Author's Note: Hello everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for the continued reading and support of this work. I hope you enjoy this installment.

In a related note to this story, if you've seen Liz's latest photoshoot… I didn't think I'd ever see that with her Elvis snarl pic. That's how Future Jade wore her 'wife-beater' top when Past Jade showed up. Anyway…

I think I covered everyone's individual reviews with PMs, but if I missed anyone, please let me know, so on with the story.

Rating: T Language and possible trigger words.

Chapter 10

"Where have you been?"

Jade looked up from her mother's PearBook with a slight scowl on her face at being interrupted from her web browsing and movie watching literally by her irritated self.

After claiming one of the stylish high end bedrooms as her own for the night and possibly for the next few days, the dark brunette had changed back into Freddie's Penny-Tee and a pair of pajama pants she had salvaged from her room to relax in one of the stadium seats in the living room for the rest of the afternoon and find some solitary peace from the insanity around her over the last several hours. She succeeded in that goal over the last hour with catching up with further news about how things had changed in the world over the last five years and was currently streaming a movie that Tori had starred in a about a year ago. It was some silly romantic comedy and not her genre of movie, but she could admit that Tori was adequate in her role.

Jade blew out an irritated breath through her nose and answered with a barely patient tone, "I went to visit some people."

The shorter haired Jade rolled her eyes while her arms were crossed under her chest then sarcastically responded, "You told me that when you were leaving; I want to know who you went to see."

Jade sat the leaned back in the theater seat and slightly cocked her head to the side as she stared at her counterpart for a moment.

"Well?"

The darker brunette just stared at her for another moment to make her wait then casually answered, "I saw Cat and Sam."

The singer snorted out dismissively and had a seat in the neighboring chair and facing forward, "Is she still brain dead stupid?"

Jade sat the PearBook on the table next to her seat then looked back to her older self. "I guess not; she's well enough to be able to take care of children. I see that as an improvement."

The musician glanced to her left at the teenager and snorted out dismissively, "That doesn't prove anything other than there is some really stupid parents to trust their kids with a schizo and a criminal."

The teenager shook her head and out of habit ran her tongue over the front of her top teeth and under her upper lip then spoke, "I can't argue with the criminal part, but for 'schizo', like you're in any position to judge in taking care of a child."

She deeply frowned as she snapped back, "Why would I want children? Bunch of ungrateful greedy little brats, all of them. I don't need the headache or the trouble and they just abandoned you in the end… so there'll never be a Sapphire."

The teenager put on a confused expression. "Who's Sapphire?"

The older girl slightly frowned for a moment then let out a laugh.

"What?"

The additionally tattooed girl snorted out a laugh, "I guess you haven't talked about her yet. She was the hypothetical daughter you were going to have with Freddie one day." She shrugged a shoulder and she put on an expression that Jade couldn't quite identify as she finished, "That's not going to happen."

Jade narrowed her eyes and whispered out with a cold, determined voice, "You shouldn't count that out… I intend to raise our children in this home."

The tattooed musician looked back to her as if she was caught for a moment, but then shook her head in disgust. "Damn stupid girl…" She put on a deep frown and questioned, "Was that it? You were gone for a while."

Jade smirked as she felt she had really hit a nerve and continued with a hint of smugness, "No, I was planning to go back and talk to Tori and Beck, but I ran into Ava. You know she's working with Hollywood Arts to teach the students the teachers overlook… like I was overlooked?"

The older Jade mirrored the gesture of the tongue over her teeth and under her lip and shook her head. She smirked in a dismissive manner and answered with contempt dripping off her voice, "Oh, she's giving back to the community? She's probably doing that to give herself some self worth as she's living off her half-breed abomination of a boyfriend because hasn't made it."

Jade glared at her while she retorted, "That 'abomination' just healed our mother from her trying to drink herself to death. He cared as soon as he found out while you don't give a damn to check on her, do I guess you would know about children abandoning their parents."

Twenty seventeen Jade bit her tongue and glared at the teenager.

"She was a mess. Her organs were failing her and she had pre-cancerous tumors. How could let that happen to her? How could you let her nearly kill herself?"

Older Jade shouted back, "And who told you that? Him?"

"Yes."

She narrowed her eyes to her younger self while challenging, "And you just believed him?"

"He's never given me a reason to doubt his word."

The shorter haired West turned in her seat to face her younger self and retorted with a harsh tone, "Except telling you what he was: his mama's little spy to manipulate me and Freddie to stay together. He did a fine job of worming his way into our lives didn't he?" She shrugged a shoulder. "He's still at it with you right now with that convenient healing."

Jade dropped her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. She slightly shook her head then gave the older girl a look of pity. "I see the drugs really are giving you memory problems. We're the ones that kept pulling him into our lives: since he was in charge of TheSlap, we had to go to him to get our films posted; Freddie asking him to help handle the interview with Nevel; I'm the one that asked him to go to Seattle with me. If anything, it was us that kept pulling him into our problems… and what do you know? I pulled him into another one with mom and he was there for us once again."

The future Jade turned back in her seat to face forward to the oversized television with a slight scowl on her face.

Jade turned to face forward towards the television and looked equally disgusted.

The pair remained silent for about a minute or so until the older Jade commented, "She wouldn't support me; I'm not going to worry about her. Why should I worry about people that abandon me?"

Jade shifted to her right and against the armrest to shout back, "Mom never abandoned me… dad, yeah, but not her. She may irritate us at times… because we're so much a like, but she never did that and you shouldn't have left her to try to kill herself. Why? Why is she doing that?"

"I don't know, you'll have to ask her."

"I'm asking you; what would drive her to do that?"

She flippantly responded, "Maybe she was trying to kill her guilt for abandoning me. I don't know."

"Like you're doing with your pills?"

The shorter haired woman snapped around to give her younger self a harsh glare and countered, "I don't have anything to feel guilty about and I'm not a drug addict!"

Jade returned with a disinterested stare and retorted in a calm, even voice, "Ava asked to come back here with me so Dusty could try to help you, but I told her no; maybe I shouldn't have said no."

The multi-platinum artist jumped out of her seat to tower over the sitting teenager and shouted with outrage, "That freak better not touch me or I'll find some way to clip his wings! There's nothing wrong with me!"

Jade wasn't phased at all by the outburst because of the tone and the look of desperate denial. She tilted her head slightly to the side and whispered back, "Except pill popping and spreading your legs just for the fun of it."

Twenty seventeen Jade clenched her jaw tight and balled up her right fist while giving a death glare at her younger self.

The green streaked hair teenager glared right back, almost daring her to take a swing on her. However, she didn't and shouted out in frustration then turned to head out of the living room.

Jade frowned as she watched her go and shouted out her own frustration, "I'm going to see Freddie tomorrow! Find out what really happened!"

The musician stopped in mid-stride and looked over her shoulder. "Well when you see him, tell him to go fuck himself for me, okay?"

Jade bit her tongue hard and remained silent.

The shorter haired Jade started her way back up towards the stairs.

Jade snorted out her irritation and turned back to her pick up the PearBook and start back on her movie.

The rest of the afternoon and night passed with the two Wests avoiding one another. Jade remained camped out in the living room and reading more up on the world and spoiling herself with future episodes of her favorite shows and watching others that hadn't been created yet in her time. She even watched a new Galaxy Wars movie for Freddie's sake in case he wanted the option of being spoiled in the future (from her point of view). She assumed her older self was in her bedroom or one of the other rooms on the top floor doing only God knows what.

Dinner time rolled around, but the older West never came down, so Jade just raided the kitchen to fix her own meal and find something to drink that didn't involve alcohol. After eating, the younger West decided to explore at least the bottom floor of the house.

She started on her way in a random direction, her sock covered feet on the carpeted floor dampening any sound that could draw her older self's attention. She start on her way to poking her head into various rooms, but stopped when she looked into the first room as she saw that it was a miniature recording studio. Her eyes lit up at seeing the arrangement and eagerly entered the room.

She walked around the room to look at the set up and saw that her future self hadn't spared any expense with the equipment. She finally stopped and had a seat in a large, black leather chair. She wiggled in it for a moment to relax and look around once more. Her attention turned to a desktop and she instinctively rolled to it. She booted up the computer then saw the library of songs that were housed on it. She raised a curious eyebrow at seeing all the songs that she one day might write and couldn't help but want to listen to them.

She keyed up a song, presumably one of her early ones, and started playing it. She relaxed back in the black leather chair and listened to the first song that started through the high end speakers: a slow, more melancholy song. She relaxed there for the next hour or so listening to presumably her first album and into her second one. Her other self's anger was infused in several of her songs with lyrics she could tell were directed at her friends and some pretty harsh ones directed at Freddie even if she didn't mention him by name. There were other songs that expressed her sadness and loneliness and wondered if her fans realized how true the lyrics reflected their idol's life. She put on a disheartening expression as she could imagine some poor girl listening to a few of her songs and has that as the soundtrack to her life as she start cutting on herself. She took a deep breath as she may not have know what exactly her sound of music would be, but she knew in her soul that she didn't want to write music to bring people down and make them miserable, but uplift people's spirits.

Jade finally glanced at the clock in the corner of the computer monitor and saw that it was getting pretty late and decided that it was time for her to head to bed. She took a few moments to shutdown the computer then pushed herself out of the very comfortable chair she could have fallen asleep while resting in it. She headed back to her room and decided that she would just get her shower in the morning before she faced a new day in bizarre land, however once she made it up the stairs she decided to turn to head for the master bedroom instead of her room.

She reached the master bedroom and saw that her older self was already asleep (and barely dressed with the skimpiest of outfits) with the television still playing. She walked over and took a seat on the edge of the bed. It was odd watching herself for a moment asleep, but what disturbed her more was that the young woman still looked troubled even being asleep. She let out a soft breath then leaned over and gave her a soft hug in the hopes to at least give her some comfort. The older girl stiffened for a moment, but then relaxed and seemed to calm with the comforting presence.

Jade pulled away and turned off the television before standing up and heading back to her own room. She felt drained as she reached her room and as soon as she entered and reached her bed, she pulled back the blanket from the nice queen size bed then slipped inside to hopefully get a good night sleep. She closed her eyes and snuggled her head into her pillow and wondered when she woke up whether she'd still be here or in Freddie's arms. Quite frankly she had seen enough of this world and thought she could manage fixing everything even if she didn't get to speak with Freddie, but if she didn't, she knew she had the strength to continue through the trials set in front of her and wouldn't let her future turn out like this. That was the thought that drifted through her mind as drifted off to sleep.

The light filtered through the blinds and onto Jade's pale face. The light shining on her face didn't disturb her at first, but as the minutes ticked by and the sun warmed her face, the teenager started stirring from her sleep. She finally rolled onto her back and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and pushed herself up into a sitting position as she supported herself with her arms back and her palms braced on the bed. She glanced around and saw that she was still in the fancy bedroom. She blew out an irritated breath and swore, "Jank it to Hell."

Vega Residence
Monday, January 30, 2017

Jade pressed the doorbell and waited patiently at the door to the Vega home. After a quick shower and breakfast (one which her older self skipped), she had thrown back on her leather jacket along with a different Penny-Tee she had grabbed from the clothes she had raided from her closet and a pair of her blue jeans to head out for the day.

The door opened and Tori questioned her in surprise, "Jade?"

"Hey?"

The actress questioned with an awkward expression, "Still here?"

Jade asked with a hopeful tone that even surprised herself in regards to Tori, "Yeah… can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure," Tori quickly answered with a welcoming tone and stepped aside for the teenager to enter.

Jade glanced around to see if anyone else was around and Tori quickly answered the unasked question, "Beck and Trina are at the studio today."

The teenager slightly turned and looked over her right shoulder to question the successful actress, "Does Beck live with you?"

The lovely brunette shook her head and walked up beside her as she answered, "No, it's just me and Trina. We haven't decided about the living arrangement after we get married."

Jade cracked a weary smile. "You still live with your sister in the meantime? How can you stand that? Especially with dating Beck? Doesn't that get kind of awkward?"

Tori turned and started leading her through the house with Jade quickly following as she answered, "We're sisters. At the end of the day the only ones we can count on is each other."

"Yeah, but can't she afford a place of her own?"

"Yes, but…"

"But what?"

Tori stopped as she reached the kitchen and turned to face the younger girl. "I guess we have some abandonment issues, so we're sticking together for a while."

Jade knotted her brow.

Tori motioned to the silver refrigerator and asked, "Would you like anything?"

"I'm fine… what's wrong?"

Tori cleared her throat and glanced down to the kitchen island she had made her way to in the course of questioning. She muttered out, "Our parents divorced about six months after we graduated from Hollywood Arts."

Jade walked over to the other side of it rested her forearms against it in support then questioned in complete disbelief, "Why?"

"My dad found out that mom had been having an affair with his partner on the force." The younger Vega sister took another deep breath and looked to the pale teenager so she could continue, "Mom had stopped caring about us for a while and dad was just showing less and less care for Trina… we may bug each other, but we're sisters and we realized that the only ones we could count on were each other, so we stuck together after leaving home."

Jade swallowed down her surprise and instinctively muttered, "I'm sorry." She didn't have much memory of her parents' divorce since she was so young, but it must have been an entirely different experience when experiencing it at eighteen and nineteen.

Tori nodded her thanks then asked again, "Are you sure you don't want anything?"

The pale girl relented as she realized that Tori needed to get her something just to settle her own nerves in dredging up the memory if her sorrowful expression was any indication. "Water? Juice? Pretty much anything since she only seems to have alcohol at home."

The brunette cracked a smile and turned to the refrigerator. She pulled out some pink lemonade and two glasses from the cabinet then the pair headed to a small table set aside in the large kitchen. Jade had a seat while Tori poured them some lemonade then sat the pitcher on the table. The brunette took her seat cattycorner at the end of the table to the pale dark brunette sitting on her left and raised her glass before taking a sip.

Jade waited a few moments to let Tori settle herself before starting, "I met up with Ava and Dusty yesterday. He got your message… worried that I would mess up things for you and Beck?"

Tori bowed her head with a shameful expression and muttered out in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, it's just…" She looked up to meet the blue eyes to finish with forced confidence, "I love Beck and he loves me… he was able to move on from you like you were able to do with Freddie and I don't what anything to happen that could change that. I wanted to know if he knew anything about what's going on. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish; I do want you and Freddie to be happy."

Jade waited for a moment before answering and perhaps surprising the actress, "It's okay. Ava's afraid too. She doesn't want me to do something that inadvertently keeps them from getting together. I'm seeing first hand what it's like to lose the one you love… and I've already lived through it once. I don't want anyone else to go through that… even you. Before this whole mess with finding out that Beck had been talking to Carly from the start, I wanted him to be happy too and find someone and if it's you… then I'm happy and I won't mess that up."

Tori nodded her head then mouthed a thank you at her understanding. She took another sip from her lemonade then commented, "So you found out about Dusty?"

"Yes… dramatically," she muttered out then took a sip from her drink.

Tori smirked and playfully questioned, "What? Did he show you his wings?"

Jade's eyes widened in shock and fortunately had finished her sip or she might have spit it out. "What? He has wings? You're kidding."

Tori let out a soft laugh at the expense of her friend and answered, "No I'm not, but I've never seen any feathers. If he didn't do that, then what did he do?"

Jade glanced down at the table and put on a soft frown as her fingertip played on the rim of the glass. "My mother is—was in pretty bad shape… she was drinking herself to death and he healed her. He just laid his hand on her and then… I heard a soft hissing sound and she was fine. Her normal pale color returned and she was sleeping peacefully instead of drunk out stupor…" She snorted out a breath and shook her head as she finished mumbling out, "…still trying to get my head around it."

Tori took in a sharp breath and gave the teenager a regretful expression. "I'm sorry Jade. If we would have know—"

Jade sat up straight in her chair and raised a hand to stop the lovely actress before she got started, "It's okay, Dusty is already regretful enough. No point in adding to it."

The actress lowered her eyes and regretfully muttered, "He does do that very well."

Jade slightly pursed her lips with a confused gaze from her eyes. "How do you know? Did you become friends later on too? He still calls you Vega. Do you remember his rule about names?"

The lovely Latino cleared her throat and looked down at the kitchen counter. She took a deep breath and answered, "I remember and he still uses it, but I know because… I was in a car accident a few years ago… it was pretty bad one. They may have said it wasn't anyone's fault, but… I still wasn't the best driver and I know it was my fault."

Jade leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table. Her voice filled with concern even for her former rival as she asked, "Were you alright?"

"Yeah, I was fine, but… the car that I hit… had a design flaw with the gas tank. The car engulfed in flames; a mom and her little girl were caught in it. The mom got out fine but… her daughter… she's only a little girl, not even five—"

Tori took a sharp breath and covered her mouth with a hand. She started blinked as her eyes started filling with moisture.

Jade had to clench her jaw tight to try to put on her best impassive expression as she didn't want to be pulled into the emotional moment Tori was having by dragging up the obviously painful memory, she didn't want her mind to go into such a terrible event.

The older girl took a calming breath and dabbed away her eyes with the back of her hand then continued, "She was in the burn ward and it was touch and go for her for a few days… she was so…" Tori shook her head and the tears started flowing.

Jade instinctively reached over and laid a hand on top of hers to give a comforting squeeze.

Tori sniffled then looked back to the teenager while trying to compose herself. "Let's just say it was bad… very bad and even if she survived which they weren't sure would happen, she would never be whole, but then… one morning…" Tori cracked a smile and let out a relieving laugh, "…she was prefect in every way. She said that an angel came to her in the middle of the night, but we all knew it was him." Her smile faded as she finished, "He was withdrawn for awhile and I think he resented me for a little while…"

The pale teenager pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes on the actress. "I don't understand."

Tori took another sip from her glass to try to somehow calm her nerves even if she was nearly drinking pure sugar then answered with a resigned tone, "It's a burn ward… it's not like she was the only one in there… but he couldn't help them all and if he started to try… where would he stop? Could he ever stop? But he did heal all the other children there."

Jade looked down at her drink and for a moment she wish she had access to her future's self liquor cabinet. She muttered once she finished her sip, "That's why Ava said he looks at it as a curse."

"I don't envy him, but I'm grateful for him being around… and not just for the insta-healing…"

Tori trailed off and turned back to her drink. Jade did the same as an awkward silence fell between the pair.

The successful actress finished another sip then tried to ask in a casual voice coming off the emotional conversation, "So… why the visit? I thought you would have more important things to do then to see me again before you left. Other people that you need to see?"

"I do…" The pale teenager cautiously asked, "Do you talk to Freddie?"

Tori sadly shook her head. "No, he's not speaking to anyone that I know… not even André or Dusty."

Jade took in a soft breath and placed a hand over her mouth as she let that fact sink into her mind. She muttered out, "Things just get worst." She lifted her head and continued with an irritated voice, "Out of anyone else, you had to be the closest to him; you'd be the one that would keep in touch, but not even you? He doesn't talk to you?"

Tori bowed her head then glanced out to look out the glass doors to the backyard.

Jade gave her a hesitant expression. "Tori?

The actress refused to meet the girl's eyes and turned her attention to her lemonade and took another sip.

The teenager asked with a more forceful tone, "Is there something you need to tell me about you and Freddie? Why things went to chizz with you two?"

Tori held her hands up and put up a fearful expression on her face. "Now just hold on a second. Nothing happened between me and Freddie."

The dark brunette slightly frowned as she retorted, "That's not what I meant… but you're a little strong on the denial. What happened?"

Tori dropped her hands on the table and let out a soft breath. "You had left Hollywood Arts after the music awards and moved out… you cut us off, especially Freddie then filed for emancipation from your mom. He was hurt… very hurt and angry about it. I was there to help him best I could… even tried to help get you two back together, but… everything failed and we were friends…"

Jade took a sharp breath as she realized what she was hearing.

"But—he was your ex and I couldn't do that to a friend even after you left… and I didn't want to take advantage of his hurt… he was so broken. I wanted to be there for him, but… I was afraid things would go that way, so… after graduation he washed his hands of everything and left for MIT. I haven't spoken to him in years."

Jade shook her head and muttered out, "I wish something did happen between you two at this point."

Tori eyes shot open in shock.

Jade cleared her throat then clarified while giving Tori an intense stare, "I was never blind that you're his type: that whole down-to-Earth, girl next door thing of yours and being all normal like him… and maybe the Shelby Marx resemblance… I know you would have been good for him… you would have loved him."

The lovely actress still looked onto her in disbelief to what she was hearing. She cleared her throat and commented, "I guess you really did get over all your jealousy issues."

"I was only jealous with Beck because he encouraged it by not doing anything and blowing me off whenever I complained about it. Freddie never made light of my feelings about that and he always made it clear to me that I was first to him." She snorted out with a laugh, "He had an interesting way of doing it."

Tori bowed her head in embarrassment about the jab about her fiancé's past behavior, but was curious on how Freddie handled it, "What was that? What did he do?"

"Early on in our relationship he made it a point of telling me that he thought all of you were pretty and great girlfriend material in your own way, you, Cat and Trina; but went on to say how fortunate he was to have someone as good as me and was afraid he was the one that didn't measure up. He worried how could he compete for the affections of someone like me especially when I could still have feelings for Beck… like he had for Carly; he didn't know how to prove I was his only girl and worked everyday to prove it."

Tori bowed her head slightly and let out a soft laugh, "Sounds like Beck."

"Oh? Really?"

She confidently nodded in return, "I can empathize; the girls just throw themselves at him. It can be… hurtful."

The pale teenager smirked as inappropriate it may have been, she kind of enjoyed Tori realizing what it was like in her shoes, "So Tori Vega learned what it was like to be me?"

"Maybe, but he lets them know he's off limits… something I guessed he learned from losing you. We make mistakes and we learn from them."

Jade nodded along and agreed with a solemn tone, "I know I have and I'm learning about ones I haven't even made yet."

This time the girls fell into a comfortable silence until Jade realized something and narrowed her gaze on the older girl. "Wait, Beck's my ex too, so why did you think it was okay to be with him and not Freddie?"

Tori blew out a tired breath then answered softly, "You had just broken up with Freddie and he was hurting like I said and I didn't want to hurt you either. By the time that you really had moved on and wanted nothing to do with us… he was gone, but with Beck, you gave your blessing for him to date other girls the day you and Freddie got together and that can't be conditional on who he gets to date… so when it happened more than year after you broke up…"

The dark brunette thought on that for a moment and realized she agreed with Tori. She didn't say in so many words, but they had agreed to protect one another from any other partner from mistreating the other. She had made no conditions on who he could date and she wouldn't have dared accept any from him especially in regards to Freddie at that moment, so she had no right to object in who he dated. She finally answered with a soft nod of her head.

Tori let out a relieved breath maybe to finally let go of any linger guilt she had in regards to the possibility of her and Freddie and especially now planning to marry Beck.

Jade bowed her head and palmed her forehead with both of her hands to just try to take a moment to process the last few minutes of speaking with Tori. She felt a soft touch on her shoulder then looked up to a compassionate set of brown eyes. "It's going to be okay Jade."

"I've heard that before… and I'm trying to believe that but…"

"What?"

"It's worst than I thought with… me… I walked in on her…"

Tori dropped her hand away from the teenager's shoulder and curiously asked, "Doing what?"

Jade glanced away for a moment then finished, "Some guy named Moose had his face planted in her crotch and… I don't have to paint you a picture."

The actress blinked in surprise as a mental image instantly formed in her head of such a sight. "Moose? She's with Moose?"

"No, she's not. He's her boytoy…" Jade quickly blinked and asked, "Wait, you know Moose?"

"Yeah, you don't remember him?"

The blue eye girl shook her head. "I don't know any 'Moose'."

Tori pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh, you haven't met him yet. He didn't visit until after the music awards. I didn't know that our Jade knew him."

"Who?"

Tori relaxed in her seat and answered, "Moose is one of Beck's childhood friends from Canada."

Jade's eyes shot open wide. "She's doing one of Beck's friends?"

Tori shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not sure how close they are."

Jade shook her head in disgust and countered, "Not that close because all the time I was with Beck, he never mentioned him… anyway, after I caught them and I threw him out, she popped some more pills then skipped dinner. She didn't even get up for breakfast before I left."

Tori's shoulders and a look of helplessness appeared on her face. "If there's anything I can do to help…"

Jade took a deep breath and forced a confident appearance on her face. "There is: there are a few other things I want to talk to you about."

"Ask me anything," she answered with a hopeful tone.

"I saw Cat and Sam… Sam, she's living with Sam."

Tori cleared her throat and looked away actually fearful of the teenager as memories of high school surfaced of the times the pale girl had intimidated her.

"How could you let that happen? Let her live with that bitch? How could she possibly be safe with Sam?"

Tori let out a patient breath then retorted, "Sam really cares about Cat… she really replaced Carly in Sam's life. She won't do anything to hurt her."

"So she really hasn't changed? She's just swapped out Cat for Carly on her 'do not touch list'?"

"I don't know. I don't go over there all that often; Sam doesn't come along with us when we hang out and she doesn't come over here when Cat is over for slumber parties."

Jade narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "You still have slumber parties?"

"Cat's still Cat and she loves movie night and staying up late."

The inspiring screenwriter rolled her eyes then continued, "Ava said you offered Cat to stay with you."

"I did. We have plenty of spa—"

"I can see that," Jade sarcastically snapped.

Tori took a deep breath and rallied her courage to snap back, "Look, I can't make her stay here. I know I wasn't the only one that offered after she moved out from her parents. Her brother and Ava offered for her to stay with them. I know Dusty was beside himself even after everything between them, but she's happy, so we don't push the issue anymore."

Jade threw her hands up. "Fine, okay I get it. I got the same thing from Cat, but…"

"What?"

"She wants to stay with Sam, but I just don't know if I can do that when I get back. I don't know if I can respect those wishes."

"If you love her then that's exactly what you do. You can offer her to stay with you if that's what you're thinking, but in the end it is her decision if you respect her as your friend."

Jade let a slightly withdrawn expression form on her face as she countered, "Wow Tori, you really got wise in your old age."

Tori snorted out a laugh at being called old at twenty-three. "Gee thanks Jade. I've missed this part of our relationship."

The old camaraderie brought a laugh from the blue eye girl's lips which caused Tori to laugh louder. Once they're respective laughs settled, Jade began again, "Okay, Cat can live with who she wants to live, but… you're a big movie star. I watched some of your movies last night… you're not that bad."

"Thanks," she answered with a smirk.

"Which made me wonder: why don't you get Cat some parts? She's stuck having to baby-sit with Sam."

"She's happy—"

"Happy living with her, but she's happy giving up performing? You're seriously telling me that?"

Tori frowned and looking away as Jade did catch a bit of shame in the older girl's eyes. The actress blew out a soft breath and whispered, "I'm telling you that I can't make her do anything she doesn't want to do."

"You can at least throw your name around and get her some auditions. You're meeting that Katie chick for lunch today, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well tell her to give Cat a shot during your negotiation… or are you afraid she's a better singer than you and beat you out?"

"Really? You're saying that about me?"

"I'm just trying to figure out this messed up world and why people are doing or failing to do certain things."

The successful actress took a breath and nodded her head. "You're right. She may be happy with Sam, but that doesn't mean I can't do that for her. Cat shouldn't get left behind. I'm paying my manager enough, so maybe I should be using her to help Cat."

"Good, I'm glad that's settled. At least I can fix that in this crazy world."

Tori softly smirked and shook her head.

The humor left Jade's voice as she spoke with an almost hallowed tone, "One more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where Carly is? Ava thought she was somewhere in Europe."

Tori took a quick breath then answered, "I think she has some showings in France right now. I think Beck might know they're closer than I am with her."

The green streaked hair teenager nodded. "Could you find out?" Jade snorted out a laugh. "Ava said Dusty could give me a lift and I think I'll take him up on the offer. I need to know how she saw everything."

"Give me a sec to call Beck." She got up and walked back to the living room while Jade waited patiently at the table and finished her lemonade.

Tori was back in less than a minute with a slip of paper with something scribbled on it. Jade stood up from her seat and instinctively took the piece of paper as the older girl explained, "This is the theater that she's performing at today."

"Thanks." The pale actress was surprised when Tori then pulled her into a quick hug. "Good luck," she whispered into the teenager's ear.

Jade gave her an awkward smile as Tori took a step back. "Right… remember, you take care of Cat… in case I fail and nothing changes, got it?"

The lovely brunette gave a nod of her head as she let a somber expression form on her face. She whispered in a matching tone to her face, "I will."

"Now let's see if this will work."

Tori gave her a curious expression. "What?"

Jade softly laugh and coyly eyed her as she spoke, "Oh I lay myself down to sleep for I pray to Dusty to get his possibly feathery tail over here. I need to see Carly and I could use a lift." Jade softly laughed for a few seconds afterwards as she shook her head in the sheer absurdity of what she had just done until she saw Tori tilt her head to the side and gave her a slight smirk with the sound a soft rustling of air behind the teenager out of time.

The pale, blue eyed girl slightly frowned as Tori motioned her eyes over the younger girl's right shoulder. Jade slowly turned around and sucked in a quick breath at seeing Dusty standing there with a soft smile on his face.

"Wow, even your prayers are sarcastic."

Author's Note: I think this was quite an eye opening chapter and the next one I hope is even better and reveal another very important theme I'm trying to get across that I set up for in this chapter, so I hope you stick around for the ride. Thanks for reading and reviewing.