Short chapter this time, but I don't think it should be any longer. Next one will be longer again ;)

Chapter 3

He was standing at the cliff top, hearing himself calling her name. She was so close, tough she was so far away. Desperately he reached out for her hand, but it was too far. He heard her screaming his name before she disappeared in darkness.

He woke up in a shock, and he had to hold on to the sides of the bed to stop himself from shouting. He had been bothered by this returning dream several times this week, and he couldn't make it go away. It hurt he couldn't reach her, but it was her screaming before she disappeared that was making this dream such a horrible experience. He sighed very deeply.

'Anything wrong, Alex?'

He turned around, unable to believe what his brain told him. It told him he had heard this voice before, a long time ago for the last time, and that he was hearing the voice of the memory of a person that had been torn away from him, and that had left a scar on his soul. He gasped.

'What?' he whispered. She was sitting at the foot of his bed, smiling at him. He shook his head, not wanting to get disappointed when he found out he was going mad.

'Can't live without me, can ya?'

He shivered as those words, the last she had ever spoken to him, broke through the surface and reached his heart, and spoke out the name that had never been off his mind a single moment, fourteen years long.

'Claire! But… how can this be,' he stuttered. 'I mean… you're…' He paused, unable to finish his sentence. She was still sitting there, and he realised she hadn't changed a bit, even wearing the same clothes. He kept looking at her, unable to keep his eyes off her. She was as beautiful as she'd always been, but after fourteen years without her, he was wondering how bad it would hurt him if she'd leave again.

'You know, Claire,' he spoke softly, deciding just to use this moment to be totally honest with her, to tell her everything he had wanted to tell her before she had left that one day his heart was ripped out. But suddenly there was only one sentence left on his mind. 'I love you.'

She smiled at him, but he couldn't help but recognize the sadness in her eyes.

'I love you too,' she said, and he knew it. 'It wasn't the horse,' she continued after a silent moment. His memories floated back through the past years, to the moment he had desperately been chasing that white horse, not wanting anything but to kill it for taking Claire away. He smiled as he recognized her love for horses in that sentence, a love for horses that had always wanted to take the blame off the white horse.

He sighed. 'I know.'

'It was that hole.'

He nodded. 'But it doesn't matter,' he spoke sadly. 'You're gone anyways.'

She looked at him. 'I'll never really be gone,' she responded. 'I've been watching you every day. And Charlotte too.' Suddenly he saw that not being around to lead Drover's anymore wasn't the thing that hurt her the most. It wasn't Alex either. It was Charlotte. He realised she might blame him for Charlotte being unhappy.

'I'm sorry,' he whispered. 'I couldn't do anything.'

'I know,' she reassured him, 'I know.' She paused. 'Take her away, Alex.'

'Claire,' he said desperately, not wanting anything more than making her happy. 'I can't.'

He recognized steps coming towards the room and he knew Claire heard it too.

'Take her away, Alex. Please. I'll never leave you.' She looked him in the eye. 'I love you.'

And a batting of his eyelids later she was gone.

Alex just sat there for a second, covering his face with his hands. He had always thought he'd be sad if she'd leave again, but instead he felt the sadness for his lost soul mate melt away, and he realised the only unsaid thing bothering him those fourteen years had been that he loved her. And he knew she'd be with him, every moment he'd be alive.