to kiss Gabriel. “Permission to come aboard the ‘ship?”

“Permission granted. But I don’t think Will can teach you to ‘not like’ Brent, because if you ask me, looks like he disliked Brent so much, so quickly, that it has to be fueled by some unwilling urge to violate his admittedly very sensible 'no dating Alphas' policy. We’re gonna see some action out of these two. I guarantee it. I will see to it.”

“You’re so feisty tonight, Ginger Spice! I’m into it. How much longer do we have to stay at this thing?”

“Not much.”

“Good. I want to get home in time for the traditional eleven pm snack. I miss Lailah.”

Gabriel sighed in dramatic disappointment over not being the motivation for Alex's hurry to get home. Dang adorable green-eyed beautiful perfect angel baby. Then suddenly he missed their infant daughter, too, in a way that was as much acute physical craving for the sight and smell of her as emotion. Yeah, they needed to get going.

“And then I want to eat my 11:30 pm snack.”

Gabriel perked up. “And that would be?”

Alex nipped him. “I think you know.”

Two weeks later, Gabriel got a golden opportunity to steer the new ‘ship into a promising harbor. Gabriel and Alex were alternating work from home days for Leilah’s first couple of years, with plans for back-up from an au pair once she became mobile and verbal. So far, it was going beautifully, and he was so grateful for having the privilege of a flexible job. It made things easier that Victoria Anderson, Alex's mother and their mutual immediate boss, had a vested interest in the well-being of her own granddaughter, and was the self-appointed babysitter for all scheduling conflicts, so there had been no resistance to their childcare plan from on high. 

That week was an Alex B Week, which meant he was home Monday, Wednesday, Friday barring patient emergencies, and Gabriel was home Tuesday and Thursday. The previous day, Will had called while Lailah was being a tooth-sprouting fusspot to tell Gabriel, above Lailah’s loud expressions of dissatisfaction with the Help, that an Omega had been arrested in a case connected to the trafficking case he’d been working on. 

Will had looked at the charge of attempted murder, looked at the name of the victim, one of a group of men he’d been investigating for human trafficking for months, and had suspected that whoever had stabbed the guy had probably had very legitimate reasons for doing so. That Omega needed a good attorney. Will thought he knew where she could find one, and he had immediately called Gabriel.

The previous year, Will had been pulled in to do an assignment alongside some D.C. Metro Police officers on a trafficking ring with suspected underage victims involved. The ring operated in both cities and was believed to be moving victims between the two cities as well, which involved crossing state lines, further escalating the severity of the crime. They’d staked out a D.C. neighborhood where the ring was making use of a local flop house and lo and behold, one of the younger looking suspected victims they were surveilling was trafficked to none other than one Brad Paxton, conservative news channel camera hog and nephew of Senator Thad Daniels. Will had watched Paxton half-carrying the dosed-up fifteen year old kid into his car with plans to do God Knows What to her. He had watched the car pull off and immediately called in an APB, pissed that he couldn’t join in on the chase without blowing his cover. 

Uncle Thad’s Ass-Licking Little Shitbag had not failed to deliver a wild ride for the police officers who did get to pursue him, though, a ride that ended in an arrest and caught Paxton numerous sticky charges. As a result of that arrest, Will had noticed in the system that Paxton’s name was linked to two other cases, a break-in and a forced claim. He’d seen that those two cases shared the same victim four years apart, one Gabriel Cooper, and he’d decided to contact that victim to see if he could get any information that could help the prosecutors with the current Paxton case. Will found that he had taken a very personal interest in the case after he had seen Paxton shoveling that kid into his car, and he was determined that Paxton was not going to slip the net, no matter who his uncle was. 

This was how he’d met Gabriel Cooper-Anderson. Gabriel, and more particularly Gabriel’s former personal security detail Bruno Gallo, had been extraordinarily helpful on the subject of all things Brad. After Brad’s sentencing, Will had taken Gabriel out for a beer to thank him for all the help and information, and during their conversation that evening, Gabriel had urged him to call the Anastasia Anderson Foundation, or AAF, whenever he came across a case in which an Omega might need some medical, legal, or social assistance. Will had promised he would be in touch and had left with a pocketful of brochures and business cards.

It hadn’t taken long before the first Omega in need of help came along. He’d contacted Gabriel and had been surprised at how swiftly the Omega had received a good lawyer. A lawyer who’d apparently made sure that the explanation of how the Omega had defended himself was persuasive enough to the judge to make her dismiss the case outright. Will was glad the case was thrown out– the Omega had done the world a favor by inventively using the drawer of an air fryer to concuss the boyfriend who’d been beating him. From that point on, Will, not a big fan of lawyers in general, had judged Gabriel to be one of the good ones, and had tipped him off on several more Omegas in need of legal help. He always had a couple of Legal Fund business cards in his wallet and AAF Clinic brochures in his desk these days, just in case.

Today, he and Gabriel had made plans to meet at the courthouse so Will could be introduced to the lawyer who was apparently spearheading most of the criminal defense work the Legal Fund took on. Will had asked around about him already. The guy was apparently some relatively newly hired top gun who’d graduated from Yale Law. He’d been doing criminal defense law for a big firm in Manhattan, had made a shit ton of money, and then had left to join the revolution. Weird origin story for a nonprofit lawyer, but ok. The more the merrier in the movement, as far as Will was concerned.