She put the file down and reached for the album she initially grabbed and opened it. She was first greeted with a bunch of Christmas pictures and a smile sprang to her lips. The first was one of Larry in a Santa hat and his head cocked lying down with his body propped up on his elbow with a wide smile on his face. The Santa hat...the Santa hat...

Ally was sitting on the floor cross-legged going through the contents in some box, old files, documents and such when Larry came in wearing a Santa hat.

"Knock, knock," Larry approached Ally, waiting for some sort of invitation.

"Larry," Ally said a bit relieved to see him, after not being able to make it over to his office after all. "Hey."

Larry took it upon himself to sit on the chair directly behind Ally and started rubbing one of her shoulders. "Was it weird?" he broke the awkward silence.

Ally quit sorting documents for a moment "Oh, well, um," she looked at him, "Was it weird for you?"

"A little," Larry proceeded to rub both of her shoulders as if trying to kiss her ass a bit, "Thank you for being such a good sport, you were very kind."

"Well she seemed nice," Ally continued rifling through the box.

Larry was nervous about going on, "Listen, she's um, a, she's got a flight out tonight at midnight, I, sorta said it would be okay if she came to the party," he finished in a hurry. Ally stopped in her tracks and then looked at Larry. "Is it okay?" Ally got up and threw him out the window...in her head.

"Sure," Ally simply responded.

Larry hinted the hesitation of his actions and then took his Santa hat off, becoming very nervous once again. "I didn't know, how to say no," Ally kept rummaging in the box looking for a way to keep herself occupied. "Uh, but, if you're at all uncomfortable, I will, she'll understand."

Ally grabbed two files from the box, got up and walked towards her desk, "No, uh, it's okay, I’m okay with it, just, no dancing with her.”

"Deal," Larry said relieved. Ally smiled.

As Ally stared at the smiling Larry in the Santa hat in the picture, she didn't want to remember the rest of the conversation as well as the rest of that day. Jamie had stopped by to "double-check" about the party, Ally changed her mind, made her way to Larry's office, changed her mind again, and that "bitch" as Renee had lovingly nicknamed her, had confessed to Larry that this was all to get him back and be a family again. Jamie nicely used Sam as a decoy for a moment, but not once lying about her wanting Larry back. One memory Ally DID like about that night....

"Is that what you two were talking about, parenting?" Ally asked Larry cautiously in her office that night.

There was a long awkward silence as Ally looked at Larry, waiting for a response. Finally, "Sort of, she," Larry paused, "wants to be a family again. Part for the sake of Sam, part," Larry cut himself off. Ally knew the rest of it, and he knew that.

"Well, well there is a, little kid to think of." Ally tried to force herself to think of what she wanted it to really be about, not that that bitch wanted her man. "What did you say?" Ally asked the inevitable.

"I uh, I agreed. If there was anyway we could work it out we should," Ally was crushed, not catching the hidden message in what he said. She looked down and let out a heavy type sigh and tried to cover it with a slight cough. Larry continued, "But uh," he moved towards her. "I didn't think there was any way since I was so, totally in love, with somebody else," Larry struggled to get the rest of that sentence out, getting emotional himself over his love for Ally. Ally looked up at Larry with bug eyes, surprised, relieved, happy, all of the above.

Ally smiled, the first time he said he loved her. She couldn't believe it. It was such a sweet memory. As many of her memories with Larry tended to be. She closed the album, putting it aside for a later look through.

She dug around in the box some more and found a little blue ball. "The blinking nose!" she exclaimed out loud in happiness.

Ally was in Larry's office and he was trying to have a serious conversation but when the larger ball-sized nose had been placed on Larry's own, she found it hard and told him so. He used his remote control; he sure did like those remotes, and pressed a button turning the nose blue.

"You, are the biggest nut, I’ve ever met."

"That's a good thing," Larry said looking straight at her.

"That's a good thing," she repeated, kissing him.

Ally had made her way to Larry's office after their conversation about him having to go to Detroit to be with his son and found him packing. Larry walked over to Ally, and then back to his desk and retrieved, the blue nose from Christmas and gently placed it on Ally's nose.

Larry hit the remote switch turning the light in the nose on. "Oh, now that's blue," Larry joked half-heartedly.

Ally popped the nose off of her own, "Tell me about it," she looked down, depressed. "So where is the, uh, little home wrecker?" Ally looked up and around and then back at Larry and smiled to hint her comment was half-joking.

"Oh, he's uh, he's back with Renee packing his stuff; our flight is at nine."

Ally moved a little bit closer to Larry, "So, does that mean we can have an early dinner?"

"Well," Larry said in a contradictory tone, looking away from Ally, nervous. "I have a problem with goodbyes. I think it would be better if I could just skip ahead to the, uh," he motioned with his hand.

Ally was taken back. She’d never met anyone like him, truly never. "Okay," she simply answered, backing up a bit.

Larry had to explain himself further; he felt it. "That dream you had, where I left with a note," he paused and looked directly into her eyes, "that'd be exactly what I’d do."

"Okay, so when I drop you off at the airport I just, won't watch you get outta the car," Ally said, sadly looking down and away.

Larry didn't miss a beat, "I got us a town car to go to the airport."

"Larry," Ally said softly, sighing, this just kept getting better and better.

"I can't handle goodbyes, okay?" he said raising his voice a little. "So just, bare with me on this and just know that, I love you and, I’ll be back."

"Okay," was all Ally could say.

This had gotten bad.

The song Larry wrote for her was playing in her head, as she made her way home after saying goodbye to Larry, without-actually-saying goodbye. She was sniffling but no tears had fallen just yet. Ally rounded the corner towards her apartment looking down like she usually did and when she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks. There, right by the stairway into her apartment building, was a snowman, complete with a hat, a jacket which was Larry's, a mouth, two eyes with a pair of glasses which were also Larry's, that blue blinking nose, only it wasn't blinking, and a note, that simply said, in his familiar handwriting...I'll Be Back.

Ally knew it was a long long long time ago, but she couldn't help getting all misty-eyed again at the thought. She went crazy when he was gone. She saw Barry Manilow, almost got herself arrested when she actually went after the REAL Barry, saw two therapists that told her to leave him, one friendly, one, not-so-friendly. To top things off, she hugged Richard and kissed Jackson, thinking they were both him. Richard...she couldn't forget crazy Richard Fish. Everything was about money with him. And then Jackson Duper...she never liked him much. She laughed at the memory of Larry and Jackson's antics. She couldn't forget the bastard he had turned out to be for dumping Renee. "Being honest" as Renee had put it...Ally however, always believed that he was just biding time until Ling would have him. "Bastard," she mumbled out loud.

Ally put the blue nose on her own nose and continued rummaging through the box.