I went to bed early that night, and he told me that he would be up later on. When I awoke at two in the morning, he still wasn't in bed. I crawled out, and went downstairs to see if he had fallen asleep on the couch. But when I walked into the living room, I saw a door opened that I knew was often locked.
I softly walked towards the door, and heard a voice along with Garrison's.
"So you'll be going out of town to see Mr. Joseph about the stocks in two weeks time?"
"Yes. Not only that, but there are some new business men who are getting cocky and greedy that I need to deal with. And I was wondering if you and Hazel could come over a couple times a day, and just check up on her. I don't think she'll have any problems, I just don't want her to get hurt, or be lonely."
"Man, I wish I could. But I've been promising Hazel for two years now that we would go on vacation. And that just happened to be the week we were going."
"Oh, well hell, what am I going to do?"
"What about Neil Marshall? I know it's a shot, but the guy is the best there is when it comes to being entrusted with protecting someone."
"Yeah, but it's been a while since I've talked to the him."
"I'll talk to him, and see what I can do O.K. man. You'll be alright. But can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. But I really need to get to bed. I don't want Raven to get up wondering where I am," How ironic, "and I'm sure Hazel's not too happy you're up so late either. But go ahead."
"Well do you actually like her." I held my breath, that's also a question I'd been wondering also.
"What do you mean? 'Do I like her?' Of course, she's the only important thing in my life now."
"You took the question wrong. Hazel and I have obviously talked about it, you're like family to the both of us. But well, is she worth it? Is she worth the chance of you getting caught and charged with kidnapping," I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath. I wanted to know his answer, but then again what if he didn't care. I continued to stare at the back of his head.
"Yes, she is. She's worth it all. I don't know what, what it is. But she is the most important thing in my life ever. Not the military, not keeping her from the public eye. To me her happy is what keeps me going through the day." I felt tears falling down my face.
He took a deep breath, "Think me weak, but she's everything to me. So to answer your question, yes, she's worth it."
"O.K. I'll make some calls. Get to bed, I'll talk to you later."
"All right, bye." I quickly wiped my face, and backed away from the door and stood by the stairs.
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"Well that had to be quite shocking for you to actually hear him own up to his feelings for you."
"In one way, it was, but in another sense I felt as if I had known it all along."
"Do you think he ever figured out you had overheard the conversation?"
"Well if he did, he never said anything to me. So I cannot honestly answer that."
"Please continue."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I saw him lock up everything and start heading towards where I was standing. I stepped forward. He looked up and I tried to smile.
"Didn't think you were coming to bed tonight, well early this morning." He came up to me, our bodies almost touching.
"I'm sorry. I had some things I needed to do and finish up." I sighed, this emotional roller coaster was taking a toll on my mind. I closed the gap between us, and wrapped my arms around his neck.
It was slightly hard for me to do this since he was much taller than I was. He bent down and put his arms around my waist and lifted me up slightly from the floor. He dug his face between the underside of my chin and above my shoulder. I relaxed and we just stood there for a moment.
He pulled away, and set me back on my feet, I looked up at him.
"Let's go to bed. I'm tired."
"I'm right behind you." I laid down, then felt the bed sink, and his arms came around my waist. I turned over so we were facing each other, then I buried my face under his chin.
The next morning, he was still laying next to me. I started to move a bit.
"Glad to see you're up." I smiled and pulled back to see his face.
"What do you mean by that? I wasn't keeping you here."
"No, you weren't but I'll tell you a secret," he moved his face behind my head, just below my ear, "I like listening to you snore." He started to give me light kisses and moved his way down my neck until he reached my collar bone, and made his way back up following the same imaginary path.
I gasped and my face pink. "I do not snore!" he chuckled softly and looked at my face.
"Oh, yes you do. But it's cute." I rolled my eyes.
"I don't snore." He laughed and continued what he was doing previously.