A/N: Here is the long requested sequal to "The Ghost of You". Hope you like this just as much! Not sure where it's headed...have to see where it leads me :) Let me know what 'ya think...
A cool breeze blew through the warm apartment, rustling the sheer curtains by the window. He stirred in bed and opened his eyes; the clock flashed three a.m. He didn't know what had woken him up; the apartment was silent, save for the hocking of horns and the general sound of traffic that served as the white noise of the city. Turning to his side, he saw she was missing; the smell of magnolias lingering on the sheets where she had laid.
He climbed out of bed, grimacing at how the sheets stuck to his skin. He quietly padded down the hall, looking from room to room until he had found her. She wascurled upina chair in the living room, her eyes focused out the window. "Hey," he said softly, "Missed you."
"Couldn't sleep," she said, her eyes not moving from the spot they were focused on. He nodded, walking over to her, but not touching her.
It'd been a month since she came back; two weeks since she had moved back in with him and three days since she had finally felt comfortable enough to kiss him. He wondered if she had returned to his apartment because she didn't have anywhere else to live. "I miss the stars," she said softly, "In Maine, you could always see the stars."
"You ever think about going back?" He sat down across from her, his eyes searching her upturned face. He was still afraid sometimes to touch her; afraid he'd wake up and it would have all been a dream.
"Sometimes." She turned to face him but remained curled up in the chair. "I thought about never coming back."
He felt the breath catch in his throat; the blood drain from his face. "Why," he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. It was a future he had not considered since her return.
"I thought you might have moved on," she said, turning back to the window.
"Thought or hoped," he asked.
"I don't know," she said truthfully. Since coming back, she had promised herself she would never lie to him again. Lies were what had separated them as partners. Now as lovers, it was what had brought them back together; but they both knew that the truth would help them survive.
"You sure you're ready to start work tomorrow? We can push it back another week." The department had given her two weeks off to recuperate from her disapperance. She had asked Cragen to use some of the vacation time she had accrued from before her disappearance and had taken two more weeks. She and Elliot had used the time to get to know each other again; a year apart hadn't donesome damage to a relationship that had been building over eight years, but inits own way, it had turned them into strangers.
"I need to get out of here," she said. She saw the look on his face and gave him a sad smile. "I mean, I need to get everything out of my head. SVU is what I know. It's in my blood." He nodded and stood up, reaching for her hand. He didn't understand her determination to come back to work, but he supported her decision.
She took his hand and slowly rose, allowing him to lead her back to bed, another breeze blowing through the apartment. He stroked her arm gently as they lay in the quiet silence of the apartment, the street lights casting shadows across the room. "If it'd been me, would you have forgotten me?" The question had been on his mind since her return.He didn't know what she would've done, if she had been in his position.Would've she been mad like he had been? Would she have lived with the ghost of him? He prayed for her sanity that she wouldn't ever have to go through that. Living with the "what ifs" and "could've beens" had proved that there were things worse then death.
"Did you begin to forget me?"
"I began to forget the way you smelled after getting out of the shower and how you'd look after running in the rain, but I never forgot you. I remembered your smile and I remembered the way you kissed."
"Why did you hold on so long?"
"Because there are some things that are stronger than death."
"I began to forget theshade of your eyesand the way you looked while you were asleep. It made me realize that I never really paid attention to that. I tried once to find a shirt in the shade of your eyes, but I couldn't match it right." He hugged her closer, pressing a kiss to her hair.It helped to know there were some things she couldn't remember either. At one point, he wondered if he hadn't paid attention to the important detaisl, but when he saw the look in her eyes the first she had come back, he knew he hadn't. "But, there were things I couldn't forget."
"Like what," he asked, hearing the sleep creep into her voice.
"Like the way you knew what I need to hear and the way your arms felt around me when I'd had a bad day." He smiled and closed his eyes, feeling her breathing even out. She might have forgotten details, but she hadn't forgotten him and in the end, that's what was important to him.
