[h2]Esme Stirling[/h2]

Esme wrapped her arms around Duke and held on to him the moment his grip tightened around her waist and caught her. She then rested her forehead against his chest as he pulled her tight against his chest, then the rest of the way out of the tub. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, slowly letting it out to collect herself and to slow her heart rate as he held her close to him. She couldn’t have been more thankful that he was there with her to catch her before she connected with the hard tile floor. It didn’t take a genius to know that the fall would have done more damage to her already beaten up body, which was the last thing she wanted or needed. Once she felt stable in his arms, she loosened her grip around him, opened her eyes, and lifted her forehead from his chest, then looked up at him and laughed along with him at his comment. Maybe a little too hard because of his raised eyebrows. 

“Well, you know me. I’ve never been one to make much easy.” she laughed as he steadied her onto her good leg. She let her arms fall from around him when he unfolded the towel that was on his arm but made sure they were out of the way as he wrapped the towel around her and tucked it in on itself. At his question, she raised a single eyebrow and watched him as he knelt to one knee and ran his hand up her bad leg. “For now.” she teased, even though her tone sounded serious. She continued to watch him as he lifted the towel just enough to check on her stitches and trace his fingertips around them. At his sigh, she knew he was relieved that her tumble didn’t tear or pop a stitch. When he stood and lifted her chin, she couldn’t help but smile softly as she saw his smirk, then it grew at his words and was followed by a light laugh as she met his gaze.

“Sometimes I do get lucky.” she replied with a laugh in her tone. She then fell silent, a look of playful thought taking over her features, showing she was somewhat thinking about what he asked her, then broke the silence. “I’m actually a little surprised you asked. Before, you would just take control of the situation and do what you thought was best. Then again, this is a tad different than all those situations.” she finished with a light laugh. “But since you asked…… I’m not sure I trust my feet to get me from here to there after what just happened.” As Esme held Duke’s gaze, the smile that rested on her lips spread to her eyes, showing that she was pretty relaxed at the moment even with them both being in nothing but towels. What also brought on the smile was that she knew her suggestion for him to carry her would probably surprise him, since she wasn’t really one to be carried no matter what state she was in. 

Though if she wanted to be truly honest with herself, Duke and Dean were the only ones that could get away with carrying her without much protest from her, if any at all. She had trusted them both with her life back then and still did to this day. There probably wasn’t any other living person she trusted more than she did them. Yes, there were others that she trusted to help her out in a situation if she needed it, but her trust for those select few didn’t come close to the trust she had with Duke and Dean. Not to mention, they were the only ones left that she considered her true family at this point in her life. Without them, she would feel completely and utterly alone in this chaotic world.