Ivory Tower

Genny walked through the door of her's and Josh's apartment. The place was dead and clearly wasn't being lived in. Genny had found out through her mother that Josh had gone to L.A to record for a new album.

Genny walked through the house looking for any traces of Josh, looking for anything he may have left. There were half used bottles of colognes on the dresser, clothes hanging out of drawers and a few pairs of old shoes coming out of opened closet doors. He had clearly run out and run out fast.

The remains of their wreck of a relationship was all over the apartment. Pictures, love notes, clothing and gifts. It was all over the place. Genny hated herself for leaving the way she did, but she needed help. Help she couldn't possibly ask Josh for.

Genny made her way into their tiny little sitting room and looked at all the pictures of them on the walls and on the tables. She picked up a picture of them from about two years ago when they were at a Franceschi family get-together. They were so perfect then. Genny didn't know how she let them get the way they were. She didn't know how she allowed herself to be how she was.

"That's my favourite picture of us," Came his voice. Genny turned around and saw Josh standing behind her with his hands in his pockets. He had a small bag at his feet. He looked like hell. He was wearing a beanie which suggested that he hadn't showered in a few days. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin looked dull.

"Josh," Genny muttered. She stepped to hug him, but remembered what had happened. She didn't think Josh would really like that. "What are you doing here?"

"This is my apartment, too." Josh replied, almost bitterly. He didn't intend to sound so mean to her, but he was upset. He felt that he had every right to be bitter around her. She broke his heart.

"I meant here as in Surrey," Genny replied, trying not to tell him he was being an asshole like she would have before. "I thought you were in L.A."

"For some reason I thought that maybe I should come back here and see you. Here what explanation you have for leaving me all those months ago," Josh shrugged.

"How long are you here for?" Genny asked, shifting awkwardly on her feet. She was shrinking beneath his bitterness. She felt that she had no power against him. He was right and she was wrong. No amount of anger or explanation could ever right her wrong. All she could do now was hope that he forgave her.

"Couple of days," Josh replied. "Figured I'd visit my family, too."

Genny nodded. There was so much tension and angst between the two of them. All she wanted to do was run up to him and kiss his face, tell him how sorry she was.

"I don't regret it, Josh." Genny stated after a long silence between them, Josh's eyes burning into her. "I regret how I left, but I don't regret leaving."

"Of course you wouldn't," Josh laughed cynically. "You wouldn't regret leaving me in the middle of the night without any signs at all. You wouldn't regret being selfish and abandoning me. I didn't tell you what you wanted to hear and evidentially that was the thing that drove you away from me. Forgive me for thinking for myself for once in our relationship."

"Hostile," Genny mumbled, not looking at him. His words cut her, slashing at her skin.

"Yeah, I am." Josh gave a twisted, bitter smile. It was so unlike him. He'd changed, or had just gone so far in the opposite direction Genny didn't recognize him anymore.

"I mean I think I always knew you'd leave me, but I just didn't think it'd be like that." Josh continued. "I didn't think you would leave me the way you did. Leaving a fucking note on the bathroom mirror!"

"I needed help, Josh!" Genny shouted, fed up with him speaking to her the way he was. They had been in love. She knew what she had done was bad, she knew that he'd be angry, and she also knew he still loved her.

"I wasn't good enough for you? I couldn't help you?" Josh asked, clearly offended and upset.

"I needed professional help," Genny yelled again, throwing her arms up in frustration. "I was done with drowning and suffocating myself in this apartment waiting for you to want to marry me again. I wanted things the way they used to be and they were never going to be that. Not while I was all fucked up the way I was."

"Professional help?" Josh repeated, his voice sticking in his throat.

"I had no grasp on reality, Josh. I didn't know what was real and what was in my mind. I shut people out, I refused to believe anything, I had a huge breakdown and nothing was ever the same. I had to get help," Genny continued.

Josh took three big strides toward her, his body shaking. He could barely control his heart rate and his breathing when he took her face in his shaky hands.

"What do you mean 'professional help'?" Josh was able to mumble out. All anger aside this term scared Josh. Had she really been driven to what he thought? Was she that bad off?

"I checked myself into Lambeth Hospital," Genny sighed, putting her hands on his sides.

"The psychiatric hospital in London?" Josh asked, not believing what he was hearing.

"Yes," Genny nodded. "Josh, something didn't feel right. I had to fix it. I know that this might not make sense to you or that this is strange to you, but I had to do it. I had to-"

Josh cut her off, kissing her hard on the mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting off the tears he knew would fall had he kept them open.

When he stopped kissing her, he moved her hair out of her face. He sat them on the on the couch and made sure they were facing one another.

"Tell me everything," He whispered. He feared if he spoke at his usual volume she would hear the sobs stuck in his throat, begging to be let out.

"From the beginning. I want to know everything from the night you left until a few minutes before I got here. I need to know everything," Josh begged.

All of his angst and bitterness towards her had vanished. All he wanted to know was how and who saved the love of his life.