Within the Script (A Stanathan Fanfiction)

Chapter Five: Goodbye Hello

When Stana woke in her colleague's arms, she first simply looked at him sleeping beside her, smiling at his goofy hair and odd facial expression. Then she realized she had been asleep in her colleague's arms. Worse yet, they weren't the only two in the room. As her eyes traveled from Nathan's face toward the other being, she was relieved to find it was only Molly sitting in the chair at the end of the bed. Seamus and Jon would never shut up about this. At least Molly was a bit more grown up. "What time is it?" Stana whispered as she began to lift herself up.

"Five thirty-ish," Molly answered without reacting to the woman behind her. "Your boyfriend was here earlier looking for you before Seamus and Jon came in and found the two of you like... that."

"Kris was here?!" Stana immediately freaked.

Molly simply stated, "Yep."

"Damn it!" She shot out of the bed, disregarding the fact that she was making enough noise and movement to wake Nathan up. As he stirred, she told Molly, "Tell him I'll be back tomorrow, alright?" She nodded and Stana was out the door.

By the time she got back to their apartment, she was fully aware of what this must have looked like to him. She had had to convince him over and over again that she and Nathan were just co-workers and nothing more. They'd had the same discussion of how their kissing on screen meant nothing to her almost once a month. This was not going to be easily explained to him. There were so many things wrong with this that she knew were wrong when she did them that the aftermath was starting to make her sick. As she pushed through the door, she began to already say, "Look, Kris, I know that looked bad, but-." Then she saw it.

Within the apartment, all traces of him had been wiped away. His chair was gone. His clothes were gone. His cups and plates, toothbrush and razor, shoes, books, towels and everything else that was his in the apartment were all stripped out. One thing was left as her testament to their relationship. A single note from him pinned to the fridge read:

I love you, Stana, but I can't do this anymore. I can't keep being jealous and you can't keep having to explain yourself to me. I think it's best we stop trying to fool ourselves. This is over. Don't try to call me because I won't pick up.
~Kris.

At the sight of this, she felt her heart should have shattered, but somehow it didn't. Something should have completely broken in her, and nothing did. She wasn't in denial. She didn't doubt the truth of the situation. She just- didn't break. There was no pain as though this happened a thousand years ago. She loved the man. She had once loved the man. But if she was being fully honest with herself, love was not what had kept them together this long. She actually wasn't quite certain what had, because sharing a bed with the guy didn't seem to mean much to her now that he was gone. She just- accepted this as though it was something she had seen coming for a thousand years.

Back at the hospital, however, Nathan laid in his bed chatting with Molly about their relationship in this world. To him, it seemed almost the same as their on-screen relationship, just not as blood related. She told him everything about their last six-ish years together and how he actually became like a secondary father-figure to her. She even teased him for his origional self-assumed title of "big brother" and how the father-figure title wasn't anything he was too pleased about when he first heard it. To this, Nathan laughed as though it was the most ridiculous statement he had ever heard.

After a short while, Seamus and Jon came back to the room with large grins stretched across their faces. "Bro, Nathan, you and Stana seemed pretty cozy today," Jon stated with a grin.

Seamus smiled, "Haven't ever seen that off camera. What would your girlfriend say?"

Nathan's brow raised. "Girlfriend?"