Author's Note: Wow! Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews! You are all WAY too kind to me:) I hope you like chapter 2! More to come soon!

Jack

She wasn't at home. Nor at one of the myriad of places I could generally find her. I was out of hope. She had disappeared. Perhaps that was telling. Perhaps this was her disappearing out of my life. Forever. I found myself stumbling into a certain Italian restaurant just as the sun was rising. Concetta was, as usual, up at the crack of dawn, preparing the tables for the noon time customers, helping her father come up with a daily special.

"Gianni!" She greeted me with a kiss and a warm hug and I couldn't help but feel as though I was utterly betraying her.

"Can we talk, Concetta?" I asked. She nodded, pursing her lips. "Phryne is missing." I said simply, summarizing the problem without going into too much detail.

"How awful! Are there signs of foul play?" She asked, her eyes filled with concern. She was good. She was far too good for someone like me.

"No. I...I should explain. I got a call from my brother to bail him out of jail early this morning, around 3. Apparently he'd been engaged in some sort of affair in public and they'd been taken in for public indecency."
"A silly law if you ask me." She teased. I nodded.

"Anyway, I bailed the pair out and it turned out that the lady he was with, was Phryne." Concetta grew quiet, watching my every move. "I took them back to the station to take care of the situation and we...we got into a fight."
"Your brother and you?"

"Phryne and I." She nodded and motioned that I should carry on.

"She stormed out and I've been looking for her all night, but she's nowhere to be found. I'm afraid she may make a rash decision and leave the country, go to Spain, or England, or God forbid, America. She would have a damn field day in America." I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"Gianni..." She trailed off. "John." She emphasized. I frowned, looking at her.

"What is it?"

"I've made a mistake." She said simply. "I had been hoping to be Phryne's friend. Hoping that we could all be friends and that this whole thing would just blow over."

"What 'whole thing'?"

"When we kiss, Gianni, it is clear to me. Your heart...your heart I think, is taken. I thought I could take it back. But I think now I was wrong." Her lilting accent flowed pleasantly out of her lips, smiling sadly. "I don't think we should get married, Gianni."

"Concetta!"

"I'm sorry, Gianni. But I think...I think your heart belongs to someone else. No, don't look at me like that. I will find someone who loves me more than anything else. But I think, you have already found your someone. And it is not me." She kissed my cheek, standing up. "Go find her Gianni. I am happy for you, really."

Phryne

"Phryne! For the love of God, you've got to tell me what's wrong!" Mac's voice was dripping with worry, her hand, gripping my shoulder tightly as I sobbed in a heap on her floor. "Is Jane alright? Dot? Mr. Butler? Who is it, Phryne? What's happened?"

"I made a mistake, Mac. And I don't think I can undo it. I think I've gone and fucked up my life so thoroughly I'll never make it right again."

"Oh, sweetheart. It can't be as bad as you think."

"I went and fell in love, Mac!" I yelled at her, bitterly.

"With Jack. Right."

"What? What are you-"

"You're in love with Jack Robinson. What's so wrong with that? It's so utterly obvious."

"What do you mean it is obvious?"
"Relax. You and he are about the only ones who aren't aware." I paused at that. Had I been so clueless to my own emotions, so adamant that I would never fall in love, that I didn't even notice when I had?

"I don't see how this fucks up your life, Phryne."

"It's more than that, Mac." I said with a wince. "I...I...Well you know, Jack went and proposed to Concetta." Mac's eyes softened.

"I had heard something of the sort. I had hoped it was a rumor. He's so obviously in love with you that it had to have been a mistake."

"Even if he had been in love with me, he isn't any longer." I whispered.

"What happened, Phryne?" Mac asked quietly.

"I knew I could never have him. And I didn't...I didn't act like maybe I should have."

"Phryne," She said softly. "Just tell me. It can't be so bad."

"I have been going to bars all week."

"That's not particularly new."

"And having dalliances with random strangers who bear vague resemblances to Jack."

"Okay. Not necessarily the best choices you could have made, but still, I don't see how this is-"

"We were caught. My latest dalliance and I. In an alley. I was...well I was wanking him off." Mac bit her lip to hold in a laugh. "The police showed up. City Central."

"Well that's not-"

"Jack knows."

"Phryne. Jack has seen the way you choose to live your life. He has made it quite clear that he still enjoys your company, still considers you one of his greatest friends, still...I don't think this will affect your friendship."

"It was his brother, Mac. I had no idea, but apparently, some fucked up chain of events led to my being bailed out of prison for public indecency by the man I love for having pleasured his brotherin a public place." Mac was silent for a moment.

"Phryne, I don't know what to say but-"

"That's not it."

"Oh lord. Hold on. I'll go get the whiskey." After she returned I took a long swig, straight from the bottle.

"I yelled at him. Drunk as a skunk, and bitter as hell. I yelled at him and may have suggested that he wasn't quite as honorable as he thought. And as I said I was still quite drunk so I may have also told him that I hate him. And I'm pretty sure that I said I only choose his brother because he reminded me entirely too much of the man I was in love with. Implying of course, that I was in love with him. And I fairly clearly recall using the phrase, 'the man who broke my heart' no. That's not right...oh god. I think I may have called him the 'Jackass who broke my heart'. Shit. Mac." Mac smiled at me and held my hand.

"You told him you loved him?"

"That's what you're taking away from this?!"

"Well, at the very least now he knows for sure and he can make an informed choice about his impending marriage." At the last word she spoke I burst into tears. "Shhh...quiet Phryne. I think it best that you rest. Sleep off the drink and then we can talk in the morning." I curled up where I lay on her floor and closed my eyes, tears still flowing out of them. "Darling, wouldn't you prefer my bed? Or even the lounge?" I was silent. No. I was quite comfortable where I was. She sighed before speaking again. "We're going to fix this, Phryne. Don't worry, sweetheart." Those were the last words I heard as I drifted off.

Mac

She had told him she loved him. That was something. Maybe the jealousy that was certain to spread through him at seeing her with his brother was enough to get him to admit to himself his own feelings, but if not, Phryne's admission of love sure as hell should have been. I'd never met a pair so utterly perfect for one another. Concetta. She was the wild card here. I didn't know her and as a result I didn't know how she'd act, but if it was in a way that pulled Jack closer we might be in trouble. Jack was the most honorable man I knew; whatever Phryne had yelled at him. If he felt duty bound to marry Concetta he would sacrifice himself to a life of misery in order to do the right thing. I prayed to God that wasn't the case. A pounding on my door distracted me. Who the hell would be knocking on my door before 7 in the morning? If it were the hospital, they would have telephoned. Same with the City South, in regards to an autopsy. Perhaps it was the sort of woman who couldn't quite afford (either financially or by reputation) to visit a hospital. I grabbed my bag and rushed to the door, opening it with a flourish. I froze.
"Jack."

"Phryne's missing." He said, his breath coming out in pants as though he'd been running around town the entire morning. (Given Phryne's story and the current panic in his eyes, he may well have been doing so.)

"Jack, she's-"

"I made a mistake, Mac. I've gone and fucked up royally and hurt her and I have to find her. I have to apologize; I have to make it up." I set the back down, holding back a smile. Why don't you come into the kitchen, Jack? Tell me what happened and I can tell you where I think she would have gone, given what happened." He nodded, and allowed me to usher him through the hallway into the kitchen. "Tea?" I offered.

"You don't by chance have any coffee?"
"Always." I said, turning on the stove to make a pot.

"I...I made a mistake." He repeated, fiddling with his watch. "I fell in love with her. I knew that she wasn't an option, that I didn't have a future, that she would never do something so common as falling in love with someone, particularly someone like me. But I fell anyway. Hard. And I knew I couldn't have her, that I couldn't give her what she wanted. So I stepped back. I wanted her friendship, I needed her in my life, and I knew that I couldn't push her away by telling her how I felt. So when an old friend that I cared greatly for, came back into my life, I proposed. It was impulsive and dishonorable. I love Concetta, perhaps not in the way she deserved to be loved, but I thought that I could provide a life for her. But Phryne..." He trailed off. "How was I supposed to know that I would hurt her, that I couldhurt her? The idea that someone so small or insignificant could make a mark on a someone so exceptional...it is...it is unfathomable."

"And knowing Phryne..." I began, pretending that I was purely surmising and hadn't just heard the whole damned story. "She took out her heartbreak and frustrations by finding men who reminded her of you and parlaying her feelings into them, went and made a fool of herself over some poor innocent bystander and got herself in trouble with the law and you had to bail her out, but knowing the pair of you as I do, you likely held your feelings in just long enough to get into a massive fight." I took a breath, staring into a pair of eyes that were filled with shock and wonder. "The only thing that would make it more so quintessentially Jack and Phryne, would be if the gentleman in question were someone you knew...say...oh I don't know. Your brother perhaps!" His eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Mac..."

"Oh. Also Phryne is drunkenly passed out on my living room floor. That may have been some relevant information to share."

A/N: Well? What did you think? PLEASE review and let me know what you think!