Title: In the Rough

Author: alienangel19852003

Summary: Keely tries to move on after Phil goes back to the twenty second century.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own POTF or the title of this story.

It's been three years and Keely Teslow hasn't gotten over her first love. She pretends she has. She's very good at pretending, pretending that she's okay, that she's whole without him. Even though she knows that even if she dates all the Tanner Kirkpatrick's and the Eric Fitzgerald's in the world it won't make up for losing what she once had with Phil Diffy.

You say you fell while holding diamonds in your hands
"It's your fault for running, holding diamonds," I said
And I offer no sympathy for that
I hear that it was you who died alone
And I offer no sympathy for that
Better off I sparkle on my own

Some days she's perfectly fine with the pretenses other days she's just not. It hurts everyday, sometimes it's a bit more bearable. Everyday she misses him just as badly as the first day he left, she just grew better at hiding it. She managed to graduate from high school even though she'd sunk into a deep depression that no one knew she was in and start college. Everything still reminds her of him and what they used to be, she still allows herself to hope for what they still could be. Phil always had a way of surprising her.

And someday love will find me in the rough
Someday love will finally be enough

She sits alone on the tennis courts where they used to play Tennis Master. She remembered how much fun they had together, and how much she loved him even then. And how much she still loved him. She couldn't imagine not loving him. She felt like she'd been walking around without her arm for the past three years. She'd lost that part that completed her he was the piece that made her fit. With him she was truly whole, and when he kissed her she knew it had to be over. She'd waited for that moment and when it came all she had to say was "Golly".

Keely Teslow didn't say "Golly" he had the ability to reduce her to a pile of sniveling teenage mush, but she would have rather died a painful death than let him know how flustered she'd been around him. She hadn't felt that way about anyone since, and it wasn't like she hadn't tried, she really did even though a part of her didn't want to try. She knew that none of the other suitors would be better than the one who had left her for his own century.

I turned around 3 times and wound up at your door
Now you say you know all you did not know before
And I offer no sympathy for that
I hear that it was you who died alone
And I offer no sympathy for that
Better off I sparkle on my own

She stumbles from the tennis court tears in her eyes, she wished she'd never come back to Pickford for the summer. She should have went with Via to London, but she'd declined because she missed home but it hurt so much to be here without him. In Los Angeles she could pretend she never knew him but Pickford was so full of memories they made as real and as fresh in her mind as if they'd just been made.

And someday love will find me in the rough
Someday love will finally be enough

She walks blindly and before she knew it she's standing on the back porch of his old house. Another family bought it during her senior year, but they moved to Boston over the summer, and it was empty again. Empty just like she felt.

"Why did you leave me here?" she demanded knowing full well that since he was in another century he couldn't hear her.

Not hearing a response further cracked her already crumbling resolve. She fell to her knees sobbing with her face in the soft grass. She was so tired of pretending. Pretending that she was fine without him. Pretending that she wasn't lost, broken, and simply hurt because he left. This time she was determined to cry him out tear him out of her mind out of her heart, she couldn't stay broken like this.

"I need you…" she cried pounding her fists into the ground.

I got your love letters
I threw them all away
And I hear you think that I'm crazy
I'm driving 95
And I'm driving you away
And I shine a little more lately

She feels strong arms wrap around her, and then a sensation she hasn't felt in years. She feels him. And oh God he feels amazing. Looking up with bleary eyes, she sees him holding her. She clings to him like he's her only lifeline because he is.

"I need you too Keel…" he whispers into her hair.

"Phil…" she whispered, pulling away to look into his eyes.

He looks about as broken and lost as she feels. His dark eyes aren't sparkling the way she remembers, his hair is still the same everything else well…Philly-Willy grew up. She reaches out to touch his face he smiles and leans into her touch.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered.

"Finding you…" he told her.

Someday love will find me in the rough
Someday love will finally be enough

"You can't be here, you left here for good. I thought there was a ban on time travel." She said.

"There is. This was a special case, it took me three years to come back here. I had to pull a lot of strings but I'm here to stay." He told her.

"You gave up your life your family just to be with me?" she asked.

"Yes…"

"That's amazing…" she whispered hugging him tightly she always knew that someday Phil would come back to be with her.

Someday love will find me in the rough
Someday love will finally be enough