With one swift motion, the door opened. Their eyes met; the steel blue of his eyes pierced the darkness of hers.
"Steve, hi, what are you doing here?" she asked as if she didn't know
"Don't play innocent with me, when did you get back?" He asked
Ignoring his question, she casually said "Come in" she opened the door further and stepped back, allowing him to enter. "Can I offer you a drink?"
He grabbed her before she could react and held her in his arms. "I missed you" he whispered in her ear.
She could feel her body react to his touch. She was instantly covered with goose bumps and could feel herself melt in his arms. Her eyes closed as she inhaled his scent. The stubble of his beard rubbed her cheek and his breath covered her neck. She swore that if she died right now, she would be the most content woman in the world. Quickly she regained her composure and gently pulled herself away from his hold.
"I missed you too" she responded
"How long have you been back? I saw you running by the beach the other day. I expected to hear from you" He was disappointed in her
"I got back three weeks ago. I didn't think that you wanted to hear from me. You made it pretty clear that we were over" she gently bit the corner of her lip.
"That was not my idea" he became defensive
She paused, looking down towards the ground; she responded "I know. You are right. It was my idea. Why are you here?" she asked
"I wanted to see you. So is it Lieutenant? Or is it Lieutenant Commander, now?" he asked
"It's Lieutenant Commander" she smiled half-heartedly
"So it was worth it then" he stated
"Sort of" she responded as she looked up at him
He smirked "sort of?" he nodded his head
She began to fidget "It was a bad one, Steve, we lost a lot of good men" tears began to fill her eyes
He reached for her, but she backed away. He could see that she was hurting and he wanted desperately to take the pain away. This was a process that they had each gone through before. Sometimes together, sometimes separately. Their job was not always one filled with reward and the sacrifice was great. They had both learned to cope with it, both learned to deal with it, but this was different. He could see it in her eyes, in her demeanor. She was hurting. Only time could fix this.
"Can I help? Catherine, please let me help you. Talk to me, I am here for you. I always have been and I always will be" he pleaded for her to allow him to comfort her.
"You can't Steve. I need to deal with this alone. You have no obligation to me. You have your own problems. You've moved on with your life and I've got to do the same. I know that you are seeing someone else" she was sure.
"What are you talking about? I am not seeing anyone" he questioned her reasoning
"I drove by your house, I saw a black Malibu in your driveway. I am not stupid Steve" she stated
"Stupid? No. A stalker? Maybe" he laughed "Yes, I am living with another woman, but it's not what you think, it's Mary, my sister. Why were you driving past my house? And don't say you were just passing by, I live on a dead end street" he smiled. He loved to tease her, she was such an easy target for him.
She just looked at him in defeat. She had let her guard down and had allowed herself to get caught.
"Ok you got me, I wanted to see you, but I couldn't…." she hesitated
Steve interrupted "Couldn't be the one to give in and admit you were wrong?"
She nodded her head and pursed her lips "Ok, you got me"
"Are we done with the games now? Can we act like adults? I'll start" he walked closer to her, gripped her arms with his hands, looked her directly in the eyes and said "I love you, I missed you, and I want you back"
She stared back and responded "I missed you too and I want you back"
"Nope, I'm afraid that's not good enough. You have to say it" he smirked and there was a glimmer in his eyes
Catherine walked away from him and could not give him the eye contact he was looking for. "I'm afraid to"
"That makes absolutely no sense at all" Steve was amused by this interaction. He knew that she loved him, but he knew that this was difficult for her. Someone in her past had broken her heart more than once. The thing that scared him the most was that it might have been him.
"I guess you don't love me then" he began to walk towards the door
"Stop! Don't go!" she stopped him
"Tell me you love me and I will stay….forever" he waited with his hand on the door knob.
She slowly walked towards him. Placed her hands on each of his cheeks and said "I love you"
"That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" He smirked as he swooped down and grabbed her in his arms.
"Can you just shut up and kiss me already?" she demanded
He kissed her and for the first time in almost a year, he felt content and happy. She kissed him back and for the first time in a year she felt safe.
They were soul mates. They had tried to fight the connection that they had for years. Through love, tragedy, duty of country, they always found their way back to each other. Perhaps the timing was off, perhaps the circumstances were intrusive, but this time the stars had aligned and it was their time to save each other. This was their time to be together.
This was something that I couldn't get out of my head and had to put in on paper. I hope you enjoyed it.
