A Different Kind of Worse Chapter Five, a 7th heaven fanfic

Lucy sighed when she heard the front doorbell ring twice and no one make an attempt to answer it. Although Mary and Ben were only a few inches away talking, neither one of them got up. Grudgingly, she pulled her face away from Kevin's long enough and walked the short distance from the couch to the door. She opened the door and smiled when she saw Wilson behind it.

"Hey," she said and wrapped her arms around him for a brief hug. "Couldn't stay away from us, could you?"

"I guess not. Is Mary in?" Lucy pointed to the living room where Wilson looked inside. He saw Mary sitting closely to Ben, her hand on his arm, talking. Instead of leaving or doing anything appropriate, Wilson was frozen. He stood there and stared at Mary before she noticed him a few seconds later.

Mary immediately shot up when she saw Wilson. She went over to see him, but he just walked away and out the front door. Wit a heavy sigh, she followed him out.

Mary yelled out from the front porch. "Wait a second." He didn't stop. "Just wait, OK?"

He stopped and turned to face her. "No, it's fine. I'm just going to leave. Go back inside and talk to Ben."

Mary noticed the way his lips pursed when he said Ben's name. "Not this again. Do you need me to spell it out for you? Nothing is going on with Ben! He's a nice guy and a good person to talk to, but he'll never be more to me than an acquaintance at best; he's just Lucy's boyfriend's brother."

"No," he said. "I don't want to stop you from going after something you want."

"Well, you're doing a lousy job of that. I don't want Ben; I want you and you're hindering that." She walked closer to him. "You want to know why Ben means nothing to me?" Wilson nodded reluctantly. "I am madly and hopelessly in love with you Wilson. Obviously you're not getting that, though. There will never be anyone else for the rest of my life. You have my heart and, no matter how much you stomp on it, I still love you." His face softened and he came closer. "I don't know what else to say or do to make you stay and stop hating me except for that."

"I don't hate you. I'm just frustrated. You shouldn't be with Ben, talking to him or anything else."

"Why are you getting so jealous and possessive all the sudden? You left me so, effectually, we're broken up. I can do whatever I please."

"Yes, but I thought you had more class and self-respect than to have a conversation with a guy who's only interest is getting in your pants."

Mary's eyes narrowed. "I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

That really hurt Wilson and Mary knew it. For years he'd been trying to convince her that he wasn't just with her for sex, that he really loved her. He'd done the same with her family. Apparently, her parents weren't the only ones who didn't fully buy what he was selling. "Fine Mary. Forget it. I'm leaving."

He made a move for his car but Mary pulled him back. "You know I didn't mean it."

"That doesn't matter. You meant to hurt me and you succeeded. I thought that maybe we might be able to have an actual conversation and not fight, but I guess those days are over."

"I'm sorry that I hurt you." He rolled his eyes. "Really, I am. Now what did you come over for?"

"I wanted to take a walk with you."

She chuckled. "Really?"

"Yeah." He sounded so innocent, Mary couldn't stay mad anymore.

"OK. Just let me go grab a coat; I'm a little cold out here."

"No need." Wilson reached into the open back window of his car and pulled out a zip-up sweatshirt. "I knew you'd be cold so I brought it." Wilson helped her put it on. This was Mary's favorite sweatshirt of Wilson's, the one she always said smelled like him and made her feel 'girly'.

Mary and Wilson ventured down the length of Mary's street and took a left at the corner. As they turned, Wilson grabbed Mary's hand. She didn't pull away. He was only asking for an inch, not a mile, and Wilson was most certainly deserving.

A few blocks came and went as they followed their intuitive path. Neither spoke, moved their hands, or did anything tat would throw off their delicate balance. When they inadvertently reach Kingston Park, they were practically bowled over by the shift in emotion.

Mary tightened her grip on his hand. "No."

He sighed. "Not my first choice destination, either," Wilson said as he recalled his arrest, "but nothing is going to happen." Mary was still frightened. "It will be a good experience for us."

"Fine," she said walking inside, "but I'm staying clear of the swings."

Wilson laughed. "How about that bench?" he pointed to a concrete bench just ten feet away from them.

She shrugged. "Looks non-threatening."

"My thoughts exactly."

They sat down and Wilson placed his hand on Mary's knee. He was afraid she would quickly move it off, but she didn't. How quickly Wilson had forgotten how relaxed and free Mary was when she was around him.

"So," she finally said, "why did you really want to take a walk?"

He laughed. "I wanted to know why you came to visit me this morning. There had to be a reason other than you were awake."

"Well, I, uh, I wanted to ask you…that thing you said to me last night about me not having any faith in you, what was that all about?" He looked at her, as if to pose a question and she nodded. ''Does it have to do with why you left me?"

"Yes, kind of." It was time for him to get through to her, to make her see. He hadn't hoped to do this so soon, but he should have known that Mary wasn't going to give him up easily. Wilson took one of Mary's hands and held it with both of his. "Why do you think I moved out?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "At first, I blamed my family, you not wanting to live with them anymore. Then I really thought that you had fallen out of love with me, but once I saw you again I knew that wasn't true." He smiled. "So now I really don't know. I guess you're sick of me or something."

"See, that's what I mean. You think I left to hurt you. I didn't."

"Then why did you leave?" Mary was a lot less calm than Wilson was; she was practically in tears.

"I left because," Wilson paused to make sure he got the words out right. "I left because our relationship was going sour. We still loved each other, but we fought constantly. We couldn't even stand to be in the same room for more than twenty minutes at a time, you knew that."

"You could have tried to talk to me. I would have listened."

"No you wouldn't have."

"Yes I would have!" She just wasn't getting it.

"Mary, you're stubborn, and that's fine; I like you that way. But…you wouldn't have listened to me any better than you listened to your father last night when he asked you to dance."

Mary sat back away from his grasp. "So that's it? You left because I was too stubborn to reason with?"

"No. I left to save our relationship. At some point, love alone doesn't make it work."

Mary was trying as hard as possible to keep from throwing an emotional fit. "I absolutely hate that saying. It's not true. Love can do anything; it's capable of whatever you need it to do. If your love - our love – can't pull us through then maybe we don't love each other like we think."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? That's what you just said to me!"

"No it isn't." He was getting frustrated. "I left because our love is strong, and real, and you can't just waste something like that away."

"You didn't leave because we weren't sleeping together anymore?" She was innocent, sincere, scared- all three of the reasons Wilson always felt awful about corrupting her.

"Mary!" he said in frustration. "For the thousandth time, no." A bunch of quips were buzzing through his head, but Wilson said none of them. "I am not with you for your body. You're the most beautiful woman I know, but… I love you for your confidence. Since that first day you met me, you had this air about you. I knew you thought you owned the world."

She smiled and looked down at her lap. "I lost that, didn't I?"

"Kind of. I woke up one morning and realized it. That, us fighting, I knew I had to get out. I didn't want to steal your thunder."

Mary rubbed her thumb over Wilson's hand. "You didn't. I think it just became convenient to rely on you so much. With you around, I didn't need my fighting spirit. And you, you were so selfless and generous that everything was taken care of."

"Yeah, but I-"

"No. You always pin everything on yourself. I have to take responsibility for myself, for what I did."

"Marry me."

Mary's head whipped around so fast that she almost had self-induced whiplash. "What?"

Wilson smiled. "You heard me. Marry me."

"But-but I thought that you weren't going to marry me until I was done with school." Originally, it had been when Mary turned eighteen. Then it turned into after Mary got situated in college. Then after she graduated.

"I was waiting until we were ready; until we were both mature enough to handle it."

Mary knew that he just meant he as waiting until she was mature enough, but didn't really mind. "Fine, I'll marry you."

"Really?"

She grinned. "Yup. Now get over here and kiss me."

Wilson lightly pressed his lips to Mary's. She quickly deepened the kiss, pulling his face into hers and pressing her tongue through his lips and into his mouth.

"How about we go back to your apartment and, uh, celebrate?" she asked as she traced a straight line in his chest with her middle finger.

He looked hesitant. "You sure?"

"Absolutely," she panted. "Let's go."

The End

A/N: So I was thinking…this story makes no sense if you aren't inside my head. So if you are totally lost, I am sorry. But it makes sense to me.

As for the ending, I don't think I have a word to express how much it sucks. It's just so bad. I didn't even have my standard ending paragraph. I didn't want to end with them engaged, either. I just had a vision and I can't write this anymore, I am way behind in everything that I have to get done and I have such a short amount of time to do it all in. Ending this was having one less thing hanging over my head. I apologize profusely for this disaster of an ending.

You know you want to follow Mary and Wilson back to his apartment. Review.