After The End

Chapter the Eleventh: Let Me Hold You Close to Me

Word Count: 1076

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Quigley walked up to Violet's door and knocked. She didn't answer, but he heard crying, so he went in.

She was curled up on her bed in the corner.

Quigley walked over slowly. He sat by her, just waiting to be there for whatever she needed.

Her crying slowed down, and eventually quieted down.

"How do you do it?" Violet asked suddenly.

"Do what?"

"You don't cry... I've almost never seen you cry or get upset when we talk about these things. How?"

Quigley sighed, "I... I do cry. I just want to be strong for my siblings... and for you. I cry when I'm alone. It may seem like all of this doesn't affect me, but it does. I know our lives will never be the same again. I know that we will always be broken. I know all of that. I just... I know we can all try to keep each other together. We've all gone through a lot, so we can help each other with feeling better... we can all help each other..."

Violet went quiet.

She turned toward him, just looking at him.

Quigley wanted badly to know what she was thinking. They just stared at each other now.

Violet took a deep breath, "I love you," she whispered.

Quigley stared, he felt frozen.

Violet felt her hopes fall down deep when he didn't respond. She looked away and down at her hands.

"I love you too."

She looked back up, looking at Quigley, her eyes widened.

"Really?" She asked.

Quigley bit back a smile and nodded.

Violet scooted over to him and she hugged him from the side, smiling now, despite the leftover tears on her cheeks. Quigley took her face into his hands and wiped away her tears.

Violet felt her heartbeat speed up as they froze there, both not knowing what to do now. Quigley stood up after gently releasing her face, then offered a hand and he helped her stand up.

Quigley walked over to a little radio Violet had stashed in her room and he turned it on. Some slow jazz music started playing.

Violet smiled as Quigley offered a hand again.

"May I have this dance?" Quigley asked with a goofy grin.

Violet blushed, "Of course," she said, taking his hand. She placed the other on his shoulder and the two swayed back and forth together.

The room was mostly dark; the only light was the dim lighting from the moon outside, which shone through the window.

This was nice. Violet liked this a lot, and she smiled at Quigley. He looked back with such an adoring look that Violet felt so loved. She laid her head on his shoulder. The two still swayed together but now held each other close, afraid to let go.

Violet closed her eyes and felt so grateful in the moment. She wrapped her arms around Quigley tightly, like she was afraid he was about to disappear or something.

Quigley wrapped his arms tightly around Violet's waist, also afraid that if he let go, she might just leave...

They stayed like this for awhile. Neither said anything, they just held each other.

. . .

The next day it was cloudy, so everyone agreed they should go out to the beach.

They all put sunscreen on and packed up anything they wanted to bring.

They then ate breakfast together, then left.

They did not end up going to Briny Beach, due to the bad experiences, so they instead went to one called Baie Beach.

"Baie means bay in French...." Klaus had said when he heard the name.

They rode the trolly to the beach, then hopped off when they got there.

Isadora, Duncan and Carmelita laid the picnic blanket out, Klaus laid down two towels for Sunny and Beatrice, then Quigley helped Violet with bringing their lunch down.

The first thing they did was they all played in the water for a little bit. They dove into waves and pushed each other under the water. Quigley had pushed Violet under at one point, but then pulled her up.

"Sorry..." he said with a laugh when Violet glared at him. Violet then smirked and pushed him under.

When Quigley came back up, he laughed, "That was fair..." he said, and Violet nodded, laughing too.

Violet then wrapped her arms around Quigley's neck and kissed his nose, "I'm sorry," she said with a pout. He just smiled, as his heart melted, "It's alright," he told her, and Violet smiled, kissing his cheek.

The two ended up going back to shore. They sat on the picnic blanket wrapped in their towels.

They watched the others play around and smiled.

Violet laid her head on Quigley's shoulder, "It's refreshing to see them all happy...." she whispered. Quigley nodded, taking her hands into his.

They watched as Carmelita and Duncan began a splash wars between each other, and Isadora and Klaus jumped over the waves together.

Sunny and Beatrice stayed in the shallow water and splashed around together.

"I hope this will help them forget everything bad for a little bit..." Quigley said, and Violet nodded, "Me too."

. . .

The gang had headed back home around dinner time.

Sunny, Duncan and Klaus all started on dinner since they didn't need showers for the sand in their hair right away.

Everyone let Isadora go first because she had the longest hair, then Violet, then Carmelita, then Quigley.

Violet then let Klaus and Duncan go shower and she helped finished up dinner.

After everyone was clean, they all sat and ate dinner. It was pretty quiet since they were all pretty hungry.

"Everyone make sure you drink a lot of water, and get a lot of sleep," Violet told them as they all headed to bed.

She and Quigley stayed up, as they often did now. They drank tea together and sat at the counter.

"How was today for ya?" Quigley asked.

"Pretty good. I've been feeling a lot better now."

"That's good," Quigley said, then took a couple sips of his tea.

Violet set her cup down, now not really feeling like drinking more.

Quigley put his own down too and they sat in silence.

"You should go to bed. You haven't slept a lot lately..." Quigley told her.

Violet looked over at him, her heart melting at the expression of concern he wore.

"Alright. I will..." she said, then she stood up, kissed him cheek, then she went to bed.