Once her decision had been made, Katie set about putting the wheels into motion. As they approached winter break, she was investigating her options, researching colleges and organizing her finances. The main problem was the uncertainty regarding Jessie's plans - Sydney, Monash and ANU were in three different states as far as she could tell, and Katie had no desire to travel thousands of miles only to find she was still a plane flight away.

She was looking at transferring but Tad had a lot to say about her giving up her place at Georgetown to chase something that was unreliable at best. Instead, he encouraged Katie to turn on her charm and negotiate an early study abroad placement for sophomore year.

If successful, the plan would be to tell Katie's parents that she had been offered an opportunity available only to high-achieving students, which would ensure they were satisfied enough not to question her any further.

Tad, Chelsea and Taylor knew the truth of course, but after expressing their doubts initially, they stood firm behind their friend and kept any niggling worry to themselves. It was the night before Katie and Tad's flight back home for the holidays, and Katie was draped over the couch with Taylor watching a movie.

"Katie?" Taylor ventured during a quiet moment.

"Yeah Tay?"

"Are you sure?"

"Sure that Tad's going to tell Chelsea he loves her on their date tonight? For sure! Boy is whipped," Katie laughed then stopped when she realized Taylor wasn't laughing along with her.

Taylor swallowed, staring straight ahead at the screen while Katie looked at her inquisitively.

"Sure about what, Tay?" Katie asked softly, regarding her friend's nervous appearance.

Keeping her eyes forward so as not to lose her nerve, Taylor managed to get to the point of her question.

"About Australia, you know, and everything."

Confusion crossed Katie's eyes as she tried to get behind the question to her friend's motivation. She was about to ask what Taylor meant when the smaller girl continued.

"It's just you were so hurt, and I don't want to see you get hurt again," she trailed off self-consciously.

Once more Katie started to respond, but Taylor wasn't done.

"I just, I mean you're chasing something that's not, it's not certain, and you have other options and I don't know if you know that but you do," Taylor finished her speech, which hadn't exactly come out how she planned, with her eyes still trained on the screen in front of them.

Katie took a moment to process Taylor's words, and the intention behind them. She couldn't deny that they'd gotten close over the last month. They had been spending a lot of time together since Tad and Chelsea entered their gross honeymoon phase, and she would be lying if she said she didn't have any feelings at all for the quirky, high-strung girl next to her.

Feeling even more anxious over the silence coming from her left, Taylor chanced a brief look at Katie and they locked eyes for a moment before Taylor quickly diverted her attention back to the much safer option of the television.

"Tay, I," Katie began before she was abruptly cut-off.

"Don't worry about it Katie."

Katie reached across and grabbed her friend's hand, causing Taylor to finally pull her gaze away from the movie that they had long since stopped watching.

"Taylor," Katie began again, "listen to me for a minute."

She scooted closer to Taylor on the small couch they were sharing and spoke gently.

"You're one of my best friends, and I wouldn't have thought that would be possible after the way I treated you this year. I'm sorry for that. I don't know if I ever apologized, or at least apologized the way I should have, but I'm sorry," she offered Taylor a small smile, which Taylor returned in acknowledgement of the apology and their less-than-pleasant past.

"I'm also really glad to have you in my life, and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that. This Australia thing is just what I have to do. If I don't, I'll always be wondering what if, you know?"

Taylor smiled and nodded at her friend, receiving a squeeze in return. She understood that logic, if anything it was the same reason that brought her to ask the question of Katie in the first place.

The girls settled back into the couch and watched the rest of the movie in comfortable silence.

The next morning Katie stood outside the open door of a cab, waiting for Tad and Chelsea to finish with their sickeningly sweet goodbyes. She watched them kiss for about the millionth time before launching herself off the cab and bursting in between the lovebirds.

"Tad, it's time to gooooo," she announced as she jumped on Chelsea. "I love you roommate, and I will see you soon. I'm sure you'll rack up a huge phone bill talking to my best friend over Christmas anyway, so we're leaving. Goodbyyyyye," she called out as she dragged Tad back to the cab.

"I'll call you from the airport," Tad called to Chelsea as she giggled at his retreating form and her determined roommate.

"Bye darlings," she called.

It took about half a second after Chelsea faded from view for Tad to whip around and glare at Katie, ready to tell her off, but she just laughed and cut in, "so did you tell her?"

Tad ducked his head and tried to hide the smile on his face, but Katie caught it and began teasing him mercilessly about his loooooove for her roommate. The airport welcome sign couldn't come fast enough for Tad, but Katie wasn't going to let him off the hook that easy and kept tossing off comments all the way up until Tad dropped her off at her parents place.

Walking up the front path to her parents' house, her emotions bubbled just below the surface. Last time she'd been inside those walls she was a totally different person, a shell of a person in fact, and she wasn't keen to go back to that. Taking a deep breath, she pushed through the front door and called out, "I'm home!"

She sighed when she received no response and trudged up to her bedroom, collapsing onto her bed and going through a quick mental countdown. Twenty-four hours until her brothers were scheduled to arrive, Christmas the day after, and then there'd be an excruciating eight more days of familial torture before she and Tad could return to DC.

Her eyes wandered around the small room as she tried to avoid memories of the last time she had spent staring at these same walls. It felt different, smaller somehow - suffocating maybe, even though it was bereft of the empty alcohol bottles and dirty clothes that had littered the floor during that period.

After three hours of deafening silence, she figured her parents had forgotten about her. Suddenly feeling claustrophobic, she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Miss me yet? I'm coming over.

It took less than ten seconds for Tad to respond, which Katie assumed was because he had been texting Chelsea. She would have to tease him about that later, but in the meantime she grabbed her wallet, ran her fingers through her hair, and took the stairs two at a time in a desperate effort to escape the house and its memories.

She pulled open the front door and came face-to-face with the bright blue eyes and blonde hair of her ex-girlfriend.

Jessie.

Time slowed to a stop.

Katie faltered and, after a sharp intake of breath, froze.

Jessie looked only slightly more comfortable than a rabbit caught in headlights. She hadn't even been sure that Katie would be there, and had been debating whether to knock on the door when it flew open in front of her.

The seconds stretched on as they stood, taking in the each other's presence. All of a sudden the hammering of Jessie's heart overwhelmed her and she launched herself into Katie's arms. The taller girl stiffened at the unexpected contact and then melted into the embrace. It could have been minutes or hours that they stood, unmoving, reveling in the scent and the feel of each other.

Eventually the Jessie-fog started to clear, and questions started to invade Katie's head.

What is she doing here?

Why did she hug me?

What does it all mean?

As the questions and memories poured in, Katie flinched. Jessie's heart constricted as she felt Katie pull away, knowing that she had caused the doubts and questions that were swirling behind Katie's eyes.

"What –"

"Am I doing here?" Jessie cut in. "Eli and I came home to see Mom and Henry for Christmas."

When Katie's expression didn't change, Jessie kept talking, "but I think you probably mean here on your doorstep and well, I don't know exactly. I just ended up here. I have every day since I got home actually, but for some reason I came up to the door this time. I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't…" she trailed off, linking and unlinking her fingers as she tried to figure out what Katie was thinking.

Katie stood, looking into Jessie's shifting, uncertain eyes, for what seemed like an eternity. She wasn't sure if she was punishing Jessie, testing her, or if her brain had just ceased functioning.

Jessie's shoulders hunched, her head started to duck, and she was beginning to think that she should just get out before things got even worse. Not that she was sure how they could be worse. Katie was practically catatonic.

Katie's heart lurched as she watched Jessie turn from her, then thudded hard and strong as Jessie shut the door, turned around, and took three sure-footed steps back to Katie. She slowly reached out towards Katie, as the taller girl's eyes flicked down to her hand in suspicion, and she took Katie's hand in her own. Taking it as a good sign that Katie didn't jerk her hand away immediately, Jessie tugged Katie up the stairs and back into her childhood bedroom.

They sat for several more minutes in silence, Katie facing the edge of the bed and Jessie facing Katie, as each girl tried to find the right words, or any words to express their immense feelings.

Sitting in the room that witnessed so much of her pain, Katie felt a slow surge of anger building inside. She unwittingly began to tremble as the realization sunk in that she was sitting next to the girl that she had once loved with all of her heart and soul; who had shattered it and her in one terrible night; and who, if Katie was honest, still held her broken heart in the palm of her small, pale hand.

Jessie, aching for Katie and her obvious pain, moved closer and put her arms around Katie's body, resting her forehead against Katie's temple and whispering calming words into her ear. As the tears began to fall from Katie's green eyes, Jessie's attempts to soothe her became more frantic; rubbing her hand in circles on Katie's back and 'shhhing' gently. Tears threatened Jessie's eyes as she comforted Katie, until eventually Katie's breathing evened out and her body was calm once again.

Jessie's hand stilled and she fell silent as the air in the room changed. It instantly became heavy and electric as Katie turned her head towards Jessie, while reaching up to hook a finger under her chin. She lifted Jessie's face up to meet hers, their breath mixing for a moment, before Katie closed the gap and lightly pressed her tear-stained lips to Jessie's.

Katie's heart skipped a beat at the feel of Jessie's lips on hers, a feeling she thought she would never experience again. They held still, seemingly afraid to move in case the other changed her mind, until once more Jessie's emotions overcame her and she pulled back from Katie's lips before crashing back into them, pushing all the guilt and sadness and overwhelming love for Katie right into her mouth, hoping that Katie understood all she was trying to say with her lips and her tongue that she'd been unable to say with words.

Their hands became as frantic as their kisses, sliding over any part of the other that they could reach, tugging at shirts and hair and trying to pull each other closer. When Jessie's hand brushed her breast, a wall of doubt hit Katie like a ton of bricks and she pulled back from Jessie, leaving both girls gasping for air.

"Jessie," Katie started. "You can't do this. You can't just come here with no warning or explanation and expect me to just fall back into you like an idiot waiting to get hurt again. You're here for what, a week, and then it's back to the other side of the world and back to a life that I no longer know anything about so that I can what? Fall apart again? No Jessie, that's not fair to me."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Jessie responded. "I know that I can't just walk in and out of your life as I please. I need you to know that I'm not leaving you again. I want to fix what went wrong - what I did," she corrected as she saw Katie's reaction to her misspoken words.

"Jessie, it's not that simple. It will take longer than a week to regain the trust that we lost."

"I know," started the blonde as she reached into her back pocket and handed Katie a folded up letter.

Katie took the letter, glancing up to Jessie's eyes with a questioning look, as she began unfolding. There, on familiar Georgetown letterhead, were the words:

Dear Miss Sammler,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has voted to accept your application for admission to Georgetown University. I am happy to offer you a place in the first year class for the spring of 2004.

Katie read and re-read the paragraph five times, before her head rose to meet Jessie's gaze. An apprehensive smile graced her features as she hoped for a good reaction from Katie.

Glancing down at the letter and then searching Jessie's face, Katie was very slowly putting together the pieces of a puzzle without seeing the final picture.

When it became clear that Katie was speechless, Jessie reached for Katie's hand and spoke softly.

"The schools in Australia really are great, but Katie, after months of soul-searching and the stupidest mistake I've ever made in my life, I realized that the only thing in my future that matters is you. I told my Dad about us. Told him that I'm in love with you, and that I'm going to Georgetown because it's an amazing school and I don't want to be away from you anymore. Katie, you're the reason I smile, the woman I love, and the only one I want to be with forever."

When Katie failed to respond again, Jessie pleaded, "please say something."

Slowly a smile spread across Katie's features as the weight of Jessie's words sunk in.

She reached out and placed a hand on Jessie's cheek, looking deep into her eyes and searching for any hint that she was joking, finding none. Sliding her hand down Jessie's arm, she pinched the skin above her elbow.

"Ow," exclaimed Jessie. "What was that for?"

"I wasn't sure if I was dreaming," answered Katie.

"Then it's you that needs pinching, you dork," grinned Jessie and she reached out and pinched Katie's leg.

Katie dissolved into giggles as the weight she'd been carrying around momentarily lifted. She grabbed Jessie, pulling her into her arms and squeezed as tight as she could. Pulling back, she gazed directly into those ocean-blue eyes and, before she could lose herself in them, said "I love you, Jessie. I love you so very much."

"I love you too, Katie," Jessie responded. "More than anything."

"Forever."

"And ever," finished Jessie before capturing Katie's lips in a tender kiss, one that she doubted would end anytime soon. Falling down to the bed in each other's arms, they felt momentarily free.

It wasn't fixed. Far from it, but Katie was confident now that it would be. With Jessie in her arms, and them both headed back to Georgetown to start fresh, Katie knew that they could overcome anything, and would.

In her pocket, her cell vibrated. No doubt it was Tad asking where she was and if she was still coming over. Katie grinned as she composed a reply in her head.

Guess what?

~End~