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"Please put me down it's just a sprained ankle." Braeden lets Derek know.
"And a fractured rib and a fucking bullet through your shoulder." Derek points out.
"It's a flesh wound, Derek. I've had worse." she explains, "Technically I died once, remember?"
"That..doesn't make it better. And technically I died once too, remember how you hovered." he reminds her as he carefully carries her inside the apartment they're renting on a beach in Costa Rica.
When Derek had insisted on coming along with his girlfriend on some of her missions he hadn't quite expected this: wild omegas and rogue hunters and rescue missions that ended with Braeden bursting through a cellar door carrying someone on her back, shooting her way to Derek who was in the getaway car.
"I didn't hover." Braeden tries to protest. (I t doesn't work. She most certainly did hover: petting his hair and holding his hand and watching him like she thought he would disappear).
"Well, I'm going to." Derek says with finality as he places her gently on their King sized bed.
"The healer said with the potion I took, I should be fine in two days...tops." she reassures.
"Then in two days..tops...I'll stop."
"Derek--"
"You almost died, B. Let...let me hover." he tells her. He doesn't mean his voice to crack the way it does, but it happens and he doesn't apologize for it. He can't lose her. He won't.
He watches the entirety of her soften: her shoulders droop along with her neck. Her face smooths but it's her eyes. Her brown eyes go shiny as she looks at him. He stares back at her with the same intensity.
"Ok. Ok you can hover." she almost whispers and brings the back of her hand to his cheek and car esses.
She lays back against the pillows though and lets Derek ease off her boots. Then he peels off her dirty leather pants, black leather jacket, and torn white tank top. She got cleaned up when the healer was taking care of her wounds earlier but there were no other clothes to wear. Otherwise Derek would have drawn her a hot bath to soak in. He maneuvers her gently so that he can pull back the covers and tuck her in before he climbs in himself and gathers the mercenary in his arms.
He kisses her hair and smiles when she presses back against him. He cards one hand through her thick hair while the other slowly drains her pain a little at a time. He continues like this until he can hear her heartbeat even out.
"I love you." he whispers to her sleeping form uncaring that she didn't hear him.
"I love you too."