"AMBER NEWELL" from Friends and Foes
Summary provided by author:
Since the beginning, Amber Newell and Taylor Brookdale have been involved in a storybook romance, with as many ups and downs as you can imagine. In high school, their whirlwind relationship lasted four years, up to the eve of their graduation. Upon learning that she was pregnant with his baby, Class Valedictorian Amber turned to Taylor for support. In a moment of panic, Taylor abruptly ended the relationship and left Amber on her own. As if she hadn't endured enough hardship, Amber's father proceeded to kick her out of the house and refused to support his daughter. Her dreams for the future were shattered, and Amber fled her hometown of Pine Valley, Colorado, missing her own graduation. Not a minute after Amber departed, did Taylor realize he had made a mistake. He went to search for her, but alas, he had lost the one true love of his life forever...or had he?
A year passed, and Taylor went on to attend the University of Southern California with his best friend Alex Harrison. Finally getting over the most devastating loss of his life, Taylor started to date the resident advisor of his dorms, Lyndsay Schofield. Soon they became a steady item, and things were going well until Lyndsay's best friend, Josie Lische, was murdered. Emotionally destroyed, Lyndsay separated herself from her friends in order to grieve. She was haunted by visions of Josie, who warned Lyndsay about her future with Taylor, and not to act irrationally in times of crisis. Lyndsay was confused by the cryptic manner of these dreams, and eventually shrugged these warnings off once her visions of Josie had stopped.
Soon enough, Lyndsay stopped mourning and her relationship with Taylor returned to the norm. Lyndsay realized how committed Taylor was, and was ready to tell him that she loved him. Taylor felt very strongly for Lyndsay, too, but was hesistant to tell her he loved her. Something wasn't right, something was lingering in his emotions which held him back from loving Lyndsay to the fullest. He felt empty somehow.
Just as Taylor's relationship with Lyndsay was to reachest its highest momentum, who should come knocking on Taylor's door but Amber Newell herself...with a one year old son. It didn't take long for Taylor to realize that he still loved Amber, and that was why he couldn't take his relationship with Lyndsay to the next level. Surely enough, he knew he had to end his relationship with Lyndsay, and almost instantly, him and Amber had rekindled their flame and were engaged to be wed. Arrangements were made for the lovebirds to move in together once they were married, and neither Amber nor Taylor had ever been happier. Everything was going perfectly, until one final shocking twist would change everyone's lives...forever.
Lyndsay, spurned and very much upset, would not Taylor go so easily. Upon learning that she was very ill, Lyndsay decided that she would not be the helpless victim. She was tired of letting others step all over her and that it was time to take a stand. She would not rest until she had her revenge. In a fit of rage, Lyndsay hired an old friend to rig the wedding with explosives. Not thinking clearly, Lyndsay crashed the ceremonies and objected to the marriage. With a detonator in hand, Lyndsay vindicated herself, closing the third season off with a terrifying explosion.
The fourth season opened with a powerful and moving vision. Taylor was having a vision as the flames of the explosion engulfed the chapel. But rather than seeing his life flash before him, he was seeing how life could have been if he had made a different choice. What if Taylor had chosen Lyndsay instead of Amber? Taylor finds himself twenty years in the future. Lyndsay had died and he had lost Amber again. He has lived a loveless life of solitude and sadness, having the true love of his life escape him twice. He happens to stumble upon Amber in their hometown of Pine Valley. Hesitant at first, Amber and Taylor share their dark, haunting stories of life without one another. It took years of pain, lonliness, and devastation for them to realize that they still loved eachother, and that they were meant to be together.
When Taylor wakes from his vision, he is in the hospital. He realizes that his love for Amber is his destiny...fate would keep them together forever, and nothing could come between their eternal love. He was apart of a Lovers' Destiny, and whatever hardships should be thrown his way, he will never lose Amber again.
SCENE #1:
She laughed at the expression on his face.
Then Taylor laughed too. They laughed together for a moment, gradually fell silent. For the first time she let him catch her gaze and hold it. He saw the questions in her eyes, and the memories, and the emptiness of twenty-five years that she was trying to bridge. After a moment he turned his eyes away.
She cleared her throat, sipped again from the tea. "But enough about me. Where have you been these past years?"
He thought of telling her, ‘Looking for you' - but only for an instant. Instead he calmly said, "Here and there. I really hadn't realized so much time had passed."
He regretted the lie the moment it was said. She flinched just a little around the eyes - the only sign that his words had hurt. She returned quickly, "Neither did I. I've stayed busy...retail mostly. It's not much, but it's a living."
He knew, knew he shouldn't ask.
If he asked, he would bring up the whole issue of him and her, twenty five years ago, the day that she walked away from him...the day they were almost married.
He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he did it anyway. "Have you ever married? I mean, after our engagement, did you..."
Carefully she set down her mug. "No. Never stayed around long enough to - not after the war, anyway. I was drafted, you know - back in the days when the government thought they were going too loose and so they sucked into the military anyone who could hold a gun. Oh, I was an officer," she added, seeing the look of shock on his face. "I had too much education to be a grunt. They shipped me over there, put a hundred people under my command, and I didn't know jack what to do. Half of them died before I figured it out."
Suddenly she lost her bantering tone. "I'd never killed a human before, not deliberately. It ate me up inside. When I came back, I was a wreck. I drank - a lot. I spent the night with strangers. I-I did a lot of things I shouldn't have done.
She cleared her throat. "But no, I've never married. Fell in love once, if that counts for anything. He was a quiet man, filled with secrets, but he loved me - I think. We were almost married. He left me all too soon, for his ex-girlfriend who had some illness...cancer I think. He broke my heart." She looked at him, pain in her eyes. "I was very young. Too young."
He knew what she was saying, knew there was no help for it.
"Well," he said quietly. "I'd better go. It'll be getting light soon."
A sad smile played about the corners of her lips. "Yes," she answered, and slowly stood up.
Outside in the night it was raining. Light from the street lamps cast an eerie glow in the misting rain, and the light coming through the windows of the little diner made it seem warm and inviting.
Taylor and Amber stood just outside the entrance, the light at their backs, the rain before them, looking like the first two people cast out of Eden. They regarded each other for a moment. Then Amber stretched out her hand.
"Friends?"
Taylor took it, shook hands with her solemnly. "Friends."
She smiled and turned away, walked into the darkness and the rain.
He could not watch her go.
Three strides and he reached her, caught her by the upper arm and spun her to face him, and kissed her. In that gesture he put twenty years' worth of fear and worry and longing and pain, and for a moment she responded.
And then she pulled away.
"I wish you hadn't done that," she said, her voice low. "You always make it hard to walk away." She paused, suddenly looked up at him. "I wasn't going to do this, but I have to ask - Did you ever really love me? Even a little?"
He laid a hand on her cheek. "More than I ever realized until you were gone. I was a fool - I am a fool. I regret - so much. Stay with me - let me stay with you. Let's cross this world from one side to the other and back again. We - I've wasted so many years. I don't want to waste anymore. Please, please don't go - don't ever go again."
She caught his hand, held it in hers. "I know this is selfish, but - all my life I've helped others, done what others wanted. I spent years and years in college to be a psychologist so that I could help people like Brandi. I spent thousands of nights reliving the stories of my patients. And I spent twenty years away from you because everyone - even you - said that it was for the best."
She stopped, laughed without amusement. "Now, most of the time, I just wander around - city to city, state to state, country to country. I'm nearly always alone. I want to be selfish now. I want us to be together for whatever time we have left - maybe ten minutes, maybe ten years. I know it'll be hard, but nothing could be harder than this loneliness. I want to die with your name on my lips, and I want you to bury me -" Her voice broke, her face crumpled.
He held her close. "I'll never leave you again, I swear. I was such a fool. I looked for you, I swear I did. But I could never find you. .."
"Do you know how many times I reached for you in my sleep, or how many times I called your name into the shadows. . ." she whispered.
"Never again," he whispered back, and when he kissed her this time there was no sadness in it, no pain or fear or regret of parting, only hope - and love.
Eventually they drew apart. They heard applause. Looking into the diner, they saw a handful of people waving, clapping, gesturing at them and smiling. Eden's angels were happy for the outcasts.
Taylor and Amber looked at each other, laughed, waved back at the observers. Then she took his hand.
She laughed. "First one to the corner is a rotten egg!”
She took off running, but not so fast that he couldn't catch her.
Which he did.
And above them it ceased to rain.