White Collar Ficlet - Never Say Goodbye

[elrhiarhodan]

Another piece I wrote for the awesome photoash, for the prompt "Hard Goodbyes."

Never Say Goodbye


Neal hates saying goodbye. It's far too final a word - once it's said, it can't be taken back. He doesn't use the word "goodbye" to Moz that last day, nor to June. But he does to Elizabeth, and then it was as if he had thrown a bit of his own soul in the garbage when he tossed that cell phone away. He doesn't say goodbye to Peter either. He can't.  There is just too much history between them - too much hope and pain and love and anguish. Saying goodbye to Peter means that there will never  be another chance for them - whatever "they" were.

 

When Peter comes running after him, and keeps pressing at him, Neal feel like Peter is taking huge, ravenous bites out of him. Each step he takes away from Peter, each footfall echoing the "goodbye goodbye goodbye" that he never said, leaves him aching and angry and torn.

 

And then, like Lot's wife he turns back, and the next goodbye he says is in a cemetery.