Authors Note: I own nothing. No ownership rights to Beverly Hills 90210.

Chapter Three

The smokey flight, the angry taxi ride, the eventual walk to the hotel, and the hotel itself are a mix of emotions of excitement and disappointment. The hotel is not luxurious by any stretch but I tell myself I'm lucky to be here, even under the circumstances it's a once in a lifetime. My parents didn't need to go to this expense, if they really wanted me gone they could have sent me to my grandma's, though that would require them to admit that they don't have the perfect family. Maybe it was the cheaper option for them after all.

Once I'm showered and changed I leave Donna in the room swearing to meet her in the lobby in fifteen minutes when she is ready. I quickly make my way to the pay phone in the lobby and place my coins in the slot, I promised to call when I had arrived and was settled. The phone only rings once.

"Baby?"

"I've been gone less than twenty-four hours and that's how you answer the phone now, I'm hoping it's for me and not your other girlfriend?"

He chuckles, "believe me you're headache inducing enough, I don't think I could cope with two of you. I miss you. You're a pain in the ass to live with but now the house feels weird without you in it and it's so quiet without the vacuum going."

"You do know when I get back home if you have messed up my organised pantry I'll be annoyed."

"Your pantry? I didn't know you were maintaining ownership once back."

"Baby if you own it then you have to clean it-"

"Kitchen is all yours."

It's nice to spend a few minutes being playful and light, "Iris arrive okay?"

"Yeah she's in the newly cleaned out second bedroom-"

"You mean you cleaned out your surfboard storage and got rid of your box fort?"

"I did. You see I had some time to kill and my hands were free, the person who usually fills both is unfortunately across the ocean currently harassing me long distance." Even through his jokes I can tell he is missing me and is also a little stressed, while we were good when I left I unfortunately left him with a mess to try and unpack.

"You okay?" He picks up on my serious tone.

"Yeah we are off tomorrow to the lawyer who set up the trust and got me emancipated. I know it's the best thing for me but I'm worried it's not the best thing for us."

"It is. My dad needs to be out of your financial life, it hopefully will give him the opportunity to just have a normal father of the girlfriend role in your life, and in our relationship."

"Wow was the inflight meal optimism?" He can be so sarcastic at times.

"Yep with a slice of hope for dessert." He chuckles.

"How's Paris? Is the hotel beautiful?"

"Remember that cabin we stayed in at the end of last summer?"

"Yeah."

"It's the ten dollar upgrade."

He does his back of the throat bark of a laugh. "That's surprising for the blonde princesses, I'd have expected Kelly and Donna would have gone more luxurious."

"I think they thought it was going to be."

"Is it bad to say I'm glad?"

"It depends are you wanting me tortured?"

"No I just like the idea that when I take you there again in will be a different trip for you. I get to show you the Paris and France I know."

"With that reasoning it's not bad at all." I look to the stairs and see Donna, "Baby Donna's on her way down we are about to go to dinner."

"You aren't wearing your red dress are you?"

"No I didn't even pack it."

"Good I like to be present when you wear it so I can ensure everyone knows you are taken."

"I think my necklace and still present hickey accomplishes that."

"It's still there? Excellent, wear your hair up make sure everyone knows that you are spoken for."

"And how will they know in Beverly Hills that you are?"

"Wait there's other girls who live in LA? I didn't know, you see I only have eyes for you."

"You are such a bad liar-"

"Only because you know me so well."

"Okay she's here, I better go. I love you, let me know how it all goes, and remember I trust you and support any decision you make."

"Thank you I needed to hear that. I love you Bren."

The meal of brains does nothing to make me feel less homesick for Dylan, leaving me to go to bed in one of my stolen t-shirts just so I can feel close to him. I wake the next morning excited for a day of exploring though Donna is less thrilled at the idea of a full day of walking around the sites of Paris. As we make our way downstairs Madame stops me before we leave saying that I just received a delivery. As she disappears out to the hotel office I shrug my shoulders at Donna's questioning look. She arrives back to the front desk with a beautiful vase of flowers and a card sticking out the top. I can't stop the smile that breaks across my face.

I immediately lift the card and read it.

Baby just a little something to brighten up your room, hopefully it takes it to a $15 upgrade. Have fun but not too much while sightseeing- no tour guides please. I love you. -Dylan

Once the flowers are deposited upstairs in our room I take a moment to appreciate them and Dylan. From the start he has always been like this, romantic and clear in his feelings that he loves me. We will make this right, he's too important to me for us not to be together. That night exhausted after visiting so many of the sites of Paris I write him a letter. We had unpacked the last few weeks the afternoon before I left, it was cathartic. The closeness I know we both felt from the experience was renewing, I never want repressed feelings or unspoken truths between us again. It makes me reflect on the fact that there are a few from our past that could use some light shined on them more than we gave them at the time.

Before my dad picked me up that night I knew Paris could change us our lives together, I was going to do my best to ensure it changed it for the better. As I had done with Dylan's place this last week it was time to clean it all out, get rid of any hidden dust bunnies or cobwebs that have the potential to get on top of you and cause irritations.

That night I wrote to him about our first meeting, about why I dyed my hair. How I felt a connection with him at my locker, but as he said he liked blondes I feared in my naïve state that the connection had been all in my head. Well maybe not completely- I referenced Kelly's response to our first meeting and how it had given me hope, though it was squashed a little a few day's later when I saw them laughing together through the halls. It had convinced me that I was too plain for him, for LA, and that I needed a new look to fit in.

Dyeing my hair had done nothing more than destroy my confidence and reinforce that I was never going to be LA or Beverly Hills; a feeling that even now still resonates with me at times. The terrible hair did do one thing though, it gave me a new friend. His kindness and humour as he sat with me in the salon while I was covered in hair-dye, chatting away as if we were two old friends. Chatting as if it was normal to see a girl in that state of grooming, it made me feel like I was going to be okay that maybe even if I couldn't compete with the blondes I was still worth knowing.

I told him what I had said to Brandon when I had arrived home that evening, that he Dylan was my friend. I didn't dwell on the spark by the locker again as even if it had been all in my head having such a sweet friend, such a good guy made me feel like I had struck gold. Even if we had never been more than that I immediately felt blessed to have found a friend like him. That he made me feel like I could survive in Beverly Hills even if I would never be the quintessential California girl.

The next morning I sent my letter off and that afternoon when he rang to tell me of the lawyers I thanked him for the flowers but never mentioned the pages lightly sprayed with my perfume making there way too him across an ocean. His visit had gone well and Iris and him were now considering options for a new Trust Manager or no Trust Manager at all. They were toying with the idea of maybe a term deposit and portfolio of conservative share investments instead. It was up for discussion but as his Mum had saved the money all those years and gifted the money to him, he felt he should be guided by her. The lawyer would take a week to draw up the paperwork for Iris to serve my dad. She insisted that it had been a promise to her that he broke, he needed to know that his manipulation went beyond teenage control it was a legal and ethical breach. She was hoping it would be a wake up call from my parents, that she was in LA and serving them herself.

Class began the next day and Donna and I worked hard to learn the language and be grateful for this opportunity. I wrote letters to my parents every two days letting them know what I had learnt and that I was thankful for the experience. I wrote to Brandon as well, I explained that I'm sure this looked bad to him, me being rewarded for bad behaviour but I told him he didn't know the full story and one day Dylan and I will share it with him. Regardless of that though, I said how I missed our evening chats, how sharing one bathroom with a floor of girls was a struggle and that I would never complain again about his need to spend hours getting his hair just so. I told him that even with our amazing gang of friends, even with my love for Dylan, that he was still my twin. That being this far from him felt weird and that I missed him.

Understanding the challenges of the last few weeks from Dylan's side as well as mine made me consider my brother's as well. Not knowing what situation I'd go home to, knowing his relationship with his brother may be altered if my father reacts badly, it made me want to ensure that I considered him. I knew he had a stake in this, and I wanted him to know I cared how all of this had and will effect him.

Dylan and I spoke every two day's, that was our deal. It was expensive so my calls to him were a little briefer, Dylan though insisted that I not worry about when he called. He felt that this was our new version of going on dates. He teased that the phone calls would make up for those savings of the last two year's. He joked that I'd always been a pretty cheap date preferring picnic's, walks on the beach, movies, making him dinner at his house, and going to the lookout over any fancy restaurant in LA.

On our third call he told me that he had seen Kelly at the beach and that Jake and her were over, he said that she was doing okay and they had even laughed about being in the same kindergarten class. I hadn't known that, I knew they had been at the same school but not in the same class. When I asked who else was in there, he told me Steve and Tony the football player. He laughed about what they were like as kids.

As we were doing this Iris obviously came in and hearing the conversation insisted on speaking to me. She then recounted Dylan's hatred of school due to being around so many people, how he was always running away in kindergarten. Dylan's I don't remember that was heard over my laughing tease that he was a little loner from the start. Iris told us a few more stories about him at that age, how he was a little nervous of the big waves and how he hated picture books from the age of four. He said the pictures in his brain were better, from then on he insisted that he be read novels.

Five days after I had sent my letter by express post and about two hours after getting off my morning call which with him and eventually Iris, I received Dylan's response to my letter.

God I loved this man.