A Familiar Face

Second Chances

Ed and Kelly were sitting at a table in Kelly's quarters for dinner. Kelly smiled at him. "I am so glad we got to do this."

"Me too." Ed smiled at her.

Kelly then said as she kept smiling, "You know, this kinda reminds me of our first date."

"No, I think this one is much better. I was a mess our first date. Remember when I accidentally knocked that waiter over." Ed almost chuckled.

Kelly started to laughed. "Oh, god, yeah. I felt so bad for the poor guy. And you knocked over your wine glass and got wine all over my dress."

Ed laughed as he nodded. "I was such a mess. I thought for sure that I wasn't going to get a second date as our first was a disaster."

She smiled at him. "You know how you got that second date."

He looked at her as he was intrigued cause he never understood how he did. "How?"

Her smile got bigger. "It's what you did afterwards. You quickly took off your jacket so I could wear it so I could cover the stain up. It was a sweet gesture and I knew you were just nervous. I just knew I had to give you a second chance." He smiled at her as he slightly blushed. Then Kelly looked at him. "I have to ask, Ed. What made you decide to do this? I mean, after what happened to us after Jasmine died, I didn't think this would ever happen."

Ed sat back in his seat. "I have to tell you something, Kelly. It's part of the reason I freaked out when we did kiss. Remember that Oligan that took the form of Jasmine?"

"Uh, yeah, how could I forget that." She said to him.

"Well, I went to talk to her, to find out why she think it was okay to do what she was doing as it hurt Jasmine seeing me with her." Ed told her. Then he sighed as he knew the next part wouldn't be easy. "When I did, she transformed into Jasmine again. I basically yelled at her to stop. Then she turned into you and asked if I that is what I preferred. I was dumbfounded. You also remember what Jasmine said about them knowing a lot about you with a kiss, that is how they extracted memories and our feelings?"

Kelly nodded again as she listened. "Well, since I thought she was Jasmine and we did kiss, she found out something about me I suppressed as I was with Jasmine."

"What's that?" Kelly asked.

Ed looked at her, not knowing if he should tell her. He then said, "Well, she found out, I still loved you. That I never really stopped."

"What?" She almost breathed in shock.

"Yeah, I never told anyone about that. How does that make me look? That I still loved my ex wife as I was in love with Jasmine. I couldn't deal with it. I felt guilty for loving two women at the same time." Ed admitted to her.

Then Kelly looked at him and asked, "So, you still had feelings for me?" He nodded, almost ashamed. "And you still married Jasmine?" Again he nodded. She removed her napkin from her lap and threw it on her plate. "Wow, that is rich."

"Okay, I know, that it's really messed up." He told her.

"Messed up?" She said, angrily. "That doesn't come close. Do you know how much I had to swallow everything when you and Jasmine got together? How much it sucked seeing you with her? I mean, I loved Jasmine too and that is why I pushed it away as well. She was my friend and when she died, it hurt me as well. I'm so glad Jasmine never knew about this. But now to hear that you still loved me but yet choose her, god, that is just not okay. I was your second choice and I am not okay with that."