"You're back." Ciara said as she looked up to the sound of the door opening.

"I would have been here sooner, but I had to dodge Rafe and your mother. Then the first store I went to was closed." He said as he dragged a bunch of bags in with him.

"You saw my mother?"

"Yeah. Her and Rafe are looking for you. She seemed to be pretty worried about you."

"Well there's no need to worry. I'm perfectly fine."

Ben put down the supplies on the table and tuned to look at the brunette.

"Sure. Your leg is sitting in a make shift splint but yeah your fine."

Ciara rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. My leg will heal."

"Yeah thanks to me. If I let you wait any longer you could have lost the leg."

She raised her eyebrows and tried not to smile. "Let me wait?"

"What you think I was going to let you lose your leg? No chance in hell. I told you before that I saved you so that makes you my responsibility. If anything, bad happens to you that's all on me. I couldn't live with myself if something did."

"I-um…" Ciara stammered, unsure of what to say.

Ben could sense the awkwardness that was now in the room and turned back to the table to go through the bags. He pulled out a long back charger and then walked over to a small night stand that was next to the bed.

He grabbed Ciara's phone from it and was about to go to plug it in.

"I think you should call your mom."

She shook her head no. "No. I don't feel like talking to her right now."

"Come on Ciara you have to talk to her. At least to tell her that you're okay. You know if you don't she's just going to come find you."

"But if I charge my phone and turn it on it can be traced and then they'll find me. Assuming anyone wants to."

"That's not true of course they want to find you."

"Maybe I don't want to be found." She said looking up at him for a moment.

"It's up to you. But I think you should call her."

"If I call her then she'll be able to find out where I am. And that means she'll know where you are. Are you sure you want her to know were together?"

Ben put her phone down and then pulled another out of his pocket.

"While I was out getting you a charger I got myself a burner phone. If you call her on that she won't be able to trace our location." Ciara looked at the phone then back over at him. "So Ciara what's it's going to be?"

Ciara huffed. "Fine I'll call her."

Ben nodded and the dropped the phone on her lap.

###

"Mom I told you I'm fine. I had some bike trouble and I hitched a ride with a girl from campus."

"Bike trouble? It was lying on the side of the road."

"Well that's not how I left it." Ciara lied. "I just wanted to call so you knew I was okay."

"Well you said you're with a friend right? Then have her take you home. Or tell me where you are, and I can come get you."

"I can't mom."

"Why not?" Hope pressed.

"Because I need some time to myself."

"You could have that here."

"No, I couldn't mom. I need some time away from Salem."

"Well…well how much time are we talking here?"

Ciara sighed. "I don't know. But don't worry. I'm fine. I'm safe. Relax."

Ben looked up at Ciara and she stared back at him for a moment. Once the moment passed they both quickly adverted their gaze away from each other.

"Well can you at least tell me where you're going? So, I know where you are."

"Look mom I have to go okay? Just call off the search party and tell everyone I'm okay."

Before Hope could say another word, she ended the call.

"See that wasn't so bad now was it?"

Ciara rolled her eyes again. "You don't understand how my mom can get."

"Well I get that she cares about you."

"Yeah she only cares about what she thinks is best for me. Not what I think is best for me."

Ciara went to shift her body a little and it caused a shooting pain to go flying through her leg. She visibly winced and clutched her broken body part.

Ben went into one of the bags and pulled out a small bottle. He walked over to the bed and emptied out one of the pills into his hand.

"Here take this. It should help with the pain a little."

"And how do I know it's not some date rape drug or poison?" She snarked at him.

"It's not. You can check out the bottle yourself if you like. And then if you still don't want to take it then that's totally up you. But you're going to be in a lot of pain if you don't.'

They stared each other down for a minute before Ciara finally sighed. "If you want me to take it so badly then fine. I'll take the damn pill."

Ben dropped the pill in her hand and then reached over and picked up the cup of water he had poured Ciara before he left her. He placed it in her hand and watched as she swallowed the pill.

"I also got you some acetaminophen, the box recommends you take it with food."

"I'm not hungry."

"You have to eat something. When's the last time you ate anything?" She didn't respond right away and Ben gave her a serious look. "Ciara…"

"Yesterday morning…"

"Then that settles it. I got a few snacks and some sandwiches. I hope ham and cheese is okay?"

"Like I said I'm not hungry."

"Well you have to take the antibiotic with food. if you don't take it you could get an infection in your leg, that if left untreated could spread to the rest of your body. Now tell me is that really what you want to happen?"

Ciara groaned. "No it's not what I want but-."

"Okay then ham and cheese it is." He cut her off.

###

"So, what's your next move?" He said as he took the last bite of his sandwich.

"Haven't thought that far ahead. Not that I'm loving this dark dingy cabin in the middle of nowhere."

"I'm sorry next time I'll make sure to book us a room at the Ritz."

"Ha ha very funny." She tried not to laugh.

Ben smiled. "Well you can't tell me you plan to be hitched to me forever."

"Maybe not forever but for right now it's working out pretty okay. Haven't died yet."

"And you won't. Not on my watch."

Ciara nodded as she took a bite of her sandwich. "You seem pretty confident in that."

"I am." He paused for a second and then crumpled up the sandwich wrapper and put it on the table next to him. "Look I'm not the monster that I was, I swear to god. I have no desire to hurt anyone. Especially you. I don't want to be that guy anymore. I can't be that guy anymore. Every time I think about all the things I did it kills me inside. And I'm going to have to live with that for the rest of my life."

"I think some people might beg to differ." Ciara told him as she finished her sandwich.

"And would one of those people be you?"

"I don't know. I mean if you wanted to kill me you wouldn't have brought me here."

"This place definitely was not my first choice. But I wanted to get you to safety."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Sorry? About what?" He asked.

"About you having to bring me to here of all places. I mean it's not like I've been all that nice to you."

"Oh so you noticed that too? I just thought that was part of your charm."

Ciara was going to respond when she heard a loud noise coming from outside.

"What was that?"

Ben got up and walked over to the door and slightly opened it. He peered outside to see it just starting to down pour. It wasn't long after that, that the sky lit up as a bolt of lightning struck.

"Looks like that was thunder. It's starting to rain pretty hard out there."

"Oh…"

Another boom was heard this time louder than the last. Ciara jumped at the sound and then grimaced in pain.

"Hey you okay?" He asked as he shut the door.

"Yeah just moved my leg wrong."

Ben watched her as she stared at the boarded up window like she was waiting for something.

Once a rumble of thunder was again heard he knew that's what she was waiting for.

"You're afraid of thunder storms aren't you?"

She feebly tried to laugh off his comment. "Me? No way."

Ben walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down. "Hey it's okay to be afraid by them. I use to be too."

She turned to look at him. "Used to be?"

He nodded. "Yeah when I was little I use to be petrified of storms like this. It seemed like when it got bad outside so did things inside."

"You mean with your dad?"

"Yeah. But now a night like this doesn't bother me like it once did. Because at least now when it storms outside I'm safe inside."

"I still can't imagine what it must have been like to grow up in a home like that."

"I'm not going to lie it got pretty bad sometimes. There were instances I thought my sister and I would never make it out alive. I don't know how we even survived."

"Well for what it's worth I'm glad you did. Survive I mean."

A small smile crept across his face. "Me too."

Suddenly Ciara felt cold and folded her arms over her chest as she shivered. "This place may not be the Ritz but at least it could have some proper heat and air conditioning."

"Let me cover you up with a blanket."

She was about to protest but Ben was already up and pulling it over her.

She slowly looked up at him. "Thanks."

He stared down back at her and it wasn't long till he found himself lost in her eyes. A part of him wanted to reach out and touch her face. He was tempted to do it but thought better of it and instead turned away.

"You know it's getting late. You should probably get some rest."

Ben grabbed a blanket and a pillow and sat down to take his shoes off. Once they were discarded he tossed the pillow on the floor preparing to lay his head down on it.

"What are you doing?" Ciara asked him.

"What's it look like I'm doing? I 'm getting ready for bed."

"Well if you want…you can lay on the bed with me."

He looked up at her with trepidation. "Are you sure that's something you want."

She didn't know why but she was certain she wanted him next to her. "Yeah. Your body heat will help keep me warm."

"I…"

"Please?" Ciara pleaded with him.

He slowly nodded and picked the pillow up from the floor. The brunette watched him as he gazed at the empty spot on the bed.

Ben almost seemed nervous and she couldn't figure out as to why that was the case.

"It's okay I promise I won't bite."

He nodded and slowly made his way over to the bed.

It wasn't that big and when he was finally situated his arm was resting up against Ciara's.

They both stared at the celling in silence for what felt like eternity until the young Brady turned to look at the man lying next to her.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

He moved his head so he was looking right at her. They were so close now that their foreheads were nearly touching each other.

"You're welcome."

They laid like that, watching each other for at least an hour before both of them grew tired.

Ben closed his eyes and let out a contented sigh for the first time in a long time. "Good night Ciara."

"Good night Ben."