A/N: Ugggg… I'm so sorry this took so long to get out, you guys. I got totally bombarded with school and emotional rollercoasters of my own and basically couldn't work on anything else till the semester ended. I apologize! I'm gonna try and get as much of this out as I can before the next semester starts. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

And goodbye until tomorrow,

Goodbye until the next time you call,

And I will be waiting, I will be waiting.

Goodbye until tomorrow,

Goodbye til I recall how to breathe,

And I have been waiting, I have been waiting for you.

-Goodbye Until Tomorrow

from The Last Five Years

XXXXXXXXXX

"Do you remember the race-car track?"

"How could I forget!" She exclaimed after swallowing a bite of her burrito. "Do you remember watching the World Series on that little old TV?"

"Hey, to us that might as well have been a high-definition wide-screen."

"Rex and Potatohead had to stand in for an antenna! How is that high-definition?" She laughed.

"Well in proportion it's bigger than the TV I've got now."

"Yeah, but now you don't have to step on the remote to change the channel."

"Assuming you can find the remote."

She laughed again and shook her head. "I seem to recall several television remote hunting expeditions in Andy's room. Isn't it strange that even in dreams those things are impossible to keep track of."

She says it so casually but the fingers that rake through her hair betray her. It's such a strange thing, reminiscing with a complete stranger. He must've called her Jessie half a dozen times by now and she's called him Buzz so often he wonders if she's been avoiding his name altogether to avoid confusion and if he should do the same.

They speak little of their real lives. He tells her about the satellite company he works for after she cracks a joke about Buzz working for NASA and she tells him about the pet store she's been running for awhile.

"I like your hair," she says, pointedly. "Though to be honest it is kinda weird. I expected you to be bald."

"I expected you to be a red-head," he counters. "I don't look a thing like Buzz anyway so I hardly see how it matters."

"Y'know, now that I think about it you do kinda look like him." She regards him with a knuckle against her chin, one eyebrow quirked up in amusement.

"I look like who?"

"Buzz, silly."

He wants to laugh but feels like he shouldn't. "No, I don't."

"You do so. You have his chin."

"I, what?"

"That's it, it's the chin. It's got the dimple and everything."

"I don't have a dimple on my chin."

"Yes, you do." She reaches over the table; taking his jaw in one hand so she can pull him closer, get a better look. "It's riiiiiiight there!" Her thumb comes down on the center of his chin and sits there. Mark suddenly feels very self-conscious.

She takes his silence as an indication that she's won and settles back in her seat. "Have you seen Woody, or anybody?" she asks, rolling up the last section of her burrito to save it. Mark suddenly realizes he's hardly touched his. He sadly tells her no, he doesn't know where any of the others are or who they are, and it was by pure luck he found her in the first place.

Her eyelids lower in disappointment for a second and then she brightens. "I know where Bullseye is! C'mon, I'll introduce you." And with no other warning she links her arm in his and ushers him out the restaurant and across the street.

"We go way back, Bullseye and I." she says, "I've known him since he was a baby." They reenter the pet shop and for a second Mark thinks he's about to be introduced to the teenager manning the cash register. She leads him instead to the back of the shop, through the Employee's Only door where all the dogs and cats are kept, and a moment later there's a chocolate Labrador retriever barking excitedly at him and pawing at his pant leg.

"Mark, meet Bullseye." Kate kneels down to scratch at the dog's coat affectionately. Mark sits cross-legged next to her only to have Bullseye crawl halfway into his lap, sniffing at his coat and his hair. He pats the animal awkwardly, not really used to being around dogs. Kate looks on amusedly for a minute and finally decides to pull Bullseye back into her own lap before Mark falls over.

"You had your pet included in the experiment?"

"No, not all. He was staying at my vet's for the weekend. I think I brought him in through my subconscious, you know? I needed him there and I just sort of dreamed him in."

Mark isn't quite sure what to make of that. Not that he doubts Kate's theory, per se, but he isn't sure if he has anything from his own life that he can connect to that other world so directly. It makes him feel a bit sad.

XXXXXXXX

If there is one thing Mark hates more than staff meetings, it's Friday staff meetings. The simple fact that the weekend is so close and he's stuck listening to some pointless powerpoint presentation on the proper documentation to check out a stapler puts him in a bit of a depressed mood. He's struggling not to nod off when his phone starts to vibrate. It's Kate.

What're you up to?

Trying not to die of boredom.

Slow work day?

Worse. Staff meeting. Presenter speaks in leagal-ese. And in monotone.

I thought Buzz adored leagal-ese.

Buzz liked procedure and efficiency. This is too much of one and not enough of the other.

I believe the phrase is 'red tape'.

I believe the phrase is 'mind-numbing'.

Lol. Poor baby.

No, seriously, I've been watching this fly buzz around the windowsill to entertain myself.

Does it do any tricks?

No, it's been too quiet for awhile… I think it fell asleep!

Hahahaha

You wouldn't be laughing if you were forced to listen to this…

It's called Schadenfreude. Taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.

You're a horrible human being.

I try.

Lol. How's Bullseye?

Cabin feverish. We've been stuck in the store all day.

Sucks…

Yeah. I owe him a walk around the park. You want to come? If you survive the bore-fest that is?

His train of thought is interrupted by an obnoxious hiss delivered from Kurt's direction. Mark shoots him a glare.

"Hey, if I have to pay attention to this garbage then so do you!" Kurt whispers.

"I am paying attention. It's called multitasking."

"You couldn't multitask if your life depended on it. And it's not fair that you get to enjoy yourself while the rest of us have to suffer."

"Schadenfreude."

"What?"

"Nevermind."

Kurt looks at him as if he just grew a set of purple antenna. Mark decides to ignore him and sends Kate a Sure thing before shutting his phone.

"Who are you talking to anyway?"

"A friend."

"That eliminates everyone in the sales department."

"She doesn't work here."

"She? You're talking to a chick?"

Mark gets a vague impression he should be offended. "Yes, she is a woman."

"And she doesn't work here? She isn't from one of those online dating harems…"

"Kurt…"

Kurt throws his palms up in mock defense. "I'm just looking out for you, man."

Mark briefly wonders what Kurt would think of how he and Kate actually met. "I appreciate that but there's no need."

Kurt snorts. "She a good kisser?"

"We're friends. It's not like that." Mark blurts, probably a little too quickly.

"So she's available. Mind hooking me up…" The very idea is alarming and wrong and stirs bile in his stomach.

"No."

"No, you won't hook me up or no, you don't mind…"

"No, I won't hook you up!"

"Alright, alright. Sheesh. Would you reconsider if she has a sister or a cousin or a really tall friend…"

Before Mark can respond, his phone goes off. It isn't another text, it's a phone call and he has to excuse himself from the meeting. Mere words cannot adequately express his relief.

"Hello…"

"Mark, it's Cyrus. Got a pretty good excuse for blowing me off yesterday?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Bullseye spots him first, jumping up against his thighs and barking excitedly until Kate catches up to him. Her short haircut is mussed and windswept and her cheeks are flushed as if she's been running a while and there's a huge smile on her face when she greets him. He kneels down with her to scratch at Bullseye's ears.

"He looks happy to be out."

"Very." She lights up, as if that statement also applies to her. "Someone called in and I had to cover her shift so we missed our walk this morning. He couldn't wait to get here." The dog climbs into her lap, giving the side of her face a wet, sloppy lick.

"So, I see you made it through the staff meeting from hell," she laughs.

He laughs with her. "Barely. I wouldn't have made it without you distracting me…"

"Oh, I was distracting you, was I?"

The tone in her voice is teasing and coy and his insides freeze up as he scrambles to reanalyze the full implications of what he just said. "Not that… I mean, you weren't too distracting, you were… I mean… I can multitask…"

She bites down on a giggle. Mark swallows unconsciously.

"I thought I'd never hear that stammer again," she says to herself, grabbing his arm to drag him up with her as she stands. "C'mon, I'll show you why I named him Bullseye."

She produces a Nurf football that looks as if it's been through several maulings and gives it a good throw. Bullseye takes off after it; nose honed in on its target, and tackles the toy just before it hits the ground. She has Mark throw the next one, which doesn't go quite as far but Bullseye seems to enjoy taking it down anyway. They talk for a bit about the horse version of Bullseye, who loved running and jumping and getting into Andy's backpack and tasting whatever abandoned food sample that ended up in Andy's room. Kate assures him that the dog version of Bullseye is just as big of pig as the horse was.

All too soon the sun goes down. The trio is the last to leave park. They sit between their respective cars, taking their sweet time getting ready to leave.

"I almost forgot, tomorrow's Saturday."

She nudges him in the shoulder with her fist, back into teasing mode. "That meeting sure did take a lot out of you."

"No, I meant I've got another debriefing with Cyrus tomorrow."

He thinks he sees her stiffen a little at this. He chalks it up to the wind getting a bit cold.

"He called me today with a nice lecture about ditching him yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yeah, we were supposed to talk yesterday, but then his secretary told me where you were and I sort of left to find you first and forgot to call him back." Mark can't help but sound a bit sheepish. Kate is smirking but doesn't look directly at him.

"So… he knows? About you and me?"

Mark shrugs. "I didn't really get to tell him. He takes his work really personally, y'know. So I was mostly trying just to apologize in those rare moments he decides to let me get a word in edgewise."

Kate nods in understanding. "He's kind of self-centered that way."

"I guess…"

"I'm meeting him tomorrow, too."

Mark had been hoping that was the case and struggles not to look too overjoyed. "We can tell him together, then. He's gonna go nuts when he finds out how we met…"

Kate looks a bit deflated. She bites down on her lower lip and he fights the army of bad conclusions springing up into his mind. "Maybe… maybe we shouldn't tell him just yet…"

"Why not?"

She rakes a hand through her hair, pulls as much of it as she can over her shoulder, twists the ends that are just long enough not to slip off over her finger. "It's just… they'll see it as their guinea pigs learning a new trick. They'll want to pick our brains and suck up all our time and knock us out again and I…" She pulls her hair through her fingers with surprising dexterity and all Mark wants to do is quiet her hands. "I… kind of like… being us, being this." She gestures between them with the hand not caught in her hair. "I love Buzz and Jessie, but… I kind of just want to be Mark and Kate for awhile, y'know…" Her voice trails off. Mark feels as if he should say something but his mind has gone blank and his throat is dry and it's suddenly gotten much too warm.

Bullseye barks, loud enough to cause his two human companions to jump. They try to sweep the awkward feeling the conversation has taken them under haphazard laughter while Kate ushers the dog into her car. Mark reaches for her hand and ends up gripping the car doorframe instead.

"Kate… we don't have to tell anybody anything… if you don't want to." It's wrong, somehow. Not sufficient. Not quite what he wanted to say to her. "I mean… I wouldn't mind being Mark and Kate for awhile, either…"

Then, all at once, she's flush against his chest, her arms flung over his shoulders and squeezing his neck and he's reminded once again that she's a bit too tall for him. He closes his eyes against her, the weight of her jacket and the softness of her hair and the feel of her ribcage as it rises to meet his hands with each breath. He knows he's blushing so badly he must look like a ripe cherry and he's vaguely glad the park's been cleared out for awhile. It's getting darker and colder but together they're warm and bright and perfect. And he thinks with whatever part of his brain that's still operational that for the first time in his life he feels whole.

XXXXXXXXXX

A/N: -I can't be the only one who saw Bullseye as the toy's pet dog stand-in. And even though he's technically "Woody's" horse I always saw him as belonging more to Jessie. They had a longer history together as established in the 2nd film and they seem to hang around each other more.

-Yes, Schadenfreude is a word, and that is what it actually means. I blame Avenue Q for teaching me that one ;)