Since I got multiple requests for it, I've created a two chapter epilogue.

A/N – "Thoughts" , Kate is 22 and Gordo is 20 , They are juniors in college and this is set right before Christmas.

Chapter 17 – Stumbling

Kate stared out of the plane window watching the clouds pass by. She was returning from spending a semester studying in La Rochelle; she had had the time of her life but returning scared her cause she wasn't sure what she was returning to.

Before Kate had left, her relationship with Gordo had gotten rocky. They had been dating for almost three years and the times they had spent barely being able to keep their hands off of each other, were replaced by fighting and spending more time apart. The day before she had left, they had gotten into a vicious fight. Gordo had never wanted her to leave for a semester in the first place. Kate said that he was trying to hold her back while he said she was trying to run away from her problems. They ended up breaking up and she went to Europe.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and she enjoyed it, but she couldn't help but noticed that she felt a piece of herself missing.

"Damn Gordo," she snarled to herself as she turned her attention away from the window. Even after all the fighting and spending almost five months on another continent, she was still in love with him.

"But does he still love me?" she thought as she stared at the phone in the back of the seat in front of her. Gordo was one of the most stubborn people he had met, and it was one of the qualities she loved in him. But now, wanting him back in her life, that same quality scared her.

Sighing softly, Kate leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. "Why do I want him back? He was being a selfish jackass. He wanted me to give up a chance of a lifetime just so I can stay in a falling apart relationship." Pinching the bridge of her nose, her head started to hurt as she kept thinking in circles. "The old me wouldn't give a damn about Gordo and would've found some French hottie. Maybe that's the problem; I'm not the old Kate. Damn bastard had to make me grow up and mature," she thought with a sarcastic smile.

Glancing at her watch, "If its 4:23pm Paris time, seven time zones behind us, so that'd make it…uh…7:23am? Sounds about right." Starring at the phone in the back of the seat in front of her, "Should I call him, tell him I'm coming home? Would he even care?"

Grabbing her purse from under her seat, she started digging through it, looking for her cell phone. Finally finding it after a few minutes, she turned it on and went into the stored numbers. Immediately she found number one, Gordo's cell number. Before her courage would leave her, she pressed the send button.

"You've reached David Gordon and I'm not available at the moment. Leave your name, number, and a short message."

As soon as it beeped, Kate chickened out and hung up. The actual sound of his voice freaked her. "Coward."

After putting her cell phone away, she adjusted the time on her watch from Paris time to West Coast time. "At last check, we're supposed to land in LA at ten." Quickly glancing around the plane, most people we're either asleep or occupied with something. Sighing, she put her chin in her palm and stared out the window, all the time thinking of the curly haired boy that was probably awaiting her.

The next day, Gordo was driving around doing various errands for his parents. While he had been miserable since Kate left, what ticked him off the most was that he felt that it was his fault because he practically chased her away. They had been having problems for a while and her going away for a semester just upset him but he guised it as anger. He found it easier to fight than to actually deal with their problems.

He was upset and angry when she left, but truth was, even with all their problems, he missed her and he wanted her back. "I blew it. She probably found some French guy and fell in love."

Gordo was miserable, he hadn't really wanted to come home but he couldn't stay at USC either. Either place reminded him of too many memories of Kate and him as a couple. Running hand through his hair, he turned onto his street and drove towards his house. "At least Hanukah is over and I don't have to put up with my family asking twenty million questions."

As he drove down the street, he tried his best to stop thinking about Kate. "She's prolly home by now," he thought, "If she wanted to see me, she would've called, telling me she was coming home."

"Just gotta face it Gordo, you fucked it up. You had a great thing and you screwed it up," he thought sadly to himself. "So I guess that's pretty much the sign I've been waiting for. Its over, I gotta try and move on. No matter how hard it is."

Pulling up in front of his house and parking on the street, he shut the engine off and slowly got out. He hadn't take more than two steps when he saw a young blonde woman standing in the middle of the driveway just staring at the house and completely oblivious to the outside world.

For a brief moment, he just stared at her. "Kate?" he said finally finding his voice.

The blonde immediately whipped around and looked at him in surprise. "Gor, Gordo," Kate stuttered softly.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, surprised himself that he could even talk coherently to her.

"I…I don't know. I'll leave," she said in a rush and started to walk away.

"No, wait!"

Kate stopped and looked at him over his shoulder.

He'd fidgeted for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry."

Turning around, she titled her head slightly, "Sorry for what?" she asked. Kate wasn't trying to lead him into anything; she genuinely didn't know what he was sorry about.

"For chasing you off," he told her, pain coming out in his voice.

She looked at him with confusion etched on her face as she walked over to him. "Chasing me off? But I left you. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"But it's my fault. I screwed up our relationship."

Kate closed her eyes and shook her head, "No. I took you for granted."

"Kate, I," he started to say.

"Gordo shut up," she ordered him. Kate then grabbed him and slamming her lips against his, she kissed him hard. Recovering from the shock, Gordo wrapped his arms around her and started to kiss her back. At the moment, the only thing that was going through either of their minds was how good this felt.

Losing track of time, they finally broke the kiss and stared at each other.

"I want you back," Kate said softly as she hugged him tightly. "I know we got a lot of shit to work through but I want you back. I need you back."

"I want try again too." he told her. "You wanna go out to dinner?" Gordo said as he gently brushed some hair out of her face. The past few years, Gordo had gained some inches and was now standing at 5'8". While Kate was still taller, there was a big difference between being two inches shorter rather than four.

"I'd like that," Keeping one arm around him, she released her other arm and looked at her watch, "Its two now, so say six?"

"Why wait so long?"

Kate grinned at him, "Cause at the moment, I can think of something better to do with our time." She then leaned in and they started kissing again.

That night, Kate and Gordo were sitting at a small table in the Cordello's, a small restaurant in Hill Ridge.

During dinner he inquired, "So how was France?" Gordo asked her.

"It was alright."

Gordo snickered, knowing she was lying. "Seriously, how was it?"

Kate looked at him with a smirk, "It was fun. It was almost the time of my life."

"Almost?" he asked before taking a bite of his dinner.

"There was one thing missing," she said before taking a sip of her wine. "You," she said softly. Reaching across the table, she took his hand, "I have spent the last five months damning you for taking away from my trip. But now, I realize that we needed that time apart before we killed each other. It also made me realize how much you mean to me and that we really need to work at our relationship. It means more to me than just the physical stuff." She then smirked at him, "Although, the physical stuff is nice."

"Isn't the guy supposed to be the shallow one?" Gordo teased.

"Hey, I've spent five months with no romance and sleeping by myself. I'm entitled to be shallow for a little while," she shot back with a grin.

"I'm not complaining," he joked. "Seriously, what do you think we need to work on? Outside of the physical stuff."

"I have to realize I'm twenty-two and not five and you need to realize you're twenty and not sixty. We also have to figure out a much better way to deal with our arguments than our usual shouting matches."

"Ok. And we have to accept the fact that we have vastly different interests and that we don't have to do everything together. We also have to trust each other when it comes to hangout with people of the opposite sex whose names aren't Lizzie or Ethan."

"Agreed. We'll figure out the rest as we go." Kate then smiled at him, "Julie's been asking we're you've been. She was so disappointed when you didn't come with me to San Francisco for Thanksgiving."

Gordo smiled back at her, "I missed the little devil child too." They both laughed a little at Kate's old nickname for her stepsister.

"Do you want to come with me up there for New Year's?" she asked him.

"Sounds like fun," he joked. "Can't wait to watch the next installment of Sanders Cold War." While Kate's relationships with her father and stepsister improved, the ones with her mother and stepmother continued to fall apart.

"I'll make it up to you. My mom and her little boy toy are gonna be gone this weekend, we can watch your Lord Of The Rings DVD on my mom's new big screen."

Gordo gave her an evil smile, "Only if you wear those red pleather pants."

Kate smiled back at him, "Deal."

As dinner went on, the flirting between them increased and slowly, the hurt feelings between them started to fade away as they began the long task of rebuilding their relationship.