Author's Note: Hey everyone! You asked for a continuation, so here were go ) Just to keep things clear, the following few chapters will be told in flashback form, so the first chapter is not the first thing that happens. The story really begins here, which chapter 2.

In the last chapter….

True, tomorrow would come and she would be gone. Tomorrow, the sun would set in his heart, and his world would end; tomorrow was a future promising pain. But it wasn't tomorrow yet, and Shawn banished the idea of any tomorrow from his mind. It was tonight, and tonight – he felt her breathing against him – tonight, she belonged to him. Or at least he could pretend.

Chapter 2: Worlds Apart

She brushed her lips against his.

"Thank you – for letting me be selfish."

Angela was so close; he thought he felt his heart stop. Oh God. Already, things weren't going the way he planned, and he found himself struggling to find words.

"N-no, not you," Shawn managed to stutter. "-me."

He found himself staring into her eyes and knew that she was staring right back into his, waiting for him. Angela could always read him, no matter how invulnerable he thought he was or how well he thought he concealed the thoughts that clashed like bitter enemies inside his head. Shawn wondered if she was reading him now, if she could trace the words in his head as if she were running her finger down a page in some book; her gaze was intense, and he found that his hands were shaking as they rested on her hips. Oh God, he was terrified. But he had to ask her, or he would regret it for the rest of his life.

"Look, there's something I have to ask you… right now." Damn, he wished his hands would stop trembling like that.

Angela cocked her head a little to the side in that endearing way of hers, and a smile touched her lips. Shawn smiled back and was glad for a break in the tension, but the words that came out of her mouth next seemed to burn a hole straight through his chest.

"You know, because you're the only person who knows how important it is for me and my dad to spend this time together," Angela said softly, stepping back away from him.

The world collapsed.

Shawn felt his insides turn inside out as the gap between them grew. One moment, she was there in his arms, and the next… she was gone, sliding back to her father's side. She was only across the room, but he felt like she was a million miles away.

Angela was talking about… something… Shawn couldn't quite register much of anything at this point, and he was pretty sure he didn't want to. All he knew was that he couldn't ask her now – not like this. Not when she was happy and relieved and finally content, standing in the shelter of her father's arms. Sergeant Moore could give her anything… he could give her a relationship that Shawn simply couldn't offer. And by God, he wanted her to be happy.

He only wanted her to be happy.

He knew his own anguish was a necessary sacrifice. He would give anything in the world for her, but that didn't make it hurt any less, and that didn't make the rapidly widening chasm in his heart wane by any degree.

Shawn let the mask go up. He smiled and his eyes touched hers again. She was so beautiful, standing there as the one point of perfect clarity in the hazy mist of his life. He wondered what she was thinking and hoped with everything in him that she did not mean that they were giving up, even for a little while. He didn't think he could take that. But as long as she had hope, he could have hope too. Shawn found himself staring at her as the seconds passed by like hours. He wasn't a religious person, but there were a million prayers to a million gods racing fervently across his mind, and he noticed that his soul was on its knees, begging for things to be okay in the end. Shawn was never good with being away from someone he loved, but he had no intention of letting this slip, or allowing what they had to be washed away by distance and time. Angela was everything, and they were meant to be together. He knew that.

He had to know that.

The mist in his field of vision cleared as Angela stepped towards him and ran the back of her fingers across his jaw. Shawn's eyes closed briefly as he savored the contact. I'm happy for her, he thought. Smile, damnit. And so he did. She smiled back and behind the gauze-wrapped moment, Shawn found himself staring into two different worlds. The reality was that the love of his life was leaving for somewhere very far away and that she could – and most likely would – meet an entire continent of new and exciting people in a world that did not include him. The other reality was real only in a vague and transparent sense: it was a world where she was leaving and he was happy for her, and they would both be together in the end, no problems, no hurt, no nothing. Shawn was trapped in the former, but he knew without a doubt that the latter is what Angela needed right now. So he kept smiling, and she kept smiling back, and the mask that smothered stayed right where it was.

Alright guys, read and review!