Lifeline (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 44: Turning Tides

Okay it's been ages I know. I'm super sorry. I fully intend to finish this story and hope to do so over the coming weeks. I actually have the next 4 or so chapters 95% written but it was always THIS chapter that delayed me. Truthfully, I hate this chapter! I really do. It felt awful to write and I don't enjoy reading it back. I don't know why, it'll probably seem just like any other chapter to you as readers, but for me I found this one really difficult and I'm not proud of the result. I just needed to get it done though so I could move on to the rest of the story. I hope you can forgive me! To recap, Tully has lost her memory after the accident and began spending time with Jacob. She travelled to London for the memorial service and was overwhelmed being so near Seb again. She disappeared and arranged to meet Jacob. She's been staying with him since and they were caught by Evan and Karin. Karin spoke to Tully and pointed out some uncomfortable truths that got under Tully's skin. And off we go:

"Tully... easy..." Jacob said lightly, eyeing the Finn's white knuckles as she slammed his bedroom window shut hastily, "What did Karin tell you?"

"Doesn't matter." Tully snapped, glaring into the darkness outside the window.

"For the record, Evan had some pretty harsh shit to say to me too."

"Can we just leave?" Tully replied suddenly, spinning around on the spot and staring back at him with wide, doe-eyes.

"Leave?" he uttered, frowning.

"Nevermind." she mumbled as her eyes dropped to the floor and her demeanor suddenly changed again.

"Can you just tell me what's going on in your head, what did she say to you?" Jacob pressed on warily. He hadn't seen Tully angry before. She seemed suddenly so unstable... fragile...

"I just need..." she began before trailing off and sighing. And then the tears came.

Without another word, Jacob stepped across the room and gingerly lead her to his bed. He sighed silently with relief as she crawled under the covers beside him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Jacob whispered after a few minutes of silence.

He waited, but got no verbal response. Instead, Tully's fingers found his chin and he quickly found her lips on his. All thoughts of Evan and Karin suddenly fell away.

-

Tully sighed and frowned as something warm trailed across her forehead. With a quiet groan she rolled over, tangling her body further into an inescapable blanket-jail. She could hear the faint sound of birds chirping through Jacob's half-open window, the one he must have drunkenly climbed through all those nights ago when she was still in the hospital.

"Are you awake?"

Tully's frown eased and a small smile attempted to play across her lips at the sound of his voice, "No."

"It's almost midday." Jacob chuckled quietly as he re-pushed her fringe from her eyes.

"Fuck off." Tully laughed dubiously, managing to extract an arm from the blankets and finding Jacob's thigh across the bed.

"I'm not kidding, you've been asleep for an age!"

Jacob grinned as Tully muttered something indistinguishable and trailed her fingers further down his thigh, giving him that addictive, tingling feeling she often enticed out of him.

"What do you think you're doing?" he smirked, watching her hand slip beneath his shirt.

Tully suddenly looked up at him, her eyes glinting playfully.

The next thing she knew, Jacob was on top of her as she gripped the bedsheets beneath her and wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him in closer.