"Are you okay?" I kept repeating after Theodore had left. Harry was visibly upset by having a gun pointed into his neck; anyone would be. And hell, even a few hours later, my heart was still thumping. "Don't worry, baby. We're gonna get out of this. I promise." I stroked his face and kissed his forehead over and over again.

"I kn...know," he stuttered. "I know. I know." He repeated it as if he was trying to convince himself.

"Are you really okay?" I asked again. We were lying together on my bed, face to face, holding each other. I tipped his chin up to look at me and his eyes told me the truth. There was strength that he couldn't verbalize but I knew he'd be okay. "That scared me more than when he forced you to take all those pills," I said, feeling a lump rise in my throat. "I'm so glad you're okay." I placed both hands on his cheeks and kissed him, lovingly, longingly, thoroughly.

"I'm glad you're okay, too," he sighed, finally retreating from our lengthy kiss.

We curled up together under the blankets in my bed and laid there for the longest time, refusing to let go and sleep finally found us in the middle of the afternoon.

Stress does something to a person. It robs you of every resource you have and leaves you with only what you absolutely need to survive but you don't even know you have that much until you absolutely need to use it. I knew stress in college, meeting assignment deadlines, pushing myself to succeed, trying to impress my professors and the teachers I worked with.

It was nothing like this. I could honestly say I've never had my life threatened before. And I've never been responsible for someone else's life either. It was all Harry or I could do to stay focused and not lose sight of trying to get free. The only comfort we had was each other and the occasional break from reality that came in the form of sleep. And sleep was what we needed to recover from the trauma of the past weeks.

And to help us to prepare for what was to come.

I woke up some time later to Harry nuzzling my cheek and kissing my temple. Honestly, it was the best diversion so as to not think about what had happened just a few hours earlier. As soon as he knew I was awake, he dove in to kiss me, urgently, like an infant demanding to be fed. I crawled over his hips, sinking down against him. We frantically reconnected, clumsily knocking against each other and giggling awkwardly but not letting it slow down our momentum. Gradually, I pulled away from his mouth and kissed down his jaw to his neck, sucking at the skin and leaving small nips, all the while grinding my hips down on him.

I could feel his chest against mine, rapidly inflating and deflating as his breathing became erratic. My name bubbled from his throat more than once, more of a whine than an utterance. "How does this feel so good?" He mumbled.

"It's supposed to," I panted and sat up slightly to look at his face, never losing my rhythm. He pulled me down to his mouth and tilted my head to the side, giving me the same treatment. "Harry," I breathed. "I love it."

As I pushed against him harder, our clothing barely getting in the way, his breath began to catch in his throat in short, staccato sobs. I grasped one of his hands and placed it over my breast, helping him to squeeze and knead at it, ushering us both to an explosive end.

I slumped against his chest, tucking my arms under his shoulders and he kissed the top of my head. As our breathing slowed and gradually returned to normal, I sat up and said, completely straight-faced, "That was not in my lesson plans for you."

His eyes widened in surprise and he barked out a loud obnoxious yet amusing laugh that I'd never heard before. Then we both dissolved in a fit of laughter and fell over onto the bed.

"It just seems a little...strange," I giggled. "At first I thought you were seven, then seventeen and mentally challenged. But now we're practically having sex. I'm such a bad nanny."

Again, he cackled loudly, holding his gut. "Oh my god," he said gasping for air. "You're so weird."

"I know," I practically snorted. "But seriously," I said, calming my laughter, "I want to know for sure that you are one hundred percent on board with this kind of thing. You know I'd never take advantage of you or do anything to hurt you."

"I know," he smiled, stroking my hair. "I can honestly say I have no problem with what we just did. But...I should probably change my clothes."

Now it was my turn to laugh out loud, but then I continued. "You would tell me if I ever, ever made you uncomfortable, right?" I urged. "Because I want us to be equals. I don't want to be the one making all the decisions for us. It's been kind of a challenge because when I first arrived, that's what I was doing, making decisions based on what I thought was best for you. And now, sometimes I think I still do that but I want you to tell me if you feel like I'm not including you in something."

"Okay, I will," he said, smiling warmly. "And Jules?" He added.

"Mhmm?"

"I can't wait til we can have sex."

His words shot straight to the center of my body, reminding me of the reason we weren't free to just do as we pleased. I was grateful for the distraction but the memory of Harry being held at gunpoint came rushing back, in addition to the sounds of my parents' voices.

"Me, too," I said, placing a tender kiss to his lips, trying to force the memory out of my mind again. I got up and went to the kitchen to get some water and found that Theodore had indeed brought another round of medications. He was unpredictable, that's for sure, probably one of his mind games. I got some water for Harry, too and brought the pills back to my room. He came back from changing his clothes and I opened the pill box on my bed. 

"My medications?" He asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "I was thinking that we should try to keep your doses small, like maybe keep cutting the pills in half and save up whatever we can, just in case he does something like this again. And we should pack some in our backpacks, too. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a plan," he agreed. "Do you know which ones are which?"

"Believe me, I've studied these things so many times, I'd know them in my sleep," I said. "Or if you want to, we could keep weaning you off them until you don't need them at all, since you've already gone through a good bit of the withdrawal."

"But what if...what if there is something wrong with me?"

"I honestly don't think there is, besides maybe the asthma. But it's up to you. It might be wise to just wait to see a real doctor before you stop taking anything completely. I just don't know for sure. I wish you could remember and I wish Theodore had told me the truth."

"I know," he said, casting his eyes down at his lap.

"Harry, it's not your fault that you don't remember things," I said. "Theodore did this to you. I don't blame you at all, so I hope you don't think that I do."

"Okay," he said, cheering up a bit.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want to keep taking the small doses. And I like your idea of saving the extras because we might need them. And taking some with us."

"Good plan," I agreed. I brought the pills back to the kitchen and split the necessary ones in half and divided things into smaller doses. I couldn't really care less now if Theodore saw me or not. I flushed the unwanted ones this time so he couldn't force Harry to take them. And I stored the extras in our backpacks.

When I had done that, Harry was still lying in my room. "Are you hungry?" I asked.

"Not really," he murmured, staring at the ceiling. He looked preoccupied, deep in thought maybe.

"What's on your mind?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's just...sometimes I still feel stupid."

I was shocked. "What? How is that possible?"

He looked at me sadly. "It's just...look at you. You know so much about everything, about laws and medicines and...everything. I just feel like I still don't know that much."

"Not knowing is not the same thing as stupidity," I challenged him. "I went to high school and college and experienced a lot of life. You haven't had that opportunity yet, but I'm going to make sure you get it. And you're going to learn things very easily, I just know it."

"Thanks," he said, still sounding a bit forlorn.

"You're welcome, Harry," I answered. "Now we should eat at least a little bit and then get some more sleep. We have a lot of thinking to do if we're going to get the hell out of here."

* * * * *

Thanks so much, you guys! I know that last chapter was intense so I tried to make this one a little happy :)