Chapter 5

Sooo sorry for the wait. Life tends to carry you away sometimes, and with it the inspiration to your story! Hoping to overcome this writer's block, your comments would be extremely appreciative. As for questions pertaining to some of the characters, the mystery will be revealed in good time. Thank you!

Cadogan looked at Kara wondering what she was going to ask. He can only hope that he will be able to answer her questions. Kara looked up at Cadogan, catching him staring. As much as Cadogan wanted to look away, he couldn't do it.

Kara held Cadogan's gaze, wondering which question to ask first. {May as well start at the beginning} "You say you carried me from Fairview; what do you do, or have you done to get in such good physical condition?"

"Uhh ... well ... for pretty much my entire youth I spent my summers at my grandparent's house. They own a farm and I did everything I could to help out. I realized that while doing so I became conditioned and stronger every summer, so I just decided to keep things going when I came back by hitting the gym every week."

"Hmm ... and how do you account for your unusual quick reflexes?" Cadogan barely withheld his shock at her noticing that. {Perhaps that is a question I can ask her}

"Well, I have always had quick reflexes, sort of growing up on a farm, you learn to develop that being around animals a lot, but perhaps what really helped that was my older brother. He had a thing for boxing ... still does, and always used me as a sparring partner."

Kara looked at him for a while after that. Was he telling the truth? He had given her no reason to doubt her but ... Kara sighed. {I think he has proven himself worthy of at least my trust} "Why do you want to help me? ... know about me?"

"That is a question I find difficult to answer myself. I have done things in the past 24 hours that I have never done before in my life; let alone trying to figure out why..." Kara looked down and blushed. She knew the feeling.

"You can ask whatever questions you want." Kara said in a small voice, still looking down. Cadogan reached to her and lifted her chin.

"Are you sure?"

Kara looked into his eyes, searching. Her intuition told her she could trust him, and she had never talked about it with anyone else. She was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that it was 'time'. The feeling made her want to cry, but she bit back her tears, not wanting anyone to see, much less him ... weakness.

"Yes."

"Okay. I guess ... well, I was going to ask as to why you were passed out in the snow, but you said on the phone that it was an anxiety attack—"

"Do you want to know what happened, why I had an anxiety attack?"

"Well..." Cadogan started.

"If you have any other questions, you might want to ask them all now because the answers to all of them could be the same reason."

"Okay ... umm ... what happened at breakfast, and I uh ... noticed when you were on the phone ... well ... um, why do you push everyone away, and... [Cadogan looked down] what is the 'very serious reason' ... also, why did you ask the question about my reflexes?"

Kara thought for a moment. "Alright Cadogan, I will start at the beginning. Eight years ago I met someone. His name was Cole. We started dating, and everything was perfect, at first. We never even argued. But suddenly everything changed. He started pushing me away, and wouldn't even give me a reason why. By then I had fallen deeply in love with him, the kind of love that you would die for, do anything to save.

"I just couldn't let it go without a reason. So I started digging, trying to find out what was happening to him that he would forsake our love ... we had plans to marry, have kids ... The more I found out about him, the less I wanted to know. Then he finally told me. Turns out that it was all true, but the reason he was pushing me away... [Kara's voice started to waver] was to protect me.