OOM: At the end.

[OOC: After this.]

"Chris, I just want you to know...I want you to know that no matter how things turned out, I don't regret falling in love with you."

She fumbled for the door knob, hands trembling with emotion. Once inside, Chris made a beeline for the bathroom, huddling over the sink, stomach lurching. The way Jack looked at her. Knees feeling watery, she gripped the sink. Her hands were white-knuckled as they gripped the porcelain, leaving curved patterns imprinted on her palms. "Oh, God." Her face crumpled as the tears came, her throat tightened and it was hard to get the words out. "Oh, God."

"Keep it up, Dribbles." "You know I can."

Sobbing openly now, she sunk to the floor. Cold tile underneath, the cold porcelain of the tub at her back. Took too much energy to move, so she pulled her knees to her chest for some warmth, some comfort. He cares about her. Chris held her head in her hands, now huddled into a ball, wrapped around herself protectively.

"Take care. Please, be happy."

She's been to his home. She's met Kim. Chris tries to remember every conversation she's had with Jack recently, looking for some clues, anything. Anything that would tell her how long he'd known Silvia, how he felt about her. For a moment, she finds comfort remembering that he had never mentioned Silvia and neither had her father or Elaine. One of them would have told her if this had been going on for long... I still have a chance.

Then she remembered how many things Jack hadn't told Audrey and that small feeling of hope evaporated.

"If you want to, we can pretend like it never happened." "I don't. Do you?" "No."

The pain was physical, from the tremor in her arms to the tightness in her chest and the clenching from her stomach. It hurt. It had hurt when she left him, she spent months wearing heavy sweaters and coats. When winter passed, the chill remained. She moved across the country, started a new job, in a new place, trying for a new life to take away the pain and it almost worked.

Then she saw him again and remembered how it felt to be close to him, the way she felt when he smiled at her, just having him near. She didn't need him to touch her to remember how warm his skin felt against hers or how his kisses tasted.

"You're a better person to talk to than you think. Thank you, Chris."

Now, Silvia would know the way it felt to be in his arms, she would know the way his kisses tasted. It would be in her bed, he'd fall asleep at night. Those smiles and whispered "sweethearts" would now belong to her. The ways she was smiling when we first met... She wondered if Silvia knew that he sometimes drooled in his sleep or what his favorite books were. Did she ever see the tattoo on his inner arm? Run her fingers across his scars? Make him gasp from her kiss? Had she ever felt his body so close to hers, she could feel his heart beating?

Had he ever whispered "I love you," to her before falling asleep?

"When you get back, I'll be here waiting for you."

All the things she should have said, all the chances she didn't take. Several months had passed for her, over a year for Jack. It's too late. He'd moved on and she couldn't deny him that. She had been scared, she had needed time alone and she had that now. How could she ask him to give her another chance, even if nothing had changed? Why would he go through all the trouble and risk, even if he still had those feelings?

What if he doesn't love me anymore? That thought knocked the wind out of her like a fall. Every hope that she'd been holding onto for the past few months, the ones she wouldn't let herself think about, scattered.

He's moved on.

"Maybe...maybe we should end this here."