A/N - Hi guys. So I wrote this as a kind of follow-up to 'Black and White Love' although if you haven't read that, don't worry - this can stand alone. I figured after all the drama, angst and depression of 6b, we Haleb fans could use something a little more light-hearted.

Hope you enjoy xxx

Guarded

Caleb had dreaded this day since he'd brought Hanna home from the hospital following her accident at the bell tower. Accident. It infuriated him to think of it as that, because actually, being pushed tens of feet off a wooden platform was no accident.

They'd spent the past few weeks making up for the lost years they'd spent apart. And boy, did they make up for lost time. Hanna still had the bruises to show just how big of an accident she'd gotten caught up in. They were healing though - much less prominent now; simply faded purples and greens and yellows which formed patterns on her otherwise flawless skin.

They had ordered takeout or visited the grocery store together. Not once (other than for bathroom breaks of course) had he left her side, preferring instead to stay within a few feet of the blonde princess he'd been apart from for way too long. It wasn't even that he was making up for lost time - he was just so worried that something would happen to her without his presence.

Inevitably however, he had to go back to work.

The solution to Caleb's constant worry over Hanna's safety came one night as they were lying in bed, his arms wrapped around her from behind, keeping her close enough that she could feel his every exhaled breath on her neck. She needed a guard. No. He needed her to have a guard. And so the very next day, whilst she was burning an omelette across the counter from him, Caleb secretly researched guard dogs on his laptop.

"I know I said you had to go back to work," Hanna pouted from the centre of the bed, the white, cotton sheets skimming over her bare skin in a way he found incredibly and effortlessly sexy, "but I really don't want you to."

"I wish I didn't have to." He answered honestly, buttoning the blue shirt across his chest before he lost the final ounce of self-control he had left.

"I was actually thinking I should get back to work."

"No."

Caleb's voice was abrupt. Hanna widened her eyes in shock, and so involuntarily his own expression softened as he made his way over to the bed.

"Stay home for another week." He kissed her gently. "Until you're fully healed or I win the Lotto so we can both stay home."

She laughed a little at him and offered her lips again. "I'll be bored without you."

"Maybe." Caleb replied. "But I have a feeling you'll keep yourself entertained."

"And what gives you that impression?"

He looked at his watch. "In about two minutes, you'll find out."

As the dial on Caleb's watch hit eight, the doorbell rang. He didn't have to look at her face to know the expression was one of fear. She always tried to hide it, under that fake smile he realised she did when she was trying to be brave. And that was exactly why he'd dreaded this day; she'd spend it sitting inside the house, windows and doors locked despite the increasing spring heat, gnawing on those already chipped fingernails until he came home and she could show her relief in a shower of kisses.

He went to get it while Hanna pulled on her dressing gown, drawing the belt tightly around her waist.

"Baby, come down here!" He called. He was careful to sound cheerful - intriguing even - so as not to worry her.

"Oh my God!" She appeared at the top of the stairs, eyes round and inquisitive (still partially apprehensive too) as she took in the scene before her. "Caleb!"

The sight of the tiny golden puppy padding excitedly on the doormat was enough to send her flying downstairs almost as fast as she'd run out of that bunker in the woods.

"He's for you." Caleb told her, handing his girlfriend the red leash.

"Are you serious?!"

He nodded. "When I can't be here, he'll be your protection."

"God I love you." She sighed, leaning in to offer him a kiss.

"I love you too." He handed her the leash before her kisses got the better of him and he ended up late - or not at work at all. "But I really gotta go."

"Well you and I are gonna have a lot of fun." Hanna crouched down to the dog. "We can learn tricks and then when daddy gets back from work, we can show him."

"Daddy?"

"Caleb, we're his parents now." She retorted. "We've got to show him the ways of the world!"

"Han, he's a puppy, so don't show him too much too soon."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She tried to feign offence.

"There's a guide book on the counter. Read it. Don't give him your food - he's not a human. He eats once a day. Don't let him out anywhere other than the backyard because he hasn't had his shots yet. Don't let him sleep on the bed. And don't let him get his own way. He shouldn't master you; you're supposed to master him."

Hanna rolled her eyes at the dog in question, who was now chewing on the mat under Caleb's feet. "Damn. Daddy has a lot of rules."

"Have a good day." He sighed, resigned to the fact that she was almost certainly going to ignore every bit of his - and the guide book's - advice. "I love you."

"Love you too."

X

By the time he returned home from work in the early evening, Caleb was starving. As he made his way up the path to the front door, he realised he was smiling; he hadn't looked forward this much to coming home in a very long time, and the warm glow of the living room lamplight through the open drapes did little to make the picture any less perfect.

"Han?"

He smiled again as the quiet hallway was suddenly filled with barking - then shut the door behind himself. So the dog was doing his job.

"Hey." Hanna smiled, rounding the corner of the hallway to offer her lips in a grateful kiss.

"How was your day?"

"Super fun." She kissed him again. "But I'm exhausted!"

"Me too. What's for dinner?"

"Dinner?" She frowned.

"Yeah, you know that meal that comes after lunch?"

"I know of it, but I haven't had time to think about it."

"Baby I'm starving."

"You hear that Leo?" Hanna picked up the dog, who - for the millionth time that day - was chewing the doormat. "That's daddy whining. Not sexy huh?"

"Leo?" Caleb asked, following the blonde to the kitchen where she handed him the excitable bundle in her arms in order to peruse the contents of the refrigerator.

"He's just so handsome." She cooed into their Golden Retriever, rubbing the soft spot beneath his ears. "I figured he needed a handsome name. And you know how much I love Leo DiCaprio."

Caleb just shook his head with a smile, exasperated.

"But not as much as I love you."

"Better." He grinned.

X

"Hanna, how many cookies have you given him?" Caleb hissed as the vet left the room to grab the shots she needed.

"None!"

"Hanna."

"Uh, you make it so hard to lie to you." She moaned, rolling her eyes and pouting. "A couple."

"Of packets?"

"Of cookies."

"Han, he's overweight by more than a couple of cookies."

Hanna cupped her hands over Leo's ears, narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend. "Shhh!"

"What?!"

"I don't want him to hear that he's..." She simply mouthed the next bit, "overweight."

"He's a dog Hanna. He can't understand. But what he does understand, is that if he hears you rustling a packet, there might be a treat in it for him. So before I look really stupid when the vet comes back, how many cookies have you given him?"

"I told you - a couple!"

"In addition to…." He raised his eyebrows.

"Ugh, well I might have given him half my brownie yesterday."

"Hanna!"

"Look Caleb, I know how he feels. You get a taste, and it's so good, you use those big, round, sad eyes to get another and another and then before you know it, your mom's bought the local Walmart out of double-stuff Oreo's and you're nursing a stomach ache from hell."

Caleb simply looked at the flustered blonde opposite him and couldn't help but chuckle."Seriously, starting tomorrow, Leo eats one meal a day, and it's a bowl of Kibbles 'n' Bits - nothing else. His job is to protect you and he can't do that if it takes him ten minutes to waddle from the kitchen to the hallway."

Hanna uncupped her hands from Leo's ears and gave him a rub under his mouth, muttering, "Daddy's always right."

X

"Leo, we've gotta be stealth about this." Hanna told her adoring Golden Retriever who was pawing desperately at her leg while she bent down to the bottom drawer of the freezer.. "Daddy said no cookies, no chocolate, no ice cream...basically no fun stuff. Be glad I stayed home with you - and we did ten extra laps of the backyard today."

She pulled the pint of chocolate ice cream out of the freezer and set it on the counter. "And you look too darn cute for me to resist."

Hanna didn't hear the front door open and close again. Leo's soft little ears pricked up, but rested back against his head as Hanna allowed him to lick a generous amount of chocolate ice cream from her finger. Seizing his opportunity, Leo began licking the lid of the tub too, which was now on the floor next to Hanna, along with the half-eaten tub of ice cream and a spoon from their cutlery drawer.

"Bad dog." She tried to scold, but Leo simply ran his long, slippery tongue along Hanna's arm and she collapsed into a giggling mess, tickling the soft spot behind the dog's ears.

"I can't believe you gave him ice cream!" Caleb exclaimed upon entering their kitchen, witnessing the sight of his girlfriend lying on the kitchen floor with a half-eaten tub of ice cream and a face flushed with happiness.

"Oh uh, daddy's gonna be mad." She whispered to Leo, who took the opportunity to lick the blonde's face, his fluffy tail wagging furiously.

"Well he was." Caleb replied, resting his back against the refrigerator as he watched his girlfriend giggle at the affectionate dog. "And then he realised what mommy was wearing." He cocked an eyebrow. "I approve."

Hanna looked down at herself. The straps on her vest had fallen down and that, combined with the way the material had exposed her stomach, showed her lack of bra. Coupled with a tiny pair of hot pink cotton pyjama shorts, she figured she must look a little indecent.

"I guess there isn't much to approve of."

"And that," he smiled, pressing a kiss against her neck, "is precisely why I approve."

Hanna grinned at him and Caleb couldn't help but shake his head while laughing. "Now go wash your face. I want to kiss you, not Leo."

X

For five nights in a row, Caleb had been resigned to sleeping in a space measuring precisely thirty centimetres wide. Hanna and Leo on the other hand, shared the rest of the king sized bed, seemingly without regard for his own need for comfort.

"He sleeps downstairs tonight." Caleb told Hanna, eyeing his nemesis from the doorway to the en suite.

"Noooo!" She protested, ruffling Leo's fur so that he looked rather like a golden pompom.

"His job is to guard the house and-"

"- I thought his job was to guard me?"

"You, and the house you live in. I don't want any potential intruders to get all the way into this room because Leo's living the life of luxury in our bed."

"He'll be sad down there on his own."

"He'll get used to it." Caleb replied, towelling off his hair as he made his way into the bedroom to scoop Leo from the bed. "And besides, I'll be sad if I don't get to do something to you tonight."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You were the one who said you felt weird doing it in front of the dog."

"That's because the dog lays on my feet and puts me off my rhythm. Come on Leo." He grabbed the dog's collar, leading him out of the room and down the stairs. "You're guarding from the hallway tonight."

Upon re-entering the bedroom, Caleb shut the door behind him, glancing at Hanna. He laughed at her expression. "Are those the eyes Leo uses when he wants a cookie?"

"Yes. Are they working?"

"No."

"Caleb!"

"Han, if I don't get to do stuff to you tonight, I feel I may have to take Leo back."

"You wouldn't."

He bent down to kiss her neck, trailing his lips across her collarbone and up to her ear. "If I can't do this." He breathed, casting a hand over her stomach slowly down to the top of her black lace panties. "Or this." Nipping at her skin with his teeth, he moved his hand to the inside of her thigh, eliciting a soft moan. "Or this." His hands were working in tandem now, alternating tracing circles with just enough pressure to tease her deliciously towards the edge of coming undone. "Then he has to go."

Hanna reached her own hands down to the neck of his t-shirt, pulling his lips to hers before removing it. "He can sleep downstairs."

Caleb smiled into her, returning to his conquest at the lower half of the bed. "Right decision."

Just to let you know, next week I hope to finish another Haleb one-shot I started writing entitled 'Into the Woods'. It's complete fluff and camping-based so look out and drop me a review ;) xxx