After far too many hours crammed together in rental cars, they pulled up in front of the airport, except for Bernie, who turned into a small fly, and then buzzed out, hovering near John's ear.
"One question." Ella said as they all piled out, eyeing Daniel. "How do we get the knives past security?"
Six merely smiled. "You'll see." She said evasively.
They walked inside, bags slung over their shoulders, to the bustling airport, filled to bursting with people from everywhere, all seeming to be going in a different direction. The chaos hid them well, they blended in and slipped through without a hint of suspicion.
They walked through security without a problem. While Ella kept a steady eye on the knives, she need not have worried. As they went through the scanners, Six merely smiled. Nothing was picked up, and the bags went through without a hitch.
"You made them invisible?" Ella asked as they left security behind.
"Mhmm." Six said, not entirely succeeding in concealing her smugness.
"What about the metal detectors?"
"When I make things invisible," Six said with an air of finality, "They stay invisible."
Sooner than anyone had expected, they were seated on the plane, taking off, and soaring across the sky to the other side of the world.
John stood, tapping his foot impatiently in the airport. He couldn't say he liked China too much yet. Granted, all he had seen of it thus far was the airport, but at the moment, all he felt was uncomfortable. Bernie had changed back into a dog – he hated being a fly – and John reached down absentmindedly to scratch his head. He felt out of place here – even just appearance wise, he stood out. And being on the run from murderous aliens was not a good time to be conspicuous.
Six walked over to him, coffee in hand. John looked at it, eyebrow raised.
"Wow, that must be a new record, longest time you've gone without caffeine."
"Shut up." Was her eloquent response. "I don't question your eating habits."
"I'm assuming we're walking?" Sam grumbled, arduously toting his bag up to them.
"You assume correctly." Six said, hardly looking at him, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Wow, it's just us." Sam said, setting down his bag and rubbing his hands.
"Just like old times." John said.
"Yeah." Six said. "That whole two weeks of good old times we had together. Here come Ella and Daniel now."
Sam pretended to look anywhere but at them, keeping up the appearance that they didn't know one another, but Six stared at them steadily as they made their way across the airport. John tried to do as Sam, but found it too difficult and just watched them approach. They would be joining them soon enough anyway, no point in trying to diffuse suspicion.
Maneuvering their way through the throngs of people was no simple task. Ella, whose hands had been entangled in her hair, let them down, her hair tumbling about her shoulders, and she reached towards Daniel. He handed Ella her bag. Their hands met as they made the exchange, and a shock seemed to go through each of them, they quickly jerked their hands away, each determinedly not making eye contact.
Six shook her head. "I feel sorry for them." She stated frankly.
"What?" John said, shaking his head as if to clear it and turning towards her. "What do you mean?"
Six inclined her head towards Daniel and Ella. "When a Lorien falls in love, it's forever." She quoted snarikly.
John's mind couldn't help but jump instantly to Sarah. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, his Sarah, so beautiful, so strong, so wonderful, and so far away.
"So?" He said grimly. "It's perfect then. They're already always together."
Six gave him that strange look again, that look that said he was stupider than even she had thought, so much so that even she pitied him. "No." She said plainly. "That's a big no-no. The Garde aren't supposed to be romantically involved outside of the Garde, let alone with a cepan. It's . . . very un-orthodox, to say the least."
John glanced over at them again. They were standing maybe twenty or so feet away – they had agreed to split up, to detract suspicion. He wondered if Ella could hear them from this far away in the bustling airport.
"So . . ." Sam was saying, looking critically at Six. "You're saying that you'll only ever fall in love with one person?"
"Not me personally." Six said briskly. "I don't believe in that kind of stuff."
"But isn't that, like, a fact?" Sam persisted. "You can't not believe in facts. That'd be like saying you don't believe in, like DNA or something!"
"Who says I even have to believe in DNA?" Six asked. "I'm an alien life form, remember?"
Sam gaped for a moment before recovering himself. "But you said you all were completely humanoid –"
"Relax Sam, we are." Six said, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I have DNA. But love is not at all similar to DNA. It is the exact opposite of DNA."
"Well, not the exact opposite –"
"What I'm saying is, love is complicated, and how are you even supposed to know when you fall in love? It's too messy, and what if it's forever for you, but not for the other person. I think it's a bunch of made up fairy tales, that are only true because everyone believed them."
"Well, maybe you're just saying that because you've never fallen in love." Sam suggested.
Six gave him a withering look. "I'm not the type of girl who falls in love." She said flatly.
"No kidding." Sam muttered.
Ella sat down, tapping her foot as they waited for the other two, determinedly not looking at Daniel. Determinedly not thinking about how their hands had touched just a few moments ago. Determinedly not thinking about the spark she had felt as her fingers grazed his. Determinedly not thinking about another time that they had touched . . .
Ella didn't remember exactly how it had happened. All she remembered was that it had.
She knew that she got funny feelings around Daniel. Feelings that she liked, but at the same time wished would go away. She had to stop herself from looking at him, tear her gaze away. She felt his absence as though a part of her were missing.
She didn't know how exactly it had happened. All she knew was that it had.
They had been standing in their tiny kitchen, talking, arguing maybe, about something, she didn't know, nothing important.
They weren't new to D.C anymore, nor were they new to one another. They had been living here for about six months now. Practically an eternity. They both knew how things were. But maybe they had forgotten.
Daniel had dirt smudged on his face. Ella shook her head, giving a patronizing smile, and reached up to wipe it off. It wasn't until a second later that she realized what she was doing, becoming minutely aware that she was touching him. She could tell that he had realized too, as his hand reached up, cupping hers.
Suddenly his lips were on hers. They were soft and sweet and hers immediately responded in kind. She was melting, in absolutely the best way possible. It was a moment of pure bliss, and if she knew anything – which she wasn't entirely sure she did at the moment – she knew that she had never felt more whole than she did at this exact moment.
It was over far too quickly. Ella almost wondered if it had even happened at all. But she knew it had. She could tell, from her racing heart, from the look in Daniel's eyes, and from the tugging feeling she felt from chest looking at him. From her heart.
She didn't know how it had happened. All she knew was that somehow, she had fallen in love with Daniel.
She knew it was wrong. She knew it even as they stood there, silent, not touching but hardly a hair's breadth apart. She had known on some level even as she had kissed him. But it had felt so exactly right, despite it being something completely wrong.
But no matter how right her heart insisted it was, she knew that it was wrong. It shouldn't have happened, but unfortunately it had, and now it would never happen again.
"I – I have to – to go." She forced out, and turned and practically fled from the room, not daring to meet his eyes.
She didn't think she had slept at all that night. Her mind was too full of constantly whirring thoughts for any kind of peace.
But by the next morning she had successfully shunted all those thoughts to a far corner of her head, carefully locked up in a box never to be opened. She had simply decided that the incident was never to be spoken of again.
The next morning was difficult. She'd never had a hangover before, but she rather imagined that this is what it would have felt like. Completely drained, she gripped her cup as though it were the only thing stabilizing her. She was alone. Not just alone in the sense that she was the only one in the apartment, but alone in the sense that she had lost her best, basically only, friend, and her only love. She knew the stories; when a Lorien fell in love, it was intense, all consuming, and permanent. But she also knew the rules. There could be no future for them. There shouldn't have even been a past.
The door swung open, and Daniel walked in. Ella looked up automatically, then quickly back down again. Even the split second when their eyes had met had been too much. He stood across the table from her, his eyes focused on her. A heavy, stiff silence hung between them for several minutes. Finally, Daniel broke it. "I'm sorry". They were the first words he had said to her since – since then. Ella's head jerked up at his voice, then she quickly looked away again, her face beginning to heat up against her will. She looked sideways at the wall. "For what?" She asked faintly after a few moments. He just looked at her for several moments, and silence filled the space between them once more. He eventually left the room, and Ella returned to staring down at her drink, slowly swirling it back and forth.
It was never brought up again, and she went on pretending it had never happened. But she knew that it had, and she couldn't forget it. And, truth be told, she didn't think she would have wanted to forget if she could have.
Of course she hadn't forgotten. How could she have? Daniel obviously hadn't either. But while they put up a good façade, there were changes made. While for a time their conversations had been strained and avoidance seemed to be the norm, what with being together nearly constantly, this had to wane, and so it did. They fell back into their easy friendship. But now they were careful. They had gone too far once, she would not have her mistakes repeated. Touching was absolutely out of the question. While a good rule in theory, it seemed to serve only to make her heart beat that much faster when his hand merely brushed hers . . .
Ella stole a glance over at Daniel, and then quickly chided herself for it. She needed to stop thinking about those things. It was wrong.
A garde could absolutely not have a relationship with a cepan. Especially not her own cepan.
The cepan were there to protect. It was a working relationship. It would be completely inappropriate to make it a personal one. Out of the question.
Even if it wasn't their cepan, specifically, well it was still – still – still not supposed to happen. The garde found their one among other members of the garde. The two groups were not supposed to intermix.
It was scandalous. It was eyebrow-raising. It was disreputable. It simply wasn't done. And she would not be the one to do it. No matter how much she wanted to.