Ashley Graham watched Leon's chopper from the plane window. The only bad thing about going back home was not knowing whether she would see Leon again or not. She trusted that he would keep his promise to keep in touch. That was good enough for now. At least it gave her something to hold on to.

The doctor on board immediately checked her vital signs. She was given an IV due to dehydration. Luckily, she was not too ill. She only complained about a headache. The doctor advised her to lie down and she obliged. She was positioned next to the window and watched the view outside.

She felt a comforting hand on the top of her shoulder. The First Lady sat next to her. "Can I get you anything?"

Ashley turned her head towards her mother. "I'm fine." She wished she was on that chopper with him. Why couldn't they ride together on one plane, she mentally complained.

"You look so sad," her mother noticed.

"I miss having Leon around." She uttered before she could stop herself.

Mrs. Graham looked around to see if her husband was listening. He was on the phone in the conference room.

"You miss Leon?" She definitely saw the twinkle in her daughter's eyes when she mentioned him. "What do you mean you miss him? You just talked to him five minutes ago."

Instead of answering, Ashley just gave her mom a meaningful look. "I know."

Mrs. Graham instantly knew what she meant.

The First Lady pushed her daughter's hair away from her face. "You were pretty emotional back there. What did you tell him?"

Ashley looked outside the window and blushed, trying to suppress her smile. "I was just thanking him for everything that he had done, that's all."

"He's the best, that's why your father sent him."

Ashley nodded in agreement and looked into the distance. "Yeah. He is perfect."

"It looks like you've found a big brother in Leon, haven't you?"

She sighed and replied, "I guess" with a heavy heart. For some reason, it brought her pain to think that she might be just a little sister to him.

Soon enough, Ashley fell asleep. She would wake, up later when they land.

After putting together his own account of what happened in Spain, Leon was finally allowed to go home. One of his fellow agents, Carter, offered him a ride back home. He was in no condition to drive. He was exhausted as hell.

"Man, that shit about Krauser, that's so fucked up. He used to be a good guy." Carter pointed out as they sped off the highway. It was already around 9 in the evening. Leon still couldn't believe that only 16 hours ago, he was fighting for his life. It was as if he had just awoken from a really bad nightmare.

Leon snorted. "You can say that again. You should have seen the parasite that grew out of his arm. Unbelievable." He shook his head upon remembering it. It was a horrible sight. But then again, that was not worst thing that he had seen.

"Never liked the dude anyway. Something about him gave me the creeps for some reason." Carter shook his head. "And who the hell would want that parasite in their body? Definitely not me. I don't think that thing is very appealing to the ladies, wouldn't you agree, Leon?" He laughed. Leon joined him.

"You're damn right, it's not."

"Say, do you want to go to the bar before heading home? Drinks on me."

"I'd go anytime, you know me, but not tonight. I've taken some meds."

"Oh, that's right, what was I thinking? Anyway, just take a nice, long rest, bro. After all you've been through, you deserve to sleep for days without interruption."

Leon scoffed. "Wish me luck."

They reached Leon's apartment within half an hour. The success of his mission made him a fortune—more paycheck than he had ever seen in his life – but Leon was not materialistic. He did not see the point in buying a house when the nature of his job demanded him to be constantly moving from place to place all the time. Plus, he was living solo. He didn't need to live extravagantly.

Agent Carter parked in front of Leon's apartment complex. "Here we are."

"Thanks for the ride, man. I owe you a drink." Leon stepped out of the car.

"Don't mention it, Leon." He was about drive off when he remembered something. "By the way, Hunnigan asked me to give you this."

Carter handed him a small folded piece of paper. Is this what I think it is?

He stared at the paper in confusion. He was just talking to Hunnigan in the headquarters. She maintained professional when she was collecting information from him. What could she possibly have for him on that paper? "Uh, thanks." The agent nodded and drove off.

He unfolded the paper and he was right. It had a phone number scribbled across. He couldn't help smile to himself.

"Well, look at that." He mumbled as he turned the key of his apartment.

Later that night.

As soon as they arrive at the White House, The President left for another city against his will. As much as he wanted to spend time with his daughter, he had to give an important speech that day. He promised to be back soon.

After showering, Ashley locked herself in her room at the White House. It was past 11 pm and she was nowhere near ready to go to bed. She was unable to sleep and it was frustrating her. She was absent-mindedly watching TV, and flipping the channels.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door. "It's me," her mother called. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah, come in, mom."

Mrs. Graham let herself in and closed the door behind her. She proceeded to sit on the edge of Ashley's bed and looked at her with concern. "How are you?"

She shrugged. "Can't sleep." She paused and continued, "it's still all too fresh in my head."

"Why don't you sleep in your brother's bedroom for now?"

Ashley has a nine year old little brother named Aidan. He, too, had no idea what really happened with Ashley. He was too young to understand.

She shook her head. "It's okay, I'll be alright. Besides, I don't think Aidan's snoring will help me sleep anyway."

Mrs. Graham smiled. "Is there anything you want to talk about?" She wondered. Ashley hadn't said anything about the incident since she arrived.

Ashley turned the TV off and gave her full attention to her mother. She bit her lip and spoke. "You know what mom, they're right. You never really know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have." She said with sincerity. "What happened there is going to stick with me for the rest of my life, but without Leon, I don't know if I could have had the courage to survive."

Obviously intrigued, Mrs. Graham shifted in her seat and looked straight into her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is… Leon did more than rescue me; I think he may have saved my sanity too."

Intrigued, she encouraged her daughter to elaborate. "How?"

She shrugged and looked down. "I don't know… There's just something about him that made me forget that we were in an extremely dangerous situation. He just made everything looked easy," she narrated in amazement, "while I just ducked down, trying to get out of his way." She chuckled and continued, "I don't know…" she trailed off, looking outside of her window, "…he made me feel like my life mattered. And that meant a lot to me. I felt like he really cared about me." She smiled at her mother, feeling a sense of relief that she finally talked to someone about it.

Her mother just smiled back at her without saying anything.

Ashley narrowed her eyes at her mother, smiling. "You're giving me a weird look. Do I sound crazy? I know it's hard to believe that he did all that for me, but I promise, he's… sort of special, you know… I mean, not in a weird way, but…" she trailed off.

"You don't sound crazy at all. I believe every word you said. The fact that you're speaking highly of him is already enough proof that he did an exceptional job."

"I think he deserves a freaking medal or something, but that's just me." She shrugged playfully. "Or you know, a month vacation," she suggested, remembering her promise to Leon.

Mrs. Graham let out a small laugh. "I'm sure Leon is well compensated for his excellent work." She glanced at Ashley's bedside clock. "Well, it's getting late. Are you sure you don't want to sleep in our bedroom?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Mom, I'm 20 years old. I'll be okay."

"Okay, if you say so." Her mother got up and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "See you in the morning, honey."

"Good night mom."

As soon as her mother closed the door, she turned the TV back on and flipped channels. There was nothing better to do at that point.

She wondered how Leon was doing – if he was having the same fear as she was. Or maybe he was desensitized already.

She hoped he was doing better than she was. Because she was certain that as soon she closed her eyes, she was going to have nightmares.

The next morning…

Feeling exhausted with a massive headache, Ashley rolled over to the other side of her bed and glanced at her bedside clock. It was 7:45 am. It didn't matter what time she woke up anyway. She was allowed to stay in bed all day if she wanted to. She just hoped that no one would bother her today.

Needless to say, Ashley was unable to get a complete rest. She went in and out of consciousness, while she left the television on. When she fell asleep, she would see those creatures in her dream, causing her to jerk awake. It had been that way for her the entire night. She even cried in frustration and fear, but she fought the urge to run to her parents' room to seek comfort. She would rather keep her suffering to herself. She thought it was unnecessary to make her parents worry about her more than they do. She would fight, and she would conquer her fears.

In the middle of her ruminations, her mother came knocking at her door, and she wasn't happy about it.

"Ashley? Are you awake? Open the door, honey," She said in a cheerful voice.

Feeling cranky due to lack of sleep, she refused to open the door. "Mom, I'd like to get more rest, please."

"That's okay, honey, I'll just let Leon know you're not feeling well."

As if she had been splashed in the face with cold water, she immediately stood up and made a mad dash to her door. She didn't care whether she looked like a complete mess due to the fact that she just rolled out of bed. She opened the door with anticipation. "What?" she asked incredulously.

She noticed her mother with a cordless phone in her hand. She was covering the mouthpiece while waiting for Ashley's decision.

Without saying a word, Ashley reached out her hand. Smiling, her mother handed her the phone and walked away. She closed her door and bit her lip. She slowly brought the phone in her ear.

"Hello?" She answered softly.

"Ashley, did I wake you?"

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard his voice. Her crankiness, and her bad mood has melted away.

"N-no, not at all."

"Good. I just want to know how you are. I worry about you."

She inevitably smiled upon hearing that. "You do?"

"Of course. How are you holding up?" He asked in concerned tone.

She walked to her bed and lay down on her stomach. "Not good. I had difficulty sleeping. I keep seeing them in my head. It's brutal," she said in frustration, but she was also glad to be able to tell someone about it. Only Leon would understand what she was going through, and his timing couldn't be more perfect.

"I understand. I know exactly what you mean." He replied sympathetically.

She sighed. "Does this ever go away?"

There was a long pause before Leon answered. "I'm not gonna lie to you; Your symptoms won't go away completely."

This almost brought tears to her eyes. "Great. Just great."

"But you can handle this, Ashley," he quickly replied upon hearing her hopelessness. "You're a brave girl. It's not going to be this bad forever. Just hang in there, okay? Make sure you see your therapist regularly."

She was incredibly touched by his concern, even though it was not for reasons that she was hoping for. But it didn't make her love him any less. Whether Leon was doing his job as protector or he was just being nice to her was completely irrelevant. She was already happy about the fact that he wanted her to get better, regardless of his reason. "Thank you. I'll certainly keep that in mind."

"That's what I want to hear."

"But there's one more thing," she uttered.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing. I just want to say that I really miss you." She laughed awkwardly knowing that she was putting herself out there again, "Why do I miss you this much when I just saw you yesterday? How crazy is this?"

Caught off guard, Leon was unable to respond. He let out a small laugh. "That's interesting."

"Sorry," she said softly. "Don't get mad."

"Mad? No, not at all. I myself had a similar experience this morning..." he trailed off.

Ashley waited but he didn't continue. Dying of curiosity, she asked, "aren't you gonna tell me what it is?"

"Never mind."

"Oh, I get it. You were going to say you miss me too, weren't you?" She joked even though in reality, she knew better.

"I was going to say that I woke up this morning with the strong urge to call you."

"Really? And why is that?"

"I want to know that you're okay. I'm worried about you. I don't want you to feel like you're alone in this."

Somehow, she felt like there was something more to it than that, but she didn't inquire further. She realized that she was over-thinking this again. "Thanks, but I'll be fine. Try not to worry about me. I don't want you to feel obligated to check on me."

"Except I'm not obligated to do this. I'm doing this because it makes me feel better to know that you're okay. It's one thing to bring you back alive, and it's another thing to make sure you are functional. That's my main concern."

It makes me feel better to know that you're okay. It took her awhile to digest what he just said. She took a deep breath and realized that she might be falling harder for him. "Okay, agent. I hear you. I'm still sane and fully functional as far as I can tell."

"Good. I hope you keep this up. It's gonna be an uphill battle but you're not alone in this."

Awkward silence followed. Both of them waited for the other to say something but neither of them spoke. After a few seconds, Leon finally spoke. "Uh, I gotta go. I have few things to attend to. I'll keep in touch."

"Sure. Thanks for the call, Leon. This made my day." That was an understatement. That five minute phone call may have made her lifetime.

"No problem. Talk to you later."

"Later."

She clicked the phone off, overwhelmed with happiness. She didn't expect to hear from him soon, but his concern touched her.

Now she would have had to find a way to forget her feelings for him somehow. It would not be easy, but she had to try. Because if she continued having feelings for him, she knew that she would get hurt in the end.

Her stupid feelings had no room in Leon's life and she better get used to it.

Author's note: O M G! Thank you for the reviews! So yeah, I thought I was done but I just had to keep writing. I am kind of having fun with this. Don't know how to end this but... I'll work on it. :) Thank you for reading this! Much appreciated! :-)