Chapter 7

Holly awoke with a start the next morning. Quickly remembering the events of the past day, her eyes moved to where Robert fell asleep the night before. She sat up with a start, but she soon noticed Robert sitting in a chair across the room from her, head in hands, watching her.

She smiled at him. He smiled nervously back.

Holly got up from the sofa and stretched.

"Robert, I really have to go, I have a meeting with one of my professors, but I won't go if it means you will disappear while I'm there," ventured Holly.

Robert felt torn. The longer he stayed, the harder it would be to leave. "I promise not to go anywhere for now."

"Good. Help yourself to breakfast, I need a shower."

Robert sat down with a cup of a coffee. The news that he and Holly were still legally married completely shocked him. For a moment, he imagined a new life with Holly. He shook his head, dispelling his fantasy, and resolved to find a lawyer to give Holly her freedom as quickly as possible. "For her own good," he reasoned.

Holly bounded out of her bedroom, freshly scrubbed and perfectly groomed. She beamed at Robert, who again couldn't quite manage to maintain eye contact with her.

"Robert, will you meet me for dinner this evening?" asked Holly. Robert agreed, figuring that would be a good a time as any to explain why he would be disappearing again.

Holly beamed at Robert and headed out the door. Just as quickly as the door closed, it swung open again. Holly came back in the kitchen, walked over to Robert, grabbed his face and kissed him. The kiss deepened for a moment until Robert pulled away. Holly quipped, "I forgot to tell you how glad I am to see you," turned and exited again through the door.

Robert sat at the small kitchen table, head in hands. His stomach churned.

Over dinner, in a small Italian restaurant on rue St-Denis

"Robert, I'm still confused. Why force you to work for them, when it was Anna who betrayed the Bureau?"

"Leverage, revenge, the usual. I suppose I should be glad they didn't just kill me," replied Robert bitterly.

"But Anna? She's alive, she's moved on now, I heard from Robin that she remarried," Holly looked up and chose to ignore Robert's scowl. "Why did she get to go on with her life, with you paying the price for her sins? It galls me that yet again, you had to take the fall for that woman. If I had my time back..." Holly cut off abruptly.

"Holly, what's done is done. There is no going back, there's only forward. And I don't feel like talking about the past anymore." Robert changed the subject abruptly and began concentrating intently on his meal.

Holly and Robert's conversation ground to a close.

In a park, off rue St-Denis

"...and now that you've discovered that I am alive and well, I think we should finish what we started in 1992, so that you can have your freedom," stated Robert emphatically, walking along a path, hands jammed into his coat pockets.

Holly's eyebrows shot up in disbelief; she was dumbfounded and for once, at a loss for words.

"Holly, I didn't intend for you to see me, you realize," continued Robert, "I just needed to see you in person. Just to make sure you were OK. But now that you have, I think we should resolve things. It would have been so much simpler if you had signed those divorce papers before."

Holly felt like her jaw would never undrop. She shook her head, hoping to clear her thoughts. She couldn't believe that her good fortune in learning that Robert was alive was dissolving in front of her. "Say something, you idiot," she thought to herself, "this could be your last chance."

"What if I don't want to?" Holly blurted. "What if I want to fight for what we had, like I should have when I woke up from my coma? Robert, the biggest mistake that I ever made was not rushing back to you the minute I could leave my hospital room. Even without knowing what Anna had done, I've been kicking myself all these years for not fighting for us. You were the love of my life. What we had was priceless, there are so few people in this world who even have a taste of what we did. I can't help but think that this is the hand of fate, giving us yet another chance." Holly finished breathlessly.

Robert's eyes filled with tears. He sat down on a park bench, shivering a little from the cold. "Holly, I'm not the man you were married to before. That man had principles, that man fought for justice. That Robert took care of his family. You deserve someone better."

"Robert, can't you see, you have been protecting us. You did what you had to do to protect your family. You need to stop punishing yourself, because you have already been punished enough for what Anna did." Holly sat down beside Robert and took his hands. "You said to me earlier that of all people I should understand your decisions, because I have been there myself. But that experience gives me the benefit of hindsight. What I want, more than anything, is for you to learn from my mistakes, and not repeat them." Tears ran down Holly's face, as she desperately tried to reason with Robert.

Holly reached out gently and touched Robert's cheek, wiping away a tear from his eye, and gazed into his face. Suddenly, Robert took Holly into his arms and held her tightly. "Are you sure? After all this time, and what I've done, you still want to be with me?"

"Am I being too subtle for you, Mr. Scorpio?" Holly asked.

Robert moved the hood of Holly's coat away from her face and looked at her intently. "Not anymore, Mrs. Scorpio," he responded, before taking her face in his hands and kissing her passionately.