A/N — Happy New Year y'all!

Thank you all for following along with this story and voting on chapters and writing comments and adding to reading lists and simply just reading!

Every single one of you mean so much to me and I can't thank you enough! 🥰

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The weather began to gear up again, rain steadily falling during Rylee's drive home. She drove carefully, focusing on the lights and people bustling down the damp, bleary streets.

She didn't get so lucky parking when she got back home. She ended up having to park down the next block, near the corner. She waited in the car for a few minutes, hoping the rain would slow down a bit.

Eventually, Rylee sighed and gave up on the idea and turned off the car, as the rain continued steadily. She was about to just wing it and make a run for it but just then, she heard a snap outside. She jumped a mile and let out a small scream when she felt the car shake and heard metal creak.

She looked behind her through the rear window to see a thick branch from the tree she was parked near had broken off and hit the back of the car.

She laid her head on the steering wheel, ready to scream over her day. This can't get much worse. It really can't.

Rylee got out of the car, her umbrella up and fighting the wind as she went around the back of the car to see the damage. Luckily it wasn't a large branch, but it still broke the cars taillight and left a solid dent in the trunk.

Rylee didn't know what to do. At this point she completely gave up on the day.

Struggling with her umbrella, she quickly snapped a picture of the car and the damage for tomorrow when she would inevitably have to call someone about it. She moved the branch off the car so it didn't do anymore damage than had already been done, took another picture and then jogged towards the apartment.

Ugh. I've gotta tell Sebastian about the car. He won't be mad. Will he? He likes his car but it's not like...his pride and joy...I mean, he lets me drive it.

She shook off the thought. If he was mad he'd be mad. There's nothing she could do about it. It's not like she did it on purpose. She trekked through the puddles on the sidewalk down the street, fighting her umbrella all along the way.

She eventually made it back to the apartment lobby, basically drenched even with an umbrella.

Shawn had seen her coming down the sidewalk and opened the door for her, straining against the howling wind for a moment.

"Rylee! You good?" She heard Shawn say from behind the door.

"I'm...grand." She decided to just leave it at that, "how'd your drawer escapades go?" She asked as her shoes squeaked across the tiled lobby.

"Good. We got the generator started again, so the auto locks on the desk all work now. Elevators are back up too. Do you still need your key?"

"No, I got my spare from a friend. Thanks though," Rylee said as she tried not to groan at the thought that waiting twenty minutes could have saved her the trip to Alexa's and the tree limb falling on the car.

She decided not to push her luck for the day and avoided the elevators. Cause I'll totally end up stuck in that shit somehow. She made her way up the four flights of stairs to her apartment, but right on the last step, her shoe caught the edge and she slipped. She fell straight down onto her hands and knees and just stayed there for a moment, resting her head on her hands.

The sting from her fall earlier at the gym bit straight through her drenched gauze, and she could see small patches of blood attempting to seep through, mainly on her knees.

Honestly.

As she stood up, she said aloud, "I am 5000% done with today and 74% done with tomorrow." She didn't even worry about how crazy she sounded. She simply brushed herself off, finished the walk down the hall, took out Alexa's key, and made her way inside.

She kicked off her wet, squishy Converse at the door and padded back to the bathroom where she immediately ditched all of her clothes onto the tile floor in a heap. She slowly unwrapped all the gauze she had used earlier and threw it away. She climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash over her for a solid minute before she dove into actually using body wash.

About fifteen minutes later, she felt the hot water beginning to cool down, so she turned it off, carefully stepped out of the shower, and wrapped herself in a towel. She went back into her first aid kit yet again and reapplied her Neosporin and rewrapped both her knees and hands carefully.

After she felt she was done, she put the kit away and made her way down the hall towards the bedroom where she glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was 9:00 PM. She decided to just change into a pair of shorts and one of Sebastian's shirts and hop into bed.

The weather died down quite a bit, no longer rattling against the windows. At some point in the next hour, she was startled awake by the lights turning on, the power returning to the apartment.

She couldn't remember what lights were on in the house, and she didn't really care. She hopped up quickly to turn off the bedroom lights and immediately turned back around and slid back into bed under the blankets and quickly fell back asleep.

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In the middle of the night, Rylee half woke up when she felt the bed dip behind her and an arm wrapped around her waist. Instinctively and still half-asleep, she backed up into the embrace, her back pressing into the warm, solid mass behind her.

"Hey, beautiful," a familiar silky smooth voice whispered in her ear.

"Mm, hi," Rylee replied sleepily, completely oblivious to the fact that the man who belonged to that voice should be in LA right now, not in their bed.

"Get some sleep, we'll talk in the morning."

"Mmkay. Love you."

"I love you too, baby," sneaking a quick kiss to the back of her neck, as he laid beside her and they drifted to sleep together.

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Rylee woke the next day, still gripped tightly by the waist, which surprised her. She thought that moment last night had been a dream, but when she turned over, there he was, in the flesh.

Sebastian had been stirred awake by her movement, moving slightly himself, so Rylee could roll over and move in closer to lay on his chest.

"I thought you coming home last night was a dream. But..you're here. How are you here?"

"There was some issue with a filming location, so they gave us the week off so they could sort it out. Literally found out about it..." he looked at his watch, "eh, about 9 hours ago. Figured I'd surprise you when you couldn't make it out and the flights started back up."

Rylee could've cried right then and there. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Me too baby," Sebastian replied as he brought her into a tight hug, kissing her forehead.

Rylee sat back for a moment, taking in Sebastian's face, "The hair and everything's better than I expected."

Sebastian cracked up laughing at that, "I'm glad you don't hate it," Sebastian said, running his hand through his long black hair.

"I mean, it's definitely not you, but it's not the worst...mainly that..." she said pointing to his chin, "I'm used to the long hair."

Sebastian nodded in agreement, pulling on the small soul patch below his lip, almost out of habit.

"But, ugh I've missed you." Rylee said, pulling his face down for a long drawn out kiss.

"I've missed you too." Sebastian replied as they parted, pausing for a moment, "Wait, what happened to your hands?" He said, surprised, turning one of her hands in his and pulling it up to kiss it gently.

"How long do you have?" Rylee tried to joke, but just buried her face into Sebastian's chest, "Yesterday was rough."

She began talking about the trials and tribulations of yesterday. The weather being beautiful in the morning after the storm that grounded her plane, Jen being a bitch, falling off the treadmill, it pouring rain after the gym and getting soaked, the power going out, her phone dying, locking herself out of the apartment, interrupting Alexa and Chris very obviously in the middle of sex, the car taillight breaking and the trunk getting dented, and getting soaked again. And how the last three or so things could have been avoided if she had waited 20 minutes because Shawn could've got her a key by then.

"Wow. You weren't kidding. Well first off, are you okay?" Sebastian said, feeling awful hearing about her day.

She nodded, though tears threatened to flow, "And your poor car." She tried to curl up into his side, but he pulled her back to look at her, wiping a thumb across her cheek.

"Hey. I don't care about the car. And I don't want you to worry about the car either. It doesn't matter. As long as you're okay. Then alls well."

He took one of her hands into his, lacing his fingers delicately with hers, "You did a number on these though," he smiled sadly, lightly kissing all of her hand that he could see.

"My knees too." Rylee mentioned matter of factly.

"Oh, now that just won't do." Sebastian smirked.

Rylee let out a tear filled laugh, "Thank you for coming home."

"I'll always come home to you, Ryles." Sebastian whispered, kissing the side of her head as she laid back into his chest.