Chapter 15 #2
“I love you too,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “I love you exactly as you are. Broken pieces and all. And I’m not letting you run away from me again.”
“I’m not running.” The words came more easily than she’d expected. “I’m staying. I’m staying right here with you.”
“Good.” He kissed her again, softer this time, and Meg couldn’t keep the tears from slipping down her cheeks.
He pulled back and stared into her eyes. “What is it?”
She tried to smile, but her lips were trembling. “In the cave. I failed you, and I need you to forgive me. I need—”
“There is nothing to forgive.” His voice was immediate. Certain.
But she shook her head. “I need this. Please.”
He pulled back just enough to look at her fully, his hands still cupping her face. Then he nodded. “I forgive you. And let me tell you that’s the easiest thing anyone has ever asked of me. I know you feel weak. But you are so brave.”
The words broke something loose in her chest, and a sob escaped before she could stop it. “But I—”
“You saved Alex’s leg, you stayed alone in the tunnel not knowing if I would ever return, you sat with me in the hospital not knowing if I would wake. That’s not failure, Meg. That’s courage. You were so brave.”
“I didn’t feel brave.” The admission came out small.
“You were.” His voice was absolute. “You are. Look at what you just did with Jeremy. You fought back. You ran. You survived. You’re the bravest person I know.”
Meg let out a shaky laugh, leaning into his touch. “I thought I’d never see you again. I thought—”
“I know.” He kissed her forehead. Her temple. Her cheek. “But I’m here. We’re both here. And I’m not leaving your side. If your job is in Pennsylvania, then we’ll go to Pennsylvania.”
Noah said it as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“Or wherever else you need to go. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care where we are.”
The offer stunned her. “You’d leave the canyon? But you love it here. This is your home.”
Your refuge. Your healing place. Everything you’ve built.
“You’re my home.” He smiled, that beautiful smile that had first made her heart stumble. “Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be.”
Fresh tears spilled over, but these felt different. Lighter.
“I don’t want to go to Pennsylvania.”
“No?”
Meg shook her head, certainty settling into her bones. “I was thinking about going to talk to Virgil. Before Jeremy showed up. I had decided that I was going to ask about staying at the clinic, letting the new hire do the fieldwork.”
Stay where it’s controlled. Where backup is close. Where the panic attacks won’t put anyone at risk.
“You can do whatever you want.” Noah’s smile widened. “As long as you’re with me.”
“I want to be with you.” The words felt like a vow. “I want to stay. I want to try. I’m still scared, but—”
“But we’ll figure it out together.” He pulled her close again, favoring his side. “All of it. The fear, the panic attacks, the nightmares. We’ll work through it together. You don’t have to be perfect, Meg. You just have to be here.”
She kissed him then, pouring everything she couldn’t say into it—all her love, her fear, her hope, her gratitude.
He kissed her back just as fiercely, his arms tightening around her like he’d never let go.
When they broke apart this time, there was something warm and wet against her hand where it had rested on his side.
She pulled back, looking down, and her stomach dropped. Blood.
Soaking through his shirt. Dark stain spreading. Too much.
“Noah.” Her voice shifted instantly into doctor mode. “Your stitches. You opened your stitches.”
He glanced down, seemingly unconcerned. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” She was already moving, helping him shift so she could see better in the dim light. “You just got out of the hospital. You shouldn’t have been running, fighting—”
“I will never apologize for going after you. For fighting for you.” His voice was steel.
She looked up at him, exasperated and terrified and so in love it hurt. “You need to come back to the clinic. Now.”
Noah smiled, that infuriating, endearing smile. “Whatever you say, Doc.”
“I love you,” Meg said, the words automatic now.
“I know.” His grin turned smug.
It took her a second, then she laughed—really laughed, the sound bubbling up from somewhere deep and genuine. “Did you seriously just Han Solo me?”
“Maybe.” He tried to look innocent and failed completely.
“You really are my Han Solo, aren’t you?” She shook her head, still laughing even as she pressed her hand carefully against his side to slow the bleeding. “Reckless, stubborn, swooping in to save the day—”
“And devastatingly handsome?” He offered a wink.
“And completely impossible.” But she was smiling as she said it.
She kissed him again—carefully, mindful of his injury.
The emergency workers approached them. But Meg didn’t move from Noah’s side. Wouldn’t leave him. Not now. Not ever.
They’d get him patched up. She’d stitch him back together. They’d deal with Jeremy and the police and all the explanations that would come.
They’d figure out the future—her staying, their relationship, all the messy, complicated, beautiful bits of building a life together.
But right now, in this moment, Meg let herself just be.
Broken and brave.
Scared and strong.
Loved and loving.
And for the first time in years, that was enough.
She was enough. Not despite her brokenness but with it. Through it. Because of it.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The verse had been Noah’s. His lifeline in the cave. His prayer in the shaft.
But maybe it was hers too now. Maybe it always had been.
God’s light had been shining all along—in her mother’s voice, in Noah’s love, in Liam and Teague showing up exactly when they were needed, in second chances and grace she didn’t deserve but was being offered anyway.
The darkness had tried to overcome.
Jude’s accident. Her father’s death. Lydia’s death. Ryan’s gun. Jeremy’s rage. Her own panic and fear and self-hatred.
But the Light had won.
Was winning. Would keep winning.
Because that’s what the light of God did. It shone. It persisted. It refused to be extinguished.
And she was finally ready to stop fighting it.
Ready to let it shine through all her fractured pieces and see what kind of kaleidoscope the Lord could create.
Ready to be broken and beautiful at the same time.
Ready to be loved.
Meg looked at Noah—bleeding, exhausted, smiling at her like she hung the moon—and knew with absolute certainty that this was right.
This was home.
Not the canyon, though she loved it now. Not the clinic or the cabin or any physical place.
This. Him. Them. Together.
Home was wherever Noah was. Wherever they chose to build their life. Wherever the Lord led them next.
And she was finally brave enough to stay.