Hey everyone! This one was a hard one for me to write. After the series finale, I wanted to write about Sue and Sean's breakup(s) because I didn't like the way the show casually threw that in there. But don't fret. I wrote two chapters so you can still read about a happy ending. I hope you enjoy the story!

Sean neatly stacked the dishes in the dishwasher at Sue and Lexie's shared apartment. It had been two months since he returned home from Ghana and him and Sue were spending every available minute together, attempting to make up for lost time. They studied together, ate together, and walked each other from class to class when their schedules lined up. He was so happy to finally be with the girl of his dreams and he wanted to make sure he didn't do anything to screw it up this time. He closed the door to the dishwasher and started the cleaning cycle.

Sue tapped her pencil on the kitchen table, slightly squinting her eyes at the ceiling while she tried to figure out how to answer one of the questions on her homework assignment.

"Ugh...I just can't figure this out." She complained as she flipped through the pages of her math textbook in search of an explanation.

"Mind if I take a look?" Sean asked. He had taken several math courses in college and always excelled in them, like Donahues usually do.

"Oh...you don't have to..." Sue began to say when she was cut off.

"Sue." Sean said simply, his eyes looking into hers, his eyebrows raised in a way that said 'I would do anything for you.' Sue let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay." She said. Sean stepped behind her and leaned over her shoulder to examine the assignment. He couldn't resist the urge to wrap his arms around her, so he did just that and set his head on her shoulder as he read the text on the page. Sue gently stroked his arm, which had become habit now, and he gently kissed her on the neck before turning back to look at the assignment. Sue always felt instantly relaxed when he held her like this. Sean pointed at a formula in her textbook.

"You have to use this." He said. He stood back up and placed his hands on her shoulders while she finished her math problem.

"Ah, I get it now. Thanks!" She said.

"Any time." He said happily. Sean sat down in the chair next to her, pulled a stack of books and papers out of his backpack, and set them on the table next to Sue's. A piece of paper fell out of one of the books and landed partially on top of Sue's homework. Sean quickly reached over to remove it and shoved it back in his book in an attempt to hide it. Sue had already noticed the red markings on the page, and a very low grade on what appeared to be a quiz.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Oh...it was nothing...just something from one of my classes." Sean said, embarrassed and worried that she had noticed his almost failing grade.

"Sean...you got a D?" She said. Sean cringed and buried his face in his hands. He mumbled "yes" into his hands but kept his face covered. He never wanted anyone to know that he was less than perfect. He was always raised to be a success and anything less was unacceptable in his family. Now that he was with Sue, he was afraid that she would notice his shortcomings and no longer be interested in him.

"I-I-it's okay, Sean...everyone gets bad grades sometimes. I remember this one time in my econ class I had a test that didn't..." She began to ramble in an attempt to make Sean feel better. He cut her off in a confession of his own.

"Sue...it's not just this one thing...it's a lot of things. I thought when I went to Ghana that things would turn around and that I would do better in my classes, but things are only getting worse and I'm sorry and I don't want you to think less of me...I feel like such an idiot." He said.

Sue opened her mouth to speak but wasn't sure what to say. The first thought that popped into her mind was that after Ghana, the two of them had started their relationship and she worried that she was being too much of a distraction. She knew that Sean would never tell her that he needed more time to focus. He always put her feelings first and now it was hitting her that maybe it was a problem. She had been to wrapped up in their whirlwind romance that she sort of forgot about reality.

"Sean...I...I don't really know what to say." She finally said. Sean turned to her and placed his hands on hers.

"You don't have to say anything, Suzy Q...this is my fault." He said while looking down at their hands.

Sue looked down at her feet and nervously tapped her toes on the floor. Her worst nightmare was about to come true, and she was going to have to be the one to make it happen.

"Sean...I hope you know how much I love you..." She started. Sean smiled a little bit but could sense that something was wrong.

"I do. I love you, too...I really do." Sean said in return.

"But..." Sue said. Sean's face turned grim and his heart began to sink. He knew what was happening now and it made him feel sick.

"Please don't do this." Sean said in a panic, holding more tightly onto her hands.

"I just think that it would be best if..." Sue said as tears started to roll down her cheek. She noticed Sean's eyes beginning to water as well.

"No...please don't." Sean pleaded while he bit down on his lip in an attempt to maintain his composure.

"I don't want to be the reason for your bad grades...school is important to you and I can't mess things up for you." Sue said.

"It's not you, Sue. I'm just having a hard time with my classes...but I can try harder. I will try harder...I promise..." He said.

"I think we should just take a break...take some time to focus...not forever...just...for now." Sue said. She sniffed her now running nose and wiped tears from her eyes with her sleeve. Sean's attempt at maintaining his composure was a failure now, as tears left his eyes while his heart crumbled into a thousand pieces. Seeing Sean like this caused Sue to completely lose it. She whispered 'I'm sorry' to him before she ran to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She threw herself onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow. How could this have happened so quickly. Just a few minutes ago she was walking on air...and now she was at rock bottom. Sean remained at the kitchen table for a few minutes. He banged his head down onto his books, the pages becoming wet from his tears. He had experienced feelings of disappointment and rejection, but this was a whole new experience for him. He had loved Sue for so long. When he confessed his love for her, that feeling grew even stronger. They had survived the summer apart...but now everything was falling apart because of a piece of paper. He pulled the quiz out of his textbook, looked at it, and crumpled it up into a ball. He packed up his books and headed for the door. When Sue heard the sound of the door shutting, she cried even harder and she snuggled with Woofy Dog on her bed.