A/N: I'll be honest, I'm struggling a little with this one. A) This is by far the longest fic I've ever written, and B) my kitten doesn't let me sleep lol and it takes a lot of energy I don't have at the moment for me to get to that emotional place where this kind of thing writes itself. But the little terror isn't going to grow up overnight, so I'm trying to work through it. Fun fact – she also attacks my fingers while I type and tries to jump on the letters as they come up on the screen. It was cute the first day, but now 2 weeks later, it's not so cute. -_-

Buck watched as Abby's jaw dropped in disbelief. For a second she stood still, frozen in shock, and then she flung the door closed behind her and was rushing over to him. God she's beautiful. He was up in an instant and met her half way, wrapping her tightly in his arms. He had never been happier to see someone in his life. Her small frame started to shake, and he knew she was crying. He dropped a kiss on her head and gently stroked her back while he held her, whispering reassurance in her ear.

"Come here," he said softly after a few minutes, leading her over to the bed. He sat down and tugged her into his lap.

Her arms slipped around his neck and she pressed her lips to his. Ordinarily he would have been content to just sit and kiss her like this all night, but they had more pressing matters right now. Pulling away, he brought his hands up to cup her face, wiping her tears away with his thumbs.

"I'm sorry," she sighed.

"For what?"

"For being such a mess," she replied, her voice laced with self-deprecation.

"Abby, you're not a mess. You're just going through a lot."

"I'm not exactly handling it very well."

"Maybe you've just been going about it the wrong way."

A look of confusion came across her face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you've been trying to do this all on your own, and you're beating yourself up for not being able to. But maybe you don't have to. No one can be strong all the time, and it's okay to ask for help; it doesn't make you weak. I mean, you went from basically never being alone, working full time, and caring for your mom, to being alone 24/7 in another country with nothing to do. That kind of radical change has to be hard for anyone."

"But I have to do something. If I just go home and go back to my life like nothing happened, how am I ever going to find myself again?"

"Abby, you're not lost. Just because you can't see you right now, doesn't mean you're not there. When I look at you, I can see you crystal clear, and I love you. Let me be there you. If you want a clean slate, we can do that. We can get a new place together and start fresh. If you want to re-connect with yourself, come to the gym with me and start swimming again. You can do your thing on your own while I do mine, but when we go home, we have each other. It's okay to lean on someone while you figure things out, and I'm happy to be that person for you. I learned a hell of a lot about myself through being with you; the least I can do is return the favour. If you really feel like you have to keep doing this on your own, you know I'll respect that, but I want you to know it doesn't have to be that way."

"I just don't want to take advantage of you. You're always so supportive, and that's so great, but I feel like I shouldn't always rely on that."

"I get it, but you are strong Abby, whether you feel it right now or not. You will stand up on your own again when you're ready… but it's okay if it takes a while to be ready."

She took a deep breath and used her sleeve to dry her eyes from the tears that had started to fall again. ""I'll think about it, I promise. God, I seriously have to stop crying so much, I don't know what — " she suddenly stopped short and looked at him with astonishment.

"What?"

"Did you say you love me?"

He smiled shyly. "Uh, yeah, I did. I mean, I do. I love you, Abby."

"I love you too."

She kissed him then, passionately, and he happily responded in kind, one hand coming to rest on her hip and the other tangling in her hair. She moaned softly against his lips, and he started to question how long he could be gentlemanly about this. As badly as he wanted her, he wasn't sure they should rush into this. He needed a distraction.

"Hey, is this sweater new?" It was perhaps not the most brilliant conversation starter he had ever come up with, but it would do.

"Hm?"

"Your sweater, I haven't seen this one before."

"Oh, yeah, I got it on my drive yesterday. I wasn't sure about the colour though, do you think it's too bright?"

"No I like it, looks good on you. Tell me about the drive, what all did you see?"

"First you have to tell me how you pulled this off so quickly. When did you get here?"

"Well, as soon as I hung up with you, I called Bobby and he cleared me to take the time off, and then I went online and booked the soonest flight. Left LA at around 6pm, landed in Cork around 3pm, a few hours and a couple of buses later, and I was here."

"Have you eaten? I just had dinner but we can go back out."

"Oh I've eaten. See, I originally planned to be waiting when you arrived, but the front desk wouldn't give me your room number until you checked in. So I sat in the café across the street and waited for you to get here."

"Shut up, no you didn't."

"I sure did. Had a coffee, a sandwich, some little tart thing, and then finally you showed up." That earned him a slap on the arm.

"Good thing I skipped the National Park then. You could have just met me in the lobby, you know."

"I wanted you to get the full effect of the surprise."

She laughed. "You're such a dork."

"You love it."

"Yeah… I do. So how long do I have you for?"

"6 days, not including today," he answered, stifling a yawn.

"Let's get you to bed then and we'll get an early start tomorrow."

She went to brush her teeth while he got undressed, and then traded places with him when she was finished. When he came back to the bed, he saw that she had snagged his shirt to sleep in, and he couldn't help but smile. It was silly maybe, but sometimes he still couldn't believe that she was really his. Maybe she can't see how great she is right now, but he sure does. She's everything, and he's going to make sure she knows it.