Author's Note: In a recent promo for the 24/7 channel, there was a clip of Craig looking at Ashley from across a room. I was thinking crap Crash! Then I thought, promos are misleading, so I'm gonna on a limb and say he was staring at Ellie. Here's the fanfic.

Craig's P.O.V

I strum one last chord on my guitar, I'm done for tonight, my last song is finally finished. The audience cheers, but I'm not satisfied. Out of all the faces I see, none of them are her's. She promised she'd be here, why isn't she here? Did she change her mind? Did she not wanna see me again? I was lucky enough to get her to agree to come out here and support me; I wouldn't be on this very stage if it weren't for her. Sure, it was a college pub, but hey, yah gotta start somewhere. Then again I cut my own record, so I've pretty much had my start. But if she hadn't encouraged me to follow my dreams, these people wouldn't give a rat's ass of what I had to sing. She simply inspires me to be better, better for her. I wish she knew that.

As the lights began to dim on the stage, I feel this jolt of energy pierce through me. She's here, in this very room looking at me. I immediately turn to her and smile; she smiles back, her red hair shimmering in the light. She mouths "sorry" to me and I nod to an empty table.

"I'm sure you were great. Sorry I didn't make it.." She apologizes.

"Don't worry about it; I'm just glad you're here." I begin to reach for her hand, but I pause not sure if it's the right move to make.

"I had to finish up this article, you know how I am with procrastination." She says.

"I can't believe you're still working for that jerk after what he did to you."

"Well I wanna be a journalist. I can't let anyone, including my boss, sidetrack me from that."

"If he gives you any grief, just call me. I'll make sure there's a major dent in his face." I say, balling up my fist and planting a kiss on a knuckle. I smile at the sight of Ellie's smirking face.

"Don't worry about it." The waitress begins to approach us, holding her notepad and taking the pen from her ear.

"What are you having?" she asked. I turn to Ellie.

"Oh nothing for me, no cash." She says.

"That's fine, I have money. What'd you want?"

"No really its fine, you order."

"Elle, I'll get you something."

"Look, one of you order my shift's almost over." The waitress said.

"I'll take a black coffee and a blueberry muffin." I say. The waitress jots it down on her notepad.

"Comin' right up." She walks off, rolling her eyes.

"Hmm, didn't know you liked your coffee black."

"I don't, you do, I remembered. And I hope you like blueberry muffins too, cause that last one was a little out of the… blue." I joked, Ellie giggles.

"Blueberry's are fine."

Ellie and I talked for hours, the last time I looked at my watch it was 8… now it was midnight and the pub was beginning to close. As much as we didn't want to leave, we had to or we'd be locked in the pub. This, at the time, seemed romantic but Ellie had classes the next day and she'd kick my ass if I made her late.

After the long walk back to the huge apartment complex she shared with Paige, Marco and Griffin, we found ourselves on the doorstep of the entrance.

"This was great, I really needed it." Ellie said, trying to hold back laughter from a previous joke I made about one of my rehab dorm mates.

"Well, it was great hangin' out with you Nash." We were quiet for a moment, all we could do was stare at each other. "I… I guess I should be going now, the city bus creeps are already out." I begin to leave the step, but Ellie grabs my arm.

"Why don't you come in and we'll … talk a little more?"

How could I resist?

Third Person P.O.V

Marco awoke extra early the next morning. He and Ellie had exams today and he wanted to get to class early to do some last minute studying, of course Ellie agreed to come with.

He knocked several times on her door.

"Elle, Elle, come on sleeping beauty. You promised you'd come with me to class early. We have Carrington's exam and I wanna get good seats. Ellie!" He pushed open her door and the sight of Ellie resting her head on the bare chest of Craig greeted him. The red blankets covered what wasn't seen. Marco covered his mouth to hold back the emerging cry for joy. He silently left the room and closed the door behind him.

The End.