I had gone out with a lot of guys and none of them had been able to hold a candle to Conner. I couldn't say that I didn't try. For the last month Todd had been on my back about moving back home. He was moving back in a couple of months and he wanted David and me to go with him. Sometimes, it was the perfect idea and then I really thought about it. When I really thought about it, I realized that Todd wanted more from the friendship than I could ever give him. I realized that although I wanted to go home, I wasn't ready to go just yet.

Moving back to Sweet Valley was finally settling down and starting the family I wanted. The problem with that was that I wasn't ready. I wanted to do something more for my life before I moved back. I wanted to get a book published. I wanted to really do something with my writing, and living here was pushing me to do that. Being home was great, and it felt great, but it wasn't the kill or be killed that it was here. I needed this for myself, before I turned into someone's wife and mother.

The only problem was that I was ready to be the wife and mother. I already was the mother. I wanted the husband, kids, house, and dog. I just had to do this before I did any of it because I knew I would hate myself forever if I didn't do what I had come to Chicago to do. I was moving up in my career too. I wasn't working at a small magazine anymore. I was working for the Chicago Sun Times. I was only doing small stories but it was something. I was working longer hours, and more was expected of me, but that was okay because Conner was helping me with David every step of the way. When I was too stressed out he was always there for me.

Conner wasn't condescending to any of my goals and was always willing to listen when I needed someone to talk to. Conner wasn't self centered anymore, but there was more trust now then there had ever been. I wanted to do something more with my life, and Conner was helping me every step of the way. When I was pushing myself to hard, he never made me stop; he just gave me a cup of coffee and told me he was taking David out for the day. He was willing to back off and let me date the guys I wanted to, and he never tried to stop me. Although, he did scare a couple of the guys away, sometimes I was grateful for that.

I was supposed to be in bed hours ago, but instead, I was working on a chapter of the book I was writing. If this time was like any of the others I was going to hate this half way through, but I kept up hope that this time would be different. I was hard at work on that when the phone rang, and then I told myself to screw hard work, and I picked up the phone.

I didn't bother looking at the caller ID because I knew it was Conner, "You usually leave me alone when I'm working," I said, rubbing my eyes so I could see better.

I heard a sigh, "It's four in the morning and you have worked in a couple of hours, give it a rest. You're not going to come up with anything decent right now."

I rolled my eyes, "I don't see why it matters. I don't come up with anything decent when I'm wide awake," I said flatly.

It was a reality that I was getting sick of, the hard work and the feeling of failure. I was working my ass off and I was never happy. I wasn't dating Conner because I wanted to wait, but I was starting to realize that it really didn't matter. I could spend the rest of my life working on a novel and never being happy with it and miss my chance with the only person I had ever had these kind of feelings for, or I could go for the gold and see if maybe that would make me sprout something decent out of my mind. I was getting desperate here. I was sexually frustrated beyond anyone's belief and I was in the middle of writers block. I was going to kill someone soon if something didn't change.

"You have to stop pushing yourself so hard."

I was getting a little pissed. It was the lack of sleep I was sure and because he was right, "You usually don't push me like this," I snapped peevishly.

He ignored my mood, "You usually have better sense then to stay up until all hours of the night doing nothing but staring at a blank screen."

I was insulted. "I'm staring at half a page."

He laughed and told me to go to bed and I told him off and hung up on him, but I turned off the computer and got into bed anyway. I didn't question how Conner knew when I was up at four in the morning. Some things weren't worth the time.

My day at work wasn't any more productive then the night that I wasted pretending to write. I was half asleep and I was preoccupied. What if I never wrote a novel that I was happy with? How long was Conner willing to stick around and wait for me? I had a lot of things on my mind. It didn't matter. I couldn't write right now. When I pushed myself to write something then it was usually crap anyway. Writing wasn't something that you forced yourself to do, even if it was a bunch of fluff. Writing was something that had to come from the soul, otherwise the soul of the story was always missing.

My boss didn't really seem to care about the soul of the story all that much. She was very much in a bad mood and she wanted my story twenty minutes ago. After using a whole day doing nothing but pretending to work a miracle happened and I was able to write. It wasn't my best work yet but then again it was good enough and that was okay for now. I just wrote a little love column in the back of the paper, as long as it was readable then it would have to do. It wasn't going to get me any promotions, but I was lucky just to have a column to call my own.

When I came home from work Conner was there with David and they were making me dinner. I was so touched after the day that I had that I cried. Conner ruined it by trying to give me some Midol, but I convinced myself that a guy couldn't be perfect. I was lying on the couch, waiting for dinner, when Conner came in and lifted my feet so he could sit and then he set my feet on his lap. When he started rubbing them I groaned. Just because I wasn't on my feet all day didn't mean that I didn't enjoy it any less.

"So I'm taking it that your day wasn't so hot."

Men had a talent for stating the obvious. "No. It was not a good day today."

"David and I went to the park today, and then we watched a little TV. It's nothing to exciting for a weekday. Then we came over here and figured we would surprise you with dinner."

"What about work? You have work, in like an hour."

When I looked Conner shrugged, "I took the day off. I figured that you needed to be taken care of so I told them I was taking a personal day."

I was touched that he would do that, but I also worried about him, "They fire you if you take too much time off you know."

Conner laughed, "I never take a day off. This is the first time in awhile. Don't worry about it. No one is going to come after me because I take some time off, and I'm not dying."

I shut my eyes and let Conner rub my feet and I didn't comment. Conner and I were still two totally different people. While Conner worked harder now and he took things more seriously, he was still a little too easy for me. I never took the day off just because I felt like it. It annoyed me when other people did it. Work didn't get done when you lay around and didn't do anything. I took it all in stride though. I didn't know why I cared about Conner so much, I just accepted it now.

The timer went off and Conner left to go set the table and I was left lying on the couch with nothing better to do then think. When the phone rang I jumped at it and got it before it got to the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Liz, you have got to help me. I'm about to kill Jeremy," Jessica said desperately over the line.

I grinned, "What's the matter? You don't want to be pampered anymore?"

"You would think that I haven't done the pregnancy thing before. I'm having a baby; I'm not saving the world. He won't even let me go shopping!" My sister made it sound like she was being held hostage.

I loved it when Jess was pregnant and I didn't like the fact that I had to miss it because I was in Chicago. She was always calling me for one reason or another and Jeremy was always nagging on her to take it easier. The two of them didn't handle pregnancy well and it was funny as hell to listen to the two of them. When the baby was born I was going to go visit Jess and this time I was hoping that I didn't end up planning another wedding. Lord helps me, if that happened again.

"Listen I've got to go. Conner is making me dinner. I think it's just about done."

"Lucky you. Jeremy can't even boil water."

"He worked at a coffee shop. He knows how to boil water. He just doesn't have to anymore."

I finally got off the phone with Jess and went to go eat. It was your standard dinner. Conner and I talked about our day and David talked about what he did with his daddy and what kind of things he saw. It wasn't an intellectual conversation, but then again it hardly ever was with David around. It was times like these when I could see us back at Sweet Valley, living in a house that we had bought close to my mom and dad talking about our day. I could see us going home one day a week and the whole family would be around the table. It made me happy to have moments like this.

When we put David to bed and came out into the living room I wanted the moment to last. Conner was being his usual charming self and I was thinking about the book I would have to get back to the moment he left. I didn't want to work on my book at that moment though. For the moment I wanted to spend time with Conner and talk to him. It seemed like it had been forever since we had sat down and talked for hours.

So I took him by the hand and led him over to the couch. Conner was dressed like he was planning a day cleaning the house. He was in worn blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He looked comfortable and relaxed and yet he didn't look like he was a slob. When I planned my outfits I never looked that good. Conner had a charm that a lot of men would kill to have because it drove women to you when you were confident in yourself and you thought only about what made you feel good and screw others. Conner had what it took to be someone big and he wasn't because he didn't have to be. I loved that about him. I loved that we were so alike and yet we were so similar. Conner brought out a side of me that usually didn't show itself. Without him I wouldn't have David.

I loved Conner more than life itself. "I've been busy and I haven't been around all that much. Tell me what I missed."

Conner looked shocked, "You're not going to rush me off and work on the book again," he grabbed his chest like his hart was stopping.

I moved closer to him on the couch until and put his arm around me. "It's not funny. I work hard."

"I know you do Liz. Maybe too much, but that's something you have to work out. Not me."

He was right but I didn't admit that. "Have you heard from Teddy lately?"

He laughed lightly, "It's weird to have my girlfriend ask questions about my ex." I raised an eye brow and he stroked my hair. "She's dating a guy that she met at work. Doesn't think it's going to work out but she's still having fun. Her younger sister just got out of college and she's going to move in with her. She's still not talking to her parents. The usual nothing really knew there."

And so it went for hours. We talked about everything we could think of and when we lapsed into silence we just sat there and held each other. We told jokes and we made fun of one another. We made out and it felt like we were in high school again. We were careful not to let it get too heated in case out little chaperon decided to pay us a visit, but it didn't make it any less fun. We had done all of this before, but somehow something felt different. It felt more right to me. To be sitting in my living room with Conner. It felt like everything was falling into place and things were going to change. For the first time in awhile I didn't want to get back to writing the novel that I was frustrated with and nothing was pushing me.

When it came time for Conner to leave to I could get some rest I didn't want it to end. We were standing in the doorway saying goodbye and I found that I couldn't let him go tonight.

"You're going to be really out of it tomorrow. Way passed your bed time," Conner teased as he kissed me goodnight.

I rolled my eyes and thought about all of the nights before when I had stayed up and wrote a novel. This was so much better. For the first time I didn't feel the need to pull away and make the mood lighter.

"I love you," I said before I could stop myself.

Conner grinned like an idiot, "I love you too."

I hadn't meant to tell Conner I loved him but it didn't mean that it wasn't true. I was glad that I had finally told him. I felt freer. Conner grabbed me and we just stood in the doorway hugging one another and I never wanted to let go, he felt so good in my arms. He felt so right.

"I want you to stay," I admitted slowly.

"What?" he looked like he couldn't believe what I was saying and it truth he wasn't the only one.

"I want you to stay," I repeated.

Conner looked like he didn't know what to say, but I knew he wasn't unhappy about my admission. He looked like he wanted to change my mind for my own good, not for his own. So before Conner could talk me out of it, I led him to me room and he stayed there all night. I felt like I was glowing when I woke up because I was wrapped around Conner. He was still sleeping and when I looked at him I saw how relaxed and carefree he looked. He looked like he didn't have a worry in the world. I wanted to feel more like that when I was awake. Conner would change me. I knew that, because he already had, but I wasn't running anymore because I wanted this.

As soon as I realized that I knew what my book would be about, it would be something that I would have to start from scratch, but I knew I would finish this one.

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A/N: I planned for this to be a couple more chapters but then I realized that it didn't need anything more, and that this was the end. It's weird that you can work on something for so long and then just be able to end it like that. I hope that you all enjoyed the story. I can tell you that work needs to be done on this story and My Baby, but right now I'm just working on getting other stories finished and then going back to them. It's better to have an ending first. Well at least for me it is. I can't say that there won't be more one shots for this story so look out for them. I know I haven't done anything a long time, but I was working on it when I could. Finally, it came together. Keep checking back for more. Review this and tell me what you think.