A/N: This is my first story, so please be kind. Cassie, thank you so much for your comments and advice.

Some of this was borrowed from the script of another TV series called ALIAS. I decided to create an AU mixing my favorite TV shows. The story will continue since I've written some chapters already. It's T rated but will probably shift to M. I own nothing but a very weird brain.

1

Your presence still lingers here

He opened the door, looking at the floor. He was not prepared to see her. Even though they had told him she was there, he could not believe it was actually true. The last time he had seen her was when he said "You know I love you, Donna" and fled, leaving her looking at him completely baffled. If he had known what would come after that, he would have stayed. He would have held her as if for dear life. He would have kissed her, touched her, and told her she was everything. Because she is everything. But no. Not anymore. He could not think like that.

As soon as their eyes met, she stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He did not have the chance to look at her properly, but he saw tears in her eyes when he dared to look up. He was just frowning. It was too much. Too much to bear. Her scent was intoxicating, and he had to keep his distance. She kept pulling him closer into her embrace. She was slightly thinner than he remembered, but stronger. He could feel her arms as he unwrapped her from him and guided her to sit on the chair of the small moldy room.

He wouldn't meet her eyes. Still frowning, he felt sweat run down his spine and a panic attack. He swallowed the bile that was threatening to rise and kept looking at his shoes. He could feel her gaze on him. Reading him like she used to do. A few moments had passed and he couldn't hold it anymore.

"Don..."

But she cut him off.

"Why are you wearing that ring?"

His heart skipped a beat. The conversation was not supposed to go this way. So he started with the second most difficult thing he would have to tell her.

"Since that night..." he took a deep breath, getting the courage to say what had to be said, "...you've been missing for almost two years."

"What?" She said in barely a whisper.

"Two years ago I went to your apartment... to talk..." he gasped. It was difficult to relive his experience. And on top of it, he was a coward who couldn't deliver all the news that would break the woman he used to love. He was a coward who couldn't look her in the eyes. He wasn't brave enough.

"...but in the morning..." he took the breath he didn't know he was holding. "... in the morning I got a call from the FBI saying there was a terrorist attack at the bar we met." She was looking at him bewildered. Without blinking and without breathing. Her jaw was clenched while she heard a story that did not belong to her and yet was part of her life. "They said you were there and did not survive." As soon as he finished, he dared to look at her and got up fast, in time to catch her collapse on the ground.

And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave

'Cause your presence still lingers here

And it won't leave me alone

(My Immortal - Evanescence)

After that, all she remembered was blurry. She remembered an ambulance, but not the ride to the hospital. She remembered seeing her father and mother, Rachel, and Mike, even Louis, and Jessica, but not what they said to her. He wasn't there. He didn't visit her, like the coward he was. Yet he was her everything. What changed to make him give up on her like that was what kept her awake at night. She would only sleep if the doctors gave her the heavy stuff. They would try to make her talk, but it was futile. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but she could bet what it was. Everybody wanted to know what happened in the last two years; the hospital, the cops, her friends, her family, and herself. Aside from him, not knowing what had happened to herself was also what kept her awake at night. She couldn't remember a single thing.

That night, after he left her saying, "You know I love you, Donna," she grabbed her coat and went to the bar they met, ordered a Macallan 18 and probably another. And another. After that, everything was kind of hazy but she could remember going back home, couldn't she?

She remembered leaving and going to her apartment, or did she?

But she certainly didn't remember if she passed through her door.

As much as she tried to remember, she couldn't. Something happened to make her lose two years of her life. And now, she did not have her best friend/boss/something. She had nothing.

...

After a week they discharged her. She was already speaking and could understand the surrounding people. However, she would have to see a psychiatrist every week.

Rachel picked her up at the hospital with Mike on a Saturday morning. She found out, while at lunch with them, that they had gotten married and he went to prison. She was most definitely shocked by that, but happy to see them so in love and him free. She also found out that Norma died at almost the same time she had disappeared. Harvey got married four months ago, and he was now working at a small law firm that only took class actions against big firms, like the ones Harvey used to work for. Rachel still worked with Jessica, but Mike worked at the clinic with Harvey. They tried questioning her about what she remembered, but she just kept on saying the truth, "I really don't know". They persisted asking her if she was OK, and then she would just lie, "I'm OK.". During dessert, Rachel told her that her dresses, handbags, and dearest objects were in storage. Rachel had saved them all, not knowing what to do with them. She had told her her parents went there sometimes to remember her. Hearing that, she almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. While some people would always remember her, some wouldn't even give a crap. She always thought of herself as irreplaceable, but the show went on without her. She was lost.

"If you want, we can go there to pick your stuff..." Rachel suggested.

"Today?" Donna raised her gaze from her plate, looking scared, though she didn't know of what.

"We don't have to. I just thought..." Rachel looked at Mike, who was sitting on her left as if asking for help.

"No, no. It's fine. We should go. It's better to get this over with," she said, already gathering her borrowed purse and passing her hands through her borrowed skinny jeans.

"Well, Ladies. I'll leave you two to it then." Mike said, getting up and placing a kiss on Rachel's head. "I have some errands to run," he said looking at Rachel, having a silent conversation. "You go ahead and I'll pay the check."

Rachel nodded and followed Donna out of the restaurant.

Leaving the restaurant a few minutes after his wife and Donna, he called number two on his speed dial. "We gotta talk," avoiding pleasantries, and hearing Harvey's response. "Fine. Meet you there in five." He hung up and walked the short distance from the restaurant to the bar they usually had beers after a difficult case.

A couple of sips from his beer later, Mike saw Harvey entering the bar, already signing the barman for his usual drink.

"You have to talk to her, old man. You can't keep avoiding her forever," Mike spoke, meeting the older lawyer's gaze.

"I know Mike. I'll try to see her tomorrow," Harvey replied with a sigh. "How's she doing, by the way?" he continued.

"Not well. She says she is fine, but you know her. She won't admit how she is really feeling." Both men took a sip of their drinks in acknowledgment. "You know she thinks you hadn't gone to visit her, right?" Mike asked, trying to make the other man see how his lack of action is affecting Donna.

"I know, Mike. But preferred to visit her while she was sleeping. I couldn't look at her without hurting even more." Mike understood all too well. He would have spent two years without Rachel if it weren't for the strings Harvey had pulled to get him out of Danbury.

"How's Mrs. Specter?" the younger lawyer asked suddenly, after a few moments in silence.

"She's well." Harvey didn't meet Mike's eyes to answer, which said more than he intended to let on.

"You haven't told her, have you?" Mike pushed, already knowing the answer.

"I gotta go," Harvey said, placing a fifty on the counter and leaving.

...

Donna went with Rachel to the storage unit, not saying a word during the ride. What would one say to the other given the circumstances? So they opted for silence. The building itself was huge and looked like a huge pixel. However, her unit was tiny, with a blue lift-up door and a device to type a password.

Rachel looked at the redhead with glassy eyes and said, "your birthday."

Donna nodded and waited for the door to be unlocked. The door opened with a push and a dim light above their heads poorly illuminated the room. Looking around, Donna saw some of her belongings were inside plastic bags. There was a wooden table in the middle of the unit where a green Valentino dress, a Hermes handbag, a picture of her at a Shakespeare play, the can opener, and a dead flower were all placed side by side.

Rachel looked at the redhead and grabbed her shoulders as she kneeled on the ground, with her face in her hands. She started sobbing and Rachel enveloped her in her arms and also started crying. Both friends sat there for a while until both ran out of tears. No words were said; no looks were exchanged. They just stood up, grabbed some personal items, and left the unit, not knowing if they would ever go back there to take the rest.

Donna went to Rachel and Mike's house, hand in hand with the brunette. Both not willing to let go of each other just yet.

The redhead was going to live with the couple for a while until she got her own place to rent. That night, while she was laying on her back at the Ross' guest room, she felt it all.

There was an emptiness in her that could only be defined as grief. She was grieving for her own life, for her friends and family, and for him. She didn't have anything anymore, although Jessica assured her she would always have a place at Pearson Litt Wheeler Williams, so she at least had a job. However, her apartment was no longer hers. Even though it seemed she was gone for just a week, her things looked like they belonged to someone else. Like it belonged to a familiar and distant past. That night she allowed herself to grieve and cry until, eventually, she succumbed to exhaustion.

A/N: Tell me what you think! xD