Eden was in her room, lying on her bed while reading a book. She had already read most of the books in the bunker, but thankfully Dutch had enough so that Eden could cycle through them after a while.

     No matter how many times she read this one page, she just couldn't get past it. No matter how hard she tried to focus her mind wandered.

     She was of course thinking about the day before with Jacob. In lots of ways it was a relief, but in other ways, it left Eden with more questions than answers. What was she supposed to do now? What could she do now?

      She knew that if she talked to Jacob he'd ask her about what she wanted, but she didn't know what she wanted. She couldn't ignore him forever, and she didn't really think she wanted to, but she was so confused she knew she needed some time to think.

     Jacob had made Dutch's weapons room into his own. He brought in a cot that he slept on and spent as much time as he could in there away from everyone else.

     It was a pretty perfect setup. It had a lock, it smelled like gunpowder, and it was private. Initially, it was just a place for Jacob to get away from his brothers, but after the incident with Eden, Jacob decided it would be best if he spent more time there.

     He thought it would be best if he kept his distance from Eden, but after what happened the day before he was unsure of what to do.

     Did she want to talk to him? Did she want him to talk to her? He had no idea, so he just tried to focus on disassembling and cleaning the guns around him.

     That is until someone knocked on his door.

     Jacob looked up and saw Eden open the door carefully. She walked in and closed the door behind her. The bruises on her neck were prominent. After Eden shut the door she leaned against a table by the door and folded her arms over her chest.

     She looked at the AR-C Jacob had disassembled on the table in front of him and held back a soft smile. A moment of silence settled between them.

     Jacob tried not to look at her, because when he looked at her he looked at the bruises, and looking at the bruises made his stomach twist into a knot.

     "Why did you save me that day?" Eden asked quietly. Her voice sounded...strange. Maybe it was because Jacob crushed her windpipe. The thought made Jacob shudder internally.

     "What do you mean?" Jacob grumbled a response and looked back down at the gun he was cleaning.

     "Why did you save me that day, on the mountain?" Eden asked him again, she stared at him intently. She wanted to know the answer. "If you had just let me die there your life would probably be a lot easier."

Jacob let out a grumbled noise somewhere between a chuckle and a scoff. "Who said I wanted an easy life?" He asked rhetorically and looked back at Eden.

"Why would you go out of your way to not let me die?" Eden asked him again. She wasn't going to be satisfied with a false statement.

Jacob paused for a moment. Why didn't he let her die? It was so long ago, but Jacob remembered the day he saved her like it was yesterday.

     Jacob was out on a hunting trip, but really he just wanted to get away from his men for a little while. Despite being a leader, he needed his own space sometimes. So that's why he decided to go out to an old cabin he had taken over as his own for the weekend.

     He was out looking for signs of any animals and made a strange discovery. Something had punched a hole through the ice in a river. It looked like whatever it was got out, leading Jacob to believe it had to have been a person. An animal wouldn't have been able to climb out of ice like that.

     He saw a path that had been carved through the snow leading up the hill and followed it. He flanked the tree line in order to stay hidden and found what he had been looking for pretty quickly. 

     A person was huddled under a tree trying desperately to light a fire. He looked through his binoculars and saw they were totally soaked from head to toe, but their back was facing him so Jacob couldn't see who it was.

     Then she turned around. It was the Deputy. Her face was rosy from the cold, expression desperate and angry. Jacob studied her through his binoculars, her whole body was shaking as she rapidly went into shock.

     She leaned against the tree and looked out over the land, eyes searching desperately for some kind of answer. She cursed and screamed, but her energy was faltering. Jacob watched as she began fading, the cold was getting to her. A strange mix of emotions flooded Jacob.

     A large part of him was screaming in joy. She was finally dying! His headache would be gone! He wouldn't have to worry about this one person ruining his plans every chance she got!

     But there was something else.

Something else in his chest said that this wasn't right. He could hear Joseph's voice in his head. Is this right?

Jacob tried to ignore it, thinking this is for the best. He tried to shake away his conscience, but it wouldn't budge. As the seconds ticked by Jacob's irritation and conscience grew.

He pulled his rifle off his shoulder. If he couldn't let her die like this then it would be best to put her out of her misery now.

He looked through the sight of his rifle, reticle trained on the Deputy's head. He paused to make sure his shot was clean, he wouldn't shoot twice. His finger twitched to the trigger, he sucked in a deep breath.

Then a single snowflake landed on his scope. Blocking his sight. He pulled his finger away from the trigger and looked out across the clearing to where the Deputy was. The snowfall had stopped, so where did the snowflake come from?

     Jacob decided the snowflake was a sign to let nature handle this and turned away. But as he turned away he felt something gnawing at the pit of his stomach.

This isn't right!

"So why did you do it?" Eden asked him again. The silence in the room was uncomfortable to say the least, but Jacob was trying to collect his thoughts. What did he want to say? What should he say?

"I did it because it would've been wrong to let you die." Jacob stated bluntly and went back to wiping off a piece of the gun.

Eden studied him, it was almost like his answer didn't sit right with her. "That's the only reason?" She asked, this time a bit softer.

Jacob set down the gun piece and walked over to her in three short strides. Eden didn't look scared, she locked eyes with him and watched him approach her.

Jacob stood in front of Eden, looking down at her face. "The other times...I did it because I couldn't let you go." He admitted, eyes staring right back into Eden's. "At first it felt like my duty to Joseph, maybe that's what I explained it off as, but really it was just an excuse I told myself."

Eden gazed back up at Jacob, she couldn't tell if this feeling in her stomach was fear, or relief. For some reason she felt a tear welling in her eye, she wasn't sad, but that's just what was happening.

"I watched you for so long from afar, I was always so far removed from you, even when I wasn't, but that night in the cabin...it showed me what I had been ignoring. I cared. I may have been angry and acted like I didn't care but I did and that scared me." Jacob glanced down at her hands, he was avoiding meeting her gaze, as if he had much of a choice.

     Eden stayed fixated on his eyes. Those same dull blue eyes that he studied her for so long, now deciding to evade her.

     "At first it felt like I had no choice but to save you, because of my duty to my family." Jacob explained. "Every time after that...it felt like I had no choice, because of my duty to you." Jacob met her gaze again, Eden knew he was telling the truth. She could see it in his eyes.

"Eden...I know I've hurt you, and you don't have to forgive me for that, but I-"

Eden cut him off by placing her hand on his cheek. She slowly rose onto her tiptoes and gently pulled his face down to meet hers. Then she kissed him, on the lips, softly.

Jacob softened into the kiss, he placed his hands on her hips, pressing her into the table she was leaning against.

Sparks had to have flown through the air from the electricity between them. Jacob beard scruff grazed Eden's face but she didn't mind it, the kiss felt so amazing it would take a whole lot more than that to make her want to stop.

Jacob pulled back just enough to break the lip lock between, he leaned his forehead against her and took a breath. "Does this mean you forgive me?" He asked her.

"Working on it." Eden admitted breathlessly. Jacob leaned back enough to look at her. His eyes avoided the bruises on her neck but he actually cracked a smile. Eden hadn't seen him genuinely smile in months.

Jacob tightened his grip on her hips and lifted her onto the table she had been leaning on. Now Eden was looking down on him, and it didn't seem like Jacob minded.

He lifted one hand up to Eden's check, his finger trailed down her sensitive neck bruises and finally rested on her shoulder. His touch made Eden shiver, even though she tried not too.

Jacob looked up from her neck and into her eyes. "I will never let that happen again." He said about her bruised neck. "You have my word, and a man is only as good as his word." Eden searched his eyes for any sort of insincerity. She found none.

Jacob leaned up and kissed Eden again. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed herself deeper into the kiss. She spread her knees apart so Jacob could step closer in. Jacob reached one hand around her back and pulled her closer towards him, his other hand rested on her knee as if to hold her in place.

Eden wished she could freeze this exact moment and all of the feelings in it, so that she could carry it with her for the rest of her life. She never wanted to escape from Jacob's gentlemanly hold. If Eden died right here and now, she would be content.

And Jacob felt the same way. After so much time spent silently dealing with his conflicting feelings, he was finally discovering what he really wanted. He wanted Eden and her passion, her gentle hand and that massive heart of hers. He wanted to feel the warmth of her.

Now he was finally able to, but would Jacob really be able to keep it? Or was that just some twisted fantasy he had?