Guys! Let me begin to say I'm sorry for the late update. I'm in my senior year and some personal stuff has kept me from writing waaay to long. Anyways, as I read chapter 2 again, I suddenly realized that Morty is back alive haha I totally forgot the whole crash thing.. Stupid, I know. So let's pretend this is Morty 2 or Morty never died ;)

Clare glanced at her watch. It was the watch she got for her eleventh birthday from her grandmother. She remembered it well.

"It's a good thing if you are able to separate important moments from unimportant moments in life, my dear," were her grandmother's words. Clare remembered nodding as a reaction, as if she understood what her grandma meant at the time. The truth was, she didn't. Not back then at least. At this very moment Clare was sure that she possessed the ability to know which moments were important in life, and she knew this moment was one of them.

It was exactly ten minutes before Eli would leave for London. Clare grabbed her phone and hoped to find a message from him on the display, but nothing was there. It kind of hurt Clare that he didn't text her while he was still in the country, but she managed to man up. She knew Eli was having a tough time and texting her wasn't his first priority right now.

She fought the urge to call him. He needed to do this without any distractions. He needed to do this without her…

Clare let a sigh escape from her lips. She buried her face in her hands. Don't cry, come on Clare, she encouraged herself. She closed her eyes and imagined him waiting impatiently in one of the crappy seats of a Gate . She felt incredibly sad for not being there to hold his hands, but at the same time, she was sure that if she was there with him, he would never let her go. Clare absolutely didn't want him to be in danger, the danger his parents caused. Clare could feel anger consuming her thoughts as her hands started shaking.

She still couldn't imagine Eli's parents dealing. She couldn't imagine any parent to be dealing. She couldn't imagine any parent to put the live of their child in danger, just for a money. But it was the truth and she had to deal with that. Someday, Eli would return to Toronto, and she would be waiting on his arrival back home. Back to where he belonged. Clare was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of a thunder. She sighed once more, laughing inwardly at the irony of the weather completely matching the frustrated state of her mind. She tilted her head up until her eyes met the ceiling. "Please," she pleaded, somehow hoping God to hear her. Suddenly, another hard 'bang' pulled her out of her thoughts. But this bang was different from the last bang... It almost sounded like…

This couldn't be true.

Clare shot up and ran over to the window of her bedroom. Her eyes had trouble looking through the window, since streaming rain made the vision blurry. Her eyes drifted to a taxi as it pulled up and left the watery streets. Then her eyes drifted back to the front of her house, where a black figure stood, getting soaked from the now penetrating rain, his head down and his arms hanging lump at both sides of his body. She felt her heart skip a beat.

This couldn't be him. I must be hallucinating.

She snatched her gaze of the sight and started to run down the stairs, as silent as possible, making sure she wouldn't awake Jake – the only person in the house right now since her mom and Glen were both staying the night at Glen's parents' house. Not caring about the rain, Clare jerked the front door open and left the warmth of her house, clothed in nothing more but her thin pajama's.

"Eli-" was all that could escape from her lips as she and the black figure collided in a strong embrace. Clare could feel her feet being lift off form the wet ground beneath her. She cupped his face, which was glowing and steamy from the rain, and captured his lips in a longing kiss. Clare was surprised by how Eli was both gentle and aggressive in their kiss. She could feel how much he had missed her already.

"I couldn't…" he said in a husky voice, as his and Clare's lips parted because both of them needed to catch their breaths. Clare could feel his warm, minty breath tingling her cheeks and nose. He was still holding her tightly as he let her stand back on her own feet again. Clare's hands never left his face. Although it could be the rain, Clare was sure salty tears were running down his face. She looked in his eyes. She had never seen an expression like that in his eyes: a expression of being totally lost.

"Shh, Eli, it's okay," she reassured him as her hands left his face to let them caress his back for a comforting hug. He didn't need to explain: Clare already knew how he must've felt at the airport. She could feel Eli nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. His irregular breathing hitting the bare and soaked skin of her neck, making Clare shiver.

"I just couldn't leave. I'm not strong enough, I panicked," he explained, his voice hoarse, full of emotion. Clare made her grip around him even tighter, not ever wanting him to think he wasn't strong enough.

"I ordered a cab, and called uncle Thomas to tell him I wasn't coming, that I just didn't have the strength to-"

"Stop that," Clare demanded, pulling her head from his shoulder to look into his confused eyes, "Don't ever say you're not strong enough, ever again." She almost sounded demanding, her eyes trying to pierce into his. She squeezed his shoulders to strengthen her words. He dropped his head in response, sighing deeply.

"Clare, I just can't leave. I don't want to," he mumbled, as he was still staring down to his now soaked black Converse.

"You don't have to," Clare responded. Eli's eyes fluttered open as they met hers. Clare felt her body start to shiver from the cold, but she couldn't care less. Her boyfriend wasn't going to leave. That realization warmed her heart. At the same time Clare felt worried, relieved and selfish. Worried since Eli still being here in Toronto meant him still being in danger, relieved since she wouldn't have to spent the next weeks without him and selfish since she was happy he was standing right in front of her while she should've forced him to take that flight to London so he would be stay out of danger. She could've known he would come back. Although she knew she should make him race back to the airport to take the next flight, Clare couldn't stop herself from offering:

"Stay. Stay the night."

Reviews are very welcome :)