[This post is from Cameron’s point of view.]
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes before she took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. “So how are you going to tell them? With more delicacy than you used with me, right?”
Cameron made a face. “I’d actually planned to tell everyone a little more bluntly, to be honest.”
“Ah.” Neve rested her head against his chest. “I don’t think I’d do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because odds are pretty good they’ll try to argue you down. Loudly.”
Cameron leaned back, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. “You think so?”
“You don’t?”
He sighed quietly, letting his eyes slide shut. “Not really. I mean, not if I tell them what I told you.”
“I don’t know, Cam,” she said softly, running her hand slowly up and down his side. “I just think that they’re going to fight you on it—especially if you say you want to go alone.”
Cameron winced. That was definitely going to be the hardest part—getting the others to agree to let him head off alone.
No one’s really allowed to go anywhere alone. What makes me think that they’ll let me?
I just won’t give them a choice—I’ll have to put it some way they won’t be able to refuse.
He wasn’t quite sure how he’d pull that off, but there had to be a way.
“I’ll find a way to make it work,” he murmured, resting his cheek against her head. Neve sighed.
“I know you will. You always seem to, somehow.” She looked up at him and smiled faintly. “I just wish you weren’t right about this. I’d rather keep you here.”
Cameron smiled weakly. “You know I’d rather have you with me.”
“That ship sailed a long time ago,” Neve whispered. “Around the time a firbolg threw me into a tree. I know I pretend it doesn’t hurt, but it still does.”
“Your leg?”
She nodded. “My leg, my back—all of it still hurts, sometimes worse than others.”
Cameron’s throat tightened and his heart suddenly felt like it had been trapped in a vise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to worry,” she said softly. “No one really knows except for Marin and Jac—mostly because Jac’s been helping me manage and Marin would have figured it out even if I hadn’t told her. I’m okay, it’s just that I still hurt. Maybe Ill forever, I don’t know. If I do, it doesn’t matter. I’ll figure out how to manage. I’ll have to. I’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.”
His eyes stung as he pulled her even closer, squeezing her tightly against his chest. Neve took a shaky breath and exhaled slowly, as if she was trying to steady herself.
“You could have told me,” Cameron murmured. “I would have taken it okay.”
“You would have worried too much,” Neve said softly. “You’re still going to worry too much, but it’s not fair of me to keep that secret. You needed to know.”
“You’ll tell me if it gets worse instead of better?”
“Of course.”
Cameron nodded. “Then you’re forgiven.”
Neve smiled up at him and leaned up for a kiss. Cameron smiled back and lost himself in the taste of her lips against his and the feel of her in his arms.
I love you, Neve, and I always will.
Another real moment with people who could be real.
Typos: “Maybe Ill forever, I don’t know.”
I think that it is missing the word, “hurt” and an apostrophe.