Author's Notes: Title taken from "Past in Present" by Feist. Anyway, there are no spoilers here, just yours truly daydreaming about a life Holly and Michael might one day share. I guess this takes place maybe about 3-5 years in the future.
Disclaimer: The Office doesn't belong to me.
feeling it from dark to bright
Their house was painted yellow, and various flowers decorated the front yard. Holly was into gardening. Michael hadn't known that before. They knew each other well, but there were minute details about each that the other learned every now and then. Michael loved that he had become privy to the intimate little details that made up Holly since they'd moved in together last year.
He's learned that she often hummed Queen while getting ready for work in the morning. He'd entered the bathroom early one day while she was perfecting her makeup. Her humming the melody of "Bohemian Rhapsody" had ended in them singing "We Are the Champions" at the top of their lungs while eating Wheaties for breakfast. When Michael remembered moments like those, he fell in love with Holly all over again.
That morning, she was sitting on the couch with her feet tucked under her, reading a book. Michael spotted the title: Without a Backward Glance, by Kate Veitch.
"Hey," he said.
She looked up from the book and smiled at him, "Morning."
"How long you been up for?"
"Half hour, maybe."
He joined her on the couch, and she cuddled up against him. He kissed the top of her forehead.
"Let's make this an epic day," he said, "The fair is still in Scranton."
"Oh Mike, I wish. But I've got to write a paper."
"Grad school is taking over your life," he complained.
"Sorry."
"Sure you don't wanna put it off? "
"Quite certain," she moved away from him a bit and got up from the couch, stretching.
"One single paper won't necessarily make you a better therapist," Michael grumbled.
"Michael," she looked a little surprised. He had always been nothing but supportive of her goals. Go for it, sweetie, he had urged her whenever she had brought going back to school up, carefully weighing the plusses and minuses and wondering if she could really do it. She had usually brought it up in hushed tones late at night when they cuddled under the blankets. It had been nothing but a dream then, but now it was real.
"Right now it feels like you're engaged to school instead of me," he said, sounding angry.
"You're being ridiculous," she said shortly.
"Am not. Maybe you should move out so you can practice monogamy again."
She gasped, hurt at what he had said, and left the living room.
When she got out of the shower, the house was quiet. She looked out of the window and saw that Michael's car was gone.
Most days, they got along so well. They rarely fought, and when they did it was usually over something trivial, like what to watch on TV or the fact that he'd left a mess somewhere. Never had they had anything like this before. She hated that they had been so upset with one another, and she hated that he'd said something that had hurt her like that. She hated all of it.
She frowned and tried to put it out of her mind for the time being. She sat at the kitchen table with her laptop. She opened up Microsoft word and one of her psych textbooks and began to work.
Around 10:30 she heard the front door open. She didn't have much on her paper yet, and she was kind of stressed. She wished that her fingers would quickly tap the keyboard and put together something acceptable, but instead she was left re-reading the book and typing occasionally, only to end up deleting about half of what she put down.
She heard him head up the stairs. He was ignoring her, and she tried to keep focused on the work in front of her. She didn't want to think about their fight right now; she just wanted to get this paper written.
He entered the kitchen just in time to see her crumble. She let out a whimper and slammed her fist into the book that sat on the table.
"Holl?"
"We should have just gone to the fair," she said, tears in her eyes, "I can't do this."
"Hey," he said, joining her at the table, "Of course you can. You're really good at this."
"Not this time. I can't even get a coherent thought right now."
"That's probably my fault," Michael replied, "I'm sorry I said what I did."
A fresh round of tears started, "I've been trying to forget you said that."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it."
She sniffled.
"I really didn't mean it, Holl. I think I would die if you moved out."
"Do you really feel that way? Like I've been ignoring you for all this?" She nodded toward the book and laptop.
"No," he replied, "I was just mad earlier. I didn't mean any of it. I was a jerk, Hollygram."
She wiped her eyes.
"C'mere?" he said tentatively, not sure if she would want him to hold her right now. But she moved over and sat in his lap, resting her head against his chest. He put his arms around her.
"I hate that I hurt you. I hate that you're stressed out. I suck. Psychology sucks."
She laughed.
"Really, though. I'm so sorry about earlier. It was a horrible, sucky thing to say."
"I know. It's ok. It's behind us now."
"I'm glad you do all this grad school stuff. I know it's what you want to do, and it makes you happy….well, when it's not stressing you out, anyway. And I love seeing you happy."
"You make me happy, too."
"You do it to me, too, so win-win I guess," he smiled.
"Yeah," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.
"What's your paper about?" he asked a few moments later.
"Beck's cognitive therapy of depression."
"Hard stuff?"
"Not so much. I just wasn't focused before."
He kissed the top of her head, "I'm gonna let you be. And you are gonna write the best paper on Beck in the history of all papers written on the guy."
"Your faith in me is amazing."
"I'm just telling it like it is, that's all."
A few hours later, she joined him on the back porch.
"Hey," he greeted her, "You finish?"
"I've got a good chunk of it done."
"Good."
"Yeah," she looked down at her engagement ring and then back up at him, "I love you."
"I love you too, Hollybee."
They sat like that on the steps for a bit, side by side with their knees touching.
"SNL's on tonight," Holly said eventually, breaking the silence.
Michael grinned, "And I can't wait to watch it with you. Y'know, you're going to be a great therapist one day, Holl. Those kids will be lucky to have you."
She smiled, "I'll be a therapist one day, and I'll be your wife one day. I just might be the luckiest woman in the world."