Shelby was originally scheduled to fly back to NY, even though it was an hour and a half drive at the most. However, she knew if Shane had drove in, he would be flying back with her, and that she couldn't handle right now. She finally reached Stephanie's house and instantly found the spare key in its usual spot. She went to her designated room in the house. Stephanie had always told her that her door was open if she needed a place to crash, and Shelby took her up on the invite. She lay on the bed clinging to the Care Bear Shane had given her when she had to go into the hospital for a ruptured appendix at 15. Here she was 8 years later, the bear a little worn, but still in pretty good shape. Shelby had made an addition to the bear a few years after she got it. Shane had taken her to her senior prom. The 8 x 10 picture of them was put up in a box. However, Shelby had one specially sized for a heart photo frame she attached to the stomach of the bear. Only Stephanie knew about the addition because Shelby purposely saw to it that it stayed that way. That bear went with her wherever she did. It spent many an hour in the car as Shelby lived life. She hugged up to it to even sleep with it at night. Now, that bear was the only thing she had to hold on to until Princess returned later that afternoon from the office. Of all days for this to happen, Stephanie had a board meeting, so it would be a while before anyone would interrupt Shelby's tears. She laid there for a good hour and cried before she finally passed out from emotional exhaustion. She didn't even hear Stephanie come in. She didn't even hear Shane knocking at the front door frantic when he couldn't find her. She didn't even hear Shane come in her bedroom and pull up a chair beside her bed in order to be there when she woke up. When she finally woke up, the first thing she saw was Shane asleep in the chair. She quietly eased out the door, and went downstairs to the kitchen where she could tell Stephanie was hard at work.

"Hey princess."

"Hey yourself. What happened today? All I know is I come home to find your car in my driveway, my spare key missing, and you asleep in your room. About an hour later, Shane's almost beating the door down trying to find you."

"He kissed me princess."

"He what?"

"You heard me."

"OK What the hell did I miss?"

"You know how I had to come down to CT for the meeting today right?"

"Yea the whole hanging Irvine by his balls dancing thing right?"

"Yea, that nightmare. Well, Irvine called Shane to come down and he saw it."

"Oh shit. I know you weren't happy with that at all."

"I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. Shane caught me in the hallway, and tried to calm me down. When he was talking to me, he called me baby. I called him on it, and he said it slipped."

"He called you baby?"

"He said it slipped though. I told him I was mad because Irvine called him and didn't tell me. He wondered why that bothered me, and I told him because his opinion of me mattered greatly and that I wanted him to be proud of me. That's when he asked me if I didn't think he was proud of me and pulled me into a hug. It's when we separated that he leaned down and kissed me. I took off like a shot crying, him chasing me all the way through the parking garage to the car. Just as he got to the car, I pulled off, and came here, the rest is history."

"Sweetheart, I don't know what to say. All of these years, this has been what you wanted. But now that you have it, it's a completely different story."

"Oh no. The story hasn't changed by any means. Its just that I am scared out of my mind that I am going to wake up and this all be a dream, or he is going to realize what a stupid mistake he has made, and never want to speak to me again. That I couldn't live with Princess, and you know it."

"Fancy, go upstairs and talk to him. I know my brother. He wouldn't have dreamed of doing anything if he hadn't analyzed and overanalyzed it in his brain at least a thousand times. Trust me on this one, ok?"