She doesn’t answer right away.
The silence stretches between us until it feels like it might suffocate me.
Then her voice breaks through it.
“It’s easy to forgive someone you love when you can see how much they’re hurting,” she whispers.
She reaches a weak hand toward me.
“But Tank… forgiveness isn’t the hard part.”
My chest tightens.
“The hard part,” she continues softly, “is convincing the person you love that they deserve it.”
That hits like a punch to the ribs.
Her eyes lock onto mine.
“You keep thinking loving me means protecting me from the world,” she says. “But loving me means standing beside me while we face it together.”
A tear slips down her temple.
“I don’t need a hero who never fails,” she whispers.
“I just need the man who keeps coming back.”
The words shatter whatever wall I had left.
My feet finally move.
I cross the room in three steps and take her hand carefully in both of mine, terrified of hurting her.
“You’re not fragile,” I murmur, voice thick. “You’re the strongest person I know.”
I press my forehead against hers.
“But if anything ever happens to you again…”
My voice breaks.
“I won’t survive it.”
Her fingers tighten weakly around mine.
“Yes, you will,” she whispers. “Because you’ll have to.”
She smiles softly.
“Someone has to stay alive long enough to keep my brother alive.”
“I don’t need another Bones in my life, baby sister,” Spike says as he steps into the room. “That man is exhausting aboutkeeping me alive. But I would appreciate it if nothing happened to either one of you.”
“Bubby, you okay?” she asks, lifting her other hand toward him.
“As well as I can be considering ten of my men were killed, my family was put in harm’s way, and my beautiful baby sister was shot.”
Speaking of…
