Dale woke several hours later before anyone else. He thought about leaving but knew Buffy would drag him back by his ear if he did. His stomach was growling and he decided that maybe he would start some dinner for everyone.
Michael stood quietly watching Dale from the doorway. He thought of his wife asleep upstairs, his daughters, the children he still hoped to have, he thought about how his actions could ruin his family. He thought of his mom and his brother and what this could do to them if the news leaked. But then his thoughts returned to the man in front of him. The man who Michael would never have thought this could happen with. The man that use to be nothing more than a dear friends son. A team mate, friend, but now more of a soul mate, a confidant. As grease splattered out of the skillet and onto Dale’s hand he shook the thoughts from his head.
"Shit." Dale jumped.
"You ok?" Dale jumped again as Michael was by his side in two steps. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Michael looked at Dale’s hand "You better get something on that," He pulled him towards the sink and turned on the cold water.
"I got it." Dale jerked his arm away.
"Sorry." Michael looked down at the ground as he stepped away from Dale.
Dale let the cold water run over his hand as he looked at Michael out of the corner of his eye. "Shit, no I am sorry Mikey, it’s just this is an impossible situation. I don’t know what to do, how to act."
"I know, I am so sorry it all led to this. I should have never come after you last year. If I had just left it alone none of this would be happening right now." Michael sat at the kitchen table and Dale turned away from him not saying a word. Michael realized what he was thinking. "NO, I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t regret it, not one second of it." He stood and walked back towards Dale. He wrapped his arms around him from behind and Dale dropped his head back on Michael’s shoulder.
"Your right, we should never have continued it." Dale started but was interrupted.
"But you did and I was right, you can’t just walk away from each other." Buffy said as Dale and Michael jumped away from each other. "Stop trying to hide it, all you are going to do is make matters worse." She sat at the table as Michael finished what Dale started. He sat three plates at the table and then joined Dale and Buffy.
The meal was in complete silence. Michael stuck the dirty dishes in the washer and slowly turned back towards the table. He just stared at his wife and his lover and laughed at the irony.
"What on earth are you laughing at?" Dale asked looking at him.
"I know the situation is serious but think about it, if you were female and Buffy caught us doing what we were doing you would be dead right now. Why is this different?" The question was directed to Buffy. "I mean you are having dinner with your husband and his lover, this wouldn’t happen if he were a chick."
"No it wouldn’t, I would have ripped her hair out by the roots by now. I don’t really know but you’re right it is." She paused looking at Dale then Michael before laughing herself. "No one in a million years would believe this is happening. It is kind of funny in some sick twisted way."
Dale looked at them like they were insane. "You two have freaking cracked up. Next you are going to tell me that the three of us should just fuck." Buffy raised her brows suggestively and grinned. "No."
"Chill out Dale, trust me that isn’t an option. I love you to death but I am not having sex with you. Look we will figure this out but until then there is no reason to drive ourselves crazy. We have to keep things as normal as possible so no one figures it out."
"Buffy’s right. We have to keep things just like they were so no one catches on."
"Yeah, I know." Dale said. "I just have to figure out how to do that. We did it for so long but now that you know, everything’s different." He eyed Buffy still not believing she was so calm about all this. "So what do we do?"
"Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we do our holiday plans. Well, we aren’t going to her parents now but we still need to go on with our normal lives."
Dale stood and headed to the door. "Where you going, Junior?" Buffy asked.
"I just want to go home." he sighed.
She stood and walked over to him. "OK, I won’t stop you, I understand that need to be alone. Promise you will call if you need anything though." He nodded. "I promise we will work this out, Junior." She hugged him then headed back upstairs leaving the two of them alone.
Michael walked him to the door and before he opened it he spun Dale around to face him. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
"I don’t know, not much into the party mood."
"I don’t want you to be alone, come over…"
"NO, you guys need some family time."
"Dale…"
"No, I will probably go to grand’s like I normally do."
"Ok, just take it easy." Dale started to open the door when Michael caught him in the sweetest most sincere kiss they had yet to share. Dale‘s hands tugged at Michael‘s tee not ever wanting to let go. "It’s going to be ok, June." He hugged him one last time and let him go.
Dale walked to his truck, with a feeling that everything wasn’t going to be ok at all.