Disclaimer: I do NOT own Desperate Housewives or any of the characters. I do not own the songs I named the chapters after. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: This episode takes place during the 5-year gap, after last chapter, Stay with me.

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Bree woke up the next morning and looked at the clock on her bedside table and a smile appeared on her face. It was almost nine! She could not believe it – she had slept like an angel the whole night! Then she turned and saw Katherine lying asleep next to her. She felt a chill down her spine when she remembered the reason why she was there. Even if she was really thankful to her, for she knew she would not have finally got some rest without her, some silent tears started falling down her pale cheeks. What would her friend think about her right now? She knew her well, she was the only person in the neighbourhood who had found out about her addiction, but that was something different… Something was telling her that their friendship would not be the same anymore… Suddenly, Katherine turned and opened her eyes.

'Morning!' she said with a cute, sleepy face 'How are you feeling today?'

'I'm much better' Bree admitted, doing her best to hide the tears.

'Good! How did you sleep?'

'Very well, actually'

'I'm happy it helped you' Katherine smiled, delighted, as she sat up 'I'll start preparing breakfast. You can go to the shower in the meantime'

Bree felt relieved to see that Katherine was as caring as she usually was. During the day, her friend proved to her more than enough that nothing had changed at all between them. They worked together as they always used to, with their jokes and little catfights, no-one was feeling awkward or strange in any way. The hours went by very fast and suddenly it was dark again, and Bree realized that she missed her friend, who was back in the guestroom. But this time the harsh words of the demons were stronger than her pride and, without knowing exactly why, she found herself standing at her door. However, she did not need to say anything. As soon as Katherine saw her, she understood what happened and smiled tenderly. To Bree's surprise, she was very understanding and joined her in bed without asking any questions. For the second night in her life, Bree fell asleep wrapped around her best friend's arms, listening to her calm breath.

And like this it was every night for over a month. Both friends would share the bed. Katherine would cuddle Bree and caress her hair sweetly, sometimes also whispering encouraging words inside her ear. After the first two weeks, Bree's demons were already gone and she knew she would have no problem to sleep. Even her urge to drink was slowly disappearing.

Nevertheless, she did not want Katherine to leave her bed. She would have never said it aloud, but she enjoyed her company. She enjoyed it in a way not even she could comprehend. She did not know the reason why waking up and seeing Katherine every morning lying beautiful beside her made her smile. Neither did she understand why she sometimes felt a rush when she touched her nor why she sometimes had caught herself looking forward to another night next to her, daydreaming of what may happen… She tried to convince herself that it was only gratitude, but in the bottom of her heart, having those thoughts frightened her. More than once, she had surprised herself wishing she could see more of her best friend's skin and touch her. Could she be slowly but steadily falling for her? Whatever was going on in her head, she should never tell Katherine about it. Even if she had been amazingly supportive to her in her worst moments, she knew that would be far beyond the line. Her friend would probably never look at her again.

Katherine, on the other hand, did not appear to have noticed anything. She just acted the same way she had always acted around Bree – supportive and caring, but without losing her sarcastic sense of humor. Apart from that, she never raised any objections to sharing the bed. Probably, Bree assumed, she knew that her friend was still very frail emotionally and she did not want to hurt her. Or maybe she had already got used to it. Of course, she would have liked Katherine to do it for pleasure and to want her the way she did… but she knew she would never find out, as she did not want to tell her what she felt. Her biggest worry was to lose control and give herself away…

And one evening, Bree's worst fear came true. It had been a day of hard work and stress. They had been catering a Greek party, which had meant a lot of cleaning afterwards and, especially, fighting and arguing for over one hour with their client, who refused to pay for all the plates they had broken. Thank God Andrew had been pretty good at persuading the man to give them the money. As a result of all the tension she had been accumulating from that day and the ones before, Bree's shoulder was aching. When Katherine came into the room in her nightdress, she noticed Bree making strange moves with her arm and shoulder, trying to ease her pain.

'Are you alright?' she asked.

'It'll get better' the redhead replied 'I'm just tense'

'I know something that could help you' Katherine suggested 'I'm not an expert, but I could massage your back'

Just to hear the word massage, Bree got goose bumps.

'A… a massage?' she stuttered.

'Sorry, didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable' Katherine smiled shyly 'I just thought it could help you'

'No, actually… a massage would be… very nice right now'

'Only if you want to do it, ok?'

'I do' Bree said, trying to sound confident.

She lay down on her stomach. Katherine sat on Bree's backside and put her hand on her friend's shoulders to start massaging them.

'Wow, you have such soft skin!' she exclaimed 'I had always been jealous because it looks beautiful, but now that I know how it feels, I'm even more jealous'

Bree's eyes opened wide. Was Katherine trying to say anything?

'Thank you' she murmured.

Katherine pressed Bree's shoulders with her thumbs in order to get rid of the tension. However, Bree was unable to relax. Feeling Katherine sitting on top of her and touching her in such a way was having very strange effects on her. Katherine seemed to notice it.

'Bree, you have to relax' she told her, stroking her back 'Otherwise it'll be pointless…'

Bree gave a start. She took a deep breath and tried to do what her friend was saying. It took her a while, but she finally managed to calm down and started feeling the results.

'Yeah, that's much better' Katherine whispered 'How does it feel?'

'It's great! Thank you so much!' Bree responded.

Bree could not see that, but that comment made her friend smile. She went on massaging her for some more minutes. Bree was feeling more and more relaxed every time as well.

'Honey, if you don't mind, I'm going to stop now, ok? My hands are getting tired' Katherine whispered into her ear, very close, making Bree shudder. Had she actually meant honey when she had called her honey?

'Yeah, I'm much better now'

Katherine made herself comfortable next to her friend.

'You have magic hands. That was amazing!' Bree commented.

'Glad you enjoyed it' Katherine replied with a smiled that looked slightly flirtatious to Bree 'It was a pleasure for me as well…'

Their faces were just a few centimeters away from each other. Bree had no idea what Katherine had meant by the last thing she had said, but the strange signs she thought she had been receiving the whole evening, together with the state of mind the massage had left her in, made her unable to resist her impulses anymore. Without being able to hold herself, she cupped Katherine's face with her hands and kissed her lips tenderly… but hardly two seconds later, Katherine broke the kiss with an expression of shock on her face.

'I… have to go now' was all Katherine could say before jumping out of bed and running out of the room.

As the bedroom door closed with a bang, Bree buried her face in her hands and broke into tears. She had just ruined everything. Now her best friend was scared and probably not coming back. She called herself stupid ten thousand times. Why did she have to let herself go?

To be continued…