For about the fifth time in ten minutes Claire looked from the window, to the map, and back to the window.

"If you just tell me where we're going, maybe I can help you find it." Jack suggested, amused at Claire's frustrated features.

"No! I want it to be a surprise!" She told him with a smile. "My friends and I had planned to come up here from the University, but never had the time."

"So this is your first time here." Jack asked, alternating his eyes between the road and her.

"No, not really. I came up here alone once, but…" She checked the road and the map once again.

"Alone?"

"It was pretty, but it wasn't fun." She revealed. "It's much better if you're with someone or someones."

"So I take it we're going to a sightseeing spot?" He guessed.

"Yep! But it's not for, like, three or four miles, so…" She put the map away and looked at Jack, who was concentrating on the road.

She thought for a moment, considering whether or not to ask him the question that's been on her mind since yesterday. Taking a deep breath, she decided. "Jack?"

"Yeah?" He glanced at her, then back at the road.

Her heart started beating faster. What if he gets mad? What if he closes up? Oh, crap! Curiosity took over, though, and she kept on talking. "You don't have to answer this but…" She started fidgeting with her hands. "I noticed you start getting, you know…sad when you talk about your family, and…I, um…" Damn it, you started already, just ask him! "Well, you don't have to answer this, but…I was just wondering why?"

Jack was quiet for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not to tell Claire a story that only Tommy knew about. You just met her! Half of his brain said. But she told you about her family, why not tell her about yours? The other half argued. You can't trust her! Side one reasoned. What does your heart tell you? Advised side two.

Claire, on the other hand, bit her lip, worried that Jack had closed up. Maybe he just decided not to answer the question. Her mind reasoned. Or maybe he's overwhelmingly sad and he hates you now. The other pessimistic half of her mind speculated. Claire was about to apologize either way, when a sign on the road caught her eye. "Oh! Here's our exit coming up."

Jack pulled out of his trance in time to catch her words and take the advised route. At the end of the exit was a dirt road leading to a half-filled parking lot. "Where are we?" He asked solemnly.

"It's one of the biggest national reserves in New York." She told him, taking notice of his tone with a heavy heart. "It's beautiful, I swear." The parking lot looked much like a clearing in the middle of the woods. "They have almost everything here. There's the forest on this side, but if you walk down the trail somewhere along the line you'll come across a big, beautiful field full of wildflowers!" She tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible, but failed miserably.

Jack nodded, grabbed his satchel in the back seat, and got out of the car. Claire sighed, disappointedly. She thought this was going to be a happy day, but she herself had ruined the mood with that one stupid question. Suddenly her car door opened and she saw Jack offer his hand, a smile on his face- a real smile on his face. Confused and a bit hopeful, Claire unbuckled her seatbelt, took the hand, and climbed out of the car. Jack closed and locked her door, and made sure all the other doors and windows were closed and locked, before pulling her away from the car and towards the start of the path through the forest.

He looked up at the sunlight through the trees and smiled. She was right- this was really beautiful. Beside him, Jack could sense Claire's apprehension. He turned to her with amused eyes and a smile. Claire noticed this and asked, "What?" She didn't know what he found so funny. The question actually mad him laugh a little, and she got really curious now. His amusement was contagious and soon she found herself laughing as well. "What?" She emphasized with a smile.

He ran his thumb over the small fingers of the hand he held. They were so smooth, like a baby's hand. He stared into her beautiful blue eyes with a special sparkle in his. The sunlight filtering though the treetops illuminated her golden hair. The top half of her face glowed with radiance! Her silky smooth skin shone in the sunlight, and her smile made her even more the brighter. She was an angel. She was his angel! And that was why he was smiling. Gawd! He never felt so lucky!

Time stood still, and even though he felt his legs moving, he felt as if he was standing still. And gawd, he wanted to stand this way forever! All so suddenly, though, he remembered what she had asked him in the car and he tore his gaze away. The dirt quickly became the most interesting thing in the world and he started playing with it using his foot. Claire recognized the nervous gesture and opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

"I'm sorry about that thing in the car. And before you say anything," He rushed the second part when he realized she was about to babble an apology, "…let me get it all out." Claire looked into his eyes and nodded.

He turned his gaze towards the path and continued with a sigh, "My mother wasn't exactly what you would call… emotionally stable." He paused for contemplation, "In fact, she wasn't what you would call stable in any sense! She drank- a lot- so her walk wasn't even stable- ever! Anyway…" He kicked at the dirt. "Her usual hobby- before I was born was bar hopping and city hopping…basically, she'd hop cities to bar hop." Oh my god! Claire thought. "And…every night she'd get drunk and wake up the next morning in bed with another man. So…when she finally found out she was pregnant with me, she had no clue who the father was." Claire entwined her fingers with his in a silent gesture of support. "After it was confirmed in the doctor's office, she packed her things and moved back in to the cabin in Minnesota- where my grandparents lived. That's where I was born. My grandfather brought me into the world." He told her with a small smile on his face.

"A couple of weeks after my birth, when my mother was strong enough to walk again…she took off in the middle of the night…and never came back." His voice was so quiet, Claire had to strain to hear him. When she had, though, she wished she hadn't. A knot started forming in her throat and she felt the first prickle of tears in her eyes. "My grandparents raised me after that. They were the perfect parents." He smiled, "They drove five miles into town to bring me to school every day, five miles back to return home, five more miles to pick me up, and five more miles to bring me back home." He and Claire laughed at that. "That's the kind of argument my grandfather would make every time I got in trouble and he had to lecture me." They both laughed again as Jack started to imitate his grandfather. A minute later, though, he got quiet and started playing with the dirt again.

"When I was eight, both of my grandparents were coming home from the general store in town when…" His breath caught in his throat and Claire decided they both needed to sit down. She guided them to a fallen tree and sat him down. She supportably stood by him until he was ready to start again. "…They were driving down the street at a crosswalk when this drunk driver doing 95 slammed into them head on." Oh my god! Was all Claire could think. "My grandmother was killed instantly, but my grandfather spent a week going in and out of consciousness in the ICU." Claire put her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. He was lost completely in memory now, oblivious to anything around him.

"My grandpa liked to kid people a lot…and this one time when he was conscious," Jack chuckled, "he made me promise to name my firstborn son after him. I knew he was joking, but, I promised him anyway." Jack's eyes looked the saddest they had ever looked as he continued. "After I promised, he gave me an envelope from among his papers that he made me retrieve from the cabin. It later turned out to be his will but…He gave it to me and he said, 'Jack, your grandmother and I have loved you more than life itself…' and he pulled me closer and he said, '…promise me one last thing, my boy…' and he looked me straight in the eye and said, 'No matter what happens…promise me you'll reach for the stars!'" A tear fell from the corner of his eye. "I told him I promised. And then he smiled, and nodded his head…and then he died- with a smile on his face." Jack looked into Claire's eyes and smiled as well. With tears pouring down her face, she took his head in her hands, wiped the tears from his eyes, and hugged him like she was never going to let go.

They stayed that way- locked in an embrace- for a very long time. Jack was the one who broke the hug. He took her hand, and they once again started heading down the path. "They put me in the foster system after that." Jack continued. "And I only had one foster parent." He said, in his quietest voice, a voice still filled with terrible sadness, "He…uh…" He scratched the back of his neck, looked at the ground, then at the path, then back down at the ground. "…He was a drinker too."

"Oh my god!" This time Claire couldn't help but say it out loud. Wasn't it enough that Jack had to go through all of that in the first place?! Now he had to have a drunken foster father?! Claire cursed at life's unfairness.

"Yeah…"Jack agreed, "He had the Vodka for breakfast, the Corona for lunch, the bar at dinner, and beer anytime in between." Claire shook her head. She couldn't believe people could be so…she couldn't even think of a word for it! Suddenly the tears started coming back to her face. Jack's face suddenly looked pained, "Just throw in a stick and a couple of leather belts, and you get my life for the next eight years!"

"Oh my—"

"But hey! It wasn't that often so…" He ran his thumb over her fingers to comfort her. Ironic, cause she felt she should be comforting him. "…I went to school every morning, then to the library after school up until it closed, which was at nine, and when I finally get home, he's usually out at the bar or…passed out. So it didn't happen that often. The only times it did happen were during the weekends, spring break, or summer vacation. Other than that, I left him alone, he left me alone." Claire, though, was still upset it happened at all! "When I was sixteen I filed for emancipation, got Tommy's parents to back me up, and boom! I was free."

He saw how Claire was reacting to all of this and stopped their walk. Taking her head in his hands, he wiped away her tears with his thumbs and made her look directly in his eyes. "Hey! It's okay!" He told her in the gentlest voice she's ever heard, "I reached for the stars and I found them, Claire!" He smiled brightly, "I'm okay."

"It's just…" Claire didn't know how to word her thoughts, "I don't know how anyone could be so…okay with that!"

Jack laughed and took her hand, once again leading her down the winding forest path, "Tommy says I'm like a rubber ball…and that I bounce back- no matter what!" Claire gave a slight laugh, "I don't know how true that is but…I know that right now- looking at you and me…" She met his eyes, "I'm the luckiest man in the world!"