Pain.

Immeasurable grief.

Heart-broken.

Those were just a few words that could describe how Cady felt after her last run-in with Jacob. That he had so throughly embarrassed her in front of the tribal council without batting an eye truly made her realize that he hadn't forgiven her for what she'd done.

How could she have been so stupid? She had let her father rile her up about Jacob by using her feelings of guilt concerning Henry, and she had been too stupid to see that the sheriff was setting her up. Holy shit, she was so incredibly idiotic.

She didn't blame Jacob one bit for doing what he did. He had gone out of his way to give her what she wanted with her legal-aid center, and had even gone to bat for her father during his trial after the "incident", but his true feelings had finally emerged. He would most likely never trust her as he had before, and that caused such a sharp pain in her chest that it felt like she was having a heart-attack.

Maybe she was.

She would almost rather die than see the look of betrayal and wariness on his face again. Like she was going to attack him at any moment.

She couldn't really blame him for thinking she would.

After the mess that was her plea in front of the tribal council, she watched him walk out without a backwards glance. She tried to make eye contact with him and at least try to let him know that there were no hard feelings; that he could have called her every name in the book and she still would have forgiven him. (Not that he would have done that. He wasn't stupid and impulsive like her).

She heard Catori calling her name, but she couldn't get the look on Jacob's face out of her head. She HAD to talk to him again, see if she could erase the kicked dog look in his eyes. She quickly followed after him before she could lose her nerve, but by the time she reached the hallway, he was nowhere to be found.

She turned in place to see if he had gone down a different hallway, but all was quiet. Dejected, she walked out to the parking lot to see if his car was still there. She eventually spotted it in the far corner and resigned herself to sitting there like some desperate ex-girlfriend. She settled on the ground next to the driver's side door and readied herself for a potentially long wait, then closed her eyes and leaned her head against the cool metal.

OOOOOO

"Cady, what are you doing?" Her eyes shot open in surprise, not sure when she had fallen asleep. She quickly glanced at her watch and saw that she'd been sitting there for over two hours. She smiled at him sheepishly and stretched her stiff legs out in front of her.

She looked up and away from his intense eyes and fiddled with her watch. "I needed to talk to you."

He sighed, "Cady, I think we've said all that's needed to be said.

A hand appeared in front of her face, and she took it, trying not to notice how nice his hand felt in hers. Once she was on her feet, he quickly retreated, as if he couldn't stand to be even a little bit in her personal space.

She clasped her hands in front of her, not exactly sure where to start. She didn't really have a plan for what to say, and now she was looking like a nervous school-girl in front of one of the most important people in her life.

Because she'd only just realized how strongly she felt for him after he wanted nothing to do with her. It hurt so badly, and all she wanted him to do was wrap his arms around her and tell her she was forgiven.

"Please…just hear me out." She looked at him with pleading eyes, and he eventually closed his in acquiesce with a barely perceptible nod. He hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans and watched her closely, clearly bracing himself for whatever she was going to tell him. She sighed.

"Look Jacob, I know you think I'm just like my father, and that I can no longer be trusted…" she paused for a reaction, but when none came, she continued, feeling more and more insecure. "I truly am sorry for what I did. I..obviously wasn't thinking straight and I was blinded by-"

She stopped talking when he rose a hand to quiet her and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "We already discussed this, Cady. You would've been fired had I not truly believed you were sorry when you apologized before. Why are we re-hashing this?"

She bit her lip in frustration and watched the short strands of his hair move in the gentle breeze as she tried to come up with a way to explain why she was truly here without scaring him away.

When she didn't say anything more but just looked at him with wide eyes, he started digging in his pocket for his car keys. She was running out of time. He began to move around her, saying as he did, "Look, I'm late for a meet-"

Before he could completely move around her, she grabbed his arm as gently as she could and turned him around to face her. He didn't exactly recoil at her touch, but he didn't seem to welcome it either.

He looked at his forearm, where she was still gripping him, then back at her face with a suspicious look. "Why are you really here?"

She tried to keep it all in, but it just became too much. "Because I have feelings for you, and I can't stand how its been between us since I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life!" She blurted it all out before she could lose her nerve, and almost smiled when his eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped open.

When he didn't say anything, or move at all really, she let go of his arm and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. He studied her intently, as if he was trying to gauge how sincere she was being, or if her father was somehow behind all this.

She smiled and reached forward to close his mouth, his steel gray goatee soft against the pad of her finger. "Any wider and you'll have flies making their way inside."

He blinked, breaking whatever trance he was in and looked down at his boots. "Cady…"

She started talking before he could rip the last remaining piece of dignity from her by turning her down and breaking her heart. "Please, hear me out. I know you're thinking about all the reasons it's a bad idea to be involved with the sheriff's daughter, especially after what I did to you, and-"

She was cut off by his mouth on hers as he pushed her back against his car and kissed her softly. Just a few brushes of his lips against hers and she was putty in his hands. His fingers gripped her sides as he pushed away from her with an unreadable expression on his face.

She didn't want him to stop and wished he wouldn't have, because now came the hard part.

"We obviously have a lot to discuss."

She nodded, a little breathless with how quickly things had turned. "Drive me home?"

He walked around the silver car and opened the passenger side door for her. "Of course."