TWO BIRDS OF A FEATHER

A lost cause... or was it?

A lost cause....
An attempt in vain...
A waste of time and effort...

Call it what You will, but if a heart loves, truly loves, even the hardest of steps and the most unbelieveable of hopes is never wasted, never lost, never taken in vain. Even in the most hopeless of times. Because as long as there is a spark of true love and yearning for one another, there will always be hope. And hope can move mountains, one speck of dust at a time...

Can stood face to face with Sanem and his heart ached. Not because of the breeze blowing out of the freezer storage they just escaped from, but because of the harsh cold of Sanem's words. She hurt him. He also understood that he hurt her. And yet... it was hard for him to comprehend just how easily she was able to move on from the love they shared. He was leaving for Balkans, in a physical sense, but his love for her lived as vivid in his heart as ever before. But she moved on. She told him herself. And she did so time and again.

Sanem screamed at him to leave for the Balkans, that she didn't care, because she was leaving too. She moved on, and told him that he may as well just get going. Out of spite, he agreed. And he didn't know if he hurt her with his words, or if he actually hurt himself more the moment those words came out of his lips. He realized that he saw something in her eyes he was too afraid to admit. He didn't see fear. He saw resignation. And... that meant she was giving up. That bothered him more than admitting to himself that he wished that Ceycey's, Deren's, and Ayhan's plan could have worked.

Since the friend's plan obviously did NOT work, Sanem stormed off, reeling from the fact that Can dismissed their love in one cold-hearted heart beat. If he wanted to choose Blakans over her, so be it. She walked away from him with a head held high and her stubborn red-hot temper fuming from her ears. And then... she stopped... and called out for Can to stop as well. She turned around, and stomped her way back to him.

Can's heart skipped a beat. He tried his best not to show it, but there was so much power in her walk that it moved him. Could she really make her way back to him? She did. Oh, she did! But only to shove his scarf and coat back in his face. If he could be heartless to her in that moment, she would be just as heartless to him as well. Heartless, ruthless, and just as stubborn in her words and actions as he was to her. If not more...

The fact that Can told her he was leaving for the Balkans, and that his mind was made up, boiled Sanem's blood. Was he unthinkably cruel to her? She definitely thought so. And since she did, she paid him back with just as much cruelty. She told him that she would leave too. 11 remaining days or not, she was done. She tipped her head as high as she could, and stormed off accusing him of being colder than the ice box they found themselves in just moments before.

Since Ceycey, Deren, and Güliz saw Can storm back into the agency and his office, they knew that he would be mad. Actually, mad wouldn't even begin to describe it. As much as they tried to figure out what he was doing, they couldn't because he closed the office door behind him. But, he didn't do so to think, he did so to act. Sanem wanted to leave? Fine. He would make sure he was ready to leave too. He verified, checked, and double check the schedule. All was in order, and all was in line of what he had planned.

Since the friends did their best to try to decipher Can's body language, they let their guard down, and as such jumped to the high heavens when Emre walked up right behind them. It was clear that Emre was just as dissappointed that their plan failed. And it didn't just fail. It backfired. Since Emre took a part in it, he accepted the responsibility to face Can first. With steady steps, and with a shaken heart, he walked into Can's office and asked him if something was wrong.

Can replied no, no it wasn't. But then, yes it was. He was mad at Ceycey, Deren, Güliz, and anyone else involved in the little trap that was set up for him and Sanem. Can asked Emre if he was part of the plan or if he was the one to plan it? Emre replied that he wasn't, but he was aware of it. Vay! Hearing those words Can's temper grew even higher. Yet again those around him were plotting behind his back. And yet again he was too blind to see it. Emre told him not to be too mad at the others. They did it because he and Sanem mattered to them. They did it for him. And they certainly meant no harm. And that... blew the steam out of his temper.

When Can called the guilt-ridden trio into his office, they didn't know if they would come out of it alive, or still employed for that matter. Knowing he had the upper hand, and the knowledge behind why they did what they did, Can decided to still show them who was their boss, if only for a little while longer. As Deren, Ceycey, and Güliz stood resigned and scared in his office, Can used his stance to overephasize his shock at what was done to him and Sanem. And it all boiled down to an invasion of his private life.

HA! AS IF! If Can assumed that they would just stand there begging for forgiveness, he was gravely mistaken. The moment Ceycey exploded, Can didn't know what hit him. He knew Ceycey to have episodes of anxiety, consternation, and apprehension, but what he saw in Ceycey's eyes and felt in his heart blew the shoes off his feet, proverbially speaking. To hear that his and Sanem's lives were not private surprised Can. Just as it surprised him to hear that everyone thought he was leaving WITH Polen. To hear that the agency was just as aware and invested in his and Sanem's love shocked him. But to hear Ceycey shout at the top of his lungs that he would NOT let them waste away or give up on their love shook his heart. Literally.

Can realized in that moment that Ceycey may not only have been the only person with enough guts to tell him what the reality of the situation looked like, Ceycey may actually have been the voice of his own conscience, his inner voice materialized in a human form. And since Ceycey could not calm down, screaming at the top of his lungs, Güliz escorted him out of Can's office while Deren stayed behind. She stayed and tried her best to reason their case. Ceycey loved him. They all loved him. And they only had his best interest at heart. Can sighed heavily, and replied that he knew. Aye, he knew... Better than Deren may have assumed.

Hearing the tone of voice change in Can, Deren calmed down. She paused, and them asked him one last time, as a friend, if he was sure of what he was about to do? After all, he was about to leave. But she didn't mean that he was about to leave FOR the Balkans. She meant that he was about to leave Istanbul. He was about to leave Fikri Harika and his father's business that Aziz entrusted onto him. And most importantly, he was about to leave Sanem, and leave their love behind him.

Those words hurt him. He replied to Deren that he was sure. But was he really? He undersood Ceycey's words. All of them. And he began to see that there were people who cared about him. Not selfishly like Hüma, but wholeheartedly like Emre, Güliz, Deren, and Ceycey. Yes, Ceycey most of all since he was most aware of his and Sanem's relationship and feelings. He sighed again, and advised Deren that being locked in the freezer storage with Sanem may have turned out to be a good thing. Why? Because it allowed him to see that Sanem had moved on. She moved on exceptionally easily, and she moved on quickly. He turned, and found support in his chair. By doing so he missed the feelings of sorrow, understanding, and compassion in Deren's eyes as she left his office.

When Ceycey returned to his desk still mad at Güliz, he saw Sanem barge into the agency as if a tornado itself carried her in. Her heart was still reeling from the way Can treated her. She was fuming. And she was hurt. But would she show how much she was hurting? Never in a million years. She refused to give Hüma, and Can for that matter, any satisfaction whatsoever from thinking they hurt her. So, she exclaimed her decision of refusing to spend one more day at Fikri Harika. And when she said she was done, she meant that she was DONE! 11 days left or not, she was DONE!

She yelled so loud that everyone heard her. Everyone, along with Emre, Hüma, and Can. Especially Can. He walked out of his office, and advised Sanem her wish was granted. She was free. If she didn't want to be there, she no longer needed to be there. An insincere employee was always the weakest link. If she thought she would be happy elsewhere, she was right. Because she would no longer find what she was looking for at the agency.

Even though Can's words shocked her, she would never permit herself to show it. So she masked it with fury, anger, and the height of all stubborness. She stormed off in a visible sign of hatred, much to Can's heartache, and Hüma's not-quite-hidden victory. Everyone's best effort to save Sanem and Can's love was a lost cause... or was it?

Hüma, in all of her pompous selfishness neglected to see one very important thing: the opposite of love was not hate, it was indifference. And Sanem and Can were very far from being indifferent to one another...