A few days after Madeline and Tara had had their meal and discussed business, the other Byrne twin touched down in New York. Normally, he cut through a crowd at the airport the way a shark cut through the water. Here, he found himself hanging back, wanting to avoid accidental contact with others. He cursed quietly to himself as he slowly made his way through the airport and to the sidewalk, where he quickly hailed a cab. The taxi brought him down to the Southern Charm Office, where he hoped to find Madeline.

He exited the car cautiously before making his way to the door. An employee confirmed Madeline was in her office, and Gavin made his way to the door, leaning against the frame. He flashed a tired, subdued grin as he saw Madeline.

"Hey."

It was a miracle that Madeline was even in the office that day given the way she had been living the past couple of weeks.  But she was determined to make Southern Charm a success and since her business meeting with Tara, she had thrown herself into her work. It still wasn’t a particularly healthy obsession, but she was at least sober more often these days.

It wasn’t usual that her staff would allow someone to come back to her office without telling her first, but Madeline and Gavin had been seen together often enough that they likely figured that Madeline was expecting him. When she heard his voice and looked up to see him standing there, it took a moment for her to register that it was really him. He looked tired, not his usual energetic self.

“Gavin?” She stood up, torn between hugging him and slapping him. Instead, she did neither, just standing there for a moment before she let out a breath. “You’re ok.”

"Barely."

He smirked, but he still looked slightly troubled as he invited himself into sitting into the chair across from her.

"I'll be back to normal in a couple weeks. Caught a bullet in Detroit. I wanted to see you, talk to you about some things."

"You shouldn't have traveled. You could have called, I would have come to you. I wanted to but....I didn't know where you were." Madeline imagined that Tara had told him but she said the words anyway. She moved to the other side of her desk, kneeling next to the chair, her fingers brushing against his cheek as if she wanted to make sure he was really there. 

"You should be in a bed somewhere, resting." Madeline's eyes were filled with genuine worry for him. 

"Maybe. But there's some things I wanted to talk to you about first."

He looked at her, icy blue eyes tracing her face for a moment. There were a few things he wanted to talk to her about. But how could he ask the other questions he wanted to, and then drop a bomb on her like it was an afterthought? 

"Mads, I'm going to just be right up front about this, because I don't know any other way to say it, and I think you deserve to hear it because you're important to me. The way I figure it, I've got about six friends in the whole world- and family too, yea- and you're one of them. You're not just some gal to me, and I think you know that. I expect that's why you called me when all that Texas shit went down."

He paused.

"It hasn't happened yet, but I think I'm goin' to be seeing someone. Official-like. It's what I want, I think. You know I've been seeing other people, just like you've been doing the same. I just wanted you to know that I don't think things can keep going with us the way they have been. I'm a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of 'em. And you deserve to know what I'm thinkin."

Madeline wasn't quite sure what to say. She'd known this was a possibility, they'd even discussed it on their trip. But she hadn't expected it this soon and really, she'd never expected it at all, not from Gavin. They were kindred spirits, not ones to settle down or play house. That's what she had thought at least. 

She sat back on heels, pulling her hands back to her lap, and she nodded slightly at him. "I understand." She didn't trust herself to say more than that.

"I don't think I ever really expected to want a relationship like this, just like I don't think you ever do. I know that's not what you wanted from me. So I can understand you being disappointed in me getting hooked like this, since things'll have to change, at least a little."

Gavin leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"None of this has been my plan. I guess the simplest way I can say it is that when I caught a bullet, this woman pulled me back. And I care about her. And I owe it to her to figure out if there's something bigger there, even though I'll probably fuck it up."

"You and I are a lot alike, Mads. Like I said, I figure that's maybe why you called me when all this Texas stuff happened. I guess what I'm saying here is that I can understand why you'd be disappointed in me for being like most other people in the end, but I'm hoping we can still work together. Still have fun together, even if there's nothin' physical between us."

Madeline sat quietly for a few moments. He wasn’t wrong when he said she was disappointed, but he was wrong about the reasons. It was her own fault really, she hadn’t really known how she felt until Texas and the trip had been so emotional, she didn’t think that was the time or place to even discuss it. And then they got back, and he went off to DT and now here he was, telling her there was no chance for them. Her eyes found his, a million emotions swimming through them as she tried to think of how to respond.

“I’m not disappointed in you.” Her voice was soft when she spoke; she couldn’t stand the thought of him thinking that. “I’m just…disappointed.” Not in him specifically, in all of it. “I think you’re wrong about me, in some ways. But I understand why.”

She stood up and moved to the window, her arms crossed and her back to him. She didn’t want him to see her pain, even if she wasn’t doing the best job of hiding that lately. “I want the best for you, Gavin. And if she makes you happy, then that’s what matters.”

Gavin studied Madeline's reaction and was... surprised. This was going different than he'd expected. He'd been expecting her to curse him out- perhaps winding up with the two of them having a shot of something strong as they moved on to the other questions he had. Instead, she was quiet where he'd expected noise, soft where he expected hardness. Maybe it'd be easier for him to just take his leave at this point, but he couldn't do that. Whatever was happening here, he still cared about her. His voice was softer as well as he responded. 

"How am I wrong about you, Mads?"

Madeline wasn't sure she wanted to answer his question, nor was she sure he would really want the answer, not now when he'd already made a decision. But she owed it to the both of them to lay it all out. She doubted it would change anything, but she if he were going to leave then he would leave knowing it all.

"Do you know that in this big old world of ours, you are the only person who knows anything about Jenny?" She still wasn't looking at him; she didn't trust herself too. "Not because we're alike, although I agree that we are. But because you're the one person I trusted with that information. Because I wanted to share it all with you. So that when I say I'm not one for marriage and happily ever after, you could understand why."

Madeline turned around now, her eyes brimming with tears, which was horribly unfair to him but she couldn't stop them. Not after the past few days she'd already had. "Maybe I was hoping I would meet someone who would prove to me that not all relationships are violent, horrible things. When we were in Texas together, maybe I started to think that person might be you. I couldn't tell you there, there was too much to figure out, I told myself I had to stay focused. That when we got back, I could figure it out. I didn't want to scare you away."

She paused, sighing softly as she pushed a hand through her hair. "And then I got back to New York and I just....lost it. I haven't been making the best of decisions for myself since we got back here." Her appearance was proof enough - she'd lost weight and still wasn't sleeping, so the dark circles under her eyes remained. "And then Tara came and told me you'd been shot and all I wanted to do was find you but she told me you were with someone in DT and I knew then it was already too late. I knew before you even came to tell me."

She was growing angry as she wiped the tears from her eyes, but not at him. "I think you should just go."

As Madeline spoke, Gavin found himself rocked back in his seat like he'd been hit with another bullet. He had a damn good poker face, but it failed him here, as he was hit with waves of shock and confusion. As he thought back to Texas, moments that he'd thought was simply her fighting her past suddenly changed as he saw them from a different perspective.

Oh... shit.

Gavin stood up. He instinctively wanted to go to her, but held himself still, knowing that things had changed.

"I think you're right. I'm sorry, Madeline. I didn't know how you felt. I thought you were just having fun with me. That we were friends."

He paused.

"I'm sorry I didn't see everything. If the timing had been different..."

He paused again- there was no use delving into the many different futures that might had occurred, if their story had played out differently. 

"I hope you find your person to prove that to you, about relationships. I understand if you don't want to see me for awhile. I was hoping, that after I'd told you about this, that we could talk about Texas. Talk about Eve. I wanted to help you- and I still do. I was hoping, after this, that you and I could be friends. Keep the vast majority of what made us click in the first place, and lose just a piece of it."

Gavin pursed his lips. She was getting angry; it was time for him to leave, to give Madeline space to process this: he could only hope that, somewhere on the other side, there was a conversation between the two of them, and that this wasn't goodbye.

"I'm sorry, Madeline... I didn't know. I hope that someday, you and I can share a drink. Be friends- because I'll always care about you."

He looked at her, beautiful as ever, not in spite of but because of the powerful emotions that were coursing through her. He still felt his spirit move at the sight of her... but he'd made his choice. He would have to live with it. He clenched his fist out of sight of her, hidden behind his leg.

"If you need anything. Ever. Call me. I'll be there... I'm sorry."

Gavin dropped his eyes as he moved toward the door. There was a chance for her to say something, to call him back. If silence was the only response, he'd make his way slowly back to the sidewalk.

Madeline couldn’t respond. The thought of seeing him, of just being friends with him after all of this, she couldn’t do it. He talked about timing and how he hadn’t realized. Of course not, Madeline wasn’t one to express her emotions, not easily. This situation was only going to make it worse, she was sure. She watched as he walked away and every part of her just wanted to explode. Another person walking away – why was that such a common theme in her life? She could hear Vernon’s voice echoing in her mind, tell her how useless and pathetic she was. Maybe he had been right all along.

But she couldn’t just let him leave, not like this. No, if Gavin were going to walk away from her he was going to know exactly what he was leaving behind. “Wait,” she said, her voice soft. And then she said it a second time, loud enough that she could tell he heard it.

She ran to him, threw her arms around him and kissed him. Not just any kiss, but one filled with every emotion and desire she had felt not just then but for the past few days. All the pent-up feelings since Texas, everything she had been trying to work through. She kissed him like she had never kissed anyone before and she doubted she’d ever kiss anyone like that again.

And then she stopped, turned and walked back into her office, closing the door behind her without a word.