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AJ called Rochelle the day before he was supposed to go to Brian's house. He wasn't sure what made him do it, or what gave him the balls to do it, for that matter.

He was sitting in his office, the one that he never sat in, and he found a picture of them on the desk that he'd missed when he de-Rochelle-ized the house after the break up three and a half years before. The picture was a classic one, it was from 2010, and it was of Rochelle sitting on his lap, her arms backward, wrapped around his neck, smiling, her with her trademark bright-red lips, and big doe eyes. He'd been smiling, too. It was before they'd gotten married, and he just stared at it forever.

Then he'd put it down, picked up the phone, and, from memory, dialed her cell phone number.

"Hello?"

Her voice alone was enough. He contemplated hanging up.

"Hello?"

He paused. Then whispered, "Rochelle?"

"Monkee?" she asked, excitement creeping into her voice.

AJ took a deep breath, "Hey..."

"It is you," she gasped.

"I'm sorry," he said, "For everything."

"I've missed you so much, oh my God, like incredible, I thought you'd never call me!" Rochelle gushed. "I've waited three years for you, Alexander James."

"You- you missed me?"

Rochelle's voice was pained, "Of course I missed you! AJ, I never wanted you to leave to begin with. You've never understood, I love you," she said, "Just like you are."

"But I was immature, and stupid," AJ said, talking about the first few months of their marriage, when he'd found himself trying to act more like a husband, when they'd started fighting because he was changing. "And I'm scarred," he said, referring to when he'd finally left, saying that she deserved better... when he'd felt like they were Beauty and the Beast, and at any moment their clocks and candle sticks would break into song.

"I don't care," Rochelle said. "I don't care what your face looks like! I don't even care if you have a face." She paused, "Well if you didn't have a face at all that would suck because I couldn't kiss you, but I'd still love you even if you didn't have a face."

AJ's heart was constricted in his chest. Her words, quirky though they were, were everything he wanted and needed to hear. "I'm sorry I left you," he said, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, didn't trust you. I felt so guilty because I couldn't be... I couldn't be like Brian is to Leighanne, I couldn't be a stronghold, a manly man, I couldn't be grown up or whatever..."

"If I wanted to marry Brian I would have been going out with Brian," Rochelle said, "Well, no, because he's got Leighanne but--"

"Can I take you to dinner tonight?" AJ interrupted her.

Rochelle smiled, "Yes. But only if you promise me one thing?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to take advantage of me at the end of the night."

AJ laughed, "I promise."

"Then yeah, I could totally eat tonight," Rochelle said with a giggle in her voice.

"I missed you bad, Monkee," AJ sighed contentedly into the phone, "I missed you bad."