TITLE: Two Years
PAIRING: Susan/Elizabeth
RATING: T
SUMMARY: Susan and Elizabeth reminisce the events that happened between Mark's death, and their realization of who they're really meant to be with
SETTING: Canon until "The Greater Good" from Season 10. Chuck and Susan get back together for the second time, but they soon split again and Susan does not get pregnant with Cosmo, and Elizabeth still juggled with two men at the same time
Two years.
Two years since that fateful day in Hawaii. Two years since she felt her entire life slip away from her - the very same way her husband, the love of her life, slipped away from the physical world and into another kind of world yet to be discovered by anyone. Two years since she was left alone with a young daughter and a moody, rebellious stepdaughter to take care of, both reminders of her life and what remains of it in the present.
All she had left was her career - all her hard work she experienced as one of County General's top trauma surgeons. Friends? They all left even before that - Peter went to another hospital because of more flexible hours needed, and Carol went to Seattle to be with Doug in what seemed to be a fairytale ending.
...and the ones left in Chicago have their own problems...Big problems to deal with. The one she considers as the only friend she has left is now slipping away, only in the more dangerous territory of emotional illness after that chopper took away not only his arm, but his entire career he so built from the ground up, only to be yanked away like how an owner yanks the leash when the dog tries to get more freedom than it can get.
Two years.
Two years since she hopped on that Amtrak train in the dry, sunny deserts of Phoenix. Two years since she saw the big changes that happened in County after a five-year sojourn to that, dry, sunny city - Chloe, Little Susie and Joe just moved out of state, and she can't just follow them across America, so off she went to that cold, windy city she always considered home. Two years since she met face-to-face with the person she only managed to make sporadic long-distance calls to, only to discover that he had an illness that started to slowly eat away his life the previous year, and has come back to finish him once and for all.
It was really painful for her to take her best friend to her apartment after his therapy session. Although more painful for him because he endured such a procedure without the support of his wife, who left him after making him choose between his two daughters in the height of intense stress and emotion.
Keeping him in that house took a toll on her personal relationships, especially that with Carter, who she has been with for the past few months. Though she realized from the get-go that Abby is who he really wants, she kept going like nothing happened.
Two years since she read that letter. Two years since she secretly yearned about taking a plane to Hawaii despite a crippling fear of flying. Two years of her wondering what "things of a personal nature" was he talking about in that letter.
