"I thought you were too screwed up to love anyone. I was wrong, you just couldn't love me. It's good. I'm happy for you."

Cameron killed the engine of her car, not bothering to get out but rather staring off into space. Tears rolled down her porcelain cheeks as she sighed heavily. It had taken every ounce of will power to utter the words that had spilled out of her wasted heart. She truly was happy for him because in the end she was incapable of not wanting to see him happy, whether it was by her side or not.

It pained her to finally know that it wasn't the fact that he couldn't love but rather that he couldn't love her, not the way she wished he would. Someone already resided in his heart and whether or not Stacey still loved him as well was beyond important. Either way she was stuck on the outside looking in and silently wallowing in her own self-pity.

Getting out of the car she managed to make her way up the stairs and to her apartment, closing the door behind her and sinking onto her overstuffed couch. Keys in her hands and purse still draped over her shoulder she wondered how different life would be if she hadn't fallen in love with him. Of course, that couldn't of have been helped. The minute she had walked into his office she had felt the silent pull towards him which she had dismissed as pure professional fascination.

The man was a living legend after all.

Yet the moment she had seen him, hands shaking and cold sweat falling down his face as he struggled to perform the autopsy on the cat, that's when it began to hit her. Slowly feelings began to manifest, thoughts of him taking up more space within her mind and finally within her heart. She hadn't lied as to why she liked him – he did things not because he had to or because they were expected of him but rather because they were right. In the end he always ended up doing the right thing even if it meant going against everyone and breaking a few rules along the way.

He had been her rebel with a cause and as cheesy as it sounded to anyone else, it had been enough for her to fall hard. Unfortunately it wasn't her cross to bear anymore, instead now she struggled with the one thing she had never in her life had to do – falling out of love.

Her alarm went off precisely at six in the morning and Cameron couldn't help but groan a she blindly reached towards the night stand, her hand coming to land on the snooze button. Closing her eyes once more she tried to recapture her disrupted state of sleep only to give up after five minutes. Getting up with a heavy sigh she slipped on her fuzzy slippers as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Might as well go for a jog" she murmured to herself and began to pad towards her walk in closet only to do a double take at what awaited her inside.

Running her hands over the clothes she could feel her mind working twice as hard in order to figure out just what in the world was going on. Her clothes were missing, each and every single piece she had so painstakingly chosen through out the last two years. Silk blouses, vests, sweaters, trousers, jeans, jerseys, polos, dresses, heels, sneakers, boots…all gone and replaced by other odd looking clothes.

Clothes that reminded her of how her mother use to dress when she was a mere kid.

"What the hell is going on?"

Pulling out a blouse her fingers automatically reached for the shoulder pads attached and she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose in disapproval.

"Okay, either I'm going mad or someone came in here, stole my clothes and replaced them with…." Her thoughts trailed off as she was unable to fully bring herself to speak such absurdities.

Dropping the garment onto the ground she slowly made her way out of the closet, reaching for the baseball bat near the door. Step by step she could feel her heart pounding in her chest and she hoped that whoever had broken into her place was still not around. Although, at the same time she still couldn't actually believe someone would go through all the trouble of switching wardrobes on her. Shaking her head she reasoned that there had to be another explanation, a logical one that would explain everything.

"A prank?" she thought to herself but quickly dismissed the idea.

As she made her way to the living room she couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be many things missing and replaced. Her phone was larger and bulkier as well as the device attached to it which seemed to be a large answering machine – a relic she hadn't seen since her dad had lugged their very first one home almost a decade and a half ago. Stopping by the table her eyes slowly rose to the calendar that hanged above the phone, a small bead of sweat fell down her temple and the side of her face as the baseball bat in her hands fell with a loud thump onto the ground while her mouth hanged wide open in disbelief.

June 12, 1993.

TBC