It's him. The first of Bunny's three possibilities disappeared in the instant between the door opening and Nate stepping through. She couldn't move right away, trapped under the weight of the thousand miles that brought her to Austin. How many days had it been since she'd last seen Nate? How could the sight of him flood her with joy and sorrow both? So much time lost, and for a moment she could see all of it hovering in the air between them.
Nate, none the wiser, was obviously looking for the person he thought he was there to meet. He turned toward her and for a moment Bunny thought -- but then his eyes slipped right past her without stopping. Still, it was enough to shake her out of her frozen state. With a lingering shiver, Bunny rose from her chair.
Now that she was standing, it was harder than she'd anticipated to hold herself back from running straight over to Nate. The shaking wasn't just in her hands anymore. Her arms, her legs, her heart -- they all trembled.
An impossible distance away Nate went still, the color draining out his face. Then her name came out of his mouth and suddenly she was in front of him, with no memory of having walked there. She didn't mean to reach for him, but her hand had a mind of its own, determined to be sure that he was real. It hovered for a moment, before tentatively touching the spot at the base of Nate's neck where she can see his pulse jumping beneath his skin. Not a dream. She can count the beats of his heart.
"Hi," she said, after a moment. It was such a brainless thing to say that Bunny couldn't help smiling, breaking into a wide grin. "There you are. I found you."