Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Harper's Island and all character associated with it are property of CBS.
Days Like These
Today was going to be a good day.
It had been almost three months since they got off the island, and Jimmy had gotten used to the cycle. The first week was the toughest, which wasn't unexpected. There were moments when Jimmy was almost certain that nothing could ever be good again. Times when he looked at Abby and saw nothing of the woman he knew, just the delicate remains of a fragile, broken girl. Her eyes would be lifeless, all the strength and fire he knew she possessed gone from them. Not gone from them, he thought. Taken from them.
These were the bad days, the times that she would shut off from him, the way she had done all those years before. He knew that she blamed herself, and he knew that nothing he could say would change that, regardless of how false and truly ridiculous Abby's belief was. Instead of trying to change Abby's mind, an exercise that had always been a practice in futility, Jimmy went along with it. He dealt with the screaming, with the slamming doors, with her insistence that he could never understand, that he could never help her. He let her push him away, taking comfort in the knowledge that she would come to him when she was ready. And she always did. Late in the night, she would come to him, ready to talk, and he would pull her close to him and let her talk and cry until she fell asleep on his chest, leaving him wondering what the next day would bring.
But it wasn't like this every day. There were good days, too. Days when he would wake up to find Abby sitting at the kitchen table, doing a crossword puzzle, bathed in the morning sunlight, and he can't help but think that he could used to this. They would go for walks in the morning, holding hands, cracking jokes, telling stories, and for a few brief moments, Jimmy is able to pretend that nothing had ever happened. Abby would smile and he would get lost in her beauty and his memories of a time when things were much, much easier between the two of them. On these days, he's able to believe that maybe, just maybe, things could be good again. Someday.
But these days weren't easy for Abby. They took effort, and he knew it.
He could hear it in the way her voice cracked and she stumbled over her words as she told him the story of her date with Booth during one of her visits to Seattle. The event had been completely orchestrated by Sully, who was convinced that Abby was the only girl in the world nice enough to not run screaming in the other direction when she learned of all of Booth's quirks and off-beat eating habits. She covered her uneasiness with a smile as she told Jimmy about the two hours they had spent wandering the streets of downtown Seattle, trying to find a restaurant Booth was comfortable eating in, before settling on, of all things, a McDonald's. Jimmy laughs, and Abby looks at him with a look he can't describe. "You would have liked Booth," she says quietly to him, a small, sad smile coming across her face, and Jimmy wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer to him before beginning his story of a blind date Nikki had set up for him last summer and the disastarous evening that came from it.
He could see it in the look that came across Abby's face as they sat down for dinner at a restaurant one night, across from a table that sat a young couple, a strikingly gorgeous woman and a man who was by no means ugly, but not jaw-droppingly handsome, both blonde. Abby watched as the two laughed and joked with one another, completely unaware of the world. Her eyes welled up with tears, and Jimmy reached across the table and took her hand in is, and asks her if he wants to request a different table. Abby shakes her head no, takes one last look at the couple, and then concentrates on the menu, trying not to think about a couple she had known not so long ago.
But more than anything, he could feel it in her reaction and he held her in his arms and whispered softly into her ear "Abby, I love you." When he felt her body go tense, he realized that she wouldn't be able to hear the simple truth he was reminding her of. Instead, he knew she would only hear the last words of Henry Dunn, words he knew had never left Abby's mind, echoed back in another's voice.
It was in these moments that Jimmy was aware of how much Henry had stolen of him. These were the times when he slipped up and thought of the part of Abby that had been lost, that would never return to her, and it broke his heart that there was no way for him to replace it, no way for him to save her. But he couldn't dwell on that. He didn't want to dwell on that. And as he leaned against the doorway to the kitchen and watched as Abby looked up from the paper and motioned for him to come sit next to her, Jimmy knew that, for today, he didn't have to think about it. He didn't have to think about the loss and the pain they were both feeling. He didn't have to think about the one part of Abby that would never belong to him. He didn't have to think about the tragedy that finally brought them here, together, never to be torn apart. He took a seat next to Abby and was greeted with a kiss and a bright smile and he knew that, at least for today, he could pretend.
Today was going to be a good day.
Author's Note: This is my first story I've published on here, so I really hoped you guys liked it. I'm just starting to get back into writing, so forgive me if it's a little rough. But let me know what you think! :)