Lila

The knock came and the door slid open as it always did. And as her body seemed to like to do, when the voice said her name, her heart leapt because it sounded just like Dane. And she had to remind herself—but then he was there.

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His massive body stumbling like he'd been tripped as he walked in, falling to the floor, his big hands splayed, his shoulders rippling with the impact of catching himself on the floor, but his eyes were wide and searching, and he pushed himself up and came for her and Lila couldn't believe what she was seeing. Literally couldn't. Couldn't let herself. It had to be a trick, it had to be.

Dane here was impossible.

Dane naked was… it couldn't be.

The room was full of a weird, high, keening noise that she didn't realize came from her own throat as she pushed herself back on the bed, away from him, away from his hands and his eyes and his voice that were so familiar, but couldn't be him. They couldn't be.

Then he stopped, leaning on the bed in front of her, his eyes so sad. He said her name like a question and she gaped at him. He was there. In the daylight—or whatever the hell light they had in here. His hair falling over his bright green eyes, his lips making her name, and his voice. It was his voice.

"Dane?" she whimpered.

"Baby, it's me. It's me. I'm here."

"You can't… you can't be here."

"But I am. I'm going to make it better, Lila. I'll make you safe. I promise. Just like I said I would. Just… hold on, baby. Hold on."

"Dane?"

"It's me, honey."

Her vision blurred, and that didn't help. He knelt next to the bed, making himself small and it was so wrong. Dane shouldn't be small. His breath shouldn't catch, and his eyes shouldn't look sad like that. He shouldn't have to drop his face into the mattress and fist it in his hands because he didn't know what else to do. She was doing that to him. She was making Dane feel bad. She had to…

"Dane?" she said his name again and he looked up, his eyes red and shining. And she reached out a shaking hand to his cheek. He let her put it on his face and draw him forward, uncertain as he straightened and crawled towards her, slowly, watching her face. "Is it really you?" she breathed.

His voice broke when he said only, "Yes. Baby, it's me."

Softly, gently, uncertainly, as he sat in front of her on the bed, staring at her horrified at what she'd become, she leaned into his chest and put her face in his neck and inhaled. And it was the smell of him. The real smell. The real Dane. He was here.

"Oh, Dane! You can't be here!" she cried and flung herself into his chest.

He embraced her immediately, one arm around her back to pull her in, the other stroking her hair, her face, as he whispered his love and his reassurance. He was there. He was real. And he wasn't going to let anything else happen to her.

He promised.

He promised.

Lila, baby, he promised. Don't cry. He's there. He's there…

*****

Dane

Somehow she'd ended up in his lap. He held her to his chest like a child, stroking her hair off her face, and keeping her close, cursing his father for making her so confused. He had no idea how long they sat there, but she'd stopped shaking a while earlier when she finally sat up.

He pulled his head back far enough to look at her. She put a hand to his face, met his eyes, and said "Hi," and it almost broke his heart.

"Hi," he whispered, using one finger to pull a strand of hair off her cheek that had stuck to her lip.

She leaned in, her lips tracing his so softly, as if she was hesitant. He didn't press her, but a little noise broke in his throat when she sucked in and pressed her chest into his. He clung to her, tilting his head and taking the back of her head when she kissed him fully, pressing himself back into her. She cried out at one point and he almost stopped, but she just grabbed him and clung, kissing him desperately, until the whole world had become her lips and her hands and her hair.

He didn't know how long later they came up for air. She kissed him once, twice, then leaned back, combing his hair back from his forehead and stared, like she still didn't quite believe he was there.

"Is this a dream?" she asked in a small voice.

He shook his head sadly. "No."

Her throat bobbed, but she kept that hand on his face and even though her eyes were shining with tears again, she was smiling. But it didn't last. She looked at him a few seconds later, horrified. "You can't be here, Dane!" she said hoarsely. "He'll kill you!"

"No, no he won't. I already saw him. We already talked," he said, which was such a pathetic description for what had passed between he and his father that it felt like a lie.

"You… talked?"

He nodded. He had to drop his eyes though, because there was hope shining in hers, and he knew he would have to destroy it. "I'll fill you in on the details later, but… he's looking into some stuff, and while he does, he's going to let us be here. Together."

"Why would he do that?"

Dane huffed. "Because he's a sick bastard and he's going to get some kind of perverted pleasure from it."

She looked down at herself, naked. And then Dane too, then looked back him, her eyes horrified.

"Shhhh, no, no, that's not what I meant. I meant… I meant whatever he has planned he obviously thinks it will have more impact if we're together first."

"When?"

"When what?"

"When is he going to do… whatever he's going to do?"

"I don't know. Tomorrow, or the next day."

She swallowed and stared at him so intently he wondered if she wasn't believing him. Then she said, "We have a day? Together?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, God," she cried, and kissed him again.

Dane didn't have the heart to warn her. Not yet. He would do that later. Right now he just needed to press into her and remind himself that she was real.