a/n For anyone who hasn't followed the Damily Opus from the beginning , I've given a key to identify what previous story the characters or author are referencing

Emily-AD

Emily had been right, of course. It had been infatuation. She and Damian had had a great month then it became harder to arrange time together between New York and California.

The South American trip hadn't expanded, as she had hoped.

1And there was that weird thing with Ryan Murphy. She had gotten a text from him saying "Sorry, sweetie. I've changed my mind. Don't bother coming in. All the best, Ryan."

She'd had no idea what it meant but when she showed it to Damian, he'd become really upset. He explained that he had suggested to Murphy that he consider her for a role on Glee as Rory's love interest.

Emily assured him that was very sweet but silly to even think about. She'd decided she wanted to concentrate on her music. And where Damian was just happy about the whole experience, occasionally getting to mug for the camera or sing a depressing song, she knew that wouldn't have satisfied her.

Still he felt like he'd disappointed her and it began to affect their time together.

So far 2012 sucked. First she'd been eliminated from American Idol. Then she'd been in LA a few times for recording. Sometimes she let Damian know when she would be there and sometimes she didn't. Sometimes when she did, he had something else planned.

She'd been excited about the performance at the OK pre-Oscars party with Damian and Cameron but ended up feeling like an intrusion on the bromance.

It didn't feel the same way when she was in Damian's arms for their number. In spite of the awkwardness though, he'd still tried to be possessive and she had bristled against it by being overtly flirtatious with several people there.

Now she'd heard that Damian was going through more than his share of the female population in a 50-mile radius of LA, or wherever he happened to be. That was the hardest thing to accept—that he had changed. She remembered saying that maybe he wouldn't end up doing all of the jerk things that guys did. Now…oh well.

She was sitting at her computer. She opened the folder marked 2The Damian Project and her shoulders slumped. There was still too much good there. She'd added a few pics taken from the time they'd been together. He'd forwarded his 3Songs to Make Emily Twinge file to her. She wasn't anymore ready to delete the folder than she had been after their first weekend, but had to finalize it in some way. She decided to mark it as Mission Aborted.

4The bracelet he'd given her then had been in her jewelry box for a few weeks now. 1The orchid he'd given her and, because it was so fragile, kept with him, with the promise to care for it, was long dead, she was sure.

She'd slept with one of her producers a few times but tried to avoid it as much as possible because sometimes he hit. He would punch her arms or legs—never the face. At least he wasn't jealous. In fact he liked to hear about her encounters with other people.

She hadn't had many lately—a few with women that were unsatisfactory. She made up some to please him.

Emily was becoming scared. How many chances could someone get anyway, professionally and personally, and they never worked out. She was already making compromises. Would she know when it was time to stop before the concessions became worse, more demeaning?

She got up from the computer and tried to shake off her depression. It was just a bad day. Things always got better.

She had a call on her phone. She looked at the number. "I haven't heard from him since the OK party," she said, "I wonder what he wants."

Damian-AE

Damian was packing for his long-anticipated trip to Australia. He'd joked that there would be a lot of goin' down Down Under.

He'd been working with a trainer for a while and tanning and felt good about himself physically. But maybe he just didn't like himself so much right now.

He felt bad about all of those girls but none of them had been what he was looking for. One might be sassy but didn't have the vulnerability. Or another might have been very sweet and pretty but just not sexy enough. There was one in particular who had been fiery and tempting enough, but those traits weren't tempered with any grace. None were Emily.

He put his head in his hands as he realized he'd just opened himself up to his daily castigation of "how could I have been so stupid?"

He had thought he was ready to deal with Emily's insecurities and self-doubt but they'd became overwhelming as her career reached a standstill. Those feelings had made her less desirable to him. And an undesirable Emily…really….what was the point?

He'd actually made up excuses for not being able to see her a couple of times when she was in LA for recording, then ached for her later.

Yes, he'd been an ass at the OK party, but still didn't think he should apologize because he hadn't liked the way she'd behaved that night either.

He hadn't wanted to tell her about the effort he'd put into arranging for her to perform with him. She'd made it clear she didn't need his interference or intervention.

He'd heard through the grapevine that she was disgusted and disappointed in his recent conduct so he didn't even try to contact her. He just missed her.

As was his habit he moved the orchid out of the strong late afternoon sunlight to a more indirect location. It wasn't the original orchid. He had let that one die, perversely wanting it to feel as bad as he did. But when it was no more than a shriveled stem, he felt the need to replace it with a replica from the same open air market. He'd read about how to properly tend them and now this one was what he'd promised Emily—thriving and beautiful. Someone was to continue its care while he was on vacation.

He had been excited about this trip for months but now, it felt more like an escape than a pending adventure.

Before leaving for Australia, he was making a trip to New York with his friends from the show. Mark's buddy was making his Broadway debut. "You all met him at the OK party, remember," he had said in corralling them to see the show in support of his friend.

It had been a great performance and they all went backstage to congratulate him. Through the open door, they saw he had his arms around a woman.

With a practiced eye Damian mentally evaluated her from the back. "Second greatest ass I've ever seen….smooth, black hair…not very tall…No!"

The new star greeted them. "Hey, guys, I believe you all know my beautiful friend."

She turned and smiled. Only Damian knew it was her 3armored smile. It was Emily.

1Anything for Ya-1/27/12
2Easy Come, Easy Go-1/6/12
3Wrong in All the Right Ways-1/7/12
4Need You Now-12/30/11