Sorry for the delay. Stupid real life expecting be to be an adult and work and pay bills and all that, lol. Anyway, this chapter is a little more focused on the Matthews family as a whole, but Angela/Eric are at the end.

As always, thank you for your feedback and your patience is forever appreciated. :-)

"Okay, mom, we're here."

"What's up?"

Amy reduced the flame on the stove to simmer and moved onto the salad. She'd asked her sons to come over for dinner tonight and would accept no excuses. "Perfect. You're just in time. Dad should be home soon with Morgan. Eric, where's Angela? I said you could bring her along."

"She…uh…her dad's in town," Eric said, unable to make eye contact. He'd hoped to work up the nerve to go talk to her tonight, but his mom would not let him out of this. In the end he didn't argue. It was easier than trying to figure out how to face Angela. She left a voicemail last night and asked him to come over so they could talk, but he chickened out. What was the perfect conversation starter with the person who fled after he said I love you? "They have a lot of time to make up for."

"Right. That is important. I suppose it will be nice to have dinner just the six of us."

Eric and Cory looked at each other. It was weird enough she asked them to the house when they normally came over whenever they felt like it because their parents had an open door policy. And mentioning it would be nice for it to be just the nuclear family? That wasn't like her. There was always room for more at Amy Matthews' dinner table. "What's going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on," Cory spoke up. "You ordered us over here. That's weird enough. Why?"

"I miss my sons."

"Last week you complained that you feel like the only time you see us is when we want to mooch off free food or use the washer and dryer. Speaking of which, I figured since I'm here I have a load in the trunk and I'm short on quarters so I can't use the laundry in my building. I'll just start that before dinner and-"

"Not tonight. Tonight is not about you two."

"But-"

"The good dishes," Eric exclaimed.

"What?"

"You're using the good dishes!"

"What's your point? I've used them before."

"Please, I thought these things were superglued into the China cabinet." He tossed a plate up into the air and caught it, much to his mother's chagrin. "Who's coming over: the Pope? No, can't be him, we're not Catholic and I think that part's pretty important to the guy. Is it the President? Ooh, I got it, the Queen of England finally responded to your invitation. Now how do I greet her? Do I bow or is it a curtsey? You should've given us more of a warning mom."

"Put the plate down, you moron." Cory wrenched the dish away from his brother and carefully returned it to the table. "Topanga and I are inheriting these one day."

"Great. Like I care about old plates with flowers on them."

"The pattern is called Old Country Roses."

"You see this look on my face? It's called who gives a crap."

"Mom-"

"No, this is exactly what I didn't invite you two over here for."

"Huh?"

"Tonight is not about you."

"Me? What did I do?"

"Ha, sucks to be you, Cor."

"It's not about you, either."

Cory smirked. "Who's the sucker now?"

"Mommy, why are you being so mean?"

"Tonight is all about Morgan."

"It's not her birthday again, is it? I thought that was in April."

"No, it's not her birthday, but she's leaving tomorrow on vacation with her friend and she's having a rough time. She thinks we don't care about her, that she doesn't have a place in our family."

"That's dumb."

"Not to your sister. Between the two of you and Joshua she feels like there's no love and attention left for her. So I'm telling...no, I'm begging you, just for tonight: no Topanga, Angela, work, school, jokes, or anything else that shifts the conversation."

"So what you're saying is tonight she's the center of the universe- like the sun- and we're useless space dust?"

"I don't want to hear your problems tonight. You're both adults. Maybe it's time you learn to figure out some things on your own instead of constantly running to me and dad."

"Boy, I can really feel the love in this room," Eric mumbled.

"You see, that's exactly the kind of joking around and sarcasm I'm talking about."

/

A little while later the family was gathered around the kitchen table, eating. "How's the chicken tetrazzini, honey?" Amy made all of her daughter's favorites.

"Good," she said between bites of food. When she got home and saw Cory and Eric she braced herself for another night of dramatic retellings of whatever was going on in their lives. That hadn't happened yet. Nothing had happened. Everyone was oddly quiet, sitting around and watching her eat. "What? Did the cable go out?"

"The cable's out," Cory asked. "Man, I was hoping to catch a few minutes of the Phillies game after dinner." Suddenly there was a sharp pain in his shin. "Ow." His mom glared at him from across the table. "I mean…Morgan, are you excited about your vacation?"

"Uh-huh."

"Where are you going?"

"Cape Cod."

"The pictures always make it look really pretty. I'm sure you're going to have a lot of fun." When he couldn't think of anything else to ask, he nudged Eric in the ribs.

"Hey! What's your problem?" He caught his brother's nod toward their sister. "Right. So, Weasel, which friend are you going with: Suzy? Sabrina?"

"Stephanie."

"Stephanie….good name. Are you guys flying or driving?"

"We're taking the train," she answered, skeptical of all the attention. "Her parents even got us our own private sleeping car so we can relax and have our own space."

"Wow, someone's got loaded parents."

"Eric!"

"What? Sorry, what I meant to say was: are you staying right on the beach or a bit inland? Can you take some pictures of light houses for me? They're cool."

She shook her head. "Okay, I give up. What's going on?"

"Nothing, honey. Why do you think anything is going on?"

"We're eating dinner," Alan said, "that's what's going on."

"Mom made my favorite dinner-"

"And there's cherry pie for dessert."

"Chicken tetrazzini, cherry pie…is there an electric chair in the other room? Because all you need is some garlic bread and you'd have my death row final meal pick."

Amy slapped her forehead. "Garlic bread, I knew I forgot something. I can pop it in the oven and have it done in twenty minutes if you want."

"I'm fine." She looked around the table. All eyes were on her. "Stop staring!"

"Morgan-"

"No, what's with the set up? Why are Cory and Eric here and asking me a million and one questions? Normally they only come over to whine and cry about their own lives. They don't give a damn about me."

"Hey."

"Weasel, that's not true."

She rolled her eyes. "What are you setting me up for, huh? If there's not an electric chair waiting for me then…please tell me you're not cancelling my vacation at the last minute. I'll never forgive you."

"Of course you're still going on your trip."

"Then why is everyone acting like zombies?"

"Mom said you weren't feeling very special or like you didn't belong in the family or something, which is crazy and-"

"Cory-"

"Seriously? That's what all this is? It's not a family dinner. It's a let's pity poor, pathetic Morgan dinner?"

"Morgan-"

"No, dad, no. You're all just a bunch of phonies and I can't wait to get out of here." She pushed her chair away from the table, jumped up, and headed for the stairs. Not even a minute later she came back down.

"Oh, good," Amy began as she got up and walked over, "let's talk and-"

Without saying a word Morgan grabbed a handful of napkins, a fork, and the entire cherry pie, before disappearing back upstairs.

/

/

"He still hasn't called you?"

Angela looked up from the papers she was reading. She was going over new inventory that would be coming into the bookstore over the summer. She was trying to, anyway. It was hard to focus. "No."

"I see." While Alvin wouldn't deny that Eric had a legitimate reason to be hurt, he thought a few days was more than enough time to get over a bruised ego and talk things out with the person you claimed to love. "Do you-"

"Dad, don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't get any more involved than you already are. I made this mess. I'll fix it."

"I was going to ask if you wanted to grab lunch with me. I'm meeting up with friends I haven't seen in years but you know them, too. I'm sure they'd be happy to see you."

"Oh."

"You remember Fran and Maurice, right? We lived near them when I was stationed in Germany. Fran served alongside me and Maurice was a doctor."

"Is Maurice the one who did my stitches in our living room when I decided to try and carve my own ice sculpture?"

He nearly shuddered at the memory. His stomach was made of iron normally, but seeing his daughter's arm covered in her own blood was almost more than he could bear. "He applied a tourniquet in the living room. The stitches were at the hospital, but yes, he did your stitches. You were in shock. It's natural some of the details are mixed up."

"I remember them. They were nice. Their son isn't coming, is he? He was a jerk."

"No, he's going to college in Florida and working at Disney World over the summer. What do you have against Jordan?"

"I don't like anyone who swipes my books and says he'll only give them back if I kiss him."

He sat up a little straighter. "He did what? How did you respond?"

"Let's just say he could've been the soprano in the school's choir that year."

"You know violence is never the answer." Inwardly, he was proud, but he did still have to be the father in this situation. "You should've gotten me or his parents to handle it."

"I know, dad, but I only did what you showed me to do if a guy ever-"

"Did he cry?"

"What?"

"Jordan…did you make him cry?"

"In front of all his friends, yeah."

He nodded. "That's my girl."

/

/

"You have your sunblock?"

"Yes."

"Beach towels?"

"Yes."

"Socks and underwear?"

"Mom, yes! I have everything. You've checked my bags about a dozen times since I woke up."

"Sorry, honey, but you're going away for two whole weeks. They'd take away my mom badge if I sent you off without enough socks and underwear." Things with Morgan were still testy and Amy was trying desperately to give her daughter a happy sendoff. Dinner last night had been a disaster. She was at a loss. She couldn't win no matter what she tried. She only hoped this time away helped.

"Don't worry. I'm all set. Gold stars all around."

Despite the sarcasm in her daughter's voice Amy was chose to be happy she was even speaking to her. Yes, they had a wide variety of issues to work out, but weren't ones that could be tackled in the next five minutes. "I want a phone call every night."

Morgan sighed. "Mom…"

"Hey, I could demand multiple calls. I just want you to check in every night before you go to bed, okay?"

"Even if the baby's already sleeping?"

"No matter what."

"Okay."

Just then Alan came downstairs with Joshua in his arms. "Sorry, someone is so distraught by you leaving he let it all out in his diaper."

She scrunched up her face. "Gross, dad."

"What time are Steph and her parents picking you up?"

"Any time now."

"You have everything you need?"

"Yeah, all mom's been doing this morning is packing, unpacking, and repacking my bag."

He reached into his front shirt pocket and took out some money. "Here."

"Dad, you gave me money already."

"I know, but there's some extra just in case you see something you really like." As much as he hated to admit it, Alan was feeling guilty for Morgan's current unhappiness. Unfortunately all he could do in the moment was toss a little extra cash her way. A permanent solution would have to wait until after her trip. "Spend it all," he said as a car horn could be heard from outside.

Morgan looked out the window. "That's them."

"We'll help you take your bags outside."

Despite the fact that she wanted to go -couldn't wait to get the hell out of here actually- it was still the longest she would be separated from her parents and she was going to miss them. "I'll call when we get there."

Amy nodded, knowing it was probably the closest they were going to get to an 'I love you' at the moment. Even on their best days thirteen year olds weren't the most outwardly affectionate creatures, especially with their parents. "Have fun."

After a round of hugs and a brief conversation between the parents Amy and Alan were in front of the house and watched as the car pulled away. "We'll fix things," he reassured her.

"We'd better. Because if we don't there's going to come a day where she drives away from this house and never looks back."

/

/

"Shawn was right. You are the worst video game player in the world."

Jack rolled his eyes. Cory wanted to go to the arcade, but didn't want to go alone, so he tagged along. "I get it, all right? I told you I'm not good at the basketball or football games. It's too many buttons and it all goes too fast. I panic."

"I thought you were exaggerating. I think even my mom would beat you in NBA Jam."

"Next time I get to pick the games. You don't stand a chance against me in Mortal Kombat."

"Whatever. Loser still pays for dinner."

"Fine, but you have to be the one to go into the taco place and order them because me and Eric are limited on what we can order."

"Huh?"

"Eric won a contest a while back where he got free tacos for a year and-"

"Why didn't anyone ever tell me?! I love tacos, too, you know?"

"Can I finish the story?"

"Yeah, sorry, go ahead."

"Anyway, we took advantage of it and they put a limit on how much we could order even when we pay."

"Say no more. I accept my mission. Just gimme your credit card and…"

"Here." He held out his card, but Cory didn't take it. In fact, he was no longer looking at him, but past him and down the street. Jack turned around but didn't see anything that caused concern. "What?"

"That guy looks familiar, doesn't he?"

He looked again and shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Do you know how many thousands of students and teachers attend Pennbrook? It's probably someone from campus."

"Maybe…no, wait, I think I've got it!"

"Eureka," Jack mumbled.

"Shawn's boss, that's who it is."

"I guess it kind of looks like him. I only met him once or twice. But it would definitely explain the girl that looks like a model hanging on his arm."

"I'm going to go talk to him."

"Why?"

"I want to know how long he's going to keep poor Shawnie on the road working. He needs some rest and downtime."

"I don't think Shawn would want you interfering like this."

"Then he can yell at me whenever he decides to come home."

Jack could hardly get a protest out before he was charging over there. In the back of his mind he wondered how he always ended up the sidekick in whatever stupid idea a Matthews had, but that was an issue for another day. By the time he caught up with Cory he was tapping the man on the shoulder.

"Excuse me?"

"Do I know you?"

"You're Shawn's boss, right? Shawn Hunter?"

"What's it to you?"

"I'm his best friend and this is his brother and-"

"Oh, look, just make sure you have Shawn call me when he gets back from vacation, all right?"

"Vacation? No, he's working on that two week assignment you sent him on in Miami."

"No, another photographer has that gig."

"That's not what Shawn said."

"I think I'd know if I sent him on an assignment. All I know is Shawn came to me and said he needed to get away from everything for a couple weeks. I didn't ask why and he didn't tell me. But he's too good a photographer to let burnout so I gave him the time."

"Why would he lie to me?"

"That sounds like a personal issue between you and Shawn."

/

/

"Hi."

Angela sat up with a start. She'd been relaxing on the front porch, curled into Nan's old wicker couch trying to enjoy the early evening air. Her dad was out for the evening to visit friends. He'd invited her but she turned him down. Lunch with his friends yesterday had been nice, but they all too easily slipped back into military lingo and it was hard for her to keep up. So she decided to stay home. "Hi."

"Can I…" He gestured to the gate.

"Of course. Sure. Come on."

Eric walked slowly. He'd planned to use the walk to the door to finalize what he was going to say, but then she was on the porch and all that went away. He almost sat on the couch beside her but changed his mind at the last moment and chose to lean against the railing instead.

When he didn't say anything Angela realized she was going to have to get the conversation going. "I was getting worried when I didn't hear from you. It's been a few days."

"Yeah, there was work and school and…and…I wasn't sure what to say. And I was afraid of what you would say if I did call."

"Why?"

He stared at her, incredulous. "I said I love you and you ran out of the house. You didn't just get out of bed or go to another room. You jumped up, got dressed, and hauled ass out of here like your life depended on it. You didn't even finish putting on your shoes first."

She hated to see him in so much pain. It hurt even worse because he was telling the truth. Eric had placed his heart in her hands and she dropped it. She hadn't used her power very well. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm the one who's sorry, okay? We agreed to take things slow but like usual I wasn't thinking. I've never been in love before so I don't know what the rules are on this. I probably shouldn't have blurted it out like that," he was talking fast, his words coming out in a jumbled rush and even he wasn't sure what he was saying. "If you can't say it or don't want to…I don't know…we can pretend it never happened."

"And you can be in a relationship like that; where you deny something you claim to feel so strongly?"

He shrugged in an exaggerated manner, feeling helpless about the situation. "I know I want to be with you and if it takes you a little longer to feel…I mean…there's no pressure to feel anything. I want to think we could make it work even if I was the big, dumb idiot who spoke too soon."

"You know how much I hate it when you put yourself down like that. You're not an idiot."

"I definitely feel like one now."

"Come here." Angela patted the spot beside her. "Please?"

He reluctantly moved to join her on the couch. "What is it?"

She wanted nothing more than to collapse against his chest and for him to envelope her in one of his comforting hugs, the kind that made her feel safe and secure and let her know everything was going to be okay. But she realized that wouldn't happen until they were okay. "Love scares me. And most of the time not the fun scared you feel on a roller coaster." She wedged her hand into his and laced their fingers together, needing some type of physical connection. "It's not easy for me to open myself up and let others in. My whole life I've had people promise to be there and love me but I'm always left all alone. I love you has never just been I love you. It's something people say to try and soften the blow of the emotional knockout punch they're about to deliver."

"I know and I'm sorry you've gone through all that, but Angela, I'd never…" Eric stopped talking. "I guess I'd be a liar if I said I'll never hurt you, wouldn't I?"

"Maybe a little bit."

He stared at their hands, intertwined and resting in her lap. "Great."

"When it's just one person it's easy to tell yourself it's them, that they have some defect that makes them incapable of loving you. But two people…three…your own mother even? At some point you do soul searching and see a common denominator: you."

"Angela-"

"It can't all be them, can it," she interrupted. "Eventually you have to look in the mirror and wonder if it's you, if there's something so wrong with you that loving you changes a person for the worst?" She stared straight ahead and watched as the family down the block took their dog on their regular evening walk. "Am I that unlovable?"

"You're not-"

"I just couldn't bear to have you be next. I think that's why I panicked. Whenever I hear I love you it's almost always immediately followed by a but. 'I love you, but-'…insert bad new here," she explained.

Eric was quiet, unsure of what to say to reassure her of his love. "Is that why you went from looking stupid happy to freaking terrified in a matter of seconds?"

She nodded. "It's hard for me to hear I love you without also hearing the but. My brain automatically filters it in."

"I'm not going to pretend to know what I'm doing and obviously I can't promise to never hurt you because that ship has sailed, but I don't want you to think that me loving you is a weapon I'm going to use against you."

"You could though. That's the point. And so could I." Angela shifted around to look him in the eye. "These past few days I was so worried about the power your love had over me that I didn't even think about the power my love had over you until my dad pointed it out. By then I'd already abused that power and hurt you when I ran away."

He bit down on his lip and squeezed her hand. "It definitely did not get the reaction I thought it would."

"I'm so sorry."

"Me, too." She leaned her head against Eric's shoulder and watched as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. "Do you remember a while back I asked you to spend lunch outside with me so we could look at the clouds?"

"Yeah, it was smack dab in the middle of prepping for finals so the whole campus was insane. We barely slept because we were studying so much. When I asked what subject you wanted to study you said none, you just wanted to lie in the grass because you saw a giraffe on a unicycle."

"Tricycle," she corrected.

"It was a unicycle by the time I saw it," he joked. "But what about that day?"

"I think that day was when I knew, at least deep down on a subconscious level, even if I wasn't ready to admit it to myself yet."

"Angela, you don't have to-"

"Before you I only saw clouds. Sure, sometimes they were wispy and looked like cotton candy and other times they were dark and foreboding, but they were still only clouds." He'd had to take pictures of different types for one of his earth science classes and she offered to help him so they could spend more time together. While waiting for various clouds he'd started pointing out interesting looking ones, asking what she saw. "They're such a basic, fundamental part of everyday life, but you turned them into something fun and magical for me. You changed that. You've made a lot of ordinary things fun and magical for me. When I saw that giraffe on the tricycle my first instinct was to rush and tell you all about it."

"Really?"

"Really. You're the first person I want to tell a lot of things to, good and bad. If it's good I want to celebrate and if it's bad I know I'll need your support."

"That goes both ways, you know? I panic sometimes about the bad stuff, but I want to let you into everything. I'm trying to be better about it."

"I know. And I want to be there, too, to celebrate and support you through everything. Because…because that's what people in love do." She took a deep breath, the weight of what she was about to say sitting on her chest like a sumo wrestler. "And I love you."

Eric smiled, just a little bit. "You do?"

She nodded, matching his grin with a teary-eyed one of her own. "Yeah, I do," she said, pulling him into a kiss.

"And you're not just saying it, right?"

"No, I'm not. I love you. I'm scared out of my freaking mind, but I love you."

"You want to know a secret?"

Angela practically sighed in relief when he hugged her close. This was the safest she's felt in days. "What's that?"

"I'm terrified, too. But I'd rather be terrified with you than miserable without you."

"Me, too." She moved away from him slightly, creating just the tiniest bit of distance between them. "I don't know how not to hear the but. Like I said, all my life has been, 'I love you, but-' I'm scared I'll always hear it."

"Do you want me to not say I love you?"

"No, please say it. I want you to say it. I love hearing it. Just…please don't take it personally if it throws me sometimes?"

"I'll try."

"Thank you." They sat together and watched the rest of the sunset. Once the streetlights came on Angela sat up. "You know my dad's out for the evening."

Eric's eye brows went up. "He is?"

"Yeah, supposed to be gone until about eleven. You want to come inside?"

"I don't know."

"Are you kidding me?"

"I want to, believe me, I do. But I haven't made the best impression on your dad lately. In the past few days the man has seen me in my underwear and drunk. I don't think we should go back to underwear this quickly."

"You're crazy…good crazy."

"That's okay. It's just one of the many things you love about me."

"Yes," she agreed, taking his hand, "it is."

I had originally intended to have Angela and Eric's scene a little more sentimental/romantic side, but it just wasn't coming out that way. Hopefully it still came across well. I rewrote this a few times.