Okay, well like I promised I have the next couple of chapters coming at y'all full speed. I really hope they're okay. I've tried my hardest to make them better, so I hope you enjoy them! This chapter is pretty uneventful, but then again, it's only the second chapter and I have a lot to lead up to. It's kind of a filler, but what ever. I promise there will be more to come! The next two chapters are really dramatic. I took everyone's opinions into consideration and wrote based off of that. I know many of you said that Tommy should wake up first, but it seemed like Jude was too stubborn to stay sleeping in my story. Hah.

Oh, btw, my 'S' key is kind of sticking, so if some words in here don't have an "s", they should. Hah!

Well, I hope you enjoy! The next chapters will be coming soon! In the meantime, review, review! What are your holiday plans?

Bam!

"Oww!" Jude cried, waking Tommy from his place on the couch. Sun beams shown softly through the curtains of his home and warmed up his skin in the places they grazed.

A pain stricken, fully clothed Jude sat on the ground next to the coffee table nursing a swollen knee as Tommy looked on amused.

"Good morning," he smiled.

Jude's eyes shot to him immediately. First, filled with shock at the sound of his voice and secondly, with frustration.

"No, no!" Jude yelled, "go back to sleep! You can't wake up just yet!"

"What?" Tommy asked.

"Look, you need to shut up and go back to sleep," Jude pleaded. "Just for me, please!"

"Jude, look I'm already--"

"JUST DO IT!" Jude screamed.

"Yes, ma'am!" Tommy replied letting his back fall back in place on the couch. Although his eyes were closed, his other senses were on high alert. He listened as she banged around all throughout the house. Slamming cabinet doors, pots and pans, and drawers.

He sat silent and still everytime she came to check if he was still sleeping. He wasn't sure if she was waiting for him to get up, or checking if he was still down so she could go about her business, but one thing was for sure, he wasn't moving.

"You know," Jude's voice softly came into his mind. "You're a terrible actor."

Tommy peeked at her through one of his eyes, making sure he was stealthy. Sure enough she was leaning against the door frame that Tommy had watched he through the night before. Faking a stretch and a sleepy moan, he began to 'wake up.'

"You can stop pretending," she said. "I know you've been awake. But thank you for trying."

"So, did you tear down my house or something?" he asked, his voice husky from the 'sleep' he had.

"What?" Jude asked back, confused.

"Well," Tommy started, "you were making so much noise I thought for sure one of the walls of my house would be going down by the time you were done."

She glared at him and subconsciously rubbed her arm. A big purplish bruise tarnished her almost perfect skin, stretching just below her wrist all the way to her elbow. At first Tommy was shocked, but then as Jude's line of vision had changed, he smiled.

She had taken her piercing gaze from him to the chair at the front of the room, staring at it, as if to burn it with her laser vision.

"What, did you start a fight with the chair or something?" he asked playfully.

"Just because I'm bruised up doesn't mean it was my fault!" she replied.

"Yeah, because stationary objects really fight hard."

"Oh, good one, Tommy," Jude countered back. "That take you all morning to come up with?"

Tommy smiled. Then slowly his smile vanished.

"Yes."

"Thought so," Jude said with a satisfied grin. "Actually, I was trying to make breakfast. You wanna come check it out?"

"Wow, sure," he replied, taken aback. When they made the food last night, it was terrible, and Jude claimed she had never cooked much before. He made a mental note to take small bites, just in case one of the foods happened to have some weird stuff in it, like a penny or something.

As they walked into the kitchen, the breakfast was laid out perfectly. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns, everything. Orange juice had been poured into two glasses that sat next to the plates. It all looked so inviting.

"There is no way you made all this," Tommy stated in wonder.

"Who says?" Jude asked.

Tommy took his eyes off the appetizing meal for only two seconds before he saw the clue he had been looking for. Take out boxes from Denny's had been stuffed in the trashcans, however, a corner of the box had been sticking out. He was all too familiar with take-out food.

"Nice try," he commented as he walked toward the trashcan. "But you know, Ms. Buttersworth, the magician always hides their props." Jude's eyes grew wide as he took out the box.

"Fine," she sighed and threw her hands in the air. "You win."

"What exactly is your part in all of this?" he asked.

Jude motioned to the orange juice in the glasses as Tommy took his place at the table.

Tommy took a sip of his orange juice and smiled, "perfect."

After the two had finished their breakfast, Tommy went back to his room to change as Jude cleaned the dishes.

Slowly staggering out from his bedroom, he stood next to Jude as she dried the plates they had used.

"You wash," Tommy said, "I'll dry."

"Sounds like a plan," Jude agreed and handed him the plate.

"You're going to get your sleeves wet if you keep them like that," Tommy noticed.

"I'll be careful," Jude replied tossing the question away. They sat silently in their own thoughts before Tommy spoke up.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Jude replied. "Go ahead."

"I was just wondering the real reason you wanted to move out," Tommy asked, hesitantly. "You know, out of your house."

Jude was silent. She immediately stopped what she was doing and stared distantly out into the backyard from the window above the sink. The quiet began to make Tommy nervous. What had he said? Was it something bad? Back tracking, he wished he'd never said anything.

"I thought I told you yesterday," she replied softly. "I need a home."

"Yeah, but.." he stopped. He knew there had to be more than that. But he decided that if she wasn't going to answer, he wasn't going to ask.

"You know," he sighed, "it's not my place. Just forget I ever asked it."

"No," she mumbled. "I need to tell you what happened. I have to."

She didn't once take her eyes off of the scenery before her. Images played out like a movie in her spinning head. She wanted to tell Tommy, but she couldn't. Not now.

"Tommy," she began as her voice broke, "I want you to know that I will tell you. I can't tell you now, but I will. So I'm sorry, but I can't say anything. Not yet."

She immediately broke contact with the outside world and began scrubbing vigorously at the dish in her hand. Tommy had stepped into heated territory which he very well knew, and like she mentioned, he was going to drop it until she was ready.

"That reminds me," she started, changing the subject and breaking the ever present silence that had settled between them now and then. "I have to start looking at places. I have so much to do! We need to do some shopping before I leave you here alone again. I don't want you to starve or live off of take-out and McDonald's for the rest of your life. Why don't we finish up and then get headed to the grocery?"

"Sure," Tommy agreed. "That sounds great."

"We have to hurry," she said, glancing at the incoming dark clouds far in the distance. "We have to get there and back before the rain starts."

The car ride to the grocery was silent, as usual. Jude had suggested they go to a grocery store in the city nearby, so she could still keep hidden, but still keep close to home. They had driven, however, closer to the rain clouds and had little time before the storm would start. While they finished cleaning the dishes, Jude had complied a list of the things they needed which she kept firmly in her hands. She needed to be in charge and Tommy passively agreed.

"Okay, so first we need butter, eggs, and milk," she read off the list, "looks like, isle 4."

Tommy pushed the shopping cart while Jude threw in things off the shelf from every direction. Occasionally, Tommy would mutter, 'yuck' or 'I don't like those' as opposed to the approval he gave when she placed at least ten different bags of chips in the cart. Jude felt strange about shopping with Tommy. The only time she had ever seen him out of the studio was running into him at some parties or rehearsal for their shows. They once grabbed dinner together after the studio late one night, but that was it. Strictly business. That's why she had been so shocked to know that Tommy allowed her to stay with him. He was either desperate for a house guest, or out of his right mind this weekend, but one thing was for sure, she was grateful to him for any reason.

Not to mention the kiss they shared last night. It had been so sweet and tender, testing each others limits. She had felt such emotion from the one kiss, but neither of them had yet to bring it up. She didn't know if she was scared to say anything in case it would have been a spur of the moment thing, but she was sure he felt something too.

She had to admit that he did look like a little puppy dog following her around in the store. He was always the calm, cool, and collected one but when it came to anything about home, he was useless. Jude knew that Tommy never had much of a home, so she was determined to give him some kind of a home before she left. If that meant grocery shopping together, she could handle it.

Together. That's it. She felt strange because they had come here together. Couples shop together. Couples grocery shop together. She felt like they were a couple. But they were just friends. Friends who shared passionate kisses from time to time. Neither of them were interested in being a couple at this time.

"Jude, yes or no?" Tommy's impatient voice rang into her mind.

"What?" she asked absentmindedly.

"Should we get two of these soda boxes?"

"Yeah, Tommy, get whatever you want," she replied as she walked further down the isle.

Tommy took note of her behavior and set a mental note to himself to ask her about it when the time was right.

"Wow, I never thought I'd ever have so much food in one pantry in my life," Tommy stated bewildered.

"Yeah, that's called having a home," Jude commented. "You should try it sometime."

"Let's make something again!" Tommy said excitedly.

"Tommy, after what happened last night and how horrible it turned out," Jude mentioned. "You'll be scraping the crud off of those dishes for weeks."

"Come on, Jude. It'll be fun! This time we'll watch the Food Network," Tommy said, "We've got at least ten more minutes till the Rachel Ray lunch/dinner special is on, we should try it."

"Fine, lets do it."

Jude took the ten minute time lapse to get her things and try and get settled into the guest room for the time being. There was a very large bed in the center of the room pressed up against the back wall. A dresser sat directly across from the bed and above that a flat screen TV had been mounted into the wall. It had a very large closet and bathroom where she put all of her stuff for the night. Jude, however, was barley impressed by the large room and the technology it possessed. On the left side of the room, there was no wall, just windows with shutters that opened to reveal the spacious backyard and scenery it had. She had no idea that Tommy's house had so many trees in the backyard, let alone a pool. The pool had a hot tub, diving board and a beach entry, where she could lay out if she wanted to.

To the left of the pool were swings. It was obviously from the owners before Tommy because the thing looked like it hadn't been used in years. Jude watched the dark clouds roll in, with the rain that threatened to fall. She decided to go and try to swing on the swings before the rain had completely started, so she pushed open her sliding glass door and stepped out. The cool air smelled like rain already and the air was dense. Jude hurried over to the swings so she could at least have a couple of minutes of dryness before it was washed away.

She slowly sat down and began to use her feet to push herself higher and higher off the ground. She couldn't help but smile as she did so. She felt innocent, carefree, and alive. Not broken, hurt, and alone like she has been all this time. For the first time in a while she forgot about the worries of the big world and just focused on getting higher and higher into the air. She started to shiver, the air was getting cold. Slowing down, Jude looked to the window where she saw Tommy look on amused. She smiled at him and arched her finger, telling him to come.

Soon, he apperaed through the back door.

"You didn't tell me you had all this," she yelled to him.

"You never asked," he replied.

"Come swing with me," she said.

"And die?" he questioned, "no thank you."

"What, are you afraid of children's toys of something?" Jude asked.

"Well, seeing you're on a rusty swing set as it is about to storm, lightning is attracted to metal, and those chains haven't been used in years. So right now, yes, I am scared of the swings," Tommy answered. "Man, my mind is like lightning today!" he said confidently.

"Yeah," Jude agreed, "one flash and it's gone. Weird..."

"Funny," Tommy grudgingly replied. "Crap! I came out here to tell you Rachel Ray is on! We're missing it!"

"Well what are we doing out here then?" Jude replied sarcastically. "Let's get to it Betty Crocker!"

As they raced back inside a tiny raindrop bounced off of Jude's skin. She wiped it off fast, however, a little too hard. She winced when she felt she had hit something underneath. She lifted up the hem of her sleeve to reveal many finger sized bruises and cigarette burns covering her arms. Her face grew hot as she looked at them and remembered the remains of a broken bottle that had been in her skin under the neatly wrapped bandages under her shirt. Tears brimmed her eyes as more raindrops began to fall on her.

"Jude!" Tommy called from inside, "Hurry! She's already started!"

Jude blinked back the tears threatening to fall. She had done this so many times it was like second nature to her. She shook her head, mustered up the best smile she could make and headed inside.

Teasers for the next chapter!

Something abnormal and rigid. He softly moved her hair out of the way to take a closer look at what he saw.

When it all came into focus, his stomach nearly dropped to the floor as his throat grew thick with a lump that he couldn't make go down. His heart ached.

"Jude, I know it's him! You don't need to protect him!" Tommy yelled.

"But it's not Tommy! It's not him!" she countered back.

"He's a sick man, Jude," he replied, disgusted.

Okay!

Does anyone watch Gossip Girl on here? I pretty much cried on last night's episode when Blair was comforting Chuck. Like no joke, cried. Hah. What did everyone else think?

Question time!

1. What do you think is going on with Jude?

2. Should the storm play a part in this?

3. Should Jude be contacted by anyone trying to know where she is yet?

Okay, thanks so much!

xoxox

Emma :)