A/N: I know it's super short, but I felt this was the right ending for this particular chapter, no?
The next update will probs be the ending…wrapping it up…most likely…we'll see.
Enjoy, please and thank you!

I hear you're asking all around
If I am anywhere to be found

"Can you ever forgive me?" Fitz looked up from his spot on the stairs. His hair still dripped loose, heavy droplets of rain while Clare looked the other way. Mark then took to staring at his hands. Again. "I mean…I know I don't deserve it, but… I had to ask." He glanced up through his wet lashes while Clare bit her lip. Still it felt all too surreal. Brokenly, Mark spoke. "To see…" Clare picked at her nails. "If things have changed…to prove to someone out there that I've changed."

Seconds ticked by, the clock on the wall the only one in the room seeming to breathe. Mark waited for an answer he didn't really expect. Still Clare chewed on her lip, unknowing how to respond— if she should, what would happen. Finally, the curiosity colored her tone, "Have you...?" Fitz's head snapped up once her voice drifted. "–changed?"

Surprise brightened his dark eyes, his voice raw in honestly. "I don't even know who that person was a year ago."

Nodding slowly, empathetically, Clare felt herself consent. She had to swallow back the sudden lump arisen in her throat. "Me neither."

On the stairs, just a few feet away, Fitz felt he heard something further to the statement. Like there was more to the words she let hang in the air. He cocked his head in confusion. "Who?"

Clare let herself sink slowly to the floor, resting against the back of the front door. She felt tired. So tired. Lethargic. Languid. Exhausted. She shrugged. "Me. You. Both of us."

"You know, I never meant to hurt you."

"I know." Clare nodded there on the foyer floor, keeping her head bent, away from his eyes. She could feel herself losing whatever it was she worked so hard to rebuild over the last year. She couldn't look at him like time hadn't passed. Clare wouldn't let herself. "But you did."

"I know," Fitz spoke, standing up from his step on the stairs and edging closer. "And I am so sorry." He knelt down gently beside her. Clare urged her heart to stop beating so violently. Mark reached for her hands. Clare couldn't stop him. She felt frozen, stuck in time. She urged her heart to stop beating so violently. So precariously. Her heart just wouldn't listen.

I wish I had missed the first time that we kissed

She could feel his hands snake to her waist. Feel his breath tickle in her ear. Hear him whisper in the dark. See his eyes dance in the swarming moonlight. Take note of the music drifting through the ravine, his friends laughter through the trees. None of it seemed to matter. Clare felt sure nothing would ever matter, besides this moment, right here, right now. Nothing for forever but him and his smile and his arms and—

'Cause you broke all your promises

Clare cleared her throat, pulling her hands ever so carefully from his. "I really did love you." Her eyes never wavered once. Not even as the tears tumbled down her cheeks.

This time Mark fell to the same boat. His glassy eyes, too, leaked, silently spilling over down his face. His voice, hushed. "Me, too."

The quiet enveloped the room once again. The clock ticked seconds on the wall, breathing while Mark sat by Clare's side breathless. "It won't ever be the same, will it?" he finally braved himself to ask.

"No." Clare shook next to him. "It—"

But her answer was left severed. At the moment, the back door of the house sounded. Footsteps padded through the kitchen. "Clare?" A voice called out. "You there?" The footsteps moved closer, growing louder. "You know it's really rude to hang up the phone on a person like—" Eli's padding footsteps came to a sudden stop when he reached the foyer. "—that." His eyes took in the two on the floor, Fitz's hands still frozen in the air, Clare's clenched at her side.

The clock breathed seconds on the wall, until all three spoke madly at once.

"Eli—"

"I'm—"

Eli's voice barely even a hoarse whisper. "What is he doing here?"

Don't come back for me
Don't come back at all

A/N: Also, if you're interested, I posted a link on my profile for a picture I edited for a title page to this story. I'd love to hear your thoughts!