For a long time she struggles with a way to tell Ed about her discovery. The poor dear probably deserves to know, but she just can't quite manage to get the words out. She tries a few weeks later over coffee just outside a crime scene. She'd been called in to give an onsite examination of a body and Ed had wandered on to the crime scene about halfway through her work, probably to pay one of the policemen to hide a piece of evidence. She tries not to think about it, and doesn't ask if she'd just been looking at his work. She hopes not. Ed doesn't seem to do those kind of crimes anymore, and if he did she doubts there would have been anything in need of covering up. Afterwards, he asks her to get coffee and opens the conversation by saying he needs to talk to her.

"I've realised something, and I'm not really sure what to do about it."

"Oh?"

"It caused the destruction of Troy, the worst of tragedies and numerous maladies, yet it is chased, desired and fought for. What is it?" Lee waits. Ed can never manage to leave a riddle unanswered for long. "Love. I think I'm in love." Lee smiles, although it's a little forced.

"With Isabella?" Ed buries his head in his hands.

"No," he wails, "That's the problem!"

"You think you're in love with someone else?" Lee asks, "Who?" Ed doesn't say anything for a moment, then he replies in a small voice that Lee has to strain to hear.

"Oswald." Lee blinks and then has to literally force herself not to laugh. After the silence has stretched too long, Ed looks up at her with irritation. "Did you hear what I said?" She nods, resisting a smirk, "Well, what do I do?!"

"Tell him how you feel? Break up with Isabella?" Ed blanches, a look of terror on his face.

"I couldn't do that!"

"Which part?" Lee asks, "If it's about the first one… well, I've been meaning to tell you. I'm pretty certain Oswald is in love with you too."

"Why would you say that?"

"The other day when he came to collect you from the station. He was jealous, Ed. It was actually pretty obvious," she explains calmly. Ed opens his mouth to gape at her, clearly surprised. "So, you don't need to worry about telling him how you feel. He'll probably be delighted."

"You really think so?" Ed asks, voice filled with hope. She rolls her eyes internally.

"Yes, Ed, I do." For a moment he looks nothing but happy, but then something seems to occur to him and he sends Lee a look of panic.

"But… what about Isabella?"

"It's probably best if you break up with her, fairer on everyone that way. Unless…" she hesitates, "Are you in love with her too?" There's a pause while Ed thinks about this and then he slowly shakes his head, looking a bit guilty.

"No, I don't think I am. Or at least, I think I love Oswald more. I care about Isabella, but maybe it's more of a friendship thing? I don't really have friends, so I don't know what it feels like." That, Lee can definitely believe. "Even so, I don't feel right just breaking up with her. She really hasn't had the best luck with relationships and she's told me that she'd pretty much given up on finding anyone. And I don't want to hurt her!"

"Isabella has more in her life than just you, I'm sure she'll survive breaking up with you just fine. And besides, it's hardly fair on her to stay in a relationship if you don't love her," she reasons. Ed stares at her with confusion.

"Then why are you still with Mario?" he asks. Lee is taken aback.

"What are you talking about?" she almost growls, feeling uncommonly angry, "I do love Mario. We're engaged!" Ed doesn't seem phased by her display of anger.

"I know, but it's also been months since Mario got cured and there's been no set date for the wedding, even though the two of you were practically down the aisle before he got infected," he points out matter-of-fact, "It just doesn't seem like you really want to get married, Lee. You even bought that new apartment to be closer to work, but that just seems like an excuse to spend less time with Mario. And I figured that was because you were still in love with Jim. That's why I came to you with this in the first place, because I thought you'd understand."

"I'm not still in love with Jim!" Lee exclaims, shocked that he'd somehow read the situation so wrong, "Jim's still in love with me."

"I know. But you clearly still love him too. You have to know, if even I've noticed it."

"Ok, why do you think I'm in love with Jim?" Time to sort this out once and or all. Lee's never heard anything so ridiculous in her life. Ed rolls his eyes and then begins listing off times when Lee had stood Mario up in order to spend time with Jim (for work, of course), or times when she would spend an entire conversation talking about Jim without mentioning Mario once (she was ranting! Jim can be aggravating on his best days), or times when Ed's found Lee and Jim having meaningful conversations whilst staring longingly into each other's eyes (he's imagining that, clearly), or that time when she had a really bad day and instead of going home to her fiancé, she sort out Jim and cried while he comforted her (that… is harder to explain). As the list goes on, Lee's indignation breaks and a dawning sense of realisation comes over her.

"Damn. I am still in love with Jim."

"That's what I've been saying for the last half an hour," Ed grumbles petulantly. Lee ignores him, too caught up in the revelation that she's been blind to her own feelings for months.

"God, do you think Mario knows?" She hadn't noticed him acting any differently, but maybe she's been blind to that too. Ed shrugs.

"He might do. He has to know somethings up, because the fact that you haven't had any interest in getting married is frankly quite telling." Lee blushes red. God, and she thought Ed was oblivious, turns out she's on a whole other level! After all, Ed figured out he was in love with Oswald without any prompting from anyone.

"What am I going to do?"

"Follow your own advice?"

"No, scrap that, it was terrible advice! I can't just break up with Mario! He'll feel like I led him on, wasted months of his life! And after everything he went through with the Tetch virus! I can't do that to him!"

"So, what? We just keep in our respective relationships and hope our feelings change?" Ed suggests but Lee shakes her head vehemently.

"That's an awful thing to do, it's bad for everyone." She sighs. "It's such a shame we can't just set them up with each other – they really do get on so well. They both love reading and musicals, they're both kind thoughtful people. They're perfect for each other, really." Ed has a face as if he's had an epiphany, and Lee is frankly a little unnerved by it, worried about what his idea might be.

"Why can't we set them up with each other?" Huh. That actually might work.