Ian gripped the steering wheel tightly as he surveyed the street. It had been an hour since Erin had decided she needed time alone, and an hour since he had been driving around town, looking at all of her favorite spots for her. She was nowhere that she would normally be, though, and he was beginning to worry. She never acted this way. Of course, no situations such as this had befallen them before- nothing this gruesome- and she was hurting, but to react this way? To push him away when he was all she had right now; when they should be thankful to have one another? It wasn't right, and he didn't know what to do to change her mind about how she was treating him. He supposed her defense mechanism was too push him away, but the thought of her shutting him out like this frightened him.

There was really nothing he could do to make her react differently, he knew, but it was his job to still try and be there for her; to attempt to get her to open up. It wouldn't be that hard, would it? She always ended up confiding in him…He just needed to find her. He slammed on the breaks as the light before him changed suddenly to red and he cursed quietly under his breath. He was becoming frustrated quickly; all he wanted to know was where she was. Why would she do this? Continuing on the road, going ten to fifteen above the speed limit, he searched the side of the roads, he wondered where else he could look that she might like or want to go. He racked his brain for answers, but there were none. There were no links. She wasn't anywhere she had been in the past; she was acting like his Erin.

It took him another thirty minutes of looking before he turned his head sharply to the right as he was stopped at a stop sign, and saw a shadowy, hooded figure slumped on the ground at the edge of a darkened alley that was close by their apartment. Ian's heat broke as he shook his head and made a quick turn into the alley, shinning the headlights on the figure before him. To avoid hurting her eyes, he quickly turned off the lights, and he slid his keys in his pocket as he shut the door and walked over to her. She looked up at him with tear-stained cheeks and leftover mascara running from her eyelashes.

"You could have stayed with me you know," he mused, cutting right to the chase and taking a seat by her on the broken, graveled road. "You chose instead to come out in the biting cold, with darkness surrounding you, in pajamas and a trench coat."

"You've made quite a point." She mumbled sullenly, staring into his eyes for a long while before averting her gaze to the ground.

"Hey," he shook his head, placing his fingers under her chin and lifting her gaze to meet his once more. "Pip."

She stared into his eyes once more at that form of endearment and blinked rapidly a few times to stop any other stray tears from falling. Ian smiled slightly and held out his arms to her, and to his surprise, she curled into them with no objection and no hesitation. With a gentle squeeze of her arm, he folded her against him and placed a gentle kiss on top of her head.

"You had me worried sick," he chided quietly. "You should have stayed with me."

"I know," she responded, her voice chocked slightly on the tears that remained ready to flow. "I'm sorry."

She was too weak to muster anything else; to hard set on feeling sorry for herself and depressed to really care what he thought right now. All she knew was that on top of this emotional pain, she couldn't have him angry at her too. Her frame of mind was altered, and she wanted him to realize that she hadn't meant to turn from the one person she always turned to. She believed that he understood by the way he continued cradling her to his chest, and she sighed quietly into his embrace, biting back the last round of tears that threatened to spill over.

"Come home with me." He spoke gently, taking her hand in his own.

"I don't want to go back right now," she shook her head slightly. "Sit with me; watch the stars."

Her gaze was vacant again as she looked up, watching the black of the sky unfold in a beautiful, vast blanket of velvet charcoal speckled with glistening stars.

"Stargaze?" He asked with a grin.

"That's all I want," she replied, sitting up from his embrace slightly. "I just want to feel like I'm out of this universe…for one second; away from the pain and fear. Please don't leave me."

"I won't," he whispered against her ear. "I never will."