Takes place during Season 3.

Alita's POV:

Meet me at the Hermitage. Jeremy's text said. It's urgent.

I was still mad at him for missing my showcase last night, & I was still hurt by our argument afterwards…but I didn't really have the luxury of ignoring his text. He might have found something about my father, or about defeating XANA, or about what had happened to my mother…

As I arrived at the Hermitage, completely dark at this late hour, I realized it might also be a trap. I pushed the door open slowly. Somebody had lit some candles…

I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, but at least they provided some light. I pulled an umbrella out of the stand by the door, just in case. I wasn't as good at defending myself as either Yumi or Ulrick, but they had shown me a few tricks…

"Hello?" I called out, stepping carefully inside. I heard movement off to my left. I waited until they were close enough to hit before making my move.

"It's me!" Jeremy cried out, & I was able to stop myself from hitting him over the head.

"Jeremy!" I said, trying to calm myself after the scare. "What are you doing in here?"

"I, um…I brought us dinner." Jeremy said. He was holding a large paper bag from the café just around the corner from Kadic. Students snuck out all the time to eat there.

"Oh." I said, blushing. "That's…very sweet of you." We sat down in the living room, & Jeremy passed me my meal & some plastic silverware. We ate in a sort of awkward silence. I hadn't been sure of what to expect after our argument, but…this was not it.

I had accused him (justifiably, in my opinion) of working too hard, of not noticing what was around him. He had said that I wasn't focused enough, just because I wanted a life outside of XANA…

"This is really nice." I said, as a peace offering. Even though I knew the candles were only lit because it was dark & the Hermitage had no electricity, it also felt very romantic, especially now that I knew it wasn't a trap set by XANA.

"It's no trouble." Jeremy said. "I'm, um…I'm sorry that I forgot about the showcase."

"It's all right." I said. "I was just upset. I was being silly."

"No, you weren't. Part of the reason why we worked so hard to bring you here was so you would have the chance to do things like that."

I smiled to myself.

"Is Earth everything you hoped for?" Jeremy asked. He was blushing, & didn't meet my eyes as he put his now empty container on the coffee table.

"Well, I did have a bit of a false start." I said, finishing up my dinner as well. "But yes, it's been incredible…& now that we know about Franz Hopper & I have my memories back…" I shrugged. I wasn't sure how to put this into words, but Jeremy waited for me to finish my thought.

"Sometimes, I feel like I've changed so much that I'm a completely different person now." I admitted. "But I am really happy to be here...with you." I said, blushing. We were leaning close to each other now. It almost felt like there was electricity in the air. My heart started to beat a little faster, but not in a bad way. Was he going to kiss me?

We leaned even closer to one another, when suddenly…

Jeremy's lap top began to beep, & both or our cell phones started to ring. We both pulled away, reluctantly. He grabbed his phone from the table while I pulled mine out of my pocket.

"It's Od." Jeremy said.

"Ulrick." I said.

We answered, & kept our conversations pretty brief. We had already guessed what they were going to say…

"XANA's launched an attack." Jeremy said.

"Ulrick's staying at the school to defend it." I said.

Hand in hand, we both headed for the secret passage that led from the Hermitage to the factory. Even though something really bad was happening, I knew something good was going to happen eventually. I had nothing to fear with Jeremy by my side.

I knew how he felt, & I felt the same.

I've been dealing with some writer's block lately, & this song has been floating around in my head, so I figured why not work through both at the same time? This song is by an up & coming country artist named Brett Young, if you're interested in listening to it…then it can be stuck in your head too!

Until next time!

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