"What happening to us?" Sol asked, his body trembling all over, his pulse racing out of control.
"I don't know," Mariah whispered. She was pinned by his body, by his searching gaze. "I feel so- strange."
"Help me up, he said, and his fingers sought hers. Their wedding bands connected, and their vows were suddenly there between them, a haunting memory of terror and heartbreak.
"To have and to hold," Mariah murmured. Tears smarted in her eyes. "I never thought I'd hold you like this, I lost you, Sol, and I thought I was dying with you. "Don't ever leave me again."
He raised her hand to his lips and brushed her band of gold against his whiskered cheek. "Don't cry. I'm here, and we've got the rest of our lives together. Maybe I took my vows without realizing they'd stick, but I did, and we're together from this day forward."
"You don't regret it?" she asked softly.
"I did at first, but not since I laid eyes on you."
He fingered his eye-patch and she felt a quick stab of emotion. She reached up and stroked his finger away to touch the patch. Her breath caught. She knew what she was about to do wasn't wise, but she was driven by need to take their intimacy beyond sex, and slipped her finger beneath the patch.
Sol tensed and grew still. As she caressed the wound, she ached for his loss, felt his vulnerability.
"You amaze me," he said in a rough voice.
"Why did you do it?"
"I wanted to touch you where no one else would....."