Timeless

Chapter 36

A/N: GUYS I'M WRITING THE WEDDING! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?!?! Send me thoughts, all the thoughts, please, please, please :) Also if you have spicy thoughts, that works too haha!

To Kathryn, it all felt like some sort of cruel dream. Like she was going to wake up and she'd be back in the Prisoner of War Camp or on that march and this was all just some sort of cruel trick of fate to make her believe that it was all really over . But the simple fact of the matter was that it was, in fact, real.

That first night with the Allies, Kathryn did not relax. She didn't know how to. Didn't know how to let go of the very tension and fight that had willed her to live and to fight for her own life. It wasn't until Gale was cleaning the blood off of her face that she even registered that they had made it.

That they did not need to fight their way home anymore. That in the morning, they'd be sent in a truck to a plane—and they would travel to Thorpe Abbot. None of it seemed real—it was all just too much for Kathryn Egan to be taking in.

And so as he was gently scrubbing the blood from her face, Kathryn inhaled sharply and he stopped. And it seemed like for the first time since their initial escape, he was seeing her—and she was seeing him.

He didn't fail to notice the tears pooling in her eyes. "Oh darlin'," he murmured. That seemed to break the floodgates for Kathryn, for what she had been through, for everything she had seen and done . And the tears began to come out in silent gasps.

Gale Cleven was not perturbed by the turn of events. He was more expecting and waiting for this sort of reaction as she collapsed against him, crying into his shoulder as he held onto her. Because against all odds—against Hausmann and the SS Officers, the attacks, the brutalizations, the torture, the illness, the death march, their escape—Kathryn Egan had made it through all of that. And she had made it out with her heart intact.

So when she asked him to stay, he wasn't fazed. He had been planning on asking her if he could stay. Because the thought of parting from her in any way after leaving Bucky, after losing George, after making it this far—it was too much for either of them to bear. And if Gale Cleven had his way, he and Kathryn Egan would never be parted again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Those next few days of traveling to Paris and then to London were chaotic, to say the least. The most interesting part was most certainly finding out that Kathryn was indeed, somewhat famous. Evidently after her being taken as a Prisoner of War, the nurses of Thorpe Abbot had written to several political leaders—and the story had spread like wildfire about Doctor Death of the United States.

The rumors were salacious and interesting—as she half-expected. But being pulled into meeting General Eisenhower upon arrival in Paris was truly something else . He had streamlined the entire process for her and Gale to get back to Thorpe Abbot, citing that the United States needed more women like her campaigning for the soldiers and boosting morale.

It was strange , to say the least.

But that plane ride, sitting in the back of the plane, Kathryn nearly cried at the sight of London in her sights. And it wasn't until that plane was touching down on the ground of Royal Air Force base Thorpe Abbot that she even processed the fact that this was the closest to home that she had been in what seemed like forever .

Just before they got out of the plane, Buck gave Kathryn's hand a squeeze. "Are you ready for this?" He murmured quietly.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she murmured back to him.