p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Author's note: SO sorry I never got around to finishing this…until now. 10 years later, just like real life. Obviously doesn't follow cannon./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"strongChapter Three – Retry/strong/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"TEN YEARS LATER/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Nicky sat on a beach chair, watching two little girls with bouncing blonde curls splash eachother in a puddle left by the receeding tide. With the sun seeping into her skin and warming her gently, she thought back to the events that brought her to this moment./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Nicky had been working at the Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada for 5 years now. She had also been taking classes and today she was graduating with a degree in Psychology. Well, technically it was her second degree in Psychology, but she was the only one who knew that. Nicky hadn't been planning on participating in the formal ceremony to receive her degree, but her boss in the Admissions office had spent weeks talking her into it./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Walking across the platform and collecting her degree from the dean, Nicky was proud. But then, looking out at the audience, politely clapping, she realized for the first time in a while, just how lonely she is. She continued on to her seat. After the cermony, she made polite small talk with other students and her professors and colleagues. Soon, she quietly slipped from the reception hall and headed home./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Entering the cottage she now owned, Nicky thought of the lovely woman she had originally rented the attic room from. She had passed on a year ago and her family had sold Nicky the cottage, surprised she was able to offer cash, but asking no questions. Nicky loved this little house, with its red shutters and door, window boxes full of flowers and the ever-present sound of the ocean./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Kicking off her heels and shrugging off her graduation gown, Nicky headed for the bathroom. Dropping the rest of her clothes in a pile on the floor, she stepped into the shower and allowed herself to cry for the first time in as long as she could remember./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"As Nicky walked out her bathroom, wrapping a towel around herself as she went, the hairs on her neck began to stand up. Looking up quickly she almost dropped her towel. There before her, with hair a bit long, blue eyes twinkling with amusement, was Jason. Suddenly, he gave her a lopsided grin and she could only say one thing, "David?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"He opened his arms with a welcoming smile and Nicky ran into them. She was finally home./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Smiling at the antics of twins, now one of whom was partly buried in the sand, Nicky continued to think back to that time in her life. It took weeks for David to catch her up on where he had been (pretty much everywhere), what he had been doing (scraping together facts to help trigger his memory), and why he as in Portugal (for her, of course). After almost 5 years of flashbacks and pain, investigation and travel, David had put the two halves of himself back together./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"At first Nicky had cried a lot, her feelings of guilt resurfacing. It took a long time for David to convince her that NEITHER of them knew what they had really been getting themselves into. They certainly weren't responsible for the people who took the program and twisted it into something dark and self-serving./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"After weeks of explainations and healing, their love took over. Nicky had quit her job and they became almost reclusive in their need to make up for lost time. It was a 6 month honeymoon period that caused Nicky to blush just thinking back on it./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Suddenly a shadow blocked out the sunlight. David was there, smiling, he was leaning down to place a tiny bundle in her lap, "I think someone needs a snack." Leaving her to feed their 3 week old son, David moved off to the giggling girls. They were so full of sunshine and smiles./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Looking down at the scrunched face of the newest addition to their family, Nicky was filled with wonder and happiness. Never before that day five years ago would she have thought she would ever have the opportunity to retry with David./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Laughing as her husband danced with their twins in the waves, she had never been so full of gratitude./p
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