"The bomb. It was for me. I have something they want." My voice had dropped just like his, it was no more than a whisper and I finally said the words aloud. It almost felt like sharing this had taken a small weight off from my shoulders. My body was pressed up against Jesse's, sandwiching him to the tree as he still had a tight grip on my wrists.

"They? Who is they? What are you talking about?" He looked so confused, his eyes searching mine for answers as he tried to piece together my words.

I searched his eyes myself, was he ready to hear this. He already hated my guts, what was he going to think of me when he realised this whole thing was my fault. The pit in my stomach deepened at the thought of what he could do with this information- it would be the perfect opportunity to turn everyone against me. Yet, his eyes shone with nothing but pure intentions. I felt myself wanting to tell him, needing him to know so that maybe we could work this out together. Together. Why did I feel so compelled to trust this guy? It was that same feeling of no control that I could when I spoke to him and I wish that I could push it aside. But I couldn't.

Taking a deep breath I knew what I had to tell him.

"I was working in Tanzania, for doctors without borders on a uni break. One day I was in town and heard this girl screaming." I paused, the girls eyes haunted me to this day, "I found her alone in a room behind a alleyway. She had been tortured and she wasn't going to live much longer. All she could say was take the book. She gave me a stupid bundle of leather and told me to run- that it wasn't safe for me to help her." She'd screamed at me, shoving me away with what little strength she had left. I left her my bottle of clean water and forced my legs to push myself away from the girl. "But I didn't go too far, I stayed just around the corner. I hid under some cardboard in the alley and waited to see what danger the girl was in. It wasn't long before these guys- they came running into the Alley. I didn't understand what they were saying, I didn't speak that dialect but I heard her say 'She knows who you are know. This whole organisation is doomed.' Before she could say anything she pulled their trigger and shot herself in the head."

I paused, my eyes meeting Jesse's to find so many questions, so much admiration and confused that it hurt my own head. His look was telling me to keep going, but he could also see how hard it was for me and his thumbs had began to circle comfortingly around the back of my hands. It was a odd gesture yet it felt comfortable.

"I waited in that Alley until they were all gone, I waited for the whole night. I watched them search their surveillance feeds and find me. Luckily they only had cameras in their room, not in the Alley or they would have found that I hadn't even left yet. The next morning they'd packed up all of their belongings into vans and were gone, I couldn't understand anything they said now could I understand the book that I had. It was a bunch of names and numbers and what looked like addresses. As soon as they were gone I ran to the closest store- scared they would have found out where I was working already. I called the embassy and they took care of me. I was there for days before they sent me home. Except it wasn't my home. They took me to Darcy, convinced that if they found out my identity they would already be staked out at my home. Before I could even have a shower they had me and Darcy packed up and on our way to the airport and well, here we are."

"How do you know that it was them?" Jesse spoke after a short pause, asking the question I'd asked my self immediately after the crash. But Darcy had the answer.

~~~~~~~

"I saw him, the one that the feds showed us. The one that the van belonged to. It was him Dru I'm sure of it." Darcy's words had come out of nowhere, the two of us were sat in silence over the fire. I had just finished her stitches, hoping that it would be enough to bring some colour back into her face. She still looked so weak, her smiles not reaching her eyes. But my best friend insisted that she was alright- and I had to believe her.

"Who, Darcy?" I couldn't quiet collect my thoughts well enough to understand who she was talking about.

"The guy who you saw in Tanzania, the one whose name was in that book. He was on the plane. I saw him go into the bathroom right before everything happened." She sounded like she'd only just figured this out herself, her words slow and unsure.

"I saw him too." I admitted. My fingers fiddling wit the stick in my hands. "I didn't want to tell you so that it wasn't true." I had known that this was my fault since the second I saw the air masks drop down on the plane.

"It's not your fault, D, how were we supposed to know that they already found us?" She grabbed a hold of my hands, giving them a firm squeeze.

"But they are all dead because of me. Not just the people on the plane there to protect me- but everyone else. People that have loved ones and family. I'm the reason they are all gone." A single tear fell down my cheek. My whole life I'd been so consumed with helping people that the thought of being the cause of so much death was making me numb.

"You know what else is your fault, D? It's your fault that the government now can put a stop to some really bad people- people that have probably killed hundreds. You've saved more lives than you could even know." I tried to give her a weak smile but it didn't quiet work. I couldn't do this, I was supposed to save lives not end them. She wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight to her chest and I sobbed into her shoulder. "I love you, D, the only thing stronger than fear is hope and the only thing stronger than hope is you."

~~~~~

"We saw him on the plane. Right before it all happened." I whispered, my gaze dropping from his. I was ashamed and now that another person knew I couldn't help but wait to be told things I already knew.

"That's not your fault at all." His fingers reached for my chin, pulling my face back up to met his. This was all wrong, his eyes shone with sympathy and worry instead of disgust and hatred. What was wrong with him, did he not hear what I just said?

"It's completely my fault!" I exclaimed, pulling put of his grip and stepping away from him. "I'm the reason that the 10 people on that plane died protecting me, I'm the reason that my best friend can't go home to her boyfriend, I'm the reason that all of those people on the plane are dead. I'm the reason that all these people got sick and died, I'm the reason all of the people are about to die, I'm the reason that Cara might be dead too!" I scream at him, hoping to evoke some sort of response from him- I needed him to hate me, to tell me I was a murderer. But he just stood before me, trying to take a step closer to me.

"Stop this, Dru." He reached out for my arm, pulling it to him. Dru. Not princess.

I could feel my body shaking and I knew that all of my control was gone again. My heart felt like someone was pulling at it, it hurt so badly that all I wanted to do was leave this all behind.

"How was I stupid enough to think that trying to save all these people would work? I've tried my best to keep these people alive but it's never good enough. I'll never be able to protect anyone. Especially not with you constantly make sure I'm no help." I poked my finger into his chest, yelling at him as I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.

He reached for me before I realised what was happening. He pulled me to his chest, holding his hands on either side of my face. I was limp to his touch, unable to move away from him I just stood there. Out eyes were close that I could almost feel what he was thinking. Out breaths mixed together and my body began to flood with a wave of emotions I didn't have time for. He pressed out foreheads together as he took a deep breath. I couldn't help but to the same because our chests were pressed together so tightly.

"Why don't you hate me." I whispered, my words not having to be too loud due to our close proximity. The air around us was thick, almost buzzing as we stayed still the only movement coming from out chests that were rising at falling at a slow pace.

He didn't respond immediately, his deep breaths slowly becoming more of a normal pace. It was then that I realised my heart had stopped racing, the tears were gone and my control was slowly returning. He had clamed me down, and not just a little bit. He had completely soothed me, his eyes never once leaving mine as I returned to my normal self.

"How could I ever hate you?"

My palms were open on his chest now, my nose brushing his every now and again when we'd take a breath at different times. Which wasn't often because we felt so in sync that it almost hurt. The effect he had just had on me made me feel more uneasy than I'd felt this entire time.

I could tell I was having an effect on him too, his eyes telling me that he was confused and uneasy. We stood like that for a while, our breaths mixing as our chests moved together, out eyes never once wavered from each others. His hands hadn't dropped from either side of my face, even thought he knew that I wouldn't try and escape our position. His thumb was casually grazing the sides of my face, running along my hair line and cheeks which sent shivers down my spine.

I could have stood like that for eternity, out eyes searching for answers yet coming up with nothing- our state so beyond anything I'd ever experienced with him. There was no thought of kissing him, despite how close out lips were to each other. There was no urge to make it anything more- just to hold onto him and for him to hold onto me.

But eventually we had to pull away. My forehead dropped with my eyes, I could feel his lips against my nose because of this move. I pushed my self off from his body but brought my eyes back up.

So much was being shared between the two of us, his eyes were screaming at me to come back, to stop feeling so hurt. For a moment with him, nothing hurt and I wasn't going to ever take that for granted.

"Thank you." I whispered as I pulled my hands away from his chest. It was time to get some sleep, no matter how badly I wanted to pull him back to me.

"No, thank you, Dru." Unsure of what his words meant, I didn't have time to question it before he began to walk back to the fire.

~~~~~~