𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐄 | 𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐘 𝐗 𝐎𝐂

11

The next morning he shakes her arm to wake her up. She blinks a few times and sits up, rubbing her eyes.

"What?"

"What do I tell them? Now that I know?"

She itches her cheek, blinking more, "Nothing. Pretend you don't know. Go along with it. I've been looking for a way out for years, and I'll take you with me when I find it."

He hesitates, and then gets up. He nods, gains his composure, and leaves the tent.

She takes this time to change into jeans and a t-shirt and pull on her boots. She pulls her hair back and walks out after him with her backpack in hand.

They gather the tents and walk for a while until they find a place to put their camp. Then, they set up the tents.

She sits on her pallet, pulling out her pistol. She just kind of looks at it, turning it in her hands.

He walks in, sitting on his pallet across the tent, "What are you doing?"

"Thinking."

"About what?"

She sighs, looking up at him, "How dead we would be if I went and just shot them all and ran."

"How accurate are you?"

"Depends on the day."

He smiles. That is something she hasn't seen from him. She's seen straight, emotionless faces, but never a smile.

"Besides, they'd figure it out quickly and I'd be dead in seconds. It'd be safer to just walk out."

"Can I see? What they did to you?"

It takes a second for her to realize, but once she did she turned around, lifting her shirt. There were around 15 healing gashes with bruises outlining them all and a few more lines of black and blue.

"They did that?"

She pulls her shirt down and nods. She turns around to face him again, and his smile is gone. There's something in his eyes. Those blank eyes were replaced with ones full of emotions. Empathy, sadness. Something Diane couldn't name.

Through the years of working with him, Diane had begun to care for him a lot. She felt responsible for him, because no one else was. She felt like she needed to protect him more than herself, because his memories weren't intact.

She doesn't know what love looks like. Or feels like. Not towards a person, anyway. But she thinks she's doing it right. By always staying by his side when she thinks he needs her, whether he does or not.

She doesn't know what he's really feeling. She hopes it's the same. But, he just started to remember again. He might not be feeling anything. She might just be going crazy. Or blind.

She settles under the blankets, facing the tent wall. If she looks at him any longer, she'll do something impulsive. Or stupid. She hears when he settles himself, and he clicks the lantern off.

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A/N - he's so 😍😍