A/N: Welcome to volume two of Collections From The McCord Files! I'm so excited to be starting over with one-shot 101! Thank you all for your endless support.
I had a prompt for the first time Henry or Elizabeth say "I love you" and a separate one based on a line of dialogue: "You told me you loved me and I freaked out because the last time somebody said that to me they left and I never saw them alive again". This is the combined result- enjoy!
It had been, up to that point, a normal evening for Henry and Elizabeth. The couple of several months had been sitting together on Henry's couch, Elizabeth leaned back against him, both of them with their school books open. As much as it was a necessity to study, it felt like a necessity to be together as well. The relationship, while still fairly new, felt serious to both of them. They were still somewhat cautious around each other in certain ways, but neither of them had ever had a relationship that felt like what they had between them, and that was enough to make them both hopeful in their own private ways. Henry expressed it through making dinner for her in his tiny apartment and Elizabeth expressed it by teasing him and letting him in bit by bit, and they understood one another. They were happy like that, going on dates and spending their evenings studying together and sometimes getting a little distracted by each other.
Well, maybe more than sometimes.
It was all new and beautiful and exciting, but on that particular evening in winter as Henry looked down at Elizabeth, it felt like more than that. With the warm light from the lamp next to his couch illuminating her face and her golden locks of hair escaping from their ponytail as a result of the makeout session they'd been having an hour ago, it felt like more than new and exciting. He watched the way her eyes so intensely scanned the page before her and the way she took it all in, the way she bit her lip a little bit in concentration, and to Henry, it felt like home. She felt like home, and in those moments he knew with shining, brilliant clarity that he was going to spend the rest of his life with Elizabeth Adams. It was as terrifying as it was exhilarating, to look over at her and think that she was the one human being he wanted to spend every single day with. It was a breathtaking realization, and not one that Henry wanted to keep to himself.
"Elizabeth?" he said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over them. She glanced back at him in response.
"Yeah?"
He met her gaze and took a breath.
"I love you," he said. It was as if the whole energy of the room shifted; he could almost see her shutting down before his eyes.
"What?" she asked.
"I said I love you," Henry repeated, although he was quite sure that she had heard him the first time. She drew in a breath, and Henry watched her. His golden glow was fading away at an alarming rate, and he wished desperately that he could rewind even thirty seconds and just keep his mouth shut, if only to keep her from looking at him the way she was now.
"I need some air," she choked, and just like that she was gone, off the couch and out the door, not even stopping to grab her coat. Henry stayed frozen in his spot on the couch, unsure what to do in response to Elizabeth's unexpectedly harsh reaction. He was running it over and over in his head, wondering what had prompted her to respond that way. It wasn't as if his love for her was some big secret; he may not have said it aloud, but if you'd asked him five minutes before he spoke the words aloud, he would have said without a doubt that Elizabeth knew he loved her. Now, he was left alone in the apartment to question everything, not least of which whether he should go after her.
Ultimately, after an agonizing several minutes of debate, Henry decided that he had to. He stood, grabbed his coat, and headed outside. On the sidewalk below his apartment, Henry turned from left to right, scanning his surroundings for Elizabeth. It was still early, only seven o' clock, but it was also January, which meant that it was dark. Frustrated, Henry picked a direction and started walking, hoping that he could even find her in the darkness. Luckily, he had picked the right direction; shortly after he'd started walking, he spotted her on a nearby bench, leaning forward with her head in her hands. He approached slowly, not wanting to startle her too badly. As he drew closer, he could see her shivering.
"Elizabeth?" he said softly. She looked up at him and sighed. "Sweetheart, it's freezing," he said, shrugging out of his coat so that he could drape it over her shoulders instead.
"You're going to be cold now," she said, her voice small and a little bit shaky.
"I'm fine," he said dismissively. "You're shaking."
"Thank you," she replied softly, drawing the jacket in closer around her body. She looked so small, sitting there wrapped up in his warm jacket but still trembling, whether with cold or with something else, Henry wasn't quite sure.
"I'm sorry if I crossed a line," Henry said a moment later. "I didn't mean to upset you."
Elizabeth chuckled lightly, shaking her head before she tilted it back to look up at the clear night sky above them.
"It's not that, Henry," she admitted. She looked over at him and met his gaze. "It's just that...you told me you loved me and I freaked out because the last time someone said that to me, they left and I never saw them again."
Silence followed her admission, and Henry sighed.
"Oh, Elizabeth," he breathed. "I'm sorry."
"No, see, this is exactly what I didn't want to happen," she sighed, sounding frustrated. "I've known it was coming, and I've been trying to prepare myself but...it turns out I still just wasn't prepared. I didn't leave because I was upset with you. I left because I was upset with myself for not reacting the way I wanted to."
"You reacted naturally," Henry assured her quietly. "No one would ever expect anything else from you, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth laughed through her tears.
"No, Henry," she corrected him, "you wouldn't expect anything else from me."
She smiled slightly, reaching out to brush her cold fingertips over his cheek.
"That's what I love about you," she said softly, and Henry's heart skipped a beat in his chest. He caught up her fingers in his hand and pressed a kiss against the icy skin.
"I will never expect anything of you except for you to be you," he told her sincerely. "And," he added with a smile, "that you let me take care of you."
She smiled slightly, nodding her head.
"Speaking of which," Henry continued, "let's get you inside. It's freezing out here."
He stood and held his hand out to her, which she took, entangling her fingers with his. He started to head back toward his apartment building, but her tug on his hand stopped him, pulling him back to stand before her in the dimly lit space.
"Something wrong?" he asked. Elizabeth shook her head, taking a tiny step that brought her close to him. Resting her hand on his chest, she rose up on the balls of her feet to press her lips against him. She tasted of hot chocolate, and Henry smiled slightly against her.
"I love you, Henry McCord," she whispered into the darkness, her voice low and sincere, almost reverent. It sent a shiver down his spine, hearing those words aloud for the first time.
"I love you, too," he murmured softly, and this time, the words brought a smile to Elizabeth's face.
As they turned to head back inside, Henry decided that he would wait a while to tell her that he was pretty sure he was going to marry her someday.