She never takes her coat off anymore.
Perhaps it wasn't a conscious decision, simply a newly formed habit that could have happened by random chance. She'd lived as someone else for weeks. Things like that are sure to confuse one's habits.
But she knew it was conscious. She always thought, the moment she was about to take off her coat, you'll just be leaving again in a moment. Even with her amazing memory, the idea that she used to relax and take of her coat seemed ridiculous. It might have become a habit, but through conscious thought, and not chance.
Could she even believe in chance anymore? Everything seemed to prove against it. Somehow everything linked back to the pattern, cortexiphan, the other universe, Walter...
Peter.
Causation was never really a question. Peter had become the root of it all. He'd become the one person she truly trusted. He'd become the one person to truly hurt her. He'd been the one who didn't recognize that she wasn't her.
She with her openness, easy smile, and bouncier attitude, she had been the one Peter laughed with, whispered with, made love with. Her mind could not be convinced otherwise. Her mind could not be convinced that Peter believed he was laughing with her, whispering with her, loving her.
So she didn't take her coat off anymore.
She was firmly wearing her coat when she came to the Bishops that morning. It wasn't hard to tell Walter was cooking up something she didn't want to be a part of. She didn't want to look at him as he apologized. She didn't want to smell blueberries as he tried to make it right. She didn't want to hear him as he said those words.
Who's stopping us now?
A cold punch to the gut, and a swift exit with her coat still on her body.
As hard as it was to realize, he was right. But try as she might she couldn't let go. He could hurt her again so easily. He could be lying about everything.
She kissed him.
It's so hard to accept that you're scared. But when it's thrown right back at your face, a glimmer of realization happens.
Even when she came bearing alcohol, her coat was there.
But there was something different this time, a difference she could feel. He could do so much to her. The pain that she had gone through since her return could be a thousand times worse in the future.
But when she kissed him, he didn't glimmer.
And that night, her coat came off.
This came to me tonight after my dad pointed out when we watched the new episode that she came over to Peter's to have drinks and stay for a while without taking her coat off. And then we realized she hadn't had her coat off in a while. Hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review!