Lost Creek Hollow the holly bears the crown.

Addled just enough for her liking, he should have suspected that from the start. She had always had her sights set on him, though for how long he had never speculated. For him, the start of their unusual, at least somewhat, team had been borne out of his departure from the Spine. Where he had thought she had simply not wanted to stay beneath Cara's rule had evolved into something far more, and even in the end where there had parted she had returned to his side. And Mordecai had been fine with that, much in the same way he found himself fine with their unspoken arrangement.

An arrangement that he remained unaware was about to change in a not so unexpected way. "My wits are always about me," he answered cheekily. "But daresay I ask what the prognosis is?" Knowing her, she was liable to tell him he was going to keel over in the next month because he was delaying her from tending to him. And that was what he anticipated in the few beats of silence that proceeded her reply, and already he worked to match her wryness.