A/N: I want to thank you all for the wonderful feedback and kind words you sent me the last few days. I'm glad you like this story so far and here's part 2... enjoy... I hope :-)
Adrift No More – Part 2
Disclaimer – See part one for all important information
A bright flash of lightning lit up Mac's apartment building as well as the area around him. Even though it lasted but a mere second, it was long enough for him to see her standing there in front of the window. He continued to watch as her body tensed when she spotted him down there.
Did she know it was him?
At first, he was unsure that she had recognized him with only the occasional bursts of lightning serving as illumination. But the minute her body language changed, he was sure that she knew it was him. He was just a little surprised that it had taken her so long to realize that he was down there, especially with her 'sixth sense'. He actually checked his watch to confirm the fact that a good twenty minutes had passed since he had gotten there.
That time lapse alone was enough to let him know that, at the moment, she definitely was not acting like the marine, nor the woman he adored and loved so much. Add to that, the fact that her marine skills are so well honed, that even on her worst day no one would have been able to watch her, or God forbid sneak up on her without her knowing it immediately. He remembered the one time he tried to surprise her and got the shock of his life when he ended up prone on his back looking up at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath. She'd knocked him off his feet like a rag doll.
He knew that she was anything but okay.
He had stood there undetected, watching her in the window as she absent-mindedly played with the raindrops running down the glass. The broken, shaken image he saw attested to the fact that she was completely distraught. Thanks to the vivid lightning, he could see that she was crying by the way her shoulders slumped and shook. All he wanted to do was cradle her in his arms, comfort her, and take her pain away as he dried her tears. But still he didn't move.
'For whom is she crying? Are those tears for me… or are they for… are they maybe for him?'
Those unwelcome questions had been running through his mind since the moment he'd reached her apartment building and saw her shattered figure. Fear of the answer is what stopped him for making the final steps up to her apartment, the final steps to her.
With shaking hands, he attempted to raise the collar of his shirt for some sort of protection. But it was an effort in futility. He was already soaked, drenched from head to toe and the constant wind reminded him of how cold he was. His wet clothes clung tightly to his body, allowing him limited movement. He had been in such a daze that he had left his coat behind.
He reached into his pocket to retrieve his handkerchief, but it wasn't there. That's when he suddenly realized that he had left his carry-on bag on the plane. His handkerchief neatly tucked into the side pocket.
'What had driven him to come here and why?' This is what he wondered as he shook uncontrollably from the cold. This had not been his planned destination, but something had possessed him to come here and deep down inside, he was finally able to admit if only to himself that the one thing driving him was his love for one Sarah Mackenzie. Of that he was certain.
He put his frozen hands to his mouth and blew on them hoping that his breath would help to warm them. Even though it was already mid May, their weather pattern had been extremely erratic and tonight the temperatures were so low, he could actually see the steam from every breath he took. He couldn't stay out here much longer that was a given. But he didn't have a plan. What was he going to do? Was the extreme cold affecting his thought process?
His mind wandered to what had happened earlier. He had been at the airport. He had boarded the plane. He was buckled into his seat prepared for takeoff. There was noise and voices… there was chatter going on all around him. Someone in particular was talking fast and loud, but he couldn't focus on what was being said or who was saying it. He was ill at ease and had a compelling need to get off the plane.
How had he gotten off? What was the reason he gave them for his need to get off the plane? At the moment, he really couldn't remember any of the events that led to his departure from the plane. All he remembered was his desire to get back to her and bolting from the airport to hail a cab.
Now, he was standing in the pouring, cold rain, with no coat and no car to warm up in while he decided what his next plan of action was going to be. He chuckled when he remembered the look on the cabbies face.
'He must have thought he had hit pay dirt when I threw much more than the fare over the seat and never waited for the change before getting out.' The cabbie had turned and smiled at him before eagerly driving away with more than a generous tip.
He should be on a plane right now safe and secure from this wretched weather, sucking down his second drink while flying the friendly skies. At least that is what his head was telling him.
However, right from the beginning his heart wasn't into leaving.
He just couldn't make himself do it. He couldn't leave her. No, he had to be here.
He had to be with her because he needed her just as much as he needed air to breathe if not more.
He looked up to the sky, breathing deeply as the hard, cold raindrops pelted his face. He felt no pain. His only thoughts were of her.
Would she want him here? Would he be welcome here? He couldn't be sure because he still harbored doubts as far as what she might be feeling and for whom.
'Of course she wants you here. She needs you just as much as you need her,' is what his heart was screaming at him. He so much wanted to put his doubts aside and believe it, but things had not just ended very well for them.
The sound of a horn nearby brought him out of his reverie, but not out of his turmoil. It appeared that the blackout and the lack of signals were wreaking havoc on traffic. At this hour and in this nasty weather, nobody in their right mind should be outside. Obviously, present company was excluded because here he stood.
When his eyes wandered back to her window, she was no longer standing there. He immediately panicked and tried to move. His sodden clothes along with the numbing cold prevented him from moving freely, so his movements were limited.
'Damn it, where did she go?' He asked himself while his eyes nervously wandered around to the other darkened windows of her apartment, hoping to get a glimpse of her. This attempt of course proved futile as he realized that without power, he was not about to see much.
'Why hadn't she bothered to light candles?' He wondered. Even though everything was thrown into darkness, his eyes continued in search of her. "Damn it. Where are you, Sarah?" He screamed aloud into the eerie night, but his voice was immediately muffled by another loud clap of thunder.
She was gone. He couldn't see her anymore. 'Maybe she didn't see me after all,' he sadly admitted to himself. 'Or maybe she did see me and doesn't want me here. In which case, it would be time for me to lick my wounds and to go home.'
He closed his eyes in defeat, arguing with himself over what he should do now.
"What are you doing here?" Her amazingly soft voice asked over the din of the raging thunderstorm.
Surprised, he snapped his head quickly in the direction of where her voice came from. He knew she was surprised that he was there. Her voice had clearly given that away. But what was she feeling? Was she still upset? Was she angry? Was she going to kick his six in full marine mode? Or was she…
His didn't have time to finish his thought as she asked again, "What are you doing here?"
This time her voice sounded much clearer as if she were closer, and this time she was. She was standing right next to him. So close he could feel her warm breath on his rain soaked neck. He hadn't even noticed when she moved closer to him. 'Guess I'll have to work on my sixth-sense,' he mused.
He just needed one look into her tear-swollen eyes to know what she thought about him being here.
"Sarah," he managed to choke out as she stood there in front of him with her arms tightly wrapped around herself. Was she attempting to shield herself from the weather or was she guarding herself from him? Her eyes were intense and her gaze never left his. But what were those big brown eyes of hers saying? Were they pleading for him to love her, or were they telling him to leave her alone? At the moment, he didn't care, and reached out to engulf her into his embrace.