Rachel came in. She had been walking around for more than an hour, and she knew she had to face Elizabeth and Robert, and offer an apology. She wasn't looking forward to it, but it had to be done. She took out her key and quietly entered. Elizabeth was sitting in the kitchen. She looked up when Rachel came into the room.

"Elizabeth? I'm sorry," Rachel said. "I am really, really sorry, I don't know what came over me, but I'm sorry, and I know I have to tell Robert that I'm sorry, and I will. I just, I'm, I don't know. I'm sorry."

"Well, you did hurt him," Elizabeth said. "But I'm sure you can let him know. He really is very understanding."

"I know."

"You don't know," Elizabeth said. "Rachel, I know this is difficult for you, and awkward. No one is trying to replace Mark. No one will ever take his place." Elizabeth hesitated, and took a deep breath. She looked at Rachel intensely. "Rachel, I'm happy. For the first time in a long time."

"I know," Rachel said. "I'm glad. I'm trying to be."

"Well," Elizabeth said, and smiled awkwardly. "I know it's not easy. But I think we should try to have a few nice days together. Don't you think?"

"Yes," Rachel said. "I do."

Robert was sitting in his living room reading an issue of Time magazine. He heard a key in his door, and looked up. The dogwalker let herself in, but he kept her updated about which days he was here and which days he was at Elizabeth's, and right now, Gretel was still at Elizabeth's house.

Elizabeth walked in.

"Lizzie? What are you doing here?" he said, surprised. Then, with sly amusement, "You couldn't stand to be apart from me for a night?"

"I came for a visit," she said lightly.

"Visiting the exile, huh?"

"It's a self-imposed exile. No one told you to go."

"Really?" he said. "I believe Rachel's exact words were 'Why don't you leave.'"

"She's a child," Elizabeth said firmly. "Besides, it's her house, not mine."

Robert looked at her, his lip curled in amusement.

"What?" she said, then realized her mistake. "Oh. I meant, of course, it's my house. Not hers."

"Of course," he said.

"Robert Romano, take that smirk off your face."

"Sorry," he said. He sighed. "Just felt like a laugh, Lizzie, is all." They smiled at each other. "You got Kris to come over?"

"No, Sally from across the street. She's keeping an eye on Ella and Rachel."

"Oh," Robert said. He stretched his arms and yawned. "God, it's weird to be here. I hardly ever spend time here anymore. I never thought it would feel so strange to be in my own house."

"When are you going to sell this place?" she said.

"When are you going to sell yours?"

"Robert, we've been through this," she said. "I don't want to sell my house, at least not now. There are too many memories there."

"Maybe it's still too soon for both of us," he said.

"Maybe," she said curtly.

"Elizabeth, don't look at me that way."

"What, Robert? In what way am I looking?"

"Like I've done something to hurt you. I just meant, you know what I meant. We're not ready to make that final move into one house."

"You're over my house all the bloody time," she said. "If you don't want to be there, don't be. No one's dragging you over there." She stood up as if to leave.

"Wait," he said. "Elizabeth, just wait a second. Don't leave."

"I'm not leaving, I'm upset! What the hell are we doing?" she said, in tears.

"I don't know why you're getting so upset," he said. "This is all because of the thing with Rachel. You said it yourself, she'll be leaving in a couple of days. Then everything can go back to normal."

"But what is normal, Robert?" she said. "Are we together? Is that 'normal' for you?"

"Of course it is," he said. "I don't know how this all got so blown up."

"You always leave when things get tough," she said.

"I don't always leave. Look, I know we had a fight that time at your house, and I went home and you said I shouldn't walk away. But sometimes I need to be here, okay? I just do."

"It's not okay," she said. "I feel like you're running away from me."

"Well, I'm not."

"What are you so scared of, anyway?" she said.

"Look, Lizzie, I don't even know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do!" she said. "It's so important for you to think you have your own place."

"I do have my own place!"

"Fine," she said, walking towards the door.

"Are you leaving?" he said.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you," she said, walking back towards him. But no, I'm not leaving until we work this out."

"Lizzie, this is ridiculous. You have this girl staying with you, she's kind of like your relative, but not really. Why do I have to be there?"

"So now you're not even coming back until Rachel leaves?"

He shrugged.

"Robert!"

"What? What? I don't know."

"You are afraid to admit that what we have is important!"

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!" she moved towards him angrily and he actually backed up a little.

"Okay, fine! I'm a little afraid," he said. Then, very quietly, "I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me," she said, amazed. She put her hands on his shoulders. "Why would you say that?"

"It's just a feeling I get," he said quietly. "Like all of this is too good to be true."

"Maybe we deserve too good to be true," she said gently. "After all we've both been through enough, don't you think we deserve some happiness in our lives?"

"You do," he said.

"Robert, so do you," she said. "I love you so much. Don't you know that?"

"I love you," he said. He stroked her hair. "Are we okay now?" She nodded. "Then let's not start fighting about where we live," he said gently. "We'll work it out. You know we will."

"Okay," she agreed. She put her arms around him and they held each other close. "I want to stay here for awhile," she said.

"I want you to," he said.

She went over to his stereo. She rummaged through the CDs on the shelf, pulling one out and popping into the CD player. She hit the fourth track, Neil Young's "Harvest Moon."

"Dance with me," she said. She pulled him close as the familiar strains of the song played. "This is nice," she said softly. "I wish we could just stay here like this."

"Me too," he said. She moved closer to him and he held her close as they danced, their bodies swaying together gently. "Maybe you should call the sitter," he said. "Tell her you'll be here awhile."

"She can't stay that long," Elizabeth said. "I know I could probably let Rachel stay with Ella alone, but...I'm just not ready." She looked at him. "She wants to apologize to you," she said, smiling.

"Shhh," he whispered. "Let's not talk about it right now." Another song came on the CD, Neil Young singing about war. "This one isn't really working for me." She laughed and they walked over to the CD player. "Go ahead, I know you like to be the DJ," he said.

"Okay," she said, grinning. She put a few CDs into the carousel. The first one started to play, Al Green singing "Let's Stay Together."

"Oh, getting right down to business," he said. He put his arms around her waist. "The bedroom awaits," he said seductively.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, smiling mischievously. She squatted down and touched the soft shag carpet. "We've never tried this before."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Why not?" she said. She sat down on the floor.

He smiled. "Okay."

"Sure you can handle it?" she teased.

"You have to ask?" he said. He moved down to the floor and reached for her. She pulled him down towards her gently.

"Is your arm all right?" she said.

"If you hurt me, I'll let you know," he said. She smiled and put her arms around him. They kissed and he moved his hands towards her blouse, unbuttoning it. He threw it onto the floor. He reached for her bra, undid it, threw it next to the blouse. Elizabeth reached for him, grabbed at his T-shirt, and he helped her slip it over his head. He pulled her down again, kissed her on the mouth and nibbled gently at her earlobe. His mouth moved down to her neck and shoulders. His lips came back to her lips every now and again, finding her, caressing her. Elizabeth wrapped her arms and legs around him, losing herself in their closeness.

" Stay with me," she whispered.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Afterwards, they lay together on the soft carpet. "That was quite a rocket ride," she said, and smiled. She put her head on his shoulder as he stroked her hair. "I used to wonder how you got that nickname."

"Well, you know, I aim to please."

"You did," she murmured. "You do."

He picked up a strand of her long red hair, twisting it with his fingers. "You have to go?"

"Soon," she said. "Soon." He nodded. "You want me to go?"

"No!" he said. "I'm just, you know, preparing myself for you having to go."

She laughed. "Robert! Aww." She reached out and stroked his cheek with her hand. "You could come back with me."

"Tomorrow," he said. "I'll come tomorrow. I just think I should stay here tonight. Cool the air at your house."

"Okay," she said, giving in to his wishes. "Whatever you want to do." They were both quiet for a few moments. "Robert?"

"Hmm?"

"I just, wondered." She said, hesitating. "Do you ever – well. What I wanted to ask is, what did you think of me and Mark?"

He stared at her wordlessly.

"No," she said, and laughed a little, uncertainly. "I know that sounds odd, what I meant was, what did you think when he and I were together? You must have formed some opinion."

He looked at her with intense brown eyes. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "It just seems important, somehow. Whatever you say, it's fine. I just wondered."

"Okay," he said. "Well, I guess, I was happy that you seemed happy, with him. Sometimes." He rolled his eyes. "I was jealous, though."

She laughed. "What else?"

"What else. I guess I wondered if he was what you wanted, what you needed." She nodded. "Was he?"

"Sometimes," she said. "I loved him. There were times when I wondered how compatible we were." He nodded, waited for her to say more, but she didn't.

"I guess that's what I wondered, too," Robert said.

"What else did you think?" she said. "How did you feel?"

"Lizzie," he said.

"Come on, Robert."

"How did I feel?" he repeated. "I felt sad." He looked at her, his eyes burning into hers. "When you got married, I felt like my heart would break. Well, no, I mean – it did break. But it was more than that. I'd had my heart broken before. This time I felt like – like my whole life was ending."

"Oh, Robert," Elizabeth said sadly.

"Well, you must have known," he said softly.

"I didn't," she said. "I knew you liked me, you cared about me. I didn't know back then how much. I suppose I was wrapped up in my own life, in getting married, having a baby, how all that would affect me. I did think about you sometimes, but I didn't let it consume me." He nodded. "I'm sorry," she said gently. "How you must have suffered."

He smiled and shrugged. "Well, you know...suffering is my middle name," he said lightly.

Elizabeth smiled. "And here I thought it was 'wicked' all those years."

"Fine, make fun of me," he said, but he smiled with her.

"How did you get by?" she said. "All that time. If it was so hard for you when I got married, how did you stand it?"

"Well, the good part was that I got to see you almost every day at the hospital," he said. "Not always so good for you."

She grinned. "Sometimes you seemed quite angry with me."

"Sometimes I was," he said. "But sometimes I wasn't. Once you got married – I just accepted it. Painful as it was – I just knew that's the way it had to be. So I closed off, as much as I could." He stroked her hair again, his dark eyes blazing. "I never really gave up on you though, Lizzie. I couldn't."

"I'm glad you didn't," she said. She kissed him tenderly, then stopped and sighed. "I guess I should get back."

"Yeah, you don't want to keep Sally waiting," he said.

"See you tomorrow?"

"You got it," he said. Elizabeth rose to her feet, collecting her clothes and putting them on. She stood up and smiled at him. He smiled back. "Well, thanks for stopping by," he said.

"My pleasure," she said, grinning. She picked up her bag and he walked over to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," he said. He held the door opened for her. She started to walk down the steps. "Elizabeth?" he said. She turned back to look at him.

"Yes?"

"You were worth waiting for."

Elizabeth smiled wide. "So were you, Robert."