I know, I know, I'm the worst. But this isn't going to a terribly long fic. Clearly I don't own GMW or any of its characters.

"So what do you think about an early dinner and then a movie?" The pair were making their way down a New York sidewalk, towards a subway station. Farkle had managed to get Riley out of her family's apartment without too much of a fuss. After the initial ooh's and aah's, Riley had pushed past her parents and grabbed Farkle by the hand, pulling him down the hallway and sparing him from the 'dad' talk that Mr. Matthews and looked close to giving.

"Yeah, that sounds fine, Farkle. I'm not in the mood for anything particular, so you can just pick." Riley was still absorbed in her thoughts and hadn't noticed that she was still holding Farkle's hand. This information had not escaped Farkle, nor had Riley's apparent disinterest in anything.

"Riles," He pulled her to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk, ignoring all the protests around him. "What's wrong? What are you thinking about?" She almost laughed. She'd known all along that he would be able to tell that something was wrong, but she hadn't known that it was going to take him all of two seconds to figure it out.

"Um, if I tell you it might ruin our plans or our night." She wasn't looking him in the eye. She'd thought she might have to tell him at some point in the night, but not right away. This wasn't going at all like she'd thought it would or should.

"Riley, we can always see a movie and have some food. You're more important to me than that." He reached up and brushed some hair away from her face. "I know exactly where to go for a talk. C'mon." And then he was pulling on her hand, leading her further down the street. A smile began tugging on her lips as he tugged her along. They didn't talk until they were both seated on the subway.

"You dragged me all the way here. I liked it!" He laughed at the memory and studied her face. She looked just like the same old Riley. Same old dark hair, same old dark eyes, same old dimples when she smiled, but she wasn't smiling as much as he remembered. There was something in her eyes, a wall or a distance that he wasn't used to seeing there. There was definitely something wrong, and his only hope was that she would tell him everything and soon.

"Oh my gosh, I remember that. You liked Lucas then, didn't you? How has he been, do you know?" He hadn't heard from the Texan in quite a while. After he and Riley had ended things, Lucas had largely cut off contact with Farkle, Maya and most other members of the group. It didn't necessarily help that Lucas had chosen to pursue a higher education in his home state, too far away for any kind of regular visiting schedule.

Riley let out a breath at the mention of her ex-boyfriend's name. It wasn't a sucker punch like it had been for the first few months after their breakup, but it still felt weird to think or talk about him. She'd given so much to him, spent so much time with him, and now it was just all over. Sure, they'd talk every now and again, but he was no longer her close friend or her true love anymore. There'd been a time where she thought he'd come back to her, but then she had realized that she didn't want that anymore. Ms. Nelson was very proud of Riley's break though that day.

"Yeah, I did. He's good. We talked a few weeks ago. Just about every month or so he'll text or call or Skype me, catch up on things. His fiancé is really nice and he's doing well in all his classes. He's set up to get his master's in veterinary science. I forget where exactly he said he was going, but he was excited." It was hard sometimes, remembering that everybody else was on their last year of college, while she still had another year to go.

"Oh wow, fiancé, huh? That's weird to think about. I guess we are adults now and it's the time for marriage and things." He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. He'd briefly contemplated putting his arm around her, but now that seemed like an odd thing to do now that they'd talked about marriage and things.

"What about Smackle? Hear much from her these days?" He waited for the punch to his gut that meant he'd heard her name, but now, when Riley spoke her name, he was free from that awful sensation. His father had told him that the heartache would pass, but Farkle hadn't felt like it was heartache for a long time. It was just an ache in his gut that would reawaken every time he thought of her. He missed her. He missed having someone who knew him inside and out in his life. Looking over at Riley, Farkle came to the realization that he missed having a best friend.

"We don't talk too much. Last I heard, she had gone into bio-medical, working on the cure for cancer or something. I know she went on a date with Zay, but I don't know if it turned into anything." She nodded, taking in the information. She'd never thought that her and Farkle would stay together for as long as they did. They were just too similar, and for two people as smart as they were, they needed someone to push them and challenge them to grow without making the other feel inferior.

"Oh, this is our stop." Farkle pointed towards the doors and helped his date to her feet. Together, they made their way out of the train and then out of the subway station. Once they were out in the open air again, Farkle grabbed her hand once again, leading her to their destination.

"Are we going to Central Park?" She was holding back laughter as she saw the familiar greenery approaching.

"Maybe," he gave a half smirk as he continued pulling her in the right direction. He was thankful that it was such a nice day outside. There didn't seem to be as many people around either; he didn't think Riley would appreciate an audience for whatever she was going to tell him. Maybe that look on Mr. Matthew's face hadn't been him wanting to give Farkle the 'dad' talk, but maybe a warning. He found the bench he'd been looking for and motioned for her to sit down.

"So, what about Riley? What's going on with her?" He studied her face as she collected her thoughts. She opened her mouth to respond, but instead of her voice, he heard an electronic sound.

"Oh, well that's perfect timing, actually." She reached into her bag to retrieve a few things. What she came up with was her phone, which she silenced, a bottle of pills and a bottle of water. "I was going to tell you that it's a reminder for me to study that I forgot to turn off, but it's not. It's a reminder to take one of these." As she threw a pill down her throat, chased by water, Farkle tried to make sense of the situation. To say that he was confused would have been an understatement.

"What… Why are you taking medication, Riles?" She carefully placed the items back in her bag as she thought about how best to respond to his question. She turned towards him and found his grey eyes already locked on hers, confusion and worry blatant as he searched her eyes for answers.

"It's for my… My depression, Farkle. I, uh, I've been diagnosed with depression." She couldn't look him in the eye as she said it. He felt as if all the air had been sucked from his lungs, all from that one word. He'd heard stories of college students developing depression and anxiety. Hell, high school students were showing signs and symptoms more and more these days, but he'd never known… Well, nobody had ever told him they had depression. Sure, people got depressed. He'd been depressed, but depression automatically triggered suicide in Farkle's mind and that just didn't compute. None of this made any sort of sense. His Riley. His beautiful, smiley, positive, optimistic Riley had depression?

"How… How long?" Once he had swallowed and he felt like he could breathe again, he asked the question that had been going through his mind non-stop since she'd said the word.

"They're not sure. Ms. Nelson thinks it could've really developed somewhere between eighth and ninth grade, but it wasn't bad until college. Ms. Nelson is my therapist. I uh, also have some anxiety things to work through, but I'm getting better. She thinks that soon I'll be able to go off my meds. Especially since summer is right around the corner. I'm OK now Farkle. I promise." Red, hot anger flared up inside his chest as he watched the girl sitting next to him.

"No. You don't get to just keep something like this to yourself and then try to tell me that you're all better now because I know you, and I know that you're not OK right now. You're sitting here telling me that you have depression that you take medication for and you won't even look me in the eye, Riley." His voice was quiet, but she could hear the anger laced in his words. This was exactly why she hadn't wanted to tell anyone. This was exactly the reason why she hadn't told her parents when she first stopped going to her classes; she hated disappointing people.

She didn't notice the shakiness of his timbre.

"I'm sorry, Farkle. I told you it would ruin the night. I'll see you later." She tried to stand up, but Farkle was already kneeling in front of her and she had no choice but to look at him, at the tears that were sitting in his eyes. They hadn't spilled over yet, but they were close.

"What are you talking about, Riley? You think I'm going to leave you alone after you tell me that? You're… You're my best friend Riles. I'm… I was only mad that you hadn't told me, that you hadn't let me in." He reached up to touch her face, to hold her in any way. He should've known. He should've been able to tell. After all, it had been him to figure her out so many times before. Whenever Riley was hurting, he'd been the one to notify her friends; he'd been the one who noticed.

"Please, don't go home yet." This time, she heard his voice waver over the syllables, and she nodded. Farkle had always been one to surprise her, and she wasn't sure why she had thought that this time would be any different. Honestly, her brain was still trying to catch up to the image of Farkle kneeling in front of her with tears in his eyes, and this was after she'd just gotten over the shock of seeing Farkle with actual muscle definition in his arms.

"You can ask me any question you want, Farkle." He moved back to his spot on the bench next to her, but kept a hand on her this time. All of a sudden she felt so fragile, like she could blow away at any second. This was when he finally noticed how much skinnier she had become. Riley had never been big, she'd been too tall, and she didn't look too bad right now, but she was smaller. Smaller than he thought she probably should be, and yet he felt like she'd recently been putting on some weight. He got the feeling that this was what recovering Riley looked like, and that he didn't know what rock bottom Riley looked like. He remembered all those months she'd said no to Skyping, complaining that her laptop was broken.

"Does Maya know?" He almost laughed. If Maya knew, she would be here right now. She would've told everybody. She would've made Riley talk, and maybe Riley wouldn't have needed medication. But Maya wasn't here anymore.

"No. Only my parents, Auggie and my doctors know."

"Tell me what happened." She took a deep breath before she spoke.

"I stopped going to class. It just got to be so hard to get up and shower and put on clothes and talk to people and take notes and do assignments. I don't know how long I just laid in bed, day after day. My roommate had moved out so nobody knew. I hadn't made good enough friends so nobody checked up on me. I didn't tell my parents or anybody because I worried about what they would think of me. I couldn't stop worrying about other people, and that just helped pushed me down into bed ever harder. Eventually, I flunked out and I had to move back home in the middle of sophomore year. That's when my parents found out. They took me to a doctor and they diagnosed me. I took a gap year. They put me on meds, signed me up for a therapist. They even tried to get me to go to a support group. I just didn't know how to be me anymore." She looked over at Farkle who was stoically taking the story in. The tears were gone and he was gripping her hand tightly. "I had to try a few different kinds of meds to find one that worked for me, but eventually they started working. I found a therapist I liked, and I re-enrolled at NYU. I'm a year behind everybody, but that's all. I'm doing better. I really am. Ms. Nelson thinks that I just need to learn some coping mechanisms and try really hard to stay motivated through the winter. She says that college is one of the most stressful times in anybody's life and if I make it through this, I can make it through anything. I'm even almost off my meds, which is wonderful to think about." She looked back over at him, and then he was engulfing her in another hug.

"You're so much stronger than I ever thought you were, Riles." His voice was muffled by her hair, and she wondered just when his hugs had gotten so good. When was it that this boy had gained the ability to calm her just by holding her hand.

"Thank you for telling me, Riley. How are you feeling?" She sat back and reached up to wipe a tear away from his cheek.

"I'm feeling good. What about you?" He smiled down at her and kissed the knuckles of her hand.

"Good. How do you feel about a slight change in plans?" She quirked an eyebrow up at him.

Heavy chapter, I know, but fluff is coming! I think one more chapter and then an epilogue.