The Road to Resolutions

[Ember]

As if the silence of the car ride wasn't tense enough, it only grew when they got back to the Church and Logan insisted on hijacking another car to not risked being tracked by anyone. Silence was usually a great friend to Aideen, but in that tense car ride, it was overwhelming. She was in shame that he had to see her like that, and the look he had given her when she told him that she had to pay penance by herself felt like something inside her broke.

It was one of her biggest fears playing out in front of her, the first person to ever get a glimpse of her home life, and the reaction just tore her apart. That fact that it was Logan just made it all that much worse for her. When she realized that she might have needed to fight him at one point, it killed her. She would never want to fight him, never want to be on any side against his, but with her Uncle she was powerless.

"Logan," she said quietly as they drove around Boston so he could be secure that they weren't being followed. Looking over at him, she shifted slightly, refusing to flinch at the blinding pain from her back. "I.." Her eyes met his as they stopped at the stoplight and something inside her froze. He wasn't looking at her right, not the way he always did, and that made her feel so... odd. Almost the way she felt when she thought he was dead months ago, but not as horrible.

"I'm... sorry you had to see that," Aideen said softly. "I never wanted you to have to, I'm sorry that I got you involved." She didn't know what to say, if there was anything she could say, when at the same time there was so much she wanted to say. It was the oddest battle, something that reminded her of those tug of war games that people played with their pets. She wanted it gone, and she wanted Logan back.

[Wolverine]

"You're sorry..?" he looked back at the road as the light changed. Taking his foot off the break and letting the car coast off at the green light for a moment before putting his foot to the accelerator and giving it a little gas. "Let me get this straight.." he glanced at her and back to the road as he drove, eyes and ears ever vigilant "..you're sorry fer getting me involved. You're sorry!?! What the hell is wrong with you?" He shook his head slightly as his eyes narrowed and looked her up and down. "I was already involved girl, or wait- hold on.. maybe you didn't notice. I forget that people don't see the world the same way I do."

He checked his mirrors, now not only looking for tails, but looking for cops too. "Thing is, I thought you did. See things like I do that is... Well I guess you had the old Wolverine fooled all along, and that's pretty damn hard ta do. Or, no.. is it maybe just since this morning when you snuck out and decided I wasn't worth spit on some hot pavement?" He signaled and turned left working his way zig-zag through the streets. "You had to know I'd notice, had to figure I'd be worried- this place, these connections you have and the way they've drug you down since the lot of us came rolling in."

He thought he noticed something, a car that had been with them for too long so he circled the block to see what else happened on the streets. "How screwed up are ya over this Uncle of yours? That was him right, there's no pictures in yer dossier, nothing full face of him at least- but I'm right ain't I.. yea, ya don't even need ta answer, I heard your breath catch in yer chest." He shook his head not only at how this little talk was going but the fact that it wasn't a tail on them after all.

"What you're tellin me is that this guy can get you to whip yerself till ya draw blood? I smelled it and I see how gingerly ya been movin. Tracy'll take care of that, wont even leave a scar on ya- but the scars on my heart from this ain't goin away. I can't believe you." Anger growing his voice grew louder "I'm almost," and louder still "no.. I am disgusted with what I saw you'd become for that man." His knuckles white as his grip, tightening around the wheel threatened to make it snap. "You know all that whippin yerself did was make him feel better about losing his puppet and - Penance!?!.. what penance? For what? For ME? Am I your shame? Am I your SIN!?! Is what I thought we had, the LOVE -if you can call it that now- I thought we had something you had to purge from your flesh? Well, is it? Is it your choice, is it your shame?"

He had taken his hand off the wheel and was pointing at her as his anger was bubbling and boiling to the surface again. He caught tail lights out of the corner of his eye and stomped on the breaks. Sticking his arm out to stop Aideen from flying out the windshield, he felt her heartbeat at his touch and heard it as it pounded in his ears along with his own. His blood that boiled with rage burned also with disdain for the man that got away and the girl who let him. He was furious with her for her weakness, for not seeing what had been done to her and for not standing up for herself.

"Why? Why did you?" He said gruff but soft as he took his hand away and looked at her for a long moment before driving on as the car ahead started up again. The touch.. the feel of her body against his arm.. of her needing him, if only in the slightest of ways had gotten to him. He yearned for happier days, but looking he saw none ahead, and recalling he saw none behind now. He didn't know how much a lie, how much a regret it all had been for her and that was the worst part of it. Trust... harder earned than gold.. and once lost could it ever be restored?

[Ember]

"You really think it's that simple Logan? That it was all my choice, and it's something I allow and I let?" Her heart thudded hard in her chest, his words spiking sadness and anger into her that were coming up to match the anger that he showed. "I never had a choice, not with him. God, you don't remember what I was like when I first got to the school? You do don't you, that's what caught your interest in the first place, because I wasn't like the others." She looked right at him, ignoring the pain from her back of being bounced around so much in the car.

"I have never known any other way Logan, not till I came to the school. He-" She stopped for a minute, feeling her conditioning kick in as she delved further into her life, head spinning. She took a minute to focus on mind over matter, too angry to let her mind win out this time. "He had me conditioned since as far as I can remember. He gives an order, and I listen. If I don't, my body shuts down, or my mind shuts down, because that's how my conditioning works," she said slowly now, trying not to let the dizziness get to her.

Aideen glared at him, but not with malice with frustration. "I didn't sneak out, I always go to Church on Sundays, you know that. I didn't want to wake you and you're not exactly the Church going type. Do you think for one second that I would have gone if I knew HE would be there?" She winced as they hit a particularly hard turn again, not giving into it this time and not letting up.

"And you really think I'm ashamed of you? ASHAMED? Logan you're an asshole," she surprised herself a little at that, never being one to lose her temper or curse. "I never lied to you about my feelings, I never lied to you at all! The first time I ever cried was in your arms that day at Stark Tower. That was the first time in my life! The only time that I remember being happy, feeling safe, and laughing is when I think of you. How can I be ashamed of that?" Though the words got softer at the end, she was just as mad and hurt and a mix of so many things that she just wanted to punch something.

"I never lied to you, not once. Anything you ever asked me, I always told you the truth. Believe me then, when I say that I had no other choice. He made me so that by his word, I have no other choice but the one he wants me to do," she stared ahead, taking a deep breath as she realized all she would tell him now and how much it hurt physically as well as mentally. Her body was already going to the edge of shutting down from her talking, and she needed to divert it. "Damnit, didn't you see how that killed me? How I begged you not to make me go against you? I have to defend my Uncle, that was my duty from the start. I was dumped on him and he decided that because of my mother, the only value I could ever be to him was to have me trained in his fashion, and made to be the perfect weapon."

Aideen lapsed into silence for a moment, looking out the window as her anger subsided only slightly, though her voice had been level the entire time. "If I had the choice, I would never have gone with him. I would have left that place a long time ago, and I would have cut myself off from him. I don't, not because I don't want to, but because I can't. The last time I tried my entire body was paralyzed for a whole day. There isn't anything I can do about it." She was struggling to give her say and say the right words, but that didn't always work for her. She wasn't a huge talker, but in this instant, she wasn't backing down.

[Wolverine]

"Sooo.." a snarl curling his lips and wrinkling his nose as he nodded slowly "I'm an asshole, huh?" He leaned on his horn as the car in front of them pulled up short, the driver jumping out leaving his car double parked. "Son of a -" he honked again at the man. "Yer right I AM an asshole. An asshole for loving someone with no idea what it means for someone like me to love them." He turned and looked at her as traffic wouldn't allow them to move.

They were stuck there, and all the better as far as Logan was concerned. This way he could put his full attention into the 'talk' they were having. "Yeah ya got yer problems girl, more'n yer fair share and that sucks.. and I yea, remember how ya were and I did see something in you... but it wasn't HIM that I saw." A horn behind them a few cars back blew loudly several times. "It was you."

"It was your heart and your mind and your innocence and yer purity. Underneath it all yer there. YOU are there, and that is who I saw and what drew me to you." Time was ticking past slowly and the man had not returned. The sun streaming in the windows of their black 'rental' beat down on them and mixing with the heated words of their conversation only made the situation worse, the time drag slower. "I seen ya there, always have.. under all the Mossad training and the dogmatic things ya do by rote, like eating, and bathing, and church on Sunday."

"And fer what? You don't even believe in God do ya?" He took the gear lever and slammed it into park, taking his foot off the break. Turning to face her more fully he adjusted himself in his seat, that damn uncomfortable seat, and took in the full measure of her. Her beauty and her venom. The sneaky way that women had of getting under your skin and sinking their fangs into you, slipping past the armor around a man's heart with a gesture or a tone in their voice. They all knew how to do it, some were just better at disguising it than others, and this one here did it so well she didn't even know she was doing it at all.

"Why go to church if ya don't believe? Want free wine and wafers..?..I'll getcha a truck full. Tell me why ya go- go ahead tell me. Tell me ya go because of yer overseer, yer handler. It's gotta be cause I never even once heard you mention HIM." He pointed a finger straight up, and even in his anger there was a measure of reverence when he spoke of God. Logan had seen things in his life that told him there were beings far more powerful than himself and it was often best to tread lightly when talking about them. Yet even in his respect, his words burned with a fire that his Angel Eyes could not control, and checking his tone slightly was the best he could do for the sake of an almighty deity. "Never once saw you bow yer head in a prayer. I know ya go to church, but why? You have no faith girl- it's all logic. Ya have no faith in God and after today and what I saw- how ya stood an walked in that man's presence as ya left yer sacred church and again in that house, that place that smelled of yer blood, and what ya did, the side you chose...and you did have a choice.. I know ya have no faith in me."

"Ahh screw this!" he saw a break in the traffic and quickly dropped the car into a low gear to squeal the tires out and around the double parked sedan, slamming his passenger into her self mutilated and flayed open back. "Yer his, body and soul. You eat the way he told ya to, you bathe by his instructions and on his timeline- hell you don't even sleep normal, ya sleep like a sniper on a cat nap. It don't matter if he's near or not, he's always with you." He settled down with his lead foot, pulling it back off the gas and letting the car slow, but his anger was white hot and ready to pop. "When are ya gonna to live yer life for you and stop being afraid? Would it have been so bad if I put him out of yer misery? Freed you from his tyranny?"

He let the questions sink in for a minute. It was her misery that the man lavished in, it was her slavery to his will, her submission that her guardian so dearly craved. Logan saw it in the man's eyes outside of the church and the scene played again and again in his mind making him even more irate. "You wouldn't be the first woman I loved that I had to hurt in order to help. And unlike that son of a bitch I don't relish doing it..." spit flew from his mouth and flecked up on the inside of the windshield when he spoke of Gard ".. but when I don't see any other way to go about it, the oldest way in the world is the way it's gotta be." He turned and looked her in the eyes, knowing the old ways worked the best sometimes. "One day I'll die by the sword, but until then I will live by it! And so help me if you ever take sides against me again when I've already taken up your cross and decided to fight for you, I will not hesitate to do what I know is best."

[Ember]

"You- you..." Aideen was in semi-shock through her anger at the turn that this conversation took, torn between anger and something that she could atone to heartbreak from the descriptions she'd seen in books, to the point where despite her eloquent speech she couldn't form sentences. "You are the most- How dare you accuse me of not having faith in you? You don't even trust me or have enough faith in me to not be suspicious of me going off for just one morning! You constantly think I'm hiding something from you, and you don't trust me at all to maintain a situation! And now you sit there and accuse me of not having faith in you? I can't believe you."

She was angry and hurt, more than she thought she could ever be. The first person she ever trusted with not just her heart, but everything about her was saying that all that work that she put into herself to not run away and to try to open up for him meant nothing at all. She looked away from him now, shaking her head and swallowing back her the heavy feeling that fell in his heart. It was the first time she felt that doubt creep in that she had kept at bay for so long, that warning voice in her head now becoming louder than ever before. Aideen hated that hurt she felt right then, and she never thought it would be this horrible.

"I've been trying to live my own life, that's all I've been trying to do the last three months. I opened myself up to people, something I was never allowed to do. I let myself have feelings for you, though that hardly counts at this point does it?" She refused to look at him this time, not giving him that satisfaction to see the power that he had over her, that despite her feelings inside were contradicting to the slight venom in her tone. Her gaze was focused on the car in front of her, struggling to keep her breathing even between the physical pain from her back and the constricting pain of her heart.

It was like everything that she had feared was coming back up and making her all the more angry. She was being torn from one direction to the next and she didn't know how to feel anymore, what to be scared of and what to face. Right now though, she did choose to face him and not fall into herself like she might have another time. The one thing that she learned is that when her feelings, something she never had a grasp of until recently, were challenged, she rose to it. She did it with Rumble, she did with Mike, and now of all people she had to with Logan. "Not all my problems can be solved with you beating up or killing whoever causes them. You can't just kill someone or destroy something and expect any problem tied to it to go away. It doesn't work like that Logan," she said having looked at him briefly and turned away again.

"You need to learn to trust me. You need to trust that I will come back to you and that I'm not hiding anything from you. And you need to give me time to try." Her soft voice was angry and firm. "You can't keep thinking of me as one of the other women in your life, someone that wants something more from you than just you, all of you. And damn it Logan you better do it fast because I couldn't walk away from you even if I tried because I love you." The last part came out spontaneously and just after the words left her mouth she froze. She hadn't meant to say that, not at all and not now. Swallowing hard, she stared straight ahead at the same car, moving inch by inch with the crazy traffic. This hadn't been how she planned to say it to him, and right now it seemed worthless.

Feeling moisture from the corner of her eye despite the anger she felt, she brought her hand up and wiped her cheek hastily. "This is pointless isn't it?" she said staring straight ahead, her voice now calm as everything came crashing down on her. "You're never going to look at me the same way again. The one reason I never talked about my Uncle because I never wanted you to stop looking at me like that and now..." She trailed off, actually finding the twisted comedy of all this. Her Uncle told her that she could never have a normal relationship, that nobody would ever accept it. And he was right, maybe he had been right all along and she was just too rebellious to see it. "I can't do this," Aideen said softly and reached over to undo her seatbelt. Whatever she was feeling now felt more horrible than anything she could have ever imagined, and she vowed to never put herself through this again.

[Wolverine]

"You talk about trust. You don't have the right to talk to me about trust." He was closing in on the garage but he wouldn't go home until it was all over. She had said she loved him but she had also lied. She had lied to herself and that was the worst part. He could get over a great many things but there had to be a solid foundation to start with and he realized she was shaky now.

He reached over placing his hand on hers as she was undoing her belt. "Ya don't even trust yourself. If ya did you wouldn't need that man's rules in your life" He said as he looked into her eyes. His thumb stroked her fingers as he kept just enough pressure on her hand to keep her seatbelt fastened.

"And just so ya know I wasn't suspicious. I followed you to make sure you were safe. I had to pry it out of ya about the arson gang vendetta, and I thought you'd be heading out to catch them all still asleep. I wanted to be there in case ya needed me, not to stop you but to back you up.. but I wanted you to be able to do what you were gonna do on yer own. I didn't want to force my help on you, so keep on tellin yerself ya don't need me, I'll be here watchin yer back." He shook his head slowly in disbelief that she did wind up needing him but she didn't see it and she still was lying to herself about it. "As for not hiding anything from me, yer only not hiding it now cause I just found out for myself.. so that don't count."

"And I hate to call you wrong, but if I killed that bastard he wouldn't have any reason to come and find you again now would he." He raised an eyebrow, his anger subsiding some now that she had relented. He found that his fight was waining, the piss and vinegar boiling in his blood was dissipating with her surrender. "But we both know that wouldn't give you what you need, now would it?" He took his hand off of hers looking in her eyes, head giving the slightest of bows. He wanted her to know he trusted her, but he was going to protect her whether she liked it or not. "I know you need to face him yerself but you ain't ready for that yet. The day will come though and when it does you'll see how easy it'll be to get rid of that scum. A man who does that to someone he claims to love ain't deservin of a quick easy death. I was only gonna maim him, give em a nice deep leg wound so he limped for the rest of his god given days. Make em think twice about comin to find you anywhere ever again. That way the ball would stay in your court Angel Eyes."

"But this whole 'I give up' thing ain't like you at all. I know the truth hurts and if ya think I'm lyin to you then yer as dumb as a stump." He focused on the road ahead and the mirrors then, constantly looking for signs of Gard's presence, or the police. "I love you too, ya gotta know that, and this is not pointless. The reason I came to get you and the reason I am with you now is the same reason I will make it a point to act every time I feel I'm needed. My life is empty without you in it. I don't care how you think ya look in my eyes, to my eyes you look amazing."

[Ember]

Eyes focused straight, Aideen bit her lip and shook her head slightly. "Who are you kidding Logan?" she said softly. "You're never going to look at me the way you did before. You're going to see me and all that will follow is the thought that I stood against you, whether it was by choice or not. I have to start being realistic." Looking out her window at the familiar buildings, she needed to compose herself a little more before continuing. Trying to keep the natural barriers she developed against this kind of thing at bay took more work than ever before at that moment, but she was not going to give him that satisfaction.

"Name me one time Logan, just one time when I didn't answer a question that you asked. When did you ever ask me anything about my life or my past and I didn't give you a full answer? I swear if you name one time, I will retract everything I said," Aideen said in the same soft voice looking ahead. She had never ever hid anything from him, never left him wondering when he wanted to know. She trusted him more than anyone, and she never thought twice about it. There was nothing she wouldn't tell him, and if she couldn't physically tell him, she'd let him know off the bat.

"I'm not hiding anything just because I don't volunteer information, but then again neither do you. And I don't condemn you for it." Aideen rested her arm against the window ledge, looking straight out the window the whole time. "I never learned another way to live, it's all I know and you can't expect me to transition away from behavior that's been ingrained in me my entire life in only a couple of months. That's not fair," she said glancing at him for only a moment and then away, not wanting to come undone to this point.

They were really close to the garage, and there was still a battle within Aideen about asking Tracy to heal her. It was bad enough Logan knew, but at the same time Tracy never asked questions that she could sense would not be welcome. "What would make you think, that after you asked me not to go ahead with any of my plans against that crew I would go do it behind your back? I told you I would leave it, and yet you were still suspicious of me. You don't trust me Logan. Being suspicious of me doing anything behind your back, especially after I told you I wouldn't do it isn't trust."

Her voice was soft and steady, gaze remaining on road in front of them. "I did nothing to earn those kind of feelings from you. I don't know what happened with women before me, I never asked because it's not my place. But I'm not them. This may be my first true relationship, I may still be learning and not know exactly how to act sometimes, but I don't know what I did to make you think I would ever go behind your back for anything." Aideen was wracking her brain, trying to think of something she did, anything that she might have said or done wrong to make him think that she could go behind his back or lie to him. Perhaps she was just not good at this relationship thing, and was too far gone to get better. She didn't know, but the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her probably more than anything else.

[Wolverine]

"Who's kiddin who kid? You know I never heard ya lie to me, I woulda called ya on it the second I heard it..but witholdin information on a need to know basis ain't somethin ya do with someone ya care about, my life's different- there's too damn much ta share in a evenin by the fire. Hell, I been alive since before yer granddaddy's balls dropped. As fer trustin ya.?." he turned the corner of the street where the garage stood up an alley.

"..You never said ya wouldn't change yer mind on the revenge bit AND I never made ya swear on a bible, so sue me fer carin about ya. I thought ya changed yer mind and I wanted ta be there if shit went bad. You know ya are a woman Aideen, and women do tend to change their minds- yeah.. even you. I don't know if women are hard wired ta do it, but I ain't gonna be the one ta say ya aren't entitled to do that."

"Were almost here.." he said slowing the car to an idle as they approached the building ".. and yer right, I never will look at you the same way again. My eyes have been opened to more of you and whether it's good or bad in your estimations I don't care, it's more of YOU, so it can't be bad. It means I get to know you better, to understand you better, and I can share more of ME with YOU. It builds something deeper, it makes us more transparent... less hidden from each other- even if we still want to hide ourselves from the world. It just let's me see inside of you better and helps me follow what yer all about and why ya do what ya do. Hell the more we know about each other the closer we are.. and I want to be closer to you. How could I not?"

"The thought of being without you isn't even somewhere I want my mind ta go, so quit puttin it in my head there you." He scolded playfully but sincerely. "And quit comparin yerself ta the ghosts of MY past, I ain't gonna compare myself ta your ghosts. I might never measure up, and as for this bein yer first relationship well I'm honored and pleased ta have the title, but ya been fond of others before me I'm pretty sure." He remembered the picture of her with that James character hanging on the wall of the joint they'd been staying in and raised an eyebrow slightly at her. "Look, I only followed ya to watch out for ya. So, what's the deal- I can't do that? Nobody said I can't look out for ya, is that somethin ya want me ta quit? Cause I'll tell ya right now it ain't gonna happen unless ya tell me to stop." he looked at her again as he stopped the car on the street just before the turn to the alley for the garage.

"Hell I only been holdin myself back with Brock cause he's a punk and I know ya can take him, That and the whole school environment thing, but this.." a grunt escaped him then as he considered it "this situation, it sounded real bad, looked and smelled bad too." It truly did have sinister written all over it now that he thought back to the moment of his decision to trash his bike and 'the old homestead'. "I just went with my gut reaction and it's the first time that's ever turned out ta bite me in the ass. Well.." he thought back to some of his worst mistakes in the long years of his life ".. OK maybe not the first, but it's usually pretty damn well on point!"

"I'm done fightin with ya. We both made a mess of things. I screwed up by followin ya- you screwed up by not confidin in me, we both dropped the ball on the trust thing..." he took a deep breath ".. but only a little bit. This ain't somethin we can't get over and if we do it'll only make us stronger for it, but if yer done with all this then I ain't gonna beg." He chuckled one soft but gruff chuckle. "Wouldn't do no good anyhow. So you let me know," his tone softened even more then and the timber of his voice was warm and loving "cause I'm willin ta stick it out. Are you?"

[Ember]

"I told you Logan, I can't walk away from you," Aideen said softly looking over at him and pushing her hair away from her face. It had been up in a bun when she went to Church, but it came undone when she was putting her clothes back on and was now still damp and curling slightly from the sprinklers. "Not even if I tried," she added softly, a light sigh escaping her lips as they turned into the alley way. For one solid moment, she had felt incredibly alone when she thought that it was it for them and it was something she never wanted to feel again. Sometimes the defenses that she developed in her mind when living with her uncle served as a comfort, because they kept her from being connected with any emotions and kept her from feeling anything.

"Logan," she said softly as the stopped in front of the garage. He hadn't gotten out yet to open the metal closing, the car just sat in park. She unbuckled her seatbelt, keeping her breath even as the shots of pain hit through her back. Moving over the seat as carefully as she could, Aideen climbed on to his lap, stradling him to make herself fit between him and the steering wheel. She tucked her head into his neck, hands moving to his shoulders to hug herself close to him. Her body sagged into his lightly, breath leaving her lips while she took a minute to settle against him. After having to see her uncle and needing to revert back into that stage of her life and being convinced that whatever relationship that they had was coming to an end, she just wanted to forget, if only for a minute, and pretend that everything was perfect.

At this point, she was all but numb from the pain from the deep lashes on her back. It was the last thing on her mind right now, she just wanted to be close to him. "That was our first fight then," she stated softly into his neck, relaxing into him and closing her eyes. "I don't like fighting with you. Though they say that disagreements and arguments should be present in healthy relationships, I still don't like it." Aideen nuzzled his neck and sighed again. "I do love you, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I don't want to lose you in any manner, and I'll admit I'm scared it will happen." An inner battle was going on in her mind, trying to decide exactly how much she should tell him on her reasons for not saying something sooner. She did not want to sound insecure or unsure in regards to what they had, and because she was not exactly the best when it came to wording feelings, it was probably best not to dive into them.

She shifted in her seat to move herself closer and took a deep breath at sharp pang of pain that shot through her then. "It would be different if I lost you. It's more with you than anyone else, not just physical attraction and not just a a feeling of comradeship. My Sergeant was the only person who was not cold to me when I was a child which doesn't make it surprising that I formed an attachment to him. James was a friend, who unfortunately was already in the psychological stage of being invincible and immortal that all adolescents go through when I met him. You however are more than that, more than anyone I ever had, and unfortunately that planted a fear within my mind. Irrational fears, whether they be relative or not, make people innately react peculiarly." Aideen stroked his bare shoulders, cool to the touch to her warm hand. He smelled of smoke and gasoline, which wasn't altogether unpleasant for the firebender. She sighed into him again, nuzzling her face into his neck. "May we not fight again for awhile? I realize that it's unpredictable as to when an argument would arise, but I think I rather not have one for awhile," she said quietly into his neck, not willing to move for now.

[Wolverine]

"Sure thing Angel Ey-" he stopped and gently reached up to cradle her head against his neck pressing his lips against her hot forehead "yes, Aideen... no more fighting." His other hand stroked her thigh for a moment before reaching to the power seat controls and sliding them back away from the steering wheel.

As it reached the farthest point on it's track the seat halted with a smooth stop, not jerking them at all. He sat there with her on his lap. Her body cradled against him, he made sure not to touch her back. He listened to her breathing, felt her heart beating against his chest, smelled the fire still in her hair and under it the scent of her that he had followed to his shame. If he had only left her to handle her own business, but her life and her happiness was a part of his business as well.. was it not?

He didn't want to think any more about it. It was confusing enough as it was and to think more on it would only serve to twist things up even more for him. Let it go old man, the kid's safe, she can come in and lick her wounds - or have Tracy heal em, but she'll live to fight - er, rather- to see another day. It's always a fight with you ain't it? Yeah, it's what I do... I'm the best at it, but she's right. Outta the mouths of babes huh.. fightin don't solve it all. I know that, but it's just this life.. this crazy world. In a perfect world I wouldn't need to be who I am, but it's far from perfect, so I guess I should be grateful.

He placed his head against her's Cause right here and right now I am glad to be me. "C'mon kitten, let's get you up-" he opened the car door and slid out with her in his arms, one hand holding her neck, his fingers wrapping through her hair on the side and back of her head, the other slid under her bottom to keep her in place against his body. He felt her cross her legs behind his back, holding some of her own weight with her thighs as he shut the car door with a nudge of his hip. "-and see what the kiddies are doin."