She swore she overreacted, she tried to reassure me that he was okay but I was not going to buy it until I saw him myself. We had an unspoken thing going. We didn't say we would keep in contact but it was kind of just a given. I got upset and backed off but I tried to make sure he saw me a time or two. Just to know I was there. He had his then where he built up the nerve to come to me and face me and call me out. We had our thing. Then our weekend and then what, I disappear. No way for him to know.

"Shit!" Now I am seeing how I am the one that really may be overreacting. I had that initial rush of fear that I set him back to whatever place he had been at. Now I am seeing that maybe I took it a bit to more serious then maybe it was. Angela said that she may have jumped the gun. But there is something in her voice that had me driving here. There was the 'oh I'm being silly' in her voice but once she explained how she left him and this evening and left with an uneasy feeling that told me she is a second guesser but she is probably also very sharp with her bullshit radar.

So I am sitting here looking at the brownstone address she gave me. She gave me his number too but I couldn't just call. There is to much you can hide on the phone. With his past I am sure he got really good at hiding things. No this needed to be done in person. I steel myself with an inner pep talk and finally get my ass out of the car. I click the alarm and pocket the keys before I can back out. Putting one foot in front of the other I force myself to the steps and somehow up them and into the building.

A quick survey of the doors I climb the stairs all the way to the top where his apartment is. I listen carefully, I can hear a bubbling sound and a motor. A low drone of a t.v. But nothing else, just a lot of white noise. Before I know it consciously my hand is knocking, thankfully it is light. I'm not sure how I manage that since my body is so tight I feel like a time bomb. There is no answer, I try again but I can't let up it is a quiet tapping and my feet are keeping the same beat.

I am about to know the door down the tension is building so bad. I stop the knocking when I hear a curse or ten from the other side of the door. Finally I register a series of locks being freed then finally the door creeks open.

He is scruffy from sleep and his eyes are wild but only in shock. My heart starts beating again and I resume breathing. One step forward I have my hands on his unshaven jaw and my lips pressed to his. I hear a gasp and then his hands are on my hips.

AN: another night of crazy storms but I am going to keep going as long as I can. Things are heating up and coming through! Gotta write til the lightning gets to bad...