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"So do I," Rob said, golden eyes warers intertwined with Rob’s He smiled, but Kaitlyn couldn’t feel his happiness in the web anyain," he said to Rob He was saying two things with that, Kaitlyn realized

Suddenly, solow faded "Please co politely, like a stranger

So you’re not a psychic vampire any rooht? The Fellowship said if the crystal was destroyed, you’d be cured"

Kaitlyn realized that he was chattering deliberately, filling the silence, trying to help in the only way he could Gabriel srateful, but Kaitlyn could see the pain behind those gray eyes

She herself knew that she should be going upstairs, but she couldn’t seeined that a person could go froloriously happy to so wretchedly ly short tihtened, and sick with pain I’ in the sunlit dining roohter I’ll never be whole again; I’ll never be all right Oh, God, please, please tell me what to do

She pulled her hand away from Rob, because even her shields couldn’t contain the pain She didn’t want hiave Kaitlyn’s hand a squeeze Kaitlyn looked at her gratefully, unable to speak

Rob was looking a bit lost "Well-is anybody hurt?" he said, glancing around "Kaitlyn-?"

"I’h"

Gabriel, who had just sat down, looked up sharply "It’s all right Just a little burn" He had been pushing his sweater sleeve off his forearain

"Let me see No, I said, let me see" Rob clarip

"No, leave it alone It’s the other hand!" Gabriel’s tone was almost as harsh as it had been in the old days, but Kaitlyn detected a note al here Stop fighting and hold still!" Rob’s voice was equally annoyed He wrestled the sleeve up by main force-and then stared

Gabriel’s pale forearry red cuts, their lips curling open and beginning to bleed again with the rough handling Burns that were turning brown at the edges and still blistered in the middle They ran all the way froiddy

"What happened?" Rob said, with terrible quietness "Who did this to you?" He lifted clear golden eyes to Gabriel’s face, waiting

"Nobody" Gabriel looked angry, but somehow relieved, too "It just-happened It happened when the crystal broke"

There was a silence, a heaviness in the web Lewis frowned, Anna’s lips pulled in at the corners Bri and Renny had backed off, as if recognizing so at Gabriel hard

Kaitlyn was trying to blink dancing spots away She felt she should knohat had happened to Gabriel

She should know, if she could only think

"Well, relax," Rob said finally, evenly "I canso much Make it heal faster"

He put one hand on Gabriel’s arm above the elbow and held Gabriel’s palers for transfer points Gabriel sat, uncharacteristically docile and obedient

Rob’s thumb pressed into Gabriel’s palh the web, Kaitlyn could feel what he was doing Sending healing energy through the wounded liy to flow, as well Golden sparks traveling down Gabriel’s veins, goldenthe forear as the pain eased, his o down Kaitlyn knew that, and she knew that Rob’s healing brought hi so for so

Hey! Gabriel tried to jerk his ar, face furious But it was too late

They stared at each other a long old locked as they always had been when the two of the seconds

Then Rob’s face changed and he settled back on his heels

Gabriel held his hurt arm to his chest protectively, his own expression defensive and defiant

"You did those to your own self," Rob said flatly, cal Gabriel in the eyes "Tostay in contact with Kaitlyn" He said the words as if he weren’t exactly sure of theirto her and you had to talk to her over a long range So you thought pain would help you call louder"

Gabriel said nothing, but Kaitlyn felt the truth of it That hat he’d been concealing when he talked to her in the isolation tank When he gave her his best ue and some kind of pain, but he’d shielded ar and a piece of broken glass," Rob said, with growing confidence "And then later you poked at the sores so it with Rob in the web She could tell he didn’t exactly understand what the situation was, but that he was sure about one thing

"You love her, don’t you?" he said to Gabriel

Gabriel finally seemed able to break their locked stare He looked away, at the carpet His face was bleak

"Yes," he said

"More than anything," Rob persisted "You’d crawl on your belly over broken glass for her Easy"

"Yes, damn you," Gabriel said "Happy now?"

Rob looked at Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn’s head i, her body racked in so many different directions that she stood still She couldn’t see else, holding her precariously in one niece, was the thought that she mustn’t hurt Rob

She loved him too much to hurt hi the sa

She no that it was possible to love two people at once-because you could love them in different ways The love she felt for Rob noas a burning tenderness, a knowledge that he was the one who’d taught her it was possible to love, who had entle and steady, full of admiration and the intiolden and warm like a summer afternoon

And if it wasn’t the passion and desperate depth of feeling she had for Gabriel, she never wanted Rob to know

But as Rob looked at her, gazing with those clear eyes full of light, she realized that her shields were in tatters around her She had been awake for two days and in agony or terror for nearly as long She didn’t have anything left to shield with

And she could see, she could feel, that he was seeing right inside her Rob knew

"Why didn’t you tell me?" he asked her after a small eternity

"I didn’t-I didn’t feel that way-until-so s have happened" Kaitlyn faltered Of all things, she wanted to h now she saw that her love for hiradually, she didn’t kno to explain that "It’s probably just-I’ll get over it In a little while

"

"Not that, you won’t," Rob said "Neither of you I mean, I sure hope you don’t" He sounded as incoherent as Kaitlyn felt, and he kept sing But he went on doggedly, "Kait, I love you You know I do But this isn’t so I can compete with" He stepped back "I’ether"

He lookeddistressed, Kaitlyn realized vaguely Distressed, but not devastated Not ruined for life

There was so much more to Rob

And, as she watched, Anna moved up and put her hand on his back from behind Kaitlyn looked at her over Rob’s shoulder

Anna s sohtness filled Kaitlyn As if a huge and heavy weight had been taken off her chest She stared at Anna, and at the way Rob unconsciously was leaning back against Anna’s arm And the effervescent bubbles lifted her skyward

I just had a precognition, she told Anna silently, a stream of unspoken love and joy You will be very happy Your best friend says to go for it

Anna’s face was bright, as if so hed out loud Then he said, "Didn’t so up? And how about sonize that as a signal They followed hied at Rob’s ar hilad, he told Gabriel, and Kaitlyn could hear the truth in it I lad for you Take care of her

Then he was gone

Slowly, Kaitlyn turned to Gabriel

It had occured to her at the last minute that nobody had really asked him Maybe, even if he loved her, he’d prefer that the feeling go away Maybe he didn’t want her now that everybody had had a hand in the procedure

But Gabriel was looking at her now, and she could see his eyes

She had seen those eyes dark with brooding anger and cold as ice, she’d seen his gaze veiled like a spiderweb and shattering like agate under pressure But she’d never seen the joy and disbelief, and an al to s at her as if he hadn’t seen her for years and years of searching, and had just noalked into a room and come upon her unexpectedly As if he wanted to look at every part of her, now that he could do it honestly