N-701124 {b. barnes}

XII

"That was your plan?"

He nodded.

"I might need you to persuade me more."

"Can I?"

She nodded.

He gently kissed her again, this time pushing her backwards into the wall. She held his shoulders and murmured his name as he kissed her.

"Don't go." He murmured.

"O-okay."

He held her close to his chest. "We can....we can figure something out. I promise. Honest. You just have to trust me."

"Okay." She squeaked. "Okay."

He gently caressed her cheek. Her body trembled and she held onto his collar. He moved his hands down to her waist and pulled her into him. 

"You have to trust me." He whispered. "You have every reason not to, but-"

"I trust you." She forced out.

"You trust me?"

She nodded.

"Okay." He breathed. He paused for a few seconds, then continued. "We're supposed to be leaving today. I already said we're going to Bucharest. We can take a train there. It'll be less stressful getting train tickets instead of plane tickets. It'll cost less."

She nodded again.

"We just have to pretend we're a normal family. We're engaged. And you have a daughter."

"We have a daughter." She corrected. "She's eight. Where is she?"

"Shower."

"Okay. We're engaged. We have an eight-year-old daughter. We're....taking a family trip before the wedding. She's really shy, and...."

He nodded and went to say something, but then the bathroom door opened. Belle looked over. The girl lingered in the doorway, looking down at the floor.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't know." Her voice was no more than a whisper.

Belle nodded and walked over. She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I know what that's like. You can come sit down, if you want."

She walked over and sat down on the far corner of the bed.

 "What did they name you?" Belle asked softly.

It took her a few seconds to answer. "Nova....I think. I overhead them saying a supernova is something that happens after a star dies. I think they called me Nova."

"We were the stars." She murmured. "We were the stars, James."

He nodded.

"We're not going to call you that anymore. We'll call you something else." Belle pressed her lips together. "You need a name. A real name. Like we have. You don't have to be Nova anymore. You can be someone else."

"Who?" She asked quietly.

Belle tilted her head slightly and thought for a moment. "Autumn. We'll call you Autumn. Is that okay? Does that sound okay?"

The girl - Autumn - nodded. "Anything is better than....that name."

"I know." Belle looked over at the clock on the nightstand. "We have to go. We have a train we need to catch and somewhere safe to get."

Belle watched out the window as the train cruised down the tracks. James sat across from her, writing something in a journal. Autumn sat near her, tucked into a corner, staring into nothing.