A/N: I've made an update on paragraphs 1 - 14 in chapter 17 to help build this chapter better. Enjoy.

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Chapter Twenty-one

Josslyn awakens to a dim lamp. Turning to her side, she sees Wyatt in Edwin's wooden chair, his elbows planted on both knees, thumbs tracing his bottom pout while lost in silent contemplations.

Josslyn sits up and gently shakes her head, "you shouldn't sit there."

Wyatt glances downward and stands. "Edwin's chair?" He asks.

She nods.

He rubs his nose, "what about that?" he points at the floral patterned armchair in the corner of the room, "that his chair too?"

She shakes her head, "no one's claimed that yet."

Wyatt switches seat, all the while keeping an eye on her.

"Where's Dr. Atkins?" She asks.

"He left. We both figured you ought to get some rest, seems you've gone through enough in one day. Your story matches all the evidence he's dug up and given that you granted him permission, he'll keep researching some more. He gave you his card and the picture of Edwin's family." Wyatt points to the coffee table. "You can show Edwin. Dr. Atkins will be in touch soon."

She nods then slowly locks eyes with him. "Why are you still here?"

Wyatt glances at the rope still laying beside the stool. "To watch you until Edwin returns."

She scoffs, "trust me, your efforts won't be appreciated, if anything, he'll kick your ass."

Wyatt shrugs, "okay."

"Okay?"

"Kick away."

Josslyn slumps into the futon. Oh, Wyatt. She recalls what he was trying to mention when they were seeking respite under the storm in Montana. He had mentioned that he'd fallen in love with her. Now he's well aware she's married. How can he still be here trying to hold onto something that can never be rightfully his?

"Wyatt, why do you want anything to do with me? Look at me. I'm a complete mess."

Maybe you're the type of mess I'm willing to clean. But he doesn't say that even though he feels it. She's married, after all.

"I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't think Edwin would want that too. Hell, the guy waited seven lifetimes to be with you. If you're going to end it all, at least ask him first if he's ready to go."

Josslyn sighs and walks to the window. Only a man who's had a noose tied around his own neck will know why that rope is still there. All she had to do was tie another knot, and it'd be her own deadliest weapon. She'd end it all and take Edwin with her. Like a dirty white board, they'd erase these errors and correct these wrongs next time around. But Wyatt's right about one thing, committing suicide is selfish on her part.

"Regardless of how you feel, you can't stay here." Josslyn talks to the window, "my husband won't like it and I don't want to disrespect him anymore. I've already done enough damage." She turns to him, "thank you for everything but please, leave."

A long silence lingered.

Wyatt rises and snatches up both the wooden stool and rope, then he exits the house. He throws the items in his trunk, he'll trash them in a dumpster. Emotionally deflated, he takes off down the driveway only to turn back toward the house. Slumping over, he rests his arms and head against the steering wheel as the car sits in complete darkness outside of Josslyn's driveway. Winter's first snowstorm begins to open up from the sky and tiny white frosted specks rapidly coat his black Infiniti Q50.

How did I get involved in all of this? Wyatt tries to trace the source but he's in so deep he doesn't know where the beginning is, nor the ending for that matter. A year from now and he's pretty sure all this will still be sinking in. To think, he may have had a previous life. Here he is sitting in this car as his past loved ones are standing over his grave somewhere perhaps across the world. The thought is unfathomable.

Then there's Josslyn who's got him in a world wind of emotions, got him pushing his own boundaries, breaking his own convictions about married woman. Hell, how do you even marry an invisible man? He should just cut her loose. Let her fend for herself, she's got a husband anyway. He glances toward her window.

Then he sees it. Her smile. He hears it. Her laughter. He feels it. Her suffering. He knows it. He's fallen. If he shows up tomorrow and she's moved on to her eighth lifetime, there'd be a hole in his chest, a guilty conscientious in his mind, and forever, he'll look toward the sky wondering where Josslyn and Edwin are in this big world. He knows that there are just some phenomenons in life he'll never come back from - this is one of them. And he can't help but feel responsible for her, as though a higher force has put him here for a greater purpose - not that he's superstitious, but after everything he's witnessed, he's come to accept that anything is possible.

A light catches the corner of his eyes. He squints them to see that Josslyn has crawled out of the back door and ran into the nearby forest in the dark of night - in the midst of a white out. What's she up to? His brain tells him to stay put but his body is already halfway after her, chasing the elongated glow of a very heavy duty florescent flash light. He trails just close enough, his breath swirling in the cold frigid weather.

He follows her footprints up a steep embankment, up wet slippery boulders; upward she climbs - sometimes on all fours.

"Oomph!" She loses her footing and tumbles down right past him.

"Josslyn!" He runs after her, gripping her in his arms as she struggles to get back up and winches in pain toward her ankle.

"You okay?" Wyatt asks.

"What the!" Josslyn immediately rise to her feet, "what are you - are you following me?" She yells and shoves him into the snow. 

"What am I doing here?" Wyatt points to himself, "what are you doing out here? You see that fast approaching snowstorm?" He directs his finger toward the western sky.

Josslyn speaks through clenched teeth, "I don't care, I need to find Edwin!" She limps toward the basket of food that now sprawl a mess everywhere.

"You brought food into the forest for Edwin? There are wild dangerous animals that can smell that from a mile away!"

"I've dealt with animals, I've fought a bear, I'll live another day so just go away!"

Fought a bear! He grips onto her shoulder, forcing her to face him. "Either we go forward together or I bring you back with me. It's not safe out here! How do you expect to make it up this mountain when you can't even walk - in a snowstorm no less?"

She struggles to break free, "damn it, Wyatt! Let me go!" She pushes, punches, and shoves him, "I'm pregnant!"

Wyatt stumbles to the ground in shock.

"I'm pregnant...I need to find Edwin, I need to tell him."

Pregnant? Wyatt pants, "A-are you sure? Josslyn, if you're pregnant and you're - you're sure, then you know damn well you shouldn't be heading in there! You've got to think for two now." Wyatt huffs, "I'm sure Edwin will be thrilled about the news - anyone would, but you've got to hold out a little bit longer. We'll come back in the morning, I can even help you find him if - "

"No," she waves her hands. "No, you can't be there when I tell him."

"Why not?"

She shakes her head, "because the baby's yours, the baby's - "

The noise around Wyatt muffle out in slow motion, drowning out to his own thumping heartbeat. His head grows light and he struggles to focus as the world spins fast. The nippy wind seem to cut deeper than ever as Josslyn's words sink in - 'the baby's yours'.

Wyatt claws backward. "No." He struggles to breathe. "That's not possible. I didn't even..." He pours his hands outward to signify the word 'ejaculate'. "I mean, I always knew it was possible but chances are extremely, extremely low. W-we had sex but we...barely had sex to procreate."

"Well," Josslyn's shoulders slump forward. "You cleared up that pregnancy myth, didn't you? Edwin and I have been trying for seven years to have a child - seven long, long years - then you come along, and lo and behold, I'm pregnant - one mistake was all it took."

Wyatt gulps, "Josslyn, t-this could just as well still be Edwin's child."

"He's invisible, Wyatt. Edwin and I haven't been remotely intimate for two months."

Wyatt grasps for anything. "That test, it could just be defected."

"I just tested at my OB this morning. It's positive...Edwin needs to know."

She begins limping back up the cliff side, grasping onto anything for upright support as Wyatt phases into another episode of shock. A quick flood of panic hits him as Beth's dead, pale lifeless face flashes through his mind.

"Josslyn, please." He intercepts her, "I'm begging, begging you." He drops to his knees. "Please don't wander off tonight. If that's - if that's my child then I-I want to think this through. I have to protect not only you, but the child too."

Josslyn scoffs, "what makes you think I give a damn about this child? All I care about is Edwin! We were suppose to move here to begin a new life together, you were never suppose to happen, you're the outlier! You're the third wheel!"

"Third wheel or not, that child's mine as much as yours!"

Suddenly nothing else matters to Wyatt except the quiet 'thump-thump' of a little heart beating, a heart beat he once heard six years ago when he expected to be a father. Then Dr. Atkin's last words spoken before they parted ways outside Josslyn's house begins to echo in Wyatt's mind.

This case is rare, far more intricate than any others I've had. We are dealing with a desperate invisible man, it can get very dangerous for you so be careful. If you've got no choice but to remain, then the only thing you can do for them is to help them recognize what it is they truly want.

Wyatt gazes up at Josslyn from down below, his arms by his side, all machoism humbly collecting at the feet of this woman. "Tell me something, Josslyn. What is it in this world that you want most?"

Josslyn steps back with apprehension. Is this a trick question? No one has ever asked her what she wanted. In fact, she's never asked herself that question. Why grant a guilty person the privilege to make choices?

"What do I want?" She asks with caution.

He nods. "What do you want - not what Maybel wants, not what Edwin wants, but what Josslyn wants. What is it that you want?

Her defense falters, her shoulders slump forward as she wraps her body with both arms and wilts over like a dying flower.

She goes very, very silent as the truth begins to pile through.

"What I want most in this world...is to be held at night, to slow dance in the middle of a ballroom, surrounded by people, embraced and held close, fall fast asleep inside someone's arms, tickle-wrestle under the bedsheets when the sun rises. I want to cuddle up, snuggle close with someone in the back of the movie theater, come home and cook a romantic dinner together. I want to hold hands as I stroll through the parks, we can feed the ducks together. I want to kiss someone in the middle of a crowd, from high above in a ferris wheel.

This is all I want - not much - just the little, seemingly small and insignificant things that so many others take for granted."

Wyatt stands speechless as the truth finally sinks in. Josslyn desires so much more than what Edwin can ever give her. But the saddest part must be that Edwin knows this too.

"It's not that I don't love him, Wyatt. I love him so much. So much. I just don't love...all this" She pans her hands out toward the depths of the deep dark, lonely forest.

Wyatt blinks a few times, but how can you ever truly love someone, if you can't accept them entirely? The fog, the forest, the invisibility, the loneliness - Edwin comprises of these things. Like water and oil, fire and ice, this relationship is forced to co-exist.

"Josslyn you're 25 years old." Wyatt rises and locks eyes with her, "have you considered your future down the road, 30, 60 years from now? How is Edwin going to take care of you if he can't take care of himself? What if you fall ill, become disabled, how will you live the rest of your life with an invisible man? There's got to be something more than love that binds you to him, willing to make you sacrifice your lifetime for his." Then her voice echoes back through his mind.

My greatest fear is that I will forever be bounded by guilt.

"Guilt." Wyatt breathes. "You're with him because you're guilty for what Maybel did, for what you think you did."

Josslyn is unwilling to meet Wyatt's gaze. She knows too well he'd finally pieced her puzzle and she has never felt so naked, so exposed in her own skin.

"You're with him because you feel obligated to be with him, duty over freedom of choice." Wyatt shakes his head. "Josslyn, you can choose. You can still choose. Guilt can't bind you to that choice. This is your lifetime as much as it is Edwin's."

"Choices?" Josslyn steps back, anger ripping at her chest, she grits her teeth. "Don't talk about choices when you don't know a damn thing about it. Don't think you can come here and simplify how easy it is to choose." She wipes tears from her cheeks.

"I've never had a choice in this! You see these scar on my body, you know what my mother told me when I begged her to bandage me? She told me to go read a fucking bible. I snuck out of the house and Edwin, my Edwin bandaged me. He took care of me. He's watched over me this lifetime like he's watched over me for seven lifetimes. He died for my mistakes! I owe him! This is not my lifetime. I am but an empty vessel - he lives through me. I am nothing, stand for nothing because he is all me.

How do I walk up to him and say, 'you just wasted seven lifetimes waiting on me'? No! I could never do that to him! It isn't fair to him. Don't you see?" She cries, "Edwin is my greatest suffering and my only salvation. He is nothing and everything to me."

"Josslyn, do you know the folly in your own thinking?" Wyatt challenges her, "how is this fair to you? How can you ever truly be happy? How can anyone ever truly be happy with you? How is this really fair to Edwin, that you give up so much only for the sake of guilt? Does he know all this or does he turn a blind eye to the truth that's right in front of him?"

"It doesn't matter because you don't matter. Now leave! I need to find Edwin."

She walks past him but he grips her wrist, shaking his head, "no, not with my baby, not with my child are you stepping into that forest, in the dead of night, in the midst of snowstorm."

She walks up to him, a hint of cruelty gleaming in her eyes, "you want to talk about choice?" She asks, nodding excessively to prepare for these next words, "let's talk about choices, I do have a choice don't I?"

Wyatt shakes his head, he knows exactly what she's going to say.

"There are things I can't choose, but this! I can right this wrong next week! I can choose to terminate this child! Then there will never be anything binding you to me. Don't you get it? I will never choose you over Edwin."

She waits for him to yell, to counterattack but he doesn't. The flashlight doesn't even shine a glimmer of expression on his face. He stares at her for a while, his expression unreadable, then slowly turns and walks down the hillside. She watches him make his way toward the bottom of the hill, his head hung low in dejection, shoulders slump forward, hands in pocket as he carefully sidesteps through the snow. She knows she's defeated him. She's crushed him, squashed his every hope, love and affection for her. She clasps her chest in heartache, and it sure takes a bitch to break a good man.

Josslyn turns toward the forest ahead. She takes a step forward but her legs won't budge. The forest is so dead, so lonely, so dark, resembling the pit of her soul, the outlook of her future. Her tears taste like salted popsicles, and she wipes them with chapped freezing hands. Could she let Edwin go? She takes another step but her leg still doesn't budge. Whirling around, she sees Wyatt by the foothill. He'd take the well walked path pass her house, then he'd drive back into the heart of Eugene where civilization reside, the lights of the city, sparkling like twinkling stars far in the distance as it illuminates in gold to banish all the darkness, like a torch to banish all her shadows. She glances back toward the ominous depth of the wild forest. A sad, bleak, lonely lifetime flashes before her eyes. For the first time in 25 years, she allows the truth to really set in: No amount of light can brighten this forest, not even this flash light; not even the false hope of happiness.

Edwin, she stares ahead. She whirls her head around, Wyatt. Two men, two different directions. Two different future outcomes. One choice. One lifetime.

She gasps for air.

"Wyatt!" She quickly limps down the hill, falling, tripping as she grips onto anything for support.

"Wyatt!" But he doesn't look back even though she knows he's heard her. She collides onto his back, her arms wrap tightly around his waist. "I could never do that!" She faces him and cups his face in her hands but he avoids her gaze, unwilling to meet her eyes.

"I will never hurt this child. Never. I was just so angry but you're right. I can't." She cries. "I can't live like this anymore! I can't hide anymore! I don't want to pretend anymore! I'm so tired, so tired of being so lonely." She wraps her arms around him and sobs into his warm hard chest.

Wyatt doesn't speak. He stands tall like a piller to hold her upright, then he wraps her in his arms and walks her back home in silence.