Moonspear i was hopelessly behind on reductions and meringues.

Liffey barely noticed Rannoch's words at first, so lost in her misery was she. She fell easily into his arms as he came to her, crying as he kissed her and held her tight. She had never spoken so bluntly of her feelings on the matter before. In her mind, she had confessed far more, but speaking it aloud made it all the more real and awful for her. And somehow, after those emotions subsided, she felt relief flooding in. It had been a terrible burden to hold her distress in for so long, and between the confession and Rannoch's affection, she was beginning to feel lighter already.

She looked at him as he stepped away and responded to what she'd said. This beautiful, wonderful man. He truly would do anything for her, and likely he would for anyone that he loved. And so it was a good thing that he had fallen for a woman like Liffey - in spite of the embarrassingly large pile of evidence that said falling for her had been an immensely stupid thing for him to do - because she was the kind of creature that insisted he think of himself first.

"I love you, Rannoch," she said, smiling briefly before her face grew concerned again, "I love you for saying such wonderful things. But I can't bear the idea of taking you away from here and then one day you wake up and you resent me for making you leave it all behind. You have friends here, and you've built a place for yourself. I can't let you give it up for me unless it's what you truly want to do, so please.. just think on it for a minute before you agree to leaving with me."