Trust Me - a Sophitz story

Part 4

Dedicated to Nothing_But_Chaos for annoying me into updating!

Also dedicated to PJOfanatix for inspiring me to write this! Your Sophitz work is amazing!

Chapter Four:

Sophie had nodded along while Bianca was explaining what she should say, but she wasn't really listening. Instead, shows simply hoping he wouldn't hate her. Unable to face another heartbreaking conversation so soon, she wandered outside, to where the Moonlarks swam, near Alden's office.

Sophie sat on the bench near the pond, watching the graceful birds dip and twirl in the water, painted golden red by the setting sun. She was so distracted by the birds, letting her mind clear for once, that she didn't notice the tall figure standing in the shadows of a nearby tree. She definitely didn't see how one stubborn tear slipped down his cheek as he watched her tug the matching rings of her thumbs, and he didn't see the matching tear on her face as she tucked the rings into her pocket.

"Sophie?" In the moment it took her to realize that he was speaking out loud, and not transmitting to her, he slipped out of the shadows and sat next to her on the bench.

"How'd you find me?"

"Dex told me to go find you, Bianca told me you headed outside, Grizel told me where to find Sandor, he tracked your cape, and then, when Dex was tracking your panic switch, I looked out the window and saw you. So it was way more complicate then necessary, but... here I am?" He finished the sentence as a question, almost like he was afraid she would get mad.

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? If anything, you should be mad at me. I was the one who pushed you to tell me your secret, and I was the oblivious and stupid one, and I was the terrible friend and cognate who didn't see how much you were hiding behind your secret and I..."

Cutting him off mid-rant, Sophie said, "No guilt, remember? Besides, why wouldn't you be mad? I was the one who kept the secret, who wouldn't share, who dumped this on you, and I was the one who ran and kept running from everything and..."

"No guilt." Sophie looked up at him, surprised to see a small smile on his face as he reached down and took her hands. "Where are your rings?" Silently, Sophie reached into her pocket and pulled out the two rings, watching as he slipped each ring onto her thumbs.

"You don't want to do that. To stay as my cognate," she said, so quietly that he wondered if her heard her correctly.

"Why not?"

"You really want to spend time with me and know..." her voice broke, and she took a deep breath before continuing. "You can't trust me when I kept something that huge that will screw with our friendship so much, a secret."

"Sophie, if your biggest secret is love, what does that say about you?" When she stayed silent, not making eye contact, he reached over and lifted her chin with his hand forcing her to look at him. Leaning even closer, he whispered, "It proves that you're a survivor. you were ripped from your life, dragged into a whole new, scary and dangerous world, and you found a new family. Instead of closing yourself off, you simply accepted, and learned to love this world, our world." He paused, embarrassed, before saying, "You do belong here Sophie, as much as me or Bianca or Dex. Trust me." And then, quickly, he leaned even closer in and kissed her on the cheek. "Let's go back inside before Bianca has a heart attack." He reached for her hand and, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, led her back into Everglen.

"THERE you are!"

Spinning around, Sophie and Fitz caught sigh of the slightly worried faces of Bianca and Dex. "Hi?"

"Hi, indeed," Bianca remarked. "Let's go. We've got some talking to do. And Fitz? Keefe's in the living room. He said he absolutely had to talk to you." With a slightly wicked grin, Bianca led Sophie to her room, once again, as Dex and Fitz went off to see Keefe. "You know, you guys still haven't told me what happened yesterday."

"I promise I'll explain everything. When we sit down with he boys. Why did you drag me off by myself, again?"

"To utterly embarrass and humiliate you."

"Ummm..."

"You left a crying mess, I sent my brother to find you, and you come back hand in hand, with ridiculously huge grins on your faces. Spill, please. Now."

"I went to sit by the Moonlarks, and he found me, and sat down and we talked for a few minutes and," here her voice dropped so quiet Bianca had to lean in to hear her, "he may have kissed me on the cheek and told me I belong in your world and told me I can always trust him."

"Awwwwwwww!!!! You guys are so cuuutttteeeee!!!! I SHIP IT!!" Bianca was squealing, twirling in circles on the soft carpet, giddy with excitement.

"You... what??" After shipping had been explained to Sophie (she was both throughly terrified and completely embarrassed by the concept), Bianca had calmed down significantly, and Sophie had apologized for running off and leaving her alone with Dex ("He wouldn't even let me give him another makeover!"), they made their way back downstairs to join the boys.