"Hello?"
Silence, except for distantly muffled breathing.
"Liz?" His voice shook. Oh, he hoped it was her.
"Yeah, it's me," she finally breathed in a near-whisper.
He felt tears pricking at his eyes and squeezed them shut, focusing on the sound of her quiet breaths on the other end of the line.
He was silent too long, he realized, when her voice reached his ear again, sounding nervous. "Aram, are you still there?"
"Yeah, um, yeah, I'm still here. Of course I'm here," he stumbled over his words, trying to reassure her. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice strained with the force of the emotion he was holding back.
"For now," she answered.
The quiet stretched between them. He cleared his throat to speak but when he opened his mouth, he couldn't find the right words.
As if she could read his mind, she spoke again. "I just wanted to hear your voice after today. To make sure you were alright."
He could hear her swallowing heavily.
He squeezed his eyes more tightly shut, willing the tears to stay back. "Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm fine." He knew it was unconvincing at best.
"You don't sound fine, Aram," she murmured softly.
A strangled noise escaped from the back of his throat and he forced himself to take a deep, though shaky, breath. He couldn't bring himself to speak. What was there to say?
"Aram," she pressed firmly. "Everything's fine. You're alive. I'm alive. You saved my life. You did everything you could, and I'm safe from the Cabal right now because of you."
The sweet, encouraging notes in her voice finally managed to pull the tears from his eyes. He swiped the back of his hand across them quickly.
"Thank you, Aram," she continued. "I know I already said it, but thank you. I will never forget what you did for me today."
And then there was only one thing to say. He couldn't not say it.
"I love you, Liz," he breathed through his tears, sniffing back the snot threatening to escape from his nose.
It was silent for a beat too long, and when Liz anxiously, unsurely, whispered his name, he rushed forward, realizing how his words had likely been construed.
"Not, you know, like that. I mean, you're beautiful, but I don't have feelings for you. Unless you… I mean. You know. I love you, that's all." His face was flaming by the end of his rambling, probably unnecessary, explanation. At least his embarrassment had briefly halted the tears, giving his mind something else to focus on for a moment.
He could hear her soft, twinkling laughter, and the smile in her voice when she spoke. "I love you too, Aram."