Teresa laid back on her soft bed with a weary sigh, she had just finished unpacking the last box of stuff for her room.
Her apartment had three bedrooms, she got the medium one, Matt got the smallest one to himself and Jeremy and Hans shared the master bedroom. Matt had insisted on having his own room in her apartment, she didn't know why, since he would only be moving out again in three months when he turned eighteen, having being stressed from moving Teresa had just agreed.
She had stayed at her house with her brother's as long as she could, but when her father had killed himself and almost them too, it was the last straw, she had left that day, and now a month later she had just finished unpacking the last of her stuff. Although sometimes it was hard, she managed fine, and she had to admit with Patrick back things seemed a little bit better already. Even though she had too much pride to admit it, she had missed having him around a lot.
A steady ringing sound brought her out of her thoughts and Teresa realized her phone was ringing. Jumping up she quickly trotted over to the nightstand and picked up the receiver.
"Hello?" she questioned into the phone.
"Hey, Teresa, it's Grace" came the voice on the other end after a brief pause.
"Hi Grace, what's up?" Teresa asked, Grace almost never called her, I mean the group still hung out but usually Cho talked to her, Wayne talked to Cho and Grace talked to Wayne, they had their own little system going on.
"Just some news" Grace answered, Teresa could hear the excitement in her voice and couldn't help but grow even more curious, wondering what the news was.
"What news?" Teresa she said, her voice urging Grace to hurry and spit it out.
"Patrick's back!" Grace told her, by the tone of her voice she expected Teresa to start doing a happy dance or something.
"Yeah, he stopped by my house earlier today" Teresa said, a hint of confusion in her voice, she guessed Patrick had just gone to see the others a little but ago probably.
"He helped me unpack" she added, her lips twitching into a smile as she thought about the memory.
"Oh" Grace said, a mixture of confusion and disappointment in her voice.
"Why so down?" Teresa questioned.
"Well, I knew how much you missed him and I wanted to be the first one to tell you he was back" Grace explained, her voice regaining it's normal cheer.
"I didn't miss him that much!" Teresa argued indignantly, a light blush covering her cheeks.
"Yeah, I know" Grace said, her voice radiating disbelief.
"Yeah" Teresa replied, ending the matter.
For a second there was an awkward silence and then Grace said she had to go and hung up the phone.
Teresa let out another weary sigh and went down the hall and out to her kitchen. Ever since Patrick had left Grace has been convinced that Teresa was madly in love with him or something. It was started by the fact that Grace had come over later the same night Patrick had left because Teresa had called her, and then Teresa had proceeded top start blubbering over him and pretty much burst into tears. That incident was part of her reason to not get totally hammered, the other part was her father's example.
She grabbed a pot from under the counter to start on supper for her brother's who would be back from school in a little while. She decided that since today had been a good day (firstly she had finished unpacking, and secondly, Patrick was back) she deicide to make a roast, they hadn't had one since her mother had died all those years ago. She even had one ion her freezer for when she decided was a good day to cook it.
Just as she was about to start a knock on her door caught her attention, with a pretty good idea of who it could be Teresa walked over and opened the door to see a grinning blond haired blue eyed, pain in the ass.
"Mind if I join you for dinner?" Patrick said cheerfully, walking in and not even bothering to wait for an answer.
"Make yourself right at home why dontcha" Teresa said sarcastically, watching him with one eyebrow raised in question.
"That I will do Tess, thank you" Patrick said, ignoring the sarcasm and the ominous look directed at the back of his head as he laid down in her not-so-comfortable couch.
"I brought dumplings for dinner" Patrick told her, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head.
"Where?" Teresa deadpanned, glancing at him, it would be just like him to have them in his pocket or something.
"Well, the recipe for dumplings" he corrected, a small smile making it's way onto his features.
"I don't need your dumplings" Teresa told him, walking back into her kitchen indignantly, she went back over to her pot and put it on the stove.
"You still hate excepting help" Patrick stated, coming to stand in the doorway to her kitchen, an amused smirk on his face as he studied her.
"You still annoy the hell out of me!" Teresa replied, shrugging like he had just said the sky was blue.
Without even glancing up she knew he was beaming at her like she had complimented him.
"I guess everything's still the same" Patrick said thoughtfully.
"Pretty much" Teresa said, ignoring how much more messed up her life was.
"Except five years later" Patrick concluded, his voice showing only a hint of humor.
"Yep" Teresa said, thinking about the past five years.
"A lot can happen in five years" Patrick said softly, sensing Teresa's pain and even her anger.
"Yep" Teresa said once again, reaching into her cupboard for a bowl.
"I'm sorry I left" Patrick told her, he was truly sorry he had left her, and that he hadn't been here to help her.
"don't be, Jane, just help now" Teresa said with a small smile. "You can make the damn dumplings" she added, handing him a bowl to mix them in.
"Well, they're more like turnovers" Patrick said lightly, taking the bowl and setting it down before going back over to her cupboard to look for ingredients.
Teresa sighed, deciding it was better to just ignore for now.
Teresa decided that Patrick was right, thing's pretty much were the same, even through everything that had happened they were still the same people.
"Teresa!" Patrick called out rather loudly a few minutes later, Teresa spun around to see him sort of hopping.
"What" she demanded, searching him for injuries or something.
"I accidentally melted your bowl to your stove" Patrick told her, wincing as he said it.
"Damn it Jane!" Teresa cried, running over to try and stop the fire that was lighting on the melted plastic.
…Yep, everything was still the same.
A/N – Leave me a review to tell me what you think!