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Right now, all he needed was to have her back.

****

IT WAS ALMOST EIGHTin the evening when Pippi got off the bus, feeling emptier than ever but thankfully dry-eyed, which was all she cared about. It hadn't been the case when she left the office, and the hurt had just kept swelling inside of her that she had found herself running to the nearest alley.

And then she had bawled like a child.

I should've known he was only messing with me.

I should've known.

I should've known.

And with her tears showing no signs of stopping, she had decided to send Astrid a message and lied about having overtime. After that, she had walked aimlessly around town, walking and walking until she had run out of tears to cry.

The only thing left to do now, she thought,was to make sure she could act like everything was okay.

But when she went around the corner, Pippi realized there were other bigger things she had to worry about than keeping her family from realizing how heartbroken she was.

Things like...an ambulance blocking the main road leading to her house.

She rushed towards the paramedic standing next to the van's back doors, heart beating mad and mind racing with all sorts of heinous possibilities. She could see her home from here, and the lights peeking out of the edges of the bay window gave her a modicum of relief. That meant they were okay. That this ambulance hadn't anything to do with them.Right?

Pippi came up to the paramedic standing next to the ambulance. "Excuse me. Sir?" The man was tall and powerfully built, with his uniform emphasizing the impressive breadth of his shoulders.Definitely a shoo-in for Sexiest Paramedic Alive,Pippi thought absently.

When the paramedic finally turned to face her, Pippi had to crane her neck to look into his eyes, which were the only thing his surgical mask didn't cover. "Is anyone seriously hurt?"

The paramedic stepped close, and she had the strangest feeling that he seemed awfully familiar. His height, his build, his hair—-

Oh.

Her eyes widened, and almost as if this had been the cue he was waiting for, the paramedic took another step closer, near enough for Pippi to hear him ask behind his mask, "Could we talk?"

Pippi shouldn't have been shocked, but she was, and it made the next few minutes a blur. Somehow, she ended up following Acheron into the back of the ambulance and collapsing in the paramedic seat while Wickham shut the doors close before taking the wheel.

Even the sound of the engine running and seeing her house’s window as the vehicle drove past, it felt like nothing but illusions. It was only when she saw Acheron, who of course looked at home in his paramedic uniform(was there nothing in this world that didn't suit the man?),crouching down in front of her that shock finally lost its paralytic grip on her body, and all the blasted memories came hurtling back in.

"No!"Pippi shrank back in instinctive protest the moment Acheron tried reaching for her hands. How could he even think she would let him touch her, after everything?

Acheron's jaw clenched at her show of rejection, but what hurt him even more was the look of fear and pain in her eyes. "I know I've fucked up more than once today, and I'm sorry for it."

Pippi fought against the sound of pain she heard in his voice.He's lying. Lying. Lying!

"I despise myself for it, and if I had known how things would turn out—-"

"Like me finding out you have a girlfriend?" she cut in unevenly.

"Amelia isn't my girlfriend." His tone was harsh, and his hard gaze captured hers as if demanding Pippi to see the truth in them.

Her chest heaved, and she turned her head sharply away.No more, she thought doggedly.I'm over trusting this guy.

"I'm not lying, Pippi."

"I don't care. It's not my right to care—-"

"It is, damn you." She looked so damn blank, but now he could see past it, and he knew just how much she was hurting...because of him. "Amelia—-"

"Don't you call her 'Amy'?" she couldn't help asking with a masochistic sense of bitterness.