Disclaimer: Nobody from the show is mine, more's the pity.

A/N: Here you go...the romance begins. Yes, I will work in some Donna and Suzy, I promise...I just need to establish this first. Feedback is a beautiful thing!

Oh, and y'all can thank witchofnovember for this...she inspired me to get these bits out quicker! ;0)

"Wait, don't tell me…a date with the incomparable Kim?"

He grins easily, eyes shining beneath the recently acquired contacts. "You bet. So what's cooking?" He comes over to the stove and jabs quickly in the pot with a spoon. I slap his hand, but his eyes just twinkle at me as he brings the spoon to his mouth and closes his eyes in appreciation. "Mmmmm…Rebecca, you are a goddess. I'm sorry I'll miss it. If there's any left over, save me some, huh?"

I arch an eyebrow at him, and he immediately pouts, looking so exaggeratedly crestfallen that I laugh and push him towards the door. "Wait and see, Sonic!"

"HEY!" he yells in protest as he exits. I've been throwing hedgehog references at him ever since he started spiking his hair. Damn blond bimbos anyway. Why do they have to snap up the best men, and then cause them to change?

I'm very protective of Jay. Very few people call him that; his father, Toby Ziegler, maybe CJ; he lets very few people get away with it. I've known him since freshman year at Berkeley, when he was a sweet, intense kid with glasses and hair that stuck up all over. We're older now, but somehow JJ's kept a part of that younger self inside him, and I love that. I just don't want to see that change. I don't begrudge him a girlfriend, but please, can't he pick somebody human, at least? Someone who appreciates him for who he is and not who he could be? I mean, the man's getting a master's in secondary education; he spends his days student teaching. He's not about to go clubbing and get trashed at the drop of a hat.

Besides, if she knew what he was like drunk she wouldn't let him near a bar.

The door squeaks open and I turn, half hoping to see JJ, but it's Chris. He saunters over and drops a kiss on the top of my head. "Ciao, bella."

"Christoff, my darling."

"Did you miss me?"

"With the heat of a thousand suns."

"Knew it."

He leans over and sniffs appreciatively. "Homemade spaghetti sauce. I unequivocally adore you, loves. I shall be your slave." He drops down to his knees and clasps his hands together comically.

"Does this mean you'll do the dishes?"

"Maybe," he hedges. "Sure."

"Good enough for me."

"So, the J-man joining us?"

"No. Jay is out with the irrepressible Kimberly, and as this is Friday, we shall probably not see him till sometime tomorrow."

"Green's a good color on you, hon, but as to this particular shade, I don't know…"

"Stop it. It's not like that."

"Really?" His chin is resting on his steepled hands, his eyebrows raised.

"It's not. It's just, he's special, and I don't want that to change. I never thought something like this would happen, that he'd let a girl go completely to his head, to the detriment of everything else."

"She is a bitchy little cupcake, I have to admit. Straight men are so blind when it comes to women," he says with an amused gleam in his eye.

"Yeah, just remind me of that the next time you drag some vapid prettyboy in here."

"Hey, I have taste!"

"Some people have a taste for pickles and ice cream. Doesn't mean it's good."

"Watch it, Janet."

"You watch it, Chrissie."

"Wanna get drunk watching Nick at Nite?"

"Hell, yeah."

Have you ever tried to remove a drunken man's contacts? I don't recommend it. I think I'm gonna stipulate that if JJ wants to go out drinking, he takes his glasses along. Although, to be fair, I don't think he saw this one coming.

Everyone else did, though.

When I opened the door tonight, my heart broke. For him. And then I got pissed. At her. How dare she screw around with JJ like that? Okay, so I don't know what happened, yet, but I'm sure it was her fault.

When I put him to bed (I know, that sounds really wrong, but…), he curled up into a little ball, snuggled into the pillow. His eyelashes are really long. Yeah.

That's what I love about JJ. He manages to balance his inherent boyishness with a totally adult passion and commitment. Someone with a smaller heart might use that intensity for merely personal gain, but he wants to make a difference, help people.

That's probably what she noticed. His passion. Sometimes, I swear to God, he practically vibrates with it, or something. Okay, so that was a bad word choice. Anyway, so she must have seen the potential in it, and he was blind enough to allow her to mold it into something else, or try to.

God, he's a numbskull. It didn't work, though, thank God, or she probably wouldn't have dropped him. Thank heavens for dubious favors.

So I've spent much of the day comforting Chris, who is inconsolably distraught about his role in exacerbating JJ's emotional turmoil. He put it exactly like that, no kidding. He was a psych major, and we all use big words around here. We try to outdo one another, and most of the time we get a kick out of it, but now, not really.

Josh is here. He looks terribly anxious. His brow's furrowed and he's pacing. I wonder what happened between the two of them. We could hear them arguing, but not what they said. And then we saw Josh storm out, and later the arrival of CJ and Sam. And now this. Chris and I both knocked and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't answer and the door was locked. After a while since Chris was freaking, and I was worrying, I called CJ. It might sound excessive, but with Chris babbling about emotional turmoil and clouding of reason I couldn't help it. I tried to tell myself that JJ wasn't that type, but with all that's changed in the past few months, I wasn't taking any chances.

CJ's sitting with Chris now, with Sam hovering nearby. I offer Josh a drink, anything he wants, but he only shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair distractedly. I put my hand on his shoulder and leave it there for a long moment. This time, he really looks at me. His eyes, the eyes he gave to JJ, shine with anguish and a fierce, fierce love. All I can do is give his arm another squeeze. He returns it, and for some reason this makes me feel better.

Chris begins to mumble about breaking the door down, but Josh surprises us all by cutting him off. "He'll come when he's ready. There's no rushing him, there never was, because he's his own man. He always was. But if he isn't out in half an hour we're forgetting I said that and getting a damn axe."

Josh's wry attempt at levity relaxes us all somewhat, and I'm just beginning to doze off, when I hear JJ's door open.

Oh, Jay, you sweet, sweet idiot.

He's a wreck. He's tousled and slouching and grimy. His glasses are halfway off, and his hair, well…let's just say that the gel is fighting its natural tendency for chaos and beginning to lose. It's quite a sight. Rather pathetic, really.

And rather endearing. Especially when you consider that all this is a family thing. It just proves that JJ really does love Josh, deep down, and always has. Why would he be…crying?

And now he's clutching Josh for dear life, and Josh is shushing him, comforting him. I sneak a glance at Chris; his eyes are bright with tears, and I put an arm around him. All may not be right with the world, but… it's a start.