Jeanie collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs, "Carlos took a turn for the worst about two years ago. Never pulled out of it. Ker, it was like I was losing a part of my soul. That day that you and Adele

handed over Carlos was the best day of my life."

Kerry sat down next to Jeanie and nudged the chair over so that they were sitting hip to hip, "What happened with Reggie? You guys were head over heels in love."

Jeanie shrugged as she took the mug that Kerry offered, "I don't know, it just disintegrated at an alarming rate. God, we even went to counseling to try to fix whatever it was. I had only been divorced

from him for a few months when Carlos died. Carlos was my life Kerry."

Kerry took hold of one of Jeanie's hands, "How have you gotten through all that up until now?"

"Denial. But now I'm back here, and...I just...it's harder." Jeanie took a deep breath. "I guess we've both had a rough time."

Kerry smiled sympathetically, "I think that your past year has been harder than my little mid life melodrama."

Jeanie turned towards, "You always do that don't you. Put everyone else before yourself, and not just patients. Is that what happened with Susan being in charge."

Kerry took a deep breath and let go of Jeanie's hand, "We should probably go somewhere more comfortable than this for my story."

Jeanie led Kerry back out into her living room and they both settled down on the couch. Kerry took a gulp of her hot chocolate, winced, and started speaking. "I guess I'll just start at the beginning. One day I was having the shittiest day imaginable, half the hospital workers were on strike. I was lucky that the nurses were still there. So into the lounge walks this blonde. She says something about the parents of

one of the children or something, I still don't know. Anyway, I go off on her, basically in not so nice tones ask who the hell she is, and what the hell she thinks I can do for her. Now, as you know, I do that

more often than not." Jeanie smirked a little, "Yeah, exactly, the surprising thing was that she shot right back something about reading memos and that she sure as hell didn't have to put up with this, and

that if I wanted to know what she had to say I could call Psych and ask for Legaspi."

Kerry took another drink of hot coco. "Well, I was flummoxed. Even Doug had never given it back as good as he got it. After I had cooled down a little." Jeanie raised her eyebrows, "Oh, all right, after I

had gone upstairs and reamed out Robert for not dealing with the striking workers. I am happy to say that they got a damn good package after that little talk." Jeanie smiled, "On the way down I stopped at

the Psych ward. Knocked on the window. The blonde opened the door for me and she led me to her office. She sat down, I sat down, and so started the friendship of Kim Legaspi and Kerry Weaver. It could have ended there, but it didn't. Kim had been, I guess the best word for it would be whining, about how she wasn't going to be able to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Well, as you know, I always have soo much to do on holidays." Jeanie patted one of Kerry's shoulders as Kerry took another sip of hot chocolate. "Right, so, I invited her out for Thanksgiving. It was great, there weren't a ton of people there that night. We talked...a lot, we closed the place down we talked so much. I told the story of the guy who swallowed all that hardware."

Jeanie interrupted Kerry here, "Hey, that was funny, but doesn't that prominently involve your husband."

Kerry nodded, "Yeah, at the time, I really had no idea why I glossed over that part of the story. I also managed to spill my wine all over Kim. We did get serious that night though, she told me about watching her brother die after they had been hit by a drunk driver." Kerry sniffed a little. Jeanie pulled Kerry towards her. Kerry raised an eyebrow but leaned against Jeanie's shoulder. "After she finished that story the dinner went downhill fast after that. She joked around about the second dinner together being a date. Questioned if I knew that she was gay. I of course spoke so brilliantly. 'I don't mind, I have gay friends.' What ensued was so awkward, I backpedaled so much, she backpedaled too, trying to explain why she had thought that we were out on dates. I finally stated what had been doing one second laps around my brain for the last thirty seconds; that I had never considered it."

Jeanie interjected again, Kerry huffed at the fact that Jeanie was making this story even longer than it had to be, "Had you? Considered it?"

Kerry shook her head, "You should know that Jeanie. I have always been about my work, nothing else, I even let my work get in the way of our friendship. I fired you for cripes sake. So, no, I really hadn't. She

didn't really believe me, I don't think that at that point she was even really listening to me. She backed off though. But it just got weirder and weirder. I got the hiccups."

Jeanie rolled her eyes, "You know, you should be a soap writer, is there a point to any of this?"

Kerry bumped Jeanie with her elbow, Jeanie groaned, and Kerry turned around. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't."

Jeanie pulled Kerry back, "Don't worry about it, I've gotten worse from meaner people." Kerry tried to move, but Jeanie wouldn't let her. "Are you uncomfortable?"

Kerry shot back, "Are you?"

Jeanie shook her head negatively, "Nope, are you going to finish this story today?"

Kerry huffed, "Anyway...Kim did manage to cure my hiccups, with a kiss. I had gotten her a book for Christmas. It is ironic because we were not at all on the same page at that time. She kissed me like I've

never been kissed before. Then she left me in the lounge thinking over and over about what I had just said. I had explained to her that we were comfortable together, we had a lot in common. I thought of us as friends, maybe even one day best friends. I didn't care that she was gay. I was so open minded about other people, it was me who I was having the most trouble with. After that I avoided her like the plague, which, of course didn't work. I even chewed her out again for disagreeing with me in front of Carter. She basically laughed at that. At the end of the day I knew that I had to talk to her, it wasn't

until we were sitting in the booth at Doc Magoos and she told me not to worry, that soon we would just be friendly co-workers again, I realized that after all the agonizing and thinking that I had been

doing over couple of weeks, I did know one thing, I didn't want to just be friendly co-workers with her anymore. When she finally started to leave, I was in front of her within a second. I asked her to stay,

and those eyes, her eyes, they practically penetrated my soul. She stayed, and we started to go out...but I wasn't out. That was the biggest of our problems. Kim was almost the poster child for outness, she was just so comfortable with herself."

Jeanie felt Kerry tense up, "One night there was a gigantic train crash. A teenage girl had been trying to commit suicide, she didn't succeed, and Kim was the one who talked to her. Soon after that the

girl accused Kim of sexually harassing her. Jeanie, I didn't even stick up for her, it was worse than when you got fired. I had no spine at all, and she was suspended. We broke up over that." Jeanie started

to speak but Kerry interrupted her, "That's not the end though. A few weeks later Kim got fired by Romano, I gave him a piece of mind, in the Men's bathroom of all places. I threatened him with all sorts of things to get Kim's job back. He was actually the first one I came out to. It was too late though, Kim left for San Francisco not long after that. I still don't know exactly where she is. I also went to Africa."

Jeanie nodded, "To see the guy that you practically assaulted on that Christmas Eve?"

Kerry laughed at the memory, "Could you tell that I was glad to see Mlungisi? Yes, and it felt like I spent the whole time crying into his shoulder. He was the second person I came out to. Let's just say that he has been better about it than Romano. He of course, spent most of my three weeks there ribbing me about my short lived relationship with him, and how did that mean that he was a woman?"

Kerry chuckled lightly, "He did manage to get me most of the way out of my funk. Anyway...that was my past year."

Jeanie yawned and snapped her mouth closed. Kerry pulled away from her and shook her head, "Why didn't you say that you were tired, and here I told you my mind numbingly boring story."

Jeanie chuckled through another yawn, "It wasn't that boring, but I am more tired than I first thought I was."

"Do you have some place to stay?" Jeanie shook her head, "Where exactly where you when you passed out?"

Jeanie looked towards the intricate designs of the coffee table, "At a hotel." Kerry started to speak, "They were cutting up my credit card."

Kerry didn't even blink, "Then you're staying here. I don't have a guest room per say, but no one is in the apartment downstairs."

"I couldn't...I..."

Kerry shushed Jeanie, "If you didn't want to, you could have lied. Now it's too late." Jeanie rolled her eyes and followed Kerry to the linens closet.