The last few days had been wonderful, magical in every sense of the word as she served out her sentence in FairyLand, recovering from the years of magic that had ravaged her mind. It had been a recuperative process, with special-ops fairies dispatched to clean up the mess left behind.
Despite the discovery of what had happened to her, between her and Tracy and despite having him there now, there were still pangs of loneliness, the crippling sadness and the utter fear, when he left her alone in a room, that she would never see him again. The magic shrouded over her mind was like a disease, mostly dispelled now but no where near gone. He rarely left her side, as it was. Lily had granted him time off from work to remain with her; that was what would help her recover, they all knew, was being constantly reassured that he was there, that he wasn't going to suddenly disappear from her life like he had last time. They passed the nights together, though unable to leave Fairy's emergency ward – it was relatively empty. No one stayed long term when they did show up, and Rae and Tracy had their privacy.
She tried to convince herself that she would be okay to pass the nights alone, she tried to convince him that he didn't have to stay with her constantly, she was sure he was getting tired of being cooped up in the ward, but he would have none of it. He could see it in her, he knew she needed him there and what price was remaining in one room for a week, when its rewards reaped were having Rae get better?
She was visited regularly by the nurse, who administered her herbs she'd never heard of and took records of things that hardly mattered. Tracy had explained to her that Fairy medicine was much different from human medicine for the simple fact that magic illnesses, such as the magic that had taken her, was untreatable by human ways.
"See, it doesn't have any outward signs," he told her, "Like a fever, you get hot and flushed, that won't happen. There're subtle clues, though, that can be overlooked as normal behavior unless you know what to look for." He nodded to her hands, clasped tightly in her lap and wringing incessantly. "Like that. See? You're nervous. You don't even realize it, do you?" he asked, holding her close.
His contact calmed her. "Please don't go." She choked, leaning against him. He chuckled faintly and smiled, telling her that he wasn't going anywhere. "Good. Can we just… stay like this forever?" she asked, smiling gently.
He hummed, the sound dissolving into a "Well…" Rae sat up straight and looked at him, eyed wide. "You know… you know you can't stay here. Once you're better, once your week is up, those wings will disappear, and then…"
"I have to go home," she whispered, in shock. Still, a small part of her had expected this, the dream to end. She twisted her fingers together without realizing she was fidgeting again, a nervous habit she'd built in the last three years. She shook her head. "I don't want to," she said quietly. "I don't want to forget again. I don't want to go back to – to-"
He took her hands, stopping the fidgeting before he pulled her in, cradling her against him and rocking her gently back and forth. "No." he said, simply. "You won't. Because I love you, and I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen ever again, my Honeybee."
Rae gasped, a barely audible noise that made him smile.
"Wh-what? I showed you that song… three…" she trailed off and looked up at him to see the broad smile spread across his face. Gradually, her surprised melted and a similar smile crept onto her lips as she tiled her head to rest on his shoulder.
After five days of being in the ward, she was allowed to wander around Fairy with Tracy as her guide to keep her out of trouble. Despite her extensive experience and exposure to fairies, she was still human and hardly trusted alone in the building. A small part of her was grateful for their caution, as it meant that Tracy remained with her.
They didn't have to ask twice. When he had told Rae that love works in mysterious ways, he had meant it. He'd known the girl for three years – granted, he wasn't around for most of that time, but he'd still known her, had her in his thoughts and memories – and he knew he'd cared about her, but it wasn't until he'd seen her so broken and hurt that he realized how much. Tracy loved her, more than he'd loved anyone of his own, more than he'd loved any fairy, and that's what scared him the most. There were stories about magical beings that fell in love with humans. They were terrible stories that almost always ended in heartbreak, and he would never wish that upon anyone, especially her. But they'd conquered that hurdle once, they knew better now and he swore to himself – and her – that they would make this work. He happily stayed by her side, caught in the same illusion that she was, at least for the moment. As long as they were together in FairyLand, nothing could go wrong. He dreaded the day that she'd have to go home, and he knew she did too. But he merely smiled and reassured her, because it was so important that she believe they were going to be okay.
They had a week at most, enough time, the nurse thought, for her to recover enough to go home. But now, just the thought of doing so made her want to cry. She loved being with him. She was tired of feeling sad and lonely and angry all the time, and he made her feel better. She didn't want to leave, but even she knew that there would soon - very soon – come a time where they'd have to part again, even if it wasn't permanent, as she'd thought the last time they'd taken to their respective worlds.
But for now, the days passed, and they passed them together.
It was that day, Tracy knew. He wasn't sure if she did or not, but she seemed indifferent for the majority of the day. At present, he sat across from her, and they chatted easily with one another in the bright sunlit break room. The same two-seated table that he'd had her sit at when he'd brought her back from the garden. A part of him was uncertain if it was a good idea to bring her back into the break room, but he knew that she shared the same memories of this room, the cat nap on the couch and settling themselves after one of the most shocking days either of them had ever had. Maybe, even, somewhere in her mind, she cherished the memory of that first kiss as well, however preformed out of necessity it may have been, and maybe she was more okay with the room than he thought. She certainly seemed it, laughing with him and smiling broadly, his hand placed over hers as they discussed where they were going to go from there.
Between his erratic work schedule and her schooling, camp in the summer, it was difficult coming up with a workable time and place where they could meet, but he promised her, over and over, whenever they hit a snag in their planning, that he would not leave her like he had last time. He leaned over the table to brush the hair from her eyes, but stopped, hand extended and stopping just above her ear. She reached up and grabbed his hand, looking concerned for the worried expression that his features had warped themselves into. "What?" she asked, voice hushed.
He swallowed hard and his eyes flickered to hers, gaze having been locked on something over her shoulder. "Are you going to be allright?" he asked.
She frowned. "What do you… what?" she huffed, a familiar anxiety rising in her chest. The way he was acting unsettled her.
"Rae…" he started, pulling his hand from hers and completing the motion of pushing her hair back. "Your wings."
Rae gasped, craning her neck and peering over her shoulder at the violet gossamer on her back. They were rippling, fading in and out like a mirage and unable to keep stable for more than a few seconds before rippling again.
He guided her gaze back to him. "Rae," he said, his voice calm and gentle. He didn't want her to be alarmed, there was nothing to worry about. "Ready to go home?"
She grabbed his hand and pressed her lips together, shaking her head. "Not yet, please." She whispered.
Tracy didn't remove himself from her grip, but watched as her wings – unnatural, a work of magic – ripples and tried to reform, splaying into dusty magic once before disintegrating all together, the spell's energy spent and fading. Her clothes began to change; the silk tutu she wore fell away in the pink dust of magic, revealing a pair of cotton pajama pants and a white tank top. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply as he helped her up, her fingers trembling, itching to fidget, but she repressed the urge and clung tightly to him instead. He moved closer, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to him as the magic swirled around them, the deafening roar of wind and the sting of raw magic, like sand flying against the bare skin. He sheltered and comforted her, and her trembling died down with the wind when they stood in her bedroom.
All was still, almost irregularly so, eerie in its atmosphere, though her could hear clatter downstairs.
Almost as if waking from a dream, Rae gasped. "Mom and dad," she breathed. "What are they going to think? I've been gone for a – for a week, how am I going to-"
He hushed her, easing her onto her bed and sitting next to her. "We've taken care of that, too. Special operation fairies came in here this morning. Right now your mam and dad think you're up here asleep, sick."
She swallowed and let out a shaky breath. "I might be." She admitted, wearily.
"Oh," he hushed her. "Now, you know… I don't have to be back to work until tomorrow. Lily's been very understanding about this whole ordeal. I think she's pleased with you" He kissed the top of her head, and she leaned into him. "It's not often we get a human your age who believes, or even so much as cares for that matter.
"Please stay." She implored.
"I'd love to."
Tracy pushed her away, palm braced against her shoulder, and laid her down, watching her stretch her legs out across the length of the bed, and he followed, lying next to her, her cheek at his shoulder and his arm around her, holding her firm.
Rae had never been so happy before, so content to just lie there and be held. His arms around her was a comfort that she knew would never grow old, as she snuggled into his chest. One hand stroked mindlessly at her hair. A deep hum emanated from his throat, resonating through the both of them.
He would make a practice of this, laying with her, lulling her to sleep and following soon after, himself. It was such a nice change from the high-energy atmosphere of FairyLand, to be able to lie down and sleep without any false energy coursing through his veins, to be able to fall asleep next to Rae.
His voice came out shakily at first, bogged down by a welcomed fatigue, as he stroked her hair. "Set me free, my… honey-bee… hon-ey…bee…" he crooned, closing his eyes.
Together, as always, they drifted off to sleep – the first proper sleep Tracy had in weeks – cozy and pressed up against one another.
She woke up, took a deep breath and opened her eyes. He was lying in front of her, face mere inches away, glasses askew and slipping down the bridge of his nose. She smiled and reached up to gently ease them off. Slowly, as to not wake him, and she placed them on the space of pillow above her head, then nuzzled into the crook of his neck, content to lay there with him until he awoke. She knew he was exhausted. He'd told her about the adrenaline effects of magic, how sometimes he didn't sleep for a month or more, and she was more than happy to let him sleep – so long as she was with him, she was happy.
Eventually, though, he began stirring, pawing at his face irritably as he came to before opening his eyes halfway, smiling down at her and pulling her closer to him, sighing happily and she giggled. "Waking up to you," he mumbled sleepily, resting his chin atop her head. "I like that."
They lay there for a moment, concentrating on nothing but each other, before Rae sat up abruptly, Tracy following.
His hand blanketed hers as he asked her what was wrong.
"Nothing," she said, honestly. "Nothing is." And a wide grin erupted onto her features.
It took Tracy a moment to understand, but it clicked when she stood from the bed and opened the door a crack to peer out into the hallway. She'd fallen asleep. Despite having been in his arms the entire time, she'd been unconscious, vulnerable, and able to be left there on a whim and not even know it. This was the first sleep that she passed where, upon waking, she hadn't cried out for him. This was the turnaround.
He smiled sadly and stood from the bed, stretching his legs and walking over to her, pushing the door shut gently and resting his weight against it as he bent over, one hand cupping her cheek, and he kissed her, lingering for a moment afterwards with his mouth now at her ear. "I'm going to go back to Fairy," he stated, and she took a deep, steady breath. This would be the first time they were separated in a week. "And you're going to be just fine." He stood and hooked a finger under her chin, lifting her face. "I love you. Don't forget that, this time." He said, and she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around her neck as best she could given the height difference, and for a moment he was frightened. He didn't want her to be upset, not now, after they were doing so well.
But when she backed away, and he could see the grin, the unease in his chest dissolved immediately and he smiled back. "I never will," she promised. "I love you too," she said as he stepped away from her, allowing room for the jump.
"I'll remember that," he said, before stepping to the side and fading from The Human Plane.
She stood there, stock still and staring blankly at the spot he'd last stood, checking herself and playing his words over and over in her head. She smiled slowly and turned from her bedroom to the hall, out to the overlook to happily greet her parents in the kitchen below.
"What's got you in such a good mood?" her mother asked, looking up to see her daughter half leaning over the banister in her pajamas.
"No idea," she lied quickly. "Just am."
"Well, it's nice to see you so cheery."
Rae all but threw her head back and laughed.