The rest of the night went by in a mind-numbing blur.

Once Zach was arrested, Kaleb and I were forced to go to the police station as well and give statements, which took an ungodly amount of time. My hand was also looked at by a paramedic and wrapped up securely after she laboriously took each and every shard of glass out one by one over the course of twenty minutes.

By the time they released us, it was into the wee hours of the morning and I was completely and utterly drained. My tears had dried until my eyes stung from overuse, my emotions were still running on high and it was taking everything in my power to sit quietly in Kaleb's truck as he drove us back to his place.

As I leaned my cheek against the cool glass of Kaleb's passenger side window, the final moments as we were leaving the police station flashing through my mind and sent a violent shiver of foreshadowed fear through my veins.

I sat with my forehead cradled in the palm of my hand as I rested my elbow on the table in front of me, waiting in pure exhaustion for Kaleb to finish up giving his statement.

Everything hurt.

My face, my mouth, my head, my heart.

I was a total mess and I knew it. I could tell by every look of pity sent my way from the strangers in the police station that I looked like I had just been through the ringer. I hadn't had the time nor the courage to look in a mirror yet. No doubt my face was swelled and covered in sickly, purple bruises, a drop or two of blood still probably staining across my cracked lips and sore chin.

I already felt like total shit on the inside, no need to prove it to be the same on the outside.

A sharp gasp pushed through my lips and my head snapped up as my body flinched back on instinct as I felt a hand clasp down on my shoulder.

I was met with the warm brown eyes of the woman who had taken my statement, her brows immediately dipping in guilt as I flinched back from her touch.

"Sorry, I just wanted to let you know that your boyfriend is signing the last of his forms now and you two are released to go home."

"Oh, okay..." I trailed off, swallowing back the instant fear that had risen in my stomach as her touch and nodding, sparing her a brief, grateful glance.

"Thank you."

"No problem, sweetie. Just take care of yourself, okay?"

"Kay," I replied meekly.

With another curt nod sent my way, she left into the back of the station, off to file paper work or something of the sort. As I watched her walk away, my eyes ended up finding Kaleb's figure standing tall at the end of the hallway, his head hung over a desk as he signed away on the last of his forms.

Just as it had always been with us, it didn't take but a second for him to turn his head in my direction as if sensing my stare and connecting his tired, yet comforting gaze to mine.

A ghost of a smile rose on his lips as he signed and dotted the last of whatever it was he was signing without even sparing it a glance, set the pen down and started his way towards me.

I rose from my seat as he approached, my arms secured around myself tightly as I did so, hugging and holding myself together as much as I could, feeling as if at any moment with a simple touch, I would shatter.

I could almost feel him trying not to look at my battle wounds. His stare was filled to the brim with a thousand different shades of anger, compassion, worry, and overall, love. He worked to keep his stare glued to mine but I could tell with every tempting quiver of his stare, he was trying not to focus on the evident wounds that littered across my face.

"You ready to go?"

"Definitely," I answered in a tired, weak voice.

Finally dropping his gaze to my lips and letting his unreadable eyes linger across my cracked and dried lips and swoop down to my bruised chin, he let out a deep sigh through his nostrils and nodded.

"Let's go-"

A sudden commotion from behind us grabbed all of our attention and propelled our stares to the back of the station.

"Let me go!"

My eyes widened in shock and horror as I watched as three cops struggled with keeping Zach in line as he thrashed about in their grips and tried to break free.

And then, his eyes found mine.

"Leah! Tell them to let me go!" he ordered, his voice booming across the station.

I was frozen, watching helplessly as they dragged the man I had loved for three years to the back so they could transport him to jail.

"Fucking tell them, Leah!"

Warmth cascaded over my body as I felt two very familiar, large hands splay out across my back and pull me into a broad, strong chest. Kaleb held my shaking body tightly against his as Zach continued to shout out demands to me as they dragged him towards the back to the station.

"This isn't over! You fucking hear me, Lee?! You're mine!"

I whimpered and pressed myself even harder into Kaleb's loving embrace as Zach's threat hit my ears.

"This isn't fucking over!" Zach called out one final time before I heard the back door open and Zach's voice dull out until deafening silence washed over the room.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts of Zach's threats and the possibility of them becoming more than just mere threats that I hadn't even realized that we had arrived at Kaleb's apartment complex and had parked.

"Leah?" Kaleb's deep voice broke through my morbid train of thoughts.

My head snapped over to meet his awaiting stare.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled out as I realized we had reached our destination and without further exchange of words, grabbed my purse, cracked Kaleb's truck door open and stepped out onto the pavement.

The cool night air nipped at the bare skin of my arms and legs and I was more that anxious to get inside as I followed behind Kaleb as he led his way up to his apartment.

We didn't speak to each other the entire way up, nor did we exchange words as we made our way inside of the apartment I had only been in once before that was to be my home now for the next three weeks.

The air was thick around us, charged with a high potency of some overwhelming emotion in which neither of us cared to identify as we pushed on in silence.

Eventually, I made my way to the bathroom.

With careful, calculated steps I walked into the decently sized bathroom and ever so slowly forced myself to face the taunting mirror that was just feet away from me.

I couldn't help the gasp that flew from my lips at the sight before me.

Blood shot eyes, swollen cheeks mixed with purple and blue coloring, lips that were busted and coated sporadically with specks of crimson blood.

My normal wavy, auburn hair was messed in every which direction, tangled in more spots than I could count from being thrown around, grabbed at, and pulled on.

I looked the spitting image of the nightmare I had been living for the past two years.

I stayed. I stayed even though I shouldn't have; even though people told me not to.

And this is what I got in return for my ignorance.

Raising my hand up hesitantly, I gingerly grazed my fingers across the swell of my bottom lip in an attempt to clean some of the blood off.

"Ah," I winced out as pain cut through my chin.

I sighed deeply, dropping my gaze from the ashamed image in the mirror.

"You want some help?"

I visibly jumped at the sound of the new, rich voice in the room. My eyes snapped back up to the mirror to find Kaleb's staring right back at my reflection, our stares connecting in an electrifying trance.

He was leaning his body up against the frame of the door, watching me inspect myself with close precision.

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed himself off of the door frame and began to make his way towards me in slow, calculated steps, keeping his stare trained on mine.

I could feel it, the atmosphere charging around us and I knew he could too. The intensity of the night, this moment was all too much and it wouldn't be long before something or someone broke.

He brought himself in front of me, his massive body looming over mine and his entire expression screaming with some overpowering emotion that he was so expertly hiding behind his impassive facade.

Slowly, he raised his hand up and reached around and behind me, grabbing for something and effectively breaking our intense eye concentration.

The sound of water spilling from a faucet washed through the room and seconds later, Kaleb's hand came back into my view with a soft looking washcloth in his hand that appeared to be damp.

Ever so carefully, he raised it to my chin and with the most gentle motions, began to wipe away the memories of tonight's horrid battle from my face. The cool water from the cloth soothed my aching face with each tender caress across my skin.

A sharp breath of air cut through my nostrils as Kaleb maneuvered the wash cloth over the spot that Zach had sent a powerful punch into and agonizing pain sliced through my cheek.

Kaleb's movements stopped.

I caught the sudden movement of Kaleb's other hand that hung by his side.

His hand was balled into a tight fist, his knuckles showing white where spots of Zach and his blood were now mixed over his fingers.

Confused, I peered up through my lashes to see what sort of emotion Kaleb's face held.

There was nothing.

His face was as impassive as it had been since we left the police station, his lips set into a hard line and his eyes frigid with no emotions passing through.

Was he holding something back?

On a sudden, thoughtless whim I reached my arm out slowly until the palm of my hand rested on top of Kaleb's and my fingers wrapped gently around his shaking fist.

Letting my eyes flicker up to Kaleb's, I was less than surprised to find his gaze already pinned on mine. I watched as he fought off something, some dire emotion that was trying to break through his composure as it swirled and crashed through his bright stare.

Pointedly, I raised my other arm up and tugged the damp cloth from Kaleb's grasp.

He let it go without much fight, his desperate eyes pleading into mine, but what he was asking for with his forlorn look was all but lost to me.

Carefully, I removed my hand from on top of his and instead cradled my hand underneath his in a loving manner as I brought the cool towel up and began running it in soft strokes across his hand, ridding his and Zach's blood from sight.

I worked on gently cleaning his hand until it was spotless and the only thing left was the beginnings of bruises as they slowly formed across his busted knuckles.

The room was filled with overwhelming silence the entire time as I cleaned his wounds.

I wasn't sure what to say and I think that if Kaleb did speak, he feared that his whole facade would crumbled rapidly around him, leaving him vulnerable to whatever emotion was coursing through his heart in that moment.

Languidly, I lifted his hand that I had been cleaning to my lips. Gently and mindful of my sore chin, I let my lips graze ever so softly across the back of his hand.

I heard a sharp intake of breath come from above me but I didn't let it distract me as I ran my lips in loving strokes up and down his hand, placing soft kisses on his knuckles along the way.

My lips lingered over Kaleb's fingers as I placed sweet kisses on the tips of each one of them. By the time my lips left his thumb in a sweet, tender kiss, my heart was thrumming in my chest and I was anxious to see if my actions had had any real effect on tearing down Kaleb's walls.

Warily, I peered up at him.

My lips parted and my eyebrows quickly elevated on my forehead in astonishment as I took in the slow petals on water slipping down Kaleb's distraught and utterly overwhelmed expression.

"Hey, hey," I cooed to him in a soothing voice as I reached my good hand up immediately and cupped his cheek with it, my thumb peeking out and brushing away his fallen tears.

A short, heart wrenching sob broke past his lips as he closed his eyes, his brows dipping together in anguish as he leaned his face into my hand.

"Talk to me," I begged in soft whisper as I pressed my body into his fully, leaving no space between us whatsoever. His forehead came down to rest against mine as more silent tears spilled from his still closed eyes.

I felt both of his arms move around me as he wrapped them around my waist and held my body against his in a desperate grip, his fingers digging into my skin as he continued to cry quietly above me, his weeping face just inches from mine.

My heart constricted painfully in my chest with each new tear I witnessed slip from his shut eyes and drip down his flushed face. By the firm grip of Kaleb's arms around me, his inability to speak, and his constant flow of tears, I was slowly beginning to understand where his breakdown was originating from.

"I love you," I said to him in a wisp of a voice, my tone swelling with severe honesty and passion for the man who was holding me so tightly; so protectively.

The man who I was almost certain thought he might lose me tonight.

Another soft cry slipped through Kaleb's lips, his forehead creasing in deep, distressed lines as he absorbed my words.

Then, for this first time since we had arrived at his apartment, Kaleb parted his trembling lips and spoke.

"I love you too," he replied in a broken whisper.

"And I'm okay," I reassured him in a strained voice as my throat began to tighten, thick with so much true emotion.

He nodded, his warm forehead moving against mine.

"I know."

Finally, the lids of Kaleb's eyes lifted and revealed his mesmerizing eyes to me and showed the true pain and grief swimming through them.

"It's just... when he had you at the end and said he was going to kill you-" Kaleb broke off suddenly, his expression showing with strain as he tried to keep in the tears and pain that threatened to spill over once again as he reminisced about the night. After a moment or two, he swallowed hard and continued.

"When he said that... for a fraction of a second... I believed him and that second was the worst, most godawful second of my entire life. Nothing had ever hurt that fucking much until that second in time. The thought of losing you..." he cut himself off once more as his voice cracked with sorrow and his words were overtaken by his overwhelming grief.

"But you didn't. I'm still here and that's all because of you, Kaleb."

"No, it's not," he bit out through clenched teeth as anger seemed to seep into his pores and replace the sorrow he was feeling. "By the time I got in there he had already beat you to shit," Kaleb spat out.

"Yes, but if you hadn't have come when you did I wouldn't be standing here talking to you right now," I relented, my eyes burning into his and my tone etched in certainty.

"If you hadn't have been there, I would be dead right now. Zach would have killed me and I would be dead on the floor of my own apartment right now. You saved me, Kaleb. You saved me in more ways then you'll ever be able to know..."

"But you still got hurt because of me; because of being with me. You even fucked up your hand to save me," Kaleb muttered as he dropped one of his hands from around my waist and gently picked up my hand that was wrapped with several bandages. Without sparing me a glance, he ran the patch of his thumb over the palm of my hand, his touch tickling through the tightly wound bandages.

"You saved me just as much as I saved you, Peaches."

"And you're so brave," Kaleb continued, his veracious stare pinning on mine as he spoke. "You fought so hard tonight and I'm so proud of you..."

My throat pinched with emotion and my eyes welled instantly.

He was proud of me.

"And I don't want you to worry about anything that he said at the station. That fucker is gone from your life forever, Leah. You won't ever have to worry about him ever again. You aren't his. You don't belong to him like he said. You don't belong to anyone."

"But I do," I spoke in rebuttal, my tone soft and endearing.

"No, you don't. He has no hold on you anymore, Leah. You aren't his." Kaleb's said as he tried drilling his words into my brain.

"But I am yours."

Kaleb's stare immediately dissipated of anything other than adoration as the side of the mouth quirked up into a small smile.

"You know I love hearing you say that... but you know that you don't belong to me, right? You're free to do whatever you want, make your own decisions."

"I know." I nodded as a soft smile of my own graced my lips. "And I love you for that. But I also know that I'm willingly giving myself to you. I want to be with you, I want to give you everything I possibly can in return for you giving me my life back."

My thumb ran small, loving circles across the rise of Kaleb's cheek bone as I melted into his body completely and he held me in his arms dearly, looking down at me with the utmost affectionate look embedded deeply within his stare.

"I know you don't own me like Zach did. But you do own my heart and because of that I can willingly give everything else to you too. Because I trust you. Because I'm madly in love with you and I want to be yours."

Kaleb and I stayed with our eyes locked together, my head craned back to look at him and his head hanging down to look at me.

"And I'm yours, Peaches. Always have been. Even if I didn't know it yet," he said with a slight, adoring smile that I'm sure only reflected my own as his words rang true through my ears.

Ever so tenderly, Kaleb lowered his lips to mine. He was sure to be gentle as his lips melded over mine, being sure not to put too much if any pressure at all into the kiss. It was sweet, affectionate, and much needed as both of us poured every ounce of our love and gratefulness for each other into the kiss.

My lips moved against his smoothly, a twinge of pain biting into my chin with the movement but I found that I could care less and the only thing that mattered in that moment was Kaleb and being as close to him as physically possible.

I could feel with each gentle pull of his lips with mine and sweet caress of his soft lips against my own, that our connection was deepening to an inseparable level.

He was mine and I was his.

"Take me to bed," I whispered as I pulled out of the kiss.

"Gladly."

Within the next five minutes, Kaleb had stripped me of my clothing which was splattered with blood and slipped one of his shirts over my body to sleep in. He too took off his shirt that was littered with blood of probably all three of us who were involved in the fight tonight.

A purple tinted mark the size of a foot print drew my eyes in immediately to Kaleb's otherwise perfect torso. It was the spot where Zach stomped on him. Guilt promptly invaded every section of my mind.

"Don't even think on it." Kaleb's voice broke me of my depressing concentration on his bruise covered abs, forcing my gaze to fly up to his.

"It's hard not to," I responded solemnly.