This chapter was written by my friend and muse Darkened Shadows. Thanx so much for all the help and late night chats! LUV YOU.

And to the reviewers, even the ones who have threatened my lazy butt, thanx for your support!

"I'm sure my friend will be here in a bit." Amelia almost cringed as the lie spilled from her lips. Sure, a friend… She'd be surprised if any of them spoke to her for the rest of the week. Okay, yeah, they'd done the whole forgiveness and hugs thing but that didn't mean that the resentment and embarrassment had gone away.

"Alexia?" Millie asked, her young face open and without guile.

"Yeah, Lexi. We had a lunch thing. Well, more like a coffee thing. She said she'd meet me here a little bit after I had brunch with you. I just gotta text her." A frown pulled at Amelia's face – she had a tendency to talk too much when she lied.

There was some conversation that followed but she didn't follow any of it. She was adept at small talk but unlikely to remember it even as it was happening. She had more important things bouncing around in her brain, like how best to approach her friend about not making life decisions when she was trying to prove herself. Or what lie she was planning to tell her obstetrician about the ugly bruise that had formed on her temple from the harsh impact with her backseat window.

Amelia stirred her straw around the almost empty glass and sighed in relief when Millie got in her expensive-looking SUV and drove away. She had ordered another smoothie, but her waiter had yet to bring it. He was lucky she was a generous tipper. The wind kicked up and sent a few brown leaves swirling past her. She sighed again, her own mind swirling with questions. Why did her friends have to be such idiots? Why did she always have to be the one fixing everything? And when would people finally learn that pregnant was not a synonym for helpless?

Her phone buzzed, breaking her inner therapy session. She pulled it out and slid her finger across the screen. Her eyes widened when she saw that the text message was from Tim McGee. Didn't he hate her right now?

I miss her. I want her back. Please help.

Amelia was half a second from replying when another text popped up. Her lips quirked when Piper's name appeared on her screen.

I was stupid! I want him back! What do I do?

Under any other circumstances, Amelia would find this funny as hell. But recent events had seriously worn down her sense of humor. She decided to kill two birds with one text.

"Heh heh, kill," she muttered to herself. Her mind told her that if anyone had heard that, they'd probably be slightly creeped out.

I'm at Jefferson Bistro if you wanna talk.

After she hit SEND, it didn't take long for the both of them to tell her they were on their way. Now, where the hell was her damn smoothie?

As the thought passed through her brain, the waiter appeared almost magically with her drink. Amelia was sure to give him the bright smile and the hard eyes just so he wouldn't know if he'd be getting a tip. Eagerly (maybe skittishly), he cleared away Millie's dishes and left her in peace. She smiled down at her drink – strawberry-banana was her favorite.

Keeping her eyes on the road and her lips wrapped around her straw, Amelia was glad she had insisted on a patio table. Being pregnant often meant a higher internal temperature, making her a little bit uncomfortable, and it was a nice day to be outside. Still, it gave her notice for the arrival of her friends and plenty of time to fully push aside some of the bitterness that still skirted around in her mind.

She couldn't help them if she was mad at them.

She didn't have to wait very long, though. Soon enough, two cabs pulled onto the curb of Jefferson Bistro, one holding Tim and the other Piper. It was odd how synchronized they were for not knowing a thing about each other. Stirring her drink with a firm hand, she waited with a cocked ear for them to notice each other.

"What are you doing here?" they asked each other simultaneously, their voices equally heightened. She had a feeling that had more to do with whatever respective reasons for which they were actually seeking her out rather than not wanting to see the other. "I'm here to talk to Amelia," they continued to answer, still in unison.

Not wanting to torture them too much, Amelia held up her hand and waved. "Guys," she called, catching their attention. They instantly snapped their stressed eyes to her, hurrying to her table.

"Amelia," Piper said in relief, collapsing in a chair next to her friend.

"You have to help…" Tim paused, casting a glance in Piper's direction. "Us?" The photographer nodded sadly.

"Oh-ho, no," Amelia laughed. "I don't have to do anything. The last time I helped, I got the proverbial spit to the face. Besides, you two fouled up things all on your own."

"But…" Piper started, her eyes wide in desperation. "You've always helped."

Amelia sighed, shrugging noncommittally. "Maybe that's the problem." She watched in interest as Tim's face pinched slightly and he nodded as if to himself.

"Maybe it is," he agreed, his tone hard.

"Tim," Piper hissed. "You're the problem and you know it."

Amelia cleared her throat, picking up her glass and setting it firmly on the edge of the table for emphasis. "Now, children, settle down," she told them with a smirk. "I didn't say I wouldn't help, now did I?"

The federal agent went still and finally sat down. "Okay."

"You both need a change of perspective," Amelia began. She traced an unknowable pattern on the tabletop, knowing exactly what she needed to tell them to adjust their behavior but wanting to keep that story trapped in its box. She turned to Piper. "Fixing you is easier than him."

"It is?"

Amelia caught Tim's sharp and offended gaze but was sated when he didn't say anything.

"You've been hurt – abandoned and worse – so you created a wall to hide behind. A buffer between you and the rest of the world, so pain won't hurt so much." She hit the photographer with the full brunt of her dark brown gaze. "But, Pie, happiness has no point without pain."

The other girl huffed, a sign that she was retreating behind that very wall at the truth that Amelia was giving her. "What would you know about pain? You have the happiest relationship I've ever seen."

The pregnant woman inclined her head, conceding the point, and then passed a hand over her face tiredly. She then proceeded to launch into the story, wanting to get it over with quickly. "When Lexi came back from the Culinary Institute, I was a different person than she remembered. Moody, depressed, in agony."

"What? You couldn't spend a year without her?"

Amelia shifted her eyes to the federal agent, but no anger was in her gaze, only sadness. "I wish that had been why." She swallowed past a lump in her throat. "A few months after she left, I was raped."

"What!?" Piper yelped, jumping out of her seat with incredulity. She immediately switched gears, face softening in sympathy and hands reaching out to console. "Amelia…"

"Touch me and you'll wish you hadn't," she growled immediately. "And leave your pity for someone who cares." Piper immediately raised her hand carefully away and returned to her seat.

Tim cleared his throat gently. "What happened?" he asked her softly.

"Suffice to say that there was alcohol involved and I trusted someone it turns out I shouldn't have." She turned to Piper again. "We've all got trauma, no matter how big or small. In fact, I pity those who haven't had anything bad happen to them, ever. Because they'll never know real happiness."

"I don't know how to be happy, Amelia," Piper said plaintively, her eyes attempting to find the answer in the serious brown pools that looked back at her.

Amelia's lips twitched into a gentle smirk. "The first step is admitting you have a problem." She sighed, her eyes going distant. "Pie, it's actually very easy. You just have to want to be happy."

"But I don't know how…" the photographer started before her friend raised her hand.

"Shush. Wait for it." Amelia watched Piper's face keenly. Confusion overwhelmed her visage for two seconds before her eyes flicked to the side, the skin of her forehead crinkling in a familiar calculating expression. "That's it."

"I…" Piper paused, standing sharply enough that her chair made a high-pitched complaint as it fought with the cobblestone underneath their feet. "I gotta go." With that, the photographer exited the way she came, the plan in her head obviously all-consuming.

"How do you do that?" Tim asked suddenly, leaning forward in interest.

"Asks the federal agent-slash-detective," she remarked dryly. "That story wasn't just for her, you know."

Tim sighed, deflating before her eyes and placing his head in his hands. "I know," he groaned. "Was it true?"

"Of course it was!" she exclaimed, appalled. "Why would I make up something like that?"

Pulling his hands away from his face, the agent granted her a self-deprecating smile. "I don't know, maybe the two guys whose asses you've handed to them recently? Next to Ziva, you're the epitome of badass, Amelia."

"And now you know why," she murmured just loud enough for him to hear. "I know she's told you that we call her helpless."

"Who? Lexi?" As if struck by lightning, Tim remembered exactly why he wasn't very fond of his girlfriend's friend. That is, if she was still his girlfriend.

"Yeah. She lied."

Tim scoffed immediately. "Lexi couldn't tell a lie if her life depended on it."

"And yet…" Amelia shrugged noncommittally. "It's what she does – pawns her feelings of helplessness on someone else so she doesn't come off as weak. It's a carryover from Derrick and some other bad relationships she's found herself in. I've tried to break her of it."

"You've called her helpless," Tim accused softly.

"And I've called you an idiot," she rejoined with a roll of her eyes. "You're still an extremely smart guy." She sighed and rolled her wrist agitatedly. "When I call Lexi helpless, she knows she's doing something I don't like, probably something she shouldn't be doing if she can help it. When I say it, I may not mean that she's helpless exactly, but it's the word she responds to the most."

Tim harrumphed softly but didn't argue. It was clear that he could see her point, as much as it pained him to do so. "Why didn't you tell her?" he asked softly, his tone conveying that he had switched back to the topic Amelia would give anything not to discuss.

"I made her establish an incommunicado rule before she left for the school. She was doing the fast track and any distractions would have derailed her." She shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. "But I guess… if Lexi didn't know about it, it made it a little less real."

Closing her eyes against past memories that flashed across her mind, Amelia stood. "You know, I should get back home."

Tim stood as well, ever the gentleman. "Amelia?"

She looked at him, her blank face communicating that she was prepared for any insults. "Yeah?"

"I'm really sorry."

She smiled then, although she could still feel sadness draining that expression. "I know. Just… keep trying, okay? It'll turn out alright." With that, she turned away, walking in long strides to the curb to hail a cab. However, she couldn't help but hear his murmured reply.

"I hope so."

Again, thank you Darkened Shadows!