Author's Note: Whelp, here's the next chapter! Finally, we get to Chip! You know what that means? Creative splurge!!! The 7-month gap covered in 8 minutes is enough to help me seriously build the relationship up from acquaintances to tutor and student to best friends and to finally two people in love. I am so excited. :D So remember, Chip will not be covered in one or two chapters; it will take up most of the story.

Chapter Nine: Emmett

I shivered involuntarily as the chilled October wind picked up suddenly, hugging my sweatshirt closer to my body. I hate the cold. Why was it cold? It wasn't even winter yet, for God's sake! Where was that global warming that was on the news every other day?

I paused in my thoughts as I saw a young kid run past me in what looked like a Spiderman costume, his mother streaking after him. I blinked.

Was it Halloween already? I frowned, going through the dates in my head. October 31st. How had I missed that? I suppose I was just out later than normal; not many people were out on the streets at all. The kid and his mom were the only forms of life other than me that I had seen all night.

Of course, I had only left Callahan's law firm barely five minutes earlier, so...

I glanced idly at the bus stop as I passed it, coming to a startled halt as I noticed someone sitting forlornly on the bench in nothing but a Playboy bunny suit. My lip quirked a little in a smile as I saw her blonde hair. She kind of reminded me of someone...

Wait a minute. I frowned, twisting my head to the side to get a better look at her face in the dark, and with a start I realized why she looked so familiar.

It was Elle. Elle in a Playboy bunny suit.

Elle with dried tear lines on her face, I noticed after a second glance.

"Whoa." I brought myself to her side, trying to get a better look at her expression. "Elle? What's up?" Her lack of response worried me more than I thought possible, and I feebly added, "...Doc?"

Well, that had worked. Sorta. Elle craned her head slowly towards me, but she didn't look like she was actually looking at me. She was looking through me. Where was her mind?

Another gust of wind whipped past then, but Elle didn't even seem to notice it. I knelt beside her, hesitantly reaching out to touch her shoulder and I nearly jumped as I felt the icy chill radiating from it. "Elle? How long have you been out here? I feel like I'm touching an ice cube."

What was wrong with her? This was not the overly pink girl carrying her pet Chihuahua I had met at the beginning of the year.

"Love."

I paused in my thoughts for a second in confusion before I realized the word had come from Elle's mouth. My jaw slackened for a second before I pulled it shut again to speak. "Uh, excuse me?" That was not what I had been expecting.

"I put my faith in love," she elaborated sullenly. "I followed where it led."

Now she was speaking in poetical riddles, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she meant. "Love..." I hesitated, "led you to a bench at a bus station that's been dead for over two years?"

Elle laughed once, hollowly, "Two years? No wonder I've been sitting here for so long."

"Elle," I spoke slowly, rubbing the side of my head slightly. Trying to figure her out was like trying to figure out the meaning of life. "Elle, why are you out here?"

Elle sniffed, "I told you. Love. I followed it. I followed him. He dumped me because I was a Marilyn not a Jackie, and I missed Greek week just so I could study for those stupid LSATS and... and... I even brought UCLA's drill team and cheer squad to the admissions, for God's sake! And look where all that's gotten me--I'm sitting on a bench on the edge of an abandoned street, flunking out of school as Harvard's laughing stock." She stomped her foot, her face finally growing contorted with emotion, "It's just so frustrating! God, I wish I could just be put out of my misery!"

I stared at Elle in shock as she ranted, trying to make any sense of her words. I went over them again and again in my mind before it finally clicked. Oh, hell no.

"Whoa. Back up a minute here," I told her, "the only reason you transferred to Harvard was because of Warner?"

Elle blinked, staring at me in confusion. "Well, yeah."

I shook my head, standing up. I knew they had dated, and I knew she still had feelings for him (really, that wasn't hard to miss at all), but to think she had come here only to try and win him back... She had transferred to Harvard on a whim, while I...

I shook my head in exasperation, trying to clear my thoughts. "Elle, life shouldn't be decided like that. God. What kind of rich, romantic planet are you from anyway?"

I had to admit, that was kind of harsh, but I had worked nearly all my life to get into Harvard and she... I blinked roughly, squeezing my eyes shut for a few seconds before I opened them again.

Elle sniffed again, her face unsure as she responded to what I had meant to be a rhetorical question. "Malibu?"

I inwardly groaned. "So, instead of staying at home – where you were comfortable with yourself – you stalked some guy all the way across the country?" I had heard many stories of why people had gone out for law, but this had to be the most bizarre one yet. It even topped Sundeep Padamadan's, and I didn't think that would ever happen. "Man, that has gotta be the weirdest reason I have ever hear--"

"Well, why'd you come?" Elle snapped out, and just like that my mind froze.

My first year at Harvard hadn't been an easy one. I was the short, scrawny video game geek who still had braces in his early twenties. Not exactly appealing in the minds of most people. Adding the fact that my father had left when I was seven hadn't seemed like the best idea then.

I guess I was still a bit anxious that if I told someone about my past they wouldn't look at me in the same way anymore. It was an odd fear, but it was mine. I just wanted to be that average lawyer. A normal, unextraordinary (yet still successful) guy.

Then again, the more I thought about it the more I realized Elle was anything but ordinary. What the hell.

"Okay," I told her, shrugging my sweatshirt off to give to her as I moved to sit next to her. She immediately clutched it about herself as if she had just noticed it was cold outside. I sighed, running my hand through hair before I began speaking.

"I... I grew up with my mom," I told her. "My dad walked out on us when I was young because he met another woman. He just left us, left my mom to fend for herself and to take care of me by herself. I felt so utterly helpless, especially as a kid..." I smiled blandly. "I've never forgiven my father for that." And I probably never would.

Shaking my head, I cleared the thought out of my mind and turned myself back to the present. "Anyway, I wanted to get a job that I could use to support myself. I didn't want to bother my mom by having her worry about my financial situation, and there was no way in hell I'd ever turn to the father that abandoned us." I leaned back slightly, going over the thoughts in my mind.

"Shortly after I turned eight this really great lawyer got both my mom and I the federal monetary aid we needed to get back on our feet." I smiled lightly, glancing at her sideways. "You might recognize him as Professor Dean Callahan."

"You mean--" Elle gaped in surprise, not even bothering to finish her statement, and I nodded.

"Yep. Callahan saved my mom's butt back then. I owe him a lot," I conceded. "Since then I've worked my ass off for even a chance to get into Harvard, and when I finally got accepted I still had to work two jobs inaddition to the scholarships I received in order to pay for it all myself."

Elle's eyes were downcast, whether out of shame or pity I couldn't tell, as she spoke. "Wow, Emmett... I don't even know what it's like to... It must have been rough."

"It was," I told her bluntly, "so excuse me for not weeping at your..." I flicked one of her rabbit ears before motioning to the ball of fluff she was sitting on, "tail."

Elle rolled her eyes at me, and I had to keep myself from grinning childishly in return at her.

"Well, excuse me," Elle grumbled, "if you've got some kind of chip on your shoulder."

I blinked. I had never looked at it that way before. A chip on my shoulder... the more I thought about, the more sense it made.

"You know what?" I said, "You're right. There is a chip on my shoulder, and a pretty big one at that. You might even want to upgrade the term 'chip' to 'boulder.' It might be more accurate."

"A boulder?" Elle cracked the first smile I had seen from her all night.

Finally. A breakthrough.

"Yeah," I told her. "I'm driven as hell to actually get somewhere in this field. I really want to just... win a huge case, and buy that house down the Cape my mom's always been eyeing but could never afford..." I trailed off in reminiscence.

"Aww, that's so sweet," Elle gushed at me as I looked at my watch and stood up. I turned to her and smiled lightly.

"No, that's the chip on my shoulder. The need to do something for my mom after she's done so much for me. Even if I can't take the day off, I know it will be worth it in the end." I looked her straight in the eye. "You need a chip on your shoulder, little Miss Woods, comma Elle."

"That sounds highly negative," Elle flat-out told me, and I shrugged as I hefted my bag further up on my shoulder.

"Hey, I'm just being honest. When you aren't born into privilege you have to work twice as hard. Cold hard facts of life." I shuddered as the wind picked up again. "Oh, and speaking of cold," I motioned to the sweatshirt she had hugged around her, "I expect that sweatshirt back within the week. Preferably sooner rather than later."

Elle nodded absentmindedly. "Right."

I took that as my cue to leave and spun on my heels, trudging down the still deserted street with my hands shoved into my pockets in an attempt to keep them warm.

"Wait!"

I stopped in mid-stride as Elle's voice halted me after barely twenty feet, and I turned around to glance at her curiously. "What?"

"Two jobs," she repeated, "plus law school?" She was glancing at me in genuine curiosity and awe.

I shrugged, making my way back over to her and saying with as straight a face I could muster, "I haven't slept since the early '90s."

Elle laughed, an actual laugh, as she shook her head. "Seriously – how do you do it?"

"I just make good use of my time," I told her. "It's not that hard. I study instead of exercising and doing my hair for hours on end."

"I don't spend hours," Elle protested, and I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get my point, right?" I knew she did as I glanced at her face; it was written all over it.

"I just need to prove to everyone that I'm serious," she mumbled quietly, and I shook my head.

"And just how are you going to do that when you're running around Boston in a Playboy Bunny suit?" I questioned her lightly, and her head shot back up to glare at me, though I could see a glint of humor in her eyes.

"Okay, so maybe the bunny suit was a bad idea," she admitted, but she quickly added, "but clearly I was misinformed! Vivienne told me it was a costume party!"

"And you trusted her?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion. I would have thought that Elle wouldn't trust a word Vivienne said after that one day she told Callahan to throw her out.

"Ha, yeah," Elle shook her head slightly. "Stupid of me, huh?"

"Not stupid," I told her earnestly. "Just somewhat naïve." She grumbled lowly for a few seconds, and I sighed. "Look, Elle, if you want to win... Warner... back, maybe I can help."

Elle raised her head at my suddenly. "Really? You mean it?"

God, did I just say that? What was wrong with me? That jerk didn't deserve her at all. But... I took in her earnest face, and I sighed out, "Yeah. I mean it." Another gust picked up, and I quickly added, "Let's just get you back to your dorm room."

"Oh!" Her face brightened considerably at that as she jumped up and down for a split second, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She beamed at me, grabbing my hand and started dragging me along, and I stumbled along behind her awkwardly.

"Come on, hurry up!" she nearly shouted, "If you've got a plan then we've got no time to lose! To my dorm room!"

Oh God. What had I gotten myself into?