Now you're aware that I obliterated that moment from existing in our current time as we know it. But I didn't erase my love for you. And later on I discovered that I didn't erase your love for me either.
My first indication of that was the surprise discovery of Gideon, which brought on another surprise discovery: that you and I were married in the future.
I couldn't believe what I was reading when I saw it, an actual glimpse into the future that told me you were going to become the headlining journalist I always knew you could be AND my wife. It seemed too perfect to be true (not the journalist part, I knew that was going to happen whether or not you married me because you're already perfect AND true). In fact it seemed so perfect, that I couldn't even bring myself to be afraid of the headline predicting my disappearance in a crisis. I'm still not scared of that, Iris, because the only future that matters to me is one where I'm with you.
Plus I'm following some great advice I've received recently from a pretty girl on a rainy day about living in the moment and not letting fear consume me.
Anyways, reading that headline-literally seeing the future-what did that mean for us in the present at that time? Did you still feel for me what I felt for you? Even if I erased that revelation by the waterfront? What exactly were the consequences of my time-travel? Was a relationship between us possible at some point? If it was, was it one so paramount that it lead to marriage? Was it all just a matter of time and patience before those feelings emerged again, before you uttered those words to me, the ones that made me forget all the havoc surrounding us to focus on your lips, to take your face in my hands and kiss you?
I didn't know what to make of this. I didn't even know if I should dare believe it. It was hard to let myself hope again, to imagine you saying yes to me, you wanting to be with me, because I did live it for a moment, I even tasted it for a moment, but it had vanished as soon as it came.
Yet there it was, laid out for me in ink, on the front pages of The Central City Citizen.
So I started to dream again, even if it was just that-a dream. Dreams kept me going for fifteen years. I'm not someone who underestimates them, even as a scientist.
The second indication that I didn't erase your feelings came from you, even if it wasn't under the most ideal circumstances. This seems to be our theme or trend, funnily enough, I'm sure you've noticed it too, but I'm more than okay with that, because now I know it really was all just a matter of time and patience, and now I know that we always find each other despite the odds, that there's something between us that's stronger than anything trying keep us apart, and to me, that's worth every hurdle I've ever faced.
Anything that led me to be here, in this position, writing the vows that I will recite to you, that will make me your husband? Worth it.
