The Fic Lab Prompt: Spiritual Connections – Twin Flame, Soul Mate or Karmic Partner

This is a follow-up to the Ch. 37 Map prompt

AN: I'm not that comfortable writing dialogue and dialogue tags. Therefore, most of my one-shots don't have a lot of dialogue. But for this, I decided to try almost all dialogue (but with very little dialogue tags). Let me know how I did.

I can't believe I'm back in this town on the anniversary of when I left…of when Alice pushed me away. But I have been fighting the pull to come back for a couple of months now and I can't fight it anymore. And there she is, sitting at our booth, in our diner. She looks a little different…her hair is short and she looks too thin. But she's still beautiful. And I still want her.

"Alice?"

"It's you!" I can see the surprise on her face as she looks up at me.

"It's me!" I feel myself smile as I look at her after all this time. "May I join you?"

"Do I know you?" She points to the bench across the table anyway and I take a seat.

"Is that a dig? You're the one that begged me to leave?"

"I don't… I don't….." I watch as she stares at me in frustration. "I dream of you. Every night. I feel like I know you. But I don't know who you are."

"Alice…" I want to ask if she's playing a game, but she interrupts me before I can.

"My name's Mary. That's what they call me."

"Mary is your first name yes. But you always preferred your middle name, which is Alice."

I realize now that something has happened since I've been gone. This is not the Alice I left a year ago.

"Alice," she repeats slowly. "Alice," she says again playing with the name on her tongue. "I didn't know that was my middle name."

"What do you mean? Of course, you do. You've always been Alice. Well, except to your parents. They call you Mary."

"Yes, they do. But they didn't tell me about Alice. But I didn't ask. Maybe I should have asked." I can see this conversation is stressing her a bit.

"It's okay…it's okay."

"What's your name?"

"I'm Jasper. You really don't remember me?"

"Jasper. I like that name." The sound of my name on her lips brings back so many memories of our time together I can't help but smile. "I do dream about you, Jasper. That was true. I didn't know you were real, though. I hoped you were."

"What happened to you, Alice?"

"I had an operation." I watch as her hand automatically touches the side of her head.

"What kind of operation?"

"They say I had a brain tumor. It wasn't cancer, so that's good, I think. But the tumor was causing problems, so they had to take it out. And then that caused problems."

I think back to the last few months we were together. To the way she would occasionally zone out in the middle of a conversation or the almost manic way she would behave at times. I convinced her to go to the doctor, but she said everything was fine. It wasn't long after that when she told me we were through. That it would never work. I feel so stupid that I didn't realize what she was doing. She probably thought she was protecting me. She tried to do that a lot. If only I fought harder, I could have helped her through it all.

"Are you okay now?"

"I am, but I don't remember anything before the operation. Well, except you, I guess. Isn't that funny? I don't even remember my parents. I live with them but I don't remember them from before. They're nice, though, sort of."

"I'm so sorry, Alice."

"It's not your fault." She looks at me with a sad smile. "We were special to each other, weren't we, Jasper?"

I can't help the smile that breaks across my face. No matter what happens, we would always be special to each other.

"We were more than special to each other, Alice. You are a piece of my soul."

"I feel that too. How do I feel that, too? My heart recognizes you. Even though I don't remember."

"You remember me, Alice, you know you do. Even if only in your dreams."

"I do. I really do. Will you stay with me this time?"

"I'll never leave again."