Capturing Ella

Chapter 28 - Joe

'So where are we, then?' I asked Ella about half an hour later. Neither her or myself had moved from our snuggled positions but I could tell she was warming up quite dramatically and was starting to feel a bit more like herself. She traced little patterns on my leg as she watched the wave's crash into the shore, a small smile on her face ever present. She was absolutely beautiful and I felt an immediate wave of guilt for crushing on someone else's Soulfinder so bad. Note to self; maybe ask Ella if she was born premature. I was a few weeks late, so she'd have to be a few weeks early for us to compensate the dates correctly for us to even have a chance. Then I had to convince her to try telepathy.

'In between Dizzard and Beeny point,' Ella said and I nodded.

'And where exactly is that?' I questioned further because I had never even heard of the names she had mentioned.

'North coast of Cornwall, secluded from literally everywhere in a protected wildlife woods; I mean the nearest thing we have around us is a deserted farm and that's three miles South-East from here. The nearest town would be Boscastle, but that's just a heritage sight and a few tourist shops. Widemouth Bay is a bit further east, but has a wonderful surfers beach. Michael and I used to go down there before the crash with the family - it was our yearly holiday. A few miles up from Widemouth is the nearest proper town - Bude. Got some supermarkets, petrol station and some cute ass shops but when we go shopping it's going to have to be to either Truro or Barnstaple.'

'Ella, Hun, you do realise you're just naming places and the only one I've heard off so far is Truro.' I said as she looked up at me smiling sweetly. I had a sudden urge to kiss her, but tried to make myself forget the memory. God damn, the things I would give to be able to use my gift on myself.

'Both are about an hour's drive from here. We don't have much time now to go and shop.'

'Tomorrow, then.' I said and she nodded, leaning back into my chest.

'Tomorrow indeed.' She mumbled again.

'You seem a bit more... relaxed than you do at base.' I simply said and she looked up at me frowning slightly. I looked down at her slightly and saw the straight in the eye. They were a slightly greener colour today, turning grey a bit around the outside with flecks of hazel around the pupil. Her eyes were just as intriguing as her.

'Er, yeah.' She simply said, sitting up a bit slightly so she wasn't completely against me but I still had my arm around her shoulders. However, Ella looked slightly more uncomfortable.

'You're good, don't worry. Don't tell me if you don't want too,' I said to her again and she just shrugged, curling up slightly but into herself rather than into me.

'Can I be honest with you?' She whispered hugging her legs close to her chest as she looked over at me. I nodded. 'If you knew something and it would change someone's life forever - would you tell them?' She asked and I frowned at her thinking about the question.

'Change someone's life... how?' I asked, and she nodded at me slightly. I guess she didn't expect me to probe the question.

'I don't know - I mean, you don't know what impact it'll have, you just kind of know it will change someone you care about in some way, you don't know if it'll work out just fine or if it'll... ruin them. What would you do?' Ella said and she looked at me with a pointed look. What the hell was she suggesting? I guess she didn't know enough about me to have a secret that would "change my life" so this clearly wasn't about me. If it wasn't about me, it would make sense how she seemed more relaxed when she was away from base if the secret was about someone at base.

'How much do you care about this person?' I asked and she gave me a one shoulder shrug.

'A lot. And the worst thing is I think I care about them a lot more than my brain is letting me know. Does that sound stupid? I'm an idiot,' Ella said, closing her eyes and resting her head on her knees she was curled up that tight. I put my hand on her calf.