Episode 42, "The Vision Part II"
She laughed at the expression on his face.
Then Taylor laughed too. They laughed together for a moment, gradually fell silent. For the first time she let him catch her gaze and hold it. He saw the questions in her eyes, and the memories, and the emptiness of twenty-five years that she was trying to bridge. After a moment he turned his eyes away.
She cleared her throat, sipped again from the tea. "But enough about me. Where have you been these past years?"
He thought of telling her, ‘Looking for you' - but only for an instant. Instead he calmly said, "Here and there. I really hadn't realized so much time had passed."
He regretted the lie the moment it was said. She flinched just a little around the eyes - the only sign that his words had hurt. She returned quickly, "Neither did I. I've stayed busy...retail mostly. It's not much, but it's a living."
He knew, knew he shouldn't ask.
If he asked, he would bring up the whole issue of him and her, twenty five years ago, the day that she walked away from him...the day they were almost married.
He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he did it anyway. "Have you ever married? I mean, after our engagement, did you..."
Carefully she set down her mug. "No. Never stayed around long enough to - not after the war, anyway. I was drafted, you know - back in the days when the government thought they were going too loose and so they sucked into the military anyone who could hold a gun. Oh, I was an officer," she added, seeing the look of shock on his face. "I had too much education to be a grunt. They shipped me over there, put a hundred people under my command, and I didn't know jack what to do. Half of them died before I figured it out."
Suddenly she lost her bantering tone. "I'd never killed a human before, not deliberately. It ate me up inside. When I came back, I was a wreck. I drank - a lot. I spent the night with strangers. I-I did a lot of things I shouldn't have done.
She cleared her throat. "But no, I've never married. Fell in love once, if that counts for anything. He was a quiet man, filled with secrets, but he loved me - I think. We were almost married. He left me all too soon, for his ex-girlfriend who had some illness...cancer I think. He broke my heart." She looked at him, pain in her eyes. "I was very young. Too young."
He knew what she was saying, knew there was no help for it.
"Well," he said quietly. "I'd better go. It'll be getting light soon."
A sad smile played about the corners of her lips. "Yes," she answered, and slowly stood up.
Outside in the night it was raining. Light from the street lamps cast an eerie glow in the misting rain, and the light coming through the windows of the little diner made it seem warm and inviting.
Taylor and Amber stood just outside the entrance, the light at their backs, the rain before them, looking like the first two people cast out of Eden. They regarded each other for a moment. Then Amber stretched out her hand.
"Friends?"
Taylor took it, shook hands with her solemnly. "Friends."
She smiled and turned away, walked into the darkness and the rain.
He could not watch her go.
Three strides and he reached her, caught her by the upper arm and spun her to face him, and kissed her. In that gesture he put twenty years' worth of fear and worry and longing and pain, and for a moment she responded.
And then she pulled away.
"I wish you hadn't done that," she said, her voice low. "You always make it hard to walk away." She paused, suddenly looked up at him. "I wasn't going to do this, but I have to ask - Did you ever really love me? Even a little?"
He laid a hand on her cheek. "More than I ever realized until you were gone. I was a fool - I am a fool. I regret - so much. Stay with me - let me stay with you. Let's cross this world from one side to the other and back again. We - I've wasted so many years. I don't want to waste anymore. Please, please don't go - don't ever go again."
She caught his hand, held it in hers. "I know this is selfish, but - all my life I've helped others, done what others wanted. I spent years and years in college to be a psychologist so that I could help people like Brandi. I spent thousands of nights reliving the stories of my patients. And I spent twenty years away from you because everyone - even you - said that it was for the best."
She stopped, laughed without amusement. "Now, most of the time, I just wander around - city to city, state to state, country to country. I'm nearly always alone. I want to be selfish now. I want us to be together for whatever time we have left - maybe ten minutes, maybe ten years. I know it'll be hard, but nothing could be harder than this loneliness. I want to die with your name on my lips, and I want you to bury me -" Her voice broke, her face crumpled.
He held her close. "I'll never leave you again, I swear. I was such a fool. I looked for you, I swear I did. But I could never find you. .."
"Do you know how many times I reached for you in my sleep, or how many times I called your name into the shadows. . ." she whispered.
"Never again," he whispered back, and when he kissed her this time there was no sadness in it, no pain or fear or regret of parting, only hope - and love.
Eventually they drew apart. They heard applause. Looking into the diner, they saw a handful of people waving, clapping, gesturing at them and smiling. Eden's angels were happy for the outcasts.
Taylor and Amber looked at each other, laughed, waved back at the observers. Then she took his hand.
She laughed. "First one to the corner is a rotten egg!”
She took off running, but not so fast that he couldn't catch her.
Which he did.
And above them it ceased to rain.
ROLL CLOSING CREDITS
