What I Want, Chapter Twenty-Three.

"She's frantic." Marie said to him, her voice pleading. "Please Scott, she needs you."

"I needed her, then.you think I don't know how that feels?" He said, and slammed shut the book he had been looking at. "Bring her here." He said. "Bring her here, and I will be here for her." His jaw was tight with his anger. "I am not going looking for her again."

"Scott.Kitty is." She looked at him, his eyes were full of anger.

"She has denied me more than enough times. I will not run to her again."

"She's afraid." Marie said, and her hand reached out to touch him. "She needs you." Her eyes worried along the wall. "Scott, she didn't know when you were hurting. You know. She needs you."

Pained, his eyes drifted to hers. "She can have me." He said, voice as soft as a whisper. "Tell me where she is."

"Near Remy's room." She said, and he jolted up.

"Why the fuck didn't you say that before?" He asked, and before she could answer, he had gone.

~ ~ ~

The black drifted around the edges of her vision, voices floated just above her conciousness. "Kitty." Screamed incessantly around her head just her name, over and over again. A finger flew across her cheek, her forehead beaded with sweat. "Kitty..."

She opened her eyes. Weakly, her voice grew from her lips. "Scott?"

His hands found her waist, his lips found her hair, he smiled against the flaxen locks, and reveled in the fact that she was real, there, wanting him, with him. He lifted her up, propped her against the door, and then lifted her in his arms.

She was lighter than he remembered.

He wanted to carry her to his room. Her room, the room she'd almost been raped in by the man who's room she had just been sitting near. He thought better of it and took it to her sterile guest room. He laid her limp form on the bed, and brushed her hair out of her eyes. Across the room, he sat down, and watched her.

Fifteen minutes later, her eyes fluttered open. "Scott?" She asked weakly, and then more violently."Scott?"

"I'm here." He said, and walked to kneel next to the bed. "What do you need?"

"You." Her voice quivered. "I need you." Her hand reached out to search for his, and he pulled it away. She shuddered and turned from him. "Please, Scott?" There was terror in her voice, and just a little love. He clung to the love and climbed onto the bed with her, his legs splaying near hers, his left arm sprawling over her body. Her hands clung to his hand.

"You're safe now." He said. "You're safe.Shhhhh." She calmed down, and under his fingertips, her heartbeat slowed. Her eyes fluttered to sleep, and she melted into his body.

"Don't leave me." She said, and he smiled into her hair.

If only this would last.