She ascended the stairs to the loft slowly, a little nervous, a little hopeful, and very unsure of what to expect. As she reached the loft that overlooked the perfectly recreated sets, she was taken by surprise at all of the emotions that flooded back to her in an instant. The last time she had been in that space was the night of the finale with Courteney, Matt, and David, seventeen years ago.

She had lived so much life since then. She was a completely different person than she was the last time she was here – back before all of the heartache… back before life had taken all of those twists and turns that she never expected. Being here was much harder than she thought it would be.

As she peered down on the set below, she felt a set of eyes on her. She scanned the small loft and noticed David on the other side, sitting on the black couch. He appeared lost in thought, but when their eyes met, he smiled.

Something about being back there, in that loft with him, was so beautiful and so painful all at the same time. It felt like an eternity ago that this was the most natural occurrence in the world. She wished it still felt that way.

"So… I know you, Jen. I know when something is wrong. What is it? Why did you push me away?"

She was a bit startled by his forwardness. He had always been one to get right to the point. Was he talking about today? Something told her there was much more to the question. Suddenly, she felt her inhibitions escape her...and she allowed them to. She had spent seventeen years harboring questions that kept her awake at night. She was tired of holding on to them any longer.

"Push you away? I didn't push you away. You're the one that ran away when I needed you."

He stood up from the couch, as if it were the only way to level with her, his dark eyes peering at her from across the room. His face hardened and he swallowed hard. "Needed me? I was protecting us! You know we couldn't let anything happen between us while we were working together!"

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about after… when you moved to New York."

"What? You were married! What the hell was I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for him to break your heart? I asked you to wait for me...

...why didn't you wait for me?"

His words dug at the pieces of her heart she had worked so hard to glue together over the years. He was right.

He was always right.

She let out a sigh. "It was too damn hard, David!"

She fought back a sob like her life depended on it. He stared back with equal intensity, searching for an answer. The air was thick with masked feelings.

"It was too hard to be around you every day, having to love you on camera and pretend like I didn't once they shut off. I had no other choice."

"Jen, I watched you fall in love with someone else. I watched you marry someone else. I tried to make myself fall for someone - I tried to move on. Even after all of that, I couldn't do it. I couldn't get you out of my head, no matter what I did. Do you know how much it hurt to see you with him, knowing that you should have been with me instead, but there wasn't a goddamn thing I could do about it?"

Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes. She was terrified that she could be making a huge mistake.

"Why didn't you tell me? You never said a word. I just assumed you had moved on! You were in relationships! You were doing fine! Then you just left, right when my world was falling apart. I tried to reach out and you wouldn't even talk to me."

"I couldn't. I had to get away from you. I knew that as long as I was around you, I wouldn't be able to get over you. So I had to get as far away as I could."

"So you just ran away from everything."

She turned around to make her way back down the stairs. This was way too much to handle today. She wasn't in a place to process seventeen years worth of emotion right now. In one last-ditch moment of clarity, she turned back around to face him with one foot already on the stairs.

"The hardest thing about all of this is that I wish I hadn't seen how hard you fight for everything you love when you didn't fight for me."

She quickly turned around and bounded down the stairs as tears flooded her eyes. When her feet hit the ground, she glanced behind her to see if he was there.

He wasn't.

He hadn't come after her.

She didn't know why she expected to see him. He hadn't fought for her back then, so why would he be willing to fight for her now? She hated the fact that she still couldn't get over it, after all of this time. She was plagued with the why's and the what-if's that always kept her wondering what could have been. Maybe this was what she needed to truly move on with her life. She continued down the narrow white hallway and through the door that led into the back of the living room set. As she made her way towards the edge of the set, she heard footsteps on the wood floor behind her.

"Jen, wait!" His voice rang in her ears.

She turned around slowly.

His dark brown eyes peered at her like nothing else in the world mattered or ever would again. The look on his face was as unhindered as she'd ever seen in real life. She could see the rise and fall of his chest through his t-shirt.

"You didn't ask me to stay."

Part of her wanted to turn around and walk away… to get the hell out of there and continue to avoid it because it was just easier that way.

But as they stood there, staring at each other, she realized how monumental this moment truly was. It's not every day you get an opportunity to face your biggest demons and confront the heartache that plagued almost half of your life.

He cleared his throat. "When we wrapped and I told you I was going to New York City… why didn't you ask me to stay?"

His dark eyes softened as they locked on hers, unable to look away. She could feel the tension between them, so thick you could cut it with a knife. She moved towards him, slowly, and she begged for her eyes to tell him everything she wished she had said in the first place.

"I don't know…"

"Jen, I needed you to tell me to stay. There was no way I could be the person that broke up a marriage. You know I would have stayed. I never wanted to move on. I didn't even try for the longest time. If I had tried, it would have been impossible because you would have been everywhere I looked."

She felt an ache in her heart. It didn't feel like sadness anymore after finally saying those words to him. It felt like desire.

She wondered if he felt it too.

"Seeing you here... on set - it just brought everything back. It reminded me of all the feelings I spent years trying to forget."

She took a deep breath.

"It should have been you all along, David. I always wanted it to be you."

His mouth slightly agape, his eyes pierced hers with their intense warmth. He furrowed his brow as if he was processing her words. She could see his heart beating through his shirt. It was so much easier to be angry than vulnerable. Before she could process the moment, he quickly closed the gap between them and grabbed her by the waist as his lips met hers.

Her hands instinctively reached for his face as her body spread with warmth, unfurling her senses. Their lips moved in an aggressive rhythm, as if a soft and tender kiss couldn't do it justice. He pulled back quickly, as they both gasped for air.

She placed her hand on his cheek, her thumb grazing the soft contour of his mouth. She discovered in that moment an unfamiliar feeling inside that told her that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. For the first time ever, neither of them were in a relationship. For the first time ever, it didn't have to be a secret. As her desire tangled with his, she knew there was no more reason to fight it. Because it's David. They might have torn each other's hearts to pieces, but he still held her like she was the most precious thing in his world. Before she could even think, her desperate desire for him unleashed as she kissed him with a fervent urge she had never known before. A current ran through her veins; like an electric charge on the verge of erupting into a perfect storm. Their hearts had longed for each other for half of their lives. Their bodies, desperate for each other. They gave into one another, overtaken by a power stronger than either of them could stand to bear. She could feel his heart beating wildly against hers. As his lips found a home with hers, all of the built-up tension and feelings were finally released after seventeen long years.

She looked into the eyes of the man she had always loved most as she placed her hand over his heart. She could feel it beating out of his chest. The heat from his body radiated against hers. As their eyes met, his face blushed and he flashed her a boyish grin.

He cleared his throat and gently ran his fingers along her silky hair. "I ran from you for years, but I never got anywhere. I could run forever, but it would always lead right back to you. I'm tired of running. I know I should have done this seventeen years ago, and I'm sorry. But I'm doing it now."

Her blue eyes sparkled as tears began flowing freely down her check.

The world suddenly stood still and all that he could see was Jen, his greatest love, his biggest weakness, standing right in front of him. Her lips were pursed as she looked at him, her head slightly tilted to the side. Something about the reflection of the lights hit her eyes just right. She had never looked so beautiful.

"I never should have let you go, David. Not a single day has gone by that I haven't regretted it. Seeing you today, in this place where it all started… it was so hard. It just brought back so many memories and I didn't know how to handle it because it just reminded me how much I tried and failed. I kept looking for a love that could replace it but nothing ever did. Even if I didn't know it until now, I have been waiting for you forever."

After hearing those words, he let go of a breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. He gently wiped away a tear that had fallen onto her cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers.

"You have no idea how long I have waited to hear those words. I always hoped that someday we'd find each other and realize the days we spent waiting for each other were worth it. I don't know what this means for us exactly but I know that I'm not done trying to figure it out."

She wrapped her arms around him, feeling the strong toned muscles of his back.

"Maybe we needed the time apart to truly understand who we were and what we wanted in life."

She had taken the time to put herself first, and she didn't apologize for that. She took risks and she proved her worth and she became something. It wasn't until the realization of losing David for good smacked her right in the face that she finally realized that she didn't want to do life without him. She could have… but she didn't want to. Being in his arms felt like home. She had traveled the world for years to find what she was looking for, but turns out, she came right back home to find everything she ever needed.