Epilogue
Mid-December, 2001
Blair Warner buttoned up her long winter coat, the hood down tightly over her head to keep the frigid, battering winds and heavy snow from overwhelming her as she reached her destination. This was the first very cold day of what would be a long Winter-and Winter hadn't even officially arrived yet. Winter had entered Blair's heart and soul months before this storm had ever been forecast.
She came here virtually every day. She didn't think there would be a day when she wouldn't come here ever again, if she could help it. Despite the blustery conditions, she sat down at her usual spot. Removing her hood, letting her usually perfect hair become a tangled mess, she began to speak as she did every day.
"Joey", she began, "you know I tell you this all the time, but I was so stupid, so consumed with the here and now, that I never, as you always said, stopped to smell the roses." She brushed the blowing hair away from her face.
"You know, none of that is your fault, Joey. It's completely mine. I always said 'let's wait a while' before doing something you wanted to do, like us having children, or having the Commitment ceremony."
Blair looked around, as not another soul had seemingly braved the early Winter storm that had descended on New York, the storm apropos for what everyone in the city had endured the last few months. She looked back at the object of her affection.
"Why did I wait, Joey? Why did I keep putting things off?" She shook her head, the tears blurring her vision. "And now? Now so much has slipped through my hands, babe." She moved in closer. "Yet you know I love you-I'll always love you with all my heart. I won't ever love anyone the way I love you. I keep telling you that, but for God's sake, it never makes me feel better."
She sat and talked to Jo a few more minutes, but the weather was becoming worse and worse, and she knew she had to leave. "I'll come by tomorrow, weather permitting." She reached out, kissed two of her fingers, and moved them forward. "I love you, Joanna. I always will."
Blair rose, the tears that never seemed to cease-she didn't want them to cease-cascading and freezing on her face. She put the hood of her coat back up, and tightened the coat around her, walking away without another glance.
Behind her, the white stone lay unspeaking in return, Blair's life etched within it's surface.
Det. Joanna Marie Polniaczek
NYPD
April 4th, 1970
September 11, 2001
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to
Do you know?
Do you get what you're hopin' for,
When you look behind you, there's no open door?
What are you hoping for,
Do you know?
Diana Ross, Theme to Mahogany
The End