Author's Note: A quick little thing as per distantmuse's request. Natalie goes to court to finalize her divorce from Jason. Joe is waiting for her.

Court was hell. It was long and the room was humid, sticky with tension and restlessness, but being finally, and legally, separated from Jason, her now ex-husband, was liberating. Natalie felt like she could breathe again, do anything she wanted to, and that included a certain someone, without watching her back.

Speaking of the certain someone, he was outside the courthouse, waiting on that bottom step, with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Red roses. He was a stupid man, but he was also a harmless one.

She reached the bottom step and smiled at him, but not accepting the flowers, or his kiss; instead, she pulled him by the arm to the side of the building, where they were out of sight. At least somewhat.

The reporters had left five or so minutes ago, after receiving Jason's statement, said on behalf of them both as a favor to her.

For her part, Natalie waited an extra ten, just to be cautious, and she had hoped that Joe hadn't been outside in that madhouse either. It would arise all kinds of suspicions and especially now. The last thing she wanted was for some headline to come out of this – Senator Figueroa and His Wife Divorce Because of Cheating Scandal.

"What are you doing here?"

Joe gestured to the flowers in his hand with a smile. "Is it not obvious? I wanted to give you these. I wanted to celebrate with you."

Natalie sighed. "A divorce isn't something to celebrate, Joe."

Then she smiled at him because he looked so lost for a minute, so out of the loop and sad, that she felt bad.

"I love you, and it was sweet of you to get me these, but even though Jason and I haven't been married for a long time, like really married in the way normal people are, it was still something I lost, okay?"

He nodded like he understood, but she didn't believe it. He would never really know what Jason had meant to her, not what he had meant to her as a boyfriend, as a fiancé, as a real, honest and true, husband. He only knew the man who left her for another person, but that – as much as she's wanted to make herself think it, to make losing what she had loved easier on herself – is not who he is, deep down in his roots.

And today, she'd lost him for good. Not that she had ever planned on going back to him in that way, but on some level she liked knowing that he was there, as a friend, as a person who really knew her, and he used to be the only person who knew her, like that, until Joe.

So to have him gone from her life with a few flourishes of a pen on paper, was going to take some time to get used to. And right now, as much as she cared for him, as much as she loved him and was ready to start again with him, Joe needed to respect that, to respect her.

"Okay."

He hugged her close, kissed her head, and she let him, because for once, she was craving affection.

She took the flowers from him in one hand and squeezed his hand in the other but didn't hold it as they left their secret hiding place and walked to his car. The flowers could be for anyone, for anything, and just because she was holding them did not automatically mean they were hers.

She ducked into the passenger seat as he started the ignition, closing the door even before she sat down and buckled her seatbelt. She wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible. Needed to.

As they drove, his hand on her thigh, towards their house, she looked at the roses sitting upright in the center cupholder.

They were bright and crimson, rich with the color of fall, deep and dark, marking a transition as finite as leaves falling from a tree; the branches become bare and bald, opening up spots for new leaves, green and full, the color of spring, of new beginnings, to take their place.

She would put them right on the sill of the large window above their bed in the master bedroom, the largest window in the house.

Author's Note: As always, let me know what you think! I know it's a little short. The time to write is non-existent these days.