After Rachel had fallen asleep, he battled with himself all night and day. His quiet, withdrawn demeanor after the trial had leaked into their time together. He hadn't anticipated feeling so affected by the happenings of the trial, and certainly didn't want to bring them home.
Rachel had been on his mind the entire night and he was thankful for her lack of attendance at the trial. Lazarus' treatment of both McCloud and Gavin's fledge Ben throughout the entire event had made it almost impossible for Damien to watch. He was a twisted, wicked thing and Damien was fortunate to never have dealt with him. Based on what Rachel had told him through hesitant words pressed against his chest only months ago, Lazarus and Laurent were too similar for Damien to feel any kind of sympathy throughout the trial for him.
He looked at her as she slept, warm and comfortable, calmer now than she had been in the first few years that he had known her. There was no way that he wanted to disrupt that with words of the trial. He ached with the knowledge of the trial as he watched her sleep, wondering what her experiences had actually been like with Laurent, that demon who kidnapped her, abused her, and kept her in slavery for his own profit. He didn't want to wonder, but the thought pulled at his attention.
That's not helpful, he told himself. She's safe here, the safest place in the world.
He wanted to sleep next to her, their arms tangled and slightly sore from hours of laying together. He wrapped her in his arms, her forehead pressed against his mouth. She grumbled and inhaled something that he couldn't quite make out and fell back into sleep after snuggling into him further.
The night passed into day and Damien drifted in and out of sleep next to her on their bed, uncomfortable short sessions with dreams of chasing smoke, of treating Pierre, of a missing Rachel. Eventually Rachel began to stir, her breathing shallowing out, tossing more, he watched her with a smile until she woke. It made him hurt.
"You passed out on the couch around four," he said softly, still inadvertently retracted from her. Her kisses made him scrunch his face in the same way he prepared for when Delilah licked him. He smiled at her, stroking her hair away from her face. "I brought you upstairs. Did you have any fun dreams?" He rolled more on his side to look at her better.