Authors note: I've been on a Flashforward DVD splurge recently. This has been kicking around in my head for a while. Lets see how it goes. Not promising how fast the updates will go up, as I'm manic with work, but hey, lets see if I can fix the end of season 4 a little differently. Reviews as always are welcomed. Flames will be laughed at and binned.
Authors note 2: Reviews! Yay! Thank you for them, they are greatly appreciated. I *think* I've replied to them all...except for the people without an account. So, to Vero, yes, I'd take the chance too ;)
x-0-x
"Well, I don't know, I think I should be asking you that." Katie paused for a few seconds. "I saw you Ems. I saw you with Naomi."
Emily moved and looked up at Katie, lounging back with a smug look on her face.
"WHAT?" She spluttered. "How?" Shock evident in her eyes.
Katie smirked. "Well, in my vision I was with Panda and I'd stopped by at a house." She paused, waving her hand around,"not this one actually so we must get a new place. Or you do, or Naomi. Anyway, I'd stopped to pick something up and had just sneaked in through the front door." She stopped again. "Em's, you must know what I saw, do I really have to tell you?"
Emily put her head back down on her bossy sisters shoulder and sighed. "Tell me." She could hear the smile and amusement in her sisters voice as she continued.
"Well, I heard a noise so I creeped towards the kitchen thinking it was a burglar. And there were you and Naomi... you know, you SAW it, you felt it Em's, you were wrapped up in each other kissing." Ignoring the noises coming from her sister, Katie continued. "I backed off when she lifted you onto the work surface" laughing at the startled squawk from her sister. "I didn't feel the need to watch what you get up to. Come on Miss Unbeliever, tell me I'm wrong."
Emily sighed. "We don't know they're all true. People claiming they're true... what if they're not? I'm not sure, it doesn't mean anything."
The elder twin cuddled her sibling closer, enjoying the fact they were much stronger since a year ago. "Millions of people can't be wrong Em's. At least you've had a good one, think of Fred's without one and Effy said she was in a mental home in hers." Emily thought about it, Katie was right. Shuffling up to sit shoulder to shoulder with her she thought of how lucky her family were. But still, these things couldn't be true could they? She allowed the emotion she'd felt in hers wash over her again. A smile, unbidden, creeping over her features as she felt how glorious a feeling it was to be wrapped up in Naom's strong arms again.
"You have another chance Em's, but you need to stop moping around and stop reading Naomi's letter over and over. Call her. We all have other chances. Freds needs Cook, not that he'd admit it, but he needs to know what he saw." Emily felt her sister brushing away tears she didn't know she'd shed as Katie carried on her personal crusade to make her sister see sense. "We've all tried calling Cook, but his phone is dead, we're too scared to ring Naomi. Think about it Em's, and please think about Mandy in all this. You know you don't want to be with her."
Later that night, after another Fitch family dinner with no bickering, no bitching and no arguments, Emily had lain back and thought as her sister gently snored across the room. Her parents and brother had not said what they'd seen, but she was never going to refuse her mum's hand gently rubbing her hair as she walked behind her picking up empty plates. There was a difference in the touch, an acceptance, a mothers touch and God how she'd missed it. Even if she wasn't convinced of the truth of the visions, she was glad of the response from them by her parents.
Then there was the possibility of hers coming true. Her and Naomi, back together again. In love. Well, at least about to have sex by what she'd felt and seen. But the rational side of her refused to believe, wouldn't believe she'd find Naomi again and forced the grin the vision had brought back off her face. She couldn't spend the rest of her life waiting for that future to happen or to go looking for it in six months.
She didn't need to get the letter Naomi had left her out of her box to know its contents. She knew the words off by heart. A heartfelt plea of apology. There had been a printed confirmation of 2 reservations to Goa for them included in the envelope. Naomi writing again and again that she was sorry. She'd let her fears get the better of her and ruined the only good thing she'd ever had. Ruined the most perfect person she'd ever met and loved since they were in junior school. Couldn't stay around to watch the look she'd put on Emily's face. Hated herself and just had to go, to get away and let Emily start living again without her. She'd be fine, don't worry about her, Cook would look after her and Emily should have a great life without her around to remind her of her pain. Use the tickets and take Katie or even Mandy to Goa if she'd wanted to. She'd left a letter telling her mum she'd be in touch and explaining why the Fitches were there, and if Emily wanted to get in touch, then that was great, if she didn't hear from her, then she'd never hassle her. The fact the pages had water stains that were obviously tear marks had caused Emily to cry even harder.
Damn Naomi. Stupid, dumb, imperfect Naomi for running away.
Noble, loyal, beautiful and selfless Naomi. Giving up her own house for Emily and her family to pay for her 'penance'.
God, she loved her; still did. Nothing came close, NO ONE came close to how she made her feel. Even now. The thought of what she'd felt and experienced in her vision set her skin on fire. She'd never used the tickets. Jesus, as if she'd take Mandy with her. She'd just stored the letter away and took it out to remind her of Naomi's scent every so often.
She was terrified to ring her. She'd spent months hating her or so she thought, unable to communicate anything other than anger, and now when she knew she should (like the minute she realised Naom's and Cook had left) she couldn't through pride and devastation. Should she call her? The others had tried after she'd left and Emily had fallen into her dark mood, but they'd always got the answer phone and no reply, but since the flash-forwards, there was a new reason that didn't involve her. Freds. Surely she'd talk to her if she rang because of Freddie not having a vision and needing his friend however fucked up their friendship was, even worse than her relationship with Naom's, possibly, maybe. Ahh who fucking knew? Throwing her hands over her face again, the redhead resolved to stop with the pouting and sulking and sort something out.
Maybe.
x-0-x
Naomi sat with her feet dangling over the edge of the dock, watching the fishing boats enter and exit the harbour. She spotted Cook immediately. Laughing quietly at his antics as his dad's boat sailed past her. Whooping and waving an extremely large fish in her direction and making comments about eating fish again.
Twat.
Picking up the journal she had next to her, she carried on writing the latest instalment in her exciting life, finding comfort in using a pen and paper instead of a laptop. She'd only recently used her laptop again, to find out what the fuck had gone on in the world. Waiting patiently as her browser loaded up, startled when the email programme beeped at her that she had new post. She starred at the screen for a long, long time. Lots of mails from Effy, Freddie, JJ, Panda and even Katie but she'd just hovered the mouse pointer over them, too scared to open them; grateful when Cook had taken the mouse off her and deleted them and then held her as she'd cried yet again.
He'd been a real friend to her the past five months, ever since she'd regally twatted up (Cooks words, followed by "for fucks sake blondie, other than each other you've both got shit taste in other women". She'd smacked him for that). Cook understood the fear she'd felt, the need to hurt herself, feeling unworthy of Emily. But basically, the fear. How it ate away at you, consumed you, feeding on your feelings of unworthiness of this miraculous love you'd somehow managed to be gifted with. She'd not regretted ringing him up that evening a couple of months ago after Emily had disappeared out with that bitch Mandy again, even after Naomi had begged her to stay in and talk things through.
He'd simply turned up in a fucking Rolls Royce of all things ('borrowed' from his mother apparently) helped her throw all her stuff in it next to his and they'd gone. Simple as that, eventually turning up in a little fishing village where his dad lived.
Cook was just full of surprises wasn't he? After a little 'discussion' with Cook's dad, (the Roller HAD to go back... which involved a call to Cook's self involved mother, and several grunted apologies were made between the two Cook's) they'd smoothed things over and both he and Naomi had been offered rooms in his house, Cook helping his dad on his boat every day and apparently loving it. Naomi had enquired about home study and study at a local college, refusing to give up her other plans of gaining her degree. Having to re-plan her dreams around so now they didn't include Emily or the rest of her friends. She didn't deserve friends now.
She'd started to slowly but surely repair her fractured life away from Roundview, Bristol and Emily. Dropping her pen down and leaning back onto her hands, closing her blue eyes against the warmth of sun, she waited for Cook to appear next to her as he always did. Cursing those bloody flash-forwards, giving her hope and making her feel alive for the first time in the five months since she fucked everyone's lives up. She'd settled into existing. The tiny glimmer of hope that Emily would forgive her and call or email her gone when she saw no mail from the redhead in her in-box. Sitting upright again, she took her phone out of her pocket and pondered calling Effy or Panda. To check they were ok. That was all. She'd check Emily was ok too, but she'd meant every word she'd written. She'd not stalk or pester her. She'd obviously made her decision.
Naomi was just about to call Effy, the first name on her very short list when Cook dropped next to her.
"Alright Naomi-kins." The blonde dropped her phone down again, losing her bottle as Cook continued. "We shall eat well tonight." He beat his fist against his chest, flexing his biceps at her. "Cook man. Man hunt. Man catch fish for lesbian".
Laughing at his antics, Naomi listened to him retelling his day, letting his surprisingly gentle voice wash over her as she drifted away to her thoughts.
"Oi, babe am I boring you with my glorious discussion of currents and nets?"
Jolting out of her thoughts, Naomi gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry Cook, I was just, you know..."
"Thinking about it again." He finished for her. "Be right back babe, no throwing yourself in the water." And off he trotted towards the local shop as Naomi sat there, mulling over her thoughts.
Resting her head in her hands, she closed her eyes and sighed. Yup, thinking about 'it' again, like she'd thought about anything else. Thoughts of that red head hounded her, ghosted though her dreams. Tortured her day and night for the past three days, since the flash-forwards had happened.
A can of Pepsi was shoved under her nose as Cook made his return known to her, sitting back in his spot drinking from his own cold can. That was another thing since the flash-forwards, Cook had actually stopped smoking weed and cut right back on his drinking.
"So, decided what you're going to do yet Naom's?" She looked at Cook. He'd been determined to get an answer off her since he'd discovered what she'd seen in hers whilst avoiding every question she'd thrown at him about his other than 'he'd had one and it wasn't pleasant'. Cook had proven to be surprisingly spiritual about the whole thing, deciding he agreed they were real visions and the world had shared some sort of spiritual wake up call.
Drinking heavily from her can, she swallowed before answering. "No, and I don't intend to Cookie. Emily's never made contact, so she's made her feelings pretty fucking clear."
Cook wasn't buying it.
"Come on, you know what's happening, Emily must have experienced the same thing as you. Don't you think it's worth getting in touch? It must mean something... Stop being such a fucking pussy..."
Naomi interrupted him. "Who knows what we all experienced, just because the world seems have gone crazy isn't a good enough reason to get back in touch. I've moved on and no doubt so has she. The past is better left where it is Cook."
Cook carried on, he'd grown up in the past five months, but the irritating confidence was still there. "But we're not talking about the past her babe, we're talking about the future. It's not set in stone or anything. You're clever, figure it out."
Placing her can down delicately, the blonde stared at the sandy haired lad. "Cook, I'm dropping this conversation now OK?"
Cook shrugged a broad shoulder and stood up, dusting himself off. "Sure, I'm going to have a smoke before I treat you to a bag of chips, cause I'm such a great hunter." Grinning his insane smile at her, he continued, "but I will say this Naom's, whether what we all saw is the future on not, you can't deny your feelings, you're struggling which only means one thing with you; you were happy in your flash-forward and that's sacred the fucking shit out of you. Stop being a coward." Laughing at her face as he started to walk away, his voice came over the breeze to her. "I rest my case, see you at Dad's in thirty, don't be late".
Naomi felt sick, and full of dread. As always, Cook's comments had been right on the mark. She HAD been blissfully happy in her flash-forward. They both had appeared to be. Emily had her arms wrapped around her shoulders as they were kissing, playing with the hair at the nape of her neck, knowing it drove Naomi crazy. She'd been giggling as she'd nudged Emily onto the kitchen table closing the gap between them. Emily's legs wrapped around her waist, letting Naomi feel the heat though their thin clothing as she murmured dirty things into Naomi's ear.
It had all felt so right.
Naomi had found herself on the bedroom floor after waking from her unconsciousness and fucking hell she'd felt incredibly turned on for the first time in months, just sitting there for ages trying to work out what the hell had just happened.
And now it was days later and the blonde still didn't know what to do. She was messed up and kept kicking herself for what she was feeling. Despite fighting it she knew she wanted what she had seen to be true. Wanted to believe like Cook.
Standing up, she followed her friend home, resolving not to think about it all for at least a few hours.
She failed miserably.
x-0-x
As Scooby Doo would say... ruh roh! Both stubborn bitches eh?
