Kell slid his arm around her waist, pulling her closer and into his shoulder, and tipped his head forward to settle against her hair, shut his eyes.

I'm here. I'm here.

It melded until it was neither his voice, nor hers, but some amalgam of the two, some steady heartbeat. It hurt, and Kell shivered with it, relaxing by degrees, but never felt afraid.

He could feel her pain, though, nameless. Her fear, faceless. Her sense of being trapped, of betrayal, of helpless hurt and a desire to feel nothing, to be nothing, to make it stop.

Kell hadn't gone looking, but he didn't have to. He could feel it, even as an echo, worse than he'd ever been even at his lowest point. He didn't brace against it- instead he let her lean into him.

Carried it with her.