Story 2 – Introduction 2.0

A Kate & Daniel Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Shout-Outs: WildCitrusSunflower, Atashi Desu, HannahbananaJane, Lattelady, wisegirl71301, and Postinlover4ev for taking a chance on me and reading/reviewing story 1.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. If I did, the finale would have probably looked a lot different than it did.

Rated: K+

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Kate knew that she should be falling in head-over-heels in love with Donnie again. He was everything she should want, stable, age-appropriate, and emotionally available. But no matter how she tried to give her heart over to the young lawyer attorney. She had already regifted the broken, mangled thing to somebody else. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get it back again.

And the truth was she didn't really want to get it back.

She was hoping that one day they would be able to have the sort of endings only seen in Hallmark movies. She hoped that they could live happily ever after and proverbial ride off into the sunset together, an imperfect Prince Charming and his rough-and-tumble princess.

She hoped.

But she wasn't so sure.

Kate was almost certain of how this one really ended. Eventually she would choose the stronger man, the healthier man and she would sort of move on. Maybe she would have a few kids and try to find a semblance of a different kind of happily ever after.

It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but she would settle for it.

And maybe one day, she would be able to see Daniel as just a friend and nothing else. Maybe one day, her heart wouldn't cling to something she couldn't have, to somebody who didn't want her. Maybe it wouldn't be so impossible to really fall in love a third time.

Or maybe she would finally be the fearless girl that she knew she was and say everything that was on her mind and in her heart. Maybe she would be able to fess up, face the truth, and tell Daniel that Donnie had been right.

She had a thing for him.

Kate sighed as she put her headphones in and pressed play on her iPod, an upbeat sing filled her ears and she started her daily run. She needed to think and she always did some of her best thinking when her Nikes were laced up, and she was pounding the pavement with her feet.

But running only proved to make things more complicated, with every mile she ran the clearer she could see Daniel's face mind. Every time her feet hit the ground, she could prominently hear his voice inside her head. And to make matters worse, she still didn't know how to handle her feelings for him. She still didn't know if she should hang on and see what happened, or let him go and try to fall in love with Donnie.

It was days like these that Kate wished Magic 8 balls worked, that psychics knew what they were talking about, and that there wasn't any fault with the stars. She needed answers, needed to know how this one really ended instead of just trying to guess at it.

The confusion, the hope for something more was beginning to drive her completely crazy.

She slipped into the shower and prayed to a God she wasn't sure existed for some sort of answer to her dilemma and then, she waited.

_End_

Author's Note:

Another flashfic, I know, but it was the best I could do. The only idea I had was for the last story in this series, and I don't want to post it first. Besides, the finale of Perception really killed me for many reasons. I haven't had any inspiration to write stories for "Dark Line" at all. Maybe if I give it a couple weeks, inspiration will strike again.

Hope to see you soon.

Holly, 9/5/2013_