I Won't Let You Go || Pack Safehouse

The room was getting as monotomus as her cell had been. More comfortable by far, and brighter, but still...

Bedridden at first, she had barely had a chance to leave, and when she had left it was only in the halls around the building. She was dying for...

If she was being honest there was only one person she was dying for. The ring on her finger burned bright everytime she thought about him. Brock was too worked up for her to even dare bring up the subject. She needed Eli, but confrontation wasn't going to get her. If push came to shove she'd walk out, get to anywhere she knew the man would be.

But if this could work...

Zino. Good old Zino. He had promised Brock he wouldn't leave at all, Kallie felt slightly bad she had the man breaking promises.

But this was...

She needed Eli.

Eli followed behind Zino, his gaze locked on the door that was now gradually growing in size. He could almost physically feel himself being pulled toward it.

At this point, he had gotten past the blind anger and the frenzied panic. Now he just felt the all-consuming need to be with her. Every passing moment left him tired and sore, and full of worry.

But now, he'd get to see her, to touch her. The thought was overwhelming. It had been, what? Four months? Five? It didn't matter. One was long enough to leave him broken.

The man rested his hand on the door, and a sudden thought occurred to him, What if she's not here? It was a reasonable question. After all those false hopes, how could he know that this was really it? For all he knew, he was about to walk into an empty room.

He shook off the thought. He would see her again... today. He opened the door, steeling himself for anything.

His mouth hung open. Eli hadn't realized just how much he had forgotten about her. She was so... beautiful. Her hair just that much lighter, her eyes that much darker, her skin so smooth. Yet instead of her usual wiry strength, she seemed frail.

His mind spinning, the man hardly had time to register the room moving around him until he was just inches away from Kallie's face. With a small laugh, he held his hand to her cheek, "You're really okay... You- oh my god." He wrapped her up in a hug, not even noticing as the world became hazy through his blurry eyes. He laughed again, "I can't believe this."

She continued smoothing out the non-existant wrinkles in the bed as she waited. What if he didn't come? What if he didn't want to see her? What if she was too different?

What if he didn't want her anymore.

These were all the thoughts that continued to swirl in her head. And all the thoughts that died the instant the door open, the instent her brown eyes saw him. Everything that originally seemed tilted, wrong righted themselves again.

A hystarical little bubble of laughter, completely contradicting the warm sparkling of unshead tears in her eyes, came from her lips as she heard him speak. That glorous voice - she had almost forgotten what it sounded like. How could she have forgotten what it sounded like.

Then she had her arms around him, holding as tightly as she could, scared that any moment all this would disappear again - another illusion, another mind trick.

"It's really you," she breathed, sounding just as stunned, as amazed as the man did. "Don't... don't let go just yet, okay? I just need-" her voice choked for a moment and she let out a strangled laugh.

"I didn't know if- I love you."

Eli shut his eyes against the tears. She didn't have to tell him twice. He kept wanting just one more moment, maybe two, to breathe her in and hold her close. Even after all this time, the scent pine trees and spice still lingered around her, made him feel at home. What if he did let go? How could he know if she was really there?

At the sound of those last words, the man straightened up to get a glimpse of her face. Even if it meant letting go, it was worth it to see her eyes again. Then, so quickly, some force inside of him pushed Eli forward until his lips had connected with hers.

Her lips attacked his with a deep rooted hunger, need, desire. How long had it been since she'd seen him, touched him, talked to him?

How long had it been before that since she had gone any time away from him? Her arms, weak as the were, wrapped their way around his neck. The only thing that stopped her was that she still didn't quite have the energy.

Pulling away only slightly, she rested her forehead against his, "I missed you every single day."

Eli smiled against Kallie's lips as his hand slid to her waist, his other resting tenderly on her cheek. For a split second, his feelings of pleasure turned into those of panic as he finally paid attention to how bony she felt under his hands.

But the thought was quickly swept away when she touched him again.

Keeping his eyes shut, he listened to her voice. Really listened to it. How, even now, it sounded so even and impossibly calm. As the words registered, they sucked a tiny piece of the happiness out of him. Just remembering the past few months was enough to do that, "I was so scared... that something had-"

The man breathed in, his head slowly clearing again, pressed against her own, "But you're safe, and..." He lifted his head to look at her with a bewildered smile, "My God, Kallie. You're here, in this room. I don't know what I would've done without you."

A hand reached up and stroked his cheek softly, almost wonderingly, "You would have survived; I have faith, but... that didn't happen, so let's not dwell on it yes?"

Sliding back down on to the back of the bed, she patted a spot beside her.

"Now come, sit; I just want to have you close and hear you talk again, its been too long," she gave him a wide smile, part of her feeling almost giddy. "Tell me what I've missed, yes? How is your sister? The baby? She must be so big now, yes?"

Eli gave her a small, grateful smile, "Of course. No- you're completely right."

He sat down next to her, letting out a little laugh, "Oh, Merlin. Lainey is... well she's a mom, and a really good mom, too." He laughed again, "And her baby, Tirian- she's just the cutest thing you'll ever see in you're life. She must be, what, 8 months old now? She's huge." Nothing could stifle the huge grin on his face whenever he talked about his sister and Tirian.

Things had changed so much for her. Just a few years ago she was a total mess, and now... Everything had changed. For the both of them.

Curling into his side, fitting there as easily as a puzzle piece, she gave a content sigh as she listened to his voice, watching the expressions that crossed his face. God, how she had missed him, missed everything about the world. There were so many things that she was sure she had been going to never see again.

Giving up had never been an option, but when it came right down to it, all Kallie saw as giving up, was letting them win. And her life hadn't been what they had wanted. It was her ministry, the people. As long as they were safe, organized, still under good command, than what had happened to her had become irrelevant.

Her pride was never going to let her beg for more food. In the last few days she could feel her energy slipping from her, oozing away as did melted snow, bit by bit it would surely have been gone.

"Well then," she spoke softly, distantly, her eyelids had drooped slightly as she had allowed herself to be soothed by his voice, "I shall look forward to seeing them again soon." The woman curing closer to his warmth, stifled a yawn, "And the Ministry? I trust everything was kept in order."

Eli closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and running his hand across Kallie's hair, taking the time to simply enjoy her presence. He smiled and leaned his head against the wall, "Oh, yes. Everything's been kept nice and tidy for when you get back. Actually, not many people have noticed anything different. Except your secretary and maybe a few others. We just told them you were away..."

The man frowned as he thought back to the past few months, and he sighed, "It'll be nice to have you back, though. I still don't know how we managed to keep up. You're job is hard."

Another yawn, this one unable to hold back, slipped delicately from her mouth. Kallie always had that prime sort of way about her that made every action she made seem filled with purpose and effortless grace. Although effortless now, only because it was second nature - that grace is born out of years of self control and nothing more.

Still, in sleep - which it was undeniable she was quickly drifting into - the woman gained an ethereal sort of glow, and angelic innocences and grace that was purely her own, purely the virtues she had long since forgotten she had, and in fact actively strived to weed out through her daily struggles.

It was in sleep that she was what she didn't know how to be in daily life - Just Kallie.

"That's why its my job," her voice was distant, garbled. She couldn't be sure she hadn't slipped back into Finnish before the sentence was out, and the few murmured words after that were definitely back in her native tongue. "Rakastan sinua*."

A content sigh slipped from her lips as the woman fell into one of the first restful sleeps she'd had in a long while.

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