Work Text:
Cara didn't usually read other people's emails.
In her defence, on this occasion it was hard not to.
The guy sat beside her had started writing an email as soon as he was seated, frowning at the screen from behind his glasses.
So sue her, she'd looked.
It was written to someone called Buck. Or Evan. He kept going back and forth on which name to use, she guessed it was something to do with nicknames but couldn't figure out why it would matter to him which name he used. She scanned the rest of the email out of the corner of her eye, watching as he kept typing and backspacing and typing again, clearly unhappy and frustrated by how the words were coming out. He was talking about how long it had been since they'd last seen each other. How good it had been to see him. How sorry he was to hear that Buck/Evan's last relationship hadn't worked out (that sentence had taken a lot of erasing and rewriting. Clearly a sore spot).
Then the tone shifted subtly. The man was writing about how much he'd enjoyed catching up on their past. Apologising for how things had ended between them (wait, had these two dated? Was that what this was about?). That he almost wished he hadn't had to fly back so they could have caught that dinner. A joke about how he still didn't like to fly unless he was the one at the controls. He changed the part about wishing he didn't have to leave multiple times, trying to make it sound friendly and not longing. Cara couldn't help herself for rooting for these two. For two men she didn't know. Had never met. Wanted to know how their story ended.
Her eyes widened as she read a line that was quickly erased 'I never stopped loving you'. This was followed by 'I still love you', 'I don't think I will ever stop loving you' and 'I wish I could tell you how much I love you'. Each was deleted as quickly as the first.
In the end the email was just signed off with 'Yours, Tommy'. She wanted to scream at him to stop. To not just send the email like that. But that would mean admitting she'd been reading it and that she was now entirely invested in the lives of these strangers.
Instead she just sat there as the message was sent and the stranger - Tommy - closed his laptop.
She spent the rest of the flight trying to think of any way she could let this Buck/Evan how much Tommy felt about him.
Once she was back home she opened her phone and started recording. It was a long shot but something in her told her that she had to try.
"Hi guys, I have got such a bittersweet story for you. I was on a plane earlier today from LA…" she briefly outlined what she'd seen and sent out a plea that this guy Buck (or Evan?) should know how Tommy really feels. That if he feels the same then please tell him.
There was nothing else she could do. She posted the video and sighed, throwing her phone aside. She didn't know if it would do anything but she had to try. Had to do something.
The post blew up. She got so many comments, so many messages, so many boosts. She started to have a spark of hope that it would work. That Evan (or Buck) would see it. Or at least hear about it.
A week after posting, she got a message from an account she had seen being tagged more and more. AdventureEvan91. It was just a picture. Before she opened it, she went to the guy's profile and skimmed through it. Mostly gym selfies, shirtless and posing. One or two candid shots of other people who seemed to be firefighters in LA from the ensignia on their shirts. She was considering deleting the message without opening it, just in case, but she couldn't deny the name Evan.
She opened it.
It was a selfie.
The man Evan from all the pictures she'd just seen on his profile squeezed into frame with another man. Dark hair. Greying at the temples. The same man she'd been sitting beside on the plane a few days ago.
They were both grinning.
As Cara stared at the image, trying to process that somehow it had actually worked, three bubbles popped up for a moment before a message appeared.
'Thank you'