Chapter One:

Tibby studied Brian with her camera eye - not her Tibby eyes, those were influenced by feeling. Nonetheless, both pairs of eyes agreed that Brian was someone worth paying attention to. Not for looks, Tibby didn't care about looks, and only Hollywood cameras did. But because he was a happy person, a good person. Not like moody Tibby.

She thought that if she had a camera now, she'd like to capture him as he was now, laughing and smiling and loving her. It had taken nearly a year, but Tibby had discovered that she liked being loved. Not that she'd ever show it, not that she'd ever admit it, because that would make her, well, not Tibby anymore.

"Tibby?" Brian said, jolting her back to reality. He smiled and gestured towards the door. "Think someone's here that you'll be happy to see."

Tibby turned. "Bee!" she screeched, almost flipping her chair over as she tore towards her friend. Carmen and Lena were there, too, but they'd been home nearly a week, Tibby had already had her chance to be overjoyed at their arrivals. "You weren't supposed to come home until tomorrow!"

"I wanted to surprise you all," Bee said. "And as if I'd stay away an extra day when I could be home now!"

"Even when Eric was visiting?" Tibby asked, eyebrows raised skeptically.

"He had to wrap some things up there, but he's coming down here later in the summer," Bee shrugged. "I've seen him a lot this year, and you guys were my priority right now."

Brian came up behind Tibby just then - this was one of the things she liked best about him, that he was willing to allow her time to talk to Bee privately. He wasn't intrusive, he respected her space. And to someone like Tibby, that was important.

Bee greeted him with one of her spectacular grins, Carmen and Lena less dramatically. But they all liked Brian - first, because he made Tibby happy, and second, he'd been around long enough that he easily fit in with them. Brian had been around longer than any of the others, except perhaps Paul, but he wasn't quiet or standoffish. Besides, Paul and Lena were nothing official yet, though Carmen hadn't given up on her aspirations.

"Come on, we'll move to a booth," Tibby said, grabbing Bee's hand and pulling her along back towards her and Brian's table. She grabbed her ice cream soda with such gusto that it splattered a little onto the table, and as Tibby and Bee headed full speed ahead for a corner booth, Carmen efficiently pulled a tissue from her pocket and mopped the spill before joining the other four.

Lena waved Effie, who was working as a waitress at the ice cream shop for the summer, over to their booth. Effie batted her eyes at Brian once or twice before taking their order and flouncing off behind the counter.

When she returned, Tibby tore into her salad enthusiastically, making a face at Carmen's cheeseburger.

"How's Valia?" Carmen asked Lena. Tibby vaguely recalled something about Lena planning to call her grandmother.

Lena looked a little uncertain. "Do you want to know the good news first or the bad news?"

"Is she all right?" Tibby blurted. They all looked surprised - it was the comment they'd expected from Carmen. But Tibby had bad experiences with hospitals, and she shuddered to think that Valia might be sick.

Lena nodded and gave a little smile. "She's fine. She loves being home again, she said she'd shown Rena my portrait of Bapi." Lena looked sad - despite the fact that a few years had passed, Lenny was still sad about her grandfather's death. "Rena loved it."

"Of course she did," Bee said loyally.

"And Valia said she sends kisses for Carmabelle," Lena said. "She's still so grateful to you for convincing Dad to let her go home. She almost started crying talking about it. She's so happy where she is."

Carma smiled and looked as though she, too, might burst into tears.

"And the bad news?" Tibby said carefully. She wasn't the optimist there - though she was happy for Lena's grandmother, all throughout she had still had it looming in the back of her mind that there was bad news someplace.

Lena's face crumpled, and Tibby reached for her hand, feeling horrible for having brought it up.

"Kostos left his wife," she said, and burst into tears.

"It's okay, Lenny," Carmen soothed, arms around her friend. Bee was on Lena's other side, rubbing her back, and Tibby stood a little farther away, making uncertain little soothing noises. Ordinarily, Tibby would have been nearly as comforting as the other two (always a little more distant), but Carma realized she felt somewhat responsible for how Lena felt. "Tibbadee, it's not your fault."

Tibby smiled slightly and came forward to take her place in the huddle. Brian had gone home earlier, because despite Lena's college status, there were still to be no boys upstairs in the Kaligaris house, and right then, Lena needed her own room.

"I'm being so stupid," Lena managed wetly.

"It's all right," Bee said, never one to lie, but still comforting.

"I haven't even finished." Lena reluctantly extricated herself so she could tell her story more comfortably. "Valia's still got her heart set on him and me. She wants me to come out this summer. To see him."

"Don't go," Tibby said immediately. "He doesn't deserve that hold on you, Lenny."

"I don't even want to go," Lena sniffled. "But I still miss him."

"It's been two years, Lenny." Carmen said softly. "And I know Paul-"

Lena sighed. "No Paul-talk right now, Carma. I'm afraid to get the mail, I'm afraid there's going to be a letter from him. And Tibby's right, he does have a hold on me, and if he got in touch with me, I don't-"

"If he so much as dares write a word to you, Len, call us," Bee said. "We'll take care of him."

Lena laughed a little, a bitter undertone to it.

"Why did he leave her anyway?" Tibby asked the question they'd all been wondering about, but at least had the tact not to mention 'her' name.

"She actually left him." Lena clenched her hands a little, uncharacteristic for calm Lenny. "He told me that Greece was old-fashioned, not like America. He was right, but Mariana appears not to care. And what's awful is that now, I wonder if he understands how I felt."

"Oh, Lenny, don't be angry at yourself." Carmen said gently. "We aren't going to stop you flying to Greece if you need to, but we don't want you hurt."

Lena shook her head vehemently. "I am not going to Greece."

"Three cheers for Lenny!" Bee cried, throwing a pillow into the air.

The wheels in Carmen's head were turning. She'd been considering going down to visit Al and Lydia this summer - maybe she could talk Lena into going, there was always the possibility that something would happen between her and Paul and solve all the Kostos problems. But then, there was the problem of Paul's dad, who had died last November. Paul was probably not in a condition to be with Lena. Carmen sighed. What would happen, would happen.

"I tried to draw him," Lena said conversationally. "At the end of last summer. I thought it'd be closure. But I looked at it next to Paul's, and they were... different."

She went to her closet and, after looking a moment in one of her portfolios, produced two sketches. After looking two seconds at each of them, Carmen realized that saying they were "different" was a major understatement on Lenny's part.

Paul looked thoughtful, Kostos, broody. Paul's eyes held sorrow and pain suffered in silence, Kostos' held need and lust. Good was evident in each portrait - you could tell that these weren't evil people. But Paul emanated tranquil, Kostos was fire, moving, raging, never satisfied. This was not the Kostos that Lena had loved, this was the Kostos who had betrayed her. Carmen felt pain at her revelation. She looked at the others, trying to see whether she was the only one who had noticed. But it was clearly evident on Bee's and Tibby's faces that they understood the personal pain behind the lines Lena had drawn, in a way that they hadn't before.

"What's the matter? You don't like them?" Lena asked, her voice a little tremulous.

None of them could speak at first.

Then, "Oh, Lenny," Bee said, her voice strained with feeling.

Lena nodded, understanding.

"You're going to be one heck of an artist," Tibby croaked, trying to alleviate some of the tension.

They all nodded silently - the joke was not a joke.

A/N - Found out the page breaks weren't working, sorry about that. Hopefully they work this time around!