Choking. Salt and water, lungs screaming for air.

Heavy. Pounding. Splitting scream in her legs. The wail of broken bones.

Choking.

Flashes in and out. The cold rush of wind. Muted voices clashing around her. Touching. Pulling.

A sharp pinch. And it's black.

All black.

Beep. Beep. Beep...

Eva opened her eyes. Winced against the glare of fluorescent. And with the waking came the growing rush of feeling. Everywhere hurt. Right down to her fucking eye lashes.

The weight of them when she blinked was brutal. Turning her head was a study in hell, but she managed in slow, halting increments. Marshall was slumped at her side, head resting by her arm, his hand on hers. Lottie lay curled up in a chair by her the hospital bed, knitting needles clicking with furious movements.

Lottie only knitted when her nerves were shot.

Eva opened her mouth, tried to make a sound but it came out as a wheeze. Marshall's head shot up, those needles stopped clacking.

"She's awake. Eva!" Crushing her hand in his, Marshall kissed her palm, eyes watering with relief. "Baby, I'm here. Can you talk?" Beyond them, Lottie rose, rushing out of the room with cries of 'she's awake'.

"Yes." Though the croak was dry as dust. "Hail?"

"Fine. She's fine." He stroked a hand over her head, unable to stop touching her. "A few stitches to close the cut, but she's okay. Mom and Jenelle are taking rotations with the girls. We thought it wasn't a good idea for them to come to the hospital and...God dammit, Eva, what the hell were you thinking?"

Eva tried to shrug but the pain that greeted her made her rethink moving just about anything. "Had to. My girls. My responsibility."

Marshall bit down hard on his lip, shook his head. "You scared the life out of me. When I saw you go over..."

He brought a cup of water to her lips and Eva swallowed, desperately trying to moisten her throat. "Dead?" she asked.

He nodded, expression grave. "Took three hours to find the body, pull him out. Paramedics say he was pinned beneath you when you took the fall, hit the rocks and buffered you from the worst of it."

Marshall swept his eyes over her, his heart lurching back into his throat. She was mess of black and blue, but aside from a broken leg, bruised ribs and ruptured eye socket, the doctors assured him that it looks far worse than it is.

A childhood spent diving from those cliffs meant he knew how to enter the water safely, but the waves had been strong last night, choppy and dangerous making the rescue a two man job. She had barely been conscious when he and Ethan had dragged her out of the water. The undertow had dragged the killer below, shredding him over the rocks like cheese through a grater.

"You saved me," Eva said, a look in her eyes that said she was only now gaining clarity of preceding events.

"What I did pales in comparison to your own foolish act of bravery," he said, smiling through tears. "Don't ever scare me like that again, or so help me I'll strangle you."

"Careful, I'd hate to have to arrest the hero of the hour for making idle threats." Jerry stood in the doorway, wearing a dark coat with FBI emblazoned on the front in bold, white letters. His teasing smile faded as his gaze fell on Eva. "Can ya give us a sec, boy-o? We've got some discussing to do. Private-like."

Marshall stiffened at Eva's side and she looked up at him to see the muscle in his jaw ticking with temper.

"No." Marshall's grip on her hand tightened, and though her fingers protested, Eva would sooner they drop off then to ask him to let go. "Only way I'm moving is if she asks me to."

For a moment Eva thought perhaps Jerry might press the matter, throw his weight and authority around a bit, but after a quick shift of his eyes from Marshall to Eva, he nodded through a muttering grumble. And what she thought might be the hint of an approving smile.

"Wanted to say sorry it had to come to this. Wanted ya to hear it first from me, 'fore anyone else." Stopping by the end of her bed, Jerry clasped large hands behind him. "As you can see," he nodded down to the letters on his jacket, "we've been working with the FBI on this case. Feds call the man who attacked you the 'Guarantor' as he always guarantees he gets his man...ehm...woman, in this case. Don't have a name to go on, man's always been a ghost. At least a hundred aliases that we know of, and twice that in marks. He's ruthless S.O.B. Efficient. And doesn't have much in the way of a conscience."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked hating that she was too weak to have this conversation in any other position but prostrate.

"Orders came from above." Jerry rolled grudging eyes to the door where Eva imagined a team of police were gathered. "Had to keep you out of the loop, kiddo. Only way to get him out in the open. Your little media stunt helped, matter of fact," he nodded at Marshall. "Splashing those articles about gave us an opportunity."

"You leaked to Catherine Clear. Set Eva up. Almost got her killed," Marshall snapped. Jerry's features fell and he at least had the sense to appear ashamed.

"That we did, kiddo. I'm sorry. The flowers are the Guarantor's calling card, you see? I knew he was prowling, but we had to give him a nudge. Cases like this can draw out and the manpower we hauled to the island was burning a hole in the budget faster then we could allow. Tossing Clear at you, forcing you to rabbit meant he would have to move on ya quick-like."

"I should have been warned."

"I'm sorry, kiddo. Wish there could've been another way. But now DA has leverage to force the courts to prosecute. Kincaid will go down for life. A few more months and its over."

"Good. And when it is over I want out, Jerry. Me and my girls. And I never want to see your face again."

Jerry jerked back, struck by her statement, but he nodded. Shoulders hunched. "Fair enough. Can't say it'll be overnight, but I'll pull the strings and get 'er done. Have my word on it."

Slinking out the door, Jerry was gone, leaving Marshall and Eva alone in the quiet hospital room.

#

Over the next few days Marshall never left her side, not even when the hospital staff politely--and then not so politely--asked him to leave. Because she was a hideous mess of black and blue bruising, Eva decided to postpone seeing the girls, though she called in to speak with them every single day, it was tough to be apart from them for so long.

After the better part of a week, when Eva finally felt strong enough to manage getting out of the bed to sit in a chair, her broken leg wrapped in a thick cast and propped on a stool for elevation, did she tell Lottie it was time.

"Momma!" Lucy burst into the room first, arms out stretched. Eva caught her in a hug-bruising be damned, and held on tight. Releasing only long enough so she could take hold of each of her girls.

"Oh, my babies. My girls."

"Mommy," Payton whispered, brushing away tears from Eva's cheeks. "Does it hurt?"

Eva looked down to her leg, smiled. "Not really. The hospital is taking great care of me."

"Mom. I'm so sorry," Hailey said, teeth worrying her lower lip, tears welling in her eyes. A bandage wrapped in gauze circled her neck, protecting her stitches. "I've been stupid and mean and I didn't mean it when I said I hated you and--"

Eva quelled her words with another hug. Kissed her cheek.

"It's okay, baby. It's all going to be okay. I promise you."

"I made you a picture." Lucy announced, running back to Lottie who stood, weepy in the doorway, and raced back with a large white page splattered in an abundance of colour and shapes and glitter.

With her family around her, Eva listened as Lucy told wild stories and Payton showed her the trophy her team won during the final game of the season and Hailey revealed that even though she couldn't act in the play, Mrs. Singh let her volunteer as Assistant Director back stage which, apparently, was way cooler then she thought.

Lottie showed Eva photos of everything she'd missed, including a little video of Hailey in action, working behind the scenes, her face alight with wonder and triumph.

"Marshall," Lucy tugged on his hand, swung it between them, "are you gonna ask her yet?"

"I don't know, Gummy Bear," he replied in a stage whisper, "you think now is a good time?"

Lucy nodded vigorously. Both Payton and Hailey exchanged smirking glances.

Eva looked between them, utterly confused. "Ask me what?"

Lucy scampered back to her, bounced on her feet. "Marshall has a really special, really important question he wants to ask you. I know cause he asked us first and gave us these."

Lucy stuck a hand under the collar of her shirt and pulled out a necklace she'd failed to notice and only now realized both Payton and Hailey also had thin, glisten cold chains barely visible, around their necks.

"We each have one." She dangled a little heart pendant fashioned of pale gold. He said this means we're special and he loves us." Eva's gaze flickered from that little piece of jewelry over to Marshall who was already on bended knee at her side, a glimmer in his eyes that was all joy and laughter and love.

"Okay, I think I'll take over from here." He winked at Lucy, and then reached for Eva's trembling hand.

"I've thought about how to do this a million different ways. How to ask you, when to ask you, and every time I come up short because there isn't anything big enough, grand enough, to encompass just how much I love you, Eva. How much I love these girls. I know you're thinking I'm leaping into this, propelled by drastic events, but I'm not." His fingers tightened on her hand, he shifted closer on his knee and swallowed a mass of nerves.

"Marshall," his name seeped out of her in a hoarse whisper. "I don't think you know what you're about to take on. We're a handful, at best."

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm good with my hands," he countered, and the devious, suggestive sparkle in his eyes made her smile. "I told the girls that no matter what your answer, I will always be there for them, if you'll let me. That what those necklaces represent. My vow, my promise to them. And now I'm making mine to you. I've got nothing to give you except this," he said, sweeping a hand between them.

"Me. All of me. Every breath and bone, every hope and prayer. I'll stand for you Eva. I'll love you. Today. Tomorrow. Always. Sometimes we'll drive each other crazy, and it won't always be easy. You're complicated, I'm a mess."

Eva laughed though tears and Marshall reached for the tissue box his mom offered-half-finished as she clutched a wad to mop up her own tears, and set it on Eva's lap, re-gathered her hands.

"But together--we're perfect in our imperfections. There's no one else I would rather share all of this with than you. Marry me, Eva."

Beyond them, Lucy bounded and squealed, chanting, "Yes, Momma! Yes, Momma. Yes!"

Eva looked to her girls, to their bright, incandescently happy faces, to those gorgeous little tokens dangling around their necks. A vow, he'd called it. A promise made and shared between them. Her gaze fell on Hailey last and had never seen her daughter look so...happy. Marshall brought that to their lives. A piece she'd never known was missing.

And no matter what, she knew that he would take them. He would stand for them. Always.

Eva released a slow, calming breath.

"You and I," she said. "We shouldn't work. I never expected to love you. To need you. But I do. I can't say I'll make things simple, I have my moods and quirks-I'm still figuring out who I am in all of this chaos. I want to find myself with you. Grow with you. I love you. My answer is yes."

Eyes glimmering Marshall laughed, gathered her in his arms, his embrace fierce and warm and strong, but gentle. Tender.

"I don't have a ring," he said. "That is...I wanted to wait, so we could find one together."

"I don't need a ring," she said between kisses. "Just this. Just you."

Finally. At long last, Eva had found her Haven. She was home.