...The Winnebago...

"You know I wanted out so badly," Sonya said, "I wanted out of this world so badly. I thought what I could do, I thought it made me unable to exist--" she stopped, "but Max, Max isn't ever going to be able to leave," she turned around, "I know you're there Em, you can show yourself and tell me why you're here listening to me mope."

"Have you," Emily said appearing, "have you noticed that the Covenant's powers are changing? Tyler can't even Use anymore, neither can Pogue. If anyone can Use it's Reid, Caleb and Chase because their father's Willed them power. But even so, it'll be hard for Chase and Caleb because they're power has manifested," she sighed at Sonya's expression, "Reid hasn't manifested his power," she said finally, "and we're running out of time."

"I agreed to protect him, what more do you want?" Sonya demanded.

"I want you to do your job!" Emily shouted, "if I thought asking you would do anything I would but I know it won't so I am ordering you to protect Reid. His best shot at survival is for his power to manifest," she pulled a folder out of thin air and offered it to Sonya, "look at it."

Sonya sighed and opened the folder. The first photograph was at a beach during the sunset. Kate and Pogue were standing together, only Kate was wearing a white silk beach dress and Pogue was wearing a suit--or rather a button down shirt and slacks, Pogue's definition of a suit. She frowned and looked at the stuffy man a few feet away and did a double take. She flipped through the photos, Pogue and Kate looking far too happy and carefree to have been posed. She saw the platinum bands on their fingers and looked at the last photograph of them in front of a storybook house. Slowly she closed the folder and looked at Emily.

"His power manifested just after that," Emily said, "Mel gave me the file--where are you going?"

"I'm going to go to Mel," she said storming off and heading towards the trailer, "Melanie where are you?!"

"Hi," Mel said, "lets take a walk, something tells me that you're going to be loud as hell and I don't think Reid needs to hear this. Come on," she led Sonya up the hill, "I assume that Emily showed you the photos."

"Yes," she said, "what the hell is that supposed to mean? What are you trying to say to me?"

"I'm saying that we don't have time to make up a tragedy, we don't have time to cause Reid pain and suffering to spark a manifestation. Until his power manifests he can still 'Will' it away. If you're going to protect him you can't have him be such an easy target."

"So if I'm not making him suffer then what am I--" she stopped, "oh no, absolutely not."

"Why not?" she said.

"Because Reid and I don't actually care about each other," Sonya said, "you can ask anyone--anyone at all and they'll tell you that we're only good at two things--"

"No," Mel said, "you're good at three things, fighting, having sex and lying. You two are exactly the same and you're both too afraid to admit that you might actually like--dare I say love--each other! You can lie all you want we both know that you both have a very nasty habit of pissing your sexual escapades off by saying the other person's name in bed."

"Maybe I just like the way the word Reid sounds," Sonya said crossing her arms defensively.

"Are you kidding me?" Mel demanded, "okay thats it. Listen to me right now. Unless you get his power to manifest now, you're never going to find out whether or not there's a chance that if the two of you get your heads out of your asses it's possible to have a relationship."

"That made no sense," she said, "but I get it. I don't like it but I get it," she said, "you said pain and suffering right?"

"No, no, no!" Mel cried storming after her.

"Oh yes, yes, yes," she said walking down the hill, "I am going to beat that insufferable man until his power manifests so hard that he doesn't know what hit him," she continued looking around for him, "Reid Garwin you get out here right now!"

"What?" he muttered sleepily walking out of the winnebago, "you want a rematch?"

"No I don't want a rematch," she snapped, "I want to make it very clear to you that I was not hung up on Parker when we were together," she jabbed her finger at him, "the only person I was hung up on was you! Of course the last time I felt that way about anyone he turned out to be a murderous asshole so I didn't handle what we had very well. But to think I was hung up on him? Are you kidding me? The only person I ever wanted when we were together was you," she turned to Mel, "now can we do it my way?"

"No, hold on," Reid said grabbing her arm, "you're kidding right? I mean when we were together--if that's what you could call it--we never--"

"No," she said, "we didn't but she wants me to make your powers manifest," Mel smacked her forehead, "and they said that there was no time for pain or suffering--which I told her there was--and she said that Pogue's powers manifested after some love-crap and so that was the only other option," she looked at him, "did I scare you?"

"No," he said.

"Oh don't flatter yourself," she said, "it would take a lot more than you to break me."

"Really? I didn't know it was possible."

"Oh for Gods Sake!" Mel cried, "the two of you are impossible!"

"I told you this was a bad idea," Tyler said.

"Tyler!"

"It was!" he said walking up to them, "I'm the Empath and I'll tell you right now that these two idiots," he looked at them, "are well aware of how the other feels and they're just too scared to admit it," he shrugged, "so when one of them dies I call 'not it' on broken heart patrol."

"What do you mean by the first part?" Mel asked.

"What the Empath-part?"

"After that," she said.

"Oh you mean that aware-of-how-the-other-feels-but-too-scared-to-admit-it-part," he said, "oh no, I like all my limbs far too much to get involved in this," he looked at Reid, "this isn't going to work! Like I said before, they've been screwing around for, well, forever. There's no relationship here, not really, they're both completely emotionally unavailable."

"Tyler!" Reid cried.

"You are," Tyler said, "I don't care how desperate you are, you're better off saving your breath for something possible--like blowing out a fire, or swimming the Atlantic in one breath, because either of those things are more possible than getting the two of them to admit they feel anything other than carnal passion for each other."

"Carnal--admitting--" Reid looked at her, "what the hell is he talking about?"

"They're just trying to get your power to manifest," she said, "nothing more, ignore them. I don't know why they think that I'm the one to inspire anything in you," she shook her head, "I'm leaving, this is completely ridiculous."

"I'm coming with you," he said following her.

She walked up the hill, away from them and hoped he would get the hint that not wasn't the best time for them to fight. He had only seen her cry twice, once in the bathroom after Parker and once when she was leaving. She had never been very good at expressing emotions, especially not where relationships were concerned and definitely not where Reid was concerned. She turned around and saw he was still following her and tried not to scream in frustration and failed miserably.

"Stop following me!" she cried, '"we're in the middle of no-where! There has to be another place you can go."

"Why are you so hostile?" he demanded.

"I am not being hostile," she said, "I'm angry, there's a difference."

"Really?" he asked, amused.

"Stop looking so amused. I'm angry because people seem to believe that I'm capable of inspiring something in you. I'm angry because my brother is a Vampire and he won't let his power manifest. I'm angry because I don't do selfless things and suddenly I've got a lot of people asking. I'm angry for a lot of other reasons," she stopped with a wave of her hand, "but you get the idea."

"Oh yeah," he said shaking his head, "you are by far the most confusing girl I ever dated."

"Dated?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"Okay not officially," he said, "not even."

"Don't worry, I never expected you to be my 'boyfriend'," she said, "are you joking? I mean we cared about each other but we weren't ever anything like Kate and Pogue or Sarah and Caleb," she sighed, "I like to think that we were just too passionate, no self control."

"We were also 18," he commented, "and it's not like either of us were mature."

"Like we are now?" she laughed, "I'm still a thief, you're still a skirt chaser--who says we've changed at all?" she shook her head, "look at us for the past few days, we still fight like hell."

"We didn't have sex," he added.

"You would think about that."

"Hey I'm not the one who simultaneously tried to figure out why our relationship failed and then groped me in a Winnebago," he said.

"It wasn't like you didn't have both coming," she said, "don't forget I also beat you up."

"You hit me once," he argued jokingly.

"Once more than you hit me," she said laughing, "and don't use the 'I don't hit girls' bit, we've fought physically plenty of times."

"I don't know if you could call those fighting," he countered.

"What are we supposed to?" she groaned, "I mean we fight and we--well--we fight but," she sighed, "but I haven't had the kind of, whatever we had, since you," she looked at him, "am I sounding too wishy washy?"

"You sound like a girl," he said wrinkling his nose. She blushed and buried her face in her hands, "I hate to tell you this Sonya, but that's what you are," she made a muffled sound and he covered her hands with his, pulling them down, "you are a brilliant, beautiful girl--woman, trust me I know. If you were anything else this would have ended a long time ago."

"Lets find out what this is," she said suddenly, twisting her fingers so she could entwine them with his, "come on, it'll be weird but it could be fun."

"You want to have a relationship?" he demanded, his eyebrows raising.

"Well we know each other, sort of, after all the fighting. Th sex was pretty fantastic and considering all the fighting I'd say we're overdue for that and besides, I missed you and that's got to count for something."

"I'd say we know each other a bit better than sort of," he said and she opened her mouth, "alright, fine."

"Fine what?" she asked.

"Fine, if you want to try a relationship we can," he sighed, "but I suck at them," she gave him a look, "I said I'd try. But no nicknames, and none of that hokey stuff like flowers or jewelry or winged babies in diapers."

"Duh," she said, "but if this doesn't work then we're going back to the old thing," she said, "this is the part where you--"

"This is the part we're good at," he said pulling her close and bending down, pressing their lips together softly. She deepened the kiss before pulling back and giving him a skeptical look, "oh thank God," he said and kissed her again, pulling her fully against him.

"Okay, now," Emily said. Ed rolled his eyes and threw out his hands, streaking the blue flame towards them. Reid didn't even bother to break the kiss, flicking his hand out and absorbing the flame before flipping them off and wrapping his arms around her.

...The Cottage, Sanctuary...

"Caleb?"

Sarah stepped out of the Cottage, wanting to give Pogue and Kate some privacy. She spotted Caleb standing a few feet away, watching the horizon. She had to smile at the sight. Caleb had always been very broody, able to spend hours just thinking. He always seemed surprised by the fact that he was one of the most popular kids at school, attributing it to his family name rather than his own charisma. It seemed that the rumors of him were very true and once again he didn't believe a word of them. She found herself wondering if there was any room in his life for her and immediately banished the thought before it got out of hand. They had yelled and she had cried and they had admitted they missed each other but that was a far cry from 'someday I may propose to you'.

"Hey," she said softly so he would know it was her.

"Hey," he said shifting his stance, "so she agreed to stay?"

"Yes," she said, "the baby kind of made up her mind for her."

"I can't believe it," he admitted, "it seems like yesterday Pogue was this 15 year old kid who was too scared to ask her out," Sarah smiled at the familiar story, "now they're married and they're about to have a kid."

"They've been together longer than anyone," she said, "well I suppose Claire and Chase are second--"

"We're, actually, second," he coughed uncomfortably and she blushed.

"Oh, right," she said, belatedly remembering that even if they had been angry, they hadn't actually broken up. In fact he had told her he loved her--"no," she said, "we haven't seen each other in six years! This is insane."

Caleb breathed a sigh of relief, though he barely showed it. She felt it too, he wasn't completely loosing his mind. He had pushed away any thought, any hope of her feeling anything for him still. He didn't deserve her love, he knew that. He had walked out after confessing he loved her, who did that? He should have stayed, he should have stayed and made sure she knew that no matter what happened he would always be in love with her. He would have meant those words, he would truly have meant them but he would have had no way of knowing they were true. As it turned out they were very true, he had wanted the memory of her over any other living, breathing woman.

"I know it is," he said running his hand through his hair, "is there someone else?"

"No," she said looking down, "you?" he shook his head, "where does that leave us?"

"I don't know," she said running her hand over her face, "I mean, Caleb, we haven't seen each other in six years," he opened his mouth, "after i saw my parents, I could have gone anywhere and after all this time I went strait for you," she looked away, "I didn't come willingly, you know. I told Sonya no," she looked at him, "and she doped me and took me anyway," she saw his fists clench, "you're still protective! I haven't seen you in six years and the last words I said to you were that I didn't believe you loved me!" she ran her hands over her face, "what are we doing? We don't even know each other anymore."

"We didn't, as you so kindly pointed out, know each other back then."

"I know," she said, "but we were young and stupid--"

"Sarah we're not dead," he pointed out, "once you hit 18, magical things don't just stop happening to you. There isn't an age limit on this, look at you. You didn't know about your connection to the Covenants when we first."

"And you think that it wasn't just this whole magic-sharing thing?" she questioned, "you think that we were honest to God in love, despite the fact that we were so different?" she sighed, "i just, I don't know Caleb. I want--God, I want so many things. But most of all, I want to stop being numb," she looked at him desperately, "don't you want to not be numb anymore?"

"All the time," he said, "but I know you're the only one who can do that," he finished stepping close to her.

"I wish we weren't so dependent on each other," she said looking at him.

"We aren't," he said gently reaching out and cupping her face, "we are two, grown adults who, for better or worse, never stopped loving each other."

"I don't have the ring anymore," she said, "I gave it to Mel."

"We'll see her soon enough," he said leaning down, "we don't have to--"

She cut him off, surging up onto her tiptoes and pressing her lips against his. Her arms came to rest on his shoulders as his own slipped down from her face to her waist before pulling her against him, deepening the kiss. She smiled against his lips and wrapped her arms around his neck. It was like learning to breath again, every inch of her body on fire. Nothing mattered but the feeling of his lips on hers. After all the time that had passed, he still felt unexplainably the same. Even though kissing him again after all the time spent apart felt dizzying, she knew she wouldn't ever want to go as long without him. Slowly they pulled apart, his one hand resting just against her scar.

"I'm alright," she said looking at him, "that was not your fault," she said firmly, "besides, now we just both have them," she added moving a hand to run her fingertip up one of the scars on his back, eliciting a sound between a gasp and a groan from him which she silenced with her lips. Then his own fingers slid under her shirt and slowly but steadily began to trace her scar. She sucked in her breath and felt him smile in the kiss, "is that how it's going to be?" she asked.

"Well we are adults," he said, "and we do have a lot of catching up to do."