Chapter Fourteen: Ending

When Silver awoke, she felt as though nothing had happened and for an absurd moment she thought that maybe nothing had. She was in bed, back in the caves, with the blankets covering her up to her chin. Silver sat up and peered into the dark, suddenly frightened because she was alone.

"Pitch?" She asked the shadows. Relief flooded her as her nightmare's face dissolved from the gloom.

"How are you feeling?" Pitch asked standing across from her. Silver drew her knees up to her chest and rested her head on her knees.

"I feel fine actually, a little tired still," She said, but her hair wasn't showing happiness as it normally did. Pitch frowned at her.

"Then what's wrong?" He took a step closer to her. She half-smiled.

"I don't feel like it was real," Silver said wrinkling her nose at Pitch. "Did Jack leave?" Pitch nodded. Silver smiled a little brighter at him. "Will you sit with me for a while?" She asked in a small voice. Pitch dissolved and moved to sit beside her with his long arms around her. Silver rested her head against him and sighed.

"I'm sorry," Pitch said taking her hand in his, holding it up so that he could look at her brightness against his darkness.

"For what?" Silver asked, watching too.

"I wasn't able to protect you," Pitch admitted. Silver frowned.

"But you saved me," She said, looking up at her nightmare.

"Death should never have gotten a hold of you," Pitch replied, closing his long fingers around her hand. Silver shook her head.

"I followed the skeleton man. That wasn't your fault." Silver said, looking up at him. "It was my fault too." Silver moved so that she was sitting on Pitch's lap and facing him.

"I said I would protect you," Pitch said again. Silver smiled at him now, as if she held some secret.

"But I'm ok now. Everything's ok," She kissed him briefly and when she sat back he could only look at her with his eyes wide. "What?"

"I just realized how beautiful you are in the dark," Pitch said with a debonair sort of smile. Silver giggled a little.

"I could've told you that," Silver snorted, half sarcastic. Pitch grinned a little darker, placing his hands firmly on her hips.

"Well, do you want to know what I'm going to do about it?" Pitch said adjusting Silver on his lap.

"I have the feeling I do," Silver replied candidly.

"No," Pitch said with a slack sort of devious smile, "I don't believe you do." He swung her over and in one smooth motion she was pinned beneath him. Silver giggled before he covered her mouth with his.

Pitch was just glad that he had her back.

"I love you Pitch," Silver said, pressing her forehead against Pitch's as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Silver's hair danced around her face and his. "I need you to know that," Silver was thinking about how she had thought she'd lost him. She wanted to be sure that if anything did actually happen to him, he'd know for sure that he was loved. Silver knew how hard he wished to be loved, even if he would never admit to it.

Pitch made a humming noise in his throat that sounded like pleasure. He so enjoyed it when she told him that she loved him, but as she kept them apart with pressure on his forehead, he realized there was a fear she never wanted him to see. He knew she was afraid that he'd never say he loved her back.

"I love you too, Silver," Pitch said. Silver's hair froze in surprise, wondering if she'd accidentally said something out loud. Pitch smirked. "Don't you ever fear I don't love you again. I fought Death for you, I reconciled with an old foe for you, and all that time ago, when you were Cally all alone in the dark, I watched you grow to love that darkness and my nightmares, something I never even dreamed was possible. I fell in love with you long before you ever knew my name," Silver felt something cold melt in the back of her heart as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I never asked for you to love me," Silver said and Pitch just laughed at the absurdity of her. She was not the kind of person to ask for love, but instead the kind who attract it and gave it mercilessly. Silver was love inside and out and Pitch wondered if she hadn't realized that yet.

"I never asked for you to love me either," He said as he kissed her again and again.

Pitch realized then, for maybe the first time, that darkness was nothing without light.

The End