The Girl in the Garden

by: Jane and Andi

28 February 2001

Elizabeth Webber sat at the window of her studio, looking out at the water. But she didn't really see it. Instead she saw blue eyes gazing intently into her own. She saw hundreds of words locked behind those eyes, felt the very same words pouring silently from her own into his. Did he see? Did he know? Yes. And somehow that made everything more difficult when she hadn't thought things could get any worse.

A tiny, soft sound brought her attention back to the present, and she realized a tear had splashed onto the empty tablet she had propped against her knees. She wiped it away and for one wild moment she wanted to scream and cry, to sob and throw things and fall into a heap on the floor. But instead she took a deep breath and waited several beats for the urge to pass and a sort of calm to embrace her once again.

What had he said? The statue of the girl...she was wearing a long dress. He couldn't remember if she was smiling. Elizabeth bit her lip for a moment, then lifted her pencil and began to draw.

******

Jason Morgan sat down at the bar at Jake's and ordered a beer. It was still morning, just before noon, after another sleepless night with her face, her eyes, and the way she looked the last time he'd seen her burned in his memory.

How many days had it been? He didn't even know. They'd gone for a ride and when they'd returned to Kelly's she'd handed him his helmet, thanked him for the ride and turned to walk away from him, to leave him, to walk out of his life forever, but he'd grabbed her arm. He wasn't sure why, he only knew that he didn't want her to go, wasn't ready to let her go. She'd looked up at him, their eyes holding for a long moment before she asked him about the statue, her voice breathless, her eyes shining. And what he saw in them haunted him. Truth, resignation, acceptance. And something else. Something he couldn't define, or didn't dare to define. She didn't want to leave him any more than he wanted her to. Of that he was certain. He'd wanted to kiss her then, needed to kiss her. Would have kissed her if Emily hadn't come outside. Dammit, he'd wanted to scream at her to go away, to leave them alone. He needed just a few more minutes with Elizabeth, but she'd looked at him and whispered, "Goodbye, Jason", and disappeared.

He ordered another beer, wanting to drink until the pain was gone, until he was numb and her face disappeared from his memory.

******

Elizabeth sighed and held the drawing away from herself and examined it. She'd been working on it for nearly an hour now. The picture itself was good, but something about it wasn't quite right.

How do you know it's not right? She asked herself.

She had been avoiding the answer the whole time, but now she let it through. She simply didn't know what she was drawing. How to draw this statue when she had never seen it.

"Why don't you hike up there some time?" Jason had said.

"Yeah, why don't you just do that?" She whispered, and stood. She packed her things into her bag, grabbed her coat, and left.

******

The day was cold with a brisk wind blowing, but the sun was shining and it cast an almost surreal shadow on the statue of the girl in the long dress. He tilted his head and studied her expression, remembering what Elizabeth had asked him, wishing she were here with him now to see it. She held a letter in her hands, but was looking away from it. She wasn't smiling, not exactly, but looked pensive, wistful, as if she were deep in thought, contemplating the contents of the letter. There was just the hint of a smile curving in the corners of her mouth. Elizabeth would like her, would want to draw her, or paint her. He'd ridden for hours, trying to forget about Elizabeth, but of course she was all he *could* think about, especially while riding, and remembering how it felt to have her arms around him. And so, he'd ended up here, just as he knew he would. It was the last place they'd been together. The place where she'd told him she couldn't see him anymore.

He didn't know how long he stood there studying it before the statue started to look like Elizabeth. He shook his head, and laughed softly to himself as he started the walk back to his bike. He hadn't walked very far when he heard the car in the distance, heard the motor die and the door close. He ducked out of sight when he saw it was Elizabeth, carrying her large tote bag.

******

Elizabeth parked her car and began to walk in the direction Jason had pointed to where the burned house once stood. She shivered and pulled her coat a little more tightly around her, briefly letting herself undulge in the memory of her most recent bike ride, wind rushing past her face, holding Jason so close to her...

Shaking her head a little, she looked up. Before her stood a crumbling stone wall drowning in overgrowth. Her heart fluttered with a sense of adventure that quickly changed to sadness. Adventures weren't always fun when you were alone.

She walked along the wall until she found the remains of a gate and slipped inside, catching her breath. The statue stood in the middle of the garden, and Elizabeth nearly floated towards her, so entranced was she by the statue's beauty. She had seen pictures of plenty of famous statues, but suddenly none of them seemed as fluid and graceful, as filled with such a sense of peace and calm. Elizabeth opened her bag and pulled out her tablet, flipping it open to her drawing. Not even close. She checked the statue's face. In her picture, the girl looked heartbreakingly sad. But the real girl....she was sad, but also hopeful. She held a letter in her hands and Elizabeth wished she knew what it said.

With her eyes still glued to the girl, she walked over to one of the benches, brushed the snow from it and sat down. She turned to a fresh page in her tablet and began to sketch.

******

Jason had always loved to watch her work, especially when she didn't know he was watching. So he watched her for a long time, wanting to approach her, wanting to look into her eyes again, to see if what he'd seen a few days ago was still there. But he couldn't, knew he had to respect her wishes to not see him anymore It would be wrong to interrupt her now, so he turned and quietly walked away, turning back just once to take a last look at her.

******

The leaves rustling nearby could have been the wind, but Elizabeth's senses were always on the alert. Her head snapped up at the sound, and she nearly dropped her tablet when she saw his back disappearing through the gate.

"Jason?"

He turned to her, smiled and shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I was trying to leave so you wouldn't hear me."

She smiled, suddenly nervous, wondering if he could see the blush she felt in her cheeks. "No, it's okay. You didn't scare me."

"I came out here to see the statue. I guess you did, too."

She nodded. "Well, I've been thinking about it since you told me about it. I even tried to draw it but that didn't turn out too well. Would you like to see it?"

He smiled. "Of course." He moved closer to her and his hand grazed hers as he reached for the sketch pad. He studied the drawing for a moment before looking up at her. "She looks like you."

"No she does not." Without thinking about it, she moved to stand by his side. She stared at her drawing. "Oh. I....I didn't even realize I did that." Her cheeks grew warm. When Jason didn't respond, she looked up to find him watching her, that look in his eyes again. And like so many times before, she felt her brain scrambling, her heart beating harder, her palms growing damp. "Um...I've already started another sketch. You can have this one if you want it."

She tore the page from the tablet and handed it to him.

He looked at it for a moment, his hand gently touching the image she'd drawn. He looked up at Elizbaeth and said, "Thank you. She's beautiful." Their gaze held for a long moment, neither of them wanting to look away. Finally he spoke again. "I'm going to go and let you get back to work."

She nodded silently, and stood next to the statue as Jason began to walk away. She looked up at the girl's expression, then back at his retreating back.

"Jason." It came out as only a whisper. She took a deep breath. "Jason!"

He turned and looked at her, his expression hopeful. The tablet fell from her hands as she began to run, nearly slipping in the snow on the ground. But he was there, his arms stretched out to catch her.

And then she was kissing him, again and again and again. Her hands were in his hair even as his cupped her face, pulling her closer. There was no resistance, no hesitation. She had been dreaming of his body pressed against hers for so long, afraid to actively imagine it. She and Jason belonged together, and as they melted into each other, all of her uncertainly dissolved. This was where they were meant to be. This was right.

"Don't let me go, Jason. Don't ever let me go."

The End