Chapter 11

Eventually, Harold roused himself and decided that he needed to get up to work the stiffness out of his neck and back from sleeping in such an awkward position on the couch. Very quietly, he went back out into the hall and slowly made his way back to the hospital room.

He smiled as he took in the sleeping forms of Elise and John on the hospital bed. John looked quite a bit the worse for wear and Harold had no doubt that once Elise was feeling better, she would give him hell for what he'd tried to do to himself.

As he limped past the couch, Dr. Tillman opened one eye, looked at both him and the two people on the bed, then smiled and closed her eyes again. Wondering where Zoe was, Harold continued to slowly limp down the hall until he found a small alcove near the top of the stairs. Seated on a small divan was Zoe, reading a book. He sat down next to her and waited for her to break the silence if she felt like talking. Otherwise, he was more than content to just relax with a good book himself, letting each muscle relax slowly as he became more and more involved in whatever he chose to read.

"I've been wondering about this whole thing Harold." Zoe finally lay the book down in her lap. "I was in the process of following a lead when you called earlier. Someone had given me the name of a guy who'd recently hired a bunch of guys to 'get a hold of some chick' who lived alone near Washington Square Park. I don't suppose Grace fits that description?"

"Yes! What was the man's name? I'll go look it up." He said rising from the seat.

"Sit down, Harold. I'm going to wait until it's light and then I'll go track the guy down. Once I'm convinced I have something here, I'll give you a call. I don't want to get all worked up over nothing and we may just spook him if he gets wind of any of this."

"Still, you need to be careful Zoe. Look what happened to Elise and Grace. Promise me you'll take precautions? Let me give you something so that I can track you, please. I'd… I'd hate for something to happen to you too. There's been entirely too much of that going around lately."

Zoe sighed. "Ok, Harold. If it makes you feel better, this once and only this once, I'll wear whatever kind of tracker you come up with."

"Wonderful. I'll go work on something now, shall I?"

He smiled at Zoe as he stood and limped back down the hall towards his computers. He totally missed Zoe smiling fondly at his back. She found she was secretly grateful that he cared enough to be concerned about her. Such feelings were still a novel idea to her. Very few people had cared about what happened to her until Elise came into her life. It seemed that Elise attracted all kinds of people who cared for her deeply and by extension, cared about Zoe as well. Zoe sighed, thankful that it looked like her dearest friend would be alright eventually. At least if John had anything to say about it!

**********************

Harold spent the next hour devising a bug that would work underground as well as in any type of building Zoe might find herself in. He wasn't taking any chances that she would have to endure what Elise and Grace had had to. Once he was done, he had Zoe glue it down under one of her fingernails. Then he checked on Elise and John one last time and found them still asleep.

Feeling like it had been much too long since he'd last seen her, Harold found himself again drawn to the room where Grace was sleeping.

As he entered the room, Grace turned towards him and smiled slightly.

"There you are Harold. I wondered where you had gone off to, sweetheart." Caught completely off guard, Harold stopped and stood stock still.

"Grace?" was all he could muster.

"We really need to get going. The sunlight is so perfect right now, you know it won't last for long and I really want to put the finishing touches on my painting." Grace said as she stood up. She wavered a bit from being light headed. Harold limped towards her as quickly as possible.

Grace frowned at his awkwardness and said, "Harold Wren! Have you been sitting at the computer too long?" She shook her head back and forth. "What am I going to do with you?" She sat back down and patted the loveseat next to her. "Sit down here please and let me massage some of the kinks out of your shoulders."

"Grace, you know who I am?" asked Harold in a bewildered tone, sitting down heavily next to her. Fifteen minutes ago she wasn't even aware of him and suddenly now she knows him?

Patting his hand with hers, she smiled sweetly and said "Of course I know it's you Harold. Who else would it be? Now turn around please."

Trying to get control of his wildly beating heart and jumble of thoughts and questions, Harold stuttered, "Are you ok Grace?"

Smiling at him she let out a small laugh, "Well I'm as alright as I can be considering I'm dead. Funny though that I should be dreaming that you are all tensed up, don't you think?"

"What? You're what?" sputtered Harold. Now he was officially terrified. This was not right, this was wrong on too many levels.

"What makes you think you're dead?" He questioned her, looking into her eyes for any sign of… of what? Sanity? True recognition? He had no idea what he expected to see at that moment.

"Well I'm here, you're here. I know you're dead so I must be too." She said cocking her head to one side. "Although I never thought I'd feel pain when I was dead. And I'm so sore all over...like somebody hit me." She mused. "But where is Elise? I know those bad men killed her and all she was trying to do was protect me. She was so strong and fearless and I was such a big baby."

"Uh Elise is...is..." Harold couldn't find the words to speak to her. Here he was, a well-educated man with a gift for finding just the right words, and he was speechless. He sat there in befuddlement watching Grace. Her eyes were focused and she seemed in complete control of her faculties...except that she thought she was dead.

Clearing his throat, Harold tried again. "Elise is alive, Grace. Dr. Tillman is taking very good care of her."

"Really? I thought I saw her on a hospital bed and she wasn't moving. I do hope she isn't dead and that she will be alright. She's been a great friend to me and none of this was her fault." Grace said. Reaching for Harold's hands she gripped them in her own and looked at him, missing his look of pain at her words. He knew whose fault this all was.

"Oh Harold, I have missed you so much! I've had no one to really talk to in the last two years. Or at least not until I met Elise and Detective Stills. I have so much to tell you since the last time we saw each other!"

"Detective Stills? Who is that?" Asked the even more confused Harold.

"He's Elise's partner. She said they're just friends but I'm pretty sure there is more than that going on." Whispered Grace conspiratorially.

Shaking his head, Harold finally figured out that Detective Stills was John Reese. He wondered briefly why John had used a fake name with Grace. Realizing that Grace needed to be brought to the here and now, the real world, Harold closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Grace, look at me, I need you to look at me and really listen." Harold said with a stern voice. "Grace, you are not dead, you are alive. I am alive and you are alive and so is Elise. She was sent to protect you and she seems to have come through her surgery alright." Watching her closely to see how she was taking this, Finch was rewarded with a frown. He continued to talk about what had happened since they had last seen each other. He told her about Nathan being murdered, how he himself was left for dead and he told her about his decision to bow out of her life when the moment came.

"I was afraid you'd be targeted too. That you'd be killed because of what Nathan and I had done, had created."

As understanding slowly started thinking in, Grace began to shake her head. A keening sound came from her, followed by a long drawn out 'Noooooooooo'. She did NOT want to believe what he was saying but ...she then hoped with all her heart that what he was saying was true. Stretching out one hand she gently caressed her beloved's face. Her touch electrified him. Grasping her hand with his, he turned it slightly and kissed her palm. Grace's eyes grew large as recognition flooded her mind. That one, single gesture was the one Harold had always made before he left her to go to work and it was the way he always greeted her when he came home. This WAS her Harold! Her long lost Harold that she had grieved over for two years. Her relief was so strong it temporarily outweighed any anger she may have felt towards him. Maybe later she would be angry but right now, her heart was over flowing with joy at being reunited with her sweet Harold.

Leaning forward Grace touched her head to Harold's head, a familiar gesture that tore at his heart. She knew him, she knew who he was and still was reaching out to him after all he had done to her. The fact that he had deserted her, weighed so heavily on him, he was finding it difficult to breathe.

"Oh Harold, I've missed you so much. Don't ever leave me again, ever, do you hear me?"

Leaning in closer, Harold lightly kissed her lips and answered, "I promise you Grace, never, never again will I leave you." Once he had kissed her though, he realized that once was not enough. He leaned in again and brushed his lips lightly against hers, giving her a chance to say no. After all, it had been two long years and while his feelings for her were still as intense, he wasn't sure about her feelings for him.

He needn't have worried though, as Harold's lips gently caressed hers, Grace wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to pull him closer.

"Careful my love, I'm….I'm not quite the man I used to be." He bowed his head down, for the first time concerned that this might not….he couldn't even finish the sentence.

Grace saw him hang his head dejectedly. "Oh Harold! Please, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize…. My poor Harold…" She reached over and took a hand in hers and then touched his face with her other. He didn't look up right away, but continued to hang his head until he felt splashes of wetness hit his hands. He looked up then and saw that Grace's eyes were filled and tears were running down her cheeks.

"Grace, sweetheart, don't cry. Please, I can take anything but that." Harold moved closer to Grace and pulled her into his arms. He tilted her face towards his and began to kiss her tears away. He started on her closed eyelids, gently kissing her there and then moving down her cheeks to the corner of her mouth. Just as he was about to kiss her other cheek, Grace turned her head and his lips met hers once again.

His kisses started out innocent and tender, but as she returned them and wrapped her arms around his body, Harold began to feel things stirring inside that he hadn't felt in a long, long time. His lips on hers became more insistent until she sighed and opened her mouth for him. He took immediate advantage of her surrender and his tongue dove in to explore her mouth. He tried to push his tongue in deeper, wanting to explore every part of Grace, but a sharp pain in his neck brought him up short. He withdrew slightly but Grace must have sensed his problem because she followed him with her mouth and pushed her body closer into his.

As they continued kissing, each one hardly daring to believe the whole thing was real, Harold's hands slipped down Grace's body and he slowly and gently stroked her arms, causing the skin to rise in goose bumps. He also felt Grace shudder in his arms and he couldn't help but smile. Her skin had always been so sensitive and it appeared that not only hadn't that changed, but that he was still capable of making her feel his touch as intensely as he used to.

He let his hands travel back up to her shoulders, where he gently brushed her hair over her shoulder to expose her neck. He let his fingers trail along her bare skin there and smiled against her lips as he heard her gasp. He deliberately caressed the soft skin of her neck again and watched as her eyes slid closed and she sighed once more. He was able to just barely lean his head down to her neck and his tongue darted out to follow the path of his fingers, eliciting a soft moan from Grace. Other than his name on her lips, it was the sweetest sound that he could ever remember hearing and he repeated his actions again and again just to hear her sweet sighs.

Suddenly she pulled back and Harold looked up in puzzlement.

"Harold I….." She started to say.

"I'm sorry Grace, I didn't mean to….."

"I hope to God you DID mean to!" She interrupted him. "Harold, I was about to say that I'd really like to continue this after I've had a chance to clean up."

"Of course, how thoughtless of me! There is a bathroom through that door over there." Harold jumped to his feet, or at least what passed for that these days and shuffled over to the dresser and pulled out an old pair of tan slacks, a black shirt that had obviously been worn and a set of underthings. He turned to Grace and sheepishly offered them to her.

"I…I… had these in one of my bags in my car. When I decided I had to disappear, I knew I couldn't just give them back to you and I…I didn't have the heart to throw them away." He spoke in a low, embarrassed tone.

"You kept my things?" She asked and he nodded. "All these years?" Again he nodded and she took the clothes from his hands and tossed them on the loveseat and almost ran into his arms. She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth several times until they both broke away panting.

"I'll be done as quickly as I can." She said and walked slowly away from him towards the bathroom. When the door shut behind her, Harold sank gratefully into the desk chair. He could hardly believe it, Grace was here with him, after all of these years of wanting to be near her once more, he'd finally had his heart's desire fulfilled. If he was a fanciful kind of man, he would have pinched himself just to verify that he was indeed awake. Instead, his eyes roamed over the room, to the bed and then swung to the loveseat with its high arms. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to manage things, but if Grace didn't seem to mind his injury, he promised himself that he wouldn't let it interfere. His eyes lit on the pile of clothes Grace had tossed on the loveseat and realized that she hadn't taken them into the bathroom with her. He was just about to get up and call to her, when he heard the shower turn on and Grace begin to hum tunelessly to herself. The image of Grace, naked and wet in the shower hit him like a ton of bricks and instantly he was hard and aching. While he was glad to note that that particular part of his anatomy still worked as well as ever, his wished that his mind worked a bit less so as images of Grace naked flashed through his mind. Grace in the bath, Grace getting dressed to go out, Grace flushed and smiling up at him as he made love to her…..

Groaning, Harold wished he dared loosen his pants, his thoughts had him uncomfortably hard and straining at the fabric at the front. He tried to sit down once more but found that to be worse than standing as it drew his pants even tighter towards his body. Instead, he settled for limping back and forth across the room, reciting Homer's Iliad by memory…in Greek.

He had no idea how long he was pacing back and forth, but when the door to the bathroom opened, he was caught by surprise. That surprise quickly turned into shock and then full-blown lust as he saw Grace standing in the doorway, wrapped only in a towel.

Her eyes met his and they gleamed brightly as she said, "One of us is overdressed." And then proceeded to drop the towel from around her body. Harold's eyes devoured every inch of her curves, breasts and the mound of bright red hair between her legs. His mouth ran dry and he found he couldn't move from the spot he was standing in. She was as beautiful as he remembered, maybe even more so.

Grace gave a throaty laugh and walked over towards him since he was obviously unable to come to her. "I hope you're not disappointed Harold. I know it's been two years but…."

"You're beautiful Grace. More so than ever." Then he frowned as he noticed the bruises on her body and covering her arms. As he reached out to gently touch one, he said with sadness, "I'm so sorry for what you've been through my love. I NEVER….."

She put her fingers over his lips, effectively silencing him. "We both bear scars from our time apart Harold, but that was then. We are here, now, together and what I want to know is, what are you going to do about it?"

Harold's brain scurried from possibility to possibility, like a chipmunk caching nuts. There were so many things he wanted to share with her, so many things he wanted to do with her, that his mind just couldn't seem to settle on any one thing. He looked into her eyes then and all of a sudden, it all seemed to fall away. His hands reached out and he pulled her up close against his body and his mouth fell on hers, his kisses becoming more and more intense. The feel of her breasts being crushed against his chest was incredible and he reached down and pulled her hips closer so that she could feel just how much he wanted her.

Grace's hands meanwhile weren't still, she reached between them and unbuttoned his waistcoat and then started on his tie. She wasn't sure when he'd started wearing so many layers, but she was frustrated by the fact that it was taking her so long to get to his bare skin. Finally she got his shirt unbuttoned and she was able to run her fingers down his chest, through the thick, crisp mat of hair she remembered so well.
As soon as Grace's hands touched his bare skin, Harold let out a groan. He'd imagined her touching him so many times in the past two years, it was amazing to actually feel her hands on his body. His own hands meanwhile slid upwards from her waist and when he reached the undersides of her breasts, he felt her shiver. Slowly he ghosted the palms of his hands across her nipples and she gasped into his mouth.

He broke off the kiss and started to lean down, intent on taking her into his mouth when a sharp pain in his neck reminded him that he was not able to do all of the things he used to. He silently cursed the limitations that his body was imposing on him. It seemed that in every aspect of his life, he was unable to forget the Machine and the consequences of building it, even here in the bedroom.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he took a hold of Grace's hand and led her over to the bed. He sat down and then pulled Grace to a standing position in front of him. In this way, her lovely breasts were just at the right height and he leaned towards her and took a nipple into his mouth. He rolled it around inside his mouth with his tongue to bring it to a hard peak and then drew on it with his mouth, sucking and pulling. He heard Grace's moan and felt her hands on his shoulders, pulling him closer. When her hands reached the back of his neck however, he pulled back from what he was doing, removed her hands and spoke.

"Grace, I'm…I'm not ready for that yet. I would rather you remember me as the whole man you once knew, rather than the crippled and damaged one that I am now."

"OH! Harold! None of that matters to me! I'm just so glad to have you back in my life. I don't care how you look, that's never been important to me. I'm hurt that you'd think I was that shallow."

"No, no that wasn't what I meant, I….."

"Then let's have no more of this holding back, my love." She interrupted him. "I'll take you as you are and I hope you'll do the same."

"Always." He said adamantly.

"Then make love to me Harold. I want to feel you with me, next to me, inside me. I never thought I'd have another chance at this and I won't waste it now worrying about the past. Please, just love me Harold."

He looked up at her with joyful tears in his eyes and just nodded. He then pulled her close again and continued what he was doing. His fingers, used to flying over a keyboard, now flew over her breasts, bringing her wave after wave of pleasure as evidenced by her soft moans. He also used his mouth to suckle her nipples for several minutes until he felt her trembling in his arms.

Once more he stood up and took her hand, leading her over to the love seat. This time, she was the one who was seated as he gently pushed her down onto one of the high arms of the couch. He then pulled over the rolling desk chair and sat down.

"Lay back my dear. I remember how much you used to enjoy what I'm about to do. I'm afraid we'll just have to be a bit more inventive about it."

Grace's eyes widened at his words, but she did as he asked and when she was lying back on the couch, her hips were still up on the higher arm of the couch, at just the right height for…..

"Harold!" She cried out when he spread her legs apart and drove his tongue into her heat. He moved his mouth upwards and danced his tongue around her clit before again licking downwards and entering her with his tongue.

"Oh! Oh!" She exclaimed and moaned deeply as he did it again and again. He increased the pressure and the speed of his tongue on her clit and she began to writhe beneath him. He knew how much he liked it when he nipped her there too and so he proceeded to do just that while he brought two fingers up and thrust them inside of her.

Within seconds, she began to shudder and he heard her call out to him repeatedly as she orgasmed underneath him. He didn't stop though despite the fact that he was hard and aching so badly he thought he might explode. He'd missed Grace so much! He wanted to bring her to peak over and over again, to make up for all the time he'd lost doing this with her.

"Please Harold," She finally whimpered as her second and not much longer third orgasm ripped through her. "Please, stop, I need, I want…I want to feel you inside me."

Harold pulled back and stood up from the chair. "Sit up my dearest." He sighed with relief as he finally released himself from the confines of his pants and let them drop to the floor. He moved in closer to Grace once more as she sat on the edge of the arm of the loveseat. He looked into her eyes, hoping that she understood how much he meant the next words.

"I love you Grace. I swear we'll never be apart like that again." He then drove into her and cried out himself as she gripped him tightly with her wet, hot sheath. Grace wrapped her legs around him so that he did not have to move his neck and spine so much to thrust into her. It was a good thing that he'd brought her to climax so many times earlier because as he moved inside of her and back out again, he knew he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. It had simply been too long, he hadn't been with any other woman since the last time they were together and now, the incredible sensation of joining with the one woman he loved more than anything, was pushing him up to the edge faster than he would have liked. He reached down between their two bodies and began rubbing her clit and soon they were both panting with need. He was able to hold out just a little longer, until he felt the tremors of her climax grip him and the additional pressure sent him into his own state of oblivion.

"Oh, Harold!" Grace gripped him with everything she had. "I've missed you so much! I love you!" He looked in her eyes and saw tears. "Whatever I had to go through to bring us to this place was worth it ten times over."

He smiled at her and kissed her, saddened that she'd had to endure any type of ordeal but he couldn't remain sad for long as she was covering his face and lips with kisses. He stiffened for one brief second as a spasm of pain ran from his neck down to the small of his back. As close as they were, Grace couldn't help but notice.

"Please my love, let's go lay down on the bed so I can massage your neck and back."

"That's not necessary Grace." He leaned in to kiss her but she pulled back.

"I know it's not, but I want to take care of you. I've missed having someone to look out after. Please."

He sighed and nodded, stepping back from her. She slipped off the arm of the loveseat and taking his hand, drew him over to the bed. He lay down on his stomach and Grace straddled his hips and began rubbing his neck and back. At first he was very self-conscious of his scars, but as her fingers worked into the muscles and released the knots, he sighed and began to enjoy what she was doing. The fact that she was straddling him had her moving repeatedly against his rear as she reached up and down his back. The warmth and wetness of her sex had parts of him coming back to life in a shorter time frame than he'd thought possible.

"Grace, can you please move over for a second my dear?"

"Ok. Why?" She asked as she got off his hips. Once he rolled onto his back though, she could see immediately why and a smile lit up her face. Her eyes took on a gleam and she reached over and gripped him snugly in her hand.

"I'm sorry my sweet, but this time I'm afraid you'll have to do the work." He said softly, reaching for her as she mounted him. Her eyes took on a glazed look as she took him in, inch by inch. She began moving up and down on him, slowly at first but then she picked up speed and Harold felt himself growing harder inside of her as he watched her drive herself down on him with her breasts bobbing in time with her movements. He reached up and fondled her, pulling and rolling her nipples and her movements became more frenzied. He groaned as he felt her inner muscles grip him tighter and then he was calling out her name as he spilled himself into her once more. Just as he was reaching down to rub her and bring her to her own pleasure, she moaned loudly and stopped moving as the shocks of her orgasm took over her body.

Rolling off him a minute or so later, she snuggled up close to his side and the two of them dropped off, holding each other close.

****************************