A/N: I don't own anything neither CM, nor the characters.
Moving On
"There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul." (Ella Wilcox)
This was the day. The day, he would learn, what destiny had have prepared for him. David Rossi sat in a coffee shop, waiting for someone, not knowing, if this person would show up or not.
This was the day they had talked about a year ago, precisely a year ago.
Someone knocked on the door of his office. Rossi knew who it was. "Come in", he answered the knocking without looking up from the papers on his desk.
The door was opened and closed without any needless noise. No words were spoken at first - neither by Rossi, nor by his visitor.
Finally Rossi sighed. "So, you're leaving me, Kid?" he asked, raised his head and focussed her.
"As you know, I'm leaving the unit." Ashley Seaver sent a faint smile to him while she spoke.
He looked at her, saying nothing. Deep inside he knew that she was right to leave, to move on, but for a single moment he tried to imagine this would not happen. She was smart and beauty, strong and tender at the same time. He was aware that this could be destroyed within a second, because she was fragile deep inside.
"You can't be punished for inappropriate thoughts", Rossi started slowly. He got up and went around the desk.
Ashley looked at him. "Yes, but we both know that it would be more soon." She reached out her hand a little and touched his gently.
Rossi took her hand, turned it around. His eyes followed the lines on it. "I see a great, successful future in here", he finally said. "Only the love line seems to be a bit stunted. What do you think, Kid?"
He kissed her wrist. She felt his warm, dry lips placing the kiss softly and wished this would never stop.
"Maybe you're right to join another unit", he said. "But perhaps, Kid, you could promise me something."
They now stood so close together that it was only a single step to reach his embracement. Ashley was confused, but at the same time determined not to follow their desire. It was wrong, she felt it.
"Promise me", Rossi asked her, "that we will meet again in that small coffee shop just around the corner in a year . Let us then talk about what happened and how we feel. Will you give this promise, Kid?"
"I promise", she answered quietly.
The tinkling of some mugs brought Rossi's thoughts back from the past.
The year was gone by. It was not that he did not hear from Ashley during this time. There were the emails she wrote to him as usual. She wrote about her work, about what she thought, whom she met and so on. He got the regular birthday card with some words, which made him smile, and a postcard from Mexico, where Ashley had spend her vacation.
He had been married three times. So, he knew women and their behavior. Actually he was able to read them like book, but Ashley Seaver was different. He knew her nearly her whole life, but when he met her again and worked with her in the BAU team, something changed. She became special to him, special and dear.
During the last twelve month Rossi had missed her. His days had been filled with work, but every day he was thinking of her if only for a second or two.
He finished his cup of coffee.
She would not show up. He knew it. Although she had given this promise to him, she would not come. It had not been fair of him to ask about it. She had to make her own way. Ashley had to move on. His thoughts turned back again just for the feeling of his lips touching her wrist.
"Well", he murmured, "you're right, Kid, it wouldn't go well." She was moving on and so would he.
Agent Ashley Seaver watched a coffee shop from the other side of the street. It was not a suspect she was watching. She observed her friend and former colleague David Rossi.
She was aware of her promise, and she was thinking about this for weeks, but finally she had not the strength to meet him face to face. Ashley felt that this was one of the moments she would regret for the rest of her life. It was the opportunity, which was not taken.
He was sad that she did not show up. Ashley could see it. Maybe she could explain this later… in an email, a letter perhaps. Could she write to him that she did not trust her own sentiments, her wishes, her hopes? The silver bracelet he had sent for her birthday titillated her wrist gently.
Maybe next year. Next year she would go in this coffee shop to talk with Rossi.
She saw him leaving the coffee shop. So, she stepped deeper into the shadow of the tree she stood nearby. She was hiding herself, not only from him, but from her own feelings.
"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." (Mahatma Gandhi)