Chris held up both her hands and nodded. "I should go."

Luca still hadn't arrived home, but Chris knew she had pushed too far. She just needed to go. This was getting them nowhere at all, it was only making shit worse.

She grabbed her things and walked out to her truck. As she went to pull the door closed, she saw him walking to her. She shut her eyes and shook her head. She didn't want to talk anymore. He stood next to her door and tapped on the window, wearing a frown that made his dimples deepen.

She slowly lowered the window but couldn't look at him. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I, I didn't…"

"I get it Chris." He answered. "I'm sorry too, we just can't keep doing this."

"I know," she nodded. "I'll go."

"No!" He reached up his hand to her window. "Stop running and let's just cool down and rewind here." Chris sat there in silence, staring at her steering wheel. After a few moments he spoke again. "I need you in my life. I want you to be my friend. Bottom line."

Chris nodded. "I know. I didn't mean to get so fiery and say some of that. I."

"Hey, it's okay. I got fiery too." He admitted. "I shouldn't have lashed out either."

She shook her head and looked away from him. "How the hell do we just rewind?" She slowly looked back at him. "I mean after all of that, how do I just pretend you didn't say those things?"

"Same way I've gotta try and let go of what you said." He offered back. "I know it won't be easy for either of us, but our friendship is more important to me than letting you run away because it's easier."

"I should still go though." She muttered.

He nodded letting go of her door. "Okay, can we talk in a day or two? Once we have both calmed down."

"Sure." She answered. Just wanting him to stop so she could go. As she drove away and turned onto the freeway, she felt the anger simmering away. 'How dare he be so arrogant and conceited.' She cursed thumping the wheel. 'To think that what he was too scared to say out loud would ruin me and Jared. What an ass! What he assumes he is just so irresistible that I would run to him like that?'

She drove the rest of the way trying to tune him out and think about something else. Then she remembered she needed to call Jared. 'God what on Earth will I say to him? I can't tell him all of that?'

Eventually climbing the stairs and opening the door, she flopped onto the sofa and held her head in her hands. 'What a fucking mess. Why did I have to push him like that?' She stood up and kicked her foot in anger at the solid coffee table, soon regretting that as pain reverberated through her toes.

She was still cursing herself when her phone ringing snapped her back. It was Jared. For a second there was a part of her that told her not to answer it. To just text him later and say something came up, but she knew that would not help.

"Hey," she said slowly picking it up.

"Hey, there's my girl." He answered happily. "Sorry I was just impatient and was missing you." He chuckled.

Chris felt herself smiling. "It's okay, I only just got home," She informed him. "It's so nice to hear your voice." That definitely wasn't a lie. Just the sound of his voice made her heart flutter and a smile spread on her face. "How was your day?" She asked.

"Ah, okay, nothing too exciting. Yours?"

"Um," She hesitated slightly. She remembered her promise to herself and him way back at the start. That she couldn't keep things from him or lie. "Open and Honest" she whispered in her head.

"It was, um, okay. I guess." She answered trying to form her thoughts on what to say first.

"Only okay? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I, well let me put it this way. Being on light duties usually means very little excitement but, a few interesting things happened today."

"Oh really? These the loose ends you were tying up?"

"Uh kind of? Yeah," She answered

"Explain." He prompted with a laugh.

"Well, I was going to call you earlier today."

"Yet you didn't!" He added, feigning hurt with a chuckle. It made Chris laugh slightly.

"No, I didn't. But…." Her tone becoming more serious. "That was because I had an unpleasant pretty much unprofessional encounter with Street's Ex."

"Oh, what do you mean? What happened?" He asked curious and concerned.

"She um, is part of the legal team representing Lilly's mom."

"Oh," He paused wondering what had happened for Chris to be this way. "So, what exactly was unpleasant about it?" He wasn't sure what to make of this and whether he should be worried.

"I ah, hadn't seen Molly since Street told me they broke up and to be honest I hadn't even considered what it would be like running into her. Given everything that happened you know."

"Yeah, I can imagine it was uncomfortable. Especially when you haven't really worked that all out with Street yet huh?"

"Yeah." Chris paused and closed her eyes. "Lynch had just given me the heads up that Molly would be on the case and need to speak to me and probably you. So, I was holding my phone and muttering out loud about whether I should call you now."

"Okay?"

"Well, she loudly says something about me calling Jim. In front of everyone. With enough insinuation in her voice that everyone would have known what she meant."

"Hmm, sounds like she is pissed about the break up and ..."

"My role in it?" Chris added sadly.

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for that Chris. You didn't ask Street to dump Molly."

"No, but in her mind, I can see why she thinks I all but did. Especially if he told her about our talk, the finding your happy and going after it. She probably assumes that was me telling him without telling him, you know."

"Well, maybe you need to talk to Molly. Explain."

"God," Chris exhaled. "That would probably be the adult thing to do, but Jesus, what a mess."

"Have you asked Street about it? Found out what he told her. Why she was so pissy with you?" Jared swallowed hard dreading that answer.

"Kind of. That was my loose ends this afternoon. I stopped by to ask him and explain what happened with Molly, but we got into another fight."