Fear made people do stupid things. Rae was no different. Fear of losing someone who'd so quickly become like a member of her family; who'd quickly become someone she couldn't live without, made her willing to hide her pain, to keep it secret. If she had any talent for it, anyway. She figured, her lack of knack for keeping feelings hidden meant that she needed to avoid him. That way he wouldn't worry. It didn't make sense, now that she was here. And now that she was here, she couldn't see any merit to hiding. Keeping it secret felt foolish now. How had she thought it was a good plan?
She breathed slowly, allowing herself to relax for what felt like the first time since the whole sordid event took place. Her grip around him tightened, and she tipped her head to look up at him. There was emotion in her eyes—the love she felt was definitely there, whether he believed it or not—but her body just sank against him, allowing the safety to wash over her.
Her eyes closed and she blinked slowly at the tone in his voice. Anger, but there was something else in there. Something she couldn't quite identify. "No," she shook her head. "Don't go near them, please," she insisted. "They killed David, they tried to kill Bea and me... who knows what they're capable of," she insisted. She knew that now. "They saw Bea, Lucas, April and I when we did our recon mission," she explained. "We were a safe distance away, but they, like... they memorized our faces or something. They knew that it was us." She'd thought they were stealthy. They had looked from inside a dark window, and they'd dressed in black, with black face paint. Complete stealth. And yet somehow, they'd seen them. "They're smarter than they look."
"Not so fun when it's turned back around on you, is it?" she asked, not petulantly, but serious. Every time he said that to her, she worried. She wondered if that was how he was feeling now. "But really. It hurts, but I'm okay. I'm still alive, and everything, so..." she shrugged and gave him a weak smile. Not the smile that he was probably used to from her. "I should be fine. Right?"
As he hugged her again, Rae closed her eyes and leaned against him once more. "I know," she told him. "It... it wasn't supposed to, I don't think. But it was the truth. I'm okay. Really," she insisted. "Especially now that you're here." And that was the truth. "They did walk away, but... I got a few shots in, and so did Bea. She stabbed on, I kicked one in the balls and shot him in the foot," she told him seriously. "I didn't let them get away unscathed." She'd probably have killed them, if she had to. Which, for her, was saying a lot.
She frowned. "I usually don't," she told him honestly. "I just... I wanted to pick some things up for my son." Was that so unreasonable? She looked up at him. "I'll make you a deal," she told him. "I'll promise you that, if you promise the same for me." That wasn't unreasonable, was it? Requesting the same courtesy from him that he was asking from her? "It's hard for me to be stuck in here. I'm so used to being self-sufficient, and it's hard for me to just hand over my reliance to other people." She hoped he understood.