The panic in Miles' eyes tore Vera apart. They clasped hands as they sprinted down the hall way. "What is it? What's wrong?" She spoke for him when they entered the room, somehow knowing that he was unable to speak.

"The TV! Look! Miles! It's your song!"

Rob was sitting up in bed casually sipping from a Styrofoam cup.

"Dad?" Miles was at his side instantly.

"Not me boy!" Rob laughed. "The TV."

Vera watched in horror as Mickey sang along with the handsome man in the music video. Her favorite song was forever tainted when Mickey looped her horribly skinny, very well tanned arms around Miles and sang to him.

"Congratulations." Aunt Greta gushed and smothered the two of them in a hug.

Miles was blushing.

"Check it out!" Mickey yelled pointing at the TV. The final caption came on as the hunky lead singer stared straight into the camera. M. McCormick and P. Stanley "Who's P. Stanley?" Mickey was a ball of hyperactivity.

"Paul Stanley." Miles' glance around the room paused on Vera as she inched toward the door.

"The Paul you're always talking about?"

"Yeah. We write together a lot. That song was something I wrote on my own a couple years ago. Paul just helped me tweak it a bit."

His eyes were staring right through her and she was frozen on the spot.

"Thanks for calling me in." Miles clapped Uncle Mike's shoulder. "I've only seen that video once or twice. I appreciate it, but right now Vera and I need to talk. We're gonna go find someplace where we can't be disturbed until we figure some things out. That okay with you, dad?"

Vera was glad when Miles glanced away for just a moment to verify with his father, but she only had time for two or three futile steps out of the door before he caught up to her and the touch of his hand burned through her sweater.

"Let me go." She jerked away.

"No." He looped their arms together. "We gotta talk. What the hell's going on?"

"I don't know." She pushed. "Why don't you tell me?"

"I'd love to! But I only know my half of the story." He ground out shooting glares at the nurses who were scolding them before he pulled her into the same meeting room they had visited the night before.

"La la la." she shook his hands off of her. "Mickey. Mickey. Mickey is the last thing I want to hear about so you may as well shut up."

"Mickey? What about Mickey?"

Vera pushed toward the door. "Go be with her and leave me alone."

"Ver?" Miles stepped in front of her. "I don't get it."

Blindly she struggled to pass him. "I'm going home."

Miles dropped his hands, resigning himself. "I thought you cared. I guess you haven't changed. Still leading me on and leaving me cold."

"I can't care, Miles! Not when you fly your fiance in! I'm done caring." She choked and swallowed willing her tears to remain hidden until she could make her escape. "Go. Go be with Mickey."

"Fiance? Hot fiance? Mickey?

"Don't rub it in." Vera had finally made it into the hallway.
"Mickey's my cousin!" Miles was desperate. "We grew up together."

"I don't care if..." Vera stopped suddenly. "She can't be your cousin. Greta and Mike didn't even know her."

"That's right." He took a step closer. "Mike is Dad's brother. Mickey is Mom's niece. She used to come home with me and stay after school while her momma worked."

Vera took another step back.

"You met her at school, remember?" Miles was closing in.

Vera eyed her escape route. "She slept in your bed."

"And I slept on the floor. God Vera." He started pacing. "Did you think we..."

"What was I supposed to think?" She had backed as far as she could now the cold door frame cut into her back. "You were so excited she was coming."

"She'd like my little sister." He protested. "Alicia was planning for her to stay with you two until you got so pissy she thought that she better not."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" Vera closed her eyes, struggling to keep her nausea at bay. When she opened them Mickey was storming up the hallway.

"Leave him alone!" She spit the words at Vera before pulling on Miles' arm. "Let's go. She's not worth it."

"Vera?" Miles twisted out of Mickey's grasp.

The blonde girl pushed between them. "Stop screwing around with him. Your nothing but a tease. I always told him he was crazy to care about you."

"Leave me alone." Vera held her hands up defensively.

Mickey wasn't finished. "You jerked him around all through college. All sweet one night, passing out drunk with some random guy the next night. You were an ass to me when I visited and a bitch to him."

Vera shook her head collapsing a little more against the door frame.

Miles was furious. "You're not helping at all Mickey. Just go back upstairs."

"No!" Mickey threw another taunt at Vera. "He never should have wasted his time on you."

"Now!" Miles clamped a hand on the girls' arm and dragged her away. "Wait for me Vera. Please?"

She shook her head. "I'm groin' home." She didn't feel the cold air when she stepped outside. Her eyes burned against the orange white glare of the afternoon sun on the snow. She skirted a dirty pile of it that had been plowed into the center of the parking lot and dug for her keys. Her breath came out in white clouds that hung in the air then slowly melted. Vera sat with her head held in her hands.

She looked up at a quiet tap on the glass then back down as Miles folded his long form into the passengers seat.

"God. I prayed you'd be here." He said when he caught his breath.

"I was wishing you'd come to find me." Vera admitted.

Miles inhaled deeply before letting out a long breath. "I was nuts about you in school. Maybe not since the day we met, well I liked you enough, but then I started to get to know you and saw you around a lot and it just kind of snuck up on me. You remember that night at Saint Jim's Cafe? When Russell had the flu?" He risked a glance in her direction. "Everyone ditched me, except you. That whole night was crappy. They bumped me to the end of the show. The place was nearly empty. But you were there, back in the corner, and you stayed the whole time and I guess that might be the first time I knew you were more than just one of the other girls."

Vera clenched her trembling hands in her lap.

"But I could never read you." Miles sounded frustrated. "One day I was sure you cared. The next day you were cold as ice. I tried everything to get you to pay attention to me. Russell kept telling me that you were into me but he didn't have to see you passed out at all of the those parties like I did."

"Oh, God." Vera groaned. "God, what a mess."

"Look, I'm not saying that stuff to make you feel sorry for me. I just want you to know. Maybe it'll help me forget. I think I was over you until Randall called and said you were coming."

"What about now?" Vera asked quietly. "How do you feel now?"

"Like a crazy fool who's putting his whole friggin heart out for the daws. But I'm going all the way. I want you. I want you and me to get together and see what happens. I know my dad's sick. I know it's long distance. I know we don't even know each other anymore, but the past is the past now. We can move ahead and maybe..." He cut himself off. "Never mind."

"No." Vera stopped him with a hand on his arm before he yanked open the door. Their breath coated the windows during the silence that followed. "Me?" Vera whispered. "I always thought you'd go for someone, well, like Mickey. The tall super model look. You're a musician after all."

"Leave Mickey out of this." His voice held the smallest hint of a threat.

"I'm trying." Vera told him. "Really I am. It tore me in two when she came. All heard about was how wonderful she was. I hated her because she had you."

Miles clenched and unclenched his hands. "I used to lay awake at night 'cuz I knew you were just on the other side of that wall, but I could never touch you."

"Miles. Last night?" Vera sounded hesitant. "I'm glad things didn't go farther."

"Me too." He shrugged. "I still would have meant it. I still think I love you, but this would have hurt a lot more."

"You love me?" The well of emotions she had held at bay for so long threatened to break through her carefully constructed dam.

"Vera. I'm..." he seemed to be struggling for words. "I'm not the kind of guy who takes that kind of thing lightly. I know. I know it wasn't sex. But it was real. And I thought there was something real between us. I'm sorry I was wrong. I better go now before I make an even bigger fool of myself."

"Miles. Miles." Vera grabbed ahold of him. "No. You're no fool. God. Haven't you been listening to me? I was mad because I wanted you. Then and now. Russell was right. I was crazy about you. I am. I went to all of those hippie clubs and places just to see you. I loved hearing you play. It didn't matter if I had to sit through fifteen horrible Woodie Guthries as long as I heard your James Taylor. But I liked your music best. When it was late at night I'd wake up and press against the wall just to hear you a little more clearly and imagine you singing to me."

"I was." He groaned facing her. "You were my muse. Every sad song, every love song I've written has been about you."

"I love you, Miles." Vera plowed on. "That's not likely to change anytime soon."

"You promise?" His blue eyes met her brown.

"I will if you will." She nodded.

Miles grinned and they eyed each other awkwardly.

"Is your dad doing okay today?" Vera hid her blush by examining her hands.

"Yeah." Miles nodded. "He's got a check up with the surgeon at four. He'll find out when he can come home."

"Good." She glanced at him only to find him watching her and couldn't stop herself from asking. "Are you sure it's me?"

"Uh huh." He nodded. "Positive."

"I don't know what to do." Her face was burning. "I dreamed about this for so long and now I don't know what to do!"

Miles stretched in his seat. "Well, for starters you could kiss me."

the end.

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Author's Notes:

That's it.

This story was carried by dialogue and really lacked description and setting. (I think I even forgot to include an important scene! oops.) I have a one shot I'm working on to get more practice with details. You'll see it soon.

Thanks. Kree