Trials and Tribulations - [Bensler EO]

Part Twelve - Shattered

He saw her.

It took her a moment, a solitary second where the universe hadn't come crashing down yet. Then, the moment was over.

And she saw him too.

Standing in the dead center of the busiest city in the country, the world had somehow managed to slow down. The yellow strings of taxis that hurried through the streets were gone. The never ending noise of the bustling concrete jungle went as silent as could be. One finite moment of her eyes connecting with his, an entire street across from each other.

He had finally found the needle in the haystack.

The end of the constant questioning of where the hell was she. All of it was answered in a split second, probably the only question that could be answered from where her feet were planted on the ground. He recognized the building, the unmissable skyscraper with the unique orange detailing around it. His children had asked him about that building once, Sloan Kettering Memorial. It had taken the wind out of his sails when their tiny voices asked such an innocent question with a horrific answer. 'That's a place where people go when they get really sick. Not like — not like a cold. But when they're really sick and they need to see special doctors.'

He had never sped away so fast before. He'd always struggled with keeping his world away from his children, and it was even more of a struggle to keep the real world away from his children as well.

But here it was... those two worlds crashing and coalescing together. All in a single glance. Their own personal Chernobyl.

He watched her rise and fall in that moment. The struggled inhale she had taken when she realized what had just happened, and the heavy exhale with her eyes fighting to stay open when she realized there was no going back either.

Everything crumbled without her permission.

She'd sat and wondered for two weeks what his reaction would be, how he would find out, or how she'd have to tell him. She'd played every scenario in her mind on repeat until it was ingrained into her memory. She'd practiced her speeches, preparing an attempt to control the moment when the time came. So many words she had decided on... or better yet, failed to decide on.

But there were no words at all. Mere yards away from each other, four lanes of traffic separating them, there was no need for words.

Disappointment. Her jawbone tensed but her brow bone relaxed; the face of numbness. That was the ultimate emotion it boiled down to. Nothing else in the air between them but exhaust fumes and palpable disappointment.

They had mastered the art of having wordless conversations with each other. Every eye twitch and glance, their own personal dictionaries made for each other. The rest of the world was deaf to their language. This time, there was nothing to be said, or not said. There was no descriptive expression that could somehow add up to everything they both felt as the world around them paused.