A/N: Thanks for the reviews and for reading. You guys are spectacular!

"Steph?" Chris opened her office door after she called for him to enter. He stuck his head in the crack, forcing a weak smile onto his face, even though it was the last expression he felt like wearing. Her hair had been loose when they arrived at the building that morning, but she had it rolled up and clipped at the top of her head now, in a high, messy bun. "Is it okay if I cut out of here a little early?"

"Is everything okay?" she asked, stopping mid-sentence in the notes she had been scribbling onto her pad of paper.

"I'm not really feeling all that great," he said, and he wasn't completely lying, but physical illness wasn't the cause. "I think I might have eaten something that's not agreeing with me."

"Can you come in here all the way, please?" she requested, scooting back in her rolling chair.

Chris held in a sigh, knowing she was going to ask him a million questions, and one of them was likely to break him badly enough to let the truth come spilling out. He couldn't tell her what was actually going on. If she knew, she would talk him out of the idea, but Chris wanted his decision to be final, once and for all; he would be moving out of Stephanie's house as soon as possible. She was just getting out of her chair when Chris stepped inside and shut the door. Before he could actively move toward Stephanie's desk, she made great strides to him, reaching a hand up to his forehead and pressing her hand to his cool skin.

"Hm," she grunted, frowning. "You don't feel hot at all. Does your stomach hurt?"

"A little bit," he fibbed.

He didn't enjoy feeding her false information, but it stood as a necessary evil in getting himself and his son to a safe place. It had been four full days since Carter had integrated himself in Stephanie's home, and he seemed nice enough, but Chris didn't feel comfortable leaving his son alone in a home with a teenager he knew nothing about and who may not have had the best of intentions. He couldn't lock his bedroom door during the day without locking himself out, so if Carter wanted to badly enough, he could go in and snoop on Chris's belongings, which left a real sour taste in his mouth. Stephanie was a giver, that much was certain, but if she was going to start letting strange people into her home, he would have to draw the line somewhere.

His double-standard hypocrisy wasn't entirely lost on him, as he knew she had essentially done the same thing for him and Graham. For all Amanda knew, Chris could have been a guy with bad intentions, and he could have been seen as a threat who put her and Caylie in grave danger, but it had been different with Chris. He had gone into Stephanie's home with a young son along for the ride, and he wouldn't have done anything wrong knowing Graham was depending on him, not that he would have hurt Stephanie or Amanda otherwise, but that was beside the point. His most important job in life was keeping Graham safe, and if they had to move into their own space to keep strangers from passing through without their consent, then so be it.

"I don't know what could be going on with you," Stephanie said, placing both hands on her hips as she watched him, hoping for a telltale sign to jump out that would be the answer as to why Chris wasn't himself. "You can always leave for the day if you need to, so, yeah, you're allowed to go. I'll really miss you at lunchtime, but if you need a small break, we can do that. Go ahead and clock yourself out downstairs, and you can take the car home."

"What about you?" Chris asked, as she went to her desk and grabbed her car keys from the far left corner, the spot where she always left her keys so she wouldn't lose them. She returned to Chris and smiled, patting his arm.

"Don't worry about me. I'll have Ross come and pick me up later," she said, her smile fading the tiniest bit at his mention. There it was again, her great source of hesitance, but Chris would never know how it could have turned out because, within the next day or two, he would no longer be a mainstay in her home. "You just take the car and go back home. Get some rest, okay? I'll be in to check on you as soon as I get home."

"Okay, but only if you're sure."

"I am sure."

"How will you leave for lunch?"

"I'll go with Olivia," she shrugged, thrusting her ring of keys into his open hand. "Please stop worrying and just go. I'll be fine, Chris. I'm self-sufficient like nobody's business."

"I know you are."

"Then trust me," she said. Stephanie slipped her hands over his forearms for balance and leaned in, pressing a kiss to his right cheek. Chris savored the feeling, but it was gone all too fast, only a fleeting rush of her perfume following the backward motion as she pulled away. "Feel better and I'll see you later."

"You will, thanks," he nodded, and then he was out of her office and walking himself to the elevators.

He should have been relieved. After all, he had gotten exactly what he wanted and was lucky enough to have not been questioned too deeply by Stephanie. Why, then, did he feel so incredibly guilty? He asked himself that very same question the entire way to Stephanie's car, and when he was pulling out of the parking garage, the answer came to him. Not only was he lying to her, but he was taking her vehicle to do the dirty work of finding an apartment behind her back. He should have picked up the phone and called to make amends and be honest, but he didn't. He couldn't.

Instead, he called the one person he could trust to be on his side at all times. He called his dad. "Hey, Dad," Chris said, Ted answering the phone quicker than expected. "I left work early today, and I'm driving now, but I needed your advice on something."

"What's going on?" Ted asked. "Is everything okay with Graham?"

"We're mostly fine, but there's some stuff going on at Steph's house, and I don't feel comfortable keeping Graham there anymore," Chris admitted. "So, she gives Graham money every day to buy dessert at school, and he saved up a bunch of it and wanted to buy toys and stuff with it, so Steph drove us to the toy store, and also a shoe store, so Graham could pick out everything he wanted. It was a lot of fun, but when we stopped at a restaurant at the end of the night so we could have dinner, we were coming out, and this guy approached us. He asked Steph if she had change to spare."

"Okay, nothing I've heard sounds alarming so far," Ted said.

"Wait, there's more," Chris continued. "So, she gives the guy some money — a lot of money, judging by his reaction — and then, get this, she invites him into the car. She gave him an offer to come live in her house, which, it's her house, so who the hell am I to tell her she can't? I tried to talk her out of it in a friendly way though, because I don't feel comfortable living in a place with some teenage guy I know absolutely nothing about, but she insisted. You know how Steph is, and she's so sweet, but she doesn't realize there are people out there she might let into her home that will end up hurting her badly. I don't want to see that happen."

"She's a little too trusting," Ted agreed. "I see a lot of good in her, but she has to start realizing that you can only extend an offer for people to come into your home when you have some sense of trust in them. One day, she's going to let the wrong person in and be sorry for it."

"That's almost exactly what I told her, but in a nice way, and she wasn't listening," he said. "She told me she did the same thing for me and that she wasn't going to turn the guy away, so he's living in the house now. I've got Graham to think about, though, and I don't want him in a house with someone who could be out to hurt him or someone else in the house. It's really not okay, so I left work just now to go see some more apartments. I'm moving out, because I feel like now is the right time."

"Wow," Ted said.

"What's that?" Chris asked, clenching the steering wheel as his jaw set, a sure sign of the tension he was bound by. "What's 'wow' mean, Dad?"

"I wasn't expecting you to leave her house so soon, but I guess I can see why," he answered. "You're worried for Graham, and he's more important than anything, so if you feel like you have to leave her house so he can be safe, then I would encourage you to do that. This new guy, is he bad news or something?"

"That's what I'm not sure of," Chris said. "I know nothing about the guy, but Stephanie didn't know anything about me either, and she still took a chance on me. I'm not willing to take any chances with my son, though. He's the most important person to me, and if anything ever happened to him...I just won't let anything happen to him, no matter what. I'm telling you right now, though, if this guy hurts Stephanie, Amanda, or Caylie in any way, shape, or form, I will rip him limb from limb, and I mean it. He'd better not hurt those girls."

"Is it going to be hard leaving Stephanie behind?"

"Yes," he answered, without a moment's hesitation. "I hate to think that I'll be waking up in the morning and she won't be there anymore, but I have to do this. I'll miss her like crazy, but we can still have lunch together on work days, if she isn't too mad at me after this."

"I don't think she'll be mad," Ted said. "From the sounds of it, she's more likely to be hurt than mad, but then again, what else is anger but pent-up sadness?"

"You're so poetic, Dad," Chris laughed.

"It's true, though," he said. "Do what you have to do in order to keep Graham safe and worry about the rest later. You know, on a side note, I've been thinking a lot about you and Stephanie since I left her house, and I went over all the things you told me about her, including the night you tried telling her your real feelings. I think she feels the same way and was protecting herself by not admitting it."

Now, Chris was intrigued. He merged onto the highway and returned to his conversation. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, the night you went to the coffee shop together, you told me she was encouraging you to go after Olivia, but I don't think it's as simple as that," Ted guessed. "We already know she has feelings for you on a deeper level."

"How do we know that for sure?"

"Chris, come on, haven't I taught you better than this?" he chuckled. "You told me she lets you sit in bed with her at night, and you also told me you guys are touchy with each other. A girl who isn't into a guy doesn't let him get away with that kind of thing. If you're touching her hair and holding her hand and she's not objecting to it, then she likes being near you. So that moves me onto the next point: Olivia. A girl isn't going to encourage a guy she likes to be with another girl. Why would Stephanie want you with Olivia when she clearly has feelings for you?"

"She doesn't," Chris said, shaking his head. "This is Stephanie we're talking about. She's nice to everyone. I don't think it means she likes me. She just wants to make me feel comfortable while I'm staying in her house."

"Bullcrap," Ted argued. "I don't believe that, and you don't even believe that. You're just talking yourself out of the truth, because if you face facts, you'll have to come to terms with knowing that you're moving out of the house of a woman you love and could possibly have a future with if you would get your act together."

"How can I get my act together any more than I already have?" Chris wondered. "I've tried talking to her, and she's the one who doesn't ever seem to want anything more. I've tried easing into it and hinting, but it never works."

"Then why don't you quit hinting and just come out and say it?" Ted suggested. "Honestly, I've been around for a long time, and I know a thing or two about these types of situations. I saw the way she was looking at you during Graham's party, and it was a hell of a lot different than she was looking at her boyfriend. The chemistry is there, but you have to go after it, and you've gotta do it fast. I'd hate for you to miss out on a chance to be with someone who makes you happy, all because you didn't have the guts to tell her the truth."

"But I've tried."

"Then don't try anymore, just do it," he said. "Don't beat around the bush or make insinuations. Go to her and tell her flat-out how you feel. Leave no room for any more misunderstandings. I wouldn't push you toward this if I didn't feel like it was the right thing, but the way you two looked at each other, even when you had some tension between you, I saw something special, and I haven't seen that in you since Carly was alive. Go after her, or you'll be sorry."

"Okay," Chris said, a smile spreading across his face as he gained confidence. "All right, I'll do it. I'm going to tell her, but I still want to look at some apartments today as back-up, just in case she doesn't feel the same way or doesn't want to be together. I have to make sure I'm covered from all angles."

"That's a smart move, but make sure you let me know how it goes," Ted said.

"I will."

Chris wasn't an arrogant man by any means and never expected his arrival at home to morph into a big event, but on this day, it was nothing short of huge. Stephanie and Graham were waiting on the front porch when he pulled into the driveway that afternoon, steering Stephanie's car to a stop in front of the garage. He pulled her keys out of the ignition and stuffed the apartment brochures inside his coat pocket to conceal them from prying eyes. He hadn't meant to spend as much time out as he had, but when he finally saw a clock and realized how late it was, Chris rushed home to be with his son. He wasn't fast enough, however, since Stephanie had still beat him home from work, and judging by her rigid pose, she had a lot of questions for him.

On an average day, Chris might have been worried, but there was nothing average about the path set out before him. He was finally ready to be honest with Stephanie, with no more beating around the bush, and all he could do was hope the outcome would be in his favor, and hers as well. Before he made it even partially up the walkway, Graham was running toward him and crashing into his legs, clutching a pack of flavored bubble gum in one hand. He held it up, flashing his pearly whites for Chris. "Look what Stephy got me, Daddy!"

"She got you gum?"

"Yep."

"That's so nice of her. Did you thank her for it?" Chris asked.

"Mm-hmm, I did," Graham nodded. Chris slipped his hand onto the back of Graham's head, leading him back to the porch and ushering him inside, smiling at Stephanie along the way. He tried to enter the house right behind Graham, but Stephanie tugged on his arm and brought him to a stop. Graham tried to step back outside to continue their conversation, but Chris led him indoors. "I wanna stay with you."

"I know, buddy, but I need to have a private talk with Stephy, and then I'll be right in," Chris said.

"Oh, all right," Graham said, shaking his head and sighing loudly.

Chris laughed at his expression, tugging the front door closed so that he was alone on the porch with Stephanie. She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame, staring blankly at the front yard. She didn't look particularly angry, but there was an unease in her general aura as she studied the lawn. She looked lost, but she wouldn't be for long, not after what Chris had to tell her. His confession would change everything.

"I'm glad we're out here, because I've got something that I have to get out," Chris began. "It really can't wait any longer."

"You're moving out, aren't you?" she asked, and he was thrown off by the heaviness in her eyes. He imagined it didn't even compare to the weight of her heart.

"What?" Chris averted his eyes, a classic sign of dishonesty. "No, no, I'm not making any sudden moves yet."

As it stood, Chris had checked a number of apartments and settled on one that he thought might be a good fit for both him and Graham. He had supplied the information their main office asked for, mostly his employment and income details, and they would be getting back to him within one or two business days to let him know if he was approved to live there. Whether or not he actually moved in depended on how things turned out during his discussion with Stephanie, but it was already being sidetracked by a subject he didn't want to get into. Fate always had alternate plans for them. Perhaps they truly weren't meant to be.

"Can you at least have enough respect for me to not lie about this?" she asked. This time, her eyes clicked evenly into place with Chris's, and he froze. "I get that I can't control you and you're going to do whatever is right for you, but can't you be honest with me? All I want is to give you and Graham a proper sendoff when it's time for you to go, and you won't even let me do that much."

"Who says we're even moving at all?"

"You left work early and weren't here," Stephanie said. "I went up to your bedroom to see how you were doing, and when Sara found me looking for you around the house, she said you hadn't been back here all day. If you were gone for all this time, then you're not really sick, so why else would you...actually, I'm just going to let this go. It's none of my business, and if you don't want me to know when you're moving, then I'll leave it at that."

Stephanie turned her back without another word, reaching for the front door knob, and maybe Chris's talk with his dad had given him a double-shot of boldness, but whatever the urge stemmed from, he suddenly felt he could handle Stephanie. He knew what she needed and was fully prepared to give it to her, willing to lay his life on the line and sacrifice everything if it meant a chance at having her. Chris brought his hands down firmly on her hips, halting her forward momentum, and he pulled her flush to his body, her back pressed to his front. He buried his nose in her sweet-smelling hair, an action that never grew old no matter how repetitive, and was enjoying their closeness with his eyes pressed shut when she yanked out of his grip.

It was the first time she had ever pulled away from him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Chris reached out for her, but she evaded his hands for a second time. "What's the matter, Steph?"

"I...you can't hug me like that right now," she said, one eyebrow turned up as she glanced frantically from the front door to Chris and back again. She lowered her voice, adding, "Ross is inside."

"Oh," Chris said. That certainly threw a wrench in his plans, but he wasn't one to quit. Not when he was so close he could taste the success. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway, so if you could give me just a couple more minutes of your time, I have to — "

"I can't right now, Chris. I just can't," she said.

He couldn't tell whether she was letting him know she was genuinely out of time, or whether she had caught onto what he had been in the process of admitting, but either way, she was tapping out. Maybe that was her way of letting him know she wasn't interested, but it hurt more than he could put into words. He was being rejected for a second time, and enough was enough. Stephanie had invited a man into her home that he didn't have even a single grain of trust in, and she didn't want anything to do with him on a romantic level, which she had made abundantly clear. She had no problem leading him on when they were alone and allowing him to get a small taste of what it might be like to call her his own someday, but all she would ever do was tease him.

He was done being Stephanie's plaything behind closed doors. As she stepped back into the house, he followed behind her, found Graham, and led him up the stairs to his bedroom. He had a single phone call to make to a local hotel, because he and Graham weren't going to spend one more night in a home with a stranger, and one Chris was beginning to feel less and less welcome in. Stephanie had never been as cold to him as she had on the porch, and he felt like a fool for believing he could ever have anything more with her. Women like Stephanie didn't go after men like him, and the sooner he learned that lesson, the easier his life would become.

He and Melissa had a good thing going, and Chris was all the more thankful he hadn't thrown away what they had in the hopes of entering a phantom relationship. That's all Stephanie was to him — a phantom love. He had gotten small bits and pieces of her, sure, but Ross was the one she gave everything to, whom she entrusted with all her personal information and put her best foot forward for, and Chris was done being used. Graham played on the floor with one of his toys, a bright red fire engine he had picked out when they went to the toy store with Stephanie, and Chris made what would turn out to be a life-altering phone call.

Within minutes, Chris had secured a room for the night at a nearby hotel and had plans to remain there for the next couple of days, until he heard from the apartments about whether his application had been approved. If it was a go, he would leave the hotel and move in with Graham, and if not, he had enough money from his job to at least get himself and Graham to New York, where they would stay with Ted and Amy until their circumstances improved. He had taken up valuable room in Stephanie's house for long enough, and it was time to give her her space back. The move wouldn't be the easiest, and especially not with all of the items Graham had just bought for himself, but if he hurried, he could pack their car in a reasonable amount of time.

"Graham, do me a favor," Chris said, interrupting his playtime and guiding him by the arms to a standing position. "Go in your room and start gathering your things. I need you to do it quietly and not tell anybody what you're up to, okay?"

"Are we goin' on a secret trip?"

"Yeah, I guess you could think of it that way."

"Like a really, really secret trip?"

"Yes, buddy, it's like a top-secret thing," he answered, "so I need you to go and do what I asked you to. Get your clothes out of the closet and lay them out nicely on your bed. I'll be in to pack them. We don't really have suitcases, but I can use trash bags or something to hold our stuff," he said, thinking out loud.

"Okay," Graham said, giving him a funny look before grabbing his truck and running out of the room.

Chris went to the top of the stairs and paused, where he could hear the light mingling of voices and the persistent clanking of dishes just beyond the staircase. Dinner was almost served. Of all the poor timing in the world, he made it about halfway down the stairs before Stephanie cut through the living room unexpectedly, car keys in hand. He hadn't remembered handing them back to her, but he must have at some point. Everything blurred into oblivion when a person's heart was being broken more with each passing second, apparently.

Before he had time to even consider dodging her point of vision, Stephanie caught sight of him and halted near the bottom of the stairs, nodding to him as if nothing was wrong. As if tugging her way out of his arms hadn't ripped his heart right out of his chest. "Sara just realized all the milk is gone and she needs it to finish cooking dinner, so I'm making a quick store run with Ross. Do you need anything?"

"No, but we had quite a bit of milk this morning," Chris said. "I don't see how we would have gone through it that quickly."

"Well, Carter was here all day, and he's made it very clear that he loves milk, so maybe I should buy two this time around," she said.

Ross breezed into the room without noticing Chris at all, going straight to Stephanie and pressing his lips to hers. He spoke quietly against her lips, smoothing her hair behind her ears, and Chris had to look away, suddenly feeling extremely sick to his stomach. When Chris managed to turn back, he saw Stephanie and Ross slipping out the front door, and that was when he made his move. As much as he had complained about Carter, he should have been thanking him. If Carter hadn't drank all of the milk, Stephanie wouldn't have left, and Chris wouldn't be getting his golden opportunity to move out undetected.

His goal wasn't to hurt Stephanie, but he needed an easy transition for himself and for Graham, and he could apologize later, but his family had to come first, always and under all circumstances. Chris rushed back up the stairs, no longer needing to spy to make sure he wouldn't be caught in the act. He packed everything in his room in record time, not that there was much to gather besides his clothing and work supplies. Graham didn't have much else besides his clothes either, unless Chris counted the endless supply of toys he had gotten, courtesy of Stephanie's generosity.

Chris was already planning what he would say in the apology note he would eventually write to Stephanie, along with everything that he owed her a great big 'thank you' for. The persistent gnawing in his gut told him he was making the wrong decision, that he should consult Stephanie before he did anything extreme, but he had tried to talk to her when he showed up, and she hadn't given him a fair chance. Graham waited on the couch downstairs while Chris began loading his car, which was still parked in the driveway. It was difficult to think his time with Stephanie had come to a close so abruptly, and all his mind could do was run through the memories they had made together, making him question his actions.

Yet, the decision had already been made for him.

"Why are you squirming so much over there?" Ross laughed, patting Stephanie's leg across the console. She rode in the passenger seat, taking a break from driving since she did enough of it during the workweek. "I would almost think you were nervous if I didn't know any better, but all we're doing is getting milk from the store, so that can't be."

"Turn around," Stephanie demanded at once.

"What?" He smirked, glancing over, but she was staring directly back at him, and she wasn't joking. Not by any means. "What are you talking about?"

"Something's wrong, I can feel it in my gut. Turn around and take me back home. I need to check on everyone," she said. Ross did as he was told, making a U-turn and traveling back the way he came.

Meanwhile, at Stephanie's place, Chris continued packing his car.