Lila

Her heart was in riot. Half ecstatic that Dane was there—the real Dane. She could see him and taste him and smell him. He spoke and he kissed and he still loved her. She had literally never been happier to see a person in her life. But the entire moment was underlined by the sick dread of knowing that something bad was coming. His father was playing a game. And neither of them knew how it was going to end. And Lila had a hunch, when Dane wouldn't meet her eyes, that he knew more than he was letting on.

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She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to ask and press and make him tell her so she knew too. But she couldn't stand the idea of his father suddenly showing up and tearing him away from her and she'd never know what had happened.

So when they'd settled and laid in bed, just cuddling, her curled into his chest, she lifted her head and whispered, "Tell me what's going on. How did you get here? What… what's going to happen?"

Dane sighed, but nodded. "I will. Just… just a minute, okay? I have to leave you alone for a second, but it won't be long. I just need to do something."

She frowned but nodded, almost panicked when he slid out of the bed, but he squeezed her hand, then pulled one of the pillows up and out of its case, and started tearing the case into pieces.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute," he said, his voice dry and dead in a way that she hated. But he crept around the room then for maybe twenty minutes stuffing the pieces of torn fabric into strange corners, hanging it over things, even jamming it into the door hinges.

Until he stood in the middle of the room and turned a slow circle, the rest of the pillow case hanging from his hand, and shook his head. Then he padded back over to the bed and climbed in with her, and pulled her into his chest again. Her rib complained and she gasped, but she kissed him before he could ask, then sank onto his arm and just stared at him.

"I can't believe you came. You shouldn't have come, Dane," she said, tears threatening again. "You shouldn't be here."

He sighed. "I wouldn't leave you in his hands, Lila. You had to know that."

"Yes, but… I mean the Police? One of our teams? There had to be some way to at least try with other people instead of coming yourself."

"I didn't trust other people to keep you safe. And… I think my father knew that."

She sighed against his chest and they didn't speak for a few minutes.

Then she got up her courage. "Tell me."

"All those little spots are cameras," he whispered. Under the blankets he drew her hand up from her side and held it in his, palm out. He tapped the middle of her hand with his finger, then drew an L. Then an O. Then V. Then E. Y. O.U.

Love you.

She bit her lip. "Me too."

He shook his head and glanced over his shoulder. "Don't get out of the bed without a blanket or something around you," he said quietly. He kept talking then, slowly. Filling her in on things that had happened at the office, with the Police. Things he obviously thought his father already knew. Because as he spoke, he also spelled things in her palm.

RECORDING SOUND.

DON'T SAY IF SECRET

NEED EXPLAIN.

Lila sighed and wanted to cry that they couldn't ever just be. But she nodded and held her hand at an angle that would help him write faster. And as he slowly, painfully, painted the picture of what they faced, she bit her lip to stop the tears over what he'd planned what he'd given himself to. What he would face. And what they both had yet to face.

"…so I told them I'd meet at nine this morning, but I didn't. I just came. I had to try and get you out. I couldn't leave you here alone and I know they would have taken too much time. He would have gotten you away before they found you."

She threw her arms around his neck then, groaning when her rib stabbed at her.

"What's hurting you?" he asked gently.

"Just a bruised rib," she said, brushing it off. "I'm fine. It just catches sometimes if I move too fast. Ignore it, Dane. I'm just… I'm so glad you're here. And I'm so sad too. I can't… I can't imagine a good way this can end."

"I can. I'm going to get you out of here, Lila. I promise."

She looked up into his eyes. He shook his head and touched her face.

"Thank you for coming for me," she whispered. Then she dropped her head into his chest and forced herself to keep it together.

It hit her then, all of the sudden. And she wanted to smack herself for not thinking about him, about what he must have been going through. "Oh my gosh, Dane, I just realized… you talked to your father! What… what was it like?" she pushed back to read his face, but there was no need.

Dane shuddered and as she clung to him, his breath sped up. She could feel his heart banging against his chest. She put her hand over it and stroked his face.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry I didn't think."

"No, it's fine. It was… as good as it could have been," he said dryly. "It was weird. Because we were fighting. But we also… I forget how he understands me. I don't have to pretend with him. It's weird. It was weird. He hasn't changed. But… it was okay."

She stared into his eyes. His face was cold and drawn, but his tone was a little warm. Like a part of him had liked it. She frowned a question at him, and he wrote in her palm, RECORDING. HE LISTEN.

Then she took his face in her hands and kissed him. And she held him while he shook. She even managed not to cry out when he squeezed her rib too hard.

Because it wasn't just her who was hurting being here, she realized.

She had to pray this didn't send Dane over the edge.