The day after our therapy session, I was sat in the basement with a guitar, trying to make my fingers move to one of the new songs.

My peace was broken by the sound of footsteps down the stairs. I continued playing until Ethan was sat in the seat next to mine.

His elbows rested on his knees and his eyes followed my fingers on the fretboard. I stopped playing and his eyes travelled up to mine. I could see a careful uncertainty, almost on the verge of fear.

"So?" I asked.

"We probably need to talk some more," he said quietly.

I nodded.

"I don't know where to start, Izzy," he whispered.

I looked at him and decided to face my demons.

"Why did you leave?" I asked.

"I don't really know. I really thought you were done with me," he said.

"Not the moving out, Ethan. In hospital. You left the room. You let go of my hand," I said.

His eyes took on a silver shade I'd not seen before and he frowned slightly.

"After... the miscarriage?" he asked.

I nodded.

He swallowed heavily.

"I thought I'd lost you, Izzy!" he said.

"What do you mean? We lost Angel..." I asked, feeling confused.

"...and you nearly bled to death," Ethan mumbled.

I sat up in surprise. Ethan tilted his head slightly.

"What do you remember?" he asked.

"The blood. The ambulance. The doctor saying that it was because of high maternal age. You looking like the world had ended. And it was all my fault. I broke your dream of a big family," I replied feeling my tears well up again.

"Oh god.. No... Oh, Izzy!" Ethan mumbled and shook his head with his face in his hands.

I studied him in confusion.

Suddenly he grabbed my hand and looked straight into my eyes. His face was tight with emotions and his mouth was in a straight line.

"I thought you were dying and I couldn't deal with my last time touching you being in a hospital bed," he whispered.

"Dying?" I asked.

"They rushed you off to surgery to stop the bleeding. Izzy. You nearly died!" he whispered.

I stared at him.

"And then you woke up and all you said was sorry," he whispered.

His hands clutching mine were shaking.

"All I could think was how on earth I was going to continue without you. Every time I looked at you I wanted to cry, but the doctor said I should be strong, so I had to leave the room to break down," he muttered.

I stared at him, feeling overwhelmed. Ethan had his mouth all tightly buttoned.

"The doctors said to give you time. To give you space. That you would let me know when you were ready. But you never seemed ready..." he whispered with tears in his eyes.

"Why did you move?" I asked, fearful of the answer.

"Because I didn't know what to do, Izzy. You didn't look at me. You spent all your time painting or with the kids. I didn't think you loved me anymore. That your love had gone with Angel!" He said.

I lifted my eyes up to his and saw the grief and sorrow he had kept hidden. Unable to reply I simply tugged on his hands so that he was close enough for a hug.

"I love you so much. My life sucks so bad without you," I whispered and felt his body shake.

Once we were done crying, I took his hand and stood up.

"I need you to come home, Ethan. I need you here!" I said as soon as he stood up.

The smile on his face was hesitant.

Without a word, I led the way upstairs and into the living room. Over on the dresser, I picked up the frame with the turned photo and opened it. I held back the tears at the sight of the ultrasound picture but set it back into the frame, picture side out before reassembling the frame and setting it up. Taking a second to steady myself I opened a drawer and took out another frame. I set it up next to the ultrasound so Ethan could see it was one of the photos I had taken of Angel in the short time we'd been allowed to hold her.

"There. Our family is complete," I said and turned to see Ethan smile at me.

He left, saying he had to get something and returned a couple of hours later with a guitarcase in one hand and a basket full of roses in the other.

"My suitcase is still at the flat. I'll get it later," he said with a careful smile.

My eyes lifted to his as I nodded. He set the guitar down. I knew from the case it was the blue Ibanez. My favourite.

"We're still seeing Tessa again tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah. We need to figure things out," he said.

He set the roses on the table before striding over to me and pulling my body close to his. His forehead rested on mine, his nose rubbed on mine and the steel grey of his eyes was infinite. My own hands ran up along his arms before they rested at the back of his neck.

"I am so in love with you!" he whispered.

My hand travelled to his face, my fingertips feeling the soft skin of his cheeks.

"I never want to fall out of love with you," I whispered back, drowning in his eyes.

"I'd ask you to marry me... But we're already married so that's a bit daft," he laughed self consciously.

"I'd marry you again," I grinned.

"Okay, so I got you these," He said, releasing his grip on me, leaving me with an annoying itch at the edges of my lips from the kiss I didn't know I had wanted.

He reached out and handed me the basket of roses. There were 22 roses on a stem and several hundred photos, drawings and images of roses. I pulled out a card and opened it to see another picture of a rose. In it he had written a message and I felt my eyes tear up.

"The memories of each day with you. 16 years of marriage, 23 three years worth of happiness. Each day I fall more in love," The card read.

I lifted my eyes to see him with another long stemmed rose in his hand, previously concealed.

"It's a week overdue, but happy 23rd anniversary, Izzy," he whispered and I felt my eyes widen.

The memory of our first kiss, backstage, during a gig, flooded over me.

The tears in my eyes spilled over as I reached out and pulled him to me.

"I love you so much!" I whispered as his lips finally met mine and we both willingly, dove headfirst into the love we had for each other. I felt his breath on my face in a shaky attempt at a slow exhale that ended in a quivering sigh before he let all attempts at restraint go. My tongue reached out to taste him, my hands clutched him to me and I inhaled his scent on every breath. The hint of stubble felt technicolour real under my fingertips and I could feel his smile as he tasted me, inhaled me. For the first time in many months, I felt alive.

An unknown amount of time later, someone cleared their throat and we turned to see Simon and Oddball in the doorway, both with wide smiles.

"Just like old times. We show up for practice and these two are making out," Oddball laughed.

"Yeah. Just imagine when we're like, 90. At least we'll have the clattering of canes and walking frames to warn us," Simon chuckled as he lead the way downstairs for us to plan the rest of the music video.

I couldn't make myself let go of Ethan's hand as we looked through sketches and storyboards. We were supposed to be caged into individual plexiglass cubes that would break at the end of the song. Edited with the live footage it would look really good.

As Oddball left to get his kids he turned to me.

"I'll pick yours up too. The two of you need a couple of days to yourselves," he said without teasing or amusement.

I nodded.

"I'm really happy for you," he whispered as he gave me a hug.

Later that night, Ethan returned to the flat for his suitcase. I had gone to bed when I heard the front door unlock, open, close and be locked again. Quiet steps came up the stairs and the bedroom door quietly opened and closed again. Silent footsteps came across the floor and I heard the sound of clothes being discarded before I felt the mattress dip with the weight of another body.

I almost sighed as an arm wound around my middle and couldn't hold back a smile.

My hand stroked along his arm until my fingers could link with his.

"I knew you'd be awake," he whispered into my hair.

Carefully, without breaking the contact with his fingers, I turned around and found myself face to face with my own, beautiful Ethan.

In the half light of night, his eyes were almost luminescent.

I brought my hand to his cheek, stroking my thumb across his cheekbone.

He released my fingers and pulled my body closer to his again.

Without thinking, I pulled him to me and sighed in relief as our lips connected.

He clutched me closer and we kissed each other like we had in the beginning, when we were new to each other. I lost myself in him, feeling the slow exchange of emotion going on between us. With my breath coming in whimpers and sighs, I let go of all the pent up emotions I had been holding back since he moved out. All the anger, sorrow, loss, longing as well as all the love I still had for him.

In return I was getting the same intense mix of longing and love.

It was slow, emotional and deeply satisfying. We were just kissing each other without thought for anything else.

Slowly we calmed down and ended up, both of us panting with wide grins and our foreheads touching and our lips occasionally meeting in a series of soft kisses.

"If you are in doubt.... Welcome home," I whispered.

He kissed me softly again.

"I love you," I said.

"And I love you!" He whispered back.

"You're an ass for leaving me," I said while tracing his lip with my fingertips.

He laughed softly.

"I regretted it the moment I sat in the car," he whispered with an audible smile.

I slapped his arm gently.

"I'll never leave you again," he whispered.

"You promise?" I asked.

"I'd almost forgotten what kissing you feels like. But yeah. I'm home," he whispered as our lips connected again, this time with the added promise of forever.

The end!

***

This looks like the end of the line for Obstruction.
To me their journey has been real.
They are real.
So thank you for reading!