When Dylan awoke the next morning, he was disoriented. It took him a few minutes to figure out where he was and how he got here, but it all came back to him when he looked down and saw the raven haired woman lying on his arm. The one thing about Brenda...she could sleep like the dead sometimes. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and a few stray locks had fallen across her face. He could tell her hair had gotten longer since she left. Dylan had always loved Brenda's hair. He remembered when she had dyed it blonde and a smile came to his face. She had sheepishly admitted to him once a long time ago that she had done it because Kelly told her that he preferred blondes. It was funny because Dylan hadn't been able to picture his life without this particular brunette in it for many years now.

She was clad in one of his old t-shirts that he used to wear when he worked on his bike. His t-shirts had the tendency to swallow her. This particular one fell to about mid-thigh.

Part of him was tempted to wake her, but the throbbing in his head was telling him other things. Aspirin is what he needed. Carefully, he slid his arm out from beneath her and headed into his bathroom to find the bottle of pain reliever.

It was no wonder to him then why he couldn't remember her getting into bed. Honestly, he thought she had went back home. No, Brenda had been up cleaning because his house most certainly wasn't this clean and organized when he left for Baja. Shit. His car. They would have had to left it down there because he vaguely remembered sleeping in Bren's car on the way back. Which is why he was surprised yet again when he caught a glance of his porsche in the driveway on his journey to the kitchen. Those Walsh people really were something else.

Kelly had gotten up early to meet Brandon for breakfast. He called her as soon as he got home last night to apologize for skipping town, but she had assured him that he didn't need to apologize. That he was doing one of the many things she loved about him, which was looking out for his friends and his family. It was a family trait. Never had she ever been more thankful to have made friends with Brenda as she was this past summer. It was in that line of thought that Kelly had come to the realization that often she had let jealousy cloud her friendship with her supposed "best friend". When she had first met Brenda, she was jealous of the closeness she had with both her brother and her parents.

Then, she had been jealous because Jim and Cindy were still very happily married. Finally, she had been jealous of Brenda for having the seemingly "perfect" relationship with Dylan.

Kelly frowned. Instead of going out and finding her own relationship, she had just taken her best friend's.

"Now, that isn't a look I want to see, young lady," Brandon's voice startled her out of her thoughts. Her frown quickly turned into a smile as he sat down beside her and kissed her quickly.

"Sorry, just doing some thinking, " Kelly explained.

" You know I hate when women tell me that. It generally means I'm not going to like the conversation that we're going to have, " Brandon joked, only half teasing.

"Oh no. It wasn't about us. You're stuck with me, Walsh, " Kelly smiled at him.

"Anything but that, " Brandon teased her as he leaned in to kiss her once again.

" Oh, very funny, How's Dylan doing," Kelly asked.

" Last time I saw him, he was passed out in his bed, with Brenda cleaning like a mad woman, " Brandon replied as Nat put a cup of coffee down in front of him.

" Poor Dylan. I mean I never exactly care for Suzanne, it's true, but I never thought she could use her own kid like that, " Kelly's nose scrunched up in distaste.

"Believe me, Kel, I don't think any of us saw this one coming, " Brandon sighed.

Brenda yawned lazily as she padded into the living room. The smell of fresh coffee had driven her from her sleep and she had been unable to ignore it. Dylan was standing in the open doorway, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Momentarily distracted from her quest for coffee, she walked over to stand beside him.

" Anything interesting out there, " she asked softly.

"Nope. The world goes on like it normally does. Amazing huh, " Dylan replied.

"Not really. Just normal, " Brenda said.

His arm snaked out to wrap around her waist and he pulled her to him. She looked up at him with those crystal clear blue eyes that always seemed to be looking right into his soul and it was in that moment, Dylan knew that everything just might be alright. Just by being here, Brenda made the pain a little bit more bearable.