She looked older than he last remembered. Her once right blue eyes had dulled to a foggy grey. Beneath her orbs where the first signs of aging, bags hung there ever so slightly not quite enough to actually alter her perfect image. Few lines were placed that he hadn't remembered being their twelve years ago. The one thing he noticed the most was she didn't look happy any longer. He remembered even when tears rolled in fury down her face; she still managed to pull together a smile. Now her eyes were tired and her smile had turned into the slightest of frowns. Not enough to say she was sad, but plenty enough to tell him she was far from happy.
When she finally had the guts to look up to him she was shocked. His shaggy brown hair was gone and was replaced with a much shorter hair style. She gasped taking in all of his increasingly attractive qualities. The years had been easy on him and she had hoped he felt the same way about her. She knew she'd lost weight since he'd seen her last, but she had hoped the baggy clothing protected her from that.
They stood in silence for some time. Neither saying a thing, but still having a full blown conversation with their eyes. His deep brown, connected with her greyish-blue orbs. Soon he sat down, directly facing her and he took her hands, like he did all those years ago, and kissed them. Tears were building in his eyes because at the age of 37, crying didn't matter anymore to him. He missed her and she knew that, mostly because that had been the way she'd felt for the past twelve years.
"I love you." Was all she needed to say.
'I never stopped loving you." He replied.
In the next second he'd leapt from his seat and attacked her, mouths crashing against each other. She loved him and he loved her and that's how it would always be. Regardless of their significant others they always seemed back at this very spot, doing the same thing they used to do every Friday for five years. For the first time since that last night, she pushed him away. He stopped and stared into her eyes, searching for the answer. What he did not understand was how could he find the answer to a question that had never been truly asked outside the walls of his brain.
"Why?" He whispered.
"Together we don't stand a chance." She replied in a whisper.
"I don't care. Let's stand alone, together." He said hunger in his eyes.
"And leave everything we ever worked for, what we built?" She questioned, standing up.
"All these years… we should have been building it together!" He yelped backing away from her.
"But we didn't. And now…" She couldn't finish her sentence.
He'd finally noticed why she'd looked for different to him. All of her healthy glow was gone. Any muscle she had on her body, because Lord knows she hadn't had any fat has disappeared. Her legs appeared lost amongst her loose jeans as the rest of her body did. Her face was so thin, even her neck looked brittle. And then she cried because realization finally hit. She was going to die.
"What happened to you?" He gasped.
"What difference does it make? You and I will never work together." She replied solemnly
He walked to her and grabbed her chin and looked into her eyes.
"What happened?" He said through gritted teeth.
"I am a dead women walking. The doctor gave me three months, two and a half months ago." She replied tears falling down her face. This time, she could not smile.
"I want you… to take Kara." She said head falling down.
"I'm sure John would be much better suited for that. "He replied in a sombre tone.
"I lied to you. All those years… It was you, always you." She cried.
Finally after twelve years of torture he finally cried. The years of love and lust that had seemed to mean nothing to her, the ranging hatred he'd eventually developed, the resentment he had for her when she called it off, and most of all the pain he'd felt when the man she was supposed to love stole his only child. And now he stood before the women whom he'd hoped to spend his eternity with was about to die.
"God- this is so messed up. How, could we have been so stupid how we could have wasted so much time?" He replied angry at everything, everyone.
"We were stupid and now, it's too late." She sunk back into her chair feeling as if she was deflating by the second.
"Casey." He said finally, voice cracking as he spoke.
"Derek." She replied, because that's how it used to be and she wished it were the same.