A/N: I promised a pretty quick update and here it is. It's pretty short, but it just felt complete like this.

The Mike-POV is added after the chapter was already beta-read, so that part isn't beta-ed. I added it because some people requested in their reviews to know how Mike would react on seeing Cody kiss Julia. So I really like to know what you think about it. Was it believable? Did it add anything? Would the chapter been better without that POV?

So as you all can see, reviews are greatly appreciated. They make me think about upcoming chapters and add or rewrite things. So if you have an opinion, any at all, please share it with me. I want to know what a chapter does for you, when you think certain things don't sound right, when something makes you laugh or even cry, or when things are annoying. I also really like to know what you want to happen and what you think will happen.

I really want to thank all of you who do take the time to review, even if it's not every chapter. Special thanks to Marcibelle, .Eden, lknights91, GreyLionDiva, and Legacychick for reviewing the last one. I really appreciate it. You rock! Now gimme more :p

Legacychick has made me a banner! I love it! You like too? Go to my profile and check it out.

That pic of Mike... I haven't stopped staring at it since Legacychick found it. I know I'm way too old to obsess about famous guys like this... but I just can't help it. I have one excuse, i didn't do it when i was fifteen and all my friends were obsessing about Bon Jovi or Brat Pitt, so I think I'm entitled to a little obsessing right now. I'll grow out of it...

DISCLAIMER: I own no-one, not even my muses!

Julia:

I couldn't sleep, again I might add. Next to me, Mike lay snoring peacefully. At least he was snoring softly. On the other side of the twin bed Jack snored a hell of a lot louder. I didn't really understand how the guy didn't wake himself up from all the noise he was making.

We had spent the night in Mike's room watching movies, just the three of us, since Jack and Sarah were still fighting. Neither of them wanted to tell me what all the fuss was about and after asking them both and asking Evan and Mike, I had given up. I didn't have the energy to deal with their crap as well. As far as I was concerned this had nothing to do with me and they'd better keep me out of it. No way was I picking sides when my best friends were fighting.

I entangled myself from Mike's arms to get up and go to the bathroom. There I lowered myself on the edge of the bath and I rested my hands in my head. I was too tired to even cry. Cody had been gone for only 3 days, and he would be away for more than three weeks. I didn't know exactly when he was coming back, because I didn't want to feel like a prisoner counting away the days. I didn't want to be pathetic and I didn't want to be that girl who couldn't live without the guy. I was a strong, independent woman, with a great life and great friends, though honestly I didn't understand why they even put up with me. Right now I wanted to prove to myself that it wouldn't be the end of the world if Cody didn't want me after all. I wanted to be sure that I would survive. But, no matter what my intentions were, I wasn't doing such a great job. I hadn't slept since I last talked to him, at least not that I was aware of. Another thing I hadn't done very much was eat. Everything I ate tasted like cardboard. No, I wasn't doing all that well.

Mike:

I woke up from an extremely loud snore of Jack. I reached beside me to pull Julia back into my arms, but the spot next to me was empty. That meant she couldn't sleep again. I was getting really worried about her. She had barely slept for the last few days, not since Cody had left, not since I'd seen Cody fucking kiss her. I didn't get it. If they'd made up, why was she so depressed? And if they hadn't, why had he kissed her? She acted like that asshole had broken her heart, but she didn't cry; she didn't talk; she only stared in the distance.

I had hoped that a night with the three of us and some ridiculous horror movies would cheer her up a little, but I doubted if she'd even noticed what movies we had watched. All night she had stared straight ahead like a zombie, that was if zombies could look this beautiful, this sad. She barely reacted when Jack or I spoke, and whenever she smiled, it seemed fake. Her mood was getting us down as well, and as for me, more than a little bit angry. I was furious at Cody for destroying her like this.

I had wanted to force her to talk, but Jack thought she'd talk when she was ready. She always did. He was right about that, and that was exactly the thing what was worrying me so much. Jules always talked. She wasn't the kind of person to suffer in silence; she always found someone to talk to, to be comforted by or to help her to figure out what she needed to do.

But this time, she had talked to no-one; not to me, not to Jack, not to Randy and not to Sarah. Everybody was worried sick and no-one knew. No-one knew what had happened between her and Cody as well. Not Julia's friends and not Cody's; I had even asked Ted, but he didn't even know that they had talked, he only knew that Julia had been looking for Cody. I looked like I was the one who knew the most of it, and I knew next to nothing. And what I knew, I wish I didn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him kissing her.

I got out of bed and starting dressing. I was going to find out tonight. I was going to make her talk; I needed to know, for me as well as for her.

Julia

I didn't know how long I had been sitting there when I finally decided to get back to bed. I might not have been sleeping, but in Mike's arms it was at least warm and comfortable. He had been acting a little tense the last few days, but every time I asked, he denied that anything was wrong. He was obviously lying. I hung my head. I was worried about him and even more worries was the last thing I could handle. When I entered the room, Mike was sitting on the edge of the bed. He stood up when he saw me come out and walked up to me.

"Having trouble sleeping again?" Slowly he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. I nodded, a sad smile crossed my face.

"Come on, put some clothes on, we're gonna take a walk." I looked at him with eyes big with surprise, but when I saw he already had a sweatpants and a hoodie on, I quickly obeyed. It wasn't like I would sleep anyway. When I was dressed, he took my hand and pulled me along through the hotel. He didn't tell me where we were going; in fact he didn't speak at all. It felt like I was dreaming. He stopped when we reached a fire escape. He checked it then pushed it open.

"Mike, we can't… that's…" I stuttered.

"When did you start caring about the rules, gorgeous? Don't worry, I've done this before." I shook my head and followed him through the door. "The pool's closed for the night, but this exit is always open. We went late-night swimming here last year."

I looked around with my eyes wide open. He had led me up to the rooftop. The kidney-shaped pool glistened in the moonlight, the potted palms dark shadows towered over the sun beds. And the view… the view was indescribable. The hotel was the largest building in the area, so I could see miles in every direction. I felt free and peaceful up here and I resisted the urge to joke or speak to prevent myself from breaking the spell. I put my hands on the railing as I leant down to look at the people hurrying along far below me. Mike hugged me from behind and leant his chin on my shoulder.

"Like it?" he whispered. I only nodded, feeling the rough stubble on his cheek against mine. Not for the first time I cursed Cody and the way he made me feel. Not that there was any chance that Mike would still want me. Not after how I had treated him. Tears formed in my eyes and streaked my face. The aching spot in my chest that had been there for the last few days, that I had tried so hard to forget, to ignore, to resist, finally pooled over in this peaceful environment, in the arms of the man I trusted more than anyone on this earth, in the arms of the man I wanted nothing more than to love as he deserved to be loved.

Mike pulled me close against him as I cried, but otherwise he was quiet. He allowed me to sob until the worse of the pressure that had built up inside me was gone and he felt me relax again.

His voice was soft and sad in my ear, "I'm sorry Jules. I haven't been the friend you need. I can see how much you need to talk but didn't want to hurt me. I love you for that, do you know that Jules? But it's killing you and I can't allow that. So talk Jules, talk and I will listen." His words were like a caress and I braced myself to stop another onslaught of tears. I bit my lip so hard it hurt; I didn't want to start crying all over again. But his next words allowed me to let the tears all out again, "If you need to cry, cry. It's just you and me here, nothing to be ashamed of, no reason to hold back. It's not healthy for you to hold back your emotions, Jules. You feel way too much to do that."

A few times I started to speak, and everything that came out was sniffles and blabbered words. When that happened, he shushed me and held me tight, until I was finally relaxed enough to speak, "Why can't I stop loving him, Mike? I wanna stop loving him… I feel so helpless, so out of control… What if I'll never stop loving him? What if he doesn't want me and I still can't get over him? I don't want this anymore, Mike."

A few hours later we sat on one of the sun chairs cuddled together in the frisk morning air. I had laid my heart open for Mike, I had told him some of my deepest, darkest secrets, and none of it had made him turn away. On the contrary, tonight he had told me things about himself he had never told me before, things he said he never told anyone before. I saw a side of Mike I had only scratched the surface of before. He showed me a deeply emotional side of him; he talked about his childhood and the pain he suffered because of his parent's divorce, the deep loneliness that came from growing up as an only child, his fear of not being good enough, of no-one liking him, of being rejected. This actually caused him to invent his alter ego, the Miz, which in the start was nothing more than a way to annoy the hell out of people who didn't like him. Tonight we had grown closer than we ever had before and I knew, we both knew, that whatever happened, nothing would break us apart.

"How did you do it Mike? How did you walk through all that crap and still come out this strong?" A chuckle vibrated through his chest. It looked like he was done being serious.

"That's a secret that belongs to the elderly, gorgeous. It comes with age." I turned my head to glare in his direction. The amused smirk around his lips grew into a grin. I bit my lip as I tried to outstare him, but quickly gave up. It's impossible to outstare a wrestler, they actually train for it.

"Stop pissing with me. I'm being serious here," I pricked my finger against his chest and I giggled when I saw him pull a face.

"Haven't we been serious enough for one night? It's time to have some fun again," I pouted at his words, though honestly I liked the idea of having fun after a night this intense, but I also wanted to hear his secret, if there even was one. "I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you, if you go skinny dipping with me," I gasped. That would be fun indeed, but it would also make us cross that line again, and I wasn't so sure that was such a good idea.

"Come on gorgeous, what happened to the fun side of you? A month ago you would've already been naked and in the pool. It's not like I haven't seen you naked before."

"Yeah, and look where that brought us," I mumbled.

"But I'm perfectly happy about where we are, gorgeous," He pulled me close and nuzzled my neck. It quickly became obvious that he had no trouble crossing the line again and that he didn't mind taking the lead this time. "And that's the secret, accepting life as it is, not only the good things, but also the crap it throws at you. And the same goes for accepting yourself, you can't expect to be all perfect. As I see it, perfect people are boring and mostly fake. And you Jules, you're far from perfect and that makes you so much fun. Intense, but oh so amazing. You need to start accepting yourself. Sure, you can be a spoiled, mean, pain-in-the-ass drama queen," I gasped at his words and struggled to get up, but he wouldn't let me and continued his speech like nothing happened, "But so what? You're also smart, sweet, kind, funny, caring, creative, and a hell of a lot more. You let the world and your emotions overwhelm you and run around with you, when it should be the other way around. You can rule the world if you want to, gorgeous, you only need to start doing it." When his words had sunk in, his speech brought tears into my eyes. I hadn't fully captivated yet how well he knew me and understood me.

"So do I need to throw you in the pool with your clothes on or are you going to get naked?"

He stood up and pulled me up after him. His sudden movement made me crash into him and I wasn't convinced it was entirely by accident. His arms tightened around me and he kissed the last tears from my face. His warm lips against my cool skin sent tiny sparks of desire through my body. When I opened my eyes again, the intensity of his bright blue stare touched a cord deep down inside me, but still I hesitated.

"Don't think Jules, there's only right now, nothing else matters, only right now, just us," With those words his lips came crashing down on mine and a second later he flung us both in the pool.

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