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"I'M SORRY."
Roman took his eyes off the winding road briefly, taking in her quiet, guarded demeanor, curled up in the passenger seat staring out the window pensively. He had let Jacob Black know they wouldn't be able to pick Stella up, the younger boy immediately understanding that something had happened and didn't press the issue any further. They all must've known the Cullens were back, but the fact they hadn't warned them pissed Roman off.
"Don't be." Roman reached out to grab her hand, relieved she squeezed back. "It happens."
"I just-I don't even understand why that happened," Rory exhaled exasperatedly and a little embarrassed that she had a panic attack over learning her ex boyfriend had returned to Forks. "I promise you I'm long over him, I don't want you to think otherwise-"
"Rory, it's okay," he reassured her once more, this time more firmly. He pulled into an empty park just off the main road, parking under the shade of the towering, ubiquitous evergreen trees. He unbuckled his seatbelt. "Come here."
She gave him a guarded look before crawling over the middle console and settling into his lap. She narrowed her eyes slightly.
He rolled his, knowing what the warning look meant. "No, I'm not trying to fuck you right now. I just..." He didn't finish his sentence as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her gaze with his green-blue eyes that saw through everything. "You went through a lot here, I still don't know most of the details, but it nearly destroyed you. That's why I didn't want you to come here alone. Something like that, you don't just forget. It stays with you. And comes back when you least expect it. So, I know it wasn't about your asshole of an ex or his family. It was about you."
"I used to believe the universe had cursed me into this vicious cycle of losing everything I loved, my dad, my sister...I didn't have a reason to live. Then I went to therapy and realized how stupid I was. And I met you. I was able to glue myself back together again, but I seemed to have missed a few cracks." Rory felt terrible for putting him in this position. She was completely in love with Roman and she was terrified of losing him, even if she knew it was irrational and he had been in love with her before she even knew she was pregnant. "I'm still damaged."
"You're not alone." He shook his head, "I saw some things, when I was in a coma. Some fucked up things." He paled at the distant memory of what he had dreamt. He shook away the thoughts, "It sounds fucking weird, but I spoke to my father. Whether it was a fucked up form of my subconscious or the spirit of my dead dad, he told me he killed himself because he knew he couldn't protect me from my mother. He was a fucking coward. And you're not. Just because you're damaged doesn't make you weak. You're strong-you make me strong."
"You make me feel alive." She kissed him deeply, entangling her fingers through his hair. She pressed her forehead to his, "I don't want to be alone ever again. Promise me that you'll never leave me alone. Promise me we'll fight for each other, no matter what."
