Wow!! thank you all so much for such lovely comments...
I'm still having massive computer/internet issues, so I'll be on and off sporadically
helloeeze - thank you! I'm glad you liked it!
kelly - thanks so much! I'm happy you were touched by this!
janicevictoria - thanks - up until that moment, Beth was someone to be protected. Now, he knew she was so much more.
lorig - thanks!! - I'm glad you enjoyed it!
alle - thank you so much! Mick is being introspective, and in his mind's eye he sees how his feelings for Beth have developed from guilt (being responsible for her childhood trauma), to protective, to dependent on her as being a way out of the darkness that he has wrapped around himself. You're right, there's a huge gulf, but love is the bridge that spans it.
mitzie - thank you so much. The fear of the first line has been replaced by the acceptance of the last.
grace - thanks, sweetie, every once in a while the muse waxes poetic (usually after a glass of wine or two)
aussiejo - thanks - sigh is the way I feel about them, too
francis - aww,

thank you so much!! The contrast between them and the two worlds they lived in is captured in the references to dark and light. When the light goes out, he believes that she doesn't need him anymore. As he finds out later, his presence is what allowed her to heal. But it was her presence in his life that allowed him to heal as well. Without each other, Beth would have been forever fearful and Mick would have been forever lonely.
one.zebra- thank you - yes, love
is the bridge between them, and I
so love the way you put it about Mick being responsible for building the bridge and Beth walking back over it to him. Wonderful!!
fairytoes - thanks so much!! Glad you liked it!
lucky - thank you! I, too, am fond of how Mick went from being the unseen protector of a child, watching over her as she developed into a beautiful woman...to a man enticed out of the shadows by her beauty and his love for her.
aolver -thanks!! I agree. I love one.zebra's interpretation, too. I'm glad you thought I captured the key MickBeth moments from the series. That was a goal.
coco - thanks, sweetie, I'm glad you enjoyed it!