"Brenda," Jax repeated, "if Ned and Lois were right about the state of our marriages, what else were they right about?"

"I-" she began.

"Wait, let me say this since it's all tied together." Brenda only nodded silently and waited patiently for him to go on. "I've thought a lot about the conversations I've had recently with Ned and also about the dream I've been having. It's always the same one and I've had it for years now. The first time I had it was a long time ago, about two months after you married Sonny. And I'm sure you can guess, I've had it twice this week, too, last night and that first night." He paused to look at her and she nodded again, remembering the night he was in so much pain. "Brenda, my dream is about us, you and me." He took a deep breath and began to tell her about it. "It always starts in a hallway of locked doors. I'm always running down it, trying each door, and the one I find that is unlocked leads into our garden. Suddenly, I'm in that night, but something is different about it. I turn to look for you in the gateway, but you never appear and when I try to find you, I can't. Then, I see you on the other side of the gate and I reach for you. You're standing too far away and I can't go beyond the garden gates and you can't come into them. I turn to look for another way to get to you, but there isn't one, and when I turn back, you've disappeared. I call for you, but there's nothing. Then, I hear this laughing. It's two voices and I know them both. One is Miranda's-"

"And the other is Sonny's," she finished quietly.

Jax nodded, surprised. "Yes, how'd you know?"

"I've had similar dreams," she revealed.

"You have?" he asked, but before she could answer, he continued, "Brenda, I've been thinking about it and I know now what it means. But it doesn't have to mean that anymore."

"What are you saying?"

"The dreams are about the two of us being trapped in two places and not being able to get through them to be together. The fact that we both have them and they're similar means that we both see it the same way. With Miranda and Sonny in our lives, we are trapped, never to be able to have what we once had again. But without them-"

"We're free," she whispered softly.

"Yes, we're free. Free to do whatever we choose, to be with whomever we choose." He paused. Neither of them had said it yet. "Brenda, there's only one question. When you say free, what do you mean by it?" He had to know if she felt the same way.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when I say it, I mean I'm free from Miranda. I can file for a divorce now and she can't get a thing from me. But, more importantly, it means-"

Wait," she broke in, "don't say it yet. Let me say what I have to say first." He nodded. "When I say I'm free, it's what I am. I haven't been free for a very long time, Jax. Not since that night when you and I broke everything off. That night, everything changed, and I became trapped, in a manner of speaking. I was trapped in my feelings for you and the fact that they no longer meant anything to you." Jax opened his mouth to protest. "Let me finish, please," she pleaded. "I was still in love with you then, but I thought that would change. So I married Sonny after I found out you were married to Miranda. I thought I loved him. But for two years, I have been trapped again. This time, in a marriage full of jealousy. I married a man I never knew. I never loved this man. I don't even think I truly loved the man I thought he was. Now, because of everything that has happened, I can stop worrying about him and all that he does. I am free to be my own person, finally. I am free to be anyone and love anyone I want." She looked right into his eyes, then. "And that means, I am free to love you, Jax."

There was a pause before his face broke into a wide grin. He held out a hand to her and she took it, coming to sit next to him. He turned to face her and took her face in his hands. "You mean that, don't you?" She nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, thank God, Brenda. Do you have any idea...?" he trailed off. "Thank you, Brenda."

"For what?" she whispered.

"For loving me the way that I love you." With that, he leaned his head to hers and kissed her gently on the lips. She reached her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, kissing him more urgently and not even giving him the chance to pull back. Their kiss deepened and their passion grew the longer it went on.

Several minutes later, Jax finally pulled away from her. "Remind me that we definitely need to thank Ned and Lois."

"Oh my God! Ned and Lois! What are they going to think?" Brenda exclaimed.

Jax laughed. "Oh, I think they'll be quite thrilled, actually."

"They have been pushing recently, haven't they?" she laughed with him. "Yes, we do have to thank them." She got up and straddled Jax's legs, then.

"Brenda-" but she cut him off with a kiss. He wound his fingers into her hair and pulled her into him. But she made all the moves from there. She turned him on the couch until they were laying on it. She lay on his chest with her body between his legs. Their hands roamed over each other's bodies until Jax's thoughts took hold of him.

"Brenda, stop," he whispered breathlessly.

"Why?" She tried to move in and kiss him again, but he moved his head so that she got his cheek instead.

"Not yet, we can't." He leaned his head back into the cushions and looked into her eyes.

"Why?" she repeated. She wanted to and he knew it. She folded her hands across his chest and put her head onto them, leaving her face just inches from his. From where she was, she had a perfect view into his deep aquamarine eyes.

"Because this isn't right. It isn't the way it should be."

"What are you talking about? It's perfect. All we need is each other, nothing more. Besides, don't you think we've waited long enough? I don't want to wait anymore."

"It's just-" his voice broke off and he thought about his words. "I've wanted this moment for four years, Brenda. Ever since that night, you know. But this isn't how I wanted it to go. I wanted it to be absolutely prefect."

"And what exactly does 'perfect' mean to you?"

"It means I would like to wait until we can do this right. That means, without any restrictions, like me not being able to walk. Please, let me do this?" he pleaded with his eyes as well as his words.

Brenda sighed and smiled. "You're really going to make me wait, huh? OK, I suppose we can do that. But that means we're going to need some serious distraction from each other. How about Ned and Lois?"

Jax nodded and Brenda leaned in to kiss him one last time before she got up. She ran to call them while Jax began to straighten up and try to take his mind off of what he'd just stopped from happening.

An hour later, Ned and Lois returned to the apartment. Jax and Brenda had decided to surprise them and let them figure out what was going on. So far, they were still on opposite sides of the room. They sat in Jax's office, trying to figure out what to do for the evening. They decided to go see the movie they hadn't gotten to see the other day and then a late dinner. They left into the cold evening shortly thereafter.

While they were in the movie theater, Ned began to pick up on a few small things and was becoming suspicious. Jax paid for Brenda's movie ticket, but that was no real rare occurrence. Brenda refused to sit away from Jax in the theater and Ned noticed they spent most of the movie commenting to each other and laughing quietly. They were all minor things that happened frequently, but Ned was beginning to put them together in a different light. His suspicions were confirmed when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jax take Brenda's hand discreetly and intertwine their fingers, holding it for the rest of the movie. Ned smiled and decided to wait to confront them. He knew Lois didn't suspect anything yet.

It wasn't until they were seated in the restaurant that Lois got a nudge from Ned. He motioned to something and she saw what he was seeing. Brenda was eating with her left hand, though she was normally right-handed. Lois was curious, and tried to figure out why she would do that. She found out soon enough when she accidentally dropped her napkin on the floor. When she bent down to pick it up, she noticed Brenda's hand was, in fact, occupied in another place, on Jax's knee. Lois almost laughed out loud, but instead sat upright and winked at Ned. He grinned in return. Now, it was their turn to play the game.

Ned looked Jax squarely in the eye and said, "So, Jax, did you have that conversation we talked about earlier?"

Jax nodded. "Yes, I did. It went very well." He didn't say anything else so that Brenda wouldn't suspect it was about her. "We did come up with a few reasons behind it all, but nothing certain."

"Good, good," Ned nodded. "Anything else you care to tell me?"

Jax shook his head. "No, not that I know of. Nothing else you need to know, at least." He began to smile slyly, but quickly stopped when Brenda kicked him under the table, having figured out what he was getting at.

Lois jumped in then. "Bren, what about you? What did you do while Jax was having these fascinating conversations? Anything interesting?"

"No, not too much. I worked out a few things with one of my own concerns. Everything is coming together pretty well," she covered.

"Everything? Might you mean everyONE?" Lois left it at that and stood up, smiling broadly. "Ned, are you ready to go?" Ned nodded and stood with her. "We're going to leave you two alone now." She winked at them, like she had something she knew.

Ned laughed, "Right, don't get in too much trouble without us." They turned and left the table, then.

Brenda turned to Jax, "They know." He nodded, smiling.

They stayed at the restaurant for awhile later, talking and having coffee. After awhile, Jax tried to cover a yawn, but Brenda saw it anyway. They got up and went to get a cab. While they waited in the cold night, Brenda turned to face him. She wrapped her arms around his waist under his leather coat, hugging him tightly. He lightly kissed the top of her head as she stood in his embrace. When she drew back, he asked, "What was that for?"

"Because I love you and I can." She waved for a passing cab.

"Then, I can expect more of that, right?" he grinned.

"Always." They got into the waiting car and headed for his apartment. Jax put his arms around her and leaned his head on top of hers. They rode in a content silence.

When the cab pulled up to the apartment building, Brenda helped him out of the car and they moved towards the elevator, taking their time. Once in the elevator, Jax leaned back against the wall and Brenda put an arm around his waist. He found it very annoying when he had to take his arm from her and take hold of his crutches instead. They went directly to the bedroom and Jax sat on the bed to take off his shoes. Brenda saw him grimace as he took off his left shoe. It had been tied very loosely to fit around his splint.

She wanted to take a look at his foot, but he pushed her hands aside. "Jax, let me look, please."

"No, it's fine, Brenda." He grabbed for his crutches to move, but she stood quickly and pushed him back to sit on the bed.

"Jax," she warned. She reached down to undo the velcro of his splint. As she pulled at the last one, he took a sharp breath and she looked up to see him trying to control his pain. "Does it still hurt?"

Jax nodded, "Only when someone touches it, or I try to move it."

"So, that's a yes?" she teased gently. She carefully removed the splint and told him to lie back on the bed. He did as he was told. He closed his eyes and put his head on the pillows. Brenda gently felt the area around the bruise to see if she could tell if the swelling had gone down. As her fingers moved toward the center of his injury, he gasped, but kept his mouth shut. "Sorry, Jax," she murmured. He nodded with acknowledgement.

Eventually, Jax felt her stop touching his foot and he heard her leave the room. He remained on the bed with his eyes closed. Soon, he heard her reenter the room and felt her place an ice pack wrapped in a towel around his foot. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock, seeing it was almost eleven o'clock.

"Brenda, if you don't mind, I think we should call it a night." Just as he said the words, he couldn't stop another yawn from overtaking him.

"I think that would be a good idea." She gave him a hand to stand up and while he changed into his pajamas, she did the same in the bathroom. When she returned, he was already in bed, with the covers pulled over him. She lay next to him and it was only a few seconds before he reached out an arm and wrapped her in his embrace. They fit perfectly together, they realized, as they went to sleep. They always had.