A/N: Turns out if you stick with me long enough, I eventually update. When I started writing this story I promised I would not abandon it, and although it's been two years already, I have this New Year's resolution that I will finish it this year no matter what. So I'm trying!

Anyway here's my attempt at closing some of the mystery and some of the loose ends of the book, for now. There is a lot of fluff because I thought it was needed, specially since all the angst in all previous chapters. But don't worry, there will be a bit more angst later on (plus I will attempt to close more loose ends)

Enjoy!

THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW

February, 15, 2007.

When I wake up the first thing I realize is that Tiffany is not with me on the bed. And the first thought that comes to my mind is that she has left me because something happened during the night that I am not aware of and that she didn't like and so she left. The second thought I have is that maybe a bad person came in and kidnapped Tiffany and now I need to save her. I think I have this thought because I remember my Mom saying a thief had stolen my wedding pictures, which means that a thief could have stolen Tiffany too. However I have to force myself to remember how Mom made it all up and how there was never a thief because my parents' house is really safe, which means that nobody has taken Tiffany; but that also means that perhaps my first thought was right. This makes me uncomfortable so I sit up on the bed and call out Tiffany's name in the hope that she can somehow hear me.

"Hey", her voice says. I turn around and suddenly I am faced with an image of Tiffany standing in front of the window. I sigh with relief because it means none of my thoughts were correct, and that Tiffany is still here and still loves me.

"I thought you had left" I say.

"I did. I went downstairs to make some tea." She says as she points at the blue mug in her left hand. "But your Mom was already up so she made it for me."

"What time is it?" I ask, suddenly feeling anxious that I might have skipped running routine altogether.

"7 am". She replies.

"Wanna go on a run?" I ask.

"It's snowing." She says. I look out of the window and then see that it is indeed heavily snowing, but I still ask if she wants to run with me anyway and she shakes her head and smiles.

"I am freezing as it is" She tells me as she comes up to me and then kisses me softly on the lips. She makes a move to sit on top of me so I straighten both legs and put my arms around her when she sits on my lap. This gesture reminds me of yesterday and how we fell asleep on each other's arms and suddenly I am in a good mood despite the horrible weather outside.

"So what do you want to do?"I ask.

"I don't know" She shrugs her shoulders. "Don't you normally have like a weight lifting-routine or something?"

"Yeah, but it's very boring to watch" I say.

"Who says I would be just watching?" She asks, and I notice her right eyebrow goes up, which is how I know she is simply teasing me. We both laugh and at the end our laughter dies out with our kiss.

At the end we decide to go down and have some breakfast, and when we arrive downstairs Mom greets me with a "Good morning, sleepy head" and a wink. I decide to have tea, like Tiffany, and some eggs and bacon which Mom cooks for both of us. I later learn that Dad is also awake but already in his study, but that doesn't worry me too much because of what happened last night. When Tiffany finishes she excuses herself and tells me she needs to call her sister Veronica because she promised her Mom last night. Through the hall I hear Tiffany's side of the conversation and how she tells Veronica "Don't ask me just yet" in the same way that she told me the night before not to ask her about her whereabouts on Sunday. A minute later she's back and encourages me to go down to the basement and do some working out so we both go down, and I miss my chance to ask her if she ever plans to tell me where she went.

I work out for a full hour before I get bored of Tiffany watching me and so I stop. I ask her if she wants to join me, like she suggested upstairs in my room, but she says she's not strong enough to light the weighs and that she doesn't like weightlifting anyway, so I give up. She then holds my feet down on the ground as I do some push-ups but when I have done thirty I stop and suggest we go to the living room and watch some TV. I suggest this because there isn't much else to do in my house and since she doesn't want to go on a run I don't know what else to suggest. And besides, if I know Dad well enough I am sure he is probably still in his study, so the TV should be free. To my surprise, she doesn't mind, so she follows me when I go upstairs. As I suspected, Dad is not here, but then I hear voices coming from the kitchen and I notice one of them is Dad's. He must be talking to Mom, I think.

"What do you want to watch?" I ask Tiffany as she sits down on the couch.

"I don't mind. Anything will be fine"

I sit down next to her and start flicking through the channels, looking for anything reasonable to watch. After a few moments I feel Tiffany snuggle up around my torso, like she did at Knight's park, and I lean into her as I continue looking through the channels. Eventually, we find an old movie we both like, so we watch that for the next couple of hours, snuggled up with each other.

Once the movie ends, I look out of one of the living room windows and notice that it has stopped snowing outside, and you can actually see the sun now. I point this out to Tiffany, and she stands and goes over to the window. I follow her and the wrap my arms around her from behind.

"If you want, we can go out and have a stroll outside. I know it's cold but we can get some chocolate or something. Or I could show you this great hot-dog place not too far away from here, and we can get a couple and eat them in the park." I say.

She turns her head and looks at me with a smile.

"A hot dog?" She asks.

I nod, and then tell her that it's fine if she doesn't want to leave the house but that my mom will start cooking lunch soon and with everything that's been going on with my dad I don't think it's a good idea if we stay, but she stops me mid-way through and tells me she would love to do just that, so I smile and kiss her cheek.

When we get to the hot dog place I am very thankful that it is a Monday and it's a working day and also thankful that the owners decided to resume business as normal, despite the snow, because otherwise Tiffany and I would have starved. Since we left the house, the sun has started to shine a bit more so now all around us there are families with their kids, or children with their friends (or even couples like us) enjoying the benefits of a snowfall, so there is a lot of noise, but it doesn't bother me because I am incredibly happy and I know that Tiffany is too because I see it reflected in her face. And let me tell you, thinking about us as a "couple" makes me very happy as well since not long ago I never would have imagined it.

We order two large hotdogs with extra onion and sauce toppings, and then we eat it as we walk. I finish mine quicker than Tiffany because I am a man and eat faster, yes, but also because I had been craving one of these babies for a long time and I couldn't wait to finish it. To my relief, when I ask Tiffany if she likes hers, she says she loves it and would definitely love to have another one soon. This adds to my happiness because it feels like I am sharing a piece of my world with Tiffany and we can finally start to have a "normal" relationship like any other couple out there, without any of the crap that we had have to endure, and it feels great.

Before we know it, though, we find ourselves on the same soccer field we stood on the day when Tiffany said she needed me. As usual, it is filled with children everywhere, but this time even more so because the snow has settled and is thick enough to have a decent snow fight, so lots of kids are doing just that. Then I get an idea, so I reach down and scoop some snow onto my hands, making a firm snowball, and then throw it at Tiffany. She dodges it because she was looking at me when I did the ball, but she still looks at me with an annoyed look on her face.

"Hey!" She shouts.

In exchange, I smile and then throw another snow ball at her, and this time she doesn't dodge it and it hits her right on the chest.

"What the…" she starts, but she doesn't finish because she is too busy scooping snow in her hands to throw it at me.

"Hit me if you can!" I tease her, and then we are both running around the field trying to hit each other with our snow balls.

It feels so refreshing to run around like this, completely care-free and with the woman I love with me, that for a long time I don't notice the cold from the snow in my hands, even though they start to look coral red. Finally, after a while, I grab hold of Tiffany by her waist and then we hug and kiss and fall down on the ground, panting like dogs.

When we get our breaths back, Tiffany rests her head on my chest and hugs me tightly, and I put my arms around her torso and hug her back.

It all feels so normal, that when she speaks again I have trouble registering what she is saying.

"I was in Seaford, near Delaware." She says, her voice completely serious now.

I stay silent, my mind taking a few seconds to take in what she says.

"It is where Tommy and I used to live. It is also where he is buried"

I am taken aback by the mention of Tommy's name so all I manage to say is that I did not know that. Tiffany however does not take notice of my comment and instead continues her story.

"The 7th of February 1992? That was the date when we kissed for the first time. It was quite a cheeky kiss and we didn't actually start dating until a few months afterwards, but that's when we had our first kiss. It is the date both Tommy and I remembered as our "secret anniversary". Being with you on this soccer field, I wasn't lying when I told you I needed you. I do. But one part of me felt guilty because my words were influenced by the fact that it was the first time in years that I had been so close to man, and it so happened it was on my secret anniversary with Tommy. When you said you needed me too I was really fucked up. I had half-expected you to reject me, so I didn't know what to do. On one hand I was so happy that I could finally have you for myself, but on the other I was also really scared that you didn't love me back or something along those lines, and that you would leave me for someone else. I was also afraid that you would never be able to get over your Nikki and that's why I distanced myself from you. I wanted to make sure I would be able to cope with you having some kind of feelings towards Nikki if we were to end up together, which it seemed like it. I didn't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you, Pat. Not again, not ever." She pauses and remains silent for a few moments.

My mind is racing so fast that I can hardly keep track of my thoughts. I want to tell her that I don't love Nikki anymore, that now I love her fully, and that I would never leave her because I don't want to lose her ever again either, but somehow the words will not come out.

"I did go to visit Tommy's grave." She continues. "But I didn't stay long. It's quite frightening, really, how you can love a man for ten years and when you go visit his grave you only stay for ten minutes. But it's true. I guess I don't know what I was looking for. Maybe to relieve that first kiss I had with him. Maybe to ask for his permission. I don't know. But what I do know is that I found... release. I realized that Tommy was dead and that I was no longer in the fog that I had been in before. He was gone but I was still alive, and I realized that if I didn't go on living my life I would lose it too, and would regret it later because I would have lost something that I never thought I would have. I would have lost you. So ten minutes after I arrived I made up my mind about you, about us. I decided that it didn't matter if deep down you still had feelings for Nikki because deep down I still love Tommy. I remembered that you are the only man who didn't shy away when he discovered about my therapist and the only one I've ever danced with, and that if we could pull off such a splendid choreographed dance why couldn't we pull off a relationship? I still think you fell into my life for a reason, Pat. So I left Tommy's grave knowing that, as much as I loved him, I also love you and for now, that's all that matters."

When she finishes I have to once again pause and digest everything she has just told me. I do not like the fact that she has just admitted to loving Tommy, but instead of getting angry at her I find that I am sympathetic towards her. This feeling confuses me because I did not expect it to overwhelm me this way, however the more I think about what she says the more it makes sense to me. I do not get angry at Tiffany because even though I do not love Nikki anymore, I will never be able to forget her and she will forever be a part of my life in the same way that Tommy will be a part of Tiffany's. I do not get angry at Tiffany because she has just opened up to me, and I know that this is one of those rare occasions that I will live with her because she is not the kind of woman that likes opening up, so that makes me feel special. I do not get angry at Tiffany because I love her, and I now I know she truly loves me back.

So instead of saying anything, I hold Tiffany in my arms and kiss her scalp as we rock from side to side and she leans deeper into me, making me understand she knows what I'm trying to express. After a few moments though, I do the math and figure out that if she only spent ten minutes in Delaware then the whole journey shouldn't have taken her more than a few hours and yet she was lost for the whole day. And it bothers me a bit, so although I don't want to push her into saying anything, my curiosity –and the part of me that likes to worry- ends up getting the best of me.

"But Tiffany, if you only spent 10 minutes in Tommy's grave, what did you do the rest of the day?" I ask.

She stays silent for a bit, as if measuring up the pros and cons of telling me whatever it is on her mind.

"I thought about us, and our future." She finally says.

"How so?"

"Just the possible future. After Seaford I walked around for a long time, sometimes even running, and ended up in the near village. I continued to walk but this time I took a residential route rather than just sticking to main roads. And I saw the houses there, which are home to so many families. And I paid attention to the way they lived their lives –the way a married couple walked side by side with each other, the way a woman took care of the front garden, the way a man pulled up his car after returning home from work. Those kind of things. And I said, you know what? If they can pull that off, why can't we? After all, we would only be lacking a car. But that just if we really needed one."

I smile at what she says, but I stay silent for a couple of seconds, trying to organize everything that is playing on my mind. I know that Tiffany is right, but the mention of the residential area and the families gets me thinking, and somehow I know that this is the beginning of something new, and it means things will change from now on. Perhaps they won't change greatly, but something tells me they will.

"I stopped at an Italian restaurant on my way back," she goes on. "I then had some food and just kind of lingered for as long as I could. After that I continued on my stroll around the residential areas, and I saw the same things again. And it looked… normal. All was fine. It was kind of like a sign from the universe telling me that if we were to lead that life, everything would be fine too. That's when I decided to come back, but first I had to walk all the way to the nearest train station because I didn't have enough money to order a cab. When I got there, I was already in a different station, just on the outskirts of Delaware, so I managed to avoid any risks. I heard about the train accident once I was back in here, but heard that it had happened after I had taken the train, so I would have avoided it any way. But I felt very lucky to be alive nonetheless. I then imagined you all would be worried about me, especially you since you are like me, and so I came back as fast as I could."

She turns to look at me, and I stay silent because I don't know if she has finished speaking or not and because the gravity of the situation has just hit me. The fact that she is here, with me, is kind of like a small miracle, and also the fact that she says I am like her gets me thinking that maybe she knows me better than I know myself.

"I'm really sorry for leaving like that, Pat. I promise I won't do it again."

For a moment I can't believe she is apologizing to me, because it's really soon since she last apologized and knowing her like I do, I know she is not the kind to apologize easily, let alone without any swear words in between.

"Tiffany—" I start, trying to tell her that I didn't ask for an apology and anyway she doesn't have to apologize to me, but she cuts me.

"Pat, stop. I know you haven't asked for an apology, but I don't want things to be like this between us." She says, and I think that she has read my mind. "I don't want to leave you without any explanation and I don't want to worry you like that again. If we're going to be together from now on, we must work on these things. Of course, I expect the same thing from you, but I think you're kind of already there so it's mostly me that has to work."

Inside, I am laughing and jumping up and down. The fact that Tiffany says that we will be together from now on makes me very, very happy, because I feels like she's committing to being with me forever, which is how I want us to be, and although I don't know if that will be true because you can never predict the future, for now it feels like it will.

"We're going to be together?" I ask, but I arch my eyebrow to let her know that I am simply teasing her.

"Of course we are!" She exclaims, but then laughs and doesn't pull away when I plant a soft kiss on her lips.

She then looks at me half-serious half-excitedly, and says,

"We're going to make this work".

I stare back and her with a smile on my lips, but before I answer I look up at the sky and see the exact thing we were looking for that day, about a week ago, on this exact soccer field: a cloud that has broken free from a nimbostratus. It is rather small and not like I had expected it to be, but what calls my attention is that the sun is shining from behind and the cloud is full of electricity, creating a perfect silver lining.

And I feel so happy because now I see that my mother was right, when back in New Year's Even she said that 2007 was going to be a good year. It is going to be the best.

So I put my forehead against hers, put a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and say,

"Yes, we are."