SOS

Thirty-Seven

"Hi." She bites her lower lip to hold back her grin.

"I told you I wouldn't kiss you in front of the crew, but I have been dying to do that since the last time I got to." Luke admits softly, kissing her again. "Now we need coffee."

"Come on, cheeseball." El laughs, pushing out of the car finally, meeting Luke around the back, grinning as he links his fingers through hers again.

Ten minutes later they exit the shop with coffee and muffins in hand, ready to start their day. Elodie sets her coffee in the cupholder as she starts the car again, turning to see Luke watching her with soft eyes. "What?"

"Show me your world, El." He shrugs, "I really would like to see it."

"On one condition." She turns slightly in her seat to face him, "When we go to Australia at the end of the year, you have to show me your world too."

"I promise." He grins suddenly, loving the idea.

"Then let me show you around St. Louis." She sighs, turning forward again, putting the car into drive and pulling away from the parking lot.

"I want to see it all, El. The good, the bad, the ugly. Everything you want to show me in the time we have today."

"I want to share it all with you." Elodie nods, turning towards the place she wants to show him first. It takes a good twenty minutes to drive across town, the buildings outside the windows slowly becoming less fancy and then turning to almost dilapidated as they reach a different part of town.

"Are we even still in St. Louis still? This is pretty far away from the city center and the arena." Luke laughs after a while, not hiding his nervousness well.

"This is where my mom and I lived after her aunt kicked us out, and two blocks up this way is where our accident happened." Elodie smiles sadly, "I figured if I was showing you my world I should show you where I got my scar, where everything changed and I got to dodge death and start my new life."

"Oh, El." Luke turns wide eyed to her as they drive nearer to the intersection she had indicated.

"I want to share my life with you, Luke. And this was where it changed for me, even if I was only five when it happened." She rolls to a stop at a red light, Luke's eyes watching her sharply as her eyes dart around the intersection.

"Thank you for showing me this, Elodie." Luke offers softly, reaching to take her right hand in his, pressing his lips to her palm.

"So," She sighs as she pulls through the intersection, turning at the next light to head back the other way, "the next place we are going to drive past is the house I lived in for nine years."

"The place that changed you? And scarred you?"

"The place we just left scarred me, Luke."

"Just because the scars aren't visible doesn't mean they aren't there, El."

"I moved into the house when I was six, I was the first foster child the parents took in, so for a while it was just Carly and I. And when I was six it wasn't really that bad, she was bossy, but she was an only child who had a strange kid move in with her, a kid who was still healing from a chest wound and broken arm and needed a lot of attention. She would whine and complain about me a lot, and tell her mom that I was ruining her life. The mom, Julie, she was home with us at that point, and obviously could see it was just Carly adjusting to not being an only child. Sadie and another girl, Amber, came to the house at the same time, about six months after I did. Amber was four and Sadie was two. Things didn't really start turning bad until I was about eight. The parents were great, honestly, but her mom started working swing shifts to help make ends meet with four girls in the house, and then we got Lily. She came when she was two, I was eight at the time. Carly was about a year and a half older than me, and at age eight and ten we got handed some serious responsibilities."