Incarnations of Love

"Tell me what you remember."

Will looked at her, marveling that she could still be so beautiful even in heartache, and realized he could never refuse her anything, even if it got him locked away from her. He owed her the truth, even if she hated him for it.

His shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Alright, but you're never going to believe it. Hell, I don't believe it. Just promise me you'll hear me out before you call the guys in the white jackets."

He ran his hands through his dark curls and turned to face her.

Kara sat, trying to ease the queasiness in her stomach.

"I told you I started getting bits of memory about six months ago."

Kara thought back to that night in the pub.

"You said it was torture. I remember the pain on your face and I thought how much worse it had been for you than it had for me."

He nodded.

"Yeah. It's been nothing but torture."

He looked at her, waiting expectantly, concern for him set firmly on her face and braced himself. He wondered if a stopwatch would be able to clock the change from concern to horrified disgust.

"My memories haven't been mine...."

He fumbled for a way to explain.

"They haven't been William Dover's."

Kara's brows drew together.

"What do you mean? How can they be anyone's but yours?"

He met her gaze with those blue orbs, so like Rick's.

"The memories are of us."

He'd spoken softly, and for a moment he didn't think she'd heard him. Her expression didn't change and she didn't answer right away.

"Of us? There was never an us, Will."

He sighed deeply, resigned to finish this, no matter the cost.

"We met in psych class in college. Like an idiot I knocked your books all over the floor and when I helped pick them up, your smile was like being bathed in the light of a goddess."

He watched her search for an explanation.

"Rick could have told you that."

He didn't blame her. How long had he searched for another answer?

"The night I proposed, I dropped the ring in the sand on the beach before I could ask the question. You laughed and cried at the same time for ten minutes."

He took a step towards her, those blue eyes still trained on hers.

"Before that, when you tried to leave me, I was so angry. I was hurt that you would think so little of me, but when I realized you were just afraid, I made a promise. I promised I would never leave you.... and I didn't."

Kara was shaking her head and sobbing.

Will placed his hands on her face, forcing her to look into his eyes. My God, his eyes were so like his. Hadn't she been thinking that since the day they ran into each other in the little boutique?

She wanted it to be true, but things like this weren't possible. This wasn't some movie. Real life just didn't happen like this.

Before she could stop him, he brought his lips down over hers and it was like time fell away. It was different, but the feelings were the same.

Kara drew away from him, her whole body trembling. Shock. The word floated through her mind a brief second and then disappeared.

"How could it even be possible?"

He kept his eyes fixed on hers.

"I don't know."

His eyes as he looked at her were pleading.

"The shrinks would say it's all an elaborate delusion I've created to cope with my loss. Maybe they're right, maybe it is, but I don't believe that. Not with the way I feel for you right here."

He thumped his fist against his chest.

"I love you so much it's killing me, not that I've been much more than a shade without you. I've been drifting through a borrowed life on borrowed time, trying to make sense of something that defies belief and logic, knowing that you would hate me if I dared tell you the truth."

Kara watched him standing there, his breathing ragged and his eyes conveying all of the torture the soul within bore. It was a soul she knew as well as her own. How could she have not recognized him before? How could she not see the miracle that was staring her in the face?

She raised a hand to his cheek and looked into his eyes, the windows to the soul of the man she loved. It didn't matter what he looked like, or what name she called him, it only mattered that he was here. He had indeed kept his promise.

Kara raised her hands to her mouth, disbelief and joy warring for precedence.

"Oh God!"

She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, her eyes locked in his. Her hand slid up to brush a lock of hair away from his face.

It was a moment before he realized that she believed him. The instant he did, he picked her up and whirled her around before claiming her lips in a heated kiss. Could it really be true? Did she accept him for who he really was?

"Will....Rick....what do I call you?"

She laughed, the sound coming out in a sob. He gazed down at her, the first smile in over six months spreading across his face.

"For now, just call me yours. The rest, we can work out later."

End

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