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It was around 3:30 in the morning when Abigail Foy heard shuffling sounds outside her cabin door. Her first thought was that it must be the cat trying to get in, but as sleep abandoned her she quickly remembered that she’d had to leave her cat on earth (she was still bitter about that one). So what the hell was scratching at her door at this hour? Climbing out of bed and throwing on a robe, she tiptoed over to the door. Putting her ear to it, she could swear that she heard someone making very frustrated noises.
“Hello?”
The sound suddenly stopped.
“Who’s out there?”
When she got no response, she decided to bite the bullet and open the door. At first glance, she saw no one; that is, until she looked down. There, crouching on the floor and holding a crumpled envelope, was Danielle Sho. Her Danielle.
“Danielle?”
She looked up at Abigail sheepishly. “Uh...hi.”
“You wanna tell me what you’re doing crouching outside my door at 3:30 am?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah..I was..” She gestured to the envelope in her hand. “I was just trying to uh..get this under the door.” Looking at how crumpled and torn the envelope had become, she somehow looked even more crestfallen. “I guess I fucked that up too.”
Despite everything that had happened between them, Abigail couldn’t help smiling just a little bit. Deep down, she knew exactly what was in that envelope. She took a deep breath. “Do you want to come in?” she asked gently.
“Huh? Oh, I mean, it’s fine..I just..I was just coming to leave this here..I should probably go..” Danielle stammered, looking around the corridor nervously.
“Dani.” Abigail tapped her foot.
“Y-yeah?”
“Do you want to come in?”
“...Yeah.”
Abigail motioned for Danielle to sit while she grabbed them both green teas, tossing one to her before sitting down on the bed. After a long silence, she spoke. “Why are you here, Danielle?”
“I told you, to drop this off.”
“And what’s in it?”
Danielle opened the envelope and took out a now very crumpled piece of paper. “It’s just, y’know, a note. I thought that maybe if I left it here you’d read it and maybe..” She looked down at the paper. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea. I’m sorry.”
“Let me see it.”
“No, it’s dumb. Forget it.”
“Danielle, please.”
Knowing better than to argue, Danielle handed over the letter. Despite the tearing, Abigail could read it fairly well.
Dear Abby,
I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I was a total bitch to you. Me being pissed off at the Yus didn’t give me the right to take it out on you like that. You deserve better. I wish I could turn back time and do things differently, but I know I can’t. I just hope that maybe doing this might make up for it a little bit.
You’re my favorite person in the whole world. You’re kind, you’re funny, you’re smart, and you keep me from working myself to death. I even love your weird fantasy games, even if they confuse me sometimes. Ever since we broke up I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I know I don’t have the right to ask for another chance or anything like that, but I couldn’t just let things end without telling you how sorry I am. Thanks for putting up with a jerk like me as long as you did.
Thank you for everything,
Danielle
When Abigail looked up, Danielle was squirming like crazy in her chair. “I’m sorry, I know it was super dumb. I’m not great at writing stuff like that. I was just way too scared to say anything in person.”
Abigail’s eyes were starting to well up with tears. Happy or sad, Danielle couldn’t say.
“And what is it you’d want to say to me in person?”
“I mean…” Danielle scratched her arm, looking around the room as if something in there would help her form the words she was trying to say. “I guess I just wanted to say that...I miss you. I miss talking with you. I miss playing games with you. I even miss Fatal Fortress.”
Abigail chuckled. “Really? I thought you hated it.”
“I only said that because I suck at it. There’s so many numbers to keep track of..it makes training Bellamy look easy.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway..I do miss it. I miss all of it. I miss waking up next to you. I miss getting to come back to you after every shift. I miss getting to tell you how much I love you.”
“Danielle…” Abigail was definitely crying now, her cheeks glistening.
“I just love you a lot, okay? And I know I don’t deserve your love back. I know I can be a rude-ass jerk and I work too much and I snore really loud and I spilled tea on your character sheet that one time and I-”
Abigail held up a hand to shush her. Danielle was crying too now, on the verge of sobbing.
“I miss you. I want you back. I want US back.”
Danielle stopped speaking. The room was silent apart from her sniffling. Abigail wiped the tears from her face and slowly stood up. Then, without warning, she reached over to her table and grabbed her flexifoam crossbow. She held it up and let fly, catching Danielle in the arm. Danielle winced and grabbed the spot. At that distance, it had still hurt a bit.
“Ow, Abby! What the hell!”
Abigail dropped the bow. “That was for being a jerk.”
Danielle looked down, despairing. “Okay, I guess I deserve tha-”
Before she could finish, Abigail pulled her out of the chair and into a very tight squeezing hug. Danielle sunk into her, not quite able to process what was happening. Holding her close, Abigail kissed her forehead gently. “And that was for saying sorry.”
The sobs started in earnest after that. Danielle nearly collapsed into Abigail’s arms, great big heaving sobs emerging from her as she tried and failed to form words amidst the tears. Abigail was crying too, but she was laughing as well. “I guess a Danielle Sho apology can be sincere after all, huh?”
Danielle reached up an arm to wipe away some of her tears. “There’s a first time for everything, I guess.” She was starting to chuckle too. They stayed like that in silence for a few moments before Danielle straightened herself back up again.
“Abby..thank you. I’m sorry about showing up like this. I’ll get out of your hair now, I promise. I won’t show up to our next FF session either, if you want. I just wanted to make sure you knew how I felt.”
As she turned to leave, Abigail grabbed her arm.
“Dani, stop.”
Danielle looked back at her, her expression a mixt of scared and hopeful.
“You..you can stay here tonight, if you want. I’ve got a day off tomorrow, if you wanna maybe..play a game, or something? I just got the newest Lup’s Quest DLC and I haven’t gotten around to going through it yet..”
Danielle’s face lit up like a supernova. “Yeah, I...I’d like that. I have a feeling they can handle things down there without me for at least a little bit tomorrow.”
“You really have changed, huh?”
Danielle let out one last laugh-sob before letting Abigail pull her back into her arms.
“Dear future us..”
Danielle groaned as she opened her eyes, turning over to see Abigail next to her speaking into a TranScribe. She cuddled up closer to her, putting her head on Abigail’s shoulder. “I thought we agreed we weren’t going to call ourselves that.”
Abigail paused the recording. “I’m pretty sure last night I earned the right to call us whatever I want.”
“Fair point.”
Abigail hit resume and continued. “Today, I found out that apparently my beautiful but stubborn partner is capable of learning from her mistakes.”
Against her better judgment, Danielle found herself chiming in. “And I found out my beautiful but nerdy partner cries at video games.”
Abigail gave her a playful shove. Danielle sat up with a mischievous grin on her face. “Come on, you love me.”
“Yeah, I do. I do love you.”
Abigail leaned up towards Danielle as she brought her head down to kiss her gently, feeling a warm sense of security flow through her body.
It turns out that sometimes apologizing in person can go a long, long way.