11calls | IC Contact

[There are certain things that Alex Reagan has never in her life expected to hear, at least not from him. And one of those is definitely 'I love you.' Alex just beams up at him, practically glowing in relation to those words, and not because of her omeganess. To her, right now none of that has any hold on the two of them. There's no piece of it that it touches, not really.

He loves her.

He's been falling in love with her since she walked into his office.

She's in love with him too.

Those are the things that matter.

Without saying anything, Alex just reaches out and takes his keys from his hand and lets them both into what is for the next while, their apartment. Once they are inside, Alex kisses him. It's a gentle kiss, light and lingering. It's soft and yielding and holding all of the pieces that love him at once and then giving them to him.

Through the bond between them, Alex's love is light a beacon, bright and there to guide him in like a ship lost in the storm.]

I'll be kind, my Hades. I will. And I think a hell of a lot of that kindness is going to help pull you back to remind you to be you, my love. Because I am deeply in love with you and have been for a long time.

[He wants to take her the moment she kisses him, but confessing that - that has brought him back by several degrees. So he pulls her close and holds her but he is shy. Painfully ridiculously shy. He's always been shy.

He doesn't say anything. Instead he moves to lift her in his arms and hold her close. His bed is done in black and white but there's a very soft gray comforter on top that he'll wrap her in before he moves to lay down beside her. Just quiet. Still shy.]

[When he acts so shyly, Alex can’t help but think of what Wayne Coats had said of Richie, the boy that he’d know. There’s been moments, small ones and mostly the night that Coralee had left that had left Wayne’s words ringing in her head. When they had dinner, when they were more themselves, Alex had seen them too. It’s easy for her to see them now.

So, she just moves against him, pressing her hand to his cheek softly and gently, she cups it and then traces her thumb over the line of his bottom lip before she kisses him in the same way that she had done before.

Her other hand rests against his chest. Not what the pack shift had done to his body, but to the place just above his heart. Her fingers splay, and she rubs against it in slow circles, as if she was almost casting it within a circle of protection.

Then she spoke, soft against his lips.]

My Richard. My Hades. My love.

[I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. He doesn't deserve her whispering against him. Not after what he did. Not after Coralee. Not after Charlie. Not after his father tried to prepare him for a destiny he didn't understand.

Setting her down, he lets her touch him before wrapping her in his blanket and holding her close.]

I'm going to make sure you get so much sleep here.

[He inhales her scent.]

Do you feel...safe?

[Without any sort of preamble, Alex just moves even closer to him, looking up into his face. She can feel his self recrimination through the bond that they share, even if she can't feel what the actual words are. A frown spreads over her face, and a tiny bit of sadness seeps in from her end as well.

Alex Reagan doesn't hate people easily. It's a very small list. Coralee Strand has been on it for a year, and Howard Strand has been on it for months since she'd first spoken with Cheryl. She hates him all the more for the way that Richard has been so open about the abuse that he'd received. Even if it just feels like an open wound through the bond that they share.

Alex wants to help him close that wound, she wants to get rid of all of the infection that they'd left inside of him that makes him hate himself and feel like he's not worthy of her love.

So, she just kisses him again, holding onto him very tightly.]

I always feel safe when you're you, you know.

[Her voice is softer now, but it's more certain.]

When I was in the cabin, waiting for the counter on the unsound to run down, I would fall asleep when I could listening to the sound of your voice, you know. When you were in Chicago I did the same. I would call your phone even though I knew you sent it to voicemail as soon as you saw it was me because I wanted to hear your voice. Because it made me feel safe even with everything else around me, even when I couldn't sleep, it made me feel safer to have you in my ears.

That's why you kept calling me?

[She has fallen hard for him. He's genuinely stunned. The last time he...He's never felt like that about anyone.

There was listening to the podcast. There was Ruby putting the podcast in his phone (along with several others that he had ignored). There was the sheer frustration at Alex's constant disclosure of his personal life.

There was being worried when Nic called him telling him that Alex had stopped sleeping.

The fear that he had dragged her down somehow.

Like Persephone.

He had thought Coralee loved him like this. But Alex - he can tell through this strange bond - that she truly did care. Coralee...

Damn. Coralee.]

We'll be back to...ourselves soon. It feels more real with you here.

[He chuckles and runs a hand over her thigh.] I'll miss these curves.

[No he won't.] But you're prettier when you're more you.

Well... [Alex says with a little laugh.] I also kind of hoped you'd pick up too.

[Even if she'd known that he wouldn't have done it. Even if she'd known that it wasn't going to be something as simple as a call. Apologies between them never had been. He'd started it by showing up with a black tape like a bouquet of flowers, she'd done it in return with Simon's case and they'd gone on like that until the fight where he'd left for good.

In the end Alex didn't have any more tapes or info on Coralee or anything else. All she'd had was herself. Granted, the part of herself that he wanted at the time was the reporter to do the work, but Alex had agreed. She'd always agree. Because she loves him.

But she does laugh.]

I will definitely not miss these curves. I don't know how women with big breasts do it. My back hurts alright.

...Nobody's ever done anything like that to me. Usually I'm the one...

[Forget it. Forget it. He kisses her cheek and holds her close.]

I'll rub your back tomorrow. But like I said. You're more beautiful when you're you. Spunky and fun.

[His fingers trace through her hair.]

...You make being here better Alex. You make everything in my life better. I think you always have since I met you.

And even when this is done I'll...we'll be together.

Yes. [It’s very easy for Alex to agree with him in that. Easier than most things were.

She wraps her arms around him more tightly and looks up into his face.]

I think. I think we’ve kind of always been heading there, haven’t we? Even with everything else that happened, there was always us and this at the center of it.

[There’s a little pause, and Alex speaks softly almost in a way that seems kind of like confession.]

I actually almost thought you were going to kiss me that night after Coralee. When we were drinking and talking.

[That day when Coralee had tried to take his hand. She'd tried to convince her to come with him. He hadn't told Alex that. He hadn't told her that she had told him that Alex - sitting in the house - was a liability. Maybe that had been what ignited something in his chest. The honest knowledge that he was ready to hit his wife.

Ex wife.

That had been terrifying. He made the decision to be a gentle man and turn away, bury his rage. And Alex had looked so sad. Running his thumb over her cheek he holds her tighter.]

I've kissed you now. All that matters is now.

Yes. [Alex just agrees softly and leans up to press her lips against his own, giving him the kiss that she’d wanted to give him that night as the two of them had sat on their sides of Ruby’s reclaimed sofa and looked at one another over increasingly tall glasses of Howard’s best whiskey.

Alex had said in the show that it was hard to see him pulled apart like that. And it was true. It had been true and continued to be true as the two of them were here in this weird place with the connection between them made manifest in whatever way this place had to do it.

It’s funny. Even with that connection and how it wants to write the narrative of them being something they weren’t even at the base of it. They were still them. Just then with a bonus.

Maybe that was something that was good about this place, other than the fact that they were here with each other.]

And I’m going to keep kissing you, Dr. Strand. I hope you’re aware of that.

[The was Alex, teasing him gently. This was Alex being herself.]

I'm not the easiest person to date.

[He offered her his familiar chuckle, loosening his grip to gently cradle her against him.]

Or seduce. So I have to give you credit where credit is due.

[His wicked tone softens into something unsure. Something gentle.]

But we are living next to each other. It's not going to be hard to be together. In this...dream space.

Wow, you say that as if I don't know you, my Richard.

[The words are light and teasing, because Alex Reagan is most assuredly aware of the kind of the man that Richard is, and she definitely loves him anyway. He can be a complete asshole, but he's her complete asshole, even if it means that she needs to share him with the specter of Coralee and the shade of Warren hovering over them.

Alex just lays her head against his chest, with a smile.]

We'll make it work, and you're forgetting one thing, my Hades. I'm persistent and annoying and I called you eleven times. Imagine what I can do with just a wall between us.

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