Author's Note: I wrote this years and years and years ago - I couldn't even tell you when - and had forgotten about it until a fic I was reading in a previous fandom referenced the same song. I haven't heard the song in years either. I couldn't find the fic until I googled my name and one of the song lyrics I remembered quoting in the fic. Voila! Here it is, snurched in full from my *old* website. It's true what they say: nothing ever vanishes from the internet!

I found her in my hotel room, the television tuned to CNN. She was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed tucked into herself with the remote clutched tightly in her left hand. She looked up at me, tears filling her blue eyes, "It's happened again."

I had been in a meeting for the last four and half hours so I wasn't sure what she was talking about. I sat down next to her and slipped the remote from her fingers. She had the television muted, I remember thinking that it was strange for her to have it muted. Like me, the sound of news soothed her. I pressed the mute button at the same moment I noticed the picture on the screen. Three American embassies were bombed in European countries less than an hour ago. "What happened?" I breathed. I think I put my arm around her then.

"It was them, there's a tape. They'll run it again."

I pulled her close to me as the tape she promised was in fact run again. I whispered platitudes to her as long as I could. I was scared for her and me and our fellow Americans. It was like that first day all over again. Eventually, though, I ran out of things to say that had any meaning at all. She lifted her head from my shoulder and put a hand on my cheek – I remember her warmth. "It's okay when there's nothing more to say to me," she said.

She took the remote from me and muted the television again. I said something, "peaceful quiet", I think. She said later that it sounded more like a prayer than anything else. But I meant is as a thank you.

"The way you keep the world at bay," she said to me, almost reverently. I wasn't sure I understood what she meant at first. But then, I shared the sentiment.

I gave it back to her, with modification I felt she deserved. "The way you keep the world at bay for me."

I must have kissed her then, I can't imagine why I wouldn't have.

I must have loved her then.

I can't imagine why I wouldn't have.

Original Author's Note: Virtual Christmas cookies to my amazing beta, TZK, who continues to read all this angsty stuff while I'm having my phase...