First of all, my apologies to all for updating this baby just now. I'm soooooo sorrrrrrryyyyyy! Gahd, I feel so bad for making you guys wait for almost a month for Chapter 3. I've been too busy with real life that I can't find time to update it but whatever. It's here now and all you need to do is read, read, read, and just read! Then review please! :D Thank you so much!

PS: Btw, our beloved bad-ass would make his grand entrance on the 4th chapter and not in this one. Maybe I'm just too excited for him that's why I got it wrong. Hahaha! I'm sorry again, guys. L

Disclaimer: I do not own the show, the characters and even this story which was originally written by Janet Quin-Harkin. Just to remind you again guys and also for those who've just started reading this: It's completely AU.

Chapter 3

I was so upset I wouldn't even talk to Jesse or Mercedes when they called later that day. My father poked his head in my room to tell me that the gang was still planning to go the Italian film festival that afternoon, and that I could meet them there or at Fiorelli's afterward.

"So what did you tell them? That I was grounded until I'm safely among the herds of buffalo?" I snapped.

My father grinned. "You can meet your friends if you want to, Rachel. We're not monsters, you know."

I decided against the Italian movie. I knew it was about a woman who falls in love with a soldier who goes away and gets killed in a war, and I had a terrible feeling that I might sob all the way through it. But I did manage to splash cold water in my face and put on some lipstick so that I looked human enough to join them at Fiorelli's.

My friends were sitting in a corner booth when I walked in, and they looked at me with compassion. Mandy scooted over to make room for me next to Jesse.

"You missed a good movie, Rachel. It was so sad," she said.

I managed a half-hearted smile as I squeezed in beside Jesse.

"You must be in serious trouble," Mercedes ventured. "Your dad was like Mr. Iceberg when I called this morning."

"Yeah, he told me that you weren't talking to anyone," Jesse said. "I'm sorry you got in so much trouble, Rachel. I had no idea your parents would freak out about a little party."

I tried to answer him but I had to hold back a sob instead. I looked around at Fiorelli's, noticing the Italian opera posters on the walls, the pink candles on the tables and the Pavarotti playing in the background, drowning out the impatient roar of the traffic outside. Lights were glowing from a marquee across the street. There was a kebab vendor on one corner and David's Deli, home of David's Famous Pastrami, on the other. This is New York, and I loved it.

"Are you in real trouble now?" Jesse asked, touching my hand gently. "I mean, are they grounding you or what?"

"Worse than that," I began. "They're taking me to Wyoming."

"They're what? For how long?" My friends were all looking at me in shock.

"Forever," I said sadly.

"I don't believe it," Jesse said. "You break one tiny rule and they ship you off to Wyoming?"

"You'd better believe it because it's true." I said.

"My parents said they've been worrying about what to do with my grandfather and this helped them come to a decision."

"Just because of your grandfather?" Mandy snapped. "You don't just up and move to Wyoming because some old guy has broken his leg!"

"That's only part of the reason," I said. "they want to get us out of the city and to a place where life is simple."

"You've got to be kidding," Alicia said, rolling her eyes.

"They can't do that, Rachel," Mercedes said calmly, tossing back her hair. "Go to the child advocate at school. Tell her your rights are being abused. You have rights too, you know."

"And psychiatrists have proven that it's harmful to move a student in the middle of high school," Alicia agreed. "They'd actually be risking your mental health, Rachel."

"The Constitution guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," David added. "I'd say you have a zero chance of pursuing happiness in Nebraska or wherever it is."

"Wyoming," I said.

"Same difference," David said. "Once you get past Pennsylvania there's nothing until you reach California. I've driven cross-country before once. Trust me."

"Wyoming's okay," Alicia commented. "Jackson Hole looks cool. I've seen it on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. They have natural hot springs and horse-drawn sleigh rides. Tons of celebrities go there."

"We could come out and visit you for a skiing vacation," Mercedes said, looking enthusiastic all of a sudden. "I'd love to lie in a hot spring with snow all around. How romantic!"

"We're not going to Jackson Hole," I said bitterly. "We're going to a place way in the boonies that nobody's ever heard of. We're going to live in a ranch. It's the worst thing that could happen to anybody!"

They were back to looking sorry for me again.

"So just refuse to go," Mercedes said. "What can they do, carry you off over their shoulders?"

"My dad says that children under eighteen have to go with their parents, whether they like it or not." I said.

"Not if you make a big enough fuss," Mandy said. "When I can't get my own way, I threaten not to eat. My parents are so worried I'll turn into an anorexic, they always give in."

"I've only got a couple of weeks before we leave," I said. "I don't think I could starve myself to death in that amount of time."

"Just run away," Mercedes said as if this were the simplest thing in the world. "We'd hide you, wouldn't we, guys?"

Jesse gave me a sweet, wicked smile. "You could always share my room, Rachel. You know that."

"No, seriously," Mercedes said. "If you don't want to go, don't. You're almost a grown-up. You can live with one of us. We'll hide you until they're gone.

I shook my head. "I couldn't do that," I said. "They'd be worried sick about me."

"They deserve it, not caring about your happiness," Mandy said. "I mean, Wyoming is worse than a death sentence. You'll die of boredom there."

"Think about it, Rachel," Mercedes said. "No stores within a million miles, no coffeehouses, and you'll have to go square-dancing with guys who wear big boots." She paused and started laughing. "And you'll have to learn to say hee-haw and wooee!"

"Believe me," I said, "I don't intend to get close enough to any Wyoming guy to dance with him and I will never say hee-haw. In fact, I'm planning to lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling until they realize how unhappy I am. Then they'll have to send me back here."

Jesse was staring down at his cappuccino. Then suddenly he looked up with a big smile on his face. "Lighten up, Rach," he said. "You don't really think your parents will be able to stand it out there for more than a couple of months, do you? They're used to New York too, remember. They might think that it's cute to live on a farm for a couple of weeks, but wait until it snows and they're stuck five miles from town with only one channel on the TV. I bet you'll be back by Christmas."

I looked at him hopefully. "You really think so?"

He nodded. "I'm counting on it," he said. 'Who else would I take to the winter formal?"

It was about the sweetest thing anybody had ever said to me and I felt dangerously near to tears again.

"I hope so," I said. "I just hope you're right."

I spent my last weeks in New York cramming in everything that I had always meant to do but never done. Jesse did everything with me, going to as many of our favorite hangouts and movie houses as possible. "So you don't die of culture starvation." He said.

What a great few weeks. Jesse and I really began to connect - to get to know each other. How was I ever going to leave him?

On my last day at Dover, Jesse and I spent a perfect October day together. The temperature was warm without being muggy and the leaves were beginning to turn gold on the trees of Central Park. We walked through the park together while horses clip-clopped by, pulling open carriages of tourists. Central Park had never looked lovelier. New York had never seemed a more perfect place to live. Central park had always been just at the end of the block, and I'd hardly ever taken the time to walk through it. But that day I savoured every tree, every rock, every fountain saying to myself, I'll never see this again.

"I can't believe I'll be on the road to Wyoming in the morning," I said.

"I can't believe it either," Jesse said. "We're only just getting to know each other and now you're going away. It's not fair."

"I'll never feel this way about anybody else," I blurted out.

"I know what you mean. You're really special, Rachel." He took my hand gently. "Saying good-bye is hard for me too."

"I'll think of you every day," I said. I felt a tear trickle down my cheek.

"Hey," he said, reaching across to wipe away the tear. "It's not like you're going to the end of the world. There are phones in Wyoming. I'll call you every night."

"That will cost a fortune."

"I don't care," he said. "My sister calls home from college all the time on our calling card. I should get equal privileges. And there are planes. I could hop a plane and come out to see you."

"You could?"

"Sure, or you could get your parents to fly you out back here for vacations."

"Yeah," I said, a tiny glimmer of hope appearing in the darkness of my despair. "They'd have to allow me that, wouldn't they? They couldn't keep me away from my friends forever."

"And like I said," Jesse added, "when the first snow comes and the pipes freeze and they can't find fettuccine in the local store, I bet they'll run back to civilization. By next spring, you'll have forgotten that you were ever away. We'll go to all the new Broadway shows you've missed and we'll go rollerblading through Central Park when all the new leaves start growing back on the trees."

"Oh Jesse, you really think so?"

He smiled at me. "I'll be holding your hand and when we come to a big tree like this one, I'll take you in my arms and kiss you, just like this…" His lips then met mine and we stood locked in each other's arms. "If you haven't forgotten all about me by next spring, that is, " he teased as we drew apart. "If you haven't found a cowboy you like better by then."

"Don't joke about things like that," I said angrily. "That will never happen."

We walked home, hand-in-hand. After a final goodbye kiss, I watched as he turned and slowly walked away. It was the last time I was going to see him for who knew how long. I wanted to remember the moment forever.

That night, Dad came into my room as I was trying to cram the last of my stuff into an already-too-full duffel bag.

"Rachel, I know you're mad at us for doing this to you," he said. "I know you don't want to go, but please believe we're doing what we think is best for all of us,"

I went on trying to jam a pair of shoes into a non-existent space in the corner of the bag.

"Who knows?" he went on. "You might actually like it there."

"Right."

"You might even blossom into a person you never knew existed- one who doesn't need credit cards, expensive, designer clothes and wild parties to have fun."

I got the shoes in and wrestled with the zipper.

"Your mother and I have been concerned about how much this upsets you," he went on, "and we've decided on a compromise."

I looked up hopefully.

"We've decided that you should give it a fair trial. If at the end of the school year, you're still desperately unhappy in Wyoming, then we'll arrange to send you back to New York for your junior year. Does that sound fair?"

"it sounds better than nothing," I agreed. "Back to Dover?"

"I didn't say that. We'll have to think about it very carefully. But promise me that you'll give Wyoming a fair shot. It will be a challenge for all of us to adapt to a new way of life. We're going to need to pull together, okay Rachel?"

I gave a grunt, which could have meant okay and he walked out of my room. But a new ray of hope was glimmering in my brain. If I could just survive the rest of the school year…

*Oh god, my eyes are already straining as I am typing this but thanks to you guys, I still had the energy and will to push through this migraine and finish this so that you won't be tired of waiting. Anyway, I really need to rest now because I still have classes tomorrow. Chapter four coming up tomorrow night, hopefully! Reviews are love! :D