A/N: I know I'm a bit rusty…forgive me. Flashbacks are in italics.

****

The Golden Girls theme blared through the bedroom, immediately waking Seth, making his heart palipitate.

"Summer?" he hissed into his phone. "Where are you?"

"In my room. Will you come over?"

You called me at two a.m. to ask me to walk five feet to your room?"

"Uh huh."

Seth sighed in response, but began to search around on the floor beside his bed for his pajama pants.

A few moments later he was dressed and crossing the hall to the guest bedroom, the door whispering closed behind him.

Summer was sitting up in bed, biting her bottom lip in an adorable pout.

"Summer." No longer a question.

"Hi," she whispered shyly. She was wearing his 'I caught you a delicious bass' shirt. It was #123 on the list of things that Summer did that drove him wild, she liked wearing his shirts to bed. Number 122, she now owned a pair of cute red Converse sneakers. Number 121 was her love of cheesy Journey songs, especially when she and Ryan would sing along in the car...

"Cohen?" Summer was standing before him, his shirt now falling softly to the floor, and Summer-not-wearing-his-shirt-to-bed now leapt to #1 on The List. She bit her lip apprehensively, wrapping her arms around her chest in a protective gesture. Seth's mouth was still hanging open, so he forced his jaw shut with an audible 'clack' and reached for her hand. She pulled him onto the bed, and Seth settled above her as if he wanted to ravish her completely. Which he most assuredly did. He began kissing her senseless, moaning incomprehensible endearments into her mouth. Summer didn't have to know what he was saying, she knew exactly what he meant.

It had been too long, much too long since they'd been together this way. With finals, and then the trip home to Newport, it had been weeks since they'd been intimate.

"You're naked," he muttered happily.

Summer nodded silently, smiling and biting her lip again. A hot flush rose to her cheeks.

"You're naked for me. That's so awesome. I should write a book about how awesome this moment is," Seth began. Summer clamped a hand over his mouth before he could go on.

"If you don't kiss me, I'm going to write a book about how they'll never find your body," she threatened, her tone sugary. Seth didn't bother answering her, he dove in again for another breathless kiss, nipping at her lips, laving them with his tongue, ruthlessly plunging in again and again. He wrapped his tongue around hers and sucked, holding her arms against the mattress to stop her from interfering. She writhed against him, impatient, rocking her hips upwards into his erection, moaning indecently.

Seth tore his mouth away after a moment. "Not that that isn't...the best sound in the entire world...but we are in a house full of people," Seth reminded her quietly. Summer was having a problem making her eyes focus.

"Hey," Seth said after a moment, waving a hand in front of her face. "Is something wrong?"

"I just needed to feel safe," Summer said quietly, conscious of Seth's parents, right next door.

Startled by her honesty, Seth pulled her close. His right arm slid underneath her limp neck, cradling her gently as he wrapped his left arm around her, propping himself up on his right hip.

"We don't have to have sex to make you feel safe, do we?" he asked after a moment, equally torn between his desire for her to affirm, and negate. Not that sex with Summer wasn't always the most awesome thing ever, but his parents were only a wall away. Regardless of their laissez-faire attitude about a lot of things, Seth wasn't pretty sure they didn't want to hear their son knocking boots with his girlfriend.

"No," she giggled. "Just hold me."

Seth kissed her forehead. "Don't worry, sugar. I'm going to spend the rest of our lives holding you."

* * *

The rest of the dinner party was a wash. The six remaining diners ate quickly and quietly, and Sandy and Kirsten bade the young people goodnight almost immediately afterwards, promising to help Sophie clean up.

Ryan shared the cab with Summer and Seth back to the girls' apartment, but he had to meet a client for a drink afterwards. Summer entered the apartment alone, unsure what she would find. She called out Anna's name, and upon hearing no response, beckoned Seth inside.

Seth took a quick inventory and determined Anna must have packed an overnight bag and left, and told Summer so.

"Did you have any idea she would…" he began, scratching the back of his neck.

"Go crazy? Have a rage blackout?" Summer filled in dryly. "Would I be a total bitch if I said 'sort of'? I mean, I knew we'd have to talk about it, but I actually wanted to tell her first, you know?"

"And all this is because she's totally gay for you, right?"

"No, Cohen, see I knew you'd get all hung up on that. We're best friends. You threaten her."

"She's the one who invited me over!"

"Yeah, and she leaves here with us barely talking, and comes back to find us in bed together!"

"Technically we were…"

"Shut up, Cohen. It's like, a metaphor."

"Metaphor. Gotcha," he replied with an eyeroll she could sense rather than see.

Summer punched him in the arm with unerring accuracy.

"I see nothing's wrong with your right hook," he rejoined, grimacing in pain.

She plopped down on the couch, and he flopped down next to her, sighing.

"She loves Kurt, I know she does. She just…loves me, too. And she can't, like, separate in her mind the love she feels for me, even though she wants to." Summer sighed.

"You guys really should think about your own soap opera…maybe a prime-time drama…we'll put you right behind the new 90210."

"Tell me about it," Summer replied glumly.

Seth squeezed her knee. "You want to come to my show tonight?"

"No. I'm going to mope. And wait for Anna to come home."

* * *

In the coffee shop down the street from her apartment, Anna sat alone, sipping a mocha latte and wishing she had never picked up Marissa's call. She wished Marissa had died in a freak car accident. She wished, at sixteen, she'd moved in with her aunt and uncle the way she wanted to, instead of letting her dad persuade her to give California a try. She wished Seth Cohen was dead, dead, dead. Only she didn't really wish any of those things.

She fought tears as she remembered the surprise on their faces when she'd interrupted their tete-a-tete – how long had they planned to keep it a secret? It was ludicrous they'd even tried. She and Summer lived together, for Christ's sake. She was practically Summer's gatekeeper. And therein lied the problem, didn't it?

On the overhead speakers, Gladys Knight sang lustily about a midnight train to Georgia. A lone barista sat at the counter, smacking her gum and reading a trade rag. One other patron was sitting in the olive green velvet armchair across the café, typing furiously on a laptop.

Beneath her chair, her own laptop and duffel bag were propped against her furiously vibrating shin. She pulled out her iBook and quickly connecting to the internet. She did a speedy search for shows in the neighborhood, and scribbled an address in her notebook. Packing up, she crumpled her empty coffee cup and tossed it in the general direction of the trashcan as she left.

* * *

"I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.
But since I came here
Felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake."

Though Captain Oats and the Sawhorses promised plenty of original music, they'd played a Blue Oyster Cult cover, a truly terrifying rendition of "Smooth Criminal", and now they were ripping off Yael Naim. Really, some things just couldn't be tolerated.

Anna watched through the smoky interior of the bar as Seth played the bass with furious abandon. She held a rum-and-Coke in a flimsy plastic cup, but she wasn't drinking. She was listening to Seth hit the high notes in a song that wasn't even his.

The band took a break, and Anna took the opportunity to turn to a rabid fan next to her, and ask, "Don't they play anything of their own?"

"Sure, but it's 'Pull Up the Covers' Night," the groupie told her, wiping his sweaty brow with the hem of his t-shirt. "They play scary-bad songs all night, and we get to throw pretzels at them."

"Awesome," Anna remarked drolly before weaving her way through the crowd towards the door. Outside, she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her purse and lit one. The dusky, menthol smoke filled her lungs, making her light-headed.

She walked the eighteen blocks back to her apartment, chain smoking and sipping on her drink. She knew she could get busted for public drinking, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She rode the elevator to her apartment, and steeled herself to enter.

Summer was waiting.

On the coffee table sat a glass of wine and a half-empty bottle, along with an empty glass. Summer poured with shaky fingers, and a small rivulet dribbled over the lip of the glass. She handed the dripping glass to Anna, a peace offering.

"Are you moving in with him just because you're fucking?"

Summer flinched, but recovered quickly. "Are you moving in with Kurt just because you're fucking?"

Anna bared her teeth.

"Don't make that face at me!" Summer commanded. "Look, I fucked up, hugely, and I know that. I wanted to tell you the minute you came through the door, but it never seemed like the right time, and you're still in mourning, and stuff, and I just didn't want to burden you…"

Anna cut her off. "So your big solution is to have me catch you making out with him?"

"Of course not!" Summer replied automatically. "I wasn't even sure it was going to become anything."

"But you're moving in with him."

"I'm letting you move out. In with Kurt. Whatever. Seth and Ryan are going to move in here. Seth is…Seth. We're going to try, I think."

Anna's face crumpled, her pain palpable. "Summer…" Tears clogged her throat, blurred her vision.

"C'mere, honey," Summer opened her arms, and Anna moved forward on her coltish legs. They embraced tightly.

"He's going to leave me. I know he will, eventually," Summer confessed.

"Then why?" Anna asked, crying.

"To set you free," Summer replied softly. Her dark, fathomless eyes searched Anna's. "I have to let you go." Her own tears began to slip down ivory cheeks. Anna's fingers found hers, entwining.

"If only…"

"I know," Summer whispered, bringing Anna's hand to her chest, her heart. "But it's not."

Anna nodded, even as she choked on a sob.

TO BE CONTINUED…