"I wish she was still here. She didn't need to go." Damon sat on the wall by Sean, who was really finding his hands interesting, and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"I know. But there's always the chance she'll come back one day. At least there's that chance."

"Damon, she's been gone for a year. A whole fucking year! She isn't coming back! She's probably dead in a ditch or something!" Sean started crying, small tears at first, but then great big sobs that shook his body. Damon put an arm around his friends' shoulders and pulled him into a one handed hug.

"You've got to have faith. Maybe you're the only thing that's going to make her come back and if you lose faith." he trailed off but Sean was more interested in the start of the sentence than the end.

"What? She'll come back for me?" Sean looked at his friend in puzzlement.

"It was a conversation we had, right before she, you know, and she told me everything."

"Tell me. Please."

"O.k..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A tall brown haired girl, crying so much she nearly couldn't pack, was shoving clothes, money and other useful items into a backpack, scribbling various notes and arguing violently with the boy at the end of her bed, taking everything out of her backpack in a desperate attempt to stop her going.

"Andy you can't go. Please don't, we need you here. Where are going anyway? That's nowhere near enough money! Where are you going to sleep? What will you do for food?" Her head snapped up from the note she was writing.

"Where am I going? Hell I don't know! I care even less! I just need to get away from here, from this shallowness!" she gestured vaguely and then continued with her note.

"Andrea Wilson, I may only have known you for two or three years but I know you well enough to know that this is not about shallowness or even the fight you just had." Andy froze and Damon moved round to her side, tilting her head up to look her in the eye. "Now, are you going to tell me just exactly why you're now leaving in a hurry with no intention of ever coming back?"

"I never said I wasn't coming back." She shook her head out of his grip and looked away, silent sobs still shivering through her body. She stared into the middle distance for a while then shook herself and returned to packing the black rucksack that was nearly full and shoving last minute things into various pockets. He just stood and watched all of this without a sound. She headed out of the room, down the stairs and out of the front door, with him by her side.

They entered the train station some time later, Damon watching Andy as she bought a one-way ticket to London Waterloo. When she was finished, he spoke.

"London, huh?"

"Best place to get lost in, or at least begin to get lost." She shrugged, hoping that he wouldn't give that information to the police.

"You still haven't told me the real reason for why you're going. You aren't going to either." It was a statement, not a question. She was too damn secretive! Andy sighed and looked up at him, thinking.

Just tell him, he can't do any more harm, Her brain told her.

"You want the real reason?" he nodded. "Sean. I'm in love with him Damon and I can't do anything about it. It hurts just to look at him sometimes." Now this he hadn't expected. Drugs, a bad boyfriend, suicidal feelings, yes he could've cope d. But, being in love with Sean? No, that one wasn't on the list.

"Sean? But isn't he-"

"Practically engaged to Fara, yes. So that's why I have to go. Otherwise I'm going to go mad!" she smiled sadly and turned away. "I have to find myself again, pull myself together, and see some of the world other than just parties and boys. I'm not stupid Damon; I can take care of myself." The train pulled into the station. Andy turned back and hugged him. A tear slid down his cheek.

"Don't go. Please." Damon begged, catching her hand as she turned to board the train.

"I have to, Damon. Forgive me and don't tell Sean what I said. If you do, well maybe it'll be best if you don't." He nodded, not having a clue what she meant, but fully intending to keep the promise.

"Bye." He watched her board the train and waved sadly, as it slid out of the station and into the Great Unknown. Damon watched until it was out of sight, then sighed and turned back towards the station and breaking the news to the rest of his friends.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Damon shook himself as if he was returning from a dream to find a stunned Sean sitting beside him.

"All that time. Didn't she realise me and Fara had broken up? It was later on that day." Sean trailed off and glared at Damon fiercely. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone else? At least then, we might not have worried so much! Do you ever think of anyone else but you? No probably not, you're always too busy feeling sorry for yourself! I could've gone after her, talked to her-"

"That wouldn't've worked. She was feeling lost Sean, not angsty!"

"Fuck you Damon! Why'd you always think of life like a story huh? You're so busy writing about real fucking life that you forget to live it! And don't talk in the past tense either! She IS alive!" And with that, Sean stormed off down the road.

"Well you've really done it this time Damon you fucking great idiot!" he muttered under his breath, sliding off the wall and home to do something like homework to keep him from thinking too hard about what a mess he'd made of that particular conversation.

Damon wasn't the best at friends or popularity. He was more interested in writing about friends, elves, dwarfs or dragons than actually socialising with other people. Nevertheless, Andy had somehow befriended him right back on the first day of term in their first year. He had fallen in love right there and then.

Why didn't you tell him sooner? His brain, or possibly his conscience asked.

"'Cause he needed something to worry about! That guy has his head up his ass so much he's forgotten the real world!" Had he just said aloud? "Oops." Of course, he'd always been jealous of Sean, right from when Andy had suddenly become close with him. She had of course brought the two together and although they were chalk and cheese, they had formed a tentative friendship that had grown and solidified with Andy's disappearance. A bond that the previous conversation had probably all but destroyed.

As Damon stalked home, he wondered how all this would fit into his latest story. Should he change anything? No, he wouldn't, his readers thought it was fake anyway. Fiction. That it wasn't real. It couldn't hurt anyone. Nevertheless, it was and it did.

Damon let himself in and slapped his keys on the side. He went upstairs to his room, switched on his computer and waited while it set up. Once up and running, he opened a new document and started recalling the conversation between himself and Sean for his online soap. He worked long into the night, finally sending it off to his American beta and falling asleep at his computer.

~*~*~*~*~

A train rattled into a small town station at an ungodly hour, dislodging only two passengers onto the lonely platform before shuttling off to change drivers for the morning shifts.

She set her bags down and looked around her, a solitary platform lamp providing the only source of light. It was familiar and comforting and yet, after everything she'd been through she wondered whether she would ever fit in there again. As if sensing her thoughts he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"Well, I'm back now." She sighed, picked up her bags and they set off hand in hand to find somewhere she could freshen up a little.

~*~*~*~*~

"DAMON! Get your sorry ass down here this instant or you'll be in oh so much crap!" Damon woke up with a start as his sisters' voice filtered up to him. Rolling onto the floor, he picked himself up, grumbling and packed his school bag before heading downstairs to grab some cold toast from the kitchen.

Munching on said toast, he climbed blearily into the waiting car and let his mother lecture him on the use of his computer so late.

"I worry about your sleeping patterns dear," she said, looking at him concernedly in the rear view mirror.

"I'm fine mum, honest." When they finally reached school, he was relieved. He got out, kissed his mum on the cheek and mumbled a bye. Then she sped off. Free from her clutches he walked up the long path to the students' entrance. There, his group of friends were waiting, some with earphones in, others nursing coffee. As he approached, they acknowledged him with a nod and slowly they all started to the warmth of the nearest building. They were halfway towards Damons tutor room; he was deep in conversation with one of his mates when a shout made them all turn round.

"Oi! Damon!" the owner of the voice was a rather diminutive girl with seemingly hundreds of bags crisscrossed over her body, rather dirty hair, but a grin that he would recognise anywhere, even after one year that had changed them both.

"Andy!" he started running towards her as everyone stopped and stared, not believing their eyes. He nearly bowled her over in a massive bear hug.

"You came back! I always said you would!" tears sprang in his eyes and after they came out of the hug, he could see she too was crying.

"Yeah I did didn't I?" she said, grinning despite the tears. This broke the spell and the rest of her friends bundled in, all crying and smothering her in hugs.

That was until a voice cleared the noise and Damon turned round to see Sean standing there. Andy also saw him; they made eye contact. Damon didn't know what happened in that second but he blinked and they were in each other's arms nearly killing each other with the sheer power of their embrace. Damon turned away. This was one part of Andy coming back he had always hated imagining, though he knew it would be inevitable when she returned that they would get together.

Damon decided that he'd give himself the day off. Anyway, Andy and Sean didn't look like stopping anytime soon and she'd be so busy talking to everyone else she wouldn't notice he was gone.

Damon sloped off down the way Andy had just come. In all the excitement of being back, she didn't see him go.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

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