Sabella & Malcolm Ch. 05

However, she didn't do that tonight. Tonight she went over to the front door, unlocked it and opened it.

A feeling of panic swept through Malcolm's body, and before he could stop himself, he made his way over to Sabella.

"Where do you think you're going!?" he asked pushing the door closed his voice and eyes filled with anger at the thought of Sabella trying to sneak out and leave.

"I was going to sit out on the porch," Sabella said her tone and breathing letting Malcolm know he'd frightened her when he slammed the door close. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to go outside and get some fresh air hoping it might relax me and help me to fall asleep. What is your problem?"

"I thought you were trying to leave," Malcolm said telling her the truth.

"As you've pointed out, where would I go?" Sabella asked placing her hands on her hips. "I don't have anywhere else I can go Malcolm so you can relax and go back to bed."

Sabella opened the door, stormed out and slammed it shut, leaving Malcolm standing in the foyer feeling like the biggest idiot around.

Knowing he needed to apologize to Sabella, Malcolm opened the door and followed Sabella outside. He expected to find her standing on the front porch, but she wasn't there. He looked up and spotted her going towards the garage and took off after her.

"Sabella."

"Get the hell away from me."

"I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted, now get away from me."

"Would you please stop and talk to me?"

"No."

"Sabella!" Malcolm almost screamed his hands reaching out, grabbing her by the shoulders, turning her around so that she was facing him.

He was surprised when he turned her around to see tears in her eyes. She was crying.

"I want to go home Malcolm," Sabella said tears running down her face as, the frustration of her situation overwhelmed her, "I want to go home!"

"I know," Malcolm said putting his arms around her and pulling her against him. "I'm going to do all I can to help you get back to your family."

"What if I can't get back?" Sabella asked. "What am I going to do then?"

"We won't think that way," Malcolm said. "This happened to you and it can be undone, we just have to find a way to undo it."

"Carolyn scares me," Sabella said. "She's not going to stop until she finds out who, I am."

"You don't have to worry about Carolyn," Malcolm said. "She won't be a problem."

"We're talking about a woman, whose very interested, in being the only woman in your life," Sabella said moving out of Malcolm's embrace. "I wouldn't be surprised if Sheriff Jenkins wasn't the one who told her, you had a woman staying here with you. Everyone knows that no one can dig up information on another woman like a jealous woman protecting her territory. He's probably hoping and expecting Carolyn to come back with information about me."

"If Jenkins is expecting Carolyn to provide him with information about you, he's going to be very disappointed because she didn't learn anything," Malcolm said. "She left here with the same amount of information, she arrived with. Nothing."

"But if the two of them are willingly or unwillingly teaming up together its only going to get worse," Sabella said, "and that won't be good for either you or me. The only way to diffuse this situation is for me to go back home. Then everything can return to normal for everyone."

"Come on," Malcolm said reaching for Sabella's hand. "Let's table this discussion until morning. We're not going to come up with a solution tonight. Tomorrow we can look at the situation with fresh eyes and clear minds."

"You go," Sabella said easing her hand out of his. "I'm still not sleepy."

"At least come inside," Malcolm pleaded not comfortable leaving Sabella outside alone.

"Okay," Sabella said. "I'll come inside."

Once they were inside Malcolm said goodnight and went upstairs to bed.

As he laid in bed his mind wandered back to what happened on the front porch and his reaction to seeing Sabella cry.

He couldn't understand why her emotions affected so. Seeing her smile thrilled him way more than it should have and her crying earlier upset him more than it should have.

He told himself it was because he was sympathetic to her situation, she was a damsel in distress in dire need of his help and that was all it could be, and he wanted to help her.

He refused to acknowledge that it was anymore than that.

It couldn't be anymore than that ,because if it was more than that, that wouldn't be good thing.

'I've got to find away to get her back to her family', Malcolm said to himself as he turned over and tried to go to sleep. 'Then just as Sabella said, things would go back to normal.'

Suddenly normal wasn't as appealing to Malcolm as it was before Sabella arrived because she wouldn't be there when things returned to normal.