Authors Note: I don't own the Left Behind Series, obviously. That stuff belongs to Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Wish I did though because I'd have significantly more money. By posting this, I'm losing my FanFic virginity, so R&R and be gentle please :)

Vicki was confused.

She couldn't understand why this was happening to her, why her feelings were becoming so… different.

She had met Judd on what had been the worst day of her life, as she sat awkwardly in the seemingly abandoned church staring at her shoes, trying to comprehend the fact that she had become an orphan overnight. He had told his story, just as she and the others had. He had spoken of belonging to a wealthy family, growing up in one of the ritzier areas of Mount Prospect, being accidentally issued a credit card and his fleeting attempt to escape from his life.

She couldn't help but think Huh, big shot. What could he possibly have had to escape from? He was rich, he had a family that loved and cared for him. She was just trailer trash, poor and pathetic. Up until their miraculous transformation two years ago, her parents had fought relentlessly with each other and her. She couldn't have felt more unloved if she tried, and here was this kid, complaining about his life in perfect suburbia?

Yes, at the time, she couldn't help feel disdain for him, but after getting to know him, she started to realise he wasn't the big shot she thought he was.

No one was more shocked than her when he offered to let her, a total stranger, stay at his place after her trailer burnt down. At first she was embarrassed, she wasn't a charity case, but what was she going to do? Sleep on the street?

When she first moved in, she was too emotionally and physically drained to think anything of him, but it had been a few months now, and she couldn't help but feel… attracted to him. This annoyed her. She knew that the end of the world was no time to start getting into complicated relationships, but she couldn't help but feel a connection to him. She had discovered that even though they had grown up on different sides of the tracks, so to speak, they had a lot more in common than they originally thought.

They had both been dragged to church, kicking and screaming by their parents, and both felt totally ostracized by them. They both had younger siblings that gave them the guilt trip for not "loving Jesus", they both had tried to be someone they weren't, and had both been knocked flat on their faces by something that they should have been ready for.

When they had first met, she saw him as something of a big brother. She had lost her own big brother in the disappearances and felt that maybe Judd could fill that gap, but recently, she'd been feeling something more. Every time he touched her, his fingers gently grazing her skin, whether it was to clutch her hand as they both ran for their lives, or to lift her chin up when she needed some encouragement, it sent blots of electricity through her which both burnt and froze her skin. Every time he spoke her name, her heart seemed to stop for a second, and then resume at the 1000 beats per minutes it raced whenever he was near her. It was getting ridiculous!

She had had crushes on guys before of course, but this seemed different. It was so foreign to her, this feeling, and she had no idea what she could do about it. Of course, she knew that her feelings were unrequited. Judd was a rich kid. She was a trailer park girl. If the circumstances were different, they wouldn't have ever even spoken. That all seemed so petty now. The world was spinning out of control, and here she was worrying about the class system.

Judd watched Vicki from across the living room. She seemed lost in her thoughts, and he was pretending to watch TV, so he figured she didn't know he was watching her. She was sitting on one of the kitchen stools, one long leg draped over the other, her chin rested on her hand. With her other hand she fiddled with a pen that was loose on the counter.

She didn't seem like a trailer park girl to him. He had to admit, when they first met, he had jumped to conclusions about her, but since getting to know her, he had realised that she was so much more than his first impression of her. When he first saw her, he saw a girl, hiding behind a mask of smudged, day-old makeup, trying to look and act like a woman. After getting to know her, he saw that beneath all that was a hurting, teenager with a heart of gold.

The first time he saw her without all the black make-up and without all the leather, the first thought that popped into his mind was wow. He had mentally slapped himself straight away for even thinking it. This was no time for that sort of thing. But as he sat there now, silently observing her from across the room, he couldn't ignore the fact that Vicki was beautiful. Or the fact that she was so kind and giving. Or that (despite the "trailer trash" stereotype) once she gained some confidence, she was very intelligent.

Her fiery red hair was just so perfect, flowing down her shoulders. He just wanted to run his fingers through it. Her jade eyes were so deep in thought, he could just stare into them for hours if given the chance. Her smile, though rarely seen, was the kind of smile that lit up a room and filled him with hope, and her lips, oh those lips. So perfectly plump and rosy, he wondered what it was be like to just cradle her face in his hands and kiss them…

Whoa he thought to himself, shaking himself from his imagination. This was Vicki he was talking about. Vick! She was like his sister. Well… at least that was what he kept telling himself. But he couldn't deny how he was starting to feel about her. Was this a good time to start anything though? No, not really.

Oh, but how he dreamt of her. Imagining, hoping, praying that maybe, just maybe, she felt the same way.

"What?" Vicki laughed from across the room.

"Huh?" Judd replied, shaken from his thoughts.

"You were staring at me, and pulling a weird face." She chuckled.

Shoot. He thought, she saw me… that smile…

"Uhh.. Judd? You're doing it again." She laughed.

"W-Was I?" he stuttered, "I was just thinking."

"About what?" she prodded.

About you.

"Just stuff. This, you know… everything."

"Yeah, me too." She replied.

"You wanna… watch something?" he offered.

"What's on?" she asked.

"Not much." He flicked through the channels, disappointed. "The usual. The disappearances."

Vicki flounced over to the couch where he was sitting and sat next to him, pulling her feet up under her, and hugging her knees to her chest.

"Well I haven't got anywhere else to be." She said with a flash of that smile.

What Judd wouldn't give to just wrap his arm around her and pull her in close.

But he was smart enough to know that wasn't wise. He sighed to himself. It killed him to think he would never have a chance with her, but he decided that he was probably better off keeping things as they were, just in case it complicated their friendship.

After all, she was the only friend he had left in the world.

And there you have it... hope it wasn't too sappy for ya

Peace xo