Clock of the Heart

By: Lara

Lara walked slowly through the courtyard of the university, her eyes never leaving the map in front of her. The day was sunny, and a light breeze blew through her dark hair, but she didn’t notice. Co-eds dodged around her on their way to class, a few of the men giving her long legs a quick second glance before moving on to another morning of higher education. She looked up only to make the turn towards the end of campus that held the science buildings. As she neared the correct building, the sun seemed to dart behind the clouds. Her blue eyes quickly scanned the front of the buildings around her, but none of them matched the name of the building in the classified ad. She finally stopped into the next building she passed, and asked directions. The secretary looked at her strangely, then told her where to find her destination. Lara walked a few more yards down the sidewalk and then stopped short in front of one of the oddest buildings she had ever seen.

The front was not the red brick of the other buildings, but dark grey cement. The name was above the door, but almost totally hidden by the ivy that grew down from the roof. She swallowed deeply, and went in.

"You’re here about the ad?" The young man behind the front desk said sharply.

"Yes…I…" she began.

"Second door on the left. Didya bring something to read?"

"Uh…yes…"

"Good. You’re early. Heaven knows when she’ll finally get started." The man looked back down at his textbook, dismissing her.

Lara slowly made her way down the hall to the second door on the left. It was set up like a normal classroom, except there were only four desks spread out around the room. She took the desk closest to the back and opened her novel.

About ten minutes later, a tall girl with brown hair poked her head in the door. "This the room for that experiment thing?" She asked.

"Um…I guess so…that’s why I’m here," Lara replied hesitantly.

"Cool." The girl threw her bag onto the chair closest to Lara and stretched. "I’m Ari."

"Lara," she replied.

"So…you have any idea what’s going on with this?" Ari asked, sitting on her desk.

"No…only what the ad said."

"You hard up for cash, too?" Ari said with a smile. Lara slowly nodded. Ari sighed. "My stupid boss makes a pass at me, I say no, and then I get fired. And I don’t have money for a lawyer, so forget the sexual harassment case. How ‘bout you?"

Lara was saved from replying by the entrance of two other girls. The younger of the two spoke first.

"Did we miss anything?"

"Shae, we’re twenty minutes early. What the hell would we have missed?" The other girl pointed out, her green eyes smiling with mischief as she teased her friend.

"Shut up, wench," the first girl snapped. "I’m Shae, and this is Kelley."

"I’m Ari and this is Lara," Ari replied before Lara could open her mouth. "We were just discussing why we needed money so bad that we signed up for a mysterious scientific experiment. I was fired from my job because I wouldn’t give my boss a quickie in the supply room."

"Credit cards," Shae moaned.

"She’s only nineteen and she already maxed out two of them," Kelley added. "I’m just along for moral support, and because I had nothing better to do today."

"How about you? You never answered," Ari said to Lara.

She swallowed deeply. "My boyfr…I mean my EX boyfriend ran out on me. He took most of the furniture, my goldfish, and my entire savings account."

"What an ass!" Kelley exclaimed.

"Couldn’t you get any of it back?" Ari asked.

"I-I’m not sure where he is," Lara whispered.

"And you wouldn’t have the guts to ask him if you did know, would you, hon?" Shae asked gently. Lara blushed furiously, and shook her head.

"Did I miss anything?" A voice entered the room before the body attached to it. A girl with blonde hair waltzed into the room.

"Nope…nothing except everyone’s life story," Ari remarked. They made the introductions once more. The newcomer’s name was Amanda.

"So, who wants to take a guess as to what this is all about?" Shae asked, sitting on Lara’s desk.

"They’re going to impregnate us with monkey sperm," Kelley suggested.

"You are absolutely disgusting," Amanda stated, wrinkling her nose.

"Kidding…kidding…" Kelley said quickly.

"Maybe they’re aliens and they want to do secret tests on us," Ari volunteered.

"You watch too much X-Files," Shae replied.

"I just wonder why they couldn’t talk about it more in the ad," Amanda observed.

"Ladies! So good to see you!" A woman wearing a white lab coat entered the room, closing the door behind her. Her long dark hair was pulled up into a bun, and her dark eyes smiled at them. "Thank you for being so punctual. My name is Kayla, and I am running this experiment."

The girls sat down and Kayla began a long discussion about why they were there, which none of the girls followed. Kelley finally raised her hand. "Excuse me…could you sum up what you just said in English, please?"

Kayla laughed. "I’m sorry. I tend to get carried away. Basically, this experiment is to test the limits of time travel."

The girls gasped. "Time travel? I hadn’t heard that anyone was still doing experiments on time travel!" Shae exclaimed.

"Well, there are many many experiments done every day that are not released to the public. We can’t give out all our secrets." Kayla stood. "What we want to do is to do a series of short range tests before sending someone for a long period of time." She looked from one girl to the next. "Can you handle it?"

"Time travel…wow…" Lara said weakly.

"It is best for you to back out now if you’re unsure," Kayla said kindly. "Once we’re into the experiments…"

"Oh, I’m not backing out!" Lara said quickly.

"Anyone need to back out?" Kayla asked, looking from one girl to another. No one answered. "Good. Now if you’ll follow me, we’ll start right away."

She led the group down a hall to a large laboratory-type room. Five cots were set up around the room, with a large machine next to each one. Wires ran from the machine to a large computer console in the corner of the room. Each of the girls took a cot.

"Are you scared?" Amanda whispered to Kelley.

"Fucking petrified," she replied with a smile.

Kayla and two male assistants got the girls settled in, making them comfortable, and attaching wires that would monitor all their anatomical functions as well as connect them to the computer. The scientists went to stand behind the console.

"The first thing we’ll be doing is sending each of you to a different time during the twentieth century. You’ll only be there for a few minutes, and I want you to pay careful attention to what you see and hear, okay?" Kayla flipped a switch. "That hissing you hear is air going through the oxygen mask, mixed with a little something to help you sleep. You must be asleep for the experiments to begin."

The girls closed their eyes, trying to relax enough to fall asleep. They were soon aided by whatever concoction they were breathing. Kayla flipped a few more switches, and held her breath as she flipped the final one.

Amanda was the first to awaken fifteen minutes later. Her eyes flew open, and she gasped for breath. One of the assistants hurried over to remove her oxygen mask. The other girls soon awakened as well, and they slowly sat up. No one spoke for a moment.

"Well?" Kayla said gently.

"I saw a swirl of colors," Shae said slowly.

"Me too!" Amanda exclaimed.

"And then they slowly cleared, and I was in a ballroom," Lara added. "Swing music was playing…Glenn Miller, I think."

"I was at a store where they sold television sets," Amanda continued. "A huge console with a tiny screen. Black and white. All these people were outside the display window, crowding up to see the screen. It was the first time the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan."

"I wish I woulda seen something like that," Kelley said sadly. "I was in Europe…hundreds of people were being herded onto train cars while soldiers yelled at them."

"Sorry," Lara whispered.

"I bet I’m the luckiest one here!" Ari announced. "I wasn’t sure at first, but I think I was at Woodstock! It was awesome. No fighting, no riots, no fires…just music and people dancing and having fun."

"That’s no fair," Shae pouted. "Mine must’ve been broken…I was at Clinton’s first swearing in!" The other girls laughed. The scientists were furiously scribbling notes even though everything was being recorded. Kayla took a deep breath.

"So…do you think you want to go through with this? I mean, by the things you’ve described, you all were sometime in the twentieth century. If worst would’ve come to worst, you could have easily survived there for the rest of your life. And…"

"Whoa…hold it one damn minute." Shae jumped up from her cot, almost tearing the wires and tubes from her body. "Are you saying there’s that much of a risk? We could get stuck somewhere and never come back?"

"We simply want you to observe things," Kayla told her. "If you remain in the same spot, we will easily be able to bring you back. You must be at the point of initial drop off for us to bring you back. Besides, this is all still in the experimental stage. That’s why we have you here."

"But this time…the ‘big one’, we’ll all be going together, right?" Kelley asked suddenly.

"Yes, of course," Kayla replied.

"Can you all leave us alone a minute? No taping, no notes, no cameras," Kelley ordered. Kayla paused, then motioned for her assistants to follow her out of the room.

"So? What do you think?" Kelley asked the others once they were alone.

"This seems pretty dangerous," Amanda began.

"But think of the places we’ll go! The things we’ll see!" Ari reminded her.

"I’ll do it…nothing left for me here but bills," Shae joked.

"I have nothing to lose," Lara said softly.

"A chance of a lifetime," Ari remarked. Kelley said nothing, just looked at Amanda.

"Awww….hell…why not?" Amanda said finally.

Kelley went to call the doctor and her assistants back into the room.

"Well?" Kayla asked once they had returned.

"We decided we’ll do it. We have nothing to lose," Shae told her.

"But we MUST go to the same place…together," Amanda told her.

"Of course," Kayla said. "Excellent. Follow me please." She led them back into the room where they had all met. "Please be seated." She dug into a briefcase. "I need you to sign a few things, and read a few things."

"Sign WHAT things?" Ari said suspiciously.

"Waivers," Kayla said simply.

"Basically what she’s saying is if anything happens to us, they are totally not liable," Lara told Ari.

"Exactly." Kayla began to hand out folders of information. "Do any of you have next of kin that we should know about?"

The girls waded through the folders of information. Around noon, Kelley had lunch delivered to them, but otherwise they were totally on their own.

"So, guess it looks like we’re going back to the Civil War," Amanda said, chomping on a potato chip.

"Not really…this looks like pre-Civil War," Lara said as she took a large bite of her tuna pita. "There’s no way they’d actually send us back during the war. It’s too risky."

"Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?" Shae asked her. Lara stuck out her tuna-covered tongue in response. "Euww, gross," Shae replied, turning away.

"I think it’s exciting. It’s a whole different culture, even though it’s still America," Kelley pointed out.

"It’s gonna be hard, you know? Women were treated totally different then. We can’t act the way we normally do, or people will wonder," Lara said.

"I’m not acting like some simpering fool every time a man’s around, I will tell you that right now," Ari stated. Amanda nodded in agreement.

"Just behave, okay?" Lara suggested. "Don’t get us into trouble."

"We’re not BABIES," Ari pointed out as Amanda stuck her tongue out at Lara. Everyone laughed.

"Okay, ladies." Kayla returned to the room. "Everyone ready?"

They walked down the hall to the laboratory room. "I have a question," Amanda said suddenly. "What about our clothes? I mean, this isn’t exactly the latest in nineteenth century fashion." She pointed to her sweatshirt and jeans.

"Everything will be taken care of." She opened the door to the laboratory. All of the cots had been pushed together so they formed a row. The girls clambered up onto them, and allowed themselves to be hooked into the computer.

Lara looked at Kelley on her left, and Shae on her right. Kelley smiled bravely, but reached over for Lara’s hand. Lara took Shae’s hand, and soon they were all holding hands.

"We’ll bring you back in about four or five hours," Kayla promised. "All you have to do is get back to the place we drop you off, okay?" The girls nodded.

They all closed their eyes as what felt like an electric shock went pulsing through their bodies. One by one, their bodies seemed to quiver, and then suddenly disappear. Smiling with satisfaction, Kayla went to stand behind the main computer panel. Her mouth dropped open. She smacked one of her assistants in the back of the head.

"What the hell is this? Who told you to plot these coordinates?"

"Uh…you did, Doctor," the man said nervously. Kayla flipped open her notebook, and compared her numbers to the numbers on the computer.

"You ass! This is off by over ten degrees! I wanted them dropped off in a town…near easy landmarks! You dropped them off in the middle of the countryside!"

"Ohhhh, God…my ass…"

"I feel like a truck ran me over!"

Lara opened her eyes slowly, feeling as if every bone in her body had been crushed. She heard the other girls groaning, and she slowly sat up. "Is everyone okay?" She said weakly.

"I think so…though I think we should get paid extra for physical harm!" Shae grumbled as she also sat up.

"Dammit…I think I have a grass stain on my skirt!" Ari jumped up and began rubbing at the back of her lilac dress. Everyone stared open mouthed at her. "What?"

"It’s just…wow…you look great, Ari," Amanda said finally. Ari looked down at herself and jumped.

"Wow…" she mumbled, smoothing out the folds of her long gown. The hoops of the skirt made her waist look non-existent.

"Please tell me I look that good," Amanda begged, getting to her feet.

"You make me sick, you look so good," Kelley told her, and it was true. Amanda’s gown was a sky blue, and it brought out her eyes.

"I think we all look pretty damn good," Shae commented, turning her head to look down the back of her off-white dress.

"I’m jealous," Lara told Kelley as she enviously gazed at Kelley’s green dress. "I hate pink!"

"But you look really good in it," Ari said generously. "It brings out your hair…what you can see of it." Everyone’s hair was pulled back into a type of bun.

Kelley took a deep breath. "Well, that computer thing is amazing. I bet we are historically dressed, right down to our corsets."

"Speaking of which, I already hate this thing. I don’t think I could breathe OR eat in it," Shae said.

"You’re not supposed to eat," Lara told her. "Eating isn’t ladylike."

"Fuck that. I’m starving." Amanda looked around. "You’d have thought she’d at least put us somewhere where there’s a McDonalds, or something."

"Well, I think…" Lara began, then paused. Hoofbeats seemed to get closer and closer. The girls’ mouths dropped as a group of riders on horses headed straight for them. "Run!" She screeched, shoving Kelley, who was closest to her. The girls flew towards a group of trees a few yards away. They jumped behind them just as the horses galloped by.

"What the hell was that?" Shae asked breathlessly.

"Horses," Amanda said calmly, smoothing back a few strands of hair. Shae gave her a dirty look.

"Let’s go see," Ari said, starting to follow the riders.

"Ari, wait! I don’t think…" Kelley began, grabbing Ari’s arm.

"We’re supposed to observe…why not observe them?" She took off down the gently sloping hill, following the slight cloud of dust the riders had kicked up. Lara sighed, grabbing her skirts to hold them up from the ground.

"We’d better follow her. God only knows what trouble she’ll get into."

The girls made their way across the meadow, keeping the riders in sight. They stopped short when the riders finally stopped, and began to gallop back.

"There aren’t any trees to hide behind this time!" Amanda yelled, looking for a place to take cover.

"I’m not running anywhere! They can go around us if they want," Kelley said defiantly, standing her ground.

The five riders galloped towards them, then drew their horses to a sudden stop. All five men instantly dismounted and removed their hats. The girls looked at each other nervously.

"You should be more careful, riding around like that! You could hurt someone!" Ari finally blurted out. The girls stared at her.

"Well, miss, this is an open field. We didn’t expect to find five young ladies standing in the middle of it," a blond man said.

"Well…well…you should still look where you’re going!" Ari snapped. Kelley nudged her.

"I’m sorry, sir, for my friend here, but you DID give us quite a scare the first time you rode through," Kelley said politely. The blond smiled back at her.

"I accept your apology, and offer you mine, ma’am." He smiled into her eyes, and Kelley felt her body liquefy under the miles of skirt.

"Can I ask what you’re doing here on private property?" A tall man with dark hair and green eyes asked, looking from one girl to another.

"We’re new to the area, and we were travelling along in a carriage when thieves overtook us, beating our driver to death and stealing everything we own!" Lara said quickly.

"There aren’t many thieves in this area," the man replied, giving her a look of suspicion.

"That’s not true, Scott. Remember last week, there was a passel of horse thieves wandering about," a Hispanic-looking man pointed out. He turned to the group of women. "So you have nowhere to go, no clothes, nothing?"

"I’m afraid not," Shae said softly, trying her best to look utterly dejected. "We lost our families in a fire, and we came out this way to start over again."

"That’s it…you’re staying with us," a young man with gorgeous blue eyes decided. "We have plenty of room, and my family would love to have you."

"Now, Thomas, what would Anne say if you had five strange woman just living in your home," the man called Scott said.

"My whole family is there," the blue eyed man pointed out. "And besides, we’re engaged. She has nothing to worry about."

"Damn!" Amanda mumbled to herself, already attracted to this man she didn’t know.

"We wouldn’t want to impose," Lara began.

"It’s not imposing. It’s settled then," the man announced.

"We should introduce ourselves," a fifth man said. He was a bit shorter than the others, with dark hair and eyes, also quite Hispanic looking. "My name is Alexander McLean, and that is Howard Dorough, and Gene Carter."

"My name is Thomas Littrell, and you’ll be staying at my home. This arrogant fellow here is Scott Richardson, my cousin."

"I’m Kelley Leffler, and this is my cousin Shae Ake. Over there are Lara Bruner, Ariana Holliday, and Amanda Brooks."

"I’ve never heard names like Kelley, Shae, and Ariana before," Scott said rudely.

"Our parents were quite original," Ari snapped back again, forgetting how she was supposed to be acting.

"How far is it to your house?" Amanda asked Thomas quickly. "If you had a carriage or wagon, we could wait here."

"Nonsense," he told her. In one swift movement, he swung her up onto his horse, sitting her across the saddle. Howard helped Shae, and Gene and Alexander helped Kelley and Ari. Lara stared up at Scott’s giant horse woefully.

"I’m sorry, Mr. Richardson…I-I’ve never been on a horse before," she said nervously. "I’m sure I’ll just fall off."

"It’s easy, Lara. Up you go!" Shae called down to her.

"That’s alright. I’ll walk," she decided. With a huge sigh, Scott lifted her up before she could protest, then quickly mounted and sat behind her, gently placing his arms around her to grab the reins.

The horses slowly plodded towards a large mansion. The girls’ mouths dropped open. They had heard about the splendor of Southern homes before the Civil War ravaged them, but it was nothing compared to the real thing.

"Your home is beautiful!" Amanda gasped. Thomas smiled.

"Thank you. We’re quite proud of it."

"What do you do?" She asked. He looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you do? What does your father do? How did you get such a gorgeous house?"

"Oh…that…well…I don’t exactly DO anything…help oversee the place, I guess. We raise cotton and other crops, if that’s what you mean."

"Is that what you ALL do?" Ari asked. The other girls hid a smile. The way she said it inferred that the men were totally lazy and wasted their days away.

"Not Howard here," Alexander answered. "He’s a shopkeeper in town."

"I prefer to be called a merchant, thank you very much, Alex," Howie retorted. He smiled down at Shae. "I have a small store on one of the back alleys in town, but it’s been doing fairly well." He was obviously very proud. She smiled back.

"I’d like to see it sometime while we’re here, if it wouldn’t be a problem, Mr. Dorough."

"Oh, nothing would please me better then to show it to you, Miss Ake."

"Oh, now you’ve done it. Once you get him talking about that store, he never shuts up," Gene informed her. Howard gave him a dirty look.

"Here we are." Thomas stopped his horse in front of the house, and slid to the ground. After he helped Amanda dismount, he ran into the house, calling for his mother.

"Are you sure this won’t be a problem?" Lara asked Scott as he helped her down from the horse. He shrugged.

"Even if it was, they would still put you up."

Lara stared at him, shocked by his rudeness. The five women huddled together in a protective group, waiting for Thomas’ mother. An attractive woman with Thomas’ eyes soon walked towards them, a welcoming smile on her face.

"My son tells me you are in need of assistance."

"Yes…we’ve had a few mishaps today," Kelley said politely.

"Come inside. We’ll get you settled upstairs, and then I’ll have water brought for you all to have baths." She began to go back into the house.

"We’ll be seeing you ladies later. We have matters to attend to in town before dinner," Gene said. The men gave slight bows, and remounted their horses.

"Thank you so much," Amanda said to Thomas. "We would have been lost without you." He blushed, then spurred his horse into a gallop.

The girls went inside and followed Mrs. Littrell up a winding staircase. "I assume from what Thomas said that you have nothing but the clothes on your backs, correct?"

"Yes, ma’am," Lara replied, realizing that this could pose a problem. It wasn’t like they could run down to the mall and pick up a new outfit. Ready-made clothing was rare in this time period.

"Well, you are in luck. My sister was here a few weeks back with her daughters, and she left a few trunks of garments that they would no longer wear. She spoils them so," she confided. "I was going to see if I could use the fabric for something else, but you are more than welcome to them. She has three daughters, and I’m sure you could all find something to fit you." She opened three bedroom doors. "One of you will be sleeping alone, I’m afraid."

"I’m sure we’ll be fine!" Ari told her, staring at the gorgeousness of the bedrooms.

"Wonderful. I’ll have the trunks brought in, and then I’ll send up hot water for your baths."

"Thank you, Mrs. Littrell," Shae said gratefully.

"Please…call me Jacqueline." The older woman went back downstairs.

With a shriek, Ari threw herself onto one of the beds, almost disappearing in its soft folds. "A feather mattress! It’s so comfortable!"

"Ari, calm down!" Kelley ordered.

"These rooms are beautiful!" Lara gasped, running her hands over the fine cherry wood of the dressing table.

"Okay…first thing’s first. Who gets to sleep alone?" Shae asked.

"I do…I’m oldest," Kelley decided.

"That’s not fair!" Amanda retorted. "That doesn’t make you better!"

"Let’s just choose a number or something," Lara suggested. "I’d feel much better not being alone, so leave me out. Pick a number between one and forty." The girls all picked, and Shae got closest to the number Lara had chosen. She stuck her tongue out at the other girls. Amanda sat down on the chair by the dressing table, deep in thought.

"Guys, didn’t those men seem at all familiar to you? Something about that Thomas just makes me…" suddenly her face went white. Ari rushed over to her.

"Amanda, what is it? Are you okay?"

"I don’t know what kind of music you guys like, but think about it…Littrell, Carter, Richardson, McLean, Dorough…"

"The BACKSTREET BOYS?" Kelley gasped. "Amanda, you’re off your rocker. How in the world would the Backstreet Boys be here?"

"Not the Backstreet Boys, but maybe relatives or something. Think about it: Brian THOMAS Littrell, Kevin SCOTT Richardson, Alexander James McLean, Howard Dwaine Dorough, Nickolas GENE Carter…it’s too odd to be a coincidence."

"Well, I just hope that Kevin Richardson is a bit nicer then Scott Richardson," Ari pointed out. She turned to Lara. "Girl, you have your hands full with that one."

"What are you talking about? I have no interest in Scott Richardson," Lara replied.

"Yeah…okay…"

Kelley wandered over to the large windows as the other girls chatted about the weirdness of their predicament. As she looked out at the meadows, her eyes widened. She whirled around. "Did anyone bother to watch what direction we came from? We have to get back to that exact spot, remember?"

"What are you talking about?" Shae asked.

"Remember? We were supposed to stay in the same area, so that mad scientist Kayla could bring us back," Kelley told her. Lara quickly stood.

"Shit…she’s right! We were out in the middle of a field…with some trees…that’s all I remember," Lara said.

"I don’t remember much more than that either," Amanda added. Ari and Shae nodded.

"Well, we’ll just have to get the guys to take us back there," Kelley decided. "Perhaps after dinner."

"We can’t go out there with them after dinner," Lara told her. "Not without chaperones."

"Chaperones?" Ari wrinkled her nose.

"It’s not done…you don’t go riding with a man without a chaperone after dark. Not if you don’t want everyone to think you’re fast."

"Fast?" Amanda asked.

"The historical term for easy," Shae told her. "Lara’s right. We can’t go out there tonight."

"Besides, aren’t we supposed to be observing? We might as well stay a few days, since we’re lost anyway," Amanda suggested.

"I don’t know," Lara and Kelley said together.

"Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re in charge," Ari pointed out. "I say we take a vote. Who wants to stay for a few days?" Amanda, Ari, and Shae raised their hands. Kelley sighed.

"We’re outvoted, and I think we should stay together."

"And it won’t be a big deal if we stay here a while," Lara told them. "The people of this era are such gracious hosts that we could stay here for months and they wouldn’t mind."

A knock on the door made them whirl around. Ari opened it. Two maids struggled with a large metal washtub. They set it down and bobbed curtsies. "Your bathwater, misses."

"Come on, Lara. We ‘old maids’ will room together. Shae can have this room." Kelley hooked her arm in Lara’s and they went to inspect the other two rooms. Ari and Amanda followed them.

Four trunks of dresses were waiting in the room that Amanda and Ari decided on. The trunks also held shoes, handbags, and underclothing. "How lucky can we get?" Ari said. "I’d hate to wear this dress for the next few days, no matter how nice it is."

The girls waded through the dresses, picking out a few things they thought Shae would fit into well. Lara took those things over to Shae’s room, where Shae was relaxing in a hot tub of water. Pleasant-smelling bath salts steamed up from the water. One of the maids took the clothes from Lara and began to hang them up.

"I could get used to this," Shae told Lara, closing her eyes. Lara laughed and returned to her room. Two hot tubs of water sat in the corner, and Kelley was sinking into one with a sigh.

Lara looked this way and that, trying to figure how to get out of her dress. "Let me, Miss," another maid said, coming over to start unbuttoning, unfastening, and untying.

"Thank you," Lara said gratefully, turning her head to look at the small woman with red hair who was helping her undress. "May I ask you a question?"

"Yes, Miss, of course," the woman answered, unhooking Lara’s shoes.

"I notice there are no slaves working in the house. Who tends to the crops?"

"Well, Miss, no coloreds are permitted to work in the house, but they do work in the fields," the woman replied, her voice thick with an Irish brogue. "There are no slaves though…they are all free men and women."

"I see," Lara said, thankful that their hosts were not slave owners. She would not have felt very comfortable.

"Just ring if you need anything, Young Misses," the woman said, motioning to a long bellrope in the corner. She left, closing the door behind her. Lara sank into the other tub, the steam billowing up around her.

The dresses the girls chose for dinner were even more beautiful then the ones they had awakened in. Evening dresses were a bit more formal, and shoulders and cleavage were slightly bared. The girls congregated out in the hallway, and Lara checked them over.

"I don’t see how you think you know so much," Ari grumbled as Lara walked around her.

"I don’t know ‘so much’. I just have read and reread Gone With the Wind about nine hundred times, so I know enough to keep us from embarrassment." Lara smoothed down her own white and navy blue dress. "Now, remember, unfortunately no matter how good the food is, we must pick at it like birds. Especially if the guys are back." She turned to Kelley and Ari. "And no swearing."

They made their way down the staircase. A butler was waiting for them at the bottom. "This way, ladies." They followed him to a large dining room. As soon as they entered the room, the five men stood, each of them holding a chair for the girls. The girls were seated on one side of the table, with the men across from them and Jacqueline at the end.

"I see the gowns fit," Jacqueline said with satisfaction.

"You all look very nice," Howard stated, but he only had eyes for Shae.

"You ladies arrived at an excellent time," Gene said as the soup was served. "Thomas is having a birthday party for his fiancée tomorrow, and it should be a wonderful event!"

"Wh-what’s your fiancée’s name?" Amanda barely stammered out.

"Anne," Thomas said, avoiding her eyes. "She turns eighteen tomorrow."

"Have you any fiancés or beaux at home?" Jacqueline asked.

"No, ma’am. Unfortunately, we have no true home to speak of, at the moment," Kelley told her.

"Oh, yes, Thomas mentioned that," Jacqueline said.

The meal passed in gentle conversation, with very few slipups by the newcomers. The last plates were cleared away at about eight o’clock. Jacqueline stood, as did the men. "Why don’t you come with me, girls? I’ll show you about the house before you turn in."

The men said their good nights, bending over the girls’ hands in a very flattering manner. It seemed to Lara that Scott went through the ritual because he was expected to, and not because he wanted to. Her blue eyes glared up at him in anger, but she sweetly bade him good night.

About an hour later, the girls made their way up the stairs. "Jacqueline is so nice," Ari commented.

"So is her son," Amanda sighed. Shae nudged her.

"He’s engaged, too," Shae reminded her.

"So? Where is it written that you can’t flirt with an engaged man?" She said defiantly. She turned to Lara. "Wasn’t Scarlett O’Hara a terrible flirt?"

"Well, yes, but…" Lara began.

"There you go!" Amanda interrupted. "Night all." She turned into her room, followed by Ari. Lara sighed and went with Kelley into their room.

Kelley and Lara had left their window cracked open slightly, and the next morning they were awakened by loud voices calling to one another. Lara climbed out of bed and went to the window. House servants and field workers hurried back and forth, shouting to each other and carrying various pieces of furniture and cooking items.

"They’re getting ready for Anne’s party," Lara told Kelley. "I didn’t realize it was going to be outside. I hope the weather holds up."

Kelley looked at her watch, which she had hidden under her pillow. "At eight-thirty?"

"They don’t have microwaves and barbecue grills, Kel. Think of all the work that’s going to go into this." Lara stared out at the fields. "I wonder if there’ll be any dancing tonight? If so, we’ll have to change clothes…and take a nap."

"A nap?"

"You’ve seen Gone with the Wind, Kel. Remember how the women always napped in the afternoon before the night’s festivities?"

"I’m beginning to wish we woulda been sent to some other time," Kelley grumbled, pulling herself out of bed.

They threw on robes, and tiptoed over to Amanda and Ari’s room. "Wake up!" Kelley said cheerfully, bouncing on the foot of their bed. Amanda groaned, pulling her pillow up over her head.

"What is your problem?" Ari snapped, throwing her pillow at Kelley.

"We thought you’d want to make yourselves beautiful, since this looks like an all day event," Lara teased. Amanda pouted.

"I don’t have to MAKE myself beautiful. I was born that way."

"Oh, puhleeze," Shae said from the doorway. She came in and sat on the chair by the dresser. "What’s all the racket outside?"

Lara was telling everything she could think of about old Southern parties and dances when two maidservants brought in trays of breakfast. The trays were weighed down with bacon, ham, biscuits, pancakes, coffee, and other delightful foods. The maids curtsied, then disappeared to continue preparing for the party.

"Oh, I forgot about this!" Kelley wailed.

"What? This looks fantastic!" Shae said, removing a cover from a plate of pancakes.

"We have to pig out now. I mean PIG OUT. We can’t eat at the party. It won’t look right."

"Hell, she’s right," Lara moaned. "We have to pick at our food around people, especially men."

"That’s ridiculous," Shae said. "I’m going to eat all I want."

"And have Howie think you’re a vulgar pig?" Kelley asked her sweetly. Shae sighed, and began to fill her plate with pancakes.

An hour and half later, the girls went downstairs in their ‘morning’ gowns. Jacqueline was in the study, going over the menus with the cook. She looked up with a tired smile. "Good morning, girls. Please excuse the racket."

"Oh, that’s fine," Amanda was quick to reassure her.

"Is there anything we can do to help you?" Ari asked politely.

"No, thank you. I’m sorry that my son and I can’t be more attentive to you now. Why don’t you go for a walk, or something, until the guests arrive."

"That’s a good idea," Kelley mumbled to Lara. "Maybe we can find that spot in the field."

The girls said their good-byes and headed to the meadow.

All parts of the meadow looked alike, and the girls finally gave up and started back to the house. They had been walking for almost ninety minutes, and the warm Southern sun was breaking them all into a sweat.

"I can’t wait to whirl around the floor in Bri…I mean, Thomas’ arms!" Amanda announced, turning in circles.

"Um…remember the fact that he’s having this party for his fiancé?" Shae said. Amanda ignored her.

"Do you guys even know how to DO these kind of dances? I don’t," Ari stated.

"I can waltz, but that’s about it," Lara confided.

"Show me," Ari ordered.

"Well, I don’t know how to lead and…" Lara began.

"I HAVE to see this," Kelley said with amusement. Lara stuck her tongue out at Kelley and walked over to Ari.

"Okay…you put your hands here and he’ll put his here, and…" soon she was whirling Ari around in circles. The other girls broke into shrieks of laughter as Lara and Ari tried to dance around in their long dresses.

"This is a lot harder then it looks, dammit!" Ari yelled in embarrassment. "YOU try it!"

Amanda was about to reply when they heard hoofbeats. They turned to see Gene, Howard, Alex, and Scott riding towards them.

"You know, it’s a lot cooler in the house," Gene said to Kelley as he dismounted. "Why are you out here?"

"We’re trying to stay out of Jacqueline’s hair," she told him.

"Um…where is Thomas?" Amanda asked.

"He’s over at Anne’s. He’ll be bringing her over," Howard told her.

"What were you doing whirling around like that?" Alex asked Ari.

"Well, I wasn’t sure about dancing. I mean, none of us has really had much experience with it. There wasn’t much cause for dancing in our houses," she told him. The other girls nodded to back her up.

"You don’t know how to dance?" Scott asked incredulously. Lara wanted to yell at him, but she simply smiled.

"I can waltz, but I’m afraid that’s all we know. We’ll just sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else."

Without a word, he came over and took her in his arms. "Just look up into my eyes and concentrate on where my hands lead you, okay?" He told her. She could only stare up into his emerald eyes and slowly nod. Alex began to hum a quick tune, and Scott was soon spinning Lara around in a polka-type dance.

"I’ll never be able to do that," Kelley decided.

"Oh, yes you will," Gene told her, beginning to whirl her around. Soon, everyone but Amanda was dancing. She was standing and watching, trying hard not to laugh. Howard caught sight of her and let go of Shae. He took hold of Amanda and whirled her around as well.

"There. I’m sure you’ll do just fine," Scott said, suddenly releasing Lara. She stumbled and would have fallen if Gene wouldn’t have caught her arm. "We’d better get you back. You’ll want to change clothes, I’m sure."

The girls mounted up, except for Lara. She preferred the solid ground. Amanda climbed up on Scott’s horse and they made their way back to the house.

"Do you live near here, Mr. Richardson?" Lara asked Scott, trying to get on his good side, if she could find one.

"Yes. I’m over that hill back there, about three miles from Magnolia Hill."

"Magnolia Hill?"

"Yes. That’s the name of the house you’re staying in now. My home is Blossom Manor." He said the name with pride. "The house is surrounded by all kinds of blossoming trees."

"It sounds so beautiful," she replied, a dreamy tone in her voice.

"Yes, well, it will be much more beautiful when I find a bride to help me run the place," he said coldly, shutting back into his shell again. She sighed and said nothing.

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon I could come and get you, bring you out to town," Howard was suggesting to Shae. She smiled.

"I’m sure we’d all love to come, Mr. Dorough, if you wouldn’t mind." He smiled back.

When they returned to the house, Thomas was helping a young woman out of the Littrell carriage. She was impeccably dressed in an afternoon dress of light green silk, and her blond curls glimmered out from under her large hat. Thomas’ face lit up when he saw the group approaching.

"Ah, Anne, here they are! Miss Ake, Miss Leffler, Miss Bruner, Miss Brooks, Miss Holliday, may I introduce my fiancée, Anne Hamilton."

Anne looked the girls over from their dusty hems to their sun-reddened faces. Turning up her own lily-white nose, she said, "Charmed, I’m sure." She smiled at the men. "Good afternoon."

"Miss Anne," they all mumbled.

"Well, if you will all excuse us, we really must go prepare," Lara said quickly, stepping in front of Amanda so she wouldn’t punch Anne’s smooth white face.

"Save me the first waltz?" Gene asked Kelley.

"Of course," she said, suddenly shy. The girls hurried into the house.

"Can’t I claw her eyes out? Please?" Amanda whined in a whisper.

"No, you can’t," Kelley told her. Shae locked her arm in Amanda’s.

"Don’t worry, ‘Manda. We’re gonna show that wench some 90s style flirting tonight. Those men won’t know what hit them."

Jacqueline had sent up two maids to help each of the girls prepare, and the east wing of the house was soon filled with feminine squeals and giggles. The maidservants were quite young themselves, and the girls were so kind and friendly towards them that they soon were acting like THEY were going to the party.

Lara, Kelley, and their four maids were going through the dresses that Lara and Kelley had chosen. "I just can’t decide!" Kelley wailed. "They’re all so gorgeous!"

"This one," Kelley’s maid #1 decided for her, picking up a dark green silk dress that seemed to shimmer. "This one will be perfect for you." Her other maid nodded in agreement.

"I don’t have to worry about deciding," Lara said, picking up a dark blue gown. "This one was MADE for me."

"I hate this part the most," Amanda grumbled as she held onto the posts of the bed. One of her maids pulled her corset strings tight as the other one heated a curling rod for Amanda’s hair.

"It’s good we don’t have to eat much later," Ari agreed. "I don’t think any food could fit into me after this thing is pulled tight." She carefully arranged her purple skirts as she sat down to have her hair done.

Ari’s other maid, who had been called from the room earlier, soon came flying back in. "Look what the Missus gave me for you!" She almost squealed. She held three large velvet boxes in her hands. She set them on the bed, and when she opened them, Amanda and Ari gasped. Inside were beautiful settings of jewelry: necklaces with earrings to match.

"How beautiful!" Amanda said softly, reaching out to gently touch a diamond earring, or earbob, as it was called during that time.

"There are seven settings, and you’re each to pick one," the maid told her. "Just to borrow for this evening, of course."

Amanda ran to tell Lara, Kelley, and Shae about the beautiful jewelry as Ari’s first maid concentrated on her hair. "If your hair was a bit longer, miss, I could do much more with it," she said, pulling it this way and that. She finally succeeded in pinning it up, pulling down some strands to curl about Ari’s face. The other girls returned, their maids following behind. Lara’s hair was half up and half down, and Kelley was carrying her gown.

"We’ll just finish in here," Shae decided, sitting on a chair so one of the maids could try to pin up her curly hair.

"You look like you’re wearing a wedding dress," Ari said, observing Shae’s shimmering off-white gown.

"Bite your tongue!" She playfully snapped.

One of the maids that didn’t have anything to do was standing at the window, reporting on the goings-on down below. "There are just carriages everywhere! Looks like all the families in the county are here!"

"Miss Anne must have many friends," Amanda said sharply. The maids looked at one another.

"Well…um…not exactly," the maid at the window said, afraid to say much more.

"Let me guess…other women aren’t fond of her, are they?" Kelley said. The maid nodded, relieved.

"The servants don’t care for her much, either," Lara’s maid confided. "Most of these people are here for Mr. Thomas. He is so nice."

"And handsome," Shae’s maid sighed. One of Kelley’s maids nudged her. "Well, he IS!"

"Well, ladies, I think you look lovely, if I do say so myself." Amanda’s maid looked them over critically. She was the oldest of the bunch, and seemed to sense that the girls were slightly uncomfortable. "Does everyone have their hat and fan?"

"Hat?" Ari wrinkled her nose. The maids stared at her in shock.

"Yes, of course we do!" Lara grabbed her hat and Ari’s. "Let’s go."

"Thank you for all your help!" Amanda called over her shoulder. She was secretly beaming at the fact that no one liked Anne, even though she didn’t know what good it did her.

"Why do I have to wear a fucking HAT?" Ari murmured to Lara. Lara tied the wide-brimmed hat with the purple ribbon on Ari’s head. "What a way to ruin a hairdo!"

"You’re not supposed to like the sun," Lara told her. "Remember how pale that wench Anne was? THAT’S how a lady looks around here."

"Fine…fine…" Ari grumbled as they made their way down the staircase.

Howard and Gene were waiting near the bottom, anxiously looking at every girl that passed by. When they saw the five girls walking towards them, their faces were wreathed in smiles. "You look beautiful, Miss Ake," Howard told Shae.

"Couldn’t you call me Shae…I mean, Miss Shae, Mr. Dorough?" Shae corrected herself. Howard’s smile broadened.

"Of course, Miss Shae."

"Yes…there is no need for such formality," Kelley told Gene. "Call us all by our first names."

"Miss…Kelley…" Gene said the words almost lovingly. "Where would you like to sit?"

"In the shade, please."

The men found some benches under large oak trees, and left the girls there while they went in search of food and drink.

"That was a big deal, you know," Lara told Shae. "Usually men wait months before asking to call a woman by Miss and her first name."

"Well, we don’t have months," Shae reminded her.

"I wish I could hear Alex say MY name," Ari said dreamily.

"Miss Ari, here you are!" Ari whirled around to see Alex and Scott standing behind her seat. "We ran into Howard and Gene, and they told us you were here. You look very lovely." Ari blushed and fanned herself.

"We just wanted to say hello. We’ll go help them bring you some lunch." Scott said, his voice devoid of emotion. His eyes, however, looked over Lara briefly, and seemed to like what they saw.

Once the men were out of earshot, Kelley said, "Isn’t there anything you can do about Iceboy there, Lara? He’s beginning to annoy me."

"Why do you guys keep asking ME about him?" Lara retorted. "I have nothing to do with him!"

Jacqueline brought a few young people over and introduced them, and when the other four men came back with full plates, their spaces were taken by other young men. Ari looked up at the smoldering anger in Alex’s brown eyes. "I’m sorry, but this is Mr. McLean’s seat," she said politely to the man next to her. "But do save me a dance later, won’t you?"

The other girls said similar things, and soon Alex and Ari were seated together, Gene was next to Kelley, Howard next to Shae, and only Scott was left standing. The man who had been next to Lara had quickly vacated his seat, and Scott stood uncertainly by Lara’s bench. "Mr. Richardson, won’t you please sit down? I’d love to hear more about Blossom Manor." Scott sat down and eagerly began to describe his home.

"Well, looks like everyone here is well acquainted, doesn’t it?" The shrill voice of Anne Hamilton interrupted their pleasant luncheon. She sounded almost envious as she looked at the group of men surrounding the five girls. She made a big show of putting her arm through Thomas’. "I’m so glad everyone is getting along so well."

Amanda met Thomas’ blue eyes. He looked at the two men standing behind her bench and the one seated next to her, and something flashed behind his eyes. Jealousy, perhaps? Amanda smiled her best smile at him. "Well, I’m sure you’re quite glad to have all of this behind you, Miss Hamilton. You’ll soon be an old married woman." Amanda emphasized the word old, and the others hid a smile. Anne tugged on Thomas’ arm, dragging him off without a word.

"Good work!" Kelley hissed in Amanda’s direction. Amanda smiled in satisfaction. They hadn’t seen anything yet.

With many grumbles, all the girls made their way upstairs into the bedrooms for the afternoon nap.

"This is so ridiculous!" Kelley griped. "I’m not tired!"

"Who’s the one who bitched about getting out of bed at eight-thirty?" Lara reminded her. Kelley stuck out her tongue and said no more.

"Let’s all sleep in our room. I want to be as far away from that Hamilton wench as possible," Amanda said quietly. The five friends went down to Amanda and Ari’s room. They stretched out on the huge bed, practically lying on top of each other, but instead of sleeping, they lay talking.

"Looks like you’re doing a good job of melting the Iceboy," Ari commented to Lara. Lara poked her in the ribs.

"For the last time, I have nothing to do with him!" Lara said in exasperation.

"True…they did seem to be having a pretty warm and friendly conversation," Shae noted as if Lara had never spoken.

"Don’t make me come over there and kick your ass back to the twenty-first century," Lara warned her.

"He wants you bad," Kelley added. Lara thumped her in the face with a pillow, and they had to smother their giggles as to not awaken the girls in the other rooms.

"So, what’s your plan for Mr. Littrell?" Lara asked Amanda, trying to change the subject.

"Don’t do anything mean, Amanda. He’s so sweet," Shae said.

"I’m not going to do anything mean. Didn’t you see him get all jealous when he saw those guys crawling all over me?" Amanda asked in satisfaction. "He wants me. I mean, really…who wouldn’t, compared to HER?"

"Modesty becomes you," Kelley teased, and Amanda thumped her with a pillow as well.

They chatted for a while, then Lara stood. "I’m sick of laying around. Let’s try to get into our ball gowns and do something new and exciting with our hair. That way, we’ll be the first ones downstairs, and get all the attention."

Ari bounced up as well. "Good call."

Lara, Shae, and Kelley snuck back to their rooms and retrieved their things. With much huffing, puffing, and corset-string pulling, they helped each other dress. They carefully put on the jewelry that Jacqueline had loaned them, and they played around with their hair for an hour, finally settling on styles that seemed to mix both the century they were from and the century they were in.

"Don’t forget your fans," Lara reminded them. "If we’ll be dancing like we did earlier today, we’ll need them."

They carefully tiptoed down into the hall and down the staircase. The men were meandering about, smoking and talking about crops and cattle and homes and gambling. A few of the men seemed surprised to see women up and about so early, but they all greeted the friends graciously.

"You’ll find Richardson, Carter, and the rest out on the lawn," a man told Shae in response to her polite inquiry.

"This is perfect," Amanda murmured as they went out of the house. "One of my few chances to see Thomas alone."

As soon as Alex caught sight of Ari and the other girls walking towards them, he was immediately on his feet, followed by his friends.

"Up already?" He asked.

"We weren’t tired," Ari told him, smiling sweetly. He looked entranced.

"Mr. Littrell, I was wondering if you might show me about your grounds? Your mother only had time to show us the inside of your home, and everything out here looks just as beautiful." Amanda turned on the simper, and the other girls rolled their eyes. Thomas smiled with delight.

"I would like nothing more." He offered Amanda his arm and they strolled away, Amanda looking back over her shoulder triumphantly. Gene, Howard, and Alex quickly offered to show Kelley, Shae, and Ari around other parts of the grounds, and they soon departed.

"Would YOU like to walk as well?" Scott asked Lara bluntly.

"No, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to stay here in the shade," she replied, refusing to allow him to make her angry. "You may go if you wish."

"No, thank you. I enjoy the company here much more than being alone." Scott sat on the bench across from her, stretching out his long legs. Lara said nothing, fanning herself. Scott watched little tendrils of hair blow about her face.

"Your dress is very becoming," he finally said, his eyes roaming over her dark blue dress with approval.

"Thank you," she said, blushing slightly. "I normally hate dressing up, but in a gown such as this I almost enjoy it."

"Why don’t you like to dress up?"

She wondered at his odd question. "Well, I am most comfortable in pant…I mean, in more casual clothes. Then I can climb up to reach something or crawl down to retrieve something, and not worry about tearing the fabric or showing something I shouldn’t."

He looked at her for a long moment. "You’re different than other girls I’ve known."

"Oh, really?" She asked a bit nervously.

"You don’t seem afraid to get dirty…to work hard at something…to say what you think."

"Yes…I guess that would be odd in this time and age, wouldn’t it?" She replied, mentally kicking herself. She had tried SO hard to fit in. And now any chance she would have in keeping Scott’s interest would…

"Would you like to take a ride with me tomorrow over to Blossom Manor? I’d love for you to see it," he said suddenly. Her mouth almost dropped open.

"Well, I was SUPPOSED to go with the others to see Mr. Dorough’s store," she began.

"Well, if you really don’t want to, I understand," he said gruffly.

"Mr. Richardson, nothing would please me more!"

A smile lit up Scott’s whole face, and Lara thought she had never seen a more handsome man.

"Oh, a swing!" Ari said eagerly. "Would you push me, Mr. McLean?"

"With pleasure," he replied as Ari situated herself on a low swing hung from a large oak branch on the back lawn. He began to lightly push her, and she began pumping her legs so he had no chance but to push harder to keep up with her. She closed her eyes and let her head hang back. The warm afternoon sun toasted her face, and she began to hum unconsciously. "What song is that, Miss Holliday? I don’t recognize it."

Ari’s eyes flew open. She realized what she had been humming and blushed. "Oh…nothing, Mr. McLean. Besides, I can hardly carry a tune," she lied.

"Please," he begged, slowing down the swing.

She sighed. "Show me the meaning of being lonely…is this the feeling I need to walk with…tell me why I can’t be there where you are…there’s something missing in my heart…"

"So sad," he remarked. "But you told a lie, Miss Holliday. You sing quite well."

"Miss Ari," she gently reminded him, blushing at his remark. Her fan dropped from her lap, and he bent down to retrieve it. As he handed it to her, their eyes met and held.

"And I’m seriously considering going into the lumber business. The town is growing around our ears, and I truly believe I could turn a tidy profit by selling lumber for homes and businesses," Howard told Shae as they walked out by the icehouse. He blushed slightly. "Do forgive me, Miss Shae. A lovely woman such as yourself surely isn’t interested in my boring business dreams."

"Oh, no, Mr. Dorough, quite the contrary. No dream could ever be boring," she told him earnestly. He smiled thoughtfully.

"That’s true." He led her to a shady spot and spread out his coat for her to sit on. "I haven’t enjoyed a party in a long time as much as I am enjoying this one," he confided to her. She blushed furiously. His chocolate eyes looked down at her hands then up to her eyes. "Miss Shae, would you…could I…"

Shae could no longer be ladylike or patient. They were leaving in a few days anyway, so what the hell. "Mr. Dorough, would you please kiss me?"

"Mr. Littrell, this is such a beautiful home," Amanda said with a sigh. "You and Miss Hamilton will be so happy here."

"Yes, I’m sure we will," he said, but didn’t sound too sure about it. She looked up at him curiously.

"Mr. Littrell, is everything alright? I know I am quite a stranger, but you can sometimes tell more to a stranger then to a close acquaintance," she said kindly.

"I just…I don’t know if I really want to marry Anne," he said finally. "She’s beautiful and accomplished, but I don’t think she’d be happy here. She belongs in a city or large town where she can go to parties and theaters and such. I’m happiest here on my plantation, watching it grow around me, taking long rides in my meadows." He blushed. "Forgive me, I’ve said too much."

"The life you’ve described sounds just wonderful to me," she told him. "She is crazy not to want it as well."

"I can’t just…break it off," he said in shock. "Everyone is planning on it. My mother arranged it."

"Well, perhaps your mother, as wonderful as she is, can’t see Miss Hamilton for what she truly is," Amanda said. A bitchy wench, she added to herself. She stopped walking and put her hand on Thomas’ arm. "Let your heart lead you, Mr. Littrell. Don’t put yourself into something that you will regret for a lifetime."

He looked at her for a long time. "Would you like to go for a ride with me tomorrow morning, instead of going with Howard to town?"

"Yes, Mr. Littrell, I would love to!"

Kelley and Gene were chatting up a storm. Her hand was tightly tucked into the crook of his arm, and he held her fan in his free hand. She wanted to tell him so badly…she wanted him to know it wouldn’t last…because she knew she was already falling head over heels in love with him.

"Mr. Carter, would you mind if we sat here?" She motioned to a small seat out by the pumphouse.

"Of course, Miss Kelley. It is quite warm." He helped her to the seat. She turned to him, taking a deep breath.

"Mr. Carter…Gene…I must tell you something that you won’t believe…but it is absolutely true."

"Are you alright, Miss Kelley?" He asked anxiously, totally ignoring the fact she had called him by his first name.

"I’m fine." She took another breath. "Gene, we’re not from…here. Not Lara, Shae, Ari, Amanda, or myself."

"I know that, you’ve told us already," he said, almost insulted that she’d think he had forgotten.

"Not just geographically, Gene. We’re from the year two thousand. We were participating in a scientific time travel experiment, and ended up in the field."

Gene looked at her for a moment, then burst into laughter, his blond hair glistening in the sun. "That is SO amusing, Miss Kelley! I have not laughed like this in a long time."

"No…Gene…it’s no joke," she said seriously. She drew her small bag from the folds of her skirt and opened it. "Here is my watch." She handed him her small wristwatch. "And here is my driver’s license."

"What’s a driver’s license?" He wanted to know. She sighed in exasperation.

"That’s not the point. Look where it says birthdate."

He read out loud. "October twenty-seventh, nineteen sixty-nine," he read in a shocked tone. He looked up at her, his mouth open to the ground. "Nineteen sixty-nine? But it isn’t even EIGHTEEN sixty-nine yet!"

"I realize that, Gene. I’m not making this up. I can tell you all kinds of things that are going to happen. In a few short years, the country will be involved in a terrible Civil War…North against South…brother against brother. More than likely, one or more of you may be killed," she realized sorrowfully. She sighed. "And in a few short days, we must find the portal where we came to this time, and walk back through it."

"You mean I’m going to lose you so soon?" He said sadly. She stared at him.

"You mean you believe me?" She whispered.

"You couldn’t possibly make up something like this. It’s too bizarre." He looked at her, then suddenly yanked her into his arms, kissing her passionately.

The other girls started coming outside way too soon. Everyone talked and flirted and joked as they picked at the cold remnants of the luncheon that had been served earlier. As the sun set, a small group of musicians began to tune their instruments at the side of a large dance floor that had been set up behind the house. Colored Japanese lanterns hung from trees surrounding the dance floor.

"It’s beautiful," Amanda sighed as she and Thomas walked back to the group.

"I’m going to have to find Anne now," he told her regretfully. "Will you save me a dance?"

"Of course," she promised. She watched him walk away, and saw Anne Hamilton clamp onto him possessively. Was it just Amanda, or did it seem that Thomas Littrell pulled slightly away? Amanda smiled in satisfaction.

"So that is why you couldn’t dance very well," Gene said to Kelley as they walked towards Lara, Kevin, Howard and Shae. "They don’t dance like this where you’re from?"

"Not quite," Kelley said with a smile. "You’d probably be shocked. Men and women dance…quite close together."

"You’ll have to show me sometime," he said. Kelley laughed out loud, imagining how he would blush.

"I’m beginning to think that all the square dancing we did in gym class is going to be a big help," Lara murmured to Shae. "Some of this is almost familiar looking."

"I know," Shae whispered back. "We learned the reel, I think. I hope they do that soon."

"The reel should be next," Gene volunteered. He had heard part of their conversation. Lara and Shae blushed furiously.

"Would you excuse us, gentlemen?" Kelley said, grabbing a hold of her friends’ arms. "Come here," she hissed in a whisper. Along the way, she grabbed Amanda, who was standing alone, and Ari, who had just come up the walk with Alex.

"What’s going on? I was BUSY?" Ari growled.

"I need to tell you something," Kelley said slowly. "I…I…I kinda told Nick…I mean, Gene."

"Told Gene what?" Lara asked suspiciously.

"Everything," Kelley mumbled. The girls gasped.

"Are you crazy? He’ll have us committed!" Amanda said in horror.

"No, it’s not like that!" Kelley said quickly. "He believes us! He’s going to help us get back to that spot in the meadow…in a week."

"A week?" Shae’s mouth dropped open.

"He wants to spend time with me, and I want to spend time with him! Are you telling me you would hate spending a week with Howard, Shae?"

"Um…no…" she stammered.

"Okay, then. I think we can all suffer for a week."

Kelley was interrupted by a male voice behind her, asking her to dance. Five boisterous brothers from a neighboring plantation laid claim to the girls, and no protests of being poor dancers could stop them from leading the girls onto the floor.

As soon as the quick dance was over, the girls returned breathlessly to the place where they had been sitting before. Scott, Alex, Howard and Gene were standing there, looking quite jealous.

"I do apologize for deserting you like that, Mr. Dorough," Shae said to Howard. "Kelley had something she needed help with, and then those men just wouldn’t take no for an answer!"

"I can’t blame them for wanting to dance with you," he said shyly. The others rolled their eyes.

"Well, they won’t do it again," Scott said quietly, his green eyes storming. Lara stared up at him but said nothing. Thomas soon walked up to the group with another man.

"Ladies, may I introduce my brother, Harold? Harold, this is Miss Ake, Miss Brooks, Miss Bruner, Miss Leffler, and Miss Holliday."

"A pleasure, ladies," he said, bowing slightly. "I live five miles to the east, with my wife and sons."

"Where is Susannah, Harold?" Scott asked.

"She’s home with the boys, I’m afraid. They both had a bit of a fever, and she didn’t want to leave them with the servants. She sends her regards to you all."

They continued to talk as the fast music of a reel began. A young man came and asked Amanda if she would like to dance, and they left the group. Lara could not keep her toes from tapping, and she yearned to dance. Scott made no move to ask her, and she knew it would be a terrible mistake to ask him. The other couples made their way out to the floor, leaving Harold, Lara, and Scott sitting alone.

"Why don’t you ask this lovely creature to dance, cousin?" Harold finally said to Scott, making Lara blush.

"I’m not fond of the reel," he replied shortly.

"Then you will have no problem if I dance with her, correct?" Harold stood and held out his hand to Lara, who eagerly took it after one glance in Scott’s direction.

A few moments later the dancers returned to Scott, who was staring moodily into space. "That was so much fun!" Lara gasped, trying to regain her breath. Her hair had started to come out of its arrangement, and her cheeks were flushed, making her eyes bluer than ever. The men offered to get the girls something to drink, and soon everyone but Scott had gone to the refreshment table, leaving him with the five girls. They chatted amongst themselves, basically ignoring him. The smooth strains of a waltz filled the air, and Kelley, Shae, and Ari began to look for their suitors, eager for the chance to be close to them.

"Would you waltz with me, Miss Lara?" Scott said suddenly, standing in front of her and holding out his hand.

"Yes, of course," she said in amazement, following him to the floor. He took one hand in his, and placed another at her waist. He soon had her as close to him as politeness allowed.

"You lied, Miss Lara." She stared at him in shock. "You waltz very well."

"Well, it’s easy, if you can count to three." As soon as the words left her mouth, he trod on her foot. "Ah…you CAN count to three, can’t you, Mr. Richardson?"

His green eyes stared down at her innocent face for a moment, and then he roared with laughter, causing everyone to look at them. Amanda, Ari, Kelley, and Shae exchanged glances as they all thought the same thing: another inch of snow off the Iceboy.

The party ended around midnight, when the last families called goodnight as they rode away in their carriages. Thomas’ friends were the last to go, and the girls lingered on the front lawn. Amanda made her way up to bed alone. She didn’t want to see Anne Hamilton hanging all over Thomas for one last goodbye.

"I’ll be over after breakfast," Howard said to Shae. "It takes about forty minutes to drive into town. I’ll rent a carriage and we can…"

"Mr. Dorough, I’m sorry to interrupt, but how many horses do you have?"

"Um…two, Miss Shae," he said in surprise.

"Ride one horse and lead the other, and we’ll ride. I don’t need you to rent a carriage just for me. I enjoy riding," she said, smiling up into his eyes. She could tell he wanted nothing more then to kiss her, but he couldn’t. Not in front of all these people. He took her hand, gave it a squeeze, then swung himself up onto his horse.

"I want to talk more, tomorrow," Gene said earnestly to Kelley. "Can you meet me after breakfast? We could pack a picnic lunch…go for a ride."

"That sounds wonderful," she said, her eyes dancing.

"Is eleven too early for you?" Scott said to Lara.

"No…I’ll have been up for hours by then," she told him. "I rarely sleep late."

That remark seemed to please him. "How about ten then?" She nodded, and he swung up onto his horse, lightly touching his forehead with his hand before riding off in the direction of Blossom Manor.

"So…I thought we could meet and ride to town together, and meet up with Howard and Miss Shae later," Alex was saying to Ari. She really wanted to simply be alone with him, but she nodded and smiled. "Good night, then." He climbed onto his horse and cantered off after Howard.

The girls said their goodnights to Jacqueline and Thomas, who was handing Anne up into a carriage.

"I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Miss Hamilton," Lara said politely. Anne looked down her nose at her.

"Yes, I did, thank you. And I’m so glad you and your friends were here to share it." By the tone of her voice, Lara could tell that Anne felt the total opposite. She wanted to claw the blonde girl’s eyes out, not just for Amanda, but for all women. Lara decided then and there that a sweet man like Thomas totally didn’t belong with a monster like this, and she would do everything in her power to help Amanda convince him of this before they had to leave.

The girls quietly made their way upstairs, the total picture of femininity and sweetness. Once the door to Amanda and Ari’s room closed, however, they could not hide their happiness and gaiety.

"He wants to take me riding tomorrow!" Kelley said with a goofy smile on her face. She fell onto the bed, almost crushing Amanda.

"Move it, you hog!" Amanda said, laughing as she shoved Kelley off of her.

"Whatever made you tell him?" Shae asked Kelley as they all flopped onto the bed in a most unladylike manor.

"I don’t know. I think it’s…it’s just that I really really like him. I thought maybe by telling him, it would remind me not to fall too hard…because we have to leave soon." The girls grew silent, the thought of leaving sobering them.

"Well, I don’t care. Mr. Dorough is taking me into town tomorrow to see his shop, and to show me around. And then maybe I can get him to kiss me again," Shae said. The other girls shrieked.

"Again? What do you mean again? Life isn’t fair!" Ari moaned dramatically.

"He started to ask, and then I kinda just grabbed him," Shae said, loving the looks on the other girls’ faces.

"Gene kissed me, too," Kelley offered. Ari smacked her.

"Definitely not fair."

"So…I want to know what made Iceboy start laughing like a hyena on the dance floor," Amanda said to Lara. Eyes turned to Lara expectantly.

"Well…I don’t know, really. I guess I said something that made him laugh."

"You know, a few more days, and you might melt him enough to reveal a true human being underneath it all," Kelley said. Lara poked her.

"So, who’s all going with us?" Shae asked. The girls looked at each other.

"Well, Alex and I are going riding alone and then we’ll catch up with you later. I’m sure Howard and Alex will discuss it tonight," Ari told her.

"Um…Gene and I are staying around here…going on a picnic," Kelley said.

"Thomas and I are going riding as well," Amanda told them, her face wreathed in smiles.

"No way! What about Anne?" Lara shrieked in a whisper.

"He’s having doubts. He wants to stay here and farm all his life, and she wants city life."

"I could definitely spend my life around here," Lara said with a sigh.

"What about you? You’re coming along tomorrow, right?" Shae said. Lara blushed slightly.

"Well…um…Scott is coming for me around ten. He wants to show me his house," she mumbled, unable to keep from smiling. The other girls’ mouths dropped open.

"You work fast," Amanda remarked. Lara hit her with a pillow.

"Now will you guys get out of here? I need to look my best tomorrow, and I’m sure the maids are waiting up to help us undress," Ari said. The words were hardly out of her mouth when a knock came at the door. Ari yelled, "Come in!"

Five maids came in, shock registering as they saw the girls laying all over the bed, skirts hiked up and underclothes showing. Shae, Lara, and Kelley quickly hopped up, saying goodnight to Amanda and Ari.

Lara woke up as the sun was breaking the horizon the next morning. She glanced over at Kelley, who was still snoring away. She snuck her hand under Kelley’s pillow and pulled out her watch. 7:00. She smiled. She knew she had to be excited if she was awake THAT early.

She snuck out of bed and dug through the wardrobe where her dresses were. She pulled out the adequate underclothing and struggled into them as best she could without help. She put on the simplest of the dresses that she could find. She slipped on a pair of house shoes and tiptoed down the steps. She wanted to sit on the veranda and watch the sun rise.

She opened the front door and stepped out, carefully closing it behind her. She turned and gasped in surprise. Thomas Littrell was on his feet instantly.

"Good morning, Miss Bruner. You’re awake quite early, after the night we had last night," he said, his kind smile brightening his whole face.

"Please, call me Lara," she said as she sat on a white wicker chair. "Is anyone else up yet?"

"Just the servants, of course," he told her, sitting on a matching chair. "Why are you up so early?"

She decided to be truthful. "Your cousin is coming to take me to his home later this morning, and I guess I’m a bit nervous."

"You have nothing to worry about. Scott is the kindest person you will ever meet, with a soft spot in his heart for just about everyone," he told her.

"I find that hard to believe," she said bluntly. "He has been nothing but cold to me and my friends."

"Ah, yes," Thomas said thoughtfully. "You see, his heart was broken not too long ago, and I’m afraid he doesn’t look at any female in a positive light."

"That makes sense," Lara replied. "Speaking of females…your fiancée, Miss Hamilton, is a…lovely creature."

"That she is," he agreed. "Quite lovely."

"Mr. Littrell, I know I am practically a perfect stranger, but I must say that Miss Hamilton does not seem…your type," Lara said carefully. "For all her beauty and accomplishments, she does not seem happy here, on a plantation. You, however, seem born to this kind of life."

"I was just telling Miss Amanda the same thing!" Thomas blurted out. "I care for Anne, but I do not know if we would suit each other."

"How long have you been engaged?" Lara asked.

"A few months. It was my mother’s idea, actually. She wants someone to help me run the plantation."

"I do not know Miss Hamilton well, but somehow I do not see her as the head of a household," Lara said, trying to be polite. To her surprise, Thomas laughed.

"I totally agree. The idea of her with a sick child, or a disaster in a kitchen is a comical one."

"You wish to have children then?"

"Oh…yes," he said eagerly. "I would love a house full of children."

Lara stood. "Mr. Littrell, I can only say one thing. I’ve stayed with someone because I thought it was the ‘best thing’ to do…and it ended up in heartbreak. I pray you don’t make the same decision." She smiled and returned to the house.

The other girls were slowly waking up and dressing themselves for breakfast. They all arrived downstairs around 8:45. Jacqueline was already smiling and waiting at the end of the table. Thomas smiled at everyone, but only had eyes for Amanda. Harold arrived a few moments later. He had spent the night as well.

"Thomas, perhaps you could take the young ladies on a ride today…show them about the countryside," his mother suggested. He struggled for something to say.

"That’s quite all right, ma’am," Kelley said quickly. "I believe we all have plans. I’m meeting Mr. Carter for a picnic."

"Ari and I will be going to town with Mr. Dorough and Mr. McLean," Shae added.

"Your nephew wishes to show me his house, and will be here in about an hour," Lara told her.

"I have already offered to show Miss Amanda about," Thomas told his mother. She beamed.

"Well, it’s all settled then. I’d hate for you all to have to stay here with me all day." The girls assured her that it would be quite an enjoyable day if it was spent with her, and that they were very sorry to have other plans. They stood almost as one, after eating about a half a plate of food. "I’ll send the maids up to help you dress. I’m sure you’ll want to look your best," Jacqueline teased.

"You know, it’s scaring me how easy it is to kiss up and simper," Amanda murmured as they went up the stairs.

"Jacqueline’s wonderful," Shae said angrily. "You’re just jealous because she’ll never be YOUR mother-in-law!"

Amanda stopped and stared at her. "I was only joking! Jeez…"

"I’m sorry," Shae apologized. "I’m just nervous."

The girls gathered in Kelley and Lara’s room this time, and the room was once again filled with squeals and laughter. The maids were shocked when the girls decided to wear short-sleeved dresses and NOT carry a shawl.

"But your arms! They’ll be burned by the sun!" Lara’s maid gasped.

"It’s close to seventy-five degrees out there already, and it’s not even ten o’clock yet!" Ari protested.

"Your skin is dark enough," her maid told her. "No man will want you if you’re tan."

The girls looked to Lara uneasily, knowing she would probably tell them to wear long sleeves or carry some kind of wrap to protect from the sun. They were in luck, however, because she hated to be hot. "We’ll carry our parasols and PROMISE to stay in the shade," Lara told the maids. "We’ll be fine. Don’t worry, no one will blame you!"

Amanda was ready quickly, and she and her maid sat at the windowseat, watching to see who would arrive first. "Two horses…only one rider," the maid announced. Shae squealed.

"That must be How…I mean, Mr. Dorough. He doesn’t have a carriage of his own." She checked herself in the mirror one last time and gave the girls a wink. "See you all later."

"I’m kinda glad I’m not going with you," Amanda told Ari. "I don’t know if I could handle hearing all about that store."

Ari stuck her tongue out at Amanda. "Well, if I have my way, we won’t be spending all that much time with them."

Kelley wandered over to the window, and a smile lit up her face. One of the Littrell’s servants was leading a horse out to the front drive as someone cantered up along the drive. The person dismounted and removed his hat. Blonde hair shone in the morning sun. "It’s Mr. Carter!" Her eyes danced as she grabbed her parasol and rushed out of the room.

"Here I thought I’d be the first one to leave!" Lara said.

"Well, you’re next. Mr. Richardson is coming down the hill," Ari’s maid noted. Lara took a deep breath as she picked up her parasol and smoothed back her hair.

"Do I hear ice melting?" Amanda asked. She and Ari burst out laughing. Lara glared at them and left the room.

She slowly made her way down the staircase, trying to control her racing heart. She didn’t even know why she was so nervous. It wasn’t like he was asking to marry her or anything. They were just going to spend a nice day together. When she got outside, she noticed that he didn’t have another horse for her.

He dismounted, and took off his hat. "Good morning, Miss Lara. I remembered that you don’t like horses, so I thought you could just ride in front of me again, if you didn’t mind."

Lara opened her mouth and closed it. "Th-thank you, Mr. Richardson." He carefully lifted her onto the horse, and she tried her best not to be afraid. She looked up at the house as he climbed up behind her, and saw Amanda and Ari making faces at her from the bedroom window. She made sure no one was looking, and stuck her tongue out at them before Scott spurred on his horse.

Scott held his black horse back to a slow walk. Lara did her best not to lean back against him. He was just so comfortable…so strong. She sighed happily. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and the countryside was the prettiest she had ever seen. "Do Mr. Carter and Mr. McLean have homes like yours as well?" She asked finally.

"No one has a home like mine," he said, though she could tell he was teasing. "No, Alex lives in town, as does Howard. Alex is having a small house built, however, near this area. Howard is happy to live in town near his beloved store. Gene still lives at home with his family. Their home, Windy Hill, is about seven miles west of here."

"You know, you don’t have to hold the horse back," she told him suddenly.

"Well, I didn’t think we were in a hurry," he snapped.

"Oh, no, Mr. Richardson, it’s not that at all. It just seems that he is eager to run, and since you’re up here with me, I’m not afraid." She turned her head to look at him as she talked, and all she could see was emerald eyes. He smiled at her, then spurred the horse into a gallop.

Amanda paced back and forth on the veranda, holding her parasol tightly. Ari and Alex had left about twenty minutes earlier. Thomas had said he’d meet her at eleven, and the clock had chimed 11:15. Maybe he had changed his mind. Maybe he WAS in love with that Hamilton wench. Maybe…

She whirled around as the front door banged. "Oh, Miss Amanda, DO forgive me," Thomas panted, as if he had been running. "I had to do some things for my mother, and time flew away from me."

"Of course I forgive you," she said sweetly.

"I was thinking…instead of a horseback ride, I thought we could take the carriage. We are starting a small apple orchard, and I thought you might like to see it."

"Oh, yes!" She said. He told her to wait there, and he’d have the carriage brought around.

"You ride as well as a man!" Howard called over his shoulder to Shae as they rode closer to the outskirts of the town. Shae was semi-infuriated by the sexist comment, but she knew it was a great compliment in this day and age, so she smiled and said nothing. They drew their horses in to a walk, and slowly made their way down the main street. Howard led the way to the stable where he kept his horses, and they gave them to the stablemaster. "There’s a hotel next door," he told Shae. "You can freshen up in the ladies’ parlor there."

He waited in front of the building as Shae washed her face and repinned her hair. "Here I am…ready to see everything!" She said as she came out. He gave her his arm, and they walked down the wooden sidewalk.

"My store is on a side alley off this street," he told her. "Unfortunately, I was unable to get a building on the main road. I had to take a backstreet store." Shae turned a laugh into a cough. Backstreet! This was getting curiouser and curiouser. He helped her over a hole in the sidewalk, almost pulling her in his eagerness to show her his precious store. "There. There it is!" He said proudly, pointing up at a large sign that read "Dorough’s". He held the door open for her and allowed her to walk in first.

"Good morning, Mr. Dorough!" A young boy of about fifteen that was standing behind the counter greeted them. He only had eyes for Shae, however, and she smiled at him kindly.

"Good morning, Stanley. This is Miss Ake. I’ve brought her in to see the store. I can safely assume that I will be proud of everything, correct?"

"Yes, sir!" The boy said quickly. "I finished inventory a half hour ago, and was just about to restock the front shelves."

Howard smiled his friendly smiled. "Excellent." He took Shae’s arm again. "This way, Miss Shae. We’ll start back in the storeroom."

"Are we going to…" Kelley asked Gene as they rode along.

"No," he answered quickly. "I wanted to go to a different meadow, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to go there before we have to."

"Right," she agreed. They rode to a wide clearing with a group of five or six trees, and he helped her dismount in the shady area. They spread out a blanket, and she tried to sit down as gracefully as possible.

"Tell me more," he said almost immediately. "Tell me everything you can think of." Kelley began with the war that would soon start, watching the clouds of anxiety pass over Gene’s blue eyes. She then told him about the World Wars, and Hitler, and Korea, and Vietnam, and nuclear war. He shook his head. "It sounds like the future is a terrible place. All you do is fight!"

"No…not at all!" She was quick to reassure him. "There are amazing advances in technology and machinery!" She told him about the telephone that would soon come into existence, and tried to explain television, movies, cars, and microchips. When she told him about computers, his face grew animated.

"That sounds wonderful!" He exclaimed. She couldn’t help but smile, thinking about Nickolas Carter in the twenty-first century, and how he was rumored to love computer games.

"And the most wonderful thing…men have walked on the moon. They’ve been in outer space…gone around the Earth in a spaceship…sent probes and things to Mars," she told him. He raised one eyebrow. She had figured this was the one thing he probably wouldn’t believe.

"So…how did YOU get here?" He asked. She paused.

"I’m not sure of all the scientifics of it…I don’t know anything about that. There was an advertisement in the newspaper for people to be guinea pigs in a scientific experiment."

"Guinea pigs?" He asked, confused.

"Never mind," she said quickly. "Anyway, we could make some good money, and so I went along with Shae. We had no idea time travel was the experiment."

"You needed the money? Why didn’t your husband take care of you?"

"I have no husband," she told him.

"And your family…"

"I live on my own," she told him. "Women are MUCH more independent in the twenty-first century. We can even vote."

"Amazing," he murmured, staring off into space.

"Oh…Mr. Richardson…your home is simply beautiful!" Lara gasped as they walked up the front steps. The white pillars shone in the morning sun, and willow trees whispered in the breeze.

"I’m afraid you won’t think that when we get inside," he told her. "I’m not very good at supervising the servants. They know my threats are empty ones."

"It’s not…that…bad…" she faltered, looking around at the dirty foyer. He smiled.

"You are very polite," he said. They were interrupted by shouts and running feet.

"Give it back…give it back!" A little girl shrieked. A boy a bit older ran ahead of her, holding a doll over his head.

"No…it’s mine now…I’m going to play with it now!"

"No! You’ll hurt her!" The girl wailed.

Lara reached out a hand and grabbed the doll before the boy knew what was happening. She stopped the little girl, squatting down next to her. She looked down at the doll, smoothing its dress and fixing its hair. "See? She’s fine. Nothing to worry about." The girl sniffed, trying to rub away her tears. "I think she might be frightened though…why don’t you take her outside and sing to her. When I’m afraid, singing always helps me." The little girl nodded and ran out the front door. A large woman came waddling down the hallway.

"Ellen! Adam!" She stopped short when she saw Scott. "Oh, Mr. Richardson, do forgive me! I was making your luncheon when these rascals ran out of the kitchen before I could catch them. Their mother is terribly ill, and I couldn’t let them stay there and torment her."

"I’m sorry, Grandmother," the little boy said guilty.

"Where is your daughter?" Lara asked kindly.

"She’s at home, about a mile from here," the cook said, looking at Lara strangely. Lara turned to Scott, who was still in a state of shock.

"Mr. Richardson, why don’t you let this woman go back and give her daughter some lunch? I can make us something simple like soup or something."

"Oh, miss, I couldn’t…" the woman began.

"Please?" Lara said to Scott, turning the full effect of her blue eyes on him.

"Go. For the rest of the day. One of the other maids can make dinner," he told the cook. Her face lit up.

"Adam, go get your sister and tell her we’re going home!"

A few moments later, Lara had a simple pot of soup cooking over the stove. Scott sat on a stool, watching her. "Most women wouldn’t have done something like that," he said finally.

"It’s only soup. I am assuming most women know how to make soup," she teased, though it was one of maybe three things she could cook.

"No…I mean about the child. Most women would have complained about the noise."

"Well, I’m sorry, then. I love children," she apologized. He got up off the stool and walked over to her. He took the spoon from her hand and set it down. He took both of her hands in his.

"Miss Lara…would you marry me?"

Amanda sighed as they walked through the small orchard of new apple trees. "Mr. Littrell, I do believe this is what Heaven must look like."

He spread out the blanket he had carried from the carriage, and helped her sit down. He sat close enough that his leg was touching hers. "I’m glad you like it." He sighed unconsciously. "It’s nice to be with someone who appreciates it."

"Mr. Littrell, I must be honest with you," Amanda said finally. "I think you are a very kind, very handsome man. I can’t say that I don’t have ulterior motives when I tell you that I think Miss Hamilton is all wrong for you." He smiled at her candor. "However, I must also tell you that I won’t be in this area for long. Perhaps a week at most. I’m not sure where I’ll end up," she said truthfully. "But I think you deserve so much better than what you’d be settling for."

"I think you’re right, Miss Amanda," he told her. He ran a hand through his hair. "I just need to find a time to tell her."

"Don’t dance around this," she told him. "If I was in her position, I would want you to be as honest and forthright as possible."

He smiled a wry smile. "She’s going to be furious."

Amanda laughed. "That I can very easily believe."

Howard led Shae into the back storeroom and shut the door behind him. "Mr. Dorough, I think your…" Shae was silenced by Howard’s lips on hers. She moaned as he leaned her back against some shelving, his hands reaching up to caress her neck as he kissed her. He finally pulled back, gasping for breath.

"Forgive me, Miss Shae, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer," he told her, blushing slightly. In response, she grabbed him and put her arms around him.

"Do it again," she whispered.

About ten minutes later, they pulled apart, their hearts beating furiously. "We’d better get out there," he said finally. "Stanley will wonder."

"Howard, where do you live?" Shae asked, discarding the formal title.

"In a boarding house about two blocks from here," he told her, looking at her strangely.

"Is there an entrance where we could go in unnoticed?"

"Yes, there is, in the back. What…" he realized what she was saying and his mouth fell open. "Miss Shae…you think I…I’m sorry…I only meant…"

"You don’t want me, Howard?" She purred in his ear, pressing up against him.

"It’s not that. I…" his well-bred manners were obviously fighting with his passionate instincts.

"Howard, I will not feel compromised, or used, or less of a lady," she told him. "I’m not like other girls. Will you take me back with you or not?"

Howard knew his masculinity should feel insulted, but instead he felt wildly elated. "Let’s go."

"Look! There are Shae and Mr. Dorough, rushing down that alley!" Ari exclaimed, motioning down the street. "Where do you think they’re going?"

"Well…Howard’s room is…never mind," Alex told her, obviously embarrassed.

"Ah…they’re going back to his room," she realized, unable to hide a smile.

"I assure you, Howard is one-hundred percent the gentleman!" Alex protested. Ari laughed.

"Oh, Mr. McLean, I have nothing against him. Let’s just say that where we come from, a few hours alone in a bedroom is nothing to feel outraged about." She turned her smile on him. "Is there anywhere that WE could be alone?"

"M-marry you?" Lara asked weakly, groping her way to a chair. Scott helped her sit down.

"Are you alright? Do you need some water?" He asked anxiously, ready to run out to the pump.

"N-no, I’ll be alright in a moment," she told him. She closed her eyes and swallowed deeply a few times, then looked up at him. "Mr. Richardson, did you just ask me to marry you?"

"Yes, I did, Miss Lara. Is that such an awful thing?" He asked gruffly. She finally lost her temper.

"Mr. Richardson, I am sick and tired of you jumping to conclusions every time I say something you don’t agree with! Excuse me if I’m a bit shocked by your sudden proposal!" She almost yelled.

"I-I’m sorry," he apologized, but she wasn’t finished.

"You’ve been nothing but rude to my friends, and occasionally you have been cordial to me. Your cousin told me of your recent heartbreak, and I understand that it has made you wary of women. Believe me, I TOTALLY understand that. NOW do you see why I’m a bit surprised you proposed?"

"Yes, I do," he said. "I am sincerely sorry. I’ll apologize to your friends as soon as I see them."

"All right," she said, surprised at his apology. "Mr. Richardson, why DID you propose?"

"Like I told you before…this place needs a woman’s hand. I have seen that you are not afraid to work, you get along well with the help, and you are good with children…all excellent traits in a wife," he told her.

"Oh…I see," she said, trying not to look as disappointed as she felt. He moved to kneel by her chair.

"Not to mention that from what I’ve seen, you have a lovely body. Your smile brightens up a room, your eyes twinkle like stars when you laugh, and you seem to enjoy everyone you meet and everything you see."

Lara’s mouth opened and shut. "Th-thank you, Mr. Richardson."

"Scott," he told her, brushing a curl back from her face. His hand gently cupped her jaw. "Marry me, Lara."

Thoughts whirled through her head as she stared into his green eyes. "Yes, Mr….I mean, Scott. I will marry you."

His eyes widened. "You mean it? You’ll marry me?" When she nodded, his face lit up. He clasped her hands in his. "Oh…Lara…this is wonderful! When? Tomorrow? We’ll have all your friends over and…"

"I don’t want them here," she said suddenly. As his face darkened, she was quick to add, "And DON’T think it’s because I’m ashamed of you, because it isn’t. They just wouldn’t understand, that’s all." She smiled up at him. "Could you really have a preacher here tomorrow?"

"Yes, I can," he told her. He took her hand and helped her stand up. "Lara, I think we will really work well together."

"Yes…work well together," she sighed. Those words were far from the romance she had always dreamt of in a proposal, but she pushed those thoughts aside. He seemed to think for a moment.

"Come with me."

He led her to the second floor, to a small room that seemed to be only a wardrobe for clothing. The precursor of the modern closet, she thought to herself. He pulled a small trunk from the floor in the back. He spread an old coat on the dusty floor for her to sit on, and he knelt next to her. He opened the trunk and rummaged around for a bit, exclaiming when he found what he was looking for. He opened a small box and took something out. She gasped when she saw the beautiful old silver ring with a tiny diamond in the center.

"It was my grandmother’s," he told her softly. He showed her the inscription on the inside.

"True love is timeless," she read. Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized the truth of those words. He slipped the ring on her finger.

"I know that I haven’t said the words I love you, or anything romantic like that," he said, gazing down at her. "I don’t want to say something I don’t truly feel. But I do care for you, Lara. I’ve grown to care for you very much, and I believe that one day this could grow into a true love, if we give it a chance."

She was speechless at his words. Thomas’ description of his cousin finally seemed to fit. She nodded, but said nothing.

He dug into the trunk again, pulling out a soft ivory bundle and gently placing it on Lara’s lap. She began to unfold it, then gasped. She stood, taking the bundle with her. She unwrapped a beautiful ivory lace wedding dress, with matching shoes.

"It was my mother’s," he said softly. "I know you’d rather have a dress of your own, but…"

"No," she whispered. "I love it. It’s perfect. I can’t wait to wear it tomorrow."

He stood in front of her, taking the dress and laying it across the top of the trunk. He took Lara in his arms. "May I kiss my fiancée?"

"Oh…yes…" she murmured before his lips took possession of hers. His kiss was gentle yet demanding, and she seemed to melt against him. He finally moved away.

"Before I start my honeymoon early, we’d better get going so I can show you your new home. And then we’d better get back to Aunt Jacqueline’s. We’ll have some explaining to do."

Shae and Howard were barely in the door before they began to tear each other’s clothes off. Shae struggled with the layers of clothing, cursing Kayla the entire time for not dropping them in a time where shorts and a tshirt were common attire. They finally were down to their underclothing, and Howard seemed to suddenly get shy.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Shae asked, wondering if her twenty-first century attitude had scared him.

"No…I just…I want it to be special for you," he said. She caught the meaning of his words and laughed before she could stop herself.

"Oh, Howard, don’t worry. You are definitely not my first," she told him. "I want to please you."

With a groan he pulled her to him, deftly untying the strings of her corset. Soon she was standing naked before him as he pulled off the last of his clothes. They fell to his bed, hands exploring everywhere.

Shae knew that women of this era were not supposed to enjoy sex, but she decided to blast that idea into oblivion. She made her way down Howard’s body, covering his skin with kisses. When she made it to his midsection, he yanked her up to face him. She wondered if she had gone too far.

"I can’t let you do that," he said in response to her questioning look. "I wouldn’t be able to hold back," he explained.

As he thrust into her, Shae forgot everything…forgot her friends…forgot Kayla…forgot everything but the feeling of Howard’s skin against hers.

Gene’s hand slowly ran up Kelley’s side, and for the tenth time she cursed corsets. How was she supposed to feel his touch if all that crap was in the way? He kissed her neck and sighed, sitting up. His blond hair was standing straight up from where her fingers had run through it, and his cheeks were flushed. "We’d better get back."

"Why?" She tried not to whimper.

"Because if we stay here, things may very well get…intense." He groped for a good word. "And I don’t want that to happen."

"Y-you don’t?" She asked as they packed up their things. He stopped and took her in his arms.

"Not that I don’t WANT it…I just don’t think it’s a good idea. It will only make me miss you more when…when it’s time," he finished. He gently kissed her cheek and they finished packing their things.

They were walking to his horse when another horse galloped past, carrying two riders. It was far enough away that they couldn’t see who the riders were.

"That’s Phoenix…Scott’s horse," Gene said in amazement. "Wonder why they’re in such a hurry."

"I’m sure we’ll find out when we get back to the house," Kelley replied.

"I am so sorry, Mr. McLean!" Ari mentally kicked herself for the hundredth time as they made their way back to the Littrell’s.

"Miss Ari, PLEASE stop apologizing! Neither of us saw the hole in the sidewalk, and you couldn’t help it if your hell caught," he said graciously. "Are you sure you don’t need a doctor?"

"No, I’ll be fine. It’s just a twisted ankle. I’ll soak it in some warm water when we get back. I’m sure Jacqueline will know just what to do," she reassured him. "What I wouldn’t give for a pair of sneakers," she muttered to herself.

"Married?" Jacqueline sat down weakly, as Lara had hours earlier.

"Yes," Scott said. "I asked, and Miss Lara has accepted."

"Don’t you think it’s a little sudden?" His aunt asked.

"I suppose it is," he agreed, but said nothing more. Lara, still in a semi state of shock, had nothing to say.

"So, when is the happy day?" His aunt asked, trying to regroup.

"Tomorrow. I already sent a servant out to Reverend Johnson. He’ll be coming around eleven tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow?" Jacqueline gasped, momentarily losing her cool. She regained her composure. "We have a lot to plan."

"Not too much. Lara and I will be married at Blossom Manor with only the servants in attendance. If you wish, we will come here for a wedding dinner, though I only want close friends and family…not the entire countryside like the event yesterday," he told her firmly.

Jacqueline opened her mouth and closed it again. She smiled up at her tall nephew. "If this is what you wish." She walked over to Lara and gave her a hug. "Welcome to our family."

Gene was helping Kelley from her horse just as Alexander and Ari rode up. Kelley noticed how gingerly Alex helped Ari down from the horse.

"Ari, what happened?" She gasped.

"I twisted my ankle because of these dam…I mean, because of these shoes," she said, catching herself just in time. "I just need to sit and soak it, I think."

"You might have to hold off on that, Miss Ari," Gene told her. "We saw Scott and Miss Lara come flying by earlier. Something must be wrong."

Alex helped Ari into the house, followed by the other couple. They found Lara and Scott in the library, sitting very close together. Lara looked up and saw her friends, and her hand unconsciously grabbed for Scott’s.

"Well, things look very WARM and cozy in here," Ari teased as Alex helped her sit down.

"What happened, Miss Ari?" Scott asked politely. Ari stared at his kind words, momentarily shocked into silence.

"Uh…I caught my heel in a hole in the sidewalk in town, and twisted my ankle."

"I’ll have one of the servants bring you some water to soak it in," he replied, standing. "My aunt is in the kitchen making plans for tomorrow."

"What’s tomorrow?" Gene asked. Scott smiled.

"I’ll let Lara tell you. Excuse me." He left the room and Lara cursed him for leaving her alone.

"What’s tomorrow?" Gene asked again. Kelley noticed how Scott had not put the ‘miss’ before Lara’s name.

"Mr. Richardson has asked me to marry him, and I have accepted. We’re getting married tomorrow," Lara said, as if she was giving the weather report.

"Married?" Ari couldn’t help yelling.

"Married?" Kelley screeched.

"You can’t get married!" Gene added. Alex stared at him. "Ah…I mean…you hardly know each other!"

"I know that…it just seems right," Lara told him.

"Congratulations," Alex said finally. She smiled back at him.

"Would you gentlemen excuse us?" Kelley grabbed Lara by the arm and yanked her up from her chair, all pretenses of ladylike behavior forgotten. She dragged Lara out onto the veranda, followed by Ari. "Lara, what the FUCK is going on?" Kelley yelled.

"You heard…we’re engaged." Lara sat down on a chair and primly crossed her legs.

"Don’t give us that shit!" Ari yelled quietly, happy to be able to talk as she wanted. "You know you can’t marry him!"

"Why not?" Lara asked defiantly.

"Um…HELLO…two words…time travel?" Kelley told her.

"I’m not going back."

"What do you mean, you’re not going back?" Kelley asked.

"Just like I said…I’m not going back." Lara began to pace. "Kelley, what’s left for me back there? Absolutely nothing! I have no family to speak of, no one that cares about me, an empty apartment, a crappy job…what in the world is there for me to go back for?"

"We care about you," Ari said, placing a hand on Lara’s shoulder.

"I appreciate that, Ari, but you guys hardly know me. Scott is a good man, under all that aloofness. He’ll take good care of me, give me a wonderful home, and perhaps even a family."

"Lara, you can’t do this…what if you hooking up with Scott will affect the future?" Kelley asked suddenly.

"We don’t know that it would affect the future!" Lara protested.

"But we don’t know that it WOULDN’T," Ari said gently.

Lara looked from one to the other. "You’re not talking me out of this."

Kelley sighed. "But we’re not gonna stop trying to talk you out of it, either."

Howard looked over Shae’s shoulder at the clock. It was already three! He gently shook her. "Shae…Shae! Wake up!" She mumbled something incoherent. "I’ve got to get you back or you’ll be in a lot of trouble!" She moaned and opened her eyes.

"What kind of trouble?"

"Well…I mean…if I keep you out…people will think you…will think we…" Howard fumbled for words and she couldn’t help but laugh.

"They’ll think we made love?"

"Yes, they…" he realized how silly he sounded, and he laughed also. "Seriously, though, I do want to get you back before it gets too late."

They slowly got out of bed, and between many kisses, they dressed. They snuck out the back door, and went to retrieve Howard’s horses.

Brian looked at his pocketwatch. "It’s past three already. I cannot believe how quickly the day has gone." He smiled at Amanda. "I’ve had such a nice afternoon."

"So have I," she replied, smiling back. He leaned towards her, his blue eyes never leaving her face.

"Would you be terribly insulted if I told you how much I want to kiss you, Miss Amanda?"

"Only if you didn’t do it," she whispered. His lips met hers in a tender kiss, and she sighed into his mouth. One of his hands came up to cup her face gently as he began to kiss her with more passion. He was the first to pull away.

"Oh, Miss Amanda…I hardly know you and I feel like I’ve known you my whole life," he told her. He sighed. "And I’ve known Anne Hamilton my whole life and feel as if I don’t know her at all."

"You need to talk to her as soon as possible," Amanda told him. "You need to get it over and done with."

"Let’s go back to the house," he said suddenly, helping her to her feet. "I’ll go to Anne’s after dinner."

Gene, Kelley, Ari, Alex, Scott and Lara were in the library discussing the after wedding party. Scott only wanted his four friends there, along with Thomas’ family and Lara’s friends, and Alex was trying to convince him to invite more people.

"All that will cause is gossip, Alex," Scott told him. "Who is this girl? Why did he pick her? I don’t want Lara to go through that."

"Scott is the most eligible bachelor in the county," Alex told the girls.

"WAS," Scott corrected, blushing slightly. His hand found Lara’s and he gave her fingers a squeeze. They froze as a carriage drove up.

"I wonder who that is?" Gene wandered out to look. He came back with a very disappointed look on his face. "It’s Anne Hamilton."

Scott went out to greet her. "Good afternoon, Miss Anne. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"I just came to talk to Thomas. I wanted to thank him for my party yesterday." Scott unwillingly helped her down from her carriage. She flashed her dimples at him, and smiled at Gene and Alex as the group came out onto the porch. She totally ignored the girls.

"Did I hear a carriage?" Jacqueline came out onto the front porch. "Oh, Anne, what a surprise!"

"Good afternoon, Jacqueline. I came to see Thomas."

"Well, he’s…"

"Not back yet," Alex interrupted. "He’s out for a ride."

"Well, I’ll wait," she said rudely, walking up the steps.

"He could be VERY late," Gene added. Anne frowned at him and continued into the house.

"Oh, look…there he is now," Jacqueline said, spotting the horse in the distance. Thomas cantered up the drive and reigned in his horse. He quickly dismounted, helping Amanda down. Amanda went to practically hide behind Lara, Ari, and Kelley.

"Anne! What are you doing here?" Thomas asked.

"I came to thank you for my party yesterday," she said, looking from him to Amanda suspiciously. "Where have you been?"

"I took Miss Amanda for a ride to show her our land and the orchard," Thomas said a bit nervously.

"And how long have you been gone?" She snapped.

"Let’s go back in the house," Scott said. "We have a lot to talk about." The group turned towards the door.

"No…please don’t leave," Thomas said suddenly. Anne stared at him angrily.

"How long were you GONE, Thomas?"

"Since this morning," Amanda said, pushing through her group of friends to stand beside Thomas. "What business is it of yours?"

Everyone gasped. "Amanda!" Lara hissed in a whisper.

"It is most definitely my business when my fiancé is out riding about the countryside with a hussy like you!" Anne retorted. She didn’t notice the shocked way that Jacqueline staring at her. "Thomas, I will accept your apology, and then I would like to go for a walk." Anne waited for him to offer her his arm. He didn’t move.

"No, Anne. I will not apologize, and we are not going for a walk," Thomas said firmly. "I was going to come over to your home tonight to discuss this, but now is as good a time as any. I cannot marry you, Anne, I’m sorry." Everyone’s mouths dropped open, except Lara and Amanda’s. "You are a beautiful and accomplished woman, but you’re not the woman I love. I don’t think we would ever get along."

"You’re breaking our engagement?" Anne squeaked, losing her cool composure.

"Yes. I’m sorry, but I’m sure there are many men eager to take my place." Thomas sighed with relief, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders.

In a flash, Anne was in front of Amanda, slapping her face. Without thinking, Amanda slapped her back. Anne raised her hand to hit again, but Jacqueline grabbed her hand with lightning speed. "Enough, Anne," the older woman said in an icy tone.

"Jacqueline, this…this…vile creature has stolen my fiancé!" Anne protested.

"I’m beginning to see why my son has had second thoughts about you," Jacqueline said coldly. "Amanda is not vile, and she is not a hussy. Please leave our property."

Anne looked from one face to another, not finding one friend among them. Biting back harsh words and blinking back tears, she climbed into her carriage and it drove away.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Alexander finally said, "Thomas, I couldn’t say anything before, but I am very VERY glad you did that."

Gene and Scott nodded. "You’re my cousin, and I have always respected your opinion, but I have often wondered what in the world you saw in her," Scott told him.

"I’m afraid it’s partially my fault. I pushed Thomas towards Anne. I’m sorry," Jacqueline said to her son. He shook his head as if to tell her not to worry about it. "Well, let’s go back inside and finish planning this wedding dinner."

"What wedding dinner?" Amanda and Thomas asked together.

"Howard, really, you don’t have to rush!" Shae exclaimed, holding onto her horse for dear life as she attempted to keep up with Howard. "No one will care if we get back as the sun goes down. Everyone at that house is a friend."

"I’LL care," he told her. "It’s just not right."

A carriage clip-clopped by, and Shae caught sight of Anne’s upturned nose in the window. "There goes Miss Hamilton!"

"I guess she was visiting Thomas," Howard remarked, finally drawing in his horse and slowing down to a walk.

"Poor Amanda," Shae moaned. "If Anne finds out that she and Thomas went riding today, she’ll give Amanda hel…I mean, she’ll give her a piece of her mind!"

Lara wandered out onto the veranda for a breath of fresh air. The atmosphere in the library was getting quite stifling. Everyone had an opinion, and she was getting tired of the angry looks her supposed friends were giving her. She desperately wished Shae would get back. She had a feeling Shae would be on her side.

Her wishes were rewarded as she saw two horses slowly walk up the drive. Howard dismounted in front of the house, helping Shae down before he removed his hat.

"Miss Lara. Did you have a nice afternoon at Blossom Manor?"

"Nicer than even I could have dreamed of," she told him, smiling at the way Howard and Shae couldn’t stop looking at each other. It reminded her of the way she watched Scott when he wasn’t looking. Shae caught sight of something that flashed in the setting sun.

"What’s that?" Shae grabbed Lara’s left hand, and her face went white.

"Mr. Richardson has asked me to marry him, and I’ve accepted."

"That’s wonderful!" Howard’s face lit up in a big smile. "Congratulations! Where is he?"

"They’re all in the library, chattering like squirrels," she told him. He took off into the house. Shae stared from the ring up to Lara’s face.

"What are you doing?" She asked quietly.

"I’m getting married, and staying here," Lara told her.

"Are you sure? I mean, this is forever we’re talking about…forever away from everyone and everything you know," Shae reminded her. "No more televisions, no more CDs, no more computers, no more hot showers."

"No more loneliness, no more being hungry, no more being heartbroken," Lara added. "I think Scott could really make me happy, Shae, and I could make him happy too."

"It’s risky, you realize this," Shae said with a sigh. "You could affect history in some abstract way."

"Now you’re beginning to sound like Kelley," Lara said, frowning.

"Think this over, Lara, please," Shae begged. "When are you planning on doing this?"

"Tomorrow," Lara said, as the other girls piled out onto the veranda.

"We need to have a talk!" Amanda said angrily. They walked off the porch and a few yards out onto the lawn. "What the hell are you thinking? You can’t stay here? It would change everything!"

"Yes, I CAN stay here!" Lara shouted back. "And who are YOU to talk about changing everything? You just waltzed in here and broke up an engagement without a second thought, even if she was a snobby bitch!"

"That is totally different and you know it," Amanda snapped back. "I didn’t do it under the presumption that I’d end up with him forever!"

"No, you just did it hoping you’d end up in bed with him!" Lara said before she thought. The other girls gasped, and it took everything Amanda had not to slap Lara as she had slapped Anne.

"Whatever," Amanda muttered, turning and flouncing back towards the house.

"This isn’t right, Lara," Kelley said gently. "You really could change everything."

"I don’t care about those people in the future," Lara said selfishly. "Why can’t I be happy for once?"

"No one is saying you should be unhappy," Ari added. "It’s just not right."

"I’m marrying Scott Richardson tomorrow and there is nothing you can do to stop me!" Lara ran off towards the back lawn, leaving Ari, Shae, and Kelley standing out front.

"There’s nothing we can do to stop her from marrying him," Shae said slowly. Kelley and Ari started to protest, but she held up a hand to quiet them. "But that’s not saying we can’t take her back with us."

Lara sat on the swing that Alex had pushed Ari on the day before. She dropped her face into her hands and sobbed. Everyone seemed to be against her. Couldn’t they understand what something like this meant to her? No more being lonely…no more being hungry, worrying where the next meal would be coming from. Even if it didn’t work out between her and Scott, divorce was a terrible scandal, and she knew he would stay married to her no matter what. But she had a funny feeling things WOULD work out between them.

Amanda went running into the house and up the staircase without a word to anyone. Thomas watched her go by.

"What happened?" He asked Kelley, Shae, and Ari as they returned.

"She and Lara had words," Shae told him. Scott went out the door without a word.

"Should I talk to her?" Thomas wondered. Ari shook her head.

"Amanda’s pretty angry. Just let her have some time to herself."

Lara twisted the swing slightly, dragging her shoe in the grass below. She gasped as she felt hands on her back, and held on tightly to the ropes as someone pushed her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the breeze on her face, wondering if she could just keep swinging forever. The hands pulled back the ropes, holding her until she was almost falling, and finally letting her go when she laughed and shrieked at the same time.

"That’s better," a deep voice said. He brought the swing to a stop and walked around to face her. "I don’t like to see you so sad," Scott said to her. "What happened?"

"Amanda doesn’t think I should marry you," Lara told him. It wasn’t exactly a lie.

"Because it’s too soon?"

"Among other things, yes," she told him. "She’s looking out for me, I know, but I just want to be happy." She looked him in the eye and decided to be honest. "And I really think you could make me happy, Scott."

"I think so, too." He helped her off the swing and took her in his arms, which surprised her. "I think we can make each other very happy." He bent his head down to hers.

Amanda watched the scene from one of the windows in the long upstairs hallway. Well, guess there IS a human being under all the ice after all, she thought. A knock at the door surprised her. "Jacqueline! I’m sorry I ran up here…I was just very angry. I’m much better now."

"I’m sorry about everything that happened outside with Anne." The older woman sat on the bed.

"Thank you for standing up to her for me. I really appreciated it." Amanda came to sit beside her.

"I think Lara will be very good for Scott," Jacqueline told her. "My nephew needs someone to bring him back to life. A woman hurt him very deeply, and he had silently vowed to never love again, I do believe."

"But what if it’s all wrong? What if they’re not meant to be together?" Amanda asked her.

"That’s for the two of them to decide," Jacqueline gently reminded her. She surprised Amanda by giving her a tender hug. "Let’s go downstairs and have dinner, all right?"

Amanda and Jacqueline reached the bottom of the staircase just as Scott and Lara walked in the front door.

"Scott, please come help me get everyone together for dinner," his aunt said. They left the friends alone.

Lara and Amanda stared at each other in a hostile silence. Lara’s blue eyes brimmed with tears. "I really think I love him, ‘Manda. I don’t think I can leave him!" The tears splashed onto her cheeks before she could stop them. "I don’t want to be alone again!"

Amanda pulled Lara into a big hug, squeezing tight. "I don’t want you to be alone, either. I just want you to weigh all the pros and cons in this."

"I’m sorry I said those awful things," Lara sniffed. Amanda pulled back and smiled at her.

"So am I."

Lara wiped away the tears and they headed for dinner, arm in arm.

Lara woke up with the sun the next day. She pulled on a robe and went to sit on the windowseat, so she could watch the morning come to life. She leaned against the window with a sigh. She was so happy she could hardly stand it. She still found it very hard to believe that Scott had picked HER. She knew that it was hardly because he loved her, but she knew he cared for her, and that he was attracted to her. She smiled to herself. She felt his attraction every time he kissed her…and he had found many ways to steal kisses whenever they could get five minutes alone the night before.

"Do you realize it is not even seven o’clock yet?" A sleepy voice grumbled from the bed. Lara smiled at Kelley over her shoulder.

"Did I waken you, Kel? I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep any more."

"No, you didn’t waken me." Kelley rolled onto her back and looked at Lara. "Lara, are you sure about this? I mean REALLY sure?"

"I am really getting sick of hearing that sentence," Lara observed, referring to the nine hundred times each that the other girls had asked her that. "Yes, I’m sure. Yes, I’m marrying Scott. Yes, I’m staying here."

"Okay," Kelley said with a sigh.

"I think I’ll go down and ask one of the maids to bring up a hot bath. I can’t think of any way better to start my wedding day." Lara bounced up from the windowseat. "And that way, you can go back to sleep for a little bit." She bounced out of the room. Kelley moaned and put her head under the pillow.

"A bath? Again?" The maid looked at Lara in amazement that anyone would want to bathe more than once a week.

"Do you mind?" Lara asked. "I would like nothing more than a nice hot bath, if it’s not too much trouble."

"Of course, Miss. I’ll have it up as soon as I can," the maid said finally.

"Could you bring it up to that tiny room on the end? My friend is still sleeping and I don’t want to waken her." Lara made her way back up to the small room at the end of the hallway. She sat on a chair, staring out the window.

Amanda tiptoed down the staircase and out onto the front porch. She knew she would find Thomas there. He had told her that he loved to watch the sun come up as he sat on the veranda. His face lit up when he saw her.

"Miss Amanda! What are you doing up so early?"

"I couldn’t sleep. I guess I’m a bit worried about Lara and Mr. Richardson." She sat down next to Thomas on the front step. "I hope she isn’t making a big mistake."

"My cousin is one of the best men I know," he told her. "He’s kind, generous, loving, thoughtful…"

"Stop!" She said, laughing. "Stop, or I’ll try and steal him for myself!"

He laughed with her, then grew serious. "Thank you, Miss Amanda, for helping me with the Anne situation. I never would have gotten the nerve to break things off with her if we hadn’t talked yesterday."

Amanda blushed slightly. "Mr. Littrell, I…I…I wanted you to be happy, true, but I must admit that I was insanely jealous of her. I cannot say I’m sorry you are no longer engaged to Anne Hamilton."

"I’m not sorry either," he said softly, reaching up to lightly caress her cheek. "Because if I was still engaged to her, I couldn’t kiss you." His lips met hers and she moaned slightly. She was first to pull away.

"Mr. Littrell, I’m so glad you found us that day in the meadow," she told him.

"I am too, though I am dreading the day you have to move on," he said sadly.

"It won’t be for…oh…a week or so, I’m sure," she said, kissing his cheek. "Let’s not dwell on it."

Lara soaked in her hot bath, and then attempted to eat breakfast, though her stomach rolled at the thought of food. She made her way back to the room she shared with Kelley. The other four girls were awake and in that room, waiting for her.

"Well, it’s about time!" Shae announced.

"We thought you were gonna miss your own wedding!" Ari added.

Lara looked at them suspiciously. Why were they being so sweet about this? Kelley seemed to read her thoughts.

"We care about you and want you to be happy," she said to Lara. "If you’re gonna actually do this thing, we want to help you get ready."

Amanda laced up Lara’s corset, and Shae helped Lara step into the beautiful gown.

"You said this was his mother’s?" Ari sighed. "It’s so beautiful."

"I know. I was so shocked when he told me that." Lara whirled around in front of the mirror. "I couldn’t have dreamt of a more gorgeous wedding dress."

"Sit down so we can do your hair," Amanda ordered. The four girls fussed and clucked over her hair, but they finally had it presentable. Jacqueline had sent up some flowers from the garden, and they wove them through Lara’s long dark hair.

"Okay, look," Kelley said finally. Lara looked into the mirror and tears sprang to her eyes. It was if she had been made to wear this dress.

"You look wonderful," Shae told her quietly. A knock at the door startled them all.

"Miss Lara, your…" the maid froze in mid-sentence. "Miss Lara! You look wonderful!"

"Thank you," Lara said, blushing a dark red.

"Your carriage is here to take you to Mr. Scott’s," the maid said. Lara gave each of the girls a hug.

"Thank you for all your help, and for understanding." She hurried out the door.

"She won’t be thanking us by the end of the week," Amanda said to the others.

Lara saw another carriage standing in front of Scott’s home, and she figured it was the preacher. The driver helped her down, and Scott’s cook was beaming at her from the front porch.

"Good morning, Miss! We never were formally introduced. I’m Mrs. Smith, the housekeeper and cook. One of the few hired help here at Blossom Manor, though I’m sure you’ll change all that." She led Lara into the house, chattering nonstop. "I told Mr. Scott that you would not be seeing him before there ceremony…you don’t need any bad luck." She smiled at Lara. "Speaking of bad luck, I heard what happened to all your things, and why you ended up at Mr. Thomas’ in the first place. If it’s not too much of an imposition, I had my daughter go through her things, and find some dresses and gowns that you could use until we get the dressmaker out here."

"That would be wonderful! Thank you very much!" Lara whispered in delight. Mrs. Smith stopped to look at her.

"Miss Lara, I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Scott’s mother, but I must say you make a pretty picture in her dress." Lara was unable to speak, not that Mrs. Smith gave her a chance. "Mr. Scott, the Reverend, and that picture man are in the library. It’s the room with the most light."

"Picture man?"

"You know, one of those newfangled things that puts your picture down on glass, then paper." Lara realized she must mean the era’s type of photographer. She knew that this was quite an extravagance, and was shocked at Scott’s decision to have it done. "You wait out here, Miss. I’ll make sure they’re ready." Mrs. Smith went into the library, leaving Lara to pace in the hallway having second thoughts. A few moments later, she poked her head out. "Come on in, miss."

Scott did a double take when he saw her. He said nothing, but his eyes shone with approval. "Miss Lara, is it?" The preacher said. "I’m Reverend McKee."

Lara murmured some kind of greeting, but had eyes only for Scott. He looked so handsome in what she figured was his finest suit. Flecks of green in the fabric seemed to bring out his eyes. He took her hand and held it as they stood before the reverend. She knew she made all the right responses but hardly remembered it. She snapped awake when the reverend told Scott he could kiss his bride.

Scott cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed her upturned lips. His emerald eyes smiled down at her as he pulled back, and they both smiled as they heard a sniff coming from the corner where Mrs. Smith sat. The woman came over and hugged Lara as Scott gave an envelope of money to the preacher.

"Now, it’s off you go to Mrs. Jacqueline," Mrs. Smith scolded, shooing them out the door. "I’ll have the house all cleaned and laid out for you when you return."

Lara gasped as she saw the beautiful carriage out on the front drive. Scott smiled. "I ordered this over two months ago. I had no idea it would carry my bride and I the first time it would be used." He took her hand and helped her up. "Up you go, Mrs. Richardson."

Lara shrank into a far corner of the seat, feeling faint at his words. It finally hit her. She was a married woman now…Mrs. Scott Richardson.

"Here they come!" Shae called from her place on the Littrell’s veranda. Everyone came piling out of the house. Harold, his wife, and their children were there, as were a few other family members. Gene, Kelley, Shae, Howard, Thomas, Amanda, Alexander, and Ari stood at the side of the veranda. Everyone applauded as Scott helped Lara down. Scott’s four friends claimed him as the female family members gushed over the way Lara looked in Scott’s mother’s dress.

Kelley smiled at Lara, but said nothing. She saw the happiness and love that filled Lara’s blue eyes, and dreaded the fact that she would have to leave all this. Maybe she could convince the others that…

"No," Ari whispered in her ear. "She’s GOT to go back with us." Kelley frowned but didn’t respond.

Jacqueline had set up a small party on the back lawn, similar to the party they had given for Anne Hamilton, but on a smaller scale. Two long tables were more than room enough to seat everyone, with Scott and Lara at a small table for two in the middle. For all the laughter and talk, the newlyweds seemed to be in a world of their own.

One of the servants had been asked to bring his fiddle, and he began to play a lively reel. "No," Scott said, finally snapping out of his reverie. "I want a waltz." He pushed back his chair and stood. "I want to dance with my wife." Lara swallowed deeply and followed him, attempting to keep the train of the dress up off the ground. Once his arms were around her and he was looking down at her, however, she forgot everything else. "You are so beautiful today," he whispered. "I imagined you would look pretty in that dress, but nothing like you really look."

"Thank you," she whispered, unable to look away from his emerald eyes.

"You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?" He said, his eyes growing dark. "Is it because of later…of…of…tonight?" He stammered, blushing slightly. She had to smile.

"No…it’s not that at all. I’m not afraid…more like nervous. I have a lot of responsibility now."

"I’ll be beside you all the way," he promised. "We’re partners."

Lara stared at him open-mouthed. She knew that men of this age didn’t feel that way, and she was truly shocked. "Partners?"

"Yes…you’ve proved in more ways than one that you are my equal." He bent close to whisper, "But don’t tell anyone." She laughed out loud.

The friends sat together at the end of one of the tables, watching the couple dance. "You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?" Gene whispered to Kelley. She looked at him, her eyes filled with sadness.

"It can’t last," she told him. "She can’t stay."

"Of course she’s staying!" Alex said in amazement. "They’re married now!"

The girls looked at each other. "We have to talk to all of you," Ari said. "Now."

Lara was talking with one of Scott’s other cousins when she saw her friends and their beaux leave the table. She excused herself and snuck off after them.

The group went around to the front veranda. The girls made Howard, Alex, and Thomas sit down. Gene leaned against the front door.

"You just have to listen, all right? Hear them out. I assure you that it sounds ridiculous, but it’s all true," he insisted.

Howard looked at Shae in confusion. "What? What is it?"

"We’re not from around here," she began.

"We knew that," Alex interrupted. Gene glared at him. "Sorry."

"We’re not from this area…this state…even this time," Shae said slowly, her eyes begging Howard to believe her. "And at the end of the week, we’re going back to our time…we hope."

"Your time?" Alex asked, confused.

"The twenty-first century," Ari told him gently. He stared at her.

"Excuse me?" Thomas asked.

"We’re from the year two thousand. We participated in a scientific experiment, for money, and we were sent back here. We were SUPPOSED to end up in a town, with landmarks, but somehow we ended up in the meadow, where you found us," Amanda told him.

"So, what you’re saying is, you’re from the future. Like over a hundred years from now?" Howard asked.

"Show him, Kelley," Gene told her. She silently handed him her driver’s license. Alex and Thomas looked over his shoulder.

"Nineteen…" Alex looked up at her, then over at Ari. "And you’re all…" she nodded in response.

"Me too," Lara said, walking around the corner of the house. They all whirled to look at her. "But I’m not going back. I’m staying here."

"You can’t!" Shae told her, exasperated. "You could change the way the future ends up!"

"How do you know that?" Lara protested. "I’m not going back! I’m happy here!"

"It IS her decision," Howard pointed out. Shae started to yell, but a look in his chocolate eyes made her keep silent. He stood, and walked over to Lara. He kissed her cheek. "We wish you all the best. Both you and Scott. Speaking of which, I’m sure he’s waiting for you." She smiled at him gratefully and hurried back to her husband. Howard turned to the others. "Let’s talk more about this."

"But I want to stay with you!" Lara protested as Scott handed her up into the carriage. The sun was setting, and the party was winding down.

"I’ll be along soon…there are some things I need to settle with Aunt Jacqueline first," Scott promised. Lara pouted.

"And you need to settle them NOW?"

"I’ll be there very soon. I promise. Besides, you hardly got to take a look at your new home."

Lara waved goodbye to the crowd of friends and family as the carriage carried her back to her new home.

Mrs. Smith came hurrying out as soon as she heard the carriage wheels. "Oh, Miss Lara…I mean, Mrs. Lara!" The woman corrected herself with a smile. "Where’s Mr. Scott?"

"He had to talk with his aunt. He sent me along to kind of get situated," Lara told her as she got down from the carriage.

"Well, I have a dress laid out for you upstairs. Why don’t you change out of that pretty gown and then take a look around. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

"How is your daughter?" Lara asked as they entered the house.

"Much better, thank you for asking, ma’am." Mrs. Smith disappeared down the hallway that led to the kitchen.

Lara made her way upstairs, poking her head into rooms until she found the largest bedroom, obviously the master bedroom. A more casual change of clothes was laid out for Scott, as well as a light green dress for her. She carefully got out of the wedding dress, and hung it carefully in the large wardrobe that took up half of the one wall. She looked at the dress on the bed. It looked like it would fit. She pulled it on, and it was actually a bit too big. Smiling, she took it off and unlaced the horrid corset. When she pulled the dress on again, it fit perfectly. How nice to be able to breathe again. She went back out into the hall, peeking into the five guest bedrooms. She started down the steps, sighing. One of the things she would miss most was indoor plumbing, namely a bathroom and shower.

She wandered through the small parlor, large dining area, and even larger ballroom. That room looked as if it had never been used, and hardly any pictures or furnishings adorned the walls and bare floor. She made a mental note to start doing some research on that.

"Lara? Lara! Where are you?" She heard Scott’s voice call. She walked out of the small library.

"In here," she called back. He smiled as he walked towards her.

"I thought I’d lost you in our big house." Since no one was around, he pulled her into a crushing hug and gave her a smacking kiss. She had to laugh. "What?"

"If the girls knew how truly affectionate you were…" he looked confused. "They called you the Iceboy."

He smiled wryly. "I guess there was a bit of ice around my heart. You, however, have done quite the job of melting it." He took her hands in his. "So, what do you think of your new home?"

"I love it. I love this room best, so far." She motioned towards the library.

"You like to read?" She nodded. "Then I’ll make sure all the latest works and novels are in there at all times." She smiled to herself, realizing that she had probably read many of the books that weren’t even written yet. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really. Your aunt has kept me perpetually full since I’ve been here!"

The good-natured Mrs. Smith interrupted them. "Ah, Mr. Scott! You’ve returned. Shall I set up the dining room for dinner?"

The couple looked at each other. "No, Mrs. Smith, thank you. We’re quite full from this afternoon. I believe we’ll be retiring for the evening, and you are free to go home," Scott told her. She smiled and bobbed a slight curtsy.

He put his arm around Lara’s waist as they walked back towards the staircase. "What did you have to talk to your aunt about?" Lara asked. He cleared his throat.

"Nothing, actually. I wanted to give you a chance to get over here." Lara looked at him quizzically. "I knew that everyone, especially those rascals I call my best friends, were ready to start teasing us about the wedding night, so I thought I’d save you the embarrassment."

Lara stopped on the step ahead of him and turned around. She took his face in her hands and gave him a long kiss. "Thank you," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his. "That was very considerate." He stared into her blue eyes for a long moment, then swept her up into his arms, carrying her the rest of the way. She giggled as he used his foot to kick the door of the bedroom open. Still holding her, he bent down to sweep his clothing off the bed and onto the floor. "Mrs. Smith spent special time laying that out for you," Lara scolded playfully.

"I’m sorry, but I don’t plan on wearing much for the rest of the evening," he said softly, his eyes travelling the length of her body as he set her down carefully. "Except maybe you."

Lara swallowed deeply. She stood up, pressing her body close against his as she kissed him. The kisses grew more passionate, as if they need to kiss each other to live. She began unbuttoning his shirt with shaking hands, and he moved his hands from her shoulders, down her sides, and onto her waist. He pulled back in surprise as he realized she was wearing no support under the dress. His fingers flew as they undid her buttons, and he knelt in front of her as he pulled the dress up over her head. It was his turn to swallow deeply as he looked at his wife, clad only in the barest essentials. He started at her stomach and kissed his way up until he was standing in front of her. Lara slid the shirt from Scott’s body, letting her hands linger on his strong shoulders and arms. She slowly walked around him in a circle, planting kisses here and there, and allowing her fingers to trace across his skin. He took her in his arms, kissing her as he laid her down on the bed.

He took his time removing the rest of the clothing she wore, making sure to cover each plot of skin with kisses as he removed the fabric. Soon she was lying naked before him, and as he stood to remove his pants, he stopped to stare at her. He said nothing, but she could see the desire in his eyes. He quickly recovered, and pulled off his clothing. He covered his body with hers, and she scratched her nails down his back as his hands roamed across her body. By the time he finally thrust inside of her, she was so ready he moaned. They were both so aroused that it seemed like only moments before they shared a mind-shattering orgasm. Husband took wife in his arms, cradled her head against his chest, and they slept.

Lara shivered and tried to snuggle closer to Scott. The only problem was, he wasn’t there. She opened her eyes and sat up quickly once she realized she was alone. Tears filled her eyes. She really WAS only a convenience to him. Just someone to share his bed and run his household. She didn’t mean any…

"I was hoping you’d still be sleeping." Scott carefully negotiated the door as best he could, with a large tray in his hand. He looked so handsome with his hair messed up and wearing a dark green robe. Lara’s mouth dropped open.

"Wha…what’s that?"

"Your breakfast." He pulled the silver covers off the china to reveal ham steak, eggs, and potatoes. He went back into the hall and brought in another tray that held a silver coffeepot and two cups.

"Scott…did you…did you do this?" She couldn’t pick her chin up off the floor. Men of this era didn’t cook…they didn’t even know where the kitchen was.

"Don’t look so surprised," he said, only half joking. "I’ve gone on hunting parties many times, and someone has to feed everyone. It’s nothing fancy, but I wanted to do something special for you, since we’re not going on our wedding trip right away." He carefully set the tray on her lap so it balanced flat. "Are you sure you don’t want to go yet?"

He was referring to a conversation they had had the day of their engagement. She had stated that she wanted to wait on the trip, since her friends would be "moving on" soon. "I would rather wait a week or so, if you didn’t mind. Where did you want to go?" She had no real clue what he had in mind.

"I thought the usual…England…France…Italy." He poured her a cup of coffee and handed it to her.

"Europe?" She said with a squeal. She wanted nothing more than to hug him, but couldn’t with her hands so full. He smiled at the delight in her eyes.

"I thought you might like that," he said calmly. Lara sobered. Maybe wives didn’t show such joy at the gifts her husbands gave them.

"I would…very much," she whispered, looking down at her coffee. He carefully sat next to her and took the cup and plate from her hands.

"When I came in, you looked so sad. Why?"

She blushed. "You weren’t here and I thought…I thought maybe…I thought maybe it was just last night and then we were back to…to…" she stammered.

Scott sighed. "I’m so sorry, Lara. I started this marriage out on the wrong foot."

He’s regretting last night! Lara thought to herself. She looked down again, and he gently tilted her head up.

"I have a hard time saying I love you…especially after what happened to me before. I hardly know you, I realize, but it’s just…I feel we belong together. I couldn’t bear the idea of you leaving me. I meant when I said we’d be good partners, but I know we can be so much more as well." Lara opened her mouth and closed it again. A tear splashed down her cheek. "Please don’t cry. Are you having second thoughts about this, Lara?"

"No…oh, God, Scott, no. I’m just so happy…my life was so miserable back…where I’m from. I never knew I could be so happy!"

He gave her a big hug. "You will never be miserable again. I promise you that. As long as I live, I will live to make you happy." He kissed her passionately. "Now, eat this wonderful breakfast I made you." He looked so proud that she had to smile.

She kind of avoided the eggs, because she didn’t like them, and concentrated on ham and potatoes. It was surprisingly good, for all the lard and fat they used for cooking in that time. She picked up one of the linen napkins and noticed something else. "What’s this?" She smiled when she looked at it. It was the picture they had sat for after the wedding ceremony. She had forgotten about it. The colors seemed odd to her modern eye, but there they were, Scott and Lara Richardson, husband and wife. He had looked so serious until she started poking him in the side to make him smile. She sighed. "This is so nice. Thank you." She turned up her face so he would kiss her.

"What are we going to do?" Shae paced back and forth. "They looked so happy. I don’t want to hurt either of them."

"Shae…" Ari began.

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

The four friends were sitting on the veranda the morning after the wedding. Shae was pacing in front of the other girls, who were all seated.

"How are we even gonna get her out there?" Amanda wondered.

"Well, Gene says he can get us back to exactly where we were dropped off," Kelley remarked. "We could say we want to have a picnic for old times’ sake."

"But what if she recognizes it?" Ari asked.

"None of us are really sure where we got dropped off, remember? I don’t think she’ll notice. Besides, whenever she looks at Iceboy she forgets everything else," Kelley said.

"Well, the guys are coming over again today," Amanda mused. "We’ll discuss it with them. I think a picnic is a great idea."

"And then, if and when the portal opens, we’ll grab Lara and drag her back with us," Shae decided sadly.

The week seemed to fly by for Lara. She followed Mrs. Smith around like a shadow, trying to take in everything there was to learn about running a large household such as Scott’s. They interviewed and hired more maids, as well as an apprentice cook. She didn’t worry much about the land and fields; they were Scott’s domain. Mrs. Smith was often shocked by Lara’s interest in what she considered menial things.

"But Mrs. Lara, your maid will do that!" The cook protested when Lara insisted on straightening the master bedroom. She finally shooed the well-meaning woman out of the room and flopped down onto the bed. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. The past four days had been so stressful. She had had her friends, their four beaux, and Thomas’ mother over for dinner the night before, and she was paranoid the entire time that something would go wrong. She desperately wanted Scott to be proud of her, and thankfully everything had gone well. No matter what kind of feelings he professed, she wanted to make sure that their "partnership" did not disappoint him. He had gone out of town on business and would be back that evening. She hoped to have the house immaculate and orderly by the time he returned.

She sighed, lying back onto the fluffy pillows. She was so happy that the next day they were going on a simple picnic with their friends. Then she didn’t have to do anything but have a nice time.

"What a sight to come home to," a deep voice said. Her eyes flew open.

"Scott!" She flew off the bed and into his open arms. "I didn’t expect you for hours!" She pulled back looking down at herself in dismay. "I look a wreck, the house isn’t completely cleaned yet, I don’t have the new curtains hung in the hall, there isn’t…"

He silenced her with a passionate kiss. "I didn’t come home early to see the new curtains. I came home to see you." He kicked the door shut with his foot, and then swept her into his arms, carrying her to the bed.

Thomas and Amanda walked through the orchard hand and hand. It had become their special place. He pulled her close, brushing back some stray strands of hair. "You really have to leave tomorrow, don’t you?" He asked, his blue eyes miserable. She slowly nodded.

"I’m afraid so. I think it’s best that we try to go as soon as possible." She sighed. If Lara’s feelings for Scott were half as strong as hers for Thomas, she was going to be absolutely miserable when they took her back.

"I can’t convince you to stay?"

She smiled, shaking her head. It was the twentieth time in the last hour that he had asked that question.

"You know, I think Jacqueline is beginning to think I’m becoming a partner in your business," Shae teased as she lay in Howard’s arms. They were in his room, having just made love. "All I do is come out here to see your store!"

"I’d love to have you as a partner," he told her. "You’re smart, and of course you have such innovative ideas. Too bad women aren’t partners in businesses."

"Too bad I’m leaving tomorrow anyway," she reminded him gently. He squeezed her tight.

"And there’s nothing I can do to change that?" He asked sadly. Shae said nothing, just snuggled closer.

"Maybe I could come back with you," Gene suggested to Kelley as they sat talking on the Littrell’s veranda. They kept their voices down, not wanting anyone to overhear. "There’s nothing for me here, and I’d rather not see this war you say is coming along soon."

"That wouldn’t be right, Gene," Kelley told him, smiling. "Your family is here, and they’ll need you more than ever when the war comes."

His sky blue eyes looked at her unhappily. "Don’t go, Kelley."

Ari was sitting on the swing in back of the house when Alex McLean arrived at the Littrell house. She heard his footsteps, but didn’t look at him.

"I’m sorry I’m so late. My errands took longer than expected," he apologized. She said nothing. He went behind her and started to gently push her. "So…ready to go?" She still didn’t respond. He stopped the swing and walked around to face her. He went down on his knees so she had to look at him. "Ari?"

"I don’t want to go!" She blurted out, tears streaming down her face. He stood, pulling her up with him.

"Shhh…sweetheart, don’t cry." He stroked her hair, holding her tight. "I don’t want you to go, either. But it’s the right thing to do."

"I hate the right thing!" She said savagely, making him smile. He pulled back and kissed her nose, his dark eyes searching her face.

"Try to smile for me, okay? I don’t want this last day to be so miserable." Ari smiled, but only with her mouth. Her eyes were filled with misery.

Lara moped around Blossom Manor the next morning, unable to sit still. They wouldn’t be leaving for the Littrell’s for another two hours, and she was incredibly restless. She hovered around the kitchen until Mrs. Smith politely asked her to leave. She went to the library, but none of the books appealed to her.

She went upstairs and meandered through the guestrooms. She had ideas about decorating them but hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. She went back downstairs and got a piece of paper and an old pencil out of Scott’s desk, and began to jot down notes as she walked from room to room. Most of the rooms would be easy to change, but the smallest room was a problem. It was a sweet room, perfect for a nursery, but the wallpaper was just all wrong. It was a weird yellow color. Most of the house was done in dark wintry colors, like navy and purple and emerald green. This surprised Lara, since she knew that many people of this time preferred whites and pastels, but she was finding that Scott never ceased to amaze her.

She looked closely at the wall by the window, wondering what she could do to cover this paper without having to take it all off first. Glancing at the space where the old curtains were tied back, something caught her eye. She peered at the spot where the screw for the tieback was nailed into the wall. There was another color there, where some of the ugly paper was missing. She slowly peeled it back to reveal white paper with blue forget-me-nots running all over it. She squealed quietly and tore a huge section of the top paper off. "How pretty!" She exclaimed, wondering why in the world someone would have covered it. She ran back to the master bedroom and found a ribbon to tie her hair back, and then she removed her engagement ring and set it on the dressing table. She had a feeling her work was cut out for her, and she wanted nothing to happen to the heirloom ring.

She had half of the room torn apart before Scott came back from riding the fields with his foreman. "Lara!" He yelled.

"In here!" She shouted, realizing that she was covered with bits of paper, and that the room was a nightmare.

"Are you ready to…what the hell is this?" He demanded, his green eyes growing stormy.

"I was looking in here, deciding what we should do with this room, and I found this gorgeous paper underneath! Isn’t it pretty!" She said, smiling. Her smile faded when he continued to glare at her.

"I TOLD you not to touch this room!" He growled. Her mouth fell open.

"N-no, Scott, you never did. No one told me anything about any of the rooms. You told me to do what I liked."

"Not this room!" He barked. "Mrs. Smith should have told you then. This was to have been my mother’s room. Forget-me-nots were her favorite flower. She…passed away before I could finish the house."

"I’m sorry," she whispered. "I didn’t know."

"Well, now you DO know." His eyes raked her body. "You’re a mess, and we’re leaving shortly. Go clean up while I try to do something in here."

Lara stood up and walked towards him. "Scott, I’m sorry…I…I…"

He turned away from her, and she rushed out of the room, holding back her sobs.

The ride to the Littrell’s seemed like an eternity for Lara, because of her husband’s stony silence. She had tried to apologize, but he had curtly told her to let it lie. His hand barely touched hers as he helped her down from the carriage.

Kelley was shocked at the paleness of her friend’s face, and she hurried over. "I feel as if I haven’t seen you in ages!" Kelley announced. "Let’s all talk while the men get the horses ready." She put an arm around Lara and led her over to the other girls on a corner of the veranda. Howard, Gene, Thomas, and Alex took one look at Scott’s stormy face and decided to go prepare the horses while Scott went in to speak to his aunt.

"What happened?" Shae demanded.

"I took down wallpaper in one of the bedrooms, and found paper underneath that was much prettier. It ends up I wasn’t supposed to touch that room because it was supposed to have been his mother’s but she died before he finished it," Lara explained quickly, trying not to cry. "And now he hates me."

"He doesn’t hate you," Ari said soothingly.

"He hates me. He hasn’t said three words to me in the past forty-five minutes,’ Lara told her.

"Well, to hell with him, then," Amanda told her. "We’ll just ignore him, have a great time with everyone else, and he’ll finally come around. You’ll see," she said confidently. Lara smiled wanly.

"You guys are the best. I’m really going to miss you."

Lara, Kelley, and Gene galloped ahead of the others. Lara had been taking riding lessons as a surprise to Scott, but he said nothing about it. Lara sighed.

"He’ll be fine in a few hours," Gene assured her. Kelley had informed him of the situation. "He’s such a baby sometimes."

Lara had to smile at the youngest of the men calling the oldest a baby. She sighed, trying to forget the cold look in Scott’s green eyes. "It’s such a pretty day today. You picked a wonderful place to ride."

Kelley and Gene exchanged glances, but said nothing. They dismounted after a few more minutes, and the woman unpacked the large basket that had been carried on an extra packmule. They sat in a small group, everyone chattering all at once. Scott sat as far as he could from Lara, choosing to sit next to his cousin. She ignored him and made a point of smiling and laughing as much as possible as she talked to Gene and Alex. Ari and Kelley felt a smidgen of jealousy, but realized that their friend was just trying to keep her spirits up. When Lara stood to shake the crumbs from he skirts, Scott came over and grabbed her arm, almost pulling her a few feet from the group.

"What do you think you’re doing, flirting like that?" He asked angrily. "You’re my wife!"

"Oh, so you remember that now?" She said, her blue eyes flashing fire. "It seemed to me that maybe you had forgotten! I made an innocent mistake, and you acted like I broke the Ten Commandments or something! I was tired of getting the silent treatment, so I began talking to someone who would actually talk back!"

"Well, you…" Scott stopped in mid-sentence, his mouth falling open.

"What?" Lara snapped. He continued to look over her shoulder, and she finally turned around. "Oh my God…" she whispered.

A three-foot space of air a few yards behind the blanket seemed to quiver and wave, and a large dark hole suddenly appeared. Lara looked from one friend to another.

"We have to go," Kelley said finally.

"Be careful," Lara whispered, going over to hug her friend.

Kelley grabbed one arm as Shae grabbed another. "You’re coming with us."

"No…NO!" Lara shrieked, fighting to get away. Ari and Amanda quickly hugged Alex and Thomas. "Let me GO!"

"What is that? What’s going on?" Scott looked wildly from person to person, then centered on Lara. "Where are you going?"

"SCOTT! Don’t let them take me!" Lara screamed as Kelley and Shae dragged her, kicking and screaming, towards the portal. Her hands reached out for Scott, but before he could touch her, the four girls stepped into the dark opening, taking Lara with them.

Ari sat up with a yell, her eyes wide open. She gasped for breath. Kayla came running over.

"Oh my God! You’re back!" Kayla shouted. Ari continued to try to catch her breath. Kelley, Shae, and Amanda soon followed in a similar fashion. Only Lara remained as if she were sleeping. "Oh, thank God!" Kayla yelled. "Thank God."

"How long have we been gone?" Amanda rasped.

"You never really went. Your physical bodies remained here, as if you were just in a coma. You’ve been out for ten hours."

"Creepy," Kelley remarked, looking down at herself. She was wearing the same clothing she had worn when she arrived at the lab.

"Ten HOURS?" Ari asked in amazement.

"Yes…why…how long were you there?" Kayla asked, still not noticing that Lara hadn’t sat up with the others.

"About a week or so," Shae told her, looking to the others for agreement. She gasped, yanking off wires and hopping down from the table. She hurried over to Lara. "She’s not up! Why the hell isn’t she up?" She yelled at Kayla.

"I don’t know…didn’t she come back with the rest of you?" Kayla ran to the computer.

"What the fuck do you mean, you don’t know!" Amanda screeched. The girls surrounded Lara’s cot.

"This is the first time this has been successful," Kayla told them.

"She came back with us, but not because she wanted to," Kelley said faintly. Kayla stared at her. "She found someone and got married…we made her come back."

"To keep the present the way it was when we left," Ari added.

"Married?" Kayla said, shocked. She came down and looked at Lara, checking her vitals. "Physically she’s fine."

"She probably doesn’t WANT to come back," Shae realized. She lightly shook Lara’s shoulders. "Lara, wake up…wake UP, dammit!"

The girls all talked to her, shaking her now and then, until Amanda reached back and slapped her a good one. "OUCH!" Lara yelled, sitting up and rubbing her face. The other girls looked at Amanda.

"That’s what they do in movies…and besides, I owed her one for saying I only wanted to jump into bed with Thomas." Amanda defended herself.

Lara looked around, disappointment filling her eyes. "I thought it was a dream…that we didn’t come back." She glared at the girls. "That you didn’t MAKE me come back." She ripped off the wires and jumped down from the cot. "You know where to send the check," she told Kayla.

"Wait! We need to do tests to make sure…" Kayla began.

"Fuck your tests. I’m out of here. I don’t want to see ANY of you ever again!" Lara ran down the hall to where her bag and things were sitting. As she picked up her bag, she looked down at her left hand. With all her might she wished the ring was on her finger, but it wasn’t. She ran out of the building.

Lara went back to her practically empty apartment and spent the next two days doing absolutely nothing but staring into space. The phone rang repeatedly, but she ignored it. Her ex had taken the answering machine, so she had no way of knowing who called. In all actuality, she didn’t care. All she cared about was Scott…and the fact that she would never see him again.

On the morning of the third day, she was jolted out of her reverie by a constant banging on her door. She pulled herself off the mattress she called a bed and padded on bare feet to the door. She looked out the peephole and sighed. She opened the door about an inch.

"What do you want?"

"It’s about fucking time!" Kelley said angrily.

"We’ve been calling for days," Amanda added.

"Are you gonna let us in or what?" Ari asked.

"Whatever," Lara mumbled, walking away from the door. The four girls looked at each other, then walked into the apartment.

"Daymn…you weren’t lying when you said he took everything," Shae said, looking around the bleak apartment.

"I’d ask you to sit, but as you can see, I don’t have any furniture," Lara said, waving her hand around the apartment. She continued back to the bedroom, and the girls followed her, plopping down on the floor when she sat back down on the mattress.

"We brought you your check," Kelley said finally, handing an envelope to Lara. She took it without looking at it.

"We got extra because it was such a success…almost two thousand dollars," Shae told her, trying to get a response out of her. Lara said nothing.

"Will you snap the hell out of it?" Ari finally said, exasperated. "We all left someone behind!"

"Not a husband." Lara finally turned her blue eyes onto Ari. "And you weren’t DRAGGED back against your will."

"We had to!" Amanda insisted.

"Whatever. Thanks for bringing the check," Lara said, obviously dismissing them.

"We’re not leaving here without you," Shae said. "We came to take you out for brunch."

"I’m not hungry."

"Have you done ANYTHING but sit on this mattress since you’re back?" Ari asked. Lara didn’t reply. "Guess not. Well, now you’re going to get your funky-smelling ass into the shower, get cleaned up, and go out with us! You’re not gonna waste away feeling sorry for yourself!"

Lara stared at the younger girl, and felt a smile begin to cross her face, against her will. "Are you always this bitchy?"

"Oh, hell, yes! I have had to behave all the time you’ve known me. Now you get to hang out with the REAL Ari," Ari said cheerfully, and Lara finally laughed.

A few hours later, Lara looked like her real self in a Penn State sweatshirt and jeans. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she almost looked human. Amanda linked arms with her as they walked to a nearby café.

"I have a great surprise for everyone," Shae announced as they were seated at a table by the window.

"I hate surprises…tell me now!" Kelley demanded.

"Patience is a virtue," Shae reminded her.

"I’m far from virtuous. Tell me!" Kelley shrieked in a whisper. Shae said nothing, but dug into her purse and pulled out an envelope. Amanda grabbed it before Kelley could touch it. She began to shriek as she opened it.

"What? What is it?" Ari asked.

"BACKSTREET BOYS tickets!" Amanda yelled, bouncing up and down in her chair.

"How’d you do it?" Kelley asked in shock. "This concert’s been sold out for months!"

"Well, I have a friend who knows someone who has a friend who had to get rid of five tickets…and I just HAPPENED to have some extra money," Shae gloated. Ari grabbed the tickets from Amanda, unable to believe their luck.

"But what about your bills?" Lara asked slowly.

"Screw my bills. They’ll still be there after the concert," Shae said cheerfully. "I thought we needed something to celebrate."

"So you better cheer the hell up and get some energy," Kelley told Lara. "In four days, we’re seeing the Backstreet Boys!"

Lara made it through the rest of that day and the next, but only because her friends continued to hound her and occupy her mind. She finally kicked Amanda out of her apartment, begging for some peace and quiet.

Lara stood in the middle of the living room, looking at the emptiness that surrounded her. Two thousand dollars wasn’t all that much when it came to home furnishings, but she enjoyed shopping at thrift and antique stores, and knew she could find some bargains. She pulled on jeans and an old sweatshirt and headed out the door.

She went in and out of a few stores, picking up an old dining room table, a beat up sofa, and a sweet little coffee table. She made arrangements to have them delivered, and continued on in search of the perfect bed. She still had a little over a thousand dollars left, and figured she could find something livable until she got back on her feet.

She went into a newer store that she had never seen before. She wandered through, looking at the knickknacks and collectibles before going to the furniture section. She paused by a jewelry case, glancing through it, and she suddenly had to grip onto the counter to keep from falling.

"Can I help you with something?" The woman behind the counter walked over.

"Y-yes…can I…can I see that ring there? On the end?" Lara stammered.

"Of course!" The woman got it out and handed it to Lara. "We just got a whole bunch of antique jewelry in yesterday. I think this dates back to the Civil War."

"Pre-Civil War, actually," Lara murmured, turning the ring over in her hands. With baited breath, she looked at the inside. True love is timeless. She swallowed deeply, closed her eyes, and then opened them again. The ring was still in her hands, and it still had the same inscription. "How…how much is it?"

"I hadn’t really thought about it much." She looked at Lara suspiciously. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine. How much is this ring?"

"Fifteen hundred." Lara’s heart sank and she looked down at the ring in dismay. "But since you seem to have such an attachment to it, I’ll give it to you for a grand."

Lara decided that she could continue to sleep on a mattress. "I’ll take it."

"Train, you HATE shopping!" AJ grumbled as he and Kevin walked down through the antique area of the town. He pulled his hat down closer to his eyes, trying to remain anonymous. "And what fun is it shopping in an ANTIQUE store?"

"AJ…I didn’t tell you everything." Kevin Richardson turned and looked at his friend. AJ McLean stopped walking. "My house was broken into a few weeks back. A bunch of family heirloom jewelry was stolen. Police traced it here…to this town."

"Well…what an irony that we’re playing near here this weekend," AJ remarked. "That still doesn’t explain…"

"The detectives told me that most people would pawn something like this, since it wouldn’t be easy to resell." Kevin stopped at the first store on the street. "Let’s start here."

"Yes, sir, a man sold me that ring," the clerk said to Kevin at the sixth store they tried.

"REALLY?" Kevin gasped. "Where is it? I’ll give you whatever you want!"

"Well, I sold it…not twenty-five minutes ago."

"You sold it?" AJ said in dismay.

"Yes…but you’re in luck." The woman pulled out a ledger from under the counter. "Since the bill was a thousand dollars, I had her fill out a receipt." Before she showed them the paper, she looked up at them. "What’s this all about, anyway?"

"Someone stole some valuable jewelry from my home in Florida, and the police traced it here," Kevin told her.

"Now that I think about it, the guy that sold me the stuff DID look kinda seedy," the woman told them, writing down a name and address. "Here you are."

"Thank you!" Kevin rushed out of the store. AJ smiled at the woman gratefully before he followed his friend.

Lara waited until she was about five blocks away before taking her hand out of her pocket and unclenching her fist. There it was…Scott’s ring…HER ring. She wondered if she would still have had it if she hadn’t taken it off in the master bedroom. Would it have come back with her? She shook her head. That didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the fact that she had the ring. It was hers. With shaking hands she started to place it on her left hand. Perfect fit. She held her hand out at arm’s length, up at head level. The sun sparkled off of the small diamond, and she sighed. She was shocked when a long arm reached from behind her and grabbed her wrist.

"Train! What the hell ya doin’, bro?" A raspy voice said. Lara struggled against the arm that held her.

"Let me go, you asshole!" She screamed. "What the hell’s your problem?"

"That’s MY ring!" A deep voice behind her said. She whirled around.

"I think it’s MINE, thank you, and I don’t…" she froze as a pair of green eyes stared down at her in shock, and then rolled back into the man’s head as he fainted.

AJ barely caught Kevin before he hit the ground, struggling with the taller man’s weight. The girl sprang into action, helping AJ lower Kev to the ground, settling his head on her lap. "I have a bit more to cushion him," she explained, looking from AJ’s scrawny legs to her own.

AJ knelt beside Kevin, lightly slapping his cheeks. "Train! Yo, Kev…Kev…wake the hell up!"

"His name is Kevin?" The girl asked. AJ nodded, glancing up at her quickly. "Kevin, Kevin, wake up. I need to know why you grabbed me. Kevvvvvin," she said in a sing-song voice. She stroked his cheek gently, staring down at him. A pair of emerald eyes fluttered open to look at her.

"It’s you," he said in a dazed voice. He tried to sit up, but AJ pushed him down.

"Take it easy, bro. You never faint. Just relax for a sec."

"But it’s her! It’s you!" Kevin protested, sitting up anyway. He stared at the girl.

"Who?" The girl and AJ asked at the same time.

"The…never mind," Kevin grumbled. He grabbed the girl’s left hand. "I need this ring back."

"NO way!" She exclaimed. "It’s mine!"

"No, it’s MINE. It was stolen from MY house!" Kevin told her.

"But he gave it to me!" She said before she thought.

Kevin stood up with AJ’s help. "Who?" He asked.

"S-someone I cared about very much," she said softly, looking down at her hand. "Someone I loved and had to leave."

Kevin shook his head as if to clear away a fog. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Totally crazy. Impossible."

"Uh…Kev? Do you mind telling me what’s going on? Like sometime BEFORE the concert tomorrow?"

"Concert?" The girl’s face went pale. "Oh my God…you’re AJ McLean! And Kevin…Richardson," she finished in a whisper.

"That’s right." AJ flashed his million-dollar smile. "And you are?"

"Lara," she said simply.

"Look, Lara, I have something weird to show you. Would you mind coming back to my hotel room with me?" Kevin asked suddenly. Lara stared at him, as did AJ.

"Excuse me?" She replied.

"It will be totally innocent, I swear. I have something to show you…something that will explain why I grabbed you."

"Believe me, it WILL be innocent," AJ told her. "Kevin’s bedroom is quieter than a morgue."

Kevin gave him a dirty look, then turned to Lara. "Please?"

"Fine," she sighed. "This can’t get any weirder."

Kevin and AJ pulled their hats down over their faces, and AJ grabbed Lara’s hand as they neared the hotel. "This could get rough," he explained. They jumped over a low brick wall and headed for the employee entrance in the back.

"Don’t you normally travel with bodyguards?" Lara asked.

"Mr. Man-on-a-Mission here didn’t feel we’d need them," AJ said as they snuck in the back door quickly.

They went up to the floor that had been reserved for the Backstreet Boys. "So, where are the others?" Lara asked.

"Sleeping or resting," Kevin said simply, unlocking his door. He went right for his suitcase. "The police advised me to bring along any proof possible to help find the jewelry that was stolen from my house." He held out a picture, carefully covering the people in it. "Look at the woman’s hand."

"That’s the ring, all right," AJ agreed as he and Lara studied the faded photograph. Kevin slowly moved his hand, watching Lara’s face the whole time. She turned a pasty white when she looked at the couple in the picture. AJ’s mouth dropped open. "Holy shit…that’s you, Lara. Or it looks just like you." Lara took the picture and stared at it, memorizing every bit of Scott Richardson’s face. Her finger gently traced his smiling face. "When did you two meet?" AJ looked from Kevin to Lara.

"We didn’t," Kevin said. "That’s…"

"Scott Richardson," Lara finished for him. It was Kevin’s turn to gape.

"My great-great-grandfather," he said softly. "How did you know that? And who’s the girl in the picture?"

Lara couldn’t reply. "Don’t you know?" AJ asked. "It’s YOUR ancestor."

"No one knows. The picture was passed down with the ring. All we know is that this ISN’T my great-great-grandmother. No one knows who she is."

"I guess he got over me," Lara said sadly, as if she were alone in the room. She sat limply on a chair, her eyes never leaving Scott’s face. "I’m so sorry," she whispered to the man in the picture.

"Who ARE you?" AJ asked.

"I’m the girl in the picture."

"What do you mean, you’re the girl in the picture?" Kevin asked in exasperation. "That picture is over a hundred years old! There’s no way you’re her."

She looked up into the green eyes that were so like his ancestor’s. "I can explain everything!" Lara insisted. "But I need to call some reinforcements. Do you mind?"

"No…whatever…fine…" he mumbled, going into the bathroom and slamming the door.

"I think we need some reinforcements of our own. I’ll be right back," AJ told her, going out the door.

Lara sighed and picked up the phone, dialing quickly. "Hello? Shae? Can you get a hold of the other girls? I mean…like NOW?"

Lara paced back and forth in the lobby of the hotel. About twenty minutes later, Amanda, Shae, Ari, and Kelley came running through the front door.

"What? What is it?" Amanda asked, out of breath from running. "Shae made it sound like you were suicidal or something!"

"Well, you DID sound a bit weird," Shae said, defending herself.

"I’ll tell you in the elevator," Lara said over her shoulder as she walked to the elevator area.

"Um…what the hell are you doing HERE?" Kelley asked, looking around at the opulent hotel.

"Kevin and AJ brought me here," Lara replied absentmindedly, punching the elevator button.

"Kevin and AJ WHO?" Ari shrieked.

"Keep your voice down!" Lara snapped. They stepped into the elevator. "I was shopping, found my wedding ring, Kevin tried to grab it, then he passed out, then he and AJ brought me back here, then he showed me the wedding picture of me and Scott," she babbled.

"WHAT?" The girls screeched. Lara took a deep breath and started over again, finishing as the elevator door opened.

"Whoa…hold on…" Shae grabbed Lara and held her back as the girls stood in the corridor. "You’re telling me that you ran into Kevin Richardson and AJ McLean out on the street, and that Kevin tried to take the ring from you. When he saw your face, he recognized you from the picture of his great-great-grandfather, and passed out."

"Right," Lara replied.

"And you called us why?" Kelley asked.

"Who gives a shit why she called us? The Backstreet Boys are on this floor!" Ari shrieked in a whisper.

Lara ignored her. "I need you guys to back me up. They would never believe me." She turned to Shae. "Did you bring that paperwork?"

"Yep. A copy of the waiver we signed, as well as a copy of the page in the newspaper advertising the need for guinea pigs. I downloaded that off the ‘Net."

"Good." Lara took a deep breath. "Let’s go."

"Wait a minute." Brian Littrell shook his head. "You’re telling me that she’s the one in the picture? The one with our great-great-grandfather?"

"I swear to God, B, she looks just like her," Kevin told his cousin. AJ nodded in agreement.

"And she had the ring. She said "he" gave it to her," AJ added.

"This is WAY too weird," Howie Dorough said, shaking his head as well.

"I think it’s cool," Nick Carter added. "Like a sci-fi movie or something."

"Shut up, Nick," the usually cool Brian snapped. "This is serious."

A knock at the door made them all jump. AJ answered it. "Hey, Lara," he said, moving to let Lara and her friends in. "You know Kev, and I’m sure you recognize Brian, Howie, and Nick."

"Hi," Lara said shyly. "These are my friends, Kelley Leffler, Shae Ake, Amanda Brooks, and Ariana Holliday." The girls mumbled hellos, sitting down on various pieces of furniture.

Kevin leaned against a wall, eyeing Lara coldly. "Explain." The girls stared at him.

"God, he even SOUNDS like him," Amanda mumbled. "Must be genetic."

"We participated in an experiment recently," Lara began. Shae handed Kevin the papers she carried. "We didn’t know what it would be, but only that we’d get paid for it." She swallowed deeply.

"It ended up that it was a time travel experiment. We were supposed to observe a certain place in time, and then return to where we had been dropped off," Kelley added, seeing the paleness of Lara’s face.

"Unfortunately, the dork scientists dropped us off in the middle of a meadow somewhere in the South, before the Civil War," Amanda went on. "Five men on horseback kinda rescued us, and one of them, Thomas Littrell, welcomed us into his home." She blushed as she glanced at Brian.

"We were there about a week or so," Lara continued bravely. "We spent a lot of time with Thomas Littrell and his three friends, as well as his cousin, Scott Richardson." She stared at Kevin with unwavering blue eyes, daring him not to believe her. "Scott needed someone to help him run his new home, Blossom Manor, and asked me to marry him. Somewhere along the way, during those few short days I had with him, we fell in love. He gave me this ring." She held up her finger. "The inscription reads True Love is Timeless. It was his grandmother’s. The dress in the picture was his mother’s."

Kevin tapped the picture on his leg. "No mention has ever been made of this woman in any family letter or family Bible or anything. I don’t think HE even mentioned her again."

"That was taken on our wedding day. A few days later, the rest of the girls wanted to return…and they brought me with them. Against my will, I might add," Lara replied, glaring at her friends.

"We didn’t want to take the chance of changing the future," Ari said. Lara looked at Kevin with pleading eyes.

"I swear to you, we’re telling the truth. What reason would we have to lie? We won’t get anything out of it except you thinking we’re crazy."

"What do you want out of this?" Howie asked suddenly.

"All I want is this ring," Lara said slowly. "I have a pretty miserable life in the present, and this is all I have to remind me of the happiness I had in the past."

"Keep it," Kevin snapped. "And take this, too." He flung the picture at her, glaring at her with stony eyes. "And I’d appreciate it if you’d leave now."

The girls stared at him, and Lara’s eyes filled with tears. The look on his face was the exact look that had been on Scott’s face when he was scolding her for tearing down the wallpaper in his mother’s room.

"Come on," AJ said gently, touching her shoulder. "We’ll walk you out. See you at practice, Kev."

The rest of the Backstreet Boys went out into the hall with the girls. "I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d like to hear more about this," Nick said. He smiled at Kelley. "Do you guys have time to stay around and talk?"

The girls looked at each other. "Sure," Ari said finally. Nick led them down to the room he was sharing with Brian. The group flopped onto various chairs and sofas in the living room of the suite.

Everyone looked at each other in an uncomfortable silence. "You have to excuse Kevin," Brian said finally. "He doesn’t like things he can’t understand."

"That and he likes having his way all the time," Nick pointed out. "He’s such a baby sometimes."

"You really went back there?" AJ asked Ari. She nodded.

"Unbelievable," Howie remarked. Shae glared at him.

"Look…if you brought us here to make fun of us, we’ll leave!"

"No!" He was quick to say. "I believe you…I think we all do."

"Except Scott…I mean, Kevin," Lara said softly. Brian came to sit beside her.

"You really saw him? My great-great-grandfather Scott Richardson?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes, I did. I saw him. I married him. I…I loved him."

"What was he like?" Brian asked.

"A pain in the ass," Ari volunteered. The girls glared at her. "Well, he was! Rude and inconsiderate at the beginning, with a total attitude."

"Sounds familiar," Nick commented, earning smiles from the other Backstreet Boys.

"At the beginning, he had this real standoffish attitude…like he was afraid to open up to anyone," Lara remembered slowly. "I think Jacqueline said his heart had been broken."

"Jacqueline?" AJ asked.

"Thomas’ mother," Ari told him.

"B-Rok’s great-great-great-grandmother," Howie figured slowly. "Wow."

"Anyway, he was the biggest Iceboy, until our friend here thawed him out," Kelley said slyly.

"I did no such thing," Lara protested. "He needed someone to help him run the household, so he proposed to me."

"You forgot the part where every time they looked at each other, the polar icecaps melted about a foot," Amanda pointed out. Everyone laughed.

"Okay, maybe he opened up to me a LITTLE," Lara allowed. "But right before I left, we had a fight. That’s the worst part," she said sadly. "We didn’t have a chance to make up."

"I’m sorry about the way Kev treated you," Brian told her. "I think the issue is that someone else besides a family member is explaining the mystery, and it bothers him. I promise you, he’s really a great guy!"

"Sure he is," Lara said, but she smiled at him. Nick looked at the clock on the microwave and groaned.

"Guys, we gotta get to the stadium for the sound check."

"I hate sound checks," Howie muttered. Brian smiled at Lara and her friends.

"Would you guys like to get together later? We really didn’t get to ask you all the questions we have."

"What time will you be done?" Amanda spoke for everyone.

"I think maybe by eight or so. We could catch a late dinner."

"Will…will…he…be there?" Lara asked timidly.

"Well, we won’t lie as to where we’re going, but would you mind if he DID decide to come along?" Brian asked her.

"No, I guess not," she said bravely.

"Cool. Is there somewhere we can meet you? Somewhere out of the way where we won’t get mobbed?" Nick asked.

"Um…there’s this sweet little Italian place about three blocks from the stadium," Kelley realized. "It’s like a pizza and spaghetti place, and it’s mostly deserted."

"Perfect," Nick replied, smiling into her eyes.

Shae wrote down the address of the restaurant, and they left the guys to get ready for their rehearsal.

"I don’t believe this," Amanda said in awe. "I just sat right next to Brian Littrell. We’re eating dinner with Brian Littrell!"

"And his friends," Ari reminded her. "Like AJ," she sighed. Kelley rolled her eyes. Shae shoved her.

"Oh, puhleeze. Like those puppy dog eyes of Howie’s don’t make your toes curl every time he looks at you." Kelley blushed slightly.

"I guess I’ll just stay home," Lara suggested. Amanda smacked her.

"The hell you will! Brian is dying to ask you about his relatives, and I need something to distract him while I drool over him."

"Okay, okay," Lara sighed.

"Kev, don’t you even wanna hear what they have to say?" AJ asked as they were hooked onto the snowboards they rode over the crowd at the beginning of the show.

"No. I could care less."

"Kev, why don’t you come down off your fucking high horse for about ten minutes?" The usually sweet Howie snapped. The others stared at him. "She’s sincere, okay? She was REALLY there! And you just yelled at her and dismissed her like she was yesterday’s trash. I believe her. I believe in fate. I believe that those four friends of Scott Richardson’s may have been our ancestors! Maybe we were meant to be a group…and they were meant to meet both us AND our great-greats…maybe!" He finished. "So just swallow that damned Richardson pride and come along, okay?"

"Um…okay, D," Kevin said slowly. "If you really want me there…"

"I do," Howie said in exasperation. The crew chief came into the curtained area where they were waiting to be lifted off.

"If you bozos are done yakking, we’d like to start rehearsal."

"Ohhhh no. You are so NOT wearing that!" Shae exclaimed as Ari came out of the bathroom. They were at Ari’s apartment, getting ready for their dinner. "You look like a total prostitute."

"Yeah…and?" Ari whirled around in front of the mirror, checking out her leather mini-skirt and sheer top.

"Ari, I love you, but think about it. That is what AJ sees ALL the time, and he doesn’t pick any of those girls for more than a one night fling," Kelley protested.

"Yeah…and?" Ari began to brush her hair.

"Don’t you want more than that with him?" Lara asked gently. Ari sighed and thought about it a moment.

"Maybe you’re right." She dove back into her closet.

"I think we should just play it cool, dress like we were going out with any other guys that we met for the first time," Lara said. She was wearing semi-tight black jeans and a dark blue silk shirt.

"You mean that we met for the second time," Shae teased. She also was wearing pants and a blouse.

"Is this better, moms?" Ari came out of her closet in a longer skirt and a nicer blouse.

"Perfect," Lara and Shae said together.

"Hey, at least we’re not wearing those long dresses," Amanda pointed out from her seat on the couch.

"And corsets," Kelley moaned.

By the time everyone was ready, it was still only seven-thirty. "Maybe we could just go and hang out there," Ari suggested. "If I have to sit here one more minute, I’ll go crazy!"

"But they probably won’t be there for another hour or so," Shae pointed out.

"So? I’m with Ari. If we go now, I can get a drink or two and relax. My stomach is doing gymnastics," Amanda said.

"I don’t think I want to go," Lara said suddenly. Shae glared at her.

"You’re going!"

"But what if…"

"What if he IS there? He’s a dweeb, Lara, a total Iceboy dweeb!" Kelley added. "You can talk to Nicky with me," she said generously. Lara had to laugh.

"Thanks so much." She grew serious. "But I can’t bear him looking at me like he did earlier."

"Then don’t look at HIM," Amanda said. She stood and pulled Lara with her. "Let’s go."

Kevin stared out the window of the taxi with a stone cold face. "Iceboy totally fits," Nick said suddenly. AJ and Howie nodded.

"WHAT are you talking about?" Kevin asked with an exasperated sigh.

"The girls described Scott as an Iceboy, and I see now that it is genetic," Nick told him.

"Do you believe EVERYTHING those women told you?" Kevin asked. The four other men looked at each other, then nodded. "Crazy," Kevin muttered, shaking his head.

"Why, Kev? Just because you don’t believe in time travel, it’s crazy?" Howie asked, defending Shae and her friends without even realizing it. "How do we know there isn’t such a thing, or that aliens really DIDN’T land at Roswell, or that little green men really don’t live on the moon?"

"You watch too much X-Files, D," Kevin remarked.

"You need to be more open minded," Brian told his cousin. Everyone turned to look at him. "I dunno, Kev, they just sounded so sincere. And like they said, it’s not like they can accomplish anything by telling us. If anything, it makes them sound like they need to be committed."

"Just act like a human being for once, Train…can ya do that?" AJ asked. "I will find it a lot easier to get to know that Ari girl if I don’t have to worry about you acting like an ass."

AJ looked so earnest that Kevin had to laugh. "Okay, Bone, just for you. I promise to be the picture of humanity."

The guys arrived at the restaurant at about 8:35. They looked in the front window before walking in the door. The dining room was almost deserted, and they saw the girls in a large round booth near the back. Kelley said something, and the other four girls burst into laughter, with Ari almost falling out of the booth in her hysteria.

"Do you realize this is like the first "normal" date we’ve had in like forever?" Brian commented.

"It isn’t a date," Kevin replied.

"Sure it isn’t," AJ snapped at him, opening the door.

Ari tried to contain herself, looking towards the front of the restaurant. "It’s them," she whispered, smoothing back her hair.

"Hi, everyone," Howie said, smiling at them all, but looking longest at Shae. "Looks like you guys are having enough fun without us."

"No, Kelley was just being goofy," Shae explained.

"I was not," Kelley said, playfully insulted. The girls stood and allowed the guys to slide into the booth. Kelley and Shae had had a private conversation before hand, and they made sure that Lara was between Kevin and Nick, with Kevin on the end. Lara glared at Shae once they were all seated, knowing that they had planted her there on purpose.

"What’s for dinner?" AJ asked, grabbing a menu. "I am STARVING."

"I don’t get it." Howie shook his head. "You eat like a pig ALL the time, and you weigh about ninety pounds, soaking wet."

"It’s my McLean metabolism," AJ said in a snotty voice, sticking his nose in the air.

"Well, once you hit your thirties, it’s all gonna come back to haunt you," Kevin promised. He frowned at the menu. "I think I’m gonna have a salad."

"You most certainly are not!" Brian snapped. "You are gonna eat pizza and pasta with the rest of us."

"Lighten up, Kev. We can work it off later," Howie said. He looked at Shae and blushed. He had meant in the gym, but when he looked at her he started thinking of all kinds of other ways to work off the food.

"Okay, who wants what on these pizzas?" Howie asked.

"Plain for me," Lara said shyly. "I don’t like all that other crap."

"You are SO boring," Amanda told her. "She is like the world’s PICKIEST eater," she told Brian.

"I am not!" Lara protested. "I like what I like."

"Did you ever see the movie When Harry Met Sally?" Amanda continued, as if Lara had never spoken. "She’s worse."

"Heaven forbid," Brian said, smiling at Lara. She rolled her eyes and sent daggers at Amanda.

They ordered five large pizzas as well as a large helping of spaghetti and meatballs. Three huge loaves of garlic bread came along as well. Lara carefully slid a piece of pizza onto her plate, applauding herself for wearing dark clothing. Whenever she wore white and tried to eat Italian food she always…

"Oh, shit, I am SO sorry!" Nick exclaimed as his elbow hit her arm, causing the pizza to fly onto her shirt and down to her lap.

"It’s okay," she said, her face as red as the tomato sauce as she tried to wipe up the mess.

"Let me help," Nick said, grabbing one of the linen napkins and scrubbing at her legs. Lara looked up to see if anyone had noticed. Kelley, of course, had seen them, but everyone else was too busy talking and eating. Lara stole a glance at Kevin. Kevin’s green eyes were glaring at Nick.

"Nick…enough…I think she can clean herself," Kevin snapped. He handed Lara his napkin. "Use mine."

"Th-thank you," she stammered. She scrubbed some more. "I’d better go to the ladies’ room and try to clean this." She looked at Kevin, her eyes asking him to move. With a sigh, he got up from the table, and she headed for the restroom.

A few minutes after she went in, one of the waitresses came in with a wet towel. "The man sitting next to you asked me to bring you this," she told Lara. "He’s really handsome. I love a man with dark hair."

"I’m so sorry!" Nick apologized as soon as she returned to the table. "I am SUCH a klutz."

"It’s okay, Nick, really." She looked down at Kevin. "I can just sit on the end if you…"

"No, it’s fine," he snapped. Lara drew back slightly, and his tone softened. "I mean, I don’t mind sitting on the end."

They finished their meal with no more major catastrophes. Brian glanced at his watch. "Damn. Eleven already?"

"We should get back to the hotel," Kevin said.

"No way. I want to go dancing. Do you like dancing?" AJ asked Ari. She was willing to say she liked eating fire if he liked it too, but thankfully, she could honestly say she liked dancing.

"That sounds excellent!" Howie added. "You in?" He turned to Shae, who nodded.

"Cool. Let’s plow," Nick said, taking Kelley’s hand and helping her out of the booth.

"Not me," Lara told him. When the others protested, she said, "I have to get up early and go job hunting, if I want to be home in time to get ready for the concert."

"You’ll be at the concert? Great! Where are your seats?" AJ asked. When the girls told him, he groaned. "Those suck. Let us get you better ones."

"Actually, I looked at the plan of the stadium, and they’re not too bad," Kelley told him. "Thanks anyway."

The couples went out the door, chattering loudly about which club to go to. "I’m gonna call it a night," Kevin told Brian. "I’ll see you all at rehearsal tomorrow."

"Okay, cuz, if you really don’t wanna come along," Brian said. "Later."

The couples took off across the street in the general direction of most of the clubs, calling good-byes to Lara and Kevin. She looked up at him nervously. "Well, I’m gonna head on home. Good luck at the concert tomorrow. We’re really looking forward to it." She turned to the left and began walking towards her apartment.

"Wait!" Kevin called. She turned around. "Where are you going? I mean, do you live near here or what?"

"I live about twenty-five blocks that way," she said.

"It’s eleven o’clock. I can’t let you walk all that way. Let me call you a taxi."

"I walk ‘all that way’ all the time," she told him, smiling. "It’s a nice night. I’d rather walk."

"I can’t let you walk it alone. I’ll walk with you, if you don’t mind."

"But, Kevin, your hotel is totally in the other direction!" Lara gasped.

"I’ll call a taxi from your place." He started walking past her. "Let’s go." Lara had no option to follow him. They walked in silence the first few blocks. "How comes you need to go job hunting, if you don’t mind me asking?" Kevin asked.

"Well, I am actually a writer…you know, free-lance stuff for magazines. However, my ex-boyfriend ran out on me recently, taking everything…and I mean EVERYTHING. He helped with the rent and all so I could continue to write. Writing does not pay well enough to keep the apartment and get all the furnishings back, so I need to find a job." Lara couldn’t believe she was telling Kevin all of this.

"Wow. What a prick," Kevin commented. "So that’s why you did this experiment thing? To get extra money?"

She nodded. "That was the only reason. And I never thought in a million years that we would be participating in something that big."

"Is that where the money came from to buy the ring?" Kevin asked softly. She nodded again.

"I was actually going to use it to buy a cheap bed, but when I saw the ring, I knew I could continue to sleep on the floor," she said with a smile.

"Why a cheap bed?"

"You ask a lot of questions," she teased, and he smiled back. "Well, I like antiquing, and I had already gotten some furniture at a few antique places. I was hoping to find a cheap bed so I’d have some money left over. Not my dream bed or anything, just enough to keep my butt off the floor."

"Your dream bed?"

"You know…soft feather pillows and a feather mattress that is so soft you kinda fall in. The headboard and footboard are made of mahogany, and they are so new they shine. There are removable banisters to attach a canopy if you wish, and there are deep drawers underneath the mattresses, to store all the linens in." Lara realized she was describing the bed at Blossom Manor, and she grew grim. "But, of course, that’s just in dreams."

"Of course," Kevin replied, wondering at her sudden sad expression.

"Well, this is my apartment." She stopped in front of a building on the corner. "Thanks so much for walking me home."

"My pleasure," he replied, and she could tell he meant it. "Here." He handed her a laminated card. "Come back and see us after the show. I’m sure the guys will give them to your friends, too."

"Thanks, Kevin, I will," she said in amazement. "Come on up quick while I call a taxi."

"No, it’s a nice night. I’ll stay down here." He sat on her front steps, and she turned and went up to the door. "Lara?"

"Yes?"

"I’m sorry…about today. I was just shocked and confused and amazed and…"

"It’s okay, Kevin. I understand." She smiled down at him, then went into the building.

"I hope there won’t be too many fans here," AJ said to Ari as they approached a club. "I’d hate for us to be interrupted all the time."

Ari and Amanda exchanged a smile. "Believe me…no one will bother you here," Ari told him.

The guys insisted on paying the cover, and they went in the large front door. Kelley, AJ, Howie, and Brian had wristbands slapped on their arms to prove they were over twenty-one, and they moved into the crowd.

"This place is amazing!" Howie yelled over the thumping music. The music was a weird mix of techno, hip-hop, and rap like nothing they had ever heard.

"See? I told you no one will mob you here!" Ari yelled to AJ. "These people probably have no idea who the Backstreet Boys are!"

"That’s the way I like it!" Nick said. He put his arm around Kelley’s waist and guided her out onto the dance floor. AJ grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled her towards the dance floor.

"I don’t know if I can keep up with him!" Ari said to Shae, laughing as she was dragged out behind AJ.

"I’d get you something to drink, but I don’t want to get us into any trouble," Kelley told Nick.

"It’s okay…I understand," he said. "Besides…I don’t want you to leave for that long," he told her. She blushed a furious pink and was saved from replying when a down and dirty groove started to blast over the loudspeakers.

Brian pulled Amanda up against him, with her back against his stomach. He placed his hands on her waist, and began to grind against her. She experienced a moment of shock, then quickly recuperated. She never thought Brian Littrell was the bump-n-grind kind, but he was quickly shooting that idea down.

"So, did you dance with this Howard guy?" Howie asked Shae, pulling her close to him. He put his hands on her backside and she wrapped her arms around him.

"Hardly like this," she teased.

"Good. I don’t like the thought of you dancing like this with anyone but me," he told her. Her mouth fell open and he laughed. "Sorry…I couldn’t resist. I wanted to see what you’d do." He grew serious. "Actually, dancing like this with you was on my mind all night." He began to kiss her neck. "Among other things."

Ari finally gave up on trying to keep up with the wild and crazy AJ. She stood aside as he grooved in his own little world. She didn’t mind, because everyone was watching, and she felt proud to be with him. He suddenly grabbed her and pulled her close. "I’ve been ignoring you, haven’t I?" He growled in a sexy whisper near her ear. She almost whimpered.

"Um…not really…I enjoyed watching you," she whispered back. His hands slid down her backside and back up again.

"Well, I enjoy this more…how about you?" He mumbled against her hair. She could only nod as she pressed her body against his.

They stayed at the club until two, with Howie and Kelley a little worse for wear. "I cannot believe you drank so much," Amanda told Kelley.

"I didn’t drink THAT much!" Kelley sang, leaning on Nick for support. She yawned big and almost fell over.

"Um…okay," Amanda replied.

"Don’t listen to them, Kel! Come here…if you’re tired, I’ll carry you," Howie offered. Kelley ran over and hopped up onto Howie’s back, knocking them both over.

"No…you’d better let me carry her, D," Nick volunteered, scooping Kelley into his arms easily. "Whose apartment is closest?"

"Mine," Ari said as Shae flagged a taxi. Shae, Howie, Ari, and AJ piled into one taxi, and Nick, Kelley, Brian, and Amanda caught a second one.

"Nick, I swear to God, I’ve never seen her like this," Amanda told him as Kelley snuggled close.

"It’s okay…I’ve been a lot worse than this before."

"Yeah…I remember this one time when Nick…" Brian began.

"Shut UP, Frick!" Nick glared at him.

"I’ll tell you another time," Brian promised Amanda.

"We’ll see each other again?" Amanda whispered as Nick tried to keep Kelley from falling asleep. Brian looked at her in astonishment.

"Of course," he said. He handed her four laminated cards. "Starting tomorrow. These are backstage passes. Come back after the show. We’ll go out again or something."

Amanda couldn’t help but smile big as her heart seemed to jump into her ears. Brian suddenly leaned forward and gave her a sweet quick kiss. "What was that for?" It was her turn to be astonished.

"Because I loved the way your face lit up just because you were gonna see me tomorrow." He smiled at her. "That’s how I’m feeling, too."

The group got out of the cabs in front of Ari’s apartment, and AJ told one of them to stay to take the guys back. "Are you gonna be okay with her?" Nick asked Shae, Amanda, and Ari, motioning to Kelley.

"We’ll be fine. She just needs to go to bed," Ari told him. She gave him her key, and he carried Kelley up the steps.

"I’ll be looking for you tomorrow," Brian told Amanda. She rolled her eyes.

"And you think you’re gonna find me in a million screaming people?"

"Ill find you. And if I don’t, I will definitely say hello one way or another." He pulled her to him in a passionate kiss.

"Shae, I think I’m a little little little a lot drunk," Howie told her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I promise you’ll have a better time tomorrow."

"I had a wonderful time anyway," she said truthfully. He aimed a kiss at her mouth, but landed on her cheek, making her laugh.

"Better tomorrow," he repeated, lightly caressing her cheek.

"You gonna dance with me tomorrow night?" AJ asked Ari.

"I’ll try," she said.

"Or maybe we could go somewhere…just the two of us…" he suggested, kissing her neck.

She couldn’t believe what came out of her mouth. "I don’t think so."

He pulled back to look at her. "Excuse me?"

"I mean…not that I don’t WANT to be alone with you, but I don’t want to be another one of your one night stands, either," she stammered bravely.

AJ looked at her for a long moment then smiled his sexy smile. "Good. Me either." He kissed her cheek sweetly, and then helped Brian get Howie into the taxi. Nick came clambering down the steps, and followed his friend into the cab.

Lara slapped her alarm clock at eight the next morning and groaned. She rolled over, cursing her ex as her back yelled in protest at the lumpy mattress. First paycheck she got, she vowed, was going towards a bed. She slowly crawled to her feet and headed for the shower.

"Oh God…turn it off…turn it off!" Kelley groaned, covering her face with a pillow. "Turn that fucking light off!"

"Sorry, Kel, I can’t do that," Ari said, as she, Shae, and Amanda sat and looked at Kelley in amusement. "I am good, but I can’t turn off the sun."

"God…what time is it?" Kelley moaned through her pillow.

"Almost eleven-thirty," Shae said brightly.

"What time did you get up?"

"We all woke up around ten or so," Shae replied. Amanda and Ari nodded. Kelley moaned again.

"How much did I drink?"

"I lost track at about six," Ari offered.

"SIX?" Kelley opened one eye then shut it. "I’m dying."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Howie was as bad as you," Shae told her. "You guys were so funny. And you looked so cute when Nick carried you up here."

"Nick carried me up…NICK? Oh shit, you mean my first date with Nick and I get plastered?" Kelley started to shriek, then grabbed her aching head.

"Um…yeah," Amanda said, trying not to smile.

"Did I do anything really stupid?"

"Well, there was that ONE time when you climbed up on the bar and offered to strip for money," Shae said with a straight face. Kelley’s face was a mask of horror. "Just kidding…you were fine. He took really good care of you on the way home."

"Figures. I was in his arms and I was too drunk to notice." Kelley put the pillow back over her face.

"Well, you can apologize tonight after the concert." Amanda waved the backstage passes. "We have passes."

"Oh, no way!" Kelley sat up slowly and took the passes from Amanda. "Classic." She looked around. "Where’s Lara?"

Ari couldn’t help but smile. "She walked home, remember? With KEVIN."

"Iceboy walked her home?" Kelley said in amazement. "Oh, yeah, now I remember. Wonder how that went?"

"Well, she’s supposed to call us when she’s done with her interviews today. I don’t think it will be too much longer," Amanda remarked.

"Okay." Kelley slowly stood. "I’m gonna get a hot shower. Can someone make coffee?"

"For being the oldest, you sure need a babysitter," Ari said. Kelley smacked her, then wobbled off to the bathroom.

About twenty minutes later, Lara called. The other girls stopped and picked up deli carryout, and then went to her apartment.

"Well?" Amanda asked.

"I got a job," Lara said, pouring some soda.

"Great! When do you start?" Shae opened a bag of Doritos.

"Next week. It’s at the Gazette." Lara wrinkled her nose. "Not exactly People magazine, but it’s a paycheck."

"What will you be doing?" Kelley asked as she wandered towards the bathroom to wash her hands.

"Copy editing, though it sounds a lot better than it is. Basically I get to read what the big shots write, and make sure it looks good, even though I could write better."

"Where did you find that bed? It’s gorgeous!" Kelley slowly made her way back into the room.

"Ha ha…very funny," Lara snapped, a bit insulted. "You have someone take all of YOUR worldly possessions, and see what you can make do with!"

"What the hell was that all about?" Kelley snapped back. "I was commenting on your bed."

"Kel, knock it off!" Lara said angrily. "If this is how you get when you’re hung over, then I don’t want to be around you!"

"Lara, don’t make me say something I’m gonna regret," Kelley said slowly. "Your bed is gorgeous…what’s wrong with me saying that?"

"Let me go see," Shae said, going to the bedroom.

"I don’t see what’s so gorgeous about a mattress on the floor," Lara was saying when Shae returned.

"Lara, that’s no mattress on the floor," Shae said, her eyes wide.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" Lara said, walking to the bedroom. "It’s a mattress on the floor, I got it at Goodwill, and…oh my fucking god."

She stood in the doorway of the bedroom and stared. Taking up ¾ of her bedroom was a gorgeous mahogany bed covered in white sheets and comforters. Four plump pillows sat at the head, and a white canopy fluttered above. Deep drawers with dark handles lined the sides.

"See?" Kelley said as the rest of the girls lined up behind Lara.

"If this is just a mattress, then I’d hate to see your idea of a bed," Amanda remarked.

"This isn’t mine. I mean, I don’t know where it came from," Lara babbled. "Last night, I slept on that mattress." She pointed to the old mattress, which was now standing against the wall.

"You’re serious, aren’t you?" Kelley asked. Lara nodded.

"I’m sorry I said those mean things, Kel…I just…I don’t know…" Lara stammered. Kelley gave her a hug.

"No problem. I’m sorry, too."

"You have never seen this before?" Ari asked.

"Only in my dreams," Lara said softly, then paused. "Holy hell."

"What?" Amanda asked.

"Look! Here’s a note." Shae picked up something off on of the pillows. "I don’t know what he does to make you cry, but I’ll be there to make you smile…I don’t care if he buys you nice things, does his gifts come from the heart…" she read.

"Lyrics," Amanda pointed out.

"Holy hell," Lara repeated, leaning back against the wall. "Kevin. Last night, while we were walking, I told him what had happened, and how I didn’t have anything, and I described my dream bed, the one from Blossom Manor. This is it…this is what I described."

"Iceboy bought you this bed?" Ari said in shock. Lara nodded.

"He’s the only person who knows about this. I mean, you guys never saw the bed I shared with Scott."

"Damn," Shae said in shock.

"Now all you have to do is get him over here to break it in," Amanda decided, flopping onto the soft mattress.

The girls took special care getting ready for the concert that night. Against her better judgement, Lara allowed her friends to loan her clothing and help her dress. She frowned as they waited for a taxi.

"I feel like an idiot," she told Ari for the tenth time. Ari looked at her with a critical eye.

"You look great. Kev is gonna drool."

Lara frowned again as she looked down at herself. She had on a midnight blue slip of a dress that almost looked like a negligee, with a sheer blouse overtop. "I never dress like this."

"You’ve never tried to impress a man who bought you a bed," Kelley pointed out. "Relax."

Lara sighed and said no more as they piled into the taxi. "Everyone has their passes and tickets, right?" Kelley asked.

"Shae has mine," Lara said. "I’m too nervous. I’ve checked it so much I think it’s falling apart." The other girls laughed.

They got out at the stadium and walked to the portal to their seats. The usher checked their tickets. "This way, please," he told them.

"But this is the wrong way!" Amanda protested as he led them up higher. "Our seats are down and over there."

"Sorry, Miss. I have my orders." He led them up to one of the midlevel private boxes. "I was to lead you to these seats here." He opened the door.

"I don’t believe this!" Ari squealed, falling onto one of the plush chairs.

"Are you sure?" Lara asked the usher.

"Yes, ma’am. Have a nice night." He closed the door behind him. Kelley grabbed the note that was taped on the back.

"Sorry, ladies, but I think in this case WE know where the best seats are. Enjoy. Love, Bone, Kaos, Rok, D, and Train."

"They are TOO sweet!" Amanda said, pouring herself a soda at the well-stocked mini-bar. "Sorry, Kel. Only soft drinks here." Kelley stuck out her tongue.

The room was enclosed, but the front windows were actually sliding doors that opened onto a small balcony. They could either sit out on the balcony, or close the doors and have the concert piped in on the intercom system. "This is so cool," Lara said, walking out onto the balcony. They had an excellent view of every part of the stage. The people on the floor might be closer, but they had a very limited viewpoint. She went back in and shut the door, and they pigged out on snacks as the opening act came and went. Finally, the lights went down, and the girls flew out onto the balcony.

"I don’t see them," Ari said as the Darth Vader march from Star Wars was blasted over the sound system.

"Maybe they’re in there somewhere," Kelley said, pointing to the ten people who carried in ten lightpoles.

"I doubt it. I think…LOOK!" Shae shrieked, pointing to the opposite end of the stage. From a curtained area five figures rose off the ground on snowboards, suspended by wires. The five friends joined the other thousands of fans in screaming and jumping up and down. They couldn’t help but laugh at AJ, who was acting as if he was flying down a snowy slope, turning his board this way and that. As he floated parallel to their box, he made a big show of waving and throwing kisses.

"He’s crazy," Amanda said, shaking her head. Ari sighed.

"I know."

The show continued, and the girls never sat down the entire time. When Nick began "All I Have to Give", Lara couldn’t help but think of the bed sitting in her bedroom. Kevin’s face was on the big screens, and he seemed to be looking right at her. Tears filled her eyes as she thought of the sweet thing he had done for her.

"Okay…before we do this next number, we have to say hi to someone," Brian remarked as they got together on the ‘front’ of the stage.

"Ohmygod!" Amanda gasped. "He said they would say hello somehow, but…"

"There’s a group of our friends here tonight, and we want to say how happy we are to have them here," Howie added. Shae blushed furiously.

"Oh, I don’t believe this," Lara moaned. "I hope they don’t do something…" she interrupted herself by bursting into laughter. The guys each held up a sign with a letter on it. Howie’s said ‘S’, Nick’s ‘K’, AJ’s ‘A’, Kevin’s ‘L’, and Brian’s ‘A’. The girls could hear murmuring from the boxes on either side and the seats below.

"Skala? What the hell is that?"

"Is that a new band or something?"

"I bet it’s a girl…I bet she’s a total whore."

The guys threw down their signs and started the next song. The girls had to return to the inside of the box, because they were whooping with laughter.

"I guess we’re whores now," Ari said, wiping away a tear.

"You dressed me like one," Lara pointed out, and that started them all over again.

The girls waited for most of the crowd to clear out before heading towards the "below" stage area. "Maybe we’ll catch them in the shower," Ari guessed as they walked down one of the many winding corridors.

"You have a one track mind," Shae remarked.

"Well, wouldn’t you if it came to AJ McLean?"

"Now that you mention it…he IS kind of sexy…" Shae began. Ari smacked her.

"Hands off. Stick with your little drunk Spanish Eyes," Ari said. Everyone laughed.

"He’s NOT a drunk!" Shae shoved her.

They showed their passes to the guards, and got directions to the dressing rooms. "This place is a maze!" Kelley exclaimed as they turned down one hallway and then another. They stopped at a room with a big star on the door.

"I thought they only did that on TV," Amanda remarked. She knocked.

"Who is it?" An unidentifiable voice yelled.

"Skala!" Amanda yelled back. They heard laughter from inside. The door opened a crack.

"Oh, it IS you. Just wanted to make sure." AJ opened the door, smiling big. Nick and Brian were already dressed. Nick was fussing with his hair. Kevin was in a pair of black pants, still shirtless. It took all Lara had to stop from drooling at the sight of his washboard abs.

"Where’s…" Shae began, then grabbed Amanda’s arm as Howie came out of the shower in only a towel.

"Oh…sorry…be right back." He grabbed his clothes and disappeared back into the bathroom, blushing slightly.

"Okay…I’ve died. I’ve died and this is heaven," Shae murmured so only Amanda could hear.

Kelley went over to Nick. "I’m sorry…about last night. I usually don’t drink like that," she insisted. He smiled his sexy Carter smile.

"It’s okay. As long as you had a good time."

"Unfortunately, I don’t remember much," Kelley admitted.

"Well, we’ll have to have another good time tonight," Nick promised.

Ari nudged Lara in Kevin’s direction. She walked over to where he was buttoning his shirt. He looked her over quickly, then looked away. "Great show," she said shyly.

"Thanks. You look nice," he said briskly. "That color is perfect for you."

"Um…thank you. It’s new," she said. "Um…Kevin…I wanted to thank you. For the bed," she said softly. "I never…it’s just…it’s wonderful. No one has ever done anything like that for me before."

"Well, no one should sleep on the floor," was all he said, walking over to a trunk to dig out a pair of shoes. Lara turned red, tears brimming in her eyes. She gave up. She totally gave up. She had tried everything she could. One minute he was sweet and generous, and the next he was…

"Asshole," AJ murmured close to her ear. "Don’t let him get to you…he’s been shut up inside himself for a while. It will take a little bit for the Iceboy to melt." Lara had to smile at his choice of words.

"Okay…who’s ready for dinner. I’m starving!" Nick announced.

"Hold on…lemme grab my shoes." Howie came hurrying out of the bathroom. He stopped beside Shae. "Shae, I’m really sorry about last night. I…"

"Don’t apologize." Shae put a finger over his mouth, and he flicked his tongue over her fingertip, causing her to whimper softly.

AJ grabbed Ari’s hand. "Let’s roll! I wanna get some food, and then dance with my lady here!"

The group made their way out of the dressing room and down the corridor. "Anybody remember how to get out of here?" Howie asked.

"I can get us upstairs at least…I think…" Kelley said. She and Nick went to the front of the group, followed by AJ and Ari, Howie and Shae, Kevin, Amanda and Brian, and Lara at the rear. Brian and Amanda kept trying to include her in their conversation, but she just wanted to stay at the end. That way, if she started to cry, no one would notice.

"Oh…dammit…" she swore, hearing a clank. Brian turned around.

"What is it?"

"My earring fell off. You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up." The group continued on down the hallway while Lara scrounged around in the dim light. She quickly found the large silver hoop, but couldn’t find the back. She thought she saw something shimmering in the faint light from the emergency light pack on the wall, and went towards it. "A-ha!" She said triumphantly. "Found it."

Someone grabbed her arm. "Looks like I found something, too!"

"Okay…I think around this next bend to the left is the stairwell," Kelley said.

"Are you sure about this?" AJ asked.

"She’s the oldest so she thinks she knows everything," Ari told him. Kelley glared at her.

"Yeah, well, there’s the stairwell so unfuck you then!" Kelley said triumphantly. Nick grabbed her hand and they ran up the stairs. Shae looked around.

"Where’s Lara?"

"She stopped to pick up her earring," Amanda said.

"But she shoulda caught up to us by now," Howie said, a worried look on his face. "These corridors are like a maze. Maybe she got lost."

"I’ll go back and look," Brian said.

Kevin sighed. "No, I’ll go. You guys go to the restaurant. We’ll meet you there."

"Are you sure, Kev?" His cousin asked.

"Positive. I think I have a pretty good idea of where we came from."

"Okay, see you later." Brian and Amanda followed the rest of the group up the steps.

Lara tried to see in the dim light. "Who are you? Please take your hands off me!"

The person drug her over to the emergency light, bringing her face where he could see it. "Well…this is my lucky day, isn’t it? Money AND looks!"

"Look…mister…I don’t know who you think I am, but I sure as hell don’t have any money. Why don’t you just let me catch up to my friends, and we’ll forget all about this." Lara started to lightly struggle, dropping her handbag so she could use both hands.

"Your friends? I know all about your friends. I know about how they sing their little songs, do their little dances, get all those freakin’ teenyboppers screaming and fainting, and then they move onto the next town." Lara’s captor started pulling her down the hall. "I seen you and your friends with ‘em last night at that restaurant. Having a good old time, weren’t ya? You threw enough money around that table to feed a regular person for a month."

"You followed us?" Lara gasped. "Who the hell are you?"

Kevin made his way down the corridors, cursing Lara, earrings, and women in general. Why did God make them so difficult…so confusing? You wanted to stay mad at them, and then they smiled, or tossed their hair, or laughter filled their blue eyes, or…Kevin groaned and shook his head. He had Lara on the brain, and it had to stop. He couldn’t believe he had spent all morning calling around to find that bed. And what scared him was that he KNEW that bed. He had seen it in old family pictures. He was beginning to actually consider the fact that this woman had known his ancestor. He turned a corner and ran smack into someone.

"Sorry!" He said brusquely. He recognized a few of the stagecrew members. "Hey Joe…Don…Mike," he said. "Did you see anyone back here?"

"Nope…we’re the last ones out," Mike said.

"Except for that weirdo John. He’s always lagging behind, whether it be in work or any other time," Joe added.

"John? I don’t know him," Kevin said.

"He’s that new guy…the weird one…with the military haircut and that weird snake tattoo on his forearm," Don told Kevin.

"Oh yeah…right…" Kevin did remember him. He had given all the guys a weird feeling, because he was always watching their every move when he was supposed to be working. "Well, I…" Something sparkling caught his eye. He ran a few feet down the hall and picked it up. It was a small beaded handbag…dark blue. He looked back at the workers. "You say John was still down at the loading dock when you left?"

"Yeah…as far as I know," Mike answered. "You okay, Kevin?"

"No…no I’m not. Do me a favor. Get your asses out of here and find a phone. Call the police, and call management. Find out everything you can about this John guy!" Kevin shouted over his shoulder as he ran back down the corridor.

"Where are you taking me and WHAT the hell do you want with ME? I’m a nobody!" Lara almost shrieked. The man stopped dragging her and clamped a strong hand over her mouth.

"You get any louder than that, and you’re not gonna like me very much," he warned.

"I already don’t like you very much," she said, her voice muffled by his hand. As he began to remove it, she bit his palm, making him yank his hand back. She screeched with all her might, her voice echoing down the empty corridor. His response was to grab a handful of her hair and begin dragging her that way.

"I was all ready to be nice and gentle ‘bout this," he was saying as he pulled her down a side hallway towards a room at the end. "I was just gonna keep ya for a while, maybe even give you some dinner, ‘til those homos gave me what I wanted. But no…you had to go all bitch on me. You brought it on yourself, honey." He opened a door and threw Lara into the room. She hit a metal shelving unit, and hard objects came crashing down around her.

"What do you WANT?" She willed herself not to cry, and slowly got back to her feet.

"Money, honey. What else makes the world go round?" The man sneered. The room was almost pitch dark, and she wished desperately for any kind of light, so she could identify the bastard later. "Your pretty boy friends have millions…and there are others of us who can hardly eat."

"Get a job," she snapped. He said nothing, but she saw a flicker of light. A cigarette lighter. She felt a strong arm grab her wrist and stretch out her arm. She watched in awe as the lighter headed for the flimsy fabric of her sheer cover-up. She yelled and slapped at the flame, finally getting it out before it reached the skin of her arm. She slapped at the man holding her.

"What do you want with me? I’m nobody!" She shrieked.

"Oh, but you have powerful friends, honey. I’m sure one of those little homos would pay to get you back in one piece."

"You’re a bastard!" She yelled. He sighed.

"We’re gonna get to know each other very well before you see anyone else, honey, so you’d better learn to like me."

The last thing Lara remembered was the sight of a python tattoo coming for her head. She hid her head in her hands as the blackness fell.

Kevin heard voices coming from his left. He headed down the corridor to a room at the end. The door was open. He felt around for a light switch on the wall inside the door. He felt nothing, but something hit him in the face. He reached up and pulled on the string that he had walked into. A light bulb flickered to life. He looked down and saw a figure laying amongst a pile of cardboard boxes. He knelt beside Lara, his fingers gently tracing the bruise on her forehead. As he went to brush the hair from her face, he gasped. The hair on the right side of her head had been singed to only two inches long. One sleeve of her dark blue shirt was completely gone, and he could tell by the fabric that it had been burned as well. "Lara…honey…wake up…"

"Kevin?" She murmured, her eyes fluttering open. "Oh…God…Kevin…you HAVE to get out of here!" She yelled. "He wants money. He was gonna use me to get money from you! If he finds you here, he’ll…"

"Excellent!" They heard a voice behind them. Kevin whirled around. "I thought getting one of your little girlfriends would be lucrative. I never imagined having a Backstreet Boy to barter with as well!" The door slammed and they heard it lock.

Nick, Kelley, Howie, and Shae piled into a taxi, with everyone else in another taxi. "Where’s Train?" Nick asked Howie.

"Lara dropped an earring and he went back to help her find it," Howie replied.

"What exactly is going on with them, anyway?" Nick asked. Kelley and Shae exchanged glances.

"Well…let’s just say that your friend Kevin has totally entranced our friend Lara…when he’s not being an asshole, that is."

"Where’s Lara?" AJ asked.

"She dropped an earring, and Kev stayed behind to help her find it," Brian told him.

"Hmmm…wonder what’s up with them?" AJ mused.

"Well, I think the fact that he bought her a bed shows he’s pretty interested," Amanda remarked.

"A bed?" Brian asked.

"What bed?" AJ asked at the same time. Ari described the bed, and Brian’s mouth fell open.

"That’s the same…I’ve SEEN that bed before…in pictures. You mean she described it and he bought it?"

"He bought her a BED?" AJ was still a few steps behind. Ari shoved him.

"Yes, AJ, a bed. You know, that thing you sleep on?"

"A bed…hmmm…doesn’t that conjure up all kinds of possibilities?" AJ said with a smirk.

"I don’t fucking BELIEVE this!" Kevin yelled, pounding on the metal door until his hands hurt. He whirled around and glared at Lara. "You…again…you! You have caused nothing but trouble!"

"Ohhhh, no! Don’t you DARE turn this around on me, you uni-eyebrowed asshole! I didn’t ASK to meet you…I didn’t ASK to meet your great-whatever-grandfather!" Lara unsteadily climbed to her feet. "All I wanted was some money to get back on my feet again. I didn’t plan on getting sent back through time. I didn’t plan on meeting someone handsome and sexy and sweet and falling head over heels in love with him. Even then, I didn’t plan on having mind-blowing sex with him, either! And I most DEFINITELY did NOT plan on meeting you, and having the same feelings for YOU, you fucking monster!"

"MONSTER? I bought you a bed!" Kevin yelled back.

"No one ASKED you to buy that bed for me, mister. And when I get out of here, I plan on marching right home and burning the damn thing!" Lara shouted.

"Hold on…back up. Uni-eyebrow? At least I don’t look like Edward Scissorhands took his beautician’s exam on my head!" Kevin regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Lara looked at him quizzically then reached up to her head. As she felt the ragged strands of her hair on the one side, her bottom lip quivered.

"Oh…God…" she mumbled, her hands shaking as she brought them down to cover her mouth.

"Lara…I’m sorry…I…" Kevin reached a hand out to her.

"Do…not…touch…me…" she hissed, backing into a corner. "Do not talk to me…do not look at me. Is that clear?" She sat on the floor. "I’m going to sit in this corner until that bastard comes back…or until they rescue us."

Kevin sighed and sat on a box.

The rest of their friends were well into their salads when AJ finally said, "Unless they’re back trying out that new bed, shouldn’t they be here by now?"

"What bed?" Nick asked.

Howie looked at his watch. "You’re right. They should definitely have given up on the earring and be in a taxi by now, knowing Kev."

"What bed?" Nick repeated.

Kelley caught the look that Brian, Howie, and AJ shared. "What? What is it? What’s going on?"

"If one of us ends up being held up for one reason or another, we ALWAYS page, so we know everything’s okay," Howie explained. He smiled reassuringly. "I’m sure Kev just forgot."

"Will SOMEONE please tell me what the hell bed you’re talking about?" Nick whined in exasperation.

"Blondie, will you shut up?" Ari snapped. "Kevin bought Lara a bed cuz she didn’t have one, okay? Jeez!"

"I’m sorry, but I don’t see Kevin forgetting any kind of responsibility," Amanda said slowly.

"Maybe we should go back," Shae suggested. She placed a hand on Howie’s shoulder. "Please."

"No problem." He threw some bills down and they hurried out the door.

"I’m sure we’ll get there and it will all be fine, but I would just feel better if…" Ari began. AJ shushed her.

"I understand. We’ll run back there and…" he stopped as they watched three police cars whiz by, sirens wailing. Before they knew it, AJ had run in front of one.

"Bone, what the hell!" Brian yelled. A police officer rolled down his window.

"Young man, this isn’t very funny!" The officer snapped.

"I’m sorry, but where are you going?" AJ asked.

"Back to the Arena. We had a call about…" the officer shone his flashlight on AJ’s face. "Wait a minute…aren’t you?"

"Yes, they are!" Amanda finished for him. "Where are you going?"

"The Arena…we had a call from one of the crew that a Backstreet Boy asked him to call, and asked for a background check on one of the crew members."

"John," Nick said quickly. The cop stared at him.

"You all better go with us," the officer stated, calling into his radio for other cars to stop.

Kevin couldn’t stand sitting still. He began to pace. He began to pace and kick boxes. He began to pace and kick boxes and mumble under his breath.

"Will you shut the hell up?" Lara said finally, her voice totally without emotion. "You’re driving me insane."

"I don’t think you need much help there," Kevin said without thinking. Once again, she climbed to her feet. This time, she got in his face.

"I don’t know what the HELL your problem with me is, Mr. Richardson, but you’d better resolve it REAL quick. The only reason I’m IN this situation is because I associated with you and your little friends. This prick grabbed ME to get money out of you. Now, usually, I guess that would be flattering, but the fact that I hate your guts kinda ruins that little scenario." She took a deep breath and poked him in the chest. "If you even THINK about blaming me, or getting in my face again, I will deck you. Do you hear me?" Kevin looked down at the 5’6" girl in front of him with the bruised face and chopped hair, and he couldn’t help but smile. This only infuriated her more. "DAMMIT, Kevin, don’t patronize me! I…"

Lara was silenced by Kevin’s mouth on hers. She struggled, but only for a moment. Soon, without her permission, her arms wrapped around him, and her fingers ran through his hair. Without her permission, her throat uttered a tiny moan as his hands went down to gently squeeze her backside, pulling her closer to him.

"Well, isn’t this pretty?" The door was thrown open, and once again the person who had locked them in was in the room. This time he held a gun. Lara gasped.

"John, why don’t you just let her go, okay?" Kevin snarled, stepping between Lara and the angry crewmember. "This doesn’t concern her."

"Well, Kevin Richardson, I didn’t know you even knew my name." John reached around Kevin and grabbed Lara.

"I know ALL of the crew," Kevin told him.

"You waste your precious brain cells on lowly pee-ons like us? How flattering." John pulled Lara in front of him, his hand caressing her abdomen through her satin dress. "Miss me, baby?"

"Like I’d miss a hernia," Lara snapped, bringing her foot back to kick him. He stuck the barrel of the gun in her side, and she stopped in mid-kick.

"Missy, you have a lot to learn!" John growled, pulling her closer.

"John, what do you want…money?"

"Among other things, yes. I also want the world to know how much you homos waste…how much food, how much money…you don’t know what you got here, Missy. These boys throw around food, money, and even women, like they’re going outta style. Some of us aren’t that lucky."

"John, put the gun down. Let’s talk. Let’s discuss…"

"Nope…no discussing. The only discussion I’m gonna have is with this pretty little thing here." He stroked Lara’s cheek. "A private discussion."

"Put the gun down, Mr. Logan." John whirled around to see two police officers in the doorway, their guns carefully sighted on his body. He threw Lara over in Kevin’s direction. Kevin grabbed her and pulled her close.

"I’m not putting nothing down. I get what I want, or the pretty boy goes."

"Mr. Logan, we talked to your VA doctor. We know you’ve been a bit confused lately, and that you…"

"Shut UP!" The man yelled, pointing his gun at Kevin’s chest. "That doctor don’t know shit." He smiled as Kevin bravely stood his ground. "He don’t know what I’ve accomplished. I’m the assassin of a Backstreet Boy." He smiled a lunatic’s smile as he pulled the trigger.

"NO!"

Lara grabbed Kevin as they sank to the floor. "Oh…God…Kevin…you’re bleeding!" She touched a patch of blood on his shirt. "Kevin…he shot you!" She couldn’t hear his reply because of the shouting policemen behind them. They subdued the crazed crewmember and confiscated his gun. "What, Kev?"

"Honey…baby…" Kevin murmured, touching her cheek with shaking fingers. "I’m not shot. This is your blood…he…he shot you, sweetie."

The police cars skidded to a stop, and the group of friends was out of them and running towards the arena before the engines had stopped. The policeman who had almost hit AJ was right behind them.

"Whoa…you can’t come in here!" A burly policeman at the door put a hand on Howie’s chest.

"Get the fuck out of my way!" Howie snarled, shoving at the officer’s hand.

"Charley…Charley! It’s okay…let them in!" The policeman behind them yelled. Howie shoved past the officer, but it was Brian who took off in the lead. His cousin was in there with some possible lunatic, and he needed to find him. He needed to…

Brian skidded to a stop, and everyone piled up behind him. It would have been comical, except for the fact that paramedic teams were hurrying down the hall in front of them. "Oh…God…KEVIN!" Brian shouted. Amanda held him back.

"Bri, wait! We don’t know it’s him," she said.

"Lara’s a klutz. She probably tripped over her own feet and sprained an ankle," Shae said reassuringly.

"Would she need a whole precinct of police officers to bring her out?" Nick asked slowly, pointing to all the uniformed men and women milling around the hallway.

"Excuse me…pardon me…" a man in a white coat walked past them. He flashed his credentials to the closest officer. "Dr. Walker…I’m from the VA Home?"

"Yes, sir. They have him up here." The officer led the doctor through the crowd. The friends stared at one another.

"KEVIN!" Brian yelled, his blue eyes wide with fear.

"Me?" Lara whispered. In her panic for Kevin’s life, she hadn’t felt the warm blood oozing through the thin fabric of her dress…or the pain that began to throb through her whole left side. She wasn’t holding Kevin as they sank to the ground; he was holding her.

"Yes…Lara…you jumped in front of me when he shot…you jumped in front of me…" Kevin said in awe.

"Excuse us, sir." Paramedics set a gurney down by Lara. Another EMT pulled Kevin aside to see if he was okay.

"KEVIN! Don’t leave me!" Lara reached out a hand. "Not again!"

"I’m fine, dammit! SHE’S the one that’s been shot!" Kevin pushed the EMT aside and got as close to Lara as he could. "I’m here. I’m here." His head shot up as he heard someone calling his name. "Lara…I’ll be right back. You’re not leaving here without me."

Kevin shoved his way through the police and paramedics. He saw John Logan handcuffed in a corner, talking to a man in a white coat. Kevin’s eyes roamed the crowd, finally meeting those of his cousin. "Brian!"

"Kevin!" Brian ran up and hugged him. "Thank God! What the hell happened here?"

"Where’s Lara?" Ari asked, standing on tiptoe to search the corridor. "Is she talking to a policeman or something?"

"She…uh…she’s back there." Kevin said nothing more. "You all should go to the hospital."

"The hospital?" Kelley shrieked, grabbing Kevin by the shirt. "What the fuck happened back there?" She pulled her hands back from Kevin’s shirt, staring down at the blood that now spotted her skin.

"Oh my God," Nick whispered, pulling Kelley into his arms.

Three policemen and the doctor began to lead John Logan towards the door. With a yell, Kevin lunged for him. "He SHOT her! This lowlife piece of shit shot her!" It took all four Backstreet Boys to hold him back.

"And I’d do it again…but this time I’d get ya both!" The crazy man yelled, smiling his evil smile once more. Ari ran over and kicked him between the legs before anyone could stop her. AJ hurried over and grabbed her in his arms. The policemen carried the whining man away.

"Mr. Richardson!" A policeman yelled. "We’re ready to go…are you coming?"

"I’m riding with Lara in the ambulance," Kevin told the others. "Meet us there."

He ran back to Lara’s side. She was now strapped onto the gurney, and her eyes wildly searched for Kevin. "I thought you left me!"

"No…baby…I’m right here. Just stay quiet until we get you to the hospital." He followed her through the corridor and up the steps.

The group of friends watched in silence as the policemen broke a path for the paramedics. Amanda hid her face on Brian’s shoulder, but everyone else could only watch in silence as Lara wheeled by.

"Let’s see if we can get another police escort," Shae said finally. Everyone sprang into motion, running for the steps.

As soon as Lara was settled in and the paramedics had moved out of the way, Kevin was seated by Lara’s side, holding her right hand. "Why? Why did you do that? Why?" He asked again and again, not really expecting a response. She reached up her right hand and removed the oxygen mask. He started to replace it.

"No…I’m fine," she whispered. "You make people happy…you’re famous…I’m not anyone special…"

"You ARE special!" He insisted. "Stop saying that."

"So c-c-c-cold," she said, her teeth chattering.

"Hey, she’s cold!" He said to the paramedic, who seemed to ignore him. "Hey! I said she’s COLD! Can we get a blanket or something? She’s been fucking SHOT, for crissakes!"

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Lara said weakly, unable to keep from smiling.

"You’re just wishing I’d kiss you with it," he joked as the paramedic finally gave him a blanket to spread over her.

"Hardly," Lara replied softly.

"Sir, her body is in shock. It’s expected that she would be cold," the paramedic mumbled close to Kevin’s ear. "Try to keep her talking."

"Tired," Lara said, her blue eyes drooping.

"No. No!" Kevin snapped. "Dammit, you stupid wench, keep talking to me!" The paramedic stared at him, but he knew that pissing Lara off would keep her talking.

"Not stupid," Lara murmured, glaring at him as best she could.

"Well, I’d say getting shot would be pretty damn dumb."

"I’m beginning to think so, too, since it kept YOUR sorry ass on the planet." Lara’s voice drifted off at the end of the sentence. Kevin grabbed her hand again.

"No. Stay awake. Tell me about Scott. What color were his eyes?"

"Green…like yours…"

"His hair?"

"Dark…like yours…but nicer." The paramedic hid a smile.

"Did you really have…uh…mind-blowing sex with him?"

"Jealous much?" Lara said with a smile. Kevin blushed slightly. "Yes…I did…just a couple of times…" She struggled to keep her eyes open. "But I bet you’d be better…" Kevin thought he heard her say before her eyes closed. The paramedic shoved him out of the way to get close to the gurney.

"Hey…excuse me…I said EXCUSE ME!" Amanda smacked the counter of the nurses’ station in the ER. "My friend was admitted…Lara Bruner…shooting victim?" Her voice faltered over the last words. Kelley put her arm around Amanda’s shoulder and Ari grabbed her other hand, while Shae stood on Kelley’s other side.

The nurse consulted a chart. "She’s up in surgery. They took her right into the OR. Her boyfriend is up in waiting room B on the third floor."

Nick yelled a thank you as the group raced to the stairs, ignoring the elevators. The group of eight hurried down the hallways, looking for Waiting Room B. They finally turned a corner and found it. Kevin was the only person in the room. He was standing by the window, staring out at nothing.

"Kev!" AJ said. Kevin slowly turned around.

"Kevin, what the hell happened back there?" Amanda asked softly.

"That lunatic grabbed her…wanted to hold her for ransom…" Kevin ran a hand through his short hair. Nick led him to a sofa. Everyone else crowded around him. It seemed he was unable to raise his voice above a whisper. "He followed us…that’s how he knew her…he followed us last night."

"Damn," Ari whispered.

"It’s ironic, really…" Kevin said with a wry smile. "Of all of us, we got along the least…he picked the one who would’ve gotten the least money for him."

Kelley reached back and smacked him across the face. "You are such a fucking prick! All along all she has tried to do is be your friend…and all you’ve done is push her away! She never asked anything from you except acceptance of the truth, and now she’s in there getting a bullet dug out of her that she took for you. For YOU, you fucking Iceboy!" Her voice rose to a shriek, and Nick captured her in his arms.

"Kelley!" Shae gasped.

"No…she’s right," Kevin said slowly. "I treated her like shit…but she just did something to me…she made me interested in her even when I didn’t want to be…and that made me treat her worse." He buried his head in his hands. "And I never got to tell her…tell her that I think I’m falling in love with her…"

"It’s a little late NOW!" Kelley snapped.

"Guys, stop it!" Brian shouted. "You’re talking about her in the past tense, and she’s still in there fighting for her life. We’ve gotta think positive."

"Rok’s right," Howie said with a sigh. "We’re not helping by bitching at each other."

"Come on, Kel. Let’s go get coffee and drinks for everyone." Nick took Kelley by the hand. "I think we’re gonna be here a while."

You mean this whole white light thing was true? How tacky, Lara thought to herself, walking down the long road surrounded by whiteness. She had read and heard that once you die, you see the white light, but she thought it was a whole bunch of crap. Guess all those weirdoes were right.

"But I don’t want to be here!" She said softly, feeling a hole in the pit of her stomach. "I’m all alone."

"Not quite," a deep voice said behind her. She whirled around.

"Scott?" She ran to jump into his arms, and she felt his love surround her even stronger than his arms.

"My sweet Lara." He kissed her eyes, her forehead, her cheeks, and even her nose. He avoided her lips. "I’ve missed you so."

"I’m so sorry. They MADE me come with them, Scott. I didn’t want to go!" She pulled back to stare at him. He was a different version of Kevin, but it was easy to see they were related.

"I know. Gene and Howard told me all about it." He tucked her hand in the crook of his arm, and led her to a bench that suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"You remarried," she said accusingly. He laughed at her angry eyes.

"Well, what was I supposed to do when my wife of a week literally disappeared into thin air?" His green eyes grew dark. "It wasn’t for years, though, if that makes you feel better. I felt like I couldn’t love again…and then I met Catherine."

"I…I’m glad. I hated the thought of you feeling that another woman had only been out to hurt you," Lara told him. "How about the others?"

"They all made it through the war safely, and not many families in our county could say the same," he told her. "They all married and got on with their lives." Scott made a face. "Thomas married Anne."

"Yuck!" Lara made a face as well. Scott stroked her hand, staring at the ring on her finger.

"How in the world did you get this?"

"I found it in an antique store. It had been stolen from your great-great-grandson’s home in Florida." Lara’s heart ached as she thought of Kevin. Once again, she had been torn from a man she had begun to love.

"Ah, yes…the Backstreet Boy." Lara’s mouth fell open, and Scott smiled. "I’ve been watching you, as well as all the generations of my family. They’re all related you know…Gene and Nickolas, Howard and Howie, Alexander and AJ, Thomas and Brian…isn’t it strange how things work out?"

"Yes…it is..." Lara said, still in shock.

"I am really glad you came here today," Scott said slowly. "I wanted to apologize for how I acted the last day…the day you…that last time," he said finally. "I was very close to my mother, and I…"

"No. I never should have destroyed that room without your permission," Lara told him. "Don’t apologize."

"My temper always DID think for me before my brain did," he said with a sigh. "That room was never opened again, after you left. After that day, it reminded me of both the women I had lost."

"I’m so sorry," Lara said softly, reaching out to touch his cheek. He stood.

"And now that it’s all out in the open, you must go."

"Go? I don’t want to go! I don’t want to leave you again!" Lara protested. He took her hands in his.

"I lived a long and healthy life, and lived to see my grandchildren. You deserve the same right." He smiled down at her. "Besides, if you play your cards right, you’ll be holding one of my relatives in your arms someday."

"Me? Oh…I don’t think so. Kevin Scott Richardson is the most…the most obnoxious, the most annoying, the most…" Lara said angrily. Scott laughed and kissed her forehead.

"You two are made for each other." He led her to a small clearing in the mist of the ground. "Look."

Lara looked down and gasped. She saw the waiting room in the hospital. AJ was cursing about the coffee to Ari. Amanda was sleeping with her head on Brian’s lap. Howie and Shae were pacing by the windows. Kelley and Nick were deep in conversation. Kevin stood alone by the far window, his eyes staring out into the night. He kept wiping away tears before anyone could see them.

"He needs you, Lara…go back to him," Scott said gently. She turned and hugged him fiercely.

"I love you, Scott…I always will."

"I love you, too. Now go." He gently nudged her back in the direction from which she had come. She began to walk, but stopped and looked over her shoulder. He gave her one last smile, then seemed to disappear into the mist.

A doctor wandered into the waiting room about three hours after Lara was admitted, blood covering his surgical scrubs. Everyone jumped to their feet.

"Well?" Kevin asked finally.

"She’s out of surgery. We removed the bullet. It was about two inches on the good side of almost hitting the heart." He smiled at the group. "She’s not out of the woods yet, but I really think she’s going to be okay." He frowned. "She doesn’t seem to want to snap out of this weird coma she’s in, however. It’s almost like she doesn’t want to come back from wherever she’s been."

The girls looked at one another. "Slapping her worked the last time," Amanda remarked. Shae glared at her and hissed for her to hush.

"The last time? What last time?" Kevin asked Amanda.

"Well…uh…when she was with Scott and we made her come back…she didn’t want to, of course, and wouldn’t wake up. So I slapped her. I owed her one," Amanda said in her defense.

"Can we see her?" Nick asked. The doctor shook his head.

"I don’t think…"

"Please." Brian stepped forward, motioning to Kevin. "At least let him see her."

"Okay. For a minute. Follow me." The doctor led Kevin down to a recovery room. "She will be here under observation overnight. If she seems to rally, we’ll move her to a regular room. If not, she’ll have to go to Intensive Care." The doctor left, allowing Kevin to enter the room alone.

Lara was hooked up to the usual mess of tubes and wires, but Kevin could not get over how frail she looked. He pulled a chair up to her as close as he could get. He tenderly stroked her ragged hair. "You look like shit," Kevin said softly, smiling as he realized how pissed she would be if she could hear him. "Your hair looks like a seismograph reading." He stroked it some more. "We’ll fix it…we’ll fix it. I love long hair, but this ‘do you’re sporting has gotta go, baby." He took her right hand in his. "Lara…you need to come back to us. Someone has to keep those goofball friends of yours in order, and to hear Nick talk, he already considers you a big sister after just a few days. And Rok, and Bone, and D…they all like you, too." He ran a hand through his hair. "And me? Well…I have a lot to make up for. I don’t wanna waste any more time being an asshole. I need to apologize, but you gotta be awake to hear it, baby." He leaned his head on her hand and cried.

Twenty minutes later, a nurse poked her head in. "I’m sorry, Mr. Richardson, but her friends want a minute with her. I need to ask you to leave."

Kevin raised his head and nodded. After gently kissing Lara’s cheek, he left the room. He passed the girls in the hallway, but was unable to raise his head. The girls surrounded Lara’s bed.

"Is this another one of your lame attempts at melodrama?" Ari asked the figure on the bed.

"Ari!" Amanda gasped.

"What? If she was here, she’d bust out laughing and call me a dumb ho, or something," Ari retorted.

"She is here," Kelley said gently, smiling down at her friend. "Just not completely."

"Okay…Lara? This is Ari." Ari knelt by the bed. "You need to haul your ass back here, because not only did I pick out that dress for you, I lent you the sheer blouse that you so kindly got burned off your body. I think you owe me. So…get back here…now…" Ari burst into tears and left the room.

"We’ll let you rest now, Lara," Shae said in a whisper. "But don’t think we’re just gonna leave you where you are. We didn’t the last time, remember? We dragged you back with us, and we’ll do it again."

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think you melted the Iceboy, sweetie," Kelley told her friend. "You gotta come back before he freezes up again."

"Really…you should all go home!" An older nurse was insisting. "You can’t do anything, and you’re only taking up space in the waiting room."

"And exactly who else needs this space?" Nick asked angrily.

"I also don’t want anyone to make a big fuss if they find out who you are!" She snapped. "This is a place of peace and quiet."

"Look, Nurse…Reardon," Kevin said, reading her nametag. "This is the only place I can find peace and quiet, okay? I’m not leaving."

"And I’m not leaving my cousin," Brian added.

"And I’m not leaving Brian," Amanda said.

"And I can’t leave ‘Manda," Ari told the woman.

"And Ari’s my girl…she needs me here," AJ replied.

"And Bone can’t find his way out of a box, nevertheless back to the hotel, so I gotta stay with him," Howie told her.

"And there’s no way I’m leaving Howie," Shae added.

"And I just don’t want to be back at the hotel by myself," Nick said. Kelley said nothing, just clutched Nick’s arm.

"Fine…fine…just keep it down!" The nurse snapped, shaking her head as she returned to the nurses’ station.

"Kev, I’m gonna call management. They’re probably flipping," Brian said.

"God…yeah…I forgot about that," Kevin mumbled. This alone showed his state of mind. In any other circumstance, Kevin would have been the one smoothing things out with management.

"I’ll go with you," Howie told him. They went in search of any phone with speaker capabilities.

Kevin sank onto a couch and closed his eyes. He could not believe the whirlwind his life had become since he had run into Lara on the street. And except for the events of that evening, he realized he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Some of the other nurses finally took pity on a group, and allowed them to crash in an unused hospital room. Howie and Shae, Kelley and Nick, and Brian and Amanda were scrunched onto cots around the room while Ari and AJ tried to stay comfortable on the tiny hospital bed. Kevin refused the offer of a cot, smiling down at the tiny nurse.

"Thanks all the same…I’d rather stay out here. I’m not tired."

She placed a hand on his arm. "Would you like to sleep on the chair in her room?"

His eyes widened. "Yes…God…yes."

She let him in the room. "If anyone asks, you just got here five minutes ago, okay?" He nodded and smiled.

Kevin resumed his vigil by Lara’s bedside. He began talking, babbling about the tour, what they expected of the rest of their shows, and how much he was already looking forward to a vacation. "So…where do you think I should go?" He asked Lara, as if she was going to sit up and answer. "I was thinking down south somewhere. I have all the old family records…I thought I could go find Blossom Manor. I always wanted to try. What do you think? You could come along…see how much the area has changed in a hundred years." He smiled. "I know what you’re thinking. He finally believes me! Yes, Lara, I believe you. I believe you were there. I also believe in this fate Howie talks about. I think we were meant to meet and fall in love…at least, I know I am in love with you. I doubt you feel the same." He laughed. "I mean, I DID insult you, and get you shot. I don’t think that bed covers all those debts I need to repay you." He almost began to sob, then caught himself. "Okay…enough of that. Let’s sing…I can sing something. Then you’ll be waking up yelling at me to stop, because I KNOW I have frog voice tonight. Hmmm…" Kevin paused, deep in thought. "Okay…I have it!" He made a big show of clearing his throat.

"Sometimes late at night…I lie awake and watch her sleeping…she’s lost in peaceful dreams so I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark." He paused. "I hope those dreams are peaceful, baby." He took a deep breath. "And the thought crosses my mind…if I never wake up in the morning…would she ever doubt the way I feel about her in my heart? If tomorrow never comes would she know how much I loved her? Did I try in every way to show her every day, that she’s my only one? And if my time on earth were through…and she must face this world without me…is the love I gave her in the past gonna be enough to last…if tomorrow never comes?" He stopped to regain his composure. "See? I told you…frog voice." Kevin looked towards the ceiling. "Please…God…let tomorrow come for her…please."

"Wake up…Kevin…you dumb asshole…wake the hell up."

"Mom? Why are you calling me an asshole?" Kevin mumbled.

"You are crushing my knuckles, drooling on my fingers, and I am most certainly not your mother!" A weak voice snapped. Kevin raised his head so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash.

"Lara…ohmygod…Lara…you’re awake!" He almost shouted with joy.

"Dumbass…this is a hospital…shut up!" Lara scolded, unable to keep from smiling. Kevin’s eyes were so happy…and full of…love? She told herself that was impossible.

"How long have you been awake?"

"As in not asleep? About ten minutes. As in not where I was before? Since you were singing."

"You heard me?" Kevin whispered.

"Yes…definite frog voice," she told him. He squeezed her hand.

"I’m gonna get the doctor, okay, and then I’m gonna tell the others." He bent down to kiss her forehead. "Don’t go away again, okay?"

"I won’t," she whispered as he ran out the door, shocked at the kiss he had quickly bestowed upon her.

Kevin stopped at the nurses’ station, then ran to the room where his friends were sleeping. "Get up get up get up! She’s awake!"

"She’s awake?" Shae sat up instantly.

"That’s great, Kev," AJ moaned, tucking his head back against Ari’s shoulder. He sat up suddenly. "She’s awake!"

"I want to see her!" Shae demanded. "I need to kick her ass for scaring us like that!"

"Sorry, the doctor is in there now. He’ll come get us." Kevin was almost bouncing up and down.

"Kevin, calm down…NOW. You’re scaring me," Nick mumbled. Kevin was WAY not a morning person.

About ten minutes later, the doctor came and told them they could very quietly and calmly go see her. The nine friends breezed by him and ran down the hall…very quietly.

"What the hell happened to your hair?" AJ asked. Ari smacked him.

"She got shot and you’re worried about her hair? You…the biggest victim of a fashion nightmare I’ve ever seen?" Kelley retorted.

"I cut it," Kevin said quickly, seeing Lara’s eyes cloud over. "I cut it…and I did a pretty awful job of it."

"Why in the world would you cut her hair?" Nick wondered.

"John cut it," Lara whispered. "Actually, he burned it."

"Well…I know this FABULOUS hairdresser who can whip that RIGHT into shape!" AJ announced, putting on a homosexual air. Everyone laughed. Lara laughed so hard it hurt.

"I am starving. Can I convince someone to hit McDonald’s for me?" Lara moaned.

"I’m there," AJ said, jumping up. Brian shoved him down.

"No way. No greasy foods for you. I learned the hard way that when you’re recuperating from surgery, you HAVE to eat well."

Lara rolled her eyes. "I can’t wait to get home away from the nurses…ALL of them." She playfully glared at Brian.

"You still have to sleep on your new bed," Amanda reminded her.

"Nope. I told Kevin I was gonna burn it." Everyone stared at Lara. "Just kidding."

"Actually…I thought I’d move it into my house," Kevin said.

"You’re…you’re taking it back?" Lara said miserably.

"Yes…and you’re coming along with it. After the tour, I’d like you to move in with me," Kevin told her. Everyone’s mouths dropped open. "You’ll stay here with your friends, so they can keep an eye on you while I’m gone, and then after the tour, you could move down to Florida with me…if you wanted to," he quickly added.

"Well…I…what about Blossom Manor?" She demanded. "I want to go there first."

"Of course," Kevin said, smiling. "Of course."

"I AM hungry…where’s my breakfast?" Lara whined. "I’ll eat anything, as long as it’s not hospital coffee. From the look on AJ’s face last night, it has the consistency of mud, with a taste to match."

"How…how did you know I had coffee?" AJ gasped.

"Let’s just say a little…angel…showed me," Lara replied, smiling as she watched the ring sparkle on her hand.

A few months later

"You’re sure…you want this room papered in THIS paper?" Kevin asked Lara.

"Yes! How many times do I have to tell you that I…" she looked over and saw he was teasing her. "Dammit, Iceboy, don’t tempt me!" She raised a wobbly left fist, and his face was wreathed in smiles.

"You made a fist! You did it!" He hugged her.

"Watch it…you’re wrinkling the floor plans!" Lara warned, but she hugged him back. She had been practicing for a weak, trying to make a fist with her injured arm.

"I don’t care." He swiped the plans to the floor and sat her on the table. "Kiss me."

"You’re such a brat," she mumbled, but smiled as his lips met hers.

"Anyone home?" They heard a voice call in Lara’s front door.

"No!" Kevin yelled, groaning as he pulled away from Lara. They had come so close to making love so many times, but Kevin was afraid he would physically hurt her somehow. So they kissed and touched and caressed…ALL the time.

"How’s the house coming?" AJ wandered in, followed by the rest of the gang.

"Good…I think we’ll break ground next week," Kevin told him. The men gathered around the plans while the women flipped through the book of wallpaper fabric Lara had bought the day before.

"And this will go in the guest room." She pointed to the white paper with tiny blue forget-me-nots.

"Isn’t that…" Ari’s eyes got wide.

"It sure is," Lara said with excitement. "I was EVERYWHERE looking for this paper." She flipped through the book. "And this is for the bedroom." She pointed to dark green paper with sapphire-blue stripes.

"Gorgeous," Kelley agreed.

"She’s PROBABLY designing me out of all my money, but I guess I could sell myself on the street if I had to," Kevin said loudly. Lara stuck her tongue out at him.

"You wouldn’t make enough to get dinner," Nick told him. "Believe me, I know."

Kevin almost fell over a chair in shock as everyone else roared with laughter. "I knew there was something queer about you two that I just couldn’t put my finger on," AJ commented. Kevin smacked him in the head.

"I can assure you…my Nicky is NO homosexual," Kelley told everyone. It was Nick’s turn to blush.

"Okay…enough chattering. Let’s go to lunch. I’m starving!" Howie announced. He grabbed Shae’s hand and swung it between them as they headed out the door. Everyone followed behind, with Kevin and Lara bringing up the rear. Kevin stood before a large framed picture as Lara grabbed her purse.

"Think he’s okay with this? Think he’s smiling down on us?" Kevin asked, looking into the matching green eyes of his great-great-grandfather.

"Oh, I’m sure he is. As a matter of fact, you can count on it," Lara told him. She gave him a hug. "Last one to the car has to call the decorator and tell her we changed the tile in the kitchen again!"

"No way!" Kevin yelled, taking off out the door. Lara laughed, and began to shut the door behind her. She paused, going back to the house. She kissed her fingertip, and gently pressed it to the face of the man in the picture.

"Thank you," she whispered. She turned her back on the picture, and left the apartment, locking the door behind her.

The End

Please tell Lara what you thought of this story!