My Heroine

Harry watched her as she talked from the chair across from his. Her legs were stretched out in front of her with her feet and ankles on his lap. They had slowly fallen into a routine of meeting during the breakfast hour at the lawn chairs outside. Usually, one or the other would bring tea or coffee accompanied by a pastry or toast. From there they would talk about the previous day/night events before moving into what they had missed in the last 10 years.

“Oh my god, Granny must have gone mental!” Lia covered her mouth, eyes wide as he finished telling her of how his Vegas holiday didn’t stay in Vegas.

“She didn’t talk to me for a week, Papa didn’t either. Now, Will on the other hand, he yelled at me like he always does when I do something stupid.” Harry smirked causing Lia to laugh. “So, is there anyone waiting for you to get home?”

“You mean like my family?” Lia tilted her head in confusion. Harry smiled at how innocent and beautiful she looked in that moment.

“No. I mean like a boyfriend, fiancée or I don’t know…a cat?” Shaking his head; laughing as he spoke.

“Oh,” Lia laughed at her obvious, for lack of a better term, blonde moment. “Um, no, there’s no one or no pet that’s waiting.”

“When was the last time you had a boyfriend?” Harry couldn’t help but feel slightly happy about finding out she had no current significant other.

“About a year ago, after we called it off I came back here within 2 months.”

“When you called what off? The relationship?” It was Harry’s turn to tilt his head in confusion.

“Our wedding.” Harry felt his heart drop at the words she said.

“Wedding?” His voice was barely audible. Lia nodded, her jaw slightly set in a tight, clenched look. “Why did you call it off?”

“We just realized we weren’t meant to be.” Lia shrugged, purposely being vague causing the male across from her to wonder what she was hiding. “I should get to the office. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“Of course, I have the night off since I covered for Smith on Tuesday.”

“I have it off too. Come find me in my office when you’re free.” Lia said standing, giving a soft smile before walking away. Harry, who would usually be thrilled that she wanted to see him again that night, was more focused on what she was hiding.

“Finally coming to work Wales?” Smith laughed as Harry sat next to him picking up the X-Box controller that sat on the table.

“It’s only work when I’m up in the air.” He replied smugly, raising his arms in victory as he scored a goal. Harry couldn’t help but be lured back into his thoughts about Lia as he continued to play the game.

“Wales, you’re bombing today’s play.” Davies voice came from the other couch.

“He must be thinking about that nurse he’s been spending all his time with.” Smith teased shoving Harry as the game ended with an ending score showing that he had lost.

“Ah, shove off.” He replied, repaying Smith’s shove with one of his own. Harry smiled during the light hearted teasing coming from the others around him, giving back whatever they had been dishing out. The teasing and light hearted mood lasted all of 10 minutes before their first call came in. Harry stopped thinking about Lia and focused on the job at hand, it was the most time during that day that she wasn’t on his mind.

Opening the door, Lia moved from the doorway of her office to let Harry enter.

“I just have to finish this one last part and then I am free.” Nodding, Harry sat down in the seat by the door he has come accustomed to. He watched her as she finished working, the familiar look of concentration dominating her face. He had always loved that look on her, it was something that reminded him of their childhood, of him watching her finish her homework. As he continued to remember the certain bits of her he enjoyed, he was brought back to the nagging question of what she was hiding.

“Hey Lia, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Lia responded, never looking up from her work. Harry carefully thought of how to word his question.

“What did you mean by you ‘realized you weren’t meant to be’? I mean, with the way you looked and the way you said it, it made me feel like there was more to it than just that.” Harry watched as she dropped her pen out of her loose grip, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. “Lia? Are you okay?”

Harry moved to kneel next to her, turning her chair slowly. Lia looked at him with tears in her eyes.

“Lia, I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer, I’m sorry.” She released a shakey breath as a single tear ran down her cheek.

“His name was Dean; we met during my junior year at University in the States. He was the first person, since you that I had feelings for….that I fell for. We were together for the rest of my time at Uni. During that time we talked about getting married, having children and what their names would be. He proposed during the graduation party his family had thrown for me, I was ecstatic because I thought my life was settling the way everyone said it should. A couple of months after our engagement, I volunteered to come out here work. He wasn’t happy about the decision I had made, but he supported me. I spent a year out here the first time, that’s how I know Evans. Anyway, when I got home I thought I would start planning our wedding, our life. I noticed something was off a couple of months after I came home. He was always drinking, going out and staying out all night. When I asked him about it, he’d get mad yelling that it wasn’t any of my business. Then one day when he was out, a woman showed up at our door asking for him, said she was his girlfriend and that she is happy to see his ‘sister’ home. I was furious; when I confronted him about it he went mental.” Lia took a deep breath to control her emotions; she refused to waste tears on a poor excuse of a man. “When I woke up days later, I was in the hospital with 4 broken ribs, a concussion, and stitches on my forehead, a black eye and a fractured wrist. He was there, by my bedside when I had woken up, he said ‘you need to be more careful with those stairs’. The look that I saw on his face told me that I better go along with his story and I did as long as he was there. When he went to lunch I told the nurse everything that happened. She called the police and he was arrested. I came back to England not too soon after the restraining order and no contact order was granted. I haven’t seen him or heard from him since, although from what I hear, he’s in jail for armed robbery.”

Harry waited a couple of minutes to let it sink in for him and for her regain complete composure. Lia looked into his eyes as he placed a hand on her cheek.

“Lia-“ She shook her head stopping him.

“I don’t want any sympathy. I don’t feel bad about my past, I mean yeah, I obviously wish it didn’t happen and it’s still a sore spot for me, but it’s a part of me. It’s made me stronger now because of it, a better person because of it.”

Harry’s lips pressed into hers surprising both of them. Harry couldn’t help but kiss her; he needed her to know that he was there; that he was proud of her and everything he was feeling. Lia allowed herself to get carried away in his lips, in his kiss. A lot of the kiss felt so familiar, and then there was this part that was so different, so beautiful that she couldn’t help but sigh into his lips. Harry felt her fingers playing with the hair on the base of his neck as the sigh escaped her. Taking a chance, he opened his mouth moving his tongue to her lips, running the tip of it along the part that formed. Lia granted him access, feeling his tongue move in to meet hers while his free hand went to her hip. Slowly, rhythmically, their tongues glided against one another drawing the couple deeper and deeper into their feelings.

“No, this can’t happen.” Lia pulled away suddenly moving away from Harry, standing a little ways across the room.

“Tell me why Angelia. Why can’t this happen?” Harry looked at her noticing the confused, slightly scared look in her eyes. He did notice that along with the other feelings he finally saw what he missed in the past 10 years, the look of love that her green eyes always held for him. “You can’t tell me that it didn’t feel right. I can tell by looking at you that you thought it did.”

Harry moved his body to be positioned right in front of hers.

“I leave in less than 2 months; you still have 3 months here. We haven’t been friends again for that long, there’s still things that I need….we need to find out. I-“ Harry cut off Lia’s frantic tirade finally having enough of her doubts and fears.

“Like what? Angelia, I will tell you anything you want to know; I will be 100 % honest with you, but I cannot just sit here and pretend that my feelings for you don’t exist, when they’ve never gone away. I meant it when I said that I will spend forever trying to make it up to you, hell, if you don’t know what you want, I’ll wait for you to find out, but I know what I want and that’s you. I want all of you; I want you to be mine again.”

Lia looked at Harry as he laid it all out on the table for her. She had spent a long time trying to get over him; to forget everything, both good and bad, he’s done. Yet even after 10 years, after everything and everyone they’ve been through, she still got the same feeling in her stomach when she saw him or kissed him. She still felt the same pull to him when they were in the same room and the same surge of electricity, sparks, when they touched that seemed to only get stronger as the years had passed. Why has she spent all this time fighting off the feelings that had come back after so many years of being hidden when she could have just given in? Why give up something that is obviously supposed to be? There has always just been one thing, one person in her life that had always just made sense to her; there was no explanation given, no evidence behind her reasoning. All that there was, was him.

Harry barely had time to prepare himself before her body slammed into him, her lips connecting to his as her arms wrapped around his neck and his around her waist. It was harry who pulled away moments later from the kiss but not from their embrace.

“What does this mean?” His eyes searched hers, trying to find the answer he so desperately needed. Lia smiled, placing her hand on his cheek.

“I’m yours, I’ve always been yours.” Lia breathed, smiling widely taking in the surprised look on his face, giggling as his lips attached to hers once more in a deep kiss.