***Playlist: "Inside of Love" by Nada Surf

Will paused for a moment at the edge of his kitchen counter, the three glasses of wine he had drank over the course of the last hour finally starting to hit him. He regained his balance before navigating the two steps down into the living room to join Karen, Grace, and Jack, who were sitting around the coffee table, engaged in a game of Pyramid. Jack and Karen had just finished their turn and were waiting for Will to return so that he and Grace could continue the game.

Grace jumped up in front of the fireplace as Will refilled her wine glass, abandoned on the coffee table in front of where she had been sitting on the couch. Karen took the bottle from him and filled her own empty glass as he took his place next to Grace.

"You ready to win this one, baby?" Grace asked him, her voice amplified in volume and confidence by the alcohol she had consumed.

"I was born ready," Will stated. He high-fived Grace.

"Ok you guys," Jack began, preparing to flip over the sand timer. "Go!"

"Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump - " Grace was practically shouting her clues, clutching the small piece of yellow paper in her hand that contained the answer she was trying to get out of Will.

" - Tom Hanks!" he shouted in return. He was right, of course, so Grace threw the slip of paper and moved on to the next one.

"Yahtzee, shooting craps, to hang on your rearview mirror -"

" - things you need dice for!"

"Your last four relationships."

"Things that have failed," Will answered, shooting Grace and icy look. She brushed it off, continuing on with her next set of clues. From the couch, Karen and Jack howled with laughter.

"Your dollar out of a vending machine, words, wasted time -"

" - things you can never get back!"

The clock ran out and Jack called time. Will and Grace high-fived again and Will stole a quick glance at Karen whose laughter had suddenly subsided. She wasn't smiling anymore.

"Come on, Kare," Jack squealed, grabbing Karen's hand to pull her from the chair she sat in so that they could take their turn in front of the fireplace.

"Jackie would you mind if we took a little break?" Karen asked him sweetly, standing but not moving toward him. "I need some fresh air."

Jack nodded and before anyone could protest, Karen rushed from the room onto the small balcony adjacent to Will's kitchen. When she heard the click of the double doors behind her she exhaled, letting out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. Things you can never get back. Things you can never get back. That afternoon when she had returned home, the brown envelope without a return address had been waiting for her. She couldn't believe it had already been a year; a year since she and Will had been thrust back into each others' lives, a year since her daughter had last blown out her birthday candles. Another picture of Elena in front of her birthday cake had been included in this year's package of photos, but this time there were five candles on the cake instead of four. She would be starting kindergarten soon, and Karen supposed that next year's envelope would contain a picture from her first day of school. She smiled thinking about it, pressing her bare arms against the cool metal of the railing on the balcony, a stark contrast from the muggy July evening air.

"What happened to you?"

Karen was caught off guard by Will's voice but not altogether surprised that he had followed her out here. She had grown used to his protective hovering, his constant inquisition about every aspect of her life. Rather than finding it annoying, as she would have if it had been anyone else, she was beginning to quite like the comfort of always having him around and alert. She turned to face him, offering a small smile as he tossed her a pack of cigarettes.

"I found those in your purse," he explained, resting his forearms on the railing next to her. "Thought you might want one."

"Thanks," she replied, pulling a cigarette from the pack and placing it between her lips. Will's hand met it with her lighter in a flash. The end glowed orange and she inhaled deeply, the smoke filling her lungs as the alcohol in her blood buzzed around in her head. She drew a different pleasure from these sensations than most people did; instead of using them for fun she used them for survival. For the past five years she had felt empty, and used cigarettes and booze to fill her - even if it was only by means of smoke and dizziness.

"You know you used to tell me everything that was bothering you," Will said. They were both leaning against the railing, avoiding each others' eyes and instead looking out over the street below them. Karen counted the cabs she saw pass as way to keep her mind focused on something other than the lust boiling up in her stomach towards Will, relaxed and beautiful and at her side. But she couldn't ignore his words, which were of course, true. When they had first met he had been her confidant. She never talked to him about Stan - the topic of their other romantic relationship was one that fell outside the bounds of the rules they had established for themselves - but everything else she shared with him. Her desires, her fears, her insecurities, her tumultuous relationship with her mother. As she appeared to the outside world, as Stanley Walker's girlfriend, Karen was a closed book. But in Will's arms, she was an endless novel that he couldn't get enough of.

"Do you want one?" she asked, motioning towards the pack of cigarettes resting on the railing between them. He shook his head.

"I don't smoke anymore."

"You've changed."

"You haven't," he countered. Her face snapped towards his and he smiled softly. "I can always tell when you're upset."

"Who says I'm upset?"

"Alright, maybe 'upset' isn't the right word. But you can't lie to me, Karen. Something happened to you during the years I was without you. I can feel it right now; I can see it every day in your eyes. They're heavier, somehow."

"Is that how you think of them? The 'years you were without me'?" Karen asked, once again avoiding his advances toward a subject she wasn't yet prepared to talk about.

"I don't know how else to characterize them. They were unremarkable; your absence was their only defining trait."

Karen couldn't help but smile at this, and soon she was leaning into him just enough to brush her lips lightly across his. Her cigarette burned between her fingers, the smoke twisting and twirling up into the night sky.

When they heard the rattle of the doors behind them, Karen and Will broke apart.

"Karen are you done out here?" Jack asked, his voice full of a joyful impatience. "We've got a game to win!"

Karen stubbed out her cigarette and tossed it off the balcony before turning to follow Jack back inside.

"You bet, Poodle."

"Bring it on," Will challenged, following behind her back into his apartment. She giggled as he playfully slapped her ass and pulled the doors closed behind them.

When they got back to the couches, Will saw that Grace had her disposable camera out. He grabbed it and snapped a candid picture of her picking something out of her teeth, and enraged, she snatched the camera from his hands. Realizing what she was about to do, Will grabbed Karen around the waist, emboldened in his tipsy state, and pulled her into him just as Grace snapped the picture. She squirmed, her face beaming with flirtation as she slapped his arm away and took her place next to Jack.