Fragile Glass
Part Five: Lampworker
By: Lizzie B
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Author's Note: If I didn't have a job I would have stayed up all night writing, lol. It seems like a resolution doesn't it? I'm not sure it is, because my muse is still nagging at me. We'll see, I guess.
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Alex doesn't know what to say. She's just had every girly fantasy played out right before her and she can only sit there and stare as Bobby gets up and starts to leave. Her brain, which is still soaking in Bobby's words, finally registers the fact that he's leaving and she's up like a shot.
"Wait!" She manages breathlessly. He's already putting on his jacket.
"It's okay, Eames." Damn it, he's back to calling her Eames, "You don't need to explain." And then he's walking out of her apartment. She forgoes the jacket, slides into her shoes and chases after him. She curses his long legs and the cold as she yells for him to stop.
"Damn it Bobby if you don't stop when I catch you I'll shoot you!" She yells after chasing him for nearly a block. That finally gets him to stop, but there's at least three feet between them and she knows one step forward and he'll be gone.
Breathing hard she chooses her next words carefully, "Do you know it's nearly three in the morning? You called me at about eleven thirty, just as I was falling asleep. I had to pry every word out of your mouth and I came anyway. You yelled at me, actually angrily yelled at me and then practically ran away from me. I followed. It's three in the god damn morning in the middle of January and I'm not wearing a jacket. Don't you get it, you genius, I'll always follow you!"
"Why?" She almost doesn't hear him over the wind and the snow.
"Why what?" She snaps, sick of trying to follow his train of thought.
"Why do you follow me? You saw what I can become tonight, how can you follow that? Or…or defend it," He turns to face her, once again looking like the world has been placed on his shoulders, "I don't understand."
"I just…I care, Bobby, simple as that. I care about you, so I worry and I'll do anything I can to make sure you're okay. I don't know how else to explain it."
"Eames…"
"Damn it, we're not at work! It's Alex!" She rages, just a little desperately. Just hold me like you did back at Carmel Ridge and everything will be okay again, she thinks, waiting for him to digest and dissect what she's said.
"This…complicates things," He says, turning to face her.
"When have things been easy for us?" She offers a hand, "Can we go back to my apartment because I'm really cold." He closes the distance between them, takes her hand and then pulls her into his arms again.
"Can I say it now?" He asks, "Because I've wanted to for a very long time."
"Dope," She lightly hits his arm, "You could have said it years ago."
"I…love you…Alex."
"I love you too Bobby."
