Mornings of Mist

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The unrealistic S/V ending~

15.

Her hand trembling woke her from her reverie and, filled with an emotion that she couldn't quite understand, she sat down in her seat, mouth hanging slightly open.

She looked around her, saw the people lining up in the aisles, anxious to get to their own seats; she looked above her and saw the luggage compartment half open, her suitcase still hanging half way out of it.

It took awhile for all the pieces to come together but when she had sorted everything out, there was only one true solution. She couldn't ruin her life; this had told her what would happen more than anything else would ever be able to.

How could she not have known? How could she not have even guessed?

She stood back up, head still reeling from the power and emotion that that sudden vision had placed through her mind, and grabbed the wooden handle of her suitcase firmly and strode, nearly ran, out of the plane despite the opposite traffic by the people in the aisles.

When she got out of the plane, was back in the waiting area, she couldn't see him. Perhaps he hadn't been willing to watch her truly leave his life. But she had to reach him; no matter how hard it was, nothing was worth what she would be leaving behind.

She thought she saw a flash of his lean figure walking away and that was all she needed.

Dropping her suitcase on the floor without a second thought, she ran suddenly without any reserve, knowing that this was the most important thing she had ever done in her life, knowing that she had almost made a horrible decision.

She called out his name endlessly internally, matching beats with her stride.

She reached the doors of the airport and saw him leaning into a cab.

"MICHAEL!"

Her cry was loud and full of any and every emotion that she had previously been unable to express. All the people turned around to look at the woman who had caused the commotion. But the only important thing was that the only man who truly mattered had turned.

The tears were already brimming as she hurled herself towards him, weeping openly by the time she collided into him, feeling his arms come around her body with such tightness that she knew how much torture that he had been going through… could not believe how much torture she had been willing to let him go through for her own happiness. Though she knew now that she would not have been achieved either.

The taxi driver grumbled and sped away, unwilling to wait.

His voice came like a soft breeze across her ear and made her ache with realization… how could she ever have considered leaving him? "Sydney… Syd what's wrong?"

Sydney lifted her head off his shoulder, eyes suddenly clear despite the tear tracks still visible down her cheeks. She placed her hands behind his neck and kissed him deeply, shutting him up if only for the moment so that she could truly tell herself that this was reality. That she had finally come to the right decision.

"Michael… I couldn't leave you," Her whisper brought a missing twinkle back to his eye.

"You were always the one for dramaticism. You really couldn't realize how unhappy you would be without me until now?"

She shut him up again, suddenly needing him more than anything else… the knowledge and the seeming reality of losing this man engulfed her and she could not stand one more moment without contact. She scattered kisses all around his mouth, his cheeks.

Stopping when he laughed. "Sydney, what happened?"

"You have no idea how much I've missed you Michael."

"I only left you about 20 minutes ago… oh, did you see my note?"

She grinned, having the double memories of reading the note for the first time and then reading the note as a teacher 12 years into the future. "I did…"

His eyebrow raised. "And?"

"You aren't going to believe me but I was truly blinded by what I thought I wanted. And then I suddenly got this… this idea, I guess you could call it, of me in twelve years living the life that I told you I wanted. The life I tried to convince myself that I wanted.

"I had the perfect husband, the perfect kids…the perfect house… it was a life that anybody would dream of," she paused, looking at him, wanting to drown herself in the mere presence of him, "and I wasn't happy."

He couldn't help smiling a bit, stroking his finger across her cheek. "Why weren't you happy?" The question was soft and slow, as if he already knew the answer and was not merely relishing the fact that she knew it too.

"Because you were… a news reporter."

He laughed suddenly. "Really now?"

"Yes. And all the women in America were in love with you and you told some person on a talk show that you would be a bachelor forever because you had already found the one love of your life and wasn't willing to cheapen that by marrying someone else when you knew that the love of your life was still out there."

Michael nodded. "It's true."

"I know. But in my "vision"… by the time I truly realized that I had made the worst mistake of my life, I was trapped in this sitcom perfect life that I realized I had no business being in. And I couldn't come back to you because… there were strings attached now. I had children…

"I know now that no matter where I go or who I meet, I will never be able to be the kind of happy I was when I am with you. It's not even remotely a contest because you truly are the love of my life and I can't believe that it took me this long to find out.

"You were right all along. If I marry someone who is perfect in every way and his only flaw is that he isn't you and I still can't be happy… what other option do I have?"

A slow smile started to spread across her face. "I don't. There is no other option. No matter how hard it is for us to maintain a relationship… it's worth everything just to be able to fall sleep in your arms and wake up next to you the next morning. I love you Michael."

He couldn't speak and so he leaned down and kissed her again. "God Sydney… you have no idea the torture you put me through…"

She placed a finger against his lips. "No. I do. Now hail a cab right now because I don't think I'll be able to last another minute without you and I don't want to have to attack you in front of an airport."

"Really? Actually that sounds interesting…"

She laughed and shoved his shoulder lightly as he raised his arm to hail a taxi.

So this was love.

As the taxi pulled up and he pulled her inside, he looked at her. "So all you want is the sex… are you sure it's me you love or the absence of "attached strings"?" His eyebrows wiggled, causing another burst of laughter before she suddenly stopped and leaned over to him.

"Actually there are a couple strings…"

A confused expression took over his face. "What do you mean?"

She leaned closer so that her lips were mere inches from his ear before whispering to him, "In that vision, by the time I landed in Virginia… I was two months pregnant."

~Fin~

So? How was it? Like the little twist I put in there in the end for your imaginations? {dun dun duuuuunnnnnnn!}

S/V enough for you? (Was it too unrealistic or boring or any other bad thing because I am willing to rewrite… just say the word~)

Thank you so much for all of you who have been following this… I'm so happy that it has been so well received and am really sad now that it is over.

Even though it's not like I have a shortage of other fics to work on ;)

-Jenn