This chapter is far from perfect, but I haven't posted in over a month and needed to tie up some loose ends to move the story forward. Thanks to anyone who stuck around.

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Elevator rides were always awkward. The generic, lyricless, 'offensive to no one' music didn't disperse the discomfort of your shoulders brushing against a strangers, or the faint odor of wet jackets from the rain outside - or that Carlisle's fingers were around my wrist so tightly that it was starting to make my hand throb.

He was panicking; every breath he took was shaking and he was focused on the floor. Tears threatened to overflow as he fidgeted with the edges of his sleeves, and he eventually gave up on that and tightly folded his arms against his chest, releasing his painful hold on me. I hesitantly wrapped my arm around his waist, wanting to comfort him but worried about provoking a meltdown. His body trembled and the anxiety practically radiated off him. With the ding the elevator let off at each floor, he got more and more worked up, somewhat backing up against the wall. Two floors away, and he burst into tears, turning toward me to get away from everyone else in the small space.

Everyone else ignored him out of courtesy, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do about it, short of holding his hand. I reached down to give his fingers a gentle squeeze. The short burst of emotion didn't last long, and he calmed down again fairly quickly, managing to get a grip by the time we reached the right floor.

"Maybe we should just go home- I don't think I need to go in…" He stopped outside the office door, freezing and ringing his hands in front of him.

"Carlisle, you just cried in an elevator; you need to go in." Ushering him forward, I ushered him forward with my hand against the small of his back to stop him backpedaling.

"Garrett…" He was frozen in protest, and I turned to face him.

"You'll be fine. Look...if it's the worst thing in the world, you never have to go back. Just give it a chance." We'd had this conversation a million times over the last few days, and I had thought that he was feeling a bit better about the counsellor, though it seemed like I was wrong.

"Apparently sex is good for depression, maybe we should just try that - that's what you think is wrong with me, right?"

"Hey," I interrupted, hugging him gently. "It'll all be fine. You can go home to bed afterwards, if you want." The anxiety that the appointment was causing was baffling to me, and I couldn't figure out why getting help was so terrifying to him. But, that was why he was here, I guess.

"I don't want to," he blurted out.

I was pretty sure that that wasn't supposed to be verbalised, and he quickly looked away. Sighing, I hugged him, rubbing the back of his neck as he leaned his head against my shoulder. "I know, Carlisle. I don't know what else we're supposed to do, if you don't go to this appointment; I need you to try. It's only an hour."

He nodded slowly. "...can you still be here when I get out?"

"Yeah, of course. We can go get lunch or something," I promised, briefly tightening my hold on him. "It'll be okay."

Just nodding again, he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to get it off his face as the doctor called his name out. I watched the colour drain from his cheeks, offering him a smile as he threw a somewhat panicked glance over his shoulder at me.

There wasn't really a point in me leaving for an hour, so I sat in the waiting room, playing with my phone to pass the time. It ticked on ridiculously slowly; the hour seemed like an eternity. Eventually, the door creaked open, and Carlisle slowly wandered up to the reception desk to pay for the meeting. I shoved my phone in my pocket and went to stand behind him.

His hands shook so badly he could barely run his card through the machine, and the woman looked a mixture of confused and sympathetic at his behaviour. His company had offered to pay for it, thankfully, though it was presumably to prevent him filing a lawsuit against them. Forcing deep breaths as she confirmed the next appointment, he winced as I touched him.

"You okay?" I asked as we walked out. My arm snaked around his waist, tugging him into place next to me. Although he nodded, he really didn't look it. His posture had somehow dissolved in an hour, and I wasn't sure if he was about to faint or vomit. "Carlisle?"

"I'm fine," he mumbled, stepping closer against my side. His voice was muffled by my shirt as he leaned into me.

The elevator doors opened, and I guided him in. He wasn't paying attention to what we were doing, and tripped over the uneven edge where the floor ended and the elevator shaft began, stumbling into me. I wrapped my arms around him as his weight hit me, my knuckles gently brushing against his jaw as I tilted his chin up so he would look at me. "Do you want to get ice cream?" Mostly, I just wanted to cheer him up a bit; he looked fucking miserable. I leaned down to bring my lips to his.

He turned away as the panic he'd been holding back overflowed. "..Please, Gar, I need to go home; my back hurts…."

I agreed, tightening my fingers around his shirt. "We can go home." It was barely ten o'clock, but neither of us were going to have fun if I forced him to stay out with me.

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After our forth movie for the day, I was falling asleep. My laptop was precariously balanced on my stomach as I tried to hold it where we could both seen the screen, but Carlisle wasn't paying attention anyway. I couldn't touch him without hurting him, keeping my arm behind the pillows instead of around him to try and satisfy a need to be close to him. It was nice, but I knew he was uncomfortable.

He was nervously fidgeting with my hair, running his fingers through it as he leaned against the headboard. Each breath he took was quite shallow, and he was pale when I glanced up at him. The blankets fell away as he pulled his knees up, folding his legs under himself.

I shifted the bedding back while he was off them, sitting up as well. I watched him squirm and become more agitated when he couldn't be comfortable, and hit pause on the movie once I realised that he wasn't going to settle. "You're sore again, huh?" I asked, frowning; it was only an hour after he'd last had pain relief - he couldn't have any more for quite a while.

Nodding, he tucked his arm protectively against his body as he forced a laugh, a little guilty and almost embarrassed. "...want to lie with you, but it hurts..."

I knew he was just shaken up by this morning more than anything else. "We'll figure it out." I shuffled under the blankets, lying down again. "Come here; I promise I won't squeeze you."

He nervously did what I said, lying with his head on my arm as I slipped it around his shoulders. I kissed him softly, rolling onto my side to face him and resting my other hand on his hip. "Is this okay?" I asked, teasing the small of his back with my finger tips.

"Yeah." Forcing a shaky smile, he cuddled into me. His hand lightly traced the lines of my shirt. The warmth of our bodies together relaxed him fairly quickly, his breathing evening out as mine picked up.

While he started to fall asleep, my head was spinning. Tomorrow, it was going to be my first day back at work since everything that had happened. The idea of leaving him by himself while he still felt like shit was beyond unappealing. Carmen had offered to spend my work hours here, pointing out that I'd spent weeks minding Kate through her crazy toddler phase, but there was no way my boyfriend was going to agree to being babysat. He insisted that he would be fine by himself. And, it wasn't like she needed another thing on her plate right now. I still couldn't resist trying it. "Hey, Carlisle?"

Glancing up at me, he gently squeezed my hand to let me know he was listening, too sleepy at that point to provide much of a response.

I swallowed thickly. "How would you feel about Carmen spending the next few days with you while I'm not home? Just to make sure you're alright?"

Thankfully, he was too polite to tell me off for it. "I'll be fine by myself, Gar. I'll just sleep all day anyway." His good hand landed on my chest, rubbing gently.

"I'm just worried about you," I admitted. I covered his fingers with mine, squeezing. It didn't help matters that he was particularly vulnerable tonight.

"I'll be okay," he repeated.

Surrendering, I just dropped the subject.

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I wasn't used to the early mornings anymore. A week of sleep-ins had obliterated my sleeping pattern, and my alarm seemed extra obnoxious as I fumbled to shush the buzzing. I quickly tried to shut it off before it woke Carlisle up, but it was too late. "Stay put," I instructed as I got up.

He didn't heed my warning. By the time I'd gotten out of the shower, I was being handed coffee, though he hadn't managed to conquer breakfast yet while his hand was out of use. Part of me was glad he was awake; at least I could judge how he was - and he seemed okay this morning instead of the mess he was yesterday.

"Please be careful," I pleaded, hugging him as he leaned up to kiss me. "I need you in one piece when I get home."

"You too, Gar." His lips brushed mine again, and his fingers smoothed the collar of my shirt. "I'll be good."

I couldn't be convinced; I knew him too well to know that our definitions of 'good' were very different. Instead, I savoured the feeling of him in my arms and hoped to god he would be okay. 'He's an adult', I reminded myself. It didn't helped at all. Still, there was nothing for it; I had to work today.

The weather outside had warmed enough that the air didn't sting as I stepped out of our apartment block. My jacket was going to be unnecessary later in the day, but at 8AM I still needed it. I trudged my way to my car, forcing myself to be grateful for the fact it wasn't raining, even if I had to go to the office. There was no way Caius was going to leave my head; he couldn't know that Carlisle was home by himself, but my stomach still hurt as I thought about it.

My boss was almost painfully nice to me. He didn't grumble that I was a few minutes late, or gripe because I hadn't been there in at all the last week. It wouldn't have surprised me if Carlisle's company had called him - they were doing everything in their power to keep my boyfriend quiet. My suspicion was confirmed when I opened my emails and saw that my wages from my time off hadn't come out of my holiday pay.

Riley rolled over to me on his office chair before I could overthink it. His frown was almost a confused smile, like he wasn't sure how to feel. "Have you seen today's paper?" he asked carefully, the rolled up pages waiting in his hand in case I hadn't.

I shook my head; I hadn't bought one since I stopped being inconspicuous about my bookshop visits. "Why?"

It landed on my desk with a slap, a page already open. "This is about Carlisle, right?"

My heart dropped as I scanned through paragraphs, the words becoming scrambled in my panic. His name wasn't there, though. Just Caius's. "...Yeah," I answered slowly, starting to become angry as the bastard's face stared back at me off the page. The article was short and buried deep in the paper, but no doubt people would love the failing of a wealthy businessman - ironically, they'd omitted the gender of his victim though, like somehow that would tarnish his reputation too much. Something else stood out to me too; that bastard was 50 years old. 50 and going after someone less than half their age. No wonder it made my boyfriend feel so awful.

"Incarcerated and divorced - Carlisle will be happy, right?" His smile was careful, unsure how I would react.

I nodded. "Yeah, he'll be pleased." The tightness in my chest eased as I let out a sigh, and I leaned back in my seat, groaning and rubbing my face. I didn't need this at this hour of the morning.

"What's wrong?" His hand was on my leg, squeezing gently. "You're not happy?"

"No, I am," I assured him quickly. "It just scared the shit out of me; I thought that…"

"You thought they mentioned your boyfriend? Would it matter?"

Not wanting this conversation, I turned away to look at my computer screen. "We haven't told my family - I don't think Carlisle told anyone other than his best friend and me." And still, people had drawn wrong assumptions.

"Ah." He frowned and dropped it, starting to roll away again. "Come get coffee with me a lunch; I haven't seen you in years."

I nodded my agreement; I should be buying him his drink considering that he put up with my shitty mood. Folding back the picture of Caius's face so that he wouldn't be confronted with it, I took a picture of the article, hesitating a little before sending it to Carlisle - surely he would be more comfortable if he knew the bastard couldn't get to him again.

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Caffeine made everything better. Riley picked apart a bagel while he grumbled about the problems he was having with his girlfriend, repeatedly apologising to me for his rant, but continuing on anyway. He was entitled to it, seeming as he put up with my sulking. "You want to spend the night at our place?" I offered. The cafe was still quiet at this time of morning, and we'd firmly lodged ourselves in a quiet corner - not quiet enough for me to join him in eating though.

He shook his head. "Maybe if she kicks me out," he muttered under his breath. Eventually, he managed a smile again, presumably catching sight of my expression. "It's nothing that bad, Garrett, don't look so worried. All couples have the disagreements," he chuckled.

"I guess." Fighting so regularly in a relationship was a foreign concept to me, though, but maybe that was because I lived with the most passive person on the planet; when we did fight, the arguments came months apart.

His grin widened. "How's the cat?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone to show him a few picture. "Getting fatter, and taking over my side of the bed," I grumbled. It vibrated in my hand with an incoming text, and I flipped it around to look at it immediately. Whatever panic I felt dissolved upon seeing that it was from my brother and not my boyfriend, replaced with annoyance instead; Eleazar could wait, seeming as he was being awful the other day.

We stayed in the cafe for as long as we could before heading back up the road to our office block. I was out of breath by the time we reached the top of the stairs, fighting becoming a sweaty mess - I was already sick of the slightly warmed weather. Riley was chuckling, barely resisting laughing at me. I shushed him as I fought off a smile, hugging him briefly before we went our separate ways again.

All day, I waited for Carlisle to reply to my message. He never did. It made me anxious to get home - Caius or not, he'd still been alone all day. I was agitated as I drove home that night, pulling into my car park in a hurry and impatiently tapping my foot as I waited for the elevator. Still, I forced myself to be quiet as I unlocked the front door.

The smell of dinner immediately wafted toward me, and I couldn't resist a smile as my anxiety lifted. "Carlisle?" I set my keys on the table, glancing around for him. There was a dish on the bench, along with his open laptop, a disgruntled kitten on the floor also waiting to be fed.

"Hey, Gar." He hugged me, apparently startled by my entrance. Something was a little 'off' with him, but I couldn't pick it.

"Hey." Pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, I let him lean against me. "You weren't supposed to cook, remember?" I scolded gently.

His face heated slightly as he looked away. "I had to; I keep thinking about Caius…"

"Caius is locked far away from you, and you need to relax," I reminded him. Internally, I was annoyed that I'd sent him the article at all. It was a dumb idea in the first place.

"I know, but he's got kids, and I hate being the one who took their father from them," he admitted. Guilt was creeping in, his hands picking at each other until I stilled his fingers.

"They're better off without him," I grumbled sourly. Needing a distraction, I started dishing up dinner, sighing when I caught the disgusted look on Carlisle's face. "What?"

"...I'm not hungry…" And just like that, we were back peddling again.

I should not have left him alone today. "Just a bit," I grumbled at him. "Come on, you've come far enough to make dinner; you may as well try and eat a few mouthfuls of it." Seeing how unconvinced he was, I gently kissed his forehead. "At least sit at the table with me?"

He nodded and moved away to scoop biscuits into Fox's dish, wincing at the sound of cutlery being set on the table. As sick as he may have felt, the food smelt fucking delicious to me, and I had no qualms about eating. The plates were on opposite sides of the table, like normal, but Carlisle shifted his closer to mine, sitting next to me and sneaking his hand onto my leg as I started to eat.

I covered his fingers with mine. It was an effort not to watch him as he picked at his food, and I forced myself to talk normally to him, rubbing his hand under the table. Once I was done, and he'd shoved his bowl away, I pushed my chair out and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him into my lap. "I love you."

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Things were getting better by Friday. I was beyond relieved to have the weekend off with him, lying in bed well into the morning on Saturday. Carlisle had abandoned me and gotten up an hour ago, but I didn't mind so long as I could hear him in the kitchen. A smile spread across my face as I caught sight of his sketchbook on the bedside table; he'd stopped drawing once Caius had started harassing him, and I was more than relieved that he'd gone back to something he enjoyed.

My grin grew as I felt his weight on the bed. He was careful as he crawled up the mattress to be beside me, but still managing to smile back once he got there. I ran my hands up his arms, pleased to feel no sleeves under my fingertips. I could get on board with warm weather very quickly if this was what it meant.

Propping myself up on my elbows, I kissed him gently. "Good morning."

"Morning." He pushed me back into the pillows, his hands on my shoulders as he settled with one knee of either side of my hips. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as our eyes met, playful - or maybe high on pain relief. Either way, I had missed this side of him. His fingers moved, brushed my throat and caressing my face before finding their way into my hair. He cut me off with a kiss as I started to ask him how he was feeling, his lips capturing mine to shut me up.

"I missed you," I admitted once he pulled back. Very carefully, I shifted us sideways, supporting him as I rolled us.

"I never went anywhere," he teased. For the first time in what seemed like months, the normal sparkle had returned to his eyes as he teased me, though he was curious as he looked up at me.

"I missed being close to you," I corrected. My hands moved from his thighs to his back, tracing his spine and shifting my body closer to his.

"I know, Garrett, I'm sorry," he murmured, kissing me again and wrapping his arms around my neck. His lips trailed alone my jaw while his fingertips teased the nape of my neck. For the first time in a long time, my hold tightening around him didn't make him wince. "I'll be okay now...We'll bed okay now."

For the first time in a long time, it actually seemed like that was going to be the truth.