Holly dropped her luggage on her bed with a contented sigh. It was good to be home. She heard Fletcher bustling about in the kitchen. When he had dropped her off from the airport, she had decided on the spur of the moment to invite him to stay for dinner. He had accepted on the condition that he would be the one cooking. This was not so much a romantic proposition as a pragmatic one; Holly was a rotten cook and everybody knew it.

She considered changing into a dress before coming out of the room, but decided against it. Fletcher might think that she was trying to seduce him and it was not the case. At least not tonight, she mused while fixing her lipstick.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Roger's picture, still on her nightstand. She had never been able to throw it away. Turning to face it, she felt the familiar mix of pain, joy, lust and confusion. She wondered if the feeling would ever fade away. Maybe if she never heard from him again…

Fletcher peeped through the door, causing her to jump.

"Dinner's ready," he announced. If he had caught her staring at her ex-lover's picture, he did not comment on it.

Holly followed him in the living room, noticing the candles, the dimmed lights and the enticing aromas emanating from the steaming plates of food. "Wow, you really outdid yourself, Fletch. This looks delicious!"

He beamed at her, obviously proud. His hair was ruffled and his shirt stained with tomato sauce; he looked happy.

"Not to flatter myself, but I think I got pretty creative with what was left in your fridge."

He stood behind her to help her to her seat, getting so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. In spite of her reservations and her decision to take it slow, she could not help turning around to face him.

He did not step back, sported his usual boyish grin and waited for her next move.

"Fletch, do you know what you are getting yourself into?"

He laughed. "Red, you talk as if you come with a warning, like some sort of toxic product. Beware of Holly, you could get hurt. Do not mix with Roger Thorpe…"

Holly flinched at the mention of Roger's name. "Fletcher, please don't make fun of me."

Fletcher instantly became serious. "I am not. You are trying to tell me that you still have feelings for him, I get that. But see, Holly, the thing is that he is not here anymore. I am. And I like you, very, very much. Shouldn't that count for something?"

Holly felt her resolve weaken. Fletcher read it in her eyes and leaned in to brush his lips against hers.

They both screamed as Blake came crashing in trough the door at that exact moment.

"Mom! Dad is back in town and he just got arrested!"

On her way to the police station, the only thing that Holly could think about was that she wished she had put on a dress after all. She felt numb, like you feel when you hear that someone you know has just died in an accident. She could not believe that she would see Roger in the next five minutes. She looked at Blake, who was driving faster that she should. Then she checked the rear view mirror to see if Fletcher still looked upset. He did.

She had tried to dissuade him from coming, but he had insisted upon it. Alexandra getting Roger arrested qualified as news, he said grimly. I bet that is not why you want to go down there, she had thought to herself, but she knew that he would not change his mind.

She practically walked in the police station with her eyes closed. Then suddenly, Roger was standing before her, separated from her only by prison bars.

And then all the feelings came rushing back. She had wondered if the attraction would still be there: it was. She had also wondered if the anger would still be there; yes, it was still there. She wanted to strike him and kiss him at the same time. As for Roger, he merely had the confirmation that he still wanted her with all his might, like he knew he would. The want almost made him cried now that she was so near. They looked at each other for a long time, without speaking, trying to guess what the other one was thinking. Everybody else had disappeared.

Then Blake could not wait any longer and she rushed to her father, reaching for his hands behind the bars.

"Ross is on his way and we will pay your bail. Will you tell me now why you got arrested?"

"You brought your mother?" was all that Roger could think of replying at first. He certainly had not envisioned this kind of reunion for the two of them, especially with Fletcher lurking in the background.

"You're going to put this in your paper, Reade? The triumphant return of Roger Thorpe!"

"Well, that depends, Thorpe. Why don't you answer Blake's question?"

"Alexandra Spaulding had a restraining order against me since January, and I violated it by running into her this afternoon. Of course, since I had left town, I had no way of knowing about this restraining order, which I plan on contesting anyway. I wish no good to Alex, but no harm either. So, you see, it should all be settled as soon as I can appear in front of the judge, which should be tomorrow. Sorry to disappoint you Reade, but I am not staying in here for long."

Fletcher resisted the urge to reply. Roger was right; there was no story and no reason to keep him in jail. He suddenly felt defeated. He told Holly that he had to go to work. Their eyes met and she could see the sadness in his eyes. That could not be helped for now, she thought.

"Holly." She heard Roger softly calling her name and she turned back to him.

Blake stepped back to give them some privacy.

"Please tell me that you did not come here to gloat," he continued.

"I don't know why I came. I guess I just wanted to know how I felt."

"How do you feel?"

"Confused."

Roger gave her a little smile. "Confused is good. Confused is much more than I had hoped for."

Holly smiled back in spite of herself. "I am just glad to know that you're not rotting in some road ditch since this winter."

"I have so many things to tell you…if you want to hear me out."

It occurred to Holly at that moment that she could simply walk away and never see him again. He would not run after her, he had proven in the last months that he was capable of that. However, a big part of her still needed to know what he had to say, even if it was just to get some closure. If such a thing as closure could be attained between Roger and her.

"Call me when you get out of jail."

Much to Holly's chagrin, Fletcher avoided her at the office for the most part of the next few days. She let him be. She would not have known what to tell him anyway.

One morning, she came in to the journal and found him at his desk, where he had apparently spent the whole night. Papers and empty cups of coffee littered his desk. He got up as soon as he saw her and, to her surprise, motioned her to her office.

He started talking as soon as she closed the door behind them. "Are you going back to him?"

Holly sat with a sigh. "I think he wants me too."

Fletcher leaned on the door and crossed his arms. His face was expressionless. "What do YOU want?"

"I want to hear him out, but I have no idea of what will come out of it."

"Do you still love him?"

"You know I do, Fletch."

He straightened up to close the blinds. "Do you have feelings for me?"

Holly buried her face in her hands, exhaling through her fingers. "Yes, but I am not ready to move on. I am sorry."

"I wish I could wait for you to make up your mind. I guess I would if the other man was anybody but Roger Thorpe, but I already lost a woman to that jer…"

He tried to control the anger in his voice before resuming."…I don't know what you see in him Holly, but I hope it is worth it. In any case, if you do decide to go back to him, I won't be here to see it."

Holly got up in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I decided to leave for a while; at least a year. I have accepted a job in a newspaper in Rio de Janeiro; one of my friends runs it and he's been trying to get me to accept his offer for a while."

"What about Ben?"

"My son will come with me, of course."

Holly started panicking. "This is insane! You just can't leave Springfield like this, your job, your friends! "

Fletcher took both her hands, finally allowing some emotion to show in his face. "I had been doing it for years before I came here, remember? I will be fine."

He caressed her hair with one hand, not letting go of the other.

"You will be fine too, you know, at least at the journal. Nick will come and take my place, it's all settled."

Tears threatened to overflow from Holly's eyes and she stared at the floor. "Is it because you hate me now that you are leaving?"

He gently lifted her chin and forced her to look at him. "I could never hate you, Holly. I just think that you are out of your mind for still loving Roger."

He laughed a mirthless laugh. "I guess that makes me a fool for loving you. I will miss you, you know."

Holly nestled into his arms and started sobbing, unable to keep away any longer. "And I will miss you," she managed to blurt out. "You have been my rock in the last few months. I don't know how I would have survived without you. Won't you stay? Please, stay!"

Fletcher felt his will waver for a second, but the thought of Roger brought things into perspective again. "If we were talking about any other man, I might have stayed and fought for you, Holly. But against Roger, it would be a losing battle. I am a lot of things, but I am not a fool."

He hesitated for a few seconds and then kissed her. It was a long and soft kiss and Holly clang to him, not wanting to let go just yet.

"Think of me when I am gone, Red."

Holly watched him leave, wondering if she was letting her one chance at happiness slip away.