Author's Intro:

Okay, so it's been a while. Honestly, post-divorce, this has been one of my more painful stories to work on, which is why it's moved so slowly the last couple of years. Things are getting better in my life, though - I've gotten some great new real-life friends, have lost about forty pounds, and am now literally in the best shape of my life. I'm getting ready to start dating again, and, more importantly for you guys, am starting to have fun with this story again!

Since it has been so long, this chapter is a bit strange. VC, like "Valentines" before it, was meant to be a series of related shorts. The first one ran a bit longer than originally intended, and the first section of this chapter is finishing it off. I'd thought about just leaving that V-day where I ended the last chapter, but I thought we should get a bit more of Justin and Alex in it. Following that, we'll have another little author's note to introduce the next sub-story, then it'll start.

Thanks to CleverForClever, for giving me feedback on the first draft of this chapter. Significant revisions resulted, which did not get run past him, so all typos, grammatical errors, etc. should be blamed solely on me.

And a shout-out to TheRhythmOfLove, to prove beyond any doubt that that really was me on Twitter!

So... ready? Here goes!

"That was... a strange evening, even by our standards."

"Yeah, well... we made it through, right?" Alex, nestled in against Justin in the back of the cab, put her left arm over his and squeezed lightly. "So no worries." With the two of them safely around the corner from having dropped off Harper, she sighed a little, enjoying the solid strength and warmth of him, then tilted her head backward and stretched up a little to kiss - well, she'd been aiming for his cheek, but it was really closer to his chin. "Having Harper along worked out a lot better than I thought it would, really. I don't think she suspected anything."

Justin shook his head, still wearing a frown. "I don't know. I can't shake this feeling that something that happened is going to come back to bite us. I just wish one of us could remember how we wound up outside at the restaurant."

Tilting her head back onto his shoulder, Alex looked up at Justin, then twisted and stretched, this time managing to actually put her kiss on his cheek. "Stop being a worrier. It was probably something to do with that pocket elf you found. Whatever it was, we made it through it. I'm sure you saved the day somehow or other. You always do."

"Yeah," Justin said, but there was no conviction in his voice. "I..." He stopped, swallowed, then turned his head to look down at his sister, putting his right hand on her cheek, simply looking down into those dark, sparkling eyes for a moment. "I love you." Alex smiled at that and started to answer, but Justin was shaking his head, going on. "Alex, I want to be able to take care of you. I want everything to be perfect for you. And - and I know you think I can fix everything, but there's some things I can't. The things that have been happening..." He paused, swallowed. "I don't know how we're going to work things out. I don't know what kind of life I'm going to be able to give you. I -"

"Justin." She said it quietly, but there was something serious in her eyes that stopped him. Alex moved her arns up and laced her fingers behind his neck, shifted to sit up higher as she pulled his head down, the top against her shoulder, the left side of his face against her breast. "Shut up."

He frowned at that, looking a little annoyed, then opened his mouth, but Alex put her fingers across his lips. "No. You listen to me for a change. You're trying too hard. You're thinking too much. I know you love me. I know you worry. But there's something else you need to know."

She paused a moment, taking her hand from his mouth, pulled him in closer. "I don't believe in a perfect world. We've got the world we've got, and we have to make it the best we can." She shifted down, put her face against his, cheek to cheek. "I'm in this with you. I know this whole situation is crazy. I don't know how we're going to make this work in the long run. And whatever we do, life isn't ever going to be perfect, but any life with you is better than one without you. I love you. You don't have to fix everything. You don't have to fix anything, and I'll still love you. Because I love you for you, not for what you can do for me."

There was a moment's silence - or at least, the best approximation that could be had, there in a running cab in Manhattan traffic. "You're crying," Justin said, turning his head, lifting a hand to brush fingertips gently across the streaks of tears on his sister's cheek. "Alex -"

He started to shift up, to pull away to get the distance to see her, but she gripped him more tightly, shaking her head. "Just - just stay here, please? This is one of those things you don't have to fix. It's okay. You're here, and I'm here, and I love you, and you love me, and maybe tonight wasn't perfect, but it's good enough. Okay?"

Justin hesitated a moment, and then snuggled back into her. "Okay."

Author Note: This Valentine's Day is the first following the creation of Lexie (in Double, Double, Toil and Trouble); it happens about two months after the end of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. Lexie is living with their parents, who believe her to be Alex, while Alex and Justin are sharing an apartment.

February 14, 2012

"Alex! Are you getting up?" Jerry Russo rapped his knuckles loudly against his daughter's door (for the third time), the furrow between his eyebrows deepening as he considered whether to actually open the door and take more direct measures in awakening his middle child.

He was, in fact, reaching for the doorknob when an indistinct sound came through the door. For most people, it would have been a difficult sound to classify: it wasn't quite a moan of pain, but there was a definitely painful element to it. Not an immediate sort of pain, though - more like the sounds that might be made by someone suffering from a long, lingering illness. Someone who's learned to live with pain, whose expressions of it carry in them a certain weariness of it all.

Jerry, though, didn't have to carry out any such analysis: he knew that sound well, having heard it from his daughter pretty much every time he'd woken her up since she was ten. With that familiarity, there was also the knowledge that if Alex wasn't making actual words, chances were that she'd simply fall back asleep. So he rapped on the door again, more loudly. "Alex!"

He expected to hear the same tone again, simply with actual words carried this time, but instead he got a half-yelled, "YES! I'm getting up already!" The tone now was angry, and another sound followed, of something hitting the floor loudly. Jerry cringed a little. Just be glad she's not Theresa. Or something would be -

The thought cut off as he heard the sound of something breaking, and he cringed again. Okay, so... she's on the really unhappy side this morning. His hand moved down toward the doorknob again, and then stopped. It's Valentine's Day. And she's upset. Which means... which means Theresa should be the one to talk to her, not me.

Thus resolved, Jerry retreated rapidly to the stairs, casting another pained glance back as he heard something else breaking. "Honey," he called out as he came down into the living area, "I think you should talk to our daughter. She seems a little upset."

Max, sitting on the couch, tilted his head back and looked at Jerry upside down. "What's she upset about?"

"Can't you talk to her?" Theresa tilted her head toward the stove. "I'm in the middle of making breakfast."

"Uhh… I think it's boy troubles. Or lack of boy troubles. You know, with today being what it is…."

"Ohhh." Nodding, Theresa turned and headed for the stairs, handing the oven mitt off to Jerry as she did.

"Alex?" Theresa tried the door to Alex's room, found it locked. "Are you okay? Your father says you sounded upset."

"I'm fine," Lexie yelled back through the door. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, Theresa called back, "You don't sound fine. Mija, if this is about today being Valentine's Day, don't worry. You'll find someone soon. You know what they say - it's like being an apple. The best one are the last ones picked. Or something like that." She paused a moment, waiting for a response. When none came, she said, "And anyway, Justin will do something nice for you. He always does."

The door flew open then, startling Theresa so she jumped back. Lexie stood there, her fists balled up. "No! No he's not! Not this year. He's -" She cut herself off and shook her head. "Never mind. Just… I don't want to talk."

"Mija…." Theresa stepped forward again, reaching for her daughter - and then Lexie was gone, in a sudden sparkling.

For a moment, Theresa stood with her mouth open, and then she snapped it shut, eyes squinting in annoyance. She strode to the stairs, then came down them quickly, practically stomping on each step. "Alex Russo! Don't you teleport away when I'm -"

She stopped as she saw that her daughter wasn't in the living room. "Didn't Alex come down here?"

"No," Max and Jerry said simultaneously.

Theresa stood for a moment, fuming a little, then shook her head and heaved a sigh. "Well, you're right about her being upset. I told her Justin would do something for her, like he does every year, and she practically took my head off."

"What?" Jerry blinked at that. "But he always…." He stopped, frowning. "You don't suppose Justin got a girlfriend?"

"And hasn't told us?" Theresa frowned. "But why…?"

"Of course he has a girlfriend," Max said, and they both turned and looked at him. He looked back at the pair of them, then shook his head, frowning. "What? Why are you both looking at me?"

"Has Justin told you something he hasn't told us?" Theresa asked, walking over to the couch and resting one hand on it.

"No," Max said, shaking his head.

"Then why do you think Justin has a girlfriend?" Jerry asked from the kitchen.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Theresa managed a strained smile. "If it were obvious, would we be asking you?"

Max tilted his head, apparently considering. "Is that a trick question?"

"No," Theresa got out, her smile getting more strained. "The answer is no. Now, tell us what makes you think Justin's got a girlfriend."

"Haven't you looked at his apartment when we've been there?" Max looked from his mother to his father and back, his expression mystified. "At how it's organized?"

Theresa let out a sigh, looking up toward the ceiling. "Max… Justin's always liked things neat and organized. You know that. Just because his apartment is clean doesn't mean he has a -"

"I know that," Max cut in. "That's not it."

They both waited a moment for him to say more. "All right," Jerry asked, "what is it, then?"

"Look. I shared a bathroom with Justin and Alex my whole life. And the last time we were over there, when I went to the bathroom, the toilet paper roll was backwards. And when I asked for water, Justin looked in the cabinet, and there weren't any clean cups there, so he had to get one out of the dishwasher and wash it for me."

Jerry and Theresa slowly turned and looked at each other as Max finished. "His apartment isn't organized enough. Someone else is putting things away and putting toilet paper rolls out."

"I…." Jerry bit his lip, then nodded slowly. "I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but I can't fault Max's logic. Justin must have a girlfriend."

Even though his first class on Tuesdays this semester wasn't until eleven, Justin Russo was used to waking up early. So it was that he was wide awake at eight o'clock in the morning - but he was still in bed, laying with his eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of layers of covers and sheets in his inadequately-heated apartment.

The bedroom was small - heck, the whole apartment was small, not even as big as the living area of his parent's home down at Waverly Place - but he didn't mind that at all. It was private, the rent was low, and while the neighborhood couldn't really be described as 'nice', the neighbors were good, hard-working, honest people.

All of that paled in importance, however, to what - or, rather, who - was next to him. Without moving a bit, without opening his eyes, he took in the sensations of her: first, the warmth of her, perfect against his skin, like a shower when you've got it adjusted just right, but one that could go on and on for hours. Her body curved against him, a gentle pressure that he felt all along his torso and across his arms - his right under her neck, helping to pillow her head, his left laying with bicep against her side, forearm across her belly, hand tucked in underneath, keeping her tight against him.

Her belly moved with the gentle rhythm of her breathing, and sometimes she'd make a little sound with it, not quite loud enough to be called a snore (okay, maybe it was, but Alex insisted quite vociferously that she did not snore, and Justin had learned not to say that she did. Even inside his own head). He lay listening to that sound, breathing in slowly and deeply, his nose buried in her hair. He'd never tell her, but this was when he liked her scent the best - early in the morning, before she'd had a chance to shower and put on any perfume. She hated it, thought she smelled gross then, but to Justin, the faint hint of womanly musk mixed with the tang of her sweat and the hint of vanilla that always seemed to be on her was a sweet, sweet scent. (He's long since given up trying to figure out where it came from - it wasn't any of her perfumes, and the times he'd asked her about it, she'd just smiled and preened a little. He suspected it was from some sort of spell, but he had to admit, even if it was, he certainly didn't mind.)

She moved a little against him, shifting her hips, and he took the opportunity to move his left arm, bringing it up and gingerly stroking her hair, so lightly that it was more just a touch than a stroke. She always slept soundly, but that never prevented him from being afraid that he'd wake her up if he moved too much. He finally opened his eyes, craning his neck up a little to look at her face. He looked at her a hundred times a day or more - and yet still, his breath caught and his throat tightened a little. "I love you," he breathed out, so quietly that it was more a movement of his lips than actual speech, and then he lowered his head to put a feather-light kiss on her temple.

At that, she shifted a little, and Justin caught his breath again, then relaxed as she stilled again, with just the faintest trace of a smile now on her lips. For a long moment, he just looked at her, and then finally, reluctantly, he raised his eyes to look at the clock beside the bed. It read 8:03, and he felt a moment's surprise - that was earlier than he'd thought it was, and usually his time sense was very accurate. That, though, was quite a pleasant surprise, since it meant that he could stay here a while longer, and -

There was movement in the corner of his eye, and Justin automatically looked toward it, then frowned. "Lexie?" he asked quietly. " Aren't you supposed to be in school right now?"

"Yeah, well... you know me. How often am I doing what I'm supposed to be?" She took a step closer to the bed, placing her more in the light. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, gathered on the right side of her face, and she was wearing a heavy jacket that was too big for her, a bright green scarf that clashed with orange mittens, and jeans.

"Are you okay?" Justin pulled his right arm out from under Alex - carefully, since she was still asleep. Sitting up, he held a hand out to her.

Lexie sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring the offered hand. She stared down at the covers and traced patterns with them on one finger. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just..." She paused a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. Just didn't want to be at school."

"You say that as if you ever wanted to be at school," Justin said with a little grin. Leaning forward, he took Lexie's hand and gently pulled her toward him. "Come on. If you came here instead of going to school, something's up. So talk to me. Or we can wake up Alex, and you can talk to her, if that's what you're here for."

She shook her head, turning to put her face away from him, and pulled her hand away. "I don't want to talk. I just - I don't know why I came here. I'm sorry. I'm sure you've got a bunch of stuff you have to do today. I'll get out of your way." Quickly, Lexie stood up from the bed, reaching down to pull her wand from where she'd tucked it into her boot as she did.

"Don't -" Justin started, lunging up onto his knees to reach for her, but she was gone in a flash of light, leaving him with his mouth hanging open. After half a second, he closed it, shaking his head as he closed his eyes and gripped the bridge of his nose between two fingers for a second. "Okay. Great. Lexie's down, and being stupid about it. And on Valentine's Day. Yeah. And given the alternate-reality nature of her memories, I don't know what she is or isn't expecting from me. Just... fantastic."

He put his hand to his forehead and rubbed it for a moment, then sat back down. Chewing his lip, he absently stroked Alex's arm, then moved his hand up to run his fingers through her hair as he thought After about five seconds of this, it occurred to Justin that even Alex didn't normally manage to sleep through something like that... and besides, there was certainly no one who knew Lexie the way Alex did. Yeah. As much as I hate to wake her early, I need to talk to her about this. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he steeled himself for the possible explosion of cursing that might follow, and gave her a gentle shake, saying, "Alex... good morning, sleepy..."

There was no reaction. Justin frowned, gritted his teeth, and shook her a shade more energetically. "Hey. I need to ask you something." There was still no reaction, and Justin shook her again, even more this time. "Alex? Come on, wake up..."

She stirred a little pulling away from his hand, and Justin felt a little relief at that sign of life.

All right, so... she's completely out of it. Wonder if she woke up in the night for a while and didn't want to wake me. Alex had been having nightmares on and off since his accident a few months before, and often tried not to wake him up. He kept telling her to just get him up, but she was stubborn. Well, whatever it is, I'll let her sleep. It shouldn't take long to track down Lexie and get her to talk.

He went to the closet and dressed quickly, throwing glances back at Alex as he did, not bothering to try to be quiet, in hopes that maybe she'd wake up. She hadn't. Instead, she'd curled a bit inward, into more of a fetal position, and her brows were scrunched in, her face tight. She feels that I'm not there. Dammit... if I leave her like this, she'll have a nightmare, and then freak when she wakes up and I'm not here. And knowing Alex, she won't even look for a note, she'll just take off looking for me.

Justin took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. All right. I hate doing this sort of thing, but if it'll keep Alex from having a nightmare... Standing up, he made a complex gesture, intoning "Edgebono Utoosis." A duplicate of him shimmered into existence, on the bed behind Alex, already under the covers. He smiled a little at that, nodding at how well he'd managed the spell without wand, even getting the duplicate positioned exactly as he'd meant.

Bending down, he tapped his duplicate on the shoulder. The duplicate blinked a couple of times, then looked at him, glanced down at Alex, returned its gaze to him. "Yeah?" he whispered.

Also whispering, Justin replied. "Keep Alex warm. Let her sleep. If she wakes up, pretend you're still asleep. I should be back in half an hour at most. Got it?"

The duplicate nodded, and Justin started to stand up, then grimaced as he thought about what day it was, and what Alex would likely try to do to wake him up. Bending back down, he looked his duplicate straight in the eyes. "And you are not to have sex with her. Tell her you're feeling sick, whatever. Just do not have sex with her. Do you understand?"

He nodded again, and Justin stood up, not really satisfied, but not wanting to delay longer. Now, where's Lexie going to go when she's upset and doesn't want to go to school? For a moment, he frowned and tapped his chin, and then he smiled. Right, he thought, then picked up his wand, circled the tip in the air, and was gone.