Kevin had been walking for well over an hour until he came upon a lake with an ice platform in the middle. He immediately took off his shoes and started swimming the ice dome.
When he touched the ice he immediately drew his hand away because it was so cold. As he pulled himself onto the ice he thought, 'Oh, God. Ben's in there isn't he.'
Kevin took out the bag of material balls out of his pocket, thanking Gwen that she had given them to him, and absorbed the steel one. The steel only covered his fingers and knuckles, but it was enough.
Before he started to pound on the ice dome he called out, "Ben! I'm here. I'm coming for you!"
As the ice started to break he saw Ben lying down in the center curled up as small as he could with pieces of food here and there and shivering uncontrollably.
Kevin swore under his breath as he saw this and started to punch with more force to get to Ben faster. The ice slowly gave way as Kevin punched through and only took a couple of minutes to break open enough for Kevin to get in, but for him it felt like eternity.
Finally the hole was big enough for Kevin to fit through and he ran over to Ben's side as quickly as he possibly could on the slippery, freezing ice. Once he made it to Ben he crouched down and scooped him up into his arms. He instantly grew worried over how cold Ben was in his arms. He was even more worried when he realized that Ben was sobbing, shaking, and breathing uncontrollably.
He immediately put both hands onto Ben's cheeks and said softly, "Hey, it's okay. I'm here now, Benji. Do you think you could hold onto me so we can't get out of this freezing hellhole?"
Ben weakly nods his head and Kevin put him down so he could turn around for Ben to grab onto his back. Ben grabbed Kevin's shoulders with a death grip as Kevin hoisted him up and walked out of the punched out wall.
He turned his head to the side and said, "Ready?" Ben gave a little nod into Kevin's neck. "Ok, here we go."
Kevin eased into the water, with Ben on his back, and started swimming back to shore. When he made it back, Kevin set Ben down on the ground and went to retrieve his shoes. Once he had pulled his shoes back on he turned around to find that Ben was sitting on the ground with his arms around his legs and head on top of his knees, sobs racking his shoulders.
Kevin knelt down and picked Ben up into his arms (bridal style). As he does so, Ben leans into his chest and clings onto the soaked, black t-shirt as he started to go into panic mode.
As Kevin lifted Ben up he kept whispering, "It's okay. I got you, you're safe now."
Once Ben had calmed down again, Kevin asked, "How about we go get cleaned up for our date?" Ben gave a small smile and a little nod.
Kevin made his way out from the woods and back towards his car. When they reached the car he slowly put Ben into the passenger seat and then knelt down holding the, now wilted, red roses in front of Ben saying, "I was going to give these to you earlier, but better late than never. Will you stay with me for the rest of our lives, Benjamin Tennyson?"
Ben looked shocked. He looked down at the roses and saw that on one of them there sat a silver band with a stripe of green and black around the center. He looked back up with a huge grin on his face and tears in the corner of his eyes and said, "Yes, yes! Forever and always!"
The End