❝ –– perhaps it’s true that things can change in a day. and when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house—the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture—must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. and suddenly, they become the bleached bones of a story.
she hadn’t called. not because she didn’t care, but because no
words could ever hope to bear the weight of their collective tragedy. two lost soul mates and six years of enduring grief had forged a divide between them, so vast that teddy couldn’t see the other side
— and even if she had picked up the phone, there was nothing left in her to give.
could the brief interlude they’d shared be lost to them for good?
could mark forgive her for all these years of neglect?
looking up into the eyes of her old friend, she feared more than anything that her words had come too late.
“i… i heard about lexie,” teddy whispered at last
—
voice frayed, as was her heart. “i know it was a long time ago, but it doesn’t feel that way, does it? god, mark… i’m so sorry i wasn’t there for you.”
seeing arizona here again was like hearing music to an old dance she had long since forgotten the steps to. once so natural, these words had become worn and forced between them
—
no doubt a product of too many years spent apart. how could teddy possibly repair this relationship she’d so thoughtlessly lost to neglect?
yet, she had to try.
“so,” teddy started hesitantly. “what happened with you and callie? I know we haven’t spoken much this year, but… I thought I’d have known about something like this. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, arizona
— really, I am.”
“I didn’t have a maid of honor, you know,” Teddy mused, her eyes as distant as the horizon. “It didn’t seem right to have someone other than you there… Maybe that’s why I never wanted a real wedding.” So many stories had passed them both by, absent and unvoiced. And Megan - somehow, somewhere along the harrowing way, she had become a mother. How had they done so much living without each other? Years of waiting and wasted days - but they had survived it.
Teddy turned to Megan at last, her smile sad but true: “Anyway, you didn’t miss much; just City Hall and my pager going off in the middle of it. But I do wish you had known the man I married - Henry Burton.”
looking down at her daughter, teddy felt a strange kind of shame settle dark and heavy on her shoulders. delia’s entire lifetime had elapsed in megan’s absence, and all these years teddy had managed to love and live on. she’d started a family; a chapter of her life removed of the friend she loved as a sister. how could she have been so thoughtless?
but the past was too distant to retrieve now, and what mattered was that megan was here; megan was home. teddy was finally about to do what she should have done years ago - introduce her best friend to her daughter.
“delia, we’re going to the hospital today,” teddy said softly. “I want you to meet your auntie megan.” At last.
“When..when are you going back? I’d really like to you stay for a bit..” His old friend finally back in the city. And seeing Teddy, he realized just how much he’d missed her. A little slip and he’d kissed her, something that perhaps he’d held onto for years. A weak moment though. Owen knew better and thankfully she had too.
she couldn’t stop thinking of him; not of the kiss, not of the future that she could suddenly see so clear. her favorite human being on this planet - why shouldn’t Teddy want to be with him? yet it seemed that their clocks tolled at different midnights, for their timing had never, ever been right.
“I’ll stay for as long as you need,” Teddy smiled, hoping Owen couldn’t see through to her bitterness.
