Lenny was safe in her uncle's arms.

After Krista had left the house with the shaky blonde, Len allowed the full force of what had just transpired in the living room to really sink in. It was as if she had seen everything underwater.

Tears came freely, but it was hard for to her to speak. When she finally did, it wasn't very much.

She sobbed onto Uncle Andy's chest, shaking her head, and he enveloped her in a sweet, strong, and comforting embrace.

As she cried, she could hear her uncle's heartbeat, fast and erratic, and the longer they stood there, together, she heard his heartbeat begin to slow.

Lenny recalled how all the lights in the house had, strangely, shut off after she yelled out, "No!"

Once she was finally brave enough, she advanced toward Jude. His eyes were wild with rage. She had never seen anyone that broken and dreadful before. Though she was afraid of him in the moment, she also wanted to help, but she did not know how.

After the lights had flickered on and off again, that is when the most scary of all things happened.

Their couch moved across the floor, banging into the wall and, somehow, the coffee table flipped in the air and broke in two, with frightening speed.

Finally tiring of seeing the entire scene play in her mind for she did not know how many times, Len opened her eyes, wiped her cheeks, and looked up into her uncle's eyes.

"Uncle Andy," she said, her voice faint and muffled, "I love you."

His embrace around her tightened and he whispered as his eyes warmed to hers, "I love you, too, sweet pea."

Len turned to look at her brother and sister, as they sat on the floor. Juliette's arms surrounded Jude's heaving and wilted body, and they almost looked like one person. One person at war with itself.

One side wagering recklessly at the gates of hell and the other side standing selflessly at the gates of heaven.

Jude's cries had finally lessened and had become more soft and guttural. Juliette's brow was lined with perspiration and her cheeks were flushed with purpose.

She was not letting go of him until he wanted her to.

Andy's eyes were fixed on Jude.

His eyes stung as he swallowed, breathed in and out, and looked down at his niece.

"I think I'm gonna lie down in my room now. Are you gonna be alright?"

His arms were still around her. "Yes, Uncle Andy, I'll be alright." His body moved to turn toward his bedroom behind them, and she stopped him by saying, "What about what happened? What should we do?" She pointed to the broken coffee table.

Uncle Andy gave her a pained smile, and with exhaustion set deeply in his voice he said, "That didn't really scare me so much as what all happened before it." He looked over at the coffee table, and Lenny could see the new shapes of tears forming in his eyes.

"Okay, Can I bring you anything?"

"No. I just wanna lie down."

He took her hand in his and gave it a light squeeze before letting it go. He went into his room and closed the door behind him. 

Lenny sighed and walked over to  her siblings. She knelt down on the floor in front of them. She looked over at the broken coffee table.

She thought about her first kiss with Erik.

It had begun gently and then grew more passionately until it hit such a striking crescendo that it somehow crushed her heart and sent a jolt through every single part of her.

Then, she thought about what happened in the living room again.

The yelling and shoving. The horrifying torrent of human emotion. The flickering of lights and the image and sound of moving and breaking furniture.

Even though her heart was paralyzed into various motions, switching from legato to staccato and back again, she somehow managed to breathe and speak.

She somehow managed to survive, all on her own, in both situations without having any experience at all.

Also, she felt responsible for them both.

She knew that her eyes had bid Erik to make his move and that her voice had bid something out there to act and stop the unthinkable from happening.

As the adrenaline finally eased out of her system, Lenny felt that even if life still had its way with her, wounded her and left her questioning and wandering, she knew it would surely never be able to destroy her.

She had much more power and command over herself and others than she had ever thought possible. She felt like she was floating above it all and looking down below.

She felt alone, but she also felt free.

Just as she felt this and knew this, Jude opened his eyes slowly and looked into hers. Lenny's face was stoic and loving. Her eyes held heartbreak and beauty.

He bowed his head down before he spoke, tears falling on the floor beneath him. As he lifted his head back up so that his eyes could look back into hers, he shakily said, "I'm so sorry, Lenny. I'm so sorry."

Len reached her arms out, instinctively, and Juliette let go of Jude.

Lenny placed her hands on his shoulders. She searched within the agony and shame of his dark and rudderless eyes.

Even though she wanted to cry, too, and her heart tugged violently at her to do so, she held back her tears instead.

Her throat hurt from the pressure of it all, and in a strained and steadfast voice she said, "You are my brother and nothing will ever make me stop loving you. Ever." 

Jude's brows gathered weakly and tear after tear ran down his cheek, each falling quicker than the last. He gripped her arms with his hands and shook his head in disbelief.

Lenny inched her way closer to him, sweeping her knees forward on the hardwood floor. She rested her forehead against Jude's and stayed there like that with him until he stopped crying.

***

After Juliette had helped Jude to bed, the sisters had cups of tea in the kitchen. Krista was already asleep in Juliette's room.

It was almost three o' clock in the morning, and their eyes were weary and dry from tears. Their voices were the same from talking.

Juliette smoothed her hands over her face and hair. She breathed in deeply and stood up from the table. She took their mugs, washed them quickly, and set them in the drying rack.

"I love you, Lenny." She wrapped her arms around her seated sister and rocked her side to side, as if she were a little baby again in her arms. She kissed her cheek and added, "Good night, doodle. Sleep tight."

"Good night." Lenny gave Juls a small smile and watched her sister open her bedroom door and close it carefully behind her.

She remained at the kitchen table for a few more minutes. She saw the light in her sister's room go on for a short while and then it went out.

Her brow tightened and she brought her hands to her face. She then placed her hands back down into her lap and started to cry.

As Lenny's tears fell down, she actually welcomed how they felt against her dry cheeks. She let them roll down, undisturbed, one by one, as they fell like feathers.

She liked having the feeling of them on her skin, warm and wet.

Finally, just as she felt a quick chill graze the back of her neck, she wiped the tears off her face with both of her open hands. She smeared them off as she caressed her face and drew her breath, in and out, very aware of the life within her.

She smiled as she made her way to her bedroom. As she opened the door, she could not help but to feel as if her soul was lit from within. The smile remained on her face as she looked out directly in front of her through her window and then out onto the pond in the distance.

The moon shone brightly that night, and its reflection danced on the surface of the pond as a gust of wind blew through the trees and wildflowers.

Lenny's heart sank.

She was not alone in her room.

She could see a figure sitting on her bed. The figure was looking up at the moon as well.

At first she thought it was Jude or her uncle, but the figure placed its hand on her bed. The moolight lit the hand just enough so that she could see it was not a hand she had ever seen before. Its fingers were pale and slender.

Her eyes widened in surprise, more than fear, for as she remained frozen in her doorway, the image of the figure before her began to flicker in and out of her vision.

It had the appearance of a wave coming to shore in the atmosphere of her bedroom and then drawing itself back into its ocean as if it were some kind of serene cosmic glitch.

Something in Lenny told her that it would be wrong to let whatever it was go just yet. Something in Lenny told her it was okay to move and get closer to it.

Without thinking, only feeling, Lenny breathed, "Hello?"

The figure's hand retracted quickly and its head turned to look at her.

Len could not see its face. Her room was too dark, but she was too afraid to put the light on.

Before it spoke, it flickered in and out again and then remained before her, hazy but palpable. "You can see me?"

Its voice was unlike any Len had ever heard before.

If the sky, grass, air, and dirt could speak, she imagined that is what they would sound like, together.

"Yes," she answered. New tears tempted her eyes again. She had no clue what she was doing or whom she was talking to.

Lenny advanced toward her bed and the figure stood up, remaining silent on the other side of her bed.

The moon then shone even brighter behind the figure and Lenny looked across into its beautiful darkness.

"You can hear me," it said, as if piecing something together in the dark.

"Yes."

"Are you afraid of me?"

Lenny was truly only afraid of one thing. Death.

More specifically, Death taking those she loved most away from her.

"No," she answered, honestly.

"Why?"

"Should I be?"

The figure shrugged, turned around, and looked up at the shining moon for a moment and then turned its head and shoulders to look at her again.

Beneath the light of the gentle moon, his features were revealed to her.

As his finely shaped lips came up into a small smile, Lenny noticed that his hair held a reddish gold luster in the moonlight and that its length hit just past his ears in loose waves. His eyes were both sad and happy, glimmering with youth yet cast with a deep and sizable wisdom.

He was wearing a simple white t-shirt, just like her uncle wore under his works shirts, though she could detect some tiny holes in it in random places, most notably near the collar, on his shoulders, and down near the hem.

She wanted to see the rest of him because she felt if she waited any longer he might disappear.

She drew a deep breath in and walked around her bed--as she did so he actually took a step back and lifted his hands up by his sides.

"I assure you," he spoke, "I will not hurt you."

"Okay."

Lenny was too busy looking down at this feet, which were bare. She grinned as she saw him lift his foot up as far as it could go behind his other leg, as if it was not only an itch he was scratching but rather a nervous tick he had, too.

"I won't hurt you either," she assured him.

He smiled and his features eased up a little as his arms came back down and his body relaxed.

She searched his friendly eyes and she could not help a smile forming on her face as well.

She took another step closer to him and asked, "Was that you? In the living room?"

He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and titled his head down a fraction, only bringing his eyes up to look at her as he answered, unsteadily, "Yes."

"Why did you help us?"

He brought up one hand and used it to scratch the back of his head. Another nervous tick.

Lenny crossed her arms and waited for his response.

His mouth opened as if he was about to speak and then he shut it and looked out the window instead. He brought the same hand to his lips and scrunched his eyes a tad before answering her.

"It was hard not to help you. I love you all too much."

A/N:

AHHHHHHH!
It has FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY happened! I almost didn't want it to happen as I was writing it. I got a little emotional, okay, a lot emotional.

I was typing their first words to one another and I was crying and I was afraid that I wasn't doing their first encounter with one another any justice, but this is it.

It has happened and I have mixed feelings about it, though, something tells me y'all are probably thrilled!

I'm really happy about that at least!

Please, please, please, my silent readers---come out of the shadows now and join Daniel in the moonlight.

Who are you? Where are you from? Why have you been reading this story of mine for this long? Vote. Comment. I want to know who you are.

I love you all so much!

Gimme some love, cuz this chapter (not the last one, believe it or not) made me super emotional. Did I do alright?

This chapter was named Fears and Tears for more than the obvious reasons!

<3
Leanne

P.S. I had a song selected for the chapter when I first started to write it yesterday, but then when I was finishing it up today I realized it just wasn't good enough. If you could pick a song for this chapter, what would it be?

***SNEAK PEAK***
(for those reading alllll the way to the end, lol):

Daniel will be taking over the next chapter!!

:)