I would like to apologize for how long it has been since I updated this story. It is inexcusable but if I say any more than this, the words will come out feeling wrong. I'm sorry.

Disclaimer- Not mine. Libba writes about a 1,000 times better than me anyway. –self pity-

I could feel it, as the whole world shifted around me. I felt like I finally came into whom I was, who I was as Ann Bradshaw. I didn't have to be anyone else, and I already knew this epiphany would make my step lighter, my eyes brighter, my smile wider, my voice louder. This was it. The moment people waited lifetimes for, and it was within my reach, I only had to stretch out and grab it, and hold it close. My fingers closed around it and I felt like I could fly away. But I didn't. I stood there, stood my ground, because this was finally right.

Sometimes it takes an example, I suppose. Someone to walk before you do, someone to form the words that will become your first. Someone to play the notes before you sing them.
He loved me before I loved myself.
I didn't know it was possible, for someone to feel this way about me, someone to love me, as opposed to the usual disdain or even the like that Gemma and Fee surely felt. He held my hands as he told me, kissed me gently before he told me, and afterwards I merely stared at him.
"I love you, Ann." But the words were impossible. "I love you, more than anything, but I can't do it like this, not when you don't believe me, even as I say it." He took my wrist and placed a kiss there, and on the tender flesh of my skin, it felt like a brand.
And, as if in water, the movements seeming exaggeratedly slow, Charlie got up and, for the first time, left me. For two weeks, I felt emptier than ever. The part of my life that had been Charlie had been ripped away, leave frays and scars that didn't seem to heal.

I wanted to call after him, but I couldn't. I sat there, immobile, and I regretted it later. For now I didn't know where to reach him. The Merry Maidens run was over, and he had told me himself that he was taking up a different apartment the day before, but never mentioned where. I had no leads.
I soon found myself searching every street, every person's face, hoping to see his eyes staring back at me, his beautiful gap-toothed smile appearing.
And then I saw him. His coat was wrapped around him, a bowler hat sitting close on his head, dirty blonde hair peeking out from below. I cried out, and hurried through to crowd, calling "Charlie! Charlie!" But he didn't hear me.
But then, I was close enough and I could see. I was instantly crushed with disappointment—the coat was wrapped around a figure too large, the bowler too solid a black, too new, and the hair too dark a brown. It wasn't my Charlie.
I was trampled with the disappointment, standing entirely still, before someone came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. I jumped, spinning around to see who had put their hand on me.

"Looking for someone?" And his voice felt like home, and I smiled at him.
He smiled back, and his eyes lit up, staring at me.
I wanted to say it, to tell him, but my throat was already too full with things to say to say anything at all, and it seemed that I didn't need to anyway. He already knew.

A/N- Again, I apologize. I hope this goes towards making it up to the people who liked this fiction. And I might be updating Inspection soon (a Kartik chapter is in progress, but its very raw right now, AKA, very bad) so keep an eye out.

Much Love,
Scales.

P.S. There might be a modern Chann fic in the works. Maybe. It wouldn't be very original, (its modern, what can I say?) and I haven't even started it yet. But I would like to do a chapter fic, and maybe some people would be interested? –is hopeful-