A/N: I would really like to thank all the people who reviewed my first story. You are all amazing!:D I hope you like this one too!

Disclaimer: All rights belong to their original owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Stay with me

~~o0o~~

Niles Brightmore sat motionless on the edge of the bed, their bed. The one they had shared since they had gotten married two years ago. It was the bed they had made love in countless times. It was the bed that he had stayed up late at nights starring into her beautiful sleeping face in silent amazement. It was the bed that they had laid there, wrapped in each other's arms for hours, making plans for the future or just staring into each other eyes before drifting off into a peaceful sleep. Now it was only empty and messy just like his life.

He looked like he hadn't slept or shaven in days, his hair was messy and his jaw was covered with stubble. He had buried his head in his hands. Everything was so blurry inside his mind. He had never, ever felt so helpless or desperate in his life. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what he was going to do, what he could do. They say that if you love someone you should let them go, but they never say what to do when they don't come back.

Only sounds of footsteps echoed in the room as a figure walking around it. He slowly raised his head to face the figure. The only source of light was the morning sun whose weak rays peeking into the room through a crack in the closed curtains of the bedroom window, but they lighting up the room enough, so he was able to see the figure clearly.

She was a woman probably in her late thirties, early forties with ocean blue eyes and short blonde hair that went perfectly with her pale skin, strangely pale compared to her usual complexion. The woman was wearing a simple, yet elegant, blue dress that ended just below her knees. What an irony, blue was his favorite color because matched her eyes.

The woman disappeared into the closet and after a minute or two of searching she pulled out a large luggage. Slowly she placed her luggage onto the floor and put her belongs in one by one. She opened one of the top drawers of her dresser and threw some underwear into the large luggage. She then disappeared into the closet, where he pulled a red silk dress from a hanger, which ended into the luggage too. She could feel his eyes on her, watching her every move, but she didn't say anything. She knew if she did that she would lose all of her strength and she couldn't do what she was about to do.

Shaking, Niles gripped the edge of the bed hard enough to turn his knuckles white. He secretly wished he could just turn back time and make things the way they were before all this mess, but unfortunately that wasn't an option.

The blonde let out a heart wrenched sigh as she dragged her suitcase off the floor and started to make her way across the room towards the bedroom door.

"Don't leave," Niles said with ache to his tone as the sound of her high heels clinking against the hardwood floor, alerting him that she took another step away from him. He tried to steady his racing heartbeat by taking slow calculating breaths, but it was useless. "Please, don't walk away from me." He begged again as a single tear rolled down his cheek and into the floor.

The woman took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, trying to gather herself."I'm sorry, I thought I could do this but I can't…not anymore."

Niles could see that her eyes were completely avoiding him, looking at anything in the bedroom, well anything but him. "It's okay…we…we can get through this, together. Like always did...we just… need more time." He said pressing his hands against the edge of the bed even harder, feeling the rough wood under his fingers.

"Don't you get it?" She cried out loud. "Nothing is okay and nothing ever would be again. It's too late Niles… and I'm so tired of pretending." She could already feel the tears beginning to gather in her eyes. "I can't be what you want me to be. I'm not that woman …that woman don't exist anymore."

Niles shook her head in denial. "No, no, no." He repeated over and over again. "Don't say that. Not after all this time, not after everything we've been through together. We'll find a way to make things okay again, you will see."

His words made her heart swell with pain. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She apologized, her voice dropping a few octaves. Deep down in her heart she knew that he would probably never forgive her for this, but it was a decision she had to make for the sake of both, and it wasn't easy or fair.

She gripped the handle on the luggage even tighter as if her life depended on it. You have to leave. You have to do this, you have to. So stop being a selfish bitch and leave. Leave now. A tiny voice in the back of her mind kept repeating over and over again like a broken record. She stopped in her tracks and swallowed hard once he realized what she was about to say. "You should let me go, erase the past and move on with your life"

Niles felt as though someone had just punched him in the stomach. His voice was rough when he spoke. "I could have ripped out my heart...my mind...my soul in order to erase you but even then, I still wouldn't be truly free from you." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing. "What we had was uncommon…was beyond love …was something different… special. How could you even ask me to erase it….us?"

She knew deep in her heart that he was right, but she wasn't going to let him know that of course. Something as special as this would never end as something that they could simply erase from their memory and that was so much painful that she wished he was wrong.

"Do you…" he couldn't finish his sentence. The words couldn't form in his brain, much less on his lips. He paused for a second, took a few deep breaths and tried again. "Do you still love me?" He was so scared for the answer but he needed to hear the truth from her no matter how painful it may be.

She didn't answer his question she just continued to walk towards the door and he got even more angry and frustrated.

"Answer me, damn it." His voice rose and was loud enough to echo within the walls of the now empty bedroom. His balled fists were shaking with fury as a wave of anger was boiling inside of him. He reached by his side of the bed grapping a picture frame on the side table, and threw it at the wall, watching the frame shattering into pieces. His anger suddenly subsided and was replaced with a horrible mixture of emptiness and regret once he realized what he had just broken.

The loud crash of glass shattering filled the room and made her stop dead in her tracks. She slowly turned. What she saw almost broke her heart in thousands pieces. It was his favorite photo. It was the only photo taken of the two of them the night they got married. He had his hand around her waist, and she had placed hers against his chest, both had big smiles on their faces.

He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes in pain as another tear fall from his eye and down his cheek. They weren't supposed to end up like this. Not like this. Never like this. They were supposed to live happily ever after …and this…well this…It wasn't fair, but then again life was never fair, he'd learned that the hard way.

"I…" She began but her voice died in her throat and she stopped for a moment to collect herself. "I love you." She said truthfully.

"Then you'll stay with me. If you love me you'll stay." His voice filled with desperation. He knew this was his last chance to make her change her mind.

She lowered her gaze to the floor and mumbled in a barely audible whisper. "Please don't do this, it's not fair and you know it."

"Then stay for one more day, just one more day." He pleaded.

The woman shook her head sadly. "No, this isn't good for you or me." She replied as she reached for the door knob but his next words made her fingers frozen in place.

"But I don't wanna live without you. Please, don't make me live without you."

"I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice." She said in a soft yet firm tone, holding the knob even tighter causing her fingers to shake and her knuckles turn white.

"But you are my life," His voice cracked a bit.

"Was," The word come out of her lips a little louder than she intended. She paused to take a deep breath then lowered her voice before continuing. "And now you have to let me go and live yours."

Niles shut his eyes tightly and turned his face away as a hurt expression overtook his features, but a few seconds later he decided to open them knowing he might be looking to the woman he loved with all his heart for the last time. His eyes darted up revealing his own face staring into the reflection of her back in the mirror. She slowly turned around and stared into the mirror, meeting his gaze there. His light blue eyes locked into her dark blue ones, the eyes he loved so much and he would miss more than he could ever admit to even himself.

"Goodbye, Niles" She heard herself whispered, feeling the weight of his gaze pressing down on her. The soft whisper was barely audible, but Niles heard it. And with those words, the woman took her wedding ring off of her finger and walked over to him until she was standing right in front of him, then took his hand in her hand and placed the ring in his palm, closing his fist around it.

He didn't say a single word, just stood there expressionless, looking at her...through her. Suddenly he felt very old and very tired. His eyes were darker than usual and his face was so pale it felt painful to look to it.

She had the sudden urge to hold him, to tell him that it was all a lie or some sort of lame joke or something, but decided against it. She wasn't going to turn back now like her heart kept begging her to. She wasn't going to continue breaking his heart and destroying his life. She has been doing this for almost twenty years, and she was so sick and tired of it.

"Babcock" He whispered, using her surname instead of calling her Chastity or Chas like he always did after their marriage. "

C.C. looked at him in confusion. "Yes?"

He opened up his fist and stared at the small diamond ring. "This is not the end"

C.C. gently shook her head. "Nothing's forever, Niles. Everything ends eventually" And that was the truth. Or maybe that was a lie? The voice inside her mind asked her.

"That's not true" He answered almost immediately as if he'd heard the unspoken thought. "I know we'll meet again. I don't know where or when but somehow I know this is not the end. We'll see each other again someday, so until then please know that I love you more than anything."

"Niles" Maxwell called out from outside the bedroom door in a soft tone of voice. When he didn't get an answer he decided to open the door a little.

Niles sighed when he heard behind him, the creak of the bedroom door and slowly turned his head in Maxwell's direction.

"Are you okay, old man? Who're you talking to?" Maxwell asked worriedly, poking his head through the crack of the door.

Niles turned his head and looked back at the spot where C.C had been a few seconds ago, but there was no one there.

"Niles, what are you looking at, old man?" Maxwell asked. His eyes were filled with confusion.

Niles stood silently for a moment then turned back to him, shaking his head sadly. "Nothing, Sir" he said. "Nothing at all"

Maxwell cleared his throat uncomfortably and asked almost in a whisper. "Are you ready to go? C.C's funeral starts in an hour."

"No, but I don't really have a choice, now do I?" He mumbled sadly, casting his gaze to the floor.

"No, but we're all here for you, Niles. I hope you know that."

"I know, Sir. Thank you," He said and lifted his eyes from the floor to look at him. Max eyes were full of sympathy and concern. Niles could sense that Maxwell wanted to say a few words of sympathy in order to comfort him, something like I know what you're going through or you'll be okay, but the last thing he wanted or needed right now was sympathy so he quickly spoke."We better go now."

Maxwell nodded and opened the door wider.

Niles tried to move from his spot, but found that he couldn't move an inch. He didn't know why, but no matter how hard he tried his feet remained pinned to the floor. He opened her mouth to yell for help, but no sound came out. Suddenly, his vision blurred and the room began to spin around him. He squeezed his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to stop the horrible spinning of the room, but without success. The room kept spinning faster and faster around him, making him dizzy. He reached out to grab something to steady himself, but it was too late, his knees buckled underneath him and he fell to the floor with a loud thud. The last thing he heard before he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness was a familiar voice calling his name and then…silence.

~~o0o~~

"Niles, are you okay? Wake up." C.C. called, gently shaking his shoulder in an effort to wake him from his nightmare.

Finally, he opened his eyes. He was breathing heavily as if he had run a marathon and his body was covered in sweat. Slowly, he pushed himself up into a sitting position with his back leaning against the wooden headboard and took some deep breaths, trying to control his racing heart.

C.C. saw the expression of confusion on his face and cupped his cheek, forcing him to look at her. "Niles, look at me. It was only a nightmare."

It was only then that he noticed C.C. sitting next to him with a worried expression on his face. Instantly he wrapped her arms around her and hugged her so tightly as if his whole life depended on it. "Oh, Chas… thanks God! Oh, thank God! I was so scared I'd lose you." He whispered.

C.C. stood there motionless like a statue too shocked to say anything. She had never seen him act like this before and that worried her a bit.

Suddenly he pulled away and looked at her with confusion in his blue eyes."Wait a minute, how do I know that I'm not still dreaming? How do I know that you are really here?"

C.C. raised her hand and smacked him gently in the arm with the back of it. "Was that enough to convince you, Niles?" She asked with an innocent smile on her face, but quickly wiped the innocent look off her face and replaced it with an evil smirk. "Hmm…maybe I should find something heavy to hit you with it on the head." She said hitting him playfully with her hand on the same arm again.

"Ohhh" Niles yelled in fake pain, holding his arm. "Damn it woman, stop abusing me!"

C.C. rolled her eyes. "From now on no more movies for you, now go back to sleep."

"Oh, you are really bossy; Good thing I like that in a woman." He said before lay back down on the bed, pulling her down with him, feeling her warm body pressing against him.

Instinctively she brought her left hand to rest against Nile's firm chest, right above his heart. A playful smile formed on her lips as she thought about teasing him just a little bit more. "And they sent me to the p…place." C.C. started murmuring through her teeth, pretending to be angry. "He is in even worse condition…Oh, I should have listened to my mother when she told me to not marry the old maid…he will end up like Yetta someday."

"Hey! I can hear you, you know!" Niles yelled trying to look annoyed, but his smile betrayed him.

"Madnuts"

"Broomhilda"

"Swine"

"Chicken"

"Servant"

"Trollop"

"I love you, Niles" she whispered.

He knew she did even though she didn't say those words out loud often, but at the same time, the rarity was what made them even more precious."I love you too, Chas" he whispered back in a sleepy tone. "I don't ever wanna lose you."

She smiled and pecked him on the lips lightly."Good, because I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life." She said in the same tone before drifting off into her own peaceful sleep.