This is very short, and sorry, but I lied, NEXT chapter will be the actual attack, but I got a review and that made me so happy that I had to post this! Also, my muse was sparked, so, yay!
Chapter X-Family
*-*Much Later*-*
Leanna and I had left Rafe and Evelyn to themselves for the night, they had gone on a rather long walk, and returned only to find me sitting on the couch with a sleeping Leanna huddled against my shoulder, Evelyn looked at the sight from behind the couch and smiled, turning to Rafe and giving him a lingering kiss before waving to him and whispering something about 'spending time with them' and 'I love you', Rafe tiptoed around the couch and I raised my eyes from the sleeping Leanna to meet with his, he smiled
"She's just as beautiful as she always has been" he said, leaning down to get a look at her closed eyes
"Yeah," I sighed, "Did you and Evelyn have fun?"
Rafe gave a mischievous smile that told me not to ask and took a seat on the couch next to Leanna's feet
"It's been rough for her, hasn't it?" he asked after a few moments of silence
I nodded, "Harder than you know"
An eerie silence settled across the room, an uncomfortable silence where the whole earth seemed to stand still, nothing could be heard but the ocean lapping against the rocks outside and the deep breaths of Leanna, after a long moment that I thought would never end, Rafe spoke
"I'm sorry"
Those were defiantly not the words I was expecting to hear, seeing my confusion, he opened his mouth once more
"I shouldn't have gone, Beautiful needed us both, and I knew you wouldn't be able to handle her alone, and plus, if it weren't for me, she would have never went back to that"
I looked at Rafe, shaking my head sadly and sighing
"Rafe, it wasn't your fault, you didn't know, and you certainly didn't mean to get shot down" I said
"I know, I told Evelyn that she was what kept me alive, knowing I could come home to her, and sure, I thought about her, but Beautiful kept me alive, really, I knew she'd never be able to survive without us"
"I missed you to, you know" I smiled
"I know, I missed you too" he smiled back
I've always felt close to Rafe McCawley, we grew up just over the hill from each other, and when my dad got hauled off, he gave me a home, he was the only family I'd ever really had (other than Leanna), my brother, because family isn't defined by blood, and we were family, me, Rafe, and Leanna, we were all that was left, straight out of Portland Tennessee, and if moments like these, where we could sit in silence yet know exactly what the other wanted to say, weren't proof enough, what he had just revealed was, strangers didn't miss you-but family did
Family always did.
A/N: Random chapter just kinda thrown in there because I was forced to by Grace (that's my muse, hehe), the last line (about how stranger's didn't miss you to the end, as well as the 'family isn't defined by blood' I'm not sure if that's hers, but that's where I got the idea) is totally adapted (the actual phrase was 'strangers didn't worry-family did. Family always did.') from my favorite fic EVER, it's a Harry Potter fic called Death Before Dishonor (::'shameless plug' flashes across screen::) and I've got permission and everything from Robin to use it, and there will be another adaption of another phrase from the same fic in one of the oncoming chapters! Of course, converting HP to PH (haha, isn't that cool?) means that the hilarity of the phrase has to be lost, but, oh well, it's a tribute to the best fic ever! Anyway, REVIEW! I LOVE THOSE WHO REVIEW!
