Fallon's eyes widened impossibly. "That wasn't real," she pointed out in a vain attempt to sound more lighthearted than she felt. "We were just Saoirse and JP when you asked." Back when things were simple, when the worst they faced were papercuts from their letters. Fallon tried to smile, but it came across more a grimace than anything else. She was too distraught to feign happiness.

The singlemost difference between him and Lachlan was that Jesse wasn't forcing her to choose. He didn't know the ultimatum Fallon faced, he didn't know Lachlan would remove himself from her life if she stayed with Jesse. An ache worse than the ones the frigid cold consumed her at the thought. She couldn't lose Lachlan, couldn't lose his friendship. Another tear streamed down her cheek unbidden.

"He won't be my friend if you and I are together," Fallon confessed mournfully. "He's been through so much with the match and the Arctic. Watching me be happy with you ... he won't do it." Jesse had to understand now why the choice was so difficult, why Fallon couldn't bring herself to fall one way or the other. She sighed heavily, her hands toyed with the ends of her hair. She couldn't lose Lachlan.

"When we were in the tundra ... he kept me from giving up. If not for him, I wouldn't have survived. I would have stayed in that cave until I froze or starved, whichever came first," she rambled as a further attempt to make him understand. "How am I supposed to repay that with a broken heart?"