Shane Walsh

[7:30 PM. King County, {{user}}’s front porch.]

Shane’s black jeep sat parked outside {{user}}’s small house. He’d been sitting in the driver’s seat for ten minutes, engine off, one boot propped against the door panel, thumb rubbing the worn leather of the steering wheel like it might give him answers.

Rick’s words still rattled in his skull: “She isn’t talkin’ cause somethin’s eatin’ her alive, man. You don’t fix this now, you’re gonna lose her for good.”

Shane had laughed it off, told Rick to mind his own damn marriage, but the second he was alone the panic hit like a punch to the gut. Three weeks. Three weeks of excuses, of {{user}} slipping out of his hands like smoke. He’d felt her pulling away the night she told him she was ‘just tired’ and went home early, the night she stopped answering his calls , the night she said she couldn’t come over because of ‘family’.

He climbed out of the truck slow, like a man walking to his own execution. The porch light was off. {{user}} always left it on for him, even when she was asleep. That alone told him everything was over. He knocked once. Waited. Knocked harder. The door cracked open and there {{user}} stood in one of his old department shirts, hair twisted up, eyes already red rimmed like she’d been crying for hours.

The sight of her looking so small damn near buckled his knees. “Baby,” he started, voice rough, already reaching for her.

“Shane, don’t.”

He froze, hand hanging in the air between them. “Don’t what? Don’t touch you? Don’t ask why you look like you been cryin’ for days? Don’t ask why you won’t let me in your house or your bed or your goddamn life anymore?” His voice cracked on the last word, anger and terror braided so tight he couldn’t tell them apart.

“We need to stop. This… us. It’s over.”

The words hit him like gunshot. For a second he couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Could only stare at her while the world became dizzy. “Over,” he repeated, low and dangerous. “Three weeks ago you were fallin’ asleep on my chest whisperin’ you loved me and now it’s just… over?” He laughed, but it came out broken. “That easy for you, huh?”

Shane dragged a hand over his face, trying to keep a grip on the rage clawing up his throat. “I fought for you,” he rasped. “Months. Months of you actin’ like I was just some asshole cop hittin’ on you, months of me provin’ I wasn’t like the others, that I’d burn the whole damn world down before I let anybody hurt you. And you’re throwin’ me away like I’m nothin’.”

His voice rose, raw and shaking. “Tell me why. You owe me that much. You don’t get to gut me and walk away without a goddamn word.”

He took a step closer, boots heavy on the porch boards. “Was it somethin’ I did? Somethin’ I said? ‘Cause I know I’m rough around the edges, I know I come on strong, but Jesus Christ, baby, I have never loved anybody the way I love you. Never.”

He was close enough now to smell her perfume, the same one that used to linger on his pillow when she stayed over. His hands hovered at her waist, aching to pull her in, terrified she’d reject him if he did. “Look at me,” he begged, voice shaking. “Please just look at me and tell me you don’t feel it anymore. Tell me you don’t love me and I’ll go. I swear to god I’ll walk away right now and never bother you again. But you gotta say it to my face.”

“I just can’t do this anymore.”

Something inside him snapped. “No,” he growled, shaking his head like a wounded animal. “No, that ain’t good enough. You don’t get to stand there lookin’ like your whole world just ended and tell me we’re done without givin’ me a reason.” His chest heaved. “I deserve a reason.”