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“But I do!” She let go of her knees and tucked her legs underneath her so she could lean forward until they were almost nose to nose. “I don’t know how he knew, but he put me there beside you. He had to know- to see that I was falling for you. He had to know that we’d…” She shook her head, clapping her hands over her ears, she rocked on her knees mumbling under her breath.
“Cygny? Cygny! Stop!” He didn’t know what else to do. He grabbed her wrists and worked her hands free from her ears. “Cygny, don’t do this to yourself.”
“I have to.” She looked at him, her eyes wide open in shock. “You have to understand!”
“I will,” he knew she wouldn’t accept his words, but he had to try, “it’s okay, Cygny. I-”
“He used me! Used my body like those men… like those men used my mom. He wanted to frame you and he used me to do it. I… I couldn’t see you again. I couldn’t look you in the eye and let you see that I’d been so damn blind to his machinations. How could I ever look you in the eye again knowing that he’d used me as a weapon against you?”
“But you stopped him, remember? You got the evidence, and you cleared my name.”
“Not enough.” She shook her head. “I didn’t do nearly enough. I could have stopped it before it happened if I hadn’t been so wound up in how much I was hurting. I should have looked deeper. I should have waited.”
Leo took her by her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Listen to me, Cygny! Listen. What you did for me, it’s like you fought a giant and you won. Whatever you think you should be punished for… I don’t agree with you.”
“I don’t know how you can say that to me, Leo. I took everything from you because of what I did. How can you forgive me for something like that?”
Cygny tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. He had to hold her there so she could listen to him. So she would hear the truth as he saw it.
“I can say those things because there’s something you need to understand about the world and the truth I see.” He took a moment to look into her eyes and see that she was still open to him. She was still showing him who she was, deep in her soul. “I didn’t lose everything when I left the Navy. When I left my team. I couldn’t have lost everything, because I had you.” He shook his head and saw the emptiness that looked back at him.
She leaned into his grasp, her eyes pleading with him not to pull the carpet out from under her feet.
“You did leave me behind for a little while, but I’ve got you back now,” he reminded her, hearing the lift and hope in his own words, “and I’m not about to let you go ever again.”
Then he pulled her into his kiss.
