it's a raymond chandler evening
and the pavements are all wet
and i'm waiting in the shadows
'cuz it hasn't happened... yet
The rain was falling down in a drizzle from the nighttime sky. The streetlights splashed light on the dark, wet pavement like a watercolor. The soft drops cast a mist over everything, making even the most ordinary things- an office building in Scranton, this case- look almost ethereal.
Michael Scott was working late. He'd done it a lot lately, which was... something unlike him. Oh, he'd been mostly himself- still saying the wrong things at all the wrong times, still making the worst jokes in the history of mankind, but... something was different about it all just the same. Something just seemed missing.
It wasn't an obvious thing. Most people didn't notice. Dwight Schrute, his self proclaimed assistant, did. Jim Halpert noticed, as did Pam Beesly. Michael wasn't sure why it was just the three. Maybe some sort of connection. But even though they noticed, nobody pressed him about it.
Just smile. Laugh. Everything is hunky dory. Ay-oh-kay.
He bought the pink roses on his lunch break. Kept them in water in the break room all day. They were a birthday present for Astrid. She was five now, and a funny little child. Way too serious for her five little years. But she liked him well enough, as most children seemed to for some reason, and her birthday was the one day a year he broke his personal promise to himself to stay as far away from Jan as humanly possible.
It wasn't Astrid's fault that her mom was a total bee-yotch.
Now, he wrapped them in their green paper and held them carefully in one arm, his briefcase in the other hand. He turned the lights out as he left, and he was absolutely sure to lock up.
The misty rain gathered on his hair and the roses. His shoes clicked softly on the wet pavement as he crossed the empty parking lot. He reached in the pocket of his coat for his car keys, and...
There is another pair or shoes tap-splashing across the pavement behind him. Michael's mind races quickly. Did they ever catch that flasher? He can't remember. He really really didn't want to see a penis right now. Um... ever, really, but now especially wasn't a good time.
On the other hand, it could be a mugger with a knife, so it really would be a good idea to turn around. Any street fighter knew you can't fight a guy off while your back's to him.
Michael turned around cautiously... and he froze. A breath drew in sharply.
He had no idea why she was there. None whatsoever. But she was standing under the streetlamp, the droplets resting in her hair, and she seemed unreal. Too perfect. There were a million questions beating his brain to bits, rushing toward his mouth, and naturally, the one that escaped, in a soft whisper, was...
"...are you real? O...or are you a..."
She flew. There was no other way he could think of that she moved so gracefully and yet so fast. She flew to him, and the roses and the briefcase hit the pavement.
He held her close as though to press her into him. She held him in turn just as fierce. He did not want to let go. Ever. Five years is a very long time when every single moment in your life is haunted in at least some tiny way by thoughts, by memories of...
She trembled in his arms, her hands clutching the back of his coat. The rain and the streetlights made everything misty and dreamy. Time didn't seem to want to move a second. And that's when Michael realized...
'I will see her... every now and then... maybe one year she'll be with somebody, maybe one year I'll be with somebody, and it's gonna take a long time... and then it's perfect.'
"...hey. Hey, Holly..."
She looked up at him, smiling though her eyes were filled with tears and the raindrops glistened in her pretty blonde hair.
"Yeah?"
"...I love you. I always loved you from the first time I saw you."
He let out a soft breath almost like a laugh, but a lot like a sigh of relief, too. He said it. Five years later, he said it.
"Me too. Fancy that, huh?"
She smirks a bit and rises up. She kissed him in the rain, and he kissed her back.
There was a million things to ask. Why was she here, what happened to AJ, What Where When Why... forget it. Just forget it right now. It didn't matter.
This was now. This was the moment.
They could worry about the rest later.