Wow, third update in 3 days! Thanks for all your reviews, I really appreciate them. So, I hope this is up to standard!

Overridden Emotions

Dr. Simmons sat there, rendered speechless by the scene that just unfolded before his eyes. Never throughout his career as a counsellor had he ever seen a marriage break up right in front of him. While his job was to help couples talk through and eventually settle their differences, never had one of them stormed out of the room after the talking had been halfway through let alone demanding a break to register the information that had been spilled a few minutes previously. His gaze crossed to Kirsten who just sat there shell shocked.

As she felt the slight wind from his speedy departure her face stayed blank conveying no emotion, however on the inside she felt as if she was being torn in two. The thoughts whirred around her head as she tried to comprehend the situation she had been left in. How could my actions result in this? She thought to herself. While I was the one who had feelings for another man in the end I chose Sandy while he chose nothing. Her eyes began to glaze over as the sorrow began to seep through to her exterior, the lines on her face showing the pain that she was in.

She took a sharp breath in, holding the tears that threatened to run down her face within herself, drawing the attention of the doctor back towards her.

"Kirsten, I'm so sorry. Is there anything that I can do to help you at all?"

"Right now I'm not in the best frame of mind to talk. I think it's just best if I leave and spend some time along. I don't feel like talking to anyone at all."

With that, still wearing the blank expression, she slowly lifted herself off the couch and lumbered down the corridor carrying more than her body weight with her. The once graceful Kirsten Cohen had been replaced over the year by this new Kirsten, the one who had weathered the storms with a cost and had been changed, almost tainted, by the course of the past year.

Once she reached the sanctuary of her room she finally let her armour down to reveal her true feelings on the situation she had been placed in. She was alone, truly alone, in an alcohol rehabilitation centre where the man who had put her in here to help her had lost it so bad that he wanted nothing to do with her, at least for the time being.

As Sandy drove along the Californian coast his racing pulse slowed down while his temper subsided. The memories of the past hour flushed back through his mind as he began to question whether his motives were entirely honest. She hurt me he thought to himself as he tried to justify his actions can't she realise that? She admitted that she had feelings for another man, how did she expect me to react? The questions whirred around his head until the tiny innocent part, his conscious, answered for him – she wanted you to understand.

At that moment he realised how wrong he had been to respond like that, how she deserved so much more from him than what he had given. There she had gone out and told him what she had been unable to tell him before. While it may have been hard for him to hear it, it was just as hard for Kirsten to watch her husband squirm as she recollected the events the pushed her to the brink and eventually over it.

That night, neither of them could bring themselves to phone their significant other to apologise for their mishaps. This carried onto the next day where they decided that if they called the other it would seem as if it had taken them this long to figure out that they were wrong. Of course they knew that they were wrong, it was impossible to realise that when everything you heard or saw seemed to be related to your current position. Three days later, Sandy finally came to the conclusion that if he didn't do something that this would escalate into something much larger than they could handle right now so he set off to visit Kirsten and set things straight.

Kirsten lay there on her bed, just like she had for the last few days. These had consisted of her blocking the harsh daylight out of her eyes while burrowing under the covers so that her inconsolable sobs were muted from the outside world. Against all the work the doctors could do, she refused to eat knowing that her stomach couldn't take anything with the pain that she was in and rejected the appeals to leave her room and face humanity.

While lying curled up in a ball on top of her bed she lifted her head to see the down-turned photos of her family especially Sandy. Even though they were hidden from view the images still pierced through her mind as she noticed the tiny details, the comforting hand of Sandy's upon her back, the glee in her eyes as she revelled in his touch. How she wished that that was available to her but she had pushed him too far and now she had to pay, she had to accept the consequences that she so rightly deserved for her misguided actions. She was startled from her train of thought as a gentle knock on the door indicated that it was not someone who had already tried to cajole her out of the room. She sat there silently, hoping that the person would go away but to her dismay another persisting knock fell upon her door and she meekly called out.

"Sorry but I'm not in the mood for visitors. Can you come back later please?"

"Kirsten, we really need to talk about this. Please can I come in?"

She was taken aback at the voice on the other side of the door. Never had she guessed that this would be the figure willing to come in and talk to her since the last time she saw him he had left instantaneously clearly conveying his disappointment in her. She got up from her bed and modestly tried to maintain her appearance but made no improvement. Opening the door a scruffy Sandy stood in front of her, compassion burning in his eyes. With one look they seared through her and tore down the guard she had erected since his departure the other day. As she mentally prepared herself for the confrontation that was about to occur she willed herself not to give in, not to be taken advantage of in her fragile state.

"What do you want, Sandy?" She questioned almost pleadingly, intending for it to come out for forcefully than it did.

"I'm sorry. I take back what I said before, I was just upset at the time and needed some space to register in my mind what you were saying. Please can you forgive me?" His eyes begged for forgiveness as the same time riling up Kirsten as she kept to her mantra of not giving in.

"How can I? I don't need you! I've never needed you!"

He grabbed her wrists and pulled her close. Staring down into her eyes where she could no longer avoid his stare she finally looked up as he stated.

"I need you."

"Then why did you say that before? If this is some sick joke…ARGH!" She screamed as she pulled away from his grasp and stormed over to her bed and sat down.

"Kirsten, baby, I didn't mean it."

"Then what did you mean?"

"That I… I thought…Oh I don't know. But I know now. I know that what I did was stupid and the exact opposite of how I feel."

"And that is?"

"That I love you more than anything in this world. Nothing else matters to me, you are the one that I love."

"Then you are a horrible father and son. You don't love your kids? You don't love your mother?"

"Oh honey you know what I mean. Of course I love them, just not in the same way that I love you. Why are you being so difficult?"

"Oh so now you're putting it back on me?"

"No of course not, I didn't mean to."

"Sandy, I've spent the last three days thinking that our marriage is over and now you are telling me that you didn't mean it. How am I supposed to react?"

"I never said it was over. I just said that I needed a break."

"A break always ends in divorce; you should know that being a self confessed cynic."

"I told you I was wrong, I don't need a break."

She dipped her head down so her eyes avoided contact with his. "Well maybe I do…"

"What?"

"Just a break though."

"Kirsten, a break always ends in divorce, you should know that." He replied with a slight mock in his tone.

"Look, what was I supposed to think? You said that you needed a break from us and so I prepared myself for the worst so that I would be ready if you asked for a divorce."

"Honey, there is no way in the world that I would ever be able to ask for a divorce from you. Believe me when I say that, I love you so much, there is no way in the world that I would ever want to end our marriage. Do you mind if I ask what you were doing these past three days? The doctors said that you didn't attend any meetings or talk to anyone."

She kept her head down as she quietly admitted. "I was trying to get over you"

His head shot up at the comment. His guilty feelings were swept out of his mind as new ones of doubt filled their position. He walked over to Kirsten and sat down next to her on the bed.

"Did it work?" He questioned in a whisper, the worried expression on his face portraying the uncertainty he felt.

In an even quieter whisper she replied. "No"

He reached out for her as he embraced her. Instantly she broke down into tears He held her as she sobbed and shook, her emotions pouring out of her in the form of tears along Sandy's shoulder. He felt her frail body shaking as she began to clench onto his body, pulling him closer as he acceptingly enveloped her frame. Patting down her hair, smoothing the messy waves he noticed her appearance for the first time. He had never seen her so unkempt since her father's death, and before that her mother's death. So this is the effect I have on her. He thought to himself. Scary, but reassuring none the less. Gives us hope for the future.

Moments passed as the distance between them subsided and they found themselves closer than they had been in a while to each other. As he watched the gentle stream of tears flow down her face, his own began to fall from his eyes and mixed with hers down the front of his shirt. His hand grazed over her cheek following the groves of her face as they traced a familiar pattern over her, a heart. Wiping away the tears he gently lifted her chin to face him as he placed soft, loving kisses along her jaw and up around her face before resting on her eyelids and finally her lips. As their respective lips met he whispered to her.

"I love you."

She replied as she had constantly throughout their relationship.

"I love you too."

"That's all I need to know. Come back to me and I'll never let you go."

"I am here, I always will be.

Okay I hope that resolved the issue for you all. I'm not sure whether I should just finish this on the next chapter or whether I should continue it on for a bit longer, suggestions would be greatly appreciated!