2021, February 14th
(Maine, Caspira)
AIDEN
I always felt a little guilty about our drunken little slips. Elena's cheeks took on a light blush. Sparks of guilt lit up her eyes. look. I laughed again as I poured the wine. It seemed I wasn't the only one after all. Bloody hell, she knew about that too. What the hell had we been waiting for all these years?
"No more pretending," she said, raising her glass to mine. "No more stolen kisses. Take as much as you want to, Aiden Condron."
We sat down to finish our dinner. The wine flowed readily. Elena wasn't exactly a lightweight, but we both knew she would get drunk long before I could even be said to be tipsy. She just kept throwing back the glasses anyway. Letting herself get more and more comfortable in my company. Subtle touches turned into my lips and hands all over her as time went on. Before long, we were full on making out.
"You're done," I said, taking the glass out of her hand as she got on top of me and started clumsily undoing the buttons of my shirt.
She tasted like forbidden fruit I'd been dying to get a bite of. Now that I finally had, I wanted all of her. I watched her lay her lips and hands on my chest and kiss her way up to my neck. Her knees caged me in, coming down on either side of me.
"We're just getting started," she insisted, the words muffled as she spoke into my mouth.
Who the hell was I to say no?
Her dress pulled up above her knees and thighs, just shy of her panties. While her mouth found and left mine at her discretion, my hands roamed down from her back to her sides. Then they traveled up her thighs as I argued with myself, about whether her skintight dress should keep going up or come right back down. Her mouth felt just as gratifying on the rest of me as it did opening up against my own.
But her eyes were barely open anymore and I could have sworn she passed out for a moment there. She was just too far gone. I sighed, scooped her up into my arms and got up.
This was the part where she would say a lot of drunken gibberish while I carried her to bed. I'd done this a million times and yet everything was different now. It didn't feel wrong to hold her or like she belonged to anyone but me. I loved taking care of her, something she didn't allow me to do as readily as she used to. Not like she was now.
There was no nonsensical gibberish as I walked through the dark passages of her home with her in my arms.
All she said was, "Stay this time, Aid" over and over. Every other time I'd ever brought her to bed stung just a little as I laid her down and took off her shoes for her. She kept begging for me to stay like I always wanted her to.
"Don't you want to?" she asked, surprising me by opening her brilliant sparkling eyes and wrapping her arms around my neck.
All she was asking for was that I lay my head down next to hers. Heaven knew I'd woken up having passed out next to her enough times. Sex wasn't on the table. So why did it feel like joining her in bed tonight would change everything?
"I do, I really, really do," I said, walking to the other side of the bed and pulling the covers aside.
No sooner had I gotten into the bed than she draped herself all over me.
"Stay this time Aid," she said again as her arm went around my waist and she clung to me.
I smiled down at her, laying hands on her slowly, agonizingly gently wrapping her up in my arms. Warmth flooded my chest. Everything was as it should be.
"I'm here El, I'm right here. I won't leave, I swear. Not this time," I promised us both before I let sleep take me.
2021, February 16th
(Location undisclosed)
AIDEN
It was finally okay to wake up in Capital City again. I didn't feel like being around my family was too much for me anymore. I was, for the first time in six months, truly happy. Had I kicked off the covers again? And where was she? Hadn't I fallen asleep next to the warmth of her?
"El?" I called out to her.
"Let's just ease into this okay? Don't freak out. I know this isn't ideal, but we lost Kate. I had no choice."
That wasn't Elena's voice. My eyes flew right open and I almost fell out of my seat. Plane seat. I was on a plane and she was here. Not Elena, a different she.
"Kate? This must be some kind of PTSD nightmare," I said, slapping myself. "Ow."
"Right. Sorry. Forgot you went through something similar with her. It's okay, Denny," she said, reaching out to touch me. "It's just me."
I felt her hand on my shoulder as I looked into her dark, sympathetic eyes. Yup, those were definitely real. Definitely her eyes. Not even my memory could put her together this perfectly. I looked for it anyway, just to be sure, just like I used to. It was still there, just like it was from the moment I gave it to her.
The denial lingered while my brain woke up. She left. Walked away. One more time like it was nothing. There was no reason for this moment to be coming to pass. This just couldn't be real.
Swallowing a yawn, I took in my surroundings. Stared at her blankly. Gradually, I let reality set in. Not a dream. Vivid. Real. On a plane I didn't board myself.
With her. Dread. Joy. Surrealism. The emotions knocking around in my brain had me sitting upright as I contemplated next steps.
In the end, all my brilliant mind came up with was, "Keira."
***Disclaimer: Switching back to timeline 1