WHO: Bridget Grant and Luke Marlow WHEN: Evening of October 16 WHERE: Luke's kitchen SUMMARY: A knife blunder and a bit of healing almost gets in the way of a proposal. Almost. WARNINGS: Blood BINGO PROMPT: Just wanna lift you up and not let you go Â
Despite that her own housing situation was very much in flux as she sat in the limbo that came with the transition of being a renter to a homeowner, there was one place that still felt very much like home to Bridget: Luke's. It had been a fairly natural transition. Given that they had spent much of their time and the vast majority of their nights together at his place instead of hers, it hadn't taken long for it to start to feel something like a second home to her. Eventually she had left a toothbrush there and her clothes occasionally intermingled with his, to the point where she would get ready for work at her rented home and not be able to find certain pieces because she'd left them behind at his. They were little things, all of which were just the cherry on top of Luke himself.
He had been a surprise to Bridget, in many ways. Though she may have occasionally redownloaded Tinder after one too many glasses of wine and didn't necessarily shy away from dates when asked, she hadn't been actively or even seriously looking for a relationship when Luke had dropped into her life. But he had fallen into her life and though they'd had their share of hurdles to jump, they had jumped them together and he had easily burrowed his way into her heart. She hadn't expected to fall in love with the charming DJ, but she had.
After a long day of rehearsals in DC, and some revelations with the return of Luke's ex to the town she now called home, Bridget had only stopped at her house long enough to drop off her violin, change into more comfortable clothes, and feed her cats. After giving Artemis and Apollo an adequate amount of pets, she drove across town to Luke's, letting herself in upon arrival and driving home that familiarity she felt.
A few moments later and Bridget had found Luke, knowing that he would almost certainly be in the kitchen, starting the process of making the dinner they had discussed sharing earlier that day by text. She hesitated for a few seconds at the doorway, a smile immediately blooming across her features as she watched him, currently facing away from her at the counter. That calm that she always felt with him seemed to settle around her heart and drove her forward, not making any attempt to be silent as she stepped across the tile to slip her arms around Luke from behind.
Pressing her cheek to the center of his back, Bridget released a content sigh. "Hi, you."
There were a great many things that Luke loved doing with and for Bridget. He hadn’t planned on ever finding someone like her, nor had he expected that he’d have another chance at this, not after everything that had happened with Beth and all of the mistakes that he had made. But somehow he’d managed to move beyond the dark place he’d spiraled into in the months and years after so much loss and, though he couldn’t say he was to the point where the grief no longer overwhelmed him, he could say that he was in a much better position to love this woman the way she deserved. He hoped that she would let him love her for a long time past today.
He was prepared to ask her to do exactly that. Tonight.
Right now, though, that looked like exercising his prowess in the kitchen to make Bridget something to come home to. Because, at the end of the day, whether they were here or anywhere else, wherever they found each other was home. The kitchen was already beginning to smell like dinner, the scent of garlic and onions and spices wafting through the air. Even if he hadn’t had her to cook for, he would have loved this part of his day. Sharing something he loved with someone he loved was more satisfying than just about anything else he could imagine.
Well, except in comparison to the feeling of Bridget’s arms sliding their way around his middle, her warmth pressing against him, and him catching the scent of her now familiar shampoo. His chopping stilled as he closed his eyes for a moment to revel in her presence. “Welcome home, love. How was your day?”
A hand moved to brush his fingers across her arm before moving back to start working on the onions again.
Bridget released a soft hmm in response to his question -- not really a negative response, but a content one as she finished her own reveling in Luke's presence. Her mind clung to the word home and his welcome of her to it. She couldn't pinpoint just when he had become home to her, but she suspected it had been long before they had exchanged their I love you's, even if she hadn't recognized it at the time.
She definitely recognized it now, though. And she wasn't going to give that feeling up anytime soon.
"Good," she finally replied after a few moments, reluctantly pulling away from him. She let her hands linger at his sides as she pressed a kiss to his back, then stepped around him to lean her hip against the counter. "We read some new music that I'm pretty excited about." Bridget looked up to Luke, now in a position where she could actually see his handsome face, then down to the onions. "It smells amazing in here. I'm pretty sure I could smell it down the street."
Now able to actually see his girlfriend, Luke set down the knife and leaned over to kiss her properly, his lips turning up into a smile as the kiss lingered. “Well, I hope you’re hungry,” he said as he straightened back up and picked up the knife again. “I’ve got the pasta almost ready and an incredibly surprising dessert that definitely isn’t the blueberry muffin you already know about. Which you can choose to have before or after the entree.”
He tried to hold back the grin that threatened to split across his face in anticipation of whenever she chose to partake in the muffin he’d promised her earlier that day and marginally succeeded.
“Anyway, I just need to finish these onions, and--” Luke’s words cut off with a hiss, having distractedly brought the knife down on his hand. “Ah, fuck. Shit. Shit.” Blood immediately began pooling in his hand as the knife clattered to the cutting board and he began searching for something to staunch the bleeding.
Bridget nearly jumped at Luke's hiss and the swearing that came on its heals, simply because she was so lost in the moment and her feelings, but it was no mystery what had inspired the reaction as she looked down to his hand, the knife, and the blood. Her heart seemed to leap about in her chest one second, then time seemed to slow. It was ridiculous, of course; time didn't actually slow as Luke looked for something to stop the bleeding, but somehow it still felt that way as Bridget just looked.
Then, either a second or days later, Bridget's instincts took over. No, not Bridget's instincts -- Helene's. (Or were they one and the same?)
Not saying anything, Bridget reached out to take Luke by the arm, stopping his searching and turning him toward her before she took his hand in hers. Blood had never been something she wasn't entirely excited to be around or see, but it didn't phase her as she covered the wound and then just... sang.
Bridget's forte when it came to music had always been the violin. She could play the piano and cello as well and happened to be quite good at them both, but singing had never been one of her strengths. At karaoke, she was definitely the sort of person that people cheered for only because she seemed to be having a blast, not because there was any real talent there. Now, though, her voice sounded clear and lovely as she sang nothing in particular, just the melody that she played every time she took her violin out to warm up. As she sang, she felt the magic working -- that magic that she absolutely shouldn't have had. And yet, while she couldn't see the wound, she knew that Luke's skin was stitching back together. She could feel it, her own energy slowly draining from her core as it worked.
And then she stopped. Bridget took her hand from Luke's. There was blood there, of course, but the bleeding had ceased. The wound had healed itself. And though she wavered slightly on her feet, stumbling to the side to hold herself up against the counter, she pulled in a breath.
Luke made to protest as Bridget took his hand but, as her mesmerizing and melodic voice began singing, he stilled. And soon the incessant pain and burning caused by the gaping wound in his hand began to ebb. Slowly but surely, the exposed edges of his skin began to stitch back together and, though the blood obscured most of the wound, he watched as his palm healed to the point where there wasn’t even the hint of a scar where the knife had sliced through the skin.
Where panic had set in at the sight of his blood, the lack of it did nothing to abate it. Jaw slackened, eyes wide, Luke looked between his hand and Bridget, trying to make sense of what exactly had just happened.
But even as his heart pounded, his breaths coming in short, the sight of Bridget stumbling in her footing overpowered his panic and he reached out to steady her. “Bridge? Bridge. Are you okay? What was that? What just happened?” He needed her to make sense of it for him but, even more than that, he needed to know that she was okay.
"I'm sorry," Bridget immediately said softly, though she wasn't completely sure why she was apologizing or why it was her instinct to do so. Maybe it was because she had just done that without thinking, without even asking his permission to do so or maybe it was because she could feel his worry and panic just as easily as she could hear it in his words.
Swallowing, Bridget didn't quite meet Luke's eyes, not out of shame or any other emotion like that, but simply because she was struggling with coming up with the words to explain what had just happened. Instead of sorting through her thoughts like she normally would have done, she just opened her mouth and let the words flow. "Helene. She can do that. Heal people by singing, I mean. I didn't think -- I'd never done that before. I hadn't tried, but I just assumed I couldn't. It would be crazy if I could. But I saw the cut and your blood and it's -- it was you, you know? I had to do something. I couldn't let you be hurt."
It had left her feeling a bit drained, though nothing like when Bridget had woken after Helene's long night of healing Laia. She was on her feet, after all. "I'm okay," she added, realizing he'd asked that, too. Then, for good measure, she finally looked up to him as she repeated, "I'm sorry."
Was he more than a little bit freaked out by the actual reality of the existence of magic and the evidence of it right here in the middle of the kitchen? Yes. It wouldn’t even be reasonable to expect either one of them to not be freaked out after that. But there was no universe in which Luke needed an apology from this woman who loved him so much that she’d thought nothing of doing everything in her power to take his hurt from him. If the roles had been reversed and he had been able to suddenly been able to tap into a well of magic to protect her, he wouldn’t have hesitated to do exactly the same.
So it took no thought at all to decide to put his questions on the backburner as his hands came up to frame her face. “Bridget, no. There is nothing to apologize for. Nothing.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead before saying, “So this is a dream thing?”
Something like relief flooded through Bridget as she released another breath, pulling out of his hands to press her cheek to Luke's chest. Her heart, which she hadn't even realized had started to race the moment he'd cut himself, started to slow and she felt the tendrils of Helene that seemed to always cling to her loosen, just a bit.
"It's a dream thing," she confirmed, nodding her head once. "It's a complicated thing for her. She can help people with it, but magic is -- it's complicated." But, she mused, what wasn't complicated about Helene Aquilla's life and the world she lived in? "And doing it leaves her tired. I'm okay, though," she added quickly, straightening to look up to Luke again, as though proving to him that he shouldn't worry. "I'll be even better after I eat, I think."
Luke smoothed Bridget’s hair back with the hand that had not previously injured and nodded. He couldn’t even begin to understand how complicated Helene Aquilla’s life was. His own dreams were so far removed from what he knew of hers. Maybe one day they’d both understood where they each went while they slept but, for now, his priority was making sure she had whatever she needed.
The pasta wasn’t ready yet thanks to the unfortunate incident with the knife so, without giving it a second thought, Luke reached around Bridget and grabbed the box with the muffin from Java Chip and handed it to her.
“Here, eat this. I’ll grab some water and we’ll get to the pasta in a bit.” He gave her a reassuring smile and reluctantly pulled away from her to grab the water.
The blueberry muffin looked as delicious as they ever did from Java Chip, but not even a fine baked good could distract her from the box that accompanied it. Her head cocked to the side in curiosity, any remaining exhaustion she'd felt being pushed aside as her attention focused on that box. A very small box, she noted. One that was usually used to conceal jewelry, if she wasn't mistaken.
Expecting it to be a necklace or earrings, Bridget smiled and started, "What's this? Are you spoiling -- " Her words stopped, cutting off abruptly because, she noticed after opening up the box, there were neither a necklace or earrings in that mysterious box. She sucked in a soft breath of surprise, her eyes lifting from the beautiful ring to Luke himself. Her smile had been temporarily dulled from shock, but started to grow again as she asked, tone full of hope, "Is this -- are you asking me something right now?"
“What--” Luke turned away from the cabinet where he’d reached for a glass and looked back at Bridget and realization dawned on him at what he had just done. He paled and took a step closer to her. “Oh, god, Bridge, I was so distracted by…everything that I somehow completely forgot that the muffin wasn’t just for eating. I had this whole thing planned out and a rather brilliant speech to go with it. I didn’t mean to just shove it in your face all nonchalantly like that.”
He cringed. This spiel wasn’t even close to being the romantic speech he’d been carefully cultivating since he’d purchased the ring. He took in a deep breath and moved back in front of her, hoping he hadn’t just completely ruined the whole thing with his clumsiness.
“I mean to say that, yes, I’m asking you something right now. And I need you to know that it’s something I realize I’ve been working toward for weeks and it has nothing to do with anything that exists outside of us. I know we haven’t been together that long, and I know that this ended up being the opposite of an opportune time to bring it up, but you reminded me today of all of the reasons I both want and need you in my life.” He reached out and took her hand in his, trying not to let himself falter over the sight of drying blood on it. “I want you to know that I mean it when I say that I am all in, Bridge. I’m so incredibly certain that I want to be your partner in all things for as long as I possibly can. So if I haven’t completely killed the mood tonight, and if it’s not too much for me to ask in light of what might be more pressing matters in your mind right now, I want to know if you’d consider letting me be your partner. Officially. Rings and all.”
Despite all of the marriage-themed events they had been attending together in recent weeks, despite how serious she knew they had gotten, despite that she knew that part of the reason she'd asked for Luke's impressions on the house she would soon own was because she hoped he'd live in it with her one day -- even despite the words that they had been exchanging with greater frequency, Bridget would have never guessed that this was where her night would have been heading. Even without Luke's injury and Helene's intervention or the new knowledge of his ex-wife being in town, she couldn't have been able to fathom that morning when she'd woken up that she would end the day engaged.
Because that's what was about to happen, Bridget knew. There was no part of her that questioned her answer. Maybe they hadn't been together that long, but she'd known since very soon after they had first met that they had the potential to be something different, something special. She loved Luke and she loved the person that he helped her to be, through his constant support and encouragement.
And so, she nodded, blinking a few times as tears of all things started to fill her eyes. "Nothing could be more pressing to me right now than you," Bridget started, because it was true; that had been the reason she'd even tried those damn powers in the first place. "And yes. I want you to be my partner, Luke," she continued before repeating, "Officially. Rings and all."
Luke would never believe that there was anything more pressing that Bridget but he knew this was one topic on which they would always have to agree to disagree. And wasn’t it a good sign that, as they began this new, permanent chapter of their lives together, they were each others’ top priority? It certainly felt like they were in the right place.
Luke slipped the ring onto her finger and stood, pulling Bridget into his arms and spinning her around in a quick circle, claiming another kiss from her as he set her back on her feet. His elated grin split his features, unable to be contained as he pressed his forehead against hers. “You and me, Bridge,” he said, his nose brushing over hers, “I promise you that it will always be you and me.”
Bridget's emotions were almost overwhelming as her arms rose to circle around Luke's neck and her eyes fluttered shut to simply appreciate the moment they were standing in. She knew that there were people who didn't like their pairing. She knew that there were people who barely knew them that talked when they were seen together around town. None of that mattered, though. Their pasts and everything they contained had led them here, to this moment. Their pasts had brought them together and made them into the people that could fall in love just as they had. There wasn't a doubt in Bridget's mind that this was the right step forward for them. She was his and he was hers and that's how it always would be.
"You and me." As she repeated the words, her voice wavered as the emotions threatened to spill over, even as her mouth formed a smile to rival his own. She opened her eyes, bringing her hand around to rest gently at Luke's cheek. The light of the kitchen was enough to make the ring sparkle. "I like the sound of that."