"Jase, how are you?" Emily asked as he walked into their house and he just shook his head. He was no longer sure about what he wanted out of life, but he knew that he couldn't continue to live like this. Sure, he loved Emily, but it would never be in the same way that he loved Trini, now he just had to figure out if he could live with himself if he married her, instead of waiting for the one that he loved. Would it even be worth waiting for her when she seemed like she didn't care at all? Should he just try to move on or should he never give up on her?
"I'm going to take a trip out to the cabin this weekend…I need some time Em," Jason said as Emily barely nodded. She could tell that things had not gone quite as he had planned and she hated it for him. She hated to know that he was not happy with her, that he was living this life only because he couldn't have the one that he really wanted.
"Take all the time that you need, honey. Just come back when you have it all figured out," Emily said as Jason smiled over at her.
He could not believe that she was being this accepting of the fact that he was not sure about his feelings for her. He had been sure that she would throw him out the moment that he said something, but then he realized she must have seen this coming. Everyone must have, except them and they were the ones that desperately needed to figure it out and now that all was gone. Trini had chosen to pick the safe route that had nothing to do with him and he was now stuck here, all alone with a mind full of questions that would never be answered.
"Emily…" Trini trailed off as Emily opened that door and stared at her in shock. From the way that Jason had reacted this morning, it almost seemed as if Trini had told him that she never wanted to see him again. So why was she now standing in front of her looking scared to death? "How are you?"
"I'm all right Trini, but why are you here?" Emily asked as Trini looked down at her feet. She was not sure how to say this, especially to someone that she knew cared for Jason as well.
"I think that I've made a mistake," Trini said as Emily just nodded her head. She could see how hard this was for Trini, but she also knew that she couldn't help her say it. She was going to have to be willing to take that leap herself because it was hurting Emily enough to sit through all of this.
"What kind of mistake?" Emily asked as Trini looked up at her.
"The kind of mistake that you're lucky to ever get the opportunity to fix," Trini said as tears began forming. Although she knew that she would be sending her away to take away the one man that she devoted so much time to, she knew that she must do it, for both of their sakes. They deserved to be able to be happy, together.
"He's gone up to the cabin for the weekend," Emily said as Trini stared at her. How had she known that she was talking about Jason? Had Jason told her about his feelings? Had he confided in her the truth so that he would be more free?
"You're sure that…" Trini trailed of as Emily barely nodded.
"He doesn't love me nearly as much as he loves you…I just wish that the both of us would have seen it earlier, it would have saved us a lot of pain," Emily said as Trini barely nodded and then let out a sigh. "What's wrong?"
"I don't even know how to get to the cabin, he always drove when we went and I usually slept half the ride," Trini said as Emily passed her a list of directions and smiled.
"I kinda thought that you might show up sometime, so I was prepared," Emily stated as Trini threw her arms around her in a hug.
"Thank you, thank you so much, you have no clue what this means to me," Trini said as she let her go and Emily couldn't help but laugh.
"I think I might," Emily said as Trini barely nodded as she stood there on the porch just staring at Emily. She could not seem to wrap her mind around the fact that she was actually going to do this, she was actually going to tell Jason the truth. "What are you waiting for? Go!"
Jason sat at the edge of the pier, looking out at the calm lake. The first time that he came here was some ten years ago when Kimberly had broken Tommy's heart with that damn letter. Now he was here to try to find some healing for himself. He did not know how he had gotten to this place, where the one woman he desperately needed in his life, was also the one woman that he could not have. She had placed a sign on herself that said she was single, but not looking or more accurately not looking for him. He didn't know what to do, she was the one person that he could honestly imagine himself growing old with and now he could not have her in his life. She had chosen to let him stay with Emily, but Emily was not the person that he needed.
"Hey, what you doing up here?" Tommy asked as he walked down to the end of the pier and sat down next to Jason.
"I'm just thinking. How did I get in this situation?" Jason asked as Tommy rested his head against his palms. He felt the exact same way, but he was sure that Jason didn't want to hear that right now. He wanted to be able to get out his problems without having to deal with any of Tommy's. "How did I let her get away?"
"I'm guessing that it didn't go so good," Tommy said as Jason looked over at him.
"You could say that," Jason said as he pushed himself off the edge of the pier, into the water. "How did things go with you?"
"Well, after the hour of cursing at me, it got better, but she still…" Tommy trailed off as Jason barely nodded. He knew that if Tommy was here, things had not gone well for him as well.
"Did you bring the beer?" Jason asked as Tommy shook his head no. "Why not? We deserve to get drunk and go be somebody else for awhile, someone that isn't a damn ranger with a fucked up sex life because of it."
"How did you know?" Tommy asked as Jason just shook his head. He had known Kim and Tommy for too long to think that things had ever fully stopped between them. It all boiled down to Kim's fear of being left alone and Jason couldn't blame her after how things had gone with her father, but Tommy was not him and he somehow had to make her understand.
"I've been both of your friends for years, I can tell how much of a strain it is for the two of you and inevitably her trips or yours get cut short after a night when the two of you disappear alone. Tommy, you're not her father and she's just going to have to accept that or you are going to have to make her. It's different with me, I got myself into this by not paying attention when I was seventeen," Jason said as Tommy raked his hands through his hair. After all of these years protecting the earth, two of its greatest heroes sat there alone, without the ones that they truly loved, trying to figure out where things went so wrong.
"It's not like I've really helped the situation Jason," Tommy admitted as Jason lazily swam around.
"You're not telling me anything new," Jason said as he looked down the pier and saw another car pull up to the cabin. "Do you think any of the other guys have had as shitty of a week as us?"
"Who knows," Tommy said as Jason pulled himself back out of the water and blocked his eyes from the fading sun to try to see who it was that had come there as well. "That car doesn't look familiar though."
"Yeah, I know," Jason said squinting and still not able to make out much of anything. The figure that had exited the car was now walking towards the pier, actually to be more accurate running. It took Jason a few moments to recognize the figure, but once he had, he was absolutely speechless. He had been sure that she would never want to see him again.
"You okay?" Tommy asked as Jason just shook his head, more or less trying to clear his thoughts, as he had not even heard Tommy. "Jase…bro…something wrong?"
"Tri…" Jason muttered as he started walking down the pier, with Tommy looking at him, completely confused. Hadn't the two of them just been talking about how messed up their lives had turned out to be and now he was talking about Trini again?
She had never run so hard in her life. There had been times when she should definitely have ran this hard in the past, but she had never felt the proper motivation, but now the proper motivation was standing about fifty feet away from her. He stopped in his tracks as she slowed down slightly and stopped a few feet away from him. Now that she was here, she was not sure what to say, but she knew that she had to say something.
"Hey, Emily said that you were up here," Trini said lamely as Jason stared at her and she pulled a piece of paper out of her back pocket. "You dropped this when you left the other day, I thought you might want it back."
"You came all the way here for a poem?" Jason asked as he raised his eyebrow and Trini looked down at the ground.
"I run to you, that's all I've ever done, Jason," Trini said as he closed his eyes and smiled before throwing his arms around her and giving her a crushing kiss. The shock that the both of them felt was something that they had never experienced before. To have a life that was so in harmony with the other that it was frightening was what they had been looking for and now they had found it and it was all that they would ever need.