Sooner than she expects, her ears are filled with Latin music and her body thrums with the familiar heat.

Lumen Ann Pierce has come home.

It's late at night when she arrives at his apartment and his car isn't there.

Tonight is one of those nights.

She waits for him to come back.

She's tired, but she's too tense and anxious to deal with her fatigue and just when she thinks he may not return, she sees his car park in its usual space. Her fingers grip the wheel as she watches him get out of his car, retrieve the innocuous bag concealing everything he needs on a night like this. He trudges towards his apartment, opens the door and vanishes into his domain.

Minutes later, she sees Harrison's nanny make her exit, driving away.

She tells herself that she has to go nownownow, but her fingers just won't let go of the steering wheel and her body is paralysed by the fear that suddenly seizes her.

What was she expecting would happen? He'd open the door, smile and let her back into his life with open arms? He'd done all he could to drive her away when they'd first met and he hadn't even liked her then. Pitied, maybe, out of self-preservation mostly, but there was no affection that steered his actions.

And now? He may very well turn her away with all the righteous bitterness of someone scorned.

And she wouldn't blame him.

And just as she's about to turn the engine on and drive away, that's when it dawns on her that she would rather try again (really try) and have him spurn her (a fitting punishment for her cowardice) instead of running away and never truly knowing.

With renewed vigour, she gets out of the rental car and walks (one step at a time) to his apartment door, raps loud enough that he would hear, but soft enough that it wouldn't wake Harrison in case he was sleeping.

Her heart is pounding, she hears footsteps behind the door, and all the breath is knocked from her lungs when the door opens. He's standing before her and she's helpless against the tide of tears because how could she fucking leave him? How did she delude herself into thinking she could possibly live without him?

He stands there, a mixture of bewilderment and caution plays on his face. He looks like he's about to slam the door in hers, a prospect she both dreads and expects. She'd been the only one who hadn't run away in horror at the truth of who (what) he really was. And she'd adamantly declared that she wouldn't leave.

Until she did.

She releases an uneven breath, "Dexter."

TBC