FicWad

Brushing off the very thin layer of dust that had built up on the cover after years of neglect, her slender fingers ran down the binding of the photo album in her lap as a smile played quietly on her lips.

"Ana?" The voice of her grandmother called up the stairs, filtering off of the walls of the dusty old attic as she took a seat on an equally dusty and old toy chest.

"I'm up here" Was her quick response as she anxiously cracked open the cover, preparing to take a much needed trip down memory lane. Smiling happily to herself as she flipped slowly through the pages of her past, Ana turned each page with a nervous caution, afraid of what emotions the next page would bring.

"You acted like graduation was your deserved release from a life long prison sentence" Grams joked lightly through the antiqued silence, from the top of the attic steps as she watched her granddaughter scan the memories of her childhood.

"For the most part" Ana chuckled with a sigh, "it felt like it was."

Running her fingers over the corners of the page before turning to the next, Ana huffed out a quite laugh at the site of a much younger version of herself, almost hidden behind the monstrosity of a drum set, in which she was mostly positive, still sat across the street, in the basement of Patrick's childhood home.

"When he told me he was joining a band, I thought he was insane. I told him not to be foolish, to go to college like a normal person, not throw his life away at 18."

With an apprehensive sigh and an almost heart breaking smile, she finished her memory, "Now I'm sitting here looking through old pictures while he's off touring the country, making millions of dollars and millions of fans scream."

"We all have a lapse in judgment every now and then" Grams assured with a laugh as she took a seat next to her granddaughter, "I told him that when it didn't work out, your Uncle John would give him a job down at the car lot."

Suddenly an ancient silence fell over them as Ana carefully continued to flip the pages, her eyes scanning them in awe, sparkling with the memories of the days of her past. As her eyes landed on the very last page of the album in hand, Ana couldn't help the smile that appeared immediately on her lips.

Old and worn, a picture of her and Patrick from their kindergarten graduation sat on the top of the page; Ana will her arms crossed firmly over her chest and Patrick with a scowl on his face, standing ten steps away from each other, unwilling to look happy in the picture their parents were so excited to take. Sitting below that nearly ancient memory was a very different memory of their high school graduation, Patrick with his arms wrapped tightly around Ana, both grasping happily onto their caps and diplomas, the smiles on their faces still lighting up the picture to this day.

"Funny how time changes everything" Grams interjected quietly, in nearly a whisper as Ana closed the cover of the book and placed it back on the shelf with the others.

"And now we're getting married" Folding her hands on her lap, she sighed.

"I saw it in you when you were kids; you're mother always told me I was crazy for thinking it and your father told me not to give you any ideas, that you weren't dating until you graduated medical school." Grams smiled warmly.

"Medical school, ha." Ana laughed dryly, "He was a dreamer."

"Always was, always will be" Grams nodded happily before sighing, "It's a shame that after it all, it took such a tragedy to bring you together."

Smiling weakly now, Ana's expression dropped only slightly as she remembered the events that ultimately led them to where they stand today. Distinctly remember the sadness in her father's eyes as he stepped into the room, into her fourteenth birthday party, how he refused to let the tears slip through as he broke the horrifying news to his son and daughter. Calling out her name as she sprinted from the house the moment the reality of it hit her, she remembered hearing his tears finally break through, echoing in her mind as she ran through her grandparent's backyard, out to the woods. With each step that her feet took through the trees, she refused to cry, to show weakness but as the sound of leaves crunching under footsteps followed her through the woods that afternoon, her barrier began to fall. As her legs began to tire out, the footsteps grew closer and at the moment her legs gave out and her knees buckled, his arms were there to catch her as she fell to the ground in tears, mumbling the reality of it over again to herself.

"She's gone"

Cradling her in his slender arms the best he could was all he had to offer her now.

"She's really gone, Patrick." Was all she could sob into his shoulder now as he ran his fingers through her hair in a calm, soothing motion.

"I know Ana, I know;" Patrick sighed desperately, scared out of his mind by reality of it, by the broken girl crying in his arms, "But I'm here and I'll be here forever."

Patrick could have never known on the day of her fourteenth birthday, the day her mother died, that the promise he made would be a promise he still withheld to this day. As their friendship grew, Ana could have never imagined that nearly ten years from that day, all of her wildest dreams would have come true.

Wiping away the tear that was now rolling down her cheek, Ana smiled widely through the sadness as she fiddled with the ring adorning her finger, admitting a childish secret with a quite chuckle.

"You know when Kate and I use to play house, I always secretly wanted to be married to Patrick, even though I hated him. And when he and Kate got engaged, I spent an entire day crying because all I could remember in my head was the way her face wrinkled up in disgust in the fifth grade when I admitted that I had a crush on him."

"On the day after he asked Kate to marry him, he spent the entire afternoon with me up in this attic, looking through these pictures ... talking about you." Grams clued Ana in now on a secret of her own that she had kept for some time now. "I don't think he ever really thought he could love her the way he loves you, but by then he gave up on waiting for you and settled for what he thought could be the next best thing."

Ana frowned deeply now at the mention of the love Patrick once felt for someone who had once been her very best friend, but Grams kept her interest, keeping up with the secrets.

"I never told him that you and Michael planned to be married, because I knew that if he knew that, he would have done something stupid like rush to marry that girl out of spite. But the years I spent feeling guilty about keeping it a secret were worth it the moment I saw you kiss him on the swing set."

Immediately flushing to a dark shade of red, embarrassment covered Ana's cheeks as Grams placed a gentle hand on her granddaughter's knee, smiling warmly over her.

"We may seem old and senile to you now, but we always see what you seem to miss and we always know what's best for you in the end. The tears that he caused you in the past were all for a purpose and listening to you cry the morning of your tenth birthday party because you didn't want him to be invited was worth it just to see the smile that he causes now."

Ana stood quietly now and made her way to the door with a content smile on her face as her grandmother questioned her intentions, in fear of having struck a wrong note somewhere in her granddaughter's heart.

"I'm going to make a phone call" Ana smiled back at Grams, shrugging timidly, "I just want to hear his voice."