Cooper's eyes flutter open, the morning sun shining through the curtains of their hotel room being the first thing to greet him. A content smile takes over his lips as he allows his eyes to shut once more. It's once his hand hits the body next to his that the memories of the night before flood back to him.

His eyes shoot back open and he glances to his right, coming face-to-face with the bare back of his companion from last night. He lets his head fall heavily on his pillow and shuts his eyes tightly in regret, trying to somehow convince himself that it was all just a dream and it didn't really happen.

But when his eyes open once more to find Ellie stirring in her sleep, he knows that there's no chance it was a dream.

"Why couldn't we have just eaten some damn fruit loops?" He mumbles to himself, tossing an arm dramatically over his forehead.

Ellie stirs once more, a sleepy moan leaving her lips and only further reminding him of last night's activities. Her hand reaches out for him as she incoherently mumbles. It takes Cooper a second to realize she's saying his name.

When her hand lands on his arm he all but freezes under her warm touch. Against his better judgment, he spares another look in her direction. He instantly regrets it when he sees the softness of her features, completely unaware to his regrets and what conversation faces her when she awakes from her peaceful slumber.

He tries to shake her grip from his arm before deciding that maybe he can be selfish and relish in it for a moment longer. His hopes of having a few more minutes of serenity are ripped away when Ellie's eyes flutter open and she fixes him with a sleepy smile.

"Morning," she says, pulling her hand back timidly and stretching her arms above her head.

Amidst her stretching, the blanket gets pulled down, giving Cooper a perfect view of her bare chest. He clears his throat, sitting up in the bed and staring out the window to distract himself. The sun shines brightly in a perfectly clear sky, a complete opposition to the feelings stirring inside of him.

His distraction doesn't last long as Ellie's hands snake around his stomach, the exact bare chest he was hoping to avoid pressing into his back and causing a whirlwind of emotions in his mind.

"My head hurts," she mumbles, a quiet laugh following her words as she leans her head on his shoulder.

He doesn't say anything, instead grabbing her wrists to break her lock on him and getting up from the bed in a hurry. He doesn't spare her a glance as he grabs his underwear and steps into them.

"Coop?" She says, reaching for the comforter and pulling it up to her neck.

"I have to pee," he says hurriedly, a half-assed excuse to get away from her.

"Oh," she says, a forced laugh following. "Okay..."

He doesn't say anything. He just rushes to the bathroom and shuts the door behind him, immediately finding himself in front of the mirror and confronted with his own reflection.

"How could you let this happen?" He hisses at himself, his hand balling up into a fist as he tries to calm himself down.

Unaware to the emotional turmoil going on in the bathroom, Ellie pushes herself up from the bed in search of her clothes. She quickly slips into her undergarments, sensing the tense air that this morning has already brought on. She's only been awake five minutes and already she's wishing she was back in bed.

Confused, she glances at her hand. Relieved when she sees that there's no shiny new diamond ring there, she wracks her brain for another cause to Cooper's odd behavior. The only other thing she can think of hurts too much to even consider.

Before she has a chance to dwell on it, Cooper steps out of the bathroom, still clad in only a pair of boxers. A blush creeps onto her cheeks as she diverts her gaze, walking over to her suitcase to find some clothes to cover up with.

Cooper doesn't say anything, he just grabs his own clothes and quickly changes into them before returning to the bathroom with his toothbrush. Ellie tries not to read into the mood too much. Maybe he's just not much of a morning person. After all, they haven't spent very many mornings together. She's unfamiliar with his habits when he first wakes up.

"We'll go to say bye to Ali and then we'll head home," he says when he emerges from the restroom, his eyes still trained on the floor instead of her. "It's early enough, we can drive straight home. We don't need to stay in another motel."

"Okay," Ellie says, nodding her head as she tucks her clothes back into her suitcase. She feels the tears welling up in her eyes, not expecting this morning to have as tense of an air as it has. She tries her best to keep them back, not wanting to cry over potentially nothing.

"Ready?"

She wipes away a loose tear before turning to him with a semi-convincing smile. "Ready."

The car ride to Ali's lacks conversation completely, instead Cooper drowns out the silence with the music on his phone, tapping along to the beat as if everything is perfectly fine. Ellie doesn't fight it, finding that she's not exactly in the mood to speak anyway.

When they pull up to Ali's house, Ellie swallows down the lump in her throat before getting out of the car as quickly as possible. Cooper watches after her, taking a second to scold himself internally before shutting the car off and following her towards the house.

She doesn't wait for him to join her on the porch before she's knocking on the door. Part of her wishes he would've just waited in the car so Ellie could have a cry with her friend and vent about how shitty her morning has been, but she knows that would be selfish. Cooper is the entire reason she even got to come down here.

When the door finally opens, Ali stands on the other side, a squinting, hungover mess. "Damn it's bright."

"That's daylight for you," Ellie says blandly, shooting her friend a quick smile. Ali's forehead creases as she stares back at her, a concerned look in her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Cooper looks away from both girls, leaning against the side of the house and busying himself with watching the swaying leaves of the palm trees. Ellie shoots him an annoyed glance before looking back to Ali and saying, "Yeah. I'm good. I'm just going to miss you."

Her friend glances to Cooper before raising her eyebrows at Ellie in a way that reads, you better tell me later. Ellie nods, holding her arms out and waiting for her friend to join her in a hug. Ali wastes no time, stepping out of her house, despite the blinding brightness of the sun, and completing the embrace.

"I'll come visit you in Seattle soon," she reassures.

Another set of tears well up in Ellie's eyes and she wants to scream at herself for being so overly-emotional today. "You better."

When they pull back from their hug, Ali's eyes burn into Cooper's back. "And you," she calls, earning his attention. "Thanks for bringing her."

He sends her a swift nod, pushing himself off the wall so he can properly say his goodbyes. "My pleasure. It was nice meeting you, Ali. I had a good time."

"Me too," she agrees, her eyes finding Ellie once more only to see her gaze trained on the ground. With a sigh, she turns back to him. "Fix whatever you did."

The bluntness of her statement takes both Cooper and Ellie by surprise, though neither of them argue that there's nothing to be fixed. Cooper simply nods once more before returning to the car. Ellie gives her one last hug, promising to fill her in on everything later, and then she's joining him in the car.

Turning the ignition on, he puts the car into drive and pulls out onto the road. Ellie casts a few glances in his direction, waiting for him to finally say something. When he doesn't, she sighs audibly.

"We have a seventeen-hour drive ahead of us," she says, breaking the silence.

He looks to her briefly before training his eyes back on the road. "Yeah."

"And we're going to do this for the entire seventeen-hour drive?" She asks impatiently.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit, Cooper." Her words are harsh, but it seems that's the way they have to be. "Why are you being so cold towards me? What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything, Ellie," he says, an irritated sigh following his words. The fact that he has the audacity to act like she's putting him out with this conversation only intensifies her rage.

"You can't sleep with someone and then treat them like this!" She screams, her hands finding their way into her hair as she yanks at it, letting out a dry laugh and hitting her head against the headrest of her seat.

"You need to calm down," he says softly, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.

"Don't tell me to calm down unless you want to see me really lose my shit, Cooper."

Her eyes focus in on the muscle in his jaw that's pulsating, a sign that he's clearly trying to hold back some strong emotion. Blinded by her rage, she continues pushing, eager to get that emotion out of him.

"Was I not good in bed?" She asks with a humorless laugh. "Because it didn't seem that it was an issue last night—"

"Stop talking about it," he says, inhaling deeply in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Stop talking about what? Go on. Say it, Cooper. What happened?"

"Ellie." He shakes his head solemnly. "Please. Can we stop talking about it?"

"Unbelievable," she mutters under her breath, the tears in her eyes finally breaking loose. "That's not fair, Cooper. You can't just avoid conversations you don't want to have. Not when they affect other people."

His breath hitches in his throat as he hears the croaky tone to her voice, a clear indication that she's started crying. He wants to turn away from the road, to hold her in his arms and comfort her, but he can't bring himself to even look at her.

"Please don't cry," he says quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry. I—"

He cuts himself off, unsure what exactly it is he wants to say. Much to his dismay, she doesn't stop crying. If anything, she starts crying more. He finally finds the courage to look at her and when he does, his heart shatters into a million pieces.

"Ellie—"

"I don't want to hear it, Cooper," she says, wiping her runny nose with the sleeve of her shirt before turning to stare out the window.

"I need to—"

"It's one thing to regret it," she says calmly, fixing him with a sad look. He gulps when he reads the hurt in her eyes. "I understand drinking too much and regretting something. I could have handled that, though I'm sure it would have hurt. But to completely pretend like it didn't happen..."

"I don't regret it," he finally says, immediately backtracking as he sees the hope in her eyes. "I mean, I do regret it."

She rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest and staring back out the window. "Whatever, Cooper. I get it. You don't like me. It was a one time thing. We don't have to keep having this conversation, it's clearly not going anywhere."

"Of course I like you, Ellie," he says exasperatedly, tossing one of his arms in the air as a dry laugh leaves his lips. "But just because I like you, doesn't mean I don't regret it."

Ellie's attention is grabbed by his confession, but still she doesn't turn to face him. It isn't until he pulls over on the side of the road that she decides to turn in her seat and hear him out. He studies every inch of her face, a frown taking over his lips as he stares into her tear-brimmed eyes.

"We shouldn't have slept together."

"But why?"

"We just shouldn't have," he says, dropping his gaze momentarily before deciding it's better if he holds eye contact. "We can't be together, Ellie. Don't you see that?"

"Clearly not," she says with a scoff.

"I like you, Ellie. God. I really like you. But I can't like you. And you can't like me."

"But I do like you and you do like me," she says, shaking her head as she reaches across the car for his hands. He doesn't fight it when her hands envelop his own, instead he watches their every move, from the way they entwine together to the way her thumb slowly rubs against the outside of his weakened hands.

"We can't."

"Why?" While her question is a challenge, her voice already sounds defeated. "Just give me a good reason as to why we can't be together."

"I'm dying, Ellie."

He feels her hands tighten around his as the words leave his mouth. She shakes her head, a new set of tears building up in her eyes. "No. You can get better. Your chemo, it can make you better."

He looks down to their hands, finding it easier to watch them than to watch her. "Ellie. I have cancer."

"You can beat it."

His head shakes slowly as he glances back up at her. "I'm not going to beat it, El."

"You don't know that," she says, her words shaky.

"My doctors say it's not looking good."

"But yesterday you said—"

"I lied," he says quickly, guilt creeping up his throat.

She pulls her hands away from his, crossing her arms over her stomach as she leans back into her seat and cries. He doesn't say anything for a while, he just leans back in his seat and allows the silent tears to roll down his own cheeks.

"I want to be with you, El. The timing just isn't right. I can't do that to you." She cries harder and he trains his gaze on the passing cars outside in an attempt to distract himself. "I can't let you fall in love with me and then leave you."

Her heart-wrenching cries slow down as she tries to gain control of her breathing. When Cooper draws his attention away from the cars to look over at her, he sees her hands shaking in her lap. With tear-stained cheeks, she turns to him, a sad smile on her lips as she stares back at him.

"Can't you see it's too late, Cooper?"