After Dana left, Lizzy let herself fall back into the past, and as usual her memory had gone back to her and Brian's last weekend together. They had worked all day Friday in the office with a few other people, and Brian had treated her in his best professional manner.

It had been such a turn-on for Lizzy that he was treating her so formally in public while knowing that she would have him all to herself that evening and all weekend. She knew a side of him that none of these other people did, and the intimacy of it made her catch her breath.

He left the office before she did, giving her a wink as he left.

She waited another half hour then left, heading right for his apartment. When she got there she didn't bother to knock she just walked right in, excited to begin their weekend together. Brian was leaning against a window looking down at the street five stories below, watching the traffic. He held a glass of whisky in his hand, and he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

If he heard her come in he didn't give her any indication, so she sat her purse down on the table and moved to wrap her arms around his waist. When he jumped a little she realized that he hadn't heard her enter.

"You seem deep in thought," she remarked as she rested her cheek against his back and listened to his heartbeat. He was warm from his shower, and he smelled as he always did, like soap and Brian.

He knocked back the rest of his whisky and set the glass on the window ledge. "Just thinking about you." He turned pulling her close to his side. She kept her arms wrapped around his waist, suddenly sensing something was off with him.

Since he had given in to her and they had started their relationship, he had proven to be more lighthearted than she thought he was capable of being. He loved to tease her about everything, and he was always so gentle with her, but tonight there was an edge to him. He seemed to be a bit dangerous in his silence, and Lizzy couldn't deny that it excited her a little. She had felt like he had been treating her with kid gloves due to her inexperience.

"What's wrong? What's changed Brian?"

He pulled her in front of him and looked down at her. "What makes you think something is wrong?" He pushed her hair off of her shoulders as she tilted her head back to look up at him.

"I know you Brian, and there is something..."

He let his hand wander to the zipper on her dress. "Were you saying something?" He let his hand trace down her back as he slowly lowered the zip causing her to arch into him. He nuzzled her ear as he traced kisses down her shoulder, letting her dress fall to the floor.

"Brian?" She tried to push him away so she could look at him.

"Yes, Elizabeth?"

He knew when he said her name like that her knees went weak.

"What's going on, why are you upset?" She tried again.

"Now, why would I be upset when I have such a lovely girl in my arms?" He backed her up against the window and she heard the whisky glass as it fell to the floor. Lizzy saw just a fleeting glance of naked pain in his glance before it was replaced with heat as he looked down at her in her skimpy underwear.

When he grabbed her and kissed her she was lost, forgetting all about the look she had witnessed a moment earlier. His kiss was so different from any he had ever given her before, it made her heart stop. It was as if he was trying to tell her something. When it went from gentle to fierce she matched him.

Suddenly, he wasn't treating her like a girl but like a woman, and she loved it. For the first time he was treating Lizzy as an equal in their passion, and not like a delicate piece of glass that would break, and she matched him and raised the bar, trying to show him how much she loved him.

That weekend was more of a revelation to her than the previous two months combined. She felt that she really got see and feel the real Brian, and not the Brian he thought she wanted him to be.

But on Monday when she woke up he was gone, with no explanation about what had changed.

*******

Lizzy quickly wiped away the tears that had formed at the memory as she heard the door to her room open. When she opened her eyes she saw Brian standing in front of her, the answer to all of her prayers. She watched as so many emotions ran across his face; longing, anger, pain, and finally sadness.

"Brian?" She sat up reaching for a towel. He picked up her robe and moved towards her. She heard his sharp inhale when he saw her arm and back.

"I'll pretend that you are overawed by my sexy self and that's why you're gasping." She tried to joke but it was weak. She felt like she was still with the Brian from her memory and not the stranger he had become.

He sat on the edge of the tub after he had wrapped her in her robe and pulled her onto his lap. Taking her face between his hands, he traced her bruises, his face tense. "I am so very very sorry Elizabeth."

She had the feeling he was talking about more than just the incident with Patrick.

"I was just remembering our last weekend together, and how wonderful it was," she admitted, she had no clue what made her say it, but she felt she needed to, and she felt him tense at her words.

"That was not my best moment." He shook his head.

"I thought it was, it felt like I got the real Brian that weekend, and not the Brian you thought I wanted you to be."

He was silent as she sat on his lap allowing herself to be held by him. It was the first time in eight years that she felt truly restful, and she realized she had to tell him the truth. She couldn't play anymore games. She had never enjoyed them. She stood up quickly, before she changed her mind, tying the belt on her robe as she moved to sit on the toilet. Not exactly the romantic setting she had always imagined, she gave a sad smile.

"Brian do you really want to know why I stopped eating years ago, and why I think of myself as less than beautiful?" Lizzy meet his eyes.

She saw him tense. He hadn't been expecting her to take control of the conversation.

"Yes," he said as if it was forced out of him.

"I am saying this now, and I know, after what happened with your brother there is no hope, but I have to say it... I am in love with you." She took a shaky breath. There, she had said it and the world hadn't ended. Maybe she was as strong as Dana thought she was.

Brian looked like he had been suckered punched. "Oh come on Brian, you knew. I wasn't very good at hiding it. I'm still not," she said the last part almost to herself.

She stood up and moved to sit next to him taking his hand in hers. She traced the marks his nails had left in his skin. "I have been in love with you since the first time Bryce brought you home. I was fifteen. I remember thinking that you were the handsomest man I had ever seen, and the fact that my family fell in love with you too meant I didn't stand a chance. You were always here." She said putting his hand to her chest where her heart was. "When Mom told me she had secured me a summer job working for you I was going to take my chance." She took a deep breath releasing his hand because holding it was making it harder for her to continue with what she had to say.

"One of my strengths has always been knowing what I want, and I have always wanted you. Even when you left that summer, with no real goodbye, I still wanted you, especially after you shared the real you with me that last weekend. The thought that you were out there, and that it was so easy for you to forget all about me when all I could do was think about you, hurt. It made me feel that I was lacking the sophistication and beauty that a man like you would want, and without you what was the point of eating, or going out, or working."

She stood up pushing her hands through her thick hair. Brian sat as still as a statue looking down at the hand that she had dropped in his lap. "Because you had risked showing me the real you that weekend I risked showing you the real me, and it hurt like hell that you didn't want me. Maybe if I had been different that weekend, responded differently to you, you would have stayed."

Lizzy took a deep quivering breath. She had said so much she might as well say it all.

"Every day for the last eight years the first thing I think of in the morning is you and the last thing I think of at night is you. It has always been you, and it will always be you. If this feeling hasn't faded in eight years, if I can't even get through a simple date without thinking how the man I am with can in no way compare to you..." she let her voice trail away.

She felt him behind her just before he spun her around. "Elizabeth," he leaned his head against hers. "it's no good."

She shrugged. "I can't help it, my mind is made up. It's you or no one."

He crushed her lips in a searing kiss. All Lizzy could do was lean into it, taking what she could get. It wouldn't hurt any more or less in the morning.

She wound her arms around his neck. "Please Brian, just tonight," she pleaded. "Show me the real you again."

He lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom. She had finally won a battle. She wouldn't think about what the morning would bring, she would only think about this night, this moment, one more that she would carry with her.

*******

Quinn was standing in the kitchen looking out the window when Brian came downstairs before dawn the next morning, the sight of him caused Brian stop.

"Have a cup of coffee before you go." Quinn motioned towards the coffee pot.

Quinn studied Brian as he poured himself a cup and then came to stand beside him. He was a little taller than Quinn, and his silver hair was still wet from his shower. He was a strong man, definitely a man who could cause another man some physical discomfort.

"Is it true you were an Army Ranger?" Quinn asked.

Brian turned to look at him with surprise. He had expected the third degree, after all he had just spent the night with his sister in her childhood bedroom.

"Yes."

Quinn nodded and turned back to the window. "I love this time of day no one is awake, no drama."

Brian just stared at him in disbelief.

"You headed out?"

"Yes, I have some business in Dallas to take care of."

"Mmm, that'd be your brother," Quinn said taking a sip of coffee.

"Yes." Quinn noticed Brian's hand tighten on his coffee cup at the thought of his brother.

They both drank in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their thoughts.

Quinn took his cup to the sink and rinsed it then nodded to Brian's cup and, taking the hint, he drained his then handed it over before they both moved to the back door.

Quinn held out his hand to Brian. "Take care brother," he said, pulling Brian into a brief hug as he took his hand. "Be sure you're here on Saturday for Mom and Dad's party. I know they're expecting you."

Brian nodded his head, doing his best to hide all emotion. "I'll do my best."

"That's all that we can ask of family," Quinn said with a grin, patting him on the back.