BMW
"Nothing's the same"
Summary: How do you survive without your soulmate?
Rating: PG
Note: Although this story contains slash, it's not about the slash. Weird, I know. And this has no continuity with any of my other BMW stories.
Setting: 7 years after the series finale
Disclaimer: La La Touchstone and Disney. Happy?
For: nights in white satin- and the best frickin' beta in the world!
Just an explanation- this came to me on a late night. If it doesn't make sense, blame it on insomnia and sugar rushing. Comments would be appreciated. I think this is a one-off, but I can never tell so...
What do you do when nothing's the same?
I don't know why I expect things never to change, because I've been through so many of them. Like watching my parents divorce, something I thought I'd never see. Or getting married while I was still in college. Or moving to New York. I've watched my friends go through them. Like my friend Angela deciding to move to London, and staying there permanently. We write and call, but I haven't seen her in person for over five years now. She's married, has a daughter, a great job. Every time I see pictures, I scan them and am constantly surprised to see her change. It's hard to think of us as almost 30. We're about to go to our 10-year reunion.
Rachel? I almost never hear from her. The Peace Corps keep her busy. But she says that it was the best decision that she ever made.
I can't mention Jack without mentioning Eric. No one was more surprised than me when Jack got out of the Peace Corps and he and Eric started seeing each other. They're happy, really happy. They live in Philly, actually in Mr Feeny's old house. Whenever I see them, it's like I'm seeing how I'd like to be someday.
And Shawn... after Angela left, I was seriously worried about him. He moped around New York, not taking any interest in school or anything else. I think I didn't see him for a year, because he was being a hermit. When he emerged, he had written a novel that went straight up the best-selling lists and made him one of the hottest young authors. I don't see him a lot because of the tours and the publicity, and the work of being a celebrity. But we're still friends. Best friends.
And me? I'm the one that everyone says hasn't changed. But I've changed the most. I don't know what caused it. Was it watching the one person I depended on, my rock, get thinner and weaker, watching that person eventually slow down and stop, like a music box that you wind up? The doctors said that it was leukaemia, but I know better.
So here I stand, in front of a tombstone. I trace the engraved letters lightly with my finger, like I've never seen them before, even though I was the one who picked them out. I kneel in the fresh soil, pull out a rock, and put it on the top of the tombstone. Satisfied, I walk out of the cemetery, but not before I take a look back...
Topanga Matthews
She is missed