Arthur sat on the edge of the over-sized Adirondack, gazing out over the fields. The world was damp with a heavy dew that would before long be glistening frost. His breath raised before him in thin wisps of vapor that dissipated as they touched the barely-warm rays of thin sunlight stretching over the Eastern horizon. The last of the fair weather was packing her bags, he thought. He wondered if she would be the only one.
The door opened and closed behind him, and footsteps crossed the porch. Someone draped a thick blanket over his shoulders, and he looked up, surprised to see Diana.
"I thought you'd be with Dom." He said as she sat down on the edge of the other Adirondack, joining him in his survey of the land. He noticed she wore the charcoal gray wool jacket he had left in the house over a year ago.
"Ariadne's filling him in. Helping him sort out the details of what happened between the Fischer job and here." She didn't look at him. Instead, her eyes stared straight ahead.
"You know, you probably saved his life."
Diana shrugged. "I screwed up. It was sloppy. The whole thing could have gone pear-shaped and we all would have been lost." She looked down at her hands. They looked small, shrouded in the cuffs of Arthur's jacket. "No, things get more complicated without the compounds... a safer wake-up, but everything else..." She shook her head. "It was sloppy." She repeated the phrase with a resigned finality, delivering a final verdict.
Arthur shrugged the blanket around himself, glancing over to the woman sitting next to him.
"You kept the jacket." He noted. Diana offered a subdued chuckle.
"Yeah." She nodded. "Yeah, I kept it. Thought about burning it for a while, but..." She trailed off, staring at the silvery gray buttons on the cuffs.
The pair sat in silence on the porch for what seemed a small eternity.
"I never slept with Sheridan." Diana confessed at length, her voice distant and simple.
"I know." Arthur looked down, embarrassed and ashamed of the accusation he had made. She had been right, he had no right to ask. Still, he felt his torso warm, filled with something akin to relief.
"But you did kiss her."
It was an observation only, devoid of all traces of accusation or anger. Arthur bobbed his head slowly.
"In the dream on the Fischer job." He confessed simply.
There was a beat in the conversation.
"You know most people would say it was just a dream." Diana mused, her voice hinting at envy of those people for whom dreams were only inconsequential visions. Arthur didn't respond.
"I like her." She offered. "She seems nice. Pretty... She must be smart, too, if Dom hired her-"
"That-" Arthur interjected. "That wasn't why I -"
"It really doesn't matter, Arthur." Diana shook her head, smiling resignedly, her eyes distant.
Arthur shrugged the blanket from around his shoulders and rose from the chair, treading the cold boards of the porch toward the house. He stopped short, turning. Diana's back face him. He could see her shoulders and the back of her head from his vantage point behind the Adirondack.
"I kissed her so I would stop seeing you." He confessed, his voice raw, shaking slightly from either emotion or cold. Or both. "The Fischer job put our lives at risk. One misstep and we'd end up in limbo for decades, and none of us knew it until it was too late."
Arthur turned slightly, squaring his shoulders to her as he spoke, pushing aside the awkwardness and fear that kept him from speaking.
"Maybe you're right and I left for me, but I have spent every day of the last year and a half just wanting to come home to you and feeling like I couldn't, because if Dom didn't come back with me, then I left for nothing. But when I was down there and things were going sideways, and all I could think about..." His breath caught in his throat and he swallowed, "was you. Seeing you again."
Arthur looked down at the boards, dull and dirty against the meticulous shine of his dress shoes.
"We, Ariadne and I, were sitting in this mezzanine, waiting for Dom to make contact with the target. He was going to tell the mark he was dreaming, and then use that... anyway, the projections started closing in, and... When I looked around, I saw you. Standing by a desk, looking at me... Our work had been slipping because Dom couldn't keep Mal out. I'd seen what she could do because he couldn't let her go and focus on the job. I couldn't let you in, too. So I kissed her. So I'd stop seeing you."
Arthur raised his eyes. Diana sat, back turned to him, not moving. A silence, the long quiet that starts unuttered questions, filled the space between them.
"Did it work?" She asked quietly.
"Well enough." Arthur shrugged halfheartedly and shook his head. "But I've never stopped thinking about you. I-"
Arthur didn't get a chance to finish, as with one quick, fluid movement Diana rose from the chair and turned, throwing her arms around his shoulders and locking her lips to his. Arthur stepped back, surprised by the momentum, then wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. His head spun with the dizzying force of thoughts knocked out of alignment by the kiss.
He stopped thinking all together, letting himself be swept away by the moment. Diana's lips, her heartbeat, so close to his, the way her fingers trailed gently along his jaw. She broke the kiss and he bowed his head resting his forehead against hers, eyes closed.
"I love you." He said quietly, trying in vain to stem the smile spreading across his face. Diana grinned broadly, studying his face, her fingers trailing through the hair at the nape of his neck.
"I love you, too." Her eyes welled with emotion.
Arthur reached into his pocket, producing a familiar white gold ring, set with ornate milgrain designs and diamonds.
"I, uh... I hope you don't mind, but Ariadne found this in the drawer." He held it before her, between thumb and forefinger. Tears slipped from her eyes as she looked at it.
"I thought maybe we could pick up where we left off." He said gently.
Diana said nothing, smiling as she held her left hand out to him, fingers spread. He slipped the engagement ring on her finger and kissed her again.
They stood, wrapped in each other's arms, a pillar of living warmth against the chill autumn morning. Diana rested her head against Arthur's shoulder and he closed his eyes, pressing his temple against her hair.
"Is this real?" He asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer.
Diana held him tighter. "Have you found your footing?"
The breeze blew cold. Arthur's ears tingled with the curious warmth that always indicated too much time in the wind. The smell of damp grass and dry leaves filled the air. The wood of the porch gave slightly when he shifted his weight, echoing dimly against the ground in the space underneath. He nodded in answer to her question.
"Then open your eyes."
Arthur did. In the East, the sun broke over the horizon.
Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed this arc. I may continue it at some point where I left off, but first I plan to go backward and tackle some of the preceding action in a prequel/ origin story. You can follow me now to be updated when I start publishing it.
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