Julianna opened the door for George and sent him a dazzling smile. He took the punch of lust to his gut in stride. It always surprised him that he felt it only for her, but by now he was used to it. Working with her for so many years and being her best friend for longer helped you get used to it, even if he always wondered about it.

"Hey!" He said and smiled back. She grinned.

"Hello." She said. She shut the door behind him and was immensely relieved to find that her body wasn't afraid of his, which was good. It was actually attracted, which was always normal when she saw George. It helped her plan one hundred percent.

The two of them hung out for about an hour before Julianna decided to do what she had wanted to do since he arrived. Since they were sitting on the couch, she leaned toward him and rested her head on his shoulder during a pause in their conversation. It was the first time she had touched a man voluntarily since her attacks.

"What's the matter?" He asked and reached over to touch her hand. She smiled up at him.

"Oh nothing." She said and he gave her a quizzical look. She linked her fingers with his and shrugged, wiggling closer to him. The feel of his body and hands against hers made her feel comforted and safe. The strength of him didn't remind her of the strength of her rapist, it reminded her of the strength of someone who would protect you and help you always. She knew George would.

"Are you sure?" He asked, confused now. He began to wonder why she was acting so lovey dovey all of the sudden.

"Mm, yeah." She said. "Does this bother you?"

"Uh..No." He said. It was making his body react in ways it shouldn't, but it wasn't bothering him, per se. She moved her other hand to his chest and left it resting there.

"This is nice." She said. He swallowed and she withheld a wicked grin. It felt wonderful to hold this much power over a man and want it.

"Hmm." He said and she could hardly contain her laughter. Then she looked up at him, and the sheer want in his eyes, made all her humour fade. She stared at him for what must have been 10 seconds but felt like forever, before she lifted her lips to his and gently brushed them against his. Then she backed away.

"George?" She whispered when she managed to calm herself.

"Yeah?" He asked, struggling to control himself.

"Do you think about me sometimes in ways you shouldn't?" She asked and peered up at him, unashamed, only curious.

"I, uh, uh...I.." He struggled.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She said and looked down. She wasn't embarrassed, but she didn't want to put him on the spot like that. She probably shouldn't have asked him. But because she felt bad for asking, it made him feel less pressured and less nervous. He placed his hand on her cheek and turned her face back towards his.

"Yeah, I do. I never wanted to because you were...Jules, but I do." She smiled, secretly thrilled on the inside, although she would only admit that it was because she wanted him physically, not because of anything else, any other feelings she might have.

"I think about you that way too, sometimes." She whispered seriously now. She did, even before she had decided to pursue him.

"What about Ron?" He asked quietly and watched her freeze up for just a split second.

"I don't think things are working out too well with him right now. I don't think it's really meant to be." She said.

"Why?" He asked. He was seriously curious. After all these years something had gone wrong? He wondered. It seemed odd, to him at least.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." She said, completely serious. He nodded.

"Alright." He said, respecting her wishes. She sat up a bit and looked at him.

"George?" She asked.

"Hmm?" He murmured. She scooted closer to him. Her eyelids slid down and he felt her soft breath on his face. "Jules..Are you sure?" He asked.

"Please." She whispered, not really meaning to. Her heart was pounding and her stomach was fluttering madly. She couldn't tell if it was because she was just a little afraid of him and what was going to happen, or if it was because she had wanted this for so long without really realizing it. And in her heart she knew it was a combination of both, but she pushed those thoughts away and pressed her lips to his. The feel of her lips on his eased her body greatly. It made what they were about to do much more intimate and much unlike her rape. During her rape, the man had never kissed her. Therefore kissing was something she still associated with making love, and not pain and misery.

George's hands slid up into her hair, cradling her face closer to his gently. She wasn't threatened by his hands holding her there, because it was gentle and she knew if she didn't want to do it anymore, he'd let go. She knew him that way. He probably didn't realize it, but she knew he was a big teddy bear and was as gentle and kind as could be. She knew he would never hurt her intentionally. With that thought, she shifted closer, deepening the kiss.

Then all thoughts of everything else shifted from her mind as he surrounded her. The only thing she could think was of how incredible this always was. She had loved Ron and she had loved to kiss him, but George..Something about George's kisses seemed to melt her bones into the floor. Whenever she kissed him on ER, she had to pay quick attention to make sure she didn't forget her lines or even forget where she was. But now there was no boundaries and she could forget all. Ron wasn't going to be home for at least 8 more hours, and so she could relax and let her body love. She wanted more with George, she wanted to love him with her whole body. But his kisses were so incredible that she thought she might be able to just feed off them for the rest of her life and be satisfied.

All of a sudden she realized that her hands were clutching the front of his shirt tightly. She immediately relaxed them and slid them up over his shoulders and entwined them so that she couldn't grip him anymore. She was a little scared, and a little nervous, but she didn't want George to be aware of that. She tried hard to relax her body against his, and did so, focusing back on his mouth.

After about a minute more of kissing, George placed his hands on her shoulders and slowly drew her back. He stared at her, taking in all of her features. Her lips were red and a little swollen from his kisses, her cheeks were rosy, her eyes were clouded with lust, and her hair was a sexy tumble from his fingers. He could hardly contain himself, but he knew he had to talk to her for just a minute at least.

"Jules." He said. "I can't...I don't want to do something you're going to regret."

"I won't." She said, promising him quickly.

"You need to think about this and make sure it's what you want. If you regret this," He paused, "I don't know what I would do." She waited just a moment, staring at him the entire time.

"I've been thinking about this for awhile now, George. I've always..always thought about what it would be like, ya know?" She asked quietly. He nodded. "I always wondered. But lately...since things with Ron aren't working out...I've thought harder about it, really thought about it. I'm scared and I'm nervous. But I'm thinking that's normal, especially since you're my best friend." He stroked a finger across her shoulder. "But I want this, I really do." He nodded again.

"Okay. I just don't want to lose you." He paused and blew out a breath. "Alright, well..." He leaned down and kissed her gently and quickly. "This should be special." He said. She nodded and stood, taking his hand.

"Let's go upstairs." She suggested. He stood still for a moment, just looking at her.

"One last time," He said, "Are you sure?" She smiled.

"Yes and I appreciate you making sure, George." She reached up and cupped his cheek. "If you look in my eyes, you can see it." She said. He nodded and then bent his head and kissed her firmly.

"Alright, let's go." He said and she lead the way towards the stairs.

They stood in her and Ron's bedroom, just looking at each other for a few moments, before she stepped to him. He had wanted her to come first, just to be sure. Always. She lifted her hands to his chest and then stood on her tip toes and pressed her lips to his. He held her elbows and kissed her once, deeply, before releasing her back onto her heels. He traced his finger down the side of her face.

"I always wanted to tell you that you were beautiful." He said. She smiled.

"Why didn't you?" She asked. He chuckled a bit and held her jaw in his hands.

"I think you know why." He said and he turned serious. She nodded, feeling Ron come between them. She stepped closer to George.

"Let's not think about it." She said. He nodded his agreeance as he pushed a curl from her cheek.

"You're lovely. I just want you to know that I always think you are lovely." He said. She smiled sweetly and squeezed his hand.

"George.." She whispered. He nodded.

"I know." He smiled and slid his hands down her side. "I know." He said and lifted her shirt up over her head. Then he let it drop to the floor as he examined her lovely body. All of the bruises were gone, she remembered and thanked God for it. She didn't want any questions tonight. His hand brushed against her bare side and she sucked in, her belly quivering from his touch. He looked up and met her eyes and smiled. She reached over and tugged on his shirt, bringing it up over his head and discarding it. She traced her fingers down the side of his stomach and he sighed gruffly. She looked up at him and grinned. "What you do to me." He said and pulled her against him quickly. She sucked in a breath, a little startled by his sudden movement, but she knew it was okay, so she immediately relaxed into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and locking her lips with his. The feel and texture of his chest against hers was amazing, and she nearly melted. His hands circled her waist. She sighed.

They made their way to the bed, barely noticing. He lay her down and began to seduce her with gentle touches and soft kisses. They touched and tasted, experimented and learned. They cherished and loved every moment of it, although later they would analyze it, wondering and remembering, but for now, it was just the two of them, creating magic.

When he took her for the first time, she managed to disguise the slight pain and discomfort from her face. But it only lasted a few seconds, much like when she had lost her virginity and she soon began to enjoy it, moving with him. All thoughts of her rape faded from her mind and she held on tightly to George, just letting her body do the work. She let her mind wonder about all these feelings and emotions as she experienced them, wondering how it could be George who made her feel this way.

When it was over and they lay spent in each other's arms, hearts racing, Julianna knew deep in her heart that she was in way deeper than she had ever intended to be. But she quickly closed her heart off, and just felt.

"George.." She murmured.

"Shh.." He whispered and brushed his lips across hers. Then he turned onto his side, taking her with him, cradling her against him. She leaned her head against his arm and listened to his heartbeat return to normal. "Any regrets?" She shook her head.

"None at all." She said. He smiled.

"Good." She sniffed at him, smelling his skin. He smelled of the scent he always did, that she always associated with him, plus some sweat and a little bit of sex. A very alluring scent, if she did say so herself.

"I don't want this to be the only time." She whispered.

"I wasn't going to let it be," He said, "Not after that." She grinned up at him and he chuckled.

"It makes me wonder why you, why us." She said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well...Ron and I..You know.." George stiffened just a bit, not quite ready to talk about him yet. "Well, we enjoyed ourselves." She said carefully. "But..It's nothing like this. Every time I saw you, I just wanted to touch, ya know?" He smiled then.

"Yeah. Every time I see you I get this...punch of lust in my gut. There's really no other way to describe it." She grinned at him. "I always wondered why I never felt it with anyone else."

"It just seems weird." She said.

"Just different." He said. She nodded.

"Different." She said, tasting the word on her tongue. Then she glanced at him. "I like it."

"Me too." He said, smiling. Then he kissed her.

====== ====== ======

Julianna sat alone in her living room, drinking from a glass of champagne. She had a blanket thrown over her shoulders and a satisfied grin on her face. Well, well, that was more lovely than I thought it would be, she thought and snuggled down further into the couch. If she would have known having sex with George would be that great, she would have iniated it a lot sooner. But even as she sat there, basking in the afterglow of their love-making, she felt the past creeping up on her. Because she was thinking so much about sex, the painfulness wanted to come back. It was approaching her quickly and she couldn't stop it. Unless...

Julianna finished the rest of the champagne in one big gulp and then stood and walked to the kitchen. She opened up the cupboard and grabbed a sleeping pill and a painkiller. This oughta knock me out real quick, she thought and walked to the fridge to get more champagne. She poured a glass and downed it and the pills with one quick toss of her wrist. Then she poured another glass of champagne and headed up to her bedroom. It wouldn't take long for all of it to kick in, so she might as well be laying down when it happened.

====== ====== ======

Julianna and George's affair was still going strong at two weeks. Ron hadn't figured anything out, but he was getting sick and tired of not being able to. He still didn't really have a clue why Julianna was pulling away from him. She had said she hadn't cheated on him, and he believed her, but still it was the only reason that he could come up with as to why she wouldn't let him in, wouldn't let him touch her, at least not intimately. And he knew he couldn't stay, couldn't live like this.

Julianna was sitting in the living room, watching TV like she did most nights. He walked past her, without even smiling, knowing it was useless. She barely noticed he had come into the living room and headed up the stairs. It was like they really didn't live together anymore.

Ron walked into their bedroom and went straight to the closet. He reached onto the shelf and lifted out a big suitcase. He put it on the bed and turned back to the closet. He methodically began putting clothes into it. After that was filled he grabbed another, smaller duffel bag and headed to the bathroom. He packed up his things from there and then went into the bedroom. He looked around and gathered up some smaller items that were his, and then he zipped everything up. He sat on the bed and buried his face in his hands and sighed gruffly.

He was really going to do it, he was really leaving her. He loved her. Maybe he always would. But he couldn't live like this, he couldn't go on with her like this. He lifted his head and stared at the phone for a moment before he picked it up. He quickly dialed a number and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" A man asked on the other end.

"George, this is Ron."

"Oh," He paused, a little surprised. Ron had never called him before. "Hey." And he was worried. Had Ron found out about the affair? Was he calling to let him know he was going to kill him?

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay, go ahead." George said cautiously.

"Well..Something has been seriously wrong with Julianna these past few weeks. I don't know what it is. But she won't talk to me and she won't let me touch her in any way. I don't know what happened, but I can't get to her." George listened carefully, but was relieved to figure out that Ron didn't realize she was having sex with him. "George, she's been drinking and popping pills."

"What?" He asked, shocked. He had thought Julianna was just acting weird towards Ron because of the affair. When he had been with her over the past two weeks, he had never noticed anything more than that, like drinks or pills.

"Yeah..I uh, I don't know what's going on, but she's been drinking anything she can get her hands on. She's been taking sleeping pills and painkillers. She keeps them in bottles of aspirin. She even has some in her fucking nightstand." He said, becoming frustrated. "Anyway..I'm leaving her."

"What?" George asked again, continuously being shocked.

"I can't get to her. She won't let me help. It's been over a month. She won't tell me what's wrong. If she really loved me, she'd let me help. I cannot live like this, George. And I know it isn't going to stop anytime soon. I can feel it. And whenever I couldn't get to her, couldn't reach her, you were always the person who could. Would you help her?"

"How?" George asked. A month, he wondered silently. They had only been sleeping together for two weeks.

"I don't know. You'll think of something. You're her best friend. Please help her, George. I love her, but apparently it isn't enough. Even though I can't help her, she needs somebody who can. I don't want to see her ruin her life."

"Okay..I'll, I'll try." George said.

"I didn't tell her I was calling you. Now I am going to go tell her that I'm leaving. Maybe you should call her in about a half hour and see if she's okay." Ron suggested.

"Okay. I'll do that." George said.

"Thank you, George. Take care of her." He said.

"I..I will." He said, somewhat confused and shocked.

"Thanks." Ron said and hung up the phone. Then he took a deep breath, grabbed his things, and headed for the stairs.

====== ====== ======

A half hour later, on cue, the phone rang. Julianna reached over and blindly picked it up. She was still in somewhat of a shock, although she wasn't sure why. She'd been pushing him away for weeks now. It was only a matter of time before this happened. But for some reason, she had thought it wouldn't.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hey Jules." George said.

"Hi baby." She said softly, smiling. It was amazing how quickly she could cheer up just by hearing his voice.

"Don't say that too loud." He warned, but knew it wasn't necessary. He just wanted to see if she would tell him about Ron.

"Oh, it's okay. Ron's not here."

"Where is he?" George asked.

"He left."

"What?"

"He left me." She repeated.

"Oh." He said, putting his acting skills to use. "I'm sorry."

"It's no big deal." She said. "We were having problems, like I told you, and I was...obviously not being faithful, so it's not that big of a deal."

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yeah."

"Good. Well...Since we're officially....in the clear and don't have to worry about him, what do you say we get together tomorrow?" He asked.

"Okay. When?" She asked.

"How about I come over in the morning, say..around ten and we can spend the whole day together." He said. They hadn't spent more than three hours together in the course of their affair and he wanted to be around her all day and see if she let any signs of her drinking and drug taking show.

"Okay, that sounds fine."

"Good. I'll be there in the morning then, okay?" He asked. She nodded.

"Sure. I'll see you then, George."

"Yep. See you."

"Bye." She said and they hung up. She sighed and slid further under the covers. She wished he could be there now to make love to her and make her forget about her problems. Instead she stood to get her other vices, alcohol and pills, to help her forget.

====== ====== ======

Around lunch time the next day, George was at Julianna's house. They had decided to go to lunch and Julianna had just headed up the stairs to take a shower. George was hanging out in the living room downstairs, just watching television. Or at least he was supposed to be.

George stuck his head around the corner of Julianna's bedroom and saw that the door to the bathroom where she was showering was closed. He could hear the shower running so he crept quietly and quickly into her bedroom. He went to the nightstand and opened the drawer. Right on the top was a bottle of pills. He took them and quickly pocketed them and hurried out of the room. He went down the stairs silently and into the kitchen. He opened up the medicine portion of their cabinets and took out the bottles of Tylenol and Advil. Inside the Advil bottle he found painkillers, sleeping pills, and Advil all mixed in. George listened quietly for a minute and when he heard nothing upstairs, quickly jogged out to his car and placed the bottles of pills into the glove box of his jeep before going back inside. He sat on the couch as fast as he could and turned the volume up on the television.

====== ====== ======

George decided to take Julianna to this small Italian place he knew, where it wasn't likely that any paparazzi would bother them. When they got there, Julianna ordered herself some wine. And once when Julianna thought George wasn't paying attention, when he was signing an autograph, she quickly dug through her purse and then popped a pain killer. Julianna didn't realize he had been watching her out of the corner of his eye and saw everything. George sighed inwardly, realizing he had forgetten she might have a stash in her purse. She ordered probably a few more glasses of wine than she should have, but he pretended not to notice. For now.

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