“To Elle, for teaching us that we can do anything we put our minds to, and because without her, I’d be in a jail cell right now doing time for something I didn’t do. Thank you, Elle.”

The sounds of glasses clinking together echoed in the room around them, where Brooke had decided to hold an impromptu post-trial party celebrating their victory. Most of the people who had been at the trial were at the party, minus Callahan, of course, and Elle stood huddled with Margot, Serena and Pilar to the side of the room.

“What happened to your friend?” Margot asked, looking around the room.

Elle raised her eyebrows. “Which friend?”

“The cute one!” Margot exclaimed, champagne spilling out of her glass at the sudden movement.

Elle’s eyes widened and she frantically handed her champagne glass over to Serena. “Omigod, Emmett! I didn’t even notice he was gone! He better not have left.” She realized that after he’d left her with Warner, she’d been swept off to the party and hadn’t been able to find Emmett afterwards.

“Paulette!” she called, the other blonde turning to face her.

“Hey, are you having fun?”

“Yeah, the party’s great, but I really need to find Emmett.”

“Oh, really…” Paulette smirked. “What for?”

Elle rolled her eyes. “Paulette! I need to talk to him. Have you seen him?”

“He went out that door a few minutes ago.”

“Thanks!” she called, rushing out the doorway and finally seeing Emmett towards the end of the hall.

“Emmett! Wait! I can’t run this fast in heels!” When he failed to respond, she pulled off her shoes and sprinted to catch up.

“I have to go. Okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you too. Bye.” Elle cringed inwardly. He couldn’t have a girlfriend that she didn’t know about, right? She quickly shook the thought away and skidded to a stop right behind him. She saw him flip his cell phone shut and turn to face her.

“God, you walk fast.”

Emmett laughed, taking in her disheveled appearance from running after him.

“Sorry, I didn’t even hear you. My mom talks so loudly on the phone.”

Elle silently breathed a sigh of relief. His mom. Of course.

“You weren’t leaving, were you?”

“No, I just can’t get reception in there. But I think I might go anyway, I’m not much of a party person.”

“No, you can’t leave!”

He smirked at her as she struggled to put her shoes back on as she talked.

“Why not?”

“Because…I want to celebrate with you. You helped me through this, it’s all because of you that I won this case.”

“No, Elle, you could have done it on your own. I just gave you a push in the right direction.”

She smiled up at him. “Still, don’t leave. I want to celebrate with you.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll stay.”

They walked back into the party, quickly joining Serena, Margot, Pilar, Paulette and Kyle. While they talked, music suddenly started.

“Shall we?” Kyle asked, holding his hand out to Paulette, and the two joined the couple of other people that had started to dance in the center of the room. Elle stared longingly at the two of them, wishing she was that happy. Sure, Warner had proposed and that had once been what she wanted, but now, the only person she wanted was right next to her and there was nothing she could do about it.

Pilar cleared her throat, linking her arm through Margot and Serena’s. “Come on, girls, let’s…go get some more champagne.” As she dragged them off, they heard Margot’s claim that her glass was still full and Serena’s hushed, “Shut up!”

Elle smiled at Emmett, who was now facing her.

“Would you…do me a favor?”

“Sure.” He said, looking confused.

“Dance with me?”

“Elle, I…I don’t dance.”

She pouted, looking into his eyes. “Please?”

He sighed, knowing he could never truly say no to her, “Okay. Fine. We’ll dance. But just one song.”

She smiled and took his glass from him, taking his hand to walk out to the center of the room. A new song began and they stood awkwardly for a moment, not sure where to start, and as the opening chords began, Emmett’s arm found his way, slowly, around Elle’s waist as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“See, this isn’t so bad, right?”

He shook his head, grinning, “No, it’s not that bad.”

The words to the song began and unintentionally, they were moving closer until they were spinning and felt as if they were floating around the room, the other people forgotten and the music swirling around them.

You’re in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music playing on for only two
So close together
And when I’m with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams will stop
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you’re beside me and look how far we’ve come
So far we are so close

On the side of the room, Serena sighed to her friends. “Look, you guys. They’re so adorable.”

The other two nodded, smiling at Emmett and Elle on the dance floor. “She totally loves him,” Margot said, sighing, “But she’s too scared to tell him.”

On the dance floor, Paulette noticed Elle and Emmett dancing around her. “I told her he was on the team in more ways than one…” she muttered, smiling as she continued dancing.

The song came to a close and Emmett and Elle came back to reality, pulling apart awkwardly.

“Thank you,” she said, “For dancing with me even though you didn’t want to.”

“No problem, it was…fun.”

“Emmett, I…okay, come out here.”

She walked out of the room and he followed her, confused, out to the hallway. She was pacing, running a hand through her hair, and he watched as she stumbled through her words.

“I can’t…I can’t keep this to myself any longer. I know that this is never going to happen and that I’m crazy for even thinking you’d consider it, but I can’t help that I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

Emmett’s jaw dropped. That hadn’t been what he was expecting, and before he could react, she was taking his hand in hers.

“You’ll find someone who deserves you, Emmett.” She said, and he noticed that she was close to tears. “Goodbye.”

She went to walk out when suddenly, he was pulling her back, spinning her around to face him.

“The only person I want,” he said, wiping away the tear that had made it down her cheek, “Is you.”

He kissed her and it was more amazing than she’d imagined, more perfect, more breathtaking, and she wondered for a moment if it was real. She must be in some twisted fairytale, a dream, a fantasy.

Suddenly, a whispered “Omigod” was heard and they jumped apart, startled to see Margot, Serena and Pilar leaving the party. The five stood in silence a moment, staring at each other, until the three Delta Nu’s broke out into laughter. Elle mock-glared at them as Emmett smirked behind her.

She walked over to them, grabbing her coat off the rack, and muttered, “Shut. Up!” when Serena whispered inappropriate comments about her and Emmett that he probably heard from where he stood towards the door..

She grabbed Emmett’s hand, hurrying him out of the building, and once they were outside she turned to face him, moving to stand right in front of him.

“Now,” she said, smiling, “Where were we?”

“I think right about…” he replied, grinning and moving his lips inches from hers, “here.”

Their lips met and they didn’t care that they were in the middle of the sidewalk, the late night party-goers walking around them and staring. All that mattered was that they’d gotten this far, that they’d realized that what they wanted all along had been right in front of them. They still had a long way to go, struggles to overcome, but what mattered was now. This moment.

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you’re beside me and look how far we’ve come
So far we are so close

How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?
We’re so close
To reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let’s go on dreaming for we know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

A/N: Lyrics are “So Close” by Jon McLaughlin, from the Enchanted soundtrack.