This was fucking torture. Heath was doing his best to avoid Casey, but it was kinda hard when they shared a room and worked together. So he focused on avoiding being alone with him, but of course that wasn't always possible. Right now, he was getting changed in...his room? Casey's room? their room? Man, it was getting way too complicated. Heath was running out of excuses to stay away from Casey- 'I'm tired', 'I think I'm getting sick', 'I've got stuff to do'- and it was hard. Touching Casey now felt like taking advantage of him and Heath couldn't do that, despite how much he wanted to hold onto what they'd had. He needed to stay strong, surely if he fought his hard enough these feelings would eventually go away. Heath had his shirt off when Casey walked into the room. Heath froze, he was uncertain how to act around Casey now. He knew ending this was the best thing for Casey, but Heath didn't want to hurt him either. It was becoming an impossible situation. The next thing Heath knew Casey was sliding his hands around him from behind and pressing himself against Heath's back. It felt so good, and so true, and Heath wanted to believe in this bond they shared, he wanted it more than he'd ever wanted anything else in his life. But just because you want something, that doesn't make it so. He knew his feelings for Casey were genuine but Casey's were based on some idea about thinking he owed Heath this and it wasn't right. Heath had wondered if he should confront Casey about it, but he had no idea how Casey would react, so he kept his mouth shut and hoped that if he tried to restore their relationship to what it had once been that Casey would be okay. Now Casey was placing soft kisses on Heath's shoulder, he had to stop this now.

"I haven't got time for this Case," Heath said, stepping away and forcing a smile onto his face, "I've gotta go see Bianca and sort some stuff out." Mostly it was an excuse, but just because Heath was miserable, it didn't mean Bianca had to be too. They could still go through with the annulment and that way at least one of them would get a happy ending. Casey looked a little disappointed but he accepted it.

"Maybe later?" Casey asked hopefully.

"Yeah, maybe..." It was all Heath had, he had no fucking idea how to deal with a situation like this. Casey looked at him consideringly.

"You alright Heath?"

"Yeah, 'course I am," Heath said as cheerfully as he could manage. A heavy silence hung between them before Casey spoke.

"I'm so glad I've got you Heath," he said, offering Heath a tentative smile, "I don't know what I'd do without you." In that moment Heath wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Casey and kiss him until there could be no doubt that he would always be here for him. But he fought it and tried to think of what he would've said to that before. But that was gone, Heath couldn't think of how he would have responded to that, being with Casey had changed him.

"Thanks, now I gotta go." Heath grabbed a shirt and headed past Casey and out the door. It was the lamest answer he could've come up with and he hated that things were this way between them. It hurt too much to think about. For a little while, he just needed to forget.

xxx

Heath knocked on the door of the flat and Bianca answered it.

"Heath?"

"Hey Bianca. How's it goin'? I thought we might talk about making things official..."

"Um, yeah sure, come in." Heath stepped inside, it was so weird to be here as a guest.

"I don't know anything about this kinda stuff," Heath admitted, but he knew Bianca had experience, she'd ended her marriage to Murphy for him after all. "Can we just get an annulment or something? We haven't been married very long."

"It's not that simple. If the marriage was valid we have to get a divorce."

"What? No, that can't be right, I thought if were married for less than twelve months we didn't have to go through the whole divorce thing."

"Afraid not. And you want the good news?"

"I guess..."

"We have to be separated for twelve months before we can file for divorce." Heath groaned, that was forever. "And do you want the really good news? Because we've been married for less than a year we have to go to mandatory counselling before they'll let us." Oh great, this just wasn't Heath's day. There had to be a way out of this.

"Maybe the marriage wasn't valid?" he said hopefully.

"It was."

"You sure?"

"You're welcome to google it," she said, indicating towards her laptop. He might just do that. Heath took a seat at the table and Bianca sat down beside him. He found a family law website outlining the criteria for marriage annulment in Australia. Heath began to read through the list out loud, hoping that one of them would apply to him and Bianca.

"Ok, so there's 'the marriage was bigamous, that is one of the parties was already married at the time of the ceremony'." That one had potential. "You don't happen to still be married to the rock star do you?"

"No!" she said, smacking him on the arm, "I wouldn't have done that to him, or to you."

"Worth a try," Heath shrugged.

"Next," she said and he shot her a grin before he moved on.

"Right, 'the parties were too...closely related to be allowed to marry'". Okaay next. That was a can of worms he didn't wanna open. "'That the ceremony was phony. The requirements of the marriage act must be met.' What does that mean?"

"It's things like having an accredited marriage celebrant. Look Heath, this is silly, our marriage is legal."

"Let's just finish the list, okay?"

"Fine."

"'There was no real consent by one of the parties.' Maybe we could use that? We could make some bullshit up..."

"I think it's for things like cults. We're just going to have to go through the motions, there's no shortcut for this." Heath wasn't gonna give up hope until he read the final point.

"'That one of the parties was not of marriageable age.'" Bugger, she was right. "You sure you're not seventeen?"

"Maybe ten years ago," she laughed. Damn, this was a hassle he didn't need.

"You're serious about the counselling thing?"

"Sorry..." Heath got up and went to the fridge, there was beer, at least something was going right today. He pulled two out.

"You want one?"

"Sure, why not?" Heath opened it and handed the bottle over. Bianca took a swig, and he did too. She really was a cool chick and for a moment he was sorry he'd lost her. But he wouldn't trade a minute of the time he'd spent with Casey, even if it wasn't real for Casey. Because to Heath it had been the most real thing he'd ever experienced and he wouldn't want to have lived without it.

"C'mon Heath, the counselling's not that bad."

"Huh?" Maybe he could fall in love with her again...

"Liam and I survived it and you will too," she finished with a smirk.

"You seem happy Bianca, things working out alright with Maguire?" It was a selfish thought anyway, mucking her around wouldn't be fair. He had treated her appallingly already, she deserved her shot at happiness.

"Yes..." she ventured, obviously not comfortable discussing this with him.

"It's okay," he told her, "I want you to be happy, but I guess it is kinda weird for us to talk about this stuff."

"A little," she smiled.

"Let's change the subject then," Heath suggested, he was sick of all this feelings crap. Surely they could just hang out for a bit. "Bought any new shoes lately?" That really did make her laugh and Heath liked that he was still able to do so. Maybe one day he and Casey could find their way back to an easy friendship too, but for that to happen would Casey have to fall in love with someone else first? And even though he shouldn't, even though it would be the best thing for Casey, Heath hated the very thought of it.

AN: If you're looking for some more H&A slash action, check out the new story I posted called "Stitches". It's Nate/Andy, yay! Thanks for reading :D