Unbroken

Chapter Fourteen:

"You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated."

Maya Angelou

Missy's Viewpoint:

Having Aaron see me like this as I rested on my bed. Gibbs shut the door behind him, knowing damn well that we needed time to communicate between us no matter where it got us. 

"Aaron," I said, my voice sounding tired, "I'm not in the mood to argue. I just...I don't know what I want." 

"Why did you run? When I was at the hospital about to come find you, why run? You could have told me what was going on," Aaron argued as he took a step closer to me. 

Tears were forming at the corners of my eyes as I said, "Aaron, I did it because I had no idea who to trust. There is only one way that Fitz would shut down an investigation into Lodge and that would be Lodge himself. He knows everything and anything. It won't take him long to find information to blackmail someone else."

Aaron then kneeled on the floor next to me on the bed. He then grabbed one of my hands that were resting on top of the comforter and held it close together in his hands. 

"Missy, you know I would have done anything to protect you, no matter where we are in our relationship. It doesn't matter to me if we got back together or not, but when it comes to see you get murdered, that is something that would eat away at me as well as the guilt that I couldn't save you in time. So, please, don't do something stupid like that again. If there's an opportunity that this same thing happened again, please let me in. Don't shut me out. It wouldn't do either of us any good," He said, his voice now quiet and gentle. 

I look into his eyes, the man who was trying to be strong who had his walls up because he was protecting his heart.

"Aaron," I said, "I did what I did to protect you, because you and the boys are my world. I am not going to let that man take that away from me. He's already taken enough from me. I don't need to give him more."

"Missy..." Aaron began to say before I stopped him.

"Aaron, I'm not willing to let him to take you away from me. I already lost enough as it is. Look, I know that you are angry with me for the decisions that I made, but I was willing to make them so that you and the boys had a chance to have a better life away from the pain that I went through. You three deserve that at the least," I said.

"Missy, at least give me the chance to protect you now. Once it is all over, let's sit down and talk and work out whatever this thing is between the two of us, even if that means we turn our backs on each other and move on in our lives," He pleaded.

I sighed before speaking, "Aaron, I'm going to tell you right now, you held my heart strings for so long. For you to be willing to let me go is the most heartbreaking thing that I've heard. But right now, I want you to be able to still be there for your son. That is what matters most to me. I want you to be there for your team. I want you to be able to live life in the way that I want you to. I want you to be the man that I know that you can be, and that is something that you are not going to be able to get from me right now. My life is extremely different than what you think it is."

"What are you talking about, Missy? I want you to be there for me and my son. I want to be there for you and your son. I want to have a good relationship with Connor as he is the father of your son. I want you. I don't care about what you experience in the past decade, because all I care about is what we are going to be experiencing in the future," Aaron said. 

"Aaron, right now, we need to discuss this later. There's a madman looking for me right now and we need to come up with a game plan in order to ensure the safety and protection that not only I need, but the three people that are hiding in the bunker need and to also capture the son of a bitch," I said.

"But we can't arrest him, Missy," Aaron said.

"I have a judge that is always on standby for me that would happily sign an arrest warrant. He likes me more than he does Fitz. So, anything to piss off my boss, he takes great pleasure in," I said.

Aaron laughed for the first time in this whole mess before he kissed the top of my head as he then stood up. 

"I'll leave you to it. Just make sure that it is ready to go for when we are leaving with the man," He said.

"You got it. Now go out and talk with your team and come up with that game plan. Don't worry about letting me know what it is. I don't need to know," I began to raspy as my voice was starting to lose its strength.

"Missy..." was all that Aaron said.

"Please don't worry about me, Aaron. I made peace with death a long time ago when getting into this job. So, I know exactly what you are thinking. But please...please protect my son and his father. I know that they are going to have scars as it is, but I don't need to add to the trauma that they are going through," I begged. 

"Maybe I should stay here with you...just to protect you so that one day you are able to see your son again..." Aaron began to argue. 

"Aaron....I need you to protect them first. I am to be protected as the last resort. You know exactly what I am capable of and I am not afraid to fight for my life, even if it means that I greet death at the end of it with Hiram Lodge dead in front of me," I replied.

He nodded before speaking, "Missy, I will do everything in my power to not only protect them, but you as well. If all goes to hell, I'll happily take the last bullet that Hiram Lodge will ever get to fire before he gets another shot at you."

There were now tears in my eyes, knowing damn well that he meant every word that he said. But that is not what was making me fall apart in front of him. What truly made me fall apart was the fact that he was willing to lay down his life, even though he would be making his son an orphan and me broken hearted to where it would rip my soul apart. 

"Aaron...I can't let you do this...I want your son to have his father. He didn't ask to be an orphan. At least I can die knowing that my son will be taken care of by his father and my closest friends. Please let me fight him on my own," I said as I began to get up and out of my bed.

I was unsteady as I began to stand up and I was about to start falling backwards when Aaron grabbed me by my waist so that I didn't start falling and hurt myself when I would land. 

"Aaron...." I said as I looked up at him. 

"I think that you need Maggie and Connor. I have a feeling that you are going to need more help than you are willing to admit too," Aaron said. 

"What about Jamie?" I asked. 

"He can come with them to see you as I think that you two need each other, but the minute that Lodge gets to this property is the minute that all four of you will go into whatever hiding space that you created in order to protect yourselves. Is that understood?" Aaron said with a firmness in his voice that was all too familiar to me. 

I nodded as he started to sit me back down on my bed and made sure that I was laying back down. He then stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him as my eyes began to flutter before shutting as I went into the darkness where my demons hid.