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“Sometimes giving up is the strong thing.
Sometimes to run is the brave thing.
Sometimes walking out is the one thing
That will find you the right thing”- Taylor Swift
Bombs. Drownings. Shootings. Plane crashes. Car accidents. Patient attacks. Fires. Near death experiences. And more.
Of all the tragedies that have occurred both inside and outside the walls of Grey-Sloan Memorial, Meredith Grey can truthfully testify to the fact that she was always caught up in the midst of them, if not a witness to every single one of them. Every scar on her body all told a story, with the memories, mental, and emotional toll each one took filling the pages. Perhaps it’s why it’s a miracle the latest one that befell Seattle’s finest surgeons didn’t have her presence anywhere near it.
But sometimes you can’t decide what’s worst: being in the center of it or having to witness its aftermath.
As she spends the day roaming around the walls of her sanctuary, it‘s hard to wrap her mind around every event and feeling like there is never going to be an end to the bad news she receives. All she can think of is the chaos those around her are in; how her friends just came back from a disaster that could’ve taken any of them away from her and a resident who was just experiencing the greatest loss a surgeon could have that was making him yearn oblivion. If she wasn’t so caught up in her own dilemma with saving the life of the renowned surgeon that was becoming a thorn on her side, perhaps she would’ve been more aware of all the other conflicts that was happening around her; how her sister-in-law’s relationship with the man who helped raised her children in the last year just completely obliterated or how the burden of secrets and the past was the real reason why the man who was once her gift was on his way out the door.
In the past, she always dealt with her problems by means of distractions. Whether it was by work or the tequila that always waited for her at her house or the bar, she always had something at her disposal.
Perhaps avoidance was never going to go away for her as she warmly welcomed the newest distraction that made her feel euphoric, taking in the image of a man full of charm and bravado that felt almost nostalgic.
As the two of them make their way to the parking lot hand-in-hand and he begins to tell her a story about one of his patients, she lets herself shake off the anxiety and frustration the day brought on and take in the presence of the transplant surgeon who she knew would provide her the distraction she needed now. It felt like a fantasy being with him; like her life and any of the problems that came with it didn’t exist and the only thing that mattered was how good he made her feel. It didn’t matter yet that she hadn't decided how far this was actually going to go or how he fit in with the rest of her plans; it just mattered to her that he was here now when she needed someone.
These are the thoughts she tells herself as they round the outside of the hospital, but is suddenly taken aback upon reaching the front of the building where she catches sight of a certain pediatric surgeon exiting from the entrance. Between checking in on David Hamilton and monitoring the fate of Owen Hunt, the email to all staff from the Chief announcing Cormac Hayes’ resignation just seemed like a natural afterthought.
Except here he was now right in front of her, and suddenly, she feels like bricks are being piled on top of her as she somehow senses the heaviness surrounding him that makes her ache for her friend. Her presence doesn’t go unnoticed by him, and neither does the presence of the stranger beside her. The transplant surgeon is oblivious, but she sees how the other man takes it all in, his eyes darting from their held hands and back to her own eyes. She walks past him wordlessly, but now feels the figurative weight on her shoulder dragging her down. She turns her head around to catch one last sight of him, but his head is down and his eyes no longer in sight. She somehow makes it back to her car, the man with her continuing to be oblivious to what occurred, and the whole drive down to the hotel, she realizes that may have been the last time she ever got to see the man.
And damn her for not saying goodbye.
_______________________________
She spends the rest of the weekend with the transplant surgeon and somehow, she finds a way to brush off the weight. The days are filled with laughter and conversation whereas the nights didn’t leave much room for words. She was transported back to her fantasy.
The fairytale eventually ends come Monday morning when he makes his way back to Minnesota and she prepares herself to face the aftermath once again at the hospital. She checks in on Hamilton, who’s been stable, she calls the FDA with Amelia and Bartley and manages to get an extension on the project, she continues to monitor Owen, all while trying to convince herself that this person who has been through hell and back with her numerous times would survive this too.
She does it all and somehow she stays afloat.
But what she isn’t prepared for is the reality that a certain surgeon and a man she had become fond of is gone. She feels his absence everywhere; from the attending’s lounge where his cubby is no longer occupied, to walking by his office that was so close to her’s and seeing all the furniture still there but the things making it his all gone, from the medical journals he kept in a bookcase to the patient charts that would often be on the couch where he sat reviewing them and the bottle of whiskey and pictures of his family he kept on his desk. And when she’s paged to consult on a teenager in the pit, she feels her dismay when the peds fellow consults with her with him nowhere in sight.
It’s only when she’s sitting in her own office halfway through her day reviewing the research for her project that she finds herself especially troubled with his abrupt exit and a mixture of sadness, guilt, and worry washes over her as she thinks through reasons, causing her to become unfocused.
She’s so caught up with her thoughts that she doesn’t even notice when her sister enters the room.
“Hey,” Maggie greets gingerly as she approaches her desk. “I brought you something to eat. I know you and Amelia have been pretty busy.”
Meredith doesn’t have the heart to tell her that food was the last thing on her mind, so she appreciatively just takes the wrapped sandwich from her hands. “Yeah, thanks. And thank you for taking the kids this weekend. It’s just- the past few days have been a lot.”
“Of course,” Maggie replies. “I’ve missed them, so it was no trouble at all. I get it. You have a lot on your plate. There’s too much going on around here.”
“Tell me about it,” she mutters underneath her breath before rubbing her eyes, feeling the exhaustion.
“If it’s any consolation,” Maggie continues, “Owen has been fine. He’s in a lot of pain but I rounded on him with Amelia and Nico this morning to check on his cardio and he’s fine. His neuro exams are clear. And Nico says his incisions are healing well so far.”
Meredith lets out a breath. “Good. That’s good.”
“And the other Hunts are fine for now too,” Maggie adds. “Winston saw Farouk and said his heart is strong. His labs are good. And if he continues to hold up like this, we can discharge him by the end of the week. Megan’s thrilled. I wanted to update Hayes but I keep forgetting that he’s…” She trails off when she notices the change of emotion on her sister’s face.
“He’s gone,” Meredith finishes monotonously.
“He’s gone,” Maggie repeats with a sad smile. “It’s so strange not seeing him here. Ever since we did that surgery on Arthur Beaton last year, I’ve had more respect for him. What a brilliant surgeon. It’s a shame we lost him.”
Her sister’s words fade in and out as she can’t help but think of how true her statements were and she reflects back on her own surgeries she performed with the man. She racks her brain attempting to recall the last one she ever did with the surgeon and she startles herself with the recollection that it had been the one on the same day he would shortly thereafter find her collapsed on the cold ground of the hospital’s parking lot.
Of the almost three years he spent there, she never thought she would do anything for the last time with him. Every surgery performed, every whiskey drank in their offices after a long shift, every parenting tale and medical cases shared; she never thought any of it would be the last time.
Not until now where she’s at the very place it all began with him and it was sinking in that he truly was gone; how perhaps she’s taken everything for granted. She doesn’t even know where he was now, if he was still in Seattle or was already oceans away, but she wishes there was an option that could erase the past two years and she can start over and savour every moment spent with the person that was a reflection of herself.
Maggie’s phone, then, loudly goes off and if it were not for the noise, Meredith would’ve forgotten her presence as she was absorbed with her own thoughts. “Oh, I’m being paged to the E.R,” Maggie announces. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Meredith plainly nods as she watches her sibling leave her office and the deafening silence in the room as she’s left there alone suddenly makes her thoughts louder and her emotions heavier. She looks down at her desk where her papers, tablet, and phone were scattered about and she can’t help but follow her instinct. She grabs her phone, scrolls through her contacts, and clicks on his name before she gets a chance to change her mind.
She lets it ring and when it goes on long enough that she decides she’s making herself look like a fool because he’s probably long gone by now, she’s about to hang up when the ringing stops and a voice comes through. “Hello?“
She hears it in his tone; the hesitation and how guarded he sounded; how unsure he seemed. But despite it all, she finds herself letting out a shaky breath, relieved he even answered at all.
However, now she’s at a loss for words. She doesn’t know how to say all the thoughts running through her mind; the words she wants to say as a farewell but also the words that want him to stay. Instead, she begins with, “Are you still in Seattle?”
A pause, then he replies, “I am.”
She sighs, surprising herself with how relieved she was feeling. “I want to see you,” she blurts out, kicking out all those previous thoughts and words to the curb for now as she realizes just how much she wanted to take his presence in one last time.
She’s met with a long silence at the other end of the line and she’s starting to feel regret for making the request because she knew better than anyone that when you were on the run from something, you just want to go and not look back. Finally, he says, “I’m at home. I have to pick up the boys from the airport in a few hours. They’re flying back from their aunt’s in San Diego. Come before then.”
She doesn’t even have to think about it. “I’m on my way.”
_______________________________
It was barely only a few weeks that their trial run at a relationship lasted, but she somehow remembers the way to his townhouse just twenty minutes away from the hospital like the back of her hand. Driving there now, she feels like she’s transported back to just a little more than six months ago to that feeling she had with him at the start of it; the butterflies and the excitement of something new. When you looked at the two of them, you just knew that time would eventually bring them together with their shared experiences and the genuine friendship between them making a solid foundation. It took a while for her to recognize the potential the two of them had, but once that ice melted away, she truly began to feel again and embraced the new beginnings she thought they were about to have. After all, he was her gift- one that just landed onto her lap with no warning- and she decided once and for all to really treasure it.
But the one thing that was for certain was that rarely did life ever give her happy endings; just endings without them ever truly having beginnings. And before long, they were back to where they started, just two individuals living life apart with a string forever connecting them together.
When she gets to his house, she takes her time walking up the front door as she has to recollect herself. Clearly, she did not think this through as she has not a single clue what she would say to him once they’re face to face. But she also knows that there’s been too many times in the past when the people in her life just up and left without proper closure and damn her if she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to the one person who just always understood.
She rings the doorbell and seconds feel like lifetimes by the time he answers the door. The first thing she notices is his head; blood all gone but a tinge of red and visible scars starting to form as the cuts heal. Now they were even more similar than ever before. Not only were their scars imprinted where no one can see, now they had physical footprints as well. The second thing she notices is his solemn expression; pain and heaviness that was all previously there, not just from the day of the accident but the whole time she’s known him, now made more evident in the daylight and after a few days’ separation.
He doesn’t say a single word as he takes a moment to almost comprehend the fact she was actually there before he opens the door wider, inviting her presence in. Neither of them let out a sound as she follows him into his house and she’s surprised that a six month plus absence doesn’t erase the familiarity she feels being inside. He leads her into his kitchen and he begins to busy himself with making them both a cup of tea, not bothering to ask her preference.
She watches him as she herself takes a seat at his dining table, and though he’s always been the type to be reserved, she was familiar enough with him by now to at least get a sense of how he was doing. But now she’s at a loss and it's at this moment that she really feels the impact of being States apart for months as the two of them dance around each other like complete strangers.
Finally, she breaks the silence with what she hopes would ease his burdens, at least a little. “Maggie says that Farouk is doing well. They’re hopeful he can get discharged by the end of the week.”
She watches as he momentarily stops his actions and he exhales ever so slowly and quietly but she swears she sees it. However, she’s only met with a simple nod of acknowledgement. She continues to be at a loss for words, questioning her decision to even come when she has no idea what it even is she’s wanting to get out of seeing him again. The two of them were never made for small talk nor polite pleasantries. Even on their very first meeting, she still remembers the way they easily exchanged quips at one another only for all that angst to lead to empathetic understanding. And now, even that seemed to disappear.
He finally finishes off with making the tea and he makes his way to the table and silently passes a cup to her as he sits opposite of her. He brings his own cup to his mouth and looks anywhere but at her. He sits his cup back on the table and with his head down, he finally breaks the unbearable silence with a question she should’ve expected. “What are you doing here, Grey?”
The question shouldn’t come as a surprise to her but it somehow does. Over the past two years, her company was something he always yearned for and she knew it. But his stoicness, coupled with his lack of eye contact, just proves to her how far their relationship has strayed and she can’t blame anyone but herself for not trying enough.
“You know when Cristina was supposed to leave for Switzerland,” she begins with a tale about the woman who brought them together in the first place, “she kept postponing it. Even on the day she left, I got her in that cab and then she came back to the hospital. She kept making these excuses about not being finished; not finished with Owen, not finished with her patients, not finished with me. I didn’t really understand it at first but overtime I did. It made sense. Since our intern year, we’ve lost people. People who meant something to us. And she didn’t want to leave without making sure that in between all her need to move on, she wasn’t carrying all this baggage with her. And so she needed to finish with me. But to let me know that, even though she was leaving, we actually will never be finished with each other.”
She stops to take a breath as she watches him, head still down refusing her gaze, hoping that he was understanding where she was going. “And now you’re telling me that you’re leaving,” she continues, “And for the first time, I get what Cristina meant because it feels like nothing is finished. In the last three years alone, I’ve lost Alex, I’ve lost Andrew, I’ve lost Jackson, and it feels like there are so many things that were left unsaid and just unfinished. And now you’re leaving and I just can’t do that again.”
Her brutal honesty pierces through the silence and she lets her words sink into him, herself feeling the same weight of the brewing and inevitable goodbye as she has done so many times before in her life. Everyone was leaving and everyone was dying. It was a statement she’s said in the past and it somehow was still ringing true. But this time, she can’t help but feel like she had a part to play in this one and if he was to leave her today, then she needed closure, whether she felt deserving of one or not.
“Hayes,” she gingerly implores when the man still hadn’t uttered a single word. “Why are you leaving?”
The question catches him off guard because if he had to be honest, there wasn’t just a particular reason but the culmination of years he’s been trying to get back and escape from all at the same time. If anyone would understand, he knew it would be her. But the pain of secrets, the pain of wasted potentials, and the pain of saying goodbye to her specifically was keeping the words lodged in his mouth.
“You asked me something about physician assisted death,” she now says, and he hears the suspicion in her tone. “Did something happen? Because if something did, you know you can tell me and you know that I will help you.”
“You can’t help me with this one, Grey,” he answers, exasperated, still avoiding eye contact with her. He thinks to himself that once he allows himself to look at her that all his defenses are going to come down because even though his head and his heart were currently battling each other, he knew that she was still a weakness to him. “It’s not my place to tell you and it’s not your burden to hold and it’s not because of that. Can you just trust me, please?”
She hears the desperation in his voice as he speaks and seeing him so broken and messy in the state that he was in made her own heart ache. Since the day they met, between the two of them, he was always the one who kept it together; a solid fortress in the midst of life’s trials. But that’s the thing she also knew better than anyone; the longer you kept strong, the quicker and easier it is to fall apart.
“Then what is it?” she pushes softly.
The genuine concern in her tone touches his heart and as hard as he tries, he can’t avoid facing her forever. He slowly lifts his head as he finally meets her eyes and the second he does, he feels the walls he’s built up being shaved away as the desire to unburden himself becomes stronger until finally he breaks. “I couldn’t keep my promise to her,” he begins with a quiver in his voice. “Before Abi died, she made me promise her a lot of things regarding the boys but mostly myself. But look at us now. I’m failing Austin, Liam’s a brick wall I can’t get through, and I love and miss her so much that because of it I lost the one person that’s made me the happiest since her in you. Three days ago, I almost bloody died because of trying to be the best doctor I can be. But now I have to spend whatever life I have left to keep those promises to be the best father I can be. And I can’t do that here. Not anymore.”
His honesty punches her as she watches him feel every crisis all at once and she empathizes with each turmoil and fault he felt responsible for. She only has to remember the early years after her husband’s death of feeling like nothing she did was ever good enough for her or her children and the weight of feeling responsible for bringing about downfall on the children they had together felt heavier than the loss itself. But something else in his words brought her a great amount of pain, which was that of his open admittance of her significance to him. His need to feel responsible for their end only brought in her an overwhelming feeling of guilt as flashbacks of his seeing her with the other man just nights ago comes up in her mind and now she’s in regret that she let go that hastily in the first place.
She attempts to push all those feelings aside for now as she’s determined to console him. “First of all, you didn’t lose anything when it comes to me,” she says firmly. “Before anything else, I’m your friend first. You said so yourself that night in the snow. I’m still your friend and I’m not going anywhere. And second, I have told you this before and I will tell you until you believe the fact that you are an excellent dad. Those boys are lucky to have you. You’ve done everything for them the best you can and if Abi was here, she would tell you the same thing. And I know that because you’re brave and selfless to leave Seattle just as you’re getting settled in to give them the best chance as possible to have the life you and Abi wanted to have for them.”
Her words should’ve comforted him; validated his feelings and increased his belief in himself. But all that belief was just nothing but ashes now as he says, “It’s cowardice, Grey. I’m leaving and taking them with me because I feel like I don’t have a bloody clue anymore what I’m doing and that I’m messing up every part of them doing everything by myself.”
“But you’re not by yourself,” she tries to tell him, and maybe she’s in the wrong for telling him so after months of being apart from him but she just needs him to see how much he was actually cared for. “If you’re set on going back to Ireland, I’m not gonna stop you because I know that no one would have been able to stop me from running to San Diego all those years ago had I told somebody. And I also know what I told you the very first day that I met you about you just being a guest around here but you’re not. The truth is that there is an entire hospital rooting for you and your kids. You have surgeons who are going to miss working with you in that O.R and between myself and Amelia, you have people who understand the pain of trying to pick yourself back up after a tremendous loss for the sake of the people you love who are still here. You’re not alone, Hayes. You never were.”
“So why does it feel like I am?” he answers back, dejected, and the pain leaking from his eyes makes her wish she could just walk over and wrap her arms around him until all his pieces were put back together. One of the most satisfying things she loves about being a surgeon was seeing something physically in front of her and detecting what was broken. A clamp here, some sutures there, and before you know it, she’s made something broken in someone’s body whole again. But that was the problem with feeling broken and knowing someone was feeling that way; you know there’s a problem but there’s no easy fix for it. And the only thing she wanted right now was to be able to fix him.
“I tried so damn hard, Grey,” he continues on with defeat. “I really did. To move on and accept it. And you know for a while I was happy. The three of us were happy. They were back in the States closer to their aunt, I was good with my department, I met you,” he adds, and the melancholic tone she detects in his voice when speaking of her only increases her own sadness about the moment. He takes a deep breath before adding, “But then the pandemic happened, and the protests, and you were sick and then you weren’t, and then we were together and then we weren’t and now…”
His words trail off and the way he looks at her full of regret makes her feel so sick inside as she suddenly gets the revelation that perhaps not everything about his running away was because of his children.
“I-” she starts to say, but she realizes that she wasn’t even sure of what was going to come out of her mouth. “I should’ve told you about Nick,” she says slowly, his name suddenly leaving a sour taste in her mouth as she takes her gaze away from him, feeling the guilt bubbling over.
He lets out a sarcastic chuckle. “It’s none of my business,” he answers truthfully. “And quite frankly, it’s not your fault. I’m using my son’s anxiety as an alibi to hide the fact that I wasn’t ready and no matter how much I care about you, it doesn’t change the fact that I can’t love you the way I want to and the way you deserve to be loved. It wouldn’t have been fair for me to ask you to wait around. I know how much you loved Derek, perhaps even DeLuca, and after them, you deserve someone who’ll stay. I’m happy you found someone. Or at least I hope you did. I don’t regret anything when it comes to you. I’m just sorry that I didn’t have more to give because if there’s anyone out there who I wanted to be my first, and possibly last, it was you. It was always you. It will always be you.”
She feels suffocated; like his words were infiltrating the air around her, making it impossible to breathe. Never did she realize the depth of his feelings for her, and to now know from his admission that there was a possibility she could even come close in significance to him in the same way his wife had been was wanting to send her into a spiral. She knew the enormity of those feelings; how strong they were, enough to knock you off balance at the realization that there wasn’t just one person in this world to love. And as she’s forced now to reflect on her time with Nick and what the man in front of her thought of him being to her, she feels her heart slowly breaking apart as it crashes on her what the two of them could have been and how they could have had it all.
“If love were enough, she’d still be here with you,” she whispers quietly as the first breakthrough of tears slide down her face.
This grabs his attention back as he now looks at her softly. “What?”
She wipes her tears away as she says, “My first year as an intern, we had a patient come in after a really bad accident and she knew she wasn’t going to make it. She wanted us to tell her fiance when he came that if love was enough, she would still be there with him.” She pauses as she takes a moment to reflect back on that night that she still vividly remembers up until now as images of Bonnie, Derek, and Addison flashes across her mind and it’s so silly to her now how she spent so much time grieving those moments in her life, and yet it was still significant to her now.
“If love was enough, Abi would still be here with you today and Derek would still be with me now,” she states, her voice full of sadness. “And if love was enough, you would be staying and I would never have left either in the first place. But in order to have love, you need to live. And living means nothing when you can’t breathe and I understand how you can’t do that here so you have to let go because of your love. And at the end of the day, that also makes it enough.”
He lets her words sink in and for the first time in days, he feels the burden on his shoulders starting to ease. He didn’t even know he was looking for it, her approval to let him go. But hearing her words now validates his decision because at least now he knows that he did mean something to her in the same way she meant something to him. And whatever capacity those feelings were, she was right in saying that they will always be a true friend and companion to each other first. And that even though it would hurt her to see him leave, she was willing to let him because of that love.
“Grey, I need to thank you,” he says sincerely, and he can’t ignore the lump in his throat as he felt that this moment is it. “For everything. Just, you know, these past two years. I know we didn’t have the best of starts, but just thank you for everything after that. And I know I still have my issues, very clearly, but I’m not the same man I was two years ago and it’s all because of you. I know I’ll always be holding onto a little bit of the past but I know it’s not impossible to also welcome the possibility of more and I wouldn’t know that without you. So thank you.”
She feels the impact of the moment and she doesn’t even stop herself anymore as tears once again spill over her and she’s speechless as she lets herself feel the significance of their nearing farewell. She hears him stand up from his seat and through her blurred vision she sees him stretch out his arms to her and she doesn’t stop him from helping her off her seat before engulfing her into an embrace. He holds her tight, and she holds him back in return, the familiarity of being in his arms from all those months ago hitting her and she weeps even more at the thought of what they could have been had their timing been different. But even more so, she weeps at the hope she carries for her beloved friend that he someday finds the courage and opportunity to take hold of what he also deserves.
She pulls away from him slightly, and she wipes her eyes dry, willing herself to pull it together. “I’m the one who needs to thank you,” she tells him honestly. “I never thanked you for finding me in that parking lot. Had it not been for you, I could have died. And you didn’t let me and you willed me to fight and you talked to me about my kids and I know I’ve already told you how much it helped. And even before I got sick, I felt lost because I had just come back to the hospital and I had just lost Alex but somewhere in between all those surgeries with you, I found myself again. And after I came back from being sick, you helped me again. And I don’t regret any time I spent with you either. I love you. And I don’t say that to many people, which is why I need you to promise me that you will keep trying. And trust me when I say that you are doing everything you can for those boys and eventually, they will be okay and that you will be okay. You have to because for now, just like Cristina and I did all those years ago, we’re saying goodbye. But you and I will never be finished. Okay? So you need to promise me.”
“I promise,” he whispers, his voice breaking, and he leans in to place a soft kiss on her forehead, letting himself be selfish one last time before he has to face the rest of his life. She savours the feel of his lips on her skin as he lingers about and she closes her eyes, willing herself to commit this moment to her memory.
They hold each other for a little while longer, neither of them willing to let each other go just yet, until her phone in her pocket rings and she’s forced to let go.
“I have to get back to the hospital,” she informs him, disappointed, because this was truly it. She looks at him again, taking in his appearance one last time and although his brokenness reflected her own, he was still the same man that walked into that patient room on the very first day.
“Goodbye, Meredith,” he says with finality, his ever warm smile momentarily replacing the sadness that has been present.
“Goodbye, Cormac.”
She somehow finds the strength to collect her things and start walking away, only for a thought to enter her mind and she turns around to look at him one last time.
“You never told me the electric fence story,” she says slyy.
A bemused smile appears on his face. “Thought you’d have forgotten about that one by now,” he chuckles. “Where I grew up in Ireland, I lived in the country. I’m talking about barley fields and vegetation. My girlfriend at the time lived in the city. Now there was an electric fence that blocked off the main road to drive down to the city. Only opened up if you were in a car, driving. I was fifteen. No license, no car. So I jumped over it. Fell down a little too hard and scraped a knee, but a lad just wanted to see his girl.”
She raises her eyebrow the whole time he tells the tale and by the end of it, she bursts out laughing and so does he, and her heart is filled with warmth because this is the Cormac Hayes she wants to remember; the one who laughs easily and the one who made her feel like everything was as simple as jumping over an electric fence. “You waited two whole years to tell me that?”
“You wouldn’t have liked me very much had I told you that before,” he teases. “You would’ve thought I was bonkers. I was trying to impress you.”
“You already impressed me when you scared those kids by telling them all about the ‘rubbish dumps,’” she teases back and he laughs at the memory. “You know you will feel like that again.”
“Like what?”
“One day you’ll have those feelings again where you’ll feel like wanting to jump over an electric fence to get to somebody,” she assures him. “It takes a long time. You thought you were ready before, but it’s okay that you weren’t. I’ve been there. But you will feel it again. And when you’re ready, you know where to find me.”
With one last smile, she wills herself to turn around and leave and not look back. He watches her walk away and though his heart is filled with heaviness at the thought of saying goodbye, he knew she was right: they will never be finished as they were imprinted on each other’s memory and heart from that moment forward.
All because love is enough.