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The previous encounter with Mordechai had left Lanie shaken, so much that she had been unable to focus on the pending tasks of her work. The faculty had been lucky that the students had the day off, as the atmosphere was thick with a decade-old pain… Not precisely the best one for teaching. On this day, the gymnasium had been reserved only for the Class of 06’, who had been the most affected by the ten year-old tragedy. It wasn’t the best reason for a reunion, but the faculty and old Edenridge High students had considered that it was pertinent to honor those lost or injured on the decade of the shooting . 

After shifting in her seat and pacing around her office for the better part of the day, Lanie glanced at her office clock: it was time to finally get going. She took her handbag (the designer one Roddy had spoiled her with on her last birthday) and keys from the drawer she kept them in, locked the office door behind her and was on her way to the gym. Once there, the sight of her husband was enough to bring some peace to Lanie’s restless mind, even if it was for a second. Smiling up at him, the blonde woman gracefully walked up the bleachers and took a seat next to her husband, entwining her arm around his. She had arrived just 5 minutes before ex-principal Payne took the stage.

Listening to ex principal Payne talk in that gymnasium, almost instantaneously transported Rod back to his difficult youth. After all, it was in this very room where he took a bullet in the spine. As Payne spoke of that day and the minds of the audiences drifted away to where they were on that fateful Wednesday morn, Roddy’s pale blue eyes drifted first to his hands, which were interlocked with those of his wife and then they moved up to the contours of her beautiful face. Life was a strange thing, he thought. In days gone by, the woman he currently held was a friend sure but barely. As teenagers, Lanie was wrapped up in her Sid and Nancy drama with Decky Boaz whilst Rod spent much of his time punching walls and trying to stop his friends being idiots. Their personal stories never really intertwined...at least not until the day Charlie Decker went crazy. 

The young fireman looked back on the day with a mixture of thought and feeling. If he hadn’t have gone back in that school, he wouldn’t have spent months in rehabilitation learning to walk again… But on the flip side, he wouldn’t have saved the lives of the people he did. If he hadn’t gone back in, his parents wouldn’t have had to sell their business to pay his medical bills. But again, if he had not gone in, he wouldn’t have found Lanie alone in that rehab center, they wouldn’t have fallen in love, and that little angel of theirs wouldn’t even exist.

Life was a funny thing. Especially in the town of Edenridge, MA

Elaine seemed to be listening intently to the words of principal Payne, but in reality she was just deep in thought. The sights of old, familiar faces brought her back to the high school days, which had been far from her glory days. In fact, the high school days were the ones she desperately wanted to forget, even if they had shaped her in becoming what she was now. But there was something strong enough to bring her back to the present and away from her daydreams... Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a male figure standing by the open gym doors, as if hesitant to go in. Lanie knew exactly [i]who[/i] this person was, so she tried her hardest to keep her eyes from drifting in that direction.

Rod scanned the crowd and saw nothing but old faces, some he knew, mostly those who had stayed in Edenridge. There were a few dotted around the room that he recognised from high school but they had gone on to pastures new. One face he noted was that of Derek O’Leary, his once and former bully. They had shared a drink or two with in their adulthood but they were far from friends. 

Those days were difficult ones for any teenager yet those final few months at Edenridge High, that class had it so bad. The rage of Charlie Decker stealing futures and lives like a thief in the night. The memories of days gone by generally fade after time and that may be the case for most but for Roddy, he remembered every day in that rehab facility. He remembered every morning, being awoken by the agony coursing through his back. He remembered being forced day in and day out to go through hours and hours of physical therapy just to be able to learn to walk again. His gaze fell upon his wife again, Lanie was the real reason he was alive today, not the doctors.

Lanie turned away in the opposite direction, unable to fake interest any longer. Just then, she noticed her husband looking at her in only that sweet, tender way Roddy could, and her heart melted into a puddle. It was a welcome distraction from avoiding so much as crossing stares with the ghost of relationships past again. She flashed the man a sweet smile, and placed a hand on his cheek.[color=darkturquoise]“What are you thinking, baby?”[/color] she whispered softly to him, locking her blue eyes with his and softly caressing his cheek with her thumb.

[color=green]“I was just thinking about us and the great complications of life”[/color] He chuckled as he felt the warm touch of his wife on his bearded cheek. [color=green]“We’re sitting here, remembering a day that brought such pain to not only our lives but to others… Yet if that day hadn’t have happened, exactly how it happened, well I wouldn’t be with you and neither of us would have had Ingrid. Our joy… It came from such a dark and terrible place. Happiness… Born of rage…”[/color] At least Rod knew that Mr Beau’s English lessons stuck with him. For a man who communicated mostly with his eyes, when he talked he knew how to do it with flare.

Lanie’s smile faltered a little at her husband’s words. Even if they were meant to be beautiful, they were laced with something else… A hint of guilt. She gave the man a fleeting kiss. [color=darkturquoise]“Honey, you can’t feel guilty for having found good in the bad. As the great Albus Dumbledore said one day: [i]‘Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.’[/i] Even if the circumstances in which we met each other weren’t the best, we did, and we have built this beautiful life together. Forgive me if I sound selfish, but I wouldn’t change a single thing. You and Ingrid are my world, no matter what it was built or born on.”[/color] 

Rod’s lip couldn’t help but curl into a smile as Lanie quoted Dumbledore. Harry Potter was one of their things. He remembered not long after they decided to start dating, someone came up with the idea to watch all eight movies in one sitting. That was an incredibly long but lovely day, in fact it was one of the many that the two had shared together. Remembrance of these days were enough to eclipse the guilt Roddy was feeling in that moment. [color=green]“Lanie Callahan, you flatter me”[/color]

Lanie’s smile grew bigger and wider at his words. Even after four years, being called Lanie Callahan sounded like it was but a dream. [color=darkturquoise]“God, it sounds so good when you say it.”[/color] she whispered excitedly, giving her husband’s hand a squeeze and resting her blonde head on his shoulder. 

She was thankful for the way her hair hid her face at that moment, because even though she was happy with Roddy and their life together, for an unwelcome second she considered how life would have been like had she been Lanie Boaz instead.