Chapter Text
For Raquel and Sergio the world seemed to stand still at this moment. In this moment the two of them didn't need anything but each other and silence.
They had never needed words to show mutual what they were feeling, not from the start. Enough had been said, screamed and cried for the last few hours. They had literally gone through hell for the past 3 days, lost friends who become family, lost each other and finally found each other again, unlike it was ever planned, but they found each other.
The time in the ambulance and what happened afterwards passed them like a time lapse, because what both of them wanted were the arms of the other, to feel the comfort and the joy of seeing each other again and, above all, to finally begin to be happy. Without a word, Sergio dragged Raquel with himself into the shower and they took off each other's dirty, torn clothes. Sergio couldn't help but look at his girlfriend at this moment, gently like a father who touched his newborn child for the first time, he took her face between his hands, looked at her to make sure that nothing had happened to her, that she was left intact.
Raquel's eyes stared tiredly into his, her hands stroking his chest, shaky and feeble. Her touch made him feel relieved, as if tons of weight were falling from his heart. He took a deep breath and pushed a strain of her blonde hair behind Raquel's ear, which had grown enormously in the last 2 years they had been together.
He smiled. She had always been beautiful to him. From the beginning he loved her hair, which curled up when it got longer, her light brown eyes and her nose piercing. He loved it when she pinned her hair in a bun with a pencil and thoughtfully played with the ends. He loves her laugh and the expression on her face when she thought. He was crazy about her voice, her smell, and her body. God, her body!
Sergio was happy that she was with him again and he promised himself right here, right now at this point in time, that he would never leave her alone again. Not a second.
Raquel seemed to notice that something was going through his head, because now she ran her hands up into his black hair and looked at him questioningly. Sergio just shook his head slightly and pulled her into a tight hug. He gently ran his fingers up and down her back, almost as if she were a fragile porcelain doll.
She responded his touch with a sigh, clutching his hair tighter and pressing her face to his chest. She missed his smell. The warm water was good for both of them, relaxing their exhausted bodies and distracted thoughts.
It helped them to collect themselves again, to organize everything in their minds and to cope better with past events. After all it was suddenly difficult for Raquel to stand on, she leaned more against him, seeking support.
Sergio clutched her upper body, held her much tighter and turned off the water with his elbow. Then he picked her up fully, which made her exhale in surprise and carried her out of the bathroom, grabbeding a towel and sat down with her on the bed of their hotel room. Then they rubbed each other dry. After that, they just held each other for a while, touching, kisseing.
Raquel couldn't hold back the tears anymore and just let them run silently, Sergio brushed them aside with his thumb.
Still in silence, they pulled on the clothes that had been laid out for them. He pulled on his black shirt but only half-heartedly buttoned it and pulled on his shorts. He left the pants. Raquel pulled on the fresh underwear and the white t-shirt. She brushed her long, wet hair apart with her fingers. Both could barely move.
It was just all too much, everything that had happened. But they were together again, at last. Despite everything that had happened, the two felt happy and it didn't seem real to them at that moment that it should all be over and through.
When they both lay on the bed with their hair still wet and looked at each other, Raquel fell on the fact that Sergio‘s body had been affected far more than hers. She gently ran her fingers over the dry laceration on his eyebrow, which Tamayo had given him with a slap in the face. Thinking back on it made her sick.
The coronel had beaten him in front of her eyes, knocked his glasses off his face and rammed a fist into his stomach several times. He tried very hard to downplay his pain to her, but Raquel could see and of course feel that his body was hurting more than he was admitting.
She swallowed the lump in his throat, ran her fingers through his hair again, soft and carful, and noticed with satisfaction how he relaxed a little under her touch. Tired, he closed his eyes and took her free hand in his.
Raquel smiled. She enjoyed the effect it had on him, how she could calm him down with her bare hands and gentle gestures. She closed her eyes too and squeezed his hand. How much she had missed his closeness, his warm, firm body against hers. How much she had missed his hugs, his quiet sighs when she pulled him close and kissed him. God how she loved this man!
Her heart pounded when she thought back to his marriage proposal. She opened her eyes slightly to look at him. She couldn't help caressing his beautiful face again, whereupon he briefly opened his eyes again. Sergio smiled tiredly in her face and moved a little closer to her. She smiled back. Neither of them could believe their luck at the moment. They could be together, they could get married and nothing and no one would ever stop them again.
When Sergio was almost asleep, Raquel spoke up again. Her voice was almost hoarse after the long silence, and Sergio had to use all his strength to resist his tiredness in order to listen to her.
"How did you manage to give Antoñanzas your watch?" Sergio put his one hand on his elbow, with the other he stroked her cheek and answered gently: "Marseille and I visited him at his house, at night."
Raquel smiled sadly and leaned her face in his warm palm. "I have to tell you, if I hadn't seen the clock, I almost did something stupid," she said quietly and ruefully. Sergio just shook his head. "We all made mistakes, they interrogated you for 30 hours, not everyone would put it away as easily as you, Raquel."
She swallowed and kissed his hand, which was still caressing her cheek. "Do you know what I was thinking, I mean, when they had something else to do than ask me non-stop questions?"
"What?“ ,asked Sergio, pulling her into an embrace once more, he didn't want an inch between him and her leave.
“What are you doing to get me out of there? What is Marseille doing? Or what you're doing to save the others in there. I longed for you with every fiber of my body, I was afraid you wouldn't make it without me, I wanted ... ". She stopped and took a deap breath.
Sergio kissed the top of her head. "I was almost mad with anger, I thought you were dead. Tokyo finally convinced me that you couldn't be dead, after all, everything spoke against it. But I was blind with pain and sadness, Palermo asked me to organize a surgeon for Nairobi, but I could hardly concentrate. I thought I would never see you again."
His chest, on which she had rested her head, began to vibrate while he was shaking in quiet, soft sobs. Losing even more members of the team in this attack had been his greatest fear from the start, not to mention that the woman he loved and who had decided to stand by him might also be injured, killed or captured in the process.
Raquel lift her head and kissed away the tears that ran down his face. "It's all ok, I'm here, I'm with you.", She whispered gently and had to pull herself together not to burst into tears again. He shook his head.
“I'm sorry, Raquel. I'm so sorry for everything! I wasn't always honest with you, I mean when you were gone I felt like I wasn't complete, like a piece of my heart was ripped out of me. I should never, never have let you participate. I was very unjust and angry with you at times, said bad things. God, I'm so sorry, I'm glad you're back with me, please forgive me ... "
Raquel's tears were now also running down her face, her sobs were in sync with his and both of them just stayed silent.
"You have to tell me everything, you know?" She said a few minutes later. "I want to know what happened when I was in the tent." Sergio nodded slightly. "I'll tell you everything," he said quietly and kissed her forehead.
“I'll tell you everything you want to know. It's good to talk to you.”
Raquel nodded as well and snuggled against his neck, his stubble tickling her nose. "And then we will got married.“ Sergio smiled. „Yes we will.“