Timeless

Chapter 29

A/N: Single chapter updates for now bc I need to catch up on my writing haha! That being said, enjoy and I'll see you all tomorrow with the next chapter!

Gale Cleven had felt everything in his chest stop beating and working the minute that those words had spilled out of Bucky's throat. Because the day had been awful enough as it was. And he couldn't process any of this—couldn't hear it anymore. He needed space. He needed time.

So when he pushed his way into the hall and sank down against the hallway wall—he could still hear Kathryn and John yelling at each other in that damn room. And it was all too much for him. It was too much.

Because seeing Hausmann—seeing the love of his life's rapist—and hearing those things from his mouth had been one thing. He could shove it down and try to pretend like it wasn't real. He had a million questions—but things now made sense. Why Kathryn was so different and cold and distant. He had those questions and he would wait. He just needed some time to process and he wanted to talk to her.

On a fundamental level, nothing had changed for him. He still loved her. He loved her so much that it hurt to breathe as he sat there trying to find the air to fill his lungs. He was just mad. And not at her—at Hausmann. At that man who had taken and killed Kathryn Egan and left her to die in that ditch.

Because she had survived and this was how she was doing that. And he could not fault her for that. But he was so damn angry on her behalf. He was supposed to protect her. Kathryn Egan was supposed to be untouchable, this force of nature that no one could ever change or do anything to. And him being in an argument with her—that didn't change that.

But to hear those words from Bucky's lips—to hear the word pregnant—it was a whole other thing. Something he hadn't even thought about. Something that was reserved as sacred and holy in his mind. But this was not that. This was a horrific reality of the nurses and Kathryn's situation and it was not one that he could change.

And if she was—then he couldn't protect her. No amount of trying to break out of this place would do that. This was a game-changer. Something unforeseen and unfixable. He was at a loss—and so was every other man that was sitting in that cabin.
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Kathryn thought that she knew grief. She thought that she knew it well, like she knew her own name. She thought that she and grief were old friends at this point. But when Gale Cleven had walked out on this entire thing, she had felt something shatter beyond a breaking point for her.

Because surely he hated her. And while it stung almost as badly as her ribs—she wanted him to hate her. She wanted him to just let her go and to find someone that could give him everything. She loved him so badly that she wanted to protect him from the pain of loving someone like her—from the pain of loving someone who was so clearly fated for tragedy. It would not end well for them. She had known that from the start.

She just hadn't cared then.

The next few days were different. She knew what the difference was that next morning when DeMarco and Brady were walking her to the laundry station. They practically flanked her on both sides and Kathryn just felt suffocated.

Kathryn couldn't help but let out a sigh. "You know I'm not fragile, right?" She questioned, swiveling to look at both of them.

Both stammered over their words, but it was DeMarco that got there first. "You're the furthest thing from fragile, you Menace."

It would have caused a smile to cross her features. Except there was the fact that he knew about the possibility of her being pregnant. And he had likely told Brady. And he hadn't called her a Menace in a while. No, there were too many coincidences for this to just be friendliness or concern.