The phone conversation carried on, but she'd heard all she needed to. It wasn't as if he owed her anything and in truth he'd given her more than she'd allowed herself to have in a long time. Companionship, laughs, good times... a friend. Nothing good ever lasted, not for her, and she did her best to kick herself for letting her hopes get lifted that high up. What was she going to do anyway... convince him to stay on her couch forever?

It was time to wash it away, let it all roll off her soul and remember how things had become. Empty and lonely, just the way it would always be.

"Magdalene...?"

She turned slowly, letting those usually whispy bangs fall flat against her face, heavy with rain. There were no words she could formulate and if she could have found them, what would she have said? He owed her nothing and yet, at that moment, he held everything she'd thought she had lost years ago. Lips parted and yet no voice met them. She couldn't even will herself to move.

So he met her halfway, entering the downpour outside. "What's wrong?"

She answered him with her arms wrapping tightly around him. "I'm.... I can't..."

And he did his best attempt at kicking himself. Ever since he'd arrived, he'd seen it and known it, but it didn't really sink in until that moment when he realized just how tightly she was holding to him. It was his turn to have no words, realizing she knew he had to leave and knowing it meant more of the same. He was no fool; she had family and business and other things to do and keep her occupied.

What she really needed she had gotten for ten days and as far as she knew? He was going to be just like everyone else.

Gone.

"What do I need to do?"

Her laugh was so sad and empty, the kind of laugh you hear when everything had gone wrong. "Something you can't."