Our Deepest Regrets

The kidnapping...

    "My point is that, I love you..."
"You know I love you too, Andrew, I always have."
Andrew looks as if he's struggling to find words, almost choking on his own lungs. His face turning red as a cherry, almost as if embarrassed... I start getting not quite aggravated, but slightly annoyed. And yet at the same time, concerned. So much so that I can't even seem to get my emotions in check...
"No no no... I. Love. You... Not just as a friend but as a lover. As your best friend. As a future husband. As the love of your life. As the father of our children. And so SO much more! Can't you see it by the way I look at you...? ALL of the subtle hints over the years, and yet, nothing...?", his breath hitches on the last sentence as tears continuously well in his eyes and fall upon his bright red cheeks.
    I stand there, stunned. Speechless, not able to formulate words.
"I... I... I... I don't understand... I...", I can't stop stuttering, my words are so spread out as I lift my hands to my face and cry incoherently, trying to get more out and off my chest.
"Sarah, I didn't mean to make you cry, that was NEVER my intention," Andrew says as he places his hands on my shoulders, moving my hands away from my face, he wipes the tears off my cheeks.
As I try to think of my next words, I stare at Andrew, taking in every facial expression he is making, studying his face as if for the last time...
That's when I see him...
I see a person walking behind Andrew, not threatening looking at all, just a passerby.
"Andrew, move...," As I try to warn him to make room on the path, the world went black...
My last images being, of Andrew and my life flashing in bright colors across my eyes. I could've sworn I saw Andrew attacked from behind...
A sudden jolt, waking me up. My head fuzzy, my vision going in and out trying to focus. I realize I am laying down. I look up and I see Andrew staring down at me, holding me in place on his lap. Gasping as he realizes I am coming to.
"Sarah... can.... Me...?", I can't piece together what he is saying.
"Can... hear... me...?"
"Can you hear me..." His face is so concerned as I finally am able to hear what he had said before. Slowly lifting my head, his hand supporting my neck, I sit up and take in my surroundings.
We're in the back of a large vehicle, with black interior, hard benches where we are sitting. There are no windows. There's a singular caged window that connects to the cab that is closed.
As I continue to pan the space, thats when it registered that everyone else...
My mom.
Joe.
Asher.
Brookes.
Danny.
Andrew.
And myself.
Are all in the back of this vehicle.
I am not alone...
"Andrew...," I turn my head back to him and tears threaten to enter my tear ducts...
"Yes Sarah, are you feeling alright?"
Threaten they did, the tears fall to my chin and I cling to Andrew like there's no tomorrow...
"No... I thought I saw the most terrible thing... I thought I saw you being attacked...?"
Slightly pulling away, looking at his face, my arms still wrapped around his waist. 
Searching his face for any indication that I was dreaming and it was all false.
"Sarah, we both were... I just got the worst of it," he lifts up his shirt and that was when I notice the bruises on his torso and ribs, still darkening as time went on.
As I pull away, his hand caressing my cheek bone as he once again smears my tears off to the side of my face.
"Andrew...", I am unable to complete the sentence as I touch the smudges on his rib cage, my voice wavering.
He put a finger to my lips to silence me and laid my head on his shoulder and put his arm around me to bring me closer to him.
"There is no need to relive it now, we haven't been told much while you were still out. No one has been told anything," he states matter of factly while rubbing my back.
I slightly move away and go to sit next to my mom, taking in her embrace and that is when I really see the stress and worry in her face.
Unsure of what is going on, it is very quiet in the vehicle.

Andrew comes and sits next to Danny to comfort the little 7 year old as she is terrified, his hand propping him up behind her.
I have rested on my mom just soaking in this time I have with her. That's when mine and Andrew's hands brush one another and I take hold of it and grasp it.
Fearing to let go, fearing to say anything.
Do I have feelings for him...? I have never allowed myself to think of such things. It wasn't until today, that dream, that I thought that anything else could happen between us...
We sit there in silence a while longer, holding each others hands in secret, a thing kept between us.