After the Shock/Don't Be Fooled By Me

[atdestinysend]

from: Oct. 13, 2003

Eckhart knocked on the bedroom door gently and told Andrea it was him. Andrea told him he could come in. When Eckhart entered he saw Andrea was already underneath the covers and lying on her side. Eckhart left the door open slightly. He wasn't sure what to say or ask. He began by asking her how she was. Andrea said she was fine. Eckhart said he was worried about her. She had been gone for so long. Andrea gave a snorted laugh and replied you were worried about me? Eckhart then said he didn't think she would be coming back.

Andrea: How did you know where to find me? How did you even know I would be here?
Eckhart: I just had a hunch. And because I know you too well.
Andrea: Do you?
Eckhart: I have not taken you for granted.

Andrea still had yet to turn to face Eckhart. But Eckhart said nothing. He didn't want to cause anymore friction than there was already between them. He remembered what Varady said: talk and listen. Eckhart then went as far as to admit that he was afraid she woluldn't come back. Andrea told Eckhart he could sit on the bed next to her if he wanted to. He did. Andrea said she would have gone back eventually. She just needed time to think. But she also said that she had become tired of it all. She just wanted to quit. Maybe deLauro's death and Adam's disappearance was a sign. Perhaps, Eckhart said. But it was also a sign of the danger that had arrived in the form of one Lexa Pierce. That's who Andrea didn't want to talk about. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to know anything. Eckhart told Andrea she could not stay here. She was risking it. The people who had vandalized and then burned down her business and looking for Adam now would eventually show up here. Eckhart wanted her to go back to the complex with him.

[atdestinysend]

from: Oct. 16, 2003

This was her life, Eckhart told Andrea. This was their life. Nothing had been normal for either of them. For Eckhart, the loss of his immune system. For Andrea, a mutant since the day she was born. What is normal, Andrea asked. Eckhart didn't know. If he knew what normal was and where it was, he would take himself and Andrea there. Eckhart got close to Andrea. He told Andrea to give him her hand. She did. He then put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. He told her they didn't have to go back to the underground. Not yet. He kissed the back of her head. He said he would stay for the night. Andrea eventually fell asleep in his arms feeling safe.

[atdestinysend]

from: Oct. 29, 2003

Andrea laid comfortably in Eckhart's arms as they laid on the couch in Andrea's home. They watched tv and then they would talk. Eckhart and Andrea stayed for one more time at her house before Andrea would finally go underground with Eckhart to help and assist with the New GSA Underground. Eckhart felt it was best. He also felt it best they marry. Andrea was surprised to hear this. Eckhart said he meant it. He wanted to marry her. But not out of convenience or for secure reasons, but because he wanted her in his life and by his side and not just as an assistant. Sort of teasing, but really meaning it, Andrea said she loved him too. She kissed him and said she accepted his proposal.

Within a few weeks Eckhart and Andrea were married. Their honeymoon and new home was the New GSA Underground. Andrea didn't neglect her duties and loyalties to the new GSA because she was now Mrs. Mason Eckhart. She was practically doing what she had been doing at Genomex before the shutdown. But she was also recruiting new GS agents. Their mission was a little different now. They were to locate Dr. Harrison as well as Adam Kane and the latter before Mutant X and as Andrea put it, before little Miss Perky (aka Lexa Pierce) did. If Adam was that stupid, Eckhart thought, he would be thinking that he could just walk right back into Sanctuary as if nothing had happened.

Eckhart and Andrea shared a personal room when the day was done. It seemed like a mini-house. Everything was close together. But there was space. Eckhart knew Andrea was always writing in her journal. So he never bothered her when she would. Eckhart asked Andrea to forgive him for not giving her the house with the white picket fence, dog and cat and garden. He could still provide the flowers-roses preferably. Blue ones. It didn't matter to Andrea what Eckhart could give her in terms of material things. All she wanted was Eckhart.