Chapter Text
They were never going to last. College flings usually don’t.
At least, that’s what Lana tells herself, as she walks away from Mia with her shoulders held high. It’s not a crime to drift apart, and that’s all that happened to them. They were never meant to last, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
And still, all the things she might have said hover on her tongue as the sidewalk and streets blur in front of her.
It’s good to see you.
You look good.
I miss you.
It is, and Mia does, and Lana does.
She can’t exactly turn around and say it now, even if she wanted to (and she doesn’t, she tells herself, everything that needs to be said has been said). Her meeting at the precinct is in twenty minutes, and as a general rule she tries not to keep Damon Gant waiting.
Let today be a straightforward case. Something clean. She doesn’t know who it’s directed to. She’s never been much for prayer. Still –
A cold breeze stirs her hair, pulling her scarf out behind her. It feels like autumn, like long days spent running from class to class and nights at the campus coffee shop with one eye on her books and the other on Ema doing homework in front of the fake fireplace. Sometimes Mia came along for those study sessions, and it felt less like work and more like a date, even if it really wasn’t.
Mia would be so disappointed in her, if she knew.
So would Ema, but Ema is fourteen, and doesn’t understand (and if Lana has her way she never will). Mia is too good a lawyer not to understand the gravity of the situation, the depth of what Lana’s done out of desperation. Some things can’t be forgiven – and Lana knows too well it’s all but impossible to lie to Mia.
Even if Gant wasn’t waiting, even if Chief Prosecutor wasn’t a job that came with constant demands on her time, even if Lana had wanted to turn around and say any of those things left unsaid (and she does, god help her) –
They were never going to last. They drifted apart, and for Lana’s sake, and Ema’s, and even Mia’s too, they can’t drift back together.
So Lana walks away without looking back, each footstep a knife in her own heart, and leaves Mia Fey behind.
