Author's Notes: Awww... Thank you so much to: Smallville's Chick 1989, froggiezaz, CamilaC, Angel Dust, Carby-Always, britt, and Rox88... You guys are my stars :-) I got home from tutoring... And suddenly I have like five reviews in my inbox... Thanks so much, that made me smile... And here's the next chapter... You know me... I'm ahead by one chapter at the moment... Hoping to progressively move forward.. This fic is just really easy to write right now, so I'm going to flow with it and hope the inspiration stays with me... Thanks again!! And a little side note.. I changed my AIM screenname... Sorry I didn't say anything, it's SweetMisery973... So just pop a line out of boredom...

In the glow of the machines, I can see his dark brown eyes. The same brown eyes that used to captivate me. I think I just realized they still do. People change with time, their bodies become more fragile, their exteriors more rough. Emotional walls go up to protect from pain and suffering, but underneath it all, underneath all the lies and deceit, their the same person. They might have a different view on life, but the essential values are the same. I see the same man I married twenty-five years ago. He might be a lot harsher, older, wiser. He might have hurt me, destroyed me, and made me suffer. But he's the same man who made me laugh and wiped away my tears. He's the man that promised he would always be there for me. He's the one that held me when the world was against me. The basic things never change. He's always been there for me if I needed him. If I had chosen to turn to him. We made a lot of stupid choices, pushing each other away. We both presumed and assumed. Neither wanted a fight. So we just melted way, faded into oblivion. We let something that could have lasted just slip between our fingers, something we both could have held onto. I only have one stupid thought in my mind. One silly question I want to ask and am going to.

"What happened to us?"

He shrugs a little before putting his head on my shoulder for a second. He looks back at me and in the faint light I see his eyes glimmer with traces of tears. I take my free hand and rest it against his cheek, and he nuzzles my hand. He shakes his head at me, looking at me as if I held all the answers. I don't know where and when it happened. I know as much as he did. We just watched it slip away by the end.

"I don't know."

I lay my head back down on his shoulder and he gently kisses my forehead. I let Hallie's hand go and wrap around him. The chair's uncomfortable for two, but we're managing quite alright. He still smells the same way he did twenty five years ago. The light sent of shampoo, soap, and a touch of aftershave. I brush his cheek, a little bit of stubble starting to grow.

"So what now?"

I feel his trace a path along my back, we both don't know what to say. The silence adds to the uncertainty.

"Do you still love me?"

I pick my head back up, looking him in his eyes. I asked myself that question a thousand times when I was filling out the paperwork for the divorce. I asked myself if I still loved him. I responded no. Amy asked me if I still loved him. I said no. Now, the truth comes out. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

"I never stopped loving you. I thought you never loved me. I thought I was just a second-rate replacement."

"Replacement for whom?"

Our voices are the only ones on the floor, and it echoes through the hallway. I doubt the nurses are eavesdropping. I could care less if they were.

"Kem."

He pulls me in closer, and holds me tighter for a second. His thumb skims my cheek, and his eyes lock on mine.

"Kem was supposed to be my replacement for you... I couldn't forget you. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you after we had coffee that one night, after I returned from Atlanta. I just saw you smile and I knew you were the one..."

I slide off his lap and stand a few feet away from him. I've heard some of this before. I'm not in the mood to be sweet-talked. Our marriage didn't end in divorce because we loved each other. There's other things, deeper things, worse things. Demons we both have that we need to fight. We need to fight them together or else our family will fall apart. We've kept it together, we've tried our hardest, we need another chance. Just one more.

"No, Carter, I don't want to hear it. Why did we fall apart?"

He sighs gently, and he digs his head into his hands, pushing his hair back and finally sitting with his body hunched over, his elbows on his knees, starring at the floor.

"Because I didn't trust you. I couldn't. I needed you, Abby, once in my life. And you weren't there. You were too preoccupied with your own family to give a damn about me. Trust's hard to gain, and once you lose it, you can't really build it back up without pain. I just didn't want that again. I never came to you when something was bothering me because I didn't know if you'd just push me away if something more important came up. And the more I did that, the more I realized I didn't talk to you. We didn't have that connection anymore... I knew you knew something was bothering me, but I would never tell you. You used to be the first person I would run to. You were my best friend, Abby... But that all changed, it changed when I ran away."

I suddenly look at him in a new light, the situation, at least half of it, has been cleared up. If we had only had this conversation decades earlier. We could have saved it, somehow. I could have known and fought. Something... Anything... I kneel in front of him, taking his hands into mine. I don't know what to say. Is there anything that I can say? He lets out a painful, forced chuckle.

"Your turn."