It’s been a cold, quiet day. There’s an unbroken stillness to the air, outside and in.

Everything seems stopped, paused. No wind shifts the tree branches. The clouds stay right where they are. I glance over my shoulder at the street as I let myself into the exhibition space, and the fog of my breath on the air is the only thing in motion.

Something about this weather causes the winter sky to fill up with the kind of rich, vivid colors I associate with the end of a beautiful summer day. The shafts of light falling through the windows are all striking shades, like precious stones. Ruby, topaz, citrine. You’d think it was pouring through stained glass, but it’s all the work of nature, of the setting sun.

It’s utterly, perfectly, serenely calm.

I drift through the pools of light, wandering slowly, taking in all the progress Raj and Noah made since I was here last. Then I drop down onto the concrete floor, sit quietly sipping on my coffee for a few minutes before I get started.

I close my eyes, take a deep inhale of cold air.

This is exactly what I need. A pause. A moment to myself, to collect and organize my thoughts.

Aiden has a lot of experience with going through something terrifying and painful, then having to pick himself up and keep going forward. I don't even want to know how many times he's gone through hell, through something that shattered him, and been left to put the pieces of himself back together. It’s not easy for him - not at all - and I'm sure it never will be. But he’s had practice. He’s had to do it ever since he was little.

Not me, though. I'm still shaken from all the inner earthquakes.

The time I’ve spent with Aiden since I got him back has helped me immeasurably. I don’t even know how he does that. How he transmits his strength, his steadiness to me. I had been shipwrecked without him, but I came back to life in his arms.

Still, I need a little more time to process what we went through together, to center myself before I can move forward from it. And this, the way the world is today - it’s like I’ve been taken into a secret place where everything is stopped, waiting patiently for me to catch my breath.

I’ve had time to recover in the warm haven of Aiden’s strength, but now I need time to restore my own.

I tip my head back in the silky, colorful light and just breathe. The cool concrete against my hands feels good. So does the silence. The big, airy room seems to overflow with cold, crisp oxygen.

I get back to my feet and step into the smaller room, the one we painted black. I lay out the big square of flat corkboard that I brought with me, kneel beside it, and start to thread it through with greenery.

I’m going to do only one section first. That way Aiden can experience it, tell me if I understood his vision. I want it to be beautiful, right down to the tiniest nuance. So I take my slow, meticulous time with everything. Every plant or flower or handful of peat moss, I apply with painstaking care, using a combination of tacks and the natural glue I brought from the shop.

I sink into a place of deep concentration, my intuition guiding my hands while my mind lapses into a calm sort of trance. Even the ache in my bruised palms seems to fade away. I slip into my inner world, wander through the forests there, floating high above myself. I'm experiencing the same sensation that comes with rocking slowly in a hammock. There is a flow of energy that keeps me in motion, but it’s effortless, peaceful.

This is the answer to a deep need that I’ve been feeling. The sight of something growing and green beneath my fingertips - it slows and deepens my breathing, the rhythm of my heartbeat. Bright, gentle clarity fills up my head, spills down through my body.

I come back to the present when my phone starts buzzing.

Companion Plant 🍃 5:55 PM: You sound nice.

Companion Plant 🍃 5:55 PM: I just realized that I’ve been sitting here for like fifteen minutes just staring at the wall and listening to you.

Companion Plant 🍃 5:56 PM: Hope this means you’re feeling okay, after everything?

I sit there for a minute or two, smiling down at my phone.

Once again, I’m struck by the fact that Aiden thought the turmoil of what happened with his Tree would make me love him any less. He worries so much about the things he comes with pushing me away.

Even much smaller things. Like how sometimes the noise level in his head goes up, and he doesn't realize that I'm talking to him. I have to look into his eyes so that he knows that I’m speaking, then start over with whatever I was saying.

Or how his nightmares pull me out of my sleep. The anxious twitching of his body, the quiet but frantic murmurs that escape from his mouth, his uneven breathing.

I see how he watches me after something like that happens. Looking into my eyes for any sign that I’m growing tired of it. I suspect that he thinks these things will build upon each other to have a bigger effect, a slow erosion of my love for him.

It’s because he still hasn’t quite grasped the scope of my feelings, understood that he lives in every chamber of my heart. All these little things, they don’t make me love him less. I wish he didn't have to go through them, but in some strange way I love them, because they’re all a part of him.

Even the last few days, the hard and painful ones when Aiden's Tree was in trouble - they did have an effect on my feelings for him, but not the effect he thought. I feel even closer to him, a new area unlocked in an already endless ocean of love.

Me 5:59 PM: Yeah, I'm feeling okay! Better than okay. Didn’t you just say that you can hear me?

Companion Plant 🍃 6:01 PM: Yeah, but I know better than to think that just because I can hear you, I know everything going on in your head. That’s why I appreciate that you usually just tell me. You know how bad I am at guessing.

Me 6:02 PM: Well, since you asked

Me 6:03 PM: I’m at the exhibition space, working and thinking about you. Feeling grateful and happy that you’re back. And if my note sounds a little nervous, it’s just because I really want to get my part of the exhibition right. I really, really want it to be perfect for you.❤️

Aiden starts and stops typing several times before he responds.

Companion Plant 🍃 6:06 PM: 😊

Companion Plant 🍃 6:07 PM: Love you, Linden.

After I tuck my phone back into my pocket, I sit back on my ankles, taking a second to reflect. I really do feel better, the last cracks left in my calm finally starting to fill in and smooth out.

And there’s someone I’ve been wanting to talk to. Someone who clearly knew that I needed time alone with Aiden. Someone who’s been waiting patiently until I stood on steady ground.

“Kasey,” I call.

By the time my voice stops echoing around the room, she’s by my side, sitting cross-legged. Her eyes are on my face, looking at me closely.

They stop on my smile, and slowly, she smiles, too.

~~~~

I honestly have to laugh at Kasey's reaction when I tell her that Aiden and I are moving in together. Her eyes get so huge that she briefly looks like something out of a cartoon.

“Shut up!” she shouts, swatting at my arm. Her hand goes right through it, but that doesn’t slow her down for a second. “Shut the fuck up!”

“No, seriously,” I answer, and she stares at me, agog, then breaks into a grin so big that it makes us both dissolve into laughter.

It takes us a while to recover, but we get back to talking. Kasey has things to tell me about, too.

She explains that she stayed with me all night after I gave in to my exhaustion and collapsed beneath the Guardian Tree. She left in the morning to go check on Aiden, who she’d left with Will. By the time she came back, I had already set off for the car, and the wildflower bed was empty.

So Kasey went back to my apartment, collected Will, and disappeared with him, giving me and Aiden the space we badly needed, time to be alone together.

“I knew you’d call me when it was okay to come back,” she says, leaning back on her palms, crossing her outstretched legs at the ankle.

“So what have you and Will been doing in the meantime?” I ask, pinning the top part of the mini irrigation system in place.

Warmth gathers in Kasey’s eyes.

“Well, after all that scary chaos trying to find Aiden... Will decided that we needed a vacation.”

I blink at her, caught by surprise. “A vacation? But you can't leave Ketterbridge.”

“We didn't leave Ketterbridge. We went to the hotel by the beach, the one that does the fireworks for the Fling Thing. It’s practically empty right now, since it’s winter, so we just claimed the biggest room. It had this super nice view of the ocean. The moonlight came in at night through these big windows, and we were together, so we could pool our warmth... it was actually really cozy.”

I stop working and look up at Kasey, a smile to match hers spreading across my face.

“We just - let ourselves lay around and be lazy, talked for hours… Will wanted me to tell him stories from history, like how I did when he was incorporeal. So I did. He’s spent so long only listening, so he’s such a good listener, it’s crazy. He only ever stopped me to ask questions.” Kasey lets out an affectionate laugh, her eyes full of memories. “We walked on the beach. Cuddled up. Tested out whether or not ghosts can give each other hickeys.”

I’d been sitting there smiling at her, but I let out a startled laugh at this last bit. Kasey grins at me, turns, and tilts her head to the side. My eyes land on her neck, and I take a look at it.

“There’s nothing there.”

“Oh, is there not? Guess my appearance must have reset.”

“Kase-face!” I sputter out a laugh, pressing my fingers to my cheeks. “I’m shocked that Will even knows what a hickey is, honestly.”

“Oh, he didn’t. But he does now.”

I laugh again, sitting back on my ankles. “Wow. Sounds like you had a great time.”

Kasey looks at me, practically glowing. “Yeah. I did.”

Infected by her happiness, I reach for her, and she moves closer to me. She leans her head on my shoulder, and I wrap an arm around her.

“I still can’t believe that you and Aiden are moving in together,” she says, after a minute. “Holy shit. I never thought I’d see you move in with anyone, much less Aiden Callahan, of all people. Are you sure you’re Jamie Keane? The one I grew up with?”

“I know. I can’t believe it, either.”

Kasey smiles at me, but then stops, something occurring to her.

“Um - can Will and I still live with you guys, or...?”

“I have to ask Aiden about it." I pop a kiss onto the top of her head. "I want you to, though. I'll tell him that."

Kasey snuggles up against me a little more, and I blink down at her, realizing that I’m not holding up my arm. It’s resting on her shoulders without falling through. More like how things were when she first became a ghost.

“That’s weird. You're more solid today, Kase-face. I can’t feel you, but it’s like you’re more - there.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too.” She looks thoughtfully down at her translucent hands. “I think it's from spending all that time so close to Will. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like we reinforce each other’s energy, make each other stronger.”

Companion Plants, I think to myself, and smile.

“I’ll talk to Aiden tonight, okay?” I tell Kasey, and she nods again.

“Hope he’s okay with it. I mean - no pressure. Will and I would both understand if he’s not.”

I hope he’s okay with it, too. I’m realizing that I probably should have brought this up with him sooner.

But I know my Companion Plant, and I have a feeling that everything will be okay.

~~~~

Aiden is waiting for me when I step out of the exhibition building.

He’s a splash of warmth against the cold winter night. Still in his work clothes, but with the sleeves of his dress shirt folded up, a few buttons undone at the collar. He’s got the glasses on, and he’s leaning back against my car.

I stop still on the front step, and he smiles.

“Hey, Keane."

“God!” I lock the door, then bound down the steps towards him. “You are so fucking cute, it’s infuriating. I hate you. And you come with that voice, too? Someone help me.”

Aiden huffs out a laugh, bends down to kiss me. I lean up to meet him halfway. When I draw away again, the arm he had tucked behind his back has dropped to his side. In his hand, he’s got - a bouquet of deep red flowers, from the shop.

I blink down at it, then look up at Aiden, waiting for an explanation.

“You told me not to feel bad about what you went through to save my Tree. I’m trying really hard not to." He holds out the flowers, ruffles my hair with his other hand. "Thought it might help if I focused on how I’m grateful for what you did, instead.”

I stare at Aiden, then let my gaze drop to the bouquet. “This is for me?”

Aiden pauses, his expression suddenly troubled.

“Wait, do guys like getting flowers, or is that only girls?” he asks, and then, more to himself than to me - “Is this one of the things that doesn't translate? No one’s ever bought me any, so I guess I don’t know...”

I make a mental note to surprise Aiden with flowers at some point in the future, so he can feel how I feel right now.

“No, it translates." I lean up to kiss him, my heart overspilling with warmth. "Thank you, sweet thing.”

"Oh. Good." Aiden breaks into a relieved smile, hands the bouquet over to me. "I thought this one was really beautiful. Just kinda stood out to me from all the rest.”

I laugh, my cheeks starting to burn. “That’s a cute thing to say.”

“Is it? Why?”

I bite my lip, smiling up at Aiden.

“Because I made this. My hands were still really sore during my shift, so I only made one bouquet. All the other ones on display are Kent and Destinee’s.”

Aiden blinks down at me, wide-eyed.

“What - you’re telling me I picked out the one single - is that why Kent was all smiling to himself when I chose this one?”

I press my fingers over my mouth. “Yeah, probably.”

“Oh, my god. Well - should I go pick out a different one, or-?”

“No.” I spread a hand on Aiden's chest, my cheeks on fire. “No, this is perfect.”

Aiden smiles down at me, and I hesitate, nervously folding my fingers around the flowers.

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Aiden quickly grows serious. “Okay?”

“When we start looking for a place together,” I begin slowly, “Would it be okay if we tried to find somewhere that has-?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I stop, thrown off. “What - I didn’t even say-?”

Aiden presses a kiss onto my forehead. “Whatever you want our new place to have, I'll find it for you.”

My cheeks are actually going to melt off of my face if they get any hotter.

“Um - okay - goddamnit, I love you a ridiculous amount - but you might want to hear it first, babe. I was gonna ask if we could try to find someplace that has enough room for Will and Kasey to live with us. Because they want to, and - I'd like them to, if you're down for that.”

Aiden blinks his blue eyes at me, surprised.

“Oh,” he says. “I guess I didn’t realize we needed to talk about that. I kind of already assumed that they would. But yeah, of course, let's - what’s that face, Keane?”

I let out a helpless laugh, leaning up to kiss him. "Nothing."

Just love everything about you, Companion Plant.