Devils in the Details

Chapter Fifteen // The Magnussen Feast

OUTSIDE OF A HOME

Will approached the door, his hand poised and ready to knock away. But his muscles just didn't seem to be cooperating with him. It was if he couldn't move any of his arm or his fingers. They were stuck there, frozen in the moment along with him. Finally he forced himself past this awkward stage and made three quick knocks against the door.

Soft footfalls gradually increased in volume as the inhabitant of the home made their way to the door. Soon there was the click of a door unlocking and the creak of a handle being turned. The door opened to reveal Molly standing there, her lips pressed together in a near flat line. She didn't seem to be portraying any emotion in particular, but Will knew there was far more to her than what she was showing.

Again, he found himself at a loss for what to do - his body just wouldn't cooperate with what he wished to do. His mouth ended up hanging open like he had lost control of his jaw and couldn't close it. Molly didn't say a word. She just stood there straight faced, waiting for him to do something. Anything.

The words he wanted to say were balanced precariously on the very tip of his tongue, it was just a matter of articulating them. He knew exactly what he needed to say to her, exactly what choice of words he would use, exactly the inflection and tempo and tone. It had been rehearsed in his head time after time, as well in front of a mirror.

But it was something completely different to say a handful of words to a reflection of yourself than to go to someone and say it to their face. He didn't know exactly what he had been expecting to find when he came to see Molly, but somehow he felt that no matter what happened he would have been surprised by it.

Finally he forced the words to push out from his lips.

"Molly, I-"

He continued to mouth the words, but now it was against her lips. Somehow Will was sure that Molly had recieved the message. Their embrace lasted for seemingly forever, and yet the very moment they split apart from one another it felt like it had only been a matter of seconds.

"About the America thing," Molly said the moment they broke away. "It was a silly idea. I shouldn't have brought it up then. I really shouldn't have brought it up at all, to be honest."

Will, although he was somewhat shocked that she hadn't brought up anything else about their last conversation, shook his head and replied, "It wasn't silly. It was anything but silly. It was right."

"What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"What do you think I mean?"

"I can only really assume..."

"Sometimes you've just got to assume things," Will replied. Jack Crawford's warnings about making assumptions started echoing throughout his mind, but he pushed those noise away. "So, tell me...what exactly did you assume?"

"I assumed that it wasn't going to happen - there's about a million reasons why it wouldn't work out. And then there was the whole thing where I left you...it just wasn't going to work out. It isn't going to work out," Molly replied, fumbling for the right words to use.

"Well, I think there's certainly a way we can figure it out," Will said. "It's going to take time to compile everything, but I'm sure we can get you in America before too long."

Molly's smile grew into a large grin until she was beaming over at Will. He was certainly her fiance yet again, and she couldn't be more pleased with this. Everything was gradually being patched back together. It would never be fully fixed, but it was more than enough for her.

"I'm going back to America very soon," Will said. "You won't be there when I arrive, but it shouldn't take more than a few weeks to work something out."