Duncan took a long drag of his cigarette. He hadn't smoked in years, the habit had been given up when he had become a father; but when he had gotten into his car and began driving it was the only thing that he could think of to distract him from the mistake he knew he made. For the first time in a long time he panicked. Courtney was going to hate him.

He freaked out. When they were interrupted and Courtney had put a pause on their intimate moment, it gave him a moment to think about what they were about to do and he came to a realization that scared the crap out of him. When she kissed him he had felt something that he hadn't before and it it's intensity scared him. This wasn't a fling that didn't mean anything. This was real and he didn't want to mess it up. It was then that he realized that his mom was right, he was still in love with Courtney, and he was sure that he always would be in love with her.

Usually his fight or flight sense always steered him towards fight. He wasn't one to back down, but this was different. This was serious. Was he ready for something this serious? He didn't know; and he didn't want to hurt her again. If he wasn't sure about this then he knew he couldn't sleep with her, no matter how much he wanted to.

So now what?

Duncan's phone buzzed in his pocket as he pulled up to his house. He sat in his car with the engine off, too nervous to take a look. He was sure it was Courtney texting him to ask why he disappeared. He didn't have an answer that would be good enough. He was going to have to face her sometime, Vanessa would be very concerned if her dad just disappeared off the face of the earth. Then again, Courtney's wrath could easily be the scariest thing Duncan had ever seen, and he had seen a lot. Her fierceness was part of drew him to her.

Knowing that he would have to face her sooner or later, he checked the digital screen. The message wasn't what he was expecting, and it definitely wasn't from whom he was expecting.

"She must get it from you, because I have no clue how your daughter can sleep through Addie screaming-" Courtney said as she walked back into her bedroom to find it empty. Courtney's heart sunk but tried not to immediately make assumptions. She traveled to the window that faced the front yard and parted the curtains. When she saw that Duncan's car was no longer in her driveway, she had to push down the disappointment. Maybe there had been an emergency, but she doubted it.

Had he changed his mind? Did he not want her? Part of her wanted to call him, find out why he had left her. The more stubborn part of her wouldn't give in to the urge. If he didn't want her then fine, it was what she said she wanted in the first place wasn't it? If it was what she wanted, then why did it hurt so much?

Courtney held back the tears. She tried to think of this in a positive way. If they hadn't been interrupted they could have had an amazing night together but she would have broken her own rule and put a strain on their friendship. It was better this way, right? She couldn't fault him for listening to her for once, could she? That didn't change that she felt rejected.

Her cell phone chimed and she hated that she hoped it was him. She avoided checking it for a while. She drained the tub, put on pajamas and brushed her teeth to make the time pass. It wasn't until she had gotten into bed that Courtney finally looked at her cell phone.

It was the last person that she anticipated to reach out to her, with an invitation she couldn't see coming this late on a Sunday night. She scanned over the message again to make sure she hadn't misread the mass text.

'Dudes!

It's been fifteen years! Reunion party at my place next Saturday! Original TDI cast only!

No Chris and No cameras!

Feel free to bring kids!

-Geoff'

Courtney immediately deleted the message. No way in hell would she be going.

Courtney didn't have to see Duncan until the next afternoon. As per usual, she brought the girls to preschool in the morning and he picked them up. Now as she pulled up his driveway she knew there was no more delaying the inevitable. She could already see how it would play out. She would pretend nothing happened and he would use that as an out and they would go back to the way they were. More incidents would happen for years to come and they would be stuck in this cycle forever. Wonderful.

Just as she was unbuckling her seatbelt and readying herself for the inevitable, Courtney's cell phone went off. She had to dig through her purse to find it and answered it without checking the caller id.

"Hello?"

"Courtney?" The female voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"Yes?"

"Hey! It's Bridgette!" She was caught by surprise, she and Bridgette tried to catch up every now and then but the calls became fewer and far between as they got older.

"Uh, Courtney?"

"Yes, hi! Sorry I was just caught off guard. How are you?"

"I'm good! Geoff hadn't heard from you so I thought I'd give you a call to see if you're coming on Saturday." Out of all the couples from Total drama, Geoff and Bridgette were still together, Courtney didn't necessarily understand it but she did admire their commitment to each other.

"I did, but I don't think I'm going to be able to make it."

"Is it because of, you know who?"

"What?"

"Is it because of Duncan?" She had almost forgotten that no one really knew that she saw Duncan on a daily basis.

"No, it's not Duncan."

"Are you sure? I know things ended badly with you two, and would completely understand if you didn't want to see him."

"That's not it." Speaking of, she could see his front door opening and her little one running towards her car, Duncan trailing behind her.

"Then what is it?"

"It's a long story." Courtney jumped out of the car to greet a grinning Addie.

"Then tell me at the party."

"But I'm not going to the party."

"What do you mean you're not going?" That was Duncan, budding in like it was his business what she did.

"Can we talk about this later." She directed toward Duncan but Bridgette answered, thinking that she was talking to her.

"How are we going to talk about it later when you said you're not coming?"

"Not you Bridgette."

"You're talking Bridgette? Tell her I say hi."

"Tell her yourself!" Courtney exclaimed thrusting the phone into Duncan's hands, she was getting whiplash from going back and forth.

"Courtney? Hello?" Bridgette could hear a lot of rustling and thought maybe the call had dropped.

"Don't worry blondie she'll be there." Duncan said before hanging up the device. Courtney felt a surge of anger run through her, her pent up emotions were finally going to come to the surface. She kept her composure together for a little longer as she opened the backseat door to her car. She lifted Addie up into her seat.

"Sweetie can you sing your abc's as loudly as you can?" She requested before closing the door, then getting close enough to Duncan so that he would hear her even as she whispered. She was going to give him a piece of her mind.

"Who do think you are? What makes you think that you have any say in what I do or where I go? Why even act like you care?" Although he felt badly, Duncan didn't mind that she was mad at him, he deserved it. Except, this wasn't her being pissed because he was being annoying. This was true anger, which after last night he couldn't blame her.

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"Save it." There was a moment when he saw the anger in her eyes turn into something else. Something that made his chest hurt. Her eyes were shiny and Duncan knew he really blew it this time. "I should have known better than to fall for you again."

Courtney turned on her heel, leaving him with those final words. Her car was halfway down the street before he completely processed what she said. The corners of his mouth turned up. Whether she noticed or not, she just admitted that she loved him, and if she did, then maybe he could fix this.

They were back to not speaking, not for lack of Duncan trying, but Courtney flat out wouldn't respond to anything he said or did. The week moved onward and Courtney kept pretending he didn't exist.

"You can't ignore me forever you know." He goaded her as she stood in his doorway to pick up her Addison. Her eyes were glued to he phone as she checked her emails. Duncan had given her time to cool down but this was getting ridiculous. If she had been looking she would have seen it coming but because she was ostracizing him her phone got easily swiped out of her hand.

It didn't get him a verbal response out of her but she did huff and look dubiously at him.

"Do I have your attention now?" Courtney continued to stare him down and crossed her arms over her chest. It had been hard enough to get Courtney to give him the time of day, that now that he had her attention he didn't know what to say.

"You didn't think you'd get this far did you?" Even though Duncan could have done without her tone, he had missed the sound of her voice. "What do you want?"

"I shouldn't have said you'd be there tomorrow, okay? You're all Miss Independent, I get it." Her expression hadn't budged. "And I kinda wanted us to go...together."

Courtney gawked at him. After what he had done it made no sense that he would want that.

"Together?"

"Yeah and the girls too."

"You do know what people are going to think, don't you?" He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as if it wasn't going to raise any questions.

"C'mon Courtney, it will be fun."

"That's unlikely."

"Stop being such a sour puss Princess." He joked to lighten the mood.

"Don't make fun of me when I'm mad at you! And give me back my phone already! I'm still not going!"

"I'll give you back your precious phone when you agree to come to the party." The sounds of small footsteps grew louder before Vanessa and Addison joined the conversation.

"What party Mommy?"Addie held Courtney's hand and looked up at her innocently.

"I wanna go to a party!" Vanessa added. Duncan smirked, maybe she could say no to him but she couldn't easily say no to them.

"I wanna go too! Can we go mommy?"

"See Courtney, it's three to one, majority rules." Duncan knew that if he used her type of logic she would have to agree. Reasoning with a lawyer could be tricky, especially if it was Courtney.

Courtney was cornered now. She could say no, but she couldn't easily explain to the children why she didn't want to be in Duncan's presence. It would also feel awkward to be surrounded by people she hadn't seen in almost fifteen years, and that those people didn't have the most fond memories of you. Then again, if she didn't go it would make her seem cowardly.

"Okay. We'll go."

Reunion anyone? It's always hard to edit because I can't tell if I'm being repetitive or if I've just read the same parts over too many times. As always thank you guys for the reviews and follows!