I'll Stand By You
by Prettywitchiusaka
It was lunchtime on MoonBase Zero. Or more specifically, it was for Rachel McKenzie, or Numbuh 362, Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door .
She'd already finished lunch, and with ten minutes still left on her break, she decided to phone up and chat with her good friend, Nigel Uno, or Numbuh 1 of Sector V
"So how have you been?"
"I've been better," said Nigel. "My friends have been doing a lot to keep me out of the treehouse."
"That's good."
"Yeah," he answered. "Oh, sorry but I've gotta get going. Numbuh's 2 and 4 and I are going to see a movie."
"Okay. If you need to talk, you know where I am."
"Thanks. But I think I'll be fine."
"You're sure about that-"
"Rachel! It's fine. Don't worry about it."
She smiled. "Alright, then. See you around, soldier."
"Thanks. You too," the Brit said.
Rachel hung up the phone and placed it in the pocket of her orange sweater. She then let out a big sigh and collapsed into a nearby bean bag chair. He certainly sounded a lot better than he did when she phoned him last week, that's for sure. And she was grateful for that. Getting over a broken heart wasn't easy, she knew that better than anyone.
Though to be fair, he'd actually been dating his crush, whereas Rachel never even had the courage to ask her's out. Not even for a soda.
It'd been two weeks since Nigel's girlfriend, Lizzie Devine dumped him. The two of them had been dating for over a year, something that many kids thought wasn't possible. And not without good reason.
On top of Nigel being a workaholic who would often neglect his dates with Lizzie, or skip out on them entirely, Lizzie was no saint, either.
She could be selfish, possessive, even whiny and overly demanding of her "Nigie". Not to mention there was that time she placed a Boyfriend Helmet on Nigel with the intent of keeping him all to herself.
But despite their problems, they loved each other. Every time Nigel had brought up his girlfriend to the blonde, she could tell from his body language and the look in his eyes that he loved Lizzie very much. That he stayed with her in spite of her flaws, not because of them.
But that all changed a few weeks ago when Rachel had received some intel from her old spy buddies about The Splinter Cell, a shadowy organization that wanted to destroy all adults, good or bad.
They didn't have much in the way of new information for her, but they did have something of interest to report; for whatever the reason the Splinter Cell wanted Nigel Uno.
So, she informed her friend and he became her unofficial ally when they both suspected Herbie, or Numbuh 65.3 of being a Splinter Cell agent.
This resulted in Nigel running back and forth between Lizzie and the mission, eventually choosing to save his girlfriend over the lives of millions, only to have her break up with him for good in the end.
Rachel couldn't help but sigh as her mind drifted to Lizzie. In a way, she sympathized with her.
Sure, Nigel was a great guy, but she also couldn't deny that he was an absolute workaholic. And chats with Nigel's teammates revealed that he would often blow off dates with her every so often to go on missions, or send a robot duplicate in his place.
That cheesed the young blonde something fierce when they told her. So much so she felt like lecturing him until she was blue in the face, for Zero's sake! If there's one thing her father had drilled into her, it's that if you enter a relationship you need to commit to your partner one-hundred percent. Otherwise, what's the point? "You're just wasting some else's time," he always used to say.
With everything the Brit did, well it's no wonder Lizzie got sick and tired of being neglected, after awhile.
And yet, she was worried for her friend all the same.
Still, Rachel knew Nigel well enough to know that he'd be fine. He had his friends, he had his parents, and he had enough missions to keep him busy for the next three weeks. He was going to be alright.
Still, there was one part from that day that kept replaying in her head.
When they were chasing down Herbie, Nigel had gotten a distress call from Lizzie back at the treehouse. He wanted to go save her, while Rachel tried convincing him that getting their suspect was more important.
"You had better get your priorities straight!" she'd said to him.
His response? "I do!"
That was nothing new; Nigel was a reckless wildcard. He'd always been that way, for as long as Rachel'd known him.
But he was also one to put the mission above all else. So when he decided to say "screw it" and go back to protect the one he loved, it threw Rachel for a loop.
For the last two weeks, she kept coming back to his response, trying desperately to wrap her brain around it.
Since she was old enough to think for herself, Rachel believed that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, that it was better to put your needs aside in favour of the greater good. But Nigel had defied that.
It made her wonder if she were ever capable of doing that for the boy she'd fallen in love with.
"Hey, Rache."
The blonde yelped. Turning around she saw that it was just her friend Patton Drilovsky, or Numbuh 60, Drill Sergeant Supreme of Kids Next Door Arctic Base.
"Oh, Patton. You startled me."
The boy shrugged. "Yeah, what else is new?" Patton jumped over and sat himself down on the beanbag chair next to hers.
He flashed her a smirk and said "So, how's your lunch break going?"
"Ah, okay, I guess…"
Patton looked at her. "Something wrong?"
The young blonde sighed as she looked her raven haired friend in the eye. She didn't know how, but he always had a way of getting her to open up about her problems.
"I'm worried about Nigel."
Patton raised an eyebrow. "Worried about Nigel?" He started racking his brain; just what in the world happened to make her worry about Nigel Uno of all people?
Then it hit him.
"Oh, yeah! I heard about him getting dumped!" he said. "I never thought she'd be the one to break up with him."
Rachel chuckled. "I think most people didn't see that coming, to be fair."
The two sat in silence for a moment as Patton leaned in closer towards his blonde friend.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't help but be a bit jealous whenever she brought up the bald Brit. She and Nigel had always been close, as close as they were in fact. Not to mention all those rumours he'd hear around Arctic Base about Rachel having a crush on Nigel, which irritated him to no end.
Still, the boy did his best to hide his jealousy and asked "So how is he?"
"He seems to be doing a lot better, actually. His team's doing whatever they can to keep his spirits up, so that's good."
"Yeah, well those five are pretty tight," Patton commented. "I can't imagine they'd want their leader to be down in the dumps for too long."
"Yeah," she replied. "He's lucky to have such good friends."
Pausing for a moment, the boy glanced over at his somber looking friend. "So then, what's bothering you?"
Rachel sighed; this wasn't going to be easy. "I'm sure you've heard about what happened a few weeks ago?"
"With you thinking that Herbie was a Splinter Cell agent? Yeah, I heard about that; news travels fast around Arctic Base."
"Well, I also found out that they're interested in Nigel joining their ranks."
"They want Nigel? Why?"
The blonde shrugged. "Beats me," she said.
"Anyway, I told Nigel to leave his date with Lizzie so we could go and pursue Herbie. When we got to the airport, he got a distress signal from her. And…," she paused. "Well, I basically told him to put the mission over his girlfriend…"
Patton remained silent for a moment.
"So what did he do?"
"He defied my direct order; he went off to save Lizzie instead of helping me."
The Drill Sergeant was listening intently, hanging on her every word. He could tell from the look in her chocolate brown eyes that she felt a bit guilty for what happened, even her
tone indicated a hint of regret. And that worried him more than anything else right now.
"Oh, don't tell me you think you're responsible for their break-up? Geez, you really got to stop blaming yourself for everything, Rache," he said. "They were probably gonna break-up sometime, anyway with all the problems they were having."
She shook her head.
"That's not it," she replied. "I mean, yeah, I feel bad for him, but it's more of what he did. He defied my direct orders to save his girlfriend, someone he loves. It just reminds me of how I
know I could never do that for the boy that I love."
The raven haired boy's eyes widened. "The boy you love?" Guess there was some truth to those rumours, after all!
"Yeah," she replied. "Otherwise, I probably would've told him by now."
Rachel flashed him a flirtatious grin as she said that, surprising Patton. He could've sworn she was flashing that grin to him in particular, like some bizarre form of morse code or something.
"Wait," he thought. "Is she smirking at me?" No, it couldn't be.
But that look she was giving him wasn't just any grin, it was a flirtatious one. The kind that said "I only have eyes for you."
And once Patton realized that, his eyes widened. "Oh," he thought to himself. "That's what she meant."
Now that he knew that, the Drill Sergeant couldn't help but smile before turning to look at her. "Well, why haven't you told him how you feel?"
"Are you crazy!?" she said. "If I did that, I'd be putting a walking target on him! He could be put in danger, or Zero forbid, kidnapped and held as ransom to turn over the Kids Next Door to some villain…And I'd have no choice but to put the organization over him…"
Rachel let out a sigh.
"And I don't think he'd take lightly to that…"
"Does this guy know you?"
The young blonde turned to face her raven haired friend. His black eyes were serious, indicating to her that he was interested in what she had to say.
"Well…he's been a good friend of mine for a long time, now…"
"So then don't you think this guy would know you're not doing it to be Mali…Mel-"
"You mean malicious?"
"Yeah, that's it!"
Rachel bit down on her lip, trying hard to suppress the laugh threatening to escape her mouth. Patton's inability to pronounce big words always gave her a good chuckle, but now was hardly the time, not when he was trying to cheer her up.
"Well, yeah, but…I just don't think he'd understand…"
Patton paused. "Do you want him to get hurt?"
"Of course not. But I have no choice but to think about the organization first, not the other way around."
He smirked. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. If this guy knows you, he won't care what you do in a situation like that."
She smiled. "Thanks, Patton…But I don't think that's possible…"
Patton frowned, he hated seeing her like this. She was so much more vibrant when she was happy and confident.
Sow what could he do to cheer her up, he wondered?
Take her out to a movie? No; the last thing she needed to worry about was feeling restless
and grumpy the next day.
Take her to Geek Topic? Heck no! No way he'd let himself be caught dead in that place with her! Well, unless she begged him to…but still!
Take her out for ice cream? "Yeah, that's it!" he thought.
With a smile on his face, the boy looked over at face his blonde friend and said "What time are you off work, today?"
"Good question," she said. "Probably sometime after eight. Why?"
The smile on Patton's face grew until it became a smirk. "Well I was thinking that maybe I could take you out for some ice cream when you're done, today."
Rachel could feel her eyes widening at her smirking friend. "Really? You mean it?"
"Yeah." He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, making her blush. "You do look like you could use a pick me up."
The young blonde couldn't help but continue blushing like the little school girl she was at that smirk, but that wasn't the only reason. Patton didn't have to take her out for ice cream to make her feel better, but he was going to anyway. Not out of a sense of obligation to her as his superior, but because she was his friend and he wanted to make her feel better.
It was one of the things that made her love him so much; that he always wanted to help her out, even if she didn't deserve it.
"I'd like that," she said with a smirk.
"I though you would," he replied. Still smirking at her the whole time.
Rachel looked over at the clock to see the time; it was five to one.
Realizing she still had a few minutes left to kill, Rachel continued talking with her dear friend.
But unbeknownst to either of them, Fanny, or Numbuh 86 was watching from behind a nearby wall, grinning sinisterly.
…
Five minutes later, Patton found himself walking towards MoonBase's docking bay. It was a good ten minute walk to there from the lounge and he didn't want to be late for his next shift, so as soon as Rachel left he started making his way there.
He wasn't walking with his usual military swagger, though. If anything his black eyes were soft and joyful, and he was whistling a happy little tune.
Although really, why shouldn't he be happy? He had a date with Rachel tonight. An ice cream date, sure, but a date none the less.
That changed when he saw Fanny walking towards him. She was wearing a gas mask, making him raise an eyebrow. "What happened to you, Fulbright? Did someone make you hose out the boy's room?"
To his surprise, she held out a gun and shot him in the chest with a rubber dart. But before Patton could even ask, a foul smelling pink gas came out of it. And pretty soon he found himself becoming not only sleepy, but collapsing to the ground.
The last thing he heard Fanny say to him before passing out completely was "Have a nice nap, dork."
…..
It was only one-thirty in the afternoon, and already Rachel found herself back in the bustle and hustle of running the Kids Next Door. Right now, she was in the middle of sending hundreds of mission briefings to Sectors all over the globe, and just got herself out of a
conversation with Sector N's leader and her millionth request to remove Numbuh 13 from their team.
And that's not even counting that meeting to renegotiate a trade deal between the Kids Next Door and one of their allies she had in an hour. Oh, and Zero help you if you even mention the huge pile of paperwork sitting on her office desk!
Rachel groaned as she slouched in her command chair that overlooked the bridge. It had only been half an hour since her lunch break, and already she could feel a headache coming on. If Rachel was being honest with herself the idea of going home was starting to sound tempting.
"No, just try to grin and bare it," the blonde thought to herself.
She learned the hard way not long ago that running the organization was her responsibility, not someone else's. So Rachel sat up straight in her chair and looked over at her chair console. If she was going to be here for awhile, she might as well have a soda.
"Gosh, darn it!"
Turning her head around, Rachel saw Fanny walking over to her, rubbing the bridge of her forehead between her fingers.
"Is everything alright, Numbuh 86?"
"Not exactly," she replied. "I just gotta' off the phone with Arctic Base. Apparently Numbuh 60 hasn't shown up fer' his shift."
Rachel looked at her friend like she just grew a second head. "That's weird. Patton's always had good punctuality."
"Yer' tellin' me."
"Do you know if anyone else has seen him in the last hour?"
"Not that I know of, Sir," the Irish girl replied. "I can check around fer' ye', if you'd like?"
Rachel couldn't help but smile. Fanny could be a real pain in the butt sometimes, what with her arrogant personality and misandrist quips, but she could always be counted on when it mattered. It's what she liked about the redhead.
"I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Numbuh 86."
But before Fanny could run off, a flashing red light started blinking all over the bridge, grabbing the duo's attention.
"Report, Numbuh 65.3! Are we under attack!?"
"No, Sir!" Herbie replied. "We're getting a distress call from Numbuh 60!"
That really got the blonde's attention. "Put him on screen!"
The nerd did as he was told, but it wasn't Patton's face that appeared on the giant monitor that overlooked the bridge. It was the smirking face of their former ally, Cree Lincoln.
"Hey, Rachel. Long time, no see."
Rachel sat up in her chair and bored her fierce looking eyes into the teenagers' hazel orbs. "What do you want, Cree?"
"Oh, come on. Can't a girl just say hi?"
"Cut the crud and tell me what you want!" the blonde commanded.
The teenage girl was admittedly taken aback by that, but not for long. An evil smirk quickly resurfaced on her face as she said "Oh, it's not what I want, it's what Father wants."
Hearing that made the young blond sigh; Cree's boss, Father had it in for her ever since the Tag Incident when she threatened to stuff broccoli down his throat to make him tag her and
become Supreme Leader, again. She knew it was only a matter of time before he tried something against her, she just never figured it would be so soon.
"Alright then, what's his little scheme? Do you have reinforcements at my door waiting to blow us to smithereens? Or is this some sort of elaborate distraction so you can kidnap and
delightfulize me?"
Cree shrugged. "Actually, he just wants you to hand over the organization."
The blonde was dumbfounded; really? That was it? No big catch, or loophole he could exploit? Just surrender?
She snorted. "Really? That's his big proposition? If that's true, then tell your boss I'm not interested; I learned my lesson last time."
Cree just continued standing there, arrogantly. "Okay, then. I guess that means your little boyfriend's gonna have to suffer, now."
Now Rachel was confused; what boyfriend?
She got her answer when an accomplice of Cree's named Stacey appeared on screen, dragging a squirming body in her hand. She threw it over to Cree and the blonde's eyes widened when she saw who it was; it was Patton.
Not only had they tied his hands and feet, but his mouth had been taped shut.
"Numbuh 60!" she screamed. She could tell he was trying to talk, but the tape made whatever he was saying was impossible to make out. "Let him go!"
"Not unless you surrender the organization!"
Rachel felt her mouth drop. Was that the catch? Surrender the Kids Next Door or Patton gets it? It couldn't be.
Cree, meanwhile, continued smirking as she grabbed Patton by his backpack and held him up to the camera, all while he kept squirming.
"It's too bad we haven't figured out what to do with him, yet. A lot of us we're thinking Father might just delightfulize him…But I think it might be more fun to watch his brains melt. What do you think?"
Cree pulled out a ray gun and held it straight at the raven haired boy's temple. Rachel meanwhile started clenching her hands into the armrest. She knew exactly what the teenager was doing, but she couldn't help it; it was Patton.
"No, please! Don't hurt him!"
"Only one way to do that, brat," Cree sneered. "Unless you wanna watch this kid's brains melt away."
Patton meanwhile, kept shaking his head and trying to talk through the duct tape like he was trying to tell her something. He only stopped when Cree pressed the ray gun right up against his skin.
"So what's it gonna be, Supreme Leader?"
Now, Rachel didn't know what to do. Her worst nightmare had come true, and she wasn't sure what to do.
"Come on! Every minute you waste means you're boyfriend gets closer to having his brain fried…Do you really want that on your conscious?"
Rachel could feel her head starting to spin. It was either Patton or the Kids Next Door. What was she to do?
No. She knew exactly what she had to do, even if it would haunt her to her Decommissioning.
So with a deep sigh, Rachel gripped the armrests of her chair and stared at the screen.
"Tick tock, Rachel. Time's ticking for your boyfriend-"
"He's not my boyfriend."
As soon as she said that, everyone turned to see Rachel's cold and calculating expression. She looked less like the sweet, compassionate girl everyone on Global Command knew, and more like a hawk ready to pounce on her prey.
"Say that again?" Cree asked.
"You really thought that finding my weak point and exploiting it would make me surrender? If that's true then you're sorely mistaken."
Once she said that, both Patton and the rest of the operatives stared at her intently, like they couldn't believe she just said hat. Well, everyone except Fanny. She could see the regret shining in her
friends eyes, knowing full well that she hated doing this to him.
Cree on the other hand, looked quite perplexed by her response. "Well, that's pretty cold of you."
Rachel stared at her. "Really? You want to lecture me about coldness? After everything you've done to your own sister?"
Cree went to speak. But before she could, Patton managed to kick her right in the face and fell to the ground. Acting fast, Cree tried to fry him, but he used the beam to his advantage and let it fry the ropes binding his hands together.
Finally free, the Drill Sergeant ripped the tape off his face and went to battle with the teen ninjas surrounding him.
Cree growled. "Forget it, I'm going with Plan B!" She pressed a small button on her wrist.
Rachel and Fanny looked at each other in confusion. "Plan B?"
"Sir!" they heard Herbie cry. "We're being surrounded by Teen Ninja ships!"
They looked up and sure enough, they were surrounded on all sides. Thankfully, Rachel was never one to take things lying down.
"Numbuh 65.3, call every Sector you can to defend MoonBase! Numbuh 86, call Sector V and tell them to give Patton a hand!" she commanded.
"Yes, Sir!" the two replied.
And so the battle was on, with Rachel giving orders and her operatives putting them into action. The whole time, she looked like every bit the stern and commanding officer she always did. But inside, she could feel her heart breaking.
…..
A few hours later, Rachel found herself back in the Moonbase lounge, sitting in her regular bean bag chair and lost in thought.
The battle was a lot shorter than Rachel anticipated. Twenty minutes after Herbie sent out the distress signal, every Sector within a ten mile radius showed up, ready to take on the fleet of Teen Ninjas at their door. Sector V even showed up to Father's house in record time to help Patton with his escape.
Unfortunately Cree ordered whoever'd been operating the camera to cut the feed, so they didn't get to see the battle that went on. But according to Nigel's friend Wally, or Numbuh 4, it was "awesometastic!"
But honestly? All Rachel could do was sigh. True, she was grateful to know Patton was safe. But at the same time, she wasn't happy with the way today's events had progressed.
Her worst nightmare had finally come true, and it happened exactly the way she expected it would go down. She'd been given an ultimatum and she picked the organization over him, the boy she loves.
At least she knew she could do it, now. And if that time ever came again, she would choose the organization in a heartbeat.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," she reminded herself. The lives her decisions save will be worth it in the end, even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness.
"Is it?" she wondered. Although she supposed it didn't matter, anymore. Patton probably hated her guts now. Not that she could blame him-
"Here you go! One marble chocolate and vanilla cheesecake ice cream cone. Double scoop, in a waffle cone."
Rachel stared at the cone, confused. There were only two people who knew her ice cream preferences; one was Fanny, the other was Patton. But there's no way it was him, right?
But she turned around and sure enough, there was Patton. He was standing bending her chair, even wearing that trademark smirk of his to her surprise.
"Patton…Wha-"
"Numbuh 86 said you'd be here, so I got this for you and ran here as fast as I could." He walked around and sat down on the beanbag chair next to her, eating what appeared to be a double scoop of mint chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone.
Rachel meanwhile, was still in shock over what just happened. So much so she hadn't even taken the cone from his hand.
Patton noticed. "Still want it?"
Rachel nodded and took the cone from him, being careful not to lock gazes with him as he took a bite from his ice cream.
"Oh, man. I really gotta thank Numbuh 4 for saving my butt, back there." He chuckled. "You should have seen the way he came in, he practically-"
"Why are you here?"
Patton raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean; I put the Kids Next Door over your safety!…You should hate me by now…"
The boy was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I know…But I don't."
"Why?"
Patton sighed. It wasn't unlike Rachel to beat herself up for things like this, so he really should've seen this coming.
With that in mind Patton did the only thing he could think to do; he turned to face her, look her right in the eye and said "It's like I said, earlier; I know you…"
Rachel was stunned; he knew. He'd understood what her smirk from earlier meant all along, and never said a thing. She could practically feel her heart leap for joy… only to crumble to pieces a few seconds later.
"But…But I put the organization over you!…I put your life second-"
"I'm a Drill Sergeant, Rachel. And a Commanding Officer in my own right. You really think I haven't had to make a difficult decision like that, before?"
Rachel could feel herself nodding along; she hadn't thought of it that way. So then why was there still that little voice in her head that kept saying the opposite of what she was feeling?
"But you could have been hurt!" She said. "Or delightfulized, or worse!"
He shrugged. "I would have found a way out."
"And what if you couldn't?"
"Then I'd wait for you to come rescue me…Or someone else…" he replied. He flashed a smirk her way, too. "Come on; you know you'd want to come rescue me."
And as much as Rachel didn't want to, she cracked a smile. "Yeah…I would…"
Patton's smirk softened into a smile when he saw that, it looked like she was starting to come around. Even his eyes were starting to reflect his sudden shift in mood, because they too had grown softer once they took in the sight of her smile.
"Bottom line, Rache, I'm not gonna leave you just because you make a controversial decision."
Rachel gasped when she saw the look in his eyes; it was love. Pure, unending love for her. And already, she could feel her heart breaking into a million pieces.
Right now, she wanted nothing more than to tell him how she felt. To confess her love to him and kiss him like the girls in those melodramatic romance movies she and Fanny would watch on Friday nights.
But that's not what she did.
Instead, the blonde steeled her chocolate eyes into his loving gaze.
"But what if I do it again? You know it'll happen…Can you honestly say you'd be okay with that?…Can you honestly tell me that you'd be alright with me giving the order?"
Of course, what she didn't know was that Patton wasn't really interested in her question. Rather he was focused on the tears he could see about to fall from her eyes.
"Yes, I would."
Rachel clenched her hands into fists. "I don't get it…How can you possibly want to stay with a horrible person like me?"
Patton put his hand on hers and said "Because I know you, Rachel."
She gasped, not that Patton cared. He just stared at her with that gentle look in his eye and said "I saw the look in your eyes. You didn't make that decision lightly, and you definitely didn't want me to suffer."
"So you're not a horrible person, Rachel. You're kind and passionate no matter what anyone says, and I love you for that."
For awhile, the blonde was speechless. Though more because she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
He didn't hate her. Far from it, in fact. He understood and cared about the real her, no matter what she said or did.
And now that she knew that? Well, Rachel couldn't help but feel like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Still, the blonde couldn't help but ask "Really?"
"Of course," he said. "I'll stand by you no matter what happens, Rachel."
Well if that wasn't an official answer, Rachel didn't know what was. So she gave him a smile and said "Thank you…I love you, too…"
Patton smiled. "Yeah…" He started wiping away the tears on her face. "I kinda had a feeling from the way you were always looking at me."
She chuckled. "Really? You sure that's not the only thing that tipped you off?"
"Well..There were other things…"
The boy flashed Rachel a grin that made her smile. She locked eyes with him while he leaned in to kiss her, something she'd only dreamed of a million times in the last-
BEEP! BEEP!
Rachel growled as she pulled out her communicator from the pocket. "Report, Number 65.3; what's going on?"
"Sorry, Sir, but Sector K needs to talk to you about something, and it's urgent."
"Alright, tell them I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Yes, Sir."
The girl looked over to her new boyfriend and said "I'll be back in a little while. Keep my ice cream cold for me?"
"Okay, but I won't make any promises."
Rachel chuckled before getting up from her chair. Though not before leaving a quick peck on his cheek that made him blush.
She then ran out of the lounge and into the hallway, happy and content. It felt good to know her greatest fear had been alleviated once and for all.
The End