Every year on Midsummer's Day for as long as she could remember, her husband would leave without a word for the Botanic Gardens. He was getting ready to leave now - she quickly stood up.

"Will, are you going to the Botanic Gardens again?"

"Yes." He said no more and she knew better than to ask. All their married life he had kept up this going once a year but had never told her why. In fact, he never spoke a single word about it, although she had asked many times. She watched as her husband, Will Parry, walked out the front door.

Will strolled down to the Botanic Gardens, 15 minutes walk away. He breathed in the fresh air and the scent of the blossoms that were already dotting the trees. The sky was cloudy and thunder was rumbling close by; and he knew the rain would come soon. The air was starting to feel heavy and insects buzzed exceptionally loud. Will could feel tears blurring his eyesight as the Botanic Gardens came into view, but there was the little bench as always, unoccupied, waiting for him to sit down.

Memories; memories of a girl with dark blonde hair and clear blue eyes - he remembered everything about her as if it were yesterday they had parted; her tense grace, the way her body was always full of life, and energy, and vitality - he remembered her scent and the way she threw her head back when she laughed -

The man was crying openly now. The heavens opened and poured out their rain as if in sympathy. Little by little the Gardens became deserted; people were going home to shelter from the rain. Soon only Will and his daemon, Kirjava were left.

Will sat there, playing back all that had ever happened to them, remembering every word she had said, every gesture she had made. All that they had been through - so many worlds, even the world of the dead; but now she was gone. He loved Lyra so much he thought his heart would break and he knew he would never love anyone like he loved her.

The rain fell thick and hard - the raindrops mingled with his tears and fractured his vision into a thousand tiny splinters. The Botanic Gardens looked dull and grey through the curtain of rain, but he knew that on the same bench Lyra was also sitting in her world. She was so close, he could reach out his arm and touch the place where she must be sitting; but so far, for she was a whole world away. Will grasped desperately at the air, willing it to open, to split, to do something, anything - and let him hold his beloved Lyra again.

He wondered the question that had been with him for 20 years.what did she look like now? Would she still be the same Lyra, or would she have changed? Was she married? Was she happy? Did she still miss him? Yes, he answered himself, I know the answer to the last question for she will always love me, just like I will always love her - and when we die and leave this world nothing will ever be able to separate us, ever. I'll find her and she'll find me and we'll be together forever.

The rain was becoming lighter and as Will came out of his memories and his sorrow, he saw the sun shining down, weak and dappled, but shining none the less. And somewhere over the horizon was the faintest trace of a rainbow. He wondered if there was a rainbow as well in Lyra's world, and his heart ached to hold her tight. But all he could do was let the hot tears flow and remember. Finally Will stood up, wiped his eyes, and set off for his home. He did not look back, although he knew his heart would always be there, with Lyra.