World's Apart

J Is For...

Her eyes fluttered and hesitated before opening. Laying on her back her eyes fixate on the lamp tied to the ceiling of the shelter, it swings back and forth with an eery creaking sound. Back and forth, back and forth, her eyes unmoving from its faded light.

"I told you the city wasn't safe,"

The voice beside her startled her so much she jumped and clutched a desperate hand to her chest. Ali snapped her eyes away from the lamp and turned them to fix upon the person laying beside her, she hadn't realised there was anyone else here.

As her eyes found his face, tears well up in her eyes and she reaches to caress his cheek gingerly.

"Jack," the word barely audible.

He places his hand over hers and presses it to his skin. "I told you the city wasn't safe," he shakes his head sadly.

"What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"You're hurt," he touches a finger to her hairline and Ali winces at the pain. A warm trickle of blood runs towards her eyebrow and she brushes the back of her hand against it, smearing the blood.

"Where have you been?" she ignores the stinging pain and watches his face carefully.

"I've been right here," he reaches out and touches a delicate finger to her chest, her heartbeat rising steadily. "I never left," he whispers.

"Oh Jack I feel so alone," Ali cries "I needed you, and you've been gone for so long,"

Jack blinks long and slow "You're not alone Ali," he takes her hands in his and whispers against them, peppering her with gentle kisses as she squeezes her eyes shut "You'll never be alone,"

"I love you J-" her eyes snap open and she stops mid sentence as the cold empty shelter echoes around her.

She's alone again.

Her eyes close and a tear rolls down her cheek as her mind fades to blackness.

When she next opens her eyes, her body aches with the chill of the cold set deep in her bones.

She struggles to get up from the floor, the ache of her body coupled with her pregnancy makes the motion difficult.

"Here we go," a strong arm wraps around her waist and another takes her arm as she leans against them for support.

"Now what've I told you about staying out'a harms way?"

The pair slump down onto the old wooden bench and Ali focuses on the voice beside her.

"Hmm?" she muses confused.

The figure chuckles and takes his brown flat cap from his head "You never were much of a listener, even as a little'un,"

"Dad?" Ali exhales breathlessly, she leans her head against his shoulder and inhales his familiar musky smell of smoked wood and earth.

As Thomas Dawes spoke in his deep southern drawl, Ali regarded every part of him closely. His fingers were stained brown with year's of setting traps in the mud and his brow was lined with deep crinkles that framed his beautiful bright eyes.

"You can't stay here Ali, its not safe," his voice is clear and sharp as it ricochets off the metal shelter.

Panic creeps in and spreads throughout her body like poison in the veins.

"I... I need to wait for James," she stutters "He went back inside, he'll only be a moment or two,"

Thomas Dawes stands quickly and gently grabs ahold of both of Ali's shoulders. Alarmed at his sudden movement, Ali watches him intently, her eyes not moving from his.