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The air feels good against his skin, biting at the cuts, reminding him he’s alive. He didn’t just survive Slabside, he lived through it, he beat Diaz. And he can’t help but take a few selfish moments to be thankful for that.
When he looks up he can see them, a blur at first, then the more he focuses the more he lets his eyes adjust to the light he can see them. He can see her.
He walks closer, past the gate as it opens. But part of him fears it’s a dream. That any moment he’ll wake up back in his cell. Back to the last six months of his life. Or worse, that he won’t wake up at all. But they’ll disappear in whatever new hell he had fallen into next.
He can hear the gate clink shut behind him, and it takes effort not to flinch at the sound. Not to think he’s being locked in again. But he’s not. He’s on the other side. And Felicity takes a step to him.
He can see Digg’s hesitation, and his friend does his best to stay where he is. Felicity on the other hand walks to him, his wife had never been much for waiting.
He waits for her, all his attention and focus solely on her, because he doesn’t think he can take another step forward. Not that he couldn’t physically take another step. If it was to get to Felicity he could run as far and as fast as it took. But he wasn’t sure yet. He couldn’t see past the mistakes he made. The ones that put thick glass and concrete between them for six months. Half their marriage spent in a super max and for what? To stop Diaz? When he didn’t. Not until it almost cost him his life. He wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to hold those mistakes against him.
But she reaches him, and he can’t help but pull her into him as her hand goes to his face. He can feel her fingers against the bruising that’s no doubt forming under the blood. But that’s not what restarts his heart. It’s the feel of her wedding band on his cheek. It’s the pure and easy love that flows right from her hands into him.
He knows it’s not a dream now, not a nightmare waiting to show its ugly side. This is Felicity, real and solid in front of him. And she isn’t holding his mistakes against him, she isn’t looking at him like he broke the very foundation of who they are.
She’s cradling his face, and he’s leaning into her lips. And it’s everything he’s wanted and everything he’s missed for six long months.
She wraps her arms around his neck, and he pulls her tighter against him. And he knows they’ll talk. He knows he can’t forget Diaz’s words about her and that she deserves his honesty over what happened to him. What drove him to the choices he made and what Slabside did to him inside and out. And he wants to give her that, he wants to tell her all he can and to hear everything about what happened while he couldn’t be by her side. But for the moment, he had her in his arms, and he couldn’t be happier.