Unravelling

Chapter 47 - Compassion

A/N - Since apparently Wattpad didn't send out a notification when I posted chapter 46  last week (and therefore some of you might have missed the last update) I decided to hurry up with the next chapter, to kinda make up for it. I hope you enjoy some of this long-overdue Sean/Lily interaction.

The comforting embrace doesn't last nearly long enough.

I stumble as Sean pulls away and barely manage to regain my footing. Will, who has kept his arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders – I don't know if he is still worried that I might bolt – thankfully pulls me into his side, keeping me upright. I snake my arm around his waist and press myself closer against him.

"Jeez, you guys! What are you doing here? How did you get to Chicago? Where were you?" Sean fires questions at us.

He sounds pretty upset and I don't dare looking up at him, afraid that the expression on his face is going to send me over the edge. Instead, I focus my blurry vision onto the floor. I don't know how I could have missed this, but I only realize that I am crying when a teardrop splatters to the ground right next to my left foot.

Another tear is slowly slipping down my nose. I reach up and try to rub it away as inconspicuously as possible. I don't want them to know that I am crying. That will immediately make them think of me as a baby and it will make it difficult to be taken seriously in the conversations that certainly are to come.

Suddenly, two warm hands cup my cheeks, startling me.

My face is gently being forced upwards and a moment later my eyes lock with Sean's dark blue ones. He is crouching down in front of me so that we are at eye-level, with him being slightly shorter than me, allowing me to look down at him for a change. Instinctively, I close my eyes, unable to look at him. That first quick glance has been enough to make me feel really, really guilty.

"Hey, sweetheart, look at me," Sean says.

I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head a little, indicating that I can't. In that brief moment before I shut my eyes, I saw so much love and understanding, so much compassion in my big brothers' eyes. After what I put everybody through – and I know that they were very worried, if Will's description of my oldest brothers' reaction is anything to go by – I don't deserve his sympathy.

"Lily, it's okay. I'm not mad. Just please look at me, baby girl. I have missed you so much, you know? And now that I have you here, in person, I want nothing more than look into your beautiful eyes. Can you do that for me, please?"

Sean's voice, as always, has an incredibly calming effect on me. Still, I hesitate. I fear that I am going to look away the moment our eyes meet because guilt is literally eating me up inside. Not just because I have worried my family by disappearing, but even more so because I have ignored one of my favourite people in the world for such a long time.

I just can't. Not yet.

Again, I shake my head no. More tears start to leak out through my eyelashes but I don't know if it is because of the strain of me squeezing my eyes shut so forcefully or because I am still crying. That question is answered when a strangled sob escapes me the second I feel Sean's thumbs carefully wiping the tears away from under my eyes. His being so affectionate with me after I have been so mean to him is just too much.

I take my left arm away from Will's waist and throw myself at Sean, blindly wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face in his shoulder. I feel him stumble a bit as I must have thrown him off balance with my unexpected action, but luckily he doesn't tumble down. Otherwise that would have been really embarrassing, not to mention painful. His strong arms come around my body and he cuddles me tightly against him.