Aki- Alas, this story is coming to an end and it saddens me. I will miss the world of 'Christmas Miracles' and 'A Walk in the Park' though I preferred the former more. I'll miss Amber the most because their will be no more fanfics with her, sad. I think I liked her nine year old self a bit better than her sixteen year old self. She was harder to right as a teenager.

Of Boyfriends and Breakups again and again and again

"Home," sighed Amber, collapsing on the couch as they arrived home Sunday around noon.

"I'll order us some lunch," said Rory, walking towards the phone.

"No, you are going to sit down, pregnant lady, and I'll order lunch," retorted Jess.

"Ah, special treatment," said Rory, sitting down next to her daughter. "I am so going to milk this for all its worth for the next eight and a half months."

"I'm sure you will!" called Jess from the other room, surprising Rory a little bit that he had heard her.

Not a few seconds later the doorbell rang.

"Wow, Jess, these guys are fast."

"I'm not done ordering yet!"

"Well, What's taking you so long!"

The door bell rang again, followed by a persistent knocking.

"I guess I'll get it," said Amber stingily as she reluctantly got up from the couch and made her way to the door.

Rory picked up a magazine from the coffee table and began flipping through it, but she dropped it the moment she heard Amber gasp loudly.

"Are you okay?" she called, sitting up straighter to see what was happening at the door. Amber blocked whoever it was in the door way, but with the urgent whispers that swiftly turned into shouts, she knew who it was.

---

"What are you doing here?" asked Amber angrily in a whisper. She had not expected to open the door to find this.

"I needed to talk to you. You have been avoiding me at school. You won't take my calls…"

"Maybe you should have taken the hint," Amber replied viciously.

"I can't. I can't give up on you…on us. Ever since we broke up I haven't stopped thinking about you and what jerk I was."

"Well, you were a jerk, so we agree on something, but I really I don't feel like talking about this right now, Brendan!"

"Please," pleaded the lanky, green-eyed brunette, "Just hear me out." He looked frazzled. He looked desperate. His hair was mused slightly and he appeared even thinner than he was in a large blue t-shirt and baggy cargo pants.

Amber ran one hand through her hair nervously, the other hand tugging at the hem of her pale green shirt as she spoke again, this time not as mad, but more desperate and said, "I really just can't do this right now."

Unknowing to either, or maybe because both didn't care, Rory and Jess were watching the fight from the far end living room.

"Is she okay?" asked Jess in a whispered question, tense in his overprotective father mode.

"Down boy," replied Rory, "this is something she has to do by herself."

"Can I come in," asked Brendan, in a last attempt at reason.

Amber glanced over her shoulder at her father for a millisecond before replying reluctantly in a flat tone, "At your own risk." She stepped back a few steps to let Brendan come in far enough to shut the door, but no further. "But your not sitting down," she added.

"Amber," spoke Brendan lightly, hopefully, "That thing you said, before we broke up,…we wouldn't have broken up over it…we wouldn't be feeling so bad right now if you didn't mean it, right?"

Amber crossed her arms over her chest, averted her eyes and blinked back some tears before answering with a scratchy voice, "So what? What's your point?"

"I-," Brendan cleared his throat, "I don't know if I love you."

"You came here to tell me that!" Amber said, slightly hysteric.

"No, wait. Let me finish. I don't know if I love you, not because I in anyway doubt my feelings for you, but because I really don't think I've lived enough to know what love is. But trust me, I have never felt this before, the feeling we have when you and me are us. I don't know if this is love, but if it isn't, then love must feel freakin' good if this is just infatuation."

Amber looked up at the boy, eyes glistening and with the tiniest of smiles on her face. "Why didn't you say that the first time?"

Brendan let out a long held sigh of relief before answering with a grin, "I didn't have the words before."

"Geez, you're slow."

"Am I forgiven already?" asked Brendan whined teasingly.

Amber didn't answer him right away, but instead, "Would you like to stay for lunch? If that's okay?" she added loudly over her shoulder, directed at her parents.

"Go for it," Rory shouted back.

"Lunch would be great," replied Brendan softly taking both of Amber's hand in his and thy both stared into each other's eyes as though they couldn't get enough.

"God. I won't be able to take it if they make out in front of me," grumbled Jess loudly from the background. Amber glared at he father scathingly.

"Come on," said Rory, dragging Jess to the adjacent kitchen by his shirt sleeve. "Leave the lovebirds alone. They are not going to do anything when we are in the next room."

"You're right he's not going to do anything-"

"Jess." He sighed in resignation and sat down on a stool, Rory following his suit.

"So was that more or less romantic than, 'I think I fell in love with you all over again'?"

"Well," considered Rory thoughtfully, "It takes a lot to make you say something romantic, thus it is more significant when you do, but then again, he is sixteen."

"It was a rhetorical question."

"Then why did you ask in the first place." Jess would have rolled his eyes at his wife if he hadn't thought himself too mature and, for lack of a better word, cool. For a moment or two, he listened for noises in the living room and only heard laughter, so he thought it safe to relax.

"You know what?" said Rory suddenly.

"What?"

"I think it was wrong to compare Amber's boyfriends to my old boyfriends."

Jess raised an eyebrow, beckoning her to further explain.

"Devon is nothing like you except on the outside, so how can we call him 'a Jess.' You're smart and sweet and romantic and didn't try to take advantage of me."

"Wait. Try to take advantage…Why didn't I hear about this? I'm gonna find that punk and rip his head off!"

Rory put up a hand to calm him, "Jess. It's done. It's taken care of. Nothing happened."

Jess ground his teeth before agreeing halfheartedly, "If you say so."

"As I was saying… Everyone is an individual. Brendan isn't 'a Dean-'"

"Yeah, he is much better," said Jess, glancing through the doorway to see his daughter smiling more brightly than he had seen her in weeks.

Rory nodded in agreement, "He's 'a Brendan.'"

Next chapter- the last one…tear…