"Honey-" a cheery voice caught Morgan's attention, "-I'm home!"
"Don't call me 'honey' you weirdo" he chuckled as Darling waked into the kitchen where he was packing away his mom's groceries.
"I was speaking to Fran thank you very much" she joked, automatically walking over to him and the two falling into their usual deep hug they craved every time he had been away for a while.
"She's at work- and why are you calling my mom 'honey?' Did something happen with you two whilst I was away in college?" He teased, glancing down at her "do I have to start calling you mom too now?"
"I prefer to be called 'daddy'" she laughed, Morgan unable to help his own laughter as he playfully pushed her hair in front of her face and went back to putting the groceries away.
"I forgot how gross you were."
"You missed me though" she chuckled, hoisting herself up to sit on the counter, "how long are you back on your break?"
"Until after Christmas" he replied, "but I think I might stay here a bit longer after, a few months more probably."
"What? Why?" She tilted her head with confusion, having her hand swatted away as she tried to eat one of his mom's brownies on the side.
"Those aren't for you" he chuckled, handing her a cookie he made for her instead, "and because my mom needs some help here."
"Is she okay?" Darling tilted her head, munching on the cookie as he put the grocery bags in the cabinets.
"Yeah she's fine, she just is finding it hard with her kids all being out of the house now- she calls me at least twice a day if not more, it's probably cheaper for my phone bill if I come back anyway" he chuckled, Darling did not return his humour as she studied him.
"You're thinking of dropping out to come back for her, aren't you?"
He turned to her, going to say no, going to lie but he knew it was no use, she knew him better than anyone, she would be able to read through it.
"Like I said, it's tough on her with us all being gone" he shrugged, "she doesn't know how to keep herself busy- she's never been on her own before."
"But that doesn't mean you have to come back just to make her feel better" Darling hopped off the counter, walking over and grabbing a glass of water, "I thought you said you were enjoying college?"
"I am" he nodded, having to hide his smile at how she automatically got him a glass too, "I just- I don't know, it's hard."
"It's college; it isn't exactly going to be a walk in the park" she laughed before nudging his arm, "but you're smart, there's no way you're not finding it easy."
"What happened to the years of you calling me an idiot?" He teased.
"Oh you are an idiot" she laughed, "it did take you two years to pass biology after all-"
"That was only because my lab partner kept trying to create formulas that almost burnt the teacher's flesh off and got us held back half a year in that class" he chuckled.
"In my defence I told her not to put her hand in that box I made" she shrugged with a smile at him before nudging his arm again, "seriously though sugar, you're too smart to drop out of college- especially if you wanna get your butt into that fancy FBI program."
"First of all; stop calling me sugar, it makes you sound more southern than usual" he chuckled, "and second of all; I never said I was dropping out for sure, I'm just thinking about it- and that program isn't the be all and end all."
"Yeah but it's basically only the thing you've talked about since I met you" she rolled her eyes before mocking his voice, "they catch bad guys Darling, I can help people just like my dad, they train you to help people and feed my hero complex, blah, blah, blah-"
"I do not sound like that" he laughed, walking over to the living room and tidying up the couch.
"Jeeze, I don't think I've ever seen this place messy before" Darling looked around room; cups piled high on the coffee table, plates with food from weeks before, the couch covered in crumbs and wine stains.
"She's trying her best" Morgan replied, a hint of defence and hostility in his voice that he didn't mean to direct at her.
She looked at him for a moment as he continued to clean, knowing this is what he used to do all of the time; come home from grocery shopping after school, tidy the house for his mom whilst she worked, made his younger sister's lunch for the next day, sorted out the bills, making everything easier for his family as best as he could.
She hated that he had to do that, she hated him giving up so much of himself to- and now she hated seeing him falling back into it, possibly risking his future he had worked so hard for years to do so.
"Here-" Darling walked over to him, taking the cups and plates out of his hands and carrying them into the kitchen, "-I've got this, you clean the couch; if you put baking soda and dish soap on a cloth it'll get that stain right out."
"Darling you don't have to-"
"You shush your mush and get to that stain before the whole cream couch has to be dyed red" she chuckled as she walked into the kitchen balancing stacks of plates and mugs, cleaning them in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher.
"You know that defeats the whole purpose of a dishwasher, right?" Morgan pointed out with amusement as he walked into the kitchen after cleaning the couch.
"But it makes them extra squeaky clean" she smiled over her shoulder, "did ya get the stains out?"
"Yeah, this is a handy mixture" he gestured at the pot of baking soda and washing soap he placed on the counter.
"Add a little bleach and it gets out blood too."
"And how would you know that?" He quizzed, she raised an eyebrow at him as if the answer was obvious.
"Because I'm a woman who bleeds once a month whilst having terrible time management skills."
"Ah right" he chuckled awkwardly, "anyway, thanks for washing the dishes- I'm sure this isn't how you thought you'd be spending your Saturday afternoon."
"It's better than going to work" she chuckled.
"You skipped work today?"
"I took a sick day."
"What? Why?"
"Because you're back silly" Darling chuckled, drying her hands on the tea towel, "and I've got double shifts at the ice-cream shop, babysitting and dog walking almost every day for the next two weeks so I wanted to see you before you went back to college."
"That's sweet" he smiled at her, Darling rolling her eyes to hide her smile.
"But now you don't have to worry cause I'll be back for longer and you can stop missing me so much" he teased, nudging her arm.
"I certainly didn't miss that cocky smile of yours" she lied with a chuckle before shaking her head, "you should go back to college for the start of term though, as much as I'll miss your silly self, you don't want to lose any credits and graduate late."
"It'll only be a few extra months" he shrugged.
"Those few extra months could be the difference between you getting accepted into the force" she pointed out something he had told her before, Morgan rolling his eyes at her.
"Don't use my words against me smartass."
"Don't occasionally say things that make sense then" she shrugged with a proud smile at herself that he couldn't help smiling at before he shook his head, "it doesn't matter if I don't get into the force for a few years, I need to make sure my mom is okay with Desiree and Sarah being gone now."
"You do everything for them Derek, why can't they move back home to check on your mom? Sarah isn't in college anymore and Desiree is just traveling-"
"Your one to talk" he mumbled.
"What?" She turned to him.
He let out a sigh, knowing he shouldn't start this conversation with her that always ended in some sort of awkward argument but not having the energy to stop himself after a 8 hour flight that same day, "you give up everything for your brothers, you gave up even applying to college for them- why is it so different when I do it?"
"First of all this isn't about me or my family" she stood her ground, folding her arms at him, "and second of all it's different because you're not just looking after them, you're looking after your mom who is absolutely fine on her own she just is relies on you too heavily. She always has; she gotten married straight out of high school, had you and your sisters and it was like you became this thing to occupy her and then you had to look after her when-"
"Wow, say how you really feel about her then Darl" he rolled his eyes.
"You no I don't mean anything harsh by it, I love Fran, she's the best and an absurdly great mom- but she's not just a mom, and she needs to know that you're not just her son, you're also a person like you need to remember that she is too" Darling pointed out, walking over to him, "you can't put your life on hold because she's gotten used to you holding everything together since you were 10 years old-"
"She lost her husband, she needed me and my support" he sighed, turning from her and placing his hands on the counter.
"And you lost your father" Darling's hand placed on top of his softly, "who was your support when you needed a parent then?"
The silence of the unspoken conversation stretched between them, Morgan only briefly telling her about his father's passing before but Darling being able to read into it more just by being around him until he told her more, unsure why he wanted her to know that part of him he had hidden, unsure why he wanted her to know him in general, unsure why it made him feel better to talk about anything to her.
"You were just a kid Derek" she added, thumb gently rubbing his as she spoke softly, "you shouldn't have had to witness that and then have to pick up the pieces whilst going through stuff a kid should never have to go through alone. You shouldn't have had to be the 'man of the house' before you were even a boy."
"She needed me" Morgan spoke quietly, unaware his hand had gently wrapped around hers too.
"And you needed your mother" Darling spoke the words he hadn't let himself think, the pain he hadn't let himself feel, "acknowledging that she put too much on your shoulders isn't the same as not loving her Der- she's a great mom, the best mom I'd say, but she messed up with that, and it's okay to say that it hurt. It's also okay to live your own life without making sure it lines up with hers."
"When did you get so wise?" He forced a chuckle to brush past the conversation, glancing down at her with a hint of a genuine smile in the corner of his mouth.
"I've always been wise, you just never listen to me and my brilliance" she laughed, patting his hand before taking hers away, hating how empty it felt without his cupping it.
"I'll make you deal-" she turned to him as she finished wiping down the counter sides, "you go back to college in two weeks like your supposed to, graduate on time like you're meant to and kick ass in the academy like you're going to do-"
Morgan couldn't help his smile at her, her confidence in him, her belief in him that he knew he would never have in himself without her.
"-and I'll look after Fran here, hang out with her and keep her busy when she's not at work with my shenanigans, she always did love to hear about my disasters I get myself into and try to fix my life for me" Darling turned to him with a chuckle, "I still live literally a few streets away so logically it makes more sense than you flying back every weekend or dropping out to clean couches for her to re-clean when she gets home because she'll say you did it wrong."
"Darl I can't ask you to do that, you already have too much on with all these jobs and looking after Addie, she's in her troublesome toddler years and-"
"You're not asking me to, I'm offering" she smiled before joking, "well I'm borderline insisting because I think I'm really getting close to making your mom my wife and I need you out of the house to be able to do that-"
"You're so gross" he laughed, nudging her arm as she chuckled before looking down at her sincerely.
"Thank you Darling, really, it means a lot that you would want to do that for me."
"Of course sugar" she nodded up at him before raising her eyebrow, "your gonna tell me off for calling you sugar, aren't you?"
"I'll let it slide just this once, weirdo."
"Wow- I should be nice to you more often, it brings out 'sweet Derek'" she teased before walking over to the car keys she left on the entrance table, "now what do you say we go do our very adult annual tradition of grabbing ice-cream and gossiping about your crazy college stories and my boring Chicago stories in a treehouse?"
"Darling I'm 21 years old" he laughed before smiling at her, "of course I want to gossip in a treehouse with ice-cream."
Morgan's mind was pulled from the warm dream of that long lost memory as he tried to regain his consciousness on the pharmacy floor, a ringing in his ears and blood tricking from his head.
The steel bat Graham had picked up from the sporting store next door had certainly made up for the fight Morgan threw at him to be able to give Darling time to get out the back door of the pharmacy- but of course she didn't.
Instead, she threw herself onto the back of Graham after he knocked Morgan out to the ground, her yells of rage as she clawed at him slowly dragging Morgan back to reality until the body slumping onto the floor next to him fully brought him back.
It wasn't who he thought it would be to fall down in the fight though, Graham landed on the floor as Darling somehow grabbed the bat from him and swung with all her might.
"You stay away from my Derek you ginger bearded pushy son of a bitch!" Darling threw the bat down on the ground and launched herself onto Graham, throwing punch after punch down until Morgan's arms wrapped around her and pulled her off him.
"Darling! Darling calm down Jesus Christ, he's out! Calm the hell-"
"Derek!" She turned suddenly, throwing her arms around him in the embrace on the floor, "you're alive!"
"What? Of course I'm alive- why wouldn't I be?"
"You've been out for a good 15 minutes" she said breathlessly as she gripped the back of his shirt, "h-he hit you really hard, I thought, I thought- Jesus I'm so glad you're okay-"
"Wait- really? I was out for that long?" He looked down at her with confusion as she nodded, "you thought I was dead?"
"I-" She couldn't think about that, she couldn't think about him being dead like she had moments ago when she let the fire burning in her take over with an intense rage as she tried to keep Graham from him.
"Wait you said I've been out for 15 minutes- does that mean you've been beating his face in for 15 minutes too?" Morgan glanced over at a now knocked out Graham who had a fair few beatings on his face but not enough for her to be punching him for that long.
"H-he chased me for a bit and then tied me up so he could get you to drink water and then threw me out of the window when I stopped him and-"
"He did what?!"
"Oh I'm okay, the window glass is a lot thicker than it looks so I kinda just bounced back off it into him, it was quite funny now I think about it" she chuckled before looking up at him, unable to stop herself cupping his face with relief, "I'm just so glad you're not dead."
Morgan smiled down at her, not expecting her to ever say those words let alone brush his face so tenderly.
"Thanks for making sure that didn't happen" he chuckled, going to say something else when a groan came from the body in front of them.
"Shoot- he's waking up, we've gotta go!" Darling grabbed Morgan's hand as she pushed herself to her feet, limping over to the front door and leading them out onto the street which now resembled something more like Mad Max than the cute suburban square Darling often took little walks to so she could get out of the house.
"Jesus Christ-" Morgan stared at the flames of the burning garbage can opposite the sidewalk and upturned cars, "-suburbia really has it's downsides, huh?"
"You have no idea" Darling chuckled, not realising her hand was still in his before she looked down and released it with an awkward clearing of her throat, "we need to get to the quarry before it gets worse."
"I'm not sure it can get worse" Morgan shook his head, looking around for any mode of transport that would keep them from being exposed walking on the street, "do you see any cars not on fire or anything?"
"No, I don't understand how Graham got here in the first place, his car isn't out here and-" she paused when her gaze caught on something down the side alley, limping towards it and surprising Morgan with a laugh.
"What is it?" He wondered over, pausing with confusion as they both stared at the motorcycle.
"Is that yours?"
"Technically, I had a kind of quarter life crisis a few weeks after moving here when my car broke down and had to be scrapped" she walked over to it, "this was my coping mechanism; buying a bike I most certainly don't know how to ride and hiding it in the neighbour's garage so I didn't have to figure it out."
"That is surprisingly very much like you" he couldn't help chuckling, walking over to it too, "lucky for us, I do know how to drive it."
"You do?" She quizzed.
"Well, I had a moped in college- same thing though, right?"
"Absolutely not" she laughed before taking the helmet and passing it to him, "but it's something- just please don't get us killed."
"I make no promises but I'll try" he chuckled, passing the helmet back to her but she pushed it back to him.
"You wear it, it's more dangerous for the driver if we crash because you'll fly forward into something" she pointed out.
"Well I'm not letting you on that thing without a helmet so either you put it on or we're walking" he folded his arms stubbornly.
"Derek it's just a motorbike" she rolled her eyes, "I'll be fine on the back of the bike."
"It's a powerful motorcycle Darling- you'll fall right off it, you only have one arm to hold on with at the minute; wear the helmet."
"We don't have time for this-"
"Then put on the damn helmet-"
"No you-"
"Darling-"
"Derek-"
A groan came from the pharmacy door and a limping shadow came slowly towards them.
"Okay compromise-" Morgan grabbed the helmet quickly, putting it on his head which made her smile with victory before he yanked her off her feet and placed her at the front of the bike in front of him as he swung his leg over the bike, kicking off the stand in a swift motion that she didn't know why made a tingle appear in her lower stomach.
"Derek! What are you doing?!" Darling tried to wiggle off, "the passenger goes at the back! Didn't you learn that in moped school?!"
"There is no moped school smartass" he couldn't help laughing as he pressed his body into the back of her to reach the handle bars, shifting so they were somehow closer, "this is the compromise; I can make sure you don't fall off and you get to be smug about me looking like an idiot in this helmet."
"I don't feel very safe" she lied, feeling a sweat drip down her back and a gulp in her throat from his body pressed against hers, his heart beating faster against her back, his strong arms wrapped around hers, feeling every one of his muscles tense and move, his head to the side of her shoulder as she tried to stay as still as possible.
"Try not to move to much so I can see- and hold on" he nodded before started up the bike just as Graham came around the corner, going to run full speed at them but the bike started up, speeding off faster than any of them expected.
"Holy shit-" Darling slid back on the seat, Morgan's body catching her securely.
"See? I told you that you'd fall off if you sat at the back and didn't hold on" he laughed, gripping onto the handlebars as they rounded the corner and sped down the street.
"Wipe that cocky smile off your face right now and follow the traffic laws" she chuckled, her hand mindlessly gripping his thighs that were placed either side of her.
"You can't even see my face in this helmet- how do you know I have a cocky smile?"
"Because against my better judgement I know you Derek Morgan" she laughed, hair flying in the wind and a surprising ease of anxiety in her chest in a situation that should have her terrified.
"I'm glad you do" she could have sworn she heard him whisper but the hot winds picked up as they curved around a corner towards the end of the street.
"You just blew a stop sign!"
"We're trying to stop an outbreak spreading across suburbia into the city, I think I can deal with getting a ticket for it" he rolled his eyes.
"I swear to god Derek if I die on a motorbike because you decided to ignore road signs I will haunt your ass so badly-"
"Just my ass?" He teased quietly, enjoying the surprised loud laughter and hitting of his leg that she let out.
"Weird that you only want to haunt my ass of all things-" he continued to tease.
"Stop it" she laughed, "focus on the road."
"As long as you leave my ass alone when you're a ghost" he chuckled, spotting the quarry sign in the headlight and heading towards it, "hold on tight, the road looks bumpy up here."
"What am I supposed to hold on to- woah!"
The road was in fact bumpy, far bumpier than either of them expected and made Darling slide further back against Morgan with the rough terrain.
"Could you, uh, try not to do that?" Morgan cleared his voice awkwardly.
"Do what?" She looked over her shoulder with confusion before realising what he meant as the next bump hit and she unknowingly bounced up against his crotch again, a blushed wide eyed realisation as she felt his response.
"S-sorry" she hid her chuckle as she tried to lean forward, using her non-bandaged arm to pull herself towards the handlebars.
"It's fine" he let his amusement take over before fear took its place as the bike skidded on a rocky corner.
"Shit-" Darling slipped, falling to the left as Morgan's body tried to lean to the right.
"Darling!" He grabbed her with his left hand, yanking her back to him but the momentum mixed with the unstable terrain in the dark threw them both off the right side of the bike, tumbling down the rock filled hill towards the quarry building.
Their bodies slammed together, the rocks slicing anywhere they could, screams echoing out of their mouths until they came to a stop.
"H-holy hell" Morgan let out a breath of shaky fear when he opened his eyes and saw nothing but cracks in the helmet, a sharp rock smashing through the front visor and inches away from stabbing into his face had it not been there.
He carefully pulled it off, taking it off his head and almost laughing in shock at what had just happened, how Darling's stubborn instance of him wearing that helmet had just saved his life.
That was until he realised that meant she hadn't worn the helmet.
"Darling!" He exclaimed, seeing her body slumped against the rocks next to him.
"Oh my god Darling! Darling please, please wake up" he brought her limp body half onto his lap as he tried to shake her away, checking her pulse that was luckily still there and no visible signs of serious injury other than a fair few scrapes from the rocks on the way down that he probably shared too.
"C-come on Darl, wake up, come on baby please-" he gently tapped her face before his emotions took over and he pulled her to his chest with tears threatening to burst as he begged into the nook of her neck "please, please for the love of god please wake up Darling-"
"Y-you're so loud" a small voice chuckled against him and brought an overwhelming amount of relief to him as he looked down and saw her slight smile in the corner of her lips before she opened her eyes to look up at him, "I told you wearing the helmet would save your life."
"God I swear that you're going to be the death of me Darling Dawson" he pulled her into his chest tighter, "don't scare me like that ever again."
"I'm not the one who swerved off a cliff" she chuckled, unable to stop herself hugging him back and letting her eyes shut to take in the moment of being in his arms again before she went to lean back but he kept her close to him.
"Not yet, don't go just yet" he whispered, closing his eyes, "please don't go just yet."
There was a hint of desperation in his voice, a longing, a moment beyond the two of them as individuals in that moment.
It was a moment from what felt like a lifetime ago, a moment of pretending that they could be like that again, that there were no conversations to be had or apologies to try to work through to accept, that this was okay, that they were okay, that their love was the only thing that mattered.
Darling clung onto the front of his top to hold herself even closer to him, feeling a speckle of tears on her cheek that seemed to mix with the sudden speckle of rain falling from the humid sky.
"Aren't we just the two luckiest people in all of suburbia?" She chuckled sarcastically, looking up at the rain clouds.
"I feel pretty lucky right now" he said sincerely as he looked down at her, feeling the luckiest he ever had that she was in his arms, that she was there, that she was alive.
Her gaze came down from the sky to meet his eyes, a moment of quiet between the two before the rain grew more.
"W-we should get to the water supply" Darling cleared her throat, Morgan nodding but neither of them moving- bodies pressed against each other, water soaking their clothes together like glue, eyes lost in the other's.
A moment of silence passed, and another, and then more.
Neither could move, neither wanted to, and neither could pretend that they didn't want to move from the other anymore.
But neither could take the risk of hurting the other by admitting it, of what that would mean, of what trust would have to be fixed.
They would just continue as they did once their bodies parted; pretending it didn't ache to be around each other in a different way than before, acting as if nothing happened, failing miserably.
An unspoken conversation, a difficult talk neither of them wanted to bring up or face in fear it would end with it cementing this permanent distance between them that neither wanted.
That was how it went with them, an argument or conversation would need to be made but wouldn't be.
It would just be left in the air.
'Water under the bridge.'
Morgan had come to accept this was how it was, how he had to force difficult conversations out, how he had to get her to talk, how he had to beg her to tell him what she was feeling.
He was fine with that, he was fine if he had to wait for years for her to tell him how she was feeling in this moment, he would wait longer for her to tell him what she wanted even if it wasn't him.
He accepted that this moment of silence would end with her changing the subject and leaving his arms, that the conversation would possibly never happen, that she might never tell him, that she might move on and away.
But he would always wait, he knew that more than ever now; he would always wait for her.
No matter how long it took.
But Darling was growing tired of waiting for herself to be ready, she was going to make herself ready.
"We... we should talk" Darling spoke quietly as she looked down at her hands mindlessly playing with the hem of his top to keep herself distracted from her words she almost stopped herself saying before forcing it out; tired of waiting for the 'right time' to say it, making it the right time to say that sentence, a sentence Morgan didn't expect to hear from her.
"After all this is over we should talk about what happened... I'm not saying it'll fix anything and I'm not saying I'll come back to Virginia and there might not be anything to be able to sort out but..." she took a breath and nodded with certainty, "...but I'm ready to talk, I want to talk, I want to talk with you."
Morgan nodded with a look of disbelief but overwhelming safety in what she was saying.
She wanted to talk.
She wanted to talk to him.
To acknowledge them, to let him apologise, to let him listen, to let herself communicate her hurt; to talk.
"I would really like that" Morgan spoke quietly as he brushed the wet hair out of her face, "to talk."
"Good" she nodded, trying not to let her eyes flick to his lips, "we should get to that water pump."
"Can you stand?" He asked as she got up, the adrenaline of the crash wearing off and making room for something else for him to feel.
"Yeah- why?"
"Because I, uh, don't think I'm quite going to be able to" he stared down at the rock that he somehow didn't realise had been sticking through his leg.
"Derek!" Darling exclaimed in shock, scrambling to look at it and the blood gushing out of his calf in the dark, "how the hell did you not notice this?!"
"I was a little distracted by thinking you were dead-" he tried not to wince as she gently touched his leg.
"This... this is really bad, it's fully gone through there, oh god it might have gotten the bone" she shook her head as a panic flooded her, "I... I don't know what to do, I-I don't know how to fix this, I need to fix this-"
"Darling-"
"I-I need to think, I need to figure this out- if I pull it out then you could bleed out but it could get infected in there and you can't walk and-"
"Darling-" he cupped her face and steadied her as tears rolled down her face, "-it's okay, I'm okay- just go turn off that water supply, I can't walk and you can't wait here."
"What?! No, no, no I'm not leaving you" she grabbed his hand, "I'm not leaving you Derek, I'll figure this out just give me a minute-"
"Darling-" he gently brushed the tears off her cheeks, "-you've gotta go, I'll be fine here."
"But I don't want to" she felt a sob in her voice, "I don't want to leave you Derek!"
There was a hidden conversation they had yet to have in the words she let slip out of her mouth, an unspoken confirmation that she never wanted to leave him, that she didn't want to leave him 4 months ago and she needed him to know that.
"I know sweetheart" he smiled softly at her, hiding his wince of pain from his leg, holding out his pinkie, "promise me you'll come back, and I'll promise you that I'll be here waiting for you."
She let out a heart breaking sob, "b-but what if you're not here? What if I come back and you're... or you've bleed out of your leg or-"
"Hey, hey, hey-" he pulled her to his arms gently, "I'll always be here, I'll always be waiting right here for you no matter what."
"But-"
"You don't think I'd really offer a sacred pinkie promise if I was going to break it, now do you?" He teased to comfort her, closing his eyes to take in every moment he got with her as he felt the blood seeping out of his leg that couldn't be bandaged up with the literal rock pinning it to the ground through his calf.
"Promise me" she cleared her throat and nodded as she stood up, still holding his hand, "promise me that you'll be here, alive and full of your blood, when I get back?"
Morgan looked up at her for a moment, wanting to bring her any sort of comfort and peace but not wanting to make a promise he couldn't keep.
But then he saw that look on her face, the look of overwhelming love that was always on the verge of pain- that was the thing about love; it always came with the risk of heartbreak around every corner.
"I promise" he squeezed her hand gently with the lie he didn't know if he could make true but sure as hell would try, "I promise you Darling Dawson, I'll be right here for you."
Darling held tight to his words as she climbed through the widow she broke into the quarry house, climbing down the stairs with the image of him led against the rock there as she walked away, singing the Dolly Parton lyrics she was making him recite from memory to keep himself awake.
"Okay Darling, come on, think, focus" she shook her head, trying to keep her mind on the task.
"Now where is the- ah! There it is-" Darling spotted the val on the other side of the metal catwalk, "that was easy... too easy?"
She shook her head at herself, trying not to be too pessimistic as she walked towards it, foot slipping through the grate as it broke and having to grip onto the fence to hold herself up.
"Great manifestation there Darl" she mumbled to herself, pulling herself up and continuing across the old rusted metal bridge.
The circular switch to the water supply dam was rusted over, almost impossible to turn until she jumped onto it with all her might and it turned a quarter.
"Jesus Christ- where's Derek and his insane muscles when you need him?" She shook her head, pushing the metal that scraped her palms once more and letting a breath out with how much energy it took.
"Come on Darling, just once more" she rolled up her sleeves and tried again through the pain of her back wound moving, hearing a noise behind her and turning mid wheel spin.
"A woman like you shouldn't be concerning herself with manual labour like that" Graham's voice echoed around the large metallic room with water swooshing below them.
"For god sakes" she mumbled under her breath before looking over at him, "Graham, please I mean this in the least rude way possible but could you just go away for like 5 minutes hun? You're starting to act like a bad smell."
"Not until you step away from that" he walked closer to the bridge, "let the infection spread Anne, let the world drink the freedom I have."
"That 'freedom' you're drinking would technically go by the name of a deadly chemical compound" she rolled her eyes, hands gripping the val again but he had suddenly ran across the quickly breaking bridge and grabbed her before she could turn it.
"Graham!" She exclaimed in shock and fear as he pinned her against the fence surrounding the platform above the water, one hand wrapped around her neck and the other pinning her waist.
"I'm not letting you ruin anyone else's life" he snarled at her, "let them taste it, let them choose, let them embrace it-"
"T-they aren't choosing anything! They're being drugged you psycho" she tried to wiggle from his hands, "Graham listen to me, please just try to listen and-"
His hand moved from her waist and covered her mouth aggressively as he leaned closer, "you know the problem with you Anne? You never know when to leave well enough alone, you never know when to give up- you could learn a thing or two from that corpse of yours out there."
Darling looked confused at him for a moment before a sickening realisation hit her from his implication of his words.
"No" she shook her head with wide eyes, "no, no, no- you're lying, he's okay, Derek is okay-"
"Is he? Are you positive about that?"
"What did you do to him!?" Darling yelled, fuelled by a burning fear, "what the hell did you do to him?!"
"I didn't do anything. He was like that when I arrived- there was a lot of blood."
"N-no, no he... he promised, he wouldn't do that to me, he wouldn't-" she tried to shake her head as tears spilled down her face but he grabbed her jaw and held it still right in front of him.
"He did."
"No!" Darling let out a gut wrenching cry, almost crumbling to the ground in agony but he held her in place.
"Feel it, feel that pain-" he nodded with a smile, "and then let me show you what it's like to be free of it."
"No! No, no, no- get off me! I need to see him, I need to-" she managed to drop out of his arms and run towards the bridge.
"It's too late, I put him in the water for relief of his pain he was in. He struggled at first but he'll be free now" Graham said with a sadistic calm to his voice that made Darling stop in her tracks as if she had been winded by what he said, turning slowly to face him with a twitch in her eyebrow.
"You... you put his body in the water to die? You moved him, you killed him... you broke his promise."
"I freed him" he squared his shoulders and held out his hand, "and I can free you too."
"You drugged up son of a bitch!" Darling couldn't help her yelling through sobs, "you killed my Derek!"
"I saved him!" He yelled back, "you left him to die alone! I brought his body to a place which will carry him to thousands! A woman like you would never be able to bring him that kind of feeling!"
There was a level of calm Graham didn't expect to see from her as she nodded slowly, her gaze down at the ground before she looked up at him with an expression in her eyes he had never seen before.
"You have made a very big mistake by underestimating a 'woman like me' Graham" that glimmer of terrifying danger flickered in her eyes for just a moment to confuse him before it ran at him.
Darling didn't think, for once she didn't care to.
All consequences had left the moment Morgan did, all concern for her wellbeing disintegrated with the thought of his lifeless body somewhere in the water heading down stream; of him out there by the rocks with Graham dragging him away, breaking his promise she felt foolish for believing.
She threw her body onto Graham's with a shriek of rage, toppling the both of them backwards over the edge of the fence and plummeting into the start of the water supply.
Darling wasn't a strong swimmer, she never had been- but she swam as hard as she could towards Graham, her hands craving his blood before she could let herself succumb to her watery grave.
"Open your mouth! Taste the freedom-" he tried to say between terrifyingly ecstatic laughter.
"Go suck a lemon you twisted freak!" She threw her body onto him in the water, clawing and punching with all her might as they tumbled down stream out of the shelter into the night.
"Let me free you!" He tried to grab her but she had already grabbed him, climbing onto his back and attempting to claw at his eyes until he yanked her over his shoulder and shoved her head under the water.
"Shhh, shhh, it'll be over soon" he stroked her hair, "you'll see him soon."
Darling wasn't sure why she took comfort in that, why she felt all panic and urge to fight back leave her body at the thought of taking her finale breath of life and being able to see Morgan again.
But it was enough for her to stare up at the sky through the watery blur above her as Graham pushed her under the water whilst they fell down stream.
The stars speckling the dark sky and swirling her vision, the silhouette of Graham blending into nothingness as she felt her hand reaching up for the stars, trying to picture herself back in that treehouse led next to Morgan, laughing in-between bites of ice-cream.
She could picture him next to her, his warm hand brushing hers as he laughed, his bright smile as she passed him the spoon, his tender gaze that always had given her that speckle of blush on her cheeks that she hated and he adored.
She felt her eyes closing but that didn't matter anymore; she was already waiting to feel his hand on hers again, pulling her somewhere safer, holding her close wherever they ended up together, whispering that it would be okay.
That whisper of relief didn't last long before it turned into a scream, a siren of sorts and an echo of voices dragging her from his arms, from that spot on the wooden platform, that safety of that memory- dragging her from him.
"N-no, no, no please, please don't make me go back-" she begged, clinging onto his hand as best as she could, "d-don't make me live without you, please-"
His soft smile nodded as his fingers loosened around hers, "you'll be okay, I promised I wouldn't leave you and I meant it- just go back."
"Derek please!"
"It's okay, you'll be okay, you're okay."
"Please-"
Her plea to stay was cut off by a heaving from her chest, a cracking in her ribs, someone's lips on hers, their breath intruding into her lungs.
"Stay with us missy-" the voice she didn't recognise continued to drag her from her safety.
"P-please, just let me die" she tried to beg but nothing came out of her mouth other than water as she watched the sky turn a different shade of dark, a silhouette fazing in and out of her vision as she was carried into someone's home.
"She's losing pulse, get the defibrillator ready kid-"
"Please-"
"Ready; clear!"
Darling's body convulsed with the shock, the light memory of Morgan smiling at her fading slightly.
"And again!"
"Please just let me stay with him-"
Her world shook once more, the pain of her body coming back.
"One more time!"
"Please don't save me-"
The pain was too much, her body sank into the darkness away from that light that she wanted to crawl to.
A light that was taken away from her once more.