AFTER WHAT HAPPENED....

by: Panther

Pairing: Ryan & Natalia

Summary: After Natalia had the automatic gun in her face, she went home after work and was fixing to go into the shower, when her doorbell rings, ( she's still in the same house from when the drug lord was killed ) and goes to answer and sees Ryan. She let's him in, tells him that she'll be a moment and leaves for her bathroom. When she comes out, she smells food being cooked.

a/n: don't own, and I might make this a lemon, i'm not sure yet. And by the way,

' bold/italics ' are Nat's thoughts and ' Italics/underline ' are Ryan's thoughts.

Last time,

' I wonder why she's so upse... Of course you idiot, she had a damn automatic gun in her face and was terrified to death. But keeping what she's feeling on the inside not's going to help her forget what happened so fast. ' Ryan thought to himself as he finished the dishes and walked into her living-room and sat down beside her, not close enough to interupt her personal space, but close enough for her to be comfortable with him and not get scared and tell him to leave.

And so the talking begins.

--

" So..do you to t-talk about what happened today? " He asked her, nervously, fearing her reaction.

" No. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to forget it ever happened! " She exclaimed as she turned away from him and faced the other side of the room, crossing her arms across her chest and leaning against the back of her couch.

Ryan sat there staring at her for a moment, before he slowly lifted his left hand up and gently placed it underneath her chin and just as gently, turned her face towards himself, until they were staring at each others eyes. Dark brown met green/hazel and held for a minute until Ryan broke the silence.

" Not talking about it won't help it go away any faster. It'll take longer and eat at you until you can't stand it. "

Hearing what he said, Natalia felt her tears coming back, but she tried to hold them in. But Ryan had seen her trying to keep her tears back and was about to tell her to just let it go and just cry and hug her to him, but she suddenly stood up and walked over to her glass doors on the oppsite side of the room from where she had been staring at. And wrapped her arms around herself to help stop herself from shaking.

Not knowing what to do at first, Ryan stood up and walked over to her, seeing his reflection in the glass caused by the moon light, he knew that she knew he was there. He stood behind her and even more slowly, he lifted up both of his arms as he took another step closer and wrapped his strong arms around her slightly smaller body and hugged her to him, gently swinging them both side to to side with his chin on top of her head, he just held her like that for who knows how long, but it didn't matter, she was comforted by it and he was just as comforted by having her in his arms, knowing that she was alright and not serisously harmed or in the hospital with a few gunshot wounds or worse.

While they stood there, Natalia finally let go of the fear and the anxity she was feeling and let her tears fall once more, only this time, it was silently. But Ryan knew she was crying, her body shook ever so slightly and he could hear her shakey breathe as she drew in another breathe, turning her around so that she was facing him, he wrapped his arms around her even tighter and began to slowly run his left hand through her slowly drying hair, while his right rubbed up and down her back in a soothing way.

After awhile, his movements calmed her down to were she was too tried to stay on her feet, she slumped against Ryan's hard chest and her knees nearly fell from under her, but Ryan caught her and placed his right arm under her knees and wrapped his left around the middle of her back, carrying her towards her bedroom door, which she left open and he walked on in her room and gently placed her on the bed, where her covers were already pulled back, and covered her up. He was about to walk out of the room and her home, but she reached up and grabbed his hand, he looked back at her, or he hoped he was, it was very dark in this part of her room, the kitchen light stopped shinning in the middle of the hall-way and from there, it was nearly pitch black the rest of the way.

Natalia squeezed his hand and asked, " Could you stay a little bit longer? At least until I fall asleep. " Her voice was a little rough, dry, and weak from all of her silent crying and not using her voice in those silent moments.

Ryan stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. He knew that if he stayed then he might do something that might cause them both to regret it, but he also knew that she was scared and was practicaly jumping with anxity and fear that he knew that if he left, then she would feel even worse thinking that she might have offended him, which could never happen. Deciding that she needed a friend more than a..., ' Stop that! ' he chided himself as he sat down on the bed and took his shoes off, then he scooted up towards the head of the bed and turned over so that he was facing the oppsite from were Natalia was facing, not trusting his arms or himself to just reach out and hold her to him like he had wanted to do when they had first went out, but never got that far with her, the main reason being that his Ex, Erica S. was usual around when they went on any further dates after the first, he didn't want her spreading anything bad about Natalia or himself, so, reluctently and sadly, he ended it, even though it killed him to do it, fore he was and still is in love with the woman beside him. He saw the hurt look in her brown eyes and that look shattered his heart, but for some reason, he felt that she knew why he did what he did and then just turned and walked away and out of his love life for good, even though he tries to act like a good friend at work, he can't stop loving her and couldn't help but wonder if she still thought about him like he did her.

Here's ch.3 :)

Thank you TIVAFANGIRL1, MOM, NICKTONYK, and TBSAVAFOB for your reviews last ch.s :D