It felt like they were falling forever. As Kurt glanced down it was as though they had just started to fall. They were still several stories in the air.

He closed his eyes and held her for a long moment before peeking again.

They were still several stories above the ground. Something's not right here… He realized as the wind whipped past him but he made no progress down the side of the building.

"Tabitha…" He licked his lips. "Why did you think I didn't love you?"

She smiled sadly but didn't open her eyes. "No one loves me. They can't."

He felt a pang of regret in his heart. "Why do you say that?"

"My mom left me with my Dad. My dad tosses me over for his criminal friends… No one loves me. It's not my place."

Kurt winced. She doesn't feel worthy of love. He realized.

"Jimmy loves you." He whispered.

And suddenly they dropped two stories and he almost peed himself.

She squirmed in place. "Jimmy…"

"He loves you like you were his own daughter Tabby. He does. I've seen it. He's got a big heart and you're in it."

She swallowed. "Not… Not for long. He has a daughter. He's out of money to support her… She'll have to be taken off life support soon… If she dies… He'll hate me for failing him." She began to cry as she spoke her voice insane and saturated with guilt. "And if she wakes up… he wont want me anymore!"

Kurt clutched her close. "No." He told her. "No, that's not true."

Tabby began to shake in his arms and he closed his eyes.

"Jimmy loves you Tabitha. He didn't spend all that time in that jail making sure you made it just for you to deny him."

She opened her eyes and looked shocked at the insinuation.

"You owe him better than that." Kurt told her, feeling angry. "He doesn't need to talk to you. He doesn't need to send you cards like he did on the one-month anniversary of your release. He does those things because he loves you. FOR WHO YOU ARE!"

And they dropped another few stories in a wild free-fall, but Kurt suspected that the fall didn't matter nearly as much as the truth and so he pressed on.

"He opened his home to you, shared his food and his time… What did you do in the evenings?" He pressed her.

"We… went walking in the hills. He showed me his family's gravestones and told me about his ancestors." She sniffed.

"Because you're family to him now Tabitha." Kurt exclaimed, feeling totally sure of himself. "They're your family too now that he's …" Kurt sighed. "Tabby… He's adopted you. He's your father now. And nothing's ever going to change that. Maybe it started because you needed a father and he needed a daughter, but now… You need each other. It's totally personal. It's time you took it that way!"

And they fell again, this time, so fast that the building whipped by in a blur but the ground never seemed to come.

"I know how that makes you feel Tabby." He went on. "I know you've never had a family like that. But you're not in danger just because you care. And he's not using you for anything Tabby. He called every night and made sure that Alistaire was making progress to get you out. Tabby! He knows that there is something decent and noble in you. He knows because he has it too. And now… He needs you to be sure that his values and his standards live on. That's one of the all time best benefits of having children Tabitha… You know that a part of you goes on. And you are that for him. You're a piece of his soul and I know he's a piece of yours."

Tabby shook her head as they fell, seemingly unaware of the time lapse. "He… He…"

"If he was in trouble would you save him?" Kurt asked.

"Of course!"

"And if he needed a kidney or a lung?"

She met Kurt's eyes. "Anything." She whispered.

"You would die to protect him, wouldn't you?" Kurt asked.

She nodded. "But I'd do that for… Anyone now."

"And who taught you to be like that?" He pressed her.

"Jimmy!" She broke down in tears and wrapped her arms around him tighter.

"And what did he do when he found out that you were in danger last month when we fought that group The Wild Pack?" (Set in between this fic and the last one. –Lucas)

She shrugged tearfully. "Nothing…"

"WRONG!" Kurt told her. "He called me and told me off big-time!"

"What?" She looked shocked and they stopped falling.

"You should have heard him Tabby. I may be an old man but I can still take a stick upside yer head if'in you ever go putting Tabby-Dear in that kind of trouble again without someone to watch her back. I'm a warnin' ye Mister Wagner… Don't make me come over there!"

She laughed. "He… he really did that?"

Kurt smiled. "He grilled me for an hour. Had all kinds of questions and … was generally worried. I know why. That picture they put in the Scottish papers showed you when you were knocked out on the street in front of the jailhouse. He thought you were abandoned there and he was raising hell over it."

She shook her head. "But you… You came for me... The instant it happened. You woke me up and…"

They had stopped falling and Kurt looked over toward the building. "And why did I do that do you think?" He smiled. "Could it be that I felt exactly what Jimmy felt at seeing you there? That I had to do something… Because I love you?"

One of the building's windows was slightly ajar. He reached out and opened it then pulled them both inside.

She stood like a guilty child before him. "So… he… and you... really…"

"Yes Tabitha. We love you. Not in any kind of way you've ever known, but … We love you… as much as we know how too. Not like your father who thinks that his love entitles him to your obedience, or like your mother who thought that leaving you was helping you… We're here Tabitha, not just at the moment or for a while… But forever."

He sighed. "Jimmy's going to die with love for you in his heart Tabby."

Her voice broke. "He showed me… Where he wants to be buried… Next to his wife…"

Kurt smiled sadly "Because he expects you to do as a daughter would and see to his wishes."

"But… If we manage to help his daughter… Wont he…"

"Bore her senseless with stories of you?" Kurt smirked. "Probably. But once the two of you start hitting the stores and shopping together she'll have enough to bore him right back with so it's all fair if you ask me."

She lowered herself in to a chair and exhaled slowly. "Kurt… If I trust you… If I really give you my heart and say… That you're the one…" She looked up and met his eyes. "I'll be counting on you to be 'the one'… Understand?"

Kurt smiled. "Have I ever let you down before Tabitha? Even when it got me in to trouble with Herr Xavier?"

She laughed and wiped her nose. "I'm sorry about that."

"And Jimmy never failed you either." Kurt continued. "And you can't hold a failure against us if we haven't failed you. I know you got stuck when it came to birth parents. Me too. But Tabitha… Family is so much more than blood could ever hope to be… And you deserve it."

She took his hand and squeezed it. "We… We should get back to the team… Stop Watts and …"

Kurt smiled oddly. "Tabitha… I don't know what's going on, but I don't think we're in reality anymore."

"What?" She looked at him. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Look around this office. Desk, chairs, paperwork, carpet… But there's no door. No place for a door. Just flat walls. No lights in the fixtures but the room is all lit up… Something happened to us… Something psychic or maybe magical… but we've been 'outside' reality since we were on the roof."

She looked at him. "But… Since when? Did Watts show up or something?"

Kurt shook his head. "I don't think so. I can't imagine him telling us to work out your abandonment issues instead of falling to our deaths."

She looked puzzled. "You're right. But… what happened on the roof?"

"I cuffed you and took you up there… We talked. I thought you were out of Watts' control… Then you attacked me… I dodged it and set it off before it could get to the street. Forge grabbed you and I cuffed your left hand…"

She looked back at him. "Then I cuffed your right and pulled you off the roof…"

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Ja, and then you smiled all the way down… What was that about?"

She shrugged hesitantly. "Dying with you is way better than… not having you." She finished in a tiny voice.

He stroked her hair and face idly as he stared in to her eyes. "That's sweet… Disturbing. But sweet."

She took his hand and squeezed. "You don't think it's a psychic attack of some kind, do you? Divide and conquer or something?"

"Maybe." Kurt conceded. "I think our best bet is to look around for anything important, like a clue as to how to get out of here, but short of that… We should just sit tight and wait for a rescue party."

"Can you try sending a telepathic signal to that Frost woman?" Tabitha asked, sounding kind of hollow.

"Maybe… I've never tried it before but she's contacted me, so maybe it's possible…"

"I don't like her." Tabby said softly. "I read your files on her. I don't like anyone finding you so… attractive."

"Bah!" Kurt waved away the thought. "She's a tease." He told her. "She does it to psyche people out. I only played along because I wanted her to know that I could play whatever game she was playing."

"And because she's hot." Tabitha added. "You can admit it. She's gorgeous and she flattered you and you liked it." She shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Kurt took her by the hand. "A) I didn't have a girlfriend then. B) I did enjoy the flirting but never so much that it would have made me trust her and C) I would rather be with you."

Tabitha met his eyes. "Promise?" She asked, hesitantly biting her lower lip.

"I just did." He told her with another caress of her face, and he leaned in and kissed her softly on the mouth.