Ben looked at Melody. He pursed his lips together and tightened his grip on the kitchen counter. This was such unexpected news that he at first thought she was talking about remembering last night, the same as he was. In context, though, there was really only one thing she could have meant, and as he unpacked the confession he realized that it didn't surprise him as much as it should have. She must have told him this last night, and somewhere in the back of his head he remembered the discovery and the feeling it had given rise to. Last night he'd felt angry, betrayed by the dishonesty in keeping something like that from him when he was under the impression she was upset because she didn't remember. Now, it made him feel more depressed than anything.
She had known about their entire past for weeks, and that hadn't been enough to clear the air. She had known about everything they had been through together — the sacrifices made, the struggles to make things work, the way Nora had rescued them both — and she had still interpreted his attempts to repair things as tense and awful. He'd been trying his best, ever since her accident. He'd made the decision not to tell her about the sordid parts of their past because, given the option, he wouldn't have wanted to know. If he could have wiped that slate clean and just been happy with her, he would have. She had thought at the time that he'd been willfully hiding something from her, but after she remembered, how could she fail to recognize that as something he had done for her? And the other things over the past few weeks, the things that she'd rebuffed. His trying to be nice to her, trying to touch her, asking her about how she was feeling — he'd been trying to make her happy. He'd gone to talk to her former fiance in the hopes that maybe playing nice with this bloke he hated would make her happy. He'd been trying, and she said things were tense and awful.
Ben shifted his eyes down to the floor. When he spoke, his voice was shaky and he only uttered one word. "Okay."
She had known about their entire past for weeks, and that hadn't been enough to clear the air. She had known about everything they had been through together — the sacrifices made, the struggles to make things work, the way Nora had rescued them both — and she had still interpreted his attempts to repair things as tense and awful. He'd been trying his best, ever since her accident. He'd made the decision not to tell her about the sordid parts of their past because, given the option, he wouldn't have wanted to know. If he could have wiped that slate clean and just been happy with her, he would have. She had thought at the time that he'd been willfully hiding something from her, but after she remembered, how could she fail to recognize that as something he had done for her? And the other things over the past few weeks, the things that she'd rebuffed. His trying to be nice to her, trying to touch her, asking her about how she was feeling — he'd been trying to make her happy. He'd gone to talk to her former fiance in the hopes that maybe playing nice with this bloke he hated would make her happy. He'd been trying, and she said things were tense and awful.
Ben shifted his eyes down to the floor. When he spoke, his voice was shaky and he only uttered one word. "Okay."
MJ made this <3