Touch Me In The Morning

[Louise_2983]

Story Title: Touch Me In The Morning

Type of story: Oneshot

Main Characters: Aden and Belle

Mentioned: Angelo, Lara (OC)

BTTB rating: G

Genre: Angst

Does story include spoilers: No

Any warnings: Sexual content implied

Summary: Belle and Aden never reunited after the hostage situation. A year later she left Summer Bay supposedly for good. When she returns 9 years later emotions run high.

All song lyrics are in bold and taken from Touch Me In the Morning by Diana Ross.

"Touch me in the morning, then just walk away, we don’t have tomorrow, but we had yesterday"

"Belle you can’t leave like this" he pleaded the pain in his eyes cutting into her like the sharpest of knives as they penetrated her soul.

"I have to" she sighed in a vain attempt to convince both of them that she was doing the right thing. In reality they both knew the truth, she was running away, but as long as she pretended it was right she could soothe her mind with the lies she so desperately wanted to believe.

"I’m not going to let you walk away from me again" he informed her assertively daring to edge just a little bit closer to her tiny frame. He’s not stupid she thought, he knew that the closer he was the weaker her resolve would become, but she wasn't going to let him win, not this time.

"Don’t Aden please" she pleaded, salty tears welling up in her eyes.

"Don’t what?" he inquired, moving closer yet again, this time lifting his hand to tenderly wipe away the tears that were now freely flowing down her cheeks.

"You know what" she snapped knocking his hand away and stepping backwards.

“Belle" he sighed.

"Go back to your wife Aden".

"Is that what you really want?" he asked accusingly.

"It’s not about what I want Aden, it’s about making things right again"

"Right? Right?" he almost bellowed, the sudden increase in his volume startling her so she backed away even more. "Belle how can this not be right? I love you"

"Don’t say that"

"Why not? It’s true"

"It’s taken you ten years to tell me that and you choose now to do it"

"If I don’t you’re going to walk out of that door"

"I’m going to walk out of that door anyway, at least then it’s just the two of us who get hurt. And don’t pretend you don’t care because you wouldn’t have married her if you didn’t"

"I care about her but with you it’s just so, so …"

"Safe? Familiar?"

"Right. It’s all so right" he conceded.

"I shouldn’t have come back"

"But you did and don’t pretend it was for some stupid conference, we both know you want this as much as I do"

"OK I admit it, I came back to find you, but I didn’t"

"What?"

"You’re not the Aden I used to know anymore. You’re married, you’re different. Things change Aden, we can’t go back, no matter how much we want to"

"We can try Belle, please, this past week has been the most perfect seven days of my life and I’m going to tell Lara as soon as she gets back that it’s over".

"No!, No Aden, don’t throw everything you’ve got away."

"I don’t want what I’ve got, I want you"

"We always want what we can’t have Aden. But you’re going to have to do what the rest of us mere mortals do and make the most of what you’ve got" she replied gently, leaning forward to place one

last tender kiss on his cheek before turning to leave.

"Wasn’t it me who said that nothing good going to last forever, wasn’t it me who said let’s just be glad for the time together, it must have been hard to tell me that you’d given all you had to give, I can understand your feeling that way everybody’s got their life to live"

"Don’t you dare walk away from me again" he pleaded as he watched her get closer and closer to the door.

"Please Belle". No response.

"If you leave now, It’ll kill me" he admitted, finally laying all his cards out on the table as she walked out of the door and out of life forever. Kill him? Kill him? she thought as she fumbled for her car keys, her vision blurred by the tears streaming down her now crimson face what did he think this was doing to her?. At least he had a wife to go home to, what did she have? A freezer full of microwave meals for one and the cast of Gossip Girl to keep her company. The closest she ever had to male company these days was Chuck flippin Bass.

Finally locating her keys, tucked away in the bottom of her bag she pulled them out and inserted the correct one into the lock. But just as she was about to turn a strong hand clasped hers, not tightly enough to hurt but enough to restrict movement. His other hand slowly slid up to her waist as he buried his head in her shoulder, kissing her neck and hair tenderly.

"Please Aden don’t make this harder than it already is"

"I don’t think that’s possible Belle, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do" he whispered .

"Then let me go and it’ll be over" she replied through the tears as he gently turned her towards her and wrapped his strong arms tightly around her. Defeated she buried her head in his shoulder,

breathing in his familiar scent, this was where she belonged, in his arms, but she knew it couldn’t go on.

"Ad-" she began but he gently placed his index finger on her lips silencing her.

"Stay please, just for tonight. Leave in the morning if you have to, but not yet" he pleaded before cupping his hand under her chin and placing the lightest of kisses on her lips. That was it all it took.

"OK" she replied defeated, knowing that in the morning leaving would be just as hard, if not worse. "But just tonight."

"Well I can say goodbye in the cold morning light but I cant watch love die in the warmth of the night, if I’ve got to be strong don’t you know I need to have tonight when you’re gone. Till your gone, I need to lie here and think about the last time that you . . . touched me in the morning, then just close the door, leave me as you found me, empty like before."

"You should get that" she nodded towards the ringing phone "It might be-"

"I don’t want to think about her tonight" he interrupted pulling her into his arms, "Tonight is all about us"

"There is no us" she replied determined that she would leave, she wouldn’t let him change her mind.

"There is for tonight". And for always he thought. He’d persuaded her to say, he knew it.

"Can we just pretend that I’m 19 again and we have our whole lives to put right, to live the right way this time"

I wouldn’t do anything differently"

"You wouldn’t?" she replied shocked.

"No, because everything I ever did wrong was worth it if it means I get to be here with you tonight" he replied before pulling her into his arms.

"Well I’d do things differently"

"Yeah?"

"I wouldn’t choose Angelo over you, I would have been there for you at your trial, I would have visited you in prison whenyou asked me to and I wouldn’t turn away again when you tried to kiss me in the barn before my none wedding” she laughed softly as she remembered how close she had come to marrying Angelo. That would have been a disaster.

"Who needs a barn?" he smirked, raising his eyebrows at her before she leant forward and kissed him as he lead her out of the room.

"Wasn’t it yesterday we used to laugh at the wind behind us, Didn’t we run away and hope that time wouldn’t try to find us, didn’t we take each other to a place where no ones ever been, yeah I really need you near me tonight cause you’ll never take me their again"

As she lay wrapped in his arms, she listened to the gentle rhythm of his breathing, his chest rising an falling beneath her as he slept. Lifting her head she absorbed every single thing about him, not wanting to forget a solitary detail, because she knew this was it, time for her heart to shatter for the final time, because this time he wasn’t going to get another chance to repair it.

Tenderly she placed a lifetime’s worth of love in a solitary kiss on his forehead and slipped out of the bed cautiously so as not to wake him. As she dressed she assured herself that this was right, he’d only persuade her to stay if she waited for him to wake and she owed it to him to go, he was happy before she returned no matter what he said. She closed the door gently and headed for her car, she

knew he loved her and that would just have to be enough. And as she pulled away a defeated figure watched from the bedroom window as his reason for living left him to get on with his life.

"Let me watch you go with the sun in my eyes, we’ve seen how love can grow now let’s see how it dies"

"Aden, I’m home" she called with a smile.

"Hey. Good trip?" he replied not moving from the sofa where’ he’d been propped up for half the day, remote in one hand, Jack Daniels in the other.

"Great" she replied leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "Miss me?"

"Course" he delivered the obligatory answer.

Anything interesting happen while I was away"

"No" he shook his head "Same old, same old" as he caught sight of a rerun of Gossip Girl amidst his channel surfing, and began to ponder just what it was exactly that made women swoon over Chuck Bass.

"Touch me in the morning, then just close the door, leave me as you found me, empty like before"

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