On Rainy Days

ONE SHOT: On Rainy Days

"I remember kissing you," he whispered softly, pale green eyes finding her brown ones. She smiled and clasped his hands. She remembered a time when those hands were strong. He had beautiful hands. His fingers were long and tapered and graceful.

"Why do I remember kissing you?" he questioned.

On his ring finger there was a silver band. She tried not to look at it, but while their fingers were intertwined it was hard not to feel that it was there. The cold metal brushed against her skin. A reminder that he who was once hers, has spent the better part of his life with another. Another woman who had loved him until she died. Another woman who was probably waiting for him beyond the veil.

And he was coming for her. He was leaving this world too. She can sense it like a physical thing. A silent but imposing figure in the room.

"Because I loved you, Nick Steele." she answered quietly as she reached to brush his hair. She caught herself, paused for a second before smiling. "and love you still."

"You do?" he breathed. He shifted on his bed, under his covers. He was so frail his weight barely disturbed the hospital foam mattress. Harsh fluorescent light brought out the sallow tones of his skin. She wondered how long he had left.

"Yes, I do. In the long dark stretches of my eternity, you are a brilliant reprieve."

Nicholas Steele closed his eyes with a small smile on his lips. "I'm glad, Eva."

Her breath caught. Her heart fluttered once. Twice. Three times. Before it burst into a mad race as if she had been running.

He.... he remembered. How? It was impossible. He had gone over the brink. He was past remembering. Not now.

Then, he opened his eyes. A lonely tear slid down his cheek. His green eyes now reflected decades of unspeakable longing. Longing that cannot be expressed with mere words. "You came back." he whispered. "I knew, I knew you'd come back to me."

"Nicholas, my love... I... I.." lost were her composure while she struggled to string the words to explain the reason for her leaving. And how desperately she wanted to return, why she cannot, and how she would be selfish if she did.

How selfish she is now, however late it was.

"I will always come back to you" she said finally. In response his fingers tightened around hers. The wedding band cold against her skin.

"You are still beautiful." he said, before chuckling. "I'm old."

But she was still young. Unchanged. A wandering ghost of past, present and future.

"You're still as handsome as the first time I saw you." she countered. His smile widened.

Nick's eyes glazed. "It was raining then, when we met. Do you remember?"

She turned to the window at the other end of the room. "Its raining now, too."

When she turned to look at him, he had closed his eyes again. It was raining when she had left him too. It was a chilly February morning. She remembered him sleeping in, the sound of his peaceful breathing and the way his messy auburn hair looked spread on the white pillow. She had closed in for a quick last kiss. He slept on then.

It had broken her heart. Walking away had destroyed a part of her. And through the echo of time she still felt pangs of pain every time it had rained.

"This time though, its you who's leaving me." She smiled fondly before closing in and placing a tender kiss on his temple. "Good night Nicholas."

Nicholas Rhys Steele later passed away peacefully in his sleep in his 86th years of life. Life that had been lived to the fullest.

It was still drizzling as Eva left the hospital.