Alright guys, I'm back! I have this all planned out and I am ridiculously sorry over the long wait. I've been laying out some other fic ideas and I've just got so behind with this one. I will be finishing it though, you have my word.

CHAPTER 21

I spent the morning working in the diner, trying to keep my mind busy as I waited for Greg to show up. It was already 10:30am; I thought he would have been here by now. I'd barely slept at all, I guessed I should have been use to my insomnia by now but my mind had raced desperately like never before.

"Hey!" Greg's cheerful voice broke me from my thoughts and I turned to him, across the diner's counter, with a smile.

"Give me a sec." I told him, unknotting the apron from around my waist. Tim gave me a nod that it was okay for me to have ten minutes off and I led Greg outside.

"So, what have you decided?" he asked, straight to the point. He sounded excited, hopeful.

"I"m not going to see Catherine." I replied, digging my hands into my pockets and staring down at my feet. I couldn't bear to meet his eyes.

"What? Why?"

"I can't expect her to have forgiven me after what I did to her."

"So what are you going to do? Just stay in this dump for the rest of your life?" Greg seemed exasperated. He took my hands in his and I looked up at him. "This isn't the Sara that I know. The Sara I know wouldn't give up on someone she loved."

"Greg, please." I needed him to stop. I needed this to not be happening. I couldn't bear it. I pulled my hands away from his. I didn't want to talk to him anymore. I wanted to go back to the life I had been living before he arrived in Winslow. I headed back inside the diner and he didn't follow me.

The day passed I wasn't even existing anymore. Nothing seemed real; if my soul hadn't died when I had left Catherine those months ago, I knew it had died when I had told Greg I wouldn't see Catherine.

I didn't even know exactly what day it was as I flipped the open sign on the diner's front door: all I knew was that today was the day that Catherine left Winslow and that I would never see her again. I had had another sleepless night and I was sure the carpet in my bedroom was a little thinner from my night's constant pacing. I filled up the large filter coffee machine behind the counter and watched as the clock agonisingly ticked by. Soon today would be over and things could go back to normal. Whatever normal now was, without a job I loved, without my friends, without Catherine.

Seconds seemed liked minutes.

Minutes seemed like hours.

My stomach churned and my mind played tricks on me as I hoped and dreaded the idea of Catherine walking into the diner. I managed to get to 3pm before Tim pulled me to one side into the small admin office where he normally did his cashing up and stock ordering.

"Sara, sweetie," he smiled at me gently, his soft wrinkled hands taking mine in his. "Ever since you came here, I haven't asked a single question about your past, where you came from or why you're here, but you've obviously been hurting and it's never been my place to interfere but you look so sad, darling. What's going on?"

I look up into his eyes and wondered if my father would have been this caring over my wellbeing, if he had lived through my mother's abuse. I guessed that my father would have been about Tim's age and I saw something in his eyes that reminded me a lot of my father. "I really messed up," I explained, "I ran away from it and now I've got the chance to see the person I hurt the most. They're leaving today and I thought if I could get through the day… but all I can think about is her."

"Are you sorry for whatever you did?"

I nodded.

"Did you love her?" he asked.

"More than anything." My voice cracked.

"Then what are you doing here?" Tim asked me, incredulous. "If you have the slightest opportunity to make things better with whoever it is that you love, why don't you try?"

"What if she doesn't want to see me?"

"But what if she does, Sara, sweetie?"

I shrugged, breaking Tim's hold of my hands to run my fingers through my hair.

"Are you going to run away from her again? If you really cared for her, surely you'd fight for her? Put your heart on the line, ask for her forgiveness, make amends. Sara, life is too short to be out here in the middle of nowhere making coffee when you could be with someone you love." I felt Tim reach around my waist and untie my apron, sliding it from my arms. "If you don't go after her now, you could be making the biggest mistake of your entire life."

My heart raced in my chest at the ideas Tim was putting in my head. I knew what he was saying was right.

"Don't give it another thought. No more hiding, Sara. Now go."

I leant over to him and pressed a soft kiss on his cheek before turning and running out of the diner. My mind was running through the conversation Greg and I had had when he had first turned up at the diner two days ago - where did he say they were staying? La Posada. My legs were going so fast I couldn't even feel them beneath me. What if they'd already left to go back to Vegas?

I turned down off 3rd Street, past the museum, past the post office. My chest heaved with the air I was breathing in and out to continue my pace.

"Please be there, Cath. Please be there." I begged.