A/N: Alllright now. Dire requests have been made and so I churned out the end of this here story. Fair warning, I tried my best and hopefully came up with a semi decent ending, but endings are not my forte, especially for a story with this level of involvement and time. But, whatcha gonna do? Please (hopefully) enjoy.
…..
From the spare room she had been staying at in her brother's house she heard the doorbell ring. She didn't get up. She didn't even move. She just stared at the wall. She heard footsteps and the door opening and voices, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Her brain filled in the spaces.
"Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?" She mumbled. "Vote for What's his Nuts in November and do Hyde County a great service." She would have scoffed if she had more energy. She heard the door close and the voices continued. Whoever it was it was someone they knew. Ever since she had gotten into this funk that she refused to call depression there had been many well-wishers and old friends coming around, but she didn't want to see any of them, not now.She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a soft knock on the door. "Tess?" Her brother's voice asked through the door.
"I don't want to see them."
"I think you might want to see this one."
"No." She heard him try the handle but the door was locked. "I can't deal with it now." She thought she heard footsteps back down the stairs but seconds later he spoke again.
"Tess, please open the door." She was so furious that she forgot to unlock the door before she tried to open it.
"Damn it!" She cursed before twisting the little knob and throwing the door open. "Whoever it is they can just…" He mouth stopped along with most everything else because staring at her, trying to hide his laughter at her inability to operate a door, was none other than the problem himself.
"James? I… You…" He shook his head and pulled her into a hug before she could really process what was going on. "Pain in the ass." All the stress she had been feeling left her in one giant rush. She leaned on him and then let her legs go all together figuring he could deal with it because she had dealt with his 'death' for the last three weeks. He slowly kneeled down, not letting her go.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
"You better be."
"They were moving me around and I couldn't…" She just held him tighter.
"You're alive, that's the only thing that maters." After a pause they parted.
"Of course I'm alive!" He said pushing her to arm's length. "Why in the Hell would you think I was dead?"
"I called Eagle after I was home for a while and they told me you were gone! KIA Will!" She was holding back tears that sprung up after saying those words again. Even though he was right there in front of her she still felt the sting in her eyes and the tightening in her throat that had plagued her for three days before she shut down everything emotionally.
"There must have been some mistake… Jesus." He brushed her bangs out of her face. "I'm so sorry Tess." The pain on his face was like a punch to the gut. She didn't want to see him sad or upset, or anything but happy. He was alive! Everything should be freakin rainbows and butterflies damnit! God she thought, I can't handle this. She shook her head.
"I look a mess!" She exclaimed suddenly. She stood up quickly and started shuffling around her room, which was thankfully more pulled together than usual. Will got up and leaned on the door frame content with watching her move, how she picked things up and put them away, her hands deftly remaking the bed, listening to her voice as she asked him questions, not really waiting for an answer before saying something else. He just smiled and for the first time since he had left her broken and bleeding in the sandbox he felt a little more whole and warm.
"When did you get home?"
"About a week ago. Decided it was high time I paid you a visit." He couldn't keep the small smile from his face.
"I'm gonna…" She pointed at the bathroom and looked at the bundle of clothes in her hand. "You can sit." She said pointing to the bed. "I'll be out in a sec." She hurried off to the bathroom and Will walked over to the desk next to her bed. There was a picture of her and her brother in a silver frame. He picked it up and sank onto her bed. They were laughing at something. The smile on Tess's face was wider than he had ever seen, her eyes almost disappearing. Her hair was longer and framed her face. She looked younger, innocent. The war had changed her. He put the picture back down with clenched teeth.
"Alright." She said coming back out of the bathroom. He didn't even keep himself from staring as he got up off the bed. She looked so different from the woman he was used to on base and different from the girl in the photo. It was a mix of them both with an undercurrent of a haunted past. She was strangely beautiful.
"Tess, you look…" "Like a wreck, I know. But you put me through Hell!"
"I was going to say beautiful." He said with a sincerity so deep it highlighted the silence that followed. She looked down and back up.
"Lets go." She brushed past him and out the door. She was starting to realize that being around Will here at home, without the war or distractions was going to be difficult. He had a woman back at his home and a son, people he was involved with. He couldn't love her, not like she loved him. She didn't need him too, but she wasn't sure how to approach the situation either. Everything was so much different than war.
He followed her down the stairs and she re-introduced him to her family before they left the house. He followed her to the garage where a burnt orange Dodge Challenger 2009 was sitting in the shadows.
"Bet that's yours…" Will said.
"What's a girl without her car, James?"
"I missed you Tess." He said with a smile. She just smiled back, not saying anything because there were so many things she wanted to say, but had no idea how to so it would probably just come out as incoherent noises because she was so confused. Instead she got in her car and started it up.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"You'll see." She responded. They drove in silence, Tess gripping the wheel with both hands and Will watching the city go by out the window. It would have been a comfortable silence if Tess could stop herself from thinking about anything and everything involving her relationship with Will. She felt like a little schoolgirl again and she hated it. She had known this man for months and he had saved her life and now she was afraid to even say anything to him. This is absurd.
She turned the car into a parking lot between two buildings and got out of the car. Will followed her, but she did not wait for him and he had to jog to catch up.
"Tess, we need to talk."
"Ah ah!" She said holding up a finger to quiet him and then folding her arms back in front of her while continuing on towards the sand dune in front of them. She could smell the salt water already and apparently so could Will.
"You're true to your word. If I come see you I get to see the ocean."
They walked the boardwalk and the ocean came into view. They could see a storm brewing to the north, but the south skies were clear. The sun wasn't too hot at this point in the fall so the beach wasn't too crowded. Tess took a moment to just stand and look at the water, at the clouds and how they were building, how the little clumps of grass swayed on the dune and she calmed herself down. Will watched her with concern, not really knowing what she was doing, what was going on in her head. She stepped off the boardwalk and sat down in the sand. Will sat next to her.
"Tess…"
"I know! We need to talk." She sighed. "Look, Will, there are multiple reasons why you and I shouldn't be together, at all, ever." He smiled and looked away at the ocean. "For one, you have people that you're involved with, a son who needs you."
"I'm leaving them." He said shortly, playing with the sand between them. She furrowed her eyebrows and waited for him to continue. "Connie doesn't need me. As much as she thinks she does, she doesn't, and I'm just holding her back. She doesn't understand what I've been through and I can't explain it to her. And my son…" He paused. "He'll be better without me too. I'd make a terrible father." He said with a sad chuckle.
"A son needs his father."
"I know, but… look, with me out of the way Connie can go find a good man, someone who can be a father." She wasn't going to argue with him. It wasn't her place. Tess sighed and went on to her other reasons.
"We're both a mess." She went on.
"So we'll keep each other together. There is not another person on this planet that understands what we went through better than we know each other. I know where you've been hurt, I know who you've lost. And you know my mistakes and will understand the other ones when they come back to haunt me."
"But you don't love me, Will!" She said upset. She hadn't even meant to say it really. Why was he fighting so hard for her if he didn't love her? She didn't think she needed him to, but she couldn't see this working out very well if she loved him like she did without him reciprocating, without him understanding.
"I know, but I need you, Tess!" She swallowed. "Look, after I left and went to Eagle, I realized that you… I wasn't the same without you around. I was slipping up, depressed, angry. It's just, when you were around I felt… better. Connie can't do that, she doesn't understand." Will threw a rock towards the water. He didn't look back at her. "Look, I can understand if you want someone who can love you, but I'm willing to give us a shot. Maybe along the way…" Tess moved in front of him. "We'll figure it out…" She leaned in and kissed him softly. Smiling she shifted into his lap and put her head on his shoulder. His arms came around her after a second and one of his hands gently covered the side with her shrapnel wounds.
"I like this." She stated plainly after a minute. "I could give this a shot."
He kissed the top of her head and smiled because that warmth that he didn't usually feel in his chest had started glowing there again.
…..
A/N: AAAaaaaannnnd that's a wrap. Trolololo Will's not dead. I hoped you liked it, because as I said I suck with endings, especially long ass things like this. Reviews please so I know how much I did or did not fail.
