Author's Note: So remember how I was going to wait on this story? Aren't I funny? Anyway...enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 3: Apologies

Tammy walked into the gallery after class one day and stopped in front of the new sculpture display seeing Kelly.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Tammy gasped. Kelly sighed. "Is that my sister?"

"I'm sorry I've been MIA," Kelly said, "I need sister time."

"Whoa," Tammy said, "I called you a week ago saying I needed sister time!" Kelly looked at her. "Fine, what's going on?"

"Hi," Emily walked over, "hey Kelly." Kelly waved, "I'm meeting Craig for dinner, can you hold down the fort?"

"I'm on it," Tammy nodded. "I can do my homework right?" Emily nodded. "Great." Kelly smiled weakly as Emily walked out. "You're getting less awkward around them."

"I know," Kelly said, "Maybe soon I'll be able to speak words." Tammy laughed.

"So what's going on?" She asked. Kelly looked down. "Everything OK with Liam?"

"Things with Liam are great," Kelly said, "Really, I just," she sighed, "I've been having these dreams." Tammy nodded, "About Scooter."

"What like sex dreams?" Tammy said. Kelly nodded. "And?"

"They're not just sex dreams," Kelly explained. "They're like love dreams. Me and him and he says things, that he's said you know that whole, 'I'll never give up on us' thing and he touches me, and I mean we have sex but, it's not just that, its like things are how they were, when we were together at Eden Hall and really in love." She sighed. "It's crazy right?"

"Not that crazy," Tammy shrugged. "I mean you love him, and you're still not sure how to reorganize the meaning of that love." Kelly nodded.

"So what was your sister time emergency?" Kelly asked. Tammy frowned. "Everything OK with Fulton? The long distance isn't killing you?"

"It's hard," She said, "It helps to keep busy but then I have less time to talk to him." Kelly nodded. "I just miss him. And I miss you, and my mom and Tommy."

"Jimmy and Rick?" Kelly tried.

"They're harder to miss," Tammy laughed, "Especially Rick." Kelly nodded. "I'm just homesick. I'm wondering how you dealt with it?"

"The toxic trio aren't any help?" Kelly teased. Tammy rolled her eyes. "They're that bad."

"Really they're fine," Tammy said, "I'm just being a baby." Kelly nodded. "I'm glad you're here." Kelly nodded.

"Uh," Steve walked in, Tammy looked at him confused. "Hi."

"Hi," She said. "I didn't expect to see you." He smiled.

"I came to apologize," He said. Kelly looked oddly at both of them. "I'm Steve Callins."

"Shut up!" Kelly said and then grabbed her mouth, "I mean, hi, I'm Kelly Riley."

"Ohh," Steve said. "Wow, awkward." Kelly shrugged.

"Kelly's the queen of awkward, don't worry about it," Tammy said. "You were apologizing to me?"

"Right," Steve said, "I was being an asshole, when you saw me, and I'm sorry, for you know, hitting on you."

"Ew," Kelly said, "You didn't tell me that."

"I was trying to forget," Tammy said, "Apology accepted, and I didn't tell Julie, so you're off that hook." Steve exhaled. "You were really worried." He nodded. "Not in love with her my ass." Tammy mumbled to herself.

"OK," Kelly said. "So, you're that guy my brother's wanted to kill for all those years? It's really nice to see that it would probably be a fair fight." Tammy looked at her. "Oh, come on, I grew up with two massively competitive brothers and Biff Cole in for good measure, I can size up a competitor."

"Please, go on," Steve said, already intrigued by this girl.

"Well, Jimmy's got quite a few inches on you," Kelly explained, "But he's also skinnier. Plus I'd imagine you have more frustration and rage, since Julie doesn't love you back." This made Steve frown, and Tammy too. Kelly was still new to the two great loves thing, and Tammy hadn't experienced it herself, but she knew, from both Julie and Connie's experiences that it was nothing as simple as you love one and not the other. "And Jimmy kinda fights like a girl, so again, advantage you. I think you might win."

"Whoa," Tammy said, her cell phone rang, "This is Fulton, I have to talk to him." Her two companions nodded.

"Shoot," Guy heard a mumble from the ground, he kneeled down to help the girl gather her things and then her met her eyes. "Hi." She said with a smile.

"Um hi," He said. "Its Gabrielle right? From the prom."

"Yeah," She nodded. "It's Guy?" He nodded. "I can't believe you remember me."

"I wouldn't forget a face like yours," He said. She blushed. "Um, are you still with Brad?"

"No," She shook her head, "No, it ended this summer. He, I mean, we tried."

"Sure," He whispered.

"Is your ex girlfriend still engaged?" She asked.

"How did you know about that?" He asked.

"Brad," She shrugged. "It was pretty much the only information he had on you besides your last name Guy Germaine." He laughed.

"Um, no, Connie is not engaged anymore," He shook his head, "She's married now. I'm actually living with them, it's all a little weird."

"Look," She said, reaching in her bag and grabbing a pen and then taking his hand. "Call me sometime." She scribbled her cell phone number down.

"Why?" He asked. She shrugged and smiled mysteriously.

"Because you asked me if I was OK at the prom," She said, "No one else did, and now I run into you again. That's like fate or kismet or something." He nodded. "So, call me."

"I will," He nodded. "Do you want to get a cup of coffee now?"

"I would," She nodded, "But I have dance class. So, call me?"

"OK," He smiled, "You've got it." She smiled and skipped away. He shoved his hands in his pockets and headed down into the subway. He got off at their stop and walked into the town house and back into the kitchen to get something to drink. This was a very good thing.

Elena drove home anxiously after cheer practice on Friday. Dean would be there in a few hours and she wanted everything to be perfect. She took a deep breath.

"You don't need to be perfect Elena," She whispered to herself, "you just need to be you." She got out.

"Hey beautiful," She lost her breath seeing Dean standing at her doorway. He looked amazing. His skin was darker than usual, still tan from the summer. His large muscular arms were busting out of his black tee shirt, and his hair was cut short, which disappointed her. She had been looking forward to running her hands through his curls. Not that she could find any complaint. He was here, in front of her. She ran over, dropping her backpack and kissed him deeply her hands intertwining around his neck. "Baby," he whispered softly.

"I missed you so much!" She said, tears coming to her eyes. "Oh Dean," She kissed him again.

"I missed you too," He said, crushing her body close. She kissed him softly, several times in a row, still not sure if they were really together again or if she'd fallen asleep at the wheel or something. "Mm, Elena, you're driving me insane," he laughed. She giggled. "Oh your smile," He cupped her face and she nuzzled against his hand. "I dreamed about you smiling at me."

"Is that all you dreamed about?" she whispered, her angel's voice going down into her sultriest whisper. He laughed. "I'm being serious."

"I know you are," he said, "but I just don't want you to rush into anything." She laughed now. "I'm being serious."

"I know you are," she nodded. "But Dean, we've been together for almost four years, you know, on and off. I'd hardly say we were rushing anything." He nodded. "Besides, you're not that good that you'd knock me off my equilibrium and make me start using again." He kissed her gently.

"I've heard otherwise," He said. She laughed.

"Take me inside," She whispered and kissed him. "Make love to me." He picked her up and she kicked her legs playfully, he carried her upstairs to her room. She fell back onto the bed and pulled his shirt off. His body was more perfectly toned than ever. "Have you been lifting more?" She asked.

"I had to do something to distract myself this summer," he shrugged and kissed her neck. "Do you like it?" She nodded. "I thought about going super skinny, you know like your other boyfriends," he teased.

"Mm, no," She shook her head. "I like you the way you are, my big strong man." He smiled, running his hands down her body.

"You're softer," He said gently.

"I gained weight," she sighed, "not taking amphetamines will do that."

"It's nice," he said. She shook her head. "Really, it makes you seem, younger," he explained, "more your age. You've always been too old for your own good."

"The hair helps with that too," she said, rolling over, he looked at her confused. "You always used to say that I looked more grown up with my straight hair."

"True," he nodded. "And I always loved the curls." She giggled. "Elena," He touched her. "I mean, I know we wrote, but I don't think I can explain how proud of you I am. You were very brave about all of this." She snuggled close to him laying happily in his arms.

Julie walked slowly and carefully into Jaime's. She kind of wanted to go undetected. Maybe she could slip out before Jaime or Josh realized she was here.

"Casey?" Josh said carefully walking outside. "Julie!" He ran over and hugged her. "Oh, kid, you've got no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"Hi Josh," She said. They had come a long way since two years ago when she hadn't even wanted to meet him. "Where's Jaime?" She said coldly. He frowned.

"I um," he said, "I just dropped her off at the doctor."

"Oh," she said. "Really?" He sighed.

"Just a check up," He assured her. She nodded and ran her hands through her hair. "The guilt got to you?"

"Casey's nagging actually," she said, "I don't feel that guilty." He nodded. "I came here for her. I gave up being near my dad and my new baby sister, and living with my best friend on the planet, things that Jimmy promised his mother on her death bed and she couldn't even give up a conference call to see me make a speech."

"She wanted to," Josh said. "It broke her heart."

"Hers wasn't the only one," she shrugged. "I'll be in my room, I'm gonna take a shower and then head to the pier with Casey." She started to walk upstairs.

"Julie," he said, and she turned. "How is school?"

"I love it," she smiled. He nodded. "You were right. I fit there. But I might've fit at Columbia too. That's all I'm saying."

Brad sat quietly in the library. There was really no reason for him to be doing anything. Hanging out with Tommy and Angela didn't entirely suck, but they were incredibly happy, and he was about as opposite of happy as could be. For the past week this had been OK, since Elena was around too. But Dean was up this weekend, which meant there would be no Elena.

"Hey," Tommy walked over and sat down with him.

"Hey," Brad said.

"So um, you wanna hang out tonight?" Tommy asked. Brad looked at him. "Just us, no Angie."

"Really?" Brad said. "Like, guys only."

"Yeah," Tommy said carefully, "But you know, less gay than that sounded." Brad laughed. "Look, I love Angela, really, but you've been really down."

"Come on dude," Brad said, "you were there. No reason for you to tiptoe around it, although I do appreciate you not spilling to Lena just yet."

"I blew the secret last time," Tommy shrugged. "It did suck though."

"I earned it," Brad sighed. "I don't know why I was thinking everything could just be OK."

"You also couldn't know that Kyla would show up in Westerly," Tommy said. "Or that Gabrielle would freak like that."

"No," Brad said, "definitely could have guessed the freaking." Tommy laughed. "So what do you want to do?"

"I dunno," Tommy said. "We're seniors, there's got to be something to do." Brad nodded.

"Um, since we're doing the sharing our feelings thing," Brad said. "What's going on with you and Angie?"

"What do you mean?" Tommy said.

"I don't know," Brad said. "You two just seem, weird. Not like you were." Tommy shrugged. "Is it Parsons?"

"No," Tommy shook his head, "I mean, I don't think so. It's more me than her."

"You missing Tammy?" Brad tried. Tommy nodded.

"And Jimmy, and Fulton and Rick and Cassie and Eva," Tommy said, "I almost wanna move in with my dad, spend time with Tony, just to have some noise. It would break my mom's heart though, especially after the whole not paying for Tammy's college thing."

"St. Tommy," Brad smiled. Tommy laughed. "Putting everyone else first." Tommy nodded. "Do what you wanna do man?"

"Tonight?" Tommy asked.

"No," Brad said, "I mean, like what do you want to do?" Tommy frowned, as if he'd ever been able to answer that question.

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