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After: We Go Way Back, Me and Dogface


Ashley

I woke up with a start.

Something felt strange. Not particularly wrong, just... different.

I got up and walked into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. My hair hung like a feiry red curtain. I stared at it for a long moment, the water running over my hands. I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. My skin was tight, smooth. My eyes were bright, my hair was red. I was wearing that old purple dress from the night Nick and I almost ran away to Vegas.

My throat burned.

"Oh my God," I whispered.

I didn't panic, there was no fear, really, just... shock, I guess. I touched the mirror, half expecting it to be an illusion.

I left the bathroom, looked around. But there was no sign of him. I opened the bedroom door, my feet soft against the carpeted hallway as I passed each of the kids' rooms, down the stairs... "Nick," I called into the house. "Nick!"

He had to be here somewhere.

I pushed open the door that led out onto the deck... a deck that didn't really make sense to have there, seeing as it was on the house in Los Angeles and everything else had been the house in Nashville, but I guess rules change on the other side.

The ocean stretched out for what seemd like all eternity from th deck. I stood there, the boards warm under my bare feet from the sun. The air smelled like salt. Gulls called to one another.

"I thought I'd find you here."

I turned around, and there he was. Sitting in his chair, a smile on his face, his eyes sparkling.

"Nick," I said, breathlessly.

"Hey," he said.

I rushed forward, falling onto his lap, wrapping my arms around him. He was young and handsome and the scar from the plane crash was gone, and the wrinkles, like mine, had smoothed. All that was left were those incredible laugh lines that framed his mouth.

"You're here," I gasped, pressing my face into his neck.

"Of course I'm here..." he smiled, "I told you a long time ago you're gonna hafta do a lot worse than shoot me to get rid of me."

I've never hugged anyone so tight. Ever.

He smiled, hugging me back.

And the best part was... we didn't have to ever, ever let go again.




Nick

There aren't really any words to say to end the story. I mean it doesn't really end, it's just time to stop telling it to you, you know? We got our happily ever after -- and happily ever after even after that.

I guess really the point of this all is that when you love someone, you gotta tell'em so. Because things change so fast in the world, in people's lives. One moment you're in the air and the next you're free falling.

Ashley was the best thing that ever happened to me, in this life or the next. She was the person who held me together when I fell apart. Every thing that I ever did for her could never be enough to repay her for the gift she gave me: her love, her life. Our story started way before the day I said oliver, and it'll continue long after I finish up here.

All stories do, when you think about it. Every ending is just a beginning of something else.

And you never know what might come out of the roots of your stories. Even the stories that go way back...

After all, we go way back, me and Dogface.