The tension built in Emily as she watched the television, anticipating someone's elimination. She knew that feeling of having those specific dreams and plans suddenly...dissolve. The young man with the striking blue eyes cuddling her in the bed had been spared that particular experience.

They were in London in a hotel room. If anyone wanted a description of the room, he or she would have to ask someone other than the couple. Emily and Damian didn't care what color the carpet was or where the bathroom was in relation to the dresser. They just cared that they were together.

It was a clandestine meeting. Damian was still ostensibly in Derry and Emily was most recently known to be in San Francisco. He had wanted to have this time with her though to watch the Vulnerability episode of the new season of the Glee Project.

"That hurt, didn't it?" he asked her, as the decision to retain all of the last chance performers became known.

"No, I'm fine," Emily said.

"Emmy, you can't lie to me when I can feel you. Your back is tensed," he said, as he ran his had down her spine, "the hair on your arms is raised," he continued, gently rubbing them. "Tell me what you're thinking."

She lowered her eyes, hesitated and said haltingly, "Maybe I'm wrong about how good I think I am. Ryan didn't even think about keeping all of us; he just dumped me," she finished with a little catch in her voice.

Somehow they'd avoided this subject for months but now they had to face it. Because Ryan Murphy didn't just dump Emily from the competition after the Vulnerability episode last season, he dumped her in favor of Damian, who now held her as though he were afraid that she might get up and leave him.

Damian sighed as he looked into her eyes. "You know better than that. You have a beautiful voice," he said, giving her a small kiss, "and excellent control," he continued with a slightly longer kiss. "You can't base your feelings about your talent on Ryan's choices. He's an over-grown kid. There's no rhyme or reason to what he does and you've seen how easily he can be influenced—like changing the format of the show to please parts of the audience."

Maintaining the gaze, he added, "But he might have been right about you."

Emily's eyebrows came together in a frown; Damian hurried to make clear his thinking.

"Glee was perfect for me because I like being part of a group. But you, my lovely, don't really fit in an ensemble. You need to be center stage….most of the time."

He sighed again as he touched her face. "I love you. And I don't think you would have had time to become so interested in me if you'd been working on the show. Plus, you wouldn't have heard me sing in the finale to make you twinge and make you curious," he added, grinning.

She smiled in response. He continued more seriously. "If you could go back and win that week, knowing how minor our roles ended up being and knowing that we wouldn't have been together, would you still have wanted that?" He nervously choked out the last words.

Emily snuggled on his chest. "Knowing all that, I choose you".

He held her close, raised his eyes and exhaled in relief. "But to continue with your reassurance, you're good at comedy." He kissed her again. "And I'm not one to judge dancing, but I've always had a definite reaction to watching you."

"A definite reaction," she repeated questioningly.

Damian looked down at himself. "I'd say it's pretty definite, wouldn't you?"

She gave a small laugh. "Yeah, Junior, that's very definite. You're well-defined."

He grinned again then became serious for another moment, as he stroked her long black hair, "it'll happen, Emily. I don't know when but I know it will. And I'm magical, right?"

"Your magic is only in making me happy," she clarified.

"I can live with that," he said. "So you know what you need to do until it happens. Keep…" he began tunefully.

Emily picked it up by singing "Keep holdin' on. 'Cause we'll make it through…"

"Ahhh, Woman, you can turn a lyric into foreplay. That was on purpose, I hope."

Changing positions with him, Emily got the last line. "Like you said, I have excellent control."