Blue Skies, Season 2, Episode 8 (Rising Storm) by Dee Davis

today.”
    “It wasn’t just me, Joanne. You had a part in saving them too.” He walked over to the chair beside the bed. “Can I sit?”
    “Please.” She gestured to the chair, offering him a shaky smile.
    They sat for a moment in silence, the air seeming heavy with all that stretched between them.
    “I’m sorry—” they both began at once, then broke off, silence swallowing their words.
    “What have you got to be sorry for, Dillon?” she asked, not able to cover the shock in her voice.
    “A lot. For lying to you about my part in Hector’s leaving. Hell, for getting involved in the first place. I should have talked to you first.”
    She shook her head, wishing that there was a way to turn back the clock. To change everything. To make it all go away. “You know I wouldn’t have listened.”
    “Maybe not, but there’s still what happened today…” He trailed off, looking down at his hat. “I’m not apologizing for what I did. I’d do it over again in a heartbeat. Hector Alvarez was scum. But he was also your husband. And I killed him.”
    “He wasn’t my husband—at least not in any positive sense of that word.” She shook her head, needing him to know that there was nothing about today that she regretted. It was the past that held pain. Her decisions, her failures that ate at her core. “A husband is supposed to love and protect. To be a life partner. Hector was none of those things. Not ever. And you—you’ve been there for me practically every day of my life. You’ve saved me so many times I’ve lost count. I’m the one who should be asking for forgiveness. I should have been stronger. I should have been braver. I should have walked out the door.”
    “You stayed to protect your kids.” He reached up to caress her battered face, and she reveled in the contact.
    “Yes.” She nodded, covering his hand with hers, touching him giving her strength. She needed to say it out loud. To admit to her failings. “But I also stayed because I was scared. And because I didn’t think I deserved anything better. If anyone should be sorry, Dillon, it’s me. I threw away everything I had all those years ago when I decided to chase after Hector. And everything that’s happened since…well, I made my own bed.”
    “People make mistakes, Joanne. That doesn’t mean they have to pay for them forever. And they sure as hell don’t deserve to be beaten to death because of them. One thing I can tell you for certain is that what Hector did to you wasn’t your fault. That’s all on him. And anything you might think to the contrary is just plain wrong.”
    “In here,” she pointed to her head, “I know you’re right. I know that I can be a better woman—a stronger woman—than I was when I was with him. But every single day I have to live with what all of this has done to my children. What kind of mother lets her children stay in that kind of situation? I should have found the courage to walk away, Dillon. I should have been stronger for Mallory and Marcus and Dakota.”
    Her gut clenched, her heart twisting in agony. It felt as if parts of her were being ripped in two. She bent her head, sobs ripping through her, threatening to tear her apart. The physical pain faded against the turmoil and anguish washing through her. She was nothing. No one.
    And then his strong arms came around her, his warmth enveloping her.
    He held her while she cried. For the things she’d done. For the things she hadn’t done. For all that she’d lost. And for all that the world had given her anyway. He whispered nonsensical words of comfort in her ear, and she tried to remember the last time someone had held her just because they cared.
    “Let it go,” he whispered. “Let it all go. It’s time, Joanne. It’s over now. It’s all over.”
    Finally the sobs turned to little hiccups, the tears slowing until she could breathe easily again. She pulled back, lifting her gaze to meet his. “I don’t know what I would have