"Ryan you can't be serious." Natalia rummaged through Ryan's locker as she threw various items out. "This is stuff my five year old niece has in her cubby at school." She picked up crayons and play doh, and her eyebrows furrowed with confusion.
"These are heavily used too."
"Nat, I didn't invite you here to make fun of me." Ryan pouted and crossed his arms. He froze as Natalia picked up a small notebook.
"What are you, a twelve year old girl? I never even kept a diary when I was little." She opened it, but Ryan snatched it out of her hands.
"Nope, that's not for your eyes."
"Ry, we are best friends. I fail to see how anything is a secret between us." She lightly chuckled, but Ryan still kept a stern face. Natalia abruptly stopped laughing, and got up off the floor and onto the bench. "If it's something with your love for Calleigh, just remember today's your last day, you don't have to worry about IAB."
"Natalia, please, there's nothing like that in there. It's…" Ryan stuttered as he looked for a way out of the conversation. Luckily, changing conversation with Natalia was easy. "The Patriots are playing in London tonight, wanna join with me to watch the game?"
"Ryan, I hate the Patriots." She gave a smirk because she knew how dedicated Ryan was to his home-state teams.
"Oh you just don't understand football then."
She looked up at Ryan, who was emptying the top shelf of his locker. She observed his mannerisms: how he put his stuff inside the box, and how he even held the box. Natalia loved observing Ryan, because she thought he was the most interesting person to look at.
"Ryan." She spoke up after a few silent minutes.
"Yes Natalia."
"You put a picture frame in the box. What was that?" Natalia got up and took it out of the box. It was a picture of the two of them when they went to visit Ryan's family in Boston. They were sitting on the stairs of the Boston Library, and Natalia had her head on Ryan's shoulder.
"You still have this? I gave it to you ages ago." Natalia stroke the glass with her hand.
"I don't know I never wanted to get rid of it. I really like the picture." He directed his eyes away from her, who stared blankly into his.
"That was a great day, I never been to Boston before that" She exclaimed, pointing to that picture. "I want to go again." Natalia sensed the tension radiating off of Ryan, so she directed the conversation more towards him, rather them.
"Well, we can always plan another week, because technically I don't work here anymore." He smiled to himself as Natalia's face lit up.
"Wait, Ryan I want to know why you decided to leave CSI. Was it Eric? Do I have to kill him for you?" Natalia beamed.
"I left because I got a great job offer. Close to home, and close to what I love." Ryan noticed the look on her face. "It's not that I hated working here, I just needed a change."
"Jesus Ryan, I understand, but if you really wanted to leave me…" She broke out into laughter that filled the locker room. "So where will you be working, Pensacola county lab? Even the FBI?" Natalia perplexed look pieced Ryan's sight.
"About that. Can we talk about this tonight? You know, just incase someone overhears." Ryan closed his locker for the last time. "Call me when you are close to my house, okay?" He winked at Natalia and walked out of the locker room.
"Sure, I can do that." Natalia whispered in silence. She sat there for a few more minutes, perplexed by the secrecy of Ryan's new job. As she continued to look around inconspicuously, she noticed a folded paper. Upon inspection, Natalia noticed what looked like a flight receipt: a single flight to Logan Airport.
"He's going back to Boston?" Natalia folded the paper back up and put it in her pocket. She left abruptly; she wanted to figure out what actually was going on.
The drive to Ryan's house was filled with mixed emotions that Natalia couldn't comprehend. Moving, and Boston was the only two words that she couldn't understand. She didn't understand why he would be going all the way up north without telling anyone.
She flipped open her phone and typed his number into her keypad. "Hey Ry, I'm on my way, like five minutes maybe." She closed the phone after that and placed it on the seat next to her.
Ryan sipped his coffee in a small manner as he observed the boxes that were packed, ready to be shipped across the country.
He heard footsteps coming up his porch, and set his coffee down. From the door, Natalia asked to come in.
"Yeah Nat, you can." She opened the door and closed it, and locking it.
"Remember during the Battle of Antietam, when the Union found Lee's plans, and they ended up winning the Civil war because of it?" She fidgeted with the paper that was inside her pockets.
"Why, that was out of pure luck."
Natalia slowly took the paper out of her pocket. "Well then, consider myself lucky." She handed it over as Ryan unfolded it. "When were you going to tell me, when you are boarding the plane? Or when you just landed?"
He looked blankly at the piece of paper in front of him. In his head, he couldn't help but think how stupid he was for forgetting this.
"I was going to tell you tonight. Actually, I was going to tell you a few things tonight."
Natalia raised one eyebrow. "Don't tell me, your OCD got worse, and this trip to Boston is to go into a mental institution." She winked and sat down on his couch. Ryan followed suit, and turned to face Natalia.
"Listen to me Nat, I was offered a job as a homicide detective at BPD, and they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. Better pay, better hours, new people to meet." Ryan continued on a tirade until Natalia shut him up.
"That's not the reason. I can sense it. You want to know why, because you are babbling about things that you don't care about. You don't care about hours or anything." Natalia looked Ryan right in his eyes. "You're lying and you know it."
At this point, Ryan snapped. "You wanna know the real reason? Do yah? Natalia, I can't stand to be around you anymore. Everyday, you are all I think about, and every night, I fall asleep thinking about what you are doing at that very minute. I'm so crazy about you, and I can't do a damn thing about it." Ryan forcefully got up and started to rub his hands on his face. "You walk around like everything is okay, but in actuality, I am just dying to touch you, to love you."
Natalia sat there in awe. Her mouth hung open due to the surprise. "I… I don't know what to say."
"How about nothing, and you can go home now." Ryan walked into his kitchen to grab a beer. He sat down as Natalia sat down next to him.
"I thought I told you to go home." Ryan talked into his bottle as he took his first sip.
"I don't usually listen to directions like that." Natalia paused before she spoke again. "You taught me to look outside the box for deranged things. You also said to me that everything would be all right. Why do you doubt yourself now? Why are you doubting that I don't want to be with you?"
"Natalia, I'm moving across… or up the country, what's the point of starting a relationship now?"
"Because we want to be with each other. I can come up whenever I get the chance. Ryan I seriously can." She turned to look at Ryan, "It's not a big deal to me."
"I can't do it Natalia, the distance is too big." Ryan turned away from her to escape her stares.
"I can't believe that is your reason, you had years to build up the courage to say something to me. Why now? Why hours before you get on your plane?" She wanted to cry, but she didn't allow herself to, she wanted to remain strong.
"Please Ryan, give this a chance. If it doesn't work out, we can forget about each other, we'll never see each other again." She moved her head to look at Ryan, who in response look right at Natalia. "Plus, this'll give me an excuse to go back to Boston."
Ryan let out a laugh. "I don't know, is it worth it? I mean someone will find out sooner-" Natalia shut Ryan up with a kiss to his lips. He melted right into her lips, and he never wanted to come out for air.
"Wow." Ryan uttered one word as Natalia smiled back.
"Let me spend the night Ry, let me make you have the best last day anyone could ever have."
She walked down the hall, and anticipated Ryan following her.
"Oh what the hell." Ryan got up and trailed Natalia, interlocking hands before he shut the door, and preceded with adult escapades until the moment he had to leave for Boston.