The Ruby in the Storm

Chapter 46: Unchained

"No!" Lucy cried, removing herself from Lydia's arms and running to his cell. The moment she came to it and saw his face for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, she felt her heart soar.

His face was worn and tired, with a beard that needed trimming, but it was her Ross. His eyes did not change, nor did his smile. All Lucy wanted to do was rip the bars open with her bare hands and hold him again.

"Ross.." She sobbed, reaching through his bars to touch his face. "I will get you out of here."

"I know you will, my love," he smiled, placing a hand over hers and turning to kiss her wrist. "But you don't have long, you have to get out now."

The rattling on the cellblock door echoed over the walls, signifying that the deputies would be able to break through whatever block Charlotte and Lydia had put up at any moment.

"Lydia, give me your keys," Lucy held a hand out. When her sister did, she began trying each one on Ross's door.

"Lucy, you have to go," Ross tried to reach through to stop her, but she slapped his hands away.

"Ross, we've spent a year apart," Lucy looked up at him pleadingly. "I am going to get you out of here, I am going to hold you again. Please, just let me do this."

"We will go hold the door," Charlotte took Lydia's arm, and both women ran down the cell block to do just that. Lucy was not sure how much they would be able to hold it back with those men on the other side trying to break it down, but at the moment all she could feel was grateful that those two angels had come at all, because now she would be able to be with Ross again.

"I am so sorry, Ross," Lucy wept as she tried every key she could to get Ross's door open. "I did this. You're here because of me."

"James did this," Ross snarled. "He tried to hurt you."

"But if I had not met you, if I had not come to Belmoran..."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Ross whispered, cutting in. "Lucy Quincy, my angel and my heart... I would cross every horizon for you, bear any consequence, or rot in any cell. I love you."

"And I love you," Lucy said, looking up briefly to smile tearfully before getting back to work. "And if our love is a testament to how far we would go for each other, I hope you are ready to witness a miracle."

As if the fates themselves intervened in that very moment, a click sounded, and Lucy gasped, looking up at Ross, whose eyes came alight for what seemed to be the first time in ages. She swung the door open and almost instantly, Ross pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head, her cheeks and, finally, her lips.

Even though this moment was dire, Lucy felt the world still. The moment their lips touched, all her problems melted away, everything that had either hurt or tried to break her, gone. It was her and the love of her life, the captain that had withstood every hardship to find his way to her shore. At this moment in time Lucy knew with all her heart that she would never let him go, and nothing would tear them apart.

"I know it did us no favors," Ross whispered in her ear, "but I would kill a thousand times for you, Lucy. Know that."

"I do," she laughed, kissing him again, "and I would do the same for you, Captain Beauchamp." She pulled away and took his hand. "Let's get out of here."

"How?" He asked with a frown, gesturing to where Charlotte and Lydia were returning from. "I thought that was the only way in and out."

"Broom closet." Lydia said when she and Charlotte joined them. "There's a window in there that we can escape from."