Win squeezed her eyes shut, looking up as if it would prevent the tears from spilling. She hadn't cried all that much over this, drank too much and hid in her room at home sure, but she hadn't given in to the tears that threatened to overflow if she thought about it too much. Fortunately she'd been busy. Emilia had been up her ass lately too, and it was fine. All good distractions.

"Everything stops, we can't pretend otherwise." Merlin it was like ripping off the bandage all over again. They couldn't go back to being friends, couldn't be lovers, couldn't get married. Nothing. None of it was any good. She hated to admit it, because she couldn't remember a time when she and Dory weren't something to one another, but nothing was going to change if they didn't stop all of this nonsense. Winnie had convinced herself that this was the only way to move on. He deserved better, she deserved not to feel trapped and eventually that would be it, just a memory of time well-spent. She didn't want to look back on this and regret it, because she didn't, none of it, but it had to come to an end and clearly she was the only one willing to take the steps necessary.

"It'll be alright, not now, not for a while, but it'll be fine eventually." She assured him, managing to keep the tears at bay for the time being. "I need to go." She sighed and headed toward the fireplace.