Mimi Clark liked Eric Green.

This was what she repeated to herself as she paced the small room she found herself trapped inside.

She liked Eric Green.  Much more than she had back in the early days she’d known him. True, he wouldn’t be her first pick for an only companion on a deserted island,  and she had, truthfully, been a little taken aback when she had arrived at Bailey’s today, grudgingly volunteering  her help but expecting to be spending  a nice afternoon with her friend and finding that her friend’s husband would also be tagging along. But she hadn’t minded. Much. She and Eric were friends now too.  Certainly not the best of friends, but at least she no longer thought of him as Dudley Do Wrong.  She rarely thought back to that day, one of the worst days of her life, when it had seemed the last irritating offence in a monstrously huge string of offences the universe was committing against her was to be greeted by an unamused Eric Green, demanding she throw away her cigarettes, her last comfort in the midst of catastrophe.

Back then, she had considered him someone whose presence she would never appreciate. He had since proven her wrong. Despite her early predictions, she had happily stood up for Mary at their wedding a few weeks ago. She’d seen how happy he made her friend, he had truthfully surprised her with his commitment to their town, time and time again, and after the day he had come to stand on the hill with her and Stanley as they buried Bonnie, she would always have a respect for him that ran deeper than her feelings towards most people she knew.

Yes, Mimi Clark had an appreciation for Eric Green. Perhaps more than either of them had ever expected. It was this that she tried to hold onto, as they waited in their tiny prison. As he sat in the chair and she paced. As she tried to keep from asking the horrible questions running through her mind.

“Could you…stop that for just a minute?” he asked in a pained voice. She stopped her pacing for a second to raise her eyebrows at him. “I just can’t think, when you keep doing that.”

Mimi folded her arms in agitation, trying to remain in one place. “Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“You’re not going to find a way out of here walking around like that, you know. If you could, you would have. An hour ago.” She knew he was right, but the logical, weary way he was saying it made her want to contradict him.

“Well, I can’t just sit here. When the rescue party comes, I’m going to be standing.” With that, she resumed her pacing of the perimeter of the small, mysterious room she wished she had never laid eyes upon.

He sat, rubbing his temples, as she circled the room a few more times. She could see it was bothering him, and for some reason, the same reason someone pokes a healing bruise or picks a mosquito bite, she continued circling.

On her fifth trip around the room, his hand shot out for her wrist. “Would you just -" he fumed, but didn’t finish his sentence.

“Right, you're thinking,” she couldn’t resist saying, and she couldn’t seem to resist the mocking tone that came out with it. “Because that’s going to get us out of here, just as effective as pacing I’m sure.”

He said nothing for a moment, looking up at her and glowering. For a moment, she thought he might come up with a retort of his own, but his face softened then. For some reason, it bothered her more, to see him cool and collected, again. She looked down, at his hand still curled around her wrist. “Let go,” she said quietly.

“Mimi,” he began in a warning tone. It reminded her again, of the man who took her cigarettes.  She suddenly wished, irrationally, she could make him lose his cool. “Green, I swear, if you weren’t the object of my best friend’s affections…”

She trailed off as she felt her own throat catching again. Her words had had the opposite effect, she realized a moment too late, as she sniffled loudly.

Eric Green sighed. Here came the waterworks again. She just had to mention Mary.

As he had done several times over the past hour, ever since he had pushed Mimi ahead of him as the rushing sound followed closely in the passage behind them, ever since he had slammed the door and stood, listening helplessly as horrible sounds came on the other side of it, he spoke carefully. “Mimi, she’s…fine.”

Mimi let out a choked sound. “How can you say that? Of all people, I’d think you’d be a little more –"

“I don’t have a choice,” he said through gritted teeth. She just didn’t get it. She hadn’t understood it once, since they had first collapsed in this strange room. She didn’t know that he couldn’t bring himself to ponder it, to even put into words why he couldn’t.

“How can you sit there so calmly, telling me that?” she demanded.

“She’s fine,” he said again, in an irritated tone. “I…I can’t believe otherwise.”

“She could have been behind us. In the tunnel,” said Mimi, something she had repeated, dazedly, many times in the ten minutes after they had first found themselves trapped.

“She wasn’t,” he said.

“How can you be sure?” she repeated.

“Because I can,” he maintained.

“But how do you know? How do you know she wasn’t right there, when it happened…”

“She was probably back at Bailey’s already. Looking for the flashlight. I’m sure she was.” Eric nodded, as if to emphasize his certainty.

Mimi, however, could not seem to share in this certainty at all. She was wiping furiously at her eyes with shaking hands. “Why didn’t she check the flashlight before we left, or bring more than one to begin with? Why did we have to look around down here anyway? Why couldn’t we have helped the town by digging a well or something?”

Eric considered carefully before giving his answer. “It was my idea. I thought looking around under town hall, checking out the tunnels might be a good idea.”

Mary had, in fact, decided it was a good idea, and she had reminded him again of the tunnels rumoured to exist somewhere under Bailey’s, relics from the days of the rum runners or the underground railroad. He'd chuckled at her suggestions that they might find discarded artifacts left behind by townspeople long forgotten, and she'd smiled at his hopeful projections of discovering an escape route, should someone attack them once again. They had reasoned with each other that it might be useful to look into what use these tunnels might have, but really, the mystery of whether or not the town hall and Bailey’s were somehow connected had been a welcome distraction from the daily grind of survival to which they were so accustomed.

“Some idea,” Mimi snorted. “What good is a room like this supposed to be for the town anyway?” She eyed the whitewashed walls with extreme suspicion.

“I don’t know, shelter from impending chaos?” he suggested, only mildly sarcastically, imagining before it even happened the frown that would grace Mimi’s features.

He was right, of course, and he berated himself a moment too late.  Mimi’s lower lip was trembling, and she sobbed as she held her face in her hands. Much as she had annoyed him moments earlier, he wished he could stop her shoulders from shaking, but he dared not get any closer as she sank into the other chair in the dusty old room.

“Mimi,” he began quietly.

“How bad do you think it is, out there?” she managed between sobs. He knew what she was talking about  - she had begun theorizing as soon as they had recovered the power of speech, as soon as the deafening noise above them had died down. Though at first her panicked words had been difficult to understand, Eric had come to realize that her fears extended beyond her friend in the tunnel. The sounds above, and then the quiet, had her convinced that something much worse than a cave-in had occurred. She had worried about mortars, in some kind of concentrated attack, from New Bern, again, or perhaps the ASA, back to punish the town that had rebelled against Beck’s order. Her other theory involved a plane crash. Either way, she had kept it up, until she was convinced that total chaos had descended upon the town. He’d understood - the shock of being trapped as they were, the way time seemed to stretch in their captivity, it all had a magnifying effect. Mimi had convinced herself quickly that it wasn’t true, but she’d since convinced herself again, twice, of the disastrous scenes awaiting them, upon their rescue. Now, it was third times the charm, Eric thought to himself.

“They’re not coming. Don’t you think if it was something simple like a cave in, they’d be looking for us already?”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “These things take time, and if they didn’t know we were down here…” He trailed off, but they both knew only one person had known their whereabouts an hour ago.

“What happens if they don’t come for us? What if they can’t? What if we’re stuck down here?” she asked.

“We’ll…figure it out,” he said, feigning certainty again.

“What if…what if it’s just us?” she whispered.

He was silent for a moment.

“What if they’re all gone, when we get out of here? Something’s happened to all of them and we’re the last man and woman standing?”

He wanted to scoff. She sounded so over dramatic. But her tear stained face got to him, despite everything else, and he knew he could never bring himself to scoff. Instead, he stumbled through faltering words. "Mimi...we're not."

"How do you know?" she demanded, his calm voice seeming to spark a fury in her that gave way to more sobs. "Why - why do you always think you know so much? How are you so qualified to judge these things anyway?"

Eric shrugged, unsure of what to say as Mimi's angry tears glistened in her eyes, which were boring into him. "I'm the deputy mayor, I'm on border patrol. I, uh, I went to school. I have a law degree."

Mimi made a face. Her eyes were so red, her face so covered in tears, it was difficult at first to tell she was laughing. It was a horrible sound, because it seemed to intermingle with more sobs, and so was the most wrenching laugh Eric had ever heard. "A law degree! Oh, I know I'm in good hands now! Trapped down here, end of the world up there, but it's all okay, because I've got someone with me who knows his property laws!"

Eric said nothing. He felt his cheeks glowing and was sure they were red, but he held his breath as she leaned her head in her hands, laughing that painful sounding laugh. She continued to go on what sounded like some kind of tirade about the effectiveness of Eric Green in disasters of all varieties, but he lost focus as he tried to shut out the things she was saying. After holding the silence himself for several moments, he leaned his chin in his hands too, resting his elbows on his knee. He would not consider it. None of the images she seemed bent on creating in his mind. None of it. He was startled when she suddenly stood, and watched her make another dash to the door, banging on it with her fists.

"Somebody!" she shouted, smashing her fists against the wood. "Somebody help! Anybody out there?"

He watched her a moment longer, watched her pause a moment to clutch her fist in her other hand and wince. "Mimi," he began quietly.

She eyed him for a moment, and turned back to the door, pounding more feebly, more desperately. "We're alone in here! We're...we're alone." Gradually, her words were growing farther apart, her movements slower, 'til she was standing still, staring at the door.

Eric was watching her carefully now, but she didn't look at him at all as she sank down to the floor. She was quiet now, completely quiet, and for some reason, this disturbed him more than all her loud rantings earlier. He sat still until he could bite his tongue no more and then he stood. Slowly, carefully, he stepped across the small distance between him and the door, between his chair and Mimi. Tentatively, he stood over her bent form. Though his instincts all told him not to, he crouched beside her.

"Hey...Mimi," he said quietly, gently touching her sleeve. "We're not alone."

She looked up at him. Her eyes were bright in the dim room. She looked as though speaking would be a challenge, but she surprised him by saying in a small voice, "What if we are? What if it's just us?"

Eric raised his eyebrows. "Then we're not alone."

The faintest of smiles flashed across Mimi's face, and Eric thought for a moment his words had helped. He knew, a second later, it was one of those precarious smiles, like rumblings before a summer storm when you look across a lake. Her lip was trembling, tears were rolling down her cheeks again, and she seemed even too overcome to make a sound. He never liked seeing anyone like this, and he'd never seen Mimi Clark in a place like this. Before he knew what he was doing, his arms were reaching around her, with the caution you would use while hugging a porcupine, but still, his hands found her shoulders and hung on.

He felt, rather than heard, her sharp intake of breath at this sudden change in their dynamic. He prepared himself to pull away, to apologize quickly or make an awkward joke, or even to duck if necessary. Instead, he felt something even more surprising. Mimi Clark held onto him, and a few moments later, Mimi Clark was crying quietly into his chest.

Mimi let out a deep sigh. She was beginning to realize how drained she was becoming. For the past few minutes - five or twenty, she couldn't even guess - all the horrible things crouching in the back of her mind had sprung into her thoughts with a thundering roar. She had gone over everything: fear she'd lost yet another of the few good friends she had left on this earth; nagging suspicions something much worse was going on up there; a crushing, terrifying insistence that she'd never see Stanley again, that fate was punishing her yet again for whatever crimes she'd committed so long ago that had earned her this miserable stay in post-apocalyptic Kansas; and embarrassment at how stupid it all sounded, when a small part of her stepped aside and surveyed her as she clung to her best friend's husband and sobbed. Surprisingly, Eric had held onto her.

He'd said nothing, done nothing, barely moved, but his arms around her were solid, and they had a kind of steadying effect, even as she wailed over the end of her world yet again. Gradually, she'd felt the ebb of these thoughts, and they started to drain from her, not because she believed them less, not because Eric Green was a comforting presence, but because like any feelings of intensity, they didn't have the strength to burn so brightly for long. Mimi was still afraid that Mary was dead, that Stanley was gone, that she would be trapped forever with Eric Green in a room long since abandoned by rum runners or fugitive slaves. But her breathing quieted, she closed her eyes, and she became suddenly more aware of Eric's arms, Eric's chest, Eric's scent. As she breathed in and out, so slowly, she felt as though she was letting go of something. Letting go of her hold. Perhaps he was holding her up; perhaps if he let go she'd be kneeling upright still, held up by some other invisible force of human nature available only in our darker moments.

As the roar of her fears grew quieter, she was suddenly aware of an odd thought, an odd memory really, that seemed completely out of place amidst those heavy thoughts that had weighed her to the ground. Sitting on the back porch of Gail Green's house, the night before the wedding, Eric and Mary occupying the same wooden deck chair, laughing over some cheesy speech Eric had just given for the rest of the people on the porch. Mimi had been leaning against the railing, thinking her friends looked happy, but wondering, though she knew she shouldn't, what her best friend really saw in Eric Green. A thought she'd come back to several times over the months she'd spent in Jericho, though she began to tell herself she shouldn't. They were really both her friends now. But still, the thought sometimes came to her.

Her mind was too drained for questions now. Too drained for anything. No time to think about what should be, who should be, where she should be. She closed her eyes again and banished the Greens' porch. Banished her own farmhouse, in ruins, as she'd been picturing it. Banished the slow starvation in the tunnel, the regrets she should be using to beat herself with now. As Mimi Clark breathed in silence, she experienced a moment that was rare in her life. She was immersed in her present, and nothing else. She was tired, kneeling on the floor of a long forgotten room, being held up by Eric Green.  

After an eternity, as it seemed to Eric, she murmured something against his shoulder. "Sorry?" he whispered.

"I'm - I think I'm okay now," she said. He let go quickly and leaned back, onto his heels, still in a funny position halfway between crouching and kneeling. She wasn't looking at him, she was looking at the floor as she brushed damp pieces of her hair, partly clinging to her face, away from her eyes. She leaned back on her own heels, in a position mirroring his own, and folded her arms across her chest.

An intense awkwardness hung in the air between them. Mimi was certain that time with the cigarettes hadn't been this bad. She bravely cleared her throat, and tried to think of what she could possibly say to break the silence.

"I - uh...I'm sorry, Eric."

He raised his eyebrows at her.

"I'm sorry, for making this harder."

He shook his head slowly, but at her expression, he shrugged. "You're...you're not."

Mimi nodded, raising her own eyebrows. "Well, you're doing a good job keeping it together. I'm glad at least one of us is."

Eric sat back, crossing his legs on the floor underneath him. "Mimi, it's okay."

"No, really, if we are the last man and woman on Earth, it's good at least one of us can stay calm." She said it in a joking tone, and stopped, becoming serious again as she surveyed his reaction. He noticed, but he offered her a small smile.

"It's okay, really. You're not that bad. Really. And, it's just how I've learned to do things...you know..." He trailed off, looking down at his hands, folded in his lap.

"Yeah," she said quietly. She sat herself, curling her legs under her, to one side. "It's always something around here, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, a sardonic smile on his face. "And everything always happens so fast, you really don't have a choice...but to keep going."

Mimi nodded in agreement. "Ever wish you did?"

Eric smiled again. "What, what other choice do I have?"

Mimi just nodded, encouraging him to go on, and to his surprise, was peering at him with a serious expression.

"Sometimes wish things could just stop for a minute, you know," he said quietly. "Wish I could have a minute just to figure things out."

Mimi sighed. "Wish things didn't always happen at breakneck speed?"

"Yeah," he sighed himself. "It's hard, to keep it up, all the time."

Mimi nodded.

"But there's always people expecting something. Needing you to keep going," he continued. "Needing you to help them keep it together, get through it. To know what to do."

"And how are you supposed to know what to do?" she asked. "Always supposed to move on so fast?"

"I don't know," he said quietly.

Mimi offered him a small smile. "I feel like that too, sometimes."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Shocking, I know," she said with a smirk. He chuckled softly, and shook his head. "I wish things could take a time out sometimes," she went on, becoming, surprisingly, serious. "Wish people would understand. Even when we're not in a crisis. Sometimes you need a moment. You know, before you can just jump into the next crazy moment."

Eric nodded.

"It's always that around here," Mimi continued in a flat tone. "And you're always just supposed to keep going. Sometimes, I feel like things aren't even real yet, and I have to somehow accept that they're my life. These things that aren't real."

Eric pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his arms across them. "It never feels real, does it?" he asked. "Things happen, life goes on, I suddenly realize how much time has passed, and it still isn't real. I feel like I'm living in a...I don't know what."

"A movie?" asked Mimi.

"If you want to be cliche about it," he said.

Mimi nodded. "I think I get it though."

He nodded again. "Like this. This isn't real. I can feel my legs falling asleep, feel how stuffy the air is in here, listen to you yelling about how everyone's dead, we're all going to die, but it's not real at all. So it's not that hard, really. To think nothing's happened."

Mimi watched him quietly, and he smirked at her solemn expression. "You and I could very well be the last man and last woman on earth, since it's not really real. It's like a...a terrible movie. The kind that goes straight to video."

Mimi chuckled. "Well, I don't know if it's that bad. It has a lot of drama."

It was Eric's turn to chuckle. "Yeah."

Mimi traced a finger along the dust on the floor. "And you know, it wouldn't be that big a disaster. We could cope."

"We could, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, between the two of us, you know. We're not that bad at surviving things." He smirked, and she continued. "Sure. People are always underestimating how useful accounting is going to be in the new world, you know."

Eric smiled again. "Well, math skills are important."

"Yeah. That education I got has to be good for something," said Mimi. "I know in this town, people think farmland or sharpshooting skills are more valuable than a degree, but..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," chuckled Eric.

Mimi raised her eyebrows.

"I sort of have that law degree," he said.

He expected Mimi to made a joke, but she nodded her head, with an expression that looked almost impressed. "I guess I should be glad we'll have...legal representation on our side, in the new world," she said, with a straight face.

"Yeah, really," he said, laughing. She finally laughed too.

"Those other people, those farmers and deputies...and bartenders...and mechanics and...lumberjacks..." Mimi began. Eric snorted. "They think they've got it so much better than us. But we're okay, aren't we?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we're fine."

"We can...we know paperwork, systems," she said. "We know out lattes from our cappuccinos." She raised her eyebrows at him.

He nodded, smiling. "We can use chopsticks. That's a skill to take to the bank."

Mimi giggled. "You can use them? I thought I was the only one who ate sushi in this place."

He shook his head. "Picked up a thing or two at the place near campus. But you're right, the Chinese food place in Fielding has forks."

She laughed again. "That must be the place Stanley tells me he used to get 'Moo Goo Guy in a pan.'"

Eric nodded. "Must be the one."

"I don't think he can use chopsticks, but he'd say why would you need them, if you have a fork anyway," Mimi continued. "Can Mary use them?"

"Mary thinks she can use chopsticks," shrugged Eric. At Mimi's questioning look, he shrugged again. "She drops half of what she picks up."

"Stanley's never seen a mango."

"Mary's never been on a subway." They both chuckled.

Eric sighed. "I love her."

Mimi had been giggling over the slightly dangerous turn their conversation had been taking, but at the serious look on Eric's face now, she grew serious too. "I know," she said.

He sighed again and leaned back, propping himself up on the floor. Mimi bit her lip. She wanted to say she was still worried, she still couldn't get her friend, her husband, and their other friends and neighbours out of her mind, and she was still trying to avoid pondering their own fate, trapped in this room, if something had indeed happened to all those people they cared about. But those people weren't here right now, Eric Green was the one in front of her, and he was her friend.

"We'll see her soon," she said softly, shifting closer to him on the floor, and after a moment of hesitation, reaching to cover his hand with her own.

Eric nodded, swallowing hard, and nodded again. "I know. Her and Stanley both."

"Yeah," said Mimi. She looked from the floor, up at him. He looked down at her hand on his, and back up at her. She gave his hand a squeeze and let go. "We'll see 'em both, and they'll probably be so surprised we've coped so well, being stuck down here. Us city-living civil servants."

"Yeah," chuckled Eric. "We'll show them, huh?"

"Yeah," smiled Mimi.

They both sat in silence, holding smiles on their faces for as long as they could.

A little while later, Eric wasn't sure how much later, after he and Mimi had traded more meaningless chatter and had lapsed into an easy silence, a sound on the other side of the wall broke it.

Mimi was the first to break the silence on their side of the door. "Oh my God! Is it?"

Eric nodded, jumping to his feet. "They're digging us out," he said, unnecessarily, for the sound of machinery was unmistakable.

"Yes! Yes, yes yes!" Mimi shouted, grabbing Eric's arm and practically dancing in her excitement of near freedom.

Eric was slightly calmer, rolling his eyes at her display, but he was secretly wishing he could jump around the room himself. He was, however, a member of the border patrol and a deputy mayor. "Shh," he cautioned Mimi, holding up an arm. Mimi stopped, looking slightly annoyed.

"What is it?" she asked. "Why can't I be excited?"

"Mimi, we've got to hear if they have any instructions for us," he said.

"Instructions? Like get out of the way of the door?" she asked.

"Yeah, like that," he smirked. "But seriously, we should -"

"We're in here! In here!" shouted Mimi, smiling defiantly over at him.

"Mimi," he began, exasperatedly.

She turned to look at him. "What? Green, if you weren't my best friend's -"

"In here!" he shouted. "We're here, and we're okay!"

Mimi looked slightly surprised, but quickly joined him in shouting. 

They kept it up, shouting and listening in between breaths, until they heard the call to move back. With only a few seconds of warning, they dashed to the other side of the room as the door that had so infuriated them was blown off its hinges. Eric and Mimi had crouched against the wall, their arms covering each other. Coughing and sputtering, brushing dust off their clothes, they stood quickly. Jericho firefighters in masks were coming into the room. Chief Mancuso pulled off his mask. “Everyone okay in here?” he asked.

Eric stepped forward. “Yeah, we're okay. What happened up there?”

“Some idiot drove a truck into town hall. Caused a ton of damage and collapsed the stairwell. We didn't realize at first anyone was down here, and we had to dig you out because the tunnel caved in.”

Eric was speechless for a moment, making several attempts to say something. Mimi stepped forward, reaching for his arm as she asked, “Is anyone hurt?”

“A few injuries, but everyone's alive.”

Mimi glanced at him, before asking quickly, “Mary Bailey?”

"She's okay," said the fire chief, as Eric and Mimi both exhaled quickly. "Soon as we got her out of the building, she was telling us we needed to get down here to get to you. Put up quite a fuss, saying her husband and best friend were trapped down here in the rum runners' tunnels. We thought she hit her head at first."

"But she's okay?" Eric repeated breathlessly.

"Doctor says she'll be fine," Mancuso answered.

Mimi let out a small laugh beside him. Eric turned to look at her. Relief etched on her features, she spoke. "My husband...Stanley Richmond...is he -"

"Waiting for you outside, been fighting us to let him get down here and dig you out himself. We had to insist he leave it to the professionals. He's been helping with the injured up there."

Mimi let out another laugh, and clapped a hand over her mouth, but Eric could see that her smile extended to her eyes, despite her attempts to cover it. For the first time, he let himself smile.

"They're both okay," he breathed, looking at Mimi. She nodded, and an understanding that seemed to encompass their entire time trapped in the room passed between them.

"Yeah, they're fine. The bigger deal is that you two are okay. We better get you outside, there's a lot of people who've been worried about you," said the chief. Soon, accompanied by several other firefighters and volunteers, Eric and Mimi made their way through the debris, up the remaining stairs and out of the building.

Eric was amazed to see what had happened to town hall. The truck was gone but the damage to the wall remained. He saw it all in a haze, however, as his attention was mainly focused outside, where he could see people milling around, talking anxiously, some seeming to be working to clean up, others merely talking about the events among themselves. A few steps away from the building, he saw a sight that made his heart leap. Her forehead bore a gash, her clothes were covered in dust, and her arm, he noticed, was held close to her side by a makeshift sling, but she had never seemed so beautiful as she noticed him and her face lit up. He found himself grinning and began to race the rest of the way towards her.

But Mimi got there first, throwing her arms around her friend. "Mary! You're okay! We - we were so worried!"

Mary was laughing herself, hugging Mimi back with one arm. "Mimi! I'm so glad you're - ow, watch the arm."

Mimi let go to step back and survey her friend. "You weren't - weren't in the tunnel?" she asked.

"I was upstairs," explained Mary. "But missed the truck by a few feet, just got hit by some of the bricks. Got lucky I guess." She shrugged, and grinned at the understatement.

"Yeah," said Mimi tearfully. She hugged her friend again, being careful of her arm but holding on tightly.

"Mimi!" came a voice. Mimi let go to turn her head towards the street. Stanley was rushing towards them. With one more grin at her friend, Mimi dashed in his direction.

A few people on Main Street turned to see the couple embracing so enthusiastically in the middle of the road. Stanley, a look of wild relief on his face, pulled Mimi into his arms with such enthusiasm he lifted her off the ground. She laughed, kissed him, and laughed again.

Mary had watched her friends' reunion for a moment, laughing to herself, but she quickly turned back to Eric, her face becoming serious suddenly. She stepped slowly towards him.

"Eric," she said softly, her eyes suddenly teary, though she smiled.

He merely nodded, wrapping his arms around her, holding her to him. He kissed her hair. She let out a laugh that sounded like a sob, and smiled up at him. "Eric, I thought I lost you...I was so scared," she breathed.

He brushed his hand through her hair, noticing the stitches on her forehead. "And I...but you didn't," he whispered.

She nodded, closing her eyes briefly, hugging him again with her good arm. He chuckled to himself, and she didn't question him. After a long silence, she stepped sideways, putting her arm across his shoulders, leaning her head against him, and looking across the street, where their friends were also still embracing.

"And I was so worried about the two of you," mused Mary. "Seems you were just happy to finally fly the coop. Guess I shouldn't have left the two of you alone like that huh?"

She was teasing, he knew, and he chuckled, looking back over at Stanley and Mimi. "Nah," he said. "Mimi's okay."

"Yeah?" Mary raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, we were fine," he said. Mary smiled.

"I'm glad," she said. "I was a little worried, about how things between you two can get."

"What?" asked Eric, with mock incredulity. "Mimi's not so bad. Really."

Mary chuckled, leaning against him again. They looked over at their friends, who had finally tired of embracing and staring into one another's eyes long enough to wave over at them. Stanley and Mimi began to come back over towards their friends, and Mary started towards them.

"Mary," said Eric in a low voice.

She stopped, to turn back to him again.

"I, uh -" Did he want her to know the horrible things that had been running through their heads for the past two hours? To know the strangeness of coming to identify with Mimi Clark? To know how hard he'd worked not to think of where she could be as he sat in the basement of town hall? "I - love you," he finished.

She smiled again."Love ya too."

"And you'll never know how glad I am that you're- you didn't -"

"Hey, I'm not that easy to get rid of!" She laughed, taking his hand in her own as they drew closer to their friends.  

Squeezing her hand in his, grinning at Stanley and Mimi who were soon a few feet away from them, he didn't answer. He kissed her forehead again as Stanley greeted them, dropping his arm to her shoulders. He didn't say anything, but smiled as he caught Mimi's eye. Sunlight filtered down on all of them, and they stood with their loved ones by their sides. Eric raised his eyebrows slightly. Mimi gave a nod. They exchanged a smile before turning back to Stanley's story about the work crew he'd been helping in the dig to find the missing spouses. Eric considered mouthing 'thank you', but didn't, merely returning her nod with one of his own.