Notre Histoire D'Amour

Chapter Thirteen

They go to bed fairly early mostly because they trust Julia to be fully healed, but after what they had come up with as their plan, she would need more rest.

She moved about the fallout shelter several times only because she could and all the lying down and preferably not even moving then, had pissed her off just a little. And though she is not feeling the slightest bit of pain from stitches or internal damage, she feels pretty lightheaded after a minute or two, has to sit back down in order not to faint. He notices that of course, tries to reason with her the next time she gets up, but she promises to be careful, not to leave the room and to walk only so far as she can still reach the bed or one of the chairs they had used only once.

He knows better than to argue with her after spending the last week locked on one place with her – not that he had shared a house with her for two weeks before that. Besides, he had lost the last one, too.

Whoever sent the Dome down took care of the pressing situation, curing the life threatening condition but obviously let the mental healing and building up physical strength up to them. It was rather cruel actually.

He offers her something to eat or drink about every ten minutes, the teenagers pitching in every two minutes in between. She is glad someone actually cares for well-being, but has to remind herself several times that she loves them. She can't really tell them to back off a little now that she's not in immediate danger anymore, now that she is not dying anymore. After all they've done for her, asking for some time without them fussing over her just seems a little – a lot- ungrateful. In time, they would stop that on their own accord. Until then, she just had to live with it – live being the operative word here.

When they ultimately go to bed, he adopts his original position against the wall, holding her close, now that he doesn't need to be careful about her injury anymore. She's turned on her side, head resting in the crock of his neck, inhaling his scent. He smells of dirt and blood and the forest and something distinctively him, and it's the latter that makes her ignore the fact, that none of them had bathed in almost a week and that she should be repulsed by the thought of cuddling up to him in this state.

She doesn't recall falling asleep, remembers thinking she never wants to so she won't miss a second with him, but being awoken by the shrill beeping of the alarm function Angie's watch possesses, she must have some time. She opens her eyes, blinking a few times, then closes them again and cuddles deeper into his embrace. She knows they have to get up, preferably five minutes ago instead of in ten minutes but she is just too comfortable resting in his arms. For a moment she hates the plan they have come up with the day before, wants to ignore the pressing matter of leaving the bomb shelter, of leaving Chester's Mill, then she lets out a long sight, opens her eyes for real this time and stares right into the beautiful ones of the man she loves.

"Morning" she smiles. It is barely three a.m. and all she wants to do is catch a few more hours of sleep, and here he is, awake and cheery as if they had slept for days and did not have the fate of a whole town on their shoulders. She doesn't answer, leans forward and captures his lips with her own in a gentle good morning kiss. They let themselves revel in the kiss for a moment, enjoying the other's lips on their own, memorizing the feel of their tongues battling.

Just in case.

Just in case anything might go wring with their plan.

Just in case that would be the last kiss they shared.

When they part for air, he reaches for his pocket, fumbles a bit with whatever he just produced and then brings it up between them. He dangles his deformed dog tags before her face, smiling when she looks a bit shocked. In truth, she hasn't even noticed them not hanging from her neck anymore. She knows when had put them off her, at least she assumes they were in the way of saving her life. She wants to say something but he kisses her again, cuts her off effectively. Then he slides the chain back over her head, whispers how much he loves seeing them on her and this time it's her that closes the distance between them.

Joe and Norrie, adorably cuddled up on his bunk, sleep through the alarm. Angie's not so subtle cough breaks the two love birds apart eventually and they reluctantly but determinedly get out off bed. There is nothing to do for them before leaving the shelter, no changing clothes, not showering, not even brushing their teeth, so they waited patiently for Angie to climb down from her bunk and walk them out the door. The girl would lock up behind them again and then the teenagers would spend their day taking turns outside by the front door, waiting for the three knocks they had agreed upon a week ago.

Angie wishes them luck, gives them a little space as they reassure each other of their love again – just in case – then she sees them out and without hesitation closed and locks the door behind the two adults.

She holds onto his hand like a lifeline, doesn't trust herself to move without the constant reminder that he is with her and that they were still safe. The plan they had come up with involved Julia and Barbie creeping across town to the river she had dumped the egg in. Their main goal would be to remain completely undetected, hence the early hours, since they probably wouldn't make it back to the safety of the fallout shelter and the kids if they had some townsfolk hot on their trails. Julia just knew she is able to fins the exact spot she had let go of the egg despite it being a pretty large lake. She is sure because she did not only leave the egg there, but almost her life, too. It is pretty hard to forget such things. They probably would dive for it, the contamination didn't affect Julia in the slightest the last time.

They are almost halfway across town, when they encounter the first people and they were obviously looking for them. She would have thought after a week they would not be so determent in their search anymore, but then again, they did kind of vanish in a town where there's no way out. Barbie pulls her behind some bushes, only a few paces away from the searching eyes of those new police officers, clams a hand over her mouth to keep her silent. Twenty minutes later they are back on their way, dodging a few more search parties along the way. He quickly discovers that his favorite method of muffling her ragged breathing involves both their mouths and maybe just a little bit of tongue.

She doesn't know what she expected upon arrival at their destination but this sure isn't it. She would be lying if she said she hadn't hoped for a little help from them in reclaiming the egg, but what she sees is just a little unbelievable – even for her and what they had been through over the last three weeks.

There is no need for her to remember, to find the exact spot they are looking for, for where once had been a lake there, now is only a big, dry crater. She shares a look with Barbie, who seems as surprised as she is, but then shrugs his shoulders and approaches the black object in the middle of the hole. She lets him drag her along, lets him lead but when they reach it, she picks it up and puts it into the plain, white bag they'd found in the wardrobe. For a moment they just stand there, waiting for the other shoe to drop, because really this could not have been this easy. Finally he pulls at their entwined hands and they start the same trek back they had come from.

The moment they step out off the crater that once had been a lake, the water returned like ebb just made room for flow and they share another look before deciding to get out off there as fast as possible.

They encounter double the amount of search parties than before, dawn almost breaking and he has to revert back to his methods of keeping her quiet. After the second one, he starts to suspect that she does it on purpose.

Both of them do not dare speak until they reach the outer door of the bomb shelter. She helps him clear the branches and stuff they put up there before leaving and then he finally knocks.

Norrie practically suffocates them in hugs when they step into the bomb shelter.

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