All right first of all I want to give you guys a major major apology for taking so long with this chapter. I've been really bust with work and stuff over the summer. That being said I hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to review. ; )


Rain Can Wash All The Dirt Away:

Christina took a deep breath and managed to wipe away the remainder of her tears. She slowly stood up and found that the coffee pot was still on, the last of the coffee had dripped into the pot. She went to go turn it off and considered having a cup before she left to go find Jeff, but decided against it. She had made it for Jeff and wouldn't be able to have any without him. She knew it was a stupid reason not to have a cup of perfectly good coffee, but she still stopped herself from having any. Still, she left it in the pot in case she wanted some when she got home. She grabbed her keys and wallet off the counter and made her way to her car, cell phone still in her hand.

Christina climbed into her car and sat behind the wheel for a moment, 'Where would he have gone?' The first thought that came to her mind was the coffee shop that he had been when she first met Jeff in Cameron. 'No, he wouldn't have gone there. He seemed pretty upset, and probably wouldn't want people to see him like that.' She then remembered that Jeff said he was supposed to be meeting Matt later that day, 'Great, That's just what I need, Matt telling Jeff how he was right about me.' "Fuck, Matt you've got it all wrong. I love Jeff." she sighed under her breath. Christina decided that Jeff must have gone to meet his brother. She figured that she should not try to get in between the two brothers especially if she was going to be the main topic of conversation and that she would just go to Jeff's place and talk to him when he got back.

She turned on the engine and made her way to Jeff's place. As she drove she thought about what she was going to say exactly. She also noticed that the light was rather rapidly depleting, which was weird as it was only two in the afternoon. Christina looked up to see that the sky had been completely hidden by dark black clouds. 'I thought, there was supposed to be drought in North Carolina in the summer time, not torrential downpour.' Christina thought to herself. Even thought the clouds above were completely black, there was no rain falling from the sky.

When she arrived she saw Jeff's car parked outside, but she saw no other car. 'Does that mean he's already talked with Matt?' The lack of Matt's car made told her that Matt was probably not here talking with Jeff. This was a bit of a relief to Christina. If what Mark had said to Jeff had been true it would have been proof that Matt was right and he, unlike Jeff, would not even consider letting Christina trying to explain herself.

There were no lights on inside the house, which seemed a little weird to Christina, considering how dark the clouds overhead were making everything.

Christina took one deep breath and slowly moved her hand toward the door handle and pulled. The car door swung open slowly and Christina's left foot touched the ground followed by her right. At that moment the clouds opened up and rain began to fall. As slowly as humanly possible Christina allowed herself to get out of the car. Each step she took towards Jeff's door tightened the knot in her stomach. She was still not sure how she was going to tell him about the past that she didn't even want to remember herself. "Will he even listen to me?' She climbed the three little steps up to the porch and took another step towards the door. Christina took in a deep breath and raised her hand to knock.

It was beginning to rain harder now and there was no cover over the porch. After a moment no one came to the door so Christina knocked again. She waited again, when again no one came she tried the knob, 'Locked.' she thought as she let out a sigh. 'What should I do now? Is he inside and just ignoring me? If not, where could he be?' Christina decided to go around the house and try the back door, but on her way around the house she found Jeff's shed with the door wide open. 'Maybe he's in here.' she thought. She made her way over to the open door, but did not find Jeff inside. What she found instead was a shed full of ATVs and dirt bikes, well almost full, there seemed to be one missing. 'He must be out clearing his head. I guess I'll just wait for him to get back. He should be getting back soon if it's raining.'

Christina decided she'd go wait for him in the front of the house rather than his shed. She had not been in the shed for very long, but it was long enough that it was now pouring outside, she would be soaked before she even made it back to the front of the house. She didn't care if she got soaked; she didn't think Jeff would be pleased to find her in his shed with his prized motor vehicles.

She made her way back to the front of the house and sat on the steps that she had used before to get to the front door. She had no intentions of waiting for him inside her dry car. Christina did not care how wet she got; all she wanted to do was tell Jeff how she felt and hopefully he might understand why she hadn't told him about Mark before now. Christina allowed the rain to soak through her clothes and was very shortly completely soaked to the bone from the rain. It was coming down in buckets.


'How could not have told me about some other guy? She would have told me if there was someone else. She wouldn't have told me she loved me. Or did she just tell me that to find out if I had been lured into her little trap. I guess Matt was right.'

Jeff sighed then quickly realized that he was supposed to meet Matt earlier. 'Shit! Oh man he's gunna be so pissed. Too late now, I'll talk to him later.' Jeff still needed time to sort out his thoughts. As he rode around on his ATV the wind rushing through his hair felt wonderful. He noticed the sky begin to blacken with dark clouds. This didn't bother him, the heat of the sun had been beginning to get to him and the overhead clouds instantly cooled the air around him. He was actually quite pleased to see such dark clouds; he rarely saw rain in Cameron.

'Maybe, the rain will seep though my brain and wash away all my emotions.' Just as this thought ran through Jeff's head he felt a raindrop fall upon his cheek. Shortly after he felt another and another then the sky really opened up and water fell from the sky like someone had turned on a faucet. Jeff could barely see more than a few yards in front of him. He decided he might as well get back to the house. As fun as it was to drive around in the pouring rain, Jeff realized that in his state of many emotions, driving around without being able to see was not the best idea. 'Woah there is something definitely wrong with me. I'm actually stopping myself from potentially dangerous.' He chuckled, although he still wasn't sure what gave him the desire to not do something potentially dangerous for once, still he made his way back towards the shed.


Christina sat out on the steps head in her hands, trying to collect her thoughts, the rain showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. Then she faintly heard the buzzing of what she figured was Jeff 's missing ATV. She was not completely sure how she heard it through the sound of the pounding rain. 'Oh God. If you leave right now he won't ever have known you were here. Shit you can't do that. You have to talk to him.' She remained sitting on the steps. Shortly she saw a tall figure round the corner out of the corner of her eye. As soon as the figure rounded the corner and saw her, she saw it stop in its tracks. Christina continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye but never turned her head towards him.

Christina took a in a deep breath of air and began to tell he story of her past. "Mark is the biggest mistake I have ever made." Christina began slowly; her fingers laced together elbows resting on her knees with her head hanging slightly. Jeff looked at her in astonishment. He didn't know what to think, finding Christina on his doorstep about to confess her past to him. She wasn't looking at him and he wasn't sure that meant that it hurt her to much to talk about Mark or if she had fabricated some story and was now lying to him. He looked again at her face she looked hurt, telling him that she was probably telling the truth. 'If she was just going to make up some story would she really have sat out here in the rain waiting for you? God I hope not.'

Christina made a sideways glance towards Jeff without moving her head so he wouldn't notice. Just as she looked over he opened his mouth to speak; Christina cut him off before he has a chance, "Please, don't say anything. At least let me finish." Jeff shut his mouth and allowed Christina to continue.

"Mark ruined everything for me. He ruined my job, my friends, my life; Nicki was the only one who stayed there for me. I am grateful to for that. If it weren't for her…" her voice trailed off for a moment as she thought of where her life might have taken her if Nicole hadn't have helped her out. Christina lifted her head looking straight forwards, trying to remain strong and not to let her emotions take over.

Pushing them back down, Christina continued, "Mark has been ruining my life since the first day I met him. He wanted to be my agent. He told me he could make me one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and he could get me whatever roles I wanted. Stupid girl I was back then I believed him. Things started off ok. He got me auditions all right. Comedies, dramas, action flicks, horrors, you name it he got me auditions for all of them. I never got the roles I wanted though. Occasionally I would get cast as an extra, but normally I wouldn't even end up in the movies. Mark kept telling me it was a slow painful process to get to the top and I knew that. I just hadn't thought that it should have been that hard. Turns out it shouldn't have been."

Christina let out a sigh. Jeff still stood there completely drenched from the rain. He watched Christina's face as she spoke. His eyes fixed on her, the rain dripping from her wavy hair and down her face. A few times the rain would run down her cheeks, leaving Jeff unsure whether it was rain or tears.

"Again, I was stupid then and I believed every word he told me. Things started to get personal between us rather quickly. He always knew the right things to say to draw me in. And he had me wrapped around his little finger. It wasn't long before I moved in with him. I could tell Nicki wasn't happy about it, but I just figured she didn't want to live on her own. I should have known that she would never be that selfish, and she was only looking out for me." Christina let out a sigh.

"After moving in, he began to change. He was still my agent, but I kept getting less and less auditions. I got less and less chances to go visit my friends. Eventually they gave up trying to contact me. Nicki was the only one who guessed what was going on. I was a prisoner in my own home. He treated me like a slave and a mistress rather than a lover. It was then I started to realize that everything he had done when I first met him was just to draw me into his little trap. I felt like he was a predator and I was his pathetic prey. I tried to leave him, but things just kept getting worse. The more I tried to get away the harder he worked to keep me there. He started getting violent; it started with hitting, then punching then kicking. I was so scared to do anything for myself without him telling me to do so, and I began to do anything and everything he wanted just so he wouldn't hit me. Even then, I still got hit and kicked; I think he just enjoyed seeing me in pain. I didn't try to get help because I was afraid of what he might do to me if he ever found out. There had been a couple times that Nick had popped by to see if everything was ok. Every time I had always acted like nothing was wrong. Mark would never leave me alone with her. He knew that I would ask her for help in a heartbeat if he did. Luckily she saw right through my phony act of being happy. However, both her and I knew that there was nothing she could do to help, until I asked for it."

"Then one day I got my chance. Mark had left really early one morning to run a quick errand while he thought I was sleeping. Little did he I know I could never sleep anymore, well not soundly at least. As soon as I heard the key turn in the front lock I ran downstairs and waited to hear his car leaving. As soon as he left I unlocked the front door and ran to the only place I knew. I ran to Nicole. She opened her door to see me standing there looking like shit; I didn't even have to say anything thing; she knew why I was there. She grabbed be and dragged me inside and called the cops immediately. I couldn't believe what I had done I just sat there staring blankly. I wanted to cry, but I hadn't been allowed to cry in so long nothing came. Chick flick therapy healed that problem." Christina gave out a slight chuckle at this happier memory.

"When she got off the phone she just came over to me and hugged me for as long as I needed. She wouldn't let me go; she is a sister to me, and I love her." She paused again to think about how hard she was going to find life living without Nicole.

Christina continued, her tears still falling down her face. "The police went to the house right away and arrested Mark for domestic abuse. I never actually pressed charges though. I know I should have and Nicki kept trying to get me to as well but nothing ever happened. I felt that it was all my fault that he acted that way. I know it wasn't, but you don't understand what it was like Jeff." Christina buried her face in her hands as emotion ripped through her entire body.

After a moment she raised her face again, took a few deep breaths and continued speaking as she had before, tears still streaming. "That was four years ago. And ever since then he's been trying to get a hold of me any way possible. He kept making surprise visits to mine and Nicki's place. Luckily Nicki was there with me everytime he showed up."

A shiver ran down her spine, "I don't want to think about what he might have done if she hadn't been around. I changed my number several times and we moved around the city, but he kept finding us somehow. He was the reason I had finally decided to move across the entire country, so he wouldn't find me. And I'm not even here a week and he's contacted me already."

When she had finished talking she continued looking straight ahead not looking at Jeff. Tears still falling down her face, and water from the rain dripping from her hair, nose and fingertips. Jeff had stood motionless staring at her just a few feet away from her. He had listened to every word she had uttered and watched the drops of water drip from her face to the ground.

Jeff couldn't believe that he hadn't trusted her. He felt stupid for have even thought such a horrible thing about her.

After a short silence Christina spoke again. "I just thought you might want to know these things, so you know both sides of the story." As she finished her sentence she stood up and looked at Jeff. He still stood looking at her not knowing what to do or say. "Well I guess I'll see you around." Christina shrugged and turned to walk towards her car. As soon as her face was out of Jeff's view she burst in to silent tears.

Jeff still stood in disbelief staring at her as she walked away. She was getting nearer the car and Jeff still hadn't moved. He couldn't believe what kind of a person Mark really was and now he was just going to watch the girl he loved just drive away. He wanted to go stop her but his feet were frozen in place.

Christina reached for the door, " Christina! Wait, please!" Jeff pleaded as he ran to her. She stopped reaching for the door but still stood facing away from him and towards the car. Jeff came up behind her, "I was stupid. I should have trusted you, I should have never assumed anything. I'm sorry." Christina remained silent. "I love you." He almost whispered, but still loud enough for Christina to hear him.

Christina turned around ever so slowly to face him. "I love you too, but…" That was all Jeff needed to hear. He scooped Christina up in his arms and pressed his soft lips against hers. The warmth of Jeff's lips against Christina's was so soothing; Christina couldn't help but to passionately kiss him back. They broke apart, "Christina I'm sorry I was a really big jerk. Forgive me?" With tears still running down her face, Christina gave a slight nod and looked up in to his eyes. Jeff cupped her face with his hands and kissed her again. Rain poured down on top of them, beating down onto their heads.

They broke apart again and Jeff took Christina's hand, tuggin her towards the house. "Let's go inside and dry off."

Christina nodded, her jaw trembling from the cold