A/N: Remember when I said the chapters would go back to getting completed more frequently? Yeeeaaah, that one's my bad. Agh, this is why I try not to make promises! Either way, a new chapter is here now, and I hope you enjoy it! And hey, if you like this, maybe you'd also like the new fic I recently started, "When the Wolves Come Home". You can go ahead and find that on my profile, so please give that some love too!

These sheets were far too stiff. Given her current predicament, it seemed almost unfathomable that this would be at the forefront of her mind right now, but Krista was having a difficult time getting past it. After all, it's not as if she had much else to do at the moment besides lay in bed and hope that something would be explained to her at some point soon. She'd been trapped in this cell for the past couple of days, and during that time not a single person had come to speak to her at all. It seemed strange to her that somebody would go through all the trouble to have her abducted from her home in the middle of the night, transport her here, and then not show any interest in her afterwards.

Clearly this was the doing of a well-run and well-financed organization too. It's not like she was being kept locked down in a dungeon somewhere with dank, stone surrounding her and iron bars keeping her locked in. She had no idea as to exactly where she was, but it was certainly some kind of laboratory or scientific facility from what she could gather; which admittedly was not a whole lot since it was only what she could see from out of her cell. Even calling it a cell seemed a bit too rustic, considering how exceedingly sterile everything was.

The floor was made up of bright, white, square tiles that looked as if they'd been recently cleaned. Similarly, the walls were painted a cool shade of blue to try and offset their imposing, metal presence. She had a twin bed on a silver, metal frame with a soft pillow and a set of clean – albeit starchy – sheets. There was even a working sink and toilet with a privacy curtain to boot. The curtain was necessary due to the fact that in the front of the cell, in place of your stereotypical iron bars, was a wall of plexiglass that allowed her to see out into the facility and anybody walking by to see in. To the right edge of the plexiglass wall was a door that was completely sealed from her side, but she could see an access panel on the outside which would presumably open it.

It seemed like a safe assumption, although she couldn't say with absolute certainty since she'd yet to see anybody use it. Was whoever it was that was behind this purposely ignoring her as some kind of mind game? She hated being kept here as a prisoner, naturally, but she hated it even more that she had no idea why. Was this a government facility? A private military company? These were the thoughts which mostly occupied her head while she laid in bed trying to pass the time until her next meal was delivered via the small compartment in one of the walls that served as a dumbwaiter of sorts.

And then suddenly, she heard a knocking on the glass wall.

At first Krista though that she had finally been cooped up in here long enough that she was starting to lose it; on top of everything else, now she was hearing things? When the knocking repeated itself however, she sat herself up to see just who it was that was visiting her. On the other side of the thick glass wall, she saw a short and sullen looking man with dark black hair. She was quite sure that she'd never met this man before, or if she did it wasn't a very memorable experience. Yet it obviously seemed as though he knew her; otherwise why would he be here?

"Ah, so you are awake. Good. I hope you find your accommodations satisfactory." Levi says as he switches on the intercom which allowed for communication between him on the outside of the cell and Krista on the inside. "My apologies if you aren't appeased. We had to make arrangements on somewhat short notice."

Krista wasn't sure what to make of the man. He had pretty much just admitted to being responsible for kidnapping her, but to what ends? She'd never been abducted and held hostage before, but she assumed that most captives under these circumstances wouldn't be treated anywhere near this well. She decided that if there was ever a time for her to get answers, this could very well be it.

"Why am I here? Where even is 'here'? What do you want with me?" She asks him directly, hoping to at least ascertain the answer to one of her inquiries. What she wasn't expecting was for her captor to be so forthcoming in return.

"You're needed for leverage; nothing more and nothing less. I have no desire to harm you whatsoever, but having possession of you was key to certain…negotiations." Levi didn't see the point in giving this girl the runaround, especially when she was powerless to do anything about her current predicament. He wouldn't tell her everything, of course, but there was minimal harm in her knowing some details about why it is that she is where she is.

At this point Krista got up out of bed, and she felt her bare feet hit the cold floor as she stood up. As short as this man was, he still had a handful of inches over her. She learned to turn her stature – or lack thereof – to her advantage a long time ago however. It's amazing how many places a spy can hide when she's barely five feet tall.

'So…this doesn't even have anything to do with me. This is about someone else…someone who knows me. I'm just some kind of pawn in your game?" The small blonde could feel her levels of anger rising at this revelation. It was bad enough to be kidnapped because someone had it out for you, but to find out that you're merely needed to imbalance the scales? It only strengthened her resolve to get revenge on her captors.

"You shouldn't take it personally. You've been in the game long enough to have been party to far worse than this. Jericho wasn't exactly an organization without blood on their hands." Came Levi's reply as he calmly stared through the glass wall at Krista, reminding her of her participation in past deeds.

"We never hurt innocent people!" She snapped back, balling her fists while taking a step forward.

"Is that supposed to imply that you're innocent? Don't insult my intelligence like that. You are a criminal, no different than me. The only difference is that one of us knows their allies well enough to be on the right side of this glass." Levi returns, undaunted by his prisoner's elevated hostility and remaining as stoic as ever. At this point Krista was seething too much to formulate an immediate response, leaving an opportunity to arise for this conversation to be interrupted.

"Excuse me, Levi? Commander Smith would like to speak with you upstairs. He says that it's urgent." A new voice interjected, coming from a young woman who had approached Levi from the side to relay this message. His gaze lingered for a second or two longer upon Krista before acknowledging her and responding.

"Thank you, Ilse. I'll go and speak with him."

Ilse nodded and spared a glance towards Krista with what seemed like pity in her eyes before walking away to leave the blonde alone with Levi once more.

"It appears that I am needed elsewhere. Maybe I'll come back and visit once I'm done. For your sake, I just hope that Ymir can follow orders like a good dog." Levi says as he departs, purposely letting Krista know just who exactly holds her fate in their hands and letting it sink it for the captive blonde that it's the one person in the world who would do anything for her. Now she can only fear the extent that Ymir will go to in order to secure her freedom.

"Thanks again for slashing all of my tires Jean. I assume that the BISI has it in their budget to reimburse me for that?" Annie quips dryly as she sits in the back seat, along with Armin, in the sedan being driven by the aforementioned tire slasher with Sasha sitting up front in the passenger's seat.

"As far as any of us should be concerned, we never even saw each other today. Do you know what would happen to Sasha and I if the BISI found out that, not only did we have the chance to arrest you and let you get away, but we sat together for four hours catching up with one of the most wanted men in the country; who, by the way, supposedly died over three years ago?! Our asses are on the line here!" Jean snapped back as he drove through the city streets to drop off Annie and Armin back at her apartment, heavy with the stress of everything that's happened today. In the morning he and Sasha were supposed to arrest Annie; now they're driving both her and Armin back home like a cab company, but only after discovering that Eren is still alive and working covertly with either someone or some organization that he can't speak much about.

"Come on Jean, calm down. Easy fella…it's been a bit of a crazy day for all of us. We'll figure out together what we're going to do, but we can do it later." Sasha says, feeling the need to speak up and try to talk Jean down off the ledge. Giving him a pleading look with her soft, brown eyes was usually enough to guilt him, and this time didn't appear to be an exception either as Jean took one look at them before sighing in resignation.

'You're right…I suppose. This has all just been…a lot to process. I'll feel a lot better once I can just sit down and think about it on my own." He relents as he turns onto the street where Annie's apartment building is located. It resembles more of a motel than anything; being just two stories tall and shaped like an "L" with everybody's front door visible from the parking lot. "And I'll pay you back for the tires. I guess that's the least I can do." He adds as he opts to pull over and sidle up to the curb outside of the lot instead of going in to park. That and not putting you in prison, he can't help but think to himself.

Annie popped the car door open and climbed outside without another word, eager to make the distance between herself and Jean as large as possible, leaving Armin feeling somewhat awkward in the back seat by himself.

"Uhh…thanks for the ride guys. If we find out anything, we'll let you know." He hastily says before following Annie outside and shutting the door behind him. The slight breeze of the marauding night made him pull his jacket more tightly against his upper body. Annie was already heading down the sidewalk and on her way up to her apartment on the second level of the complex, forcing Armin to jog a bit to catch up to her.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked the silent blonde girl once he caught up to her, genuinely concerned after the gauntlet of things that had been thrown at her – and himself as well – over the course of the day.

"One of our own people tried to kill Eren, only they failed. Somebody found him afterwards and not only brought him back to health, but convinced him to covertly work for them – which he's been doing for the last year or two. He had all this time to get in touch with any one of us, but he either chose not to or wasn't able to. Then the dynamic duo shows up with orders to arrest all of us; which isn't something that's just going to go away. Do you think that I'm alright, Armin?" Annie replies without once breaking stride or turning to even so much as glance at her friend, rattling off the laundry list of things weighing upon her to give Armin the answer to his question. It causes him to balk slightly and stuff his hands into the pockets of his jacket while he walks up a set of stairs with Annie to reach the second floor, and a couple seconds of silence pass between them before he proffers a different question.

"So…who do you think it was?" He asks with both of them knowing that what he's referring to doesn't need to be said directly.

It was all that Annie had really been able to think about ever since Eren confirmed it back at his hideout. Somebody that she used to be able to call a part of her family had betrayed Eren, betrayed her, and betrayed everyone. She knew it wasn't her, and she was pretty assured that it wasn't Armin either. Mikasa was also an easy one to remove as a suspect. Jean and Sasha both claimed innocence, but she wasn't sure that she could believe either one of them yet. Who else did that leave? She couldn't believe that Reiner and Bertolt were capable of such a thing; Bert didn't have the malice and Reiner didn't have the subtlety to pull such a thing off. If Connie had been responsible, then it's a secret he took with him to the grave. That left Ymir and Krista, and she had to admit that either one of them—

"Annie! Get down!"

The sudden alert from Armin jolted her out of her thoughts and the next thing she knew he was tackling her to the ground right outside of the door to her apartment, just a split second before a burst of bullets came flying in where the two of them had been standing. She looked to her left through the gaps in the metal bars of the guardrail at the edge of the walkway and saw a car in the parking lot suddenly come to life, the engine roaring and a tinted window being rolled back up as the would-be assassin attempts to make a getaway. Hoping to prevent such an outcome, Annie reached behind her and pulled out her always-loaded revolver, shrugging Armin off and springing up to her feet so that she can take aim and fire.

Her first shot lodged itself into the trunk of the car as it peeled out of the parking space, and her second shot tore through the back windshield; cracking the entire panel of glass and making it appear like some sort of mosaic constructed from hundreds of smaller pieces. She readied herself to pull back on the trigger for another shot, but by this point it was too late. Her target was too far away to safely hit without risking any kind of collateral damage. All she could do was watch with a seething glare as the gunman escaped the scene.

"Jesus Christ…Annie, are you okay?" Comes Armin's voice as he dusts himself off and sits back against the exterior wall of the building, his voice barely audible to Annie over the sound of her own heart pounding away in her chest.

"Yeah…we need to leave. Whoever it was, they know where I live. This place is compromised. We need to go before the police get here." She responds as she already begins moving to get back down to ground level, forcing Armin to hurriedly pick himself up off the ground and follow in tow.

"How exactly? We don't have a ride and I don't think that public transportation is our best bet right now." Armin questions before even noticing that Annie has already pulled out her cell phone and has it up to her ear, her other hand still gripping the handle of her revolver in case it's still needed. They make it back down the stairs before Annie's contact on the other end picks up.

"Reiner, I need you to meet me in ten minutes at the corner of Bristol and Cambridge. I've been compromised. …I can tell you more once we're clear." It's all that she needs to say before hanging up and making sure that Armin is still tailing her as they dash out of the apartment complex entirely, en route to rendezvous with Reiner as the sound of police sirens wail off in the distance.

Another car horn blared behind her after cutting another person off in traffic, but every noise from the world around her sounded as if it was being projected through a cardboard tube. It was almost as if things where swirling in a circle, which made it somewhat of a miracle that Ymir was able to even drive without swerving into oncoming traffic. On her right was the entrance to a parking garage, one that she turned into with great relief for a place where she could sit and try to bring herself back down to earth.

She backed into a parking space on the third floor up, trying to keep her shattered back windshield as obscured from view as possible to anyone else who might happen to drive by. With a turn of her wrist, she shut off the engine and at once the silence was deafening. Ymir could feel cold sweat dripping from her brow, and her other hand still gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her olive knuckles were a considerable shade of pale. Her eyes glanced up into the rear view mirror, and her gaze became fixed upon the point of entry where one of Annie's bullets came roaring into her car. If it had been a couple of feet further to the left, it could have very well proven to be fatal.

"Fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck!" She cursed under her own breath, pounding the dashboard with a fist along with each expletive. In the passenger seat to her right laid the submachine gun she had used in her failed attempt to assassinate Annie only a few minutes ago. It was supposed to be simple; she knew where Annie lived, and it was just a matter of waiting for the opportunity to make her move. It should have worked. It was going to work, but she hadn't accounted for someone else being there. As soon as Ymir had seen Annie show up with Armin of all people, she knew that she should have formulated a new plan. If she had been thinking clearly at the time, that's probably what she would've done too. Getting Krista back was the only thought that mattered to her though, and she needed to do it as quickly as possible.

It had only been a couple of hours since Levi walked into her office and turned her life upside down, yet again. Within the span of a few minutes she had learned that Eren was alive, Krista had been kidnapped, and that she needed to kill Annie in order to secure Krista's safe release. Ymir had figured that the quicker she handled it, the better it would be. The longer she waited, the longer Krista was in danger; not to mention the sickening guilt that would set in the longer she had to dwell on the fact that she had to be the one to take Annie's life.

But she had botched the job, and she was in trouble. If either Annie or Armin had identified her as the shooter, she was in dire straits. The biggest advantage that she had was that Annie wasn't going to see this coming, and that may have flown right out the window tonight. For all Ymir knew, Annie could be launching a full-scale search and destroy mission on her right at this very moment. If that was the case, she had people that she needed to remove from potential danger; which is why she reached into her pocket and fumbled for her phone before putting through a call with unsteady fingers.

"Boss! What's the word?" Answered the cheery voice on the opposite end.

"Hitch I need you to get in touch with everyone and let them know that they don't need to come into work tonight. No, just tell them that the club is going to be closed for the week. Just make sure that everyone knows not to come in." Ymir said, cutting straight to the point, with the distress in her voice coming through in spades. She had been in her office during the afternoon, but the actual club upstairs didn't open until nearly midnight.

"Ymir…what's the problem? If there's a situation, I want to know about it." Hitch replied with a genuine concern that was usually out of place with her carefree nature. Ymir had made it rather easy though to deduce that something was very much amiss.

"It's not your problem to deal with…but thank you. Just stay away from the club and stay away from me for now. I'll contact you again once everything has been sorted out. If you don't hear from me…get in touch with my buyers and move everything."

"As you wish…be safe Boss."

Both women hung up almost simultaneously after the brief exchange came to its conclusion, leaving Ymir alone with her anguish once again. She was going to have to leave the car, that much she knew. The state of the rear windshield left it too identifiable and would only succeed in drawing attention. Annie knew where she lived and she knew where all her spots of operation were; taking the risk of bringing the car back to one of those locations was too great.

Ymir reached up and jerked her keys out of the ignition, pocketing them and then reaching over to grab the submachine gun she had used from the neighboring seat of the car. Placing her other hand on handle of the driver's side door, she glanced around through her still intact windows to make sure that the coast was clear before exiting the vehicle and slipping the firearm inside the front of her jacket. She kept it held there against her side while she quickly walked across the concrete floor of the parking garage, her hazel eyes darting back and forth out of paranoia that Annie or anybody else might try to run up on her. There was nobody around but her. Ymir allowed a small exhalation of relief to escape through her nostrils as she reached the stairwell, deftly dropping the gun into trash can on her way out. Taking it with her wasn't an option, despite how much she would have valued its protection at the moment. She had made her bed a long time ago, and with each passing minute she felt that she was getting closer and closer to falling asleep.

Sasha watched from the foot of the bed with a frown on her face as Jean removed his gun and sat it down firmly on the table in the hotel room they rented, his frustration being palpable and altogether unsurprising considering the source. Jean took his job with the utmost seriousness, and not being able to complete their assignment was obviously a point of contention for him; even under these unexpected and extreme circumstances.

"You really shouldn't beat yourself up Jean. Is it really the worst thing in the world that we didn't have to arrest two of our friends?" Sasha tries to helpfully ask in the hopes of calming her partner down some, but like all of her efforts up to this point it doesn't have the intended result.

"Sure, until the BISI suspect that we're aiding and abetting them in their escape and we spend the rest of our lives in a maximum security prison somewhere." Jean replies with a huff as he removes his watch and puts it down next to his pistol with the same authoritative semi-slam of his fist. He lets a deep sigh emerge from within his chest now as he hunches over the table and droops his head down, still trying to sort through everything that's transpired on this day. Being tasked with apprehending two of his former comrades was enough on his plate, let alone making the discovery that his friend, his sometimes rival, and his former leader in Jericho, Eren Yeager, was still alive after three years of being presumed dead. Not only that, but to learn that it was a near certainty that one of their own had tried to have Eren killed that night three years ago. It left him struggling to make sense of it all.

With his eyes closed, he didn't realize that Sasha had stood up and had quietly closed the distance between them until he felt her arms wrap around his midsection, and felt her chin rest upon his shoulder as she embraced him thoughtfully.

"You need to learn how to stop worrying so much. It messes with your head…keeps you from realizing just how smart you really are." She said in a soft voice with the kind of warmth that only a close friend could provide; someone with years of first-hand knowledge of how to tap into the other person's emotional frequency. "I know that you're going to figure out a way to explain things to Eld and give us time to figure out what happens next."

Jean was silent for the next couple of seconds before letting out an even deeper sigh. Sometimes he really hated that Sasha was able to affect him in this way, but dammit if he didn't already feel less on edge simply from being in her embrace. He brought one of his hands up from the table and rested it upon both of Sasha's where they were locked together in the middle of his stomach, just above his waist.

"Thank you Sasha. I really don't know what I would do without you sometimes." He replied, earning a smile from the brunette head perched upon his shoulder.

"It's what I'm here for. Can't let you go off on your own without me to keep you from pummeling yourself over every teeny, tiny mistake." She playfully said back to him, breaking her hands away giving his hair a ruffle after seeing that her actions had worked like a charm. Jean was a perfectionist, but sometimes to a fault and especially when it involved work. She saw herself as a pretty good balance to that, considering that she sometimes found herself bored when things go off without even the slightest hitch. Anybody could do their jobs if they just had to follow step-by-step instructions, so it made her feel confident in herself and her talents when thinking on the fly was necessary.

"Yeah, well, I already said thank you. Don't expect me to feed your ego any more than that." He smirked as he turned around and watched Sasha flop herself back down onto her queen-sized bed, separated from his own in the hotel suite with a long nightstand in between the two. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment when they checked in and learned there were still rooms available where they wouldn't be forced to share a bed. After that moment on the plane on the flight over here, he felt that he could get used to cuddling with his Bureau partner real quick. He felt somewhat guilty for thinking that way however, since Sasha quite clearly was not enjoying herself during that period of time. Not because of him (at least, God, he hoped not) but due to the fact that she had had a night terror and she spent a good twenty minutes or so weeping in his arms while he consoled her. She must not have hated it though either, since she was content enough to eventually fall back asleep in his arms after she had calmed down.

"Hey, Sasha…I don't really know what the most delicate way to ask about this is, but…back on the plane during the trip here…do you want to talk about what happened?" Jean asked after the incident had returned to the forefront of his mind. He tried his best to choose his words carefully and not sound like he was prying, but he really did have a curiosity as to what it was that set Sasha off like that in her sleep.

For her part, Sasha could feel her stomach begin to knot as soon as Jean had mentioned the plane. She knew what his words were leading up to, but that didn't fill her with any less dreadful anxiety when he finally said it. She didn't want to have this conversation with Jean, or with anybody else for that matter, but maybe he deserved to know the truth. She was sure that he'd drop the subject if she asked him to, but at the same time there was something inside of her that almost made her want to divulge the information to him. Apparently this inner struggle that she was having presented itself outwardly as well, as Jean was eager to withdraw his inquiry after the first signs of uneasiness on her face.

"You don't have to though Sasha, I understand if you're not comfortable talking about it. I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have brought it up in the—"

"No, Jean…it's alright." She said to cut Jean off before he could finish apologizing. The last thing that Sasha wanted was for Jean to start kicking himself for treading into these waters in the first place. "You're my partner…you're my best friend. You have a right to know. I just…I'm scared. I'm scared that once you do…you won't ever be able to look at me the same way." Her words were stuttered and soft-spoken at this point with the impending realization that this was finally going to be the time; she was finally going to have to own up to what she had done.

"Sasha…believe me when I say that there's nothing you could say that would change the way I feel about you." Jean replies, trying to assuage her fears while making his way over to the bed to sit down beside Sasha. It took him a second to realize that the way he had phrased things just then perhaps revealed too much about his feelings, but fortunately it didn't appear that Sasha had picked up on it. It was his turn to reach out and wrap an arm around her shoulders comfortingly, although in this instance it seemed like she was in much more need of support right now than he had just been.

"My nightmare…it's something that happens every once in a great while. You saw it on the plane…it hits me pretty badly. Umm…it's actually a memory I have…of something really awful. Something…that I did." Sasha manages to get out, this being entirely uncharted territory for her. She's never discussed this with anybody other than the therapist that the BISI made her see after it happened and she first started getting these frequent nightmares. Her palms were sweaty, and she rubbed them back and forth on the legs of her pants while her fingers drummed repetitively on her knees.

"It's okay Sasha…you can tell me. It's not going to change anything between us, no matter what. I swear that to you." Jean reaffirmed, though his mind was racing now as he wondered what his always kind and compassionate partner could have possibly done that was as awful as she says. He felt a dryness in his throat when it dawned on him that there was a possibility that Sasha was about to confess to trying to kill Eren back then, but he steeled himself as she took a gulp and continued.

"It was a little more than eighteen months ago now…the Recon Corps was working shorthanded and we were split up onto different teams to help with some cases. I think you were working an ocean liner investigation…I was assigned to a team that was investigating a smuggling ring. We learned that our targets were meeting with buyers out at an abandoned rail yard, so we recruited some special forces and planned to hit them with a raid during the meeting. Because of my background…I was given sniper duty. If things went bad…it was my job to help clean things up."

Everything that Sasha said made sense to Jean up to this point. He remembered the time she was referencing when they'd been made to work apart from each other, and it was a logical choice for Sasha to be tasked with providing support as a marksman. He'd be hard pressed to come up with a better long-range shooter that he knew of; he'd seen Sasha hit her mark too many times to question her skills as a sniper. Silently he nodded and encouraged her to continue by rubbing her upper arm.

"I was in position a few hundred yards away from the building where all the targets were. It was the middle of the night, so I was using a night vision scope. It made it easier to see, but…I couldn't see things perfectly. I hoped I wouldn't have to do anything but lay there and watch…but I was ready to act if I needed to. I was there…the rest of the team hit the building and started apprehending all the targets. Everything was going the way it should…but then I saw one person run outside, and he had two agents chasing after him. I trained my scope on him…he could tell he wasn't going to get away. I thought I saw him reach for a gun…and I took the shot first. After it was over…I found out he didn't even have a gun on him. I killed him…for no reason…" Sasha recounted with her voice cracking more and more with each successive sentence. Jean could see how hard this was for her to do, but at the same time he was still confused. He'd watched Sasha take out countless targets before, with none of those impacting her in any emotionally significant way – let alone anywhere near this magnitude. He could understand her being upset about killing someone based off of a mistake she made, but this still seemed like a disproportionate amount of blame to take.

"You did your job Sasha…you did the right thing. If he'd had a gun and drawn it, he could have killed our agents. You shouldn't be so—"

"It was Connie."

Jean's jaw hung open in shock after Sasha interrupted him to inform him of exactly who it was that she shot that night, and provide him with the missing piece to the puzzle of why this was such a traumatic experience for her. Tears were beginning to flow out from the inner corners of Sasha's caramel-colored eyes now, unable to admit her guilt and responsibility without breaking down again. She was waiting for Jean to remove his arm from around her, expecting him to recoil after learned what she'd done, but to her surprise she instead found herself being pulled closer into his frame as he put his other arm around her and hugged her tightly.

"It wasn't your fault Sasha. You could never have known…it's not your fault." Jean whispered in consolation to his partner and his closest friend, making good on his vow that whatever her dark secret was, it wouldn't change what she meant to him in the least. It was true too. While it was extremely unfortunate to learn the truth about the way Connie died, and that it could have possibly been preventable, he could also see that Sasha had been torturing herself because of it every day that had passed for the last eighteen-plus months since. She wasn't evil, and she wasn't the murderer that she saw herself to be. She was still Sasha.

"I'm sorry Jean…I'm so sorry!" She bleated through her tears as she buried herself into his chest, just as she did on the plane after he came to wake her up from her nightmare the first time. And just like it happened then, Jean carefully curled her sobbing figure into his arms and gently laid down with her atop the bed; keeping her held close and giving her the support she needs while letting it all out in an emotional avalanche.

"You don't need to apologize to me Sasha…not for this and not for anything else. I love you Sasha…" Jean admitted softly almost without even thinking, but by the time it had registered he didn't even care. He loved Sasha Braus, and he had finally just said it. It felt right, and it felt like a burden had been suddenly lifted from him. He had surprised himself by saying it, but it was an even greater surprise once Sasha processed it and responded.

"I…I love you too Jean! I love you…please don't ever stop..." Even through her heavy tears there was no mistaking what Jean had heard. Sasha had reciprocated his feelings! He was struck with an overwhelming relief and joy that felt strangely out of place while still keeping Sasha held in his arms as she sobbed into his shirt. Perhaps he could have picked a better time to finally profess to her, but he couldn't change that now. To be honest, he didn't really want to either. All he wanted to do now was cherish Sasha Braus as if every moment he spent with her might be his last.

"I won't Sasha…I'll always love you. I promise…I promise." He whispered to her, causing her to cling even more tightly to him. Despite her tears, Sasha was indescribably elated to learn that Jean felt the same way about her that she had grown to feel about him. She feared so deeply that he would turn his back on her once he found out what she'd done, but if anything it only cemented their bond even further. The feeling of his arms lovingly encompassing her wasn't something she ever wanted to let go of.

It seems that they weren't going to be needing those separate beds after all.