Secret / Haunted / Mistakes / Innocence / Jealous / Missing / Shadow / Evidence /Weapon / Blood / Trouble / Alive / Funeral / Numb / Heartbeat / Gone / Fighting / Echo / Alone / Strength / Return / Protection / Broken / Honor / Soft / Sweet / Heartache / Reach / Fingertips / Shirt / Rain / Tomorrow / New / Wine / Butterflies / Stranger / Beautiful

AN: Whoa! This turned out longer than I expected it to be... Oops... :P

I'm not really happy with how the ending turned out, but I couldn't figure out how else to end it. And also, sorry for the crappy Alex story. It's really late, and my brain isn't functioning properly anymore :P

Also, updates might be a little slow. I've been really busy having to write a bunch of essays, and I gotta start studying for exams soon since they're coming up in a few weeks.

Rain

Alex awoke with a jolt when the lightning hit a tree right outside of her bedroom window, and it went crashing down with a thud. She sat up in her bed, taking the covers with her, slightly pulling them off of the sleeping figure beside her. Sean subconsciously curled his body, and Alex looked over at him as he pulled some of it back onto himself. She was almost jealous of how peaceful he looked. She had somehow managed to fall asleep before the storm came, and she knew that now that she was awake, she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.

She crossed her arms around her knees and pulled them up to her chest, laying her head down and closing her eyes tightly. She slowly rocked herself back and forth as she focused on Sean's light snoring, desperately trying to drown out the sound of the heavy wind and the rain hitting against her window.

She had always hated the rain. It reminded her too much of her days in slavery. She particularly recalled the first night that she had tried to escape. It was raining out, much like it was tonight. Earlier that day she had put together a small bag of things that she would need to survive. She had the perfect plan to get away, but she knew that it would result in her living on the streets, for who knows how long. She made sure to leave everything that she could live without in the hopes that she could be far enough away that she couldn't be caught before Vlad and his men had even realized she was gone.

She must have stayed like that for a while, because the next thing she knew, she heard her name being called. She opened her eyes only to see Sean sitting up beside her gazing at her intently, with his arms protectively wrapped around her. "Alex. Alex, what's wrong? I've been calling your name for like, ten minutes. Is everything alright?" Sean asked, concern evident in his voice.

"I'm fine," She said, her voice cracking. She tried to turn her head away from him, but he caught her before she could, and made her look at him. It was then that he noticed she was crying, and he quickly reached up to wipe her tears.

"No, you're not. Alex, talk to me. Please?" He begged, watching her carefully.

"It's nothing. I just... Don't like storms," She choked out, pushing his hands away from her face, and rubbing her eyes vigorously.

He let out a small chuckle, hoping to ease her anxiety a little. "Yeah, clearly." She just glared at him, not finding it even the slightest bit funny. "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Did something happen?"

She shook her head, and turned her face away. "Something about your family?" Sean pried, knowing she was lying. She shook her head again. "Friends? Russia?" She just kept shaking her head, wiping her eyes once again. Sean sighed. He didn't know what else it would be. It wasn't possible that she was just afraid of storms out of the blue. He knew something had made her like this. And then it hit him. "Your old job?" He said it as more of a statement.

She shook her head again, but a sob accidentally escaped her mouth. Despite her protests, Sean was quick to wrap his arms around her and pull her close to him. "Do you wanna tell me what happened?" He asked, while soothingly rubbing her back. She shook her head again, and clung on to his shirt tightly as another roar of thunder sounded too close to the window. "Alex, come on. Tell me what happened," he whispered again, only to get the same response. "Believe it or not, telling someone usually does help," He said, his voice still gentle. Still nothing.

He decided to try a story of his own. "When I deployed for the first time as a SEAL, we had to go through a few tests. We didn't know they were tests at the time. It was just so they could see who could survive out in the field. I was friends with this one guy. James. We met during the first months of training, and became pretty close friends. Before flying out, I promised I'd watch out for him." She looked up at him, slightly confused, but paying attention nonetheless.

"On our third night there, there was a huge storm and we were still stuck out in the field trying to protect ourselves and attack what we thought were our enemies at the time. He had eyes on one of the targets, and he was hiding behind a large tree. I got word that another comrade was in danger, so I went over to help." His voice cracked a little, the memory all too clear in his mind.

"The storm was getting out of control. The wind had started to pick up even more, and the rain fell harder. We all just wanted to head back to base and call it a night, but we almost had the group of enemy soldiers. Suddenly we heard a loud crash, and I could hear James scream in the distance. I managed to take out the one enemy I was close to, and rushed over to where James had been a few minutes earlier."

"The tree that just ten minutes ago was the perfect hiding spot was now on the ground, with dozens of broken off branches lying around. I could hear James' screams coming from under the tree, but his voice was muffled. I ran over and tried to lift the tree off of him, just enough so that he could get out, but he stopped me. He said he couldn't feel his legs, and that even if I did manage to push the tree out of the way, he wouldn't be able to get out."

"I tried to get help. I figured if I could get one other person to help... To pull him out once I got the tree off of him, that he would survive. He just stopped me again. He spit out some blood, and managed to tell me to give his girlfriend a letter that he had in his jacket pocket. Before I could even say anything else he was gone. The rest of the guys took out the last two targets while I looked for the letter in his pocket, and then we went back to base."

Alex was listening intently, trying to hold back tears. It couldn't have been easy, losing a friend like that. "What happened after?"

"As soon as I got back to the States, I looked for the girl. It took me months to find her, but when I finally did, I gave her the letter. I didn't say anything to her. I didn't even wait for her to open the letter. I just left as soon as I knew it was in her hands. I haven't really looked back since then. I guess I just kinda pushed it out of my head. The memories were too painful."

"Wow, I'm really sorry, Sean," She said sincerely. Now it was him that was on the verge of tears, but somehow he managed to keep his emotions under control.

"There's no need to be. There's nothing anyone could've done. It was just... Bad luck... I guess. It's your turn, by the way," He said, focusing his attention back on her.

She shook her head again, and said, "I can't. I just can't talk about it."

"Come on, you think it was easy for me to tell you all of that? I've never told anyone about it before."

"Never? That doesn't sound like you..."

"This is the first time I ever let myself say it out loud. Like I said before, I just wanted to get rid of the memories, and forget about him completely. But that obviously doesn't work. And it's not gonna work for you either, so you might as well tell someone. Why not tell me? And what better time to do it then now?"

Alex sighed, and decided to take him up on his offer. She gave him vague details about the night she tried to escape from Vlad. "I managed to get away from him. I was probably walking for about two hours, in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. I felt like someone was watching me, but before I could even do anything, whoever it was grabbed me and started choking me. For a second I thought it was Vlad, or one of the men that worked for him. I've seen him bring back some of the girls that tried to escape, which wasn't very often, and it usually ended in a slow, painful death. Not that it would've been much different from the way he treated us there anyway."

"Obviously it wasn't him. But then the guy stopped choking me, and threw me into the river, holding my head under the water. I think for a while I kinda wished it were Vlad instead. I was still high from earlier on in the night, and I was freaking out more than I normally would. The guy probably would've gone through with killing me if Ronnie hadn't grabbed his hand away and pulled me out. Like I said, I was still pretty high, so it's hard to remember all of it, but I do remember Ronnie pushing the guy into the river, and as soon as he did the lightning struck right where he'd thrown him. I don't even know what happened after that. I'm pretty sure I passed out, because the next thing I remember is waking up at Ronnie's house."

Sean smiled down at her and pulled her closer to him. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it? Don't you feel better now?"

"Not really..." She trailed off, not knowing what to say. She didn't want to make him feel bad, but if anything, she felt worse than before.

"Fair enough... I have one question though. Is this the same Ronnie that was your drug dealing boyfriend?" She looked up at him curiously. How did he even know that? Then, as if he read her mind he grinned and said, "I read your files, remember?"

"I didn't know that piece of information was in my files."

"Are you really surprised? Amanda always knows everything."

"That's a good point," Alex said, yawning.

Sean chuckled, and leaned back on the bed, pulling Alex down with him. "Come on, you really should get some sleep. Just try to forget that it's raining. Think about something else."

She really didn't think she could, but she would try. She closed her eyes, listening to his breathing, and oddly enough, she felt herself drift off to sleep.