Who: Eleanor Shellstrop & Chidi Anagonye Where: Streets of MV/downtownish When: This morning What: Their return Warnings: Spoilers for the finale of The Good Place Status: Completed gdoc
Making the decision to walk through the final doorway was surprisingly the easiest choice that Chidi ever made for a man who literally tortured himself for hundreds of years with his inability to choose. The hardest part of it was leaving Eleanor behind and he did feel a slight modicum of guilt over doing so. He knew that it was necessary, though, and he also knew that Eleanor was fully capable of existing without him.
He didn’t know what to expect and there was something oddly peaceful about that. When he stepped through the doorway, there was a split second of utter calm that washed over him.
Then he heard tires screeching and a car horn and instinctively jumped back even though he was massively confused about what was going on. After a few moments of looking around, he realized that he recognized the street. It was Madison Valley. Somehow, when Michael had returned the memories of more than 800 reboots, this town hadn’t been included.
Chidi shook his head, trying to make sense of everything. How long had he been gone? Was Eleanor still here? What about Brooke and Emma? He patted his pockets, knowing there was no phone in them since he’d had no need of such a device in the afterlife. The welcoming committee should find him soon and then he could check.
***
Thinking back on it later, Eleanor was probably going to decide that this was all a bunch of bullshirt. She’d honestly been finally ready, finally at peace, and had gone through the archway...only to find herself suddenly in Madison Valley again with those memories flooding in fast enough to give her an instant headache. She’d already had her happy ending, her second chance - so what was she doing back here?
When she heard a car horn come from a street over, Eleanor jumped slightly at the loudness of the sound, and after a minute of catching her bearings she started to slowly walk in that direction, taking everything in. The welcome committee would just have to find her, because she wasn’t going to stick around in the same spot waiting.
And then she turned a corner and saw him, and stopped to just simply stare before she could find her voice.
“Chidi?”
***
After all of the Bearimys they spent together, Chidi would recognize that voice anywhere and he jumped up from the bench, moving quickly towards her. “Eleanor,” he said. “You’re here.” Despite having been prepared not to see her ever again when he stepped through the archway, the moment he found himself in Madison Valley again, he was desperate to see her and now here she was.
“How long was I gone?” he asked. “I don’t even know how to tell you about everything that’s happened.”
***
“I’m here? You’re here!” Without bothering to answer his question right away, Eleanor closed the distance between them and just wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. Her eyes were already filling with tears, and she let them fall without shame, instantly soaking the shoulder of his shirt. Forever ago, she would have been doing anything she could not to show this kind of vulnerability, but that Eleanor had died way back then.
Finally, she lifted her head and wiped her eyes with one hand. “I was gone, too. I just got back - and you’re not going to believe everything I need to tell you.”
***
Chidi wrapped his arms around her, more than content to simply be and enjoy the moment. There was no rush and he felt far more peaceful than he’d been last time around. “Sounds like we were both gone,” he said when she finally pulled back and spoke. “I wonder if our memories match now.”
If they did match, then he would definitely believe what she had to share. If they didn’t, well, he couldn’t even imagine what he might have missed. Or had their worlds somehow diverged and they had different experiences. He hoped not, otherwise she wouldn’t be his Eleanor and then what would he do.
“Let’s get some coffee and you can tell me all about it,” he suggested.
***
“There’s only one way to know that, but….yeah, coffee would be good. Sounds great even, which considering that it’s really just flavored bean juice, thanks for that analogy Tahani? Yeah, I’m fine with that right now.” She was babbling, but that was probably because, well, the bearimies had really stretched out for her without him.
Linking their hands, she gave him a bright smile. “I don’t know if this means anything to you, but...it’s kind of nice that me being at peace means I’m back here with you.”
***
It was reassuring to hear her babble and Chidi was happy to take her hand and smile down at her. When she made that comment, he stopped in his tracks, eyes getting wide. “You walked through the doorway,” he said.
He didn’t know how long it had been between his decision and hers, but he had a similar feeling about how being at peace brought him back here to her and leaned down to give her a quick kiss before he started walking towards the coffee shop again.
***
“Yeah...I did. I don’t know how many Bearimys it took or anything because I’m not Janet, but that calendar you left helped.” She took a deep breath, then smiled and returned the kiss before taking the time to look around Madison Valley as they walked. Out of all the lives they’d lived, nowhere had been this town, and that was just...well, kinda weird.
“I still had things to do. And ultimately it came down to Mindy and Michael. The first I had to convince to put herself in the system, and the other….I had to help him find out what he wanted. And you know what Janet and I did for him? We talked to the Judge and got him sent down to Earth to live as a human for the next however amount of time. He’s going to eventually die and just...find out what happens next. Just like everyone else,” Eleanor told him, leaning her head against his arm. In a way, she’d hoped to stay until he died to find out what happened and live out more Bearimys with him, but in the end she was also happy with her decision.
***
“Oh, wow,” Chidi said. It made sense that those would both be things Eleanor would need to resolve before she could truly be at peace and the idea of sending Michael to Earth to live out some years as a human made perfect sense given the man’s fascination with everything human.
He dropped a kiss to the top of her head when she leaned it against his arm. “I’m so proud of you,” he said. “Your determination saved all of humanity.” And as far as he was concerned, that all tracked back to her managing to live through the impossible circumstances of Chidi having his memory wiped. He honestly didn’t think he would have been strong enough to do the same in her shoes.
***
“You’re the one that we needed to figure out what to do,” she pointed out. “All I did was play god for a year.” And what a year that had been. It had been her own special version of the Bad Place, being tortured by the fact that Chidi couldn’t remember her and she just had to play along. Sometimes she still felt a little guilty about what she’d put him through, even though it had been necessary.
“I’m really glad I can see you again, but...we were ready. To be at peace, I mean. Why do you think we’re back here?” Eleanor asked.
***
That was a great question and one that Chidi couldn’t answer. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I can’t say I’m not happy to be here with you.” It was like an extra extension of their afterlife with the chance of one or both of them being sent back at any time. And at least they knew what was waiting for them. Sort of.
“I hope the girls are okay,” he said. “The town doesn’t really look any different so we must not have been gone too long.”
***
“Let’s go check on them after that coffee,” she replied, but looked around the same as he had. It was weird being back here, remembering their life here, when she hadn’t remembered any of it in the Good Place. At the same time, it made a strange kind of sense.
“We should also see if any of the others ended up here. What if this is where everyone goes after they go through the arch?” Jason could be there, maybe.
***
Somehow, Chidi did not think that Madison Valley was the “something better” than the Good Place. Peaceful was not a word he would use to describe this town. “I don’t think that’s likely,” he said. “But it’s possible Jason or Tahani or Michael might be back.” It would be nice to see more of their people.
“Coffee first though,” he agreed as they arrived at the coffee shop and he held the door open for her.
***
“It’d be great if they were. And if they’re not...that’s okay, too,” Eleanor decided. It would make her a little sad, but they were all doing what they should be doing, and it seemed that she and Chidi were destined to live out this weird other alter-dimension life.
She shot him a smile and stopped to lean over and kiss him soundly, then walked through the door, content with knowing he’d be there right behind her.
***
They were here together and that was really all that mattered to Chidi. He didn’t even care when someone huffed behind them as Eleanor kissed him. Whoever it was could wait.