Waiting. It had always been the most difficult part of the job. That was saying something, if you held into account everything a Valkyrie's duties included. Fighting, running, dragging wounded people out of battle while under continues fire. Those tasks were all strenuous, I admit, but at least then you were actively doing something. It occupied your mind and focussed you on the task at hand with no room for any doubts or hesitations.

The waiting part, that was when hopelessness had the time to set in. And that hopelessness, that was far more frightening than all that fighting combined.

At least when I was on my mission in the hospital I was on high alert. I'd escaped with but a few scratches and bruises after having encountered multiple mandalorian soldiers and even Maul himself, thanks to the dark magic Arthas had engulfed me with. The shadows had hidden me every step of the way and when they couldn't, they attacked those who spotted me. I hadn't even needed to lift a single finger.

Fighting had never been the goal of that mission. Instead, the only goal I had on my mind were the supplies I needed to retrieve.

It never even occurred to me to stay and finally end Maul when I had the advantage, when I had Arthas fully backing me up. Because back in that crooked cottage he lay and he didn't have much time left. Every second I spent away could be the second in which his heart gave out.

I returned before dawn with bags full of supplies. Thanks to the shadows hiding me I'd gotten rid of any pursuers, and instead directed them into another direction entirely. The moment I arrived I'd practically dumped everything on the table and went to him instantly, checking his vital functions before quickly attaching him to the monitors I'd brought with me.

He was alive, thank the gods, but barely.

"C'mon, Obi." I mumbled as I got an IV access and administered the broadest spectrum antibiotics I had found together with the bag of blood. My eyes flew to the screen of the monitor, noting his elevated heartbeat and temperature, lowered blood pressure and the fastened breathing. He wasn't doing well. In fact, he'd gone into a septic shock.

"Stay with me." I whimpered as I then proceeded to the surgery part of the procedure.

My hands were shaking as I pulled on the gloves. "Ly, -" Obi Wan groaned and barely managed to move his fingers. "Lyanna."

"Hey, I'm here." I darted for him, kneeling so I was at his eye level. He couldn't even find the strength to open his eyes. Instead, only soft grunts managed to fall off his lips. "I'm all right." Whispering, I gently traced the lines of his face. "I'm going to put you to sleep for a little while, okay?" A single tear ran down my cheek. "All you have to do is wake back up."

"Lyanna." He merely mumbled.

"Do that for me." I gently pressed a kiss to his heated forehead, closing my eyes and letting the remaining tears glide down my face. "Please."

He remained silent when I slowly drew back and forced my emotions behind iron bars. I administered the sedative that would put him in a deep slumber, heart tearing as I did so. I didn't want him to feel any pain, not even if it meant I wouldn't be able to hear his voice ever again. There was a chance he wouldn't wake back up and I knew it.

The procedure that followed was long and tedious. It had me glancing to the monitor every ten seconds, closely watching his vitals to make sure he wasn't going to plummet during everything.

I wasn't ready to reanimate him once again. Luckily, I didn't need to, and after 2 long hours I was seated in the chair next to his bed, my head resting on my arms that were leaning on the soft sheets I'd brought with me.

My fingertips were placed against his pulse point, monitoring his heartbeat even though the monitor was doing the exact same thing. I just... I needed to be sure. Even though I'd given him almost 5 health stims, his body was still in a dangerous condition. Those stims sped up the process of healing, 5 being more than enough to do that but even then I wasn't sure he'd survive.

Still, all I could do was wait.

"Stay with me, Obi." I whispered as tears continued to fall. "Let it be another miracle." His heartbeat thumped against my skin. "Just one more." I threaded my hand through his, locking our fingers before closing my eyes. The other gently laid down upon his bandages so that I could feel it if his wound would start bleeding again. Sleep was clawing at me after having used that much magic, after sneaking through the entire city and having been awake for far too long.

It pulled me into a black abyss after I whispered. "One more miracle."

~

My eyes fluttered open at the gentle beeping sound of the monitor. It was surveilling his heartbeat, and as I slowly shrugged off the tendrils of sleep I noticed that the rhythm had slowed down. I'd raised the volume of the alarms until I was sure that it would wake even the deepest of sleepers, but hadn't been woken during mine. I stretched my muscles, waking them up from the slumber. I blinked away the last remainders, slowly lifting my head to watch the display.

It took another few blinks until my head caught up to what it was seeing. My breath caught in my throat as I read the numbers and my arms pushed me upwards. "It can't be." I whispered disbelievingly.

Everything had returned to normal. Even his temperature was back to an acceptable height and his breathing, which was always an indicator when it came to serious conditions, had returned to a normal pace.

"How in hell, -" I sat up straight instantly as my fingers darted for the bandage around the wound, unwinding it and carefully pulling off the remaining cloths. What greeted me there was nothing short of a miracle. There was no redness, no swelling, no blood or pus, just a clean crust where the branch had penetrated his body. The way it was looking, it seemed like a week-old wound, instead of the festering mess it had been mere hours ago.

My fingers hovered above it. "By the gods, -" I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Tears of relief welled up in my eyes as my fingers traced the edges of the wound. I placed my palm against it, something that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob escaping my throat when I felt the healthy skin beneath it. "It's a miracle." I whispered, chuckling to myself.

"Yet another, princess?" A deep, musky voice suddenly asked.

My entire body tensed as I jolted, startled. "I thought you'd ran out of them." The amusement in his voice was almost tangible. My eyes quickly flew his way and met his blue ones. What I saw made every muscle in my body tense and my stomach plumet.

Obi Wan Kenobi grinned fully as he looked at me, his auburn hair tussled and messy but dry and hanging before his eyes in healthy waves. His skin had regained its rosy colour and his lips had turned a soft pink instead of the greyish blue it had been before. The dark circles beneath his eyes had evaporated and instead a lively sparkle now shone in his blue orbs. At the corners, even his wrinkles became evident as his smile broadened.

He was fully awake and I hadn't even noticed. "Obi?" The disbelief in my voice was clear.

"Obi." I mumbled, letting my fingers dart for his face where they gently ran over his cheek, needing to make sure it was all real and not a dream. They felt the softness of his skin, the cool temperature, but above all the muscles that now pulled his expression into a smile.

"Hey." A hesitant chuckle came from me as I placed my palm flat against his face. I couldn't even begin to hold back the tears as they escaped my eyes. Instead, I let them run freely as I lifted my other hand to run through his hair before placing it against his neck.

"Princess." Obi Wan smiled softly and placed his hand atop the one caressing his cheek, eyes darting between the two of mine. Then, his brows furrowed when his gaze landed on something that was visible on my forehead. "You're hurt." His gaze turned worried as he sat up without any difficulty.

There was a cut on my forehead, I then remembered, which I couldn't even feel now that I was preoccupied with something else entirely. "I - I'm hurt?" I scoffed disbelievingly, both by his phrasing and by the way he accomplished the exact thing that he couldn't even start to try hours before.

"Lyanna, -" The scolding in his voice was clear but the playful spark in his eyes softened everything. His thumb carefully traced the line of the cut as creases appeared between his frown. "are you sure this is the only one?" My hand caught his amid the process. His eyes widened as he then glanced back at me, waiting for what I was about to say.

"I'm okay, Obi, I promise, and you're, -" The words got stuck in my throat, realization finally dawning. The way he was looking at me, placing my health above his own, it reminded me of how he had been before everything. It reminded me that it was him, and that he was here.

He survived. My eyebrows lifted as the lump in my throat grew. He's alive, he's okay. Obi Wan watched the numerous emotions flicker through my eyes and mirrored them in his own. He's alive. The hold of his hand on mine tightened, squeezing, as his smile turned reassuring.

"You're okay." I sobbed, the motion tearing through my body. Tears glided down my cheeks incessantly and clouded my vision. "You're okay." It turned into a chant, until it was all that could fall off my lips, until it was a spell that was the only thing keeping reality intact. "You're okay, you're okay." Tears turned into sobs which in turn turned into full on crying. My words got jumbled with each repetition until all that I could muster out were whimpers.

"My darling, it's all right-" The moment his eyes lined with silver too he pulled me towards him and engulfed me in his arms. His fingers wove through my hair at the nape of my neck, guiding my face into the crook of his neck. "I'm okay." He whispered then, against my ear, as he drew gentle circles on my back with his free hand. "I'm okay, and I'm here." Obi Wan cradled me against his body and placed a kiss on the top of my head.

"You're okay." I whispered; words muffled by his tunic. The way he held me, the way his voice was so soft and gentle, it broke down a wall inside of me. Reduced it to ashes, in fact, until there was nothing left but an open void. Until the emotions that I'd kept locked up finally had the chance to break free, unrestrained. Until it became a wave of emotions that I could only let run its indestructible path.

"I'm sorry." I sobbed as my fingers clawed into his tunic and my face burrowed itself deeper in his neck. The smell of pine and mint greeted me, which only had me breaking apart further. "I'm so sorry, Obi Wan." My body shook with the force of the sobs.

"This is all my fault." My voice wavered with every word, with every breath I took. "I did this." I could feel the grip of his fingers tightening. "I lied, I hurt you, I almost killed you, dragged you into this mess, -"

"No, no, no, my darling." Even his voice was shaken with emotion. His arms tightened their hold on me as he lifted me into his embrace and on top of his lap. "You did nothing wrong."

"No, Obi, I made you, -" I could do nothing but burrow myself deeper into his embrace, wrapping my legs around his waist until there was nothing left separating us but our clothes.

"Lyanna, stop it." He pleaded with a wavering voice. "It was me." His fingers threaded into my hair and kept me close as even his body started to shake with sobs. "It was my fault. I let my fear get the better of me, I shut you out." Obi Wan took in a deep breath and placed his lips against my temple. "I failed you, and I am sorry." He spoke before he placed a kiss there, lingering as he forced another shaky breath into his lungs.

I sobbed into his tunic which had already gone moist with tears as my fingers clawed themselves into the fabric, eyes pressing shut. "I'm so sorry, my dearest queen." His broken voice whispered against the shell of my ear. "Please, forgive me."

My sobs lessened at the sound of his voice. "Forgive me for abandoning you, for leaving you to fight this alone. Forgive me for forcing you to run, for making you believe you were anything but perfect enough." His fingers drew through my hair and then gently pulled on the end, making me lift my face from the warmth of his neck until my eyes could gaze into his. There, I saw his wettened cheeks and the redness of his eyes.

"My Fireheart." Obi Wan whispered as he placed his forehead against mine. "Forgive me, I beg you." Both his hands lifted to engulf my face, thumbs caressing my cheeks and wiping away the tears.

My sobs had quieted down during his speech, only sniffles now interrupting the silence. I attempted a broken smile through the tears as I gazed into his eyes. "Do you forgive me for lying to you?" My voice was dripping with guilt. Even after everything, I knew that he wasn't the only one at fault. "For hiding the truth about Maul?"

"That, and everything else I made you do." Obi Wan vowed as he slowly drew closer, our breaths mingling between us. His fingers caught the last tears as they fell. "Even for going out on your own, even if I still want to throttle you for it."

The playfulness in his voice had my chuckling softly through the lump in my throat, which seemed to disappear quicker every second. "Good." I let my thumb trace the lines of his cheekbone until they landed on the corner of his mouth. "Then I will forgive you, on one condition."

Obi Wan chuckled softly as his eyes narrowed, but adoration remained clear in his eyes, even as the last tears escaped them. "Everything you want, my princess, say the word and it's yours."

A soft scoff escaped my lips, knowing that I'd made the same vow for him. My heart tore at the thought, yet at the same time I knew I had made the right decision. Even if the consequences of that action would haunt me later.

I took in a deep breath to get rid of those thoughts. "Never shut me out like that again." I willed my voice into a stern command. Obi Wan stilled as his looked at me, trying to read my eyes. "Promise me that every decision we'll make, we'll make it together." I asked, drawing back slightly so I could see his eyes better. "From now on, we'll do it all together. No more secrets, no more hiding. Just us, against everything else."

Obi Wan let out a deep breath as his gaze softened and his mouth pulled into a smile. He nodded as he let his thumb run over my cheek. "I promise, my queen." He let out that breath, exhaling deeply and letting his shoulders relax. "I promise."

"Good." I grinned, feeling an enormous weight lifting off my shoulder. "That's..." My forehead lowered to his as my fingers gently drew through his hair until they rested on his shoulder. "That's good."

Obi Wan smiled at me in response. "So?" His thumb pressed underneath my jaw, making me look at him again but this time a few inches closer. Instantly my heart started beating harder until I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks.

"So, what?" I said breathlessly, getting caught into the oceans that were his eyes now that the fog before mine had disappeared.

"I would like to hear you say it, my darling." He chuckled as his gaze lowered.

My stomach plummeted and goosebumps appeared on my skin. "I..." I had to think for a few moments to realize what he meant. "I forgive you."

At that he let out a deep breath in relief and closed his eyes, letting the words sink in. As he slowly opened them halfway he inched closer until only the slightest movement would put his lips against mine.

"Just to be clear, that includes a lot of things." My anxiety got the better of me as I inched back, words tumbling off my lips before I could stop them. "No more telling me to go, no more hiding me away, no more sending me to distant medical stations. And don't you even dare to protect me again by blasting me away, or breaking a damned cliff and plummeting to your own possible death, -"

Before I could continue my rant he darted forward and placed his lips against mine, smothering any further form of protest. My heart seemed to stop beating all together as my muscles tensed and my eyes widened but when he deepened the kiss and let his tongue slide gently over my bottom lip my body shivered and soon sank into his embrace.

The moment his tongue entered my mouth I basically became puddy in his arms. My arms wrapped around his shoulders as I inched closer, pressing our bodies against each other until I could feel his heartbeat thudding against my chest. His hand snaked up my back and pressed between my shoulder blades while the other threaded itself through my hair, keeping me as close as possible.

Warmth spread through my entire body. Even the air around us seemed to reverberate with a certain force, a gentle humming that I felt resonate through me. It soothed every ache I felt, healed every scar printed on my skin.

Another thought occurred to me then. It had me gripping his shoulders and pushing him away, making him look at me incredulously as if I had woken him up from a daze. "And definitely no more dying, okay?!"

Obi Wan blurted out a laugh as his hands descended to my waist. "Now that is something I can't promise you, my queen." He lifted one amused eyebrow. At the same time, my mind had already turned away from the subject as my eyes darted down to his already swollen lips. "No matter how much I would like to, -"

This time I interrupted him but he had no trouble accepting it. Instead, a soft groan tumbled off his lips as he opened his mouth gratefully to me and let me take the reins. His fingers dug into my hips as he scooted me further up his lap, while the others went underneath my tunic to the bare skin of my back. My own fingers were either running through his beard or clawing at his tunic, I didn't even know anymore. The truth is that I could only feel him, living and breathing underneath me, his warm breath fanning over my skin and his lips engulfing mine.

It was pure heaven. My entire filled with both relief and happiness until all darkness was driven away, and only peace remained.

Even when he inched back I felt it warming me. "Lyanna." He whispered against my lips before placing another few pecks there. "Darling, I need to know something."

Frowning, I let him push me a few more inches away so that our gazes could meet. He let his hand come between us and laid it down on the left side of my chest while his eyebrows folded into a frown. "Can you show me?" His eyes darted back to mine as worry filled them.

"I..." My heart filled with anxiety. "Okay." I nodded and slowly, carefully lowered my hands until they could grasp the bottom of my shirt. Then, I pulled it over my head.

Even though I saw his own eyes inching towards the scar I was reluctant to look myself, for the black imprints had always scared me. Especially now that they ran all the way to my left arm, encompassing almost every patch of skin and leaving nothing untouched of its corruption.

"How bad is it?" I remained focussed on his eyes as they scanned the area.

A smile appeared on his lips as he looked back at me. "See for yourself, love." He laid his hands back on my waist and squeezed reassuringly until I had gathered the courage to do as he said.

My gaze lowered to my chest, to the skin where my heart lay underneath, fearing to see that black void appearing through the flesh. Only, a small scar remained, one that was but a fourth of the size it had been before. It didn't even reach my collar bone, and the darkness wasn't pulsing as before. Instead, it almost seemed dormant, growing smaller still with each breath I took.

"H - How, -" I stuttered. "How is this possible?"

Obi Wan chuckled, relieved, and lifted my jaw in his direction with the tip of his index finger. The smile on his face broadened to the point his cheeks must've hurt.

When he spoke, his voice was low and deep, filled with relief and adoration. "As I said, miracles."

Soooo...

Any cryers? Any tears? Happy tears, at the least?

Let me know ;) I'm very curious what you guys thought of this one.