A little too late-
danny-riggsh:
His heart stopped as soon as Clea grabbed his hand. It could’ve been just a touch and it would’ve had the same effect, but she kept her hand on his and it was like drowning and breathing, all at the same time. He quirked an eyebrow at her response, considering to leave in that moment as he was planning on a few seconds ago, but her touch, her soft hand… it was so distracting, she apologized before he could do something about it. Defeated Daniel fell back on the chair, pinching the bridge of his nose as he listened to Clea speaking. It felt like a revelation for her, he could tell, but Danny had a notion of all she was saying already. He had played with the ideas over and over again and had even helped him to sleep whenever he started thinking about Clea late at night. The girl who loved everyone, and he would played with the thought of her not loving him. It made it easier, though more painful.
Frustrated, he let out a soft scoff. “They’re dead, Clea,” Danny whispered knowing it would only twist the knife in the girl’s chest, but he didn’t know how to word it differently. “You’re not helping yourself like this. You need to find help because I don’t know what to do. You can’t keep doing this, obsessing over them like this-” Daniel bit his lip. He was speaking honestly, from his heart, legitimately worried about the girl, like he always would be no matter what.
“So what? You decided to walk away before anything bad could happen? There’s nothing different, Clea. And you were doing it so good,” he said, mostly for himself out of his own frustration. “The only difference I can see is the fact that I actually loved you unlike the rest. I loved everything right and wrong about you, but you wouldn’t let me… As if you were… afraid of me loving you or afraid of me, which now I would understand. I’m- just… stop saying sorry, alright? It’s been said too much and I don’t even know if it has a meaning anymore.” Daniel paused for just a second. “I just don’t know what to do. We keep going in circles, and you’re not getting over them, and I’m not getting over you. You know what I want, so please just tell me what you want.”
Clea stood silently before Danny, it was harder than she could have imagined, and yet she stood her ground counting the breaths he drew in while her own faltered with every passing minute. Choking on his words Clea felt them land hard against her chest and settle like bile in her abdomen, it was only the truth, and she had a hard time dealing with it. Closing her fingers into a small fist Clea gave a curt nod of her head and fought to keep her voice steady as she spoke. “I know they are.” Pausing she kept her gaze down, “And it’s my fault they’’re both gone.” Swatting at tears she wouldn’t dare let fall Clea nodded, she knew she needed help, but letting go had never been easy.
Tucking her lip between teeth she nodded, of course, she had to go before he could get hurt. “everyone I love gets hurt...Not just Adam and Marcus, but my father and Elena-" Frustrated Clea groaned, "She was in the hospital because of me...Evie had always been right, I hurt people and I couldn't live if I had hurt you too." Suddenly his words struck her like electricity she jolted her head up and shook it, “No. I’m no afraid of you because of that night. I’m afraid of you because I actually love you, I actually can lose something real if I ever lost you.”
Clea’s face drew into an unreadable line as she looked down at spilled salt across the table. “I want to leave this place...” She spoke gently, “I want to leave with you.”








