So I'm basing the phone call in this chapter from my own college experience. But it's been a while ago so sorry if it doesn't seem realistic. Anyways…..


Sinead skipped breakfast the next morning, telling Amy that she didn't feel very good. Amy hadn't pushed, but Sinead had rolled over to avoid her cousin's look of pity (which was sure to be on her face).

Now, she snuggled under the heavy comforter and called herself all kind of stupid for reacting the way she had last night. She couldn't believe that she had dropped her guard like that in front of all of her relatives.

And Jonah. He probably thinks you're mental now, after that episode a few days back and then last night.

She thought about the way she had snapped at him last night, the wounded look in his eyes, and knew that she was being so unfair to him. Desperately not wanting her thoughts to go that route, she decided to get up and write.

Writing was something that she held close to her, something that she didn't want to share with the rest of the world. The ones close to her knew about it, like Amy and her brothers, but that was it. She didn't write all of the time, but when she was depressed or upset the words poured out of her.

After writing for about an hour, she decided to text Amy and see what everyone was up to. She knew that she couldn't avoid her family all day, but wanted to try as much as possible.

Hey what is everyone doing today? Do you know? She sent.

A few seconds later, her phone dinged.

I think some of us are going to go to the small shops in town to get souvenirs. Madison is staying though, she said her head hurts.

Sinead didn't know what to reply to this, but a few seconds later another text came in.

We are actually leaving now, I can bring you breakfast but the kitchen is clearing out if you want to come down. Just Madison is down here.

Thanks, she replied back, I'll come down in a few minutes. You guys have fun.

At that, she got dressed, deciding to dress a little nicer today, something she liked to do when she was feeling down. It sounded silly but it helped her fight against her bad mood.

She chose a white tank top with big gold flowers at the top, a navy cardigan (not feeling comfortable yet displaying her scarred arms that much), and a red skirt, which wasn't too short, falling just above her knees. She continued her morning routine, spending extra time on her hair and makeup, before eyeing herself critically in the mirror.

Do I look put together enough? She asked herself. Her confidence restored after noticing that her eyes were no longer red or puffy and that she appeared relaxed, she went downstairs to find food.

It was a weird feeling to be one of the only ones here, the eerie quietness contrasting against the vastness of the house. She let her hands slide on the rail as she descended the steps, noticing the modern grooves in it, something she had never paid attention too before. Although the imposing mansion wasn't Sinead's style, she had to admit that the designers had done a good job.

She walked past the dining areas, hesitantly walking into the kitchen. Only Madison was sitting there though at the small table, head in her hands.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked the younger girl.

Madison looked up with a smile, "Yes, I'm fine. My headache is actually going away. Do you want to do anything? It's just us here today. Oh, and Jonah." She added, then her face froze and she shot her cousin a worried look.

Sinead waved her hand, but inside she wasn't feeling as relaxed. Great, just what she needed, another day spending too much energy avoiding him. "It's fine, I can be nice."

A look of doubt crossed Madison's pretty face, but it fled quickly and was replaced with excitement. "Can we like, do each other's hair or something? I hardly get to do anything girly at home." She asked hopefully.

Sinead smiled at the girl, she felt like Madison and Reagan were almost like her little sisters. "Sure," she replied, and then looked down at her pocket where her phone had started ringing. "Hang on," she said, walking back to the doorway and pulling it out.

It was a Boston area code, and looked like it might be someone from the college. She frowned, hesitantly answering it. "This is Sinead."

"Sinead, this is Professor Caldwell. How are you?" He asked politely.

"I'm fine, how are you?" She responded automatically, racking her brain as to why he might be calling.

"I'm doing fine. I'm hoping that you are here in Boston. I can't get ahold of Julie, and I can't find the last element of your project, which is what you two were working on, I gather?"

Sinead froze, her heart dropping. "The experiments and results? I wrote them in the paper."

She could hear shuffling sounds from the other line. "Your research analysis paper? I don't see it here."

Sinead swallowed hard, closing her eyes and trying to think. "Is it not attached? We did the labs two weeks ago and all copied all of the results onto a separate sheet like you asked us to."

He sighed. "It's not attached. I know you all worked very hard on it and don't want to give you a failing grade for that part of the project. It's Thursday, is there any way you can have it to me by tomorrow at five? If you can't, I'm afraid I will have no choice but to give you a zero."

Sinead felt panic overtake her, and had to work at keeping her tone even. "I will see what I can do."

She thought that she still had the file on her home computer, but she wasn't sure. Most of everything was on Julie's laptop so it might have to be completely redone, and she wasn't sure who would be able to do it. None of the guys on the team would be able to retest and turn something in that quickly. Sinead knew that Julie might be able to, but she was on her way to Australia right now, all the way across the world. There was no way she would be able to get ahold of her before tomorrow and what if Julie somehow didn't have it? That left Sinead, but could she get a flight that fast and still have time to get it turned in? She could work on it here, but needed the equipment at the school and at her house.

She could barely hear her own voice, telling her professor goodbye and then hanging up. Madison was at her side in a flash.

"What's wrong? Who was that?" She demanded, looking at Sinead in concern.

Sinead tried to crush her panic, but didn't quite manage.

"My professor, I have to go back to Boston. Part of our assignment didn't get turned in." She could feel the panic - and tears - rising. She wasn't one to cry often, but when it came to things dear to her (like schoolwork that held in it a goal of helping her brothers) it was like all of her emotions she tried to keep at bay spilled out of her.

"It has to be turned in by tomorrow. What am I going to do Madison? I can't fail!" She wailed, grabbing her phone to look up flights, but hesitating. She didn't even want to look. It was a 2 hour drive to L.A., probably 3 in the traffic, and it was already almost eleven. There was no way that she would get home today. She helplessly dropped her phone back in her pocket and turned and walked to the other side of the large kitchen, putting her head in her hands against one of the windows.

She felt the tears drop from her eyes, and the words she had voiced the prior evening flew through her memory. I'm a failure. I'll never be able to help Ted and Ned. And I've let my whole team down. How was I so stupid to not have Julie email me a copy of that lab?

She heard someone enter the room and Madison breathed a sigh, probably of relief, but Sinead was lost in her agony. Until she heard a familiar voice, that is.

"Hey what's happenin- um Madison, what's going on?"

"Oh Jonah, thank goodness." She heard the tension ease from Madison's voice and felt terrible that she had broken down in front of the young girl. She tried to get ahold of herself, scrubbing at her tears frantically.

She could faintly hear Madison relay what was wrong, and then she heard silence for a minute, before a "Dad? Where's the plane?"

She wasn't sure what to make of that, her thoughts still in despair, trying to think of what to do. She wasn't used to this, not feeling in control and not having a plan.

Then, from Jonah still, "I need it here. I'll explain later. How long will it be and how close can ya get it?"

Sinead frowned, turning to him, not caring that she probably looked like a mess. What was he doing?

His attention was on the call though. "Ok, so 1? That's good. Is there enough fuel to get to Boston, Massachusetts in it? Sweet."

She looked at him, astonished, her normally quick brain feeling like mush. Was he planning to do what she thought he was?

He hung up and met her eyes. They were guarded, which brought Sinead's guilty feeling back full-force. "You're flying me home? To Boston?"

He looked away, fiddling with his jacket. "Well yeah, this is kinda an emergency."

She kept staring at him, not believing that he would be so willing to help her after how cold she had been to him.

"That's awesome! Sinead, do you need help packing your stuff? I can help you!" Madison beamed at her, happy that a solution had been found.

Sinead felt like she couldn't move, still looking at Jonah for an explanation. He finally looked back at her, his eyes darker than normal.

"Go pack. The plane will be here soon."

"Ok. Are you going to tell me why?"

"There's nothin' to tell. I would do it for anyone," He said stubbornly.

Sinead felt an arm on her shoulder, it was Madison. "Come on." The other girl said. "Maybe if I help you pack quickly you can still do my hair."

Sinead smiled, feeling her stress and worry fading away and agreed, and when she turned back Jonah was gone.

"That was really nice of him." Madison told her. "See, he's not that bad."

"I know." She whispered. "I'm beginning to see that."


Sinead was packed and ready (even doing Madison's hair for her like she requested) in record time. She was now waiting in the entryway for the driver, even though the plane wouldn't be here for another hour.

Madison stood with her, gesturing to the living area behind them.

"Do you want to sit down?" She asked. "We could watch T.V., I'm super behind on 'Criminal Minds'." She said woefully.

Sinead agreed, and they were only fifteen minutes into the show when the door opened and their cousins piled in, talking loudly about the stuff they had bought.

"Whose suitcase is this?" Natalie complained, "I almost tripped over it."

"Sinead's!" Madison hollered. "She's leaving soon."

At that, all of the cousins piled in around the girls, asking a flurry of questions.

Sinead held up her hands, "I'll tell you guys, but you have to listen because I'm not repeating myself." She eyed Dan.

They did so and she relayed the story, stepping back into the entryway due to Madison complaining about not being able to hear her show. Her voice grew softer as she explained about the plane, getting to Jonah's part in it.

"Wow, so you're going back to Boston? For how long? When are you coming back?" Dan asked.

"Weren't you listening?" Reagan shot at him, then rolled her eyes at herself. "Stupid question." She muttered.

"Hey, no sister of mine is stupid!" Hamilton protested. "Dan's just a bad listener, that's all."

Dan glared at him, but didn't comment.

Sinead bit her lip. "Coming back? I hadn't thought that far."

She couldn't expect Jonah to charter her back in his plane. She reached for her phone, "I need to look at flights for Saturday I guess."

Jonah rounded the corner on those words, coming from the direction of the studio. "Why would ya do that? I've already arranged for the plane to bring you back Saturday sometime. Just tell me when."

"Really, you did?" Sinead was normally a great planner, but she was glad that he was taking the lead on this. Her brain still hadn't calmed down from the call from Professor Caldwell, half of her brain on her project and what she had to do when she got to Boston.

"Yeah." He said, looking towards the door. "I think the car is here for you too."

He started to turn and walk upstairs but looked back at Sinead. "Hey I was gonna ride out to the airfield with you, so you wouldn't feel weird by yourself with my driver, but I really have some things I gotta work on here."

Sinead was already shaking her head at him. "You've done enough Jonah, seriously. Thank you." She met his eyes, hoping that he could see the sincerity in them.

He brushed it off, looking away. "It's no big-"

"Yes. It is." She said firmly, her voice caught, and she forced the emotion down. "You have no idea what this means to me."

Now she was the one feeling uncomfortable. But she shook off the feeling, stepping closer to him, needing to know something before she left. The others were surprisingly silent, watching them warily like they might get stuck in the middle of a fight or something. But fighting with Jonah was the furthest thing from Sinead's mind.

"I still want to know why." She whispered softly.

He frowned, like he didn't know what she meant. She knew better though. His eyes met hers again - still guarded - and she wished that hers weren't so red-rimmed.

"You didn't have to do that." She pressed, "Especially when I've been so mean to you." Her voice broke again, and Jonah's gaze softened.

"Look, Sinead," He sighed, stepping closer to her also, right in front of her. She waited, knowing that this was his chance to agree with her, to state that she was mean and that he was just a better person than her - especially in front of everybody.

But he didn't. Instead, he reached a hand out and touched the skin below her right eye. His fingertips felt rough but gentle at the same time, and she froze, waiting for his next move.

But he drew back, saying slowly, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to fly out, focus on your assignment, and not feel guilty or upset about this. I know we got some things to talk about." He looked at her sternly, and she nodded, gulping. But his face softened again and he said, "I get it though. You push people away when ya feel like they're getting to close, not wanting them to see you as weak. But I could never see ya that way."

She looked at him, surprised at his words, and how right he was. She did push people away, afraid of them finding too much out about her.

She hesitated, knowing she really had to leave and could feel curious eyes on them. But feeling impulsive, she stepped closer and pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was his turn to freeze and he didn't return her hug right away. But then he draped his arms around her back and pulled her even closer.

Sensing that this could get awkward (especially feeling his body so close to hers and enjoying it entirely too much), she leaned up and whispered in his ear, "You're right. I'm sorry."

Then she drew back, saying out loud, "Thanks Jonah."

"Um, you're welcome."

Was it her imagination, or did he look a little flustered?

Trying to break the awkwardness, she added lightly so that he would know she was kidding. "I think you did this partly because you knew that if I stayed you would lose the cooking contest tonight."

It worked. He laughed, the tension easing from his body. "Hmmm ya think so?"

She laughed too, and then walked to Amy and Nellie, who were the closest to them, not caring what they thought about her hugging Jonah like that. She briefly hugged them too and informed the whole group that she would return soon and to not have too much fun without her.

Amy nodded, glancing over at Jonah who was just standing there, and back at Sinead.

"Call me when you get there." She said.

Sinead knew that she would be in for it, her cousin looked a little too pleased with what had transpired, her jade eyes gleaming knowingly.

"I'll send you a text." She said, turning away, taking her mind back to the days ahead and her project. Everything else would have to wait.


:D

The scene above is one of my favorites…I actually wrote it before I wrote the first 7 chapters of this story…let me know what you thought! Pretty please!