Re: Derek/Nell
"I've fought since I was a kid and you've just managed to scare the crap out of me." He shivered. "She's... old." No amount of partying and drinking could change the fact that she could be a grandmother. "I've never been big on masks. I've kept secrets, but they aren't a mask."
Derek sighed. "I know, but it's hard to remember some days. I don't like that I was the one that caused this." He chuckled. "I really love it when you tell me about John." She didn't know they were related or how little time they had spent together, at least with this John, but Derek found it amusing every time she spoke to him about John. "He won't say unless one of us brings it up first."
He leaned down and kissed her, just a gentle brush of lips. "No, it doesn't sound strange at all. You're in your first battle and people die and there's fear, anger, sadness, frustration, so many emotions, but the fear is the one that's right there, always with you, always alive even in your nightmares and the only way to win that fear is to go out there again and fight once more. You're a fighter and it makes perfect sense to me." He snorted. "You're not a cocktease. I know the score. We'll stay, we'll do whatever feels good and when it doesn't we stop. It's fine."