Oh my god, I've finally done it. After over a year, I've finally written a new chapter. Since last Juy I've had to deal with some pretty intense health problems, and gave up on writing. But now I am pretty much back to my old self, and i didnt realize how much i missed it until i began writing again.

this is a very poor version of chapter seven. i was so anxious to get it out in public that it hasnt been edited...(HD, if you read this and would like to get back in the swing of things, let me know. i would love to hear from you.)

thank you all, and hopefully it wont be another year before i get something done :

Let me know what you think of it...i wrote it in about an hour and a half, so it probably isnt as good as it could be. all feedback is welcome, as i am a bit rusty :

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"Madame?"

Dumbstruck, Alexa stared up into the eyes that lay behind the alabaster mask. She was prepared for anyone but him. Not ever. And yet there he stood.

He continued to watch her, silently willing her to speak. But Erik didn't need words to understand that it was Luka. He was the only thing that could bring her to a doctor's office at midnight, the only thing that could reduce her to this.

She looked back to the ground as the reality of the situation hit her, and the anger of his abandonment hit her once again. Forcing herself to breath, to stop the tears that continued to fall, she began to stand.

"Please," her words caught in her throat, "leave me be."

Taking a deep breath, she wiped at her eyes fiercely. He did not move, and she laughed bitterly to the ground.

A gentle hand underneath her chin brought her head up, and as she met the concern in his eyes the sting of tears once again overpowered her resolve. The utter despair that had welled within her heart pooled over and cascaded down her cheeks, and her tears reflected silver in the moonlight. She pulled her head back away from his grasp, cradling her face between the palms of her hands to hide the tears that wracked her body.

At the slight pressure of his hand at her shoulder Alexa began to shake her head back and forth. Wrenching herself away from his grasp, she turned unsteadily to face this stranger so carelessly abandoned.

Decades passed between them as Alexa stared at Erik. When her shaking came to be too unsteady, Erik advanced to support her.

"No," she whispered as she stepped back from his hand. "I do not need any help from you."

Her voice quavered violently, and Erik could feel the skin on his arms prickle in anger. He stood there, unaware of what to do. His pride told him to turn and walk the few meters to his home, but he couldn't dispel the suffering she brought him to. Every movement of her body was painful, every glance from her eye held heartbreak.

She turned to walk away and took a few incoherent steps before he spoke.

"Until next time, then?" He spoke into the darkness

She stopped, looked weakly over her shoulder, and laughed. Empty and hollow, it filled the night with resentment and despair. Erik heard her whisper to herself incoherently as she shook her head at him and continued to walk.

He watched her amble from him, saw every feeble step she took. Her head was bowed and her shoulders turned down with the sorrow they carried, and the sight of it unnerved him. He felt the turmoil which she bore like a mist in the air; it penetrated the darkness and seeped into every corner and crevice of the night.

Alexa refused to look back at him, and instead trained her focus on the pavement. Shame and anger mixed together within her; embarrassment for being seen at her weakest, and irrational anger at the situation that played out before her. But thinking brought with it the memory of what caused her resentment, and the image of Luka burned in the front of her mind. A lump formed in her throat as she blinked back the tears that she had so unconvincingly conquered. There was a sharp pounding at her temple, and she pressed her fingertips against the pain that drummed in her head and forced reality back within her grasp

But it persisted, and soon she saw tiny white stars blur her vision. She swayed, and lost her footing. Rather than hitting the cold cobblestones that lay beneath her, however, she found herself supported by two strong arms.

Too broken to speak, Alexa leaned into him as he held her weight. Erik lowered her to the ground slowly, guiding her to the wall so she could lean back and rest. When her back touched the brick she slowly drew her body in, bringing her legs back into her chest and hugging her torso tightly. She rested her head against the top of her knees, and quietly began to rock back and forth.

Erik could do nothing but stand above her and watch, waiting for a sign of what to do. She was tired, and weak; exhaustion dictated every desperate movement, and stripped her of any thoughts of pride or embarrassment. When she said nothing, Erik crouched down and tentatively touched one gloved hand to her shoulder. Alexa looked up at him and tensed, but made no attempt to pull away. She just continued to sway in erratic and slow patterns, shutting her eyes tightly against the world.

They sat like this in silence, and after several minutes the tension between them slipped away. As Alexa's rocking slowed, Erik removed his hand and knelt beside her. Her eyes fluttered open and he looked down to meet her stare. Words failed, and stillness continued to surround them. But instead of worry and concern sat a hesitant indication of peace, and Erik touched moved his hand back to rest on her arm.

The feel of his touch brought comfort to Alexa, and she closed her eyes once more. The fear, the anger, the despair, and the pain surfaced as she felt the comfort of another. For so many years she had no one on which to depend when things became hard. There was Luka, who knew pain but did not understand it. For five long years, every negative emotion that Alexa felt had to be ignored to protect Luka. Everything he knew, he learned from her, and she would not be the one to teach him bitterness and despair. Forced into a position of comforter to others, Alexa built a wall of plastacine perseverance around her. She saved her tears for the cold nights before an empty fire, and comforted herself with fairytale lies of a better future. Now faced with losing her only connection with the life that she had loved and lost, there was no emotional mortar strong enough to keep the walls from crumbling beneath her. Beneath the darkness of her closed lids Alexa saw the empty life that awaited her in a world without Luka, and with that her face slowly distorted and creased into a suppressed sob.

Erik watched, and guardedly moved closer to her as her shoulders drew in and trembled. It wasn't until his arm encircled her back that he understood that she was weeping. Her silence turned to anguished cries. As she felt the pressure at her shoulder become heavier, and she was overcome with the urge to fight, to pull back from his embrace, but her heart refused to ignore the consolation she had so long been denied. She turned into him, and rested the backs of her hands against his neck as she cried into her palms, catching the flood of tears that escaped the confines of her once-stoic heart. .

Erik's hand tightened protectively on her back, the tension in his shoulders relaxing. He looked around him, scanning the streets. Soon his eyes fell on the darkened window of his flat, and he pulled away from Alexa to look into her swollen eyes.

"Come," he whispered.

She looked at him for a moment before nodding her head. In truth she doubted that she could stand, but it no longer mattered to her now. She was too tired to care, too worn down to fight. She watched as Erik gracefully rose to his feet, and slowly pushed herself up to stand beside him.

As they made their way across the avenue, the illumination of the doctor's window catching the pools of dew gathered in the cobbled street, Alexa looked to the sky. Faded crimson began to seep upward into the black horizon; daylight would be upon the city, and she felt her heart lift softly with the faded assure that night was nearly gone.