Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FIVE - PART EIGHT

"Want something sweet?" Jake asked Grace as they were walking past a few stalls on the way back to the Trafalgar, the harbour already in view, the ocean right in front of them.

"No, thank you." She told him, a soft smile on her lips, while she carried the red panda in her joined hands before herself.

"Grace." Jake addressed, his eyes too on the Trafalgar laying in the harbour before them. "If being hard on yourself worked, it would have worked by now, don't you think?" He muttered, which had the younger aviator turn to look at him, as they stopped in their steps.

Jake will always wonder what was going on inside her head in that moment. He will come back, revisit this memory and wonder what that expression on her face had meant, what that subtle twitch of her nose was an indication for, but he will never know, for in that moment he did not ask. He didn't ask what was crossing her mind and he will forever regret it.

"I need your help." Grace admitted, while she reached out to touch his hand gently, right over his wrist. The touch felt oddly intimate, overly familiar. Like a child asking their parents to hold their hand. Tugging gently on their parent's fingers to get their attention.

"Of course, whatever it is." He swore and if she would have asked him to go down on his knees and swear fealty to her in that moment, to vow his loyalty to her, he would have, but instead Jake just turned his hand, which had Grace's touch slip away for a moment, only to move and hold onto her fingers with his own. That was a promise too, a promise he made her, but it was just as much a promise she made him. Reaching for him, holding onto him and allowing him to hold onto her. Jake felt knighted.

"Bradley wants me to come back home, but I can't just move away from the Trafalgar as long as I don't have a plan on how to handle Cain, but I don't understand what's driving him, and if I don't understand that, I won't know how to stop him. Power alone can't be the point." Grace told Jake honestly, speaking her thoughts openly for the first time in so long without worry, for she knew that Jake would never betray her.

"Maybe it is. Not everyone is as honourable as you." He offered, but even though Grace knew and understood that sentiment and where Jake was coming from, she didn't think that that was it, which caused her to let go of his hand and take a step towards the railing that was stopping people from falling into the cool harbour water.

"I'm not honourable, I'm not good, Jake. You can't really believe that." Grace mumbled, her gaze on the Trafalgar, her underarms supported on the railing as Jake stepped next to her, his eyes on the Trafalgar as well.

It felt like an accusation.

"I want revenge, I want him to pay for what he has done to Lincoln and everyone before him. I fear what following such a path would make me." She clarified, which had Jake look at her almost sadly for a moment.

"Wishing punishment onto someone, who has hurt people isn't wanting revenge. It's wanting justice." Jake decided, which had Grace snort, while playing with the ears of the red panda in her hands.

"Where is the difference?" She wondered with a snort, her eyes on the red panda, which had Jake step closer, only to use his fingers to lift her chin, so she had to look at him, only to then pull his hand away once more.

"The difference is the reason why you want it. You want to protect everyone you care for. How could that be wrong?" The older aviator declared.

"I will have to reach for a lot of power myself if I want to have a chance against him. It might take years for plans, strategies and schemes to work. I might lose myself, using his own tactics to defeat him." Grace rambled, as close as a Kazansky came to rambling, before asking the one question that had been weighting her down for weeks now.