9

So the next day, Crystal and Nathan found themselves at the hospital where this person had been admitted, and then at his door. Nathan wanted to knock, but Crystal stopped him. They looked at each other and, as always, her love was understanding. After all, they hadn't seen each other for almost seven years. The young woman needed to take a few deep breaths before she could finally nod. 

Nathan knocked, Leonie answered, and the couple entered.

The moment Crystal crossed the threshold, for the next few seconds she was conscious of only one thing: him.

He was sitting by the window, gazing vaguely at the outside, and only turned around when Leonie called out to him, so he turned to face his new visitors. He was as handsome as she remembered, if not more so, and yet she realized at first glance that her fiancée was right. Crystal immediately had the impression, the conviction even, that she was dealing with a person totally different from the one she had known, the one she had loved with all her being.

Yet the rest was there, the slim body, less muscular no doubt because of the accident, the black hair whose strands touched his shoulder, the southern iron-grey eyes, so wonderfully grey...

"Hello Nicky." Nicky, a simple abbreviation of his real name Nicholas Raven Specter. "How are you?"

"Fine. Forgive me, I don't recognize you, but I assume you know who I am."

She nodded eloquently.

"Sorry," he repeated. "I forgot you."

The voice was the same too, but why was it so different, Crystal thought. Then in an incredible illumination, and so delivering, she understood. She was free of him. It wasn't this person who was different despite the horror that had befallen him, but it was her. It would never be the same again.

It was still Nicky, but it was no longer her Nicky. Never again.

She gave him a radiant smile that surprised him and made him frown, before turning to Nathan and revealing the truth in her face and eyes. Nathan couldn't help but kiss her.

"Please," Leonie stopped them. "You're in Nicky's room.

"Yes, excuse us."

"It's nothing." laughed Nicky briefly. "You love each other, it's natural. So." he continued as he rose to join his bed. "Tell me about yourself. How did we meet?"

"We dated," Crystal admitted, laughing in turn, "but that was a very long time ago, and it didn't last either."

"An interesting story. And, we've been friends ever since!"

"No." refuted Crystal without being able to hold back her amusement. "This is the first time we've been together since we split up."

Crystal had expected him to be astonished by what Crystal had just informed him, and he was, which was normal, but the thing she hadn't expected was his indifference to this information. Total indifference. And when he turned to Leonie, and looked at her with his big, luminous eyes, Crystal understood that he, too, no longer felt anything for her. He looked at his Leonie the way she looked at her Nathan. It was a little vexing, she was human after all, but all in all, all's well that ends well, for the two lovers who had once loved and torn each other so much, and who ended up parting ways, had finally met their soul mates. They would never forget each other, or at least Crystal would never forget Nicky, but the pain would be gone when she recalled their story.

It was all over at last. 

"I see." Already Nicky wasn't looking at Leonie for anything or anyone. Leonie, who despite her words, her doubts and her obvious suffering, also loved Nicky, still did, and always would. But what held her back so much was her total ignorance of the reasons why this person had left her five years ago. She wished she knew, but it was also clear that this would never stop her from coming back to him. Because after all that time apart, she rushed at the first call to find him, no matter what the cost. She'd given up everything for him.

And when Nicky held out his hand to Leonie, she turned first to Crystal, who offered her the answer she had so longed for. Then, for the first time since she'd known him, Leonie's face lit up with a huge smile - a smile of happiness and relief - and it was without hesitation that she placed her hand in her love's, and it was she who took the initiative of kissing him.

The kiss deepened, and Crystal and Nathan decided to leave them.

Hand in hand, with fresh eyes, they left the hospital together.

"We should remember to bring a fruit basket next time we come to visit him. It wasn't very polite to arrive empty-handed."

"You're right. So, do you want us to keep rubbing shoulders with them?" inquired Crystal, ready to follow her fiancé's wishes.

"Why not." he retorted with a loud laugh. "We have a mutual friend, and we frequent the same bar then, and also, they seem very nice."

"All right, darling, it's up to you."