Alex's Celtic Knot Clan Wallace Crest.
Xena: Warrior Princess is copyrighted to MCA/Universal/Renaissance. Images and characters are used here without intent to profit from or infringe upon this copyrighted material. All US and international copyright laws apply to the original works written by the authors.
This story follows the characters, Alex Wallace and Ellie O'Brian, from my first attempt at FanFiction, the short story, Loving her...again.
This already posted short story should be seen as Part one, and precedes this part of the Saga of Alex and Ellie.
Huge thanks to Red Hope, Kazia, Sue Edmonds, Hermes and Nancy. I hope they know how much their kind words have encouraged me.
To my wee girl Suzy...for chasing my demons away and filling up my hug battery!!
Uber: X and G meet again in the 21st Century
Disclaimers. I am too soft to do violence and too shy for rampant bodice ripping sex!!! Just love and romance between two women....
All rights and lyrics to the song, Breisleach, belong to Aonghus MacNeacall and Donald Shaw.. No copyright infringement intended.
This story not for resale or profit.
Plea for mercy!! I suffered a series of mini strokes at 50 years old..yeh..yeh..I know now...too much work and not enough play!!..The result was I lost the ability to read, write, or remember much for a coupla years.....Long road back but with a lot of help and hard work.....here I am!! However, punctuation remains a mystery to me....so please be kind and roll with the irritations of commas and apostrophe thingies in the wrong place....there's only so much the spellchecker can help me with!!..
Information. Haggis is a Scottish dish made from sheep's offal and oatmeal, heavily spiced with herbs and pepper, stuffed into a sheep's stomach and steamed to cook it. Yummy or Yucky???...You love it or hate it!!!
In December 2005, the Law in UK was changed to make same sex marriages legal....YIPPEEE, me and my girl were married in April 2006 after 16 years together. Who would ever have thunk it possible!!
What do you Bards out there think?? Shall I keep trying or not?? Email me. All comments welcome and hugs will be returned.
scribingbard52@yahoo.co.uk
Alex's Celtic Knot Clan Wallace Crest.
Knowing Her ...again...Ch 1
Part 1-7
By Scribingbard52
Part 1
The morning sun streamed through the hotel window as Alex Wallace woke to a new day. She dragged the fingers of her left hand through thick auburn hair, stretched and yawned...then she remembered... she was almost afraid to open her eyes in case it had been a dream but then, she felt the warmth of an arm across her chest holding her close to another source of warmth, and she opened her eyes to meet the gentle, sleepy gaze of Ellie O Brian.
"Good morning, blue eyes." Ellie murmured
"Morning, my love." Alex replied and marvelled at the ease with which the endearment slipped from her lips. "Would you like some tea?"
"Only, if you can make it from right here!"
"I have many skills, but I don't think that is one of them." smiled Alex and, dropping a gentle lingering kiss on Ellie's upturned lips then she swung her long legs out of bed.
Ellie watched as Alex walked across the room and mused on what had happened the previous evening. She was not normally a 'jump into bed on the first date' kinda girl and yet that first kiss had seemed so familiar, it was as if they were just picking up where they had left off, who knows when. Their lovemaking had been wonderfully gentle and they seemed to know each other's bodies of old. Ellie had never felt so safe and at ease in anyone's arms, let alone this complete stranger who was as familiar as her own heart.
Whilst making the tea, Alex's thoughts were whizzing about in the same vein. Where had all this come from? Alex, the self contained, 'I don't need anybody', 'my work is all I need' ice maiden, melted by this beautiful woman who had literally fallen into her arms in the hotel foyer yesterday. Was it really only yesterday? Despite all of the confusing myriad of thoughts jumbled up in her head, standing out clearly above all of these feelings was one, a feeling of happiness that was just busting to explode from her.
As they sat in bed drinking the strong tea Alex favoured, they found their eyes meeting.
"We've been together before haven't we?" Finally it was Ellie who grasped the moment and expressed what they had both discovered, the previous evening, in a flash of memories.
"Undoubtedly and most definitely, YES." came Alex's firm reply "does that spook you?"
"I can't be spooked by something that feels so natural, and right, and familiar and safe." Ellie's quiet drawl emphasised each and......"So I guess I'll just say 'Thanks' to whoever is responsible for bringing you back to me."
In answer, Alex simply held Ellie in the circle of her arms, feeling that her heart would burst, as gentle tears fell from both the green and blue eyes.
They had showered, dressed and had a long hug before leaving Alex's room. They both had commitments for the rest of the day but agreed to meet later.
Ellie went to the Conference Hall, where the day's events were unfolding and where she knew she would face the questions of her PA's. She had left them to handle things, the previous evening, when her need to see Alex again had overruled her usual consummate professionalism. Sure enough, she heard the clear tones of the two women ring out across the Hall.
"Morning, Ellie!!" smiled Ann, her voice heavy with innuendo.
"So good of you to join us, Boss." said Dany, "Have a good evening?"
Dany and Ann had been friends with Ellie since High School, and joined her when she started her company, 3 years before, and so. As friends, as well as employees, they knew how far to push the boundaries and both women were amused by the blush that changed Ellie's usual pale complexion, a crimson red.
"Hit that nail on the head, huh, Dany girl!!" she muttered, so that only Ann could hear, and got a dig in the ribs for her cheek.
Attempting to cover her embarrassment, Ellie shifted into organiser mode and all three women were soon immersed in their work.
Part 2
Alex was now in a cab, heading for her US Publishers office and thinking how blue the sky was, how sweet the breeze from the ocean was and ...
"Oh by all the fires of Hades, Alex." she berated herself," Stop it... NOW!!"
The cab driver looked around sharply, and she realised she had spoken the word aloud...
"Sorry, I was talking to myself." she grinned sheepishly. He threw her an odd look, but continued to drive.
Alex couldn't stop this silly grin from appearing on her face...and she chuckled quietly to herself...
Making it to her destination without further outburst, Alex paid the driver and gave him a good tip for his trouble. She made her way to her publisher's office where she was ushered in.
Two hours later, she was leaving with a very lucrative deal in her back pocket and the expectation of further revenue from the TV studios, for the rights to her book about the Warrior Princess of Greece.
Money had never been a driving force in Alex's life, because she had never been short of it. She was aware that this was an enviable position and never took it for granted. Her parents had been successful business people and had amassed great wealth. However, little good had it done them, when they were both killed in a car crash when Alex had been only 5 years old. Her memories of them, and the time of their death were few, and only photographs of them kept their image alive in her mind. She had been raised by her Uncle James in Scotland, where she had been happy and loved by him and their community, who had taken the quiet blue eyed child to their hearts.
So Alex had spent her childhood on the rugged west coast of Scotland in a village called Applecross where Uncle J, as she called him, owned the only hotel and Pub. It was right next to the sea and so fishing, swimming and exploring were natural pastimes for the young girl who, although an open and friendly child, always enjoyed the solitude of the rugged coastline with its many caves and ruins. It was here that she found her love for the past, and excavated her first fossils in the caves on the coast.
It was here, also, that Alex had built the walls around her heart and soul to hide the dreadful darkness that would came upon her, without any warning or reason that she could understand, for most of her life. She would find herself gazing out across the Applecross Bay with a great unknown weight hanging around her neck like an invisible millstone. Many the times, Uncle J would find her bed empty, and search for her, to find her hunched over in the driving rain, sleet and snow of the high coastline. Nothing he could do would quiet the racking sobs of the child as he held her in his arms, time and again. He would carry her home and put her back to bed and sit with her until her breathing slowed and she fell into an exhausted sleep. At other times, he would wake to hear her do battle with her demons in her bed and find her thrashing and crying out unintelligible sounds and using an invisible sword to slash at the terrifying dangers in her dreamscape. His efforts to reach and understand the pain that enveloped Alex at these times were fruitless, as Alex always said,
"I'm fine Uncle J, just leave it...OK."
As Alex grew older, the nightmares became less frequent, but Uncle J was dismayed to find that a large part of the open, gentle soul he had raised was hidden behind the ice blue eyes and inscrutable mask that people now knew, as Alex Wallace.
The only road to Applecross was a tortuous track of hairpin bends, winding its way up the steep glaciated valley from Loch Carron. The view back down the valley, from the top, was breathtaking and always filled Alex with awe. When the time came for her to leave Applecross and go the University, it was a difficult decision, but Alex's hunger for knowledge and her deep need to explore, overrode her sense of loss. She made some friends during her studies, but mainly she kept herself to herself and watched the world as an observer.
She had graduated from Edinburgh University with a First class degree in Archaeology and then spent three years on various digs, until she completed her thesis and became Dr. Alex Wallace. PhD.. Her favourite dig and the one from which she gleaned most of the data for her doctorate, was in Greece: It was the tomb of her old friend, the Warrior Princess. Alex had only been a junior on this dig, but her professor had trusted her to go with her instincts and she had been the one to make many rare discoveries. She found herself identifying with this woman's search for good and her need to right the wrongs of herself and others.
In homage to the warrior, Alex had copied the complex knot design found in her tomb and used it, with the Wallace Clan crest, as part of her own symbol. She had had a large gold ring made with the Wallace Clan family crest on it: The armoured arm holding aloft a battle sword, and the motto Pro Libertate...For liberty ....was surrounded by the ancient design, and she wore it, always, on the pinkie finger of her left hand.
When Alex wasn't away on digs, her home was still in Applecross. She had found a small derelict croft, where shepherds would have lived, on the steep slopes above the village overlooking the bay. With her own hands, she had worked hard, whenever she could, to make the ruin into a small but cosy home for herself and her few treasured belongings. It was here where she felt she could battle the darkness and search for some peace. In her professional life and, in what little private life she had, her iron will kept the darkness away, but it was only in her croft that she allowed it dominion over her, and allowed the released of the dreadful pressure of its power.
Part 3
In the cab on the way back to her hotel, Alex realised that her business in the States was completed and that she was due to return home to the UK in only 3 days. Somehow that fact made her stomach churn and she shivered.
The Conference was coming to an end and delegates were leaving the Hotel. Many stopped to congratulate Ellie on a job well done and hoped to see her again next year. The Hotel manager Jenny, who had, the previous evening, told Ellie Alex's room number also stopped by to congratulate her.
"Did you get what you needed last night, Ellie? She asked.
Ellie's green eyes narrowed as she looked closely at the other woman but she saw no hidden agenda or subtext in the question, and so she simply nodded back.
"Yes, thanks again, Jenny."
This time, Dany and Ann's eyes were out on stalks,
"Ellie, are you going to spill, or do we have to kidnap you, and force you to eat jelly babies, until you do??" Dany's voice was a whisper of menace...
Ellie laughed at their standing joke about her weakness for sweet and sticky things...but replied
"No, I can't." she whispered "I haven't really worked it out myself yet."
The tone of her voice brought about a swift change in her friends attitudes and their faces reflected their concern for their little boss. They both knew of her past and were fiercely protective of her.
"Be careful, Ell. " Dany looked at her and squeezed her hand gently, "You know where we are, dontcha?"
Ellie returned the squeeze and smiled. "Yep, I sure do...always have."
As she turned away to talk to yet another departing delegate, Dany and Ann looked at each other.
They had been drawn to Ellie when she had first moved to their school in Dallas. There was something simple and innocent about her and it shone out from those expressive green eyes, for all to see. Sadly, as ever was the case, some saw her goodness as weakness and enjoyed taunting her. In common with most bullies, they were cowards and always waited until she was alone to begin their torture. She had been the target of one particular group of bitchy girls for some time, until one day, Ellie had had enough and had lashed out at the ringleader. The girl went down and looked up with a bloody nose, it was then that Ellie burst into tears and leant down to hold the girl in her arms and dabbed at her nose with a tissue.
"I am so sorry, but you can't treat people like this...it isn't right, what did I ever do to you? Huh? What? Why do you hate me so much?"
The girl pulled away from Ellie's arms and stalked away with her friends, yelling back, "This ain't over yet, you freakin weirdo."
From that day, the bullies had mostly, left Ellie alone, due to the fact that Dany and Ann made sure that one of them was with her, at all times. However, they knew that that day had scarred Ellie and sometimes they would find her gazing into space, with a sad look on her face.
Out of school, they spent time together but Ellie always came to Dany or Ann's house, they were never invited to hers and they never asked why.
Dany's mother was always pleased to see Ellie and greeted her with big hugs every time she visited. In the beginning, Ellie had been stiff and uncomfortable with this but soon began to relax and even return the hugs.
Dany had once overheard her mother talking to her Father about Ellie.
"That child needs to be looked after; she's too thin and pale. I have a good mind to go..."
"No, you won't," her Father had spoken firmly, "You can't interfere in another family."
Dany was to remember that conversation within the year and wish, with all of her heart, that her Mom had gone to talk to Ellie's parents that day.
It had all begun, one Monday morning, when Ellie had failed to get the school bus. The asked their Home Room teacher, if she knew why Ellie was not in school, but there was no message or note to explain it. Dany and Ann had no choice but to wait until school finished and they went to Ellie's house. It was in a rundown part of town, the yard overgrown and littered with empty cans and other mess. They had knocked on the door and waited. Eventually, the door opened and a man, whom they assumed to Ellie's Dad, glowered at them.
"What do you want??" he shouted at them His breath washed over them and all they could smell was stale cigarette smoke and alcohol.
"Oh... Um..We're friends... of Ellie's.... and we wondered if she was alright..cos she didn't come to school today." Dany stuttered, her mouth drying up as she became the focus of his angry sneer.
"Mind your own doddamn business, don't you 'do gooders' come round here messing with my family, now get the hell off my property, Ellie will come back to school If, and when, I... SAY SO."
The two girls backed off and ran out of the yard into the street. They stopped at what they thought was a safe distance and looked back at the house. They saw a curtain open briefly in one of the upstairs rooms, and Dany thought she saw a pale face at the window, but it quickly closed again.
It was 3 days later that Ellie returned to school, her two friends asked her why she hadn't been in school and her eyes dropped to the floor as she whispered "Fell down the stairs, hurt my ribs."
She would not be drawn on the issue and her friends just gave her a gentle hug before going on to classes.
Over the next year, these absences became more frequent and Ellie became more and more withdrawn. One of their teachers had noticed and tried to get Ellie to talk but she never would, her grades suffered and from a straight A student, Ellie began to fail classes.
Dany and Ann spent as much time as they could with her, inviting her over to their homes for meals and sleepovers. It hurt them so much to see a gentle soul like Ellie being so obviously mistreated.
The terrible reveal of the extent of this abuse, came when Ellie was taken from her house by Social workers, one cold dark winter's night. She was put into a children's home on the other side of town. Neighbours had finally had enough of hearing her screams as her Father beat her in drunken rages. Two of the men had kicked in the door and found her father beating her with a bel, as she tried to hide behind the refrigerator. Her face was covered in blood and she was too whipped even to cry, as the men pulled her father off her, and she was wrapped in the arms of a woman from across the road.
Ellie was in hospital for several weeks as doctors healed the visible wounds and attempted to address the deeper emotional ones. Ellie just sat in her hospital room and gazed with sad green eyes in the middle distance, not engaging with the softly spoken doctors, until they left her alone with her thoughts. It was only then that Ellie allowed the bitter tears flow. The dreadful betrayal of trust that Ellie had suffered at her fathers hand, was to colour her abilities to trust and relate to others for a very long time.
Ellie's Father was sent to jail for 15 years for the 'attempted' murder of his daughter and her friends discovered that her mother had died, when Ellie was 10 years old,....after a fall down the stairs.....
Dany and Ann continued to be her close friends and as time went on, with their help and support, Ellie began to recover and smile again. She had asked not to be fostered to a family, and preferred to remain in the children's home. There, she was not expected to make relationships with the staff members who changed by the week, and she had her own space where she would write her diaries and lose herself in her stories.
The three friends graduated High School together. Ellie went to college in California, where she had won a full scholarship to major in Journalism. Dany and Ann were not as academic as Ellie and both took jobs in local businesses.
The three friends kept in close touch and met up often. Ellie always joined Dany's family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Ellie got a good degree and began to work at her trade as a journalist. She remained in California but would drop everything at the sniff of a good story, and travelled all over to be the first to bring them back to her paper. She had a small apartment, but it was just a place to eat and sleep and didn't really feel like home...Ellie had forgotten what a home felt like. She loved to write and had had several of her own stories published in magazines, but her dream of the big novel was always pushed to the background by the need to earn a living.
Finally, Ellie decided to set up on her own in the corporate world of Conventions. She had covered enough of them as a journalist and knew what made a good one and what made a Conference fail. Her business sense told her there was a market for a good organiser in her home city so she touted the Hotels until one agreed to give her a chance, and the rest was history.
Ellie had a way with people, and they all fell in love with this quietly spoken childlike woman who made every Convention she organised, a success. Dany and Ann had willingly given up their humdrum lives in Texas to join her, and the business had flourished.
Part 4
Alex had returned to the hotel and made a few phone calls to various colleagues. She had no digs planned for a few months but needed to be back in the UK, to meet the British Publishers of her book. Additionally, it was Uncle J's 70th Birthday and she could miss that, only, on pain of a fate worse than death!!.
Sitting quietly in her room, Alex's customary control wobbled and she couldn't shake the strange feeling that sat in her stomach making it roll and boil The phone rang and she jumped; she answered it and heard the soft drawl of Ellie's voice, with delight.
"How's your day been?"
"Fine, thanks, very successful...let me buy you dinner and I'll tell all!!"
They agreed to meet in the hotel restaurant and Alex found herself impatient to see the beautiful blond again. She showered and changed into a pair of dark blue trousers with a blue cotton shirt and her usual waistcoat with the Celtic designs: she pulled on a pair of freshly polished black ankle boots, and looked in the mirror. Fashion had never been Alex's strong point. She liked simple tailored clothes with no frills and hated to wear more than two colours. Her usual casual dress was jeans, a faded and battered Scotland Rugby shirt and heavy desert boots in the winter...and cut-off jeans, T shirts and sandals in the summer. Her wardrobe was small and that suited her fine.
Alex walked into the restaurant and her eyes swept the room until she saw Ellie. She was reading the menu and held her head at an angle that allowed the light to catch the gold of her hair, and the profile of her gentle face. Alex's stomach did a back flip and she stood for a few moments just drinking in the sight of this amazing woman whom she now knew, had taken her heart with her, when she had left that morning.
"Oh Boy, am I ever in real trouble." she whispered.
Ellie felt, rather than saw Alex and looked up to see her walking across to her table. Ellie gasped as the strength of her reaction hit her right in the middle of her gut. She stood and reached out to hug Alex and it seemed the most natural thing to do.
"You look gorgeous." Alex whispered in her ear
"You're not so bad yourself." she replied and her face broke into a smile that Alex was sure, lit up the whole room.
The two women were far too enraptured in each other to see that from the foyer, Dany and Ann were watching them together, looking at each other with concern.
Part 5
"OK, I'll toss you for it." Dany and Ann faced each other across their room. Their job was done and, in the morning, they were heading back to their homes on the other side of the city, but they were torn between their concern for their friend and her right to her own life.
"Whatever has this woman done to Ellie? We've never known her to behave like this, it just doesn't make sense." Ann voice betrayed her frustration.
"I SAID ...I'll toss you for it." Dany repeated loudly.
"What are you whittering about?" Ann squeaked.
"One of us has to talk to the Amazon and find out what she's up to. Our heretofore heterosexual friend has been seduced by this, I'll grant you, drop dead gorgeous woman...and we..."
Dany stopped and looked at her friends face...
"What???"
"She's got to you too hasn't she...Great Caesars Ghost...I am surrounded by raging hormones." Ann paced the floor and stopped to look out of the window.
"Look, Dany, lets stop and think here. When have you ever seen Ellie glow like she has all day? Huh? Huh? Maybe this is something really good for her."
"Are you saying we have to let this thing happen?"
"Yep, maybe that's just what I am saying."
+++++++++++++
Part 6
Alex and Ellie could have been alone in the restaurant for all the notice they took of anyone else, or the food for that matter: they were totally enveloped in each other and talked endlessly and without any awkwardness.
After their meal they decided to have tea, or in Ellie's case coffee, in Alex's room.
They walked arm in arm through the foyer and saw none of the furtive look, some admiring, some curious and some downright lustful that followed them.
They sat on the balcony in an apparently companionable silence until Alex looked over and was shocked to see pain etched on Ellie's face and tears tracking down her face. Some great protective instinct leapt from Alex as she reached for her and in a moment the tall woman had Ellie locked in her arms. Alex's hand cradled the back of Ellie's head and she crooned to her,
"Shhhh, it's alright, I've got you...schhh". She dropped gentle kisses on the pale forehead.
Alex had closed her eyes as she tried to absorb the pain flowing from Ellie and she felt herself slip to another time, a time that was barely a scent of a memory, when she knew that she had done this many times before. It was a tangible feeling and yet one that held no fear for Alex, just the desperate need to help the person in her arms.
Ellie began to relax within the circle of Alex's arms and she looked up to meet the questioning gaze from those blue eyes.
"Sorry." she sniffed.
Alex held her gaze, "What happened?"
"I just felt so safe for a few moments and it kinda overwhelmed me, then I thought about how I'm going to feel when you're gone again."
"Is feeling safe so unusual for you, Ellie?" Alex asked quietly.
Ellie seemed to gather herself and pulled away. She looked into Alex's eyes again for the longest time and exhaled a long breath.
Once Ellie began to talk, she didn't seem able to stop as all of the anger and pain flowed out of her, like an infection being cleansed.
All of Alex's well cultivated veneer of calm and reserve crumbled as Ellie opened up, she began to talk of things that had caused her such pain and left her unwilling to reach out to another person, for fear of another betrayal.
Alex's heart ached when Ellie told of the abuse by her father and her real fear that her father had killed her mother. She reached across and held the tiny hand, stroking it gently and trying to pass through their link, the strength that Ellie needed to enable her to get to the end of the story.
Alex moved her chair so that she could gather the weeping Ellie into her arms again. The gentle green eyes filled with tears over and again, and Alex wiped them away, and held her close to her.
Ellie eventually calmed her breathing and straightened up. She moved away from the safety of the tall woman's arms, and stood with her back to the balcony rail.
"So now you know that I am a screwed up head case and you should run a mile in the opposite direction."
Alex took a moment to gather her thoughts and spoke,
"Is that what everyone else has done??"
"The few I've gotten close enough to... to tell... the whole sad and sorry mess.....Yep, that's what they do. Too needy and insecure, I drive people nuts and they leave me."
Alex lifted Ellie's tear stained face up.
"Ellie, look at me...please ...look... at... me."
Unfolding her long legs, Alex moved towards Ellie and put her hands on her shoulders, kneading the tension she felt there.
After a few seconds their eyes met...and Alex spoke softly...
"Listen to me, I have never been so sure of anything, as I am sure of what I am about to say to you. I had almost given up on finding you... you are the other half of me. I know that I have always loved you with all that I am...I just KNOW IT. "
Ellie was suddenly riveted by the heart breaking crack in Alex's voice, as the tall dark woman struggled to drag the words out from her very soul.
"All my life I have felt something precious had been ripped from me. I have had nightmares all of my life when I see a bright light, that fills me with joy; disappear down a fiery deep pit, and now I have found that bright light again, I will never let you go...not ever. "
Alex took hold Ellie's hand as if her very existence depended on it, she swallowed hard and continued,
"We have trusted each other in past lives, haven't we??...I know you can feel that, Ellie...so trust me now. I will never hurt you and I will spend the rest of my life, looking after you and loving you. I want to take all that hurt and lock it away from your heart so it can never hurt you again.. Let me do that Ellie, please".
Ellie dropped her eyes, she was hearing the words and seeing the depth of sincerity in Alex's eyes but more than that...she knew at that moment that this was her destiny and as her fears vanished, she knew she would follow this woman anywhere she went, and that Alex's path from now on, was her path too.
Alex waited and almost held her breath, waiting for a response...she had never said these things to anyone and ...Oh... by all the gods and goddesses ...she needed to know that this beautiful, wonderful gentle woman felt the same way.
It seemed like an eternity before Ellie's hand closed on Alex's, and she looked up to see the anxious look in those beautiful blue eyes...and she whispered..
"Yes, please...my love...Yes please..."
Part 7
The next day found the two women again, drinking tea.
"I have to be home for Uncle J's birthday, but I could fly back after that". Alex suggested conversationally.
She felt Ellie freeze beside her...
"What is it, Ellie? What's wrong, what did I say?"
Ellie's face was stricken with fear...
"You said you wouldn't leave me...you promised..."
Alex picked Ellie up and held her on her lap and rocked gently...
"My darlin girl, I want us to be together, more than anything, but we have to face it,... you have a home, a business and friends here.... and I have a home, Uncle J and my University work in the UK. It's going to take some time for me to sort things out, so that I can move out here, and then we can be together...".
Ellie realised what Alex had said and, in an instant, her thoughts became crystal clear.
"Alex, I have no home here, my business is just that....a business...it's not my life's work and Dany and Ann can run it with both hands tied behind their backs. They have been the only constant thing in my life but I would follow you to hell and back, in a heartbeat. Apart from Dany and Ann and their folks...there are no happy memories for me here. Take me with you Alex ...Don't leave me here, I can organise and write for you, I have talked with politicians and business people, all over the world when I was a journalist. I can be useful to you. I want to see where you grew up Alex, I want us to live in your little croft and make a whole load of new memories...Where you go, I go, because you are stuck with me. First thing tomorrow, I'll get hold of my contacts at the Airlines and book two tickets for London or Edinburgh, or wherever is best..."
Ellie stopped and realised she was probably moving way too fast and kicked herself. "Goddammn it, Ellie, you've done it again", she screamed in her head, and gazed down at the floor afraid to look up, for fear of what would greet her.
Ellie felt that her heart would break as the silence seemed to last for hours...eventually, she could bear it no more and decided that seeing rejection would be better than not knowing, and she spoke, her voice trembling, "What do you think, Alex,....is that what you want??"
The answer was loud and clear, and Ellie heard it as if Alex had yelled it from the rooftops...She couldn't help but laugh out loud, as she looked up to see the amazed and delighted expression on Alex's face. Ellie's held it in her hands and kissed her re-discovered soulmate, long and hard.