That's my line

"Listen," Paul said the morning after John Coffey's execution, when he and Brutus were finishing paper work in the office. He put his pen down and turned his head towards the office door and the cells as though something had caught his attention. Brutus paused and the two men listened.

"I can't hear a damn thing," Brutus said with a frown.

"Exactly," Paul responded in a hushed voice. "Isn't it eerie? I have never experienced the Mile this quiet."

"Well, I like it," Brutus said. "No prisoners. No commotion. No crying. After the weeks we've had, it sorta feels like heaven."

"Heaven?" Paul scuffed. "It's only heaven until the next prisoners arrive, which they do in a five days time."

"And until then," Brutus said resolutely. "I intend to not think about E-block or paper work or prisoners at all, thank you very much, and spend everyone of my days off like it were my last one."

"Speaking of days off," Paul said casually. "You got any plans for your holiday."

"Yup," Brutus said, dotting his last line and closing the dossier. He looked up and smirked, when he realised that Paul was waiting for the continuation.

"So? What kind of plans?"

"Oh, I don' wanna bore you with the details, Paul. How 'bout you and Jan, you guys got plans, now Hal's forcing us to stay at home?"

"I know what you're trying to do," Paul said, waving his pen at him, "and it ain't working, pal. Are you gonna see her?"

"Maybe."

"Come on, tell me! Is it serious between the two of you?"

"Yes, very," Brutus responded with a straight face. "Two nights ago I actually called her home number and we had a conversation! How about that?"

He chuckled at Paul's mildly annoyed expression.

"I just wanna know if Jan and I should be expecting a winter weeding?"

"Boy, you don't beat around the bushes, do you?"

Dean now walked into the office, carrying bucket and a mop, just as Paul leaned forward, ready to continue his interrogation.

"Dean, help me out here," Paul bid him impatiently. "Brutal doesn't wanna tell me how things are going with Ellie."

The young guard looked up, cast an almost fearful glare at Brutus and looked away again.

"Got work to do, Paul, sorry," he muttered under his breath and before Paul could respond, he had disappeared out into the hallway. Paul looked bewildered.

"What's up with him?" Brutus asked with a frown.

"I don't know. He's been weirdly quiet all day. I thought he would brighten up, when I told him about his transfer to A-block."

"What?"

"Yeah, it came through this morning. One of the A-guards are gonna retire last month, so Hal pulled some strings for me and got it through."

"Maybe he's changed his mind."

"Maybe," Paul said pensively.

Brutus sat for a moment, not able to forget the timid look in Dean's eyes. Finally he pushed his chair back and got to his feet.

"I think I'll go talk to him."

He followed Dean out into the execution room, where the young guard was about to mop the floor. Brutus leaned against the doorway, arms crossed in front of him.

"Paul told me you're going to leave us for A-block."

"Yes." Dean kept mopping without looking at him; his body seemed a bit tense, like a spooked animal. "Next month."

"You know that A-block is nothing like this place, right?"

Dean hesitated.

"I just had to get out," he said, still with his eyes on the floor. "After... Coffey... it just feels like this chapter in my life has ended. It doesn't make sense to me anymore. Moving to A-block was the easiest way out. I can't just quit my job, you know: I have a wife and soon three children to look after."

"I understand," Brutus said.

Dean peeked up at him, looking surprised.

"You do?" he said. "You don't think I'm some kind of ungrateful traitor, who leaves my friends behind?"

Finally realising what this was all about, Brutus smiled at him.

"Course not," he said. "I've been thinking about leaving myself. Not just to get out of E-block, but to leave Cold Mountain behind me for good."

"Where would you go?"

Brutus shrugged. "Don't know. But I ain't in no hurry: I can stay here 'till I've found the perfect place."

Dean nodded and spun the mop around in his hand, looking thoughtful.

"You think I'll cope in A-block?" he asked Brutus.

"Sure," Brutus said encouragingly, though he was not entirely sure; A-block was a tough place and Dean was a mild soul. "You hard-working and bright. You're gonna do just fine, once you've settled in."

Dean smiled timidly.

"And I've had me some fine tutors too," he said. "You and Paul and Harry."

"Fine?" Brutus snorted. "I think the words you're looking for are 'top-notch and 'outstanding', kid. Not to mention 'extremely smart' and 'overly good-looking'."

Dean chuckled. "Right. How could I forget that. But seriously, I've learned a lot from you guys, so thanks."

"Oh, stop it, you're making me blush," Brutus rumbled. "Now, come on, the dirt can wait until after the holiday. Let's go have some coffee and then we're going home."

oOo

It's funny how time flies, when you doesn't want it to. Ellie had spend a week with Brutus, but she hardly felt like she had been there a day: One single day, that had been filled with endless nights that somehow still felt to short and days where anything else had seemed to vanish around them. But now the real world was tired of being left out and she would have to drive home tonight.

"But I don't wanna go home," she complained to Bear, as they strolled around in Brutus' yard, waiting for him to be back from the store. "I like it here."

Bear wagged his tail lazily, gasping in the rare November heat. Ellie patted his massive head.

"You will mourn my departure, won't you boy? You will cry for me, right?

Bear sneezed and dived head first into a lump of weed. Watching him rolling around like a mad dog, scratching in the ground, Ellie sighed.

"I knew you would... what are you doing now? Oh, Bear, don't eat that!"

The dog jumped to his paws and spat out something that looked like a green potato. It was actually a green potato. Ellie glared around, realising that most of what she thought was weed, was actually potato plants that someone had long forgotten about.

When Brutus returned home minutes later, she was poking about in the ground with a stick throwing new potatoes up on his lawn.

"What are you doing?" Brutus asked her.

"Digging up dinner. Do you realise you have an entire vegetable garden out here?"

"Oh, yeah. That was an experiment I did last spring, until I remembered that I actually hate gardening."

"How can you hate gardening? I would kill to have a patch of green where I live."

Brutus pretended to frown at her worryingly. "I'm glad we got you out of E-block in time. Sounds to me like the place's ruined you."

She threw an old potato after him and Brutus ducked his head, but she missed with several meters.

"Good thing you decided to become a nurse and not a pitcher," he smirked, when Bear hurtled after the potato.

"Oh, hah hah. Don't you have some groceries to unpack?"

Brutus sat down in the shade from an old apple tree and leaned against the rough trunk, hands behind his head.

"Done that," he said. "Now I'm just gonna sit here and watch you do... whatever it is you're doing."

Ellie smiled, shook her head at him and bent over the potato plants again. Brutus watched the sun fall on her back and through her hair and when he remembered that he wasn't going to wake up with her by his side the next morning, it felt like his heart cracked.

"Ellie, d'you think you'd come and live with me permanently one day?" he said, thinking out loud. Ellie stopped what she was doing, straightened herself and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes to look at him.

"What kind of a question is that?" she asked, wiping dirt of her hands.

"Would you?"

She squinted suspiciously at him in the bright sunshine. "That's very likely. Why?"

"Even though I'm almost old and haven't lived with a women since... forever?"

She laughed, but she also looked at little bit bewildered.

"Brutus, what is this?" she asked and walked out of the weed grown garden. Brutus got onto his feet, when she reached him.

"I think it's just my clumsy way to say: Ellie, will you..."

"No! Don't say it!" she exclaimed, clapping a hand over his mouth.

Brutus stared at her.

"Don't say it," repeated said firmly, removing her hand. "This time it's my turn."

"Your tu...?" he began, but she interrupted him, loud and clear:

"Brutus, will you marry me?"

"Hang on!" he protested, partly laughing, partly baffled. "That's the man's line. My line!"

Ellie smiled.

"The last time someone else asked me that same question, it went all wrong," she said softly. "I don't want that to happen again."

"I'm not Thomas," Brutus said, cupping her cheek. "I would never do anything to hurt you. Never."

He brushed the dirt of her nose and kissed it, then he kissed her lips, slowly. Ellie leaned against him, but then pulled herself together and broke off the kiss.

"You didn't answer my question," she said.

"Right. What was it again?"

"Oh, you...!" Ellie began with a theatrical sigh and pushed him away. Brutus caught her by waist with a reconciled chuckle.

"Of course I will marry you, you foolish British girl," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her. "You are the love of my life. But more importantly: Will you marry me?"

"Yes," Ellie responded, trying to look grave and wronged, but in the end she couldn't stop herself from beaming up at him.