Set Me Free

'He was determined to hang onto it.'

"For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home."

Daniel's POV

Chloe went home.

She begged Daniel to return to London with her, tried to reason with him that there was where he truly belonged. Some part of him agreed with her.

London was now where he considered his home to be. However, he counted wherever Elizabeth was to be his home more than his city. He wanted, no needed, to stay here with her.

Last time he left, she fell apart, he didn't want to see that happen again. He would stay for now, he would help her get control of her life and once that once done, then he would think about where he was going to live.

For now, it was Elizabeth's apartment.

Her home was everything he imagined it would be. There were pictures hanging everywhere, of family and friends and fond memories. In every single one, Elizabeth was smiling happily at the camera, a complete different imagine from the one what he had ever seen of her. Daniel has either seen Elizabeth as a prisoner, scared and worried about her future, or at rock bottom where she didn't have one.

It was nice to see that she had memories of her happiness, something to look at to remind her of what she once was, of who she can be again.

Daniel wanted to know her like that, happy in her life. He wanted to see her laughing freely, to enjoy every day like she once promised him she would. Before she was rescued, Elizabeth had made him a promise to live each day like it was her last, he fully intended to make her stick to it.

She wasn't really living right now; she was simply surviving. He wanted to make sure she appreciated the chance at life she had been given. Daniel saw how quickly that could have been taken from her, he wanted to make sure she looked back with no regrets.

"It's not much," Elizabeth shrugs at they look around her living room, "but it's home."

He smiles as he takes it all in, the place Elizabeth lived before and after everything she had been through. He couldn't imagine her living anywhere else.

"So," she tells him, taking a seat on the sofa, "you have two options. Option number one is Holly's old room where she won't be returning since she's realised just how much she enjoys living alone. Or option number two, you could share my very big, very comfortable double bed," she shrugs as she lays out the sleeping options to him. Daniel wasn't even aware that number two would be an option.

Since reuniting, they hadn't really discussed what they were to each other. Daniel knew he loved her, had loved her ever since he had met her, but he no longer knew how she felt.

"How would you feel if I chose option number two?" he asks her.

She smiles shyly, looking down at the floor as she answers, "I would say that I would be honoured to share my room with you Daniel Oscar," she looks at him then and gives him a smile, a real smile. He feels privileged that it's directed at him, that he was the one to put it there. He wanted to make her smile like that for the rest of his life.

"Can I ask you a question?" Daniel asks her as he takes a seat next to her on the sofa. She simply nods in answer, placing her legs on top of his in order to get comfortable as she lays back against the sofa. Daniel instantly felt at home in that moment, sitting there on the sofa, wrapped up in the one that he loved.

"Did you mean what you said to me that day in the warehouse, that you loved me?" he asks cautiously, almost too scared to hear the answer.

She looks at him for a moment that felt like an eternity. He just wanted to know what she was thinking.

"Of course I did. I didn't just say it because I was scared, or because I believed I was moments from death. I said it because it was true. You made me feel something I didn't even know I was capable of feeling. Even though we had only knew each other for such a short period of time, I knew in my heart that you were the one that I loved, that you were the one I was supposed to meet."

It was Daniel's turn to grin now. He was scared it was going to split his lips it was so broad, stretching across his face in pure happiness.

"Do you still mean it now?" he asks, wanting to know if this was a thing of the past, if over the years her feelings for him had lessened.

"Yes, I still mean it now," she assures him, snuggling deeper into the sofa. Daniel puts his hands on her feet, laying with her in her living room. He suddenly wished he could call this their living room, he suddenly wished that he would make this permanent. He loved London and he loved his home and his friends, but he loved Elizabeth more. He could bare to be in this town, surrounded by memories of his past if Elizabeth was beside him.

It was then that Elizabeth's phone rang.

She reaches to answer it, not moving from the comfortable position they had settled into.

"Hello?" she answers.

As soon as the other person on the phone starts speaking, Elizabeth sits up, moving her feet off Daniel's lap.

"Yes sir, that's brilliant news," she replies, her face lighting up at what she's being told, "will you be making the arrest? I would like to be there when it happens if I may sir? Thank you, I appreciate it. Okay, good bye sir," she squeals loudly as she hangs up the call, jumping to her feet and dancing gleefully around her living room.

Daniel laughs as he watches her do her happy dance.

"They got them!" she exclaims, "they found the sick bastards that did it, I cracked the case!" she laughs as she collapses back onto the sofa, the smile still lighting up her face.

"What case?" Daniel asks her.

"Sandy Thomas was kidnapped and murdered last week, we found her body down South Street alleyway, the same one I was kidnapped from," Elizabeth's eyes go dark as she momentarily relives the memories, before quickly snapping out of it and returning to her story, "the morning after I woke up in your room, the first time, I went to her crime scene and discovered a glove with a speck of blood on it and it was covered in the murderer's fingerprints. They're making the arrest tomorrow and I get to be there when the men that this are carted away to where they belong."

Elizabeth looks so proud of herself in that moment that Daniel can see that she didn't fully fall to rock bottom. She has a job that does good in the world, she is fighting for people who have lived through what she has one criminal at a time. Daniel felt immensely proud of her in that moment, of what she had turned her tragedy into.

"I'm so proud of you," he tells her, pulling her into his arms. He hugs her closely to her, loving the way she felt wrapped in his arms. She hugs him back just as fiercely. Daniel isn't sure how long they stay like that for, but he was sure that he didn't want to let her go.

She felt so right there in his arms, like this was where he truly belonged.

For most of Daniel's life, he had felt out of place, like he never truly belonged. Years of wondering around, years of feeling stuck, lost. Now, standing in that small apartment with Elizabeth in his arms, he felt like for the first time in his life he had found where he belonged. He had found home.

Sometimes, home isn't a place where your belongings are or the place where you find solace at night. Sometimes, home is a person, the one that makes you feel truly at peace. Daniel didn't know much about life, but he knew that he wanted to feel this way for the rest of his life.

"I love you Elizabeth," he tells her, kissing the top of her head.

"I love you too Daniel," it's the first time she's said this to him in three years and hearing those words made Daniel feel like he was resting on cloud nine. He believed nothing would ever feel as good as hearing those words leave her lips, that he would never hear anything that would bring him so much joy.

Somehow, after everything he had been through, he had managed to find a little slice of heaven in hell.

He was determined to hang onto it.