Jace felt her head come to rest on his shoulder and instantly his arms encircled her. Holding her tightly in his embrace. Whispering words of love in her ear in response to her words. "I love you more then anything else in the whole world Melissa, I love you. I love you. I love you." He kept whispering over and over until the sound of his voice faded to nothing. Tears threatened to choke him as he held her tightly to him. He wanted nothing more then to lie here forever with her, but he knew he had to let her go. Letting his arms fall back he watched her rise until she sat looking down at him. He gave her his best smile. So happy to see her alive.<br/><br/>"I'll be ok. And your hurt too," he started and then added quickly, "it's just a flesh wound to my head, I think. Those bleed like mad, but I don't think it's too bad. I'll be ok love," he reassured her quickly. He had almost forgotten the pain in his head in the joy of having her in his arms again. How he had been so certain she had been hurt or killed and here she was alive and well not well, but alive and in relative health. "Yah I can shout, it seems others are shouting too, maybe once we can stand we should go look for the others." He suggested wondering if that was a good idea. Until he heard the explosion that is.<br/><br/>Jace was mixed between relief and distraught. Relief at having found Malissa and being here by her side no matter how much he hurt. He didn't care. She was alive, he was alive. He was so damned happy to be alive. And watching the destruction out to see made his stomach clench in fear and many other things he couldn't even process. It was so overwhelming he felt like screaming. All the death around him. He just never was good at dealing with death. He watched the flaming wreck of his relaxing vacation and reunion with his lover sink bellow the waves and wanted to weep.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Suck it up! Your a man after all act like it!</span><br/><br/>He chastised himself in his thoughts, but damn this was just not his cup of tea. Well who's would it be. No one wanted to be stuck on some island after a crash. Did anyone know they had crashed? Would there be a rescue sent? Would the airline notice? How long would it take? So many thoughts swam one after the other in his brain he felt like it might explode. He was just too tired for all this and wanted nothing more then to let his aching body fall into unconsciousness and sleep. Knowing full well that wouldn't be the answer to his survival he forced himself to sit back up. Letting the waves of dizziness pass and wondering what their next move was. After all others had survived too. Guess they would need to work as a team if they were going to survive. Lucky for him that wasn't something he frowned upon. He'd do what it took to survive. He couldn't change the past. Damn he wanted a strong drink right about now.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Enough lollygagging you moron, get up and move forwards.</span><br/><br/>He mentally screamed at himself. He couldn't allow himself to just sink into self-pity. Deal with the situation there would be time to feel sorry for himself later. He had Melissa to look after. He had to focus on that. He had to make her his number one priority, maybe this time he could save her. Maybe this time he wouldn't be a failure. Maybe this time things would be different. He hadn't failed her yet. Maybe. Just maybe. He could outlive the pain of his past just this once. Maybe he could do a good deed this time, one that didn't mark him as the failure he was. He swallowed hard at those thoughts brought on others of his past of his child. He had to close his eyes as tears threatened to blind him. He couldn't go there.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Act don't think!</span><br/><br/>He demanded of himself. Now was the time for action. Thoughts would come later. Right now survival was all that mattered. He gently took Melissa's hand in his, "come on we need to find the others, we need shelter and supplies, your injured, I'm injured, their probably all a little banged up. The sooner we find the others who survived and assess our situation the better," he said lightly as he slowly got up and offered to help her up. The world was still spinning slightly making it hard for him to focus fully when he was standing, but he could cope with that. Just like being a little drunk, he figured.