By The Time You Read This (3/8)
Title: By The Time You Read This
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/Characters: Hilary Becker/Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, James Lester, Jenny Lewis, Danny Quinn,
Rating/Category: PG-13
Summary: Abby had thought that after they came back from the anomaly, that the three of them could make a go of a relationship together. However, when Stephen and Becker fall into a pattern of doing nothing but fighting, it leads her to believe that they don't even care about her any longer. She leaves them a letter to say goodbye and disappears. Now, Stephen and Becker have to find a way to heal their old hurts between them in order to find Abby and convince her that they want to make a life together.
Warnings: This is a sequel to our casestory fic, From Where We're Standing, but can also be a stand alone story.
Words: 33,849
Notes: Written for au_bigbang 2011. Thank you very much to weaselett for the wonderful art that she made for us! We've loved writing this story and have very much enjoyed taking part in the challenge this year.
Lester didn't look up immediately as the two men entered his office. He continued looking at what he was working on at the computer.
"You should probably close the door behind you if you don't want the entire ARC to know what stupid gits you are," he said in his usual tone of voice.
"I can't believe I actually missed that tone," Stephen said dryly.
"Amazing what a man can miss even when it's looking him in the face," Lester replied, tapping a few more keys on the keyboard, before sliding it away from him.
"Nice job on the subtlety," Stephen said. "Lacking your usual efforts, though."
"Yes, well. I have a team that is having some issues functioning, a team member missing in action, a head of security acting like a git, and a former employee making things incredibly irritating for me."
"Then just tell me where Abby is and I'll be out of your hair." Stephen didn't really think it was going to be that easy, but he could hardly be faulted for trying.
The look Lester gave him spoke volumes.
"I'm not really interested in why you think I would know anything about Abby and even less interested in why you think I'd tell you if I did."
"You're the only person we can think of who'd know where she is."
"Let's say for the sake of argument that I did have a clue where she might have run away to. Why should I tell you? You broke one of my best people. You caused her enough mental distress that she decided to quit my team and leave me short of someone that was needed." Lester leaned back in his chair and looked at both men. His look wasn't all that friendly.
"Because we can't try to make amends if we can't find her," Stephen pointed out. "And we want to make amends. Or at least to hear it from her directly if she won't accept it."
Lester pinned Becker with a look. "And what do you have to say for yourself, Captain Becker?"
"That I love her," Becker replied. "That I haven't shown it well at all, yes. That's something I can't argue with. But I love her. And I want her to know that."
Lester looked at them both for a long time in silence. Finally, he leaned forward.
"No."
"What do you mean no?" Stephen had no problems snapping the words.
"If you're having a hard time with the meaning, I suggest you find yourself a dictionary and look the word up, Hart."
"What gives you the right to decide?"
"You mean aside from the fact that one Abby Maitland gave me legal authority to make decisions that would be in her best interest until she felt that she was of balanced mind again?" Lester's voice never changed in pitch, but he did have an air of smugness about him as he leaned back in his chair. "Or how about the fact that Abby is one of my people and I have very set rules about allowing someone to cause harm to one of my people?"
"Now I remember why I never really liked you all that much," Stephen muttered. "Is there anything you can tell us?"
"Like me or not, the simple truth of the matter is that I have never betrayed any of my people and I have done my best to look out for them. That's more than you can say, now isn't it?"
"Answer his question," Becker said tiredly. "Please."
Well, at least he'd attempted civility.
"I can tell you that she's safe. She's as well as could be expected after everything she's gone through."
"Oh, thank God she's safe."
"She is and I intend to make sure that she stays that way."
"We will find her," Stephen said evenly. "I don't know when, but we will."
"Not without my help, you won't," Lester said with calm self-assurance. "Bureaucrats are wonderful at making people disappear."
"You forget I've got one on my side," Becker said. "My sister might not be as good as you, but she's still a wonderful resource."
"She may be at that, but Abby came to me for help and not her," Lester reminded him. "I'm supposed to look out for her best interests, and right now, I don't believe that either of you are in her best interest. In fact, I don't think that you have her best interests in mind at all. You spent months making her feel unimportant and unwanted and now you expect it to be easy to get in touch with her again? Gentlemen, she went through a great deal to vanish from your lives and until I think that you have come close to deserving to speak to her, you won't."
"Oh, damn you, we don't expect it to be easy!" Stephen said, snapping. "If it were up to me, we wouldn't even be asking you. But you're the only option we have left so here we are. If you want to make our lives miserable... well, fine, we deserve it. But what we don't deserve is... okay, fine, I can't even finish that because we deserve all of it. But what you're not taking into account is the fact that we're trying."
"Until the two of you can think of your relationship in terms of her belonging to both of you together and not separately, then you are not trying hard enough. She loves the both of you idiots and while I think she can do much better, you are what she wants. She sees the three of you as a unit, a working triangle as it were. She's not with Hart or with Becker. She's with Hart and Becker. Until the two of you can work that out in your brains and show me that you understand what it means to be loved like that by someone, you won't get near her." His eyes were cold as he looked at both of them. "I believe you know the way out."
Becker was mulling it over thoughtfully, but Stephen was still too angry to react with anything other than storming out of the office.
Becker followed him, digging the car keys out of his pocket. "Take the car home, I'll call when I'm done for the day," he said, slapping the keys into Stephen's hand. "I don't think you want to be hanging around here all day."
"He has no right to keep her from us," Stephen fumed. "I should go back in there and beat him senseless until he tells us where she is."
"Okay, you know what? No assaulting my boss, please."
Stephen gave him an incredulous look before he shook his head and turned away. He was outside in mere moments and driving away in even less time than that.
Becker just watched him go, suddenly having the feeling that maybe getting a ride home from someone would be a better idea.
He'd gotten through most of the day before ending up in a quiet place, alone, with a couple minutes to actually stop and think.
And he was definitely thinking, largely about what Lester had told them. Did Abby really see them as a unit and not just three people involved with each other? It would explain a few things, like how she'd been so protective of the both of them and why she'd left. Well, the less than obvious parts of why she'd left, because he knew the obvious side of it already.
He opened his locker with a sigh, reaching in for something and catching sight of the scattered handful of pictures he'd taped up inside. One was of his sister, but the other two... one was of himself and Stephen from their first go at a relationship, and the second was of the three of them from a few weeks before Abby had left. A couple things were obvious, given what Lester had said earlier.
First, that Abby absolutely adored them. Them, not just one or the other or one more than the other.
Second, that she was damn protective of them, going by the way she was standing slightly in front of them instead of between them like they'd tried getting her to do.
And third, that he and Stephen were idiots. All right, so that one wasn't actually in the picture, but it was a realization born of the first two things. It counted.
He brushed his finger over that picture, bowing his head slightly. "We miss you, Abby my girl," he whispered. "Stay safe. Wherever you are... stay safe."
Stephen had still been seething as he left. First Lester wouldn't tell them a damn thing and then Becker defended the man? That had been just too damn much to take. So instead of sucking the pain up and sticking around the ARC all day like he'd been contemplating for a moment because of Becker, he'd gone home.
Except he'd gone back to Becker's flat. And as he walked into the flat, he wondered when exactly this place had become home again.
He liked that this was home to him again, liked it to a terrifying degree. Because he'd loved spending time around Becker before. Every moment they'd spent here had been quiet and calm and comforting. Even when they'd spent an utterly ridiculous amount of time shagging until they were exhausted -- which had been a frequent occurrence; they hadn't been able to get enough of each other at one point in the relationship -- things had still been calm and comforting.
And that was when it hit him. This place wasn't home. It was Becker.
Becker was home to him and always had been.
And, God willing, always would be.
It had been a month and a half since she had walked out on the boys and on her life, and Abby was still having a hard time with her decision. Oh, she had no doubts that it was the best thing for all concerned. However, it was the pain and the loneliness that she was having the worst time in dealing with.
She had a new job that she liked quite well, but it wasn't the same as working at the ARC. At the ARC, she had been a part of a team, a family. At the zoo, she was a quiet member of the staff that worked behind the scenes. She dealt with new arrivals to the zoo and with the babies. Apparently, Lester had been quite firm with his friend that gave her this job and told him that she was not to have anything to do with predators or large animals.
At first, she was more than a little angry at Lester's high-handedness, but she realized that it was to be expected. She had been the one to ask Lester for help in disappearing, after all. The predators or the larger animals could accidentally hurt her in her conditions. It wasn't just about the baby, but about the fact her arm and damage to her head had never fully healed after the return from the Pleistocene. Injuries that everyone agreed that Becker and Stephen didn't need to know about.
She missed her place at the ARC. She missed Her family, Jenny and Connor and Sarah and Danny. She missed the security lads that always time to work with her or just talk to her. She badly wanted to call the family, but she knew it was too risky.
When she was alone in the flat at night, that was when she felt like everything that had been a disaster because of her. She had asked Stephen to stay with them, but it hadn't gone like she had hoped.
For not the first time, she felt real fear that they didn't know what she was trying to do for them and would hate her and never want her back.
That thought caused her to collapse on the sofa in the flat and just cry.
Becker knew it probably wasn't his smartest idea ever, but Jenny and Sarah were Abby's friends. They would tell him honestly if the idea he had in mind would be a good one or not. Especially if he made it clear that this was just an idea he was thinking of and that it wasn't for certain what he was going with should Abby come back to them. For one thing, he hadn't even talked it over with Stephen yet.
He found Jenny first.
"You have a moment?"
Jenny looked up from what she was working on and pursed her lips for a second. "It depends. Are you going to tell me something stupid?"
"Uh, possibly," he said honestly. "But I'm not sure if it is or not. That's why I'm coming to you."
Well, potential points for admitting it, right?
She nodded and gestured him to shut the door of her office. "I don't where she is, so don't even ask. Although, I do plan to kick you severely when she's found."
"I know you don't. The letter she left said that." Becker shut the door. "What I want to know is if I can run an idea by you."
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"Stephen and I agreed that we need to treasure Abby a whole lot more than we have. So I'm thinking we should do something. Give her something to show how much she means to us. Something she can have on her at all times."
"Go on."
"I'm thinking a ring."
"Well, I was certainly hope you weren't thinking of getting her a tag that said "Mine Stay Back". A ring has possibilities. What kind of ring?"
"I'm not sure," Becker admitted. "Nothing too flashy, because that's not the kind of girl she is. But something a little fancier than a simple band. Something she could wear to work... wherever she is now, if she stays, or here if she comes back."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why now? Is this just some gesture to make because you need to make some kind of gesture, or have you truly thought about the symbolism -- and what such a thing will mean to Abby?"
"I think it's a little of both," he said after thinking about it. "Because we need to make some kind of gesture, but this isn't something I just pulled out of a hat, Jenny. I know it will mean commitment to her."
"Yes, it will. It will mean a lifetime of commitment to her." She tapped her fingers on her desk. "Stephen agrees with this?"
"He doesn't know about it yet -- he will," Becker hurried to say. "I wanted to bounce it off someone before I talked to him about it, though. I wanted to know if someone else besides me thought it was as good an idea as I did."
"I think that for you and Abby, it's probably the best thing you could have thought up to show her you're truly committed to her and to her happiness."
He couldn't help smiling at that. "I love her, Jenny. And if I still worry sometimes about losing her, well, Stephen has the same worries."
"But are you two idiots still worried about losing her to each other?"
"On our bad days, yeah," he said candidly. "But... no, not so much anymore."
"That's something then," Jenny said. "I'll help you, Captain Becker, but on one condition."
He looked nervous at that but nodded. "Okay."
"Stephen has to ask me, too."
"Does he have to get the idea for that on his own or can I tell him?" Because if Stephen had to get the idea on his own, this might not go so well.
"To get her a ring or to ask me for help?" She put down her pencil. "However you think best. But make sure he knows, I'm not doing this for the two of you. I'm doing this because Abby loves you and I know wherever she is that she's hurting without you."
"I hate the idea of her hurting, Jen," Becker said quietly. "I hate knowing that it's because of me."
"It's not you alone, Becker," Jenny said gently. "Both of you hurt her -- just like both of you hurt each other. But she's not going to come back until she knows that you still love her and that you forgive her for this." She gave him a knowing look. "Believe me, I speak from experience."
He tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "Oh?"
"When I was much younger. The man I was with had issues from his past that I could no longer help him with. I left." She shrugged. "I beat myself up for it for a long time." She quirked a smile. "He never forgave me for leaving, even though it was the best thing for him in the end."
"Abby leaving us could never be the best thing for us," Becker said. "We're not whole without her."
"Then see that you make sure she knows that when you get her back," Jenny suggested kindly.
"We will," he promised. "Both of us."
"Good. Then as soon as I hear from Mr. Hart, we can start the shopping."
Two || Four.
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/Characters: Hilary Becker/Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, James Lester, Jenny Lewis, Danny Quinn,
Rating/Category: PG-13
Summary: Abby had thought that after they came back from the anomaly, that the three of them could make a go of a relationship together. However, when Stephen and Becker fall into a pattern of doing nothing but fighting, it leads her to believe that they don't even care about her any longer. She leaves them a letter to say goodbye and disappears. Now, Stephen and Becker have to find a way to heal their old hurts between them in order to find Abby and convince her that they want to make a life together.
Warnings: This is a sequel to our casestory fic, From Where We're Standing, but can also be a stand alone story.
Words: 33,849
Notes: Written for au_bigbang 2011. Thank you very much to weaselett for the wonderful art that she made for us! We've loved writing this story and have very much enjoyed taking part in the challenge this year.
Lester didn't look up immediately as the two men entered his office. He continued looking at what he was working on at the computer.
"You should probably close the door behind you if you don't want the entire ARC to know what stupid gits you are," he said in his usual tone of voice.
"I can't believe I actually missed that tone," Stephen said dryly.
"Amazing what a man can miss even when it's looking him in the face," Lester replied, tapping a few more keys on the keyboard, before sliding it away from him.
"Nice job on the subtlety," Stephen said. "Lacking your usual efforts, though."
"Yes, well. I have a team that is having some issues functioning, a team member missing in action, a head of security acting like a git, and a former employee making things incredibly irritating for me."
"Then just tell me where Abby is and I'll be out of your hair." Stephen didn't really think it was going to be that easy, but he could hardly be faulted for trying.
The look Lester gave him spoke volumes.
"I'm not really interested in why you think I would know anything about Abby and even less interested in why you think I'd tell you if I did."
"You're the only person we can think of who'd know where she is."
"Let's say for the sake of argument that I did have a clue where she might have run away to. Why should I tell you? You broke one of my best people. You caused her enough mental distress that she decided to quit my team and leave me short of someone that was needed." Lester leaned back in his chair and looked at both men. His look wasn't all that friendly.
"Because we can't try to make amends if we can't find her," Stephen pointed out. "And we want to make amends. Or at least to hear it from her directly if she won't accept it."
Lester pinned Becker with a look. "And what do you have to say for yourself, Captain Becker?"
"That I love her," Becker replied. "That I haven't shown it well at all, yes. That's something I can't argue with. But I love her. And I want her to know that."
Lester looked at them both for a long time in silence. Finally, he leaned forward.
"No."
"What do you mean no?" Stephen had no problems snapping the words.
"If you're having a hard time with the meaning, I suggest you find yourself a dictionary and look the word up, Hart."
"What gives you the right to decide?"
"You mean aside from the fact that one Abby Maitland gave me legal authority to make decisions that would be in her best interest until she felt that she was of balanced mind again?" Lester's voice never changed in pitch, but he did have an air of smugness about him as he leaned back in his chair. "Or how about the fact that Abby is one of my people and I have very set rules about allowing someone to cause harm to one of my people?"
"Now I remember why I never really liked you all that much," Stephen muttered. "Is there anything you can tell us?"
"Like me or not, the simple truth of the matter is that I have never betrayed any of my people and I have done my best to look out for them. That's more than you can say, now isn't it?"
"Answer his question," Becker said tiredly. "Please."
Well, at least he'd attempted civility.
"I can tell you that she's safe. She's as well as could be expected after everything she's gone through."
"Oh, thank God she's safe."
"She is and I intend to make sure that she stays that way."
"We will find her," Stephen said evenly. "I don't know when, but we will."
"Not without my help, you won't," Lester said with calm self-assurance. "Bureaucrats are wonderful at making people disappear."
"You forget I've got one on my side," Becker said. "My sister might not be as good as you, but she's still a wonderful resource."
"She may be at that, but Abby came to me for help and not her," Lester reminded him. "I'm supposed to look out for her best interests, and right now, I don't believe that either of you are in her best interest. In fact, I don't think that you have her best interests in mind at all. You spent months making her feel unimportant and unwanted and now you expect it to be easy to get in touch with her again? Gentlemen, she went through a great deal to vanish from your lives and until I think that you have come close to deserving to speak to her, you won't."
"Oh, damn you, we don't expect it to be easy!" Stephen said, snapping. "If it were up to me, we wouldn't even be asking you. But you're the only option we have left so here we are. If you want to make our lives miserable... well, fine, we deserve it. But what we don't deserve is... okay, fine, I can't even finish that because we deserve all of it. But what you're not taking into account is the fact that we're trying."
"Until the two of you can think of your relationship in terms of her belonging to both of you together and not separately, then you are not trying hard enough. She loves the both of you idiots and while I think she can do much better, you are what she wants. She sees the three of you as a unit, a working triangle as it were. She's not with Hart or with Becker. She's with Hart and Becker. Until the two of you can work that out in your brains and show me that you understand what it means to be loved like that by someone, you won't get near her." His eyes were cold as he looked at both of them. "I believe you know the way out."
Becker was mulling it over thoughtfully, but Stephen was still too angry to react with anything other than storming out of the office.
Becker followed him, digging the car keys out of his pocket. "Take the car home, I'll call when I'm done for the day," he said, slapping the keys into Stephen's hand. "I don't think you want to be hanging around here all day."
"He has no right to keep her from us," Stephen fumed. "I should go back in there and beat him senseless until he tells us where she is."
"Okay, you know what? No assaulting my boss, please."
Stephen gave him an incredulous look before he shook his head and turned away. He was outside in mere moments and driving away in even less time than that.
Becker just watched him go, suddenly having the feeling that maybe getting a ride home from someone would be a better idea.
He'd gotten through most of the day before ending up in a quiet place, alone, with a couple minutes to actually stop and think.
And he was definitely thinking, largely about what Lester had told them. Did Abby really see them as a unit and not just three people involved with each other? It would explain a few things, like how she'd been so protective of the both of them and why she'd left. Well, the less than obvious parts of why she'd left, because he knew the obvious side of it already.
He opened his locker with a sigh, reaching in for something and catching sight of the scattered handful of pictures he'd taped up inside. One was of his sister, but the other two... one was of himself and Stephen from their first go at a relationship, and the second was of the three of them from a few weeks before Abby had left. A couple things were obvious, given what Lester had said earlier.
First, that Abby absolutely adored them. Them, not just one or the other or one more than the other.
Second, that she was damn protective of them, going by the way she was standing slightly in front of them instead of between them like they'd tried getting her to do.
And third, that he and Stephen were idiots. All right, so that one wasn't actually in the picture, but it was a realization born of the first two things. It counted.
He brushed his finger over that picture, bowing his head slightly. "We miss you, Abby my girl," he whispered. "Stay safe. Wherever you are... stay safe."
Stephen had still been seething as he left. First Lester wouldn't tell them a damn thing and then Becker defended the man? That had been just too damn much to take. So instead of sucking the pain up and sticking around the ARC all day like he'd been contemplating for a moment because of Becker, he'd gone home.
Except he'd gone back to Becker's flat. And as he walked into the flat, he wondered when exactly this place had become home again.
He liked that this was home to him again, liked it to a terrifying degree. Because he'd loved spending time around Becker before. Every moment they'd spent here had been quiet and calm and comforting. Even when they'd spent an utterly ridiculous amount of time shagging until they were exhausted -- which had been a frequent occurrence; they hadn't been able to get enough of each other at one point in the relationship -- things had still been calm and comforting.
And that was when it hit him. This place wasn't home. It was Becker.
Becker was home to him and always had been.
And, God willing, always would be.
It had been a month and a half since she had walked out on the boys and on her life, and Abby was still having a hard time with her decision. Oh, she had no doubts that it was the best thing for all concerned. However, it was the pain and the loneliness that she was having the worst time in dealing with.
She had a new job that she liked quite well, but it wasn't the same as working at the ARC. At the ARC, she had been a part of a team, a family. At the zoo, she was a quiet member of the staff that worked behind the scenes. She dealt with new arrivals to the zoo and with the babies. Apparently, Lester had been quite firm with his friend that gave her this job and told him that she was not to have anything to do with predators or large animals.
At first, she was more than a little angry at Lester's high-handedness, but she realized that it was to be expected. She had been the one to ask Lester for help in disappearing, after all. The predators or the larger animals could accidentally hurt her in her conditions. It wasn't just about the baby, but about the fact her arm and damage to her head had never fully healed after the return from the Pleistocene. Injuries that everyone agreed that Becker and Stephen didn't need to know about.
She missed her place at the ARC. She missed Her family, Jenny and Connor and Sarah and Danny. She missed the security lads that always time to work with her or just talk to her. She badly wanted to call the family, but she knew it was too risky.
When she was alone in the flat at night, that was when she felt like everything that had been a disaster because of her. She had asked Stephen to stay with them, but it hadn't gone like she had hoped.
For not the first time, she felt real fear that they didn't know what she was trying to do for them and would hate her and never want her back.
That thought caused her to collapse on the sofa in the flat and just cry.
Becker knew it probably wasn't his smartest idea ever, but Jenny and Sarah were Abby's friends. They would tell him honestly if the idea he had in mind would be a good one or not. Especially if he made it clear that this was just an idea he was thinking of and that it wasn't for certain what he was going with should Abby come back to them. For one thing, he hadn't even talked it over with Stephen yet.
He found Jenny first.
"You have a moment?"
Jenny looked up from what she was working on and pursed her lips for a second. "It depends. Are you going to tell me something stupid?"
"Uh, possibly," he said honestly. "But I'm not sure if it is or not. That's why I'm coming to you."
Well, potential points for admitting it, right?
She nodded and gestured him to shut the door of her office. "I don't where she is, so don't even ask. Although, I do plan to kick you severely when she's found."
"I know you don't. The letter she left said that." Becker shut the door. "What I want to know is if I can run an idea by you."
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"Stephen and I agreed that we need to treasure Abby a whole lot more than we have. So I'm thinking we should do something. Give her something to show how much she means to us. Something she can have on her at all times."
"Go on."
"I'm thinking a ring."
"Well, I was certainly hope you weren't thinking of getting her a tag that said "Mine Stay Back". A ring has possibilities. What kind of ring?"
"I'm not sure," Becker admitted. "Nothing too flashy, because that's not the kind of girl she is. But something a little fancier than a simple band. Something she could wear to work... wherever she is now, if she stays, or here if she comes back."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why now? Is this just some gesture to make because you need to make some kind of gesture, or have you truly thought about the symbolism -- and what such a thing will mean to Abby?"
"I think it's a little of both," he said after thinking about it. "Because we need to make some kind of gesture, but this isn't something I just pulled out of a hat, Jenny. I know it will mean commitment to her."
"Yes, it will. It will mean a lifetime of commitment to her." She tapped her fingers on her desk. "Stephen agrees with this?"
"He doesn't know about it yet -- he will," Becker hurried to say. "I wanted to bounce it off someone before I talked to him about it, though. I wanted to know if someone else besides me thought it was as good an idea as I did."
"I think that for you and Abby, it's probably the best thing you could have thought up to show her you're truly committed to her and to her happiness."
He couldn't help smiling at that. "I love her, Jenny. And if I still worry sometimes about losing her, well, Stephen has the same worries."
"But are you two idiots still worried about losing her to each other?"
"On our bad days, yeah," he said candidly. "But... no, not so much anymore."
"That's something then," Jenny said. "I'll help you, Captain Becker, but on one condition."
He looked nervous at that but nodded. "Okay."
"Stephen has to ask me, too."
"Does he have to get the idea for that on his own or can I tell him?" Because if Stephen had to get the idea on his own, this might not go so well.
"To get her a ring or to ask me for help?" She put down her pencil. "However you think best. But make sure he knows, I'm not doing this for the two of you. I'm doing this because Abby loves you and I know wherever she is that she's hurting without you."
"I hate the idea of her hurting, Jen," Becker said quietly. "I hate knowing that it's because of me."
"It's not you alone, Becker," Jenny said gently. "Both of you hurt her -- just like both of you hurt each other. But she's not going to come back until she knows that you still love her and that you forgive her for this." She gave him a knowing look. "Believe me, I speak from experience."
He tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "Oh?"
"When I was much younger. The man I was with had issues from his past that I could no longer help him with. I left." She shrugged. "I beat myself up for it for a long time." She quirked a smile. "He never forgave me for leaving, even though it was the best thing for him in the end."
"Abby leaving us could never be the best thing for us," Becker said. "We're not whole without her."
"Then see that you make sure she knows that when you get her back," Jenny suggested kindly.
"We will," he promised. "Both of us."
"Good. Then as soon as I hear from Mr. Hart, we can start the shopping."
Two || Four.