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, Losing my mind. Thanks a million for your lovely reviews, they made me very happy! :-)

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Mary Alice's voiceover

There's a time of the day in which the streets are deserted and not a single sound can be heard. Only the faint light of the street lamps fills the darkness. This is the moment when the inhabitants of the suburbs sleep and the world seems to stop turning, and only troubled souls wander the alleys, searching for comfort.

It was already past midnight. Katherine Mayfair shivered. The air was cold and she was only wearing a coat above her nightdress and the first shoes she had found. She was glad no-one was there to see her, especially because of the tears that were running down her cheeks.

After Bree's kiss, she had been so shocked that the only thing she wanted was to be alone with her thoughts to find some clarity in all that mess. That is why she had run away from her friend's house dressed like that. She needed time, time to think of what had just happened and what was going to be next. However, what you should know is that Katherine had no intentions of moving out of her best friend's home. She was not that kind of person. She was indeed shocked, but not in the way one would have thought. She was not scared of the fact that her best female friend had kissed her… what worried her was that she had been longing for that kiss since her friendship with Bree had become real.

No-one could deny that they had had quite a rough start and clashed since the very beginning. Nevertheless, they had slowly discovered that they were very similar and felt a deep spiritual connection. They understood each other better than anyone else on the lane could possibly understand them, or rather anyone else they had ever met in their lives did. Yes, they were rivals and liked to compete to show the other one who was superior, but they secretly admired and envied each other.

In spite of their strange rivalry, destiny had apparently wanted to bring them closer and forced them share some of their hardest moments: the tornado, when Adam had confessed his infidelity, being taken as hostages by Wayne in Dylan's old room… It had been precisely during the latter, when Katherine had realized how much she actually cared about Bree. In order to prevent her from getting hurt, she had gone as far as to confess her darkest secret, which she had been fighting to keep from everyone for twelve years. Moreover, she had also discovered that it was mutual – the fact that Bree had talked her best friends into providing alibis for her had meant a lot to her. She was also thankful to Bree for having convinced the other housewives to accept Katherine as one of them.

And maybe it had been only the loneliness after Adam had left, or perhaps the fact that Bree had been the one to support her and give her company when she was on her own, but she began to see her friend in a very different way. Being close to Bree made her happy and she could not picture life without her. Therefore she was thankful that they were sharing the catering business, which gave them the chance to spend more time together, time they had not only used to organize events and discuss recipes, but also to talk about personal topics they did not want to share with anyone else. When she was alone with Bree, Katherine felt released. She could be herself with no fear of being judged.

But that intimacy was not the only thing she treasured about their friendship. Bree had never been the kind of person who likes physical contact or public display of emotion, but with Katherine she would sometimes make an exception. There were moments in which she was feeling particularly under the weather and Katherine would comfort her, mostly just by taking her hand or caressing her beautiful red hair. Katherine regarded those rare, brief contacts as something very special, above all knowing how hard it was for Bree to let someone get so close to her. She would never admit it aloud, but on occasions she had wanted for Bree to be worried or upset… obviously not because she enjoyed seeing her friend suffering, but simply to have the chance to be her shoulder to cry on.

It had only been on that evening when she had finally managed to decipher her feelings, and it had frightened her. Knowing that Bree was a happily married woman who surely only saw her as a friend, she had been able to hide, even control those strange emotions. She had almost managed to make herself believe that it was only a mixture of friendship, gratitude and loneliness, but not more. However, that kiss had turned her world upside down once more. It was not the act itself what had made her run away, but the intense joy she had felt when Bree's lips had met hers. For little more than two seconds, her whole body had been jolted by a heavenly pleasure she had not experienced in ages. And it made her feel terribly guilty.

Katherine had been strolling around the block for more than half an hour, crying. It was already the third time she had walked past the same house. All she wanted was to clear her ideas, but everything had happened so fast and seemed so complicated… Even though she would have needed more time to get out of her confusion, she decided it was time to go back. The truth was that every minute she had spent trying to figure out what was going on, she had not stopped worrying about Bree. How would she be feeling at that moment? She wondered whether she would have truly gotten rid of the last bottle in the house. The thought of Bree doing something stupid and hurting herself scared her as much as her own feelings did. Katherine took a deep breath and wiped her tears with her hands before heading for her best friend's home. She could not let Bree see her like that.

To be continued…