thank you to all who read and reviewed. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
As the truck eventually pulled up outside James' flat he jumped out into the rushing water and reached up to help M down. Seeing that the current was going to be too much for her, James gently picked her up and carried her the short distance to the door. Once they had made it into his flat he carefully set her down and took a step back and just stared at her.
"What are you looking at?" she asked quietly
"You" he said as he reached out to cup her cheek with his trembling hand
"After everything I said this morning, Why did you come for me?" she asked as a tear slid down her cheek
"Because I Love you" he replied pulling her into a tight protective embrace as he buried his head in the crook of her neck.
They stayed locked in the embrace, clinging to one another for several minutes before M finally pulled back to look at him. As she gazed into his incredibly blue eyes she could see the tears slipping one by one down his cheek.
"What's this?" she said gently wiping away the tears
"I thought I lost you." he said as he caught her hand, lightly kissing her fingertips "When I saw the flat and the tree and then when I couldn't find you..."
"But you did find me"
"Please forgive me" he said as he pulled her back to him and held on to her as if his life depended on it
"James..." she started to say as he leaned down and kissed her deeply and much to his surprise she kissed him back.
"You have a very eloquent way of apologizing" she said breathlessly as she leaned her head against his chest
"I just couldn't bear the thought of losing you, much less losing you with you hating me" he said as he rested his chin on top of her head, all the while keeping a firm hold on her.
James phone began to ring and much to his annoyance he fumbled around in his pocket and at M's instance answered it
"Yes Tanner...What is it?" he asked sounding rather irritated
"Did you make it to M's flat?...Is she alright?"
"Yeah...I've got her, She's fine" he replied as he leaned down to kiss her forehead
"Thank God. Look there's trees and power lines down all over the city and wide spread flooding as well. I can send a team to pick you two up..."
"That won't be necessary, but I do want you to send a team to secure M's flat or rather what's left of it"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT'S LEFT OF IT" shouted Eve hysterically
At this point James thought it would be a good idea to put them on speaker phone so M could hear for herself just how much Eve and Tanner cared about her.
"I'm sorry Eve...didn't quite catch that could you repeat it for me" replied James with a slight smile
"James...you know damn well what I said. How Bad is the damage?...Is M alright?...Do you need us to send a medical team?..I know that travel is difficult at the moment, but we can send a helicopter if needed..."
"Look you two, she's fine...she's standing right hear listening to every word you're saying" he said looking down at M with a bit of a crooked grin "Go ahead...Tell them you're fine" he said handing her the phone
"I'm fine you two, but I want you to promise me that you will stay where you are. It isn't safe out there at the moment and I don't want to have to worry about you as well do you hear me?" she said sounding a bit parental
"Yes Ma'am" they both said in unison
"And enough with the Ma'am crap, Friends don't have to be so formal" she said with a smile as she gave James a light squeeze
"So if you don't mind our asking...Just exactly where are you?" asked Tanner curiously
"We're at my flat at the moment. We're going to wait out the storm and then we'll be in later" replied James as he took the phone back and hung up rather abruptly
"I don't think he was finished" said M with a small grin
"Trust me...He was finished" replied James as he leaned down and kissed her soundly "We need to get you out of these wet clothes" he finally said as he released her "Your shivering"
"Well if I'm shivering, it isn't because I'm cold" she replied sounding suddenly very serious
"Then what is it?"
"James" she said as she walked over to sit on the sofa "What did you plan to do if you had gotten there and the tree hadn't fallen?" she asked hesitantly
"Well intended to calmly ask you to come with me back to the office where you would be safe" he replied as he sat beside her
"And what if I had refused?"
"Then I would have carried you out kicking and screaming"
"But why did you come after I expressly told you not to ever come there again?"
"Because" he started as he put his arm around her and leaned back against the cushions "After our latest ill-conceived adventure I now know how frightened you are of storms and I didn't want you to be alone"
"But after the way I treated you..."
"And you had every right. What I did was incredibly stupid. When you woke up screaming, all I wanted to do was hold you and tell you that everything was going to be alright and when I saw what it did to you the only thing I could think of was getting you home where you would feel safe"
"Oh"
"I can't imagine how you have dealt with those memories since your husband died, I mean just thinking of you having to go through this alone..."
"That's the way I have always dealt with this" she said quietly
James just looked down at her with a puzzled look
"Didn't he help you through them?"
"His idea of helping was to sleep in the guest room and then moan about how I interrupted his sleep the next morning" she said dryly "He hated my job and everything connected with it. It got to the point where he couldn't bear to look at me because of all the scars , and the nightmares that went with them. He was elated after the last mission where I had been shot because it meant that he wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath anymore as I would be behind a desk"
"Let me get this straight...He never tried to console you or help you?" James said angrily
"As long as I was able to keep him in the lifestyle he had become accustomed to he really didn't care what happened to me" she said as her eyes began to water "So when you came rushing in to hold me...It was hard for me to accept that you could care enough to want to be there, and then when I heard you on the phone..."
"You thought it was all an act"
"What else could I believe? No one has ever done that for me before" she said softly
"But surly you knew that I care about you, I had just told you that I did not an hour earlier"
"David used to tell me he loved me, but they're just words if you never do anything to prove it. You did and it scared me I guess... "
James stood and pulled M up with him and began guiding her to the bedroom grabbing a candle from the table on the way past.
"What are you doing?" she asked sounding a bit worried
"Just trust me" he said as he lit the candle, placing it in the chest of drawers.
James turned to face her placing his hands on her shoulders as the candle cast a warm glow around the room
"I want you to take off your blouse" he said quietly
"James...I..."
"Just trust me" he said as he leaned in and kissed her cheek
M's hands trembled as she removed her blouse. She made a feeble attempt to cover her scared arms, but James took her hands and pulled them down to her side so he could clearly see the scars. Then he took a step forward and leaned down and kissed her arm where the scars were clearly visible.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly as a tear slid down her cheek
As he pulled back he removed his own shirt revealing many similar looking scars
"We're not so different you and I" he said as he took her hand placing it on one of the many scars on his chest "You have nothing to be ashamed of"
M reached up and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss to which James responded by wrapping his arms around her, holding her close as he quickly removed the rest of their wet clothes. Once the clothes had been removed, he picked her up gently placing her bed, climbing in beside her and covering the two of them with a soft, warm blanket.
"You do realize that we now have a new problem to deal with" he said as he held her close
"And what would that be?" she asked as she snuggled closer, resting her head on his chest
"Well given the condition of your flat, I highly doubt that you will be going back there anytime soon"
"Speaking of my flat, What the hell happened to my front door?"
"Must have been the wind" he said with a grin
"Since when does the wind have a footprint?"
"Well what did you expect me to do? climb the tree? I'm not Tarzan you know, and let's not forget, you're the one who locked the door" he said teasingly
M just giggled as she leaned up to kiss his cheek
"Anyway back to the problem with the flat..."
"I suppose I'll stay in a hotel until it's repaired" she said rather matter of fact
"Like hell you will. After what you've been through, you're going to stay right here!"
"I can't do that...What will people think?"
"I don't give a monkey's arse what they think."He said propping himself up on his elbow so he could look down at her "I never want you to be alone again." he continued as he brushed a few stray hairs from her forehead "I love you and I want to be there to protect and defend you from all things real or imagined"
"What about the trees?" she said with a grin
"Yes...even the trees" he said with a laugh "Who would have ever thought that in our line of work the tree was what almost got you in the end"
