(This story takes place right up to the Season Four Finale, but with a very different ending.)

Ben paused momentarily. Just a few seconds ago his mother grimaced at him asking why he was interrupting their wedding instead of carrying it out. As he tried to explain why Riley and his brother Danny should be together, his mother's fiancée openly asked who he was talking about. Just press ahead, this is the right thing you are doing, this isn't thoughtless, but sincere. He was going to remind Danny that he had loved Riley every day of his life since he was six... Was that actually true? No doubt he cared for her very deeply, but every day, when he had heard Danny with other women and seen them in the morning... No that was snarky, perhaps he could rephrase it... Or let's talk to Riley. Just turn to her...

The audience didn't notice the shift. "Riley, I don't think I've been a very good friend over the last few months. I've...been selfish, and I've been completely ignorant of what you actually wanted and needed..." (that should be needed and wanted or just needed or just..) "I am so sorry that I haven't been there for you. No, I..I..I..am so sorry that I will never be the man you need and deserve and should have had all this time. I was so lucky that you ever thought of me and I can't...can't... can't ever be good enough for you. But..but..." And now there was an audible pause that the audience did notice.. "but you have to believe me that you will never, never, find anyone who loves you as completely and totally as Danny does. Please...please.."

And then Riley and Danny moved towards each other. Or was it Danny to Riley? Certainly as the taller of the two he would have to take the initiative. And as their lips gently touched Bonnie loudly interrupted: "This is a sign! This is the last bloody sign! Seriously Brad, do you want to call off the wedding today and try some other time!" "Works for me!" There was some confusion as Bonnie's friend Charlotte said this wasn't her fault, Tucker told the audience that they could go home and then Danny spoke up. "We can still have a wedding!" He turned to Riley "I'm in a tux, and you're in a dress. I always knew we would end up together some day." He got down on the traditional one knee. "Riley Perrin, will you marry me?"

Riley stared. What was she thinking? It was hard to tell because she quickly covered her mouth. Was she smiling? Was she afraid? What about her eyes? They seemed surprised, were they alarmed? Was she looking away from Danny? And if so to whom? Certainly everyone else around the treehouse was trying to catch her eye, not to mention the people in the front row. Then she put her hand down and opened her mouth slightly. She then paused and then...

"Eep!"

"Eep?" asked Danny.

"Eep!"

"What kind of answer is that?!" yelled Bonnie.

"Eep! Eep! Eep-eep!"

"Oh, she's got the hiccups!" realized Tucker.

"Oh, we need to scare her!" said Danny.

"Riley, your gynecologist called. You're ridiculously pregnant." smiled Bonnie.

Riley glared derisively at this obvious ploy, then "Eep!"

"No," shouted Brad. "The key to hiccups is to take some water and gargle for about thirty seconds."

Ben pointed to Emma's basic supplies bag that was near her and Tucker. "Tucker, give Riley one of Emma's juice packs." Tucker reached in and tossed a juice carton to Riley. She tore it open and swallowed the contents. Awkwardly trying to position herself so that the audience wouldn't see her gargling, she swallowed some and started coughing. This grew slightly worse until Bonnie gave her a firm smack on the back. "All right. Ok. Umm. Well that was strange and a bit awkward and a bit strange and a little awkward.."

"You're repeating yourself," Bonnie noted impatiently.

"I'm sorry. This is very sudden."

"We could get married tonight!" Danny declared enthusiastically.

"No, you can't," Tucker rejoined. "You need a marriage license, which you can't get because it's a Saturday night. And once you get it you have to wait at least 24 hours."

"Umm, this is very sudden. I mean earlier today we were barely friends, and now you want us to get married."

"But this is what our whole lives have been waiting for! This is perfect!"

"Really?" queried Tucker.

"Yes, well it's been a long day, and come to think of I left the oven on, and well these flowers I'm holding should be put someplace safe, and these, these are just totally the wrong shoes to accept an engagement in, and come to think I may have forgot to turn my DVR on..."

"She's moving toward the door!" Brad yelped.

"She's a flight risk!" realized Tucker, and indeed not only did she quickly dash to the exit, but the effect of several dozen guests who over the past hour hadn't realized the importance of the cinderblock keeping the door open was such the slight instinctive tug she gave to the door as she went in was enough to upset it and lock everyone else on the roof.

"Oh for God's sake, we've got to do something about that door!" cried Tucker.

Bonnie stared sourly at her oldest son. "Danny. Get up." Fortunately Ben had been locked up on the roof himself enough times over the past couple of years that he had figured some ways of jimmying the lock, something that was easy to do with an assortment of wedding supplies. Of course, this didn't mean the search for Riley could immediately resume, since the guests had to be shuffled out of the building, while people closer to Bonnie and Brad were shanghaied by the unsuccessful bride into dealing with the collapse of the ceremony. "This is all your fault Ben! This is all because I made you realize that you should be supporting Danny with Riley. And so you just had to help them and ruin my wedding. And to think that if I had supported your selfish immature pursuit of Riley I could be the one happily married. Clearly no good deed goes unpunished!" Tucker quickly realized that Riley was not in her apartment, and that her cellphone was still there as he heard it ringing.

Ben paced a little and then spoke up. "Ok, what we have to do is think."

"Oh, this will be fun." muttered Tucker.

"All right, She wasn't carrying her purse when she was on the roof. And if she didn't take her cell phone that maybe because she never went back to her apartment. That means she doesn't have her wallet or any money." Tucker took out one of the ubiquitous keys to her apartment Riley had passed out in her absent mindedness. He opened the apartment. "Dude you were right, good call."

"That means she doesn't have the money to go back to Jersey, or even a transit pass to use the subway. That means she's on foot and somewhere within a ten block radius. Nobody on the roof really saw her on the north side of the building, so she probably left on the south side where we can't see her as well from the top."

"Excellent," said Bonnie. "Tucker, there are three all-night diners south of here five blocks from here. There's also an all-night ice cream place three blocks west. Danny, try your bar, and if it's locked by now try the two closest bars five blocks from there. Ben?"

"Yes?"

"You are going back up to the roof and help put all the chairs away, and generally clean up after the ceremony."

"You mean right now?"

"No, I mean three days later when your landlord complains and we have to worry about whether you get evicted. You don't expect me and Brad to clean up after own ceremony. Then when you've done all that you can put your daughter to bed. Then you should probably go to bed yourself." And so 25 minutes later Ben entered his apartment. "It's been a long and exciting day kiddo, and you probably didn't really understand what was going on. But someday yours truly is going to be up there and with someone who loves you just as much as I do. Only right this moment I have no idea how that is..." Ben switched the light on in his room. "Riley?!"

"Ummm. Hi Ben."

"What are you doing here?!"

"Well, I was running away, and then I realized that I had locked myself out of my apartment again without the key..."

"Yeah, you should really make sure you don't keep doing that."

"And I entered here, because it was the only room that was unlocked."

"Yeah, we should really keep the door locked. I mean we've had thieves before. But with everyone running back and forth over the wedding..." At that point Ben's cell phone vibrated. It was Tucker. "Ben, she's not at the ice cream place. Are you sure she really likes Asian food?"

"Tucker, she's here."

"In our apartment? How did she double back on us?"

"I think she's been here the entire time."

"Ok, I'll call Danny." Ben nodded to Riley. "They'll be back in five minutes."

"Five minutes? I'm, I'm...do we have to do this right now?"

"Well you can't stay in my bedroom. For a start Emma has to sleep here." And so seven minutes later Riley sat uncomfortably on the apartment couch while the three roommates circled her nervously.

"Why do I have to be here?" moaned Tucker. "Did it occur to the three of you that I may have had plans for the evening which would actually have happened if you hadn't all stopped the wedding?"

'What kinds of plans?" asked Riley.

"Well, there was the really hot brunette with the red shirt and a cute little hat..."

"Dude, that's Brad's sister." Danny pointed out.

"Well is there a problem with that?"

"Well, she's married and four months pregnant, so kind of..." said Ben.

"Four months? You're kidding me. Look that's not the problem. The problem is ever since Emma came in, it's been Danny and Riley, or Ben or Riley. And nobody cares that I might want to be with someone..."

"That's not true," objected Riley. "What about a few months back when Ben and Danny brought your wife back? Ok, they didn't know she was your wife. Or a sociopath. But surely it's the thought that counts."

"And there's the time Mom and me helped set you up with Christine," added Ben. "That collapsed rather quickly, I admit. But look, next week me and Danny, we promise we'll recommend you to our customers."

"Really? Thanks dude. How about those three hot Asian girls who dropped in last week?"

"Ummm, well if you're thinking about those three UN economists who just dropped in for a drink before starting a six month survey of Malaysia, probably not so much. But seriously, I promise you something."

"OK. But that still doesn't give me a good reason to be here."

"Please Tucker," and Riley put a hand on his arm. "I need someone here who is neutral."

"Now Riley, you are aware of the difference between being neutral, and being indifferent, which is what I actually feel... Wait a minute. What am I being neutral about? I was under the impression the SS. Ben-Riley Titanic had struck an iceberg months ago with 1500 people drowning horribly in the North Atlantic."

"Titanic. I love that movie." Danny mused dreamily. "I mean, not the 1500 people drowning horribly, but the way Leonardo DiCaprio sacrifices himself for Kate Winslett. That's so sweet."

"Meh." Ben disagreed. "I mean I enjoyed it years ago, but about four years ago I was watching this movie with a film studies major I was dating. And she just went on and on about how crass and manipulative it was. Actually she made some fairly good points. And I actually really like Jim Cameron movies."

"People!" snapped Tucker, "If we could talk about something that's actually relevant to the situation at hand!"

Riley gulped both audibly and visibly. She got up and paced nervously, avoiding the gaze of the Wheeler brothers who were near the kitchen. "This is why I should have gone to Buffalo. This was precisely the situation I was trying to avoid, and this is precisely the situation I'm in. I'm facing two wonderful men who have been my best friends for decades and who both truly love me. And now thanks to me I am going to have to break at least one of their hearts, and quite possibly both of them."

There was a slight pause as everyone waited for her to continue. An indeed she started to speak, several times actually, but then she turned around and moved towards Tucker. "Psst," he whispered. "How do you know they actually love you?"

"What?"

"I mean, aside from talking about you endlessly, why should I believe they love you? I mean if one or both didn't really love you, if it was just a temporary crush, it would save a lot of time. Not to mention my sanity."

"Tucker, I may be a lot thinner than I was than when I was in high school..."

"I don't think 'may' is the operative word here. In fact, I don't think there's any need to use the conditional tense at all."

"Tucker! Regardless of what I look like now, I know I am not so strikingly beautiful or sexually alluring that no one can resist me. So the fact that they keep coming back to me is a strong sign of something. And seriously, in what other circumstances has either Wheeler brother has foregone sex with a woman this long?"

"Hmm, that's a good point."

"And if you ever tell either of them this Tucker Dobbs, I will break your neck."

"Oh yeah girl, I'd like to see you try..." Riley impulsively grabbed one of Tucker's fingers and twisted it back as far as it could without snapping it. "Ouch! OK, I don't want to see you try!" As Tucker nursed his hand after what had been the first audible line in their conversation, Riley turned towards the brothers, took a deep breath, and sat down on the couch. "Danny, please sit with me."

Danny did so and Riley gave him a look that combined a smile with a grimace. She tried to speak, then tried again. Finally, "about the proposal..."

"OK, I agree it was a bit much to get married right this minute."

"Well, it's good that we're on the same page."

"I mean we've never actually dated, and we just kissed, or...or...or done any of the other things that engaged couples have done... And it occurs to me that your family would actually see you married."

"Yes, I believe they actually would."

"So, clearly we should give the wedding idea some time to get started." Danny paused. "In fact, it may be a better idea to withdraw the proposal completely for a few months and then try it again. Unless that's far too cold and unromantic, in which case I'm completely open to an elopement! Or not. Or yes!"

"Danny, that's not the entire problem. It's not just so much that it's sudden..."

"It's spontaneous! But I can change that!"

"Danny, there's also the problem that your brother is still in love with me!"

"But he'll get over it. I mean he was cross for a few days when I told him we were in love. But today he's been incredibly helpful. He's been everything I could ask for."

"Yes Danny, but there's also the problem that I think I may still be in love with your brother."

"What?"

"Oh good Lord girl, not this again! Why can't you make up your mind?" Tucker complained.

Riley rose again. "That's a very good question. When me and Ben got back earlier this year, part of me clearly wanted me to do this. But there was also a part of me that thought he was still unreliable womanizing Ben who just wanted to get into my pants. And so I got angry at his attempts to hook up with me on the train ride to Florida, even though twice on that trip I seriously considered sleeping with him. And I thought he was going to sleep with a bartender on the train. And then when I asked for him to delay telling everyone about us getting back together, and when he couldn't keep blurting it out, I was so irritated. And at the same time there was finding Danny's old love message from the treehouse, and then hearing he was going to go to Paris, and part of me thought, wouldn't it be nice to have a boyfriend who was absolutely reliable. Someone who treated me with complete respect, someone who had always loved me..."

"And you can still have that!" pleaded Danny.

"...someone who had always protected me, someone who was like the big older brother I never had."

"Eew!" winced Tucker.

"And at the same time part of me dismissed the idea such that Ben's suspicions could be dismissed as not only paranoid but as proof of his immaturity. And as long as I engaged in this sort of doublethink, I could believe I had been the loyal girlfriend to Ben, and that moving on to Danny would be perfectly reasonable. And even when actually talking to Danny at the hockey game led to a complete fiasco, the possibility was still there..."

"The possibility is still there!" exclaimed Danny.

"...particularly if neither of us didn't actually act on it. But now we're acting on it, and there's something very wrong with this picture." Riley sat down and faced Danny. "Just consider the events of the past couple of days. It's taken so much trouble for us, who know each other so well and so long and who live so close to each other to get together..."

"But we are together! We are literally on the same couch." Danny paused and turned to Ben. "Literally is the right word, right?"

Ben nodded. "Yes, you are literally on the same couch, while figuratively you are on the same page. Or trying to get there."

Riley took a breath. "Danny, we are together, to the extent that we actually kissed, because your brother begged me to do so at your mother's marriage. Do you not see the problem here?"

"It hasn't been the shortest or the easiest route. But what matters is that we are together at the end."

"But we could have been together at least two months ago if we had a good talk after I came back from New Jersey. So why didn't we? It's not like you suffer from agoraphobia."

"I'm not afraid of spiders?"

"That's arachnophobia."

"I'm not afraid of the number 13?"

"That's triskadekaphobia," informed Tucker. The others looked at him. "What? Some women like to know this." The others looked at him more skeptically. "OK, there's this medical student I knew in college who liked to know this." The others now looked at him derisively. "OK, she was a bit weird. But in my defense, she had extremely large breasts."

Riley turned to Danny. "Agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces. The point is that minimal communication could have solved the problem months ago, and there is no reason to believe we lack minimal communication skills. And yet here we are."

"But there were problems then. I was still annoyed at how you talked to me at the hockey game. Then I was with Ashley, and you were with Ross, and Ben still thought he had a chance. But now everything is perfect..."

"Danny, it's never going to be perfect! For a start, I am not a perfect person! I am ridiculously far from being a perfect person! At least one day a week, often two I panic and think I'm going to completely screw up my legal work, and I'm going to be swallowed up by my law school debts. I'm often nervous, or clumsy and sometimes even hysterical."

"But you don't have to worry about that anymore because I'm here now."

"Danny, it's not just that counting on anyone else in this room for legal help would almost certainly get me swiftly disbarred. It's the fact that if we have to wait until it's perfect for you to act, then we are never going to go anywhere. You cannot reasonably expect Ben to help us with every problem we encounter in our relationship."

"All right, so clearly we have to work smarter, not harder."

"Danny. I am not going to marry you. I am not going to marry you tonight, or actually this morning. I am not going to marry you in the immediate future. I am not going to marry you in the near distant future. Barring a series of tragic and unfortunate events, I will probably never marry you. You are a kind and generous and fundamentally decent person, Daniel Mellencamp Wheeler. And everyone who knows you is lucky to have you as your friend. And there was a time when I thought I was in love with you. And there was definitely a time when I wanted to sleep with you. And I wish you the world Danny, I really do. Danny, several months ago I told you I thought I was falling in love with you. Now tonight, I know that I'm not. I am so, so, so sorry."

"What? But that's not fair. I have known you all my life. And I have cared for you all my life, while for almost all that time to Ben you were just the annoying fat girl from across the street."

"Wait a minute," Ben objected. "Look I wasn't choosing China patterns when we were kids, and obviously I made a lot of jokes about her weight that I right now really regret. But even when we were growing up I was her friend."

"You played all kinds of mean tricks on her! Do I need to remind you of her 16th birthday!?"

"Dude, we play mean tricks on her every Halloween!"

"Oh but your tricks were much worse than mine."

"Danny, that's because you nearly set yourself on fire when you were eight and Mom wouldn't let you touch matches again until you were 15."

"Look, that's not the point. When we were teenagers you were at best a fairweather friend..."

"I was more than that..."

"...while I deeply and truly cared for her. I loved her and I will always love her more than you.."

"Then for God's sake Danny why couldn't you have asked her out ten years ago?" asked Tucker "At the very least I could get some sleep tonight."

Danny was speechless. And then he spoke. "Well for much of that time, Riley was in love with Ben, and I couldn't interfere."

"But you must have known that Ben had no interest in Riley in high school. So why didn't you do something then?"

"Because...because...because..." Danny gulped and started deeply at Riley. "Because I thought you might turn me down and I might lose both my best friend and the woman I love."

Riley nodded and bit her lip. "And that's precisely the problem. It's not that so much that you don't take risks. It's that you don't do anything! Who was it who took the initiative to bring me back from New Jersey? Ben. Who was actually physically hurt that I was sleeping with Ross? Ben. Who broke up with Ross and Ashley because we realized we were in love with each other? Neither of us! Ben had more to do with that than because we realized we had made the wrong choice. Earlier tonight you moved from audibly pouting over my behavior to offering to marry me in less than three minutes because Ben pushed you. At the hockey game you complained about my hurting your feelings. Shortly afterwards, I accidentally pushed Ben off a roof! I threw out most of his clothes on the train to Florida! I didn't have the decency to tell him I had feelings for you! And yet he only was he still trying to get back together with me, he is willing to break his heart so that two of the people he loves most will be happy."

"He doesn't love you! Not like I do!"

"Danny, I don't want to say that you're stupid, except on the many occasions I've yelled at all three of you as a bunch of idiots. And it's striking that Ben didn't realize about your feelings for me. But on this point, you are completely wrong about Ben's feelings." And Riley got up and walked over to Ben. "Behind that often spectacularly unconvincing womanizing veneer, you really do love me. If there was any chance that you could get me back, you would seize if, even if you risked looking like a complete fool." And then she started to cry. "You really would sacrifice anything for your friends, regardless of the price. That is a very special gift, and it's not something to be either sneered at, or wished away. And as life goes on, this is a gift you will definitely need, because not only can life be very hard, it will often be very hard, and you will have to make those hard choices."

And the she kissed him, and although not much longer than the kiss earlier on the roof, it was clearly and distinctly longer. "But this is one sacrifice you do not have to make. Nor should you ever be expected to make it again. Benjamin Ben Jovi Wheeler, if you can forgive me for how I have treated you, I would be very happy to be whatever you wanted me to be."

Ben tried to embrace Riley, but then sobbed convulsively. "Riley...I don't know what to say. You keep saying that I'm this wonderful person who puts other people's feelings first. But I know I am weak. I don't want to be the kind of guy who scores with a different woman every night. I don't ever want to be that person again. But I'll never be as good as Fitch, and I'll never be a professor like Philip, and I'll never be a good lawyer like Ross. Or even a disastrously incompetent one, as the case may be. If you think I'm this magical guy I will just fail you again, like I have before. And I can't bear to do that."

"You sell yourself too short Ben Wheeler."

"Nobody thinks I'm good enough for you. Not my friends, not my mother...certainly not your mother."

"My mother really does not have my best interests at heart on this issue. Ben you have to believe me, I am not doing this out of guilt, although I do feel guilty. I'm not doing this out of pity, although I do deeply care for you. I'm not doing this because I love Emma, although I do love Emma very much. I am doing this because I love you, and not only that, because in several absolutely vital areas, you are a better man than your brother." She then whispered into his ear. "Try not to gloat about that too much."

Now they embraced for what the others in the room found was an awkward period of time. "Do you forgive me for being a fool about Danny?"

"Yes. As long as you love me, I will forgive you anything. Except hurting Emma, which you'll never do. Do you forgive me about Angela?"

"Of course."

"We will probably drive each other completely crazy."

"I will probably regret this every day of my life."

"Not always. Not everything. I can promise you that."