Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(113)

The Trust had not announced yet that they had caught Lionel, but she imagined it to come soon, very soon. Caitlyn did not expect that to be a secret they would want to keep quiet for long, especially with the turbulence from this morning’s report.

She literally jumped when Declan’s voice popped into her head mid-thought. “I need to speak to you. Are you available?”

Caitlyn’s heart clutched. Reality was crashing in. “I am at the Gazebo at the Maine facility.”

She heard the familiar pop of teleporting by the entrance of the structure and turned her head. As he walked up the stairs, his face never took his eyes off of hers. He looked more fatigued, if that was even possible.

When it became apparent that he was not going to speak first, she asked, “Are you alright?”

Declan did not respond, instead he fell into her arms. Caitlyn could feel the stress of every muscle, the tenseness from the worries he has been burdened with. He held on to her as if she were the air he breathed. She rubbed his back lightly, letting her be his support.

“It has been a very challenging few weeks.” As if finally realizing he practically collapsed onto her, he pulled back awkwardly. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I understand. Really, I do.”

He leaned against the railing. “So how have you been? How is the mentoring going?”

She smiled slightly; surprised that he was asking such a mundane question at a time like this. “The mentoring is going well. I’ve come to the conclusion that projectile telepathy is not one of my talents though.”

“Is the great Caitlyn Young accepting defeat?”

“It appears she is.”

“What is the world coming to?” He meant it jokingly, but there was a tinge of sadness with greater meaning of those words behind it.

“You know better than I. What exactly is going to happen now anyways?”

He rubbed his eyes. “Quietly, there have been a lot of changes made in the past couple of weeks within the structure of the Trust.”

“What kind of changes?”

“I can’t discuss all of them right now. But there are new departments and the training revamp has been approved early.”

“That is a good thing.”

“It is part of what I’ve been working on the past two weeks. But it has been stressful. And then there is Lionel. I heard you visited my father last night.”

Caitlyn examined her fingernails guiltily. “He has told you then?”

“This morning he called me to meet him. He told me that he asked you to bring him to Utah.”

“I’m sorry.”

Declan scratched the back of his neck. “For what?”

“For keeping that from you. I should have told you the second I found out. I told you I would help you when it came to Lionel.”

“Caitlyn, I’m not mad at you. My dad did it to make sure I did not do anything rash, and when it comes to Lionel, he is right. I am not always thinking my clearest. But he was. Don’t feel guilty for my dad trying to look out for my best interests. Besides, I hardly think that you keeping it from me for less than a day qualifies as keeping a secret.”

She instinctively grabbed his hand, giving it a quick squeeze before letting it go as was customary between the both of them. “Well, just know that I really am sorry, and I will be there in whatever capacity you need me to be with everything.”

He gave her a smile. “About that… Caitlyn, what I came here to talk to you about wasn’t the treaty, nor was it Lionel.”

Caitlyn placed her hands on the rail, gripping it lightly. “What did you come to speak to me about then?”

She knew the answer before he even spoke. “I came to talk to you about how I left you two weeks ago. I told you I couldn’t be there for you. I was wrong. Dead wrong. I do need to be there for our people, but the past two weeks made me realize that I need you too. You steady me; you make me a better person. But more than that, there is something there I don’t always want to look back and say, what if?”

She closed her eyes and took a cleansing breath. The past month had been a rollercoaster of her emotions when it came to the man in front of her. She had accepted his explanation two weeks ago and moved forward, making progress. It was not fair that he was asking this of her now. “Declan.”

“Caitlyn, please give me a chance.”

“I can’t.” She released the railing and turned to face her mentor.