It was already Thursday, and Roxanna had no idea where Wednesday had gone. All she knew is that she hadn't heard from Henrik, and his silence was close to breaking her. She gave herself an ultimatum, if she hadn't heard from him by three that afternoon, she was going to turn her focus to something different, on somewhere different.

As the hours slowly passed by, all she could think about was the fact that Henrik wouldn't let her down, that he would know she had set this ultimatum for him, without her having to tell him about it. Her brain fixated on that, as if she could will that into truth. This couldn't be how it ended for them, fate would not be so cruel as to tear them asunder at this juncture.

As the minutes ticked ever onwards to three, Roxanna found herself obsessively reloading her email, wanting there to be something new, something from him. And even after the clock had turned to one minute past the hour, she still reloaded a few more times, her heart and mind not quite believing that he had missed the arbitrary deadline she had laid down for him. "Henrik, why?" she murmured, her heart shattering in her chest as she exited out of her email and picked up her laptop.

She knew now that she couldn't stay in Holby, that she had to escape the shackles of her failures. Opening Chrome, she quickly called up the flight schedule for the airport, finding a direct flight that would take her as far away from there are she could get. Booking it before she could change her mind, Roxanna then went up to her bedroom and hastily packed a suitcase with enough clothes to last her two weeks. That should be enough time to heal and think about returning home. And maybe, at the end of that time, Henrik would have contacted her to figure out where they were going.

Shaking her head a little, she retrieved her passport from the wall safe, stuffing it in her pocket before taking everything downstairs and then booking herself a taxi. As she waited for the car, she checked her email a few more times, finding no reply from anyone that she cared for. Letting out a soft breath of disappointment, Roxanna sent an email to Abigail, informing her of the decision to go to Chicago, and that she would update her on what was going on when she knew more. Then Roxanna forced herself to exit her email and finish the wait for the taxi in contemplative silence.

She was surprised when she stepped out her door to find that the same driver who had brought her home earlier that week was approaching her stoop, a warm smile on his lips. "I can get your bag for you, ma'am," he said as he grabbed the handle and lifted it with ease. "Off to the airport today?"

"Yeah, I'm off for a short holiday in Chicago. I received some bad news recently regarding my work, and felt some time away would be for the best."

The smile never faltered on the man's face, and she felt so relieved that at least someone in her life, even a virtual stranger, cared enough about her to ask. "Chicago is a city I have never been to. I've been to Boston, in the fall, and it was nice, but you'll have that lake to look at. From what I've heard, it's like an inland sea."

She nodded as she relaxed into the peace of small talk, finding it a bit soothing to her frazzled mind as he took her to the airport. "Thank you," she murmured as he grabbed her bag out of the boot, and he gave her a small nod.

"It was my pleasure. And if you do book another taxi through our service, don't hesitate to ask for Steven."

She nodded in reply, taking hold of her case and heading inside the airport. It didn't take her long to check in and get through security, and then she was heading to her gate, taking a seat and waiting to board. Roxanna knew that she would be landing at almost nine in the evening, and so she looked for a hotel room close to the airport for the evening, knowing that she wouldn't want to travel very far before she found a bed. After booking that, she began to read another article in her favourite journal, finding that that eased the anxiety she was feeling at running so far away from home.

One of the perks of first-class travel allowed her to board relatively quickly into the process, and after she had stuffed her bag into the overhead compartment, she curled up in her seat and watched out the window at a sky that was already starting to darken. "I can't believe that this is how it ends for us," she whispered, pressing her hand against the window before opening the plastic holding her blanket, covering her body with it as she made herself more comfortable.

By the time the plane took off, she was already half asleep, though she knew that that would wreak havoc with her system when she landed. Roxanna sighed a little as she fought to wake up, and she dug her phone out of her pocket and began to flip through the pictures on it. The first tears trembled on her lashes as she gazed on David's face, seeing the love there as he looked down at her. She missed him so desperately, and wanted nothing more than to have him by her side as she tried to work out just how she could have been fooled by John for so long.

"Are you headed home?"

She glanced over to see that an older woman was seated next to her, a warm smile on her lips. A part of Roxanna didn't want to answer her, but she couldn't be rude. "No, I'm on holiday for a few weeks. I needed some time away." The older woman glanced down at her phone, and Roxanna quickly closed it down, not wanting to show off the reason for her present sorrow. "I'll probably sleep the entire time of the flight."

"Good luck with that. I can never sleep on a flight."

Roxanna shrugged a little as she accepted the earbuds from the flight attendant, unwrapping them and plugging it into her phone before starting to play her music, using it to drown out the ambient noise of the plane and the woman next to her. She turned to face the window once more, letting her eyes flutter closed as she tried to shut out the world around her. Everything was fine, up until she heard the familiar strains of "Remember When the Music" began to play.

The first tears were slow to drip down her face, but by the time the song was half over, she was copiously crying, pulling the blanket up to her chin as she kept herself quiet, not wanting to draw attention to herself. Her thoughts frantically swirled around remembrances of her David, of John, and of Henrik, and she found herself wondering what the different men in her life were to her, blades or stitches. Because each had wounded her heart, but each had also sewn her back together at crucial points in her life. Right now, she was falling apart at the seams that they had each stitched into her heart, and she didn't know if she'd ever be whole again.