Yeah, I don't know where this came from. But it's an AU look at the movie if Aaron and Marta had been secretly dating. I plan on continuing the other fic I'm working on, but this popped into my head and wouldn't let me write anything else. Hope you enjoy. The title is from the Iron and Wine song.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.

It's not unusual for Aaron to disappear for a while.

She has no idea where he is, or when he'll be back, and she's on edge until she hears the sound of his boots hitting her hardwood floor. He sneaks in the basement door because she can't convince him that they aren't watching her house.

"They're always watching, Doc," he insists. "You can't underestimate them. You have to be careful, you have to be aware. You have to be smart. I can't…you can't…" He usually trails off, twisting his fingers into her dark hair, and pulling her as close to him as he possibly can. "They're capable of anything, Marta. You have to remember that."

His words echo in her head as she cowers under her desk and her co-workers fall down dead around her.

When she finally gets back to her house, after hours of talking to police officers and the head of her program, and avoiding the massive amounts of press outside of the lab, she's still shaking, and she wants, more than anything, to hear the sounds of Aaron's boots on her floor. She knows it's unlikely. He's been gone the past few days, but he could turn up.

He always turns up unexpectedly. She's never sure when he's going to come, until he slips into her bed, tugs her towards him, and kisses her soundly with a murmured, "Missed you, Doc," into her neck. She sleeps so much better when he's there, his body wrapped around hers. She feels so much safer on those nights.

She wants him there so badly that she aches. She wants to tell him about Dr. Foite, about her fear that this wasn't just an un-hinged co-worker. She wants to tell him she's afraid that they are coming back to finish what they started. They're capable of anything, Marta. She wants to feel safe, and she can't without Aaron.

Marta is a lot of things, but she is certainly not stupid, and when people show up at her house the next day, she knows that they aren't there for the reason that they say they are. They aren't there because they're worried about her well-being after the shooting.

They are there to finish what Dr. Foite failed to do.

She's cursing herself when the Special Agent brings down the gun that Aaron insisted that she keep. When they pin her to the chair and the gun is pointing at her, she can't believe that this is how it's all going to end, and she struggles, and then Aaron is there. Bursting out of the pantry and yelling at her to run.

"Doc! Run!" He shouts and she doesn't hesitate. She flies up the stairs, clutching her gun in her hand. The great thing about her ramshackle house is there are a thousand places to hide. Her hands shake and she's terrified for Aaron, and for herself.

It's worse when the house goes quiet. Aaron's face is the last thing she expects to see as she holds the gun in her shaky hands.

"Doc," he breathes out, and he looks so relieved that she sees her tenuous grip on her emotions start to slip.

"Aaron!"

"Shhh, shhh," he kneels down in front her.

"Aaron," she whispers it this time, and he leans forward and presses a hard kiss to her lips. He leans his forehead against hers momentarily.

"Thank God you're okay," he mutters, when he pulls back, he's all business. "This is what I need you to do Doc." He explains to her as quickly and quietly as he can what she needs him to do and then he's gone again.

Once they are in the car, Aaron reaches his hand across and grabs hers.

"You're June Monroe, say it for me," he insists.

"I'm June Monroe," she repeats.

"You lost your wallet, and I'm giving you a ride home," his voice is forceful, but his grip on her hand is firm.

"Aaron?" Her voice is soft. "Dr. Foite? That was them. It was…" Her breath hitches and Aaron pulls the car over. He needs to hold her. He pulls her into his arms and presses a desperate kiss to her mouth.

It's his worst fear that the program will go after her. But he thought it would be because of him, because of their relationship. Never did he think it would be because they were burning the program to the ground. He's so proud of her for thinking on her feet, for escaping the lab shooting, for holding it together back at her house.

When he finally was back from Alaska and saw the news about the lab shooting, his heart stopped. No, no, no, no, not Marta.

But it wasn't Marta. She was okay. The lone survivor.

He knew they were going to come after her again. Just like they weren't going to stop coming after him. He needed to get to her before they did.

Aaron runs his hands through her hair and gives her one more kiss.

"We have another problem," he says. "The blue pills." Marta had told him about viraling off the greens. She had warned him that it was happening and how sick he would be. She took time off, under the guise of visiting her sister, and instead holed up in a motel with him, spending her days taking care of him until his fever broke and he was in the clear. She had been as surprised as he was when they continued giving him the green pills. It was her first clue that perhaps the program didn't exactly have their best interest at heart.

"It's keeping us on a short leash," Aaron had said, but they still had him on the leash, because he still needed those blue pills. Marta had already toyed with the idea of trying to figure out a way to stash blue pills for Aaron, but the program had kept them under lock and key. And the live virus was in Manila.

"The blues," Marta breaths out. "Oh God, Aaron." Her panic is back, and he tightens his grip on her hand.

"It'll be okay," he tells her. "I'll figure it out."

When they get to the motel, Aaron tells her that she should try to get some sleep. He already has a plan partially formed in his head, and needs to start working out the details. He already has passports made up for both of them. He's been planning on their escape since the very first time that she smiled at him in his first exam.

On the third exam, he waited for her and followed her until she had gone to a place without cameras or peering eyes. He told her how much looked forward to seeing her, and how sometimes it was the only thing that kept him going through a mission. He asked her out on a date with the agreed implication that there would be no real way to take her out on an actual date. He was surprised, pleasantly so, when she agreed. She made dinner at her house, which ended up having to be re-heated.

From that point on, he snuck into her house every chance he got, and quickly realized that he was in love with her, and that the program would kill both of them before they ever allowed the two of them to ride off happily together into the sunset.

This scenario, hiding in a motel while the program hunted for them, had played out in his head a million times. He would keep her safe, and in order to do that he needed to not be a slave to those blue pills.

"Will you lay with me?" Marta asks as she slides her tired body under the sheets. "I need...I just need…I need you." And Aaron doesn't hesitate. He checks the door locks for the hundredth time and slips in next to her. She lays her head down on his chest and he tightens his grip.

"I'm not going to let anything, or anyone, hurt you," he promises as he skims his hand up and down her arm.

"Thank you for coming for me," she says softly, and Aaron's hand stops, and kisses the top of her head.

"I'll always come for you," he tells her. "Always."