The Puzzle of Us

by Larkwings

He's a scholarly gent, puzzled by heartache and a mid-life crisis. She's a no-nonsense reporter, unraveling her existential dilemma. And against all odds, they may together rediscover themselves. NOTICE: This story will remain incomplete, but I've decided to upload whatever tidbits I had written

11. Old News and and Update

p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Author's Note: I was cleaning things up on my old laptop when I stumbled upon this story. At this point I don't even know if anyone still cares about this abandoned fic, and I don't think it will ever be completed the way I intended, but I had a few pieces written that I never got around to publishing. I really loved some of these when I wrote them nearly 2 years ago, and I figured might as well share them. I fear they won't have the same impact because there are story bits missing, but I may just provide details and thoughts about specific chapters in the author's notes. I think I've got about 15 ish pieces worth sharing, many of which were supposed to come later in the story. The first couple though, I think pick up directly where we left off right after the chapter "Reunion"./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt;"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Old News/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Timeline: Present/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Location: The Archives, Scotland Yard/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Not this one either./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"He tosses the paper into the ever growing pile on the right. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"He flips through another, admiring the quality of the photos in the World Times, but he is admittedly disappointed when her name is absent from credit. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"He tosses the paper to the right. Gressenheller has an impressive archive of the World Times. It started as a way of reminiscing. Too see what she was up to the past few years. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"It was turning into a rather peculiar case./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"She captured the essence of everything she photographed. For nearly a year since she left, her pictured breathed life into the stories in the Times. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Then she simply stopped./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"He figured she was on vacation. Everyone needs a break./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"She wasn't in the next issue either./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"Or the one afterward./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"So the pile on the right grew. /span/p