Persistence

“Aiden?” Emma laughed. “Aiden, did you fall asleep out here again?”
Aiden opened his eyes and gazed in amazement at his fiancé. He shot right up off his feet ,dropped the engagement ring from his hand, and held her so tight she could hardly breathe. He choked back his remaining tears and ran his hand along her hair still embracing her.
“Wow, bad dream or something?” Emma said and wrapped her arms around him in reply.
“I just really really, really, really love you, Em.”
“I love you too, Aid. You want to come to bed now or are you especially wanting to sleep on the kitchen floor?” she smiled.
He refused to let go of her. She was here, breathing and all.
He let out a smile and replied” I’ll be there in a second”
“Well, that would require you to let go ,babe” She laughed.
“Sorry” he kissed her gently on the cheek and released her from his tight grip.
He turned to grab the ring from the ground to give back to Emma, but she was gone.
“Emma?” he said still smiling.
”Emma?” he repeated a little more worried now.
He ran frantically the bedroom. No Emma.
Throwing open the door to their bathroom, he saw Scott with a knife to Emma’s throat. Aiden became furious.
He lunged at him and almost brought him to the ground to protect Emma. She was now on the floor. Aiden couldn’t tell if she was hurt or not at this point. He punched Scott will all the strength in his arm and Scott fell to the ground. He ran over to Emma as Scott began to speak.
“Aiden Morrow?” Scott said in an almost professional voice that didn’t seem to be his own.
“Sir?” he questioned.
Aiden was extremely confused now.

Aiden finally had ended up crying himself to sleep that night. The voice was really that of a police officer.
“Sir, are you alright?” the man said as he came closer to Aiden and shook him a little to wake him up all the way.
“Cool it. I’m fine.” Aiden spat at him, groggy from his fading nightmare.
“What do you want?” he said his aggravation clearly showing.
“We believe we know where your fiancé is.”
“What?” Aiden replied and rubbed his eyes and sat up.
“Where?”
“Well, Alec here says he knows. We’ll take you with us if you wish”
“A kid? How the hell would he know where she is?” Aiden’s bitterness towards the subject was rearing its ugly head more than usual. It didn’t just hurt to think about anything remotely close to being about his precious Emma Ross, it killed him. The pain caused his anger to worsen tremendously.
“Look, he said he saw Miss Ross okay? You don’t have to come. I just thought you’d want to be there when we found her.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Just can’t think straight lately. You can understand right?”
The officer rolled his eyes.” You coming or not? We’re burnin’ daylight here.”
“Give me a minute will you?”
“Fine, but hurry it up.”
Aiden got up and proceeded to get to the bathroom to untangle his hair and clean up.

Back at the Holbertson home, Rory was fully enjoying herself on her new found day off. Then again, so was Todd.
“Wow” she said breathlessly lying in her bed with her head resting on his bare chest.
“I know” he said laughing also breathless.
“Let’s definitely do that more often.” She replied still breathless.
“As you wish, my dear.” He said as he kissed the top of her head.
“I wonder how Aiden’s doing…He didn’t look too good when I left the house.”
“We just had the best sex since our honeymoon and your thinking about Aiden?”
“Not like that, babe. He just looked like complete shit.”
“Em’s gone again. Of course he’ll look like hell.” He said jokingly.
“I know, but he seems worse this time. Almost seems like he’s giving up. It’s sad really.”
“Well you can call and check on him when I’m done with you.” He whipped his arm around her bare back and flung her underneath him. He kissed her quite passionately as he had done many times before.
“I’m sure it can wait.” She smiled and kissed back equally as passionate and traced his stomach muscles with the tips of her fingers.
She suddenly stopped.
“You think Emma’s going to be okay right?”
“Of course, I mean she always is.”
“I guess your right…But what if-”
“Shhh.” He placed his index finger on the middle of her lips.” I’m not done with you yet Miss Holbertson” he kissed her again to distract her from her growing worry.
“You know all my weaknesses. It’s not fair.” She smiled.
“Life’s not fair.” He grinned in reply.

“She was right here I swear!” Alec shrieked at the officer.
“Your lucky I’m really fucking tired, kid.” Aiden mumbled angrily.
“Are you sure? She was right here exactly?”
“Yeah! Her shirt was all torn and her pants were gone. She looked like shit. I’m not crazy. It was her.”
“Well Mr. Morrow, maybe this is a good sign. Perhaps your fiancé has found her way back to your home after all.” The officer said to the cold ,emotionally drained face behind him.
Aiden turned in frustration towards the forest behind him and ran his fingers roughly across his face when he ceased in his motion at the sounds of a fairly close by cry of agony. He ran frantically through the forest in the direction from which he heard the familiar shrill. Bashing branches and small twigs out of his way he reached the area from which the scream originated.
Great. Now I’m not just depressed, but I’m losing my mind too.
Aiden thought as he peered around for his precious Emma but discontinued his search when she was nowhere to be found. He sat down to get some rest when he was disturbed by a blow to the shoulder again.
“Hey! What the hell! That’s my bad-“
Aiden froze. He couldn’t speak. This was no punk at all.
Emma grabbed his hand with her fragile, almost broken one and squeezed it with all the small amount of might she had left in her. Aiden was still speechless, but the oncoming tears refused to be silenced. A single tear began to silently fall on his soft dirt covered cheek.
“Emma…” He managed to force out of his throat.
He couldn’t stand to see her this way. Beaten and bruised nearly to death. Nobody ever wanted to even imagine this happening to the one they loved.
She was lying on her back, the pelvic wound was worse now, grasping his band from behind the tree. She had been attempting to fight her way back to her home, but as you can guess was unsuccessful. Walking was proven to be much too painful to bare from the pelvic wound. The pain was so tremendous she could barely speak.
“You look like hell” She smiled at him and used her thumb to wipe away the tears from his face.
“Same to you beautiful.” He smiled back as he gazed into her eyes again. This time it was not a dream.
“I take it you cant walk too well eh?”
She just stared at him in a look that almost literally said the words
”No shit Sherlock.” No words were necessary to figure that one out.
He laughed and bend over and reach his arm under her back to pick her up into his arms. The sunlight was shining through the narrows passage between the branches of the tress, and he now saw the bruise across her cheek. Emma noticed his eyes begin to widen and turned away to hide the bruise.
“Em!” he yelled as he turned her face back in his direction and gently brushed two fingers over her purple shaded cheek.
“I’m fine” she reassured him.
“You sure?”
“Aid, just take me home.” She pleaded with a smile of relief.
“God, I love you Emma Ross.” He laughed briefly and began very carefully easing his fiancé into his strong arms. Now seeing the pelvic wound in its awfully gory glory, Aiden became furious. It showed quite easily through his new facial expression. A sharp turn from past relief to present hatred for Scott. Emma was getting worried in reply to the expression he now held. She figured out what he was so aggravated over when she took a glance downward.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, babe…I swear.” She said attempting to be comforting but instead only seemed to quiver from the cold morning air.
“Nothing should have hurt to being with.” He snapped not even glancing down at her with his cold, seemingly emotionless face.
She rested her head against his chest and Aiden began walking toward his prior location with the officer and Alec.

Rory’s body crashed on the floor of the second story bedroom she and Todd were in, but that didn’t stop the excitement. Rory and Todd continued despite the minor interference. It was all too irresistible. They were about to commence “round two” as Todd jokingly called it when the fun was interrupted by the ring of Rory’s cell phone.
“Five minutes.” She said smiling back at Todd breathless.
He only gave her a funny look until he managed to speak the word” Fine” and proceeded to pout like a little preschooler during the entire time of waiting.
Rory laughed and reached on the bed side table about three feet from her position on the ground.
“Hello?” she laughed as she saw the growing pout on her husband’s face.
“Long time no see Rory. You’re married now?” an unfamiliar voice spoke through the phone.
“Who is this?” Rory said skeptically.
“Aww, come on Ror, you don’t remember me? Scott Hunter…From high school? I heard you used to have a crush on me. Not too shocking if I do say so myself.”
Rory instantly stilled.
“I’ll be back in a sec’ babe. I think it’s a work problem.” She said after she pulled a robe on and left the room to wander outside the house and onto the porch.
“How the hell did you get this number and what the fuck do you want?” Rory demanded.