Janet hung up the phone and stood in shock. Rooster had been watching like a hawk trying to determine if she was talking to Eddie but it had been a few day's and he was pretty sure Eddie knew by now and she wasn't crying so he figured it couldn't have been Eddie on the other end. He rushed over knowing she would just push him away but he wanted so bad to know why she seemed to be in such shock. He was only a few steps away when she turned and softly said she had to go. She laid the phone down and walked away throwing her hand's up at Roosters questions.

She drove around and couldn't find him. She was so mad at her self for what she had done, it was painfully apparent when he kicked her out of his room that he loved her, if she had only seen it before then she would have never thought that he wanted Rory. Finally giving up she did the only thing she could, what was she thinking she thought to her self he wouldn't want to see her if she did find him. So she decided the least she could do for him was to give his friends the heads up.

3:30 on Saturday and band practice was in full swing at least until Eddie came stumbbling through the door. They all stopped and watching in shock as a battered Eddie walked past them and came back with a beer and plopped onto the couch in pain.
"Eddie" Owen said mostly as a question
"Where's your truck" Nick asked
"I don't know" he answered
"Did Janet drop you off" Phil asked
"Nope" Eddie said as he sipped his beer as if he didn't have a care in the world tossing his bottle top across the room
"How did you get here" Ickey asked
"I walked" Eddie still acting as it wasn't a big deal
"you walked, from the hospital" Phil asked still trying to figure out what was going on
"you could have called us, or your girlfriend for that matter" Nick suggested
"I needed the time to think" Eddie replied as he finished one beer and opened another one
"I thought for sure you'd be laid up at Janets letting her nurse you back to health when you got out" Ickey added
"Yeah well I guess I didn't really feel like being someones burden" Eddie said as he made his way upstaris rufusing help from the guy's

He had barely had time to close his room door when Phil answered the knock at the door.
"Hey, we wondered where you've been" he said cheery but soon realized her mood matched that of Eddie's.
"The hospital called and said Eddie checked his self out, I can't find him" she said ringing her hands
"He's upstairs" Phil told her easing her mind
"He didn't tell you he was leaving" Phil asked as the guy's listened
"He listed me as his in case of emergency so they called" Owen was listening intently
"Look there's a lot going on right now and he's going to need you all of you" she said as she held out the bottle of Eddie's pain pills she picked up from the Hospital.
"Maybe you should give those to him yourself" Phil said and reluctantly she walked up the stairs to his room, the door was closed and she knocked on it and when she got no reply she slowly opened the door and saw him sitting on the egde of the bed with his head in his hands and his elbows propped on his knees. He didn't look up he didn't have to he knew it was her by the sent of the perfume he had bought her for Valentines day. She opened the bottle and held out two of the pills for Eddie to take. He ignored her "Damn't Eddie just take the freaking pills and I'll go" she said catching her self as her tone became demanding. She bent over to lay the pills on the table and Eddie swept his hand across the top of her chest. She stood up is shock and Eddie raised to stand against her. Her touched her face, then her arm before pulling her shirt over her head, still thinking he was going to snap out of it at any moment she waited as he ran his hands over her body. Finally giving in to her desire to feel him again she slowly unbuttoned his shirt and inspected the bruises, the mere touch of her hand caused him pain as her fingers gently graised over every mark his body bared. He took a deep breath and waited as she finished. She knew he had the urge to pull away as she continued to wait for him to kiss her. But he didn't he admired her body and she did his as the slowly finished undressing one another. Eddie gently took her by the arms and laid her on the bed crawling ontop of her he nudged her legs open and sank his self deep inside of her slowly he continued to pleasure her with the drawing of his self in and out of her body. Neither made a sound in the nearly hour they had spent having sex that they knew would only cause them to hurt more than they already did. Eddie wanted to hurt, he wanted to scream, he wanted every suspended moment inside of her to rip his heart open again. In some strange place in his mind he wanted more than anything to mean the words he had said to her and this was the place to start. Knowing he was just days behind another man would surely be the ammunition he needed to hate his self and her. Climaxing at the same time didn't seem to matter, neither enjoyed to eminence pleasure their bodies were experiencing and they remained silent. Eddie was in more pain than he had ever experienced in his life but the cracked ribs and bruises had nothing to do with it, reaching the lowest moment of his life by having sex with a woman for pain he gave into his self and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead before quickly rolling over and staring at the ceiling. Janet knew she didn't have the right to cry not in front of him anyway. "It's your house, I'll be the one to go" she said in the soft voice Eddie loved so much but if he had looked at her he would have lost it and begged her to stay. Knowing Eddie didn't need her there she gracefully bowed out and went to the bathroom to dress so Eddie wouldn't have to lay with the woman who he so badly wanted to hate.

When she emerged form the bathroom he had gotten dressed but his shirt remained unbuttoned. He was leaned against the window watching the street below. She made her way through the dimly lit room and turned the nob when he spoke "Janet" he said still gazing outside the window. She pause and he simply said "I love you" her heart sank. It had rolled off his tongue so easily, though it took all the effort in the world it seemed to slip out so tenderly. "I know Eddie, I love you to" she replied as she turned to look at his outline in the window "Will you wait" he asked never breaking his trance "Forever, Eddie" and with that she walked out.

The guy's had been downstairs waiting to hear screaming or love making or anything for that matter but not a sound was to be heard. Not a clue was to be had. Janet stepped off the bottom step of the stairs and turned to the room full of guy's but she wasn't ashamed for them to know what her and Eddie had been doing she just said "Take care of him" and walked away.

"What the hell happened" Ickey asked the guy's
"I don't know man, I don't know" Nick answered just as they heard a loud noise in Eddie's room. They all ran upstairs and busted through the door. "Dude, you alright" Ickey asked as he and Owen bent down to help Eddie up off the floor.
"Leave me, be" Eddie said with tears running down his face
"Let us just get you up off the floor" Phil suggested
"No it hurts to much" Eddie whined and gritted his teeth as he scooted up higher on his bottom.
"Do you want your pain pills" Ickey asked and the look on Eddie's face as he turned to him told a story all of its own.
"Was she crying" Eddie asked
"No she looked like she wanted to but she wasn't" Phil answered
"Hey, I've got this, why don't you just go back to practicing" Owen suggested and they left the room. Owen took a seat on the floor next to Eddie and grabbed two beers out of the six pack Eddie had brought up with him. He opened them and handed one to Eddie.

"Hey big O, why does it have to hurt so damn much" Eddie asked in a completely exhausted state
"Because that's what love feels like" Owen answered
"Do you want to tell me what happened" he asked
"I can't.. I can't bring myself to say it, O ,I want to I need to but I just can't" Eddie still had tears trickling
"How about we start with the obvious, judging by your shirt and bed I'm guessing you just had sex with her" Owen stated
"I used her vulnerability against her, I knew she wouldn't turn me away and she didn't...I couldn't kiss her Big O, I could see her face the whole time but she just wouldn't look at me"
"What would make her feel like she couldn't" Owen asked
"because of me, because she love's me, because I rejected her, I told her to rot, Owen, I told the one woman I love more than anything to..." Eddie leaned his head back against the wall without finishing
"Why couldn't you kiss her" Owen asked trying to get the big picture
"I pushed her away" Eddie replied
"Rory" Owen asked
"she saw me kiss her, she saw me sitting on the porch kissing another woman,she came to see me, she wanted me, needed me to tell her everything was okay but I was to busy trying to decide if I wanted to spend the night with Rory.." Eddie's head was filled with guilt
"Did you decide" Owen carefully asked
"I knew the minute out lips touched I wanted to be with Janet, but it was to late she was already..." Eddie didn't have to finish Owen could read between those lines of hurt and anger
"She gave herself to another man because she loved me, do you know how messed up that is" Eddie asked but really just talking to his self
"If there's one thing I've learned it's that you have to tell them how much you love them, you can't expect them to just know, you have to say it and you have to show it, did you do that Eddie, did you tell her you loved her" Owen explained
"The first time I told her I loved her I was standing in front of that window staring at the mailbox and she was walking out of the door feeling like she wasn't worth kissing" Eddie could barely talk or hold his head up. Owen helped him up and onto the bed where he soon passed out.
"Is he okay" Phil asked
"Don't leave him alone, he'll so something he'll regret" Owen said on his way out the door. He still had a family and after listening to Eddie cry his heart out he was going to do everything he could to keep it that way.