Give me this moment, this momentous moment.

I'll gather up my past, and make some sense at last.

"I have some stuff to do. I guess I'll see you later," Gus pecked Harley on the cheek.

"Stuff? What kind of stuff?" Harley was getting dressed in one of the bedrooms at the Bauer house. This had been their final night, according to Gus, imposing on the Bauers and by tonight Harley was trying to prepare herself for life in the Spaulding House of Horrors.

"Oh, you know," Gus said nonchalantly. "Business stuff. A little of this, a little of that. See ya."

"Okay," Harley said as the door slammed. "Bye." Her hair was now pulled up intricately against the back of her head, and she smoothed the creases in her summery white skirt. She was wearing a black top that left her left shoulder completely bare, and part of her back. It fitted tightly, but gracefully against her skin. She pressed the palms of her hands together tightly, and tried to give herself a pep talk.

"All you're doing is apologizing and getting things out in the open," Harley told her reflection. "He doesn't get to you, right? Right. After all, he's just a man. A very cute man. A cute man who's your ex-husband and gave you years of grief. Right? Of course. Mallet is hard to forgive and easy to forget, remember?" She groaned and stomped her foot. "Why do I thinking it the other way around? Ugh."

Harley reminded herself that he was staying at the Beacon. She hoped she wouldn't have to run into Olivia and deal with her satisfied look when Harley explained she needed Mallet's room number. Harley debated about stalling ... about going off to find Frank or her father and getting more long-winded advice. She peeked in at her soundly sleeping kids, who were both looking forward to a painless day of playing with Leah and Robbie, having no idea that their mother was feeling so torn. She very softly kissed the tops of Zach and Jude's little heads. She bowed her head at the thought of her two babies growing up in the House of Spaulding and being subconsciously groomed as future leaders of the dynasty. She ached at the thought of Gus and even Jude being haunted by memories of Phillip and of secrets and of lies. Harley turned around and had to leave, to stop herself from clutching them to her and shedding a few tears, and begun the short drive to the Beacon hotel.

She was walking fast up to the great doors, allowing herself to go so quickly in order to ignore the little voices in her head arguing over what she was doing. She didn't even notice Mallet walking outside reading the Springfield Journal. He was sporting his fetching ensemble of long blue jeans and a dark shirt and jacket, and was rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he was reading. Harley barreled right into him, and began to lose her balance and fall to the side. Mallet was quick to steady himself and grab her shoulders and hoist her back onto steady ground.

"Whoa there, champ," Mallet said, his face lighting up. "What's your hurry?"

Harley looked up at him, dumbfounded at their chance timing. "I was coming to find you."

"Ah ha!" Mallet tried to not look too pleased. "So I think I remember, vaguely, something about you never coming to look for me, ever, and yeah ... something about catching your bouquet. I mean, I was planning on popping out of your cake at your bachelorette party, but I'm sure being one of your bridesmaids would be a lot more thrilling."

Harley choked back a giggle at the thought of Mallet as her maid of honor, and tried to keep her face unreadable. "Well, as entertaining as that would be, I didn't come here to ask you to pop naked out of my cake."

"Naked?" Mallet's eyebrows shot up. "Oho, Harley, I never said a thing about naked. But it's really not a bad idea. Since the last bachelorette party I went to was, oh, never, I guess I'm a bit rusty ... as certain people like to remind me."

Harley felt the color rise into her cheeks. "Mallet, I just came here to say that I'm sorry. I don't know what keeps getting into me. You keep pushing my buttons. Or I goad you into pushing them myself. Then I get angry and we part on an angry word. And I don't want that." She tried a smile. "I want us to be able to be friends."

"Friends," Mallet said, as if turning the word over and over in his mind.

"Yes, friends," Harley went on. "So no more of this walking on eggshells. I probably have to go now ... we have to have everything moved into the Spaulding Mansion by tonight." Her face crumpled just from uttering the two words together. She began to pluck at her sleeve. "So, I guess I will see you later."

"Wait just a second," Mallet's face had changed as well. "The Spaulding Mansion? Why are you moving into the Spaulding Mansion? You have told me how much you hate that place and everything that is even remotely Spauldingesque except for Gus and your son, Zach."

"Gus thinks it's the best thing," Harley couldn't meet his eyes. "He says it's rightfully his now and where we should be. Plus it will make it easier for him to run Spaulding Enterprises from the home base, you know? And there will be ... uhh ... a lot of space. It being a mansion and all."

"What are you saying?" Mallet took her by her shoulders again, and forced her to look at him. "Harley, what is happening to you? What is happening to the girl that made up her own mind? That took a stand? What happened to the girl who wasn't afraid to speak her mind? The girl who didn't want anyone to tell her what to do? You sound ... so defeated. You sound like you are resigned. You're letting Gus make all the rules, and you're settling for that."

"I'm not settling for anything," Harley's voice cracked. "And I told you before. I'm not that girl anymore."

"You must be right," Mallet pressed. "Because the Harley Cooper I know would never let things go this far. She would put up a fight, because she knows what's right and she does it. She doesn't just sit back and let things happen, she dives right in and makes them happen."

Harley stared up at him, her voice was almost a whisper. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me anymore."

"I don't know you, huh?" Mallet said, studying her face. "I know you a hundred times better than you know yourself. I know you a thousand times better than Gus could ever hope to know you."

"You don't make me ... feel the way Gus makes me feel," Harley murmured.

"I could agree with that," Mallet said, running one of his fingers slowly up her bare shoulder. "Did you ever tell him what happened between us in prison, Harley? Those kisses? Did you ever tell him about how we were seconds away from kissing before the elevator came and I left, right after you were declared innocent?"

Harley looked at him defiantly. "You're delusional." But she quavered under his touch.

"Am I?" Mallet sat down a bit against the wall. This brought her face exactly level with his. He never broke eye-contact as he pulled her close to him. She stretched out her hands as if to stop his movements, and her hands fell against both of his thighs. This caused Harley to look up in shock to see his expression. It could have been considered a mistake on her part, because she suddenly saw full on the look blazing in both his eyes. Her heart was beating so loud, she was sure he could hear it. As if knowing exactly what she was thinking, he picked up one of her hands off his thighs and caressed her wrist.

"I can feel your pulse," Mallet said deeply. "Your body can't lie to me. And neither can your heart. I see the look in your eyes everytime we are close like this, and I listen as you are unable to speak. When did you stop following your heart, Harley?"

His fingers were now running their way up the bare place on her back, and she let out a little gasp when he ran over a particularly sensitive place. His eyes suddenly closed, as if savoring every single second. Harley felt her hand reach up and touch the side of his face, and felt his hand rise up and wrap around her own. His eyes opened, and she felt him draw her even closer. His lips hovered right in front of hers. She longed, ached for him to close the gap. She waited and he wasn't moving. She wanted him to. She wanted him to kiss her. She heard a little voice in the back of her head suddenly taunt her, telling her she wanted him to kiss her so that she had an excuse later when they broke apart. The excuse of him starting it.

Still, he did nothing. He just breathed against her skin, causing chills to run up and down her spine. His fingers still were stroking her bare back, shoulder, and arm. Their eyes were locked. Harley felt paralyzed in his tender grip, as she stood there between his thighs.

"Mallet ..." her voice was almost pleading.

Her mind was doing cartwheels. She knew how he would taste, how he would move. She knew. And she was craving it. She was craving the way that only he could kiss her. She was imagining the way he would taste. The way he would breathe. The tension was unbearable.

Finally, she threw her arms around his neck and crushed her lips against his. This was all he needed. He wrapped an arm tightly around her waist, and placed his other against her hair. He deepened the kiss, and their tongues came together expectantly. She ran her hands eagerly up the back of his head and into his hair. Mallet's hand stroked the side of her face, but he seemed frustrated with the fact that her hair was pulled back away from his touch. He broke the kiss and began to run his lips against the side of her mouth and against her cheek. She sighed into his ear and tried to recapture his lips. His hand moved expertly into her tresses, and pulled away what was keeping it up. It spilled out onto her shoulders, and he began to run his hand through its softness. She whispered his name, and grabbed his lobe between her lips. He finally pulled her head back and reunited their mouths. She was practically sitting on his lap now, and his arms were wrapped around her. She felt warm and wanted. She brought her hands down against his chest, and could feel his heart. It was beating just like her own.

Mallet felt as though he had just entered another dimension. She was against him, kissing him with all the passion and longing that he had kept bottled away for so long. It was electric. It was chemical. It was the beginning and it was the end. Her soul was his, and his was hers from here to eternity. He knew that. It was at this moment that he tasted something different - something wet and salty against his face. It took him a moment to realize it was her tears. Her tears were streaking across both their faces. He felt her give a quiet cry against his lips, and he pulled away just a bit. She opened her big brown eyes that he had always been sure were flecked with bits of gold. They were wet and she had begun to shake.

He pulled her to him, wordlessly, and she began to sob against his shoulder. He stroked her hair, and rocked her back and forth. She clutched him, buried herself in his closeness. His scent comforted her, and she felt safer than she had felt in a very long time. Her sobs quieted and she simply let the tears flow. He very tenderly lifted her head back up and kissed away the tears still sparkling on her cheeks.

"I will not leave you, Harley," Mallet whispered. "You are not alone."

"How did this happen?" Harley finally managed. "You weren't supposed to do this to us."

"Me?" his chuckle made her feel so light. "As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. I couldn't get very far if I didn't have my partner with me. My beautiful, beautiful partner." His face suddenly grew serious, and he kissed her lightly on her forehead. Then he turned her around so she was still sitting against him, but they were now both facing the same direction. He wrapped his arms around her, and she folded her arms around his, and leaned back into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Harley said, feeling the confusion creeping in but shoving it away fiercely ... not wanting to give up what comfort he was giving her right now.

"There's no reason to be," he said against her hair. "Everyone just needs to be held once in a while."

But this had been no simple holding session, and they both knew it. Harley's mind was playing and replaying the kiss. The many kisses. The way her body had moved with his. As if she had needed to go and complicate things even more. But part of her was screaming at her about how inevitable it had been. They had been teasing and toying with each other for far too long. They had been fighting and rehashing their entire history. They had been remembering.

"How things might have been," Mallet said, brokenly. "We could be sitting here or anywhere else in the entire world, and just shared a moment like that and it would not be forbidden. It would have been a husband and his wife having some time together before going back home to the children waiting. Instead I drove us both out into the merciless winds of the storm, and we have been lost ever since. Or at least I have. Please tell me that you can pull me back. Tell me you can help me find my way again."

"I can't think like this. I can't think like all I've loved and all I've lost since you have really been only moments," Harley said. "Only wrinkles in time, whereas what is between us is everlasting. That defeats the purpose of the past decade or so. We can't go back."

"We can't go back," Mallet agreed. "But there will always be the future."

Harley weakly raised her hand. The ring on her left hand caught the sunshine. "This was supposed to be my future."

"Was?" Mallet said, not daring to hope.

"Was ... is ..." Harley broke away from him, stood, and looked at him from a few feet away. "That is only a technicality. I've committed. Everyone expects things from me. Gus expects things from me. And dammit, Mallet, I expect things from myself. I've made a commitment. If I break it, it will be like I'm being a hypocrite. I've always held trust and loyalty as religion."

"Why can't you again trust your heart? Be loyal to your feelings?" Mallet stood.

"Mallet, you can't talk about loyalty," Harley said desperately. "You broke those rules a long time ago. Who's to say you wouldn't do it again? You would win me, and then you might get bored again."

Mallet looked as though his heart had been ripped out. "That's not fair. You said you had forgiven me. Have these last months meant absolutely nothing to you?" He suddenly pulled up his sleeve. "Does this say nothing to you?"

Her eyes widened as they had before. It was no less startling. The scars running up and down his arm from when he had taken her fall and gone to prison in her stead. The scars that had once been angrily bleeding cuts where someone had tried to break him. Instead he had taken it all, and now stood before her with no enmity. Harley had never actually brushed it off. She could remember the first time she had seen the scars, standing there with him in the hospital when they had been searching for Sebastian. She had almost carelessly seen them and made a comment, and then had a horrible sinking feeling after Mallet revealed their origin. They were scars she had given to him, no matter how indirect it was.

"I am so sorry," She reached out, trying to embrace him. He backed away and held up his hands.

"Please," Mallet said simply. "I will bear this marks forever, and I will not regret it. I don't need you to pity me. I need you to really, truly realize what this means. I will wake up every morning and see these. I will see them throughout everyday, each time I look down. And it will simply be another thing that reminds me of how much I ..."

Harley sharply took in her next breath. "How much you what, Mallet?"

"What do you think, Harley?" Mallet stared at the ground as if it were the most interesting thing he had ever seen in his life. "It won't matter what I say, if it's not going to change anything. I could shout declarations from every mountain top, but at the end of the day you would go scurrying back to Gus. So we are at an impasse."

"How I wanted this moment," Harley said boldly. "I'm not going to try and deny it. I wanted you just then. I wanted you when you kissed me, when we stood there alone in the prison with lights and alarms flashing all around us. I wanted you when we sat there on the bed in that hotel and we just talked and smiled. I wanted you when I was watching you leave me for an elevator! But I had to push it away, Mallet. What does this make me?"

"Human," Mallet pressed, taking her hand. "But wanting is not enough. You know I want you, and I am always thinking about you and hoping that you are alright. Harley, do you love me?"

Harley felt her mouth open. "What ... Mallet ... I ..."

"Harley."

"I don't know," Harley massaged her temples. "A part of me will always love you. You know that. Same as a part of you will always love me. You were the first person I ever truly loved."

Mallet sighed. "But that's not enough, Harley. You need to love me now, for the present. I can see that part of you must still belong to Gus. Are we are back to square one? Trying to be friends and not kill each other? Or kiss each other?" He suddenly smiled.

Harley smiled, too, but there was heartache written all over her face. "Well, friend, I can't expect you to want to come to the wedding." Deeply embarrassed, she pulled out a white invitation. She stared at it for a moment. The print and the words seemed so foreign to her. It seemed jumbled and as though it was something meant for someone else entirely. "But I guess I will give it to you anyway, so you know that I was ... thinking of you."

Mallet took it from her. "I will be there. I will support you, no matter what you decide. No matter how much it hurts. I guess I was just one last little fling before you are wedlocked, huh? One more tease, one more dance, one more kiss. Misty watercolor memories ..." He shook his head, still smiling.

"Misty watercolor memories?" Harley chuckled in spite of herself. "As if we need that kind of drama, Mallet. I'm sure if anyone could see us or hear us, they would wonder what the hell our problem is."

"I know what the problem is," Mallet started to lean in towards her, and Harley's mind suddenly blanked out again and she stared at his lips. "That's our problem. Right there."

"Er, what?" Harley cleared her throat rather loudly.

"Are you always going to look so flushed everytime I get within less than a foot of you?" Mallet tilted his head, and raised one eyebrow. "Just remind me to not get too close to you when you and Gus are up there reciting your vows. You might end up kissing the wrong man."

Harley raised her hand to hit him on the shoulder, and he blocked it easily. "Oh, get over yourself. You are so full of it. Seriously, Mallet, please understand. I feel like I keep dragging my kids in and out of relationships, homes, danger ... I have this chance to finally give them steady ground."

"Do you honestly think that all the baggage that comes with being a Spaulding is going to spell out happily ever after for Zach and Jude?" Mallet asked. "I have to tell you, I'm having a real rough time picturing all the problems disappearing and everything just falling neatly into place. I've seen what you've gone through in the past. You told me what you went through after you and Phillip split, and even when you were together what endless battles you faced."

"But, hypothetically of course," Harley began slowly. "if I was to say, be with you, you're saying this time around we wouldn't be facing any kind of problems? Everything would work out better just because you don't have any Spaulding blood running through your veins?"

"No, Harley, I'm not saying that at all," Mallet said. "Everyone is going to have things happen to them that they can't control, and nobody and nothing is ever perfect."

"Well, I think that you just described how marriage with Gus will be. Not perfect, not always smooth but still worthwhile," Harley folded her arms tightly across her chest.

Mallet groaned. "You're forgiveness meter must be off the charts for Gus."

"What?" Harley moved her hands to her hips. "Another crack about Gus? Oh, great."

"No, this is not a joking matter," Mallet began to pace.

"You're not telling me something," Harley said accusingly. "And stop doing that, you're making me feel dizzy."

Mallet stopped pacing. "Sorry. No, I ... don't have anything to say. It's not my place."

Harley laughed loudly. "Ha! You've been saying anything you want! What's holding you back?"

"Maybe I'm just so used to wanting to protect you," Mallet shoved his hands in his the pockets of his jacket. "I don't want to see you in pain."

"Mmmhmm," Harley lifted his chin. "Do you love me? You have never really said it out loud. Do you still love me? All this talk is just beating around the bush. Bloodying even more a very, very dead horse. Do you love me?"

"I still can't fathom why you are asking me that."

"I want to know. I want to hear it."

Mallet took both her hands in his. His eyes were shining. "The lady shall always have what she wants. I love you, Harley Davidson Cooper. I love you more than any man has ever possibly loved a woman. Nobody knows what love of this kind is, unless they have spent years and years alone completely lost because part of their soul was missing. They don't know unless they spent the years trying to throw themselves into work, trying not to think of this woman every single moment of each day. The mornings would come and I would roll over to kiss you good morning, and the bed would be empty. At night every part of my body would ache to just hold you one more time, and feel you warm and relaxed against me. I would pour my heart into every single letter I wrote to you for that first while, and I would just write and write and fantasize about you walking through my door. When I heard about what happened with Phillip and with you accused, I didn't know all the facts. I knew you were not a killer, and yet my heart told me that even if you were .. it wouldn't matter to me. I just had to try and be near you, and offer you some kind of protection. I loathed the very thought of you being tossed into some prison all alone where you could get hurt. And to see you again, sitting there ..." He inhaled deeply. "It was like walking into some kind of dream. Even though I knew you would be hating me, I could only feel love for my part. Love I still feel now and at this very moment. I am looking at you, and right now every part of me is calling your name. Forever."

Harley wasn't sure how she was still standing. All the emotion she had just watched play across his features. The feelings that she was having had intensified so strongly, that her whole body was pulsating. She couldn't even think of another time that she had believed and trusted someone so implicitly. She couldn't think of another time when someone had made her feel so completely, unconditionally loved.

"Baby!" a voice called. "Hey, what's up? Hey Mallet. Listen we have to go. I found the perfect spot for our wedding, but the only time we can reserve it is for tomorrow evening, or it's booked until October. And I figure, why wait? I want you to come see."

And Gus was pulling her away, before she could even think to stop him, linking his arm in hers. Harley looked back and saw Mallet still standing there watching her. His expression made her want to just curl up and die in shame, and she had to turn away.

Mallet dropped his eyes to his invitation, where the date was now pointless. Apparently, Harley was to get married sooner anyone thought. "Tomorrow evening." He whispered. "One day more. I suppose I will always be second best." And with that, he walked away.