There was a long pause. Caught off guard, for an instant they were both incapable of speech or action. Brenda recovered first. "What are you doing here?" She demanded, eyes cold and hard, voice bristling with hostility.

Hesitantly Kelly took a step towards her. "We need to talk" she said meekly.

Brenda's right hand shot out. The slap was a gunshot, reverberating into the night. Kelly gasped, her cheek stinging from the assault, her senses reeling with shock. Slowly Brenda lowered her hand, breathing hard, her palm still tingling from the impact. They stared at each other in stunned silence; both a little shocked by what had just happened. Gingerly Kelly rubbed her cheek, battling to maintain her fragile composure. The left side of her face had turned an angry red where Brenda had caught her, the imprint of a hand still visible on her smooth, pale skin.

"I guess I deserved that" she said quietly.

"Damn right you did" Brenda snapped, fighting emotions that swirled dangerously near the surface.

Kelly took a deep breath, forced herself to remain calm "Look Brenda I didn't come here to fight".

Eyes narrowed dangerously, arms folded across her chest defensively; Brenda glared at Kelly in disbelief "Then why did you come?"

Kelly laughed bitterly "Actually I came here to ask for your help". She shook her head sadly "Obviously I'm wasting my time".

Brenda watched in silence as Kelly turned and began to walk away. She found herself inexplicably torn. Part of her, the part that remembered what it had been like being Kelly's best friend, wanted to do whatever she could to help. The other part of her, the part that was still smarting from the betrayal, wanted to stand back and watch Kelly suffer. And then there was another part of her, a curious part that wondered just what the hell kind of help Kelly Taylor needed from her. Kelly was almost at her car when Brenda called her back.

***

Kelly sat uncomfortably at the kitchen table and watched nervously as Brenda went about making the coffee. She'd spent countless hours sitting at this table, talking with Brenda over ice cream, sharing a Walsh family dinner, even studying. The two of them sitting at this table sipping coffee should have been the most natural thing in the world. She frowned. Nothing about this felt natural, and the two of them being here like this made it glaringly obvious just how far away from friendship they had travelled.

Kelly felt awkward, like she was visiting the house for the first time, visiting a stranger. She fiddled nervously with the place mat on the table in front of her. Only the clanking of coffee cups as Brenda retrieved them from the cupboard broke the uncomfortable silence. Kelly sighed. They used to talk about everything, now they couldn't even manage the strained polite conversation of two people who barely knew each other. 'And it's your fault' a little voice inside her head whispered accusingly 'It's all your fault'. Although it remained unspoken, the betrayal was like a physical barrier between them and right now Kelly didn't see how they were ever gonna overcome it. Still Brenda hadn't slammed the door in her face- it was a start.

As she spooned coffee in to the cups, Brenda fought to regain control. Despite the rush of emotions currently assaulting her, she realised how ludicrous this situation was. She'd cried herself to sleep over Kelly's betrayal, sworn that she would never speak to her again, and now here Kelly was sitting at her kitchen table, and she was actually making her a coffee! It was farcical, and yet there was nothing remotely funny about it.

After everything that had happened, she had never imagined that they would end up here. She still wasn't sure why she had called Kelly back. It had been instinctive, something inside had screamed at her to do it. The problem was she had no idea what to do next. Making coffee was just an excuse, a chance to stall so that she could get herself together. She had been completely thrown seeing Kelly standing on the doorstep just now. All the pain and hurt and anger that she had so carefully buried had suddenly come rushing to the surface. Dylan was the most precious thing in the world to Brenda, and Kelly had stolen him from her. Then she had the audacity to show up at Brenda's house asking for Brenda's help, how the hell was she supposed to respond to that?

***

Finally when she could stall no longer, she reluctantly took the coffee cups over to the table and sat down opposite Kelly. They stared at each other in silence for a long and awkward moment, the coffee sat untouched before them. Seconds turned in to minutes and still neither could find her voice.

Eventually Kelly spoke. "Look Brenda this is crazy, I don't even know what I'm doing here." Her chair scrapped across the floor as she got up from the table. "I should just leave."

"No." Brenda spoke with such vehemence that Kelly automatically sat back down. "I want to know what you think gives you the right to just show up on my doorstep and act like the last few months never happened?"

Kelly took a deep breath. She'd been rehearsing this over and over for the last few days. It had sounded okay in the car, but now facing Brenda, the words she had settled upon no longer seemed enough.

"You know it wasn't easy for me to come here" she admitted. She raised a wry smile "I figured you wouldn't exactly be happy to see me."

Brenda didn't smile "You got that part right" she said coldly.

To Kelly it seemed as though the temperature in the room had just dropped several degrees. She had been ready for Brenda to be angry, she had anticipated shouting and screaming, but this calm, emotionless Brenda was making her nervous. Brenda had put up walls between them, walls so solid they might as well be made out of bricks. She sighed heavily, she wasn't sure if she would be able to break them down, but she had to try.

"Brenda I know that I'm the last person you want to see right now" she began tentatively. "I honestly wouldn't have come to you unless it was important."

"Okay" Brenda said evenly "Then I'd like to know what's so important that you had to come and ask for my help?"

Kelly paused and nervously sipped her coffee. Brenda eyed her suspiciously trying to figure out where this was going. She couldn't imagine why Kelly would come to her for help. In the past she had always been the first person Kelly ran to when she was in trouble, but now, surely she must be the last.

After what to Brenda seemed like an eternity, Kelly put down her coffee cup. "It's not a what it's a who" she said quietly.

"A who?" Brenda repeated quizzically.

Kelly hesitated. So far Brenda had treated her with barely concealed hostility, but things could be about to get a whole lot worse. She took a deep breath and shut her eyes for a moment, screwing up her courage. When she opened her eyes, she looked directly at Brenda.

"Brenda, I came to you because you're the only person who can help. You're the only one who can get through to him. I've tried talking to him but he just won't listen to me".

She paused as if the words were difficult to say 'Brenda I came here tonight because I need your help. I need your help with Dylan'.

Brenda laughed.

Kelly had rehearsed this scene in her mind many times over the last few days. Each time she'd tried to imagine Brenda's reaction and how she in turn would deal with it. She had never imagined Brenda laughing and she was completely taken aback. She stared at Brenda wondering if Brenda had lost her mind.

Brenda finally stopped laughing. When she spoke her voice was cold and full of pain; there was no trace of humour. "You know Kelly I have to admit you're good. What was it, you hadn't hurt me enough already you wanted to come and twist the knife a little more?"

Kelly was completely bewildered. She stared at Brenda in confusion "What are you talking about? I'm not trying to hurt you."

Brenda shook her head in disbelief "You come over here and ask me to help you fix your relationship with Dylan, and you don't think that hurts me. You're unbelievable."

Kelly frowned. "Brenda this isn't about my relationship with Dylan. It's about your relationship with Dylan."

"I don't have a relationship with Dylan, not anymore. You took care of that for me remember." Brenda said bitterly.

Kelly sighed heavily "Look Brenda I really feel bad about what happened" she began earnestly.

"Then why did you do it?" Brenda interrupted. It was a question she'd been torturing herself with for months, now she wanted to hear the answer.

Kelly hesitated unsure how best to respond. "I don't know" she admitted finally, avoiding Brenda's eyes. "It just happened. I tried to stop it I really did. I tried to stay away from him, but I couldn't. I never meant to hurt you."

"I don't believe you" Brenda's eyes glittered dangerously. "I think you had it all planned out. I think you deliberately went after Dylan, and you didn't care what it did to me."

Kelly looked up sharply "That's not true. I thought I was in love with Dylan. I thought we had something special." She glared at Brenda, suddenly finding that she was angry.

"Sneaking around with someone else's boyfriend" Brenda scoffed "Only someone as dysfunctional as you could think that was special."

"Oh that's right, I forgot you're the only one who's allowed to have a special relationship with Dylan" Kelly snapped her voice raised in anger. "Come on Brenda you could hardly claim your relationship was perfect. We all knew the two of you were having problems."

Brenda was incensed "Yeah and you sure made the most of that didn't you. I'll bet you went straight to Dylan telling him I was having doubts, telling him that I was putting college before him."

"I didn't need to tell him anything" Kelly retaliated. "You did a good enough job of sabotaging your relationship all by yourself."

"You waited until I was distracted with finals and Dylan was vulnerable, and then you made a move on him." Brenda said accusingly.

"Oh wake up Brenda! Dylan and I were together way before finals. We were together over the summer" Kelly exclaimed. "While you were away in Paris - with Rick, remember him?" She shook her head derisively "You're not exactly blameless in all this you know Brenda. What did you expect Dylan to do wait around dutifully for you all summer? He was just as keen to get involved as I was."

"No" Brenda screamed "You're lying". She pushed back her chair, moved away from the table, trying to distance herself from the hateful words. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew that it was true. Dylan had told her that he'd been unfaithful over the summer. He'd never told her who had been involved and she'd automatically assumed it had been one of the girls from his programme. Even when she'd found out about Dylan and Kelly it had never once occurred to her that Kelly had been Dylan's summer fling. Now it seemed that it hadn't been a fling at all, it had been more, much more. She couldn't bear it.

"Get out" she ordered "Get out of my house right now".

Reluctantly Kelly stood up, her anger dissipating as quickly as it had arrived. She'd blown it. How could she have been so stupid? She'd come here to make up with Brenda not make things worse. She'd let Brenda get her all riled up and ended up saying something she shouldn't. She couldn't help it; Brenda's smug conviction that her relationship with Dylan was sacrosanct drove her crazy.

As Brenda led the way to the front door, Kelly trailed after her miserably. "Brenda I'm sorry" she said softly. "I shouldn't have told you like that."

When she turned to face Kelly, Brenda's eyes were bright with unshed tears "Yeah well there's a lot of things you shouldn't have done Kelly." She held the door open. "Now get out".

"No." Kelly said suddenly.

Brenda blinked in surprise "Excuse me?"

"I said no. I'm not done yet." She moved away from the door and sat down on the couch defiantly, refusing to move.

"What are you gonna do?" Brenda sneered. "Sit there all night?" but she sounded uncertain.

"If I have to" Kelly said firmly. "If that's what it takes. We've obviously still got a lot of things to say to each other, and I think it's about time we said them don't you?"

***

Brenda hesitated, regarding Kelly contemplatively. Kelly was right emotions were running high and they were both harbouring bitterness and resentment. Maybe it was time they cleared the air, got everything out in the open. The truth might be painful, but she figured that at last she was ready to hear it.

Brenda nodded "Alright." She shut the door with a satisfying bang and took a seat across the room from Kelly. There was a challenge in her eyes when she spoke. "You wanna talk. Let's talk. But I want to hear it all, the whole sordid truth. No holding back."

Kelly swallowed nervously, suddenly wondering if she had done the right thing. She knew that the only way either of them could get any sort of closure on this was to talk it all through, but she was afraid. Afraid of what might be said of what secrets and half-truths might be exposed. There were only two ways tonight could end, very well or very badly. All she knew for certain was that it was gonna be a long night. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and then she turned to Brenda. When she met Brenda's challenging gaze, her own eyes shone with determination "Deal. The whole truth, and no holding back."

Author's note

Just wanted to say thank you to all those who have hung on in there with this story despite its length! The encouraging reviews really do help me to keep going, and we honestly are coming to the end now. Sorry for the delay in delivering this chapter, but it actually turned out to be the most challenging one I've had to write so far. In the end I found I had too much material for just one chapter, so I decided to split it in to two. This is the first one, and hopefully I'll have the second finished off very soon. I know that people are anxious for the Brenda-Dylan confrontation and I promise I'll get to that straight after this section.