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Title: Anything

Author: DarkJaina

Rating: PG for suggestion of things

Summary: Just your basic Rachel/Tobias sap (you know you love it!).

Timeline: Definitely pre-49, probably pre-45, too. Anytime before then.

Spoilers: None, really.

Category: Romance

Archive: Yes to anyone if you ask me first

Disclaimer: Rachel, Tobias, and any other characters mentioned in this story do not belong to me. They are the property of K.A. Applegate, Scholastic, and each other.

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Anything (1/1)

By Jenni "Jaina" Kissinger

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'Cause when we're torn apart

Shattered and scarred

Love has the grace to save us

We're just two tarnished hearts

But in each other's arms

We become saints and angels

~Sara Evans, Saints and Angels

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Rachel stormed up to her room and slammed the door. She stood in the center for a few moments, her hands clenched, her breathing purposely slow and deep.

After she was sufficiently calmed, she went to her window, and opened it. A cool breeze blew into the room, softly playing with her golden strands. Rachel breathed in the scents of the night, then began to change.

Her eyes became a golden-brown, and sharper. The half-moon outlined everything in perfect detail for those eyes. On her skin appeared a tattoo-like pattern, which suddenly sprung into 3-D life. Her hair retracted into her skull as she shrank. Her feet became sharp, razor-life, and finally her arms spread into wings.

She was an owl.

With a few flaps, she rose into the sky.

It had been a typical night. Her mother had come home late from work, but that was a natural occurrence. They had all been in the kitchen, doing various, normal things, but somehow the conversation got out of hand. Rachel, her mom, and her younger sister Jordan were in a shouting match, poor Sara watching solemnly from the table.

"You don't care about this family anymore!" her mother had shouted.

"I fight for this family every day!" Rachel had screamed back. "I have paid unacceptable prices for us! I have lost my soul for all of you!"

Rachel banked left, flying over a route well known to her by now. The trees beneath her were no cover for the small mice that shivered to see her shadow. The nearby stream did not mask the oh-so-substantial noises of the night.

A small meadow laid ahead. Rachel circled, searching, searching. Looking up into the sky, she saw what she had come for.

You were watching. You followed me.

A slight pause. Yes.

I'm sorry you had to hear all that.

Did you mean it? All of it?

Her voice was quiet, such a contrast to the volume produced twenty minutes ago. I don't know. I'm scared that I did. She fluttered to the ground, and demorphed.

Rachel ...

"I can't keep doing this. I can't keep being the strong one. Something of me is dying, slowly, just a piece everyday. Once it's all gone ... I will not be who I am anymore." Her eyes pleaded, for understanding, anything. "I'm breaking apart. I can't keep on like this."

"Then let me be strong for you, Rachel. Tonight. Let me give you back a least a little of what you've lost."

The noises and sights of the night faded into unimportance. The world had only two; no one else existed.

Rachel opened her blue eyes and tightened her arms. "Thank you, Tobias." She stood from where she had been laying, remorphed, and flew home. She was whole again, my beautiful angel.

My name is Tobias. For two hours, I can be a human. It might not seem like much, I know. But this night, two hours stretched into an eternity.

Rachel's a strong person, and I guess you could say that I am, too. But she has always been there for me. All she needed was this night to regain all that she couldn't find. I was grateful to return the favor.

"Anything for you, Rachel," I whispered.

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THE END

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::wince:: Well? My second R/T fic ... I hope to write a J/C one soon, but this one just sorta sprung out at me. Please, review, or send me an e-mail at JenJaina@aol.com. Thanks!

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