Katie stood in the kitchen, water running hot, her hands idly scrubbing dishes clean. It rained outside; she could hear the soft patter on the window. It was quiet, a sound that made her crazy, especially after growing up with youthful antics and shouting as a kid. This was not what she dreamed her life would be like when she turned twenty one. She dreamed of being able to be on her own, without help, without relying on anyone or anything to get by.

When she finished the dishes that had sat in the sink for several days, she dried her hands and turned to look in the living room. It had been a week and all her things still sat where they'd been when she ran off. Her cell was dead, her papers still thrown about on the table, but one thing was missing; her note. She noticed it when she got home, but hadn't said anything about it.

She blinked when she noticed her phone buzzing on the table. It nearly danced off the wooden table until she heard the name come up; James. She stared a long time at the phone before flipping it open. "Hello?"

"What do you mean, what happened?" She heard James shouting.

"I mean, what happened the night she stayed over at your house? I know the cancer isn't the only thing making her depressed." Kendall half-yelled, hearing James breathing hard.

Katie wasn't sure what was happening, but it was quite apparent that James had pocket dialed, considering his phone was almost always in his back pocket. "James?" Katie asked again.

She was apparently unheard, when James took a deep breath and began to speak again. "She called me around four in the morning," His voice trembled for a moment or so. "She said she had nowhere else to go and had no way of getting hold of you."

(The italic is Katie's memory)

"Katie?" James asked, hearing Katie's trembling voice on the line. "Katie, why are you crying? What happened?"

"I can't get hold of Kendall or mom…I don't know what to do."James was the second and only person she would call other than her own brother. "Something really bad happened."

James' heart nearly stopped. Was something wrong? Why was she crying? "Where are you?" He looked at the clock and took a deep breath. He sat up straight in bed, waiting for her answer. "Wherever you are, I'll come get you." She'd called from a cell phone so he didn't know where she was right now.

"My apartment burned down. Like; the whole building. There was a short somewhere in the electrical system, the landlord overlooked it last inspection. I'm not the only person out of a home right now, but the other people are lucky enough to have family they can contact. I'm standing outside the ashes, looking at what doesn't exist anymore." It was small moments like this where she was glad that most of her pictures were at the office. "James, where do I go?"

"Just stay there. Don't move. I'm coming to get you." He checked his watch again and did the math in his head quickly. She was an hour away from him, it was raining. He hoped she didn't get sick. "Don't do anything stupid, okay? I'll be there in an hour."

"I know," Katie whispered with a smile. "I'll wait right here."

It took him roughly an hour and a half to get there, only because of the traffic. He pulled over on the curb, forgetting to put the car in park. He flinched when his car collided with the one in front of him. At least it was only a foot and didn't do much damage. He threw the car in reverse and backed up a few feet and threw the car in park this time. He noticed Katie coming towards him, so he opened the door and stepped out.

She squinted slightly and ran towards him, throwing her arms around his neck. "I thought that was you who caused the accident!"

"It wasn't an accident; I merely tapped the car in front of me." James grumbled, folding his arms around her narrow hips and holding her close for a long time. "I'm glad you're okay." He wiped a bit of ashes from her cheek and shook his head. "Did everyone else get out okay?"

"Mrs. Leightman got caught under a support beam when it fell, but they got her out okay." She began to tremble, crying softly against his shoulder. Her hands curled tightly in his shirt. "I didn't even know what was going on. My neighbor pounded on the door for almost five minutes, it was the floor below us that caught first. I didn't hear anything; you know how I get when I sleep."

He smiled, putting his hand against the back of her head, brushing gently through her hair, removing soot and ash. "When you called me, I thought it was something else. I thought you were calling me because someone had hurt you. This is worse than what my mind came up with on the trip down here."His left arm brought her closer while she cried. "I'm just glad you're okay."

She smiled softly, nudging closer to his chest. She stared up at him with her typical honey brown eyes. "James, you look very cute with your hair in a mess."

It was the first time he'd noticed that his hair was unkempt. He blinked several times and touched his hair, patting it into place. It was all over the place, sticking up in some places, curled slightly in others. He didn't seem to care much. "You're going to come to my house until we find you somewhere else to stay."

"I don't want to be in the way, James." Katie commented, loosening her grip on his dark blue shirt. She knew he had put it on just to come get her; normally he slept shirtless. She could also tell that it was messy because it hadn't been cleaned lately. It wasn't that he was gross and didn't clean his clothes, but because he probably didn't feel like looking for anything else.

"You call me at four in the morning in a helpless panic and nearly make me fall down the steps to get to my car, cause a crash when I got here, and you're telling me you won't at least come to my house for the night?" He seemed dejected when he spoke.

She turned away slightly, her eyes a little darker when she caught his words. She had noticed he was limping slightly when he walked. "You fell down the steps, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well, that's what I get when I try to put my shirt on and run down the steps at the same time." He tugged on her hand, dragging her towards his beat up silver Corolla. He'd had the car since 2000, when it was brand new, but he hadn't driven it until he was sixteen. Although James was wealthy, he preferred to stay low-key about it. "Just so you know, I haven't exactly cleaned lately."

"And should I expect anything less?" She inquired when he opened the passenger side door for her to get in. She put on her seatbelt and closed the door, following as he moved to the driver side. This time he had the foresight to keep his foot on the brake when he took it out of park. "Are you sure you should be driving?"

"I'll be fine. I keep later hours on tours, so it's okay. Just keep me awake so I don't crash again." He commented with a slight snicker. Katie didn't take it as lightly.

"How have the tours been going? I haven't talked to you guys in a month. I know you had a back to back tour in August." She laid her head back and stared up at the ceiling, her finger lacing against the window slightly. She propped her elbow on the door handle, placing her head against her palm so that it was the only thing between her and the cold window. She listened to him speaking, along with the soft patter of rain against the window.

James pulled into the driveway of his small suburban house an hour later. He turned to see Katie sleeping, but shook his head. Closing his door, he smirked remembering just how she got when she was tired. Coming around to the passenger side, he opened the door, holding his hand out to steady her so she didn't fall. As if dealing with a child, he undid her seatbelt and lifted her into a bridal carry. "You're a pain in my ass, you know that?"

She grumbled something incoherent and snuggled closer to his chest.

He looked down at her and shook his head. Carrying her up to the second floor, he tapped his bedroom door open with his foot and placed her on the dark blue sheets where he'd once been sleeping. Pulling the light blue covers over her slender form, he leaned over her for a long time, watching her sleeping. He brushed her hair to the side so it wasn't in her eyes, and looked away. What would Kendall do? What would he do if he knew what was running through his mind? Could he hurt his best friend like that?

More importantly; could he hurt the only girl he loved like that? His mind screamed at him to take advantage of the moment. To use it and do what he'd died to do since he noticed her developing. He wanted to touch her in ways he shouldn't. She'd never forgive him if he did. He brought his lips closer to hers and gently kissed her before turning away and closing the door behind him. "Goodnight, Katie."

Katie woke to the sound of a dish shattering. She sat straight up and looked around to see where she was at. She noticed the photograph on the wall of the gang at their first concert, but she didn't realize until she saw the blue sheets. She'd seen them only once before; they had small diamond patterns on them. It always made her laugh, simply because the owner of said bed sheets was none other than James Diamond.

She ruffled her hair slightly and noticed the ash. "That's right…I'm here because my apartment burned down…" She stepped into the hallway and heard James singing a song she'd never heard before. He seemed excited, like he'd slept with someone last night. Suddenly the thought struck her; though she'd welcome him sleeping with her, she'd prefer to have been awake. "James, we didn't—"

"Do you honestly not trust me?" James asked, setting out a plate on the counter. "You're my sister; I could never do anything like that to you. No; I put you to bed, then crashed on the couch."

She touched a hand to her head slightly, sitting on a stool at the counter. "Do you have coffee? I can't function until I've had caffeine in my system."

"A girl after my own heart," James murmured, pouring her a mug of muddy black liquid. He still wasn't exactly the best at making coffee, but at least Katie appreciated it. "I called my little sister. She's going to let you stay with her for a while." Jade had been living in town for nearly a month, not that far from James, actually. When he mentioned that Katie's apartment was in cinders, she was the first to offer a place to stay.

Jade was actually James' stepsister, since his father remarried two years ago. Jade and Katie were in the same grade, so they grew up together. Her eyes were a bright combination color somewhere between green and blue, a beautiful shade of teal; thus, the name Jade.

Kendall increased his grip around James' neck. The older boy growled deep. "If she tells me any different, I promise you that you won't wake up tomorrow morning."

"Stop playing big brother, Kendall. Where were you that night? Where were you when she was standing on the street crying? Where were you when she had nowhere else to go?" James shouted, his voice cracking ever slightly when he yelled.

Kendall's grip loosened. Where was he? Wasn't he with Jo that night? What kind of brother was he? He let go, his hand falling to his side. "Don't break her heart."

"What do you mean?" James inquired, staring at his best friend of twenty-four years. "How can I break her heart? She doesn't even love me."

"Oh, please. How stupid are you?" Kendall tugged on James' hair. "Is all that product killing brain cells? You were a B student, you can't be that oblivious. You've always protected her; even when it ruined your reputation. You were- are -her knight in shining armor, and you've always been the only other person she trusts other than me." He took a deep breath. "Katie told me once, when she was sixteen, that she was devastated you stopped hugging her. You stopped talking to her, looking at her. She told me that she went to bed in tears the night you told her you would only allow her one photograph of you."

"I didn't realize it would hurt her so much," James whispered. "I never realized how she felt."

"Yeah, well, now she's dying. Do you realize how much you've wasted? Do you realize how much of her life was wasted admiring you, and not getting feelings reciprocated? Do you know how that feels?" Kendall whispered darkly.

"She isn't going to die," James hissed under his breath; malice lacing his voice. "She won't die until I tell her I love her."


Katie dropped her phone, the conversation dying into a slow fade. Her world began to fade into darkness when the conversation turned towards her disease. She had been forgetting, but then it came up again. And what did James mean by not until I tell her how I feel? Didn't he already tell her? And how could he have kissed her and not told her? She descended the steps to the garage.

Her new apartment wasn't very far from where James lived; she came to his house and banged on the door for a long time. When he finally answered the door, she folded her arms and stared up at him. "How could you!"

"How could I?" James asked incredulously, leaning on the doorjamb.

"How could you kiss me while I was asleep?" She shouted, her voice rising harshly.

He didn't like the tone this conversation was taking. He stood straight and let his arms fall to his side. "How did you know…?"

"You pocket dialed me!" She took a step forward, and he took a step back. "I thought I could trust you!"

"I could have done worse!" James shouted back, standing toe to toe with her. "I could have done much worse! God knows I wanted to!"

She stood with her lips a breath away from his. Her brown eyes stared deep into his own honey colored hues. "Thank you, for being a gentleman. But if you wanted to do anything, wait until I'm awake to enjoy it. Otherwise, what's the point?" She winked and turned away, her hair smacking him as she left.

It almost felt as if she'd hit him with her hand.

"Katie?" He called.

She turned around and smiled. "Yes, James?"

"Never mind," James stared at his feet and walked away, closing the door.


Sorry for the lack of updates. I started college last Monday, and my sister-in-law's mother died that following Wednesday, so I haven't had much time to get anything done. I still have five other stories that need updating. –sigh- Anyway, someone requested to know what happened that night, so this is just filler.