Disclaimer: See Prologue.

Chapter 10: If You Ever Need to Talk

Andrea got up early the next morning. She was going to visit her grandmother first, and then head over to the Walsh house. Her mother had agreed to watch Hannah again. The truth was her mother enjoyed having her grand-daughter with her so much that had Andrea wanted to take Hannah out for the day she probably would have screamed. She was still annoyed that Andrea had disappeared with Hannah on Friday.

Andrea had a look through the clothes she'd brought with her.

"Hmm. What should you wear when you're about to completely change someone's life forever?" she wondered, thinking of Brandon and the conversation she was planning on having with him later.

Brandon meanwhile was up and about too, helping his mother prepare for the brunch. He was looking forward to it. He was hoping to speak to Andrea again. He made a mental note not to bring up any subject that might lead to her talking about her kid or her boyfriend/husband/whatever. He still wasn't ready to deal with that. He blamed it on the fact that he and Andrea had never resolved their relationship – they never had any closure. It went from best friends who kinda, sorta had feeling for each other, to bedtime buddies, to nothing. Absolutely zip. No wonder those old residual feelings were resurfacing. He'd never had a chance to draw a line under them.

It didn't help that she looked incredible last night, he thought to himself.

Brenda arrived downstairs a while later. Brandon was curious about her friendship with Andrea. Anyone around them last night would have assumed that they'd been best friends for years, but as far as Brandon knew that wasn't the case. Brandon had wanted to talk to Brenda about it last night and waited up for her, but she'd gone to take Andrea home and hadn't arrived home until 3AM. She'd brushed him off and gone straight to bed.

Brandon asked Brenda if he could talk to her, and she agreed. He led her into the living room.

"So, you and Andrea seem pretty close," Brandon began.

"Yeah. What can I say, we just hit it off," Brenda replied.

"Andrea mentioned that you guys met up at the airport," Brandon continued.

"Yeah, that's right," Brenda said, now feeling a bit suspicious. What was with all the questions?

"Is she the person you've been hanging out with recently?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah. We get along really well. It's nice you know. I've grown apart from everyone else here, but I can talk to Andrea. We get each other," Brenda told him. She was relieved somewhat. She was worried he was going to ask about Andrea's daughter.

"That's nice," Brandon said.

He'd noticed she didn't seem to be getting on that well with all their friends. He knew it had been a long time since she'd seen them all but he'd been hoping that they'd all get along like before.

"You know," said Brandon, sitting down on the couch, "you and I haven't had much of a chance to talk much yet. It must feel strange being back here after so long."

Brenda took a seat next to him.

"It's definitely weird seeing everyone again after such a long time," Brenda replied.

"It must be weird seeing Dylan," Brandon offered.

Brandon had known they'd had a "bad" break-up, but he'd never found out what was behind it. He'd only seen Dylan briefly during a couple of visits he'd made to LA, and Brenda had always shied away from the subject whenever he brought it up with her. He knew that this was the first time she and Dylan had seen each other since London though. He could tell it had affected her.

Brenda smiled at Brandon. He was a great brother. She could see he was concerned about her. It was weird suddenly seeing Dylan again, especially seeing him with Kelly. It had re-opened a lot of old wounds. She'd been glad to have Andrea to talk to about it. She felt slightly guilty now that she was sitting here with Brandon that she'd never felt able to discuss her feelings for Dylan and their relationship with him. She also felt guilty when she thought about the other secret she was keeping from him.

"I felt strange seeing Dylan," Brenda admitted, "but I'm dealing with it."

"Good. You know, if you ever want to talk, I'm here," Brandon told her. At that moment, Cindy's voice could be heard calling for Brenda.

"Thanks Brandon," she said, standing up and heading towards the hall. She stopped before leaving the room, and turned around to face him.

"Brandon? I just want you to know, that if you ever need to talk," she said, an image of Hannah in her mind, "I'm here," she finished.

The twins smiled at each other, and Brenda left to go and find her mother.

Author's Notes: Thanks again for the reviews. Yay, people are actually reading this!

Kath, you made some great observations.

First of all, heh! It's true; a lot of fics had Dylan and Brenda breaking up because of a baby. I think because of the great angst potential. I have to admit, I had no intention of having Dylan and Brenda involved in this story initially. I sat down on Friday night thinking, "Hey, I'm gonna write a Brandon and Andrea fic just for the hell of it" and I started writing and within about an hour I had the first three parts.

Before writing the fourth part, where Brenda is introduced, I'd been thinking that I'd love to have Brenda in the story somehow because she's one of my favourite characters. I thought about it and I came up with the idea of Brenda running into Andrea and meeting Hannah and getting suspicious and so on, but then I thought if I'm going to have Brenda, I've got to have Dylan too. If I was gonna have Dylan and Brenda in a fic together – they've gotta end up together somehow so that means addressing their relationship in London and how it ended. We all know why it really ended – because Luke Perry went back to the show and Shannen Doherty didn't, but all the fic writers out there have to come up with a way for Brenda and Dylan to break up, that would still leave room for them to get back together when Brenda shows up in Beverly Hills again.

I went for Brenda having a miscarriage without Dylan's knowledge because I felt it was a plausible way for them to break up without them falling out of love, yet also rendering them both sympathetic. Brenda's lost a baby and she's not dealing with it, and Dylan has no idea what's going on and he can't cope. They're living in an awful situation for weeks and Dylan just can't take it anymore, and Brenda isn't giving him a reason to stay – in fact she's screaming at him to go. It's very angsty and it ends their relationship while leaving their feelings for each other unresolved.

In this chapter Brandon thinks about his feelings for Andrea being unresolved and it works along those lines. There's no closure in either relationship. For Brandon and Andrea it's because they had sex and they don't deal with it, they just gloss over it and then Andrea leaves to go off to college (I can have Andrea have a baby though because I can get away with it without detracting from the break-down of their relationship); with Dylan and Brenda she's had a miscarriage and she's not dealing with it and not allowing Dylan to help and pushing him away, so Dylan leaves and goes back to Beverly Hills and meets up with Kelly again. Consequently, there's a lot of angst to milk in both relationships, which hopefully makes for a good story. ;-)

About what Kath said about Dylan and Brenda and the first time they saw each other – again a great point. I had originally intended to have Dylan and Kelly show up at the airport with everybody else to meet Brandon but I felt it didn't fit, which is why I put in the weak excuse about Dylan's car breaking down! When Dylan finally does arrive, it's pretty much at the tail-end of the "everybody loves Brandon" versus "Brenda on the sidelines"plot-point. He did follow Brenda when she left to take her call to have his private little moment with her though and to tell her it was good to see her, and I felt (or least hoped) that implied that their connection was still there, despite there being a lot of unresolved business between the two.

Finally, to those who've commented on Andrea and Brenda's friendship – I'm really enjoying writing it. It's almost taken on a life of its own! I always felt it was a pity that they never got that close on the show as I felt it had the potential to be the best female friendship on the show, especially around the time of season three when Brenda was caught up in the Dylan/Kelly story. I love the similarities between them in the story. They're both keeping secrets from these men that they're still in-love with (whether they want to be or not!) and they both feel like outsiders compared to everyone else.

Anyway, thanks for reading again everyone and the reviews are very much appreciated.