====== The Only Exception ====== Previous: [[logs:forbidden_romance:stay_with_you|Stay With You]] When [[profiles:danielabooth|Gabi]] woke in the morning, she was in her bed, in her bran and underwear. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten there, or how she'd gotten out of her clothes. She was confused, disoriented…and her head was…her brain was thick. Oh no. She'd had a Very Bad Attack. Quietly she got dressed in a pair of flared yoga pants and a t-shirt. Her long black hair was pulled back into a messy bun and she looked in the mirror, feeling…muted…like she always did for a little after a Very Bad Attack. Into the living room she went and froze. [[profiles:seeleybooth|Seeley]]. Snoring on the couch, Seeley was facing the rear support. It was light, he'd barely got any sleep. It wasn't that the couch was uncomfortable, he'd slept on worse. He'd slept on a concrete floor with no coverings, naked, when he was tortured. This was because he was worried about her. He kept waking, wanting to check on her, but he left her alone. He rolled over. For a moment his unconscious mind forgot he was sleeping on a couch and that was enough for him to roll off with a **THUD** and wake himself up. Wrinkled and disheveled, the hard wake up call had him groaning, flat on his back, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling. Shit. Where am I? Gabi's apartment. She needed me. Is she OK? Go check on her, you're awake, it's daylight, she should be awa-… "Gabi?" He finally noticed her standing there, behind the couch, staring at him. Everything came back to her. **Everything.** But the good part about this thickness after a Very Bad Attack was that there was no static. No panic. She stood there, gazing at him, unable to speak. Her lips parted, then shut. EVERYTHING rushed back into her conscious and for a split second, she visibly wavered. But her back straightened. She had her guard up. He'd seen her at her worst and her walls were up to protect herself from the inevitable rejection that she knew was coming. He'd stayed to make sure she was okay because he was a **good guy**, but he'd soon leave. Don't call me, Miss Carmichael, I'll call you. Call him that word again, Gabi. I can't. He's going to leave. Least you can do it give him coffee. She turned on her heel and went into her kitchen to set a pot on to brew. Katie had shown her how she could get the same result from a coffee pot that she did at the cafe. Well, close enough. Her back was to the living room. Hold her, Seeley. Like you did at the gun range…hold her and get those walls back down… She looked like she was still struggling, no words came from her before she turned to the kitchen. Something's wrong, something's going through that pretty little head and she can't verbalise it. Go to her. He threw his jacket off and onto the couch, pushing himself up off the floor. He looked like **crap**, but it didn't matter. It was better than the alternative of going home and getting no sleep because he was worried about her, then possibly never seeing her again as she closed herself off. He followed her into the kitchen, noting her working at the coffee pot. He was quiet, cautious, but he tried to make sure he made enough sound as not to cause her concern when he placed his hands on her shoulders. He held her there for a few moments before sliding his hands down to her waist, pausing again. "Gabriella?" He slid his hands forward to her stomach and lightly pulled her against him, as he did at the range. His hands were in a different place, but it was similar. She reached down a mug from the cupboard set it where the coffee pot should go, the stream slowly filling the cup. His hands were on her shoulders. He's just being friendly, caring. Concerned. Then her hips... He's steadying me. Just being caring. Concerned. Friendly. Then they slid around to her stomach. This was new enough to throw her off slightly. The walls wavered. She was pressed…no…he pulled her. He made the choice to pull her back to him. "Am I still your girlfriend?" She asked. **Are you still my Master?** Seeley placed a kiss on the back of her head. Soft, affectionate, protective. "Yes." He could hear the unspoken question hanging in the air between them. Despite the problems she had at the range last night, he remembered vividly what she'd called him when he asked her to repeat what he'd said to the guard. The way she said it. The one specific word she added to the end. How she reacted. "And more. If you still want it." He was quiet, there was a little quaver in his voice where he was unsure how she would take it, but he was never surer of anything. That he wanted her to say yes. He just couldn't say it directly, only beating around the bush. Kiss me again… Oh, that quaver pulled her. She replaced the mug with the coffee pot and set the mug on the other side of the sink, careful to never break his grasp on her. Not even when she turned in his arms to face him. Her chin tipped upwards. "How can you still want me after yesterday, Sir?" She asked. Her walls were up but her eyes were windows through them. Her question answered his. **I only want to be with You…** She used the word. His heart beat stronger, faster. Skipped a beat. He reached for her right hand and placed it on his chest, slightly to his left. Over his beating heart. He held his hand over hers, keeping it in place for a few seconds while she felt it beat. Then his arm went back around her. "//That// is why, G… Ella." It was the right time. He'd said he wanted to be her Master, even if it wasn't in so many words. He'd even given her two options with his answer. He meant the word she used, but he'd also shown her how it made his heart feel. How it beat. For her. He gazed into her eyes, searching her soul for an answer. **I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart.** She searched through the haze in her brain. She remembered….the car. She'd held his hand over her heart. I love you. She couldn't say it, but her beating heart had told him. **Beat** He **Beat** loves **Beat** you. **Beat** Close your eyes, give me your hand, darlin', do you feel My heart beating, do you understand, do you feel the same? Ella. Ella. Ella, I love you. Love me. Love Me. She looked up. Eyes pleading. Say it. Say it so I can say it too. I fell so fast and hard and it's so terrifying but I don't want to crawl anymore. I want to dive in. Say it. Please say it… Those eyes, so expressive, pleading with him. She was an open book to him. Maybe the odd phrase was written in French, or German, or, god forbid, Klingon, but he understood her. Most of her. Enough to know what he had to do. One more time his hand came to her chin, holding it firmly as he leaned down to place a kiss on her lips. His head was slightly tilted to one side, lips parted, his tongue brushing over hers, encouraging her to open to him so he could kiss her properly. When he finished pulled away, his hand remained on her jaw, holding her as he spoke those three important words, and her name. "I love you, Ella." His lips…God, his lips. Her own moved with his, her arms finally embracing him, and then…she shivered in his arms as her lips parted to the urging of his tongue. But it wasn't a bad shiver at all. He had never kissed her like this before. But he'd waited. For her. He'd promised, and he'd kept it. She was so tired of crawling. So he caught her when she dove in. He pulled away and she was breathless, the lips that had been so expressionless so far this morning were grinning, ear to ear. The honeyed hazel of her eyes, so dull and filled with having given up…were sparkling like normal at him. I love you. He loved her. "I love you. Seeley. Sir. I love you. Mother of God, I love you…." Finally, she spoke the words he wanted to hear from her. He'd struggled with saying them until he was sure she could take them. Until he was sure He could say them. Girlfriend. Partner. Sub //Shiver// What? Pet. //Shiver// **Beat** Whatwhat? He'd read about the dynamic, he'd never expected to live it, not this soon. That was what she was saying the first time they'd met outside of any FBI interest. The gun show. Was it really an accident? It didn't matter. He was smiling a huge lopsided grin like a kid running rampant in a candy store. All because of her. His eyes were smoldering. All because of her. They belonged to each other. I love your grin. I love your eyes. I love the way you hold me. I love, love, love. Everything. I love you. I love You. Boyfriend. No, that seemed to be less.\\ Partner. God no, even less than boyfriend.\\ Lover. The word invoked a lack of belonging when used on its own.\\ Sir. **Oh.** Master. **Ohhh….** Hush. Listen. No static. Hush. Nothing. Silence. Sacred. Her eyes met his again. "I didn't believe in love. I didn't believe in commitment. You have experience with the life I grew up in. You know. Marriages ended. Families fought and divided with deadly consequences. It's not worth the risk. There's so much to go wrong, to hurt, to devastate. Thinking of it almost always makes my skin crawl, makes the static in my head roar and push me over the edge." Her fingers toyed lightly with his shirt. "Almost always." She looked up again. "Seeley, **You** are the only exception. You are the reason I say almost always and not 'always'. There's no static in my head right now. I love you. No static." She swallowed. "Everything. Only for you. For You." Seeley leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead, soft, affectionate, loving. "I believe in love. With all my heart. Love at first sight, even. But I know someone from your life lives a life of distrust, a life of fear. I know what you live. And I'm prepared to help you through it. I promise to protect you. Always. No 'almost' about it." Another kiss on the forehead. "I think last night… This morning… Proved I'll be here for you. Even… With your static… And whatever it may mean in this relationship." He held her tight in his arms, his hand sliding up to the back of her head and sliding into her hair, holding her against him.