A Trip Down Memory Lane and Beyond [Micah]

[Grey (DELETED 5068)]

The hostility and frustration in Micah's voice started to raise. Grey took her eyes from the platform underneath their feet to lift to his face. She could see the irritation there, boiling in his eyes as if he was using every effort to suddenly push his temper down and keep his words civil in that public place. In a way, Grey seemed to pull further back against that pillar. Feeling the solid piece against her back had shoulders hunching forward in an effort to protect that exposed middle. Though she was sure no actions would be taken against her in the harsh, unnatural light of the station; Grey was simply used to defending herself in a manner that meant she would stiffen and recoil from a long history of physical abuse. No matter how slight those actions of hers came across, to a trained eye, they still screamed 'don't hit me!.'

When the young woman opened her mouth, those dry lips hovered in an opened position for a moment before closing once more. Micah had the floor now, and she listened to his disgust and his frustrations with her. Really, who was she to come back at him and claim she should give Jesse a second chance when even he didn't know she was coming to Micah for assistance. Biting harshly upon her lower lip, the grimace spread across her face in a fashion as if she had not at all learned her lesson from her past discretions within Andras.

How stupid was she to stand here and expect an inch from Micah when no one had given him any room to adjust or allow for those expectations to be fulfilled? Why hadn't she sent him a message weeks or months ago and ask if Jesse had gotten into contact him? She could have just as easily kept that line of communication open. Instead, she had gotten caught up in work, trusting that the men would reach an understanding in one respect or another. "I wouldn't ever dream of telling you how you should feel or react. I only want you to realize that any relationship takes two. Two people."

She was standing there, watching the driver of the bus hauling luggage out of the undercarriage of the vehicle, knowing exactly why she couldn't give up. She knew exactly why she had requested Micah's presence before she left. He was, quite honestly, one of the only people within the city that she had made a personal connection with. She had simply found his conversation and his presence comforting; that is, nine times out of ten. He was a massive force, one that she knew people were drawn towards. She was thankful for his help early on in her just-turned state and could not help, but remember the comfort he had provided her.

Now, she was shaking the **** out of that can and twisting the top off - popping it wide open and allowing Micah's frustration to be vented yet again. She didn't tell him to eat ****. She didn't tell him to **** off and die. Though he just told her to take that rope she had laid out and choke on it; Grey deserved it. While she licked her dry lips again, and Micah began to storm past her, she said again the only thing she suddenly could manage; "Thank you."

Could this be a situation where she granted herself at least an A for effort in trying to get someone else to see the bonds that were stretched and painfully close to being ripped in half? She was doing that this very moment to Jesse, knowing that she was going to get on that bus and leave this town and this country and hunt down her worst nightmare from her childhood.

"If it is one thing that you and Jesse have instilled within me, Micah, is that everyone deserves some forgiveness sometimes. Everyone deserves a second chance." And with that, she nodded to the man that had turned back to look over his shoulder at her. It was, in all honesty, as if her words had penetrated Micah's very thought process. There was a sadness in Grey's eyes that hadn't been there before.

Grey could hope. Only, she wasn't going to grant a second chance to her childhood hell. She was going to destroy it.

She could only hope because time had run out. The fresh bus driver had exchanged something with the haggard driver, uniform wrinkled and sleep heavy in the man's eyes. Grey pushed off the column of the station and got in the short line for handing over her bus ticket. When asked if she had any luggage, she simply shook her head and took back the stub of her ticket. There was no sense in looking back over her shoulder, knowing Micah would have been long gone by now.

The stabbing pain in her chest increased as she eased her *** down onto the firm cushioned seat.

People do change, she told herself. Closing her eyes and letting her head rest back against the stiffness of the seat. Grey tried to concentrate on anything, but the feeling of her heart being massacred within her chest as the bus rolled out of the station and drove away from Harper Rock was too much to bear. Tears wet the denim that covered her thighs and she only tried to console herself with the fact that she had tried to reach out to someone who could help Jesse when she could not.