Bad things happen at night. It’s a universal enough idea everyone is aware of. Day is good, night is bad. As much as she could detest because so many have associated her with so much bad, Veronica agrees.
She doesn’t remember the elevator being this slow. For the most modern building in town you’d think it would have something to show for it. She checks her phone. It’s been three minutes since she opened his message.
She can’t help but wonder if more has happened in the time it’s taking him to get to the penthouse floor.
When her bedroom door opens, because he has a key, because what’s left of this apartment she doesn’t want to be alone with, she practically grabs him.
He’s shaking, and cold, and it’s not the first time it’s happened. It’s not the first time he’s called her out of breath and crying when the sun is down.
And at night, when he’s been up for hours because he can’t sleep, he runs. Because the things that haunt him scream in his mind. Abandoned, taken advantage of, framed, beaten. He pushes everything down, it’s something about him she despises. And it all seems to be forcing itself to the surface more and more often lately, especially since Fred died.
“Ronnie…” Archie sobs, and she feels it. She knows how much pain he’s in, and it’s not fair. It’s not fair this is happening to him. He didn’t do anything, this isn’t something that should happen to people like him. But like balance, bad people get off, and good people sink.
In their relationship, it’s one of the only things she’s felt truly confident in; comforting him after getting hurt. She knows what it is to be damaged and stained. The difference is hers was earned, his wasn't.
“I’m here,” she whispers. “I’ve got you.”
He should be hot, for the distance he sprinted to get here, but he’s shivering. Because it’s winter and she wants to be mad at him for not calling and letting her drive to him but she just pulls him under the covers of her bed.
She blames herself. When she met him, when she fell in love with him, he was just a boy. He was so innocent, and he didn’t know what he was getting into by falling in love with her. And she thinks back to a year ago, when he ‘returned’, scarred and drunk. Covered in bruises, emotional and physical. Tape and glue holding his broken pieces in place.
So different from the boy with the strawberry milkshake and curious smile she first met.
And that change is her fault.
“Don’t go. You can’t go too, okay? You-”
“Shh, Archie, I”m not going anywhere.”
His face becomes more deeply buried in her neck. “Do you hear me? I’m not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere.”
Growing up an only child, all his grandparents dead, his mom gone, his dad absent now dead. She’s too much to blame already, and over her dead body is she going to be the next to join that list. As long as she’s breathing he’s not going to be alone.
The way he’s holding onto her breaks her heart, and she makes sure to focus on her breath, so his will steady.
It makes her smile, as sad as the situation is. It’s one of the coping tools she learned about forever ago, that she’s been using to calm him down when he has these attacks, and it seems to work the best too.
“After graduation, when we move to the city, we’ll get an apartment together. Just me and you,” she starts, playing with the ends of his hair. “And I’m gonna go to school, and get my business degree. And you’re gonna study music, or get a business degree of your own, or whatever you decide you want to do.”
She notices how she holds onto him tighter too, if possible, at the sound of her own words.
It’s something they’ve talked about for years, since she told him she loved him. The hypothetical that they hoped wasn’t really a hypothetical. Escaping her crazy family that was holding her back and the town that was too small for his dreams.
“And we’re gonna get out of here, and start our life together.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Veronica smiles at the sight of her favorite person as he dashes from the sliding door to the outdoor couch on their terrace where she’s seated, attempting to escape as much cold as possible. It’s that period between spring and summer where it’s just so nice outside, but that doesn’t mean deep into the night the New York City winds don’t send bone chilling shivers down your spine.
He lets out a breath as she makes room for him under the thick blanket, “I was worried when I woke up and I didn’t have my personal weighted blanket on me,” Archie chuckles at the way she rolls her eyes, loving to tease her whenever he can. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just couldn’t sleep. Thought the air could help.”
“Oh good. For a second I thought I had a runaway bride on my hands. Not having any regrets already, are you? After all you did have some time to think about it-”
She elbows him for that, laughing nonetheless and letting herself be pulled onto his lap so he can kiss her cheek in apology. That’s another one of his favorite jokes to make, how he tried to propose multiple times but she wouldn’t let him actually get the question out until she finished grad school. Once she did, it took no time at all for them to tie the knot, because even though they hadn’t been officially engaged, it was a wedding that’s been in the works for years.
“Not a chance, Archiekins. You’re stuck with me,” Veronica’s left hand comes to rest on his chest, wedding ring over his heart. He kisses her and it all just feels so complete.
She remembers when he was paying her late night visits sort of like this one, but not the pleasant kind at all. After high school he started therapy, to deal with the trauma of all that he’s been through. Since then the nightmares and panic attacks have stopped, he’s a lot stronger and better equipped to deal with it all now too. And she’s just so proud of him.
She’ll never stop feeling guilty for the baggage that came with him getting involved with her, but as she got older she started accepting not all of it is her fault. That even if it sounds selfish, all the bad they both went through brought so much good too, because they made it. And they’re here, together .
“Lucky me,” he mumbles against her mouth, and she giggles through his kisses. “I love you, Ronnie.”
That makes her smile, and she kisses his cheek, then again on his neck, “I love you too.”
Archie kisses her hairline, and holds her for a while, whispering softly how much she means to him.
At some point she drifts off and when she wakes again, the sun is up, and she’s back in her bed with her husband sound asleep beside her. And just the sight; him safe and together, holding her so close in their bed in their apartment. It’s everything.
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