"Holly? Is everything okay in there?" Roger asked trough the bathroom door an hour later. The locksmith and come and gone, and so had the delivery guy, but still Holly did not come out of the bathroom.

When there was no answer, Roger knocked and tried the doorknob which easily turned under his grip. He peeked inside and saw that the lights were out. There was only a single candle by the bath, casting a soft glow on Holly's face. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be fast asleep.

"Holly," he said again in a low voice, wanting to wake her without startling her.

She stirred under the water and the thick layer of bubbles waved slightly. She blinked a few times then opened her eyes and looked around with a confused look. "What's happening?" she finally mumbled in a sleepy voice.

"You fell asleep," Roger replied.

Holly sat up a little straighter but carefully so as not to show too much skin. "You were right, this Japanese stuff is magical," she remarked.

"I told you," he retorted with a little smile. "The food is ready if you want to come out," he added before retreating back into the hall.

"Roger, wait!" Holly called after him. She waited for his head to reappear in the doorway to go on. "Can we talk for a minute?" She patted the rim of the bathtub.

"In here?" Roger asked before taking a few hesitant steps.

"I won't bite. I just don't feel like coming out just now."

He studied her face before sitting down on the first steps leading up to the bathtub. He knew that a part of her was tempting fate by inviting him to stay, and he could not say that he was disappointed about it.

"You didn't tell me what happened on your end after you copied Daniel's keys. Did you find anything?"

Roger shook his head. "I searched his office and his apartment but I found nothing beside a picture of that woman."

Holly shifted her weight in the bath, creating soft ripples in the water. "I thought as much. If he did force her or coaxed her into taking these pills, then how can we prove it? There's probably no material evidence left of that."

"I know, but we can't give up."

"It's killing me that I can't do anything about this! There has to be something we haven't thought about."

"If we can't find anything, we'll have to trick him into confessing."

Holly gave him a dubious look. "To the police? He's never going to fall for that, Roger, and even if we catch his confession on tape, we won't be able to use it in court."

"Illegally obtained evidence, I know. There's always the hope that we scare him into leaving town."

"No, he won't do that. He won't let me walk away from him, so even if he leaves, I'll never feel safe because I'll know that he will come back for me sooner or later. What kind of a life would that be for me?" Holly cried desperately. She ran her fingers through her hair and moaned in frustration.

"I just feel like my future is a complete blank," she added in a small voice.

Roger looked at her as pain gripped his heart. He wanted to promise that everything would turn out alright and that if bad came to worse, they could always run away together and never look back. Instead, he kept silent. He could not presume that she would ever want to be stuck with him for the rest of her life, and so he did not dare to suggest it.

"I guess it must be hard for you to make any type of decision right now," he finally managed to ask.

Holly looked up and they exchanged a long glance. "You mean about you?" she said after a few seconds.

Roger cleared his throat and tried to get up. "Forget it. The last thing that you need is for someone to put more pressure on you right now."

Holly put a dripping hand on his arm before he could leave. "Don't go." She tugged at his shirt until he sat back down. "You've been such a great help to me lately that the least I can do is trying to explain to you how I feel."

He nodded and waited for her to go on, his eyes concentrating on the growing wet spot on his shirt where her hand had just been.

"You're right," she said, "the only thing that I can do not to go crazy right now is to take it day by day. I can't tell you what I'll want when or if this thing with Daniel blows over. This is such an extraordinary situation that I'm not sure if my feelings for you are real or not, or if they will last."

"So you do have feelings for me," Roger stated in a steady voice, even though is heart was now beating wildly.

"I think I showed you that in the last few days."

"No, not really. You showed me that you wanted me. That's not the same thing at all."

"Well, you also know that I don't sleep around, Roger! When I decide to have sex with someone, feelings are usually involved."

Roger looked at her thoughtfully. "Fair enough. So what are these feelings? Do you feel like you owe me because I'm protecting you? Or are they just the remains of the love that you once felt for me?"

"What I'm feeling now has little to do with what I used to feel when we were married, because somehow, you're not the same man that you were back then. I think this is what is puzzling me the most. I can't make out who this new Roger Thorpe is, and I still don't know if I can trust him."

"You can!"

"I'm sorry, but when it comes to trust, words aren't enough."

She craned her neck to look up to him. "I think we should continue this conversation on a more equal footing," she suddenly said.

"Fine, I'll let you get dress and we can finish our talk in the living room." He got up and walked down the two steps.

"Or you could get into this bathtub with me," Holly replied matter-of-factly.

Roger did not turn around immediately, and Holly could see his shoulders tensing up. "Do you realize what is it doing to me right now to know that the only thing standing between us is a layer of bubbles? Please, don't tease me, Hol," he said over his shoulder.

"I'm not trying to torture you, Roger."

"You said you would not play with my feelings anymore."

"I won't. I'm trying to be honest with you about how I feel. I want to explain, and then you can decide what to do."

"If I get into this bathtub, we both know what's going to happen. My brain is going to fly out the window."

He could hear the smile in her voice when she replied. "If I'm going to bare my soul to you, the least that you could do in return is to take your clothes off. Besides, you know I won't be able to run away in the middle of the night like I did the last time. Isn't that an improvement?"

He finally turned around and pulled a face. "You've got me wrapped around your finger, you know that?" He undressed and stepped into the tub, which was more than large enough for two. He sat down so as to face her and slowly sank into the tub until his head rested against the edge. "The water is still warm," he commented.

"I changed it not too long ago."

She let him enjoy the hot water on his skin for a few minutes before resuming their conversation.

"I want you to know that I'm acting in good faith right now. I'm not trying to hurt you or to make a fool out of you. The truth is that I honestly don't know how I feel. I've hated you for so long, Roger, that it became a second nature to me."

"I know. I can still feel the sting of it."

"Exactly. I know you remember how it was for me when you came back to town."

Roger nodded. "Your hatred was just as fresh as when I fell off that cliff. Did you really have to hook up with Ed, though? I mean, do you know what it did to me to realize that after all these years, your first instinct was to run to him?"

Holly reddened slightly while she recalled her first months back in Springfield. She could not deny that she had been quick to jump into bed with her first husband.

"That was weak of me. I guess I just needed someone to hold on to until I got back my bearings."

"You never gave me a chance to try to make amends with you. You just hid behind Ed, and then Ross, and lately Daniel."

"Can you really blame me for not wanting to have any kind of relationship with you? Fate brought us both back here, Roger, but if it hadn't been for that, I never would have sought you out!"

Roger raised his hand to stop her outburst. "Believe me, I know what it cost you to let me back into your life. I'm grateful that you're even speaking to me. All I'm saying is that I tried very hard to make you see that I was a different man, and that you tried very hard NOT to see it."

"I did hide behind Ed, and I guess that I didn't really love Daniel either, but with Ross it was different," she replied in a soft voice.

Roger could not help but wince. "I know that you don't want to hear this, but it's the truth," she said. "I really thought that we would get married."

"Then why did you invite me to Acapulco?"

Holly shrugged. "I've thought about this so many times and yet I still don't know how to answer that. I guess my love for Ross couldn't survive in a world where you also existed."

Roger took a deep breath, fighting to keep his emotions in check. This was far from a love declaration, but it was not spoken lightly either. His hand searched for her under the water and he pulled her to him.

"Come here," he said, sighing as she rested her head on his chest. Her body brushed against his, light as a feather under the water.

"I guess I can settle for not knowing for a little while longer," he said as he rested his chin on the top of her head, "as long as you promise me that you'll try to figure your feelings out."

"I promise."

"In that case," Roger said as he reached for the tap, "we better add some hot water, because we're going to be in here for a while."

He pulled her on top of him and they exchanged a long, emotional kiss. They made love slowly, intensely, not wanting the moment to end. When they finally came out of the tub, both the water and the Chinese food were cold.