Rainwater
Chapter 24: Clarifications
Rating: R for sexual situations and suggestions, adult topics and language.
WitchyPrincess

Clarifications

I'm so cold; though it's not outside, it's winter inside. Cold as death. I feel dead. But I know the spring will come again.

At least, I know that's what I'm supposed to think because I had watched the other two girls do it. I had watched them gather the shattered pieces and glue them back together again. But maybe they were an exception. Or maybe I'm just weak. Because I can't imagine life again–the feel of the sun is lost to me.

Everything is frozen. Numb.

–Marron Chestnut
#######

Marron didn't really know where she was going or what she was doing when she made her way out of the club. She was in a state of shock that kept her from realizing her surroundings or even making sense out of the simplest gestures. If she had been able to concentrate, to pay attention, she would have noticed that Pan and Trunks were in a potentially suggestive situation, gripping onto each other as if their lives depended on it.

She would have also noticed Pan's words as well, words that could have possibly explained why they were the way they were. But she wasn't able to pay attention to Pan and Trunks. In fact, by the time she realized that she even knew the hugging couple standing outside of the club, the only words her fuddled brain registered didn't make sense to her.

"I just," Pan sobbed into Trunks' shoulder. "I didn't expect things to happen this way."

Then by that time Trunks realized that they had an audience and gently shushed the girl, pushing her head closer to his neck and rubbing her back in comfort.

"Marron?" He asked cautiously, registering the girl's far off look. "Are you all right?" But she didn't turn her eyes in his direction, almost as if she hadn't noticed that he called her name. She only shook her head, looking more like she had a tick than like she was responding to his question, and walked away.

Sighing, Trunks gave Pan a squeeze and dropped his arms from around her body. He pulled her face up to look into her eyes, wiping away her tears and giving her an encouraging smile. "We'll have to talk about this later, sweetheart. But, I promise, there's no need to cry. I'm going to take care of everything." Then he took her hand in his and lead her, behind Marron, to the car.

He helped Pan into the backseat, shutting the door softly after her, an almost tender look on his face. Then he turned to Marron and crossed his arms, giving her a stern look while trying to gouge exactly how badly she was doing.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" He whispered to her, a nearly hopeful tone to his words. He was afraid that talking louder would snap whatever fragile bonds were keeping her together.

"No." Her voice came out hoarse and scratchy as she turned away from him, searching through her purse for her keys. Her hands were shaking so badly, however, she couldn't even move things aside to pull them out and she wound up dumping the whole bag over on the top of her car.

Frowning, Trunks pushed her hands aside as she tried again to gather the keys in her hand, and picked them up himself. He preceded by putting the rest of the items back into her purse and handing it to her. Then he placed his free hand on the small of her back and lead her over to the passenger side of the car.

"Buttercup," he teased lightly, remembering the childhood nickname for the blonde. "I think it would be a good idea for you to stay at Pan's tonight. I don't think either of you should be alone." He opened the door and helped her inside as well, realizing that she wasn't going to respond. Then, looking from one girl's forlorn face to the other's, he heaved a sigh and murmured to himself,

"I don't think you'll be much help to each other together either."

#######

Goten smiled down at Bra's sleeping face, pulling her high heels off and placing her feet on the couch. He grabbed the throw blanket that had been carelessly swung across the top of the couch and dropped it lightly around her, fixing the covers around her until he knew she was comfortable. Or that she would be if she were awake instead of passed out on his living room couch.

Twenty minutes earlier, he hadn't thought being alone with her was a very good idea. After her adamant denial of blushing and the throwing up escapade at the club, her mood had improved greatly. In fact, she had become a littlemore than friendly with him by the time they'd made it to his apartment. It was then that he wished he had someone else around to distract him from her playfulness. But then, as fate would have it, she passed out, falling straight into his arms.

He had to say, so far, that had been the best part about this night.

As much as he hated to see her in any kind of out-of-control position, he hated even more watching her punish him by flaunting herself around. It wasn't fair to either of them that she took out her frustrations with him by getting drunk and ignoring the problem all together. She had avoided him most of the night because she probably knew that he was feeling like the ass he was.

That and the fact that he probably did deserve it. He had been ignoring her for much longer than one measly night. He needed to keep that in mind. He wasn't some innocent victim here, she had every right to treat him any way she wanted to treat him.

Sighing, he rubbed his hands through his hair and took a seat underneath the couch, resting his head on the cushion space in front of her nose so that their faces were nearly touching. He pushed a piece of stray hair from her face before relaxing his body and closing his eyes. If she was going to be asleep, he might as well rest also. After all, he wasn't drunk but he wasn't exactly sober either.

By the time one of them was ready to open their eyes the moon was already well into the sky, the night already progressed into early day. Bra's blue eyes landed on Goten's sleeping face as confusion rushed her brain, memories slowly cascading through her memory of the night that had just unraveled. Groaning slightly, she pushed her head farther back on the couch to move her lips farther away from his, and closed her eyes again.

She didn't want to deal with this right now.

#######

Trunks walked both the women into Pan's apartment quietly, shutting the door behind him and leaning against it. Both of them stopped what they were doing, Pan taking off her jacket, Marron her shoes, and gave him a confused look. Trunks simply stood, arms crossed, with a stern expression on his face.

"Can we help you?" Marron finally came to, almost glaring at him through her lashes as they both continued to get more comfortable.

He smirked at her, surprised by her sudden re-animation, and still took his time about answering, sizing both girls up with his eyes. When Pan sighed, he offered her a little smile, and finally told them what it was he wanted.

"You were my ride home." He told Marron truthfully, trying his best not to look mischievous.

"Oh, right, and there's no possible wayfor you to get home without me tonight." She quipped, becoming, it seemed, more annoyed by the second.

"Well, there really isn't. Goten and Bra are somewhere passed out, I'm sure. Pan is here and you are here, and if either of you leaves the other alone I'm afraid something dastardly will happen. And Ubuu is Dende knows where–by the way, where is Ubuu?"

Marron narrowed her eyes, growling and unsure if Trunks knew what on earth he was doing. He had to know that Ubuu was the reason she was all bent out of shape. He had to know. She had left him at the club for Dende's sake. The glint in his eyes told her that he did know and was simply trying to get her mind off the subject at hand.

"And I suppose you're so inconvenienced." Marron sneered, rolling her eyes. "I guess you'll just have to sleep here. With two depressed women that you are completely unrelated to and can easily take advantage of at your any whim. What a shame."

"Exactly." Trunks intoned, still suppressing a smile that he didn't truly feel but was putting on for show. A glance at Pan told him that she knew he was incredibly nervous, and they both knew why. His stomach clinched as he thought about what she had just told him, before Marron interrupted their moment.

He had never loved her more than he did at this moment, looking into her timid, unsure eyes. He only wanted to take care of her forever and ever. He never wanted to let her out of his sight and he was never going to. Not after tonight. He had made a big mistake by pushing her away in hopes of fixing things that had happened. He should have fought for her. He should have tried his hardest to keep her with him. He wanted nothing more than to fold her in his arms at this moment and protect her from everything that made her cry.

Sadly, he was part of the category of things that made her cry. Not anymore, though. No, from now on things were going to be so different than what they had been. They would never be that way again; not for any of them. He knew that with all his being.

"But seriously buttercup," He started, the smile falling from his lips. "Where is Ubuu?" His eyes had taken on a serious edge that told her he expected an answer this time. "He was pissed. Don't tell me you left him in the club without a ride."

"Oh, no," Marron shook her head, eyes turning red with unshed tears. "I didn't leave him, for your information." She turned her back on him, heading for one of the couches. Trunks and Pan shared a look that clearly meant 'uh-oh' before following Marron and taking seats as well, Pan on the chair, Trunks beside Marron on the couch.

They simply sat for a long while. Pan laid her head back on the chair, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself in an attempted comforting gesture. Her eyes drifted shut after a while, her breathing becoming more even though both Trunks and Marron knew she was still awake.

Trunks shifted in the chair after a few minutes, inconspicuously placing his arm across the back of the couch, then letting it fall onto Marron's shoulders. Smiling a little lopsidedly, Trunks pulled her body close to his, pushing her head down onto his shoulders. "Tell me what happened," he whispered coaxingly, almost like a gentle caress, into her ear.

She closed her eyes and buried her neck into his shoulder, making sure she didn't cry, forcing herself to smile. "I told you," she whispered back. "I didn't leave him. He left me, enough said."

Trunks shook his head, shaking her body slightly with the movement, as his fingers caressed her shoulder comfortingly. "Tell me what happened, Marron."

"Trunks," she started again, pulling her head up in an agitated fashion, narrowing her eyes again. She yanked her body away from his, pulling her shoulder out of his light grip, and trying to calm herself down. "Can I not want to talk about it? Is that okay? I mean, do you see me asking why you and Pan were making out in the club? Do you see me questioning why you two keep making eyes at each other like a fucking newly-married couple? Just..." She took a breath, leveling her temper again, trying to not lose her composure any longer.

"Just leave me alone right now. Please? I'm sorry." She mumbled, dropping her head back onto his shoulder and crying as if she were feeling pain for the first time in her life just this second.

All the while, Pan never lifted her head, though her eyes had opened somewhere between the time Trunks put his arm around Marron and before he asked her what happened. Pan's facial expression didn't change with Marron's outburst and she didn't flinch, the way Trunks did, making it seem as if she had expected Marron to lose it.

And, in truth, she had. Pan knew she would have in a similar situation, if it was anything as bad as Pan thought it had been. Marron had a lot on her plate right now and, technically, she was allowed to be hormonal.

Sometimes life played the cruelest jokes.

It was obvious that, once Marron wanted to talk to Ubuu, Ubuu wanted nothing to do with hearing what she had to say. If Ubuu had heard it, Pan was sure, he would be with Marron right now. He wouldn't let the pregnant love of his life away from him for one minute, if he knew. But he didn't know, he couldn't know.

When Marron started to sob into Trunks' shoulder, however, Pan did lift her head. She gave Trunks and encouraging smile, an easy-going smile that let him know Marron's words hadn't hurt her in any way and they shouldn't bother him either, and watched as he hugged the girl to his chest.

That was good. She needed that right now. Pan was glad Trunks decided to stay; she knew that was why he chose to, to take care of Marron, but she was happy about it all the same. She would have really needed him tonight if he had chosen to go home. And not just because Marron was hysterical.

Except for Marron's heartbroken sobs, the room was silent enough to hear the crickets outside the apartment windows. Trunks' eyes lifted from Marron's head and landed on Pan's face, her own eyes. For a moment, it seemed, neither one of them breathed, and she knew instantly what he meant by the look in his eyes. He didn't have to utter a word.

Her heart swelled with his one look, brown orbs misting over at the implications because she had never felt so completely important in her life. He was looking at her as though she were beautiful. As though she were the only person in the world that mattered. And though, she knew he had Marron in his arms, he had her in his heart. He always would, no matter what.

A comfort washed over her, filled her, and whispered that everything was going to be all right. Everything that she had been worrying about for weeks was about to be fixed. She knew it and he had only locked eyes with her.

It was amazing. How had she ever thought of staying away from him? Of not telling him? Why hadn't she told him sooner? Why wasn't she telling him right now?

#######

"I know you're not asleep." She heard him murmur lazily, but refused to open her eyes. If she ignored it, it would go away. That was the way she had always treated things before, after all. Of course, it had never really worked then either. Popping one eye open, slightly, so she could peek, she was met with the sight of Goten's smirking face looking dead at her. Then, even though she knew she was caught, she snapped her eye shut again and pushed her head back a bit to pretend to still be asleep.

She registered his laughter long before she realized that her own was joining in.

"Do you have a headache." He asked after a few moments. "You were asleep for a little less than four hours, so you might have slept it all off, but,"

"If I had one, you'd only be making it worse." She admonished, using her most condescending tone.

"Stop with the hating me routine, I already know you don't. Alcohol kind-of has a reputation for releasing one's inhibitions. I know all your deepest, darkest secrets." He teased, she could still hear the smirk in his voice as he spoke.

"Shut-up." She shot out nastily.

"So that's a 'yes' to the headache question. Thanks, babe."

"Why are you a jerk?" She asked, squinting her eyes at him. "And, no, I don't have headache. I handle alcohol very well, thank-you. I simply wanted you to shut-up because I'm tired of hearing you talk." She clarified, her crystal eyes the personification of hate.

"I'm not being a jerk, Bra. I could say plenty about your manners, however." He answered with a wounded tone to his voice.

"I didn't say you were being a jerk right now." She clarified. "Only that you were a jerk." Laying her head back on the couch, she turned as best she could away from him.

"Because, I don't know if you remember this part of our conversation at the club but, I love you. I'm a jerk because I love you and I don't know how to tell you."

"Funny how you just did." She quipped, though her tone was shaky and clearly off-balance with the hard tone her voice usually took with him. He saw through her immediately.

"And you were about to tell me you felt the same way when you threw-up all over my shoes."

She smiled slightly at this, the smile turning into a grin, the grin into chuckles. "Score one for Drunk Me." She teased, opening her eyes to look at his imploring expression.

"Tell me you love me, Bra."

"You asked me not to once."

"I'm begging you to say it now."

She hesitated for a spilt second before she responded to him, an evil glint to her eyes. "Goten, what's your favorite color?"

He stared, dumbfounded, for what felt like forever before closing his mouth and calming his composure. "I don't think I have one, Bra. But, if I had to pick, I'd have to say blue." He smiled briefly before picking up a strand of her hair and running it through his fingers. "You?"

"Mine's not blue. Not anymore." She smiled secretly to herself before moving on to the next question, her eyes drawing him into a conversation he hadn't been too willing to have at first. He only wanted the answer to one question, she was asking him a million to compensate, but he suddenly seemed not to mind.

They spent the rest of the morning like that, questioning back and forth, eventually winding up spooned in each other's arms and on their way to a peaceful sleep.

"I love you, Goten," she offered finally, a soft whisper that carried to his ears only.

He grinned, pulling her closer and drifting off to a different world, holding his dream in his arms.

#######

Trunks looked down at the sleeping head on his shoulder with a slightly amused expression on his face, slightly relieved. Looking back up at Pan, his eyes seemed to glimmer with both hope and sadness.

"How long do you think she cried?" Trunks asked softly, a near whisper so as not to disturb the girl.

"Thirty four minutes and nineteen seconds before she stopped sobbing so loudly." Pan told him, clearly having been keeping the time with the clock on the wall opposite her. They both smiled at each other, knowing no one else would understand their wit the way they did.

"How long do you think she'll sleep?" He questioned next, shifting his body so that he could pick her up while waiting for Pan to respond.

"All night, most of the morning if she's that depressed. And, you know, if she doesn't get sick." The last part seemed so expected and common, natural, that she didn't even think about stopping herself before saying it. After it was out, however, she virtually froze.

"Why would she get sick?" He asked cautiously, finally putting the missing pieces together. He looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms, then back up to the woman who was now standing in front of him. Her eyes looked fearful but she didn't respond.

"Pan, why would she get sick?" He demanded this time, already knowing the answer. Pan had all but told him. They all had. Marron hadn't drunk at the club, which was highly un-Marron like, and he hadn't noticed because he'd been so concerned with Pan. Marron had been sad, moody, and brooding-type quiet the whole night as well. Lately, Pan, Marron, and Bra had stuck together like glue, both Pan and Bra being more protective of Marron than each other or themselves.

Marron had needed to talk to Ubuu. Marron was pregnant. She was pregnant and it was probably her test that he had seen and not Pan's.

Then...why was...what was... "Are you pregnant or not?"

"Please don't tell Marron you know. Don't tell anyone. We didn't want anyone else to know."

"Well, we're going to have a problem then, because both of the boys already know that one of you is pregnant. They just don't know which." Or, Trunks thought confusedly as he carried Marron into the guest room, both of you are...

"Where am I sleeping, by the way?" He asked casually as he made his way to the room, glancing over his shoulder at her following form.

"Well, there's only really two places. There's the guest room and then there's ... my room..."

"I think," Trunks started raised eyebrows because of the uncomfortable yet slightly suggestive way she said 'my room' that made the blood boil in his skin. "I think I'll take the couch."

"I actually meant Marron could sleep in my room. We can share. You take the guest room."

"Not that I would have a problem, you know," he told her as he turned around, carrying Marron to her room instead. "Sleeping wherever. It's just that...under the circumstances."

Kicking her door open, he waited for her to enter first, and then followed with Marron. She pulled the covers back and he placed her gently on the bed, then Pan tucked the girl into the covers.

"We'd make wonderful parents, you know," he told her gently, watching an emotion he seriously thought was pain, well up in her eyes. Turning her around, away from the sleeping Marron, he locked their eyes and stared at her for a moment.

"We really do need to talk, babe." He finally got out, his heart welling inside him. What was going on? He saw the tears well up in her eyes and sighed, letting her shoulders go. "Let's take this to the other room." He suggested.

"Can we save it until the morning?" She asked wearily, wanting to stretch out in bed and go to sleep. Marron, unfortunately, was taking up Pan's entire bed by the time she glanced back again.

"Only if you answer me 'yes' or 'no' right now. Are you pregnant?"

Glaring, she rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the room, shutting the door softly behind them. Then, as if she had been waiting for just the right moment to do it, she collapsed into his arms and fell apart again.

"I don't think I'll ever be," he managed to make out of her strangled, choked sobs as he rubbed her back and pulled her tighter to his body. "I don't think I'll ever be okay now, Trunks."

#######

"What would make you say a thing like that?" He asked, after she had regained herself a little, pushing her face back to look into her eyes. She turned her head away from him and took her time about answering.

"I didn't realize I was late until Marron said she thought she might be pregnant." She whispered, leaning her head back on his body for support again.

His heart was pounding by this point and he rubbed her hair, trying to be as comforting as he knew how to be. Tonight, though, had been a trying night. "Go on."

"So naturally I thought I was pregnant. And I had every reason to think so, I mean, we had sex a lot of times Trunks and we never used protection." Her voice was breaking off again as she said this, a confused note to her voice. "How could that happen? How could we do that so many times and not use protection? I mean, I didn't even think about it until Marron said she might be pregnant. It was like I forgot how people got pregnant when I was with you."

Her voice died at the end, allowing him to hear the second her breathing increased. She was going to go into hysterics if he couldn't calm her down.

"Pan, you have to help me out here, because I don't really know what's wrong. It's okay, whatever happens, it's okay. You know I'll be there for you, don't you?"

"There's no need for that Trunks. I'm not and, all this time, I haven't ever been. That was the first time I was even late. What does that say about me? What do you think that means?" Her voice was condescending at the end but it did nothing to cover up how scared she was. She was shaking in his arms.

His brow furrowed as he thought on what had happened earlier tonight. "But you said, at the club...I asked you if you were pregnant and you said you didn't think I'd understand. You said that you didn't mean for things to turn up this way."

"I don't think you understand. Marron's pregnant because she slept with Ubuu one time. We were sleeping together for months, almost every night, and we never used protection. And yet, somehow, I'm not. Even if I wanted to Trunks, I couldn't have your children."

He smiled secretly to himself as she finished, though he realized now that they weren't going to have a child soon, and wrapped his arms tighter around her. She had said she couldn't have his child, not that she couldn't have children. In her mind, they were synonymous. In her mind, if she had children, they would be his. He had caught the hopeful and regretful tone of her voice that signified the something more than what she said.

"And, do you want to?" He asked after a while, voice slightly strained from curiosity.

"You're not bothered by what I just told you?" Her voice was shaky from silent tears and muffled by his shoulder.

"Of course not, if that were true, it would only mean that I'd get to have to you to myself all the rest of our lives."

She ignored all the implications of his sentence, all but one. "What do you mean, 'if'?" She pulled her head back to question, needing to see the confirmation in his eyes.

"I mean, that's not true Pan." He could almost feel her heart-rate pick up speed.

"What are you saying, Trunks?"

"There's nothing wrong with you, sweetheart, or me. There's nothing wrong with us. It's just that I'm half Saiyan and it's natural for things to take a longer amount of time with us. Look at your parents, for example. They only had one child. My parents had two, years apart. Your father's parents had two, also years apart." He paused, trying to think of a good way to explain it. He wanted to make things as clear as possible.

"When Saiyans attempt to breed with humans, it takes longer for the process to work. A human body wasn't meant to breed outside it's own kind, so human women aren't as prone to get pregnant." He winced slightly, knowing that he had probably just hurt her feelings.

"I'm Saiyan, Trunks," she said slowly, almost coldly, because she knew what he was implying.

"Yes, you're one-forth Saiyan. And, because of that, it would be more likely for us to have more children than your parents or mine, but not much more likely. It's perfectly natural if it takes you a long time to get pregnant."

"So Bra and Goten could have as many children as they wanted, whenever they wanted to have them, but I have to try every night for years just to get pregnant once?"

He quirked an eyebrow. She made it sound like that was a bad thing. "I'm not complaining."

She glared in response. "I bet you aren't."

#######

He realized that he had made a mistake, the moment he opened his eyes. His head was pounding and the sun was too bright on his eyes, vision blurring with respect to how drunk he had been the night before, but he could only think of the shocked, sad look on Marron's face when he said those horrible things to her. Remembering the tears in her eyes when she slapped him.

He was the scum of the universe and she was too good for him.

He had overreacted, but that was what drunk people did. They did stupid things. They said things they wouldn't normally say. He had no excuse, though, he had been thinking those things for a long time. Not, of course, to that level of nasty, but he had been thinking that she was selfish and inconsiderate for longer than he cared to admit. He had been thinking she was promiscuous and easy for just as long, and he had been disgusted with the amount of self-value she seemed to hold for herself. Now she knew exactly how he felt, even if she thought it was to a greater degree than it was, and she would never forgive him for it. Ever.

He closed his eyes and groaned, glad that he had at least kick Paris out of his house the second she dropped him off. He could have made a million more mistakes last night if he hadn't. But still, he shouldn't have used the girl to make Marron jealous. He shouldn't have even expected her to become jealous. She had made it clear that she didn't really want more than friendship from him and he was an asshole not to learn to accept that.

Hurting her feeling was just the only way he had come up with, in his drunken state of mind, to compensate for his damaged pride.

This was the worst mistake he had ever made in his life. He had sent her away when she needed him. She had begged him not to and he had turned his back on her. The small part of him that thought she deserved what she got even felt horrible, knowing that she was really in need this time, for something, and he couldn't have been there for her.

But he was tired of being the go-to guy. Even as he thought it, a nagging in the back of his head and heart told him that this was more serious than that. There had been something wrong and he knew it. He could sense it. And, last night, he had taken pride in knowing that she needed him and he wouldn't be there. Drunk or not, that was the worst thing he had ever done and there was no forgiving it. He would be paying long and hard for this one and he knew it.

#######

"Thank-you for staying with us last night." Pan whispered to Trunks as she turned around in the bed, her head finding his shoulder and taking rest there. He turned to face her as well, smiling down at her before shaking his head.

"It was no problem."

"No, I mean it," Pan insisted, curling her body up so that she was closer to him. "I don't know what I would have done without you last night."

"And Imean it, it was no problem." He wrapped her up in his arms, burying his head in the crook of her neck. "You smell like winter, do you know that? I didn't know winter even had a distinctive smell until you came back into my life." He murmured, kissing her neck in the pause after his sentence.

"I think you're ridiculous." She laughed, feeling flattered all the same.

"I'm not," he told her seriously, shifting their bodies again, this time so that she was on top, while running his hands down the small of her back. "Thank you for sleeping with me last night." He responded playfully, a crooked smile on his lips.

"Oh stop it," she wiggled up into a sitting position, straddling his hips with her legs as she looked down at him. "You know we only slept in the same bed. And only because I didn't want to disturb Marron."

"You wanted me," he smirked, placing his hands suggestively on her hips. "You still do."

She rolled her eyes but didn't respond, smiling just the same.

"What do I have to do to get you out of this shirt?" He questioned after a second, giving her hips a slight squeeze. She was only wearing a long night-shirt as her pajamas, he was only in boxers and their position was quite suggestive.

"You're such a man," she teased him, leaning down to kiss his nose. He, of course, lifted his head and meshed his lips against her own. She shifted position but didn't pull away, holding herself up with her hands, which were placed on either side of his torso.

The kiss was slow and deep, leaving them both breathless when she pulled away. When she sat up again she accidentally–at least he hoped it was accidental–ground her hips against his, making him grit his teeth in slight frustration.

"What's wrong?" She asked playfully, being perfectly able to feel what was wrong with him.

"What are you doing?" He asked after a few long seconds, finally regaining his regular breathing pattern. His voice was chastising yet his eyes were anything but.

"Getting up to cook breakfast. Is that okay with you?" She answered mischievously. Grinning, he released her hips and allowed her to slide off his body.

"I'm getting you back for that." He told her as she slipped out of the room, his eyes trained on her bare legs. Smirking, she turned back to him before shutting the door, and answered,

"I doubt it."

He smiled at the air where she had just been standing, feeling, for the first time, that he was finally at home. Wherever she was, he realized, was where he belonged. He just wanted to be near her for eternity.

To be continued...