Guys I am SOSOSO sorry! I have been incredibly busy –what with end-of-year exams and then Christmas and New Years and getting ready for going back to school –okay, you're not buying this. I'm sorry, I've just had a major case of writer's block, and haven't exactly overcome it, but here's the best I can do. I hope you haven't lost interest yet! So months later and still not completed (I'm so sorry), here it is, Chapter 4 (well, some of it), the one we've been waiting for –Ty and Gemma's reunion! Woohoo!

Please R&R feedback and criticism welcome :))
xx, Vinola;)

~Chapter 4 -Free~

I throw the covers off and jump out of bed. I can't believe it. I can't freaking believe it. Freaking what the hell. And then it's like I'm on drugs or some shit, because I start laughing hysterically while I sprint to the bathroom and start madly brushing my teeth, and I can't stop laughing. Should I get dressed? Screw it. I slip into my coat on the way out the door, jump into my car. Stick my key in the ignition and jam my foot down onto the pedal. On my way there, I think I break every speed limit on the road. And my windows are fully wound down and I'm laughing and laughing into the wind, because here's a twenty-one-year-old woman still wearing her pajamas driving at, like, top speed at six o'clock in the morning, to get to a prison to pick up her kidnapper. Okay, what the actual f**k. And then I just keep laughing like some deluded hyena until I reach the prison, even when my stomach aches and I'm choking on my own tears.

I think it's safe to say I was hoping for one of those big, happy, like-in-the-movies reunions. You know, those ones where they run into each other's arms calling each other's names; "Ty!" Gemma!" "Ty!" "Gemma!"

No. Not quite. It took about three hours for them to finally let you even touch me. They talked to you a lot, took a lot of photos of you, told me lots of stuff which I didn't take in a word of, even took some photos of me too, you had to sign stuff, I had to sign stuff, and I think those three hours were the three longest hours of my life.

But that doesn't matter now, Ty. Because here you are, here we are, together. Togetherand free.

Here we are sitting on the window ledge of my apartment bedroom, looking out over Perth City, looking out at the starlit skies, the skyscrapers, the bustling roads; me wrapped protectively in your arms. After all these years.

I'd planned so much to say to you, but now that I actually can, I can't form the words, and then I decide that maybe we don't need them, as the intensity of your deep blue eyes speaks enough for both of us. I wonder if you're also recalling the night we slept under the stars back in the desert, your arms holding me close.

"The stars," you murmur. "This is the amazing thing about them. You could be anywhere; you could be anyone. But wherever you are, whoever you are... the stars are always there too. It's like a reminder that in some way, we're all united. The whole world has this one thing in common."

I close my eyes and snuggle closer into your arms.

You continue speaking softly into my ear. "While I was in my prison cell, at night I'd look outside the window at the stars, and I'd feel some comfort that maybe somewhere, you were looking out at them too-"

"And thinking of that night in the desert," I finish for you.

You nod, your eyes shining. Another moment of silence passed before you say, "Gem, if this is love-"

"It is," I assure you.

"Then promise me this time it's forever."

"I promise."

"And if this is Stockholm's..." your voice trails off.

I brush my lips teasingly against yours, smiling as I say, "Then I've got a serious case of it."