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Pressing his face into the side of her head, he squeezed his lids tight, not wanting to let un wail of pain

He expected Christina to burst in, but when she didn’t, he rery A lot This wasn’t the first meltdown she’d heard It made him relieved and furious at once He pushed the latter aside with effort

"It’s all right, sweetheart," he said roughly "I’ve got you I’one"

"No, you’re not, da "I asked you a question at the end of every one of those letters You remember?" It took a while, but at last she nodded When he warily lifted so She worked her hand up underneath the weight of hi in silent anguish He sed

"I asked you if you’d ever thought about a different career, other than the army What was your answer to that?"

She sniffled, shook her head "II can’t do that anymore"

"What was it?" He wouldn’t reassure her yet If it was soure out so else she could do and love

She squeezed her eyes shut, as if she could still see, another way she could hide "I wanted to be a minister Give peoplefaith, and hope, that life could be better" He stared down at her as the tears increased She turned her face into the carpet to let the sobs take her anew Setting his jaw, Peter rose and lifted her off the carpet in one ," he said

"You owe me such an astronomical favor, I could demand your first-born I’vethan that nurse friend of yours She agreed to three days before calling the cops, but only because I said you’d call her with progress reports and let her talk to Dana whenever she wanted to She said either way she’s going to have a piece of your hide for reneging on your original agreeo withreason She doesn’t think she deservesdeserves you"

Peter offered a suitable hand gesture, which Ben returned, the videoconferencing connection nal at his bayou hoed "Seriously, I think you’re okay Christina knows you’re good folk In fact, between you andlike this Did Jon ot hoo Give Christina my cell number so she can call ht?" Ben lifted a brow at Peter’s pause "You rethinking this?"

"Yes No Hell, it’s been a stressful few hours Haven’t slept since yesterday Getting an unwilling woht, even a private one, is a bitch"

"Get so him in a way that told Peter he saw that the exhaustion was ive us a buzz If she’d be more comfortable with a wo to take a shift Good luck"

Peter nodded and cut the line, returning to his living rooe froer He wanted to interpret it as an i to be told what to do, rather than a coood reason to be here

Fortunately, she’d exhausted herself by the ti her in

They’d been al her out of the rental had been a bit of a scuffle, alar the attendant Dana infor bastard, but then thankfully subsided without a deiven hiave hirin and forward progress

It gave him hope that, deep inside, she did want to come here Of course, she’d been scared shitless and he was her only fa to his side, shaking as he took the shuttle to the private hangar He described everything as they went, told her as going to happen before it happened While she didn’t respond, her fingers held on to his as though she were hanging off the side of a cliff Fuck, had she been out of that house at all?