A.N. Well, readers (whoever's left and hasn't given up on me because I haven't updated in a week), it's a good thing I didn't promise that I'd update soon in my last chapter (and trust me, I just checked to make sure) because it's been a while! I'm really sorry about that, but I got sick last week and wasn't in the mood to write. So here's the next chapter and I hope it's good and worth the wait!

He felt a gentle touch on his shoulder and he whirled around, furious and now hurting inside and outside. He saw his mother's loving gaze and finally, something broke inside of him. Tears started leaking out of his eyes, traveling down his face leaving sticky wet trails. All of the anger and disappointment and hurt he felt came out, as he bent down, leaning on his mother's shoulder, his heart feeling like it was physically breaking. His mother rubbed soothing circles on his back for a few moments, and even though it wasn't exactly the pinnacle of manliness, it comforted him a little.

He finally looked up, stepping away a bit, so his mother could see his signs. "She broke up with Ty and wants to move on with a deaf guy who's not me," he told her, and felt his heart break all over again.

Emmett's night was filled with tossing and turning. You know that feeling when it's so hot and you're lying in bed and trying to find a comfortable cool spot? So, multiply that by ten thousand, and that's a little like what Emmett felt. Except, he wasn't trying to find a cool spot, but rather trying to find a space in his mind that wasn't occupied with heartbreak and dejection. Yeah, it sounded dramatic, but when your girlfriend who doesn't remember that she's your girlfriend and who broke up with her boyfriend who wasn't really her boyfriend decides to date your close friend who's also deaf instead of turning to the love of her life, namely you (darn, his life was complicated!)? Yeah, sounding dramatic isn't exactly on the top of your worry list.

He just couldn't figure out what to say to Bay. She was sure to text him tomorrow, asking him about going out with Jared again, and he couldn't figure out what to say. The answers, "Not in this lifetime" and "Do it and I'll punch his face in" immediately came to mind, but he couldn't exactly say those to Bay without her asking him why he was responding so strongly. And, for some reason, he decided that "How clueless can you get? Because I'm your boyfriend so stop asking out other guys!" wasn't the right response either, no matter how much he would've loved to say that to her.

Emmett just couldn't muster up the courage to tell her, "Yeah, sure, go for it." After all, that would start a whole new degree of awkwardness because Jared would probably text him and ask him what the heck was going on and why Bay was asking him out and what he was supposed to say. And as much as Emmett wanted to hit Jared and yell at him for making Bay have a crush on him, he knew it wasn't really Jared's fault.

So with these confusing thoughts and nixed responses racing through his mind, Emmett spent the night tossing and turning, pretty much hating his life.

The next morning, Emmett's eyes felt like someone had been throwing sand at his face and he hadn't been smart enough to close his eyes and run away. His mother shot him questioning looks throughout breakfast, but he just shook his head, wordlessly telling her to drop it. She respected his wishes and didn't try to engage him in conversation, but he could feel her looking at him every few seconds.

Emmett went through the motions of school and couldn't have told you what any of his teachers had taught if you had paid him. His mind was bouncing from one dilemma to the other, as if each subject was a trampoline and once he thought about it for a few seconds, it bounced him to the other subject. Bay….Jared…Bay and Jared….Bay…Jared…By the end of school, Emmett wanted to unscrew his head from his the rest of his body, throw it into the garbage, and go pick out a new one. Of course, then, whenever Bay actually remembered him, she wouldn't recognize him, so that'd be another issue. That's if she ever remembers, a despairing part of his mind said.

Nevertheless, ignoring his friends' questions and chatting, he got on his bike and headed to Buckner to see Bay. Mind as well face the nightmare, right? When he arrived, he wished he had waited to talk to his friends, or at least to Jared.

Bay walked over to him excitedly when he got there. "Guess what?" she signed, all bouncy.

He couldn't help but smile at her. She got excited about the strangest things sometimes. He remembered when she first found her birth certificate in his garage. He understood why she was excited, but she was practically jumping up and down when she saw her father's name, hugging him in excitement. Then he had been a little taken aback, though not complaining, but he had gotten used to her bouts of excitement…when they had been together, he had often benefited from those exciting times in more ways than one…

He shook his head almost imperceptibly to rid himself of those thoughts, realizing that it'd been a few seconds since she had asked him a question and he hadn't responded yet. "What?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Jared and I are going out tonight!" she told him.

He stared, sure she had mis-signed. Maybe she had meant to say something else?

"What?" he signed, anger showing through. When he saw Bay's surprised look, he forced himself to calm down. "Sorry, what?"

"Well, I texted Jared to see if he wanted to go hang out at the food court tonight, and he said sure, so we're going to meet there at 6! Isn't that awesome?" Bay looked at him, clearly expecting him to join in her excitement.

Emmett's eyes darted left and right, looking for some way out of this situation. His eyes briefly darted down, hoping there was a hole he could jump through…a manhole would do, too. Unfortunately, there were none around, so there went that option.

"Sounds great," he signed half-heartedly.

Bay looked at him again, seeing some deep emotion that she couldn't identify in his eyes. "Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I just-" Emmett started, then started again, "I just need sleep. Didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh, I'm sorry. That sucks," Bay sympathized, then she brightened up. "Would you mind just dropping me off at home? I need to go figure out what outfit to wear."

"Hop on," he signed tiredly, and drove to the Kennishes'.

His drive from Bay's house to his helped him clear his mind. He'd go to the mall and watch Jared and Bay from a distance. If he thought things were getting too comfortable between the two, he'd interrupt, pretend he'd forgotten they were going to be there, and just join their "get together" (he refused to call it a date in his head).

Emmett kind of wanted the time to go by slowly (so that he wouldn't have to face this unpleasant event) but also wanted it to go by quickly (so that he could just get this over with and hopefully forget about the whole thing), so time went by normally of course. Murphy's law and all that stuff.

He wrote a note to his mother about where he was going and then drove to the mall, unsure what to expect. He got there around 6:10 and headed straight to Bilkten's, the store right across from the food court. He figured he could pretend to browse around the racks there while spying on Bay and Jared. Fortunately, this part of his day went well and that's what he did. He could see Jared and Bay sitting and chatting, occasionally laughing together. It seemed pretty comfortable…although Emmett wasn't too thrilled about the way Bay was looking at Jared, though Jared didn't seem to notice or mind.

When Jared got up to go get some drinks for them, Emmett saw Bay scoot her chair closer to Jared's, and Emmett clenched his fists.

He felt a tap on his back. "Can I help you, sir?" a saleslady asked him, giving him a strange look.

He shook his head vigorously, picked up a shirt off the rack to appease the lady and make her go away, and then quickly looked back at Bay and Jared when the lady finally went to go annoy some other customer.

It was when Emmett saw Bay tuck her hair behind her ear and cast her eyes downward slightly with a smile on her face that Emmett decided he'd had enough. He wasn't entirely sure why it was that move that made him give up on stealth, but it did.

He headed over to their table, feigning surprise when he arrived at the table. "Oh, right, Bay said you two were going to be here tonight!" he greeted the two.

"Hey, man," Jared said, slapping Emmett's hand.

"Hi, Emmett," Bay said. Emmett couldn't read the emotion in her eyes. It didn't look like disappointment or annoyance exactly, but it also didn't look like happiness…Was it confusion? Why would she be confused? Now Emmett was feeling confused!

"I was at Bilkten's looking for some shirts," Emmett explained, though nobody had asked.

"Cool," Jared said.

"Okay. Find anything good?" Bay wanted to know.

"Nah…can I talk to you, Jared?" Emmett grabbed Jared's shoulder before he could even respond and dragged him away from the table.

"What's wrong with you, man?" Jared asked, rubbing his shoulder.

"First of all, I wasn't holding you that hard, you wimp," Emmett allowed himself a little smirk, but then it disappeared almost as soon as it came. "Second of all, what the heck do you think you're doing?"

"What are you talking about?" Jared asked, squinting at Emmett, bewildered.

"Why'd you say yes to a date with Bay? Why didn't you text me to ask me about it? What the heck is wrong with you? What kind of friend are you?" Emmett's signs were coming fast and furious, but Jared followed each one.

"What are you talking about?" Jared asked again.

"Oh, come up with something original," Emmett responded snarkily.

"Bay and I aren't on a date. She asked me if I wanted to hang out, so I said yes. Why would I ask you if that's okay with you? We used to do this and you never minded if I was hanging out with Bay without you there!" Jared explained, just as fast.

"Well, Bay thinks it's a date," Emmett defended his accusations.

"Ok, up until a couple of days ago, Bay also thought that she was meant to be with Ty. I didn't see you objecting when she broke up with him," Jared responded, sarcastic as ever. One of the reasons that he and Emmett (and come to think of it, Bay) got along so well was because they were sarcastic; they got each other.

Emmett pulled at his hair in frustration. "Sorry, it's just, what am I going to do?"

Jared patted his shoulder, pityingly. "Maybe it's time to try to confess the truth and your feelings, bro."

Emmett pondered that and decided maybe Jared was right. "I guess. Mind if I steal your date?"

"She's not my date!" Jared insisted, and flicked Emmett's forehead.

Emmett smiled as Jared walked away, seeing him stop at the table where Bay was still waiting, signing to her for a few moments, and then walked away, while Bay turned in the direction of where Emmtt was standing.

Here goes nothing…or everything, Emmett thought as he approached Bay.

"Wanna go for a ride?" he asked.

"Sure," Bay smiled at him.

They went to their park and settled down on a bench. Emmett took a few minutes to compose his thoughts and figure out how he was going to go about this, while Bay sat back and relaxed, clueless about what was coming.

When he decided what he was going to say, Emmett tapped her on the hand, then placed his hand on hers. She looked at him curiously.

"Remember when you woke up and you didn't remember me much?" he asked her. She nodded, and he continued. "You just remembered me as Daphne's friend and couldn't figure out why I was there to see you." She nodded again. "I told you that we had gotten close¸ but you didn't remember that, so we got the chance to get close again."

"Right," Bay signed. "Emmett, what's your point?" She couldn't understand why he was retelling history.

"I wasn't completely honest with you then," he confessed.

Bay tilted her head, gazing at him questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"We weren't just friends. We were together," Emmett signed hesitantly, unsure about her reaction.

"Together?" Bay repeated. "What do you mean together?"

"Like, boyfriend-girlfriend together. This park was "our" park where we used to come and hang out and chat…and make out."

Bay scooted away from him on the bench. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she looked like she was in pain or something. "I don't understand…" She didn't even sign it, just said it, but Emmett understood her anyway.

He started signing again, trying to explain everything before she walked away from him forever. He really hoped she wouldn't do that, but he got the sinking feeling that she was planning on that, though he didn't know why. "You and I got together shortly after finishing our initial search for your father. We kept it hidden from everyone for a while, but after we got more serious, we told everyone and in the end, they were all okay with it. We were really happy together, until Ty came back and messed everything up."

"Ty?" Bay repeated faintly.

"He came back from serving in the army and wanted you back. You told him you were with me, but he still wouldn't give up."

"Army?" Bay repeated. At this point, she wasn't up to much original thought or speech; she seemed to just be repeating everything.

"We argued, he and I argued, he tried to tell you something about me that would make you break up with me, you got mad that I had never told you, ran out, and got hit," Emmett signed, his movements getting faster and more desperate. "When you woke up, you didn't remember us and I had to start all over with you."

Bay's eyes were darting all around now. She stood up. "I can't do this now…this is too much to take in…"

He grabbed her arm, signing "Wait!" but she twisted out of his grasp and continued walking away.

I can't let her leave me, Emmett thought desperately, but he seemed frozen in place and his legs refused to move to chase after her.

"Don't leave me, Bay!" he called out loud. He hadn't used his voice much, so his projection wasn't too great, but the silence of nature helped in carrying his voice to Bay.

She turned around slowly, and once she was fully facing him, her mouth agape, he signed desperately, "I love you!"

He looked into those sparkling eyes of hers, eyes that he had looked into a thousand times before, and saw something there that he never imagined he'd be so happy to see. Recognition.

"It was you," Bay said, staring at him incredulously. "It was you," she repeated, as she walked back to him, plopping down on the bench again. He sat down next to her, waiting for her to continue.

"When I was in a coma, I could actually hear some voices…I remember hearing my Dad and Mom once, maybe Toby, too, though that was unclear. But the voice I remembered hearing, the thing that played over and over and over in my head, was a voice I didn't recognize saying, "Don't leave me, Bay." I couldn't figure out whose voice that way, but it kept replaying in my head. When I woke up and I realized again that nobody I knew spoke like that, I figured that I had misheard or it had been some weird part of the coma that wasn't actually real or whatever." Bay looked at him again, staring into his eyes. "But it was you…I knew that voice was important, and it was you…"

Emmett looked at her, not sure what to say. He saw her lean in close, her eyes gently shutting, and he leaned in, too, his breathing speeding up a bit. When their lips touched, Emmett felt like things were finally right again. Their lips moved against each other gently, yet the feelings that they aroused were definitely not gentle. When they pulled away to breathe, Emmett pulled Bay into a hug. They spent a few moments embracing before Bay pulled away, tears in her eyes.

"I remember," she signed. "I remember."

Emmett didn't think two signs had ever made him feel so happy before.

A.N. Alright, readers! There you go! The long awaited reunion! Don't worry, in the next chapter, we'll have some rehashing of memories, resolving of the Daphne-Emmett thing that caused the accident (in a roundabout way), and more! So, what'd you think? Please let me know! I hope you enjoyed!