A beach in the Maldives

Nothing but sand all around them, their own private island and clear blue water lapping their feet.

"I told you," Aiden says. He reaches over to rub his palm over the space between her bikini top and bottom, her smooth waist. "Just you, me, and a beach in the Maldives."

Emily takes in a luxurious deep breath and lets it out, a familiar phrase coming to her. "Sounds like a dream."

"It is a dream."

That doesn't sound right. That's not what he is supposed to say. Emily looks down at his hand on her waist, alarmed to see that it's covered in blood. He removes it altogether to expose two bullet wounds on her abdomen, ever gushing.

"Wake up, Emily," he says.

When Emily opens her eyes she's assaulted by the sight of the guest bedroom in Grayson manor. The sun shines through the windows and burns too hot on her face.

\\\

Mr. and Mrs. Grayson may only be a couple in name but they still need to keep up appearances. It's Charlotte's birthday and half the Hamptons are celebrating at Grayson Manor. Of course, there are photographers, and Daniel's decided to play nice, which means that his arm is dutifully linked through Emily's, guiding her through the throng of guests.

Isn't he such a wonderful husband? Helping his wife recuperate, looking so in love. Any time they stop to talk to someone Emily is all smiles. She places a hand on Daniel's arm and looks at him so lovingly it's award-worthy. Daniel is a terrible actor by comparison. The actions are all there, but his face looks like he swallowed something sour but is too polite to complain to the cook.

"I can't lie," Emily says to a guest, "These have been trying times, to say the least. I'm just grateful to have such a wonderful husband in Daniel. He makes me stronger every day."

The guests coo and admire. Daniel kisses Emily on her waiting cheek, and when the guests move on he squeezes her hand until the embrace turns painful, and he whispers, "You're a monster covered in human flesh."

Emily plasters on a winning smile and straightens his tie. But the smiles are getting harder and harder to maintain. It's moments like these, when Daniel looks at her with such hatred, when she has to endure the feel of his touch—the worst feeling she knows—that Emily considers what her life has become.

Is any of this even worth it anymore?

\\\

The beach again. Sunny, and perfect, and eerily still.

Aiden sits beside her. He looks so content. "Our future's so close."

Emily looks down at her stomach. No bullet wounds this time. At least, not yet.

"We can have a life together."

"No," she says. She watches as his eyes dim, disappointment in them, confusion.

"Think about what you're saying."

"I have," she says.

Aiden looks down at his own stomach. He's got two bullet wounds, still fresh, and this time Emily's the one holding the gun. "Emily," he says. He's stunned and sad, but no more than she is. She drops the gun immediately, lets it fall to the sand.

She wakes up. She is alone in her bed. It is quiet. And she wants to scream.

\\\

After things end, it's always the happy moments you remember most vividly. They taunt you. Because it's not the jealous moments, or the angry moments we want to remember, it's the sweet ones that stay stubbornly on.

A memory comes to Emily unbidden, and she can't shake it.

It was their first simulation together, in Japan. They'd been training for a while already and Takeda decided to send them out into the field. Of the two of them, Emily was the more experienced, and that was why it frustrated the hell out of her that she was the one to get hurt.

"Just leave it," she said through gritted teeth. But Aiden ignored her. He pulled an emergency case out of his pack. He was so brand new that he actually took an emergency case with him, and Emily would've been embarrassed for him if she wasn't already embarrassed for herself for needing it.

Aiden placed his hands on either side of her head, tilted it, moved some hair back.

"This is ridiculous," she said. It was just a cut on her forehead, and they were spending too much time in an alleyway, stagnant when they should've been on the move. "We'll fail the mission if we don't keep going."

"It's a nasty cut," Aiden said. "It'll get infected if I don't treat it, and then you'll really fail your mission."

There was no point arguing. Better to just let him deal with it. He swabbed the wound with something that stung, but Emily didn't make a sound. He taped it with a butterfly strip, and when he was done, just as Emily was ready to get on her feet again and keep going, he bent forward and kissed her forehead.

She leaned away and looked up at him. "What was that?"

A mistake, by the way he avoided her gaze. She could've sworn his cheeks were turning pink. It was dark in the alley but she could've sworn it. He coughed, muttered a Sorry, and put his emergency pack away.

That was the first time he'd kissed her.

"Will that be all, Mrs. Grayson?" A new maid that Victoria hired disrupts Emily's reverie. She's at the dining room table eating alone in a big empty house, lost in her thoughts. She wants to get back to them.

"Yes, thank you."

\\\

Aiden and Emily sit on the beach.

It is perfect.

She looks down at her stomach. No bullet wounds. None on Aiden's stomach either. All there is is the water, and the sand, and the breeze.

Aiden kisses her hand, the one that has his ring on her finger. It's smaller than Daniel's, but more beautiful.

"Time to wake up, Emily," he says.

She keeps expecting something horrible to happen. But it doesn't. It's just the two of them. "I don't want to."

"It's not up to me," Aiden says. "If it were we'd stay here forever."

"Please." She can feel tears brimming on her eyes. They feel so real. But she knows they aren't. She's lucid this time. She knows this is a dream. And even knowing that, she doesn't want to leave. "Please, let's just stay here. Like we wanted to."

Aiden brings a hand to her cheek, wiping a tear that's gotten away. He smiles sadly at her.

Emily wakes up.