When Gus stepped forward, that grip tightened once more and pressed even harder. More blood trickled down her neck and Gus looked like he was about to lose it. "I'm so sorry, Aiden. If it wasn't for me-"

  "Don't," she pleaded. If it wasn't for him, she would have never been whole, even if it had only lasted a short time.

  The blade lifted from her throat, but the tip scratched across her skin. She jerked in his hold when Donny started to hit his fist against the side of his head, mumbling incoherencies. The blade returned to her neck, a determined air to the movement, and she knew this was it. He was going to finish it unless something happened right now. When he spoke once more, his voice was strained and she felt hot tears drip onto her shoulder. "Sometimes we all need to make sacrifices, Detective. Even you."

  It all happened so quickly. The flash in Gus' eyes just before Donny was ripped back, the burn of the blade across her collar bone, the gush of blood that poured down her chest. She collapsed to the floor only to feel the sharp crack of pain in her skull when it connected to the hard cement.

  "Aiden!"

  She tried to open her eyes. Tried to reach out to him, but her arms were too heavy. Hot blood pooled in that dip at the base of her throat and the last thing she remembered before the darkness took her, was how good it felt when Gus kissed her there.

  Chapter 15

  Gus

  The sterile smell of antiseptic and the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital room were making my pounding head feel like it was about to explode.

  Aiden was lying unconscious in the bed. Had been for hours.

  I'll never forget the sound of her head hitting the ground. The loud crack had ripped a hole in my chest. I'd been hit in the head before, but never that hard. It took only seconds to get to her, but the blood had already pooled around her. The deep cut just over her collar bone had bled profusely, but it was the amount of blood coming from her head that scared the shit out of me.

  When we had gotten into the hangar, I had no idea how we were going to intercept Donny without Aiden being hurt. The shouting from the small office at the back alerted us to their location and it made me sick to think she had been alone with the guy for any amount of time.

  I heard everything.

  Donny Marks was extremely unstable, but it was to be expected. Especially after Linc found out more about the kidnapping all those years ago. At 7 years old, Donny had been through a hell I couldn't begin to fathom and he lived it for three long years.

  The man who had taken him was sick. Three months after Donny's disappearance, other children had been recovered, but never Donny. Even after hours of interrogation, Donny still had more to tell. At 10, he had killed the man who had kept him prisoner for so long. The details of his escape were brutal. A child finding the frame of mind to sneak into a room and slice a man's throat… it was horrifying.

  Didn't give him the right to do what he did.

  Donny was a computer genius and had snaked his way into three other departments here in Detroit, waiting for the right time to strike. He had watched me for a long time, seeing hope where their originally hadn't been. When I had left for Oakland to help Ash, it was the nail in the coffin. An already fragile mind, broke completely.

  He was locked up for now, until his trial where he would most likely be put into a psych ward. From the sound of it, Aiden wasn't the only person he had physically hurt. The darkness this man had been living in was sick.

  I thanked God Aiden's injuries weren't more serious.

  Luke hadn't seen the blade in Donny's hand and the remorse in his eyes every time he looked at me was painful. I kept telling him there was nothing else we could have done. Better a cut to her chest than a slit to her throat. I wasn't sure how Aiden would feel about it, but I knew she'd be grateful to be alive.

  If she would just wake up.

  I held her tiny hand in both of mine and counted her steady breaths as I stared down at her. The doctor said she had a concussion from the blow to the head and the blood loss had only made her condition worse.

  She would be okay, though. Once she woke up, we would be okay.

  "Gus, sweetie, you need to rest," Lily's anxious voice came from the doorway.

  She had cried tears of joy at the return of her daughter and Aidy refused to leave her mother's side, not even for Rose and Jerry Murphy, her grandparents. Chad had stayed close to them, but Aidy was hesitant with the man she still hadn't met since Lily cancelled the dinner she'd invited us to. Within a couple hours, Aidy had climbed into Chad's lap and embraced him.

  "Do you like my mommy?" she asked.

  Chad smiled and looked at Lily, his feelings very obvious. "I do. Very much."

  "I've already done it lots but I think it would help if you laid her, too."

  Lily had started to choke on her coffee and the rest of us, well, most of us laughed and some were speechless. It killed me that Aiden hadn't been there to hear it.

  "I'll tell you about it later," Lily muttered to Chad who kissed her tenderly with a big smile on his face.

  After that, I had refused to stay in the waiting room a moment longer. Aiden was moved to a private room and her family hadn't protested my presence. In fact, Rose Murphy refused to let me leave the room even once. Jerry had retrieved the coffee and Rose had interrogated the hell out of me. When it was clear I was in this for the long haul, she gave us her blessing with the guarantee that Jerry would be on board as well.

  "You aren't upset? It's my fault she's even in this bed," I mumbled.

  "No, Fergus. It's because of you she is even alive. It's because of you that for the last couple months she has lived more for herself than she has for 27 years."

  "I love her very much."

  "I know you do, dear. I can see it all over your handsome face. Everyone can. You two meeting was fate, even if you hated each other in the beginning. Everything happens for a reason."

  Rose reminded me of my own mom. The two of them would have made instant friends.

  Once everyone left to get some rest for the night, I set myself up in her room. An uncomfortable looking recliner was tucked in the corner of the room, but I hadn't even gone close to it. My place was right beside her, no matter how long it took.

  I still hadn't acknowledged Lily's presence in the room. She knew I wasn't going to leave Aiden's side, but she felt obligated to try.

  "I never said thank you, Gus."

  I frowned. "Yes, you did."

  "For helping to find Aidy, yes. But not for saving my sister."

  "You don't need to thank me for that," I grumbled, smoothing my thumbs over the soft skin at Aiden's wrist. "I love her. There was no other choice."

  "Still. Thank you."

  I nodded and turned my eyes back to my beautiful girl, lying helpless on the bed. Her eyelids flickered and my body tensed, but there was no other movement. The doctor said she would wake up in her own time, but I was getting impatient.

  "I need to get back to Aidy. Please rest, Gus. She needs you whole."

  She left quietly and I dropped my forehead to the bed, holding in the curses I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wouldn't be whole until she came back to me. No matter how many people told me she would be fine - including me repeating it to myself over and over again - I wouldn't be able to relax until she opened those big brown eyes of hers and smiled at me the way she always did.

  I pressed my lips to her wrist and inhaled. She still smelled sweet, like sugar and apples, like my Aiden, but it was dulled by the smell of the disinfectant.

  "Come on baby, open your beautiful eyes for me. Yell at me for being an asshole and getting you into this mess, yell at me for making fun of your god awful cooking. Anything. Just wake up for me, okay?"

  "I'll never get better if I never practice."

  The sound of her beautiful voice pulled a sob out of throat. I raised my head to a sleepy grin crossing her face and the tension in my chest finally disappeared.

  "Sometimes practice doesn't always make perfect, baby. It just makes people sick."

  She smiled and tightened her fingers around mine.

  "I'll be sick every day for the rest of my life if it means I get to love you," I added gently, leaning over her to kiss the single tear that had fallen down her cheek.

  Her eyelids were heavy, but it didn't look like she was going to be going back to sleep. She started to raise her head to mine, her eyes begging for a proper kiss, but she winced from the pain in her head. I moved to push the button for the nurse and her hand reached out and stopped me.

  "Wait. Aidy?"

  "She's just fine. Not a scratch on her. Already making jokes and ready for another fort. She said she wants to have another sleepover since we let her eat a shit ton of junk food."

  Her short giggle was the most beautiful thing in the world. I pressed my lips to her wrist once more.

  "You, on the other hand, have a concussion. You lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion. I need to get the nurse in here and make sure you get enough pain medicine."

  She reached up to her collar bone, but I caught her hand. "Don't."

  "Is it bad?"

  I sighed, my gaze finding the bandage that covered the jagged line I knew was there, marring her perfect skin. "Not as bad as you think. It was deep and needed a lot of stitches. We were all more worried about infection. The blade he cut you with was… it was used on a few other people, too. They ran a bunch of tests just to make sure you were safe. So far, everything has come back just fine."

  "I'm going to have a scar," she grumbled and shifted her body on the bed.

  "You'll still have the most gorgeous body I've ever seen or will ever see."

  She smiled wickedly, "You plan on seeing a lot in the near future?"

  I laughed. "No, baby. Plus, I don't really see them. All I see is you."

  She shifted again and I reached for the call button once more. Her hand tightened around my wrist.

  "Tell me, Gus. I need to know."

  My back teeth started to grind together. I didn't want her to know all the sordid details of Donny Marks' reasoning behind what he did, but I knew she wouldn't give up and if anyone was going to tell her, it was going to be me.

  "Let's wait until you are out of here. There's too much to tell and you need to rest."

  "Promise?"

  "I promise, Red. I'll tell you everything, then we can forget it."

  "Is he…"

  I shook my head, "No. He's locked up and will be getting some help as soon as possible. I heard everything he said to you." I swallowed and looked down at her tiny hands. There would never be a day that goes by that I wouldn't think about what happened, how I almost lost her. "I'm so sorry, Aiden."

  "Gus, don't. It's not your fault."

  "He hated me. Hated me for having the family he never did, for something I didn't even have a part in. He wanted to hurt me and he knew how to. Losing Aidy, losing you? It about killed me. It would destroy me."

  "He was sick, baby. The things that must have happened to him… you can't take it to heart when his mind wasn't his own anymore."

  She was right. "I'm still going to work every day to make it up to you."

  "Just love me," she whispered. "That's all I want."

  I leaned forward and kissed her soft, plump lips. It had been too long. "I love you. I love you more than life, more than words can describe. I'll quit the force if that's what it will take to have you, to keep you safe."

  "No. Don't do that. You love your job, Gus, and I love you for it. You risk your life every day, but you do it for a good cause. You protect people, you bring justice to those who need it. I could never ask you to give that up. I'll worry. I'll worry every day, but I love you more than the idea of living a life without the worry, without you."

  My chest warmed at the sound of those words. "You remembered all along didn't you?"

  She had said the exact words I used the night of her gallery showing when I told her how my mom dealt with the worry over my dad's safety. The night she claimed she had been too drunk to remember.

  Arousal spiked when the blush covered her neck, but it was the way she rolled her bottom lip between her teeth that made me groan. I kissed her again, eagerly.

  She ran her fingers over the scruff on my cheek and leisurely moved her lips against mine. "It looks like you need to rest, too," she said.

  I pulled back just enough to gaze down at her and take it all in. She was okay. She would be okay. She was mine. Forever. I just needed to make sure she knew it.

  I pressed the call button and moments later a middle aged nurse walked into the room.

  "Ms. Murphy, it's good to see you, honey. I'm Jenny and I'll be your nurse for the rest of the night. How are you feeling?"

  Aiden didn't let me release her hand as she spoke with the nurse. I could see that she was in pain, but she tried to hide it behind her sweetness.

  "I'm going to give you another dose of this wonderful stuff, hon. It will help you rest," Jenny said.

  Aiden looked to me with an anxious expression, as if she was scared I wouldn't be here much longer.

  I chuckled. "Red, you need to sleep. I'll be right here when you open those beautiful browns again. I promise."

  Jenny didn't wait for her to respond. The button was pushed and the medicine was released before Aiden could even blink.

  "We'll see you in the morning, honey."

  Once she was gone, I sat back down in my chair and resumed my position, her tiny hand in mine. I didn't want to wait another minute and now was as good as ever. I needed her to know that this… this was forever. "Now that she's dosed you with the best narcotics money can buy, I have a question for you."

  Her eyelids drooped, but her smile lit up her face. "If you want a good answer, you'll have to wait."

  "No way, I want the true answer. You being drugged up will guarantee I get it."

  "Well hurry then, because this stuff is amazing," she groaned.

  I took a deep breath and kissed her knuckles before meeting her weary gaze. "Will you marry me, Aiden?"

  She blinked, a slow blink that told me she was fighting to stay awake. Her lips pulled into a lazy smile and her arm started to go limp, but her voice was loud and clear as she faded into sleep.

  "Yes."

  The End

  ###

  Epilogue

  Liam

  "Izzy, my love. I wish you could see this."

  Liam couldn't take his eyes away from his children. All six of them.

  Aislinn was glowing in the white dress she had deemed as 'perfection' and the noticeable bump over her abdomen had been rubbed and poked about a thousand times already. Lucas looked like he was about to devour her every time she stepped into his line of vision. It would normally be something that would cause him to see red, but now, he just rolled his eyes. The two would be popping out the majority of his grandchildren with the way they were always pawing at each other.

  Conall and Emily were inseparable. His oldest son didn't have the ability to not touch his girlfriend and that was alright with him. It reminded him of the way it had been with his Izzy the first months of their lives together. Being without her was always painful. Still was.

  Emily beamed at Con every time he looked at her. They fit well together. He was strong and silent with a wild side that was only meant to be seen by the people he trusted most; his family and the woman he loved more than life. Emily had helped him open up, but Liam was positive she never wanted him to change. His stoic manner was definitely not unappreciated.

  Liam was anxious to see the look on Emily's face when Con popped the question tonight. He had cleared it with Ash and Luke, not wanting to take the attention from them on their special day, and Ash had about burst with happiness.

  Conall looked his way and Liam nodded. His boy was nervous, but it wouldn't stop him. Emily was his forever.

  He moved his steady gaze to the dance floor where Fergus was swinging around a giggling Aidy. The little girl had become the brightest light in the Brannock's home over the last week. He had been relieved that Lily agreed to come and stay with them for a while, just to get away. Her boyfriend, Chad, had accompanied her and it was satisfying to have a full house once again. The last week had been a party filled with long nights reminiscing and plenty of Tullamore Dew to go around.

  Gus lifted Aidy into his arms and kissed her loudly on the cheek. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back before letting out a string of giggles when he spun her around. When the song ended and a slower one began, he let the little one run back to the other children attending the reception, his eyes stayed on her until he was certain she was surrounded by people who would watch over her.

  The little fire in her eyes hadn't faded and Liam knew how lucky they were that little Aidy wasn't suffering from what had happened to her.

  Then there was Aiden. The beautiful, fiery red head that had stolen his youngest son's heart. She was perfect for him, made for him. He only wished that his son hadn't been the asshole he had admitted to being for the first few months they had known each other.

  Everything happens for a reason.

  Their relationship was full of passion, but it was the strength they gave each other that had been the foundation. She never faltered when he needed her. His job wasn't the easiest and it was difficult not to bring that home, but he was good at it. After getting Aidy back and discovering what had happened to Donny Marks so long ago, he was more determined than ever to make sure he and his department did whatever it took. He was dedicated and the pride in Aiden's eyes made Liam all the more confident that their life together would be beautiful.

  She had taken all the wedding pictures with the help of her sister and Ash had refused to let her take any once the reception started. It had been difficult to hold her camera, but Aiden was determined to give her future sister-in-law the pictures she wanted. Luke had suggested handing the camera off to Lily who had been happy to oblige. With some prodding, Aiden had given in.

  Gus moved across the dance floor until he found his stunning fiancé who was chatting with Luke's mother.

 

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