Four days later, they were on their way to Bethesda. After an overnight stay there, Bee and Eric would be doing the New York talk show circuit.

Bee didn't even bother to go to her house. She had the cab drive straight to Lena's house, warning Eric that she was doing so. She called Lena from her cell phone just to make sure she was home.

Lena and Carmen were both waiting at the door when the cab pulled up. Bee hopped out of the car as soon as it stopped, forgetting Eric's injury, and ran to hug her friends. Eric tried to hobble out of the cab, and grab their bags, but to no avail.

"Bee!" he shouted.

Bridget snapped out of the trance cause by seeing her friends again, "Oh shit Eric! I'm sorry!" she turned toward Lena and Carmen, "Can you guys help with the bags while I get him in the house?"

"You shouldn't be toting him around like this in his condition," Carmen scolded.

"Its the only time I have him at my mercy."

The girls laughed. Eric felt quite out of place. Eric cleared his throat purposefully.

"Oh! Eric this is Lena and this is Carmen," She pointed to eat of them, "We all know who he is!" she pointed to Eric as she grabbed his crutches from the trunk, gave them to him, and helped him out of the cab.

"Thanks," he told her, asserting his claim on her by kissing her on the cheek.

"Tibs isn't home yet?" Bee asked her friends, they shook their heads in return, "Oh thats a shame. I would have liked Eric to meet her as well. I'll see her before the summer ends."

"Eric," Lena caught his attention. She had noticed that he was feeling awkward, "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah. I'm starved."

"Lets get a bite to eat. You guys can put your stuff in my trunk instead of bringing it in. That way we can drop it at Bee's house."

"Great!" Bee exclaimed.

"I'll just grab my keys."

Eric was more at ease once they got in the car. He and Bee sat in the back seat. He had his arm around her shoulder casually. They went to the last drive-in in the area surrounding Burgess. Bee informed him that they had not been to this place in ages. Lena added that it was a hang out for pimply-faced high schoolers who are finally allowed to drive their car with friends in it.

Lena dropped them off at Bee's house. Bee pulled her key out from her purse and opened the locked door. She brought Eric into the house, as Lena was nice enough to get the bags out of the car. Lena and Carmen both came out of the car to give Bee a hug. They knew they would not be seeing Bee for a month or so.

Bee carried the bags the rest of the way into the house while Eric waited for her to go in the house.

"Hello!" she yelled, "I'm home!"

"Bee!" Perry popped his head out of the room. His eyes got round when he saw Eric standing there next to Bee, "Dad is on a business trip this weekend. We've got the house to ourselves."

Bee smiled, knowing exactly what Perry was implying, "Perry, this is Eric. Eric, my twin brother Perry," was all that Bridget could think to say. Perry said hi, and then went back to his room, "So," she said to Eric, "Do you want to come up to my room? I can barely remember what it looks like I've been gone so long."

"Sure," Eric replied.

"I'll grab the bags," offered Bee. She showed the way. When they got there, she said, "Here it is... my castle," she sighed and cast their bags to the side, "Its great to be home."

As much as both of them wanted to drop on that bed together right then, they knew they couldn't.

"We should check in with Mel," Eric suggested. 'Mel' was actually 'Melvin', their agent.

"Yeah. See were we're going tomorrow."

They went downstairs. Bee found the cordless and tossed it at Eric who had already settled on to the couch, "Want a soda?" she asked as he dialed.

"Yeah sure," he put the phone to his ear, "Hey Mel! Me and Bee are in Burgess now. Where are we going tomorrow?" there was a pause when Eric wrote down the information, "When is the flight?" he wrote again, "When do we have to be at the airport, and what airline is it?" Eric wrote once again as Bee poured the soda into a glass, "Thanks. See you later. Bye."

Bee handed him the drink, "Where are we bound for?"

"New York. Flight leaves at 3 in the morning. That means we have to leave for the airport at midnight."

"Urg," Bee fell on to a lounge chair dramatically.

Eric laughed, "Better eat dinner and go to sleep fast. Its almost five o'clock!" he joked.

"I've got to re-pack," Bee groaned, trying to get up from the chair.

"Can I help?" offered Eric

"I guess. I don't know how much you'll be able to do. If you want to be up there with me and help that would be okay," Bridget suddenly realized that he would be seeing all of her clothes if he came up and help. She began backtracking and stammerin, "I mean it will be boring as hell. You could just sit down here and watch American TV for the first time in forever."

"You can get done faster if I help."

Bridget smiled at the thought, "Okay, and later, we can call out for a pizza."

"Cool."

The first thing Bridget did was to dump all of her clothes into a laundry basket from her suitcase.

"Need anything washed?"

"That would be great. I think I'm on my last pair of underwear," he blushed, "and I'd like to wear that shirt I wore the day you won the gold medal sometime during our press trip. Besides, you know how the soccer gear always stinks. We'd better wash the jerseys before they start to mold."

She dumped all his clothes in with his, "Might as well wash 'em all ," she picked up the basket, and they walked to the laundry room, "Can you help me sort this... whites and coloreds."

He hobbled to the laundry basket, and started helping. They got a load started, and went back to her room.

"God! There are absolutely no clean clothes in here!" Bee shouted as she opened her drawers. She finally decided on a pair of jeans, a pair of slacks, and a skirt that were still in her dresser. A couple t-shirts followed, but then she opted to wait for the wash.

They came out of her room. She pounded on Perry's door, "Perry!" she yelled, "We're ordering pizza. Are you going to want any?"

"Sure. Pepperoni," was the response.

Bee ordered, then they moved the wash. They plopped onto the couch.