Kingdom Come Undone

Persist and Resist

A/N: Thank you for all of the support on last few chapters. I'm so happy that you all are loving this version of Emison because it's been one of my favorite things to develop. They warm my heart despite all of the little flaws just hanging out below the surface. I was unable to find a good place to cut this chapter in two, so the full chapter will be posted today, and no chapter will be posted on Thursday. But you all now get a 10,000 word chapter! This is personally one of my favorite chapters, so please enjoy!

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Tuesday afternoon I scampered out to the parking lot as soon as I received Alison's text. Today we were trying out carpooling so that Alison wouldn't be left without a car all day, and I couldn't wait to see her smile as I ran toward the semi-circled drive in front of the Cancer Center, usually reserved for patient drop-off and pick-up. She looked at me in wonder as I walked toward the passenger's side door. Her fist rested on top of her lips while she looked up through her eye lashes. She held me so gently in the palms of her hand through glance alone. She took care of me in the simplest of ways.

"Wow..." she mumbled the moment I opened the door, continuing to smirk through her stare.

I turned my body over my right shoulder to check what was behind me, "What?"

"Sometimes I forget how beautiful you are when I'm not with you. But wow."

I pulled Alison's hand from her face to kiss her gently as I entered the car, "Such a fucking flirt." Closing the door behind me, I began to note the new car smell and oil lacquer tracing the leather of my BMW. "Did you get my car cleaned?" I asked, sniffing the air and checking the backseat.

"Sure did. It wasn't messy by any means, but the little crumbs gave way to the fact that you haven't had time to clean your car for months at least."

"You'd be right about that. Thank you." I kissed the palm of her hand before wrapping it in my own, "Were you able to get a copy of Jacob's math problems for me, so I'm not relying on him to read them all off?"

"I did. Carter sent photocopies of them over to your email this afternoon. He was saying that Jake was talking all morning about doing 'mafs with Emlee'."

"Well, that's fucking adorable."

Alison took her eyes briefly off the road to lift our hands and place them back in my lap as if her next thought was meant with emphasis. "You both are... Thank you for doing this. He tends to get extremely frustrated doing math with his father or me, so maybe this will be a good fix."

"I can't promise anything"

"If it helps, I believe in you."

"Thank you, Ali."

"I thought I could order Chinese food or something for us tonight? I was working a majority of the day and didn't have time to prepare much of anything." She let go of my hand and began to fidget with her bottom lip. Nervous at the words escaping them. I read her so well in such a short amount of time, her minimal expressions allowing me to see past her usually blank and mono-toned façade.

I reached out to hold onto her elbow as though my touch would console her apprehension, "That sounds great. And don't think you're expected to cook every night you're here, babe. Usually I meal prep for the week on Sundays, but I'll have to work out a new routine."

"Yes, we will." We caught each other's eyes at her pronoun switch.

"Have you decided yet if you want to leave tomorrow night or Thursday morning?"

"Well, when are you driving in this weekend?"

"My plan is Friday night after work so that we can spend most of Saturday together before going to dinner with your parents. Then, I'll head back here after church on Sunday."