Okay here's the latest. Sorry for the slight delay in getting this out. Thanks muchly Bookworm and also Shockey for the reviewage! Take this as you will, more to come soon. :)

After leaving the bar, taking Nicki's suggestion to heart, it took Carrie about an hour to reach the cabin. Recognizing the mosque's van in the driveway, she was relieved her first instinct as to where he'd gone had paid off.

Getting out of the car, she barely beat the rain on the walk up to the porch. By the time she reached the front door there was a downpour behind her.

Opening the screen door she didn't even bother knocking before walking into the kitchen, then the den. Seeing him knelt down, putting logs on the fire.

"Hey.", she said softly. Not wanting to sneak up behind and startle him. Hearing her voice though he almost dropped the armful of firewood.

"What the...", he breathed, turning around to face her. "What are you doing here?"

"I escaped.", Carrie shrugged.

"Carrie, for Christ's sake."

"Had a feeling I'd find you here.", she said as he shook his head in awe, stood up.

"Farrah's at Quinn's.", Brody said, knowing she'd be curious. "I would've brought her, but if the fucking press had followed me here..."

Nodding in understanding, Carrie set her bag down, approached him as he practically fell in her arms. Hid his face against her shoulder as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"It's okay. It's okay...", she soothed as he shook his head, pulled back.

"None of this is fucking okay, Carrie. Lauder's just-"

"Look, don't think about him, okay? All he's doing is spewing lies!"

"That sent reporters to your fucking door!"

"But the reporters aren't here.", Carrie grinned, leaning in to kiss him.

"Carrie...", he groaned, pulling back.

"Brody, I didn't break out of the fucking psych ward just to talk."

"Wait! You broke-"

"Brody!"

"Listen, I have a right to know if the cops are on their way here instead of the reporters.", he scoffed as she rolled her eyes.

"Jesus Christ, I'm not a fugitive!"

"You were admitted by the court, Carrie."

"And I was granted a three day pass by the hospital the court admitted me to! Abby arranged it. After I broke out.", she shrugged.

"Jesus. That woman should be nominated for sainthood.", Brody sighed. "So what, did you sneak out the window? Stuff a pillow under your covers to fool the guards into thinking you were asleep?"

"Please.", Carrie snorted.

"Well what did you-"

"I don't want to talk about it, okay. I...It's not important. It's not.", she said softly, looking down.

Sensing her change Brody moved forward, reached to cup her face with both hands.

"Why don't you tell me why you did break out then?", he teased. Sliding his hands down her face to rub her shoulders.

Rolling her eyes, smirking suggestively Carrie reached for and undid his belt, knelt down in front of him. "Shit. Carrie..."

After she unzipped him, teased him through fabric before removing the obstacle of it, it took all of Brody's strength to keep from picking her up and bringing her to the bed. But he knew why she was doing this. He was so pent up and anxious he was liable to just wind up taking her and not taking his time.

When she replaced her hands with her mouth Brody's eyes practically rolled back enough to see his brain. Soon he was moving, cursing, twisting her hair in his hands and encouraging her, before his knees shook and nearly gave out entirely.

"Are you okay?"

Nodding, tugging his boxers and jeans back on, he sank onto the pulled out couch as Carrie grinned, joined him. After lying down she started undoing his shirt buttons, kissed his neck.

"Hey. I'm gonna need a second here if you want to-"

"Relax. I just want to do this." Unbuttoning his shirt the rest of the way she curled up on his chest, planted a kiss there before cuddling against him. "I missed this."

"I did too.", Brody smiled, kissing the side of her head and curling his right arm around her belly. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You sound tired.", he said, trying to hide his concern.

"The drive here took longer than I thought.", Carrie said before yawning.

"Go ahead and sleep then. I was just about to get dinner started anyway. Unless you want to help?"

When she shook her head, laughing, Brody went to move but she curled her arm more tightly around him.

"Hey...what are you..."

"What the fuck do you think? I don't want you to move."

"Carrie..."

"Look you just said I should try and sleep. I-"

"I suggested you try and shut your eyes while I make dinner. In order to do that though I really ought to be in there.", Brody sighed, pointing to the kitchen as she cuddled closer to him.

"Just a few more seconds, okay?"

"Carrie, look-"

"Look you know how hard it is to get a good night's rest in a goddamn hospital? And then this morning I woke up on a musty motel mattress."

"Motel?", Brody frowned. "What are you-"

"It doesn't matter. This is just the most comfortable I've been in awhile, okay? I..I wouldn't mind it lasting a little longer.", she said softly as he nodded, held her a little tighter.

"Fine, I'll stay. But first you gotta tell me what happened between now and when you left the hospital. Something got you worked up, I can tell."

"Brody..."

"C'mon, love."

Rolling her eyes she sighed, spoke after a beat.

"I saw the blog Lauder published. A volunteer handed me her fucking phone to read it off of. And afterwards I...I got upset."

"How upset?", Brody asked fearfully.

"A nurse and doctor diagnosed me as manic. One of them drugged-"

"Carrie, Jesus."

"I came to and I was just...panicked. That volunteer with the cart though, Frances? She saw what happened and helped me escape."

"You're kidding.", he breathed. "How much trouble did she risk getting into doing that?"

"I...I don't know. At least she and Abby though are on the same side."

"That's true. We caught a lucky break there."

"For once.", Carrie snorted as he kissed the side of her head before hearing her yawn.

"Look you should really get some rest. I'll stay here though until you fall asleep."

"Great, now I feel like I'm Farrah or something.", she scoffed.

"Well you are pretty fucking alike. C'mon, close your eyes, it's okay."

Rubbing her back he watched, waited patiently until she drifted off. Then carefully shifted out of her arms, kissed her forehead before getting up, covering her up. Hearing her softly snore, knowing she would be out for awhile he quietly walked over to the kitchen, started going through the grocery bags he'd brought up. Hoping he could make a meal for the two of them out of supplies for just one.

He settled on chili and cornbread. Hoping that Carrie was hungry and that meat still appealed to her. It took him less time to prepare the food than he thought, and he was putting some bowls together for them when he heard a soft groan and turned, saw her roll over. Still out like a light.

"Carrie?", Approaching her, Brody perched on the bed. Holding the bowl of chili with a chunk of cornbread sticking out of it.

"Carrie. Care..eee..", he sang, gently shaking her shoulder. When she still didn't wake he sat perched at the foot of the sofabed. Eating his chili as he watched her sleep.

Twenty minutes later he was more than halfway through eating, but she looked like she was starting to come around. Eyes cracking open she frowned, rolled onto her back.

"Hey..", Brody smiled.

"Hey. How long was I out?"

"About three hours. Maybe three and a half."

"Three hours?! Shit!"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with a catnap."

"This wasn't a catnap, it was a fucking coma.", Carrie snorted, rubbing at her eyes. "You cooked."

"Chili. And cornbread. You hungry?"

"Starving.", she sighed.

"I'll be right back."

Watching as he got up, cut over to the kitchen, sitting up she stretched her neck before he returned with a bowl.

"Thanks.", she smiled, taking it before taking a bite. "Shit."

"You like it?"

Nodding she took a larger bite, then another.

"For Christ's sake? Do they fucking feed you at the hospital?"

"Yeah. Hospital food.", she snorted, eating another forkful. "Did this take a long time to make?"

"No. Not really.", Brody shrugged.

"So what else did you do when I was comatose?"

"I ate my chili. Watched you sleep.", he smiled, getting a look. "What? You're cute when you sleep."

"Nobody is cute when they sleep. Unless they're a little kid or a kitten or something."

"Puppies too. Puppies are really cute when they sleep."

"Jesus. You're lucky you can cook, Marine.", Carrie scoffed, finishing off her chili. She was about to ask for more when she saw some tomato on the corner of Brody's lip. Setting her bowl down on the sofa table she moved closer to him.

"Hey..what?"

"Nothing, you just got something-"

"What?"

"It's fine. I got it."

Smiling, she reached over, flicked the tomato before gently running her finger over his lips. Leaning closer, she kissed him, but when she went to make it more passionate he pulled back, looked down and away from her.

"Brody? What-"

"I just...I don't think we should..."

"What? Look my blood pressure is fine, I-"

"Well my head fucking isn't.", Brody sighed bitterly, still avoiding her eyes. He could feel her frustration though and bit his lip, reached for her hand.

"I'm sorry, it's just...I can't think straight. I haven't been able to since those fucking reporters started camping out."

Squeezing his hand Carrie looked sadly at him.

"We're going to fix this though."

"I know. But right now, I just...look it's nothing against you. I want to be with you, Carrie. You know I do. I just don't want our first time not fumbling around like teenagers in a hospital bed to just be a distraction for myself. I won't do that to you.", he said as she shrugged, shifted away from him.

"Hey..."

"It's fine, Brody."

"No, it's not. You're upset and-"

"I'm not upset! I just...fuck!'"

Taking a breath she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"I'm not upset. I know you're being considerate. Frustrating, but considerate.", she snorted before looking up, softly smiling at him. "I don't want us just going through the motions either."

Shifting to the foot of the pullout she kissed his cheek as he frowned.

"Wait, what is it you want.", Brody asked. "Are you still hungry? Need something to drink?"

"What I want is to take a shower. Don't see you being able to bring that to me in bed."

Once getting to her feet she turned, smiled. "If you change your mind though come and join me."

After she walked down the hall, to the bathroom, stretching back on the pullout Brody reached for the remote on the sofa table. Flipped on the TV looking for either an old classic or stupid movie he and Carrie could curl up and watch. Something to take their mind off things and eat popcorn in front of.

Scrolling through the channels though his jaw clenched and he sat up, seeing he was the top story on the five and six'o clock news. He was even mentioned in the news crawler across the bottom of the screen. "Motherfucking..."

Seeing red, he threw the remote at the TV, hitting the button to effectively turn it off in the process. Standing, he stalked across the den and considered joining Carrie in the shower, telling her what was going on. Walking down the hall though he heard her humming along to whatever jazz song was blaring from her phone and froze. She sounded relaxed, or at least like she was trying to relax, and given everything she'd been through there was no way he was going to put an end to that. The thought of stressing her out over something she couldn't control, involving her in this mess more than she already was enough to knot his stomach.

Knowing only one thing could alleviate that, walking in the kitchen Brody reached into the cupboard above the stove. Grabbed a brown bag he'd stashed away for just such an emergency. Unscrewing the cap off the bourbon he drank a shot, or three straight from the bottle, before carrying it out with him onto the porch and down towards the dock. Not even shutting the door behind him.