"Okay, well I just got home, so I'm going to have to call you back later when I have the numbers in front of me." Rory stuck her keys in her door. It was unlocked. Tristan's car wasn't in the driveway. She started to freak out. "Gina? I'm going to have to call you back." She said as she hung up the phone. She opened the door slowly and grabbed her purse, ready to use it as a weapon. She stopped just outside the kitchen to listen to the footsteps coming her way.

"Hey Rory." Josh said nonchalantly.

"Holy crap, Josh." Rory said, grabbing her heart. "What are you doing here?" She asked. "More importantly, how did you get in?" She said.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tristan." Rory sighed and set her purse down on the counter. "And I happen to know my way around a lock." He said as he pointed to a tool kit on the table next to him with a guilty smile. "Petty theft." He said, raising the Academy dog tags off his neck. "We weren't always the good guys."

"I recall." She sighed, exasperated. She had been having a hard day, and frankly, talking about Tristan was the last thing she wanted to do right now. "So what has you breaking into my house?" She asked as she sat down at the table with a bottle of vodka and two glasses.

"When was the last time you saw him?" Rory paused.

"In person?" Josh nodded. "Two weeks ago. What about you?"

"He stopped answering my calls. I think he knows that I would kick his ass if I saw him in person."

"Well at least he still answers my calls." She paused. "I've become officially resigned to being that girl who sits at home and waits for a guy to call her." Josh shook his head.

"I'm sorry. You deserve better than that." She shrugged.

"It's better than nothing." She said pathetically as she poured herself a drink. She offered the bottle to Josh but he shook his head.

"Nope. None for me. I gave him time to sulk, now it's time to kick his ass into gear." Josh said, standing up. She smiled. "You don't mind, do you?" He asked.

"Just be careful with his shoulder." She said.

"That's the problem." Josh said. "He was doing well and suddenly he was reminded that he was human and it freaked him out."

"Weakness was always his biggest fear. He gets that from Hartford. Never show a weakness. Never show anything actually." Rory said. "But I thought that was the old him, I thought he had gotten over that."

"Yeah, the army does a lot of things, but making you softer isn't one of them." Josh said. Rory sighed.

"Sometimes I wonder if I did more damage by inviting him to stay here at the beginning. He just looked so broken and I wanted to help, but it seems like I put more pressure on him than anything." Josh shook his head and sat back down.

"Rory, listen to me. You were the best thing that could have happened to him. I believe that, and Tristan believes that too. Drew and I just have to remind him why."

"Do you think that he's going to be okay?" Rory asked softly as she ran a finger around the rim of her now empty glass.

"Yeah, he's tough. That's a good thing. He's going to have to be tough by the time that I get through with him." Josh said, his frustration peaking with every sad glance from Rory.

"Don't be too hard on him. He's going through something right now. He'll shut down completely if he's not ready to deal. How do you think he ended up at the Academy to begin with?"

"Then I've got to find out what he's trying to ignore. Tough love right?" Rory glanced over, not so sure. "Trust me, we've done this to each other before, it's always worked out."

"If you say so."

"He'll be here within the next couple of days groveling." Josh said as he patted the top of Rory's head. "I promise."

OOOOO

Tristan sat in his living room as someone knocked on his door. He debated answering it, but knew that it was either someone he knew and didn't want to talk to, or it was someone he didn't know and didn't need to talk to. He figured it was probably Josh, a fact that was confirmed as the door knob jiggled and the sound of picks scraping against metal found their way to his ears.

"'The Locksmith' strikes again." Tristan muttered as Josh walked into the living room.

"That's the second time I've had to do that today." Josh said as he threw his bag on the ground. "What the Hell, man?" He asked, stretching his arms. "You're not answering my calls. I thought that you had died. Even Rory couldn't actually confirm that you were still breathing." Tristan had known his friend long enough to hear the restrained anger in his voice. And in all honesty, Josh probably had the right to be mad, but Tristan couldn't muster up the emotion to care. It was an unexpected bonus of the pain meds he had currently coursing through his bloodstream.

"I haven't been that bad." Tristan said.

"If you saw Rory's face when I stopped by, you would know that it was that bad." Josh could have sworn he saw a flash of guilt briefly show on Tristan's face.

"She doesn't have to worry. Contrary to popular belief, I can handle myself." He said as he reached for a glass of water.

"Did it ever occur to you that this might have nothing to do with your independence? She needs you. She's a mess without you." Tristan didn't answer, just swallowed another pill.

"How's your shoulder doing?" Josh asked.

"It's feeling better." Tristan lied.

"You've got a big ol' bottle of pills in your hand that says otherwise." Josh pointed out.

"Don't worry about it."

"Actually, it's not the pain in your shoulder that worries me. It's all the rest of it."

"What are you talking about?" Tristan asked, wondering where that statement had come from.

"Have you called about that job?" Josh asked, one eyebrow raised. Tristan avoided his stare. "You moved out on Rory so you could put your life together, but you haven't done a thing to move forward. We figured you needed some time to adjust, but now you're rationing your time with Rory, practically avoiding your friends? You're withdrawing from everyone who loves you and drowning all your pain in those damn pills and I want to know why!"

"We're not doing this." Tristan said, walking out of the room.

"You better fucking believe that we are." Josh said, following right behind him. "You're going to tell me what the Hell is going on in that brain of yours, even if it kills both of us in the process."

"This isn't some fight that you can fix by applying some peer pressure Masters. It's my life." Tristan emphasized.

"I'm not running away from this, unlike some people I know." Tristan sent him a glare that made it quite clear he had crossed a line.

"I think it's time that you left." Tristan said, pointing to the door.

"No." Josh said.

"Get the Hell out of my house!" Tristan yelled.

"No!" Josh said again. "What are you so afraid of?!" He yelled.

"Everything!" Tristan yelled back his answer at his friend, mostly in the hopes that he would leave him alone. They were both so surprised by the fact that it escaped Tristan's lips that the room fell silent. Slowly, Josh smiled.

"Finally." He said. "Now we are getting somewhere." Tristan turned around and rolled his eyes, still angry with his friend. "This is usually the part of the fight where I leave you alone to let you think and then tag team with Drew who handles the emotional side of things. Do you want to talk to him or me?" Josh asked. "Or better yet, do you want to talk to Rory?" Tristan's breathing was still erratic, but he sighed and sat back down on the couch.

"Drew's fine." He muttered, his head in his hands. Sometimes he really hated having one friend who was such a ball buster and another who was a certified military trauma counselor. Dealing with both of them at the same time could give a man whiplash. Josh smiled victoriously and left the apartment without another word.

OOOOO

Josh tapped on the glass of the passenger side of his car. Drew looked up from his magazine in surprise. He rolled down the window and glanced at his watch, impressed.

"That's a record, even for you." He said.

"He's all yours." Josh smiled proudly.

OOOOO

"Dr. Drew at your service." Drew said as he sat down on the couch next to Tristan.

"That was fast."

"I was in the car." Drew smiled. "I knew that Josh could break you. He wasn't going to leave until someone was dead, but even I was surprised at how fast he did it. I only got through the first half of my magazine."

"I've really been an asshole, haven't I?" Tristan realized.

"Yes you have." Drew nodded. "But it's okay, it's all fixable."

"Is it?" He asked.

"Yes, but first we have to discuss what it was that caused this downward spiral of jackass-ness." Tristan exhaled sharply and closed his eyes. What did cause it? He didn't even know.

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?" Drew stayed silent, waiting for Tristan to work through it out loud.

"Did it start before or after your trip to Iraq?" Drew asked him.

"Rory knew that I was…reluctant…to get attached before we left. But when we were there, something happened to our relationship, it just flew into overdrive. Suddenly, she could see me for who I really was, and not for some wounded old classmate. She loved it. I loved it. I felt…whole again, for the first time since the accident. Actually I felt better than whole, because I had Rory." Drew nodded. "But it also showed me that I wasn't that guy anymore, I couldn't be that guy anymore. I didn't have a purpose. When I got back, I felt…lost."

"Why can't you be that person here?"

"I have no skills." Tristan said. "I've been in the army my whole adult life. It's the only thing I know how to do."

"Then why are you walking away from it?" Tristan paused. "If you love it, if you're good at it, then you should keep doing it."

"I was tired of it, and scared that I wasn't on the top of my game anymore. And now there's Rory."

"Yes. What about Rory?" Drew asked, his slightly sarcastic tone not going unnoticed by Tristan.

"What?"

"You moved in with her, you love her, why did you move out?"

"I told you that. I wanted to find myself again. Figure out who I was here."

"And you thought that by cutting yourself off from others, you would be able to stand on your own two feet again?"

"I guess so. I didn't want to cut myself off; I just wanted…" he searched for the right word "space, to figure things out."

"And did you feel more independent when you had your space?" Tristan sighed.

"I didn't have time to enjoy it. As soon as I moved in, my shoulder gave out."

"And how did that make you feel?" Broken, weak, helpless. Tristan listed off the words in his head, but he didn't have the nerve to say them aloud. Drew waited for an answer.

"Weak." Drew nodded.

"Maybe unworthy?" He suggested. Tristan glanced at his friend.

"Of what?" He asked.

"I don't know, you tell me. Unworthy of Rory, unworthy of your second chance..." He offered.

"I've always felt unworthy of Rory, since the day I met her. It's a constant feeling."

"She doesn't seem to think that's true. She thinks very highly of you."

"Lord knows why." Drew sighed.

"But what caused you to all but leave your relationship with her?"

"Grayson." Drew furrowed his eyes in confusion. "When I was just about to get on the plane home, he ran out to stop me, pulled me aside and told me something."

"What did he say?"

"Well, he loved Rory from the get go." Tristan explained. Drew smiled. "They understood each other. He complimented me on finding someone like her but then he said that I had been one of the best soldiers he had ever had under his command, and that if I was half the man I was on base…" Tristan paused as his throat swelled up on him. "If I was half the man I was on base when I was off, that we would be perfect for one another." Drew was stunned. Grayson was known for many things, but compliments on any level were non-existent. "And the entire plane ride home I just kept thinking about what he had said, and what Rory had said about me being a completely different person at home and I realized that I wasn't half the man I was on base." Drew remained silent, trying to process what Tristan must have been thinking. "And I guess the shoulder was just the final nail in the coffin for my pride."

"And the pain killers?" Drew asked, finally speaking again.

"A convenient way to deal with my issues?" Tristan offered, acknowledging the fact that he probably was taking them more than he should be.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea." Tristan said, feeling helpless.

"You need to talk to Rory." Tristan sighed. "It's the only way to resolve whatever it is that you are going through. Pushing her away has made everything worse." Tristan didn't respond. "Am I wrong?" Drew asked, wanting to be understood.

"No." Tristan sulked like a two year old who was being scolded.

"Alright then. Call me and let me know how it goes." He said, patting his friend's shoulder.

"That's it?"

"That's it. Talk to Rory." He repeated. "Soon." And with that final word, Drew walked out of the apartment, leaving Tristan alone to contemplate his next move.