Veronica pulled away, wondering what it was exactly that they were doing. Three years of separation, a separation that had occurred because they couldn't communicate and no longer found comfort in each other and here they were, wrapped tightly in the reassuring arms of one another. But as Veronica took another second to think about it, she realized that she didn't really care. Right now Duncan was her rock, the one thing she could lean on for support, the glue that held her together.

She placed her head back down on his chest and her breathing eased. She closed her eyes so the view of her daughter's tombstone would be longer be in her view and she focused intently on Duncan. It had been so long since he had held her like this, like there was no tomorrow. She could smell his cologne and breathed it in, memories of their life together flooding into her mind. Three years and he had still not changed. He was still, and would always be, the man who was madly in love, the man that would do anything for the ones he loved.

"What do you say we go home?" he asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Home?" Veronica asked, confused.

"Well ..." Duncan stuttered, "My house I guess," he said, his voice flustered.

Veronica nodded, happy to have somewhere to go other than back to her father's where she knew she would get the third degree. She pulled away from him but he apparently wasn't that ready to let go. He held onto her hand and led her over to his car, helped her in, and climbed into the drivers side, starting up the truck and driving out of the cemetery, seeing clearly that Veronica wanted to be any place but there. He felt guilty for forcing her to be somewhere she clearly didn't want to be.

"Sorry for making you go there," Duncan said, his voice filled with remorse.

"Actually I wanted to thank you for that," Veronica said, turning to face him and smiling. He looked a little taken aback.

"What?"

"Thank you. For making me go there. The only time I've been was for the service and I think going helped."

"It did?" said Duncan, still clearly awestruck that his plan had actually worked.

"Ya. Seeing it gave me...closure. Not the closure that I've been wanting for three years but closure all the same."

"I know what you mean. I go on her birthday every year. And sometimes just when I miss her. I find it helps. I hoped it would do the same for you."

"And it did. I know that we've had our differences through this but...I actually agree with you on this." She let out a half-laugh.

"So what's your plan?" Duncan asked, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him.

"I dunno. Haven't really given it much thought. I only came here to see my dad and Wallace and Alicia. I intended on going back."

"Intended? As in past-tense?" Duncan asked, finding it difficult to mask the enthusiasm in his voice. Veronica laughed. He sounded like a child who had just been offered an extremely tasty piece of candy.

"Yes, past-tense."

"So you're considering staying?"

"Ya. I kind of missed it here. The sun, the ocean... You." She hung her head on her chest as though embarrassed about what she had said. Duncan gave her a sly grin that made her laugh.

He veered the truck down the now residential streets, making his way towards the house they had once shared.

"Look Veronica," he began. She could hear the hesitancy in his voice. "There's something I need to tell you."

She felt her insides twist into a knot. She had been afraid of something like this. Of Duncan having moved on with another woman. After all, she couldn't have expected him to wait forever, especially since she told him she was never coming back.

"Go for it," she said, trying to make her voice sound as light and hearty as possible. But it didn't quite work, she wasn't sure if Duncan had heard the fear in her voice.

"About a year after you left, I ran into Meg," he said. Veronica feared where this was going but she kept her face expressionless. "We sort of..." he pondered how to put it lightly, "hooked up."

Veronica cringed, though she didn't let Duncan see.

"Anyways," he continued, "She got pregnant."

Veronica doubled over and rested her chest on her knees; hiding her head in her hands and taking deep slow breaths. The thought of Duncan sharing a child with Meg when they had lost their own baby was too much to handle. Duncan could see that she was having a hard time adjusting to the news and pulled the truck gently over to the shoulder of the road, undoing his seatbelt and leaning over, placing a comforting hand on her back.

"Hey, I didn't finish," he said, rubbing his hand in circles. Veronica looked up, her face tear-stained but expectant. "She had a baby girl, named her Rachel. But I began to think that the baby wasn't mine. She had been acting really suspicious around the time she got pregnant and I wondered if she had cheated on me. I told her that I couldn't get to attached to a baby that may not be mine because it would be like losing Emma all over again. So I got a DNA test done."

"And...?" Veronica asked, wondering why he had chosen that moment to stop in his story.

"She wasn't mine. I told Meg that I wanted her out of my life. She knew that Rachel wasn't mine but she still decided to try and pass me off as the father. Since I never spent a lot of time with her or the baby because I didn't want to get attached, seeing them out of my life didn't hurt," he finished with a smile. "I'm sorry I scared you."

She undid her seatbelt as well and lent across the gap in the two seats, throwing her arms around Duncan in a strong embrace.

"I'm sorry," she said when she finally pulled away. "It's just that thinking of you having a daughter with Meg after we had lost Emma, I couldn't handle it. It's not like I didn't want you to be happy it's just that..." she let the rest of her sentence hang.

"...That me having another daughter that wasn't with you was like I was replacing Emma," he finished for her. She nodded, glad that he understood and that she didn't have to explain it. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Now lets go home. We can curl up on the couch and watch a movie or we can talk. Whatever you like," he said, restarting the car and driving the rest of the way to the house.

When they arrived ten minutes later, Veronica and Duncan threw themselves onto the couch and Duncan popped in a movie. He sat back down on the couch beside her and watched intently as she focused all her attention on the screen in front of her. He couldn't bring himself to look away. She finally caught on to the fact that she was staring at him and turned to face him, giving him a sly, searching smile.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" she asked, running her hand over her smooth cheeks. Duncan laughed.

"No. There's nothing on your face."

"Then why are you staring at me?" she laughed.

But he didn't smile back. He continued to stare at her. But it wasn't a creepy stare, it was loving. He slowly moved his face towards her, not taking his eyes off her face which was growing steadily closer. They filled the gap and pressed their lips together, three years of missed affection shoved into the most passionate kiss either had ever experienced.