Chapter 18

Willow slowly made her way to her lonely hotel room. The tears had stopped flowing, but her eyes were still stinging from the amount of time she had spent crying in the last few day. She dumped her bag on one of the tiny beds and headed into the bathroom where she threw up before she ran the bath to try and take her mind off everything that had happened, even though she knew it was an impossible task.

In the bar, Matt was onto his forth beer. He didn't even recognised the rainbow haired man who had just sat next to him. "You know that Wills has moved out of the house" he asked "she feels really bad, guilty almost Matt. She loves you and I'm not trying to justify what she did but you know how vulnerable she was after seeing him" "I know Jeff, I will talk to her, but not right now." Matt replied taking a sip of his beer before adding "I love her too but there's no way back from this. It's over" "Matt, I'm sorry bro" Jeff said "but there's something I need to know: what did Eric say in that prison that shook Willow up so badly that she ended up doing what she did?" "You mean she hasn't told you?" Matt replied, shocked at Willows secrecy as Jeff shook his head and Matt told him everything that Eric had told him in the prison.

Willow was immersed in her bubble bath, the events of the day running through her mind. Events that she would rather forget. She didn't hear her cell ringing or the two people banging on her door. She let out a groan and ducked her head under the water, wanting to take away some of the pain she was feeling. She let all the oxygen out of her lungs, letting the warm water wash over her. Willow remained underwater for a few seconds until she heard muffled voices and felt a pair of hands pull her up to the surface "Jesus, Wills. What the hell were you thinking?" Jeff asked, as Willow looked around and saw Jeff, Brooke and Khloe in the bathroom, then her eyes caught a glimpse of him, there, lurking in the doorway was Matt. "Jeff, 1, I'm naked. 2, I'm ok. I was just taking a bath" Willow replied, looking for Matt, who had quietly slipped away, before adding "I wasn't gonna kill myself, if that's what you guys were thinking. Now if you'll excuse me, I need you to pass my robe and meet you in my room in a minute."

"Ok guys, why are you here?" Willow asked as she sat on the edge of the bed, her wet hair clinging to the back of her robe. "Simple answer: we left the house too. You are our friend, Dean isn't" Khloe replied, before Brooke added "we love you Willow. We think he has been watching you over the course of the show, planning this and he waited until you were your most vulnerable and took advantage of you" "You think he wanted to split up Matt and me deliberately?" Willow asked, confused by what she was hearing, "Eric said something like this was gonna happen. God I feel so stupid" she felt fresh tears forming in her eyes, looking around she noticed that someone was missing "Where's Jeff?" she asked, the first tear rolling down her face, "he's gone after Matt" Khloe replied "he seemed pretty upset when he saw you under the water, so Jeff went after him to tell him that you're ok and to tell him our theory about Dean" "thanks guys, I really don't know how I would have coped without you" Willow said, pulling Khloe and Brooke in for a group hug "now, who wants room service? I'm starving"

"So you think he's been planning this for some time?" Matt asked Jeff, who replied "Yeah we: Brooke, Khloe and me, that is, think he has. Maybe since before the show even started" "You know it makes sense, it adds in with what Eric told me this morning" Matt replied "but it doesn't change the fact that she cheated with him" "I know Matt, but I have a feeling this is gonna go much deeper than him breaking you and Wills up. I mean, there's still one major question I have that hasn't been answered yet" Jeff said, "How did Molly get out of prison?" "You think that Molly and Dean are related?" Matt asked, shocked by that possibility, "Not related in the sense that they are brother and sister, but in the sense that they both seem to gain something out of this situation" Jeff replied. "You know, I hadn't thought about that Jeff" Matt replied, knowing that Jeff's theory was making sense of some of the recent activities "Molly being released and appealing her sentence, she had to have had help from someone, and it certainly wasn't Eric. He had no clue when I told him that Molly was out on bail" "Well the first thing you need to do Matt, is talk to Willow" Jeff said, as Matt nodded in agreement, "I will talk to her Jeff, first thing in the morning. Right now, all I want is a hot shower and a good night's sleep"

Willow was awoken the next morning by a gentle knocking on the door. She looked around for Khloe and Brooke, but they had already gone for breakfast. She let out a sigh, threw on a t shirt and walked over to the door, and was surprised to see Matt stood there. "Hey, can we talk?" he asked, seeing the shock on her face, as she nodded and let him into the room, "I brought you some pancakes, I thought you might be hungry" he added, as she smiled at him "thanks Matt. Now, what did you wanna talk about?" she asked, tucking into a pancake "I'm guessing that Brooke and Khloe have told you their theory about what happened. I want you to tell me all you everything you know about Dean"