Trigger Warning: Mild references to Domestic Violence about 3/4 of the way down.
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"Where are you going? Engaged folks don't leave the bed." He was a light sleeper, of course he'd wake up when Natalia tried to wiggle out of his tight embrace. She was desperate to take care of her bladder, and was also as thirsty as hell.

"Oh, don't they? Not even for the loo?"

"But hurry back." He loosened his hold on her just slightly and didn't make an effort to move. She still had to roll away from him to the edge of the bed. He had his eyes closed still. She loved to watch him sleep. He looked so relaxed and carefree. Benign, almost. Nothing like the man he thought he'd still be. You couldn't see the military in him when he slept.

The ring caught her eye when she leaned on the sink to look at the state of her hair in the mirror. It was a diamond, pretty hefty in an oval cut. It sparkled on her brown hand.

He was a foolish man, how did he think this ring could ever be construed as a promise ring? It screamed marriage and commitment. He definitely got outside help and she knew just the little birdie that had assisted him in making that purchase. The thought made her smile, and tingle inside.

When she had finished her business in the toilet, she brushed her teeth, washed her face and smoothed some product in her hair. Gabe had done a great job in packing all her essentials. The only thing she couldn't find were her birth control pills. She usually took them in the morning, and they lived in a drawer on her side of the bed at home.

Maybe she would have some in her handbag. She always found the most random things in there. She found her phone instead, and it was lit up with messages from her brother and Lima especially.

Lima sent her a voice note of one long, ear piercing scream and then several videos of herself screaming again on several different social media platforms. She had to laugh, Lima was a law unto herself. She recorded a reply back, showing her the ring excitedly and waited for her to wake up so they could have an actual conversation.

Her stomach growled, so she found herself rooting in the fridge for a snack. It was quite early, before 8 am. She didn't know what Gabe had planned for the day so she picked at some of the leftover strawberry chocolates and drank icy cold water.

"You didn't come back." Gabe was up, hovering in the doorway of the kitchen, scratching his bare sculpted stomach. Bare, because she was currently wearing his discarded shirt and nothing else.

"Sorry, I got sidetracked."

"By what?" he furrowed his brows, and crossed his arms. Natalia had to stifle a laugh. He was actually seriously standing there with his boxers riding low on his hips, looking entirely too indecent and asking her where she had been in the last 20 minutes or so.

"I was looking for my birth control pills, then I checked my phone and then I got hungry. Are these the kind of questions I have to deal with now that we're engaged?"

"Oh," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I swear it wasn't on purpose. I thought you might have them in your purse or something, I never checked."

"It's okay."

"I can run down to the pharmacy if you want, there's one nearby and get you those Plan B things."

"No, it's fine, don't bother." He gave her a funny look but didn't comment and she didn't elaborate.

"Okay, so can you come back to bed?"

"For what?" she asked playing dumb.

"To paint my toenails and braid my hair, what do you think, woman?"

Natalia giggled, grabbing her water bottle and one for him too. "I'm going there just to sleep," she warned. "I'm way too...sore for whatever you're thinking."

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, a tired but smug smile creeping onto his face.

He arranged her into the fold of his embrace when they were back in the bed. Natalia was wide awake, the cold water she had drunk was swishing around in her insides. She had done too many things when she woke up for sleep to be still in her system.

She laid in his arms, appreciative of his measured breaths. Gabe was never cuddly, he slept for far fewer hours than her and when he was up, he was up. He didn't linger in bed often; so she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She twisted in his arms so that her cheek rested on his shoulder, and she lay half sprawled over his body, with their legs entwined.

She ran her fingers over the bullet wound in his shoulder. The skin was pink and there was a circular crater like dent, a contrast from the rest of his golden tanned skin.

"Hey, Gabs. How come you and Alice didn't have any kids?" The question had been on her mind for a while.

"Hmm, let's see," he said. But his tightening embrace and the comforting circles he drew on her back let her know that he didn't mind the question. "She didn't want to have any kids until I left the service. I can't say I blame her, being a military wife let alone a single parent is incredibly hard, but at the time, I didn't see it that way."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Natalia soothed

"Don't be. I was an asshole. Therapy has helped me see that, recently. Becoming an Officer so quick after enlisting meant that I never had to compromise, it didn't translate well into the real world, you know?"

"Yeah, I can imagine. But, you have to be fair to yourself too, Gabriel. You're so kind and principled, your parents had nothing to do with that, clearly, from what I've seen. That's all you."

"Thank you, Baby. Can I ask you, a question this time?"

"You already did, but go on."

"Smartass," he paused, amusement bleeding into his tone. "That file my father had on you was very...comprehensive. It mentioned an incident with an ex in Dubai would you mind telling me the details..."

"I knew it was thorough but I didn't know it was that thorough," Natalia said surprised. She had never asked to see the file, and Gabe had never volunteered the contents.

She had nothing to hide anyway, Gabe knew about most of her past. Including the two unserious candidates that made up the bulk of her adult dating history. She wasn't sure she would have divulged the incident he was referring had it not been for that file.

She took in a deep breath, the memory of the details coming to her easily. It had been one of the worst months of her life. "I had a long term boyfriend, we had kind of been dating on and off for a couple of years. He wanted us to move in together and we're in Dubai, you know. That's kind of a big no-no.

"He wouldn't take no for an answer and one evening we really got into it. You know me, I never back down from a fight.

"He had been getting progressively more violent everytime the topic came up so I didn't think anything out of the norm was going to happen. He usually just threw things across the room, punched the wall, you know minor things...Until one evening he just snapped and hit me across the face."

She felt Gabe's sharp intake of breath underneath her. His body had gone rigid. He had kept quiet and listened as she spoke. Her voice shook when she got to the part where he hit her. She had never told another soul. Except Lima, who didn't count because Lima was part of her soul too.

"I don't know if he had been building up to it, or it was a one time thing but I knew I couldn't let it happen again. I went to the police. They arrested him but he was a bit of a...local celebrity, he was a DJ and co-owned a popular sports bar, so his well-connected friends got him out and squashed the case."

"I'm sorry you went through that, Natty. Did he try to hurt you again?" Gabe asked, his voice tight.

"No, that was the end of it. Thank God. Me and Lima did mash up his car and apartment though. That was fun."

"I would expect nothing less from my girl." Natalia giggled at his proud seal of approval, despite the somber topic.

"So the other day, when we were fighting, be honest...did you ever think I was gonna put my hands on you?" He asked quietly, his voice low with guilt.

"No. I knew that you wouldn't hurt me intentionally, but it was the first big fight we had and it was like my body reacted to the memory and not to what was happening at the time." He held her tighter and Natalia felt her chest get tight with emotion. She hadn't really allowed herself to link the two events but now the truth was inescapable.

"You speak to your therapist about this? I don't want to offend you but it sounds like you have PTSD, Baby and I'm saying that as someone also with PTSD."

"You're probably right, I'm gonna bring it up in my next session."

"I never want to have a situation again, where I trigger you, we should probably set some rules for when we're fighting," Gabe suggested.

"Okay," Natalia agreed. "I'll start, not going to sleep angry with each other. We sort it out as soon as there's a problem." The last time they had argued she hadn't slept a wink.

"I agree. Not saying anything we can't take back."

"That's a good one. I'll add to that, no sex in the middle of an argument."

"Explain that one," Gabe said, requesting more information. It made Natalia a little nervous and her stomach twisted, thinking of how she could put it.

"It doesn't solve anything, it just postpones the argument," she paused before admitting, "And I find it a little scary, I can't lie."

"Okay, done," he said, the speed at which he accepted her boundary and didn't try to negotiate made her heart flip like a pancake in her chest. "No silent treatment, it's childish and it only makes the conversation more volatile when it does happen."

"Okay, that's fair. Hmm...I'm gonna say no grudges, once an argument is done. It's done. We don't bring the same mistakes and points up again. Unless we can't resolve it, then we should discuss it in therapy," Natalia added the list.

"I agree. I ain't got anymore. You?"

"Nah." She ran her fingers between the planes of his stomach and his chest. He felt solid and real. She had never felt this safe and cared for, before.

"Well good, come up here. I miss you."

"That makes no sense but okay," Natalia said shifting her body up the bed so their faces were level.

"It makes perfect sense because of this..." He kissed her slow and deep, until there was just him and the feeling of his firm, soft lips and his tongue in her mouth. She was pleasantly surprised to find the taste of mint on his tongue. He must have brushed his teeth before he had wandered out to find her. "I love you, even if you had me proposing three times," he teased when he pulled away.

"I love you like someone that said yes all three of those times," she countered.

"I dunno, Natty Baby, only the last one was convincing enough for me."

"What's it going to take to convince you?"

He kissed her again, rolling her on top of him, until she was immobile, caged in his arms and between his legs, being subjected to kisses that stole every sign of intelligence from her body until she was just a moaning, gelatinous mess with only the word "yes" in her mind and on her lips.

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Super sappy because we deserve!
Not everyday drama sometimes fluff and also because I have super smart readers and I have to find new ways to surprise y'all. I think they needed this talk for healthy boundary setting and stuff. What do you guys think?