Death's Exception

Chapter Thirty-Four

The car slams to a halt in front of a massive metal door in the back of the CSI lab. I had never seen it from the outside in broad daylight before. It is a massive concrete building with six black windows circling the walls. It is shaped like a cylinder, a balcony weaving its way through the top. Besides that, it is completely bare, and looks deserted. It is circled by towering trees, and over grown grass. Titus grabs my hand for a second before I start to pull some vines away from the keyboard on the doorframe.

"Rory, whatever we see, and whatever Dr. Finley may tell you, just know that I love you." I look at the ground, and shuffle my feet.

"I love you too." He pulls me into a hug, but I do not hug like I usually do. I don't squeeze as tight, and I do not go up on my toes so that I can bury my head in his neck. He tenses when he realizes this, and steps away from me. We stare at each other, neither of us having the audacity to speak first. He looks hurt. But it is less hurt than he will be after I die. I turn back to the keyboard, and cleat away the vines. Titus calls Sarah, but does not put her on speaker phone. She gives him the code, and he starts to type away. I feel his hurt glare in my stomach, and it is hard to swallow.

The door slides open slowly and loudly. It opens to a dark, moldy hallway that we start to feel our way through. The hallway winds every which way, making it difficult to have a sense of direction. My feet stumble against some loose carpet, and I swear I can hear a mouse squeak. I slam my hands on my mouth to keep myself from screaming, and I stop abruptly. Titus touches my arm, but I try to ignore the impulse to run in his arms. A fear of mice. Really? I curse myself silently, and will my legs to move forward. I hear another squeak, and I almost jump out of my skin. Titus grabs my hand, and pulls me toward him. I try to ignore him, and keep walking forward, but he stops, his grip like iron.

"I know you are scared. What is it?" I frown, and try to steady my breathing enough to sound calm.

"I just think- I am afraid of mice." I can feel Titus' grin.

"Mice? Since when?" I grunt, and search my mind of a time that I first remember being scared of mice. But nothing comes to mind. I blink.

"Um, I don't know. Since now." Titus scares me with a leap.

"I bet you are remembering a bit about your past! Aurora Destiel, scared of mice." I roll my eyes, and press forward in spite of him.

"Wait! I must protect you from these mice." It is so hard not to love him. I smile, but I do not dare let him see.

"We have to keep moving." I say, my voice on edge of amusment. We continue walking for what seems like hours, but I know to only be a few minutes. I sigh heavily.

"We are walking around the building at a slightly elevated level. You are in the walls of the CSI base, my love."

"How long is it going to take us to get to the second floor?" Titus rushes in front of me, and motions to a wooden door in the wall.

"About how long it took you to just walk." He opens the door, and Sarah is standing in front of us. Her eyes are wild with worry, and her hair messy with anticipation. Her wire-rimmed glasses are tilted slighty, and she is holding an armful of wadded up papers. She looks like a scientist.

"You're late." Her voice is milky and smoothe.

"We ran into some mice." I shoot a glare at Titus, but he just smiles at me broadly. I cannot help but notice how insanely attractive he is, but I shoot the idea out of my head as soon as it appears. Sarah seems less than amused, and shoves some papers into Titus' hands.

"What is this?" He asks, looking up at Sarah slowly. She looks at Titus, her eyes full of pity.

"You know exactly what this is." Titus looks crestfallen. His eyes wander from the pages to me, and back to Sarah. I look at Titus to explain, but he just crams the pages into his pocket.

"I will- um." He clears his throat, "I will talk to you about these later." He says to Sarah, but looks at me through the corner of his eye. She nods slowly. She grits her teeth, and resumes her face of strictly business.

"Get out of here quickly. I was never here." She hisses. Titus and I watch as she rushes out of the room, leaving us in a cavernous looking corridor, with white walls. The are doors lining the whole hallway, almost side to side. But Titus leads me past them all. I take a deep breath, wishing someone would fill the heavy silence between us. Like Carter.

"Titus!" He turns around, raising his eyebrows. I realize that I shouted, and give an apologetic shrug. "Where did Carter go?" Titus nods slowly, and continues to walk.

"Oh, I suppose I never explained that to you. He went home to take care of his mom." I tilt my head.

"His mom?" Titus sighs.

"She has a terminal illness. She has had it for almost as long as I have been alive. Slowly dying." My stomach twists at the terribleness of it all.

"That is terrible." Titus looks at me, his eyes colder than usual.

"What? That she is dying? Or that he is getting left behind?" I shake my head.

"Don't make this about me!" My voice is hoarse.

"I never said anything about you!" Titus' voice is raised, and for a moment, it startles me. I plead with him silently. His face softens. "I'm sorry." I kiss him. And for a second I realize how I am violating everything I just told myself, but then he starts to kiss back, and it all melts away. The future doesn't seem to matter anymore as long as he has me now. As long as the present was about us, and not about Dr. Finley, me dying, or anything concerning our past. He pulls away from me, his eyes still closed.

"Removing yourself from me is not going to help."