Mark Greene/Susan Lewis. Inspired by the song from "Spider-Man 2". Anachronistic? Yes, but then so is the whole Mark & Susan concept. Begins with 'the chase' in the episode "Union Station".
Standard disclaimer: Don't own the characters, don't own the idea, don't own the song lyrics, just a writer with too much time on their hands and no ambition to create anything on their own.
VINDICATED
Hope dangles on a string,
Like slow-spinning redemption,
Winding in, and winding out.
The shine of it has caught my eye,
And roped me in so, mesmerizing, so
Hypnotizing, captivated I am
Mark Greene's heart was beginning to pound with every step of his feet smashing the pavement. You'll regret it for the rest of your life, Doug had said. And he was right. Greene had to do this, he had to find out. He'd rack his brain forever, wondering what could have been, if he didn't at least try for it.
He was running short of breath now, huffing his way down Monroe St, cutting across a couple blocks, using whatever leg strength all those early runs over the lake had built up inside him. November's cold front was settling in, he could feel his breath lumping in his throat and visualizing in front of him.
Union Station is an impressive structure, it's columns immortalized in films like The Untouchables, and it stood as an icon of Chicago's tough Midwest identity. For Greene it stood in his way as he was practically flying now, all too aware of the time and the circumstances and the fact that he had no clue what the hell he was going to say, if he even got a chance to say anything at all.
The automatic doors at Track 10 seemed to move in slow motion and his heart sank at what he saw - emptiness. I am almost ten minutes late he tried to remind himself, but frustration was broiling and he was about to swear outloud when a helpful attendant mentioned that Amtrak West-bound had been moved to Track Six. He'd been saved by a technicality! He scanned the track from a distance and saw her, and the only thing that came to mind was her name.
"Susan!" He yelled before sprinting back inside and over to six.
Again, those damn doors wouldn't open fast enough. He was running on exhaust now, he could tell the train was about to be moving along.
"Susan! SUSAN!" He could see her, she wasn't a mirage, but then she'd gotten on the train! Greene panicked again but then Susan poked her head out just to see if she'd seen what she thought she'd seen.
"Mark! My God, are you OK?"
What could he do except nod? He'd been denied oxygen for the last several minutes, or so it felt. He looked up to see Susan smile at him.
"You came to say goodbye?"
Then it was all a blur, one thought rapidly replacing another in his head
Don't fuck this up, not now!
"No - stay. I want you to stay."
She's not smiling anymore"But..Mark, I"
Now or never.
"I love you. And I'm stupid for not saying it before."
Oh God. Oh God. She can barely look at me.
"No..it's OK. I knew. In a way I knew."
"Stay. We belong together. Tell me you don't feel the same."
Shit. The die's been cast and I just bet on a losing square. SheÉ.she doesn't. Say something, Susan!
"I'm sorry."
Anything but that.
"We're right together."
"Mark..you are my best friend in the whole world, I don't know how I'm gonna make it without you."
"Don't go!"
That was easy enough.
"I have to. I don't belong here anymore, I have a new life, it's moving in a different direction."
I can't feel my legs anymore, possibly because my heart doesn't feel like it's beating anymore. But she can't tell me she doesn't feel the same - she hasn't said that yet.
"Susan, I don't wanna lose you."
And now I'm about to cry. And so is she..And she's kissing me now. This cannot be happening, can it? She's gonna stay.
"I'll never forget you."
She isn't going to stay. She's getting on that train. She's really doing it.
"I do love you."
WHAT?!? WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY?!?
"I love you! Bye!"
Greene stood on the platform, and he couldn't help but be angry."Is that all there is?" He asked, aloud but not so that others could hear.
It hadn't been a dream. She had told him she loved him, but that evidently wasn't enough for her. She had said once that all she had was her work, that it wasn't enough. Then she'd said there was nothing left for her in Chicago. Managing to stumble back into the train terminal and to a bench, he recalled those times, and dozens of others, when he could have said something, could have done something to make her understand that he was falling in love with her.
The anger vanished almost as quickly as it came. He could never be angry at her, not permanently anyway. Maybe this was just another cruel life lesson, the Big Guy reminding him that not everything would end the way he thought it should. It wasn't like his old comic book heroes, Spider-Man and Cyclops and Daredevil, who always triumphed over evil and got the girl. If that's the case, he thought, recalling Jodi O'Brien and his broken family and his more-than-distant relationship with his parents, among other things, this is one lesson I'm getting sick of learning.
Finally, with breath restored, he thought back to what she'd said. "I love you". He could tell she had meant it, that it hadn't been some kind of throwaway gesture. Even so, her feelings either weren't as strong for him as his had become for her, or she had decided that her life in Chicago really had come to a close and it was time to start a new one in Phoenix. Maybe it would just have to be settled at that. Maybe it's better that way, he reasoned. Hell, if they had belonged together, if something had truly been meant to happen, wouldn't it have happened already?
And even so, he somehow oddly felt vindicated, albeit in a narrow sense. He had finally faced her and told her, finally heard the truth. She did love him, and he loved her. But fate and circumstance said that they couldn't be together.
An hour passed by. Two. Then three. There was no point in going back to the hospital, his shift was over and Weaver could bitch at him tomorrow. Mark Greene zipped his coat back up, his scrubs still moist with the sweat of his impromptu blitz around town, and trudged out into a cold city at dusk, in search of something to do. I was right, was the best he could do to console himself.
And for the time being, that would have to be enough.
TO BE CONTINUED (unless you all hate it, in which case not)