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                         Swans Crossing: the Reunion	
		  Chapter 7: The Way It Was; the Way It Is
		           By Michelle Rutherfurd
	
	"Oh my god, that's Callie's bike!" Glory exclaimed, breathless.
	"And this is their old sub," Sydney added excitedly.
	"Sydney, we can't get all excited yet. It could just be a 
coincidence." Though in her heart, Glory still loved and wanted her best 
friend back, her mind could not accept that after all the years of hurting, 
that the pain and sorrow could end so abruptly. She couldn't get her hopes 
up. She couldn't bear to lose Callie again.
	Just then, a racket was heard just inside the submarine. Then they 
heard a voice, like someone inside was talking on the phone. Sydney and 
Glory knew that voice too well.
	"Well, there you go, Glor. Callie's back!"
			*	*	*	*	*
	Jimmy set the wrench he had been using on a bike down. He looked 
around the shop, seeing all the things that reminded him of Callie. He 
kept reliving every memory of her in his mind. He couldn't do this anymore! 
He couldn't keep living in total and complete misery forever! It seems 
logical that after all this time he would finally be able to move on, to 
overcome the pain at least a little. But he was as heartbroken as the day 
he found that note from Callie. If anything, things had gotten worse. At 
least before he could hope and pray that Callie would contact him. But not 
now. It's been too long. It was over. Callie had left and was not coming 
back. 
	He remembered the first time he and Callie had "met." She had been 
working on her bike unnoticed when he came in. They both continued working 
on their bikes without realizing the other was there for a few more minutes 
until, at the same moment, they reached into the same tool-box. Their 
hands touched, and both were startled. And that had been the beginning of 
the best times of his life.
	He decided to get back to work to keep his mind off things. But 
as he did, he started noticing things like how this was the same spot he 
had been in when they first met. How Callie had been right over there, on 
the other side of that bike. He tried to dismiss it, but as his hand 
reached for the tool-box, something brushed up against his hand. In shock, 
he looked up to see who or what was there, forcing him to relive a once 
happy, now painful memory. 
	"Callie? Is this a dream?"
	"Nope. Wake up to reality, Clayton. I know I have, realizing that 
I needed to do whatever it takes to be back with you again."
	Just then he noticed Sydney and Glory at the doorway of the shop.
	"This can't be happenning. I don't believe this."
	"Well, believe it, Jimmy. I'm back for good."
			*	*	*	*	*
	"Hi, Saja," Sandy greeted her boyfriend. "I can't wait for our 
date! Do you want to do anything tomorrow?"
	"Um, no I'm busy," he answered, doing his best to give his voice a 
mysterious edge. 
	"Oh? With what?" Sandy asked, maybe just a bit nervously in 
response 
to his tone of voice.
	"Oh, nothing you'd care to know about. Just going to talk with 
someone, an old friend. Well, Sandy, we better get going. Don't want to be 
late," he said a bit rudely, and hurried off ahead. 
	"Well, that was strange," she thought to herself. Just then she 
noticed a piece of paper on the ground where he had been standing. "Hhmmm, 
he must have dropped this," she thought out loud.
	As she unfloded the pink slip of paper, she read the words written 
in spirly handwriting, "Saja, thanks for the great "talk" last night. I 
hope we can have more special moments like that, if you know what I mean. 
Hugs and Kisses, Mila."
	Anger rushed through Sandy Swan like lightening. "How dare she? 
First Owen, now Saja? And how could he? Mila was brought into this world 
an inconsiderate, low-life bitch. But Saja didn't have that excuse. How 
could he do this to me?" she wondered. Then it hit her. "I guess I'm one 
to talk," she realized. Still, it hurt that Mila had won agian, and like 
everyone always did, manage to push Sandy down one more notch.
			*	*	*	*	*
	Mila and Owen sat across from Sandy and Owen later that night at a 
table at the Swans Club. 
	"Hmmm, I just don't know what to order," Saja said. "Mila, what 
would you recommend?" 
	"Uh, well, it really depends on what you like, Saja. But 
personally, I always have had a thing for the lobster."	
	"Ooohhh, that sounds great," he answered. "You have such a way of 
making something seem so irresistable."
	Owen, obviously not too grateful for the sexy edge in his voice, 
decided to out-do him. "Well, whatever you guys want; it's on me."
	"That's very sweet of you Owen," Sandy answered distractedly as 
she gave Mila and Saja long, comfused glances.
	"Actually, since I own this place, it's on me," he reminded Owen, 
trying hard to make him feel as stupid as possible for fogetting a fact 
like that.
	Sandy kept looking from Saja to Mila. He seemed almost as if he 
really was interested in her. How could that be?! She wouldn't be able to 
take it if just one more person had left her for Mila.
	At that moment, Mila stood up and pardoned herself to the ladies 
room. Instead, she stole off to the table on the other side of the club 
where J.T. and Glory were seated. 
	"Hi, guys! What are you doing here?"
	"Just dinner, no big deal. Sit down, Mila," J.T. found himself 
saying.
	"Sure, but just for a moment."
	Glory looked a little flustered, but went on to look at her menu 
while Mila started to strike up a conversation with her fiance.
	"So, J.T. have you written any poetry lately? I always loved your 
work. You have such a way with words," Mila went on, gently touching his 
forearm from across the table.
	At this point, Glory was getting a bit annoyed, and a little 
offended. As Mila and J.T. got into a heated discussion about poetry, 
Glory asked herself silently, "What's gotten into Mila?" But then she 
thought, "Hey, it's not all her. My fiance seems to be flirting back!"
	"J.T. would never," Glory accidentally said outloud, obviously 
getting angry.
	Meanwhile, Mila noticed that Glory had stomped off to the ladies
room. "What a baby!" she thought. "She's such a loser. Just like the rest 
of them. Except J.T. He's the only intelligent one in Swans Crossing. And 
now it's time to get what I've been waiting for for so long."
	"Wow, J.T.! You're so wise. I think I actually like your work 
better than Shakespeare!! I can't believe Glory said your poetry was empty 
and pathetic!"
	"What?"
	"Oh, it's no big deal, J.T.. She just doesn't care for poetry. 
Yours, anyway. The only reason she would never say anything to your face 
is because she knows it would hurt you. She knows how much your poetry 
means to you. And so do I. That's why I want you to know when I say I love 
your work, I mean it from the bottom of my heart," she said in a sugary-
sweet voice, flashing him the famous Mila smile.
	By now, Glory had returned from the bathroom. As she sat down and 
began to order, J.T. stared at her in disbelief. Finally, after she had 
ordered her meal, she noticed. 
	"What's wrong, J.T.?"
	"Oh nothing. I just found out that my future wife has been living 
a lie to me!"
	"Excuse me?" Glory exclaimed, looking at Mila (her suppossed 
friend) for support. Mila simply gave her a look that said, "I don't know 
where he got this from!"
	"You heard me! I can't believe you, Glory! Why didn't you just 
tell me the truth in the first place? God, I might not even care about you 
like I do if I had known this seven years ago!"
	After she heard that, Glory no longer cared to stay and find out 
what this was about. Instead, she ran from the club, tears strumming from 
her face.
	Mila secretly smiled after her. "Right on cue," she thought. 
"Thanks for being so over sensitive and emotional, Glory. For once your 
whining and complaing ways have been to my benefit." And then she turned 
to work her charms on J.T.
			*	*	*	*	*
	An hour later, Glory sat on Sydney's bed with Nancy. Sydney wasn't 
home, but she needed someone to talk to. She knew that Callie and Jimmy 
obviously had a lot of cathing up to do, and all the other possible 
choices were either unavailible or part of the problem. So she had 
convinced Nancy to come to Sydney's, as Garrett and Sydney were at the 
Booth home and she didn't want to be around Mila's when she got back. 
	"Don't worry, Glory," Nancy said soothingly. "Tomorrow you and 
J.T. can figure this whole thing out. He's just nervous about the wedding; 
HE probably didn't even know what he was talking about."
	"Yeah, I guess," Glory said feeling a little bit better. "Nancy, 
you sure are different. What happened to you in New York? Just tell me! 
You may even feel better."
	Nancy became silent for a few moments, then snapped back into 
reality. "I suppose three years is long enough to keep this secret. It all 
started sophmore year of high school. I met this great guy, Mike, at the 
stables, and I fell completely in love with him. But he was only visiting 
Swans Crossing for that year. That summer, he left for his home, New York. 
I wrote him all through high school, and I spent my entire spring break 
senior year looking for him. But I never even heard another word from him. 
Until the last night of our Senior trip. I ran into him at a club, and I 
was really drunk, and I ended up sleeping with him. When I moved to New 
York after high school, I found out that I was pregnant. I stayed with him 
that whole time, clinging to him like he was the last man on earth, giving 
him everything I ever had. But when the baby was born, before I even had a 
chance to look at her, he..."her voice cracked and she started sobbing 
violently. All Glory could do was rub her back and whisper soothing words 
to her. 
	It just was not meant for Nancy to share her sad story. No one 
could know that her baby had been taken from her by it's own father the 
moment it was born, that after that Nancy went through months of beating, 
brainwashing, and every kind of abuse thinkable all the while believeing 
that this man was good, that she needed him, before she got the courage to 
leave him and come home. No one would understand why she loved him, or why 
she was obsessed with making him see he loved her. Then he would stop 
hurting her and treat her better. Then maybe she could have her baby back. 
Until then, no one could know.
			*	*	*	*	*
	"Garrett, I know not telling you from the start was wrong. But it's 
not like I led you on! I've been here for less than a week, for Christ's 
sake! Are you really angry at me, or are you angry because you can't have 
me?" Sydney demanded.
	Looking up at her now, with his angry expression replaced with one 
of emotional defeat, he replied, "You're right. I am only mad at myself, 
for letting you get away from me, for not making an effort to keep the 
love of my life. And now I'll have to suffer for it, won't I?" he asked 
her as he stood up and grabbed her by the arms, looking her square in the 
face.
	"Oh, Garrett, I don't want you to suffer," Sydney almost whimpered. 
"What do you want from me?"
	He simply looked into her eyes for a moment before the two of 
them found themselves in the most passionate kiss they had ever experienced 
in their entire lives.

	          TO BE CONTINUED: TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!
	       ~~~~~~~~~~~~(You know what that means)~~~~~~~~~~~~
			      glitter495@aol.com


		      Copyright: Michelle Rutherfurd, 1999