The sob caught in her throat as she settled on the idea that he was here and he was very much alive and for the time being he was safe with her. All she needed right now was that reassurance that he was okay. Watching as he leaned back, leaning into his touch as he brushed her hair from her face and said those three little words once more and her breath caught in her throat as he did. She had never been that great at words and she so leaned forward capturing his lips, hoping to convey everything she was feeling in that moment. When she finally needed air she pulled away. Her forehead rested against his as she breathed out a breathy sigh of relief. “I love you too.” She said with a small chuckle and for a moment it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off her shoulders and for a moment she knew exactly what it was like to have someone love her, no strings attached, no poor intentions. “I’m so happy you’re okay.” She confessed. “When I couldn’t reach you, I started to panic and I’m pretty sure Scarlett was on the verge of killing me when I kept calling you and I thought…” She didn’t finish that statement. “I love you.” She said it again and it felt good to do it.
He would be lying if he said that his heart didn't leap when she repeated those words back to him, and he felt some of the tension bleed out of him. Subconsciously, there was a part of him that had worried. He hadn't been sure that she saw what they were the same way that he did, and he hadn't been sure that she was ready to hear the words - the idea that it was too soon had crossed his mind, but the overwhelming urge to say them before something happened that kept him from ever being able to express how he felt had won out. “She was. She bitched the whole way back about it.” He said the words with an exhausted chuckle, but he knew that Scarlett had been concerned, as much as she expressed it by tearing them all a new one the entire way back from New York. “It's good you did that, though. She got there at the right time, she got all of us out of there.” As much as he owed Scarlett his life, he in part owed it to the blonde in front of him. “It feels good to hear it. I - you mean everything to me, Is. I sure as hell didn't expect it, but I’m glad as hell for it.”