One July day, 2018, FBI consultant John McBain, on his way to work hears this song and his thoughts wander:

Song – “One More Time” by Richard Marx

Nothing I must do

After all of these years

Nowhere I should be

Now in a new city, no obligations

No one in my life
To answer to, but me

Still no one special in my life

No more candlelights
No more purple skies
No one to be near
As my heart slowly dies

My heart died the day that “you” died

If I could hold you one more time
Like in the days when you were mine

When you were mine, you made me feel like I was worth something.  I treated you badly.  You were all I ever wanted but I never told you that I loved you.

I'd look at you
Till I was blind
So you would stay

I wish that I could see you again.  I would say what I feel.  I would tell you that I love you.  I would never grow tired of looking at you.

I'd say a prayer each time you smiled

To see you smile again would light up my day.

Cradle the moments like a child
I'd stop the world if only I
Could hold you one more time
I can’t hold you again because you are gone.  I would really “stop the world” if I could hold you one more time.  I would treasure every moment with you.

I've memorized your face
I know your touch by heart

I remember every touch, every kiss, every time we made love.  Yes, we made love because I know NOW that I really did love you THEN. I love you now.  I never smelled again, “Flowers in Springtime”.

  
Still lost in your embrace
I dream of where you are

I dream of you now. I dream of a life that I could have had with you if I had expressed THEN how I really felt about you.  You were right to leave me when you did because I didn’t know what I wanted THEN and when I did realize my mistake you wouldn’t take me back.  Now you are gone from me forever.

When you went into that coma in 2007, it seemed like time stopped for me. When your sister told me in 2010 that you died, if felt like the bottom fell out of my life.  I always thought that I could not sustain a relationship because of my loss of Caitlin.  That loss did play into my inability to really open up and love again.  I can’t use that excuse any longer because I realize that looking back at all my failed relationships since we parted that “you” made me feel things that I never thought that I would feel again and if ever I were to say “I love you” to anyone it would be to you.  But I failed you even in that.  I said the words to another but deep down in the core of me, I felt them for you.

Llanview remains in my past, but my memories of you remain with me always.  On my way to work this morning I stopped for my coffee and remembered one of our conversations about coffee.  You asked me how I took my coffee, “I go all out, cream and sugar”.  Now 8 years after your death I still think about you.  

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John arrived at his office building and enters the elevator.  As he arrives at his floor, he stops.  At the adjacent bank of elevators a woman enters the elevator.  He only sees her from the back.  A tall, slender women with below the shoulder length hair and he smells, “Flowers in Springtime”. “Evangeline”, he calls to the women.  He hears her reply, “Yes”, and then the elevator doors close.

“You’re the woman I want to be with, yesterday, today, tomorrow!”

“Why can’t you see yourself the way that I see you John?  You’re the man who can take me in his arms and make me forget about the rest of the world.”

She doesn’t understand why these memories have resurfaced today.  She hasn’t thought of her past life for some time now.  Her past life?  Left in a coma for three years and pronounced dead after her relatives terminated life support.  How did she come to this point?  What happened?

Managing my care for the years of my coma took its toll on my mother.  When she found the advanced directive in my private papers stating that I did not want to survive on life support, she honored my wishes. Unfortunately, the advanced directive was a fake put there by someone who did not have my best interests in mind.  Fortunately, thanks to my Uncle Clay, I survived.

Uncle Clay had made arrangements for my care in the event that my mother decided to terminate life support.  He knew that I was a fighter and would do everything within my power to fight to overcome my circumstance.  In that, at that time, I was in no condition to fight, he fought for me.  He decided that should my mother approve to terminate life support, he arranged with staff at the long-term care facility to make it appear that I died.  He made sure that no one else knew of his plans.  He had me moved to another facility and there I received the care necessary to survive that ordeal.  Although it took many years after that for me to recover from the coma, it took several more years of rehabilitation to regain my former strength.  The fact that my mental faculties suffered no major damages as a result of the coma, allowed me to return to practicing law.

Getting dressed this morning, for some strange reason, she decided to spray on a perfume she had not used in years, “Flowers in Springtime”. She had an early morning meeting downtown.  The meeting ended well and as she entered the elevators to return to her office across town she heard someone call her name, “Evangeline”.  She replied, “Yes”.  The elevators doors closed.

As Evangeline descended in the elevator she wondered who had called her name.  Had she left something at her earlier meeting? She decided not to worry about it and knew that if she had left something the office staff there knew to send it to her.  She had a busy day ahead and did not have time to delay.  Since her recovery she cherishes every minute and endeavors to reduce any stress or worry in her life.   Carpe diem, seize the day, has become her motto.  She lives each day to the fullest, forgetting about the past and not worrying about the future.  That’s why it seemed so strange to her that today of all days, she thought about John McBain and even wore the perfume that she knew he liked.

Meanwhile, John stands at the elevators wondering what just happened.  How could he have thought that he saw Evangeline? She died? Didn’t she? But he heard the woman respond, “Yes”, when he called her name.  And he even smelled, “Flowers in Springtime” which was Evangeline signature perfume.  And why today of all days did that song play, “One More Time”, and he thought of their coffee conversation.  John didn’t believe in coincidences and decided then and there to get answers to his questions.  

After the elevator encounter John went to the receptionist and inquired of the meeting schedule on the floor and learned that the Assistant Director had a meeting with one of the area’s leading attorneys, Evangeline Williamson.  John couldn’t believe what he heard. John went to his office and called the one person who could confirm that indeed Evangeline was alive.  Nora Buchanan answered on the third ring. She confirmed that yes, Evangeline recovered from the coma.  Nora further explained that Evangeline never returned to Llanview and only corresponds with Nora and Victor Lord. John didn’t ask Nora for Evangeline’s address because he knew if Nora thought that Evangeline wanted him to have it she would have given it already.  John couldn’t blame her.  Nora was Evangeline’s friend and John treated Evangeline very badly when they were together. After John’s conversation with Nora the receptionist came to his office to ask him to store a personal item left by the attorney who met with the Assistant Director this morning. Attorney Williamson would return soon to retrieve it.  John smiled.

Hours later, Evangeline indeed had left something at her early morning meeting and the office staff there finally contacted her to inform her that they would send it to her.  Fortunately Evangeline had another meeting in the same area and agreed to retrieve the item herself. She thought that perhaps that explains why someone called her name as she left her earlier meeting.  

Evangeline arrived to retrieve the item and the receptionist directed her to an office down the hall. Evangeline raised her hand to knock on the door but before she could knock the door opened and there stood John McBain. Evangeline was speechless. John smiled, took her hand, and led her into the office. She sat in the chair in front of his desk.  She continued to look at him but still said nothing.  John retrieved her item and placed it on his desk in front of her.  He sat in the chair next to her, took her hand again and said, “I love you”.  “Why?” Evangeline asked.  “Because I do and I want to,” John responded.  “I don’t believe you,” she said.  “Will you marry me?” he asked.  “No” she responded.  “Will you marry me and be the mother of my children and grow old with me?” he asked again.  “No” she said again. “Will you marry me and be the mother of my children and grown old with me and allow me to love you for the rest of my life and yours?” he asked again.  “Maybe” she responded.  John didn’t allow her to change her mind.  He immediately asked her to have dinner with him tonight.  She agreed. 

Evangeline laughed as John tried to hit the golf ball from the tee.  “John, it’s a golf club, not a baseball bat!” she said. “Pretend that you’re Robert Clemens” she added.  John turned to her and said nothing.  He knew that it wouldn’t be easy to win her again but he also knew that she was worth whatever he had to do to have her as his wife.  “I’d stop the world if only I could hold you one more time”.

The golf outings, the ballet performances, the tennis matches, and even couples therapy at Blessed Soul, a highly recommended couples retreat, whatever he had to do he did it. It didn’t take long for them to both realize that they were only delaying the inevitable. They belonged together.  So on a beautiful sunny day in September, Evangeline Williamson and John McBain became husband and wife.

Five years later

Evangeline is now a Judge and John is now an FBI Assistant Director.  Evangeline couldn’t help but smile as she looked adoringly at her husband as he chased after their son and she held the hand of their daughter. No one was more surprised than Evangeline and John when they found out that she was pregnant, with twins, within the first year of their marriage.  She thought that she was too old to have children, but everything went well with the pregnancy and the delivery.  Now here they are so many years after first meeting in Angel Park in Llanview, older and wiser and more deeply in love than they could have ever imagined.  Love does conquer all.

“I’d say a prayer each time you smile

Cradle the moment like a child

I’d stop the world if only I 

Could hold you one more time”

The End