Ben Harris sat on his couch and drank in the silence that surrounded him. As much as he loved having Curtis around, and was really thrilled about the renewed sense of dedication he'd found in his career after the entire Andy Dixon fiasco, it was nice just to have a moment to himself where he could relax and do things his way. No homework assignments to help out on, no patients who needed his attention, no meetings with Bob Hughes or circular conversations with Denise to focus on…just him, Dr. Ben Harris, alone in his apartment, with a beer and the remote control. It was, for the moment, paradise…but the paradise was quickly disturbed by a loud knock at the door. "Curtis, man, what, you forget your keys again?" Ben said as he walked to the door. But instead of Curtis on the other side, it was Ben's old friend Jack Snyder, and he didn't exactly look like a man who had it all together. "Hey, Jack, long time no see, man!"

"Yeah, hey, Ben, sorry I didn't call first, I just…I don't want to bother you if you're in the middle of something."

"No, nah, come on in. Curtis is off somewhere with his friends, or maybe with Denise, I don't know, and I'm off-duty, so I thought I'd just spend a little quality time at home. Looks like you could use someone to talk to, what's up?" Ben escorted Jack into his apartment and closed the door behind them. He saw that Jack was removing his coat and took it from him, hanging on the back of a nearby chair. Jack took a seat on the couch and Ben sat himself down on the lounge chair. "That bad, huh?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, you could say that," Jack replied. "It's like, my life keeps going from one thing to another, and I can't, I can't stop it. Everything I do just seems to be the wrong thing, and I end up…."

"Is it Julia? Something happen between the two of you?"

"It's more than Julia, Ben. It's…."

Ben looked into the eyes of his closest friend and sensed that the trouble he was having went a lot deeper than the relationship with his wife. "Carly," Ben guessed.

Jack nodded his head. "I really thought it was over between us," he said truthfully. "After she left me at the altar on our wedding day, I thought that was it-my feelings for her would just disappear, and I could just move on with my life, and never look back. But it wasn't that easy to forget, or to stop…feeling, no matter how many times I tried to tell myself I was over her. And then when she came back to Oakdale, I just…put this wall up around that part of me and threw myself into my relationship with Julia. But it was never, right, and Carly knew it, and I knew it, even if I refused to admit it, and I think Julia knew it too. I never wanted things to turn out this way, Ben, but now I'm turning everybody's lives upside down and I hate it, I really hate it!"

"So, what's going on, Jack? What's going to happen next?"

"Well, I haven't quite figured that out yet. I mean, two days ago, I had a life I thought I was happy with-a job that I was proud of and a marriage that seemed to work for me-well, except for the tiny fact that I couldn't stop thinking about the girl who got away, but I resigned myself to things being finished between Carly and me for good. Then I went…I went to New York, following up on the Craig Montgomery case, and boom! Out of the clear blue I run into Carly, and…those feelings I tried to hide just came flooding back, and I realized that I couldn't go on living one more minute without admitting that I still loved her, and I wanted to be with her. And Carly, well, she's never once denied that she is still in love with me, but she said that she couldn't, that we couldn't, be together until I told Julia the truth."

"So, let me guess," Ben said, "you came back to Oakdale to talk to Julia about your marriage and about Carly."

Jack nodded his head and answered, "Exactly. Only I didn't need to say a word, really, because when I got home Julia had already packed some of my things in suitcases and basically told me it was over."

"Wow, I guess she was more perceptive about you and Carly than you realized, huh?"

"Well, there's more to it, though. Apparently, Julia went to the airport to meet my flight, and when she saw me get off the plane, I was with Carly…and then she witnessed us hugging and kissing, saying goodbye before Carly returned to The Lakeview and I went home to face her. Now, I'm sure Julia had her suspicions about Carly and me before then, but seeing us like that, in each other's arms, just pushed her to the breaking point, and she had enough. So, she went home, put some of my clothes in suitcases, and waited-when I arrived, she asked me to leave."

"And I assume you did just that?" inquired Ben.

"Yeah, what else was I going to do? Fight her on it? I was just coming to tell her that I wanted to end our marriage so I could be with Carly, so who am I to do otherwise? I got the things I might need for the next few days and I walked out. That's it, end of story," Jack stated emphatically.

"Well, you're gonna have to crash somewhere until you can figure out where to go from here, so why don't you take the couch and bunk here with Curtis and me?"

"Oh, Ben, man, I can't ask you to do that. I can't ask you to get in the middle of this whole thing-with you being friendly with Julia, and Denise's relationship with her and all; it just wouldn't be fair."

"Too late-offer is already signed, sealed, and delivered. Besides, you won't have to worry about the Denise factor, because it's not an issue anymore," Ben stated matter-of-factly.

Jack raised his eyebrows and shot Ben a puzzled look. "What do you mean it's no longer an issue?" he asked.

"You're not the only one who's been having trouble with women, Jack."

"But I don't understand that! I mean, I thought after Andy admitted he was faking paralysis to keep Denise by his side, and she left him, that you two were back on solid ground."

"Yeah, well, sometimes things don't work out the way you plan, and that's what happened with Denise. We couldn't make it work, so we ended it, and now she's got her dance school with Rose, and I have my career back, and…and Curtis, and we're going on with our lives."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Ben, but if you're OK with the decision, then obviously you made the right choice for you," stated Jack.

Ben shrugged his shoulders and replied, "No use wasting time on things you can't change. Now, how about I get you a beer and we hang out a little, maybe watch a ball game on TV?"

"Sounds great. It's been a long time since we've done something like that."

"Too long, buddy, too long. I'll be right back." Ben stood up and walked into the kitchen, while Jack picked up the remote control and started searching the channels for something to watch…