Page 101 of Aftermath
After a bit, I scooped her up bridal-style and carried her up the stairs. I was still wearing my slacks and button down, but I didn’t want to risk putting her down and waking her if I left her alone. I knew she needed me more than ever tonight.
I placed her gently down in bed and pulled the covers up over her before climbing in next to her. My arm wrapped around her waist and held her tight, hoping I could chase away the nightmares I knew would come.
* * *
The next morning, Len was up before I was. It was just before sunrise, and I could smell bacon filling the air in the house. The scent of fresh brewed coffee hit me about halfway down the stairs.
When I made it to the kitchen, I found an entire plate and cup of coffee ready for me. The door to the sun room was open, and I walked in, carrying my breakfast, to find Len watching the sun rise over the water beneath the cliffside.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked.
She shook her head, not looking away from the water.
“Can I join you?” I asked before I stepped up to her chair.
“Sure,” she murmured, but she was barely present. Her mind was wandering.
I sat in a chair across from her at the small glass table set in the center of the room. With the sun rising, it was starting to warm already, the cool morning breeze disappearing. I’d miss views like this when I had to go back to Quantico.
The closest beaches were still far, and the view was nothing like what I found here. New England would forever leave its mark on me.
Len continued to sip at her own cup, gaze never faltering from the window. I watched the way her mind spun, the few times her lips parted like she wanted to say something. It was thirty minutes before I couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“It’s okay to not be alright,” I said, hoping I could get through to her.
She turned toward me, her eyes locking with mine, as if trying to decide whether this was something she was ready to admit.
“It’s also alright to be frustrated with me. I deserve it,” I said.
“It’s not that,” she said immediately.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit of relief hearing that.
“It’s just-” she started and paused.
“This is your work,” I guessed. “And now, in the blink of an eye, it has been taken from you. On top of that, you’ve already been through an ordeal.”
She nodded.
“I’m not used to this. I worked hard to climb my way up at the museum. For the last three years, I have done nothing but throw myself into work, into research. To lose all of that in seconds? I’m just not sure how to process it yet,” she admitted. “But at the same time, I never imagined things would escalate to this.”
I was happy to see the incident from the prior day hadn’t shaken her too badly. For all the trauma she’d been through, she was in better shape than most I had seen in the field.
“You haven’t lost it all,” I said. “Everything you have done is the reason the FBI is even here. Grey may be keeping you away from the case, but it’s only for your own safety. You got us closer than we ever were before to making an arrest. That is all because of you. This town may finally get closure because of you, Lenny,” I insisted.
“And you,” she breathed.
“Don’t give up on things yet,” I said. “Even removed from the case, there is still plenty to be done. This town is going to need someone when this case ends, someone who knows it inside and out to assure them we arrested the right person. Someone to make sure every last victim is remembered.”
She nodded along, and I saw the slight smile growing on her face.
“This town needs you, just as much as I needed you,” I finally said.
Just as much as I still need you.
Her eyes searched mine before she stood from her seat. Her hands gripped either side of my chair as she leaned in.
“As much as I need you,” she whispered before she kissed me.
