Journey Series: Ellick

Running Away...

"An undercover op? What do you mean?" Ellie Bishop stood in her doorway, still clad in her pjs at five a.m. on a Sunday morning no less, arms crossed, brows furrowed. Nick Torres stood in front of her, go bag over his shoulder, dressed in a fashion eerily reminiscent of the first day she met him. He, of course, was the cause for the additional thousands of questions plaguing her already way-to-analytical brain. "Well, just that. An op, undercover," he replied, irkly vague. "For how long," she asked, rubbing her forehead in frustration. "Well, these things don't have timelines exactly, B," he replied. She sensed the humor in it. The only humor he had emitted in quite a while. And inappropriate as always was the timing. Is he seriously making light of this right now? Cold silence, an unwelcome but familiar friend to them began to third-wheel their conversation. She cut it with a knife. "Why are you doing this Nick?" Their friend, Silence, became even more uncomfortable. Nick shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Finally, finally, he said, "I need to go find something." Ellie sighed. There was something in his voice that somehow reminded her of herself when she had run back to Oaklahoma after Jake cheated on her. She had found some answers in running away, but ended up running right back. But she could not give Nick the answers he was looking for. Trying to content him with the impression of an answer to keep him here would only suffocate him, and leave him restless. I guess it's true. If you love someone, you have to let them go.

Wait what? Yes, she had just thought that. Just realized as Nick was telling her he was leaving, she loved him. It wasn't a big flashy moment. It was literally at the worst conceivable moment that she could have realized.

So she didn't try to convince him to stay. She didn't try to give him his answers. She just hugged him tight and whispered in his ear, "Go find what you are looking for Nick. But once you've found it, come home. Come home to me."