Author's Note: Hooray for my boring job, which allowed a lot of writing to get done today. This, I'm also working on a short film, which I finished the dialogue on! WEEE! I know you all care sooo much, anyway, I hope you like the chapter, it's sort of fun. Lot's of Gary, which I know people like.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Chapter 3: Flashing Back

"So who's the kid?" Dean asked as Julie walked into the bed room and kissed him.

"New roomie," She smiled, "she's sweet. An actress."

"Very nice," he said, "yet another sporadic rent payer. You guys have a talent for finding them."

"She says she can pay every month," Julie shrugged. "So, I know it's only been a few days, but well,"

"Are we going to have the talk now?" He raised his eyebrows, "The let's define this and put it in a box talk?"

"What are we?" She said, "Are you my boyfriend? Are you my friend who I have sex with all the time? Are you my lover? My partner?"

"Lover?" He laughed, "What is this 18th century Europe? And partner? Isn't that what Gary's people call husbands?"

"Gays, honey," Julie nodded, "you're allowed to say it." He laughed, even after all these years he still wasn't sure how he was supposed to treat Gary. Like one of the guys, like one of Julie and Connie's girlfriends? He was somewhere in between. It wasn't like Guy, when Guy came out, things were just kind of the same, he was till Guy, he just dated guys.

"Can't we just say that we're Julie and Dean?" He sighed, "It always worked before."

"Before you were my boyfriend." She said, "and then you were that guy who broke my heart but I couldn't get over. So, no it didn't always work before."

"Do you want me to stay here tonight?" He said, "I can get a hotel room if you want."

"No, I want you to stay." She sighed, it was starting again, the panic that he got whenever they talked about any kind of future, "Come on, I want to do this right."

"If you want to call me your boyfriend, call me your boyfriend." He shrugged, "I don't care. To me, it doesn't matter what we tell other people. All that matters is us."

"I like that answer." She kissed him, "Oh, and Colleen wants to meet Tucker." He laughed.

"I'm sure Tucker would like Colleen." He smiled. "We have a thing for blondes in our family."

"Oh do you?" She smirked.

"Yeah," he nodded, "Especially gorgeous, smart funny ones, who neurotically insist on putting labels on everything."

"Oh you're so funny!" She rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, everybody laugh at Portman!"

"You haven't called me Portman in years," he laughed. "I kinda missed it."

"Well, not to your face." She shrugged, "Behind your back I call you Portman all the time. Besides you were the one who was all, 'we're grown ups and having sex. I think you can call me by my first name.'"

"Ah," he nodded, "got it." He kissed her. "Say it again."

"What?" She giggled, "Portman?"

"Mm hm," He said, kissing her.

"Portman," She laughed, as he moved down to her neck, "Portman, Portman, Portman."

"Well, I'm going to meet up with Rick," Connie smiled, while Colleen and Gary sat on the couch. "I'll probably stay at his place tonight. See you tomorrow!"

"Who's Rick?" Colleen said.

"Connie's lovva!" Gary said, and Connie blushed, "although it gets a little more complicated than that." She skipped out giddy.

"And Julie and Dean," She asked, "Connie said, it was um, 'totally classic' that they were undefined?"

"Hah," he said, "it so is. You want to hear this story?"

"Oh, yes please!" She nodded.

"OK, so, Connie and Julie met when they were thirteen," he started, "you're a little younger, but do you remember the Junior Goodwill Games?"

"Yes!" She nodded, "I watched some of them. I thought they were so cool!"

"Connie and Julie played hockey in them, and so did Dean." He explained.

"Shut up!" Colleen explained, "They're ducks? I'm living with Ducks? Wait until my brother hears, he like worshipped the Bash Brothers."

"Dean Portman is having sex in the next room, think about that," he nodded, her eyes got really big, "Anyway, they all went to boarding school together for high school, and then college came around and they split up. Though Connie and Julie remained good friends, that's where I come in, Connie and I met in college, I thought she was completely fabulous. Then, I had sex with her boyfriend, and things were weird for a while but that's another story," Colleen shook her head, trying to take it all in, "So, we get to be 21, Julie and Carla, our old room mate, who now lives with Charlie Conway in Minnesota, since you're familiar with the Ducks you know what that means," she nodded, "decide to move to New York, and the four of us find this place. So one day, Julie and Carla are out, they're leaving this bar and Dean's coming in. You following?" Colleen nodded.

Five Years Earlier:

"I can't believe you drank four kamikazes!" Julie laughed, as she and Carla stumbled out of the bar.

"You had three!" She pointed out, "And I'm Mexican, I can't be beat in tequila drinking by a New England wasp." They giggled, and Julie looked up.

"Portman!" She said, "Oh my God! Dean Portman?"

"Julie?" He looked at her. "Hi! It's been a while. Like what a year?"

"Two," Julie nodded.

"No, one," he said, "that party, that Banks had."

"I wasn't there," she shook her head. "I had to work."

"Oh, right," he said, "How are you?"

"Good," she nodded, "A little drunk right now, but good."

"Dean," a pouty red head that he was walking with, called to him "are you coming?"

"Dean?" Julie laughed, "Since when are you Dean?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there babe!" He said to the girl. "Since I grew up, Cat Lady."

"That's Miss Cat Lady! Since we're being grown ups!" She smiled. "It's good to see you."

"You too," he nodded. "Do you want to get together some time?"

"So they started dating?" Colleen said. "When you guys were my age."

"Right, and they were together for three years," he said, "and it was great, they're really a great couple. Totally balance each other out, you know? Anyway, three years later, Dean gets this great job with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. They're all obsessed with them by the way, because of the name sake thing. But see, he didn't know how to tell her that he was moving across the country. So he didn't."

"He just left?" Colleen said. "Just like that."

"Called her from the plane." Gary nodded, "It was not a good time. Many things in this apartment were broken. Over the next two years though, he would make these frequent trips back to New York and every time, he would come here, tell her that he was still in love with her, they would sleep together, and the next morning he would be gone again."

"That's horrible," Colleen sighed, "poor Julie."

One Year Earlier

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," Connie said, "stop letting him do this Jules."

"God, its just like, every time, I think it's going to be different." Julie sighed, through the tears, "I want him to love me, Connie, I love him."

"I know sweetie," she said, "I know, but you can't expect him to change, people don't change. You just need to move on."

"What if I can't?" She said, "What if I never find someone else? What if he's it for me?"

"He's not it," Connie said, "OK? You will find someone Julie, we both will."

"So that went on for almost two years," Gary said, "time after time, same thing. And then, about I guess three months ago. The cycle broke."

"He came back and stayed?" Colleen said, wanting to believe that there was a happy ending.

"No," Gary said, "Julie met someone else. A perfect someone else."

"Oh," Colleen said, "I'm confused."

"You watched the games right?" He laughed, "Gunnar Stahl? Ring any bells?"

"The top scorer in the tournament? Yeah, I'd say so," Colleen laughed. "Oh my God? Julie was with him too?"

"They were engaged," Gary said, "I mean, only for like four days, but still."

"Wow," She said. "My friends back home never had situations like this."

"Right, so, Julie ends the engagement," he said, "because she's still in love with Dean. A month of singleness and repeated Sex and the City viewings later, Dean shows up, and now they're back together, or something. It's been four days and Connie and I weren't here for three of them. But he's still here, so I guess that's a good sign."

"Wow," Colleen said, "did you say before that you slept with Connie's boyfriend?"

"Guy Germaine," he nodded, "yeah."

"I think I picked the wrong apartment." She laughed. She made a face as she heard giggling and moaning from Julie's room. "They are noisy."

"You have to sleep next to them" Gary smirked, "used to drive Carla crazy."

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