Author's note: a little late – sorry! Lots going on here. I'd love to hear what you think.

Nathan/Audrey song for the day: Downfall by Matchbox 20. "Be my savior, and I'll be your downfall…"

Audrey was used to sophisticated FBI equipment, but thankfully she'd always been good at improvising. She'd surely be able to find a wire at the Haven PD, but that would be nearly impossible to pull off without running into Nathan. She didn't want to lie to him again, so she settled with buying a prepaid cell phone at the general store, deliberately ignoring the stink-eye the cashier shot her.

She explained the plan to James in the store parking lot, going over the basics of how cell phones worked because she didn't want to be left without backup because her son had only spent five days in the twenty-first century.

She was going to call him on the burner phone as soon as they reached the library, leaving hers on speakerphone in her jacket pocket. She was almost certain Bernie wasn't going to search her, so she left her gun in her holster and tucked a knife in her boot in case he decided he wanted to kidnap her.

"I don't want you to put yourself in danger," she told him for the third time as she pulled into the library lot. "But if it seems like I'm in trouble, I need you to call Nathan with your other phone and tell him what's going on."

"Are you sure you don't want me to go in with you?" he asked as if he hadn't heard her, and she found his willfulness both aggravating and endearing.

"I can't be distracted worrying about you. And he wants me to come alone. I'll be fine." She hoped more than anything that was true.

"Mom?" Her heart flipped when he said it, even though there was still something tentative there, and she was more determined than ever to emerge from the building in front of her unscathed.

"Mmmhmmm?"

"Next time can we just go to a ball game or something?"

She laughed at the thought of that, remembered Seadogs and Cutters and Nathan's glee over some silly game and a town tradition that until that day had nothing supernatural about it, and she agreed and slipped out of the car before the tension could settle back in her stomach.

She'd always liked libraries. Books provided a great escape from her unhappy childhood, and since very few of her foster families had any interest in paying for her hobby the library's collection of free books was like the best friend she never had. In college the library had been a good place to hide when everyone else on campus was partying but she just didn't feel like getting wasted with a bunch of strangers. She'd been to the Haven Library a few times, even gotten a library card after she quit the FBI. It had always been a bright, cheerful place, even if the librarian, Miss Pierce, enforced silence over her domain like a television stereotype.

Today the building seemed cold and eerily deserted. Most patrons were probably still in work or at school – or perhaps they no longer wanted to hang out in the domain of a Troubled psychopath. She was glad there weren't many innocents to get caught up in the crossfire – but she had hoped meeting somewhere public would provide some degree of protection. Not that that would necessarily stop a man who was willing to murder someone in broad daylight in front of two police officers.

Miss Pierce glared at her when she entered and Audrey's greeting died in her throat. Nodding instead, she walked through the racks of books to the table hidden among the classics.

Bernie was already there, relaxed like a king on his throne with three piles of books in front of him. Animal Farm and Peter Pan caught her eye but she didn't take the time to read the other titles.

"If it isn't Haven's own Hester Prynne," he crowed, his tone brimming with a joviality she didn't trust for a second.

Her mind processed the reference and searched for one to toss back as she slid into the chair across from him. "And who are you supposed to be? Prospero?"

He chuckled. "Ah, very good. Though I prefer Gandalf."

"Seriously?" she scoffed, unable to help it. "Well, at least you didn't say Dumbledore."

"Now that's a thought. I was a teacher, you know."

"So I've heard," she said dryly.

"I was surprised when Mr. Hendrickson told me you wanted to meet. Your execution hasn't even been scheduled yet. Anxious to push up the date?"

His tone was light and conversational, reminding Audrey that there was something unhinged lurking in this man. She'd seen him murder someone in cold blood, and now he was discussing literature and her death as if they were having a lively discussion about the weather.

"I was hoping to postpone it, actually."

He frowned and abandoned his friendly affectation. "You waste what little time you have left. I may have Prospero's power, but I lack his mercy."

"You'd make a pretty poor Gandalf then. But it isn't your mercy I'm counting on. It's that scholarly brain of yours."

He picked up one of the books from the pile, running his fingers along the edges. She wanted to call his bluff and tell him what he read wouldn't have an effect on her, but that wasn't true enough. She could still be hurt through the others in town. "The scholar in me has spent a lot of time contemplating the best way to kill you. Literature is rich with material. So many tragic deaths … and many that were well deserved. Sweet Tess, executed for her crime of passion. Mary in Native Son, now that's a doosey. Smothered and burned in a furnace. Or how about Romeo and Juliet? That seems fitting. But which of you to kill? That police chief of yours might go mad from grief if he lost you again … but how would you react if you lost him, I wonder?"

The thought of that had her itching to reach for her gun and show this cocky bastard that Nathan was under her protection now. But he was obviously baiting her, which meant he wanted her to get angry. Which meant that she needed to stay calm and keep her wits about her. But God…

She breathed deeply and said nothing.

"He thinks himself invincible, just because he can't feel pain. But he can hurt – my boys have seen to that. Your abandonment wounded him terribly. I wonder how much more it would take to make him crack. I'd like to see that. I suppose the question is whether I should keep you alive to see that."

"Enough!" She had to close her eyes against the onslaught of images and the surge of hatred she felt toward this man for taking her failure out on Nathan. She willed James to stay put because she knew if anyone get set off now it would get nasty in the crossfire. "I get it. You'll enjoy killing me. But is revenge worth dooming everyone in this town and all their descendents to living with the Troubles forever?"

He didn't falter. "That assumes you need to be alive to end the Troubles. There are many who believe the opposite – that if you die, the Troubles die with you. They've been anxious to test that theory for a very long time."

"Maybe so. But if you're wrong, that's something you can't take back. Is it worth the risk?" This wasn't entirely true, but she hoped the Guard didn't know about Noelle and Moira. Or if they did, she hoped she was right about all this. She had no proof that her death wasn't the answer.

His grip on the book tightened and his fingers stopped wandering. "So you want us to let you go unpunished because there's a chance that the repercussions of your death would be damning? We're already damned. We live with our curses every day because of your actions."

She knew how dangerous he was when agitated, so she tried to ignore the way her heart was pounding in her chest. "We have the same goal here – to end the Troubles," she placated. "I just need you to stop getting in my way."

"You had your chance to end the Troubles," he snapped. "You chose lust."

He'd obviously spent far too long reading The Scarlett Letter and reframing it as the story of her life.

"I went into the Barn. I was going to leave and take the Troubles away. Something went wrong."

"Such a cold woman to blame your lover for what you've caused."

She wondered how many times this man had said such things to Nathan's face; if maybe that's why he'd come to believe it. "This wasn't Nathan's fault. I knew he wanted to keep me here, so I made arrangements so he couldn't interfere. Then your girl Jordan showed up and started shooting him and it all went to hell."

"That's not the story I heard."

"Well, all your witnesses are dead and I honestly don't care what they had to say. The point is I want to end the Troubles."

"Then call the Barn back. If the Troubles go, you and I no longer have a problem. I'll leave that police chief of yours alone."

"The Barn only takes the Troubles away for twenty seven years. There's another way to stop them for good."

He hesitated, straightening almost imperceptibly, and she could see how appealing he found that possibility. When he spoke his words seemed to rush over each other. "Then you best do it before my patience wears thin."

"I need some time." She needed to sell this point more than any other, so she looked him in the eyes, jaw set, trying to exude confidence when her nerves were so jittery she wasn't sure her skin could contain them.

But she'd never been a great actress. "You don't know what it is," he deduced.

She could already see his interest waning, the immediacy of revenge a powerful counteracting force to any rational reason to pardon her. "No one is exactly forthcoming in this town. But my last two selves were working it out. I just need to dig a little deeper."

She expected him to get angry at her for trying to hoodwink him. But he cocked his head slightly with something that seemed like curiosity. "What makes you think you'll like what you'll find? There's no forgiveness for what you've done."

"I told you, I didn't mean to leave without taking the Troubles with me."

"That isn't what I meant." They stared at each other, and she didn't like the look of dawning realization on his face which manifested as glee while she was left confused and at an impasse. "You don't know."

"Know what?"

He was grinning at her now, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She was losing her grasp on the situation, fast. "You say you want to stop the Troubles, but you don't even know why they started."

The fact that anyone else did was flooring. Somehow that question had never occurred to her. And no one, not Nathan or Duke or Claire or the Teagues, had ever mentioned that this was apparently common knowledge.

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Not particularly."

Suddenly the room seemed small around her, the bookshelves too close, the air heavy and oppressive. This was taking too long. She wanted to get out. Take James for ice cream, go visit Nathan at the station. Whatever Bernie knew she'd need to find out, but something inside her warned she wasn't going to like it. He was too fond of irony and metaphor and literary devices that weren't going to side with her in this story.

"Look, I don't know much about who I was before I came to Haven as Audrey Parker, but what I do know is I want to help these people. And I did, before I went away. There are lots of people still alive in this town because I helped them. And there are plenty of Troubled people I could have sent to jail for what they'd done, but I didn't, because I understood that they had no control over their afflictions. Like you. I figure you probably weren't a bad guy, once upon a time. But a little grief gave you magical powers and a major God complex, and I really don't think it's okay for you to murder whoever you want."

"What are you going to do about it? Throw me in jail? I need only speak the words and an angel will rescue me from my cell."

She knew firsthand how dangerous a Bible could be in his family's hands. "I'm not going to do anything about it. For now. But you're going to let me walk out of here with a promise that the Guard's not going to come after me."

He laughed, but the sound had none of his earlier warmth. "You've got guts, Hester, I'll give you that. But I still don't see why I should give you a free pass to chase a solution that may not even exist."

"Leave me alone for six months. If I haven't stopped the Troubles by then we can renegotiate."

"And what if I'm not in a negotiating mood?"

She handed him the next book on the pile, and almost faltered when she saw it was The Green Mile. Of course. "Then you can schedule that execution."

She held her breath as he considered, wishing she had some kind of Trouble that could help her here, like Chris's likability or Ginger's persuasiveness. She needed him to agree to this, needed it so fiercely she could feel the blood rushing in her veins, all the repercussions of her failure waiting just beyond her to swallow her up. If this failed, she and Nathan were both lost.

"You've got nothing to lose here. Either I stop the Troubles for good, and you can go back to being a normal, law-abiding citizen for the rest of your life, or I fail and you just have to wait six months before you kill me. If you kill me now and the Troubles stay you'll always be left wondering if you could have been the hero and you chose to be the villain."

"What are your terms?"

Relief washed over her. "The Guard doesn't touch me, or Nathan, or Duke Crocker. Or the Colorado kid. For six months."

"Why the Colorado kid?"

"Doesn't matter why. Those are the terms."

"And what if I refuse to spare the others? Or what if something happens to your precious Chief? Will you end your futile quest to stop the Troubles?"

The edgy cheek was back in his voice, but she was having none of it. "Oh, I'll end the Troubles all right. But if you hurt Nathan I'll end you too."

She had shocked him, she could tell, but he recovered quickly. "I don't believe you would."

"You should. I killed Reverend Driscoll because he was going to murder a Troubled girl – and I didn't even know her. Don't mess with my friends."

This time his laugh was so warm and loud and unexpected that her first irrational thought was to warn him that Miss Pierce was going to scold him. Instead she crossed her arms and scowled, which only made him laugh harder.

"You're as crazy as the rest of us. If you weren't the cause of all this you'd make a fine addition to the Guard."

"No thank you. I've got to look out for the entire town, not just those who are afflicted. Do we have a deal?"

"It seems that we do. Six months. But not a day more." He held out a hand and she took it, feeling a bit like she was making a deal with the Devil. Was this how Nathan had felt when he'd illegal arranged that transport? Except she wasn't giving the Guard anything, just her word that she'd end the Troubles, which was her intention anyway. Whatever it took. Well, almost whatever it took. She had to believe that elusive third option existed, even if Howard had never mentioned it.

"Deal."

And even as the adrenaline began to fade and an overwhelming desire to turn and walk out of there as fast as she could washed over her she knew she couldn't leave just yet. She dropped his hand but not his gaze.

"At the bank you said you couldn't kill me yet because you wanted me to understand what I'd done. I want you to tell me."

"Why?"

"Because even if I didn't mean it to be, this is my fault. I'm not going to run from the consequences."

Just as she'd hoped, she saw approval flicker across his face. She wasn't sure why that was important – the man was a maniac – but she needed him to understand how serious she took this, so he could impress it on his followers. She needed to be able to trust his word.

So she listened for nearly an hour as he recounted the horrors of the years she'd missed, starting with the loss of his family. He spoke in vivid, disturbing detail, his literary training suffusing the truth, which was horrid enough, with imagery and metaphors that painted pictures in her mind she was afraid she'd never be able to delete. Much of what he said seemed to come from the point of view of his students and the ways their families had come apart, casting the whole thing in a tragic light of innocence cruelly lost. Those who suffered most were not those who died but those who were left behind, and that made her think of Nathan so strongly that she finally couldn't take it anymore. Muttering an excuse, she rose from her chair and fled.

She tried not to look at anything, needing to get out of there, but it was impossible to miss Dwight sitting at one of the tables, a magazine open in front of him and completely ignored. She didn't stop to acknowledge him.

James looked pale and tense, but he offered her a halfhearted smile as she opened the car door and slid inside. She pressed the power locks immediately, taking some comfort in their definitive click, and then she pulled her cell phone from her pocket, hit end and tossed it on the console between them. She leaned her head against the steering wheel, letting the feel of the cool leather ground her in the immediacy of her surroundings and help her accept that it was over and she was safe. Safe, not just for now, but for six months. This whole endeavor may have been foolish, but it had paid off.

"So I guess that went all right," she finally said, because it was too silent in the car.

"I figured out something else you and Lucy have in common, besides the cupcakes." Audrey sat up and turned to look at James. He waited to have her attention before he continued. "You're both the bravest person I've ever met."

He was so earnest it made her uncomfortable. "We might just be the most reckless people you've ever met. But thank you."

"Why didn't you go after he agreed to leave you alone?"

She'd honestly forgotten, as Bernie told his story, that James could hear it too. "Because everything that happened while I was gone is my fault. Nathan had to live through that. Least I can do is understand."

"Not many people would take on that responsibility."

"Well, I think we've firmly established that I'm not normal. Let's get out of here."

"Nathan's been calling." He held up his real cell phone, which Duke had obviously picked out. It was so complicated even she'd had a little trouble with it. Mobile technology seemed to have accelerated while she was gone.

"Shit." She grabbed her own phone. A list of text messages appeared, growing increasingly frantic, and she had a couple of missed voicemails as well.

"Relax. James & i r on the way to the Gull," she texted, knowing he'd rather hear her voice but she wasn't ready to face that quite yet. "He's going to be mad."

"Won't he be glad you don't have death threats hanging over your head anymore?"

"Once he calms down, hopefully. But first all he's going to see is that I put myself in danger."

It would be okay though, because they had six months. Her FBI training was kicking in and she was starting to compartmentalize everything she'd heard, just like details of a disturbing case. Someone couldn't chase serial killers and dwell constantly on the evidence without going mad if they couldn't manage some emotional distance. She need to know what had happened in her absence, but it wouldn't do anyone any good – included all the Troubled residents of Haven – if she couldn't move past that.

She threw the car into drive and headed toward The Grey Gull.

"We're being followed," James said after a few minutes, voice sharp with unease. "And this man looks gigantic."

Audrey looked closely in her rearview mirror, saw a familiar face, and smiled. "That's Dwight. He's the one who got me the meeting. He was in the library, hanging around in case I needed more backup."

"We can trust him?"

"Absolutely. He's your father's cleaner. Helps fix things up after any incidents with the Troubled. He used to work for your grandfather when he was the Chief."

"Seems like more useful backup that I was."

"He's a bullet magnet. Literally. Not actually the best guy to bring to a tense situation, despite his size. He's a good guy though. Looked after you father while we were all gone."

They were only a few minutes from the Gull. Just as she expected, Nathan's truck was in the parking lot. When she saw it sitting there in all its bright, familiar glory the truth of what she'd accomplished finally began to sink in. She had won them all a reprieve. And like a pardoned criminal going blinking into the sun for the first time in years, suddenly the world seemed a whole lot brighter.

Dwight parked beside her and was out of his car quicker than she was.

"You're not exactly inconspicuous," she said, but she was still pleased that he'd bothered to keep an eye on her.

"You were in there a long time," he answered, and she could see the worry lines etched on his face and realized he hadn't been close enough to hear anything. He just knew she'd walked out of there seemingly unscathed.

"Took some convincing. But he's going to leave me alone for six months. So everyone can just calm down."

His relief was palpable, and she wanted to laugh hysterically like Bernie had. "That was a hell of a risk."

She settled for a wide grin. "Paid off though."

He shook his head disapprovingly, but his lips twitched into a smile. "Welcome back, Audrey."

"It's really good to see you, Dwight." She reached out to grasp one of his massive arms. "And thanks again for taking care of Nathan. I don't know how to pay you back for that."

"Maybe try putting me in fewer situations where I have to spend hours worrying I'd gotten his girl killed."

She didn't belong to anyone, but she found she didn't actually mind being referred to as Nathan's girl. She was pretty sure he wouldn't fight her claim over him.

She was also pretty sure this wasn't the last time she'd do something reckless. But the next time she planned something dangerous she'd leave Dwight out of it.

"I'll try to be careful," she offered, not promising anything.

She was thinking about introducing James when a sharp crack captured her attention. Nathan had opened the door to the restaurant so forcefully it had slammed against the side of the building. Now he was storming toward her, Duke a few paces behind.

"Where the hell have you been?" His voice shook. While most people would have assumed it was rage, Audrey knew it was fear that had him so worked up. She'd gotten far too personal a glimpse of what losing her did to him, so she resolved to give him some leeway when normally she would have found his behavior unacceptable.

"A little help here?" she tossed to Duke coyly, counting on the way he could always bring some levity to a situation.

But he didn't even smile at her. "You're on your own this time, sweetheart. I'm all for sneaking out but the next time you want to play hooky don't use my restaurant as an alibi. I don't appreciate him knocking down my door expecting me to know where you are."

She hadn't thought about that. "Didn't expect to be gone so long," she said, contrite.

"What were you doing?" Nathan demanded.

"It's okay, Nathan. I'm okay."

"It's not okay. It isn't safe. You weren't where you were supposed to be, and neither you or James would pick up your phones. I thought—" He left his sentence hanging, but she knew how to finish it.

She closed the last few steps between them and grabbed his face with both hands, ignoring the way it made him shudder. His eyes were red as if maybe he'd been crying, and she was reminded of why she'd had to confront Bernie today. Because she couldn't let him keep doing this to himself. He was far too anguished over the fact she hadn't answered her phone for less than two hours.

Her thumbs slid across his cheeks and down his jaw. He closed his eyes and stilled.

"I'm fine. James is fine. And you don't have to worry. The Guard's not going to bother us anymore."

His eyes snapped open, and they were still wild, though he'd stopped shouting. "What have you done?"

"I talked to Bernie. He's going to leave us alone. You, me, James and Duke."

The strangled cry he made sounded almost like a death rattle. His hands clamped like vices on her shoulders, and she thought for a moment that he might shake her.

Instead he stared at her with a look of such devastated terror that she almost regretted what she'd done, even though she knew the outcome. "What did you promise him?" he rasped.

"Nothing," she answered instinctively.

"I know that man. He blames us for all of this. He wouldn't have let you walk away without demanding some price. What is it?"

"I told him I'm trying to find another way to end the Troubles. He gave me six months to figure it out."

"And what if you can't figure it out in six months?"

She hated to tell him the bad news when he was taking the good news so poorly. But she couldn't lie to him about this. "Then he's probably going to kill me."

She'd never heard him swear so strongly. The word seemed even more profane coming from his mouth. "How could you go and barter with your life? You heard him say he was going to kill you. He meant it! What the hell were you doing talking to him without backup?"

She was finding it harder and harder to keep her aggravation at bay. "That's kind of how this works, remember? I find out what makes the Troubled tick, and then I talk them down. It's never about what they can do – it's about why. Bernie was pissed the Troubles didn't go away. So I made him see he needs to get out of the way of me fixing that. And I had backup. James was ready to call you if anything went wrong."

"So you dragged our son along to visit a psychopath? Why not get him killed too?"

Everything started happening at once. Suddenly James was at her side, indignant. "I'm not a child. You don't get to make choices for me!" But as she watched the two men square off she could hear Duke saying, "Didn't Nathan tell you about that, Sasquatch?" and out of the corner of her eye she could see Dwight's flabbergasted expression.

She'd honestly forgotten they weren't alone. This was far too personal an argument to have in front of every other friend she had.

"We need to take this inside," she hissed. "If you'll excuse us," she called to everyone else.

Nathan tried to protest, but she grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the entrance to the Gull, figuring it was closer than her apartment.

As soon as the door was shut he collapsed against the doorframe, as if all the fight had been drained from him.

"You lied to me."

His sense of betrayal wounded her more deeply than his anger, because in this he wasn't at all unjustified.

"If I'd told you the truth, would you have tried to stop me?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation.

"That's why I didn't. If I'm gonna be honest, then you need to trust me." She knew how to reinforce that point, but she fought her instinct to reach out to him. He needed to accept this because it was true, without her touch fogging up his reasoning.

He was deliberately looking anywhere but at her, and now she wanted to shake him a little bit.

The impulse fled as soon as she heard his next words. "You gave up," he said on the back of a ragged exhale. "You never give up on anyone, but you gave up on yourself."

She wished she could deny that, but found that she couldn't. "I did," she admitted. "But it's different this time. You kissed some sense into me." She hoped in vain that it would get some sort of rise out of him.

"I cannot handle losing you again." It had the gravity of absolute truth, but his admission was superfluous. She knew.

"That's why I did this."

He looked at her then, and his eyes were blazing. His whole being was radiating such an intense ferocity at the thought of her in danger on his account that she thought if Bernie saw him now he'd never dare to threaten her again. "Dammit, Audrey. The last thing I want is for you to put yourself in danger for me!"

But she knew a thing or two about protective ferocity, and she felt her own frustrations roaring to the surface.

"And the last thing I want is to watch you worry yourself to death over me! Every time we leave your house it's like you're just waiting for me to disappear again. Sometimes I'm afraid it's going to literally pull you apart like your father."

"That's not how it works—" he protested.

"I know. But I can't stand to see you so anxious. And I can't live under house arrest. I'm a grown woman, and I'm used to being on my own. There are going to be times you don't know where I am. You have to be okay with that. And if we don't let James out of that motel room he'd going to book a flight back to Colorado and never look back."

He had the grace to look abashed, and she could see that she was getting through. She softened her tone and took a few steps toward him, but she kept herself just out of reach.

"I spent so much time before the Hunter being afraid of what was going to happen. I don't want to live that way anymore. This is our second chance to have something beautiful, and I want to take advantage of that. I don't want to hide, even if it's with you. So I did what I had to do to make that possible. I wasn't being reckless on your account. I did this for us. And it worked. We're safe. I need you to accept that."

"For six months."

"That's almost as long as I was here the first time. And it's far better than the Guard deciding they want to knock me off next week."

"What happens if we can't solve this in six months?"

She met his eyes. "Then we figure out another plan. But no matter what happens, we have these six months to spend together."

He nodded, and she decided that was all the confirmation she needed that he understood. She closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his waist. He responded instantly, wrapping his arms around her and dropping his face to her shoulder. She could feel him trembling against her, and she rubbed a hand across his back and let the tension bleed out of him.

"I'm sorry for worrying you," she apologized.

He lifted his head. "I may have overreacted," he said sheepishly. "But the thought of you in danger makes me crazy."

"Hadn't noticed," she cracked. He seemed lighter, just for a second, but she wanted him lighter all the time. She reached up and ran a hand through his hair so she could watch the way his eyes widened and his breath caught when she scraped her nails across his scalp.

"I don't want someone to protect me. I want someone to be there beside me. To be my partner, and more than my partner. I'd much rather have gone to see Bernie with you – but good police work requires emotional detachment. You need to be capable of that or our relationship is going to be an obstacle in any case we work together."

"You telling me to calm the hell down, Parker?" His words loosened something in her chest.

"Pretty much. Can you do that?"

"Guess I have to. Unless you want to be partnered with Stan."

She laughed, encouraged by his humor. "Please, no. I think he's annoyed that I still don't know what his name is half the time."

"It's not even that hard."

"You work with a lot of people, okay?"

He chuckled, and she was glad he found amusement in her petulance.

When he calmed down she rested both hands on his chest and looked up at him. "Look, I love you, and I'm going to do everything in my power to stay here with you this time around. I need you to believe that, whatever we face. Can you do that?"

He'd started grinning like a fool the moment she told him she loved him, and she was a little afraid he'd missed the rest of her message when his hands came up to cover hers. He tugged one of them up to his mouth and brushed a kiss against her knuckles that made her knees weak.

"Yeah. Long as you can accept that I love you too much not to try and protect you. I am always going to step in front of bullets for you. I can't help it. I don't want to help it. But I'll try not to freak out every time you don't pick up your phone."

It was really all the compromise she could ask for. She'd get in front of any bullet meant for him. Maybe they'd both push each other out of the way and end up unscathed.

"That's a start, then." With the next six months wide open before them, she realized it really, truly was.

I'd love to hear what you think!