Author's Note: Hello! I was inspired by Eli's and Clare's parts in the Halo Part 1 episode yesterday and just had to update! When they mentioned going on a picnic, I just knew I had to write about it. This chapter takes place before they show Adam their secret place. I am so grateful for all the reviews and I would love some more! Just let me know what you think! Thanks and I hope you enjoy! This part gets a little steamy…*winks*

Eli's POV:

"Your mind must be numb by now. This is a lot to get through," I said to her. She smiled as she shifted her weight as she sat on my bed holding a brown cardboard box.

"I feel like I'm playing a game. Like, Chutes and Ladders or something. I feel like we are really making progress then I pick up something, something that is hard for me to lose, and I come sliding back down again. It's ridiculously frustrating!" I groaned at her.

"I'm really proud of you, Eli. You've been doing a really good job. I know how hard this is for you but you shouldn't beat yourself up about it. Look around you. You have done more than you think," Clare told me. I slowly spun around. All I could see was piles of stuff everywhere except for one small space in the corner.

"See? We are starting to be able to see your closet now, and I think that's quite the accomplishment," she said, her blue eyes twinkling.

"Always the optimist," I said with a small smile. She sat down the box and patted the empty space on my bed next to her. I moved over to her. I sat down and put my arm around her pulling her close. We lay on my bed and just stared up at the ceiling.

"I can't believe you are still here. You must be so frustrated with all of this. With me," I said kissing the top of her head.

"I told you I would be here as long as you needed me," she said peering up at me. "And I meant it."

"I think we should take a break. What would you like to do? It is a Saturday after all. We should not spend it all trapped in here," I told her looking around my bedroom.

"What would you like to do?" she asked.

I smiled and shook my head, "no, no Clare. I thought of going to The Dot yesterday. I want you to tell me what you would like to do."

She bit down on her lip and twitched her mouth to the side as she thought. I love when she looked like that, although usually I see that look when she is trying to think of a clever remark to match my own friendly banter with her.

"Could we go on a picnic?" she asked me.

"A picnic?" I repeated.

She nodded.

"Alright then. A picnic, it is. Let's go raid my fridge and see what we can come up with," I said winking at her.

We both went downstairs. My parents were sitting on the leather couch in our living room watching some concert that was on television.

"There you two are!" my mom CeCe called out. "I was beginning to wonder why it was getting so quiet in there," she said smiling.

"Yeah, have you two made any...progress?" my father asked.

"Oh yes, Eli's room is coming along very nicely," Clare replied.

I glared at my father. I knew what he was asking about and it was not about how clean my room was becoming. My glare had the opposite effect on my father however; it just caused him to burst out laughing. I quickly looked over to Clare and was relieved to see that she clearly did not catch on to my father's double meaning.

"Uh, Mom?" I said. "Clare would like to go on a picnic; do you think you could help me out with that?"

My mother broke into a large smile, "of course. That sounds very nice. Just the two of you?"

"Well, that is if the rest of the neighborhood isn't down with joining us," I said sarcastically.

I was beginning to hate how much of a deal my parents were making about Clare and I being alone together. It was getting annoying.

"Let me go see what we have. Clare, sweetie? Will you come tell me what looks good to you? I think we might even have a bottle of wine left over from our party the other night…" CeCe said wrapping her arm around Clare's shoulder.

Clare's eyes grew wider but she smiled as she was led away to our kitchen.

"I'm going to go see if I can find any spare blankets!" Bullfrog called out winking at me.

I was stuck. I didn't know who to go after. Do I save Clare from my Mom or do I go talk with my Dad? I let out an annoyed sigh as I quickly followed after my father.

"Dad. Look, I appreciate what you are obviously trying to do for me and her…but look…we've already talked about it…we're waiting…" I said as he pulled a blanket down from the hall closet.

"Yeah, this will do the trick. Your mom and I had some good times watching some rock shows together on this blanket," he said handing it to me.

"Just watching shows?" I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer to my question.

"Well…now that you mention it…"Bullfrog started to say. I held up my hand, cutting the rest of his story short.

"Never mind. I really, really don't want to hear it. Just tell me it's clean and we'll be good to go," I said.

"Oh yeah, it's fine," he said laughing. I rolled my eyes and quickly went to the kitchen to find Clare.

"Bullfrog used to take me on picnics all the time," CeCe was telling her. "We loved to have them in cemeteries. They were always so quiet and peaceful. It would just be me…and him…sometimes a bottle of…"

"That's great Mom. Did we find something we can take?" I said interrupting her as I looked at Clare.

Clare gave a nervous smile, "we found some chips and pop, CeCe is just finishing up with the sandwiches."

"I don't remember where our picnic basket is," CeCe said has she slipped a sandwich into a plastic bag.

"I'll just use my backpack. That will work right?" I asked Clare.

"It sounds great, Eli" she said smiling back at me.

"Hey Clare, why don't you get in the hearse and I'll be right there," I said. Clare hopped off the barstool, gave CeCe a small wave and disappeared down the hall.

"She is such a nice girl Eli," she said watching Clare go.

"I know, but she isn't the most patient one so I think we should go now," I said quickly grabbing the soda, chips, and sandwiches and dropped them all in my backpack.

I really wanted to go before my parents dealt out any more stories…or unwanted advice.

"Well have a good time!" my father's rough voice said from the doorway.

"Thanks. And thanks Mom, for putting this together," I mumbled as I headed out.

"Anything for you two!" she called out after me. I quickly made my way out to Morty. I opened the door and got in.

"Sorry about that. Those two...once they get stuck on something, it can be hard for them to move on," I said explaining my parents actions as I turned the key. The engine roared to life and we slowly backed out of the driveway.

"I like your parents, Eli" Clare said rubbing the back of my neck. "If they were any different, they might be really mad at me right now."

I looked over at her, "why? What did you do?"

She gave me a mischievous smile, "I took your mom up on her offer." She reached behind her seat and pulled out a half-filled bottle of red wine.

"You little devil…"I chided her as I broke out into a smile.

She giggled, "We are not going to get drunk. Or even tipsy. I just thought a little might not be so bad."

"Oh, I see rebellious Clare is making another appearance. And here I was thinking that she only came out on full moons," I joked.

She stuck her tongue out at me before bursting out into a soft laughter.

"So where are we going?" she asked me. I turned to her and grinned. We continued to drive for awhile before I stopped in front of a broken chain link fence.

"Where are we?" she asked as I put the car in park and turned it off.

"Don't worry, we are still near civilization…"I teased her. She got out of the car as I grabbed my backpack. She walked up to the fence and wrapped her fingers over the chain.

"It says Keep Out," she said pointing at the sign. I raised my eyebrows playfully and took an overly dramatic step through the opening in the fence.

"Now who's the rebel?" she asked as she grabbed my hand and pulled herself through.

"Oh Eli, this place is wonderful," she said.

We were standing in front of abandoned church ruins that, from the looks of things, had been forgotten about a long time ago. It was perfectly hidden with tall green trees and thick over brush. Stones and wooden crates lay tossed about on the ground and an old run down car sat idly under a giant oak tree.

"How did you find this?" she asked stepping on the old wooden church floor. She began tracing her hand over the cool stone walls.

I shrugged, "It was on one of my urban adventures. Before I transferred to Degrassi, I wanted to get to know the neighborhood and one day, when I was walking around, I found this place."

"I would love to come on one of your urban adventures. Especially if we find places like this," she said smiling looking up at the large empty window. "Could you imagine when that had glass in it? It probably made a million of different colors everywhere."

"I'm glad that you like it, Clare. I knew that you would. Shall we?" I said motioning over the empty ground.

She helped me unfold the blanket and I began pulling out our picnic provisions. We chatted and laughed as we ate our sandwiches as the wind gently rustled the leaves, sending them to come floating down around us.

She reached for the bottle of wine and uncorked it.

"Shall we toast to urban adventures?" she asked me.

"To urban adventures…"I said and watched as she took a small sip. She passed the bottle to me and I took a drink.

I made a face, "ugh, my parents have terrible taste!"

We both started laughing.

"I would also like to make another toast. To you. For being by side throughout this whole mess. Literally and figuratively speaking," I said with a wink before I took another drink.

"I thought you said it was terrible," she said trying to control her giggling.

I shrugged.

"It's starting to grow on me," I said grinning as I passed the bottle back. She took another sip.

"What about you?" she said.

"What about me?" I asked.

"I think you deserve a toast as well. I'm very proud of you, Eli. You deserve the most credit," she said. I was touched by her words but I couldn't help but role my eyes in disagreement.

"You are entirely too nice of a person, Clare. You know that right?" I asked and smirked when she took a longer sip this time. She smiled and handed it right back to me.

I shrugged and took another sip, "To me. I guess."

She grabbed the bottle back from me. I opened my mouth in complete surprise.

"My, my, Clare Edwards…aren't we a little feisty…"I said my mouth pulling into my usual smirk.

"We almost forget the most important thing," she explained tossing her bangs that had fallen into her face.

"Which is…?" I said holding up my hands.

"Us."

I just looked at her. The autumn sun was coming down through the trees causing the red in her strawberry blonde hair to shine against her pale ivory skin. She looked so beautiful in that one moment.

"To us…" I said watching her take another deep drink. I found myself drinking a little more this time too.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked me after a few moments of us staring at each other.

"Honestly? I was thinking about that scene we did. Romeo and Juliet. The way the sun is hitting you right now, that is exactly how it looked during that scene. That day, I couldn't wait to kiss you…it practically killed me not to do it over and over again."

"And now?" she asked leaning back onto the blanket. I leaned over until my nose was brushing hers,

"I can't wait to kiss you. Over and over again," I told her. She smiled as her blue eyes flashed with excitement. She leaned her head up and tried to kiss me but I stopped her. I pulled away from her and sat straight back up and she quickly mirrored my movement.

"Then again, it could be from all this wine we are drinking," I said smiling at her.

Her eyes narrowed in a playful way, "oh goodness Eli, would you just come here already?" she said as she pulled on my tie, kissing my lips passionately with hers as we laid back down on the blanket.

"I'm glad that you like kissing me," she said breathlessly.

"Am I that transparent?" I said grinning and kissed her again.

She parted her mouth and I took advantage of it, our tongues moved together as I gently moved my fingers through her curly hair. I pulled her body closer to mine and slowly began to trace to my hand up her leg. I reached down and hitched her leg around my hip. I opened my eyes and stared into hers.

"Why did you stop?" she asked, her face flushing with a light pink color.

"I wanted to make sure that this was okay," I said as she lightly wrapped her hand around the back of my neck.

"This is fine. This is exactly what I want," she murmured happily.

"This is as far as it's going to go though, just in case this is the wine talking," I said to her even though I was beginning to feel the effects of the wine take a hold of me too.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to drive for awhile," I told her.

"Then let's stay here…" was all that she said as she kissed me.

There was no way I was going to object to that idea.