A/N – First of all, I got some amazing feedback from the last chapter and it really, really touched me. Secondly, this is the first chapter sent all the way from Australia! I'm finding it hard to find time to write and I was away from this story for almost two weeks, so it might not be the best follow up to the last chapter…

Chapter 11. Clearing up Confusion

Effy's POV

"So are you going to tell me why you are so familiar to me?" Cook blew steam from his coffee and eyed me expectantly from behind the rim of the cup.

I shrugged and leaned against the wall behind me, bending a knee up under me. "We share an old friend, you and I." He lifted an inquiring eyebrow as he took another sip. "Freddie McClair."

As soon as I sounded out his name, Cook's face contorted in a mixture of pain and anger. I knew they had lost touch long ago but I never knew the details and seeing Cook in obvious distress at the mere mention of Freddie caught my interest.

He composed himself quickly, acting nonchalant but I saw right through him. "Freddie, huh? Haven't thought of him for a long time", he lied.

"Who's Freddie?", James asked with a slight lisp after having burnt his tongue being too eager with his hot chocolate. He hadn't started drinking coffee yet and even though I knew he was very much an adult these days, I swear there were moments where it seemed like he would stay twelve years old for life. I couldn't help but send him a small, overbearing smile.

"Have I ever told you the story of how Katie and I became friends?" James shook his head and winced having yet again lifting the cup of hot chocolate to his lips. "Well, we hated each other in the beginning. You might not remember but Katie could be quite…" I was at a loss for the right word, since I was describing my very best friend in life but who, back then, had been more of a nemesis than a bosom buddy.

"A bitch?", James chimed in.

"Difficult." I corrected and he grinned. "Well, let's just say we spent a few months making each other miserable and most of that was due to this one boy we both fancied."

"Freddie?"

I nodded and took another sip, carefully blowing cool air over the cup before sampling it. "He was popular, gorgeous and the center of a lot of attention from practically every girl at college. Well, aside from Emily that is." I smiled, having already had my suspicions regarding the quiet twin back then. I might not have picked up on her genius early enough, her sexuality however, was as clear as day to me back then.

"One day, Freddie showed up at my house and basically courted me. Little did I know that he was doing the exact same thing with Katie, alternating which days he spent with whom and making sure that his friends, including Cook here, kept schtum." I sent Cook an accusing look and he looked away. "I fell completely head over heels for Freddie and everything in life seemed amazing, even Katie was being much nicer to me. It turns out, she was being nice because she thought she had 'won' Freddie and was feeling so superior that she didn't even feel the need to rub it in my face." I smiled at the memory, "We would both have been saved a whole lot of heartache if she hadn't chosen that time to take the highroad though."

"I remember how that whole thing started", Cook interrupted. "Freddie was being cocky, fully aware that both of you were interested and we bet him, me and Thomas, that he couldn't pull the both of you in the same week. Once he did, we changed it to on the same day and we still lost." He shook his head. "We were idiots…"

"I can only agree. It went on for about a month before Katie and I finally had a drunken heart-to-heart that disclosed what he had been up to." I smiled slyly at James and winked, "Needless to say, we had to teach Freddie a lesson and your sister had some pretty violent tendencies back then and her fierce nature really impressed me."

"Oh, I know all about her violent nature, thank you very much." James said with a pained expression and I was unable to suppress a laugh. Cook looked confused and James explained, "Let's just say she didn't appreciate my growing fascination with the female anatomy a couple of years ago…"

When Cook realized what James was implying, he tipped his head back and laughed enthusiastically. "Your sisters?! Little perv!", he exclaimed and ruffled James' hair like he was still a boy getting caught staring at his sisters through the keyhole of the bathroom door. James didn't seem to mind much though and grinned at Cook before joining in on the laughter. We finished our coffee in silence but with smiles on our faces, giggling on occasion.

Cook threw his empty cup in the trash and turned to me. "I met you once, didn't I?" I smiled and nodded. "I was usually pretty fucked up at parties back then though, it's all a blur", he shrugged.

"Just at parties or in general?", I asked, smirking at him sideways.

He smiled earnestly, "In general, I suppose." He turned his head and looked down the hallway towards Naomi's room. "I have her to thank, you know." He let out a pained sigh, "I got a little overprotective back there but I can't help it, not when it comes to Naomi."

I had my suspicions but decided to ask anyway, "What's the deal with you two?"

"She's my best mate", he declared matter-of-factly before a softer yet pained expression crossed his face. "She's everything to me."

At that moment, I suddenly understood why he was so aggressive toward Emily. Cook loved Naomi, really, truly loved her. The moment I had laid eyes on her, I had realized that despite her and Cook's seemingly intimate connection and him lying in her bed when we walked in, Naomi was most definitely gay. I saw it the minute her sad eyes focused on Emily and it only confirmed my earlier suspicions about her being flirtatious. But Cook loved her in a way you don't see often these days. He knew there was nothing romantic in her love for him, no matter how deep it went, but he would spend the rest of his life wishing, but not hoping, there would be. Thinking about it made my heart bleed and once again, I found myself saddened at never having experienced that kind of love in my life. I needed a cigarette, badly.

"I don't suppose you could offer a girl a fag?" Cook immediately conjured a packet and offered both me and James one. I slapped his hand away as he reached for the packet. "Oh no, James", I injected shaking my head, "Katie would kill me."

We were walking slowly toward the courtyard when Cook turned to me with a determined yet nervous look, "Will she fuck her up?"

I honestly didn't know if she would, Emily's head was anything but sane and reliable these days and her situation with Jeremy remained unresolved. I wonder how Katie is telling Jeremy... When we reached her door, we stopped outside it and I turned to Cook, "Not intentionally, no. Emily's head might be a big mess but her heart is in the right place." He grimaced at that and I realized it wasn't good enough for him. "I think her heart lies with your girl up there."

Katie's POV

It's amazing what a little heartache and betrayal can do to make a beautiful person look absolutely wretched. I was waiting for Jeremy at a café close to his sister's flat and almost missed him when he walked in. Normally, Jeremy is all business; suits, ties and polished shoes but today he was wearing a pair of loose jeans and a hoodie, both of which looked to have around ten years of wear and tear on them. He slid down into the seat across from me without a word, pushing the hood of the sweater back as he did. I liked him, I really did and he had done nothing to deserve this heartache, well, nothing aside from fall in love with my sexually confused sister.

"Would you like something?" I asked as sweetly as possibly without it sounding condescending. He shook his head and looked away or, presumably, anywhere but directly at me. I suppose being the twin of the person who is causing your heartbreak has its obvious downsides. I waited for him to focus on me before I spoke again.

"Look, Jeremy…"

"Did you know?", he interrupted and turned to stare at me. Anger was visible in his eyes and his tone was far from friendly.

Having known me for more than three years, he should really know better than to take his anger out on me but I decided to give him some leeway since I was the one who had asked him here. I shook my head, "About Naomi, no." He looked relieved, which puzzled me slightly. "But I did know something was going on with her when I saw her Friday."

"Something has been 'going on' with her for a long time now", Jeremy spat out, his words laced with hostility.

Surprised at both his hostility and statement, I glared at him for a moment, "What do you mean?"

"It's like she has used every excuse not to spend time with me." The malice in Jeremy's voice made it clear that he had been angry with Emily for a while. "And I know, she gets too involved with work sometimes but this is different, she has been deliberately pulling away."

The malice in his voice lessened with every word and was replaced with desperation and despair. He sighed, "At first I thought it was because of the engagement, that she got a touch of cold feet but it was more than just not spending time together or not sleeping together, she stopped sharing her life with me completely."

He buried his head in his hands and looked up at me with sad eyes, "All we've done lately is fight and of course I'm aware it doesn't help that I'm away a lot. But when I've travelled in the past, even for just one night, everything was better when I came home – like she had missed me and was glad to see me. Now when I come home after being gone an entire week, she barely even kisses me to say hello." He leaned back and rested against the chair, his hands held out in question. "So yeah, something has been going on for a while now…"

I was fully aware of the fact that Emily had been caught up in work lately and she had been spending quite a lot of time with James since he moved here, but neither had set off warning bells in my head. She and James had a heartening relationship these days and Emily's idea of proper working hours was putting in at least 50 hours a week. My dear sister had, however, neglected to tell me about their fights or the apparent lack of an active sex life. This thing with Naomi was starting to make a whole lot of sense all of a sudden.

"What do you fight about?", I asked and put on a sweet, understanding expression that would have given Effy's otherwise famous pokerface a run for its money.

He leaned towards me again, "Everything! But mostly her working too much. I keep dropping hints that she never seems to pick up on and I'm running out of time and out of patience!" He was getting a little loud and drawing some annoyed looks from the other patrons, so I reached out and put my hand on his to calm him. One phrase had stuck with me though.

"What do you mean, running out of time?"

He sighed, clearly frustrated. "I was offered to head the Zurich office about two months ago. They want me to move there permanently and I've even secured Emily a job working with some great scientists there."

"But she won't go?", I asked, feigning surprise. I knew my sister well enough to know she wouldn't leave her position with Kieran easily, if ever.

"Well, I haven't told her yet, but no, she's not picking up on the hints and since she has been working nonstop and seemingly loving every minute of it, I doubt she will be joining me in Zurich next month", Jeremy said sarcastically.

"You took the job already?", I asked, this time not having to fake the surprise. "And you are moving next month?" He nodded. "When were you going to tell Emily?"

He shrugged and tried to seem indifferent but it was clear he was feeling guilty about the whole thing. "I kept waiting for the right moment. I was ecstatic when they gave me the job and I haven't been able to share it with my fiancée yet out of fear that she might not follow me there and in the worst case, leave me. I thought if I kept dropping hints, Emily of all people would pick up on it and ask me outright but she never did." He finally broke and I saw his despair shine through. "She hasn't even contemplated why I have to travel to Zurich every week, all week for the past two months. Little did I know that it wouldn't have mattered anyway, she was going to leave me either way, only not for the reason I feared."

Jeremy was an attentive, sweet guy. Really, he was and he understood how Emily worked, how her analytical mind overpowered most other things. He had always respected her career choices and given her space to pursue her dreams, even when it meant spending a little too much time apart. Knowing all this naturally made it a surprise to hear that he for once had acted selfishly and, in my honest opinion, childishly. Taking a promotion which included moving to a different country without telling Emily was uncharacteristic of him and was clearly a result of his unhappiness at their current situation. The fact that my sister hadn't picked up on his hints or even the fact that Jeremy was basically already spending most of his time in Zurich, was another piece to the puzzle that was Naomi.

Coming here, I hadn't been sure what to tell Jeremy. I wanted to protect Emily from herself and from the heartbreak her involvement with Naomi would most definitely result in, and even though I was very confident about the fact that my sister was a closeted lesbian, I had never pushed the issue. Whatever Emily wanted out of life, it was up to her to figure it out in her own time. You can't force someone to realize the truth about their sexuality, even when it is obvious as fuck to everyone else. Part of me was ecstatic at the thought of Emily finally letting her gay show but at the same time, I knew this situation would cause her so much heartbreak that she might never risk venturing down this path again and in that case, she needed Jeremy.

In any case, I had set out to do some damage control on my sister's behalf and despite wanting to tell Jeremy that I believed Emily was gay, gay, gay, I decided against it.

"You should have told her about the job, Jeremy. And you should know better than try to make her feel guilty about working so that she would quit her job and follow you to Zurich", I said with a stern look and harsh tone. He knew this of course, and looked small as he nodded. "But Emily hasn't been fair to you either and this whole thing with Naomi is confusing for her. She didn't mean to betray you and feels horrible about it, even though she technically barely has. It's all very innocent and it will stay that way regardless of what they feel for each other."

"Wait, what?", Jeremy interrupted. "You mean this Naomi girl has feelings for Emily?"

Since I wasn't sure what Naomi was or wanted, I couldn't really answer that. "No, I don't know if she does. But it doesn't matter, Jeremy, since she has less than a few months to live." Even saying those words made me cringe and they had their effect on Jeremy as well. He looked miserable and needed some encouragement.

"You need to give her space to figure this out. So go to Zurich tomorrow and talk to her when you come back. But you should be honest with her because clearly, she's not the only one who has been betraying someone." I was referring to his promotion and he winced at my use of the word betrayal. It hadn't dawned on him how wrong it had been to not include Emily in his plans. I mean who moves to a different country without telling their fiancée?

He nodded slowly with a somber look on his face. "Are you willing to do that? To wait for her until she figures this out?" He hesitated for a moment before nodding again.

"Good." I smiled at him, this time earnestly, "Now, is there anything you need from the flat?"

Naomi's POV

Pulling Emily into my arms had felt like the most natural thing in the world and I instantly forgot the heartache she had been the cause of just moments earlier. As soon as she had surprised me with another kiss, I was once again lost in my fluttering stomach and rapidly beating heart. Her words had resonated with me, carving their way into my battered heart and soul and my body was screaming out for her to kiss me again. But she hadn't. She had turned and walked away with a shocked expression and I had gotten out of bed as quickly as my tired body would let me. I wasn't about to let her slip through my fingers.

As amazing as it was kissing her, it was exhausting for me to stand for too long and I was getting tired. How long have we been standing here, kissing? I started to pull away but Emily would have none of it and instead seemed to read my mind as she moved me backwards toward the bed. I sat down with a little 'thump', Emily's lips letting go of mine for only a brief second. She stood between my legs and pressed as much of her body against me as possible while continuing to make me dizzy with wonderful kisses. My arms were resting on her hips, just below her waistline and I could feel the tight stomach and skin underneath her shirt. Had I been at full strength, I would have pulled her down onto the bed and ripped the clothes off her back. Unfortunately, all I could muster at the moment was to slip my fingertips under the rim of her t-shirt as my hands rested on her hips. That was apparently enough to make Emily's breath hitch and I marveled at her ability to send burst of electricity coursing through me with a simple, almost silent inhale.

I had lost all sense of time and space and had therefore lost track of how long we had been glued together when she finally pulled away, a gleeful look on her face. She kept her eyes closed for a couple of seconds and when she opened them, a wide smile spread on her face as she locked her eyes with mine, making her even more beautiful.

"I thought I had forced myself on you", she said, still smiling. "I felt guiltier about that than anything else." Her smile faltered slightly and was replaced by confusion. "But what about your boyfriend?"

She had mentioned something about a boyfriend in her rant earlier too and it dawned on me who she was referring to. "You mean Cook?" She nodded, an apprehensive and slightly frightened look on her exquisite face. I smiled, "You can relax, he is just a friend." I smirked, "Well, unless you hurt me, then he'll be out for blood and you'd best leave town!"

Emily swallowed hard and had obviously not caught on to my sarcasm, although in retrospect, she probably thought Cook might actually physically assault her if she hurt me, given the tense situation earlier. I felt a wide, overbearing smile spread on my lips and simply had to kiss her again, her apprehension being too adorable to resist. I moved my hands up to her face and for the first time allowed myself to caress her cheeks and study her features with my fingertips before pulling her down for another kiss.

We yet again lost ourselves in hot kisses and I couldn't remember the last time I felt this wonderful. A faint noise almost disturbed the impeccable sensation Emily's lips were causing me to feel but I managed to push it away. It wasn't until I registered Mum's booming voice that I was able to rip myself from Emily's lips. She instantly became a little shy at the idea of Mum catching us but she should really have been worried about an entirely different thing. Kieran was standing behind Mum with his arms crossed in front of his chest and an uncharacteristically stern look on his face.

It's a bumpy road for our girls and their loved ones and ethical regulations are not to be toyed with, unfortunately…

Thanks for reading! Sound off in a review if you get the inclination to, I am always ecstatic to read them!