Emily and Phil, laid huddled together on the sofa. Frozen, not sure if they should make their presence known or not. Not moving or breathing as their hearts broke for their friends. Listening to Eddie try and win Janet back and her admission that she was falling for someone else. Emily wanted to jump up and tell them how stupid they were being, how they loved each other and were just too scared to admit it. Most of all she wanted to make all the pain and hard feelings go away. Phil tightened his grasp around her, sensing her desire to step in. He looked deep into her eyes, grateful that they were so sure in their love for one another, grateful that they found each other and were able to make a life together despite his limitations. Emily relaxed against him, resting her head in the crook of his neck and listened as Janet walked out the front door.

"Janet!" Eddie called out after her. "Just wait for one second!"

Janet froze, midway down his porch steps and turned around to face him. Willing herself to keep going, to get to her car and drive away but something stopping her. Somehow Eddies words had gotten through to her heart, she could feel them trapped in there making her healing heart beat faster and faster. A Janet and Eddie relationship do-over...

"Eddie, you are not being fair." She finally said trying to snap herself out of the fantasy that things between then could go back to how they used to be. He knew he wasn't being fair, he knew that he didn't have the right to ask for her back. He knew he had more balls then brains. But he also knew that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't make a last stand and try to get her back.

"I know, I know I'm not. And you know I really don't care, maybe it took getting so close to losing you for me to realize what you mean to me."

"You do understand how messed up that is?" Janet said flatly, Eddie nodded, and took her hand in his.

"Please don't leave, we still need to talk. You know all this time, and I still have no clue what happened that night. How you ended up in be with Rooster." Janet stomach soured just at the thought of having to relive that day, to explain to him everything that happened. To tell him bout how worthless she felt after seeing him kiss Rory, how alone, how hopeless. To explain to him how she called her friend, someone she trusted, someone who had never let her down. To allow herself to get so drunk, so blinded by alcohol that she would allow herself a moment of crazy reckless haste and fall into be with a man she didn't love. To explain the feeling, the dark, overwhelming feeling of regret when she woke up the next morning. Still heartbroken by the thoughts that Eddie was most likely waking up with Rory lying next to him, still haunted by the images she had made up in her head of them together. She spoke so quickly and softly that eddie had to strain to hear her, the words falling from her mouth like drops of rain from the sky. He didn't know she was drunk, he had never known Janet to drink past the point of buzzed and happy. The thought of her sad and wasted, turning to Rooster made him feel like a worthless piece of shit. hearing Janet recount the day, how he had lied to her and avoided her, how he didn't call like he usually did, how Rory paid her a visit. Then as a final nail in the coffin, watching them kiss. He realized that he was the one to blame, he had set all of this in motion and ultimately Janet paid the price for it. The last year she was tortured, not only by his anger but Rooster and everyone in town who thought she had wronged their hometown hero.

Janet was proud that she didn't cry, she stood there looking off into the distance purging everything she had kept in from her mind and heart. Each word a weight lifted off her soul. Each word a step closer to peace.

"Janet, I had no idea..."

"How would you? You wouldn't talk to me, god knows I tried. but you just..."

"I know... I wanted to but..."

"So that leaves us here Eddie, knowing what we know and yet still nothing has changed. Except maybe now we can move on and stop torturing each other."

"I don't want to move on Janet, I want to go back..."

"We can't, you know that. Eddie, I love you. But I always have, so I can live loving you and not having you."

"I can't... I cant live loving you and not having you. I have tried for this last year, made up reasons and excuses, made you out to be this villain. I did everything i could to forget you, erase you but there was not a singe day I didn't want you back." Janet finally couldn't hold back the tears anymore, her body overwhelmed with sadness and regret. The tears slid from her cheeks, she was powerless to stop them. They wrapped their arms around each other, both holding on tightly, not a word passing between them.

"Eddie, I have to go. It's almost morning." Janet pulled away from him, Eddie reluctantly let her go. She wiped away her hears and straightened her tank top and hoodie, trying to collect herself. "I don't think we can decide this right now, we should just live our lives and see what happens."

"So you mean you are still going to see Rob then?"

"Eddie, yes I am. And maybe you and I can be friends again, in time. But I just don't see a future with us. I just don't see forever with you. I used to, I really did, but now I don't."

"That ok, i will see it for the both of us..."

"Eddie..."

"No, I am going to do what you should have done when you saw me kissing Rory... Fight... I am going to do what I should have been doing all year... fighting for you, for us. So you do what you need to do, you want to date Rob, fine. I cant stop you, but we are not over." He grabbed her arm gently and brushed his finger along her bracelet. Something deep within Janet broke, and an overwhelming sense of fear over took her. She loved Eddie, a love so strong that it scared her, a love that she wanted to run to but instead was running away from it. It nearly destroyed her the first time. She un-clasped the bracelet from her wrist, laying it in Eddie palm.

"I don't want to fight anymore Eddie. I surrender." She bought his finger to her lips, kissing them gently and then she turned and walked away.