AN: I want to apologize to everyone who doesn't like Brennan and Shal together (including myself,) but I have to write some things about them and between them. (Not sure I'm pleased with this chapter so let me know, huh? On second thought, it's not that important, I'd rather know what you think of the next.)

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Emma was sitting in her room, but the anger had left her. She kinda understood why Brennan reacted the way he did, but it bothered her that Brennan was always so protective of Shalimar. Why couldn't he just see that Shal was doing fine without him?

She suddenly got up.

Shit, she had been pretty nasty to Shalimar because she was angry and now maybe Shalimar thought it was her she had a problem with. She had to find her and apologize for her behaviour.

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Shalimar found Brennan working out alone.

"Hey."

"Hey Shal. Are you feeling better?"

"A little. You seem to have some problems yourself."

"Yeah, well, I can't just ignore the things that Emma did. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I know, Brennan, but I can take care of myself."

She gave him a hug.

"Of course I know you can take care of yourself," Brennan answered and looked into her eyes.

He found Shalimar so perfect and had missed her normal self so much that he leant down and kissed her. Shalimar was taken by surprise and didn't pull away. Not until she felt the presence of another person. She pulled away and turned to see Emma staring in shock and disbelief.

"Um, I'm sorry for interrupting. I'll…I'll just leave you two to whatever you were doing."

"No, Emma wait-" but Emma was already gone.

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Emma walked with furious steps towards her room.

How could Brennan yell at her when he was no better? And why did she feel sad and hurt when she found them? Was Shalimar already back to normal, because she knew that her own feelings were a mess and had a hard time believing Shalimar's wasn't. But that meant Brennan was using her and hence was worse than herself. Oh, she could kill him right now.

She closed the door, but forgot to lock.

I hate to feel these things. I am not interested in Shalimar, I am not interested in Shalimar…God, I am interested in Shalimar. This is not good. How could she kiss him? This is it, if this is going to continue I either have to tell her and get totally blown off or I have to leave. This is just too many complications and I don't have energy for stupid dilemmas.

She sat down in her bed, just wanting to sulk and blubber and feel sorry for herself.

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Shalimar started to walk, but was stopped by Brennan.

"Whoa, Shal, where are you going?"

"I have to talk to her."

"She's probably in her room and isn't going anywhere. I'm sure she can wait."

He pulled her closer.

"Look Brennan, I can't do this right now."

"Why not? Why are you always so concerned about Emma and how she feels and not about how I feel? Is something going on between you two?"

"I do care about how you feel and no there is nothing going on between us. Not you and me and not her and me. I love both you guys and why I care more about how she feels right now is because she has experienced some very confusing and difficult things."

"She doesn't seem that confused to me. As I see it I think she likes you and that's why she reacted so much when she saw us kissing and when I yelled at her."

"Brennan, you don't know a thing okay, so just let it go, sit down and think about everything that has happened and when you have gotten a better understanding of what's going on you can come to my room and talk. Until everyone has calmed down, I'm not talking to a soul about anything."

And with that she left a confused and agitated Brennan and headed for Emma's room.

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"Emma, can I come in?"

"Why?"

"I wanna talk to you."

"About what?"

"About everything that has happened since I got under the spell."

"Sorry Shal, I don't feel like talking right now and shouldn't you be somewhere anyway, like in Brennan's arms or something?"

"I need to talk to you Em. Please."

"Fine, the door is open, but I take it you already knew that."

Shalimar carefully walked in and locked the door behind her.

She saw Emma sitting on the bed and walked over to her. She tried to put her hand on her shoulder, but Emma pulled away.

Emma looked at Shalimar and saw the hurt look on her face by what she had just done.

She saw that Shalimar didn't know what to do and Emma felt a sting of guilt.

"Are you going to stand all day or are you going to sit down?" she said in a joking tone, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Sorry, I just…never mind." She sat down beside Emma, making sure it was good with space between them. Emma had to smile at Shalimar's sudden worries about how things she said and did could affect Emma.

"Are you very mad at me?" Shalimar said with uncertainty in her voice.

"Why should I be mad at you?"

"Because everything is so confusing right now and I want to tell you how sorry I am for all the things I put you through."

"Shal, it's not like it was your fault."

"I just want us to be friends again Emma." Emma didn't answer right away.

"Sure." She didn't fool Shalimar. She heard that Emma didn't mean it when she said it, but she didn't want to attack Emma just because things were a little tense between them.

"Good," she said as she stood up. "I need to get some more rest, I'm really tired."

She walked to the door and unlocked it, but didn't walk out.

"I'm not with Brennan, he kissed me and I was taken by surprise. I told him afterwards that I couldn't do it because I had so confusing feelings right now."

"And why exactly is that relevant to me?"

"No, I just felt like telling it to you because when he heard that he became angry with me and accused us of being more than good friends."

She gave Emma a short smile before leaving.

Emma sat with a confused look and tried to figure out what Shalimar had meant by that.

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