Work Text:
Erica stood in the hallway slightly confused. I've been here before she thought, and then some of that confusion melted away.
She tried to remember the events that led her to this, and it started a lot time ago. There were siblings and then only one. There was heartbreak and then learning to love. There was therapy and doctors and time travel. There was unhappiness and then confidence. There were children, adopted from distant countries, and then grandchildren. There was sadness, there was loss, but there was was also unbelievable bliss.
"Leo," she muttered, and then it became clear. Surrounded by her family in the hospital, living a long, ripe, and happy life, and finally letting go.
She thought she had been in this hallway before, but it wasn't THIS hallway. As she looked around she saw that hers wasn't so much of a corridor so much as it was a maze, with doors covering the walls all the way to the ceiling. She climbed the ever present ladder and peeked into one of those doors, but it wasn't she had in THIS life, no, it was one running parallel to hers where she changed something and didn't live out the rest of that choice.
There were some memories she wanted to relive: her bat mitzvah, or the day she and Adam adopted their first child. There was the day 50/50 published their first fiction novel, and then the day she published her own. Visiting these memories were different than therapy: she had no control, and was just content to watch.
She left the doors of what could have happened alone; she had no desire to see that. She had been happy. She was happy.
She found another corridor in her hallway, and curious, followed it to see where it went. She found another hallway, and another, and another. The felt simultaneously like they were running backwards, and also like there were two mirrors held up and they were reflecting into themselves.
She pushed at one of those doors experimentally, and there she was there as a young child in old Victorian clothing, learning from a teacher that reminded her exactly of Dr. Tom. He was there in another door too as a brother. And in another as father; another as a husband and lover.
She shut those doors and went back to her own hallway, smiling and musing. She went to the memory of her first therapy session, and knew that their lives had always been intertwined, and would always continue to be.
She closed the door behind her and approached the glowing door at the end. She was content with her old life, and couldn't wait to see how the next brought her and Dr. Tom together again.