Thank you for the ride. And thank you all for your lovely comments. I loved every single one of them. This chapter felt like a natural end for this story. I have a few more ideas in mind for Eli and Clare, but I will leave that for a new story or maybe even a sequel. This story was just supposed to be about Clare getting drunk and breaking up with Jake, but I let it get a little out of control! haha Well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

As a Valentine's Day present to you all I will be posting the first chapter to my next story today also. I hope you will read and enjoy that one as much as this one.

Shortly before dinner time, at his house, Adam received two text messages.

"Come over later – Eli"

"Need to talk! – Clare"

Adam laughed to himself. He guessed that his plan worked. He ate dinner quickly and told his mother he was staying at Eli's house for the night.

When Adam arrived at Eli's house, Eli answered the door with a huge grin on his face.

"Oh, you can start thanking me now," Adam pushed past his friend with a laugh.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Eli joked. "But my mom made cookies, so I hope that is thanks enough."

"All for me, right? You had ice cream already; I wouldn't want you to get a sugar high or something. You did have ice cream, right?" Adam was having fun with this.

"Yes, Clare and I had ice cream, you know this. Why don't you just ask what you actually want to know?"

"Stop playing games, just give me details! It went alright?" Adam asked.

"It went fine," Eli said as non-chalantly as he could manage.

"Fine? Only fine? Come on, jerk, just tell me what happened!" Adam was getting anxious for details now.

Eli refused to speak. He just led Adam into the kitchen and force fed him cookies to try and avoid answering his friend's questions. It wasn't that Eli didn't want to tell his best friend about what had happened; it was just that Eli wasn't ready to explain. He was still basking in the glow of kissing Clare and he was still trying to figure it all out in his head. He knew that Adam would be happy for him, but Eli wanted to be sure that this is what he really wanted and what was good for him.

"Okay, enough! I can't eat anymore cookies right now! Just tell me what happened," Adam was almost yelling.

Eli though back to earlier, to kissing Clare, and he smiled uncontrollably.

"It's just, I, we…"

"Yes? You what? Spit it out Goldsworthy!"

"We talked. It was nice. We—"

Knock knock

"I better get that, Bullfrog probably forgot his key again. My father is so scatterbrained sometimes, I swear!"

Eli left Adam and headed to the front door. He was expecting his father to be standing on the other side. He was trying to think of something funny to say to make fun of Bullfrog.

When Eli opened his door he was completely stunned. Clare was standing on his front steps. It only took a few seconds before Clare jumped up into his arms, wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly, and started kissing him.

"I… couldn't… wait… any longer," Clare breathed between furious kisses to Eli's entire face.

Eli began to kiss her back with just as much passion. They were so caught up in each other they didn't notice Adam sneak up behind them.

"Soooo… I take it you guy did more than just get ice cream this afternoon. This is the best thing ever! My two best friends, back together. Misfits reunited at last!" Adam started doing a little victory dance.

Clare closed her eyes. She could feel her cheeks start to burn bright red.

"Adam is here," she whispered in Eli's ear.

"Yeah, sorry. You surprised me. I didn't have a chance to warn you."

"He thought it was Bullfrog at the door," Adam shouted from behind Eli.

Clare finally looked over Eli's shoulder shyly, "Hi Adam."

"Hi Clare," Adam drawled out. "So lovely of you to join us this fine evening."

"Okay, I'm just going to go. I didn't mean to interrupt." Clare tried to jump down from Eli's grip, but he wouldn't let her go.

"Nope, you are staying, right Adam?"

"As long as you don't complain about the movie we picked. It's Gran Torino night. Clint Eastwood. Booyah!" Adam yelled.

"I did tell my mom I wouldn't be home tonight," Clare whispered to Eli.

Eli's eyes widened in shock. He finally placed her on the ground in front of him and just stared at her, trying to form words.

Clare just shrugged her shoulders, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and walked past him into the house.

Adam led Clare into the kitchen to get some snacks ready to watch the movie. They left a shocked Eli standing in the doorway, staring out into the dark night.

"What are you doing, kiddo?" Bullfrog asked his son as he walked up the sidewalk to his front door.

"Huh?" Eli was drawn out of his own mind. "Oh, I don't know. Just lost in thought I guess."

"You have always been a strange kid, let's try and keep the front door closed from now on though. In or out. Make up your mind," Bullfrog gently scolded.

"Sorry Dad," Eli apologized as he headed inside to find Clare and Adam.

Bullfrog followed Eli into the kitchen and was surprised by what he saw. It now made a little more sense why his son had been standing, shocked, in the front doorway.

"Clarebelle! What a surprise. It's good to see you. We've missed you around here. Cece will love having some estrogen around here again. She's been getting sick of video games and violent movies," Bullfrog joked. He had no idea what was going on here, but humor was his defense mechanism. "Oh, cookies! If you give me some of those I'll leave you kids alone."

"Here take them," Eli shoved a handful of cookies at his father and prayed for him to leave. This night was becoming extremely awkward. Eli was getting a bit nervous. He didn't even want to think about what Cece was going to say when she got home. Surely it will be something extremely embarrassing.

"Let's go start the movie," Eli said flatly.

Eli went to put the movie in the DVD player and Adam laid down and stretched out on the couch. Clare shot Adam an incredulous look.

"What?" Adam asked, defensively. "This is my movie spot. You are Eli's guest. He can share his spot with you. I'm sorry, I love you, Clare, but I'm not giving up my movie comfort for you."

"Adam, you are a jerk," Eli jokingly accused as he sat down on the loveseat and patted the cushion next to him for Clare to come sit down.

"So, what is this move about?" Clare asked as she sat down next to Eli.

"It's about Clint Eastwood kicking ass and driving an awesome car!" Adam enthusiastically explained.

"It's about this kid who is pressured to join a gang. When he tries to steal this old guy's car, the old man kind of takes him under his wing and makes him do work around the neighborhood and tries to keep him out of the gang. It's good, but there is some violence. I hope it's not too much for you," Eli clarified.

"I'm not a baby; I can handle a little violence. What made you guys pick this movie, though? Sounds like you have both seen it already," Clare asked.

"We've been having a Clint Eastwood marathon of sorts. Our goal is to watch all of his movies this year," Eli told Clare.

Clare began to realize just how much she didn't know about Adam and Eli anymore. Their lives hadn't just stopped when Clare left them. Not that Clare had expected that to happen, but still, it made her a little sad.

"It's starting! Shh," Adam scolded.

Clare was enjoying the movie, but she wondered why there had to be so much violence and so much cussing. Clare shuttered at each curse word and when a particularly violent scene came on, she couldn't help but cover her eyes.

Eli put his arm around Clare's shoulder and pulled her closer so he could whisper in her ear, "Hey, you okay?"

Clare trembled when his hot breath hit the side of her face.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine. You were right. This is pretty violent," Clare stammered quietly.

"It's almost over, but we can go wait in the other room if you want," Eli whispered, trying not to bother Adam with their talking.

"No, that's alright. I want to see how it ends." Clare cuddled closer to Eli. Now that he had his arm around her, there was no way she was going to leave that couch.

"You can pick the next movie," Eli said and kissed her forehead.

"NO VAMPIRES!" Adam chimed in. "And shhh, you two are very distracting."

"It wasn't THAT bad," Clare said as the movie ended.

"You aren't traumatized, are you?" Eli joked.

Clare shot him a disapproving look, "Other than the violence, and bad language, it was pretty good. I liked the overall story."

Eli smiled at her. She was trying so hard. He couldn't help but think of how cute she was.

"Okay, now I get to pick a movie, right?" Clare specified.

"No vampires," Adam reminded. "How about True Grit? More violence! Need more."

"Didn't you get enough in that last movie?" Clare was shocked. No way was she watching another violent movie.

"How about Gone In 60 Seconds?" Eli suggested. "More awesome cars, a lot less violence."

"No. I know what I want to watch." Clare spotted the DVD on the shelf from across the room.

When she picked it out and handed it to Eli he rolled his eyes, "This is one of Cece's. I think Adam will veto anything with princess in the title."

"Are you telling me that you guys have never seen The Princess Bride? It's a classic!"

"Yeah, maybe for girls," Eli scoffed.

"Oh, I've actually seen that one. It's pretty good. I give up my veto right on this one," Adam told Eli.

Eli huffed and got up to put the movie in.

By the end of the movie Adam was passed out on the couch.

"Are you ready to go home? I can walk you home now, I'm sorry I don't have my own car anymore," Eli apologized sadly. "I could probably get Bullfrog to drive you home. If I beg he might let me borrow his car so I can drive you home myself."

"No, I want to stay," Clare verified.

"Oh, okay, we can watch another movie if you want. Then I can bring you home."

"No, Eli, I wasn't joking before. I would like to stay the night, if that is okay," Clare explained.

"O-of course that is alright with me. Your mom isn't expecting you home?" Eli inquired. He didn't want to upset Clare's mom so soon after becoming friends again; or ever, really.

Clare just shook her head no, cutely.

"Well, you can sleep in my room; I'll stay down here with Adam."

Clare just lowered her eyes and let out a sigh. She didn't want to have to spell it out for Eli. She just wanted to spend the night cuddled up to him again. Why was he making this so difficult? Weren't guys supposed to want to spend the night with their… Oh, Clare thought, what were they? She wondered if the fact that they weren't really anything was why Eli was being so hesitant.

"Okay, let's go upstairs. I'll get you all situated in my bed. I have to get some pajamas and blankets anyway."

Clare followed Eli up to his bedroom and sat on his bed while he searched through his dresser drawers.

"So… did you like my choice of movie?" Clare asked, needing to make conversation.

"Alright, Edwards, I'll give you this one. It was pretty good. Just don't tell anyone I said that. Don't want to ruin my street cred."

"So you liked it? I knew you would!" Clare felt triumphant that she picked a movie he actually liked. Eli was so hard to please with movies.

"What's not to like about a battle of wits to the death? I think that was my favorite part."

"See, I have good taste," Clare stuck her tongue out at him.

"You better watch that tongue! Next time I will bite it off," Eli joked.

Clare stuck her tongue out at him again, taunting Eli. He paused for a second, then crossed the room quickly and dove on top of Clare. He put her hands over her head and restrained her to the bed while he leaned down and pretended like he was going to bite her.

Clare struggled underneath Eli. She knew he would never really hurt her, but she got caught up in the moment. She summoned all of her strength and flipped Eli off of her then straddled him and held his hands over his head, like he had done to her.

"Don't underestimate me, Goldsworthy!" Clare leaned closer to his face and told him.

An overwhelming feeling took Eli in that moment. He leaned up as far as he could in an attempt to kiss her, but with his arms still restrained over his head, he couldn't reach Clare. He gave up and let his head fall back to the bed.

"If you want me to kiss you, you kind of have to let me free. I can't reach you like this."

"Oh," Clare giggled and released Eli's arms.

Eli leaned up on his elbows and met Clare's lips with his own. He moved his lips slowly against hers, enjoying that he was now able to kiss Clare again whenever he wanted. He had missed this.

Clare moved her hands to the back of Eli's head and massaged his neck and ran her fingers through his hair. The feeling of Clare's touch distracted Eli. He stopped kissing her for a second and sighed.

"I've missed this. Well, I mean, I've missed you," he kissed her on the cheek.

She was now concentrating on kissing Eli's neck.

"Mmmm," Eli put his hands around Clare's back and hugged her tight as he dropped back to the bed.

In the heat of the moment, Clare's t-shirt had ridden up her back. Eli let his hands skim across her smooth skin. He was pretty sure this was the most of Clare's skin that he had ever touched. His thoughts began to get away from him as his hands crept further up Clare's back. He was seriously considering pulling her t-shirt over her head and off her body. Before, she would have stopped him a long time ago, but right now she showed no signs of stopping.

"Okay, wait, stop," Eli breathed out.

"Why?" Clare asked as she sat up and slowly ran her hands down Eli's chest.

"You are okay with this? We're not going too far?" Eli asked, kind of surprised.

"No, you are perfect," Clare answered and leaned back down to continue kissing Eli.

Eli tried to shake off how daring Clare was being. He couldn't say that he didn't like it, but this was not the Clare that he had known before. All thoughts were wiped from Eli's mind, though, when Clare swiftly grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up his chest. He leaned forward and lifted his arms to let her take it completely off.

After Clare disposed of Eli's shirt, he pulled her back close to him. He needed to kiss her again, so he did. A few minutes of desperate kissed and gentle caresses passed before Clare let her kisses wander down Eli's neck and to his chest. Eli could feel his heart pounding and was sure Clare could feel it too. He was POSITIVE that he had never been shirtless in front of Clare Edwards before, let alone shirtless in a position such as this. He let his hands find Clare's hair and his fingers played with her curls. He was trying to keep his mind on something other than how amazing Clare's lips felt as they were moving down his chest.

When Clare's lips reached Eli's stomach, and her hands started fiddling with his belt, Eli was bewildered.

"We need to stop!" Eli said a bit louder than he had expected.

"No," Clare asserted. She had just successfully undone Eli's belt and was now trying to undo the button on his jeans.

"Please, Clare, stop," Eli said more gently this time as he put his hands over Clare's to move them away from the waistband of his pants.

"I don't want to stop," Clare whined. "I love you. I want to be with you. I know I was drunk last weekend, but I was serious when I said I want my first time to be with you."

"I love you, too. I would love to be with you, but we haven't even determined where our relationship is headed. Even if we had, there is no need to rush. We don't have to do everything on our first night back together." Eli couldn't believe his ears. Was Clare really telling him she wanted to have sex with him? Right now?

"Then let's do that. Where is our relationship headed? Let's talk. You're my boyfriend again, right?" Clare asked quickly.

"I guess, I—"

"Okay, boyfriend, then let me kiss you," Clare said as he leaned back down to continue kissing Eli's neck and chest.

"I'm not ready for this." Eli gently pushed Clare off of him. His head was spinning and he needed to get out.

Eli got up and walked out of his room, leaving a flabbergasted Clare sitting on his bed, alone.

Eli wasn't sure what to do or where to go. He could feel that he was on the verge of a panic attack. He couldn't let Clare see him like this. If she saw this side of him again she would certainly change her mind about wanting to get back with him. He needed to calm down, but that was much easier said than done.

The bathroom door was open, that seemed like as good a place as any else to have a mental breakdown. Eli closed the door behind him and sat on the floor, in the dark, with his back leaning up against the bathtub. The cold tile floor was actually helping him to calm down a little bit. It felt nice against his overheated skin.

A few minutes later, Eli heard a knock at the door. He chose to ignore it. He couldn't deal with anyone right now.

Again a knock came at the door.

"Eli, please open the door. Let's talk," Clare begged from the other side.

Eli lifted his head from his knees to look at the door, but he made no motion to get up and open it. He hoped that Clare would just give up and go back to bed.

Clare stood on the hallway side of the door weighing her options. She could go back to Eli's bed and try and sleep. Everything would look differently in the morning light, they could talk then. She could go home, pretend today had never happened, and go back to being just sort-of friends with Eli. No, that wouldn't do. She couldn't go back to longing for Eli's kisses and praying to be able to put her hands in his. She wouldn't be able to survive very long if that happened. There was really only one viable option.

The door creaked open a few inches. The bright hallway light lit up the bathroom and Eli could see Clare's face peeking in.

"Can I come in please?" Clare asked hopefully.

Eli just looked at her. He was trying his best to hold it together. That involved not letting her to hear how much his voice would shake if he were to speak right now.

Clare took that as a yes. She walked in and closed the door behind her. The darkness was making her a bit uneasy, but she figured it was comforting to Eli. Clare kneeled in front of him and placed her hands on his knees.

"I do really love you. I'm not making that up, I hope you know that."

Eli just shook his head yes.

Clare could see he wasn't going to talk so she continued, "I didn't mean to overwhelm you. I'm sorry. I decided what I wanted and never even took the time to think of what you might be feeling. I want you to be happy, also. I've learned that it can't always be about me anymore. I love you, so you have to let me help you."

Eli cleared his throat, "I didn't want you to see me like this. I am messed up. You don't deserve to have to deal with my crazy. You deserve someone that can love you without having a break down or a panic attack."

"Are you having a panic attack right now? What can I do? How do we make it better?" Clare asked, ignoring all Eli's talk about being crazy.

"A minor one, yes. You staying calm and just taking normal to me is helping a lot," Eli explained.

Clare took a deep breath and exhaled, "Okay, I think I can do that. I don't want you to be afraid to tell me things like this. We can't hide things from each other. When we kept secrets from each other and stopped communicating, that's when everything went to hell last time. I can't promise I won't get scared, but I will try to be supportive and I won't run away."

Eli moved from leaning against the bathtub to laying his head in Clare's lap. The warmth radiating from her body, and her sweet scent filling his nose, did wonders in relaxing him. Just knowing she was there for him made him calm down.

"What if we can't get past this? I am always going to be bipolar. I am always going to have to take medicine. I am always going to have panic attacks like this, and worse. What if you can't deal? I don't want you sticking around just because you feel bad for me." Eli was calm now. He just needed to make his thoughts known.

"I am sticking around, but not because I feel bad for you. I'm staying right here because I love you and I would be severely unhappy without you. We're starting with a clean slate, remember? You forgave me for running away and I forgive you too. For everything. All of it. Now let's get out of this bathroom and go back to your comfy bed. You owe me a stay in Hotel Eli."

"I thought we were starting over," Eli said with a genuine smile.

"Only with the bad stuff. I never want to forget all of the good times we've had."

Eli was starting to feel better now. It was as though a weight was lifted off of his chest and he could finally breath normally again.

Eli sat up, "Okay, Hotel Eli awaits, but I am not ready to have sex with you tonight. Maybe not even for a while. I need to make everything else right in my life before I make that commitment to you."

"I can be okay with that, as long as I still get to kiss you."

"You can kiss me whenever you want. In fact, it is greatly encouraged."

Clare jumped up and dragged Eli back to his bed. She was so happy that they were finally officially back together and she could be with him like this. Maybe Eli was right, maybe they just weren't ready for sex. This felt so perfect, why would she want to go further than they were comfortable with and ruin the magic? Spending the night in Eli's arms was more than good enough for her. Well, that and maybe a bunch of kisses thrown in.

I hope I did Eli's minor panic attack justice. I apologize, if it came off silly or something. I did not want to joke or make light of what he is going through. It is a serious situation and if he and Clare are going to get back together then they are going to have to learn to deal with this kind of stuff together.

I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. 3