Author's Note: It has been a little while since I have written anything so I apologize for the rust. This is also a bit different from what I have written before so I hope you like it. A big thanks to everyone for taking the time to read.
The Familiar
The rain continued to pelt the window as Stella stared out onto the street. While the calendar had indicated that fall had started, it was still warm and muggy, summer refusing to leave just yet. She stared at nothing in particular, just stared. It's what she did in these moments. She thought if she stared long enough, the answers would jump out at her. But no answers had come, yet.
After a while the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, but the clouds covering her soul still remained. Maybe it was fall's arrival that caused her to harvest the feelings in her soul. What she found was doubt. Had she made the right decision? If she had, why did it feel so lousy at times? Was she just being too impatient? Would everything be OK in time?
She had been in New Orleans for two months, and in between long work days, paperwork, and court dates, she was trying to find time to adjust to the city. There were new restaurants to find, new coffee shops, new stores, and new quiet spots. There were new routines that needed to be developed. And as she settled in to those routines, it still didn't take away the hurt, no, the longing, for the life she left. The longing remained because it was the little things she missed the most and those things couldn't be replaced.
She missed the distinct smells of fall that would fragrant Central Park this time of year. She missed the familiar faces of the street vendors and bodega owners she would pass each day on her way to work. She missed Lucy's laughter as she would run about the lab, Danny and Lindsay giving chase. She missed the familiar. She missed him.
She had concluded that in time, New Orleans would become familiar. In the meantime, her memories would keep her company. There were times when they would certainly bring a much needed smile to her face or at times, only add to the hurt. She thought maybe it would be better to throw those memories away and the hurt and longing away with it. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. The memories kept resurfacing, so she let them linger. The result was that she would beat herself up for not cherishing everything she had in New York, for not cherishing the little things, for not cherishing the relationships. And just as she doubted her decision to move, she doubted that she could ever find anything as familiar as what she had known for the past fifteen years.
She took a deep breath and gathered herself. No, she would be alright. She did enjoy running a lab and enjoyed her team. There certainly were happy times and she did feel good about the work she was doing. There was a sense of reward, professionally. She would get through this and look back at these moments and laugh. She would find New Orleans familiar and New York would become more unfamiliar. But did she really believe that?
She was staring again, looking for answers to confirm her decision. But the brick and stone of the buildings across the street stared back at her coldly and blankly. They yielded only a few cracks, which Stella felt mirrored her troubled soul. The memories came flooding back, and a tear threatened to fall. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she saw for the first time an answer. She saw the familiar amongst unfamiliar. She blinked to make sure what she was seeing was real and as he smiled back at her, she knew. It has him. As she rushed outside to greet Mac, she resolved to cherish this memory, cherish this relationship, cherish this answer. She would cherish this familiar.