[Well, she knew that about him. She likes to think he could move on too, that he could find someone new that he could learn to care for and who would take care of him in her stead. She doesn't like to think that she'd ruined him if she can't even have him herself. But even if that were to happen, she knows he'd always love her, and it's not something she would change even if it would make his life easier. Because she's the same way, and he knows... if he hadn't known then, if he still doesn't know now, how deeply seated he is in her heart, she would just keep showing it to him through the trajectory of her life because there isn't anything else she can do.
She accepted that, oh, years ago, maybe before she'd even lost him: him as her weakness for the rest of her life. It sounds sweet when you're young. But like a weakness, she'd guarded it from everyone, and maybe that's part of why Bruce always seems so surprised whenever she chooses him. Like she failed him, like he doesn't know she's just as helpless when it comes to him. She'd loved Leonard - she still loves Leonard - but Bruce had been it for her.]
I'm fine. I'm- I was going to be fine. [Don't lie. Let him catch you. For the majority of their correspondence, she'd been more concerned with reassuring him than with being honest, but now he's here, and now she can't.] But I'm glad you're here, Bruce. I'm really really glad. That's why- That's why I'm going to kill you if you leave me again. My therapist will probably testify for me. The campus papers will have a field day.
[They're both.. yeah, she's going absently grab his bag and start pulling him toward the couches. They're both really spent. The living room space is a contained disaster like much of the rest of the apartment, and pretty much what you'd expect. Cluttered, half-painted, covered with plants, with the occasional plastic dinosaur or spare pen lurking between the few stacks of books or papers she never got around to putting away. There won't be any photographs or mementos anywhere beside what he sent her for Christmas, but there will still be some leftover boxes.]
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She accepted that, oh, years ago, maybe before she'd even lost him: him as her weakness for the rest of her life. It sounds sweet when you're young. But like a weakness, she'd guarded it from everyone, and maybe that's part of why Bruce always seems so surprised whenever she chooses him. Like she failed him, like he doesn't know she's just as helpless when it comes to him. She'd loved Leonard - she still loves Leonard - but Bruce had been it for her.]
I'm fine. I'm- I was going to be fine. [Don't lie. Let him catch you. For the majority of their correspondence, she'd been more concerned with reassuring him than with being honest, but now he's here, and now she can't.] But I'm glad you're here, Bruce. I'm really really glad. That's why- That's why I'm going to kill you if you leave me again. My therapist will probably testify for me. The campus papers will have a field day.
[They're both.. yeah, she's going absently grab his bag and start pulling him toward the couches. They're both really spent. The living room space is a contained disaster like much of the rest of the apartment, and pretty much what you'd expect. Cluttered, half-painted, covered with plants, with the occasional plastic dinosaur or spare pen lurking between the few stacks of books or papers she never got around to putting away. There won't be any photographs or mementos anywhere beside what he sent her for Christmas, but there will still be some leftover boxes.]