Asunder 4/5

[deeperwonderment]

Title: Asunder
Author: shadowcat
Rating: R.
Word Count: 33,279
Fandom: Original Work
Characters/Pairings: Jhaidan Matthews/Reid Jacobs
Challenge: Written for angstbigbang
Summary: Once upon a time, Romeo met Juliet and they thought they were soulmates that would be together forever. Then Juliet did something that Romeo disapproved of and Juliet disappeared. Thirteen years later, Romeo has turned into the Big Bad Wolf and he's going to make Juliet regret breaking his heart. Or something like that. Reality being that after a fight where her boyfriend told her she shouldn't come around for awhile, eightteen year old fantasy writer Jhaidan took him further than his word and left town without a word to anyone -- including him. Thirteen years later, Reid is the most powerful man in the state and when their paths cross once again, Reid is going to make Jhaidan regret ever running away like she did.
Disclaimer: The characters and world belong to me. Maggie Grace and Naveen Andrews belong to themselves.
Author's Notes: I've wanted to write this story for awhile and am relieved that I fnally did so. Thanks to everyone who kept pushing me to finish it and special thanks to enochiansigils for refusing to let me drop out no matter how worried I got about writing original fiction for the first time in years.








He was gone when she woke up.

Jhaidan wasn't really surprised by that. No matter what had happened between them or what had been said, there were thirteen years of hurt and anger between them. Thirteen years of unanswered questions. She reached her hand out to the side of the bed that he had been laying on and wasn't startled to find that it was cold.

He had been gone for some time, then.

She pulled her knees up so she could rest her chin on them and winced at the soreness in her body when she moved. She hadn't felt this wonderfully sore in such a long time -- and she knew that when she spent time investigating her body there would be bruises and marks all over her. Reid had kept to his word and had gone at her all night and long into the morning. When she finally gave into exhaustion, the sun had been rising and she felt amazing. The last thing she remembered before giving in to sleep was Reid pulling her firmly against his body as his arms tightened around her.

Now though, waking up alone just reminded her why this could never become anything like they once had. That time had long since passed, and she should have kept a firmer hold on her heart and her emotions than she had the night before. She should have fought harder to keep things purely physical without any confessions or declarations.

Or hell, she should have gone against everything she was feeling and wanting at the time and made him leave. If she had seemed serious enough, he may not have left, but nothing that had happened would have happened. If she had said no, Reid would have stopped.

He would have stopped and she wouldn’t be left with the one final memory of the good that had been between them once. She would never have been reminded of how well he always took care of her and made her fly when they were having sex.

She brushed angrily at the tears that were sliding down her cheeks as she went to get out of the bed. It was hard to walk and that made getting to the bathtub exquisite torture. She was going to be feeling last night for several days – and she was all right with that. The memory of having Reid hold her again and even pretend that he still loved her was well worth the aches and stiffness that were going to follow her from here.

She turned on the hot water and then poured in some of her favorite lavender and lotus oil into the water. It was a blend that would make the stiffness ease up enough for her to do some of the things that she needed to do. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it would make her capable of running some errands and doing a few other things.

Not that she wanted the physical memory of last night to fade quickly by a long shot. She wanted to be able to relive the night over and over again for a long time.

She closed her eyes, letting herself slide down in the tub a little further. No matter what Reid had said about letting things be real and finding some place that they could start over again, she knew that it was just a fantasy on both of their parts. In the light of morning and once he had time to stretch his muscles and think, he would be right back at being angry with her. He would go right back to the man he was at the signing; pressing her for answers that she couldn’t give him now and making demands.

Reality was a painful thing. She understood that he believed he had reasons for being angry at her, just like she understood that she had reasons for being angry at him.

He hadn’t wanted her and she had closed doors on them and no matter what a few hours of stolen intimacy made them feel, they couldn’t ignore the reality of the situation.

The reality being that she had to leave Vancouver and get on the next flight she could arrange back to New York. The longer she stayed here, the more she wanted something that she just could never have. The longer she stayed here, the more she allowed Reid to get closer to her and scratch at her defenses. The more she allowed him time to do that, the closer she came to causing him pain again and she just couldn’t do that.


She stayed in the tub, wishing for things that she knew could never be until the water began to turn cold. She pulled the plug and as the water began to drain, she forced herself to her feet. Wrapping a towel around her body, she walked to the counter to look into the mirror for a long moment.

Reid had left his mark on her, just as he promised her that he would. There were small bruises from his hands and mouth in several places, and she smiled when she saw them. The darkest and largest one, though, was the bite mark he had left at the junction of her neck and shoulder. It was just like she had asked him to – just like he had used to. She had always enjoyed it when he marked her and staring into the mirror at her neck, she smiled faintly. She still enjoyed seeing his mark on her. She would probably have to wear scarves or collared shirts for while since she healed so slowly, but it was very much worth it.

When she closed her eyes, she could still feel Reid holding her close to him. She could feel his teeth and tongue against her neck and could feel his hair slipping through her fingers as she held him against her. Her touch told him more than words how much she wanted what he was doing.

For one final time, he had marked her as his.

She opened her eyes and shook her head slightly. There was so much that she needed to do and she didn’t have time to get lost in memories or in wishful thinking. No matter how close Reid came to convincing her that they were meant to be together, she knew that he was wrong in this case. It was too late for them and she had to leave before she caused him pain.

Better to leave in secrecy and have him angry and hating her than for her to stay around and be the one to hurt him again. She just couldn’t risk that happening. He had made a very good life for himself and he didn’t need her around to make a mess of things.

Besides, she had her own life that she needed to return to and put to rights while she still had time and the ability to do so.



She went into her bedroom and began pulling clothing out of her suitcase. Jeans and a tunic sweater would do for right now. It would keep her from getting cold and it would also be casual enough for her to be comfortable so that she could run a few errands while she was here.

Once she was dressed, she pulled out a couple of pill bottles and tapped out her daily regimen of medications. She left the pain medication in her overnight bag as she didn’t think she was going to need them right now. Pills in hand, she went to small fridge in the suite and pulled out the bottle of juice that she had purchased before going to her signing last night. Swallowing the pills, she finished a full glass of juice and then washed the glass out and left in the sink to dry.

She grabbed her shoulder bag and headed out into the main room. Her hand was on the door to her suite when she saw the note taped at eye level.

Don’t even think of leaving. We still have some unfinished business between us. ~R

Jhaidan stared at the note, her jaw dropping at the audacity of the man. Her hand was shaking from anger as she reached to tear the note off of the door. Crumpling it into a ball, she dropped in on the floor on her way out. She could clean it up later.

Outside of the hotel, she squinted from the sunlight. It was brighter than she expected and her sunglasses were back upstairs in her suite. Not wanting to turn around, she started walking down the sidewalk. The office she was going to was only a short walk from her hotel and she figured she would be all right during the short trip.

She was half way to her destination when the nagging pain she was used to feeling exploded into a white hot vice around her head. She whimpered, bringing both hands up to her head as she felt the world spinning around her. She closed her eyes, trying to get her equilibrium back, but her entire body felt like it was on fire. She had been warned that things like this might happen, but she hadn’t been expecting or prepared for it.

“Jhaidan?!”

She opened her eyes and saw a blurry figure moving quickly towards her. She blinked, but all it did was make her world tilt even more.

She tried to speak, and then felt herself falling and saw everything go dark around her.





There was an insistent knocking at his office door and Reid looked up from his desk with a look of annoyance on his face.

“Go away, I’m busy.”

“Mr. Jacobs, it’s important.” The voice of his assistant sounded strained. “It concerns the young woman that you’ve had me researching.”

Reid frowned and pressed the button on the underside of his desk that would unlock the door and let his assistant come in.

“What about her, Craig?”

“It seems that she has been rushed to the hospital by ambulance, sir.”

Reid felt his entire body stiffen. “Explain.”

“I don’t have any details as of yet,” Craig said. “All I know is that she was found unconscious outside of the hotel. When she didn’t respond, the hotel manager called an ambulance.”

“Was she trying to leave town?”

“I don’t know, sir. The only thing that your man at the scene has been able to tell me is that she didn’t appear to be dressed for traveling and only had a briefcase.”

As far as he knew, not being dressed for travel had never stopped Jhaidan from picking up and leaving town on a whim. After all, she had done it before.

He had thought that last night meant something to her like it had meant to him. So why was she trying to run away from him again?

He sighed, shaking his head as he got to his feet. She would just never learn, would she? He locked his desk and walked around it. It looked like he was going to have to give her a reminder of a few things. The hospital? Really? That was the best that she could come up with as an escape plan?

“Sir, if I may point something out before you go storming the gates of a hospital to carry her kicking and screaming back to your tower?” The older man’s voice was dry.

He stopped and looked at Craig. “Just one point?”

“You still think you’re a comedian,” Craig said, shaking his head. “My point is that according to your man on the scene, Ms. Matthews was not responding to treatment on the scene. There seems to be some kind of mystery about what really happened and no one has been allowed into her hospital room except for her doctor.”

“I will get in to see her and find out what she thinks she’s trying to do.”

“Just keep in mind that no matter the past between the two of you, something might very well be wrong with her and this is not just a ploy to get away from you and obviously it’s not a publicity stunt as outside of the hospital staff and the hotel manager, you and I appear to be the only ones that know about this.”

Reid lifted his eyebrow and Craig sighed, shaking his head.

“Try not to get arrested, then. You already pay your blood-sucking lawyer too much as it is.”

“You’re going soft on me,” Reid teased as he opened the door to leave.

“Not hardly. I’m just tired of having to explain to the staff why you’ve been arrested in yet another fight. Getting arrested at a hospital would just be one of those things that you would never live down no matter how much money you spent to keep it quiet.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Reid responded as he left his office.

The trip to the hospital was a short one and the entire ride there Reid wondered what in the hell she had done to herself. He’d warned her not to try to leave without telling him and she decided to hitch a ride out of town on an ambulance? Even for her, that was a little melodramatic. Lucky for her, she would be held up at the hospital for some time since there would be paperwork she would have to fill out and she would have to be examined by a physician since an ambulance had transported her. She wouldn’t be able to just walk out of the hospital and disappear.

She couldn’t disappear again. There were too many unanswered questions and there were way too many reasons that she needed to stay. Last night had just strengthened that belief with him. He and Jhaidan still fit too well together – angry or not. The sex was definitely better than he had remembered it being and he knew that she felt the same. After all, she had said so more than once. He was still able to feel how her body had felt beneath his last night and there was no way he was willing to give that feeling up as of yet.

Sex and anger was not basis for a relationship, but it was a good distraction from things in the meantime.

It was also a good way to keep him from thinking too deeply while he worked on a plan to keep her in town.



When Reid arrived at the hospital, he went directly to the Emergency room. As he expected, his man that he had left at the hotel to keep an eye on Jhaidan and her movements was waiting for him right outside the doors.

“Michaelson.”

“Mr. Jacobs.”

“What happened? Where is she?”

“She’s back through there,” he said, gesturing to the doors that led back into the beds. “But they won’t let anyone but family in to see her.”

“They’ll damn well let me.”

“I don’t think so, sir. She’s not in Emergency. They’ve moved her to a different department.”

The look Reid gave him was not a friendly one. “What department?”

“They wheeled her to Intensive Care shortly after she was brought in, sir,” Michaelson responded. “We can go to the ward, but they’re not going to let you any closer to her.”

Reid shook his head and gestured that Michaelson follow him to the elevator. Once they were on their way to the floor that housed the Intensive Care Unit, he gave his employee a look.

“I’m not sure what happened, sir. One moment she was walking down the sidewalk outside of the hotel towards the parking lot and then the next moment she was on the ground. When I got to her, her entire face was white and she seemed to be sweating a great deal.”

Reid frowned.

“I called for help and the hotel managed called for the ambulance.”

“She’s faking. I never would have expected her to go through such great lengths to get away from me, but the woman is just full of tricks to get her way.” When the elevator reached their floor, the two men stepped out and continued down the hall. “She’s not disappearing so easily again.”

“Sir, I think there is something really wrong with her.”

“And why is that? Because she collapsed and was covered in sweat?”

“No, because she hasn’t regained consciousness since that time.” Michaelson looked at his employer. “I even smacked her cheeks lightly a few times to see if I could get any kind of response from her. She didn’t even flinch.”

That was worrisome. If she didn’t flinch or react when smacked – no matter how lightly – then there was the chance that there was something really wrong with her.

“Where is she?”

“The third room,” Michaelson answered, gesturing with his hand.

Reid nodded and continued down the hall by himself, leaving Michaelson in the waiting area. The report he was given didn’t make sense to him. There had been nothing wrong with Jhaidan when he left her asleep in her hotel beyond the fact that he had worn her completely out. Being worn out and so incredibly satisfied wasn’t something that would have caused a collapse like Michaelson was describing. In fact, the idea that she had collapsed made no sense to him, either.

His mind couldn’t deny what his eyes were seeing a few moments later as he peered into the room where Jhaidan had been taken. There was an oxygen mask over her face and there were two doctors taking notes and checking her vital signs. There was only the slightest resemblance between the woman on the bed and the one he had left sleeping this morning.

“What’s happened to her,” Reid demanded of the first doctor that finally came out of Jhaidan’s room.

The doctor looked at him, his eyes revealing nothing. “And you are?”

“I'm a friend of Ms. Matthews’.”

That wasn’t a good enough answer for the doctor. “So you’re not family, then.”

“No, but I might as well be. We’re very old friends.”

The doctor shook his head. “I can only release that information to her family or her next of kin.”

Reid was fighting to control his anger. It was simmering right beneath the surface, but he was trying to keep it in check.

“I’m the only person that she knows in this entire city,” he bit out. That wasn’t exactly true, but he had no idea what the full name of Jhaidan’s assistant was.

“Then you’ll either have to wait until she wakes up or someone from her family verifies that you’re allowed to see her and talk to me about her condition.”

Reid bit back several epithets as he watched the doctor walk away. Once he was out of sight, he turned back to the window to look in at Jhaidan. Seeing how fragile and still she was, he wondered if he was misjudging her because of what had happened in the past – not that he had much else to judge her actions by. It was a little hard to believe that she was so desperate to get away from him that she might have done something to herself that caused her to end up in the hospital.

Hard to believe, but not out of the realm of possibility. It was easy for him to think that this kind of hospital stay had not been in her plans. Something probably went wrong with whatever idea she had had.

That was a better thing to think about than to believe that there was something actually wrong with her. The idea of something really being wrong caused all kinds of thoughts in his head that he didn’t want to try to deal with right now.

He watched her a long time and then turned and went back down the hall. He wasn’t surprised to see that Michaelson was still by the elevators. He punched the button on the keypad on the wall and was silent for a few moments. It wasn’t until the elevator door opened that Reid spoke.

“Stay with her and keep an eye on her,” he ordered. “When she regains consciousness and gets discharged, you bring her directly to me. Call in someone else if you think you need to.”

Michaelson had time to nod before the door closed and the elevator began its descent.




"You bastard!" The doors to his office slammed open with enough force to bounce against the walls and only the quick steps of the woman coming towards him kept her from being hit by them as they swung back to her. "You fucking bastard!"

He frowned. "Jhaidan?"

"It wasn't enough for you to break into my hotel suite and make yourself at home. But then you staked out my hospital room?! You sent your men to get me from the hospital because you thought that my collapse was a ploy to buy myself time to figure out a way to get away from you?" She threw a manila folder that was crammed full of paperwork onto his desk with enough force that the paper went everywhere as it slid across the smooth finish of his workspace. "I'm not a child and I don't and never have faked any illness or injury just to get away from someone. I have especially never did something so underhanded where you were concerned!" Her hands curled into fists. "I was trying to keep my medical information private so that I didn’t accidentally hurt you with the reality, you asshole. I was trying not to give you any more reasons to think I was a horrible person. Yet, you couldn’t just let it be and leave me alone? You thought I faked a collapse as a way to get even with you and find another way to run out of town before you could get whatever kind of satisfaction from me and my emotions that you think you deserve."

Reid let out a breath as he shook his head as he gathered up the paperwork that she had thrown at him. Of all of the things he had been thinking, he had never once thought that she was trying to avoid him in some kind of attempt to protect him. The file that was spread all over his desk was full of more information than he had expected. He lifted his eyes from the mess of paper to look at her as his hand picked up the first one he saw with the explanation as to why she had been so weak and had been rushed to the hospital in the first place.

“ALS?” His voice was a whisper of sound as he let out a shocked breath.

"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis." Jhaidan confirmed tonelessly. "That's the diagnosis and there’s an explanation about it somewhere in all of that medical jargon that explains it much better than I can. There's no coming back from a diagnosis like that. It's not something that can be fixed by surgery or cured by medications."

He was silent as he read more of the paperwork in front of him, his mind trying to make sense of everything he was seeing. “How long?” He demanded, clearing his throat. “How long have you known about this?”

“I was diagnosed two years ago,” she said quietly.

“It says here that people usually die between two and three years after the diagnosis…”

Jhaidan nodded silently, not looking at him, and instead looking at the papers that were now all over his desk. "I know."

"What caused this? Why can't they help you?"

Her laugh was without humor. "They don't know, Reid. It's sometimes hereditary but no one else in my family has ever had this. It just happens and this time it was my number that was up."

“You make it all sound so final.”

“It is, Reid. This is what the reality is and not even your demands that I change things can undo this. It’s bigger than even your ego and pride. I told you that there were things in life that you couldn’t fix, but you just wouldn’t leave it alone. You had to keep dogging me and making me play the mouse to your cat. I begged you to let things be, but you just couldn’t see your way to doing that. You had to be in control and you had to know every aspect of my life. Well, congratulations. Now you do. Feel better that you’ve finally stripped me of all of my secrets?”

“You were never going to tell me, were you?”

"Of course not." Her shake of the head confirmed his assumption. “What would have been the point? You were already angry at me and perhaps rightfully so.”

Her voice was quiet, but he could hear the pain that he hadn’t been paying attention to at any point since she had returned to town. If he was perfectly honest, he would admit that he hadn’t been listening for her feelings at all. He had been so full of anger and hurt that he had tuned a great many things out. Her pallor and the huskiness of her voice had a reason now. Those contact lenses that he had thought of as ridiculous had new meaning. So many things he had noticed in the last few days and had brushed aside now made him feel like the worst person in the history of forever.

“If I hadn’t been in town and confronted you, you would have just left and finished your book tour,” he said in a carefully even voice. “You would have just left me to wonder what had happened to you. If you had managed to be able to sneak out of the hotel to get to the airport –“He shook his head. “If you hadn’t collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital –“

“Don’t act like the wounded party, Reid,” she said. “It’s not a good look on you. Don’t do the pity thing. It was much better when you hated me and thought I was being a selfish bitch and throwing your feelings of thirteen years ago away. I think we’re both beyond that now.”

“Don’t assume that you know what I’m thinking or feeling right now, Jhaidan.” His anger caused his voice to shake slightly.

“Why not?” She demanded. “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing with me ever since you heard I was coming back here? Isn’t that what you’ve done for the last thirteen years?”

Her voice was flat, controlled, even, and Reid found himself wishing that she was snapping at him and losing her temper on him. He knew how to react when she was running on temper and being driven by her emotions. This carefully controlled Jhaidan was someone that he wasn’t familiar with and he didn’t know what to expect from the woman standing in front of him.

“Jhaidan …” His voice faltered. “Why don’t you sit down? You probably shouldn’t be on your feet right now.”

“You weren’t so concerned about that when you sent your people to the hospital to bring me here.” She snapped.

“I thought you were going to disappear on me again.”

“And that would have been a problem for you? You made it pretty damn clear the other night what you thought about me, Reid.” Jhaidan sighed and sat down in the chair across from his desk. “Why do you care now about my feelings or my well-being?”

“I’ve always cared about those things, Jaguar. It’s not my fault that you made incorrect assumptions about how I felt when we were kids.”

“Or how you've treated me since you found me at the signing. Maybe it's not your fault that I made assumptions, but it is your fault that you didn’t say anything to me after the first night and gave me nothing else to work with. If you knew me half as well as you claim to, then you would have come to talk to me after a few nights and not wait for me to contact you.” Her eyes pinned him to the chair. “Admit it. You were so sure that I would call you and not listen to you when you said not to come around.”

“It’s not like you were known for listening to things you didn’t want to hear.”

“Except when it is made pretty clear to me that I’m not wanted around.”

“Damn it, I did want you around,” Reid snapped. “But you scared the hell out of me with that stunt and I needed some space to get my head clear.”

“I scared you by omission,” she retorted. “It wasn’t intentional. You breaking my heart and my faith in you that night were intentional. You were trying to teach me a lesson and the problem for you has always been that I learned that lesson a lot better than you ever thought I would.”

“That’s not fair and you know it.”

“Since when have you cared about being fair unless it benefited you?”

Reid sighed again and rubbed a hand over his face. He didn’t remember feeling this tired in a very long time. He felt like he had been wrung out. “I suppose that if I ask you why you weren’t going to tell me the truth about what’s going on with you that you’d accuse me of being unreasonable again.”

She shrugged. “I might.” She leaned back in the chair. “Why don’t you try the asking thing?”

He looked at her, realizing what it was she was saying. He hadn’t really asked anything since she had arrived. Oh, he had phrased many things as questions, but he hadn’t really been asking. Even his questions of her had been demands. He didn’t like having to look at himself and his actions through her eyes. It didn’t make him feel very proud of himself.

“Jaguar,” he said softly. “Please tell me why you were going to hide the truth of your condition from me?”

She looked at him in silence for a long moment, seeming to be surprised that he had actually asked. She was silent for so long that he had the sudden fear that she wasn't going to answer his question.

"Why does it mean so much to you?"

Jhaidan's voice was so quiet that for a moment Reid thought he had imagined the question. When he looked into her face, he saw that he had heard the simple question. It was such a simple question, but there was no simple answer and Reid knew that everything now hinged on him answering this the right way. Sadly, he could see in her eyes that she didn’t expect him to have an answer for her and he wondered just how much damage his own pride and stubborn anger had done to them both. How long had it been since she believed without question that she mattered to him?

“Because no matter what impression you’ve had of me for the past thirteen years – or even the last few days – you are important to me, Jhaidan. You always have been.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know I haven’t been very good at showing it and I honestly don’t remember when I stopped telling you back then and just assumed that no matter what I said you would know how much you meant to me. The idea … the reality that you’ve known you’re dying all of this time and didn’t plan on ever telling me and were going to go through it all on your own kills something inside me. It makes me realize that you thought you had reason to believe that it wouldn’t matter to me.” He took a breath. "Because ... you're mine and you always have been."

“You didn’t want me,” Jhaidan’s tone and Reid felt his own heart clench at how hurt her voice sounded. She had said the same thing at her hotel, but it didn't stab at him as much as it was doing now. “I thought that I was yours and that you were mine back then, Reid. We called ourselves soul mates and you told me that you could remember a time in the past where we were together.”

“We were,” he said firmly, discussing his own belief and spirituality for the first time since she had left him. “We were together before, you saw it as clearly as I did.”

“Something I also saw clearly, Reid, was that in every life that we were together, something happened to tear us apart,” she reminded him. “I told you of all of the dreams and visions I was seeing when I meditated and you told me … well, I’m sure you remember what you told me.”

He let out a breath, looking down at his hands. “That you didn’t need to worry about that happening again because this was an enlightened age and that no man and no force in existence could tear us apart.”

“And yet the damage was done.” Jhaidan said carefully. “It seems that no matter the age – enlightened or not – we’re destined to hurt each other.”

“I don’t believe that, Jhaidan,” he responded. He couldn’t believe it. "You can't believe that."

She shrugged and he could see how careful she was moving. She was probably in pain – had probably been in pain the whole time she had been in Vancouver. He must have only made the physical pain even worse with everything they did at the hotel. The fact that he could only imagine what kind of pain she was in and that she was trying so hard to hide it from him hurt more than her flight thirteen years ago had. When was the exact moment that he had lost her trust? When had she decided that she couldn’t tell him when she was hurting?

Probably about the same time I let her go, he admitted to himself.

“What life did you tell me that we were on back then, Reid?”

“Thirteenth,” he answered reluctantly. Thirteen years without her in the thirteenth lifetime he had lost her.

“Maybe someone is trying to tell us something, Reid. If we can’t get our shit together and make things work between us after thirteen tries, maybe we should stop trying.” Her smile was sad. “Maybe no matter what we believe or what dreams or memories we have of prior times, maybe we’re just not meant to be together. We seem to take turns making a glorious mess of things whenever we try.”

“You told me back then that you believed that this would be the time we would fix it,” he said calmly. “You told me that thirteen was a lucky number and we would be all right this time.”

“I was wrong.”

“You don’t really mean that.” The problem was, he could tell from her eyes and the tone of her voice that she did believe what she was saying.

“I do, Reid. There are no happy endings to our story and maybe we just need to accept that. It’s quite possible that our two souls are weary of going through the same thing over and over again and they want peace. They deserve peace and maybe their peace isn’t meant to be with each other.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do,” Reid tried to reason with her. “You’ve made your living writing books about time-crossed soul mates trying to get their happy endings.”

“Fairy tales are just that, tales. I can’t mend your hardened heart and you can’t build me a castle of dreams.”

“You believed that I could once.”

“I was very young then,” Jhaidan said quietly, looking up at him and spreading her hands. “I believed in a lot if things back then, but I learned that dreams don’t always transfer to reality. Prince Charming has flaws and Snow White isn’t pure and innocent.”

“I never thought that I would hear you sounding so cynical.”

Cynicism sounded so wrong coming from her. God, she was the dreamer and believed that everyone had someone destined for them and that people could find their happiness no matter what was happening around them.

“I grew up.” She responded.

“Even grown-ups dream about happily ever afters,” he countered.

“You didn’t.”

“I di – what?” Her phrasing threw him.

“You didn’t believe in it,” she repeated. “Even back then. Oh, you pretended really well and I believed you completely, but there was something about you that fought against the poet you claimed to be and the realist you were afraid that you would become.”






Three || Five