I don't own The Good Place nor will I ever. No copyright infringement intended.
Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason all cringed and grasped their heads as memories returned to them full force. "You couldn't find a better way to do this?" Eleanor angrily questioned Michael after the onslaught ended. She collapsed in a chair and groaned in pain.
"No. Sorry, it's a miracle I even found a way to give you the memories back." Michael shrugged off the glares sent in his direction.
"Is this real life?" chimed in Jason.
They all rolled their eyes at him - minus Janet, who just seemed eager to kiss her husband now that she also remembered everything. "Yes, it is! Would you like to go look at the sky?" she asked.
"Yeah!" Jason shouted enthusiastically and followed her out the door.
As the full force of over eight hundred different attempts to torture them hit them, Eleanor and Chidi exchanged awkward glances, and she backed away a little, desperate to escape the feelings of love (and fear) completely overwhelming her. "You're staring at each other," Tahani pointed out.
"We should probably leave them alone or whatever, right?" Michael asked her.
"No!" Eleanor shouted. She winced once she realized how obviously panicked she sounded. She couldn't let anybody know she was freaking out because otherwise they'd see her as vulnerable and she couldn't have that. Never mind the fact that these people - especially Chidi - had seen her at her worst and lowest numerous times already.
"Somebody's panicking," Tahani sing-songed. She shrugged off the projectile Eleanor launched at her and grabbed Michael's jacket. "Let's leave them alone," she stage-whispered.
"I think I'll go with them!" Eleanor shot up and bolted out the door before any of them could even say anything.
"I"m going to need to hunt Eleanor down to make her face this, right?" Chidi asked them.
"Don't ask me. I have no clue," Michael replied.
Tahani grinned at Chidi and gave him a quick hug. "Go after the woman you love, Chidi. You two deserve to be happy. After all this time, you two finally have a chance to be together so don't waste it." She then made her way out the door.
Chidi was panicking himself but he knew he had to find Eleanor and have an honest conversation with her. They needed to calm down, which was easier said than done in the wake of their memories returning. "Come on, Chidi. You can do this," he said to himself, trying to work up the courage to go after the love of his life (and fork, she was. It was terrifying but absolutely true). So he exhaled and then hightailed it out of the house.
Hiding at the lake, Eleanor watched waves ripple across the water. She wanted to be with Chidi but she had never truly fallen in love with anybody else before. She had actually told him she loved him once (she had fallen for him each time she found him, but that was the only time she ever worked up the courage to actually say the words)! She didn't do feelings, and it scared the shirt out of her. She jumped a few feet when a hand landed on her shoulder. "Don't scare me like that again!" Eleanor scolded Chidi.
He held his hands out as an apology. "Sorry. How are you doing?" he questioned, genuinely curious (it felt like he was stalling but he wasn't. Chidi was worried about her).
"I'm one hundred percent fine. You?"
Chidi narrowed his eyes and grinned at her. "It's okay to freak out, Eleanor. We just had a lot of information dumped on us in a short period of time. But I'm here if you need me."
"Why do you do that?" she burst out.
"Do what?"
"Why are you so forking supportive? Can't you be a jackass for once? Make this easier." Eleanor honestly didn't want that but she needed to push him away so she could start thinking straight again.
"Because I'm your best friend, Eleanor." Amused despite the situation, Chidi tried to force his smile down and failed.
She glared at him. "Are you seriously amused right now? This isn't an amusing situation!" And then she started flailing her hands around.
"You've made it an amusing situation," he replied as he grabbed one of her hands.
Eleanor stilled. "What are you doing?" How was her heart pounding in her chest right now? She was dead and should not be feeling her heart going so fast. The fork was up with that? Whatever, she'd ask Michael about it later.
"We're talking," he told her. Chidi gently kissed her and then moved only a few inches away from Eleanor. "I'm going to be honest with you because that's what we both deserve. Eleanor, you may have driven me up the forking wall over eight hundred times but there's one thing that's been true every single time - I keep falling in love with you. As far as I'm concerned, the first attempt got it right - we're soul mates."
Eleanor's breath hitched and her eyes involuntarily filled with tears. "You really feel that way about me?"
Chidi nodded. "Of course I do." He wiped the tears off her face with his thumb and grinned at her.
She sniffled and stared into his face. "It scares the absolute shirt out of me but I love you too. And I've never really told anybody that before."
"I know," he replied as she leaned against him. Chidi kissed the top of her head.
"And why the hell can't we say shirt and fork? This sucks," she whined.
"Nice non-sequitur," Chidi told her approvingly as he wrapped his arm around her.
"Thanks. It's been bothering me, though," Eleanor admitted.
"We should probably get back to the house since we shouldn't be seen in public - the others are going to get suspicious," he suddenly realized.
They reluctantly stopped holding hands and then made their way back to the house - everyone was waiting for them. "Did you two sort out your numerous issues?" a genuinely curious Tahani asked, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Yes, we did. Let me know if you're going to freak out," Eleanor told her. She placed her hands on her ears as Tahani let out a very loud squeal. "Thanks for the warning."
Michael honestly felt sick at the love bouncing off Eleanor and Chidi but he wisely kept it to himself. "Happy you two are happy," was all he told them.
"Finally! I was starting to think we had to lock you two in a room or something." Jason smiled at them and then headed towards the couch with Janet.
"You two are so cute!" the robot called over her shoulder.
Eleanor turned to face Chidi and grasped his hands in hers. "You're still my flashlight, you know." God, no wonder she had fallen in love with this goofy dork over eight hundred times.
"Oh really?" Chidi hated being stuck in the Bad Place but Eleanor (and the others, he reluctantly admitted to himself) made it tolerable enough he could take it until they got to the actual Good Place.
"Really," she confirmed.
"Are you two going to make out now? Should I go?" Tahani asked, ruining the moment in the process.
"They're our family. Can't do anything about it now," Chidi told his visibly annoyed and furious girlfriend.
"Maybe we can," Eleanor grumbled before kissing him again.
It'd be a while before the group made it to the real Good Place but that was okay with them. Head over heels in love with each other, Eleanor and Chidi's weirdly annoying optimism helped Tahani, Jason, and Michael become better people. Not even Vicki could tear them apart, even after she finally discovered the truth.