Touching Shadows

The confrontation (feat. Marty Bennett)

COHEN

"I need you to leave, Cohen. We can't do this. If I'm the cause of all this, we can't be together anymore."

Audrey was standing at the doorway of her bedroom, with tears rolling down her face.

"You can call Brittany and tell her you've left me, that you won't see me again. And then she might reconsider. She can stop taking this all out on you, and you can get your dads cabin back, and everything will be fine. But you need to go now."

She was ranting, and trying to gather belongings of mine from around her room. Desperate to make it better for me. Desperate to fix this, whatever the cost to herself.

I got up off the bed and went to her, wrapping my arms around her tightly. It was like trying to calm a frightened bird. She was breathing heavily, and I had to trap her so she stopped flapping and trying to escape.

"Audrey... baby, stop."

She slowly calmed and settled, resting her head against my chest and just letting me hold her.

"I'm not leaving. You don't get to decide this is happening. This isn't going to fix things, and I won't let you do this."

She looked up at me with a pained expression. I shook my head at her.

"My dads cabin is precious to me. But so are you. And I'm not going to stand here and watch you be a martyr, and sabotage this relationship so that Brittany can win. I'm not going to let her take anything else away from me. I'm not going anywhere, baby. I'm not leaving."

I leaned towards her and her mouth met mine, kissing me needily.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Cohen", she mumbled.

I brushed her hair from her face, and wiped her tear-stained cheeks.

"Baby, this isn't on you. You've done nothing wrong. Now come to bed and let me hold you."

She crawled under the covers and I wrapped my arms around her waist. My face buried in her hair, I pulled her close.

"We'll work this out baby. Somehow, we'll sort this all out. I'm about due for some good luck.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

AUDREY

The week dragged on. Poor Cohen was in and out of meetings with Walt, brainstorming how they could present things so Brittany would grant him the cabin. And his freedom.

He was back at school too, so between legal discussions and lessons, he would come home exhausted. I tried my best to support him however he needed, but I felt like I was coming up short.

After school finished on Thursday, he came to find me in my classroom.

"Hey."

He wrapped his arms around me from behind, as I finished cleaning up a pile of papers.

"Hey you. What's up?"

I turned my head towards him and he met me, kissing me softly on the lips.

"I spoke to Walt earlier. He wants me to come up to the city for a face-to-face meeting with Brittany's lawyer tomorrow. I've already discussed it with Gerald, and he's happy for me to take the day off. It just means I need to race home, pack a bag and drive up tonight."