Author's Note: Again, I know I have once again neglected this story, but this chapter should set things in motion a little bit more. Colleen will be getting more time...you'll see why. And Sphinx500, you uhh, you can't quite have Gunanr...yet. I don't want to give too much away.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...sucks!

Chapter 10: Looking Back, Moving Forward

"So," Scooter smiled that night as he and Julie sat on the floor at the coffee table, each with a wine glass in their hands. Everyone else had left or gone to bed, including Dean, who decided to spend the night at his new place. "Tell me about this fiancé." Julie looked at him and shook her head. "Come on! Who was he?"

"Gunnar Stahl," she said. "I never noticed it before, but you two look strikingly similar."

"So we have lots in common," he laughed, "Once upon a time I wanted to marry you too." She blushed. "What happened Gaffney, you get spooked?"

"I didn't want to suffer the misery of being married to one man, and in love with another." She said seriously.

"I understand," Scooter nodded, "You never got over me. It must be tough on Portman."

"You're an asshole, you know that?" She laughed, "I'm trying to be serious and really talk to you, and,"

"Aw, you're cute when you get all flustered," he said, "I'm sorry, so you ended it to be with Dean?"

"No, at that point I didn't know that I would be," Julie sighed, "But I knew I didn't want to be married to anyone else."

"Are you two headed to the altar?" Scooter asked seriously. "Like you've talked about it?"

"Well no," Julie shook her head. "I mean we only just got back together, like a week ago,"

"Right, but before that it was like five years," he pointed out.

"You sound like Connie," she laughed, "Tie it down, Julie, make sure you know where you stand."

"No one wants to see you get hurt again," he shrugged. "While I do love hearing from you, I usually don't like it to be weepy drunk phone calls asking me how I or any one could ever have loved someone so stupid." Julie looked into his eyes, and saw the concern.

"How's Delia?" Julie smiled changing the subject. Scooter's longtime girlfriend was usually a safe subject, aside from the fact that she refused to marry him. "Are you going to make an honest woman out of her anytime soon?"

"Delia left me to move to Vegas with a drummer she met in a club six months ago." He shook his head. "They got married after three days out there. I've been asking her to marry me for three years."

"Oh God, Scooter," Julie said, "I'm sorry."

"Eh," he shrugged, "She wasn't the one, I should have known."

"What the hell did we do to each other?" Julie laughed. He looked at her confused. "Seriously, why can't we just have normal functional relationships?"

"You blame your Portman addiction on me?" He laughed.

"Oh, and you never thought Delia's commitment phobia was the same as when I broke up with you?" She teased him.

"Oh, now the story is that you broke up with me?" He laughed. "Funny, I thought I broke up with you!"

"No way!" She giggled, leaning up on her knees, "Remember? It was right after Christmas, my freshman year at American. You came out to visit me in Maine, and I said that we were too serious for where I was in life, and that I loved you and I was really sorry."

"Julie," he laughed, cutting her off, "We had sex like four times that night."

"Yes, but it was the last time that we had sex, because the next day we broke up for good, and you went back to Minnesota." Julie pointed out. "And so I broke up with you."

"Fine," he said, "Yes, you broke up with me."

"Hi," Colleen said quietly, leaving her room, "I just have to go to the bathroom."

"OK," Julie nodded. She had made a mental note to tread softly around Colleen for the next few days.

"She's cute," Scooter nodded, after Colleen was in the bathroom

"She's such a baby," Julie laughed, "I mean 22, it's so young."

"You're only 26." He laughed, "You don't realize what a baby you are."

"Well," Julie said, defending herself, "When's you're 30th birthday? It's coming up right? Middle age is coming Scooter."

"That was very compassionate of you Gaffney," He smiled. "I'm fine with turning 30 actually, I'm in a good place right now, turns out that Delia was a drain on me."

"I wanted to apologize," Colleen said as she emerged. "I had a bad day at work, and I mean, you guys just all have so much history together, it sort of freaked me out."

"It is not normally this eventful," Julie laughed, "Sit down, have a drink with us. It will calm down in a little while, we've been particularly dramatic lately. So, now that you can be properly introduced, Scooter Vanderbilt, this is Colleen O'Malley."

"Hi," Scooter extended his hand, "It's nice to meet you."

"So," Rick kissed Connie as they lay in her bed, "What did Guy say?"

"He forgives you for laying him out that time," She giggled. "And that he's very happy for us."

"That's good." He smiled, "Do you think he'll send a good report back to Conway?"

"He said he would," Connie laughed and kissed him. "Not that I care." He laughed and put his arms around her. "Julie was really happy to see Scooter. And Portman was surprisingly mature."

"They had problems in the past?" Rick asked.

"Physical problems," Connie nodded, "Portman gets jealous, very very jealous."

"But Scooter was with Delia," Rick said, "He and Julie, I mean, talk about ancient history,"

"Was?" Connie asked.

"Yeah," Rick nodded, "She left him and married some drummer in Vegas."

"Didn't she tell him she never wanted to get married?" Connie was confused.

"Yup," He said, "it was not a good time. He's doing OK now though. I think seeing Julie will be good for him."

"That sucks," Connie kissed Rick, "I promise to never leave you for a drummer in Vegas."

"I appreciate that," He laughed. "Tonight was fun." Connie laughed and climbed on top of him.

"The fun doesn't have to be over yet," She kissed him, he smirked up at her. "I mean, unless you want it to be." She pulled back, "Because if you do, I totally understand, I mean,"

"Oh, no," He laughed and rolled her over. "It most certainly is not over." She squealed as he kissed her and pulled her pajama shirt off. "God I love you Connie." He whispered softly as he kissed her neck.

"I love you too," She said, as she felt him move over her and eventually inside of her. "Mmm," She cooed. She thoroughly enjoyed when he made love to her. The sex was great, but not in the way she thought it would be. She had always thought that great sex had to be like Julie and Dean great sex, loud and raunchy, and full of passion. But now she understood that it was way more than that. Rick was always so tender and gentle, and it always felt so good. Except that, what was he, "Rick? Baby, what are you doing?"

"Give it another second," He whispered.

"Oh God," She moaned, wow, that was the most intense thing she had ever felt. They both finished in the exact same moment and rolled away. "Wow," she said breathlessly. "That was, just wow."

"You liked it?" He smiled at her and then kissed her ear. "I thought you might."

"I definitely liked it," she smiled, "Why haven't you ever done that before?"

"I can't give my best moves away early on," He laughed, "There's plenty more where that came from."

"That one'll work for now," she said, "I think I'll enjoy it more when I know it's coming," She smiled and kissed him.

"You are insatiable Moreau," He laughed, putting his arms around her again. "I love that about you."

"Thanks for letting me crash here man," Guy smiled, as he plopped on Portman's couch.

"No problem." Dean laughed. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Guy shrugged.

"Do you think that the Julie's ex convention will make her rethink this whole thing we're doing?" He sighed.

"No," Guy laughed, "Look, she was totally upfront about the Gunnar issue, and if you still, after all these years get jealous of Scooter, well, you need to get therapy man."

"I'm not jealous," he said, "It's just, I don't know, I mean, she could always talk to him,"

"She talks to you," Guy said confused.

"But not like that," Dean sighed, "When she talks to him, it's like they have this understanding about each other. It's weird, like there's this secret I don't know about."

"It's the same thing Connie and I have, and Fulton and Tammy, first love," Guy shrugged, "I mean, that guy I was seeing out in LA, it's one of the things that he ended it over. He said there was this part of me that I wasn't letting him see. It was true, it's the part that only she's seen."

"Yeah," Dean nodded, "What about Gary?"

"Oh you're on this bandwagon too?" Guy rolled his eyes. "Look, Gary and I have talked about this, we don't want to do that Connie."

"Do what to Connie?" Dean laughed, "She's way to busy with Rick to even notice like anything else."

"I'm not the only person who thinks its weird right?" Guy said, "I mean, Julie and Gunnar, that was weird, but like this is really weird. I'm glad she's happy and all, but seriously."

"It's way weird," Dean agreed. "But like you said she's happy."

"Apparently Charlie freaked," Guy laughed, "It really shook her up."

"You can talk him down," Dean shrugged, "I'm sure Carla's been working on it too. I'm going to bed."

"Charlie," Carla said, "When we're in New York, can we just stay at the loft?"

"I was going to get us a room," Charlie said.

"I know, but this way, we save money, we get to stay at the loft," Carla started, "Please?"

"We should probably check with them." Charlie said quietly, "But if that's what you want,"

"It is!" She smiled and kissed him, "I'm going to call Julie." Charlie laughed.

"You miss them," He said, quietly.

"It's not that I'm not happy here with you," she said, "But, well, so much of my life is there, with them, I mean, Julie and I were together for eight years and,"

"Carla," He laughed, "I know all that, New York's your home, it'll take a while to adjust."

"You're the best," she smiled and kissed him.

"I know," He smirked. "You're the best too."

"Well that's a given," she laughed, and sat on his lap "Listen, I have work to do, but if you're willing to wait up a few hours,"

"I am absolutely willing to wait up," He laughed, and kissed her. "Now get to work, so I don't have to wait longer!" She giggled and stood up.

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