A/N: So I've got to say ahead of time, I'd find it very weird to hear my parents talking about me like this…but hey, the dialogue writes itself.

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Joanne, we need to talk," Dr. Dean declared, sitting down across the table from his wife. It had been over a month since Ren left 135 messages on their machine, all of which he'd transcribed.

"Is something the matter, Roger?" she asked, peering over the frame of her glasses.

"Yes," he nodded. "Read these," he dropped a thin stack of paper on the table in front of her.

"What are they?" she asked, picking them up.

"They're messages that Ren left Tawny after… the, uh, incident."

"After she cheated on her?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"Look, Roger, we really should let Tawny handle this on her own," Joanne explained. "It really hurt her—I mean, I've never seen her like that before. She's a strong girl, but this shattered her. She needs time."

"She's had time, she's just being stubborn," he insisted.

She glared at him.

"Read those messages, Joanne. Tawny never listened to them, and I haven't given them to her to read yet. I don't think Tawny ever even gave Ren a chance to explain and it seems like a situation where that is particularly necessary. What happened may not be justified but the root of it can be understood at least. If there's one thing Tawny is it's understanding. But she's not even listening anymore. That's not the daughter we raised."

Joanne read the first few blurbs.

Dr. Dean continued speaking. "You yourself used to complain about Tawny fooling around with so many different people, but you insisted on maintaining the 'she's mature enough to handle these things herself' approach," he explained. "Well, she's only 17. And she's heartbroken because Ren wasn't a one-night-stand. She loved her. She still does and she's absolutely miserable, but she's too stubborn and too proud—too much like you—to accept that and try and work through it."

"Cheating is a very hard thing to work through, Roger," Joanne said, her voice low. "We may have managed but don't think for a second that it was easy for me to forgive you. And I was 40. You're right, Tawny is just 17—that's a much more delicate age than 40 was."

"It is hard to work through and I understand that," he emphasized. "But there are occasions where it's worthwhile to work through it. Like with us. I think Ren might be a worthwhile case too. She didn't cheat out of spite or because she wanted to hurt Tawny or because she was attracted to someone else. She wasn't tempted into this. She did it because she felt she would be unable to satisfy Tawny…sexually… without more experience and, with the help of alcohol, that thinking—which may have even been subconscious before, took over. At least that's the impression I got. And I may not be very familiar with Ren Stevens, but from what I know, it would follow suit that she'd be self-conscious about such a thing. She's not used to being...well, not the best in everything."

Joanne nodded. "I see what you're saying."

"When I cheated, it wasn't the same. It was for base, carnal reasons only. And you forgave me—which I am grateful for to this day. If you could forgive me, than Tawny should be able to forgive Ren."

"Alright," she replied, reading a few more of the messages. " 'Honey'? She called Tawny 'honey'? Tawny let her do that?"

He nodded with a smile. "You should talk to her, give her the messages. Explain our situation if you have to."

"I don't know if that'd be a good idea, Roger. She's still hurting and if this goes badly, do you really want her to associate that pain with you? It could very well happen. I know Tawny doesn't enjoy these sort of talks with me, she prefers them with you. I just lecture, and you create a dialogue-- that's what she says."

"I suppose," he nodded. "I want her to be happy though, so if that's what it takes. So be it. If you can do without, that's even better."

"Ok, I'll talk with her when she gets home from school, my flight doesn't leave until seven so there's plenty of time," she paused. "Wasn't Tawny dating both the Stevens simultaneously earlier this year?"

"I think she was going steady with Louis, then went on a date with Ren, found herself more attracted to her and broke things off with Louis before actually dating Ren."

"I bet there was some small-scale cheating going on there too, though," Joanne grinned. "A kiss or two perhaps? I'm sure Louis would've considered it cheating. Well, anyway…"she redirected her attention to the paper.

"What do you miss most?" Twitty asked all of a sudden.

He was sitting outside the school with Louis and Tawny, who both seemed to be on civil terms again. Civil, not friendly, he felt as though he were still very much in the middle. His question was directed at Tawny.

"What?" she asked, startled.

"About Ren," he clarified.

"Twitty…" she started in protest.

"Just one thing, a little thing, I want to know," he said.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Neither do I," Louis chimed in.

"It's good to vent these things, Tawny. You told me that when I broke up with Allison—remember her? I wanted to focus on all the bad things to make me feel better but that didn't work because I could only think of the good things. And then you said that I should think of the good things and try to remember it as a good thing in my life that just had to end eventually."

"Some of my advice is pretty ridiculous, I don't know why you guys listen to me," she scoffed, her arms crossed.

"Well, it worked for me," he shrugged. "Just try. One thing you miss. A little thing that only you would know. Like I missed the way Allison would chew on her hair when she was nervous."

Thinking about Ren always brought about a sort of dull pain in Tawny's chest. She hadn't known how literal a broken heart was until these past few weeks. She sighed regretfully. "When we kissed…"

"Oh, please, come on!" Louis interjected.

"Shut up, man," Twitty snapped.

"She always used to put her hand behind my head, sort of tangle her fingers in my hair. She'd kind of massage the back of my head. I miss that," Tawny confessed.

"Feel any better?"

"I feel worse," she said.

"Me too," Louis grumbled, though he was surprised at what Tawny had said. He expected it to simply be an 'I miss making out'.

"Maybe try something else…"

"No, Twitty," she mumbled. "I don't want to do this. Let's talk about something else."

Twitty eyed Louis, a little angry with his friend. "Tawny, how did you get over Louis?"

"That wasn't the same," she replied, not really caring if Louis took offense.

"Yeah, 'cause I didn't cheat," he explained. "Whatever, I'm out of here. I'm going home."

After he was gone, Twitty continued. "Tawny, honestly, you've been so… down this past month. Come on, why don't you come out with us? To a party of something?"

"I'm not up for a party," she answered, reflecting on what had happened at the last party she'd attended.

"Ok, well, how about spring break? Do you have any plans? It's the week after next."

"No, I don't have plans," she responded, sounding less-than-interested.

"Ok, then, you're coming with Louis and me," he stated.

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

"Tawny, is that you?" her mother called from the kitchen when she entered the house.

"Yeah," Tawny called back.

"Come here a minute, dear."

"What?"

"Take a seat, we need to talk about this whole Ren thing."

"What? No, mom, that was a month ago… there's nothing left to talk about."

"Your father is adamant that you read these. They're the messages that Ren left for you. You wanted them erased, so he did, but not after writing everything down. Read them and then we're going to talk."

"Mom," Tawny protested.

"We're doing this whether you want to or not, so start reading," Joanne ordered.

She watched her daughter read through every message. At the end Tawny looked up at her mother, her expression pained. "There. I read them."

"And? You don't think you could've taken the time to listen to her? You don't think she regrets what she did? You don't think she cares about you? What is your logic in all of this, Tawny? Your father and I were shocked with how little effort you put into trying to understand the grounds for all of this. Yes, it was wrong, and it hurt you, as it well should've, but nevertheless, we raised you to always listen to both sides of the story."

Tawny didn't know what to say.

"You probably think I'm being insensitive to your side right now, huh?"

"Yes," she managed. "You don't know… what it felt like to see her with…"

"Yes, I do," Joanne stated. So much for leaving it as last resort… "Your father cheated on me once."

"What?"

"You were 13."

"What?" Tawny repeated, not fully grasping the situation.

"And the reasons he did it were no where near as forgivable as the reasons Ren has. Now, I'm not expecting you to just say 'hey, everything is fine, we'll just forget and move one'. But I always expect you to try and work through things like this, especially when they are more than worth working for. You don't feel that your relationship with Ren is worth working for? I've never seen you happier than when you're with her. I know you love her. If you love someone, you need to cut them some slack sometimes. I think that Ren understands what she did was wrong. I don't think you understand that you've also acted in the wrong here."

Her mother always did this when she wanted to make a point. She talked and talked and didn't give essential details—like the full story about her and Tawny's father. Tawny just sat there, arms crossed, taking it all in. She was heart-broken and her mother was lecturing her on how to be a good shrink. Though she had some valid points…

Louis trotted up the stairs and towards his room, but he heard something coming from down the hall.

He tossed his bag inside his messy bedroom and headed toward the sound. He peeked his head inside Ren's room to find her sitting on the floor by the side of her bed, tear-streaked cheeks, with a book and a photo.

He should've known. He'd found her in a similar state several times over the course of the past several weeks.

For some reason, this time was different for him though. He actually felt bad for his sister, instead of being stuck on how bad he felt for himself. He slowly walked over to her side and sat down. He slid his arm over her back and pulled her a little closer to him. "You'll get past it. I did. She's not easy to get over, but it's possible."

She'd buried her face in her hands and was practically shaking from crying so much.

He took the photo up and looked at it. Black and white, taken by Tawny, of the two of them. Tawny was kissing Ren's temple and Ren was looking downward, kind of. She wasn't looking at Tawny, nor at the camera. She was reading something, it appeared. Tawny was looking at the camera, as she was aiming it after all. Her arm was in the side of the frame because she was holding the camera away from them. They seemed very natural together.

"You know," he said. "She went on a date with you while she was my girlfriend. That's kind of like cheating too. We've all got it."

"It's not the same, Louis," Ren's voice was muffled, and sounded far away.

"I know, but still," he shrugged.

"Everything will work out in the end," he said. "I thought Tawny and I were meant to be, I'm sure you think the same thing. And if you're right, then you will be together. You know, she misses the way you put your hand behind her head, in her hair, when you kiss her."

"I miss the way she always kissed my temple… like in that photo. She did that all the time. Or my cheek, but usually the temple. She had to stand on her toes just to reach it but she always did it."

He nodded and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, Ren. I am. I… I had a really hard time with you guys and when you broke up I was happy, but now… I don't know. I'm sorry. I didn't really give you guys a fair shot and I realize now that you didn't do it to hurt me. I know that I had nothing to do with it. And as for Chris, well, she's a lesbian apparently, so that wouldn't have worked out anyway—though in the future, maybe you could stay away from my girls, huh? Or at least use your gay-dar and let me know."

"My gay-dar? I don't have that, sorry," she responded, trying to smile.

"Oh, well, then just stay away from my ladies… there aren't that many of them so it shouldn't be difficult."

"Make me a list," Ren said.

"Well, the list was Tawny and Chris… but from now on I'll keep you filled in."

"Ok," she half-smiled. "I am sorry about…everything, Louis."

"Yeah, well, you're hurting a lot worse than I did. And Tawny really meant something to me too. I don't know if it was really love though."

"I love her," Ren said, very forlorn.

"I know you do," he replied, his voice almost a whisper. "And everyone knows that she loves you too."